Geopolymer ultrahigh performance concrete: Material and performance

During the last two decades, considerable progress has been made in the development of ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC) with ordinary Portland cement (OPC). UHPC represents a major development step over high performance concrete (HPC), through the achievement of very high compressive strength (over 20,000 psi or 140 MPa) and superior durability due to very low permeability compared to high-performance concrete; in some cases, fibers are included to achieve improved ductility. Despite these performance advantages, deployment of Portland cement-based UHPC has been slow, in part due to the relatively high compared to that of conventional concrete components. In addition, the higher content of Portland cement in UHPC, high temperature steam curing, and use of relatively large amounts of superplasticizers increase the cost and CO2 footprint. Geopolymer-based UHPCs have the potential for significant advantages over comparable OPC-based materials. We have developed a range of low-cost, low-CO2 footprint, geopolymer UHPC (GUHPC) formulations. The main characteristics of these GUHPCs include: 1) Increased homogeneity by excluding aggregates \u3e9.5mm, 2) Increased packing density through use of micro- and nano-particles, 3) Very low water-to-binder ratio through chemically tailored activator compositions and use of intensive mixing; 4) Composite binders yielding hybrid calcium aluminosilicate hydrate (C-A-S-H) and alkali aluminosilicate hydrate (A-A-S-H) gels to improve product properties; and 5) Regulation of set times using a very effective inorganic retarder. Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract

Enabling non-isocentric dynamic trajectory radiotherapy by integration of dynamic table translations.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study is to develop a treatment planning process (TPP) for non-isocentric dynamic trajectory radiotherapy (DTRT) using dynamic gantry rotation, collimator rotation, table rotation, longitudinal, vertical and lateral table translations and intensity modulation and to validate the dosimetric accuracy. APPROACH The TPP consists of two steps. First, a path describing the dynamic gantry rotation, collimator rotation and dynamic table rotation and translations is determined. Second, an optimization of the intensity modulation along the path is performed. We demonstrate the TPP for three use cases. First, a non-isocentric DTRT plan for a brain case is compared to an isocentric DTRT plan in terms of dosimetric plan quality and delivery time. Second, a non-isocentric DTRT plan for a craniospinal irradiation (CSI) case is compared to a multi-isocentric intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) plan. Third, a non-isocentric DTRT plan for a bilateral breast case is compared to a multi-isocentric volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) plan. The non-isocentric DTRT plans are delivered on a TrueBeam in developer mode and their dosimetric accuracy is validated using radiochromic films. MAIN RESULTS The non-isocentric DTRT plan for the brain case is similar in dosimetric plan quality and delivery time to the isocentric DTRT plan but is expected to reduce the risk of collisions. The DTRT plan for the CSI case shows similar dosimetric plan quality while reducing the delivery time by 45% in comparison with the IMRT plan. The DTRT plan for the breast case showed better treatment plan quality in comparison with the VMAT plan. The gamma passing rates between the measured and calculated dose distributions are higher than 95% for all three plans. SIGNIFICANCE The versatile benefits of non-isocentric DTRT are demonstrated with three use cases, namely reduction of collision risk, reduced setup and delivery time and improved dosimetric plan quality

Efficacy and tolerability of a monophasic combined oral contraceptive containing nomegestrol acetate and 17β-oestradiol in a 24/4 regimen, in comparison to an oral contraceptive containing ethinylestradiol and drospirenone in a 21/7 regimen

Objectives: The primary objective was to assess the efficacy, cycle control and tolerability of a monophasic combined oral contraceptive (COC) containing nomegestrol acetate (NOMAC) and 17β-oestradiol (E2). Effects on acne were evaluated as a secondary objective. Results: were compared to those of a COC containing drospirenone (DRSP) and ethinylestradiol (EE). Methods Women (aged 1850 years) were randomised to receive NOMAC/E2 (2.5 mg/1.5 mg) in a 24/4-day regimen (n = 1591) or DRSP/EE (3 mg/30 μg) in a 21/7-day regimen (n = 535) for 13 cycles. Results: Estimated Pearl Indices for NOMAC/E2 and DRSP/EE were 0.38 and 0.81 in women aged ≤ 35 years and 0.31 and 0.66 for all women (18-50 years), respectively. Scheduled withdrawal bleedings were shorter and lighter among users of NOMAC/E2 and were sometimes absent altogether. Intracyclic bleeding/spotting was infrequent in both groups, and decreased over time. Type and frequency of adverse events were similar to those typically reported for COCs. Conclusions: These data show that NOMAC/E2 provides high contraceptive efficacy with acceptable cycle control as well as an overall adverse event profile similar to that of DRSP/EE

MeThAL: Vers une macroanalyse du théâtre en alsacien

Plusieurs travaux abordent l’analyse de corpus dramatiques larges appuyée sur des méthodes quantitatives, suivant des approches assimilables à la « macroanalyse » de Jockers (2013). La Revue d’Historiographie du Théâtre (2017) offre une synthèse de ces recherches en France. Les travaux de Schöch (2017) sur le théâtre classique français ou de Fischer et al. (2015 ; 2017) et le projet QuaDramA (2016) sur le théâtre allemand sont aussi proches de nos questionnements. Ces analyses examinent généralement les principales traditions dramatiques européennes. En raison de l’absence d’un corpus numérique approprié, de telles analyses sont à ce jour impossibles pour le théâtre alsacien, une tradition en dialecte dans laquelle les genres populaires et humoristiques prédominent. Le projet MeThAL vise à créer un grand corpus de théâtre dialectal alsacien encodé selon les recommandations de la Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) et à le valoriser, constituant un premier pas vers une macroanalyse du théâtre alsacien. Nous couvrirons la période 1870-1940, incluant l’âge d’or du théâtre dialectal, autour de la fondation du Théâtre Alsacien de Strasbourg en 1898 (Wackenheim, 1997). Nous travaillons sur un fonds documentaire récemment numérisé par la Bibliothèque Nationale et Universitaire (BNU) de Strasbourg, à savoir, un ensemble représentatif de pièces de théâtre en alsacien, dont nous avons commencé l’océrisation et l’encodage TEI. L’énorme variation orthographique de l’alsacien requiert une normalisation orthographique qui présente, comme pour toute langue peu dotée, des défis spécifiques en Traitement automatique des langues (TAL). Ces défis soulignent des besoins imparfaitement couverts par les outils d’analyse textuelle existants, orientés prioritairement vers les langues majoritaires. Dans ce sens, le projet élargira les ressources du projet RESTAURE pour les langues régionales de France (Bernhard et al., 2019). Le corpus permettra d’aborder des questions en sociolinguistique diachronique de l’Alsace de façon quantitative et d’examiner dans quelle mesure ce corpus permet de documenter les pratiques sociolinguistiques des différentes époques qu’il reflète. L’encodage TEI permettra l’analyse d’aspects formels de la technique dramatique et leur progression au cours de l’action, comme le « dynamisme » des pièces selon les changements du nombre de personnages sur scène (Fischer et al., 2017). Nous voulons également examiner de possibles patrons d’interaction entre groupes de personnages selon leur âge, position sociale, sexe ou origine. Les premiers résultats du projet, initié fin 2019, sont librement accessibles. La plate-forme DraCor (Fischer et Börner, 2019) a accepté d’accueillir la collection, permettant une analyse première des pièces. Nous développerons postérieurement des analyses plus spécifiques au corpus ainsi qu’une interface d’exploration. Dix ans après le « Manifeste des Digital Humanities » (Dacos, 2010), quel type d'humanités numériques représente MeThAL ? Le projet nécessite l’interdisciplinarité (TAL, littérature, sociolinguistique, dialectologie) observée dans le manifeste ; ses résultats seraient impossibles sans l'apport de chaque discipline. Il se prête bien par ailleurs à l'intégration formation/recherche dans le cadre de notre master Technologies des langues. En même temps, le projet souligne, et veut répondre à, des limitations concernant les langues peu dotées et la production culturelle dans celles-ci : manque d’outils d'analyse, manque de corpus numériques exploitables. Finalement, le projet vise une ouverture au public, en complément aux ressources de la BNU, afin d'agir (cf. Dacos, 2010) « au-delà de la seule sphère académique »

The Balloon-Borne Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope (BLAST) 2005: A 10 deg^2 Survey of Star Formation in Cygnus X

We present Cygnus X in a new multi-wavelength perspective based on an unbiased BLAST survey at 250, 350, and 500 micron, combined with rich datasets for this well-studied region. Our primary goal is to investigate the early stages of high mass star formation. We have detected 184 compact sources in various stages of evolution across all three BLAST bands. From their well-constrained spectral energy distributions, we obtain the physical properties mass, surface density, bolometric luminosity, and dust temperature. Some of the bright sources reaching 40 K contain well-known compact H II regions. We relate these to other sources at earlier stages of evolution via the energetics as deduced from their position in the luminosity-mass (L-M) diagram. The BLAST spectral coverage, near the peak of the spectral energy distribution of the dust, reveals fainter sources too cool (~ 10 K) to be seen by earlier shorter-wavelength surveys like IRAS. We detect thermal emission from infrared dark clouds and investigate the phenomenon of cold ``starless cores" more generally. Spitzer images of these cold sources often show stellar nurseries, but these potential sites for massive star formation are ``starless" in the sense that to date there is no massive protostar in a vigorous accretion phase. We discuss evolution in the context of the L-M diagram. Theory raises some interesting possibilities: some cold massive compact sources might never form a cluster containing massive stars; and clusters with massive stars might not have an identifiable compact cold massive precursor.Comment: 42 pages, 31 Figures, 6 table

Mammalian production of an isotopically enriched outer domain of the HIV-1 gp120 glycoprotein for NMR spectroscopy

NMR spectroscopic characterization of the structure or the dynamics of proteins generally requires the production of samples isotopically enriched in 15N, 13C, or 2H. The bacterial expression systems currently in use to obtain isotopic enrichment, however, cannot produce a number of eukaryotic proteins, especially those that require post-translational modifications such as N-linked glycosylation for proper folding or activity. Here, we report the use of an adenovirus vector-based mammalian expression system to produce isotopically enriched 15N or 15N/13C samples of an outer domain variant of the HIV-1 gp120 envelope glycoprotein with 15 sites of N-linked glycosylation. Yields for the 15N- and 15N/13C-labeled gp120s after affinity chromatography were 45 and 44 mg/l, respectively, with an average of over 80% isotope incorporation. Recognition of the labeled gp120 by cognate antibodies that recognize complex epitopes showed affinities comparable to the unlabeled protein. NMR spectra, including 1H-15N and 1H-13C HSQCs, 15N-edited NOESY-HSQC, and 3D HNCO, were of high quality, with signal-to-noise consistent with an efficient level of isotope incorporation, and with chemical shift dispersion indicative of a well-folded protein. The exceptional protein yields, good isotope incorporation, and ability to obtain well-folded post-translationally modified proteins make this mammalian system attractive for the production of isotopically enriched eukaryotic proteins for NMR spectroscopy

Evaluating model outputs using integrated global speleothem records of climate change since the last glacial

Although quantitative isotopic data from speleothems has been used to evaluate isotope-enabled model simulations, currently no consensus exists regarding the most appropriate methodology through which to achieve this. A number of modelling groups will be running isotope-enabled palaeoclimate simulations in the framework of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6, so it is timely to evaluate different approaches to use the speleothem data for data-model comparisons. Here, we illustrate this using 456 globally-distributed speleothem δ18O records from an updated version of the Speleothem Isotopes Synthesis and Analysis (SISAL) database and palaeoclimate simulations generated using the ECHAM5-wiso isotope-enabled atmospheric circulation model. We show that the SISAL records reproduce the first-order spatial patterns of isotopic variability in the modern day, strongly supporting the application of this dataset for evaluating model-derived isotope variability into the past. However, the discontinuous nature of many speleothem records complicates procuring large numbers of records if data-model comparisons are made using the traditional approach of comparing anomalies between a control period and a given palaeoclimate experiment. To circumvent this issue, we illustrate techniques through which the absolute isotopic values during any time period could be used for model evaluation. Specifically, we show that speleothem isotope records allow an assessment of a model’s ability to simulate spatial isotopic trends. Our analyses provide a protocol for using speleothem isotopic data for model evaluation, including screening the observations to take into account the impact of speleothem mineralogy on 18O values, the optimum period for the modern observational baseline, and the selection of an appropriate time-window for creating means of the isotope data for palaeo time slices