The release of potassium from single burning pulverized wheat straw char particles was quantitatively measured using laser-induced photofragmentation fluorescence (LIPF). The char particles were prepared in a drop tube furnace at 1000 °C from wheat straw particles with sizes in the range 224–250 µm. Subsequently, the char particles were injected upward into a hot flue gas flow produced by a premix

Background: In squamous cell vulvar cancer, sentinel node biopsy is accepted as standard treatment in well-defined patient groups and has reduced surgical morbidity considerably. Currently, due to the lack of evidence, it cannot be offered to patients with tumors of 4 cm diameter or greater or with multifocal tumors, or in local recurrences. Primary objective: This study is primarily a pilot and f

Remote sensing-derived cropland products have depicted the location and extent of agricultural lands with an ever increasing accuracy. However, limited attention has been devoted to distinguishing between actively cropped fields and fallowed fields within agricultural lands, and in particular so in grass fallow systems of semi-arid areas. In the Sahel, one of the largest dryland regions worldwide,

Objective: Estimates of pesticide exposure among applicators from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are scarce, and exposure assessment methods are sometimes costly or logistically unfeasible. We examined the variability in weeklong pesticide exposure among applicators in Costa Rica and its predictors.Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional survey among 221 pesticide applicators from organi

Validation and further development of models for alcohol combustion requires accurate experimental data obtained under well-controlled conditions. To this end, measurements of nitric oxide, NO, mole fractions in premixed laminar methanol + air flames have been performed using saturated laser-induced fluorescence, LIF. The methanol flames have been stabilized at atmospheric pressure and initial gas

How to feed the world is a vigorously debated question, but the extent to which possible solutions receive attention in the scientific literature has not been studied. Using textual analysis, we analyse 12,640 research articles to quantify how this discourse evolved over the last 50 years, distinguishing between a focus on three potential levers: total food production, per capita food demand, and

Introduction: Accurate discharge summaries counteract drug-related problems due to insufficient information transfer in care transitions, but require optimal transfer and use. Careful follow-up is often essential after hospital discharge, for example when it comes to pain management in elderly patients; a common and challenging task in primary care. Aims: To assess the transfer and use of the disc

Whether optoelectronic devices based on metal-halide perovskite semiconductors will become a commercially viable technology will be determined by their intrinsic and operational stability. Recent results indicate there is some reversibility of perovskite degradation in thin films and devices, although mechanistic insight into the processes driving degradation and recovery are still scarce. We here

The photofragmentation of the isoxazole molecules producing ionized atomic and molecular fragments was investigated in the photon energy range of 9–32 eV, using synchrotron radiation excitation combined with ion time-of-flight spectrometry. Twenty-one well resolved cations were identified in the mass spectra of the isoxazole, and their appearance energies were determined. The yield curves of these

Fuel properties have a strong impact on the efficiency of internal combustion engines. Contrary to other physical and thermochemical fuel properties, the molar expansion ratio is normally ignored. Molar expansion ratio is the ratio of number of moles of the products to the reactants. In this work, the impact of the fuel's molar expansion ratio on engine efficiency is investigated. Findings are bas

The northern land biosphere is believed to be the main global sink of CO2, but the contribution of Europe is uncertain. While bottom-up estimates and inverse atmospheric transport studies based on atmospheric CO2 observed in situ or from space by OCO-2 point to a moderate rate of uptake, some other inversions based on remotely sensed atmospheric CO2 from GOSAT/SCIAMACHY and biomass estimates from

Investigating the spatiotemporal distribution of climate data and their impact on the allocation of the regional aridity and meteorological drought, particularly in semi-arid and arid climate, it is critical to evaluate the climate variability effect and propose sufficient adaptation strategies. The coefficient of variation, precipitation concentration index and anomaly index were used to evaluate

The performance of the Advanced GAmma Tracking Array (AGATA) at GANIL is discussed, on the basis of the analysis of source and in-beam data taken with up to 30 segmented crystals. Data processing is described in detail. The performance of individual detectors are shown. The efficiency of the individual detectors as well as the efficiency after γ-ray tracking are discussed. Recent developments of γ

Background: Nucleic acid hybridization (NAH) of hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a practical and reliable tool for virus genotyping. Genotype assignment is an important factor in the prediction of treatment success in chronic hepatitis C patients. The aim of this study was to determine the genotype distribution among HCV clinical isolates in Jordan between 2007 and 2018. Methods: Electronic and paper-ba

The governance of prostitution in Italy's modern history and present times has seen the institution of two prostitution policy regimes. The first was introduced in 1860, with the implementation of a system of regulated prostitution. In Italy, most of the estimated data on outdoor and indoor prostitution are produced by NGOs and institutions operating in harm reduction and antitrafficking projects.

Differential migration by sex, where one sex migrates further than the other, occurs in many bird species. How this pattern evolves is however little understood. The first aim of this study was to investigate the extent of differential migration in the common ringed plover Charadrius hiaticula, breeding in southeast Sweden, and test three main hypotheses (the social dominance, body size and arriva

Initial second language acquisition proceeds surprisingly quickly. Foreign words can sometimes be used within minutes after the first exposure. Yet, it is unclear whether such rapid learning also takes place for more complex, multi-layered properties like words with complex morphosyntax and/or tonal features, and whether it is influenced by transfer from the learners’ native language. To address t

A method to decompose a motion-planning problem into several segments is presented. It is based on a modification of the original problem, such that certain variables at the splitting points are considered to be precomputed and thus fixed and the remaining variables are obtained by performing Lagrange relaxation. The resulting dual problem is split into several subproblems, allowing parallel compu

Herein, we describe the synthesis and X-ray structure of a new heteropentanuclear complex (2) containing a [Fe2 IIIZn3 II(μ-OH)3] structural unit and the unsymmetrical ligand H2L2-et. The molecular structure of (2) shows that it is formed by a basic dinuclear [FeIII(μ-OH)ZnII(L2-et)] unit that is connected to a second dinuclear [FeIII(μ-OH)ZnII(L2-et)] unit through a hydroxo bridge while a third Z

A search for long-lived particles decaying into an oppositely charged lepton pair, μμ, ee, or eμ, is presented using 32.8fb−1 of pp collision data collected at s=13 TeV by the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Candidate leptons are required to form a vertex, within the inner tracking volume of ATLAS, displaced from the primary pp interaction region. No lepton pairs with an invariant mass greater than 12