Optimal excitation of multimode graded-index fibres in d.m.d. and d.m.a. measurements

A wave optics computational procedure to obtain optimally selective excitation in d.m.d. and d.m.a. measurements is presented. Good agreement with a Fourier optics approach is found. It is shown that for the optimal excitation of higher order mode groups (by increasing input beam offset) the beam spot size must be considerably reduced from that for the optimal excitation of the fundamental mode.     

The use of an impure inorganic precursor for the synthesis of highly siliceous mesoporous materials under acidic conditions

Highly ordered mesoporous silica materials have been synthesized under acidic conditions using an industrial waste-product containing only 42 wt% silica as the precursor, using formic acid as pH-regulator. Non-ionic tri-block-co-polymers of the ABA type were used as the structure-directing agents, and high-quality SBA-15 and KIT-5 materials were obtained. The materials were characterized by small-angle X-ray diffraction, nitrogen physisorption, transmission electron microscopy, and elemental analysis. The methodology presented here is suggested to be widely applicable for the synthesis of siliceous materials using other impure inorganic silica precursors with different purity, as long as the precursors are soluble under acidic conditions.     

The three Rs of river ecosystem resilience: Resources,recruitment, and refugia

Resilience in river ecosystems requires that organisms must persist in the face of highly dynamic hydrological and geomorphological variations. Disturbance events such as floods and droughts are postulated to shape life history traits that support resilience, but river management and conservation would benefit from greater understanding of the emergent effects in communities of river organisms. We unify current knowledge of taxonomic‐, phylogenetic‐, and trait‐based aspects of river communities that might aid the identification and quantification of resilience mechanisms. Temporal variations in river productivity, physical connectivity, and environmental heterogeneity resulting from floods and droughts are highlighted as key characteristics that promote resilience in these dynamic ecosystems. Three community‐wide mechanisms that underlie resilience are (a) partitioning (competition/facilitation) of dynamically varying resources, (b) dispersal, recolonization, and recruitment promoted by connectivity, and (c) functional redundancy in communities promoted by resource heterogeneity and refugia. Along with taxonomic and phylogenetic identity, biological traits related to feeding specialization, dispersal ability, and habitat specialization mediate organism responses to disturbance. Measures of these factors might also enable assessment of the relative contributions of different mechanisms to community resilience. Interactions between abiotic drivers and biotic aspects of resource use, dispersal, and persistence have clear implications for river conservation and management. To support these management needs, we propose a set of taxonomic, phylogenetic, and life‐history trait metrics that might be used to measure resilience mechanisms. By identifying such indicators, our proposed framework can enable targeted management strategies to adapt river ecosystems to global change.     

Teachers' work-related non-literature-known building-related symptoms are also connected to indoor toxicity: A cross-sectional study

A previous study showed that classical building-related symptoms (BRS) were related to indoor dust and microbial toxicity via boar sperm motility assay, a sensitive method for measuring mitochondrial toxicity. In this cross-sectional study, we analyzed whether teachers’ most common work-related non-literature-known BRS (nBRS) were also associated with dust or microbial toxicity. Teachers from 15 schools in Finland completed a questionnaire evaluating 20 nBRS including general, eye, respiratory, hearing, sleep, and mental symptoms. Boar sperm motility assay was used to measure the toxicity of extracts from wiped dust and microbial fallout samples collected from teachers’ classrooms. 231 teachers answered a questionnaire and their classroom toxicity data were recorded. A negative binomial mixed model showed that teachers’ work-related nBRS were 2.9-fold (95% CI: 1.2-7.3) higher in classrooms with highly toxic dust samples compared to classrooms with non-toxic dust samples (p = 0.024). The RR of work-related nBRS was 1.8 (95% CI: 1.1-2.9) for toxic microbial samples (p = 0.022). Teachers’ BRS appeared to be broader than reported in the literature, and the work-related nBRS were associated with toxic dusts and microbes in classrooms.     

Impact and visibility of Norwegian,Finnish and Spanish journals in the fields of humanities

Scientometrics - This article analyses the impact and visibility of scholarly journals in the humanities that are publishing in the national languages in Finland, Norway and Spain. Three types of...     

Ultrasonic assessment of cortical bone thickness in vitro and in vivo

In osteoporosis, total bone mass decreases and the thickness of the cortical layer diminishes in the shafts of the long bones. In this study, a simple ultrasonic in vivo method for determining the thickness of the cortical bone layer was applied, and the suitability of two different signal analysis techniques, i.e., envelope and cepstral methods, for measuring cortical thickness was compared. The values of cortical thickness, as determined with both techniques, showed high linear correlations (r ges 0.95) with the thickness values obtained from in vitro measurements with a caliper or in vivo measurements by peripheral quantitative CT (pQCT). No systematic errors that could be related to the cortical thickness were found. The in vivo accuracy of the measurements was 6.6% and 7.0% for the envelope and cepstral methods, respectively. Further, the in vivo precision for the envelope and cepstral methods was 0.26 mm and 0.28 mm, respectively. Although the results are similar for both of the techniques, the simplicity of the envelope method makes it more attractive for clinical applications. In conclusion, a simple ultrasound measurement provides an accurate estimate of the cortical bone thickness. The techniques investigated may have clinical potential for osteoporosis screening and therefore warrant more extensive clinical investigations with healthy and osteoporotic individuals.     

Nanoparticle-Aided Detection of Colorectal Cancer-Associated Glycoconjugates of Extracellular Vesicles in Human Serum

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are found in all biological fluids, providing potential for the identification of disease biomarkers such as colorectal cancer (CRC). EVs are heavily glycosylated with specific glycoconjugates such as tetraspanins, integrins, and mucins, reflecting the characteristics of the original cell offering valuable targets for detection of CRC. We report here on europium-nanoparticle (EuNP)-based assay to detect and characterize different surface glycoconjugates of EVs without extensive purification steps from five different CRC and the HEK 293 cell lines. The promising EVs candidates from cell culture were clinically evaluated on small panel of serum samples including early-stage (n = 11) and late-stage (n = 11) CRC patients, benign condition (n = 11), and healthy control (n = 10). The majority of CRC cell lines expressed tetraspanin sub-population and glycovariants of integrins and conventional tumor markers. The subpopulation of CD151 having CD63 expression (CD151^CD63) was significantly (p = 0.001) elevated in early-stage CRC (8 out of 11) without detecting any benign and late-stage samples, while conventional CEA detected mostly late-stage CRC (p = 0.045) and with only four early-stage cases. The other glycovariant assays such as CEA^Con-A, CA125^WGA, CA 19.9^Ma696, and CA 19.9^Con-A further provided some complementation to the CD151^CD63 assay. These results indicate the potential application of CD151^CD63 assay for early detection of CRC patients in human serum.     

Second-harmonic generation imaging of metal nano-objects with cylindrical vector beams

We introduce an imaging technique based on second-harmonic generation with cylindrical vector beams that is extremely sensitive to three-dimensional orientation and nanoscale morphology of metal nano-objects. Our experiments and second-harmonic field calculations based on frequency-domain boundary element method are in very good agreement. The technique provides contrast for structural features that cannot be resolved by linear techniques or conventional states of polarization and shows great potential for simple and cost-effective far-field optical imaging in plasmonics.