Psychosocial issues in breast cancer

Over the past year, increasing research attention has been devoted to the issue of women at increased risk of developing breast cancer. These articles focus on a range of issues from recruiting high-risk women into breast cancer trials to recommendations for assessment and counseling women with a family history of breast cancer. In addition, continuing research attention has focused on quality of life, symptom management, and articles related to physician-patient communication. This review summarizes and critiques publications in these areas, and it includes articles reviewing the status of research in psychosocial oncology.     

Sleep and breathing disorders in patients with brain stem lesions

Most information about the structures within the brain stem that modulate respiration and sleep are gathered from animal experiments. Therefore we examined 10 patients several weeks after an infarction of the brain stem by means of polysomnography and tested the chemosensitive drives of respiration. None of these patients complained about symptoms of sleep disordered breathing. In each case polysomnographic measurements and ventilatory response curves revealed pathologic findings. The respiratory response to CO2 was diminished or completely abolished in each patient. In some cases hypoventilation or disturbances of the respiratory rhythmicity could be seen. In several cases missing REM sleep, sleep fragmentation or the reduction of slow wave sleep were observed. The study indicates that on the base of results from animal research the comparison of morphological and pathophysiological data is helpful to gain a better understanding on the coupling of the respiratory system with sleep at the brain stem level as well as on the pathomechanism of sleep related breathing disorder.     

Environmental Hazard Analysis - a Variant of Preliminary Hazard Analysis for Autonomous Mobile Robots

Robot manufacturers will be required to demonstrate objectively that all reasonably foreseeable hazards have been identified in any robotic product design that is to be marketed commercially. This is problematic for autonomous mobile robots because conventional methods, which have been developed for automatic systems do not assist safety analysts in identifying non-mission interactions with environmental features that are not directly associated with the robot’s design mission, and which may comprise the majority of the required tasks of autonomous robots. In this paper we develop a new variant of preliminary hazard analysis that is explicitly aimed at identifying non-mission interactions by means of new sets of guidewords not normally found in existing variants. We develop the required features of the method and describe its application to several small trials conducted at Bristol Robotics Laboratory in the 2011–2012 period.     

Effect of catalyst type on the kinetics of the photoelectrochemical disinfection of water inoculated with E. coli

The rates of the photoelectrochemical disinfection of Escherichia coli at TiO₂ electrodes were measured as a function of concentration and applied potential. Two different TiO₂ photoelectrodes were used: a thermally treated titanium plate and a porous film prepared by a sol–gel hydrolysis technique. The kinetics of the disinfection process were found to depend upon the nature of the electrode material. For the thermal film they were first order, and half order for the sol–gel film. It was also found that the catalytic activity per unit surface area of catalyst is many orders of magnitude greater than that observed using TiO₂ slurries; this was attributed to the reduced rate of electron-hole recombination afforded by the application of a small potential bias (1 V vs Ag/AgCl), and hence the exploitation of the electric field enhancement (EFE) effect.     

Electrochemical behaviour of 1024 mild steel in slightly alkaline bicarbonate solutions

The electrochemical behaviour of 1024 mild steel electrodes is investigated in the presence of 0.05–0.5 M sodium bicarbonate in aqueous solution at pH 8.9 and 25°C. Voltammograms are obtained with a rotating gold ring-mild steel electrode and the effect of the NaHCO3 concentration, the potential limits and the rotation speed of the disc electrode is considered. The voltammograms display an oxidation peak current at low potentials, a passivity region and a transpassive region at high potentials for the potential sweep in the anodic direction. The oxidation current in the passivity region is practically independent of the applied potential and the NaHCO3 concentration. The rate-determining step of the oxidation reaction in both the oxidation peak current region and the transpassive region is determined.     

Structural changes of flavylium salts

A general discussion is presented of the effects of hydroxylation pattern upon the structural changes of flavylium salts and their stability at different pH levels. The discussion is based upon the results of spectrometric and polarographic investigations of flavylium salts and incorporates hitherto unpublished data for the anthocyanidin, cyanidin chloride.     

Fine grinding of thermoplastics by high speed friction grinding assisted by guar gum

High speed friction grinding has been used to grind plant and food substances in water but never been explored for grinding of thermoplastics like polylactic acid (PLA), low and high density polyethylene and polypropylene. Such grinding was investigated in this work and was made possible by using 0.5% guar gum solution instead of just water because increasing the viscosity of water reduced their settling and the speed of passing through the grinder. Tensile, flexural, and impact strengths of the plastics were studied and higher grinding efficiency of PLA could be explained by its low elongation-at-break compared to low density polyethylene, high density polyethylene, and polypropylene. The microplastics (2000–45 μm) were studied for mass and particle size distributions and by scanning electron microscopy, ¹³C CP/MAS NMR, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, and thermogravimetric analysis. In addition, viscosity of guar gum and contact angles was measured. This new technology can produce finely ground microplastics (710–45 μm) for a variety of applications.     

Codeposited chromium and silicon diffusion coatings for Fe-Base alloys via pack cementation

The simultaneous deposition of Cr and Si into plain carbon, low-alloy, and austenitic steels using a halide-activated pack-cementation process is described. Equilibrium partial pressures of gaseous species have been calculated using the STEPSOL computer program to aid in designing specific processes for codepositing the desired ratios of Cr and Si into a given alloy. The calculations indicate that NaCl-activated packs are chromizing, while NaF-activated packs deposit more Si with less Cr. The use of a dual activator (e.g., NaF+NaCl) allows for the deposition of both Cr and Si in the desired amounts. Single-phase ferritic coatings (150–250 microns thick) with a surface concentration of 20–35 wt.% Cr and 2–4% Si have been grown on AISI 1018, Fe-2.25 Cr-1.0Mo-0.15C, and Fe-0.5 Cr-0.5 Mo-0.2C steels using packs containing a 90 wt.% Cr-10Si binary source alloy, a NaF+NaCl activator, and a silica filler. Two-phase coatings (approximately 75 microns thick) containing 20–25 wt.% Cr and 2.0–2.4% Si have been obtained on 304 stainless steel using packs containing a 90 wt.% Cr-10Si binary source alloy, a NaF activator, and an alumina filler. The same pack chemistry allowed the diffusion of Cr and Si into the austenitic Incoloy 800 alloy without a phase change. A coated Fe-2.25 Cr-1.0 Mo-0.15 C coupon with a surface concentration of Fe-34 wt.% Cr-3Si was cyclically oxidized in air at 700°C for over four months and 47 cycles. The weight gain was very low (<0.2 mg/cm²) with no scale spalling detected. Coated coupons of AISI 1018 steel, and Fe-0.5 Cr-0.5 Mo-0.2C steel have shown excellent oxidation-sulfidation resistance in reducing, sulfur-containing atmospheres at temperatures from 400 to 700°C and in erosion and erosion-oxidation testing in air at 650 and 850°C.