Development And Commercialization of Advanced Wood-Based Composites In Maine

This award is to the University of Maine to support the activity described below for 36 months. The proposal was submitted in response to the Partnerships for Innovation Program Solicitation (NSF 0179).PartnersThe partners for the award include the University of Maine (Lead Institution), Maine Technology Institute, Eastern Maine Development Corporation, State Department of Economic and Community Development, The Manufacturing Extension Partnership, Maine Department of Transportation, Louisiana Pacific, Dow Chemical, State Farm Insurance, Henderson and Bodwell, The Kenway Corporation, Market Development Alliance of the FRP Composites Industry, APA the Engineered Wood Association, National Institutes of Standards and Technology, USDA Forest Products Laboratory.Proposed ActivitiesThe award will support the following activities: (1) strengthen partnerships among the University of Maine, private industry, state organizations, forest product industry organizations, and national laboratories to foster commercialization of composite reinforced wood, (2) develop innovative strategies for commercializing composite reinforced wood hybrids that can become models for other university research centers, establish commercialization projects (reinforced wood composite beams using low-grade hardwoods, disaster-resistant housing using reinforced sheathing panels, novel long-strand composite lumber beams and columns).Proposed InnovationHousing industry in the US accounts for 28% of the total construction industry, and most of the wood used is high-grade conventional wood lumber. The supply of high-grade lumber is declining in the US. Reinforced composite wood will allow the use of low-grade lumber from other species of trees in more abundant supply, and provide skilled jobs in Maine. These products will lower the cost of wood products for housing in the US. Increasing the resistance of housing to disasters such as hurricanes and earthquakes will make a major impact on the economy of the nation.Potential Economic ImpactNinety percent of Maine is forested, and 25% of the state\u27s economy is based on forest resources. The forest economy has traditionally been based on export of raw lumber with unskilled labor and few value added timber products. Other manufacturing jobs have moved from the state recently, leaving unskilled jobs and service industries (e.g., tourism) as the major source of income. Successful commercialization of composite reinforced wood will play a large role in developing a growing state economy. Lower costs for wood products for housing construction will have a major economic impact in the US. Increasing the resistance of housing to disasters will lower the cost of repair, maintenance, and insurance for disasters.Potential Societal ImpactMaine ranks 29th in the nation in terms of advanced degree scientists/engineers and 50th in science/engineering graduate students. The job market for young scientists and engineers is bleak in Maine. The educational program will include entrepreneurial education as well as science and engineering to provide a skilled workforce for the economy surrounding the new wood-based technology/economy. The housing industry amounts to $800 billion/year in the US alone

Research Experiences for Undergraduates: Advanced Engineered Wood Composites

The aim of this program is interdisciplinary research experience for undergraduate science and engineering students. The focal point is the development of the next generation of engineered wood composites for construction applications. The disciplines involved include structural engineering, mechanics, composite materials, and wood science. The educational paradigm will be one of combining hands-on laboratory work with training in fundamental science and engineering principles. Previous experience with REU sites indicates that many students become interested in graduate research when they are able to see the fruits of their work used in some application. Thus the basis of this REU site is to provide students with projects and a research environment where they may, with reasonable diligence, complete a small research project that is a clearly defined piece of the greater research and development program. Ten students will work at U Maine for a ten-week period during the summer. Prior to arrival on site, the advisors will contact their students to discuss the nature of their projects and to provide written background material. During the summer, each student will be involved in four types of activities: their own individual project, work with others in their sub discipline, weekly group seminars, and group field trips. Faculty will work closely with their students, especially during the early part of the summer. Weekly seminars will include discussions of research techniques, ethics, graduate schools, as well as three presentations made by the students. Group field trips include trips to major field test sites, government agencies, industries, and social events. Follow-through after the students leave the site will consist of advisors working with their students on a technical paper based on the research and on applying to graduate school

PFI: Commercialization of Advanced Composites in Offshore Wind Energy

This Partnerships for Innovation (PFI) project--a Type III (A:C) partnership between the University of Maine (UMaine), an NSF PFI graduated grantee (0125343), and Maine Maritime Academy, an institution new to the PFI Program (defined as one that has never been a PFI grantee) and, in this case, new to NSF as well seeks to enable the acceleration of the development of Maine\u27s deepwater offshore wind energy resource by employing an innovation model that will draw upon knowledge and technology from diverse sources. The proposed research addresses the development of key knowledge, experimentally-validated numerical models for combined aerolastic/hydrodynamic loadings; and an enabling technology, Rapid-Formed Composite Structures (RFCS). Neither the knowledge nor the technology currently exists for deepwater offshore wind turbines and both are critical to the development of offshore wind energy. The University of Maine brings to the partnership RFCS technology, which eliminates and will significantly reduce, platform construction and deployment costs. . The project addresses the energy crisis facing Maine and the US which requires new strategies and innovations. Working with floating platform developers and composites manufacturers, platforms for offshore floating turbines will be developed by the Advanced Structures and Composites Center (newly renamed in response to the evolution of its research mission) at the University of Maine. Thus, this project presents an opportunity to progress toward the goal of delivering installed wind power capacity at a cost that is competitive with existing technology. Floating offshore wind platform technology offers the following benefits: 1) reduction of reliance on foreign energy sources, (2) development of a renewable, carbon-free energy, and 3) creation of domestic manufacturing and service jobs focused on offshore wind energy. Partners at the inception of the project are Academic Institutions: University of Maine (lead institution) and Maine Maritime Academy; Federal Laboratory: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL); Private Sector Organizations: Cianbro Corporation and Maine Composites Alliance; and State Organizations: Governor?s Ocean Energy Task Force and Maine Technology Institute (MTI)

Design of unit testing using xUnit.net

© 2014 IEEE. This paper presents an in-depth study of designing, implementing and executing unit test cases using the xUnit.net testing tool in general and in the context of the TeleMedicine Cluster System project within the ICT Design subject delivered at UTS, Australia. The case studies are based on the utilisation of the tool in Visual Basic 2012 using the.NET framework for C#. The paper elucidates on how and why the xUnit framework can be applied in the context of the TMC system, and how it can be tailored to meet the testing ad integration needs of the delivery of TMC system

Rho GTPases show differential sensitivity to nucleotide triphosphate depletion in a model of ischemic cell injury

Rho GTPases are critical for actin cytoskeletal regulation, and alterations in their activity may contribute to altered cytoskeletal organization that characterizes many pathological conditions, including ischemia. G protein activity is a function of the ratio of GTP-bound (active) to GDP-bound (inactive) protein, but the effect of altered energy metabolism on Rho protein activity has not been determined. We used antimycin A and substrate depletion to induce depletion of intracellular ATP and GTP in the kidney proximal tubule cell line LLC-PK10 and measured the activity of RhoA, Rac1, and Cdc42 with GTPase effector binding domains fused to glutathione S-transferase. RhoA activity decreased in parallel with the concentration of ATP and GTP during depletion, so that by 60 min there was no detectable RhoA-GTP, and recovered rapidly when cells were returned to normal culture conditions. Dissociation of the membrane-actin linker ezrin, a target of RhoA signaling, from the cytoskeletal fraction paralleled the decrease in RhoA activity and was augmented by treatment with the Rho kinase inhibitor Y27632. The activity of Cdc42 did not decrease significantly during depletion or recovery. Rac1 activity decreased moderately to a minimum at 30 min of depletion but then increased from 30 to 90 min of depletion, even as ATP and GTP levels continued to fall. Our data are consistent with a principal role for RhoA in cytoskeletal reorganization during ischemia and demonstrate that the activity of Rho GTPases can be maintained even at low GTP concentrations

Gradient based fuzzy c-means algorithm

A clustering algorithm based on the Fuzzy c-means algorithm (FCM) and the gradient descent method is presented. In the FCM, the minimization process of the objective function is proceeded by solving two equations alternatively in an iterative fashion. Each iteration requires the use of all the data at once. In our proposed approach one datum is presented at a time to the network and the minimization is proceeded using the gradient descent method. Compared to FCM, the experimental results show that our algorithm is very competitive in terms of speed and stability of convergence for large number of data

Treatment of tumour recurrence after resection of hepatocellular carcinoma. Analysis of 97 consecutive patients

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the long-term results of aggressive treatment of HCC recurrence. METHODS: Two hundred and nine consecutive patients underwent hepatic resection for HCC in our hospital. Tumour recurrence was diagnosed in 97 (51%) of the 190 patients with curative resection. Sixteen underwent hepatic resection: two right hepatectomies, one three-segmentectomy, one left hepatectomy, five two-segmentectomies, six segmental resections and one subsegmentectomy. Two patients with metastasis in the spine were submitted to a vertebral body resection. Twenty-five patients were treated with percutaneous ethanol injection or intra-arterial chemoembolization. Fifty-four patients with a poor performance status and liver function or multiple extra hepatic recurrences did not receive any treatment. RESULTS: There were no operative deaths. The postoperative mortality rate was 5.5% (one patient). The cumulative overall survival after the second resection was respectively 89%, 46% and 31% at 1, 3 and 5 years. There was a significant difference in survival between patients treated with repeat resection and those submitted to a non-surgical or conservative treatment (p<0.0001). There were no differences in operative deaths, postoperative mortality and morbidity between the first and second hepatic resection. CONCLUSIONS: Aggressive management with combined resection or loco regional therapy for intrahepatic recurrence and resection of isolated extra-hepatic recurrence may offer long-term survival in selected patients. Second liver resection for recurrence of HCC can be safely performed

Unraveling the Temporal Dynamics of Reward Signals in Music-Induced Pleasure with TMS

Music's ability to induce feelings of pleasure has been the subject of intense neuroscientific research lately. Prior neuroimaging studies have shown that music-induced pleasure engages cortico-striatal circuits related to the anticipation and receipt of biologically relevant rewards/incentives, but these reports are necessarily correlational. Here, we studied both the causal role of this circuitry and its temporal dynamics by applying transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) over the left dorsolateral PFC combined with fMRI in 17 male and female participants. Behaviorally, we found that, in accord with previous findings, excitation of fronto-striatal pathways enhanced subjective reports of music-induced pleasure and motivation, whereas inhibition of the same circuitry led to the reduction of both. fMRI activity patterns indicated that these behavioral changes were driven by bidirectional TMS-induced alteration of fronto-striatal function. Specifically, changes in activity in the NAcc predicted modulation of both hedonic and motivational responses, with a dissociation between pre-experiential versus experiential components of musical reward. In addition, TMS-induced changes in the fMRI functional connectivity between the NAcc and frontal and auditory cortices predicted the degree of modulation of hedonic responses. These results indicate that the engagement of cortico-striatal pathways and the NAcc, in particular, is indispensable to experience rewarding feelings from music.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Neuroimaging studies have shown that music-induced pleasure engages cortico-striatal circuits involved in the processing of biologically relevant rewards. Yet, these reports are necessarily correlational. Here, we studied both the causal role of this circuitry and its temporal dynamics by combining brain stimulation over the frontal cortex with functional imaging. Behaviorally, we found that excitation and inhibition of fronto-striatal pathways enhanced and disrupted, respectively, subjective reports of music-induced pleasure and motivation. These changes were associated with changes in NAcc activity and NAcc coupling with frontal and auditory cortices, dissociating between pre-experimental versus experiential components of musical reward. These results indicate that the engagement of cortico-striatal pathways, and the NAcc in particular, is indispensable to experience rewarding feelings from music

Acquisition of Advanced Engineered Wood Composites Manufacturing and Science Laboratory

This action is in response to the Major Research Instrumentation Initiative MRI\u2798 (NSF-98-16). The purpose is to upgrade a Composite-Reinforced-Wood (CRW) Manufacturing Science Laboratory at the University of Maine. The laboratory is part of a new facility designed to develop the next generation of wood composites for construction. Recent research has shown that Composite Reinforced Wood (CRW) offers superior properties at reduced costs. As in the development of reinforced and prestressed concrete, basic research is needed to unlock the full potential of a wide variety of CRW structural members, e.g. joists, beams, columns, panel and connections. CRW hybrids are unique in that two very different classes of material, FRP and wood are used together; thus the principles governing the short and long-term structural behavior differ in many ways form those involving only one of the two materials. This project will focus on:Developing a new class of FRP reinforcing materials that are compatible with wood, particularly its hypoexpansion and visco-elastic properties.Developing and maintaining over time the interface (bond) between the two materials needed to ensure full composite action (this will require a basic understanding of the mechanisms of bond durability).Developing a basic understanding of the short and long-term behavior of CRW structural elements including performance over the full range of loading, ultimate strength, ductility, creep, fatigue, and moisture/temperature/UV cycling.The research is conducted at four different levels: micro, meso, macro and structural. A multi-disciplinary team will conduct the research composing ten engineers and scientists from three units at the University of Maine (civil/structural engineering, wood science and technology, and chemical engineering), the industry-supported SPI composites Institute, the Composites Materials Engineering Center (COMTEC) in Winona MN, and the USDA Forest Products laboratory in Madison