Effect of Iron Nanopowder on Flammability of Epoxy Composites

Reducing the flammability of polymeric materials is a serious problem that needs to be solved. The paper presents the results of a study of the effect of iron nanopowders, used as filler, on the flammability of epoxy polymers. Epoxy composites filled with 5 wt. % of iron nanopowder and 10 wt. % of boric acid separately, as well as in combination were prepared. The flammability of the prepared samples was evaluated by determining the ignition temperature and time-to-ignition

Effects of Cation Vacancy Distribution in Doped LaMnO3+d Perovskites

In this paper we report studies on the correlation between the presence and distribution of cation vacancies in doped manganites (La,M)MnO3+delta (where M = Na, Ca) and their magnetic properties. Results indicate that cation vacancies are distributed differently for the different crystal structures and dopant ion type. In particular it is shown that knowledge of the total vacancies concentration alone is not enough to fully characterize the physical properties of manganites and that their distribution between the A and B sites of the perovskite structure plays a crucial role which should be taken into account in future studies.Comment: 27 pages, 5 figure. To appear in J. Solid State Che

Alteration of Forkhead Box O (Foxo4) Acetylation Mediates Apoptosis of Podocytes in Diabetes Mellitus

The number of kidney podocytes is reduced in diabetic nephropathy. Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) accumulate in patients with diabetes and promote the apoptosis of podocyte by activating the forkhead box O4 (Foxo4) transcription factor to increase the expression of a pro-apoptosis gene, Bcl2l11. Using chromatin immunoprecipitation we demonstrate that AGE-modified bovine serum albumin (AGE-BSA) enhances Foxo4 binding to a forkhead binding element in the promoter of Bcl2lll. AGE-BSA also increases the acetylation of Foxo4. Lysine acetylation of Foxo4 is required for Foxo4 binding and transcription of Bcl2l11 in podocytes treated with AGE-BSA. The expression of a protein deacetylase that targets Foxo4 for deacetylation, sirtuin (Sirt1), is down regulated in cultured podocytes by AGE-BSA treatment and in glomeruli of diabetic patients. SIRT1 over expression in cultured murine podocytes prevents AGE-induced apoptosis. Glomeruli isolated from diabetic db/db mice have increased acetylation of Foxo4, suppressed expression of Sirt1, and increased expression of Bcl2l11 compared to non-diabetic littermates. Together, our data provide evidence that alteration of Foxo4 acetylation and down regulation of Sirt1 expression in diabetes promote podocyte apoptosis. Strategies to preserve Sirt1 expression or reduce Foxo4 acetylation could be used to prevent podocyte loss in diabetes

Albiglutide and cardiovascular outcomes in patients with type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease (Harmony Outcomes): a double-blind, randomised placebo-controlled trial

Background: Glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonists differ in chemical structure, duration of action, and in their effects on clinical outcomes. The cardiovascular effects of once-weekly albiglutide in type 2 diabetes are unknown. We aimed to determine the safety and efficacy of albiglutide in preventing cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, or stroke. Methods: We did a double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled trial in 610 sites across 28 countries. We randomly assigned patients aged 40 years and older with type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease (at a 1:1 ratio) to groups that either received a subcutaneous injection of albiglutide (30–50 mg, based on glycaemic response and tolerability) or of a matched volume of placebo once a week, in addition to their standard care. Investigators used an interactive voice or web response system to obtain treatment assignment, and patients and all study investigators were masked to their treatment allocation. We hypothesised that albiglutide would be non-inferior to placebo for the primary outcome of the first occurrence of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, or stroke, which was assessed in the intention-to-treat population. If non-inferiority was confirmed by an upper limit of the 95% CI for a hazard ratio of less than 1·30, closed testing for superiority was prespecified. This study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT02465515. Findings: Patients were screened between July 1, 2015, and Nov 24, 2016. 10 793 patients were screened and 9463 participants were enrolled and randomly assigned to groups: 4731 patients were assigned to receive albiglutide and 4732 patients to receive placebo. On Nov 8, 2017, it was determined that 611 primary endpoints and a median follow-up of at least 1·5 years had accrued, and participants returned for a final visit and discontinuation from study treatment; the last patient visit was on March 12, 2018. These 9463 patients, the intention-to-treat population, were evaluated for a median duration of 1·6 years and were assessed for the primary outcome. The primary composite outcome occurred in 338 (7%) of 4731 patients at an incidence rate of 4·6 events per 100 person-years in the albiglutide group and in 428 (9%) of 4732 patients at an incidence rate of 5·9 events per 100 person-years in the placebo group (hazard ratio 0·78, 95% CI 0·68–0·90), which indicated that albiglutide was superior to placebo (p<0·0001 for non-inferiority; p=0·0006 for superiority). The incidence of acute pancreatitis (ten patients in the albiglutide group and seven patients in the placebo group), pancreatic cancer (six patients in the albiglutide group and five patients in the placebo group), medullary thyroid carcinoma (zero patients in both groups), and other serious adverse events did not differ between the two groups. There were three (<1%) deaths in the placebo group that were assessed by investigators, who were masked to study drug assignment, to be treatment-related and two (<1%) deaths in the albiglutide group. Interpretation: In patients with type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, albiglutide was superior to placebo with respect to major adverse cardiovascular events. Evidence-based glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonists should therefore be considered as part of a comprehensive strategy to reduce the risk of cardiovascular events in patients with type 2 diabetes. Funding: GlaxoSmithKline

TV-regularized CT reconstruction and metal artifact reduction using inequality constraints with preconditioning

Totalvariation(TV) Regularisierung wird auf Computertomographie(CT) angewandt um Metallartefakte zu reduzieren.Tikhonov-Regularisierung mit einem $L 2$-Datenterm und TV-Regularisierungsterm wird in diesem neuen Modell um Ungleichungsnebenbedingungen erweitert die durch Metall verursachte Fehler in den Sinogrammdaten modellieren.Das formulierte Problem wird diskretisiert und mithilfe des Chambolle-Pock Algorithmus gelöst.Schnellere Konvergenz wird durch Präkonditionierung erzielt, diese wird in der Advanced Direction Mehod of Multipliers(ADMM) sowie einem Douglas-Rachford splitting Algorithmus angewandt.Ergebnisse für reale und synthetische Daten zeigen die grundsätzliche Fähigkeit des Models Artefakte zu verringern.Technische Details zu den verwendeten CT-Daten und deren Verarbeitung finden sich im Appendix.Total variation(TV) regularization is applied to X-Ray computed tomography(CT) in an effort to reduce metal artifacts. Tikhonov regularization with $L 2$ data fidelity term and total variation regularization is augmented in this novel model by inequality constraints on sinogram data affected by metal to model errors caused by metal. The formulated problem is discretized and solved using the Chambolle-Pock algorithm.Faster convergence is achieved using preconditioning in a Douglas-Rachford spitting method as well as Advanced Direction Method of Multipliers(ADMM).The methods are applied to real and synthetic data demonstrating feasibility of the model to reduce metal artifacts.Technical details of CT data used and its processing are given in the appendix.von Clemens SchifferZusammenfassungen in Deutsch und EnglischKarl-Franzens-Universität Graz, Masterarbeit, 2018(VLID)280886

ProMECoS: A Process Model for Efficient Standard-Driven Distributed Co-Simulation

Co-simulation techniques have evolved significantly over the last 10 years. System simulation and hardware-in-the-loop testing are used to develop innovative products in many industrial sectors. Despite the success of these simulation techniques, their efficient application requires a systematic approach. In practice the integration and coupling of heterogeneous systems still require enormous efforts. At this point in time no unified process for integration and simulation of DCP-based co-simulation scenarios is available. In this article we present ProMECoS, a process model for efficient, standard-driven distributed co-simulation. It defines the necessary tasks required to prepare, instantiate and execute distributed co-simulations according to the DCP standard. Furthermore, it enables the exploitation of front-loading benefits, thus reducing the overall system development effort. ProMECoS is based on the IEEE 1730 standard for Distributed Simulation Engineering and Execution Process. It adopts the artefacts of the DCP specification, and defines additional process artefacts. The DCP specification and its associated default integration methodology were developed by a balanced consortium in context of the ITEA 3 project ACOSAR. The DCP is compatible to the well-adopted FMI standard. Therefore both standards can be used together for seamless development using models, software, and real components. ProMECoS provides the necessary guidance for efficient product development and testing

A Graph-Based Metadata Model for DevOps in Simulation-Driven Development and Generation of DCP Configurations

With the goal of improving the quality of model-based development and to reduce testing effort, DevOps practices have gained more and more importance. However, most system engineers are not DevOps specialists, and there are a lot of manual steps involved when writing build pipelines and configurations of simulations. For this purpose, an abstract graph-based metadata model is proposed. This allows the autogeneration of scenario descriptions for simulations and code for the build server where the simulation environment is set up and executed. This is demonstrated by applying this process to the DCP standard. In this paper, we will discuss three simple use cases which are motivated by practical problems that arise in complex development environments and how the proposed solutions can be used to tackle them. Detailed descriptions and implementations of the use cases show how the proposed methods can be applied in practice and help solve the described problems. Furthermore, a Python implementation of a DCP master and a simple FMI-to-DCP wrapper are presented in this work