The reliability of asset management regime of the SROH using air void content of asphalt mixtures

The comparison pairs of cores (each 100 mm apart) from 68 reinstatements sites from various parts of the UK revealed that, the compounding consequences of generic non-homogeneous characteristics of hand laid recipe mixed materials (specified in Specification for the Reinstatement of Openings in Highways (SROH)) and high likeliness of being biased during air void (AV) testing makes the coring method extremely unreliable with very low repeatability and reproducibility. The wide-ranging maximum density reported in every instance in the comparison pair coring experiments meaningfully rationalizes the distorted homogeneity of materials. Although not only maximum density but also bulk density of adjacent cores located only 100 mm apart were found to be varied in the case of every pair in this study. Furthermore, the in situ performance shown by from 50 reinstatements after experiencing 1.5–10 years real-life ageing from various parts of the UK predictably indicates that either the linkage between the reinstatement with non-compliant AV and its impact on footways durability is non-proven or the reported AV content is extremely over estimated. At 95% level of significance, there exists enough evidence to conclude that, due to high uncertainty, very low repeatability and reproducibility and poor reliability with high chances of bias, the assessment of hand laid reinstatement work by AV testing will expose both the contractor and the client to unacceptable risk.     

Portable Node-Level Parallelism for the PGAS Model

The Partitioned Global Address Space (PGAS) programming model brings intuitive shared memory semantics to distributed memory systems. Even with an abstract and unifying virtual global address space it is, however, challenging to use the full potential of different systems. Without explicit support by the implementation node-local operations have to be optimized manually for each architecture. A goal of this work is to offer a user-friendly programming model that provides portable performance across systems. In this paper we present an approach to integrate node-level programming abstractions with the PGAS programming model. We describe the hierarchical data distribution with local patterns and our implementation, MEPHISTO, in C++ using two existing projects. The evaluation of MEPHISTO shows that our approach achieves portable performance while requiring only minimal changes to port it from a CPU-based system to a GPU-based one using a CUDA or HIP back-end.

     

Impact of defects on the decomposition of chemical warfare agent simulants in Zr-based metal organic frameworks

Metal organic frameworks (MOFs) containing zirconium secondary building units (SBUs) in UiO-67 and related MOFs, are highly active for neutralizing both the chemical warfare agents and simulants, such as dimethyl methylphosphonate (DMMP). However, two recent publications gave conflicting reports of DMMP reaction with UiO-67 under ultra high vacuum (UHV) conditions, with one reporting chemisorption and reaction (Wang et al., J Phys Chem C, 2017, 121, 11261–11272) and the other reporting only physisorption and reversible desorption (Ruffley et al., J Phys Chem C, 2019, 123, 19748–19758) from very similar temperature programmed desorption experiments. We show that the discrepancy between these experiments may be explained by different levels of missing linker defects in the UiO-67 samples. We present density functional theory calculations showing that SBU sites having two-adjacent missing linkers exhibit reaction barriers that are about 30 kJ/mol lower than SBU sites having a single missing linker. We also show that topology of the undercoordinated sites plays an important role in the reaction barrier under UHV conditions.     

Development and characterization of inks for screen printing of glass solders for SOFCs

Glass ceramics are supposed to produce stable sealants between ceramic electrolyte and ferritic steel in planar SOFC stacks. The screen printing method is a suitable industrial process in order to produce layers with tailored height and width reproducibly. An appropriate suspension was developed for this application and improved by adjusting the additive composition. This study investigates the rheological behavior of screen printing inks and the corresponding topography of the printed layers. Rotary measurements were carried out to analyse the impact of shear rates on viscosity showing shear thinning behavior. In addition, oscillatory rheometry is performed to gain information about the viscoelastic properties of the slurries and to understand the internal structure of the developed inks. The viscoelasticity and the recovery behavior after shear loading are crucial for the topography of printed films. The principal investigations are executed on solvent-based suspensions, whereby the knowledge gained is used for a transfer to water-based systems allowing a more environmentally friendly handling.     

Glycation of soy protein isolate with two ketoses: d-Allulose and fructose

Modification of food proteins to have improved functional properties is of great importance. In this study, modification of soy protein isolate (SPI) was achieved through glycation. SPI was glycated in a spray dryer (SD) and an incubator followed by freeze drying (FD). d -Allulose, an important rare sugar, was used in SPI glycation as the carbohydrate source, and results were compared with fructose. In addition to the sugar type, two different SPI powder: sugar ratios (1:1 and 5:1) were investigated. For the glycated samples, emulsification activity, free amino groups, protein solubility, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy analysis, antioxidant activity experiments and time-domain NMR relaxometry measurements for hydration were conducted. According to the results, the solubility of SPI that is limited in native form has shown a significant improvement after glycation through both FD and SD methods. Besides, glycation through the FD method was found to be more favourable due to its milder conditions than the SD method. Considering the physicochemical properties, the best combination for the highest glycation degree was found to be the samples prepared at the 1:1 ratio with d -Allulose in the FD method. Overall, it was concluded that glycation of SPI enhanced its functional properties such as antioxidant and emulsification activities.     

Mycotoxin exposure and human cancer risk: A systematic review of epidemiological studies

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in investigating the carcinogenicity of mycotoxins in humans. This systematic review aims to provide an overview of data linking exposure to different mycotoxins with human cancer risk. Publications (2019 and earlier) of case–control or longitudinal cohort studies were identified in PubMed and EMBASE. These articles were then screened by independent reviewers and their quality was assessed according to the Newcastle–Ottawa scale. Animal, cross‐sectional, and molecular studies satisfied criteria for exclusion. In total, 14 articles were included: 13 case–control studies and 1 longitudinal cohort study. Included articles focused on associations of mycotoxin exposure with primary liver, breast, and cervical cancer. Overall, a positive association between the consumption of aflatoxin‐contaminated foods and primary liver cancer risk was verified. Two case–control studies in Africa investigated the relationship between zearalenone and its metabolites and breast cancer risk, though conflicting results were reported. Two case–control studies investigated the association between hepatocellular carcinoma and fumonisin B1 exposure, but no significant associations were observed. This systematic review incorporates several clear observations of dose‐dependent associations between aflatoxins and liver cancer risk, in keeping with IARC Monograph conclusions. Only few human epidemiological studies investigated the associations between mycotoxin exposures and cancer risk. To close this gap, more in‐depth research is needed to unravel evidence for other common mycotoxins, such as deoxynivalenol and ochratoxin A. The link between mycotoxin exposures and cancer risk has mainly been established in experimental studies, and needs to be confirmed in human epidemiological studies to support the evidence‐based public health strategies.     

Terahertz Heterodyne Array Receivers for Astronomy

Journal of Infrared, Millimeter, and Terahertz Waves - We review the development of multi-pixel heterodyne receivers for astronomical research in the submillimeter and terahertz spectral domains....     

Combining Acoustic Emission and Vibration Technologies Harbors Huge Potential for Material Characterization

The demand for raw materials is growing worldwide, in step with increasing world population and rising living standards of emerging countries. It is becoming more difficult to exploit primary raw materials because of declining ore grades and increasingly complicated mineralogies. Thus, the efficient and environmentally sustainable exploitation of primary resources using innovative technologies has emerged as an important research field to address these issues. An innovative approach is introduced to optimize process and quality control by combining acoustic emission (AE) and vibration technology. The general feasibility of these two technologies for material recognition and characterization is examined. The new approach was tested to determine whether coal could be distinguished from waste rock.