Influence of microwave plasma treatment on the surface properties of carbon fibers and their adhesion in a polypropylene matrix

A commercially available carbon fiber (CF) with an epoxy-based sizing (EP-sized CF) and an unsized CF have been plasma treated to study the effect on the fiber-matrix adhesion towards a polypropylene matrix. The EP-sized fiber was chosen because of its predictable low adhesion in a polypropylene (PP) matrix. The fibers have been modified using a microwave low-pressure O2/CO2/N2-gas plasma source (Cyrannus®) developed at IWS in a batch process. One aim of this study was the evaluation of parameters using high energies and short time periods in the plasma chamber to see the effect on mechanical performance of CF. These results will be the fundamental work for a planned continuous plasma modification line. The CF surface was characterized by determining the surface energies, single fiber tensile strength and XPS analysis. The adhesion behavior before and after plasma treatment was studied by single fiber pull-out test (SFPO) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). It was shown that the CO2- and O2-plasma increases the number of functional groups on the fiber surface during short time plasma treatment of 30 s. Carboxylic groups on the unsized CF surface resulting from O2-plasma treatment lead to an enhanced fiber-matrix adhesion, whereas the fiber strength was merely reduced

Influence of microwave plasma treatment on the surface properties of carbon fibers and their adhesion in a polypropylene matrix

A commercially available carbon fiber (CF) with an epoxy-based sizing (EP-sized CF) and an unsized CF have been plasma treated to study the effect on the fiber-matrix adhesion towards a polypropylene matrix. The EP-sized fiber was chosen because of its predictable low adhesion in a polypropylene (PP) matrix. The fibers have been modified using a microwave low-pressure O2/CO2/N2-gas plasma source (Cyrannus®) developed at IWS in a batch process. One aim of this study was the evaluation of parameters using high energies and short time periods in the plasma chamber to see the effect on mechanical performance of CF. These results will be the fundamental work for a planned continuous plasma modification line. The CF surface was characterized by determining the surface energies, single fiber tensile strength and XPS analysis. The adhesion behavior before and after plasma treatment was studied by single fiber pull-out test (SFPO) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). It was shown that the CO2- and O2-plasma increases the number of functional groups on the fiber surface during short time plasma treatment of 30 s. Carboxylic groups on the unsized CF surface resulting from O2-plasma treatment lead to an enhanced fiber-matrix adhesion, whereas the fiber strength was merely reduced

Management of pregnant women infected with Ebola virus in a treatment centre in Guinea, June 2014

We report two cases of confirmed Ebola virus disease in pregnant women, who presented at the Médecins Sans Frontières Ebola treatment centre in Guéckédou. Despite the very high risk of death, both pregnant women survived. In both cases the critical decision was made to induce vaginal delivery. We raise a number of considerations regarding the management of Ebola virus-infected pregnant women, including the place of amniocentesis and induced delivery, and whether certain invasive medical acts are justified

Tick species from cattle in the Adama Region of Ethiopia and pathogens detected

Ticks will diminish productivity among farm animals and transmit zoonotic diseases. We conducted a study to identify tick species infesting slaughter bulls from Adama City and to screen them for tick-borne pathogens. In 2016, 291 ticks were collected from 37 bulls in Adama, which were ready for slaughter. Ticks were identified morphologically. Total genomic DNA was extracted from ticks and used to test for Rickettsia spp. with real-time PCR. Species identification was done by phylogenetic analysis using sequencing that targeted the 23S-5S intergenic spacer region and ompA genes. Four tick species from two genera, Amblyomma and Rhipicephalus, were identified. Amblyomma cohaerens was the dominant species (n = 241, 82.8%), followed by Amblyomma variegatum (n = 22, 7.5%), Rhipicephalus pulchellus (n = 19, 6.5%), and Rhipicephalus decoloratus (n = 9, 3.0%). Among all ticks, 32 (11%) were positive for Rickettsia spp. and 15 (5.2%) of these were identified as R. africae comprising at least two genetic clades, occurring in A. variegatum (n = 10) and A. cohaerens (n = 5). The remainder of Rickettsia-positive samples could not be amplified due to low DNA yield. Furthermore, another 15 (5.2%) samples carried other pathogenic bacteria: Ehrlichia ruminantium (n = 9; 3.1%) in A. cohaerens, Ehrlichia sp. (n = 3; 1%) in Rh. pulchellus and A. cohaerens, Anaplasma sp. (n = 1; 0.5%) in A. cohaerens, and Neoehrlichia mikurensis (n = 2; 0.7%) in A. cohaerens. All ticks were negative for Bartonella spp., Babesia spp., Theileria spp., and Hepatozoon spp. We reported for the first time E. ruminatium, N. mikurensis, Ehrlichia sp., and Anaplasma sp. in A. cohaerens. Medically and veterinarily important pathogens were mostly detected from A. variegatum and A. cohaerens. These data are relevant for a One-health approach for monitoring and prevention of tick-borne disease transmission

The 'lost child' as figure of trauma and recovery in early post-war cinema: Fred Zinnemann's The Search (1948) and Natan Gross's Unzere Kinder (1948)

The article examines the figure of the ‘lost child’ in feature films of the immediate post-war period. The figure’s enormous symbolic value as innocent victim and future generation, granted the ‘lost child’ a key position in post-war discourse, including films which tried to grapple with the moral and physical destruction of the continent after 1945. National film industries, particularly of the perpetrator nation, employed the ‘lost child’ for genre stories in which the post-war chaos is being mastered and a new, masculine national self is re-built. However, films made by victim groups outside a national context rely on the ‘lost child’ to broach the destruction of their identity by war and persecution. Analysing two films, Fred Zinnemann’s The Search (1948) and Nata Gross’s Unzere Kinder (1948), I argue that they use the child figure to deal with traumatization and make it part of the reconstruction of communal intergenerational relations. This does not result in stories of masculine mastery but in narratives that incorporate moments of trauma process emerging around destroyed mother-child relations. The films, encoding traumatization in film language, develop a rich cinematic language along questions of identity and form a first instance of posttraumatic cinema

Virus Detection and Monitoring of Viral Load in Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever Virus Patients

We developed a real-time reverse transcription–-PCR that detected 1,164 copies/mL of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus per milliliter of serum at 95% probability (probit analysis) and was 100% concordant with nested PCR on 63 samples from 31 patients with confirmed infection. Infected patients who died appeared to have higher viral loads; low viral loads correlated with IgG detection

When separation is not the answer : breastfeeding mothers and infants affected by COVID-19

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has provided detailed guidance on the care of infants of women who are a person under investigation (PUI) or confirmed to have COVID-19, which supports immediate postpartum mother-infant contact and breastfeeding with appropriate respiratory precautions. Although many countries have followed WHO guidance, others have implemented infection prevention and control policies (IPC) that impose varying levels of postpartum separation and discourage or prohibit breastfeeding or provision of expressed breastmilk. These policies aim to protect infants from the potential harm of infection from their mothers, yet they may fail to fully account for the impact of separation. Global COVID-19 data are suggestive of potentially lower susceptibility and a typically milder course of disease among children, although the potential for severe disease in infancy remains. Separation causes cumulative harms, including disrupting breastfeeding and limiting its protection against infectious disease, which has disproportionate impacts on vulnerable infants. Separation also presumes the replaceability of breastfeeding – a risk that is magnified in emergencies. Moreover, separation does not ensure lower viral exposure during hospitalizations and post-discharge, and contributes to the burden on overwhelmed health systems. Finally, separation magnifies maternal health consequences of insufficient breastfeeding and compounds trauma in communities who have experienced long-standing inequities and violence, including family separation. Taken together, separating PUI/confirmed SARS-CoV-2 positive mothers and their infants may lead to excess preventable illnesses and deaths among infants and women around the world. Health services must consider the short-and-long-term impacts of separating mothers and infants in their policies. This article is protected by copyright

On Distant Speech Recognition for Home Automation

The official version of this draft is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16226-3_7International audienceIn the framework of Ambient Assisted Living, home automation may be a solution for helping elderly people living alone at home. This study is part of the Sweet-Home project which aims at developing a new home automation system based on voice command to improve support and well-being of people in loss of autonomy. The goal of the study is vocal order recognition with a focus on two aspects: distance speech recognition and sentence spotting. Several ASR techniques were evaluated on a realistic corpus acquired in a 4-room flat equipped with microphones set in the ceiling. This distant speech French corpus was recorded with 21 speakers who acted scenarios of activities of daily living. Techniques acting at the decoding stage, such as our novel approach called Driven Decoding Algorithm (DDA), gave better speech recognition results than the baseline and other approaches. This solution which uses the two best SNR channels and a priori knowledge (voice commands and distress sentences) has demonstrated an increase in recognition rate without introducing false alarms

Measurement of the Neutron Spin Structure Function g1ng_1^n with a Polarized ^3He Target

Results are reported from the HERMES experiment at HERA on a measurement of the neutron spin structure function $g_1^n(x,Q^2)$ in deep inelastic scattering using 27.5 GeV longitudinally polarized positrons incident on a polarized $^3$He internal gas target. The data cover the kinematic range $0.023<x<0.6$ and $1 (GeV/c)^2 < Q^2 <15 (GeV/c)^2$. The integral $\int_{0.023}^{0.6} g_1^n(x) dx$ evaluated at a fixed $Q^2$ of $2.5 (GeV/c)^2$ is $-0.034\pm 0.013(stat.)\pm 0.005(syst.)$. Assuming Regge behavior at low $x$, the first moment $\Gamma_1^n=\int_0^1 g_1^n(x) dx$ is $-0.037\pm 0.013(stat.)\pm 0.005(syst.)\pm 0.006(extrapol.)$.Comment: 4 pages TEX, text available at http://www.krl.caltech.edu/preprints/OAP.htm

VAMP4 directs synaptic vesicles to a pool that selectively maintains asynchronous neurotransmission

Synaptic vesicles in the brain harbor several soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive-factor attachment protein receptor (SNARE) proteins. With the exception of synaptobrevin2, or VAMP2 (syb2), which is directly involved in vesicle fusion, the role of these SNAREs in neurotransmission is unclear. Here we show that in mice syb2 drives rapid Ca2+-dependent synchronous neurotransmission, whereas the structurally homologous SNARE protein VAMP4 selectively maintains bulk Ca2+-dependent asynchronous release. At inhibitory nerve terminals, up- or downregulation of VAMP4 causes a correlated change in asynchronous release. Biochemically, VAMP4 forms a stable complex with SNAREs syntaxin-1 and SNAP-25 that does not interact with complexins or synaptotagmin-1, proteins essential for synchronous neurotransmission. Optical imaging of individual synapses indicates that trafficking of VAMP4 and syb2 show minimal overlap. Taken together, these findings suggest that VAMP4 and syb2 diverge functionally, traffic independently and support distinct forms of neurotransmission. These results provide molecular insight into how synapses diversify their release properties by taking advantage of distinct synaptic vesicle–associated SNAREs