Flexible formwork technologies – a state of the art review

Concrete is our most widely used construction material. Worldwide consumption of cement, the strength-giving component of concrete, is estimated at 4.10 Gt per year, rising from 2.22 Gt just ten years ago [1]. This rate of consumption means that cement manufacture alone is estimated to account for 5.2 % of global carbon dioxide emissions [2].Concrete offers the opportunity to economically create structures of almost any geometry. Yet its unique fluidity is seldom capitalised upon, with concrete instead being cast into rigid, flat moulds to create unoptimised geometries that result in high material use structures with large carbon footprints. This paper will explore flexible formwork construction technologies which embrace the fluidity of concrete to facilitate the practical construction of concrete structures with complex and efficient geometries. This paper presents the current state of the art in flexible formwork technology, highlighting practical uses, research challenges and new opportunities

Gap-Dependent Coupling of Ag-Au Nanoparticle Heterodimers Using DNA Origami-Based Self-Assembly

© 2016 American Chemical Society. We fabricate heterocomponent dimers built from a single 40 nm gold and a single 40 nm silver nanoparticle separated by sub-5 nm gaps. Successful assembly mediated by a specialized DNA origami platform is verified by scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray characterization. Dark-field optical scattering on individual dimers is consistent with computational simulations. Direct plasmonic coupling between each nanoparticle is observed in both experiment and theory only for these small gap sizes, as it requires the silver dipolar mode energy to drop below the energy of the gold interband transitions. A new interparticle-spacing-dependent coupling model for heterodimers is thus required. Such Janus-like nanoparticle constructs available from DNA-mediated assembly provide an effective tool for controlling symmetry breaking in collective plasmon modes

Time Pressure Modulates Electrophysiological Correlates of Early Visual Processing

BACKGROUND: Reactions to sensory events sometimes require quick responses whereas at other times they require a high degree of accuracy-usually resulting in slower responses. It is important to understand whether visual processing under different response speed requirements employs different neural mechanisms. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We asked participants to classify visual patterns with different levels of detail as real-world or non-sense objects. In one condition, participants were to respond immediately, whereas in the other they responded after a delay of 1 second. As expected, participants performed more accurately in delayed response trials. This effect was pronounced for stimuli with a high level of detail. These behavioral effects were accompanied by modulations of stimulus related EEG gamma oscillations which are an electrophysiological correlate of early visual processing. In trials requiring speeded responses, early stimulus-locked oscillations discriminated real-world and non-sense objects irrespective of the level of detail. For stimuli with a higher level of detail, oscillatory power in a later time window discriminated real-world and non-sense objects irrespective of response speed requirements. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Thus, it seems plausible to assume that different response speed requirements trigger different dynamics of processing

Alpha-band rhythms in visual task performance: phase-locking by rhythmic sensory stimulation

Oscillations are an important aspect of neuronal activity. Interestingly, oscillatory patterns are also observed in behaviour, such as in visual performance measures after the presentation of a brief sensory event in the visual or another modality. These oscillations in visual performance cycle at the typical frequencies of brain rhythms, suggesting that perception may be closely linked to brain oscillations. We here investigated this link for a prominent rhythm of the visual system (the alpha-rhythm, 8-12 Hz) by applying rhythmic visual stimulation at alpha-frequency (10.6 Hz), known to lead to a resonance response in visual areas, and testing its effects on subsequent visual target discrimination. Our data show that rhythmic visual stimulation at 10.6 Hz: 1) has specific behavioral consequences, relative to stimulation at control frequencies (3.9 Hz, 7.1 Hz, 14.2 Hz), and 2) leads to alpha-band oscillations in visual performance measures, that 3) correlate in precise frequency across individuals with resting alpha-rhythms recorded over parieto-occipital areas. The most parsimonious explanation for these three findings is entrainment (phase-locking) of ongoing perceptually relevant alpha-band brain oscillations by rhythmic sensory events. These findings are in line with occipital alpha-oscillations underlying periodicity in visual performance, and suggest that rhythmic stimulation at frequencies of intrinsic brain-rhythms can be used to reveal influences of these rhythms on task performance to study their functional roles

SerpinB2 regulates stromal remodelling and local invasion in pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic cancer has a devastating prognosis, with an overall 5-year survival rate of ~8%, restricted treatment options and characteristic molecular heterogeneity. SerpinB2 expression, particularly in the stromal compartment, is associated with reduced metastasis and prolonged survival in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) and our genomic analysis revealed that SERPINB2 is frequently deleted in PDAC. We show that SerpinB2 is required by stromal cells for normal collagen remodelling in vitro, regulating fibroblast interaction and engagement with collagen in the contracting matrix. In a pancreatic cancer allograft model, co-injection of PDAC cancer cells and SerpinB2(-/-) mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) resulted in increased tumour growth, aberrant remodelling of the extracellular matrix (ECM) and increased local invasion from the primary tumour. These tumours also displayed elevated proteolytic activity of the primary biochemical target of SerpinB2-urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA). In a large cohort of patients with resected PDAC, we show that increasing uPA mRNA expression was significantly associated with poorer survival following pancreatectomy. This study establishes a novel role for SerpinB2 in the stromal compartment in PDAC invasion through regulation of stromal remodelling and highlights the SerpinB2/uPA axis for further investigation as a potential therapeutic target in pancreatic cancer

The plight of the sense-making ape

This is a selective review of the published literature on object-choice tasks, where participants use directional cues to find hidden objects. This literature comprises the efforts of researchers to make sense of the sense-making capacities of our nearest living relatives. This chapter is written to highlight some nonsensical conclusions that frequently emerge from this research. The data suggest that when apes are given approximately the same sense-making opportunities as we provide our children, then they will easily make sense of our social signals. The ubiquity of nonsensical contemporary scientific claims to the effect that humans are essentially--or inherently--more capable than other great apes in the understanding of simple directional cues is, itself, a testament to the power of preconceived ideas on human perception

The impact of emotional well-being on long-term recovery and survival in physical illness: a meta-analysis

This meta-analysis synthesized studies on emotional well-being as predictor of the prognosis of physical illness, while in addition evaluating the impact of putative moderators, namely constructs of well-being, health-related outcome, year of publication, follow-up time and methodological quality of the included studies. The search in reference lists and electronic databases (Medline and PsycInfo) identified 17 eligible studies examining the impact of general well-being, positive affect and life satisfaction on recovery and survival in physically ill patients. Meta-analytically combining these studies revealed a Likelihood Ratio of 1.14, indicating a small but significant effect. Higher levels of emotional well-being are beneficial for recovery and survival in physically ill patients. The findings show that emotional well-being predicts long-term prognosis of physical illness. This suggests that enhancement of emotional well-being may improve the prognosis of physical illness, which should be investigated by future research

Folate catabolites in spot urine as non-invasive biomarkers of folate status during habitual intake and folic acid supplementation.

Folate status, as reflected by red blood cell (RCF) and plasma folates (PF), is related to health and disease risk. Folate degradation products para-aminobenzoylglutamate (pABG) and para-acetamidobenzoylglutamate (apABG) in 24 hour urine have recently been shown to correlate with blood folate. Since blood sampling and collection of 24 hour urine are cumbersome, we investigated whether the determination of urinary folate catabolites in fasted spot urine is a suitable non-invasive biomarker for folate status in subjects before and during folic acid supplementation. Immediate effects of oral folic acid bolus intake on urinary folate catabolites were assessed in a short-term pre-study. In the main study we included 53 healthy men. Of these, 29 were selected for a 12 week folic acid supplementation (400 µg). Blood, 24 hour and spot urine were collected at baseline and after 6 and 12 weeks and PF, RCF, urinary apABG and pABG were determined. Intake of a 400 µg folic acid bolus resulted in immediate increase of urinary catabolites. In the main study pABG and apABG concentrations in spot urine correlated well with their excretion in 24 hour urine. In healthy men consuming habitual diet, pABG showed closer correlation with PF (rs = 0.676) and RCF (rs = 0.649) than apABG (rs = 0.264, ns and 0.543). Supplementation led to significantly increased folate in plasma and red cells as well as elevated urinary folate catabolites, while only pABG correlated significantly with PF (rs = 0.574) after 12 weeks. Quantification of folate catabolites in fasted spot urine seems suitable as a non-invasive alternative to blood or 24 hour urine analysis for evaluation of folate status in populations consuming habitual diet. In non-steady-state conditions (folic acid supplementation) correlations between folate marker (RCF, PF, urinary catabolites) decrease due to differing kinetics

Diets containing sea cucumber (Isostichopus badionotus) meals are hypocholesterolemic in young rats

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Stated and revealed inequality aversion in three subject pools

This paper reports data from three subject pools (n=717 subjects) using techniques based on those of Loewenstein, et al. (1989) and Blanco, et al. (2011) to obtain parameters, respectively, of stated and revealed inequality aversion. We provide a replication opportunity for those papers, with two innovations: (i) a design which allows stated and revealed preferences to be compared at the individual level; (ii) assessment of robustness of findings across subjects from a UK university, a Turkish university and Amazon Mechanical Turk. Our findings on stated aversion to inequality are qualitatively similar to those of Loewenstein, et al. in each of our subject pools, whereas there are notable differences between some of our findings on revealed preference and those of Blanco, et al. We find that revealed advantageous inequality aversion is often stronger than revealed dis-advantageous inequality aversion. In most subject pools, we find some (weak) correlation between corresponding parameters of stated and revealed inequality aversion