La CLAve to increase psychosis literacy of Spanish-speaking community residents and family caregivers.

The authors developed and tested a 35-min psychoeducational program with the goal of increasing Spanish-speaking persons’ literacy of psychosis. The program uses popular cultural icons derived from music, art, and videos, as well as a mnemonic device—La CLAve (The Clue)—to increase (a) knowledge of psychosis, (b) efficacy beliefs that one can identify psychosis in others, (c) attributions to mental illness, and (d) professional help-seeking. Assessments were conducted before and after administering the program to both community residents (n = 57) and family caregivers of persons with schizophrenia (n = 38). For community residents, the authors observed increases across the 4 domains of symptom knowledge, efficacy beliefs, illness attributions, and recommended help-seeking. For caregivers, increases were observed in symptom knowledge and efficacy beliefs. La CLAve is a conceptually informed psychoeducational tool with a developing empirical base aimed at helping Spanish-speaking Latinos with serious mental illness obtain care in a timely manner. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Peptide fingerprint of high quality Campania white wines by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry

Food traceability is essential to preserve the identity of unique quality traits against frauds or commercial disputes. Therefore, there is a growing demand of new traceability systems for the collection of information related to units/batches of food ingredients and products.     

On the low intensity bootstrap for triangular arrays of independent identically distributed random variables

In this work, we give a complete picture of the behavior of the low intensity bootstrap of linear statistics. Our setup is given by triangular arrays of independent identically distributed random variables and different normalizations related to the rates of bootstrap intensities. We show that the behavior of this low intensity bootstrap coincides with that of partial sums of a number of summands equal to the bootstrap resampling size. Agreement on the limit laws for different (small) bootstrap sizes is thus shown to be closely related to domains of attraction of α-stable laws. As a byproduct, we obtain local distributional properties of Lévy processes.     

Finite element simulation to design constructive elements: An application to light gypsum plaster for partitions

In the past decade finite element simulation has become a very useful methodological tool in the different science fields. This article offers a specific application of this powerful mechanism used for analyzing the mechanical behaviour of constructive elements in the design phase, prior to the laboratory tests’ stage. The aim of applying this simulation is to minimize the high cost the real scale fabrication of these elements entails.This research focuses on the analysis by finite element simulations (FES) of several construction elements used as interior partitions and made of plaster lightened with cork. The results of the study will allow us to determine the most suitable thickness values and proportions to ensure that the requirements stated by the standards and norms for light partitions are fulfilled. These parameters will later be useful for the final laboratory tests.Two simulation groups have been developed using the ANSYS application: firstly, a partition leaf of 200 × 260 cm is studied exposing it to a superficial load and to an eccentric load following the EUAtc common directives for the technical appreciation of light panels, 1973). Second, the behaviour of a panel with a through opening is tested with the simulation regarding the different hypothesis of the structure deformation supporting and surrounding it.Finally, it is proved that the element of thickness 7 cm and proportions stated at the beginning ensure a good performance regarding strain without producing any visible fissures, and therefore are suitable for a further laboratory test on real models.     

X-rays from stars

More than two years of observation with Chandra and XMM-Newton has provided a rich harvest of new results on the physics of stellar coronae and winds. High-resolution X-ray spectroscopy in particular has opened new windows to the structure, the dynamics and the composition of stellar atmospheres. The present paper presents selected results from the areas of hot and cool stars and star formation, summarizing new views of the thermal structure and energy release in stellar coronae, observations of magnetically active brown dwarfs, the structure of winds in hot stars, the physics in colliding-wind binary systems, and X-rays from protostars and stellar jets.     

The Sonogel-Carbon electrode as a sol-gel graphite-based electrode

In this work, a novel sol-gel-based procedure to obtain solid carbon composite electrodes is proposed. The procedure is based on the use of sonocatalysis to apply high-energy ultrasound directly to the precursors; this way, ultrasonic cavitation is achieved so that hydrolysis with acidic water is promoted in the absence of any additional solvent and the time needed to get a unique phase is reduced drastically. The mix of sonogel with spectroscopic grade graphite leads to a new type of sol-gel electrode: the Sonogel-Carbon electrode. The amount of water, necessary for hydrolysis to occur, has been studied, as well as the sol pH value and the electrochemical behavior of the Sonogel-Carbon electrode in Britton-Robinson buffer. Mechanical renewal of the electrodes surfaces and background signal stability for at least 42 days have been also tested. We have carried out some tests to check the ability of the synthesized material to give electrochemical response when redox species are present in the background electrolyte. Mechanical and electrochemical studies indicate that the Sonogel-Carbon electrode shows good properties for use as an electrochemical sensor.     

Phase-stepping interferometry: methods for reducing errors caused by camera nonlinearities

Phase errors that arise in phase-stepping interferometry are discussed. Investigations were performed by use of a Twyman-Green interferometer equipped with a compensation plate with a variable and servo-controlled tilt angle. With this instrument, phase-stepping errors can be reduced to a negligible level. There are, however, phase errors that are caused by camera nonlinearities. Two methods for minimizing these errors are presented. The first method is based on the simple idea that the interference intensity at the output of a two-beam interferometer has an exact cosine shape. The camera signals were monitored as a function of the tilt angle of the compensation plate, and the deviation from the cosine form was used to produce a correction. The second method is based on the idea that, under specific conditions, errors of an average of two phase measurements may compensate for each other. Numerical calculations were performed and give evidence of this hypothesis. Each method, the signal-correction and the averaging method, drastically reduces errors in evaluation of phases. The combination of both methods is a powerful tool that allows precise phase data to be obtained with an uncertainty, in the range lambda/2000 approximately 0.3 nm, that is caused mainly by signal noise.     

Design of luminescent inorganic materials: new photophysical processes studied by optical spectroscopy

Recent spectroscopic results in the emerging area of transition-metal NIR-to-visible upconversion are related. The examples of Ti(2+)-, Re(4+)-, and Os(4+)-doped materials showing upconversion illustrate GSA/ESA, GSA/ETU, and photon avalanche multiphoton excitation mechanisms, respectively. Strategies for manipulation of such upconversion processes using the spectroscopic or magnetic properties of the host material are described. High-resolution low-temperature continuous-wave absorption and emission and time-resolved emission experiments combine to yield information about energy splittings, intensities, and excited-state dynamics, and assist in the design and development of luminescent materials showing novel multiphoton excitation properties.     

Evaluation of DIABNET, a decision support system for therapy planning in gestational diabetes

DIABNET is a knowledge-based system designed to aid doctors with therapy planning in gestational diabetes. The system core is a qualitative model, implemented by a Causal Probabilistic Network, that is able to detect the insulin effectiveness on a daily basis. DIABNET analyses monitoring data and proposes quantitative changes in insulin therapy and qualitative diet modifications. This paper proposes an evaluation methodology to assess the system performance when working in a real scenario. The methodology manages the absence of a gold standard and includes: a subjective analysis based on questionnaires and an objective analysis based on a quantitative comparison of the system's and experts' proposals. The paper also shows the results of two experiments in which expert diabetologists evaluated the therapeutical advice provided by DIABNET during the follow up of 9 patients with gestational diabetes. DIABNET detected the need of a therapy modification in 92% of the cases showing its appropriateness for automatic alarm generation. Around 80% of the proposals were accepted by experts. The evaluation results are encouraging and allow characterisation of the system's performance when proposing therapy modifications. Evaluation in its turn helps to refine the knowledge managed by DIABNET and enables us to look towards the further clinical use of DIABNET as a decision tool in gestational diabetes integrated in a telemedicine service.     

Disruption and basic phenotypic analysis of six novel genes from the left arm of chromosome XIV of Saccharomyces cerevisiae

We describe here the construction of six deletion mutants and their basic phenotypic analysis in three different backgrounds. The six genes were disrupted in three diploid strains (FY1679, W303 and CEN.PK2) by the long flanking homology (LFH) method (Wach, 1996). Transformants were selected as geneticin (G418)-resistant colonies and correct integration of the kanMX4 cassette was checked by colony PCR. Following sporulation of the heterozygous diploids, tetrads were dissected and scored for segregation of G418-resistance and auxotrophic markers. One of the six ORFs (YNL158w) corresponds to an essential gene which has no homology with other genes present in the databases and has two predicted transmembrane domains. Growth tests performed on different media at 15 degrees C, 30 degrees C or 37 degrees C with haploid deletants of the five non-essential genes revealed no apparent phenotype in any of them.