Activity

The chemical composition of ground and polished fused silica glass surfaces plays a decisive role in different applications of optics. In particular, a high level of carbon impurities is often undesirable for further processing and especially for gluing or cementing where adhesion failure may be attributed to carbonic surface-adherent contaminants. In this study, the surface carbon content at different stages of classical optics manufacturing was thus investigated. Two different standard processes-grinding and lapping with two final polishing processes using both polyurethane and pitch pads-were considered. After each process step, the chemical composition and roughness of the surface were analysed using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy. An obvious correlation between surface roughness and effective surface area, respectively, and the proportion of carbon contamination was observed. The lowest carbon contamination was found in case of lapped and pitch polished surfaces.Urinary and fecal incontinence as well as skin pressure injury are common healthcare problems in nursing homes; however, the prevalence and related risk factors were not well understood in the Japanese special elderly nursing home settings. We surveyed the prevalence of urinary, fecal and double incontinence, and skin pressure injury among the elderly living in special elderly nursing homes in Japan. D-1553 clinical trial A nationwide cross-sectional epidemiological survey was conducted with a total of 4881 residents. The prevalence of urinary, fecal and double incontinence was 82.9%, 68.9% and 64.9%, respectively. Skin pressure injury was found in 283 residents (283/4881, 5.8%). Age, Care-Needs level, loss of voiding desire, and fecal incontinence were significant risk factors for urinary incontinence. Residential period, Care-Needs level, loss of voiding and defecation desires, and urinary incontinence were significant risk factors for fecal incontinence. Only male sex was a significant risk factor for skin pressure injury. Our study revealed continence status and the prevalence of pressure skin injury among older adult residents who receive end-of-life care in special elderly nursing homes in Japan. Further studies should be conducted to examine whether recovery of urinary and fecal sensations improves continence status.Matching infrared (IR) facial probes against a gallery of visible light faces remains a challenge, especially when combined with cross-distance due to deteriorated quality of the IR data. In this paper, we study the scenario where visible light faces are acquired at a short standoff, while IR faces are long-range data. To address the issue of quality imbalance between the heterogeneous imagery, we propose to compensate it by upgrading the lower-quality IR faces. Specifically, this is realized through cascaded face enhancement that combines an existing denoising algorithm (BM3D) with a new deep-learning-based deblurring model we propose (named SVDFace). Different IR bands, short-wave infrared (SWIR) and near-infrared (NIR), as well as different standoffs, are involved in the experiments. Results show that, in all cases, our proposed approach for quality balancing yields improved recognition performance, which is especially effective when involving SWIR images at a longer standoff. Our approach outperforms another easy and straightforward downgrading approach. The cascaded face enhancement structure is also shown to be beneficial and necessary. Finally, inspired by the singular value decomposition (SVD) theory, the proposed deblurring model of SVDFace is succinct, efficient and interpretable in structure. It is proven to be advantageous over traditional deblurring algorithms as well as state-of-the-art deep-learning-based deblurring algorithms.Our objective in this work was to summarize the main results obtained in processing pure chitosan and chitosan/hyaluronan complex in view of biomedical applications, taking advantage of their original properties. In addition, an electrospinning technique was selected to prepare nanofiber mats well adapted for tissue engineering in relation to the large porosity of the materials, allowing an exchange with the environment. The optimum conditions for preparation of purified and stable nanofibers in aqueous solution and phosphate buffer pH = 7.4 are described. Their mechanical properties and degree of swelling are given. Then, the prepared biomaterials are investigated to test their advantage for chondrocyte development after comparison of nanofiber mats and uniform films. For that purpose, the adhesion of cells is studied by atomic force microscopy (AFM) using single-cell force spectroscopy, showing the good adhesion of chondrocytes on chitosan. At the end, adhesion and proliferation of chondrocytes in vitro are examined and clearly show the interest of chitosan nanofiber mats compared to chitosan film for potential application in tissue engineering.In the coming century, climate change and the increasing human population are likely leading agriculture to face multiple challenges. Agricultural production has to increase while preserving natural resources and protecting the environment. Drought is one of the major abiotic problems, which limits the growth and productivity of crops and impacts 1-3% of all land.To cope with unfavorable water-deficit conditions, plants use through sophisticated and complex mechanisms that help to perceive the stress signal and enable optimal crop yield are required. Among crop production, wheat is estimated to feed about one-fifth of humanity, but faces more and more drought stress periods, partially due to climate change. Plant growth promoting rhizobacteria are a promising and interesting way to develop productive and sustainable agriculture despite environmental stress. The current review focuses on drought stress effects on wheat and how plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria trigger drought stress tolerance of wheat by highlighting several mechanisms. These bacteria can lead to better growth and higher yield through the production of phytohormones, osmolytes, antioxidants, volatile compounds, exopolysaccharides and 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate deaminase. Based on the available literature, we provide a comprehensive review of mechanisms involved in drought resilience and how bacteria may alleviate this constraint.