154 research outputs found
Development of an extrudable paste to build mycelium-bound composites
Mycelium-bound composites are promising materials for sustainable packaging, insulation, fashion, and architecture. However, moulding is the main fabrication process explored to date, strongly limiting the ability to design the complex shapes that could widen the range of applications. Extrusion is a facile and low energy-cost process that has not yet been explored for mycelium-bound composites with design freedom and structural properties. In this study, we combine cheap, easily and commonly available agricultural waste materials, bamboo microfibres, chitosan, and mycelium from Ganodermalucidum, to establish a composite mixture that is workable, extrudable and buildable. We study the impact of bamboo fibre size, chitosan concentration, pH and weight ratio of bamboo to chitosan to determine the optimum growth condition for the mycelium as well as high mechanical stiffness. The resulting materials have thus low energy costs, are sustainable and can be shaped easily. The developed composition is promising to further explore the use of mycelium-bound materials for structural applications using agricultural waste
De l'inefficacité du réseau social : des liens sociaux non mobilisés chez les patients atteints de cancer
International audienceDe nombreuses Ă©tudes sur les rĂ©seaux sociaux portent sur la question des ressources auxquelles un individu peut avoir accĂšs Ă travers ses relations sociales. En s'intĂ©ressant aux rĂ©seaux qui ont « fonctionnĂ© », elles tentent alors de spĂ©cifier les facteurs ayant permis l'accĂšs aux ressources. Mais peu de travaux se sont penchĂ©s sur les rĂ©seaux ayant Ă©chouĂ© Ă fournir Ă l'individu le bien ou le service qu'il recherchait. Cet article se propose de discuter de ces rĂ©seaux « inefficaces » Ă travers le cas de patients atteints de cancer recherchant des informations relatives Ă leur pathologie. Les rĂ©sultats indiquent que les causes de l'inefficacitĂ© du rĂ©seau sont Ă rechercher dans la non mobilisation des liens de la part des malades rencontrĂ©s. Un certain nombre de contraintes pĂšsent sur ces liens empĂȘchant ainsi leur mobilisation
Prime Focus Spectrograph (PFS) for the Subaru Telescope: Overview, recent progress, and future perspectives
PFS (Prime Focus Spectrograph), a next generation facility instrument on the
8.2-meter Subaru Telescope, is a very wide-field, massively multiplexed,
optical and near-infrared spectrograph. Exploiting the Subaru prime focus, 2394
reconfigurable fibers will be distributed over the 1.3 deg field of view. The
spectrograph has been designed with 3 arms of blue, red, and near-infrared
cameras to simultaneously observe spectra from 380nm to 1260nm in one exposure
at a resolution of ~1.6-2.7A. An international collaboration is developing this
instrument under the initiative of Kavli IPMU. The project is now going into
the construction phase aiming at undertaking system integration in 2017-2018
and subsequently carrying out engineering operations in 2018-2019. This article
gives an overview of the instrument, current project status and future paths
forward.Comment: 17 pages, 10 figures. Proceeding of SPIE Astronomical Telescopes and
Instrumentation 201
Current status of the Spectrograph System for the SuMIRe/PFS
The Prime Focus Spectrograph (PFS) is a new facility instrument for Subaru
Telescope which will be installed in around 2017. It is a multi-object
spectrograph fed by about 2400 fibers placed at the prime focus covering a
hexagonal field-of-view with 1.35 deg diagonals and capable of simultaneously
obtaining data of spectra with wavelengths ranging from 0.38 um to 1.26 um. The
spectrograph system is composed of four identical modules each receiving the
light from 600 fibers. Each module incorporates three channels covering the
wavelength ranges 0.38-0.65 mu ("Blue"), 0.63-0.97 mu ("Red"), and 0.94-1.26 mu
("NIR") respectively; with resolving power which progresses fairly smoothly
from about 2000 in the blue to about 4000 in the infrared. An additional
spectral mode allows reaching a spectral resolution of 5000 at 0.8mu (red). The
proposed optical design is based on a Schmidt collimator facing three Schmidt
cameras (one per spectral channel). This architecture is very robust, well
known and documented. It allows for high image quality with only few simple
elements (high throughput) at the expense of the central obscuration, which
leads to larger optics. Each module has to be modular in its design to allow
for integration and tests and for its safe transport up to the telescope: this
is the main driver for the mechanical design. In particular, each module will
be firstly fully integrated and validated at LAM (France) before it is shipped
to Hawaii. All sub-assemblies will be indexed on the bench to allow for their
accurate repositioning. This paper will give an overview of the spectrograph
system which has successfully passed the Critical Design Review (CDR) in 2014
March and which is now in the construction phase.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, submitted to "Ground-based and Airborne
Instrumentation for Astronomy V, Suzanne K. Ramsay, Ian S. McLean, Hideki
Takami, Editors, Proc. SPIE 9147 (2014)
Eating disorders in sport : current status and future directions in the study of the psychological factors
Este trabalho procura atingir dois objetivos. Em primeiro lugar, apresenta-se a situação atual da investigação sobre desordens alimentares no desporto. Neste caso, salientam-se as linhas de investigação dedicadas ao estudo da prevalĂȘncia destes problemas no desporto e analisam-se as diferenças entre atletas e modalidades desportivas. Dadas as dificuldades destas linhas de investigação na compreensĂŁo dos comportamentos alimentares de risco nos atletas, sĂŁo avançadas outras possibilidades de desenvolvimento da investigação. Assim, e enquanto segundo objetivo deste artigo, salientamos a necessidade dos estudos se dirigirem para a compreensĂŁo dos fatores psicolĂłgicos associados aos comportamentos alimentares de risco e implicados no desenvolvimento das desordens alimentares. Esta abordagem tem como vantagem adicional ajudar a prevenir estes problemas atravĂ©s da promoção das competĂȘncias mentais dos atletas no sentido de resistirem melhor aos possĂveis efeitos nocivos da prĂĄtica desportiva, onde se inserem os problemas com a alimentação.This paper focuses on two main goals. In first place, we present the current status on the
research about eating disorders in sport contexts. In this case, we point out studies dedicated to the
analysis of the incidence of eating disorders in sport and studies that observe the differences between athletes and different sports in the tendency for these problems. Second, we proposed new research
directions on this subject, namely the need of analysing the psychological factors that are related with
the development of eating disorders on athletes. This research approach has the advantage of helping
the prevention of eating disorders on athletes through the promotion of psychological skills that protect
athletes from the negative effects of sport practicing, where are included maladaptive eating behaviors.(undefined
Prognostic value of increase in transcript levels of Tp73 ÎEx2-3 isoforms in low-grade glioma patients
Glial tumours are a devastating, poorly understood condition carrying a gloomy prognosis for which clinicians sorely lack reliable predictive parameters facilitating a sound treatment strategy. Tp73, a p53 family member, expresses two main classes of isoforms â transactivatory activity (TA)p73 and ÎTAp73 â exhibiting tumour suppressor gene and oncogene properties, respectively. The authors examined their expression status in high- and low-grade adult gliomas. Isoform-specific real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction was used for the analysis of Tp73 isoform transcript expression in a series of 51 adult patients harbouring glial tumours, in order to compare tumour grades with each other, and with non-tumoural samples obtained from epileptic patients as well. Our data demonstrate increase of TAp73 and ÎTAp73 transcript levels at onset and early stage of the disease. We also show that ÎEx2â3 isoform expression in low-grade tumours anticipates clinical and imaging progression to higher grades, and correlates to the patients' survival. Expression levels of P1 promoter generated Tp73 isoforms â and particularly ÎEx2â3 â indeed allow for prediction of the clinical progression of low-grade gliomas in adults. Our data are the first such molecular biology report regarding low-grade tumours and as such should be of help for sound decision-making
THERMAP: a mid-infrared spectro-imager for space missions to small bodies in the inner solar system
We present THERMAP, a mid-infrared (8-16 ÎŒm) spectro-imager for space missions to small bodies in the inner solar system, developed in the framework of the MarcoPolo-R asteroid sample return mission. THERMAP is very well suited to characterize the surface thermal environment of a NEO and to map its surface composition. The instrument has two channels, one for imaging and one for spectroscopy: it is both a thermal camera with full 2D imaging capabilities and a slit spectrometer. THERMAP takes advantage of the recent technological developments of uncooled microbolometers detectors, sensitive in the mid-infrared spectral range. THERMAP can acquire thermal images (8-18 ÎŒm) of the surface and perform absolute temperature measurements with a precision better than 3.5 K above 200 K. THERMAP can acquire mid-infrared spectra (8-16 ÎŒm) of the surface with a spectral resolution Îλ of 0.3 ÎŒm. For surface temperatures above 350 K, spectra have a signal-to-noise ratio >60 in the spectral range 9-13 ÎŒm where most emission features occur
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