Dancing at the frontline: Rosie Kay’s 5SOLDIERS de-realises and re-secures war

This work was supported by the Medical Research CouncilPeer reviewedPostprin

RNAi-mediated abrogation of trehalase expression does not affect trehalase activity in sugarcane

To engineer trehalose metabolism in sugarcane (Saccharum spp. hybrids) two transgenes were introduced to the genome: trehalose-6-phosphate synthase- phosphatase (TPSP), to increase trehalose biosynthesis and an RNAi transgene specific for trehalase, to abrogate trehalose catabolism. In RNAi-expressing lines trehalase expression was abrogated in many plants however no decrease in trehalase activity was observed. In TPSP lines trehalase activity was significantly higher. No events of co-integration of TPSP and RNAi transgenes were observed. We suggest trehalase activity is essential to mitigate embryonic lethal effects of trehalose metabolism and discuss the implications for engineering trehalose metabolism

Nondestructive monitoring of ageing of Alkali resistant Glass fiber reinforced cement (GRC)

Glass fiber reinforced cement (GRC) is a composite material made of portland cement mortar and alkali resistant (AR) fibers. AR fibers are added to portland cement to give the material additional flexural strength and toughness. However, ageing deteriorates the fibers and as a result the improvement in the mechanical properties resulted from the fiber addition disappears as the structure becomes old. The aim of this paper is monitoring GRC ageing by nondestructive evaluation (NDE) techniques. Two different NDE techniques (1) nonlinear impact resonant acoustic spectroscopy analysis and (2) propagating ultrasonic guided waves are used for this purpose. Both techniques revealed a reduction of the nonlinear behavior in the GRC material with ageing. Specimens are then loaded to failure to obtain their strength and stiffness. Compared to the un-aged specimens, the aged specimens are found to exhibit more linear behavior, have more stiffness but less toughness. Finally, undisturbed fragments on the fracture surface from mechanical tests are inspected under the electron microscope, to understand the fundamental mechanisms that cause the change in the GRC behavior with ageing.The authors want to acknowledge the financial support of the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion MICINN, Spain, and FEDER funding (Ondacem Project: BIA 2010-19933) and BES-2011-044624. Also thanks to PAID-02-11 Program from Universitat Politecnica de Valencia.Eiras Fernández, JN.; Kundu, T.; Bonilla Salvador, MM.; Paya Bernabeu, JJ. (2013). Nondestructive monitoring of ageing of Alkali resistant Glass fiber reinforced cement (GRC). Journal of Nondestructive Evaluation - NDT and E International. 32:300-314. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10921-013-0183-yS30031432Bentur, A., Fibre, M.S.: Reinforced Cementitious Composites, 2nd edn. Taylor and Francis, New York (2007)Purnell, P., Short, N.R., Page, C.L.: A static fatigue model for the durability of glass fibre reinforced cement. J. Mater. Sci. 36(22), 5385–5390 (2001)Ferreira, J.G., Branco, F.A.: Structural application of GRC in telecommunication towers. Constr. Build. Mater. 21(1), 19–28 (2007)Bentur, A., Ben-Bassat, M., Schneider, D.: Durability of glass-fiber-reinforced cements with different alkali-resistant glass fibers. J. Am. Ceram. Soc. 68(4), 203–208 (1985)Cheng, J., Liang, W., Hu, Y., Chen, Q., Frischat, G.H.: Development of a new alkali resistant coating. J. Sol-Gel Sci. Technol. 27(3), 309–313 (2003)Liang, W., Cheng, J., Hu, Y., Luo, H.: Improved properties of GRC composites using commercial E-glass fibers with new coatings. Mater. Res. Bull. 37(4), 641–646 (2002)Payá, J., Bonilla, M., Borrachero, M.V., Monzó, J., Peris-Mora, E., Lalinde, L.F.: Reusing fly ash in glass fibre reinforced cement: a new generation of high-quality GRC composites. Waste Manag. 27(10), 1416–1421 (2007)Zhang, Y., Sun, W., Shang, L., Pan, G.: The effect of high content of fly ash on the properties of glass fiber reinforced cementitious composites. Cem. Concr. Res. 27(12), 1885–1891 (1997)Purnell, P., Short, N., Page, C.: Super-critical carbonation of glass-fibre reinforced cement. Part 1: mechanical testing and chemical analysis. Composites, Part A, Appl. Sci. Manuf. 32(12), 1777–1787 (2001)EN 1170-8:2008. Test method for glass-fibre reinforced cement. Cyclic weathering type testPurnell, P.: Interpretation of climatic temperature variations for accelerated ageing models. J. Mater. Sci. 39(1), 113–118 (2004)Enfedaque, A., Sánchez Paradela, L., Sánchez-Gálvez, V.: An alternative methodology to predict aging effects on the mechanical properties of glass fiber reinforced cements (GRC). Constr. Build. Mater. 27(1), 425–431 (2012)Litherland, K.L., Maguire, P., Proctor, B.A.: A test method for the strength of glass fibres in cement. Int. J. Cem. Compos. Lightweight Concr. 6(1), 39–45 (1984)Itterbeeck, P., Cuypers, H., Orlowsky, J., Wastiels, J.: Evaluation of the strand in cement (SIC) test for GRCs with improved durability. Mater. Struct. 41(6), 1109–1116 (2007)Guyer, R.A., Johnson, P.A.: Nonlinear mesoscopic elasticity: evidence for a new class of materials. Phys. Today 52, 30 (1999)Johnson, P.A.: Nonequilibrium nonlinear dynamics in solids: state of the art. In: Delsanto, P.P. (ed.) Universality of Nonclassical Nonlinearity, pp. 49–69. Springer, New York (2006)Guyer, R.A., McCall, K.R., Boitnott, G.N.: Hysteresis, discrete memory, and nonlinear wave propagation in rock: a new paradigm. Phys. Rev. Lett. 74(17), 3491–3494 (1995)Mayergoyz, I.D.: Mathematical Models of Hysteresis and Their Applications. Academic Press, New York (2003)Van Den Abeele, K.E.A., Carmeliet, J., Ten Cate, J.A., Johnson, P.A.: Nonlinear elastic wave spectroscopy (NEWS) techniques to discern material damage, part II: single-mode nonlinear resonance acoustic spectroscopy. Res. Nondestruct. Eval. 12(1), 31–42 (2000)Chen, J., Jayapalan, A.R., Kim, J.Y., Kurtis, K.E., Jacobs, L.J.: Rapid evaluation of alkali–silica reactivity of aggregates using a nonlinear resonance spectroscopy technique. Cem. Concr. Res. 40(6), 914–923 (2010)Leśnicki, K.J., Kim, J.Y., Kurtis, K.E., Jacobs, L.J.: Characterization of ASR damage in concrete using nonlinear impact resonance acoustic spectroscopy technique. Nondestruct. Test. Eval. Int. 44(8), 721–727 (2011)Bouchaala, F., Payan, C., Garnier, V., Balayssac, J.P.: Carbonation assessment in concrete by nonlinear ultrasound. Cem. Concr. Res. 41(5), 557–559 (2011)Eiras, J.N., Popovics, J.S., Borrachero, M.V., Monzó, J., Payá, J.: Nonlinear impact resonant acoustic spectroscopy to discern mechanical damage in cement based materials. In: 15th International Conference on Experimental Mechanics, Porto, Portugal (2012)Kundu, T.: Ultrasonic Nondestructive Evaluation: Engineering and Biological Material Characterization. CRC Press, Boca Raton (2004)Kundu, T.: Ultrasonic and Electromagnetic NDE for Structure and Material Characterization—Engineering and Biomedical Applications. CRC Press, Boca Raton (2012)Dutta, D., Sohn, H., Harries, K.A., Rizzo, P.: A nonlinear acoustic technique for crack detection in metallic structures. Struct. Health Monit. 8(3), 251–262 (2009)Aymerich, F., Staszewski, W.J.: Impact damage detection in composite laminates using nonlinear acoustics. Composites, Part A, Appl. Sci. Manuf. 41(9), 1084–1092 (2010)EN 1170-1:1998. Precast concrete products. Test method for glass-fibre reinforced cement. Measuring the consistency of the matrix, “Slump test” methodMontgomery, P.L.: A block Lanczos algorithm for finding dependencies over GF(2). In: EUROCRYPT ’95. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 921, pp. 106–120. Springer, Berlin (1995)EN 1170-5:1998. Precast concrete products. Test method for glass-fibre reinforced cement. Measuring bending strength, “complete bending test” methodRomero, R., Zúnica, L.R.: Métodos Estadísticos en Ingeniería. Universitat Politècnica València, Valencia (2005)Kundu, T.: Fundamentals of Fracture Mechanics. CRC Press, Boca Raton (2008)ASTM C 215:08. Standard Test Method for Fundamental Transverse, Longitudinal, and Torsional Frequencies of Concrete Specimens (2008)Hewlett, P.C.: Lea’s Chemistry of Cement and Concrete, 4th edn. Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford (2003)Zhu, W., Bartos, P.J.M.: Assessment of interfacial microstructure and bond properties in aged GRC using a novel microindentation method. Cem. Concr. Res. 27(11), 1701–1711 (1997)Purnell, P., Buchanan, A.J., Short, N.R., Page, C.L., Majumdar, A.J.: Determination of bond strength in glass fibre reinforced cement using petrography and image analysis. J. Mater. Sci. 35(18), 4653–4659 (2000)Visalvanich, K., Naaman, A.E.: Fracture model for fiber reinforced concrete. J. ACI Proc. 80(2), 128–138 (1983)Kundu, T., Jang, H.S., Cha, Y.H., Desai, C.S.: A simple model to predict the effect of volume fraction, diameter, and length of fibers on strength variation of fiber reinforced brittle matrix composites. Int. J. Numer. Anal. Methods Geomech. 24, 655–673 (2000)Li, V.C., Maalej, M.: Toughening in cement based composites. Part II: fiber reinforced composites. Cem. Concr. Compos. 18, 239–249 (1996)Van Den Abeele, K.E.A., Johnson, P.A., Sutin, A.: Nonlinear elastic wave spectroscopy (NEWS) techniques to discern material damage, part I: nonlinear wave modulation spectroscopy (NWMS). Res. Nondestruct. Eval. 12(1), 17–30 (2000

Enhanced ionization in small rare gas clusters

A detailed theoretical investigation of rare gas atom clusters under intense short laser pulses reveals that the mechanism of energy absorption is akin to {\it enhanced ionization} first discovered for diatomic molecules. The phenomenon is robust under changes of the atomic element (neon, argon, krypton, xenon), the number of atoms in the cluster (16 to 30 atoms have been studied) and the fluency of the laser pulse. In contrast to molecules it does not dissappear for circular polarization. We develop an analytical model relating the pulse length for maximum ionization to characteristic parameters of the cluster

Current status of the IAG working group 4.3.7 on geodetic GNSS-R

Presentación realizada online en el Scientific Assembly of the International Association of Geodesy (2021) celebrado del 28 de junio al 2 de julio en Beijing

A Prospective Study of the Association of Metacognitive Beliefs and Processes with Persistent Emotional Distress After Diagnosis of Cancer

Two hundred and six patients, diagnosed with primary breast or prostate cancer completed self-report questionnaires on two occasions: before treatment (T1) and 12 months later (T2). The questionnaires included: the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale; Impact of Events Scale; the Metacognitions Questionnaire-30 (MCQ-30) and the Illness Perceptions Questionnaire-revised. A series of regression analyses indicated that metacognitive beliefs at T1 predicted between 14 and 19 % of the variance in symptoms of anxiety, depression and trauma at T2 after controlling for age and gender. For all three outcomes, the MCQ-30 subscale ‘negative beliefs about worry’ made the largest individual contribution with ‘cognitive confidence’ also contributing in each case. For anxiety, a third metacognitive variable, ‘positive beliefs about worry’ also predicted variance in T2 symptoms. In addition, hierarchical analyses indicated that metacognitive beliefs explained a small but significant amount of variance in T2 anxiety (2 %) and T2 depression (4 %) over and above that explained by demographic variables, T1 symptoms and T1 illness perceptions. The findings suggest that modifying metacognitive beliefs and processes has the potential to alleviate distress associated with cancer

Critical materials for infrastructure: local vs global properties

Introducing new technologies into infrastructure (wind turbines, electric vehicles, low-carbon materials and so on) often demands materials that are ‘critical’; their supply is likely to be disrupted owing to limited reserves, geopolitical instability, environmental issues and/or increasing demand. Non-critical materials may become critical if introduced into infrastructure, owing to its gigatonne scale. This potentially poses significant risk to the development of low-carbon infrastructure. Analysis of this risk has previously overlooked the relationship between the ‘local properties’ that determine the selection of a technology and the overall vulnerability of the system, a global property. Treating materials or components as elements having fixed properties overlooks optima within the local–global variable space that could be exploited to minimise vulnerability while maximising performance. In this study, a framework for such analysis is presented along with a preliminary measure of relative materials criticality by way of a case study (a wind turbine generator). Although introduction of critical materials (in this case, rare earth metals) enhances technical performance by up to an order of magnitude, the associated increase in criticality may be two or three orders of magnitude. Analysis at the materials and component levels produces different results; design decisions should be based on analysis at several levels