Drop weight impact behaviour of viscoelastically prestressed composites

Viscoelastically prestressed polymeric matrix composites (VPPMCs) are produced by subjecting fibres to tensile creep, the creep load being released prior to fibre moulding. Following matrix curing, the viscoelastically recovering fibres generate compressive stresses within the matrix which, from previous studies, can improve mechanical properties by up to 50%. This paper reports on the first study of thin flat-plate VPPMCs, using nylon 6,6 fibre-polyester resin to form cross-fibre composite plates (CCPs) with 0°/90° fibre layers and randomly distributed discontinuous fibre plates (RCPs). Drop-weight impact testing was performed on CCPs with impact velocities of 1.9 – 5.8 m/s and, compared with (unstressed) control samples, VPPMC damage depth was reduced by up to 29%; however, this difference decreased with impact velocity, indicating little improvement above 7.7 m/s. RCPs, tested at 3.0 m/s, showed a ~30% reduction in VPPMC damage depth, compared with ~20% for CCPs, but with no changes in debonded area

Viscoelastically prestressed polymeric matrix composites – effects of delayed moulding on Charpy impact properties

Viscoelastically prestressed polymeric matrix composites (VPPMCs) are produced by subjecting fibres to creep, then releasing the creep load before moulding. Previous work has demonstrated mechanical property improvements up to ~50% from nylon 6,6 fibre-polyester resin VPPMCs, compared with control (unstressed) counterparts. Since fibre stretching and moulding processes are decoupled, the time interval between releasing the fibre stretching load and moulding (delayed moulding) offers considerable production flexibility. This paper investigates delayed moulding over 0–1272 h, using fibres stored at 20 °C and-25.4 °C. Charpy impact tests demonstrated increased energy absorption from all VPPMC samples compared with control counterparts, this increase reducing with delayed moulding time. A 1272 h delay gave an increase of ~23% for fibre storage at 20 °C, and ~40% at-25.4 °C, the latter demonstrating " decelerated " ageing. For all samples, the magnitude of fibre-matrix debonding (the principal energy absorption mechanism) increased linearly with impact energy data

Viscoelastically prestressed polymeric matrix composites – Effects of temperature on Charpy impact behaviour

© 2017 Elsevier Ltd By applying tensile creep to polymeric fibres, a viscoelastically prestressed polymeric matrix composite (VPPMC) can be produced by removing the creep load before the fibres are moulded into a resin matrix. The viscoelastically strained fibres impart compressive stresses to the surrounding matrix, following curing. Previous work has demonstrated that nylon 6,6 fibre-polyester resin VPPMCs can improve mechanical properties by up to ∼50%, compared with control (unstressed) counterparts. This paper focuses on the effect of temperature (from −25°C to 45°C) on these composites, under Charpy impact conditions. It was found that impact energy absorption by the VPPMC samples was greater than their control counterparts over the full temperature range, the increases being ∼40% at 20°C and above, reducing to ∼20% at lower temperatures. The principal mechanism for energy absorption from the VPPMC samples was fibre-matrix debonding. At lower temperatures however, resin impact toughness decreased, which facilitated energy absorption through matrix cracking. Here, as VPPMC prestress impeded this effect, energy absorption through matrix cracking was more prominent within the control samples and this is believed to be a major contribution to the observed reduction in VPPMC performance relative to control samples at lower temperatures

Can Silver Be a Reliable Current Collector for Electrochemical Tests?

The true functionality of a current collector employed in electrochemical cells is to ensure a low- resistance steady electrons flow between the cell and instrumentation without involving in any local electrochemical reactions of the electrode. In this study, we investigated the effect of curing temperature of a common current collector, silver, on the polarization area specific resistance (ASR) of a cathode. The results explicitly showed that at least one order of magnitude lower ASR for a cathode with Ag cured at 800°C than that cured at 650°C of the same cathode configuration. Microscopic analysis of the 800°C-cured cells revealed a deep penetration and abundant distribution of Ag into the cathode/electrolyte interfacial region. These finely dispersed and highly conductive Ag particles/agglomerates are ORR (oxygen reduction reaction)-active, thus engaging in the local electrochemical reaction and overshadowing the true properties of the cathode under investigation. Based on these results, we call for caution when using Ag as a current collector for electrochemical measurements, particularly at a temperature ≥650°C

Proton Transfer in Molten Lithium Carbonate: Mechanism and Kinetics by Density Functional Theory Calculations

Using static and dynamic density functional theory (DFT) methods with a cluster model of [(Li2CO3)8H]+, the mechanism and kinetics of proton transfer in lithium molten carbonate (MC) were investigated. The migration of proton prefers an inter-carbonate pathway with an energy barrier of 8.0 kcal/mol at the B3LYP/6-31 G(d,p) level, which is in good agreement with the value of 7.6 kcal/mol and 7.5 kcal/mol from experiment and FPMD simulation, respectively. At transition state (TS), a linkage of O–H–O involving O 2p and H 1 s orbitals is formed between two carbonate ions. The calculated trajectory of H indicates that proton has a good mobility in MC, oxygen can rotate around carbon to facilitate the proton migration, while the movement of carbon is very limited. Small variations on geometry and atomic charge were detected on the carbonate ions, implying that the proton migration is a synergetic process and the whole carbonate structure is actively involved. Overall, the calculated results indicate that MC exhibits a low energy barrier for proton conduction in IT-SOFCs

Visualizing metal ions in cells: An overview of analytical techniques, approaches, and probes

AbstractQuantifying the amount and defining the location of metal ions in cells and organisms are critical steps in understanding metal homeostasis and how dyshomeostasis causes or is a consequence of disease. A number of recent advances have been made in the development and application of analytical methods to visualize metal ions in biological specimens. Here, we briefly summarize these advances before focusing in more depth on probes for examining transition metals in living cells with high spatial and temporal resolution using fluorescence microscopy. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Cell Biology of Metals

Simultaneous profiling of transcriptome and DNA methylome from a single cell.

BackgroundSingle-cell transcriptome and single-cell methylome technologies have become powerful tools to study RNA and DNA methylation profiles of single cells at a genome-wide scale. A major challenge has been to understand the direct correlation of DNA methylation and gene expression within single-cells. Due to large cell-to-cell variability and the lack of direct measurements of transcriptome and methylome of the same cell, the association is still unclear.ResultsHere, we describe a novel method (scMT-seq) that simultaneously profiles both DNA methylome and transcriptome from the same cell. In sensory neurons, we consistently identify transcriptome and methylome heterogeneity among single cells but the majority of the expression variance is not explained by proximal promoter methylation, with the exception of genes that do not contain CpG islands. By contrast, gene body methylation is positively associated with gene expression for only those genes that contain a CpG island promoter. Furthermore, using single nucleotide polymorphism patterns from our hybrid mouse model, we also find positive correlation of allelic gene body methylation with allelic expression.ConclusionsOur method can be used to detect transcriptome, methylome, and single nucleotide polymorphism information within single cells to dissect the mechanisms of epigenetic gene regulation

The Human Microbiome and Recurrent Abdominal Pain in Children

This project explores the nature of the human intestinal microbiome in healthy children and children with recurrent abdominal pain. The overall goal is to obtain a robust knowledge base of the intestinal microbiome in children without evidence of pain or gastrointestinal disease and in those with recurrent abdominal pain (functional abdominal pain (FAP) and FAP associated with changes in bowel habits, i.e., irritable bowel syndrome or IBS). Specific aims include: 1. Characterize the composition of the gut microbiome in healthy children by DNA sequencing. 2. Determine the presence of disease-specific organism signatures of variable gut microbiomes in children with recurrent abdominal pain. 3. Perform functional gut metagenomics by evaluation of whole community gene expression profiles and discovery of disease-specific pathway signatures. Multiple strategies have been deployed to navigate and understand the nature of the intestinal microbiome in childhood. These strategies included 454 pyrosequencing-based strategies to sequence 16S rRNA genes and understand the detailed composition of microbes in healthy and disease groups. Microarray-based hybridization with the PhyloChip and quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) probes were applied as complementary strategies to gain an understanding of the intestinal microbiome from various perspectives. Data collected and analyzed during the HMP UH2 Demo project, from a set of healthy and IBS children (7-12 yo) may enable the identification of core microbiomes in children, in addition to variable components that may distinguish healthy from diseased pediatric states. Twenty-two children with IBS and twenty-two healthy children were enrolled and analyzed in the UH2 phase of this study. The planned enrollment targets for the UH2/3 phases include 50 healthy children, 50 children with FAP and 50 children with IBS (minimum of 3 time points per child). We are currently analyzing the dataset for the presence of disease-specific signatures in the human microbiome, and correlating these microbial signatures with pediatric health or IBS disease status in addition to IBS subtype (e.g., diarrhea-vs constipation-predominant). In the next phase, whole genome shotgun sequencing and metatranscriptomics will be performed with a subset of children in each group. This study explores the nature of core and variable human microbiome in pre-adolescent healthy children and children with IBS. 
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Promoting Electrocatalytic Activity of a Composite SOFC Cathode La\u3csub\u3e0.8\u3c/sub\u3eSr\u3csub\u3e0.2\u3c/sub\u3eMnO\u3csub\u3e3+δ\u3c/sub\u3e/Ce\u3csub\u3e0.8\u3c/sub\u3eGd\u3csub\u3e0.2\u3c/sub\u3eO\u3csub\u3e2-δ\u3c/sub\u3e with Molten Carbonates

The effect of molten carbonates (MCs) on polarization resistance (RP), a direct measure of oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity, of a composite La0.8Sr0.2MnO3+δ/Ce0.8Gd0.2O2-δ (LSM/GDC) solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) cathode has been systematically investigated in this study over a temperature range of 550–650°C and partial pressure of oxygen (pO2) span of 10−3 ∼ 1 atm. It is shown that the LSM/GDC cathode, either in the pristine or MC-modified states, can be generally modeled by two consecutive parallel circuits consisting of a resistance and a constant phase element (CPE). The high-frequency RP(HF)//CPE(HF) component is related to a charge-transfer process, while the low-frequency RP(LF)//CPE(LF) counterpart is associated with a surface oxygen dissociative adsorption process. Incorporation of an adequate amount of MC significantly reduces RP(LF) by as much as a factor of 10. Studies on the dependence of RP on temperature and pO2 further reveal that the rate-limiting step of a LSM/GDC cathode has shifted from the original surface oxygen dissociative adsorption to the formation of an intermediate CO2 −4 species in the presence of MC