Crack healing utilising bacterial spores in concrete

This self repair system is based upon harmless ground borne bacteria as the self healing agent. The bacteria is activated after the concrete is cracked and the bacterial spores are exposed to moisture and air. The bacterial reproduction process creates a calcite by-product which fills the cracks in the concrete. By sealing the cracks in concrete, an effective barrier to air or liquid borne deleterious materials is formed and as a consequence of his, enhanced durability is achieved in the structure, resulting in lower life cycle costs. The concrete/mortar prisms were cracked and tested for water flow. They were then left for 56 days to heal and were subject to a test for water tightness. Healing was observed and a reduced water flow (74% and 32% healed) measured with the healed samples when compared to the specimens that were cracked and subjected to a water flow test without any healing agent. The number of samples were limited and a larger scale test is recommended for further work, however this is proof of concept of the process of healing and testing

Data_Sheet_1_Demonstrating quality control procedures for fMRI in DPABI.docx

Quality control (QC) is an important stage for functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies. The methods for fMRI QC vary in different fMRI preprocessing pipelines. The inflating sample size and number of scanning sites for fMRI studies further add to the difficulty and working load of the QC procedure. Therefore, as a constituent part of the Demonstrating Quality Control Procedures in fMRI research topic in Frontiers, we preprocessed a well-organized open-available dataset using DPABI pipelines to illustrate the QC procedure in DPABI. Six categories of DPABI-derived reports were used to eliminate images without adequate quality. After the QC procedure, twelve participants (8.6%) were categorized as excluded and eight participants (5.8%) were categorized as uncertain. More automatic QC tools were needed in the big-data era while visually inspecting images was still indispensable now.</p

Down/Upconversion Luminescence Behaviors and Temperature-Sensing Properties of Highly Transparent (Er_1–<i>x</i>Yb_<i>x</i>)₂O₃ Ceramics

Cubic binary transparent (Er1–xYbx)2O3 (x = 0.005 and 0.01) ceramics with a high transmittance of ∼78.1% at 600 nm (∼95.6% of the theoretical transmittance of the Er2O3 single crystal) were successfully fabricated by vacuum sintering. Upon 980 nm laser pumping, the (Er1–xYbx)2O3 ceramics emit characteristic near-infrared downconversion radiation at 1450–1600 nm arising from the 4I13/2 → 4I15/2 transition of Er3+. The upconversion spectra of (Er,Yb)2O3 ceramics present typical red emission at 650–670 nm and green emission at 520–555 nm corresponding to 4F9/2 → 4I15/2 and 2H11/2/4S3/2 → 4I15/2 transitions of Er3+, respectively. A 0.5 at. % Yb3+ dopant dramatically improves the upconversion luminescence intensity by ∼13 times relative to the pure Er2O3 counterpart. The luminescence intensity gradually increases with the rising laser output power, and the upconversion mechanism ascribes to two-phonon processes. The fluorescence lifetimes of the (Er0.995Yb0.005)2O3 ceramic are determined to be ∼19.26 μs for the 540 nm green emission and ∼26.60 μs for the 668 nm red emission. The noncontact optical thermometric ability of the (Er0.995Yb0.005)2O3 ceramic in the temperature range of 298–473 K is assessed using the thermoresponsive fluorescence intensity ratio technique, and the maximum absolute sensitivity is ∼0.0045 K–1

Overcoming O–H Insertion to <i>Para</i>-Selective C–H Functionalization of Free Phenols: Rh(II)/Xantphos Catalyzed Geminal Difunctionalization of Diazo Compounds

Para-selective C–H functionalization of free phenols by metal carbenoids is rather challenging due to the generally more favorable competing O–H insertion. Herein, with the use of the combination of Rh­(II) and a Xantphos ligand as the catalyst, a novel multicomponent reaction of free phenols, diazoesters, and allylic carbonates was successfully developed, affording a wide variety of phenol derivatives, bearing an all-carbon quaternary center and a synthetically useful allylic unit. This reaction is likely to occur through a tandem process of carbene-induced para-selective C–H functionalization, followed by Rh­(II)/Xantphos-catalyzed allylation. The distinctive reactivity of para-selective C–H rather than O–H insertion for the carbenoid intermediate, combined with features of excellent functional group compatibility, high atom and step economy, and ease in further diversification of the products, might render this protocol highly attractive in facile functionalization of unprotected phenols

Multi life cycle assessment: a potential assessment method for product lifespan and environmental performance

Product lifespan is one of key factors for product life cycle environmental performance. Lifespan extending is always considered positive for better life cycle environmental performance. From the view of one product, extended product lifespan can mitigate the environmental performance for avoided new production. But compared with the newer products those with same product function, there may be a tradeoff between lifespan extending and products replacement, because generally the newer products always have the higher energy efficiency and better function. It requires a systematic evaluation method under these circumstances. Multi Life Cycle Assessment (MLCA) may be a potential solution. The system boundary of MLCA is larger, including two or more life cycles of products. The end-of-life options of products, such as components reuse and materials recovery, can be integrated within the system boundary. In this study, MLCA was applied to two types of products, air-conditioner and notebook computer, in China to verify its practicability. The results of MLCA indicated that lifespan extending is better than frequent replacement for the notebook computer in the environmental performance view, for the energy efficiency improvement of notebook improves not so fast. While the MLCA results indicated that products replacement is better for air-conditioners, because the energy efficiency improved fast and evidently. In conclusion, MLCA can be useful for assessment of product lifespan extending point based on the life cycle environmental performance. Further, environmentally friendly technology innovation as an important factor beyond the product itself should be taken into consideration for optimal product lifespan assessment

Formation Mechanism of 1D ZnO Nanowhiskers in Aqueous Solution

Using a combination of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques, we have studied the growth of ZnO nanowhiskers using a simple solution synthetic process. We find that the formation of ZnO nanowhiskers involves simultaneous nucleation of Zn(OH)2 and ZnO in the same solution, the subsequent competing growth of octahedral-shaped ε-Zn(OH)2 and flower-like ZnO crystals in the early stages which results in a stable intermediate product ε-Zn(OH)2 microcrystals, and then a phase transformation from ε-Zn(OH)2 to ZnO nanowhiskers which follows the in situ crystallization mechanism in the later growth. The existence of the stable ε-Zn(OH)2 microcrystals is a necessary condition for the growth of one-dimensional (1D) ZnO nanowhiskers in this process. The temperature and basicity of the reaction solution play important roles in the competing growth of ε-Zn(OH)2 and flower-like ZnO, that is, low temperature and low basicity facilitate the nucleation and growth of ε-Zn(OH)2

The phylogenetic hypotheses derived from the 7-species data.

<p>Amino-acid and nucleotide sequences were analyzed by maximum parsimony (MP) and maximum likelihood (ML) methods, respectively. Numbers near the nodes are bootstrap values.</p

Heatmaps from the Phylcon analysis.

<p>Each vertical line represents a gene and different colors represent different p values from the AU tests. A small p value (dark green) indicates that a gene rejects a topology. Topologies examined: 7-species data: 1. (((((ZF, Ch), PT),An),(Hu, Op)), Fr); 2. ((((ZF, Ch),(PT, An)),(Hu, Op)), Fr); 3. (((((ZF, Ch),An), PT),(Hu, Op)), Fr). 11-species data: 1. (((Hu, Op),((((ZF, Ch), Cr),(PT, ST)),((An,Py),Tu))),Fr); 2. (((Hu, Op),(((ZF, Ch), Cr),((PT, ST),((An,Py),Tu)))),Fr); 3. (((Hu, Op),(((ZF, Ch),(Cr,(PT, ST))),((An,Py),Tu))),Fr); 4. (((Hu, Op),((((ZF, Ch),(PT, ST)), Cr),((An,Py),Tu))),Fr). Hu = <u>Hu</u>man (<i>Homo sapiens</i>), Fr = Western Clawed <u>Fr</u>og (<i>Xenopus tropicalis</i>), ZF = <u>Z</u>ebra <u>F</u>inch (<i>Taeniopygia guttata</i>), Ch = <u>Ch</u>icken (<i>Gallus gallus</i>), An = Green <u>An</u>ole (<i>Anolis carolinensis</i>), PT = Chinese <u>P</u>ond <u>T</u>urtle (<i>Mauremys reevesii</i>), ST = <u>S</u>oft-shelled <u>T</u>urtle (<i>Pelodiscus sinensis</i>), Py = Royal <u>Py</u>thon (<i>Python regius</i>), Tu = <u>Tu</u>atara (<i>Sphenodon punctatus</i>), Op = <u>Op</u>ossum (<i>Monodelphis domestica</i>), Cr = Nile <u>Cr</u>ocodile (<i>Crocodylus niloticus</i>).</p

A simple tally of genes that support alternative hypotheses.

<p>Hu = <u>Hu</u>man (<i>Homo sapiens</i>), Fr = Western Clawed <u>Fr</u>og (<i>Xenopus tropicalis</i>), ZF = <u>Z</u>ebra <u>F</u>inch (<i>Taeniopygia guttata</i>), Ch = <u>Ch</u>icken (<i>Gallus gallus</i>), An = Green <u>An</u>ole (<i>Anolis carolinensis</i>), PT = Chinese <u>P</u>ond <u>T</u>urtle (<i>Mauremys reevesii</i>), ST = <u>S</u>oft-shelled <u>T</u>urtle (<i>Pelodiscus sinensis</i>), Py = Royal <u>Py</u>thon (<i>Python regius</i>), Tu = <u>Tu</u>atara (<i>Sphenodon punctatus</i>), Op = <u>Op</u>ossum (<i>Monodelphis domestica</i>), Cr = Nile <u>Cr</u>ocodile (<i>Crocodylus niloticus</i>).</p><p>For example, the clade ((ZF,Ch),PT) appears on 2117 gene trees without regarding other relationships. The 7-species dataset includes 4,584 putatively orthologous proteins and coding genes; the 11-species dataset includes 1,638 putatively orthologous proteins and coding genes.</p