This study discusses the investigation of a series of pit-kilns in and around the prehispanic site of Kiuic in the Puuc region of the northern Maya lowlands and presents the multiple lines of evidence that identify these structures as lime production features. The study reports the results of systematic excavations, archaeometric analyses, archaeological experiments, ethnographic inquiries, and spatial analyses. Burnt lime has been used for architectural, dietary, hygienic, and other purposes by the Maya for at least three millennia and yet its importance in prehispanic Maya society is belied by the lack of lime production features identified in the archaeological record. The identification of these structures as lime production features has implications for understanding subregional differences in socioeconomic organization and resource management practices among the prehispanic Maya. This report provides a model for using multiple methods and analyses to investigate and identify lime production kilns that can be applied to societies and landscapes throughout the Maya area and the broader premodern world.

The house mouse (Mus musculus) and the black rat (Rattus rattus) are reservoir hosts for zoonotic pathogens, several of which cause neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). Studies of the prevalence of these NTD-causing zoonotic pathogens, in house mice and black rats from tropical residential areas are scarce. Three hundred and two house mice and 161 black rats were trapped in 2013 from two urban neighbourhoods and a rural village in Yucatan, Mexico, and subsequently tested for Trypanosoma cruzi, Hymenolepis diminuta and Leptospira interrogans. Using the polymerase chain reaction we detected T. cruzi DNA in the hearts of 4·9% (8/165) and 6·2% (7/113) of house mice and black rats, respectively. We applied the sedimentation technique to detect eggs of H. diminuta in 0·5% (1/182) and 14·2% (15/106) of house mice and black rats, respectively. Through the immunofluorescent imprint method, L. interrogans was identified in 0·9% (1/106) of rat kidney impressions. Our results suggest that the black rat could be an important reservoir for T. cruzi and H. diminuta in the studied sites. Further studies examining seasonal and geographical patterns could increase our knowledge on the epidemiology of these pathogens in Mexico and the risk to public health posed by rodents.

One view of major Solar Energetic Particle (SEP) events is that these (proton-dominated) fluxes are accelerated in heliospheric shock sources created by Interplanetary Coronal Mass Ejections (ICMEs), and then travel mainly along interplanetary magnetic field lines connecting the shock(s) to the observer(s). This places a particular emphasis on the role of the heliospheric conditions during the event, requiring a realistic description of the latter to interpret and/or model SEP events. The well-known ENLIL heliospheric simulation with cone model generated ICME shocks is used together with the SEPMOD particle event modeling scheme to demonstrate the value of applying these concepts at multiple inner heliosphere sites.

Urban slum environments in the tropics are conducive to the proliferation and the spread of rodent-borne zoonotic pathogens to humans. Calodium hepaticum (Brancroft, 1893) is a zoonotic nematode known to infect a variety of mammalian hosts, including humans. Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus) are considered the most important mammalian host of C. hepaticum and are therefore a potentially useful species to inform estimates of the risk to humans living in urban slum environments. There is a lack of studies systematically evaluating the role of demographic and environmental factors that influence both carriage and intensity of infection of C. hepaticum in rodents from urban slum areas within tropical regions. Carriage and the intensity of infection of C. hepaticum were studied in 402 Norway rats over a 2-year period in an urban slum in Salvador, Brazil. Overall, prevalence in Norway rats was 83% (337/402). Independent risk factors for C. hepaticum carriage in R. norvegicus were age and valley of capture. Of those infected the proportion with gross liver involvement (i.e. >75% of the liver affected, a proxy for a high level intensity of infection), was low (8%, 26/337). Sixty soil samples were collected from ten locations to estimate levels of environmental contamination and provide information on the potential risk to humans of contracting C. hepaticum from the environment. Sixty percent (6/10) of the sites were contaminated with C. hepaticum. High carriage levels of C. hepaticum within Norway rats and sub-standard living conditions within slum areas may increase the risk to humans of exposure to the infective eggs of C. hepaticum. This study supports the need for further studies to assess whether humans are becoming infected within this community and whether C. hepaticum is posing a significant risk to human health.

Introduction: Multiples barriers to appropriate analgesia are reported in the paediatric emergency department (PED), including limited accessibility to effective strategies. Our objective: was to evaluate the improvement in the accessibility of pain and anxiety management strategies in Canadian PEDs, after the creation of a national pediatric pain Quality Improvement Collaborative (QIC), through Pediatric Emergency Research Canada (PERC). Methods: In 2013, the TRAPPED 1 survey was administered to Canadian PEDs, in order to evaluate what resources were in place for pain and anxiety management. A pain QIC was then created to stimulate the implementation of new strategies, through information sharing between PEDs. In 2015, the TRAPPED 2 cross sectional survey was administered. Its focus was to evaluate the improvement in the accessibility of specific strategies reported by each centre, after participating in this QIC, and working to implement change within their own PEDs. Results: All 15/15 Canadian PEDs responded to the TRAPPED 1 survey in 2013 and 11 agreed to participate in the national pain QIC. In-person, phone meetings, follow up surveys and email communications were employed for information sharing. Strategies identified by the QIC to be newly introduced in individual centres were educational initiatives, distraction options, nurse-initiated protocols and intranasal (IN) medications. All 15 PEDs completed the TRAPPED 2 survey. Compared to 2013, an increased number of PEDs used face-based pain scales (14/15 vs 6/15) and behavioural scales (5/15 vs 1/15) for pain assessment in 2015. Use of reminder posters on pain management at triage increased from 4/15 to 6/15 PEDs. Availability of tablets for distraction increased from 4/15 to 10/15 PEDs. Nurse-initiated protocols for topical anesthetic and oral sucrose (for needle procedures) increased from 10/15 to 12/15 sites and from 12/15 to 14/15 sites respectively. Availability of IN medications increased; fentanyl from 9/15 to 14/15 sites and midazolam from 8/15 to 10/15 sites. Ten of the 11 PEDs involved in the QIC strategy reported the implementation of at least one of their own identified strategies. Conclusion: This study suggests that the use of a QIC may improve the introduction of new strategies to reduce pain and anxiety in EDs. QICs may also be helpful to other centres when introducing new strategies.

The terminal lake systems of central Australia are key sites for the reconstruction of late Quaternary paleoenvironments. Paleoshoreline deposits around these lakes reflect repeated lake filling episodes and such landforms have enabled the establishment of a luminescence-based chronology for filling events in previous studies. Here we present a detailed documentation of the morphology and chemistry of soils developed in four well-preserved beach ridges of late Pleistocene and mid-to-late Holocene age at Lake Callabonna to assess changes in dominant pedogenic processes. All soil profiles contain evidence for the incorporation of eolian-derived material, likely via the formation of desert pavements and vesicular horizons, and limited illuviation due to generally shallow wetting fronts. Even though soil properties in the four studied profiles also provide examples of parent material influence or site-specific processes related to the geomorphic setting, there is an overall trend of increasing enrichment of eolian-derived material since at least ~ 33 ka. Compared to the Holocene profiles, the derived average accumulation rates for the late Pleistocene profiles are significantly lower and may suggest that soils record important regional changes in paleoenvironments and dust dynamics related to shifts in the Southern Hemisphere westerlies.

Context: we present a study of the central 200 pc of NGC 6951, in the optical and NIR, taken with the Gemini North Telescope integral field spectrographs, with resolution of ~ 0”.1 Methods: we used a set of image processing techniques, as the filtering of high spatial and spectral frequencies, Richardson-Lucy deconvolution and PCA Tomography (Steiner et al.2009) to map the distribution and kinematics of the emission lines. Results: we found a thick molecular disk, with the ionization cone highly misaligned.

Silver thin films are used as a functional layer in many applications such as low-emissivity and solar control coatings on glass for insulating windows, as well as transparent conducting electrodes for OLEDs and PV. For these applications, the conductivity of the film is critical; it is linked to the crystallinity and the grain size of silver layers which thickness ranges from 5 to 15nm. Such coatings often undergo thermal treatments up to 700°C aimed at toughening the glass substrate or improving the coating itself by promoting grain growth and curing point defects. This treatment can however dramatically damage the silver layer by inducing the formation of defects in the layer, such as holes or silver domes, decreasing both conductivity and light transmission of the coatings. Because of the extreme thinness of the films (less than 15 nm), the investigation of these phenomena requires in situ imaging at the nanoscale. In this study, grain growth and defects formation were observed in 15 nm-thick Ag films encapsulated with zinc oxide and silicon nitride using Transmission Electron Microscopy with in-situ heating from ambient temperature to 600°C. Significant grain growth was found to occur only from 400°C, and from 500°C holes in the silver layer started to form and grow, as well as thick silver domes formed by dewetting. Irradiation by the electron beam was also found to cause grain growth.

Extended abstract of a paper presented at Microscopy and Microanalysis 2013 in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, August 4 – August 8, 2013.

The electrical heating of Ni/Al laminate foils allows interrogation of phenomena at heating rates as high as 10^12 K/s. In the 2011 Fall MRS meeting, we reported on emission spectra from rapidly heated Ni/Al laminates resolved temporally over 350 ns, which provided qualitative evidence of rapid and exothermic vapor phase mixing of Ni and Al in these experiments which we term electrical explosions. These results were significant, because thermal diffusion processes normally limit Ni/Al reactions to much slower energy release rates, potentially limiting their applications. Here we present further evidence of exothermic Ni/Al mixing, quantified by experimental velocity measurements of encapsulation material and interpreted by numerical calculations of energy partitioning into different processes. These calculations agreed well with experiments from different Al, Cu, and Ni samples, sputter-deposited and lithographically patterned into bow-tie bridge structures. Velocity measurements of up to 5 km/s for 11.5 μm thick parylene encapsulation layers were accurately predicted using a single, empirical fitting parameter which depended on the electrical circuit used. The calculations also agreed with encapsulation layers accelerated by electrically exploded Ni/Al laminates as long as an additional 1.2 kJ/g of energy was included in the model. This value is precisely the enthalpy of mixing between Ni and Al, and therefore quantifies the transduction of energy into encapsulation layer kinetic energy.

Whether there are differences between countries in the validity of self-reported diet in relation to BMI, as evaluated using recovery biomarkers, is not well understood. We aimed to evaluate BMI-related reporting errors on 24 h dietary recalls (24-HDR) and on dietary questionnaires (DQ) using biomarkers for protein and K intake and whether the BMI effect differs between six European countries. Between 1995 and 1999, 1086 men and women participating in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition completed a single 24-HDR, a DQ and one 24 h urine collection. In regression analysis, controlling for age, sex, education and country, each unit (1 kg/m2) increase in BMI predicted an approximately 1·7 and 1·3 % increase in protein under-reporting on 24-HDR and DQ, respectively (both P < 0·0001). Exclusion of individuals who probably misreported energy intake attenuated BMI-related bias on both instruments. The BMI effect on protein under-reporting did not differ for men and women and neither between countries on both instruments as tested by interaction (all P>0·15). In women, but not in men, the DQ yielded higher mean intakes of protein that were closer to the biomarker-based measurements across BMI groups when compared with 24-HDR. Results for K were similar to those of protein, although BMI-related under-reporting of K was of a smaller magnitude, suggesting differential misreporting of foods. Under-reporting of protein and K appears to be predicted by BMI, but this effect may be driven by ‘low-energy reporters’. The BMI effect on under-reporting seems to be the same across countries.

X-ray section topography has been used to study the distribution and size of precipitates resulting from heat treatment of MCZ silicon. A low density of precipitates was found, enabling individual precipitate images to be studied. Images have been simulated by numerical solution of Takagi's equations and the magnitude of the strain field deduced by comparison with experiment. Excellent agreement has been found in the details of simulated and experimental images. The effective defect volume increased monotonically with annealing temperature. The effect of surface relaxation and long range curvature on the accuracy of determining the microscopic strain field by matching simulated and experimental images has been investigated.

Carbon in its various forms, specifically nanocrystalline diamond, may become a key material for the manufacturing of micro- and nano-electromechanical (M/NEMS) devices in the 21st Century. In order to utilize effectively these materials for M/NEMS applications, understanding of their microscopic structure and physical (mechanical properties, in particular) become indispensable. The micro- and nanocrystalline diamond films were grown using hot-filament and microwave chemical vapor deposition techniques involving novel CH4 / [TMB for boron doping and H2S for sulfur incorporation] in high hydrogen dilution chemistry. To investigate residual stress distribution and intermolecular forces at nanoscale, the films were characterized using Raman spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy in terms of topography, force curves and force volume imaging. Traditional force curve measures the force felt by the tip as it approaches and retracts from a point on the sample surface, while force volume is an array of force curves over an extended range of sample area. Moreover, detailed microscale structural studies are able to demonstrate that the carbon bonding configuration (sp2 versus sp3 hybridization) and surface chemical termination in both the un-doped and doped diamond have a strong effect on nanoscale intermolecular forces. The preliminary information in the force volume measurement was decoupled from topographic data to offer new insights into the materials's

Colloidal processing offers a way to minimize undesired heterogeneities in the fabrication of advanced ceramics. Stable dispersions can be created by manipulation of interparticle potential. Adsorption of diblock copolymer amphiphiles provides a way to obtain long range repulsive interactions between particles, at comparatively low polymer coverage, thereby enabling suspension stabilization. In this study we investigate the relationship between copolymer structure and adsorbed layer characteristics, and specifically, the nature and range of interactions. We find that the surface density and interaction range are governed by a characteristic measure of the copolymer asymmetry. In the case of copolymers where one of the blocks is ionic, and therefore water soluble, we find a hysteresis in the interaction forces, indicating a meta-stable state of the polymer layer.