Towards sustainable processing of columbite group minerals: elucidating the relation between dielectric properties and physico-chemical transformations in the mineral phase

Current methodologies for the extraction of tantalum and niobium pose a serious threat to human beings and the environment due to the use of hydrofluoric acid (HF). Niobium and tantalum metal powders and pentoxides are widely used for energy efficient devices and components. However, the current processing methods for niobium and tantalum metals and oxides are energy inefficient. This dichotomy between materials use for energy applications and their inefficient processing is the main motivation for exploring a new methodology for the extraction of these two oxides, investigating the microwave absorption properties of the reaction products formed during the alkali roasting of niobium-tantalum bearing minerals with sodium bicarbonate. The experimental findings from dielectric measurement at elevated temperatures demonstrate an exponential increase in the values of the dielectric properties as a result of the formation of NaNbO3-NaTaO3solid solutions at temperatures above 700 °C. The investigation of the evolution of the dielectric properties during the roasting reaction is a key feature in underpinning the mechanism for designing a new microwave assisted high-temperature process for the selective separation of niobium and tantalum oxides from the remainder mineral crystalline lattice

Data-driven model of the hippocampus using the HBP Brain Simulation Platform

The hippocampus is one of four brain regions being modeled in the ramp-up phase of the Human Brain Project (HBP), testing and guiding the development of the HBP Brain Simulation Platform (BSP) to be released in March 2016. Using preliminary versions of BSP applications developed at the Blue Brain Project, a first draft data-driven model of hippocampus was assembled, integrating data available from HBP and community sources. In brief, the building process started by populating the hippocampal volume, defined by the Allen Brain Atlas, with a series of reconstructions of well-characterized cell types according to experimentally observed densities and proportions. A connectome was generated as previously described [1], constrained by biological values for bouton density and synapses per connection. Single cell electrical models and synapse physiology were constrained by electrophysiological recordings and publicly available data. Further datasets not used as input during model building were used to validate the model. This first draft of the circuit model and the pipeline to build it are to be released with the HBP-BSP in March 2016, and they will be periodically updated. The model represents a resource for the community to integrate data, perform in silico experiments, and test hypotheses. Establishing a community process for the continued refinement of the model is planned for the next phase of the HBP. [1] Reimann, M. et al. An algorithm to predict the connectome of neural microcircuits. Front. Comput. Neurosci. (2015). http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fncom.2015.0012

A Topological Representation of Branching Neuronal Morphologies

The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s12021-017-9341-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. Among others, we thank Athanassia Chalimourda and Katherine Turner for helpful conversations in various stages of this research and Jay Coggan for a critical reading of the manuscript. We also thank Hanchuan Peng and Xiaoxiao Liu for providing and curating the BigNeuron datasets. This work was supported by funding for the Blue Brain Project (BBP) from the ETH Domain. P.D. and R.L. were supported part by the Blue Brain Project and by the start-up grant of KH. Partial support for P.D. has been provided by the Advanced Grant of the European Research Council GUDHI (Geometric Understanding in Higher Dimensions). MS was supported by the SNF NCCR “Synapsy”.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Reconstruction and simulation of neocortical microcircuitry

We present a first-draft digital reconstruction of the microcircuitry of somatosensory cortex of juvenile rat. The reconstruction uses cellular and synaptic organizing principles to algorithmically reconstruct detailed anatomy and physiology from sparse experimental data. An objective anatomical method defines a neocortical volume of 0.29 ± 0.01 mm3 containing ∼31,000 neurons, and patch-clamp studies identify 55 layer-specific morphological and 207 morpho-electrical neuron subtypes. When digitally reconstructed neurons are positioned in the volume and synapse formation is restricted to biological bouton densities and numbers of synapses per connection, their overlapping arbors form ∼8 million connections with ∼37 million synapses. Simulations reproduce an array of in vitro and in vivo experiments without parameter tuning. Additionally, we find a spectrum of network states with a sharp transition from synchronous to asynchronous activity, modulated by physiological mechanisms. The spectrum of network states, dynamically reconfigured around this transition, supports diverse information processing strategies

26th Annual Computational Neuroscience Meeting (CNS*2017): Part 3 - Meeting Abstracts - Antwerp, Belgium. 15–20 July 2017

This work was produced as part of the activities of FAPESP Research,\ud Disseminations and Innovation Center for Neuromathematics (grant\ud 2013/07699-0, S. Paulo Research Foundation). NLK is supported by a\ud FAPESP postdoctoral fellowship (grant 2016/03855-5). ACR is partially\ud supported by a CNPq fellowship (grant 306251/2014-0)

School teachers and museum education: A key factor in expanding the inclusive character of museums

Museums are not only collections of objects for the enjoyment, culture and education of grown-up persons, but also places where children may become gradually acquainted with culture; this may be extremely valuable, among other things, in instilling in them a love of, but also respect of cultural heritage. School teachers, therefore, especially of primary education, have to be aware of the educative potential of museums and of all culturally significant objects available in the immediate or wider vicinity of schools. The study of the relationship between school teachers and museums reveals a lot of important issues in this context: - to what extent are teachers aware of the educative opportunities offered by museums? -what is their attitude towards the relationship between schools and museums? - are the teachers trained to be able to interact with museums in a way that will be fruitful for the education of children? - do they need additional training, in order to be able to use such possibilities? - do the teachers think that they would like to have a decisive role in preparing the "interface" between school and museum, in terms of educational material, the preparation of visits, etc? The present paper investigates the relation between school teachers and museums based mainly on research conducted among teachers in Greece, where museum education courses have only recently been introduced in the University curricula, and tries to identify their needs for training in methods of museum visiting and in using museum educational material in the classroom. The research reveals what form of training they wish to have on these matters and the degree to which they expect and wish to have an active involvement in the design of educational programs produced by museums for school children. © Common Ground, Vassiliki Vemi, Harikleia Kanari, All Rights Reserved

Museum educational programmes for children with visual disabilities

There has been an increasing awareness on behalf of museums for visitors with disabilities during the last decades. Museums in Greece have acknowledged the right of people with disabilities to access to cultural heritage information and exhibitions and so they have taken some significant actions in order to facilitate their access via special organized programmes and services. Nevertheless, the access of people with visual disabilities remains a challenge for the majority of Greek museums. The research aim of the present study was to investigate the experience of archaeological museums' services in organizing educational programmes specifically for students with visual disabilities. Additionally, special education teachers of students with visual disabilities were asked to participate in the study by describing their experiences from school visits to museums. Based on quantitative and qualitative data (questionnaires and interviews), the results revealed that archaeological museums had limited experience in specialized museum programmes for students with visual disabilities and underscored the nonsystematic collaboration between museums and schools. Finally, the results of the present study are strongly linked to implications in terms of specialized museums' programmes and ways of collaboration between museums and schools which raise pedagogical and ethical issues, such as inclusion and equal opportunities. © Common Ground, Harikleia Kanari and Vassilis Argyropoulos, All Rights Reserved

Material and Energy Beneficiation of the Automobile Shredder Residues

11 pagesInternational audienceAlthough vehicles represent a main key of our modern society, they affect our environment via the energy and resource consumption, waste generation during their manufacturing as well as greenhouse gas emissions all along their use. Further, hazardous residues are produced at the end-of-life vehicles "ELV". After collection and dismantling, the remainders of the ELV are directed to shredding operator followed by a series of mechanical and physical separations in order to recover the ferrous and non-ferrous metals. The residue of the shredding process, called automobile shredder residue "ASR" represents about 20-25% of the ELV. The ASR, while toxic enough to be classified as hazardous waste, could be considered as material and energy sources. The present study deals with the possibility of material and energy beneficiation of the ASR by its use in the metallurgical units. ASR samples from an European automobile shredder company were collected and subjected to the physical separation process followed by a thermodynamic approach and isothermal batch tests to assess the reducing performance and energy capacity of the ASR hydrocarbon matter. Particular attention was devoted to the behavior of several residual and tramp elements (Cl, Pb, Cu, Zn) affecting the metallurgical process and the product quality. Results showed that physical operations (screening, attrition, dry low intensity magnetic separation) lead to a selective extraction of the mineral part of the ASR which can be directed to the blast furnace unit. Direct reduction of hematite by the plastics contained in the ASR was obtained at 1000-1050 °C resulting into multistage steps of Fe2O3 converting into metallic iron. Multi-parametric analysis of the results suggests that the purified ASR can partially substitute raw materials used in pig iron and steel production