Numerical study on the flexural behaviour of slim-floor beams with hollow core slabs at elevated temperature

[EN] Slim-floor beams are a novel typology of steel beams where the steel profile is fully embedded within the concrete floor depth. While the use of this system is increasing fast in the construction practice, the available investigations on its fire performance are still scarce. This paper focuses on analysing the fire behaviour of slim floor beams combined with hollow core slabs as flooring system. Two configurations are studied, namely Integrated Floor Beam (IFB) and Shallow Floor Beam (SFB). A finite element model is developed and validated by comparison with experimental results available in the literature as well as with thermal tests carried out by the authors. Subsequently, parametric studies are conducted with the aim of providing practical design recommendations. The influence of the composite beam configuration, concrete type, longitudinal reinforcement and steel plate thickness is studied. The conclusions drawn in this paper suggest that the SFB configuration may provide a significant enhancement in terms of fire resistance compared to IFB, provided that the appropriate combination of the parameters studied is used.The authors would like to express their sincere gratitude to the Spanish "Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad" for the help provided through the Project BIA2015-67192-R and to the European Union through the FEDER funds.Albero Gabarda, V.; Espinós Capilla, A.; Serra Mercé, E.; Romero, ML.; Hospitaler Pérez, A. (2019). Numerical study on the flexural behaviour of slim-floor beams with hollow core slabs at elevated temperature. Engineering Structures. 180:561-573. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engstruct.2018.11.061S56157318

A crowdsourcing database for the copy-number variation of the spanish population

Background: Despite being a very common type of genetic variation, the distribution of copy-number variations (CNVs) in the population is still poorly understood. The knowledge of the genetic variability, especially at the level of the local population, is a critical factor for distinguishing pathogenic from non-pathogenic variation in the discovery of new disease variants. Results: Here, we present the SPAnish Copy Number Alterations Collaborative Server (SPACNACS), which currently contains copy number variation profiles obtained from more than 400 genomes and exomes of unrelated Spanish individuals. By means of a collaborative crowdsourcing effort whole genome and whole exome sequencing data, produced by local genomic projects and for other purposes, is continuously collected. Once checked both, the Spanish ancestry and the lack of kinship with other individuals in the SPACNACS, the CNVs are inferred for these sequences and they are used to populate the database. A web interface allows querying the database with different filters that include ICD10 upper categories. This allows discarding samples from the disease under study and obtaining pseudo-control CNV profiles from the local population. We also show here additional studies on the local impact of CNVs in some phenotypes and on pharmacogenomic variants. SPACNACS can be accessed at: http://csvs.clinbioinfosspa.es/spacnacs/. Conclusion: SPACNACS facilitates disease gene discovery by providing detailed information of the local variability of the population and exemplifies how to reuse genomic data produced for other purposes to build a local reference database.This work is supported by Grants PID2020-117979RB-I00 from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation; by the Institute of Health Carlos III (project IMPaCT-Data, exp. IMP/00019, IMP/00009 and PI20/01305), co-funded by the European Union, European Regional Development Fund (ERDF, “A way to make Europe”)

Eupraxia, a step toward a plasma-wakefield based accelerator with high beam quality

The EuPRAXIA project aims at designing the world's first accelerator based on advanced plasma-wakefield techniques to deliver 5 GeV electron beams that simultaneously have high charge, low emittance and low energy spread, which are required for applications by future user communities. Meeting this challenging objective will only be possible through dedicated effort. Many injection/acceleration schemes and techniques have been explored by means of thorough simulations in more than ten European research institutes. This enables selection of the most appropriate methods for solving each particular problem. The specific challenge of generating, extracting and transporting high charge beams, while maintaining the high quality needed for user applications, are being tackled using innovative approaches. This article highlights preliminary results obtained by the EuPRAXIA collaboration, which also exhibit the required laser and plasma parameters

Factor von Willebrand como intermediario entre la hemostasia y la angiogénesis de origen tumoral

Cancer patients often show an imbalance condition between coagulation system and fibrinolysis which causes a prothrombotic state. Different molecular factors like von Willebrand factor (vWf), presenting higher plasmatic rates in these patients, play an important role in this situation. During active angiogenesis taking place in tumor growth, the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and the fibroblast growth factor (FGF-2) contribute to the proliferation and differentiation of endothelial tissue, the main vWf producer, promoting increased rates of vWf in the serum of neoplastic patients. Recently vWf's contribution to tumor cells and platelet adhesion has been described. In this process, the discovery of platelet, endothelial and tumor cell membrane integrins and their implication in cellular adhesion has represented a major step in demonstrating how blood clotting and platelet aggregation are mediated by tumor cell and platelet linkage. Migration properties acquired by tumor cells as a result of this binding have been also pointed out. Clinical trials show higher rates of plasmatic vWf in cancer patients the more advanced clinical and radiological stage they present (metastasic versus localized). Moreover, higher pre-surgical serum vWf rates in patients can be used to predict poorer survival after resection surgery. vWf high molecular weight multimers have been also related to a cleavage protease deficiency in the serum of the oncologic population. The promising results of antiaggregation/anticoagulation therapies in these patients permit us to envisage new therapeutic target

Status of the Horizon 2020 EuPRAXIA conceptual design study

The Horizon 2020 project EuPRAXIA (European Plasma Research Accelerator with eXcellence In Applications) is producing a conceptual design report for a highly compact and cost-effective European facility with multi-GeV electron beams accelerated using plasmas. EuPRAXIA will be set up as a distributed Open Innovation platform with two construction sites, one with a focus on beam-driven plasma acceleration (PWFA) and another site with a focus on laser-driven plasma acceleration (LWFA). User areas at both sites will provide access to free-electron laser pilot experiments, positron generation and acceleration, compact radiation sources, and test beams for high-energy physics detector development. Support centres in four different countries will complement the pan-European implementation of this infrastructure

Status of the Horizon 2020 EuPRAXIA conceptual design study

The Horizon 2020 project EuPRAXIA (European Plasma Research Accelerator with eXcellence In Applications) is producing a conceptual design report for a highly compact and cost-effective European facility with multi-GeV electron beams accelerated using plasmas. EuPRAXIA will be set up as a distributed Open Innovation platform with two construction sites, one with a focus on beam-driven plasma acceleration (PWFA) and another site with a focus on laser-driven plasma acceleration (LWFA). User areas at both sites will provide access to free-electron laser pilot experiments, positron generation and acceleration, compact radiation sources, and test beams for high-energy physics detector development. Support centres in four different countries will complement the pan-European implementation of this infrastructure

Erratum to: EuPRAXIA Conceptual Design Report – Eur. Phys. J. Special Topics 229, 3675-4284 (2020), https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2020-000127-8

International audienceThe online version of the original article can be found at http://https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2020-000127-8</A

Efficient non-viral DNA-mediated gene transfer to human primary myoblasts using electroporation

Gene transfer of human primary myoblasts with various non-viral methods has been hampered by low yield of transfection. We report here an efficient, simple and reproducible non-viral DNA-mediated gene transfer procedure for transfecting human myoblasts. We found that electroporation promotes a highly efficient DNA uptake by human primary cultures of myogenic cells. Under optimal conditions, 60-70% of human myoblasts transfected with the enhanced green fluorescent gene expressed the enhanced green fluorescent protein. Electroporated myoblasts behaved normally as judged by their ability to synthesize and express developmentally regulated proteins and to undergo terminal differentiation, i.e. to fuse and form myotubes. We showed, in addition, that a subpopulation of cultured human myoblasts with self-renewing properties and equivalent to native muscle satellite cells were as efficiently transfected by electroporation as proliferating myoblasts. Thus, the development of gene therapies based on the engineering and transplantation of human myoblasts may greatly benefit from gene transfer by electroporation