8 research outputs found
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Mechanical Strength of Bamboo Fiber Biocomposites Within a Biorefinery Concept
A new approach to fiber pretreatment for a bamboo fiber-reinforced composite (BFRC) was utilized and its resultant biocomposites’ strengths were analyzed via tensile and flexural mechanical testing. Co-solvent enhanced lignocellulosic fractionation (CELF) is a biomass pretreatment process that separates cellulose from lignin and hemicellulose in a way that preserves the lignin and hemicellulose rather than destroying them. This allows for further valorization of these components and proves to be a more sustainable pretreatment process for BFRC fabrication. In an effort to make a more sustainable biocomposite, the team found that there was no statistically significant data to prove that incorporation of CELF-treated fibers was more effective than raw bamboo fibers, concluding that CELF-treated fibers performed no worse than the bamboo fiber and epoxy counterparts. Tensile and flexural results were converted to specific strengths and compared to a common building material, 304 stainless steel. The CELF fiber composites’ maximum tensile strength performed at 43.8% of 304 steel, and the maximum flexural strength was found to be 261.1% of 304 steel. It was found that limitations to the strengths of the biocomposite samples arose from random, discontinuous fiber alignment and incomplete degasification of the epoxy resin. Incorporation of a bio-based epoxy in an effort to promote greater sustainability of a biocomposite is suggested for future improvement upon the bamboo fiber reinforced composites fabricated in this study
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Re-envisioning the WPI Storying Climate Change Initiative
Current means of portraying information about climate change — such as via statistics or news stories — are socially distanced and therefore unable to emphasize the human perspectives behind this worldwide issue. Contrarily, storytelling has the power to develop intrapersonal connections that can lead to more cognizant thinking and solutions regarding climate change. The goal of this project was to use a social media platform to share the stories and experiences of Czech citizens regarding climate change and enable broader dissemination and sharing of future stories through the WPI Storying Climate Change initiative. Through interviews with Czech citizens, the team collected stories and documented them on an Instagram account to increase the visibility of these stories to a vast audience
Extensive identification of genes involved in congenital and structural heart disorders and cardiomyopathy
Clinical presentation of congenital heart disease is heterogeneous, making identification of the disease-causing genes and their genetic pathways and mechanisms of action challenging. By using in vivo electrocardiography, transthoracic echocardiography and microcomputed tomography imaging to screen 3,894 single-gene-null mouse lines for structural and functional cardiac abnormalities, here we identify 705 lines with cardiac arrhythmia, myocardial hypertrophy and/or ventricular dilation. Among these 705 genes, 486 have not been previously associated with cardiac dysfunction in humans, and some of them represent variants of unknown relevance (VUR). Mice with mutations in Casz1, Dnajc18, Pde4dip, Rnf38 or Tmem161b genes show developmental cardiac structural abnormalities, with their human orthologs being categorized as VUR. Using UK Biobank data, we validate the importance of the DNAJC18 gene for cardiac homeostasis by showing that its loss of function is associated with altered left ventricular systolic function. Our results identify hundreds of previously unappreciated genes with potential function in congenital heart disease and suggest causal function of five VUR in congenital heart disease