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Nd3+-doped tellurite glasses are promising materials for thermometers based on the fluorescence intensity ratio (FIR) technique. Nevertheless, at high Nd3+concentrations, energy transfer (ET) processes such as optical reabsorption and cross-relaxation can affect the Nd3+emission, which has been little explored in the literature. Therefore, the present work investigated the use of Nd3+-doped tellurite glass (samples doped with Nd3+at 0.2 mol%, 0.5 mol%, 2.0 mol%, and 4.0 mol%) in fluorescence thermometers, in the temperature range from 299 to 371 K. The results indicate a strong dependence of the FIR parameters on the Nd3+concentration, due to changes in the emission band profiles caused by optical reabsorption of the Nd3+emissions and cross-relaxation processes. A decrease of the relative sensitivity of the ratio 4F5/2 → 4I9/2/4F3/2 → 4I9/2is observed for samples doped with higher amounts of Nd3+. The maximum relative sensitivity at 299 K is 3.00%/K, which is the highest value among the reported Nd3+ions.

In this article, we propose a root-finding algorithm for solving a quadratic convex separable knapsack problem, which is more straightforward than existing methods and competitive in practice. Besides, we also present an extension of the proposal, which improves its computational time, and then we incorporate the accelerated Anderson’s and Aitken’s fixed-point algorithms to obtain better results. The algorithm only performs function evaluations. We present partial convergence results of the algorithm. Moreover, we illustrate superior computational results in medium and large problems as well as the applicability of the algorithm with real-life applications to show their efficiency.

Methyl eugenol olefin metathesis was conducted with non-carbene Ru-complexes ([RuCl2(PPh3)2amine]) in the absence and presence of SnCl2 or CuCl2 as additives and their catalytic activities were compared with that of a commercial Grubbs catalyst 2nd Generation (G2).

This study evaluated the growth and immune function of beef calves born to cows supplemented with bakery waste containing two concentrations of crude fat. On day 0 (~90 d before calving), 108 multiparous Brangus crossbred cows were stratified by body weight (BW; 551 ± 65 kg) and body condition score (BCS, 5.5 ± 0.9) and randomly allocated into 1 of 18 bahiagrass (Paspalum notatum) pastures (6 cows and 4.3 ha per pasture). Treatments were randomly assigned to pastures (6 pastures per treatment) and consisted of no prepartum supplementation (NOSUP) and isocaloric and isonitrogenous supplementation of low-fat (LFAT; 6.4% crude fat) or high-fat (HFAT; 10.7% crude fat) bakery waste from days 0 to 70 (1 kg DM per cow per day). Calves were weaned on day 292 (201 ± 17 d of age). Then, 15 heifers per treatment were randomly selected and assigned to drylot pens from days 300 to 345 and vaccinated against respiratory pathogens on days 300 and 315. Cow BCS near calving (day 70) was the least (P ≤ 0.05) for NOSUP cows and did not differ (P = 0.12) between LFAT and HFAT cows. Cow BCS at the start of the breeding season (day 140) was greater (P = 0.05) for HFAT vs. NOSUP cows and intermediate (P ≥ 0.35) for LFAT cows. Plasma concentrations of total polyunsaturated fatty acids in HFAT cows did not differ (P ≥ 0.76) compared with LFAT cows but were greater (P ≤ 0.05) compared to NOSUP cows on day 70. Final pregnancy percentage did not differ (P ≥ 0.26) among treatments, but a greater percentage of HFAT cows calved (P ≤ 0.05) their second offspring during the first 21 d of the calving season compared to NOSUP and LFAT cows (bred by natural service). Weaning BW was the greatest (P ≤ 0.05) for LFAT and least for NOSUP calves. Maternal treatments did not impact (P≥ 0.11) postweaning growth and total DM intake of calves. Average plasma cortisol concentrations were greater (P= 0.03) for NOSUP vs. HFAT calves and intermediate for LFAT calves (P ≥ 0.26). Serum titers against infectious bovine rhinotracheitis and bovine respiratory syncytial virus were greater or tended to be greater (P ≤ 0.08) for HFAT vs. LFAT calves and intermediate (P≥ 0.27) for NOSUP calves at the end of preconditioning. Thus, supplemental fat concentration fed to late-gestating beef cows had variable effects on calf performance. Low-fat bakery waste led to the greatest calf preweaning growth, whereas high-fat bakery waste enhanced maternal reproduction and had minor benefits to calf humoral immune function.Bakery waste supplementation to late-gestating beef cows modulates offspring preweaning growth and immune function according to its crude fat concentration.This study evaluated the effect of bakery waste supplementation during the last trimester of gestation in Bos indicus-influenced beef cows and the subsequent impact on their offspring. Brangus cows were allocated to one of three prepartum treatments consisting of no prepartum supplementation, 1 kg/d of bakery waste with low or high concentration of crude fat. Prepartum supplementation of bakery waste, regardless of crude fat concentration, increased maternal plasma concentrations of ω-6 fatty acids during gestation and body condition score at calving. Offspring birth weights were not affected but offspring born to cows that received prepartum supplementation of bakery waste, regardless of crude fat concentration, were heavier at weaning compared to no prepartum supplementation. However, the greatest improvements to weaning weights were observed for offspring born to cows fed low-fat vs. high-fat bakery waste. In contrast, high-fat bakery waste supplementation during late gestation alleviated physiological stress and improved humoral immune response to vaccination during preconditioning compared to low-fat bakery waste supplementation. Thus, altering the crude fat concentration of bakery waste provided to Bos indicus-influenced beef cows during the third trimester of gestation can be implemented to modulate offspring preweaning growth or postweaning immune function.

Business organizations are going deeply into the relationship between work and family, in order to identify the contribution in terms of competences that occurs when people perform job and family roles which are complementary. This relationship refers to what is currently being called “work-family enrichment.” This becomes relevant in educational institutions because, by their company name, they are the first convened to facilitate the experience of work-family enrichment with their employees. Therefore, we want to know whether in educational institutions the relationship of work-family enrichment occurs in a natural way or if is necessary to adjust the management in their policies, leadership and culture.

This paper describes the synthesis and in vitro biological activities of imidazolidine and hexahydropyrimidine derivatives against bacteria (Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Mycobacterium tuberculosis) and Leishmania protozoa. Out of sixteen heterocyclic derivatives tested, none were cytotoxic against mammalian cells. The compounds showed significant bacterial effects and leishmanicidal activity. Compounds 4a and 4c were active against S. aureus and E. coli, respectively. Compounds 3a-3f, 4h and 4i presented promising results against M. tuberculosis, with MIC values ranging from 12.5 to 25.0 g/mL, comparable to the “first and second line” drugs used to treat tuberculosis. Compounds 4a, 4c and 4e were active against L major. Three of them were structurally characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction.

In the present work we described improvements in the 1-7 antiparasitic Morita-Baylis-Hillman Adducts synthesis and their antimitotic activity on sea urchin embryonic cells. The 2-[Hydroxy(2-nitrophenyl)methyl]acrylonitrile (1) and 2-[Hydroxy(4-bromophenyl) methyl]acrylonitrile (4) were the most effective compounds to block the progression to embryonic morula stage (EC50= 75.8 µM and 72.6 µM, respectively). Compounds 1 and 4 were also effective in blocking the first cell division but to a lesser extent. The 2-[Hydroxy(pyridin-4-yl)methyl]acrylonitrile (7) exhibited a strong inhibition of cell divisions and progression to the first cleavage and morula stage. Fluorescent dye extrusion assay suggests that these adducts are not ABC protein substrates, which confers an additional interest in these new class of potential anticancer drugs.

Atmospheric models usually demand high processing power and generate large amounts of data. As the degree of parallelism grows, the I/O operations may become the major impacting factor of their performance. This work shows that a hybrid MPI/OpenMP implementation can improve the performance of the atmospheric model ocean–land–atmosphere model (OLAM) on a multicore cluster environment. We show that the hybrid MPI/OpenMP version of OLAM decreases the number of output files, resulting in better performance for I/O operations. We have evaluated OLAM on the parallel file system PVFS and shown that storing the files on PVFS results in lower performance than using the local disks of the cluster nodes due as a consequence of file creation and network concurrency. We have also shown that further parallel optimisations should be included in the hybrid version in order to improve the parallel execution time of OLAM.

An alternative method to acid digestion is presented for the preparation of marine biological tissues and botanical samples for trace metal determination by ETAAS. Samples were solubilized using a methanolic solution of tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH), either overnight at room temperature or by the application of heat and/or ultrasonic agitiation. Following dilution with water, aliquots were sampled into a graphite furnace using a conventional autosampler. External calibration was used for all analyte determinations. Limits of detection, characteristic mass and precision are reported for copper, cadmium, nickel, lead, manganese and chromium. Measured concentrations are in satisfactory agreement with certified values for the biological reference materials DORM-2, DOLT-2, TORT-2 and BCR 060. Samples prepared with TMAH can be stored for up to 3 years at room temperature without any change in analyte concentrations.

Taurine, a principal osmolyte in molluscan integument, is actively transported from sea water by Mytilus gill by means of a Na(+)-dependent process. In this study we examined the response of this transport to reductions in external salinity, i.e. the response to reductions in osmotic concentration as well as Na+ concentration. Acute exposure of isolated gill tissue to 60% artificial sea water (ASW) resulted in a greater than 85% inhibition of taurine uptake, substantially more than the 45% inhibition predicted on the basis of the acute reduction in external [Na+]. Within 60 min, however, taurine transport recovered to the level predicted by the Na+ concentration in dilute sea water. Isolated gills acutely exposed to 60% ASW made isosmotic to normal (100%) ASW with mannitol had rates of taurine uptake comparable to gills acclimated for 60 min. Taurine uptake by gill tissue exposed to 60% ASW for 60 min and then returned to 100% ASW for 90 min was not significantly different from that of control gills held in 100% ASW. Glucose uptake by the gill during acute exposure to reduced salinity responded in a pattern similar to that of taurine. Gill tissue increased by 20% in wet mass within 2 min of exposure to 60% ASW, but returned to control mass within 30-60 min, presumably reflecting cell volume regulation. Long-term (12 days) exposure to reduced salinities was not accompanied by increases in taurine transport over that of gills observed following the 60 min 'short-term' acclimation. These results suggest that Mytilus gill undergoes a rapid (albeit incomplete) recovery from the extreme inhibition of transport associated with abrupt changes in salinity, and the extent of recovery is defined by the availability of Na+ in the external medium. The extreme sensitivity of taurine uptake observed after acute exposure of gills to reduced salinity is related to the osmotic concentration of the medium, and is possibly linked to a change in cell volume.

BackgroundDysfunctional breathing (DB) is an umbrella term used to describe an abnormal breathing pattern which can be psychologically or physiologically based. DB has been shown to be exacerbated at times of increased stress and to be related to anxiety disorders; both factors are common within a university setting, particularly around exam time. Personality types, specifically type A personality, share common risk factors with DB, suggesting a possible association. The prevalence of DB within a university population has not been previously investigated.AimsTo investigate the prevalence of dysfunctional breathing within a university population and assess any association between DB and type A personality.MethodsA cross sectional study was undertaken involving participants recruited at Brunel University. The primary outcome measure was the Nijmegen questionnaire (validated diagnostic tool for DB), and the secondary outcome measure was the breath hold test (BHT) (clinical diagnostic tool for DB). Additionally, the Behaviour Pattern Scale was used to classify participants as type A or type B personality.Results40 participants completed the study. 17.5% (7/40) were positive for DB on the Nijmegen questionnaire (≥23/64). Positive scores only occurred in women; consistent with previous data on gender and DB. 7.5% (3/40) had a positive result using the BHT (<20 s). 50% of participants were type A and 50% type B personality. Pearson’s Chi-Square test was used which demonstrated a significant association between DB (Nijmegen questionnaire) and type A personality (p=0.037). No association was found between the Results of the BHT and personality type (p=0.548), or between the Nijmegen questionnaire and BHT Results (p=0.453). At baseline there were no significant differences in participant characteristics, other than gender, between the groups that received a positive or negative DB diagnosis.ConclusionDysfunctional breathing may affect a significant percentage of people in a university population; and a significant association with type A personality type has been shown. Raising awareness of DB in the university population may lead to earlier diagnosis and timely referral to physiotherapy or counselling services as appropriate. A larger study is needed to further validate these findings.

This study was undertaken to evaluate the role of IL-5 in eosinophil migration and in the maintenance of eosinophilia in a guinea-pig model of visceral larva migrans syndrome. The results show that the infection of animals with Toxocara canis induced an early increase in serum IL-5 levels that might be essential for eosinophil differentiation and proliferation and for the development of eosinophilia. When infected guinea-pigs were treated with mAb anti-IL-5 (TRFK-5) given at the same time or 1 or 3 days after infection, there was a high percentage of reduction of eosinophil counts 18 days after infection. However, when the mAb was administered during the peak of eosinophilia, there was high inhibition in blood, no inhibition in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) or peritoneum and an increase in eosinophil numbers in bone marrow. Thus, a basic level of IL-5 may be essential to drive eosinophils from bone marrow to blood and tissues, and for the maintenance of eosinophilia in infected animals. We may also conclude that when eosinophils have already migrated to the lungs, TRFK-5 has no power to inhibit eosinophilia, which is also under control of local lung cells producing IL-5. In this way, only one later TRFK-5 treatment may not be sufficient to modify the lung parenchyma microenvironment, since T. canis antigens had already stimulated some cell populations to produce IL-5.