Building with sugar and corn

Two alternative and highly sustainable building techniques are presented and described. The techniques are sugar reinforcement of earth based material and corncob based thermal isolation material. Some experimental results highlight the advantages and disadvantages of these two proposed techniques whose study is still beginning. The water resistance of earth based materials may be increased by adding a certain amount of sugar. On the other hand, corn cob material may have a similar thermal behavior as the common thermal insulation materials currently used in the building industry

Sex differences in functional connectivity between resting state brain networks in autism spectrum disorder

Functional brain connectivity (FBC) has previously been examined in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) between-resting-state networks (RSNs) using a highly sensitive and reproducible hypothesis-free approach. However, results have been inconsistent and sex differences have only recently been taken into consideration using this approach. We estimated main effects of diagnosis and sex and a diagnosis by sex interaction on between-RSNs FBC in 83 ASD (40 females/43 males) and 85 typically developing controls (TC; 43 females/42 males). We found increased connectivity between the default mode (DM) and (a) the executive control networks in ASD (vs. TC); (b) the cerebellum networks in males (vs. females); and (c) female-specific altered connectivity involving visual, language and basal ganglia (BG) networks in ASD—in suggestive compatibility with ASD cognitive and neuroscientific theories.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Parasites of native Cichlidae populations and invasive Oreochromis niloticus (Linnaeus, 1758) in tributary of Amazonas River (Brazil).

This study provides the first investigation on acquisition of parasites in invasive O. niloticus by parasite species of native Cichlidae from the Igarapé Fortaleza basin, Northern Brazil. There were examined 576 specimens of 16 species of native cichlids and invasive O. niloticus collected in the main channel and the floodplain area of this tributary of Amazon River. The invasive O. niloticus was poorly parasitized having only Ichthyophthirius multifiliis, Trichodina centrostrigeata, Paratrichodina africana, Trichodina nobilis (Protozoa) and Cichlidogyrus tilapiae (Monogenoidea), and this host has not acquired any parasite species common to the native ichthyofauna region. In contrast, species of native cichlids showed rich fauna of parasites with predominance of Monogenoidea species, larvae and adults of Nematoda, Digenea, Cestoidea and Acanthocephala, besides four species of Protozoa and four Crustacea. However, only T. nobilis was acquired by native fish, the Aequidens tetramerus, which is a new host for this exotic Trichodinidae. In O. niloticus, well established in the region, the small number of helminth species may be associated with its rusticity, good adaptation in the new environment and also the presence of native parasites with relative specificity, but without ability to complete its life cycle in this invasive host of this ecosystem

Tabique construction in the Municipalities Association of the Terra Quente Transmontana

Tabique is one of the main Portuguese traditional building techniques which use basically natural and local building materials such as earth and timber. A tabique building component such as a wall is build up using a simple timber structure covered on both sides by an earth based mortar. The earth based mortar has an important role in this building system technology since it not only protects the internal timber structure but it also acts as finishing elements. Meanwhile, earth has the advantage of being abundant, natural, local and recycled which gives to this technique a special importance in the sustainability context. It has been noticed that this traditional building technique has an expressive incidence in the region of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro, Portugal. Taking into account that the Trás-os- Montes and Alto Douro region is very large, there was the necessity to divide it in to more manageable areas. The manageable areas are the six Municipalities Associations, which are: Alto Tâmega, Terra Quente Transmontana, Terra Fria do Nordeste Transmontano, Vale do Douro Norte, Vale do Douro Sul and Douro Superior. This research work is focused on the Municipalities Association of Terra Quente Transmontana. This, combined with the scarcity of scientific studies concerning the construction of partition wall in this region, motivated this research work that uses some constructions as sampling and which is focused on experimental study to determine the texture, identification of chemical and mineralogical composition of the coating material / filler used, identifying the species of wood and the hardness of the nails

Endohelmintos parasitos de 16 espécies de Cichlidae da Bacia do Igarapé Fortaleza, Macapá, Estado do Amapá, Brasil.

ENBRAPOA

Argamassa de reboco reforçada com resíduos da indústria têxtil do tipo fio

Este trabalho de investigação pretende estudar o efeito da incorporação de fibras de resíduos da indústria têxtil nas argamassas de reboco e auscultar o potencial deste material compósito. Neste caso, os resíduos da indústria têxtil considerados são fios ou pedaços de tecido ou malhas, e poderão ter uma grande variabilidade material (e.g. composição, espessura, densidade, entre outras). Aspectos relacionados com o traço, o tamanho das fibras e a percentagem de fibras a incorporar são importantes contemplar neste estudo. Nesta fase deste trabalho de investigação, apenas se considerou a inclusão de fio com a composição de 30% de algodão e de 70% de acrílico. Amostras de argamassa de traço 1:1:6 (cimento:cal hidráulica:areia), reforçada com fibras deste fio, de tamanho de 20 mm e 40 mm, e com as percentagens de 0%, 1%, 2%, 3% e 4% foram fabricadas. Estas amostras foram depois ensaiadas à compressão e à flexão em três pontos. Os resultados experimentais permitiram verificar que existe uma melhoria notável das capacidades resistentes à compressão e à flexão do material à medida que a percentagem de fibras aumenta. Atendendo a que patologias de argamassa de reboco do tipo fissuração contínua a ser um grave problema que as nossas construções apresentam, incluindo as recentemente concluídas, este estudo poderá dar um contributo técnico na solução desta problemática, num contexto sustentável e económico

Unravelling the effect of SrTiO3 antiferrodistortive phase transition on the magnetic properties of La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 thin films

Epitaxial La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 (LSMO) thin films, with different thicknesses ranging from 20 to 330 nm, were deposited on (1 0 0)-oriented strontium titanate (STO) substrates by pulsed laser deposition, with their structure and morphology characterized at room temperature. The magnetic and electric transport properties of the as-processed thin films reveal an abnormal behaviour in the temperature dependent magnetization M(T) below the antiferrodistortive STO phase transition (TSTO), and also an anomaly in the magnetoresistance and electrical resistivity close to the same temperature. Films with thickness ≤100 nm show an in-excess magnetization and pronounced changes in the coercivity due to the interface-mediated magnetoelastic coupling with antiferrodistortive domain wall movement occurring below TSTO. However, in thicker LSMO thin films, an in-defect magnetization is observed. This reversed behaviour can be understood with the emergence in the upper layer of the film, of a columnar structure needed to relax the elastic energy stored in the film, which leads to randomly oriented magnetic domain reconstructions. For enough high-applied magnetic fields, as thermodynamic equilibrium is reached, a full suppression of the anomalous magnetization occurs, wherein the temperature dependence of the magnetization starts to follow the expected Brillouin behaviour.This work was supported by the Fundação para a Ciencia e Tecnologia and COMPETE/QREN/EU, through the project PTDC/CTM/099415/2008. The authors are very grateful to Maria Joao Pereira and Maria Rosario Soares from CICECO, University of Aveiro, for the HR-XRD measurements and discussion of the results. F Figueiras acknowledges FCT grant SFRH/BPD/80663/2011. The authors also acknowledge Projeto Norte-070124-FEDER-000070 and Professor J Fontcuberta for their fruitful discussions

Multiwavelength Photometric and Spectropolarimetric Analysis of the FSRQ 3C 279

In this paper, we present light curves for 3C 279 over a time period of six years; from 2008 to 2014. Our multiwavelength data comprise 1 mm to gamma-rays, with additional optical polarimetry. Based on the behaviour of the gamma-ray light curve with respect to other bands, we identified three different activity periods. One of the activity periods shows anomalous behaviour with no gamma-ray counterpart associated with optical and NIR flares. Another anomalous activity period shows a flare in gamma-rays, 1 mm and polarization degree, however, it does not have counterparts in the UV continuum, optical and NIR bands. We find a significant overall correlation of the UV continuum emission, the optical and NIR bands. This correlation suggests that the NIR to UV continuum is co-spatial. We also find a correlation between the UV continuum and the 1 mm data, which implies that the dominant process in producing the UV continuum is synchrotron emission. The gamma-ray spectral index shows statistically significant variability and an anti-correlation with the gamma-ray luminosity. We demonstrate that the dominant gamma-ray emission mechanism in 3C 279 changes over time. Alternatively, the location of the gamma-ray emission zone itself may change depending on the activity state of the central engine.Comment: 32 pages, 19 figures, Accepted for publication in MNRA