The effects of current-concern- and nonconcern-related waking suggestions on nocturnal dream content

In previous research, presleep suggestions influenced nocturnal dream content. It was hypothesized that suggesting topics associated with participants' current concerns would influence dream content more than suggesting other topics. Ten students spent 4 nights in a sleep laboratory: an adaptation night, a baseline night, and 2 nights under suggestions to dream about a concern-related or other topic. Concern-related suggestions influenced dream content--largely its central imagery--more than did other suggestions, which did not differ from nonsuggestion. Number of transformations within dreams was uncorrelated with dream vividness, contrary to extended activation-synthesis theory. Thus, the concern-related status of suggestions moderates their effectiveness and, inconsistent with extended activation-synthesis theory but consistent with current-concerns and distributed-activation theories, motivational and volitional processes actively influence dream content.     

Performance assessment of the anticipatory approach to optimal experimental design for model discrimination

The problem of model discrimination arises when several models are proposed to describe one and the same process, a situation encountered in many research fields. To identify the best model from the set of rival models, it may be necessary to collect new information about the process, and thus additional experiments have to be performed. Several approaches have been described in literature to design optimal discriminatory experiments. The anticipatory approach is one of them and is very appealing from a conceptual point of view because the expected information content of the newly designed experiment is considered, even before the experiment is performed (anticipatory design). In this paper, the performance of this approach is evaluated by comparing it with the performance of other, established approaches to optimal experimental design for model discrimination. To conduct this comparison four performance measures were defined: (1) whether the most appropriate model could be identified, (2) the number of additional experiments that have to be designed and performed to achieve model discrimination, (3) the quality of the parameter estimates of the model that is eventually identified as the most appropriate one, and (4) the rate at which the inadequate models are identified. The results clearly indicate that the anticipatory approach has its benefits and may be the preferred approach in many applications in (bio)chemical engineering and in-silico biology.     

Non-Clairvoyant Multiprocessor Scheduling of Jobs with Changing Execution Characteristics

This work theoretically proves that Equi-partition efficiently schedules multiprocessor batch jobs with different execution characteristics. Motwani, Phillips, and Torng (Proc. 4th Annu. ACM/SIAM Symp. on Discrete Algorithms, pp. 422–431, Austin, 1993) show that the mean response time of jobs is within two of optimal for fully parallelizable jobs. We extend this result by considering jobs with multiple phases of arbitrary nondecreasing and sublinear speedup functions. Having no knowledge of the jobs being scheduled (non-clairvoyant) one would not expect it to perform well. However, our main result shows that the mean response time obtained with Equi-partition is no more than times the optimal. The paper also considers schedulers with different numbers of preemptions and jobs with more general classes of speedup functions. Matching lower bounds are also proved.     

Simultaneously Excited Downshifting/Upconversion Luminescence from Lanthanide‐Doped Core/Shell Fluoride Nanoparticles for Multimode Anticounterfeiting

This work presents a novel anticounterfeiting strategy based on a material changing its emission color in response to a change in the excitation sources—where a single ultraviolet (UV) or near‐infrared (NIR) light source are employed or simultaneously using two excitation sources (xenon lamp and NIR laser). Following this approach, various combinations of lanthanide (Ln³⁺)‐doped LiLuF₄/LiYF₄ core/shell nanoparticles are prepared, providing a promising route to design flexible nanomaterials, as well as already a small library of luminescent materials, which change color when varying the excitation source (UV, NIR or both UV and NIR). Aside from excitation source‐dependent color change, these materials additionally show excitation‐source power‐dependent color change. This work exploits the possibility of developing a new class of multimode anticounterfeit nanomaterials, with excellent performance, which would be almost impossible to mimic or replicate, providing a very high level of security.     

The Role of Microbiota in the Immunopathogenesis of Endometrial Cancer

The female reproductive tract hosts a specific microbiome, which plays a crucial role in sustaining equilibrium and good health. In the majority of reproductive women, the microbiota (all bacteria, viruses, fungi, and other single-celled organisms within the human body) of the vaginal and cervical microenvironment are dominated by Lactobacillus species, which benefit the host through symbiotic relationships, in comparison to the uterus, fallopian tubes, and ovaries, which may contain a low-biomass microbiome with a diverse mixture of microorganisms. Although disruption to the balance of the microbiota develops, the altered immune and metabolic signaling may cause an impact on diseases such as cancer. These pathophysiological modifications in the gut–uterus axis may spark gynecological cancers. New information displays that gynecological and gastrointestinal tract dysbiosis (disruption of the microbiota homeostasis) can play an active role in the advancement and metastasis of gynecological neoplasms, such as cervical, endometrial, and ovarian cancers. Understanding the relationship between microbiota and endometrial cancer is critical for prognosis, diagnosis, prevention, and the development of innovative treatments. Identifying a specific microbiome may become an effective method for characterization of the specific microbiota involved in endometrial carcinogenesis. The aim of this study was to summarize the current state of knowledge that describes the correlation of microbiota with endometrial cancer with regard to the formation of immunological pathologies.     

Post‐treatment selection for tailored fatigue performance of 18Ni300 maraging steel manufactured by laser powder bed fusion

This study investigates the fatigue behaviour of additively manufactured 18Ni300 maraging steel. Specifically, the surface and material parameters impacting fatigue performance are analysed through various post‐treatment combinations. Vertically built miniaturised test samples produced by laser powder bed fusion are tested in as‐built and age‐hardening heat‐treated conditions. To utilise the potential of using additive manufacturing for complex‐shaped parts in which conventional machining tools could have limited access, vibratory finishing and sand blasting are employed. The fatigue results show that in as‐built microstructural condition, both the surface treatments significantly enhanced the fatigue performance, with vibratory finishing outperforming sand blasting owing to better surface finish. After heat treatment, sand‐blasted samples performed better than vibratory‐finished ones because of higher residual stresses. This competing interaction between post‐treatments sheds light on identifying the relative influence of various factors. With systematic postfracture and microstructural analyses highlighting the fatigue influencing factors, recommendations are drawn to select post‐treatments to achieve the desired fatigue performance.     

High cycle fatigue properties of selective laser sintered parts in polyamide 12

Selective laser sintered parts in polyamide are increasingly being used in functional applications. The monotonic properties of these parts are well-known and documented. The cyclic material properties, on the other hand, are largely unknown. Therefore, in this paper a systematic analysis is made of fatigue properties and failure mechanisms of selective laser sintered parts subjected to fluctuating loading in tension/compression. Both plain and notched specimens are produced along perpendicular building directions. The fatigue behaviour of these parts is analysed and compared to injection moulded samples. In addition, the influence of the test frequency and the notch manufacturing method is studied.     

Energy recovery from heavy ASR by co-incineration in a fluidized bed combustor

Automotive shredder residue (ASR) is a heterogeneous waste stream with varying particle size and elemental composition. Owing to its complexity and hazardous characteristics, landfilling of ASR is still a common practice. Nevertheless, incineration with energy recovery of certain ASR fractions (Waste-to-Energy, WtE) emerges as an interesting alternative. In a full scale experiment, a waste mix of 25 % heavy ASR, 25 % refuse derived fuel (RDF), and 50 % waste water treatment (WWT) sludge was incinerated in the SLECO fluidized bed combustor (FBC) at the Indaver site in Antwerp, Belgium. Input and output streams were sampled and analyzed to make an inventory of the most important pollutants and toxics. The inventory was further used to determine the environmental impact. Results are compared to those of two other scenarios: incineration of the usual waste feed (70 % RDF and 30 % WWT sludge) and co-incineration of 39 % ASR with 61 % WWT sludge. It can be concluded that co-incineration of heavy ASR in an existing FBC is a valid and clean technology to increase current reuse and recovery rates. In the considered FBC, 27 % of the energetic value of ASR can be recovered, while all emissions remain well below regulatory limits and only 12.6 % of the heavy ASR needs to be landfilled. The proportion of ASR in the input waste mix is however limited by the heavy metal concentration in the ASR and the generated ashes.