Development of a soluble high-temperature insulation fibre

The three variables, dose, dimensions and durability, have been shown from many studies to be the factors that combine to give the potendal for a fibre to cause respiratory diseases. Considering durability, a fibre that could show increased dissoludon, possibly accompanied by chemical change, in physiological Solutions would be expected to show a reduced persistence in the lungs and have a lower potential for producing respiratory diseases. The development of such a fibre, Superwool X607, and the understanding that has been acquired in terms of solubility rate and other fibre properties is presented in this paper. The importance of in-vitro solubility rate studies to screen potendally useful fibre compositions, combined with an understanding of how these composidons can be selected using free energy of hydradon or non-bridging oxygen theories, is discussed in terms of developing new less "in-vivo" durable fibres

Thermal conductivity of refractory glass fibres

In the present study, the current international standards and corresponding apparatus for measuring the thermal conductivity of refractory glass fibre products have been reviewed. Refractory glass fibres are normally produced in the form of low-density needled mats. A major issue with thermal conductivity measurements of these materials is lack of reproducibility in the test results due to transformation of the test material during the test. Also needled mats are inherently inhomogeneous, and this poses additional problems. To be able to compare the various methods of thermal conductivity measurement, a refractory reference material was designed which is capable of withstanding maximum test temperatures (1673 K) with minimum transformation. The thermal conductivity of this reference material was then measured using various methods according to the different standards surveyed. In order to compare different materials, samples have been acquired from major refractory glass fibre manufacturers and the results have been compared against the newly introduced reference material. Materials manufactured by melt spinning, melt blowing and sol–gel have been studied, and results compared with literature values

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead