Fundamental studies on dynamic wear behavior of SBR rubber compounds modified by SBR rubber powder

The aim of this study is focused on the experimental investigation of dynamic wear behavior of carbon black filled rubber compounds comprising pristine styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) together with incorporated SBR ground rubber (rubber powder). We also analyzed and described quantitatively the service conditions of some dynamically loaded rubber products, which are liable to wear (e.g. conveyor belts, tires). Beside the well-known standard test method to characterize wear resistance at steady-state conditions, we used an own developed testing equipment based on gravimetric determination of mass loss of rubber test specimen to investigate the influence of rubber powder content on dynamic wear depending on varying impact energy levels. Incorporation of SBR rubber powder in SBR rubber compounds increases wear. With increasing rubber powder content the wear at steady-state conditions progressively increases. However, the level of wear at dynamic loading conditions increases only once, but stays constant subsequently even with contents of incorporated rubber powder

The Pit & the Pendulum: Sex Offender Laws

For centuries the criminal justice system has struggled to define the methodology of and the justifications for social control of sexual behavior that does not conform to community mores. This poster compares and contrasts the historical and contemporary attempts in the United States, Canada, Belgium, the United Kingdom, and Germany to address the risk created by individuals who engage in behaviors broadly characterized as sexually deviant. Where available, we consider the rationale for sentencing, and the earliest attempts to bring “treatment” into the criminal dispositional formula for sexual based prosecution. We also consider the impact that the choice of societal response has on risk assessment and evaluation in the various systems, including where available, the assessment and commitment of juvenile offenders. The current practice of civil commitment for a person deemed to be a sexually violent predator (SVP) is discussed highlighting the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Kansas v. Hendricks. This practice will then be compared and contrasted with the approach of designating an offender as a Dangerous Offender (DO) or a Long-Term Offender (LTO) under the criminal law. We also highlight sex offender registries where applicable. This poster is intended as an overview of the law as it exists, and not as a defense or a critique of any specific model

Root uptake and metabolization of Alternaria toxins by winter wheat plants using a hydroponic system

Fungi of the genus Alternaria are ubiquitous in the environment. Their mycotoxins can leach out of contaminated plants or crop debris into the soil entering the plant via the roots. We aim to evaluate the importance of this entry pathway and its contribution to the overall content of Alternaria toxins (ATs) in wheat plants to better understand the soil–plant-phytopathogen system. A hydroponic cultivation system was established and wheat plants were cultivated for up to two weeks under optimal climate conditions. One half of the plants was treated with a nutrient solution spiked with alternariol (AOH), alternariol monomethyl ether (AME), and tenuazonic acid (TeA), whereas the other half of the plants was cultivated without mycotoxins. Plants were harvested after 1 and 2 weeks and analyzed using a QuEChERS-based extraction and an in-house validated LC–MS/MS method for quantification of the ATs in roots, crowns, and leaves separately. ATs were taken up by the roots and transported throughout the plant up to the leaves after 1 as well as 2 weeks of cultivation with the roots showing the highest ATs levels followed by the crowns and the leaves. In addition, numerous AOH and AME conjugates like glucosides, malonyl glucosides, sulfates, and di/trihexosides were detected in different plant compartments and identified by high-resolution mass spectrometry. This is the first study demonstrating the uptake of ATs in vivo using a hydroponic system and whole wheat plants examining both the distribution of ATs within the plant compartments and the modification of ATs by the wheat plants

An extensive phenotypic characterization of the hTNFα transgenic mice

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFα) is implicated in a wide variety of pathological and physiological processes, including chronic inflammatory conditions, coronary artery disease, diabetes, obesity, and cachexia. Transgenic mice expressing human TNFα (hTNFα) have previously been described as a model for progressive rheumatoid arthritis. In this report, we describe extensive characterization of an hTNFα transgenic mouse line.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In addition to arthritis, these hTNFα transgenic mice demonstrated major alterations in body composition, metabolic rate, leptin levels, response to a high-fat diet, bone mineral density and content, impaired fertility and male sexual function. Many phenotypes displayed an earlier onset and a higher degree of severity in males, pointing towards a significant degree of sexual dimorphism in response to deregulated expression of TNFα.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These results highlight the potential usefulness of this transgenic model as a resource for studying the progressive effects of constitutively expressed low levels of circulating TNFα, a condition mimicking that observed in a number of human pathological conditions.</p

Physiological and Proteomic Analysis of the Rice Mutant cpm2 Suggests a Negative Regulatory Role of Jasmonic Acid in Drought Tolerance

It is widely known that numerous adaptive responses of drought-stressed plants are stimulated by chemical messengers known as phytohormones. Jasmonic acid (JA) is one such phytohormone. But there are very few reports revealing its direct implication in drought related responses or its cross-talk with other phytohormones. In this study, we compared the morpho-physiological traits and the root proteome of a wild type (WT) rice plant with its JA biosynthesis mutant coleoptile photomorphogenesis 2 (cpm2), disrupted in the allene oxide cyclase (AOC) gene, for insights into the role of JA under drought. The mutant had higher stomatal conductance, higher water use efficiency and higher shoot ABA levels under severe drought as compared to the WT. Notably, roots of cpm2 were better developed compared to the WT under both, control and drought stress conditions. Root proteome was analyzed using the Tandem Mass Tag strategy to better understand this difference at the molecular level. Expectedly, AOC was unique but notably highly abundant under drought in the WT. Identification of other differentially abundant proteins (DAPs) suggested increased energy metabolism (i.e., increased mobilization of resources) and reactive oxygen species scavenging in cpm2 under drought. Additionally, various proteins involved in secondary metabolism, cell growth and cell wall synthesis were also more abundant in cpm2 roots. Proteome-guided transcript, metabolite, and histological analyses provided further insights into the favorable adaptations and responses, most likely orchestrated by the lack of JA, in the cpm2 roots. Our results in cpm2 are discussed in the light of JA crosstalk to other phytohormones. These results together pave the path for understanding the precise role of JA during drought stress in rice

Pre-treatment and extraction techniques for recovery of added value compounds from wastes throughout the agri-food chain

The enormous quantity of food wastes discarded annually force to look for alternatives for this interesting feedstock. Thus, food bio-waste valorisation is one of the imperatives of the nowadays society. This review is the most comprehensive overview of currently existing technologies and processes in this field. It tackles classical and innovative physical, physico-chemical and chemical methods of food waste pre-treatment and extraction for recovery of added value compounds and detection by modern technologies and are an outcome of the COST Action EUBIS, TD1203 Food Waste Valorisation for Sustainable Chemicals, Materials and Fuels

Manifest Enmity: The Origins, Development, and Persistence of Classical Wahhābism (1153-1351/1741-1932)

This dissertation presents a critical reexamination of Wahhābism (al-Wahhābiyya), the Islamic revivalist movement named for Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb (d. 1792), from its emergence in central Arabia in the mid-eighteenth century to the early twentieth century. Drawing on an array of new primary source material, including rare manuscripts gathered from around the world, this study provides a new account of the movement’s origins, development, and persistence over a nearly two-hundred-year span, namely, 1741-1932. Its main contention is that throughout this period Wahhābism was a fundamentally exclusivist and activist movement, one set on converting the nominal Islamic world to its version of the faith by coercive means, including violence. In addition to calling on Muslims to turn away from what it considered polytheism (shirk), Wahhābism adamantly required its adherents to manifest enmity (ʿadāwa) to those Muslims deemed polytheists. As is examined in detail, Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb grounded his doctrine in the religious thought of Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328) and Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (d. 1350), two fourteenth-century Syrian Ḥanbalī scholars who stoked controversy in their own day for their views. Among other things, they held that the widespread practices associated with visiting the burial sites of saints and prophets constituted shirk. Following them, Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb likewise deemed such practices to be shirk. Yet not only did he adopt these earlier scholars’ views, he adapted them in a more extremist direction. Furthermore, he launched a religio-political movement to eliminate shirk, following the example of the Prophet Muḥammad and the early Muslim community. For nearly two-hundred years, the exclusivist and activist spirit of classical Wahhābism persisted in the writings and activities of the leading Wahhābī scholars. It was only attenuated in the early decades of the third Saudi state (1902-present). From that point onward, while Wahhābī scholars continued to elaborate their doctrine as before, the hard-edged elements of the creed were less observed. Much later, beginning in the 1970s, the classical Wahhābī heritage was rediscovered and reappropriated by the emergent Jihādī Salafī movement, which found in the Wahhābī tradition ample justification, as well as inspiration, for a new form of Islamic activism