This study is concerned with electrochemical investigation of novel high-performance proton exchange membranes based on bio-functionalized montmorillonite and Nafion. It was found that the incorporation of 2 wt% BMMT into Nafion polyelectrolyte matrix results in significantly improved methanol-air fuel cell efficiency of 30% compared to 14% for Nafion(R)117, and about 23-times higher membrane s...

The aims of this work were to analyse the relationships between sense of coherence (SOC) and substance use among Spanish adolescents and to examine the potential moderator effect of the patterns of substance use in the peer group. Sample consisted of 5475 Spanish adolescents aged 15 to 18 from the 2010 edition of the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study. Statistical analysis in...

This is the set of lecture notes for Math 117 during Fall quarter of 2017 at UC Santa Barbara. The lectures follow closely the textbook [1].

The population of the Western Arctic Herd, estimated at 490 000 caribou (Rangifer tarandus granti) in 2003, is at its highest level in 30 years. Twenty permanent range transects were established in the winter range of the Western Arctic Herd in 1981 to assess the impacts of grazing. These transects were revisited in 1995 and 1996 (1995/96). Only 18 of the transects were re-located, so an additi...

The computation of productive efficiency provides key insights for firm managers and policymakers towards improvements in the competitiveness businesses industries, namely those that observe heterogeneity high competition, as is case wine. Benefiting from Portuguese wineries panel data, this research measures firms’ efficiency, decomposing it into transient persistent. Results allow us to concl...

In this paper we present the Persistent Grid Mapping (PGM), a novel framework for interactive terrain rendering that provides a screen-uniform tessellation of terrains in a view-dependent manner. The persistent grid, which covers the entire screen, is triangulated with respect to the rendering capabilities of the graphics hardware and cached in video memory. The GPU maps each vertex of the pers...

BACKGROUND Dry eye syndrome is a common sequela associated with periorbital surgery. As more patients seek periorbital rejuvenation, understanding the pathophysiology, diagnosis, and treatment of this condition perioperatively is essential for managing patient expectations and maximizing outcomes. METHODS A retrospective review of charts for 202 consecutive patients (180 women and 22 men) who...