FireDrone: multi-environment thermally agnostic aerial robot

Deploying robots in extreme environments reduces risks to human lives. However, robot operating conditions are often limited by environmental factors such as extreme temperatures encountered in fire disasters or polar regions. Especially drones face challenges in carrying thermal management systems protecting vital components, due to limited payload capacity compared to ground robots. Herein, a thermally agnostic aerial robot comprising structural thermally insulating material and a phase change material cooling system, inspired by natural thermal regulation principles, is designed, modelled and experimentally validated. Building on the robot development paradigm of physical artificial intelligence, the concurrent development of materials and design enables the creation of novel physiologically adaptive systems. Polyimide aerogel is applied as one of the main structural materials in the drone's design to adapt the robot's structure and properties to extreme temperatures. Glass fiber reinforcement with silica aerogel particles reduces high-temperature shrinkage and pore structure degradation after exposure to high temperatures and most of the composite aerogel features are preserved. A high technology-readiness-level drone prototype, allowing for operation in a broad range of ambient temperatures, is demonstrated. The proposed technology for thermally agnostic drones may unleash the great potential of aerial robotics in multiple industrial and research applications

COL5A1 gene variants previously associated with reduced soft tissue injury risk are associated with elite athlete status in rugby.

BACKGROUND: Two common single nucleotide polymorphisms within the COL5A1 gene (SNPs; rs12722 C/T and rs3196378 C/A) have previously been associated with tendon and ligament pathologies. Given the high incidence of tendon and ligament injuries in elite rugby athletes, we hypothesised that both SNPs would be associated with career success. RESULTS: In 1105 participants (RugbyGene project), comprising 460 elite rugby union (RU), 88 elite rugby league athletes and 565 non-athlete controls, DNA was collected and genotyped for the COL5A1 rs12722 and rs3196378 variants using real-time PCR. For rs12722, the injury-protective CC genotype and C allele were more common in all athletes (21% and 47%, respectively) and RU athletes (22% and 48%) than in controls (16% and 41%, P ≤ 0.01). For rs3196378, the CC genotype and C allele were overrepresented in all athletes (23% and 48%) and RU athletes (24% and 49%) compared with controls (16% and 41%, P ≤ 0.02). The CC genotype in particular was overrepresented in the back and centres (24%) compared with controls, with more than twice the odds (OR = 2.25, P = 0.006) of possessing the injury-protective CC genotype. Furthermore, when considering both SNPs simultaneously, the CC-CC SNP-SNP combination and C-C inferred allele combination were higher in all the athlete groups (≥18% and ≥43%) compared with controls (13% and 40%; P = 0.01). However, no genotype differences were identified for either SNP when RU playing positions were compared directly with each other. CONCLUSION: It appears that the C alleles, CC genotypes and resulting combinations of both rs12722 and rs3196378 are beneficial for rugby athletes to achieve elite status and carriage of these variants may impart an inherited resistance against soft tissue injury, despite exposure to the high-risk environment of elite rugby. These data have implications for the management of inter-individual differences in injury risk amongst elite athletes

Formation of Nanofibrous Structure in Biopolymer Aerogel during Supercritical CO2 Processing: The Case of Chitosan Aerogel

Supercritical drying is widely considered as the gold standard to produce aerogels that preserve the microstructure of the gels, but we have found this is not always the case. Chitosan aerogel, one of the emerging biopolymer aerogels, was prepared by chemical cross-linking gelation, followed by solvent exchange with methanol and supercritical drying using CO2. Small-angle X-ray scattering analysis shows that the structure of the wet gel, which consists of Gaussian chains of individual molecular strands, converts into a nanofibrous network during CO2 processing. In situ observation reveals a drastic shrinkage of the gel in CO2, demonstrating that physical coagulation caused by the low affinity between chitosan and CO2 is the main structure-forming step. These results challenge the common perception of supercritical drying: it is no longer an inactive drying method, but rather an active nanostructure forming a tool to produce porous biopolymer materials with tailored structure and properties