APULOT test: a tool for concrete's quality control based on bond performance

The APULOT test, or bottle test, is a cheap and simple alternative to cylindrical specimens that can be applied in those regions where conventional quality control is difficult to introduce due to the lack of apropriate means. Specimens for this test are produced by casting concrete into an empty plastic bottle (the mould) with a reinforcing bar longitudinally centered, so that the result is a bottle-shaped concrete specimen with an embedded rebar. At the desired age, the rebar is simply pulled out of the concrete specimen, and the maximum pulling force achieved is the parameter used for quality control. A considerable number of bottle specimens and cylindrical specimens have been produced and tested according to a statistically designed experiment. It has been investigated how different parameters affect the bottle test results and their relation to compressive strength of concrete in order to compare the reliability of the bottle test with the conventional assessment of compressive strength by means of cylindrical specimens for quality control. All results have been analyzed by means of analysis of variance, multiple linear regression and logistic regression. These analyses have made possible: the identification of the best configuration of the parameters considered to be taken into account for an eventual standardization of the test, and finding expressions showing how the test results are to be translated in terms of concrete compressive strength

Analysis of a novel concept of 2-stroke rod-less opposed pistons engine (2S-ROPE): Testing, modelling, and forward potential

[EN] As pollutants and fuel consumption requirements become more constraining, new internal combustion engines generation arise to fulfill future automobile market regulations. In these context spark ignition (SI) engines working under hybridized structures are expected to represent one of the most viable and feasible technical approaches. In parallel to the already implemented 4-stroke turbocharged engines, new engine concepts are being conceived from their birth to meet nowadays standards. This work shows a new engine concept assessed to fit series hybrid configurations from the earliest design stages, and to fulfil requirements of the named "zero-emissions" urban areas. In this research work, a new opposed piston 2-stroke engine architecture based on rodless innovative kinematics is described. The potential of this engine is based on its compactness, absence of vibrations and simplicity, going in hand with very competitive figures in terms of power density and fuel consumption. The engine unit has been designed, assembled, and tested to analyze several performance aspects, such as gas exchange and combustion. Taking advantage of the experimental campaign, a one-dimensional (1D) gas-dynamics engine model was developed and validated. Finally, the engine model was used for analyzing several potential upgrades and results have been discussed in detail. The target has always been to improve fuel consumption figures, below the best standards in market available internal combustion engines, while keeping engine concept simplicity and building costs.Alejandro Gomez Vilanova is partially supported through contract: Ayuda de Formacion de Profesorado Universitario (FPU18/04811). The authors also wish to thank Agencia IDEA (Agencia de Innovacion y Desarrollo de Andalucia) which depends on Consejeria de Economia, Conocimiento, Empresas y Universidad through PROGRAMA DE APOYO A LA I + D + i EMPRESARIAL (code 402C1700011) and subsidy in a non-competitive competition regime for companies for industrial development, improvement of competitiveness, digital transformation and job creation in Andalucia (401N1800210).Serrano, J.; Arnau Martínez, FJ.; Bares-Moreno, P.; Gómez-Vilanova, A.; Garrido-Requena, J.; Luna-Blanca, MJ.; Contreras-Anguita, FJ. (2021). Analysis of a novel concept of 2-stroke rod-less opposed pistons engine (2S-ROPE): Testing, modelling, and forward potential. Applied Energy. 282:1-16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2020.116135S11628

Development of a new largely scalable in vitro prion propagation method for the production of infectious recombinant prions for high resolution structural studies

This work was supported financially by several Spanish grants awarded to JC (AGL2015-65046-C2-1-R and BFU2013-48436-C2-1-P) and JRR (BFU2017-86692-P) by MINECO/FEDER, as well as an Interreg (POCTEFA EFA148/16) grant awarded to JC by FEDER. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.The resolution of the three-dimensional structure of infectious prions at the atomic level is pivotal to understand the pathobiology of Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (TSE), but has been long hindered due to certain particularities of these proteinaceous pathogens. Difficulties related to their purification from brain homogenates of disease-affected animals were resolved almost a decade ago by the development of in vitro recombinant prion propagation systems giving rise to highly infectious recombinant prions. However, lack of knowledge about the molecular mechanisms of the misfolding event and the complexity of systems such as the Protein Misfolding Cyclic Amplification (PMCA), have limited generating the large amounts of homogeneous recombinant prion preparations required for high-resolution techniques such as solid state Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (ssNMR) imaging. Herein, we present a novel recombinant prion propagation system based on PMCA that substitutes sonication with shaking thereby allowing the production of unprecedented amounts of multi-labeled, infectious recombinant prions. The use of specific cofactors, such as dextran sulfate, limit the structural heterogeneity of the in vitro propagated prions and makes possible, for the first time, the generation of infectious and likely homogeneous samples in sufficient quantities for studies with high-resolution structural techniques as demonstrated by the preliminary ssNMR spectrum presented here. Overall, we consider that this new method named Protein Misfolding Shaking Amplification (PMSA), opens new avenues to finally elucidate the three-dimensional structure of infectious prions