Physical vapor deposited (PVD) molybdenum disulfide (nominal composition MoS2) is employed as a thin film solid lubricant for extreme environments where liquid lubricants are not viable. The tribological properties of MoS2 are highly dependent on morphological attributes such as film thickness, orientation, crystallinity, film density, and stoichiometry. These structural characteristics are controlled by tuning the PVD process parameters, yet undesirable alterations in the structure often occur due to process variations between deposition runs. Nondestructive film diagnostics can enable improved yield and serve as a means of tuning a deposition process, thus enabling quality control and materials exploration. Grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXRD) for MoS2 film characterization provides valuable information about film density and grain orientation (texture). However, the determination of film stoichiometry can only be indirectly inferred via GIXRD. The combination of density and microstructure via GIXRD with chemical composition via grazing incidence X-ray fluorescence (GIXRF) enables the isolation and decoupling of film density, composition, and microstructure and their ultimate impact on film layer thickness, thereby improving coating thickness predictions via X-ray fluorescence. We have augmented an existing GIXRD instrument with an additional X-ray detector for the simultaneous measurement of energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectra during the GIXRD analysis. This combined GIXRD/GIXRF analysis has proven synergetic for correlating chemical composition to the structural aspects of MoS2 films provided by GIXRD. We present the usefulness of the combined diagnostic technique via exemplar MoS2 film samples and provide a discussion regarding data extraction techniques of grazing angle series measurements.

Given a weighted shift T of multiplicity two, we study the set $\sqrt {T}$ of all square roots of T. We determine necessary and sufficient conditions on the weight sequence so that this set is non-empty. We show that when such conditions are satisfied, $\sqrt {T}$ contains a certain special class of operators. We also obtain a complete description of all operators in $\sqrt {T}$.

The burden of depression is increasing worldwide, specifically in older adults. Unhealthy dietary patterns may partly explain this phenomenon. In the Spanish PREDIMED-Plus study, we explored (1) the cross-sectional association between the adherence to the Prime Diet Quality Score (PDQS), an a priori-defined high-quality food pattern, and the prevalence of depressive symptoms at baseline (cross-sectional analysis) and (2) the prospective association of baseline PDQS with changes in depressive symptomatology after 2 years of follow-up. After exclusions, we assessed 6612 participants in the cross-sectional analysis and 5523 participants in the prospective analysis. An energy-adjusted high-quality dietary score (PDQS) was assessed using a validated FFQ. The cross-sectional association between PDQS and the prevalence of depression or presence of depressive symptoms and the prospective changes in depressive symptoms were evaluated through multivariable regression models (logistic and linear models and mixed linear-effects models). PDQS was inversely associated with depressive status in the cross-sectional analysis. Participants in the highest quintile of PDQS (Q5) showed a significantly reduced odds of depression prevalence as compared to participants in the lowest quartile of PDQS (Q1) (OR (95 %) CI = 0·82 (0·68, 0·98))). The baseline prevalence of depression decreased across PDQS quintiles (Pfor trend = 0·015). A statistically significant association between PDQS and changes in depressive symptoms after 2-years follow-up was found (β (95 %) CI = −0·67 z-score (–1·17, −0·18). A higher PDQS was cross-sectionally related to a lower depressive status. Nevertheless, the null finding in our prospective analysis raises the possibility of reverse causality. Further prospective investigation is required to ascertain the association between PDQS and changes in depressive symptoms along time.

The polarization constant of a Banach space X is defined as

\[{\text{c}}(X){\text{ }}{\text{ }}\mathop {\lim }\limits_{k \to \infty } {\text{ }}\sup {\text{c}}{(k,X)^{\frac{1}{k}}},\]

where \[{\text{c}}(k,X)\] stands for the best constant \[C > 0\] such that \[\mathop P\limits^ \vee \leqslant CP\] for every k-homogeneous polynomial \[P \in \mathcal{P}{(^k}X)\]. We show that if X is a finite dimensional complex space then \[{\text{c}}(X) = 1\]. We derive some consequences of this fact regarding the convergence of analytic functions on such spaces.

The result is no longer true in the real setting. Here we relate this constant with the so-called Bochnak’s complexification procedure.

We also study some other properties connected with polarization. Namely, we provide necessary conditions related to the geometry of X for \[c(2,X) = 1\] to hold. Additionally we link polarization constants with certain estimates of the nuclear norm of the product of polynomials.

A primary barrier to translation of clinical research discoveries into care delivery and population health is the lack of sustainable infrastructure bringing researchers, policymakers, practitioners, and communities together to reduce silos in knowledge and action. As National Institutes of Healthʼs (NIH) mechanism to advance translational research, Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) awardees are uniquely positioned to bridge this gap. Delivering on this promise requires sustained collaboration and alignment between research institutions and public health and healthcare programs and services. We describe the collaboration of seven CTSA hubs with city, county, and state healthcare and public health organizations striving to realize this vision together. Partnership representatives convened monthly to identify key components, common and unique themes, and barriers in academic–public collaborations. All partnerships aligned the activities of the CTSA programs with the needs of the city/county/state partners, by sharing resources, responding to real-time policy questions and training needs, promoting best practices, and advancing community-engaged research, and dissemination and implementation science to narrow the knowledge-to-practice gap. Barriers included competing priorities, differing timelines, bureaucratic hurdles, and unstable funding. Academic–public health/health system partnerships represent a unique and underutilized model with potential to enhance community and population health.

Food phytochemicals are increasingly considered to play a key role in the cardiometabolic health effects of plant foods. However, the heterogeneity in responsiveness to their intake frequently observed in clinical trials can hinder the beneficial effects of these compounds in specific subpopulations. A range of factors, including genetic background, gut microbiota, age, sex and health status, could be involved in these interindividual variations; however, the current knowledge is limited and fragmented. The European network, European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST)-POSITIVe, has analysed, in a systematic way, existing knowledge with the aim to better understand the factors responsible for the interindividual variation in response to the consumption of the major families of plant food bioactives, regarding their bioavailability and bioefficacy. If differences in bioavailability, likely reflecting differences in human subjects’ genetics or in gut microbiota composition and functionality, are believed to underpin much of the interindividual variability, the key molecular determinants or microbial species remain to be identified. The systematic analysis of published studies conducted to assess the interindividual variation in biomarkers of cardiometabolic risk suggested some factors (such as adiposity and health status) as involved in between-subject variation. However, the contribution of these factors is not demonstrated consistently across the different compounds and biological outcomes and would deserve further investigations. The findings of the network clearly highlight that the human subjects’ intervention studies published so far are not adequate to investigate the relevant determinants of the absorption/metabolism and biological responsiveness. They also emphasise the need for a new generation of intervention studies designed to capture this interindividual variation.

A Zn/Al LDH with fluorescein intercalated as counterion with fluorescent properties was prepared. Fluorescein was prepared by the reaction between resorcinol and phthalic anhydride using the mixed oxide obtained after the thermal treatment of the LDH as catalyst. The material thus obtained, i.e. fluorescein adsorbed onto the mixed oxide from the calcined LDH, was treated with a mixture of water and pentanol in order to reconstitute the LDH and intercalate the fluorescein in the material. Three mixtures of water/pentanol with volume percent ratios of 100/0, 50/50, 20/80, were used to obtain the LDH with fluorescein intercalated. The best treatment could be determined according to the degree reconstruction and fluorescein intercalated into the LDH.

Deficits in facial affect recognition have been repeatedly reported in schizophrenia patients. The hypothesis that this deficit is caused by poorly differentiated cognitive representation of facial expressions was tested in this study. To this end, performance of patients with schizophrenia and controls was compared in a new emotion-rating task. This novel approach allowed the participants to rate each facial expression at different times in terms of different emotion labels. Results revealed that patients tended to give higher ratings to emotion labels that did not correspond to the portrayed emotion, especially in the case of negative facial expressions (p < .001, η2 = .131). Although patients and controls gave similar ratings when the emotion label matched with the facial expression, patients gave higher ratings on trials with "incorrect" emotion labels (p s < .05). Comparison of patients and controls in a summary index of expressive ambiguity showed that patients perceived angry, fearful and happy faces as more emotionally ambiguous than did the controls (p < .001, η2 = .135). These results are consistent with the idea that the cognitive representation of emotional expressions in schizophrenia is characterized by less clear boundaries and a less close correspondence between facial configurations and emotional states.

Micromegas detectors, thanks to their good spatial and temporal discrimination capabilities, are good candidates for rare event search experiments. Recent X-ray background levels achieved by these detectors in the CAST experiment have motivated further studies in the nature of the background levels measured. In particular, different shielding configurations have been tested at the Canfranc Underground Laboratory, using a microbulk type detector which was previously running at the CAST experiment. The first results underground show that this technology, which is made of low radiative materials, is able to reach background levels down to 2 × 10-7 keV-1 s-1 cm-2 with a proper shielding. Moreover, the experimental background measurements are complemented with Geant4 simulations which allow to understand the origin of the background, and to optimize future shielding set-ups.

The T-REX project aims at developing novel readout techniques for Time Projection Chambers in experiments searching for rare events. The enhanced performance of the latest Micromegas readouts in issues like energy resolution, gain stability, homogeneity, material budget, combined with low background techniques, is opening new windows of opportunity for their application in this field. Here we review the latest results regarding the use and prospects of Micromegas readouts in axion physics (CAST and the future helioscope), as well as the R&D carried out within NEXT, to search for the neutrinoless double-beta decay.

SiGe nanowires were grown by the vapor-liquid-solid method using a low pressure chemical vapor deposition reactor and different flows of the GeH4 and Si2H6 gas precursors. The morphology of the nanowires was studied by field emission scanning electron microscopy, and the length, diameter and density of nanowires were determined. Their structure and crystallinity were analyzed by transmission electron microscopy and its related techniques. Energy dispersive X-ray emission of individual nanowires as well a Raman spectroscopy were used to determine their composition and to analyze its homogeneity.

The anti-psychotic drug management of patients with schizophrenia and HIV-1 infection is problematic. Such individuals are prone to extra-pyramidal reactions on account of HIV-1 induced sub-cortical involvement and exacerbation of cognitive impairment due to underlying CNS infection. Compliance with treatment can be problematic due to a disordered mental state and bone marrow toxicity may also result from the combined effects of anti-psychotic and retroviral agents. It is generally thought that atypical anti-psychotic drugs are the treatment of choice in such cases.

We present the case of a 30-year-old man with a history of schizophrenia who was successfully treated with clozapine following an admission to a psychiatric unit with acute confusional symptoms secondary to HIV-related central nervous system (CNS) involvement.

The aim of this study was to investigate chromosomal regions affecting gestation length in sows. An experimental F2 cross between Iberian and Meishan pig breeds was used for this purpose and we genotyped 119 markers covering the 18 porcine autosomal chromosomes. Within this context, we have developed a new empirical Bayes factor (BF) approach to compare between nested models, with and without the quantitative trait loci (QTL) effect, and after including the location of the QTL as an unknown parameter in the model. This empirical BF can be easily calculated from the output of a Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling by averaging conditional densities at the null QTL effects. Linkage analyses were performed in each chromosome using an animal model to account for infinitesimal genetic effects. Initially, three QTL were detected at chromosomes 6, 8 and 11 although, after correcting for multiple testing, only the additive QTL located in cM 110 of chromosome 8 remained. For this QTL, the allelic effect of substitution of the Iberian allele increased gestation length in 0.521 days, with a highest posterior density region at 95% ranged between 0.121 and 0.972 days. Although future studies are necessary to confirm if detected QTL is relevant and segregating in commercial pig populations, a hot-spot on the genetic regulation of gestation length in pigs seems to be located in chromosome 8.