High deformation multifunctional composites: materials, processes, and applications

Structural health monitoring (SHM) is a non-destructive process of collecting and analysing data from structures to evaluate their conditions and predict the remaining lifetime. Multifunctional sensors are increasingly used in smart structures to self-sense and monitor the damages through the measurements of electrical resistivity of composites materials. Polymer-based sensors possess exceptional properties for SHM applications, such as low cost and simple processing, durability, flexibility and excellent piezoresistive sensitivity. Thermoplastic, thermoplastic elastomers and elastomer matrices can be combined with conductive nanofillers to develop piezoresistive sensors. Polymer, reinforcement fillers, processing and design have critical influences in the overall properties of the composite sensors. Together with the properties of the functional composites, environmental concerns are being increasingly relevant for applications, involving advances in materials selection and manufacturing technologies, In this scenario, additive manufacturing is playing an increasing role in modern technological solutions. Stretchable multifunctional composites applications include piezoresistive, dielectric elastomers (mainly for actuators), thermoelectric, or magnetorheological materials [1]. In the following, piezoresistive materials and applications will be mainly addressed based on their increasing implementation into applications.Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) in the framework of the Strategic Funding UID/FIS/04650/2019 and UID/EMS/00151/2019. The authors thank the FCT for financial support under SFRH/BPD/110914/2015 (P. C) and SFRH/BPD/117838/2016 (J. Pereira) grants. Financial support from the Basque Government Industry and Education Departments under the ELKARTEK, HAZITEK and PIBA (PIBA-2018-06

Liquid–liquid equilibrium of the Ucon 50-HB5100/sodium citrate aqueous two-phase systems

The phase diagrams of Ucon 50-HB5100/sodium citrate aqueous two-phase systems were determined at 5, 20 and 40 ◦C. Two medium pHs 5.20 and 8.20 were assayed. The binodal curves were satisfactorily described using a four-parameter sigmoidal equation. The two-phase area was expanded by increasing both pH and temperature. The reliability of the measured tie line compositions was ascertained by correlation equations given by Othmer–Tobias and Bancroft.VALNATURACONICETALFA II-0440-FA-Exchange programme between Universities of the European Union and Latin Americ

Efectos del deshojado precoz sobre la composición aromática del vino Albariño en el valle del Salnés (D.O. Rías Baixas)

Este trabajo pretende estudiar los efectos del deshojado precoz sobre la composición aromática del vino Albariño. Para ello se llevó a cabo el deshojado en dos estados fenológicos de la planta, floración y cuajado y a dos intensidades distintas, 4 y 8 hojas basales. Los resultados se compararon con un control en el que no se realizó ningún deshojado. Los análisis químicos clásicos no mostraron diferencias significativas para ningún parámetro estudiado entre los vinos elaborados con los distintos tratamientos. La identificación y cuantificación de los compuestos volátiles se realizó mediante cromatografía de Gases (GC-FID). Los resultados obtenidos mostraron diferencias significativas para 14 compuestos de los 36 analizados. Se podría concluir, en este primer año de estudio, que el deshojado precoz es capaz de aumentar la composición volátil del vino Albariño

Sintomatologia, etiología y algunos factores que inciden en la caída de plántulas de algodonero en Andalucía Occidental

Se describen los resultados de dos prospecciones sobre Caída de plántulas de algodonero efectuadas en 1999 en 28 parcelas con historia de incidencia de la enfermedad en Andalucía occidental. En la prospección temprana se recogieron 401 plantas de rodales con problemas y se encontró una mayor incidencia de Rhizoctonia solani. En la tardía se recogieron 976 plantas al azar y Thielaviopsis basteóla fue el que se encontró con más frecuencia, notándose un incremento de la importancia de este hongo en los suelos arcillosos al sur de Sevilla. Se ha estudiado la sintomatologia presente y encontrado una asociación entre los aislamientos de R. solani y la muerte de las plántulas y entre T. basicola y las necrosis más oscuras y negras, comprobándose además que un elevado número de síndromes estuvieron causados por agentes abióticos. Se presentan datos previos de las relaciones entre la frecuencia de aislamientos de estos patógenos y algunas prácticas culturales como fueron el quemado de los restos del cultivo anterior y las dosis del abonado de fondo. En este trabajo se realizaron análisis de la germinación de la semilla sembrada por los agricultores y se hacen consideraciones sobre el "vigor" de la semilla empleadaResults of two cotton surveys on cotton damping-off realized in west Andalucía (Spain) are described. Twenty eight cotton fields known as disease prone were sampled. At first survey 401 plants were collected from infected areas of the fields and Rhizoctonia solani was the fungus most frequently recovered. One month later, the same fields were randomly sampled and 976 plants were collected founding a higher incidence of Thielaviopsis basicola, specially on clay soils southern Seville. Plants were classified by symptoms and related to isolated fungi. R. solani was associated with seedling death and T. basicola with dark brown or black necrosis. A high percentage of syndromes had an abiotic origin. Preliminary conclusions on relationships between both fungi and fertilization management and previous crops stubble are presented. Germination of seeds planted by farmers was studied and some considerations about their vigor are made

Insights on fungal solid-state fermentation for waste valorization : conidia and chitinase production in different reactor configurations

Altres ajuts: Acord transformatiu CRUE-CSICAltres ajuts: Arnau Sala also thanks Universitat Aut'onoma de Barcelona for a predoctoral scholarship.Different reactor configurations are paired with a wide variety of agro-industrial wastes of different biodegradability to produce fungal conidia by solid-state fermentation. This work presents a preliminary comparative study between packed-bed and tray reactor configurations to produce Beauveria bassiana and Trichoderma harzianum conidia using two different substrates in terms of biodegradability: rice husk or beer draff complemented with wood chips. Conidia production, mean temperature and respiration indexes have been analysed in most of the presented reactor configurations. Both strains showed higher conidia production when using beer draff complemented with wood chips as substrate due to the use of a mixture as substrate. When working with beer draff, chitinase analyses obtained similar profiles in both strains but higher overall values using TH. Conidia and chitinase production maximums were not achieved at the same time, having 2-3 days of difference depending on the strain. No significant differences in mean temperature were shown between most of the performed fermentations. As a result of the present work, further scaling of both packed bed and tray configurations using beer draff and wood chips to produce BB or TH conidia would be advisable. More experiments should be performed to optimize both conidia and chitinase productions to enhance the quality of the final product

Acoustic resonances in microfluidic chips: full-image micro-PIV experiments and numerical simulations

We show that full-image micro-PIV analysis in combination with images of transient particle motion is a powerful tool for experimental studies of acoustic radiation forces and acoustic streaming in microfluidic chambers under piezo-actuation in the MHz range. The measured steady-state motion of both large 5 um and small 1 um particles can be understood in terms of the acoustic eigenmodes or standing ultra-sound waves in the given experimental microsystems. This interpretation is supported by numerical solutions of the corresponding acoustic wave equation.Comment: RevTex, 10 pages, 9 eps figures; NOTE first authors changed his name to S. Melker Hagsater in the published versio

Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene-based composites with permalloy with tailored magnetic response

This work reports on tailoring the magnetic properties of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS)-based composites for their application in magnetoactive systems, such as magnetic sensors and actuators. The magnetic properties of the composites are provided by the inclusion of varying permalloy (Py—Ni75Fe20Mo5) nanoparticle content within the ABS matrix. Composites with Py nanoparticle content up to 80 wt% were prepared and their morphological, mechanical, thermal, dielectric and magnetic properties were evaluated. It was found that ABS shows the capability to include high loads of the filler without negatively influencing its thermal and mechanical properties. In fact, the thermal properties of the ABS matrix are basically unaltered with the inclusion of the Py nanoparticles, with the glass transition temperatures of pristine ABS and its composites remaining around 105 °C. The mechanical properties of the composites depend on filler content, with the Young’s modulus ranging from 1.16 GPa for the pristine ABS up to 1.98 GPa for the sample with 60 wt% filler content. Regarding the magnetic properties, the saturation magnetization of the composites increased linearly with increasing Py content up to a value of 50.9 emu/g for the samples with 80 wt% of Py content. A numerical model has been developed to support the findings about the magnetic behavior of the NP within the ABS. Overall, the slight improvement in the mechanical properties and the magnetic properties provides the ABS composites new possibilities for applications in magnetoactive systems, including magnetic sensors, actuators and magnetic field shielding.This project was supported by the PID program CDTI (EXP-00131900/IDI-20210369). Funding is from the Basque Government Industry Department under the ELKARTEK program. Support was received from the Portuguese Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, grant SFRH/BPD/110914/2015

Characterisation of the genomic landscape of CRLF2-rearranged acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Deregulated expression of the type I cytokine receptor, CRLF2, is observed in 5–15% of precursor B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (B-ALL). We aimed to determine the clinical and genetic landscape of those with IGH-CRLF2 or P2RY8-CRLF2 (CRLF2-r) using multiple genomic approaches. Clinical and demographic features of CRLF2-r patients were characteristic of B-ALL. Patients with IGH-CRLF2 were older (14 y vs. 4 y, P < .001), while the incidence of CRLF2-r among Down syndrome patients was high (50/161, 31%). CRLF2-r co-occurred with primary chromosomal rearrangements but the majority (111/161, 69%) had B-other ALL. Copy number alteration (CNA) profiles were similar to B-other ALL, although CRLF2-r patients harbored higher frequencies of IKZF1 (60/138, 43% vs. 77/1351, 24%) and BTG1 deletions (20/138, 15% vs. 3/1351, 1%). There were significant differences in CNA profiles between IGH-CRLF2 and P2RY8-CRLF2 patients: IKZF1 (25/35, 71% vs. 36/108, 33%, P < .001), BTG1 (11/35, 31% vs. 10/108, 9%, P =.004), and ADD3 deletions (9/19, 47% vs. 5/38, 13%, P =.008). A novel gene fusion, USP9X-DDX3X, was discovered in 10/54 (19%) of patients. Pathway analysis of the mutational profile revealed novel involvement for focal adhesion. Although the functional relevance of many of these abnormalities are unknown, they likely activate additional pathways, which may represent novel therapeutic targets

A second transmissible cancer in Tasmanian devils.

Clonally transmissible cancers are somatic cell lineages that are spread between individuals via the transfer of living cancer cells. There are only three known naturally occurring transmissible cancers, and these affect dogs, soft-shell clams, and Tasmanian devils, respectively. The Tasmanian devil transmissible facial cancer was first observed in 1996, and is threatening its host species with extinction. Until now, this disease has been consistently associated with a single aneuploid cancer cell lineage that we refer to as DFT1. Here we describe a second transmissible cancer, DFT2, in five devils located in southern Tasmania in 2014 and 2015. DFT2 causes facial tumors that are grossly indistinguishable but histologically distinct from those caused by DFT1. DFT2 bears no detectable cytogenetic similarity to DFT1 and carries a Y chromosome, which contrasts with the female origin of DFT1. DFT2 shows different alleles to both its hosts and DFT1 at microsatellite, structural variant, and major histocompatibility complex (MHC) loci, confirming that it is a second cancer that can be transmitted between devils as an allogeneic, MHC-discordant graft. These findings indicate that Tasmanian devils have spawned at least two distinct transmissible cancer lineages and suggest that transmissible cancers may arise more frequently in nature than previously considered. The discovery of DFT2 presents important challenges for the conservation of Tasmanian devils and raises the possibility that this species is particularly prone to the emergence of transmissible cancers. More generally, our findings highlight the potential for cancer cells to depart from their hosts and become dangerous transmissible pathogens.We thank Bill Brown, Phil Iles, Billie Lazenby, Jacinta Marr, Jane McGee, Sarah Peck, Holly Wiersma and Phil Wise for assistance with sample collection and curation. Adrian Baez-Ortega, Andrew Davis, Jo Hanuszewicz, Gina Kalodimos, Amanda Patchett, Narelle Phillips, Elizabeth Reid Swainscoat, Jim Richley, Rachel Stivicic and Jim Taylor assisted with surveying, laboratory analysis, data processing and display. We are grateful for support received from Mike Stratton, the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute (WTSI) sequencing and informatics teams and the WTSI Cancer Genome Project. This work was supported by a Wellcome Trust Investigator Award (102942/Z/13/Z) and by grants from the Australian Research Council (ARC-DP130100715; ARC-LP130100218). Support was provided by Dr Eric Guiler Tasmanian Devil Research Grants and by the Save the Tasmanian Devil Program. JMCT was partly supported by a Marie Curie Fellowship (FP7-PEOPLE- 2012-IEF, 328364). Sequences associated with this paper have been deposited in Genbank with accession numbers KT188437 and KT188438

Evolutionary Dynamics of the Ty3/Gypsy LTR Retrotransposons in the Genome of Anopheles gambiae

Ty3/gypsy elements represent one of the most abundant and diverse LTR-retrotransposon (LTRr) groups in the Anopheles gambiae genome, but their evolutionary dynamics have not been explored in detail. Here, we conduct an in silico analysis of the distribution and abundance of the full complement of 1045 copies in the updated AgamP3 assembly. Chromosomal distribution of Ty3/gypsy elements is inversely related to arm length, with densities being greatest on the X, and greater on the short versus long arms of both autosomes. Taking into account the different heterochromatic and euchromatic compartments of the genome, our data suggest that the relative abundance of Ty3/gypsy LTRrs along each chromosome arm is determined mainly by the different proportions of heterochromatin, particularly pericentric heterochromatin, relative to total arm length. Additionally, the breakpoint regions of chromosomal inversion 2La appears to be a haven for LTRrs. These elements are underrepresented more than 7-fold in euchromatin, where 33% of the Ty3/gypsy copies are associated with genes. The euchromatin on chromosome 3R shows a faster turnover rate of Ty3/gypsy elements, characterized by a deficit of proviral sequences and the lowest average sequence divergence of any autosomal region analyzed in this study. This probably reflects a principal role of purifying selection against insertion for the preservation of longer conserved syntenyc blocks with adaptive importance located in 3R. Although some Ty3/gypsy LTRrs show evidence of recent activity, an important fraction are inactive remnants of relatively ancient insertions apparently subject to genetic drift. Consistent with these computational predictions, an analysis of the occupancy rate of putatively older insertions in natural populations suggested that the degenerate copies have been fixed across the species range in this mosquito, and also are shared with the sibling species Anopheles arabiensis