Structural panels

Vinyl pyridines including vinyl stilbazole materials and vinyl styrylpyridine oligomer materials are disclosed. These vinylpyridines form copolymers with bismaleimides which copolymers have good fire retardancy and decreased brittleness. The cure temperatures of the copolymers are substantially below the cure temperatures of the bismaleimides alone. Reinforced composites made from the cured copolymers are disclosed as well

Vinyl stilbazoles

Vinyl pyridines including vinyl stilbazole materials and vinyl styrylpyridine oligomer materials are disclosed. These vinylpyridines form copolymers with bismaleimides which copolymers have good fire retardancy and decreased brittleness. The cure temperatures of the copolymers are substantially below the cure temperatures of the bismaleimides alone. Reinforced composites made from the cured copolymers are disclosed as well

A prototype system for detecting the radio-frequency pulse associated with cosmic ray air showers

The development of a system to detect the radio-frequency (RF) pulse associated with extensive air showers of cosmic rays is described. This work was performed at the CASA/MIA array in Utah, with the intention of designing equipment that can be used in conjunction with the Auger Giant Array. A small subset of data (less than 40 out of a total of 600 hours of running time), taken under low-noise conditions, permitted upper limits to be placed on the rate for pulses accompanying showers of energies around $10^{17}$ eV.Comment: 53 pages, LaTeX, 19 figures, published in Nuclear Instruments and Methods. Revised version; some references update

Unravelling exceptional acetylene and carbon dioxide adsorption within a tetra-amide functionalized metal-organic framework

Understanding the mechanism of gas-sorbent interactions is of fundamental importance for the design of improved gas storage materials. Here we report the binding domains of carbon dioxide and acetylene in a tetra-amide functionalized metal-organic framework, MFM-188, at crystallographic resolution. Although exhibiting moderate porosity, desolvated MFM-188a exhibits exceptionally high carbon dioxide and acetylene adsorption uptakes with the latter (232 cm3 g−1 at 295 K and 1 bar) being the highest value observed for porous solids under these conditions to the best of our knowledge. Neutron diffraction and inelastic neutron scattering studies enable the direct observation of the role of amide groups in substrate binding, representing an example of probing gas-amide binding interactions by such experiments. This study reveals that the combination of polyamide groups, open metal sites, appropriate pore geometry and cooperative binding between guest molecules is responsible for the high uptakes of acetylene and carbon dioxide in MFM-188a

Hybrid photonic loss resilient entanglement swapping

We propose a scheme of loss-resilient entanglement swapping between two distant parties in lossy optical fibre. In this scheme, Alice and Bob each begin with a pair of entangled non-classical states; these "hybrid states" of light are entangled discrete variable (Fock state) and continuous variable (coherent state) pairs. The continuous variable halves of each of these pairs are sent through lossy optical fibre to a middle location, where these states are then mixed (using a 50:50 beam-splitter) and measured. The detection scheme we use is to measure one of these modes via vacuum detection, and to measure the other mode using balanced homodyne detection. In this work we show that the |Φ+⟩=(|00⟩+|11⟩)/2–√ Bell state can theoretically be produced following this scheme with high fidelity and entanglement, even when allowing for a small amount of loss. It can be shown that there is an optimal amplitude value (α) of the coherent state, when allowing for such loss. We also investigate the realistic circumstance when the loss is not balanced in the propagating modes. We demonstrate that a small amount of loss mismatch does not destroy the overall entanglement, thus demonstrating the physical practicality of this protocol

Community Engaged Cumulative Risk Assessment of Exposure to Inorganic Well Water Contaminants, Crow Reservation, Montana

An estimated 11 million people in the US have home wells with unsafe levels of hazardous metals and nitrate. The national scope of the health risk from consuming this water has not been assessed as home wells are largely unregulated and data on well water treatment and consumption are lacking. Here, we assessed health risks from consumption of contaminated well water on the Crow Reservation by conducting a community-engaged, cumulative risk assessment. Well water testing, surveys and interviews were used to collect data on contaminant concentrations, water treatment methods, well water consumption, and well and septic system protection and maintenance practices. Additive Hazard Index calculations show that the water in more than 39% of wells is unsafe due to uranium, manganese, nitrate, zinc and/or arsenic. Most families’ financial resources are limited, and 95% of participants do not employ water treatment technologies. Despite widespread high total dissolved solids, poor taste and odor, 80% of families consume their well water. Lack of environmental health literacy about well water safety, pre-existing health conditions and limited environmental enforcement also contribute to vulnerability. Ensuring access to safe drinking water and providing accompanying education are urgent public health priorities for Crow and other rural US families with low environmental health literacy and limited financial resources

Prevention and early detection of prostate cancer

This Review was sponsored and funded by the International Society of Cancer Prevention (ISCaP), the European Association of Urology (EAU), the National Cancer Institute, USA (NCI) (grant number 1R13CA171707-01), Prostate Cancer UK, Cancer Research UK (CRUK) (grant number C569/A16477), and the Association for International Cancer Research (AICR

Local and exotic sources of sarsen debitage at Stonehenge revealed by geochemical provenancing

The application of novel geochemical provenancing techniques has changed our understanding of the construction of Stonehenge, by identifying West Woods on the Marlborough Downs as the likely source area for the majority of the extant sarsen megaliths at the monument. In this study, we apply the same techniques to saccharoid sarsen fragments from three excavations within and outwith the main Sarsen Circle to expand our understanding of the provenance of sarsen debitage present at the monument. Through pXRF analysis, we demonstrate that the surface geochemistry of 1,028 excavated sarsen fragments is significantly affected by subsurface weathering following burial in a way that cannot be overcome by simple cleaning. However, we show that this effect is surficial and does not have a volumetrically significant impact, thus permitting the subsequent use of whole-rock analytical methods. Comparison of ICP-AES and ICP-MS trace element data from 54 representative sarsen fragments with equivalent data from Stone 58 at Stonehenge demonstrates that none are debitage produced during the dressing of this megalith or its 49 chemical equivalents at the monument. Further inspection of the ICP-MS data reveals that 22 of these fragments fall into three distinct geochemical ‘families’. None of these families overlap with the geochemical signature of Stone 58 and its chemical equivalents, implying that sarsen imported from at least a further three locations (in addition to West Woods) is present at Stonehenge. Comparison of immobile trace element signatures from the 54 excavated sarsen fragments against equivalent data for 20 sarsen outcrop areas across southern Britain shows that 15 of the fragments can be linked to specific localities. Eleven of these were likely sourced from Monkton Down, Totterdown Wood and West Woods on the Marlborough Downs (25–33 km north of Stonehenge). Three fragments likely came from Bramdean, Hampshire (51 km southeast of Stonehenge), and one from Stoney Wish, East Sussex (123 km to the southeast). Technological analysis and refitting shows that one of the fragments sourced from Monkton Down was part of a 25.7 cm × 17.9 cm flake removed from the outer surface of a large sarsen boulder, most probably during on-site dressing. This adds a second likely source area for the sarsen megaliths at Stonehenge in addition to West Woods. At this stage, we can only speculate on why sarsen from such diverse sources is present at Stonehenge. We do not know whether the fragments analysed by ICP-MS were removed from (i) the outer surface of Stones 26 or 160 (which are chemically distinct to the other extant sarsen megaliths), (ii) one of the c.28 sarsen megaliths and lintels from the c.60 erected during Stage 2 of the construction of Stonehenge that may now be missing from the monument, or (iii) one of the dismantled and destroyed sarsen megaliths associated with Stage 1 of the monument. With the exception of the fragment sourced from Monkton Down, it is also possible that the analysed fragments were (iv) pieces of saccharoid sarsen hammerstones or their pre-forms, or (v) small blocks brought on-site for ceremonial or non-ceremonial purposes

A novel class of microRNA-recognition elements that function only within open reading frames.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are well known to target 3' untranslated regions (3' UTRs) in mRNAs, thereby silencing gene expression at the post-transcriptional level. Multiple reports have also indicated the ability of miRNAs to target protein-coding sequences (CDS); however, miRNAs have been generally believed to function through similar mechanisms regardless of the locations of their sites of action. Here, we report a class of miRNA-recognition elements (MREs) that function exclusively in CDS regions. Through functional and mechanistic characterization of these 'unusual' MREs, we demonstrate that CDS-targeted miRNAs require extensive base-pairing at the 3' side rather than the 5' seed; cause gene silencing in an Argonaute-dependent but GW182-independent manner; and repress translation by inducing transient ribosome stalling instead of mRNA destabilization. These findings reveal distinct mechanisms and functional consequences of miRNAs that target CDS versus the 3' UTR and suggest that CDS-targeted miRNAs may use a translational quality-control-related mechanism to regulate translation in mammalian cells