Silicon nanowire (SiNW)-based solar cells on glass substrates have been fabricated by wet electroless chemical etching (using silver nitrate and hydrofluoric acid) of 2.7 μm multicrystalline p+nn+ ...doped silicon layers thereby creating the nanowire structure. Low reflectance (<10%, at 300−800 nm) and a strong broadband optical absorption (>90% at 500 nm) have been measured. The highest open-circuit voltage (V oc) and short-circuit current density (J sc) for AM1.5 illumination were 450 mV and 40 mA/cm2, respectively at a maximum power conversion efficiency of 4.4%.
The degradation of biomass is studied in the ranges of 330−410 °C and 30−50 MPa and at 15 min of reaction time. To characterize the chemistry of biomass degradation, key compounds which are ...intermediates of the biomass degradation are identified and quantified. These key compounds are used to compare the results from earlier studies of model compounds such as, e.g., glucose or cellulose, with biomass degradation in order to identify chemical reaction pathways. Key compounds identified are phenols (phenol and cresols), furfurals, acids (acetic acid, formic acid, lactic acids, and levulinic acid), and aldehydes (acetic aldehyde and formic aldehyde). In addition, sum parameters such as the total organic carbon content and the composition of the formed gas phase are used to describe the biomass degradation. The results are compared with the hydrothermal upgrading process and with the well-known gas-phase gasification processes. The influence of the change of water properties from subcritical to supercritical conditions on the biomass degradation is also discussed. These comparisons show that most of the main reaction pathways detected by the key compounds can be understood by the studies of model compounds. On the other hand, biomass is much more complex because biomass contains a lot of different substances. Especially, the influence of salts is significant and, in addition, rather complex.
Aim
Studies show that about 60 min of moderate physical activity (PA) per day compensate for sitting all day at work. However, the workplace offers an ideal setting for health-promoting interventions ...such as PA coaching as a person-centered intervention aimed at achieving lasting health behavior changes. Given a good evidence base of health coaching studies in general, this systematic review aims to provide an overview of workplace PA coaching interventions.
Methods
This review was conducted according to PRISMA guidelines. Studies published up to July 2021 were considered based on the following inclusion criteria: (1) longitudinal intervention studies, (2) analysis of PA at work, (3) sedentary employees, (4) PA coaching in the workplace as intervention, (5) increasing workplace PA.
Results
Of 4323 studies found, 14 studies with 17 interventions met inclusion criteria. All 17 interventions indicated an increase in at least one PA outcome. Twelve interventions indicated significant improvements in at least one workplace or total PA outcome. There is a high variation within the different coaching parameters, such as behavior change techniques and communication channels. The study quality showed a moderate to high risk of bias.
Conclusions
The majority of interventions provided evidence for the effectiveness of workplace PA coaching. Nevertheless, the results are inconclusive with regard to the variety of coaching parameters and thus no general statement can be made about the effectiveness of individual parameters. However, this variety of parameters also leads to a high degree of individualization of workplace PA coaching interventions to increase PA for different groups of employees and different types of workplaces.
An Endo-European Reference Network guideline initiative was launched including 16 clinicians experienced in endocrinology, pediatric and adult and 2 patient representatives. The guideline was ...endorsed by the European Society for Pediatric Endocrinology, the European Society for Endocrinology and the European Academy of Andrology. The aim was to create practice guidelines for clinical assessment and puberty induction in individuals with congenital pituitary or gonadal hormone deficiency. A systematic literature search was conducted, and the evidence was graded according to the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation system. If the evidence was insufficient or lacking, then the conclusions were based on expert opinion. The guideline includes recommendations for puberty induction with oestrogen or testosterone. Publications on the induction of puberty with follicle-stimulation hormone and human chorionic gonadotrophin in hypogonadotropic hypogonadism are reviewed. Specific issues in individuals with Klinefelter syndrome or androgen insensitivity syndrome are considered. The expert panel recommends that pubertal induction or sex hormone replacement to sustain puberty should be cared for by a multidisciplinary team. Children with a known condition should be followed from the age of 8 years for girls and 9 years for boys. Puberty induction should be individualised but considered at 11 years in girls and 12 years in boys. Psychological aspects of puberty and fertility issues are especially important to address in individuals with sex development disorders or congenital pituitary deficiencies. The transition of these young adults highlights the importance of a multidisciplinary approach, to discuss both medical issues and social and psychological issues that arise in the context of these chronic conditions.
Social support is a key protective factor in the psychological adjustment of individuals to traumatic events. However, since March 2020, extant research has revealed evidence of increased loneliness, ...social isolation, and disconnection, likely due to COVID-19 pandemic-related recommendations that restricted day-to-day contact with others.
In this investigation, we applied a case-control design to test the direct impacts of the pandemic on social support in United States adults recovering from a significant injury caused by PTSD-qualifying, traumatic events (e.g., motor vehicle crashes, violence, etc.). We compared individuals who experienced trauma during the pandemic, the "cases" recruited and evaluated between December 2020 to April 2022, to trauma-exposed "controls," recruited and evaluated pre-pandemic, from August 2018 through March 9, 2020 (prior to changes in public health recommendations in the region). Cohorts were matched on key demographics (age, sex, education, race/ethnicity, income) and injury severity variables. We tested to see if there were differences in reported social support over the first 5 months of adjustment, considering variable operationalizations of social support from social network size to social constraints in disclosure. Next, we tested to see if the protective role of social support in psychological adjustment to trauma was moderated by cohort status to determine if the impacts of the pandemic extended to changes in the
.
The results of our analyses suggested that there were no significant cohort differences, meaning that whether prior to or during the pandemic, individuals reported similar levels of social support that were generally protective, and similar levels of psychological symptoms. However, there was some evidence of moderation by cohort status when examining the process of adjustment. Specifically, when examining symptoms of post-traumatic stress over time, individuals adjusting to traumatic events during COVID-19 received less benefit from social support.
Although negative mental health implications of the pandemic are increasingly evident, it has not been clear how the pandemic impacted normative psychological adjustment processes. These results are one of the first direct tests of the impact of COVID-19 on longitudinal adjustment to trauma and suggest some minimal impacts.
The paper explores the feasibility of using machine learning techniques, in particular neural networks, for classification of the experimental data from the joint natC(n,p) and natC(n,d) reaction ...cross section measurement from the neutron time of flight facility n_TOF at CERN. Each relevant ΔE−E pair of strips from two segmented silicon telescopes is treated separately and afforded its own dedicated neural network. An important part of the procedure is a careful preparation of training datasets, based on the raw data from Geant4 simulations. Instead of using these raw data for the training of neural networks, we divide a relevant 3-parameter space into discrete voxels, classify each voxel according to a particle/reaction type and submit these voxels to a training procedure. The classification capabilities of the structurally optimized and trained neural networks are found to be superior to those of the manually selected cuts.
BackgroundSemaphorins, through interactions with their receptors- neuropilins, play critical roles in many biological processes such as the regulation of immunity, apoptosis, cell migration and ...angiogenesis. Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is an autoimmune disease, characterised by dysregulation of angiogenesis, leading to severe ischemia and loss of capillaries.ObjectivesThe aim of the study was to investigate if soluble semaphorin 3A and neuropilin-1 could be involved in the dysregulation of angiogenesis in systemic sclerosis.MethodsThis was an investigator-initiated cross-sectional study. Serum samples obtained from 37 patients with systemic sclerosis (age 53 ± 9 years) and control serum samples obtained from 24 healthy individuals (age 51 ± 15 years) and 20 patients with Sjögren's syndrome (age 46 ± 9 years). Samples were analyzed for the presence of soluble semaphorin 3A and neuropilin-1 using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. The results were expressed as median and range and compared by Mann-Whitney U test. P≤0.05 were considered statistically significant.ResultsSerum semaphorin 3A levels were significantly higher in patients with systemic sclerosis (median 1.81 ng/mL; range 0.43–4.72 ng/mL) versus healthy controls (median 0.21 ng/mL; range 0.16–0.28 ng/mL) (p<0.001). Neuropilin-1 levels were significantly increased (median 844.26 pg/mL; range 556.80–1271.54 pg/mL) in comparison to those detected in healthy controls (median 58.60 pg/mL; range 33.75–80.00 pg/mL) (p<0.001) and patients with Sjögren's syndrome (median 278 pg/mL; range 137.50–443.70 pg/mL) (p<0.001). There was tendency to higher values of neuropilin-1 in patients with long lasting illness (Spearman's; r=0.29, p=0.075).ConclusionsOur data show that semaphorin 3A and neuropilin-1 levels are significantly increased in patients with systemic scleroderma. Semaphorin 3A and neuropilin-1 may be involved in the modifications of neuro-vascular mechanisms leading to dysregulation of angiogenesis in systemic scleroderma.Disclosure of InterestNone declared
A synchronization method for the multi-channel silicon telescope Žugec, P.; Barbagallo, M.; Andrzejewski, J. ...
Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment,
12/2020, Letnik:
983
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
A simple method is presented for the simultaneous off-line synchronization of the digitally recorded data-streams from a multi-channel silicon telescope. The method is based both on the ...synchronization between the separate pairs of silicon strips and on the synchronization relative to an external timing device. Though only a reduced subset of these constraints is necessary in ideal circumstances, it is shown that this minimal set of conditions may not be sufficient for adequate synchronization in all cases. All available sources of information are therefore considered, in order to constrain the final synchronization as well as possible.
Background. Post-transplantation bone disease is associated with a high degree of morbidity including pain and fractures. Glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis on top of pre-existing renal ...osteodystrophy is considered the major pathogenic factor, while the role of non-glucocorticoid immunosuppressants is less well defined.
Methods. In this study, we investigated the influence of sirolimus (SRL) versus calcineurin inhibitor (CI)-based immunosuppressive regimens on biomarkers of bone resorption in renal transplant patients. In addition, the impact of SRL, tacrolimus and mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) on osteoclast activation and function was assessed in cell culture systems.
Results. Using this approach, we demonstrated reduced serum levels of bone resorption markers in patients treated with SRL after kidney transplantation compared to a CI-based regimen. In line with this observation, we detected profoundly reduced osteoclast differentiation and subsequently diminished hydroxyapatite resorption in the presence of SRL compared to MMF and tacrolimus in vitro. Moreover, SRL significantly reduced osteoclast precursor proliferation in vitro compared to tacrolimus and led to augmented apoptosis in osteoclast precursors.
Conclusions. Taken together, SRL was shown to inhibit osteoclast formation in vivo and in vitro. SRL thus may have the potential to balance osteoclast promoting effects of glucocorticoids and CI, thereby counteracting the development of accelerated osteoporosis in renal transplant recipients.
We present an approach for fabrication of reproducible, chemically and mechanically robust functionalized layers based on MgF
thin films on thin glass substrates. These show great advantages for use ...in super-resolution microscopy as well as for multi-electrode-array fabrication and are especially suited for combination of these techniques. The transparency of the coated substrates with the low refractive index material is adjustable by the layer thickness and can be increased above 92%. Due to the hydrophobic and lipophilic properties of the thin crystalline MgF
layers, the temporal stable adhesion needed for fixation of thin tissue, e.g. cryogenic brain slices is given. This has been tested using localization-based super-resolution microscopy with currently highest spatial resolution in light microscopy. We demonstrated that direct stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy revealed in reliable imaging of structures of central synapses by use of double immunostaining of post- (homer1 and GluA2) and presynaptic (bassoon) marker structure in a 10 µm brain slice without additional fixing of the slices. Due to the proven additional electrical insulating effect of MgF
layers, surfaces of multi-electrode-arrays were coated with this material and tested by voltage-current-measurements. MgF
coated multi-electrode-arrays can be used as a functionalized microscope cover slip for combination with live-cell super-resolution microscopy.
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