Chopped basalt fibres: A new perspective in reinforcing poly(lactic acid) to produce injection moulded engineering composites from renewable and natural resources

This paper focuses on the reinforcing of Poly(lactic acid) with chopped basalt fibres by using silane treated and untreated basalt fibres. Composite materials with 5–10–15–20–30–40 wt% basalt fibre contents were prepared from silane sized basalt fibres using extrusion, and injection moulding, while composites with 5–10–15 wt% basalt fibre contents were also prepared by using untreated basalt fibres as control. The properties of the injection moulded composites were extensively examined by using quasi-static (tensile, three-point bending) and dynamic mechanical tests (notched and unnotched Charpy impact tests), dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), heat deflection temperature (HDT) analysis, dimensional stability test, as well as melt flow index (MFI) analysis and scanning electron microscopic (SEM) observations. It was found that silane treated chopped basalt fibres are much more effective in reinforcing Poly(lactic acid) than natural fibres; although basalt fibres are not biodegradable but they are still considered as natural (can be found in nature in the form of volcanic rocks) and biologically inert. It is demonstrated in this paper that by using basalt fibre reinforcement, a renewable and natural resource based composite can be produced by injection moulding with excellent mechanical properties suitable even for engineering applications. Finally it was shown that by using adequate drying of the materials, composites with higher mechanical properties can be achieved compared to literature data

Scientometrics: Untangling the topics

Measuring science is based on comparing articles to similar others. However, keyword-based groups of thematically similar articles are dominantly small. These small sizes keep the statistical errors of comparisons high. With the growing availability of bibliographic data such statistical errors can be reduced by merging methods of thematic grouping, citation networks and keyword co-usage.Comment: 2 pages, 2 figure

Secular and Longitudinal Trends in Body Weight in a Large Population of Veterans, 2000-2014

INTRODUCTION: The prevalence of obesity is increasing in the United States and globally, and impacts many aspects of health. To understand the contribution of body weight to chronic diseases such as diabetes, it is necessary to characterize secular and longitudinal weight trends prior to evaluating the weight effects that may result from medical interventions. The cross-sectional National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) indicates that mean body weight in the adult population increased from 152 lb (69 kg) to 181 lb (82 kg) between 1959 and 2008. However, there are no previously published studies on secular or longitudinal weight trends in a veteran population. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study is to describe secular and longitudinal trends in body weight for a large population of male and female individuals with and without diabetes in the Veterans Administration (VA) healthcare system, the largest integrated healthcare system in the United States. METHODS: Retrospective observational analysis of data from VA facilities throughout the United States, in patients who had at least 4 outpatient visits within any consecutive 4-year interval during 2000–2014. The dataset included men and women with and without type 2 diabetes. The primary outcomes were longitudinal trends in body weight stratified by birth cohort, sex, and diabetes status. RESULTS: A total of 4,680,735 unique patients, 1,666,346 with diabetes, were included in the analysis. Regressions were performed on the patient-level data and segmented by birth cohort. A total of 176,034,543 weight observations were included in the analysis, with a median of 15 to 36 weight observations per patient in individuals without diabetes, and a median of 22 to 49 weight observations in individuals with diabetes across birth cohorts. In the year 2000, the y-intercept for the regression equations indicated a mean body weight for men without diabetes of 188 lb (85 kg), for women without diabetes of 166 lb (75 kg), for men with diabetes of 213 lb (97 kg), and for women with diabetes of 195 lb (88 kg). Secular trends in body weight during the study period had median linear increases of 0.53 lb/y (0.24 kg/y) in men with diabetes, 0.50 lb/y (0.23 kg/y) in women with diabetes, 0.53 lb/y (0.24 kg/y) in men without diabetes, and 0.86 lb/y (0.39 kg/y) among women without diabetes, respectively. In cohorts born before 1940, body weight decreased. In the cohorts born between 1940-1949, body weight was stable. In all cohorts born after 1950, body weight increased. Across birth cohorts, the rate of weight increase accelerated from older to younger groups, with higher rates in the groups with diabetes than in the groups without diabetes: β2 = 0.0260 lb2/y (0.01179 kg2/y) in men without diabetes, 0.0398 lb2/y (0.01805 kg2/y) in men with diabetes, 0.0127 lb2/y (0.00576 kg2/y) in women without diabetes, and 0.0895 lb2/y (0.04060 kg2/y) in women with diabetes. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first report of secular and longitudinal weight trends in a large, contemporary veteran population that includes both men and women. Consistent with findings from the Normative Aging Study, a longitudinal study of male veterans from the northeastern United States, weight changes varied from decreases among the oldest birth cohorts to increases in the youngest birth cohorts. Secular changes in body weight by birth cohort were consistent with the patterns reported in the Global Burden of Disease Study. The rate of weight change is accelerated in all younger birth cohorts relative to all older birth cohorts, with the highest rates in women with diabetes. Further analyses of this dataset are recommended to elucidate clinical characteristics associated with longitudinal weight change among individuals with and without diabetes in the veteran population

Three-Dimensional Computed Tomography Measurements of Pulmonary Artery Volumes: Development and Application

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a major contributor to hospitalizations and healthcare costs in North America. While the hallmark of COPD is airflow limitation, it is also associated with abnormalities of the cardiovascular system. Enlargement of the pulmonary artery (PA) is a morphological marker of pulmonary hypertension, and was previously shown to predict acute exacerbations using a one-dimensional (1D) diameter measurement of the main PA. We hypothesized that a three-dimensional (3D) quantification of PA size would be more sensitive than 1D methods and encompass morphological changes along the entire central PA. Hence, we developed a 3D measurement of the main (MPA), left (LPA) and right (RPA) pulmonary arteries as well as total PA volume (TPA) volume from thoracic x-ray computed tomography (CT) imaging. Three observers performed five repeated measurements for 15 ex-smokers. There was a strong agreement (r2 = 0.76) between PA volume and PA diameter measurements, which was used as the gold standard. Intra-rater measurement reproducibility was evaluated by calculating the coefficient of variation (CV) using five rounds of measurements and revealed excellent agreement (CV \u3c 8%) between measurements. Inter-rater measurement variability was also evaluated using intraclass correlation analysis which revealed strong agreement (ICCMPA=0.98) between observers. In an application of this tool, we sought to explore the relationship between PA volumes and lung structure-function as determined by spirometry, hyperpolarized helium-3 magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and CT in 124 ex-smokers, with (n=68) and without (n=56) airflow limitation, and in a control group of 35 healthy never-smokers. We observed significantly greater MPA (p=.014), RPA (p=.001) and TPA (p=.003) volumes in ex-smokers with airflow limitation when compared to ex-smokers without airflow limitation. We also observed significantly greater PA volumes in both ex-smoker subgroups when compared with the never-smoker control group. Modest but significant correlations were observed for PA volumes and measurements of lung structure and function. However, this was not observed when analyzing ex-smokers with airflow limitation alone, suggesting that pulmonary artery enlargement may occur secondary to COPD in our subject group. Multivariate zero-inflated Poisson regression analysis revealed TPA volume to be a significant (p=.03) predictor of acute exacerbations of COPD. In conclusion, we developed a reproducible technique for quantifying the volume of the PA. We showed that pulmonary artery enlargement may be secondary to COPD in our subject group. We also showed that total pulmonary artery volume was a significant predictor of COPD exacerbations and could be considered as a biomarker for predicting the occurrence of exacerbation events. Automated measurements of pulmonary artery abnormalities once developed, can be used to further evaluate healthy volunteers and patients with COPD

Optimal multihump filter for photometric redshifts

We propose a novel type filter for multicolor imaging to improve on the photometric redshift estimation of galaxies. An extra filter - specific to a certain photometric system - may be utilized with high efficiency. We present a case study of the Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys and show that one extra exposure could cut down the mean square error on photometric redshifts by 34% over the z<1.3 redshift range.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, LaTeX AASTeX, accepted to A

Bioaccumulation of persistent organic pollutants in the deepest ocean fauna

The Kermadec and Mariana ‘HADES’ expeditions (RV Thomas G. Thompson TN309, and RV Falkor FK141109) were funded through the National Science Foundation (NSF-OCE nos 1130712 and 1140494) and the Schmidt Ocean Institute. S.B.P. was supported by a Fellowship from the Leverhulme Trust. The analytical costs were supported by the Total Foundation (France) and the Marine Alliance for Science and Technology, Scotland (MASTS) through a Deep Sea Forum small grant award.Peer reviewedPostprin