Abnormal carbohydrate metabolism in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and Parkinsonism-dementia on Guam

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and Parkinsonism-dementia are unusually prevalent on Guam. Carbohydrate metabolism was studied in 110 patients with evidence diagnostic of or suspecious for these diseases. The combined incidence of known diabetes in 29 per cent of them plus a high percentage of glucose tolerance tests interpreted as abnormal, even when most age-related criteria were considered, was considerably higher than the incidence of abnormal carbohydrate metabolism reported elsewhere in the general population of the United States, the tropical Pacific area, or in recent surveys on Guam itself. The diabetes was generally mild in nature and noteworthy for a lack of retinopathy and other complications. Hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, and hyperuricemia, although highly prevalent, were not consistently associated with abnormal glucose metabolism. Similarly, no consistent association was demonstrated with such factors as age, muscle atrophy, or physical activity.     

Fine fraction filtration test to assess geotextile filter performance

The proper design of the openings of a geotextile filter requires a balance between providing upstream soil particle retention and avoiding excessive geotextile clogging. While this balance can be reasonably achieved quite well for most soil types and hydraulic conditions, it is different when the flowing liquid is turbid (containing a large amount of suspended particles) and/or under high, or dynamic, hydraulic gradients. This paper presents a test method to assess the behavior of individual soil particles in a slurry form as they approach, encounter and interact with a geotextile filter.

The paper describes the concept and details of the test method, called the fine fraction filtration (F³) test, and presents data on five different geotextiles which were evaluated using three different soil types. It was seen that soils with particle sizes larger than the geotextile's opening structure can build a stable upstream network; soil with particle sizes smaller than the geotextile's opening structure can pass through the geotextile; and intermediate particle size conditions can give rise to excessive clogging. An additional series of tests were conducted using the same five geotextile filters but now using a pre-placed upstream soil filter above the geotextiles. Clogging conditions generally occurred albeit within the soil column rather than within the geotextile.

The F³ test is felt to be a meaningful test for those conditions where the upstream soil particles are not in intimate contact with the geotextile filter. In such cases, the test method can probably be considered to be a performance test. For other, more typical soil placement conditions, the test method can be considered to be a very challenging indext test.     

Digitally Crafted Couture

Clothing could be described as architecture in motion. Julia Koerner , a designer based between Salzburg and Los Angeles, operates at the crossroads between architecture and product design. She has recently been working on a number of projects in the couture field, both independently and in collaboration. Here she describes how these creations – largely inspired by the forms and growth patterns of nature – have utilised various additive manufacturing techniques to explore the possibilities of folding, nesting and smocking in digital space. From seamlessness to the ability to adapt to temperature, light and emotion, these garments appear to naturally grow on the body or to animate it.     

The effect of microcrystalline cellulose on the mixing and compaction response of ferrous powders

Microcrystalline cellulose has physical and chemical qualities which can prove advantageous for a powder lubricant and binder. Specifically, it possesses good green strength, fine particle size, complete decomposition, cleanliness, i.e. <10 ppm metallic constituents, as well as good mixing response. In an experimental study, lubricant properties, specifically mixing and compaction response of microcrystalline cellulose (Avicel^® PH-105) are evaluated against standard lubricants (Acrawax^® and zinc stearate). Iron and stainless steel powders were compacted over a wide density range, i.e. 70 – 90%, at fixed lubricant additions in each range. Compaction characteristics were measured in order to evaluate the effects of the amount and type of lubricant upon consolidation pressure, ejection pressure, green density and green strength. With regard to mixing, compaction and sintering behavior, microcrystalline cellulose performed comparably to the standard lubricants in most cases. Considering the extreme purity, the material may be used as the prime lubricant in P/M processing particularly when metallic contaminants and decomposition products create processing/property difficulties.     

Flux‐Limited Diffusion for Multiple Scattering in Participating Media

For the rendering of multiple scattering effects in participating media, methods based on the diffusion approximation are an extremely efficient alternative to Monte Carlo path tracing. However, in sufficiently transparent regions, classical diffusion approximation suffers from non‐physical radiative fluxes which leads to a poor match to correct light transport. In particular, this prevents the application of classical diffusion approximation to heterogeneous media, where opaque material is embedded within transparent regions. To address this limitation, we introduce flux‐limited diffusion, a technique from the astrophysics domain. This method provides a better approximation to light transport than classical diffusion approximation, particularly when applied to heterogeneous media, and hence broadens the applicability of diffusion‐based techniques. We provide an algorithm for flux‐limited diffusion, which is validated using the transport theory for a point light source in an infinite homogeneous medium. We further demonstrate that our implementation of flux‐limited diffusion produces more accurate renderings of multiple scattering in various heterogeneous datasets than classical diffusion approximation, by comparing both methods to ground truth renderings obtained via volumetric path tracing.     

Development of permanent magnet MnAlC/polymer composites and flexible filament for bonding and 3D-printing technologies

Searching for high-performance permanent magnets components with no limitation in shape and dimensions is highly desired to overcome the present design and manufacturing restrictions, which affect the efficiency of the final devices in energy, automotive and aerospace sectors. Advanced 3D-printing of composite materials and related technologies is an incipient route to achieve functional structures avoiding the limitations of traditional manufacturing. Gas-atomized MnAlC particles combined with polymer have been used in this work for fabricating scalable rare earth-free permanent magnet composites and extruded flexible filaments with continuous length exceeding 10 m. Solution casting has been used to synthesize homogeneous composites with tuned particles content, made of a polyethylene (PE) matrix embedding quasi-spherical particles of the ferromagnetic τ-MnAlC phase. A maximum filling factor of 86.5 and 72.3% has been obtained for the composite and the filament after extrusion, respectively. The magnetic measurements reveal no deterioration of the properties of the MnAlC particles after the composite synthesis and filament extrusion. The produced MnAlC/PE materials will serve as precursors for an efficient and scalable design and fabrication of end-products by different processing techniques (polymerized cold-compacted magnets and 3D-printing, respectively) in view of technological applications (from micro electromechanical systems to energy and transport applications).     

混合粉的弃模能力

粉末冶金混合粉的质量常用标准技术，如霍尔流动性、松装密度等进行研究。可是这些技术在预测生产性能上是有限的。为此，开发出一种充模模拟器。表征矩形模的填充以确立模宽与取向对混合粉填充密度的重要性。而且研究了混合粉的粘对对充模的影响，特别是在进料靴的最大可能速度下进行研究。根据压制中对填充性能的影响，对结果进行了讨论。     

Effect of polymer–nanoparticle interactions on the glass transition dynamics and the conductivity mechanism in polyurethane titanium dioxide nanocomposites

We report on the glass transition dynamics and the conductivity properties of a nanodielectric system composed of pre-synthesized TiO₂ nanoparticles embedded in thermoplastic polyurethane. Increase of TiO₂ loading results in enhanced segmental mobility of the composites and less steep temperature dependence, i.e., lower fragility index. The decrease in the fragility index and glass transition temperature is discussed based on the FTIR results. We observe different behavior of conductivity for temperatures above and below the glass transition temperature. At high temperatures the composites exhibit conductivity values more than 2 orders of magnitude higher than those in the pristine matrix. At the same time, at sub-T_g temperatures composites are characterized by superior electrical insulation properties compared to pristine matrix material. Such drastic temperature dependence of the conductivity/insulating ability of the flexible and light-weight, low-T_g composite material can be utilized in various applications including sensing and temperature switching materials.     

Role of cation exchange processes on the sorption influenced transport of cationic β-blockers in aquifer sediments

The influence of cation exchange processes on the transport behavior of the cationic β-blockers atenolol and metoprolol was investigated by applying saturated laboratory column experiments. Breakthrough curves using natural sediments under different competitive conditions were generated and resulting sorption coefficients were compared. For the cationic species of atenolol (at pH = 8), the existence and dominating role of cation exchange processes were demonstrated by varying calcium concentrations. No effect of atenolol concentration on its retardation was observed within a wide concentration range. The breakthrough curve comparison of atenolol and the more hydrophobic metoprolol under constant conditions showed a significantly stronger retardation for metoprolol than for atenolol. However, additional non-polar interactions cannot explain the observed differences as they are determined to be negligible for both compounds. Due to the dominating role of cation exchange processes for the cationic species on overall sorption, a simple prediction of β-blocker transport in the subsurface by using K_OC values derived from log K_OW-log K_OC correlations is not feasible.