Decoration of the truncated tetrahedron - an Archimedean polyhedron - to produce a new class of convex equilateral polyhedra with tetrahedral symmetry

The Goldberg construction of symmetric cages involves pasting a patch cut out of a regular tiling onto the faces of a Platonic host polyhedron, resulting in a cage with the same symmetry as the host. For example, cutting equilateral triangular patches from a 6.6.6 tiling of hexagons and pasting them onto the full triangular faces of an icosahedron produces icosahedral fullerene cages. Here we show that pasting cutouts from a 6.6.6 tiling onto the full hexagonal and triangular faces of an Archimedean host polyhedron, the truncated tetrahedron, produces two series of tetrahedral (T-d) fullerene cages. Cages in the first series have 28n(2) vertices (n >= 1). Cages in the second (leapfrog) series have 3 x 28n(2). We can transform all of the cages of the first series and the smallest cage of the second series into geometrically convex equilateral polyhedra. With tetrahedral (T-d) symmetry, these new polyhedra constitute a new class of "convex equilateral polyhedra with polyhedral symmetry". We also show that none of the other Archimedean polyhedra, six with octahedral symmetry and six with icosahedral, can host full-face cutouts from regular tilings to produce cages with the host's polyhedral symmetry

Development of a green material for horticulture

Poly(lactic acid) (PLA), used as a matrix, was mixed with wood fibers, coffee grounds, fertilizer and a foaming agent to develop an ecofriendly material to be used in horticulture. For this application materials should have mechanical properties similar to PLA, increased biodegradability and a lower price than currently used materials. The new materials were prepared by melt processing in an internal mixer at 190 ° C and were characterized by several techniques. The mechanical properties of the biocomposites, measured by flexural tests, were similar to neat PLA, even with a reduction of 40 wt% of polymer. Biodegradation assessment by composting tests in an aerobic environment demonstrated that the green materials exhibited higher biodegradability than PLA. Biocomposites containing wood fibers and fertilizer were revealed to be the most suitable for horticulture application, as these can combine mechanical properties, biodegradability and fertilizer release. Moreover, this green material has two main advantages: it can be prepared using materials from natural resources, and it does not generate any residue after use.n-STeP Project, NORTE-07-0124-FEDER-000039, supported by the Programa Operacional Regional do Norte (ON.2) and PEst- C/CTM/LA0025/2013 (Strategic Project-LA 25-2013-2014

Shaping the Future Generation: Education Works

https://digitalcommons.pcom.edu/bridging_gaps2016/1004/thumbnail.jp

Burden of comorbidity in systemic lupus erythematosus in the UK, 1999–2012

Objective: To estimate the comorbidity associated with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in the UK during 1999–2012. Methods: A retrospective cohort study using the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink was conducted. Prevalent cases of SLE were matched by age, sex, and practice to 4 controls. The incidence of cardiovascular disease (CVD), stroke, end-stage renal failure (ESRF), cancer, osteoporosis, and infection were calculated per 1,000 person-years during the study period and compared to controls using Poisson regression to obtain incidence rate ratios (IRRs). IRRs were adjusted for baseline age, sex, body mass index, smoking status, alcohol intake, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, Charlson Index scores, and prednisolone use. Age- and sex-specific incidence rates were calculated. Results: When comparing the 7,732 prevalent cases of SLE with 28,079 matched controls, the unadjusted IRR was 1.98 (95% confidence interval [95% CI] 1.69–2.31) for CVD, 1.81 (95% CI 1.49–2.19) for stroke, 7.81 (95% CI 4.68–13.05) for ESRF, 1.28 (95% CI 1.17–1.40) for cancer, 2.53 (95% CI 2.27–2.82) for osteoporosis, and 1.49 (95% CI 1.40–1.58) for infection. After adjustment, the rates remained significantly higher in cases. Men with SLE had higher rates of CVD, stroke, and cancer, whereas women had higher rates of infection and osteoporosis. Those at younger ages were at the greatest relative risk compared with controls. Cases had significantly higher Charlson Index scores at baseline. Conclusion: People with SLE in the UK have a greater burden of comorbidity and are more likely to develop CVD, stroke, ESRF, cancer, osteoporosis, and infection than people of the same age and sex

Orthographic and phonological priming effects in the same-different task.

Masked priming tasks have been used widely to study early orthographic processes-the coding of letter position and letter identity. Recently, using masked priming in the same-different task Lupker, Nakayama, and Perea (2015a) reported finding a phonological priming effect with primes presented in Japanese Katakana, and English target words presented in the Roman alphabet, and based on this finding, suggested that previously reported effects in the same-different task in the literature could be based on phonology rather than orthography. In this article, the authors explain why the design of Lupker et al.'s experiment does not address this question; they then report 2 new experiments that do. The results indicate that the priming produced by orthographically similar primes in the same-different task for letter strings presented in the Roman alphabet is almost exclusively orthographic in origin, and phonology makes little contribution. The authors offer an explanation for why phonological priming was observed when the prime and target are presented in different scripts but not when they are presented in the same script. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved)

The long term outcomes of children born to mothers with Systemic Lupus Erythematous (SLE)

Introduction: Immunosuppressive agents are commonly used in Systemic Lupus Erythematous (SLE) during pregnancy, to ensure optimum outcome for both mother and child. However there is little literature regarding long term outcomes (LTO) of these children. Aims: This pilot study aims to test the hypothesis that the mother’s medications taken during pregnancy and/or antibodies are associated with an increased risk of adverse outcomes in children born to mothers with lupus. Methods: Women regularly attending specialist UK lupus clinics were identified and consented to take part in this study if they had children up to the age of 17 years born after the diagnosis of SLE. A standard questionnaire developed for this multi-centre study was used to collect the data. Results: In total data were collected for 285 children born to 199 mothers. Neonatal rash, complete heart block or congenital anomalies were each reported in 2% of children, and developmental problems in 17/284(6%). Hospital management was required for infection in 25% (69/274) of children, the only significant risk factors identified were birth weight and maternal aspirin use which are likely to be surrogate markers for more severe maternal disease. Conclusion: This study demonstrated reassuring LTO of children born to mothers with SLE