大掺量磷石膏用于路基填料的性能试验研究

为探索磷石膏大掺量、规模化、资源化利用路径,分别以自制固化剂和水泥为胶凝材制备大掺量磷石膏路基填料,开展大掺量磷石膏混合料的击实试验、无侧限抗压强度试验及疏水改性试验,分析大掺量磷石膏与自制固化剂和水泥的适配性、击实特性、强度特性、耐水性能。结果表明,采用水泥或自制固化剂改性磷石膏击实曲线呈单峰变化趋势,且含水率偏低时对大掺量磷石膏混合料的干密度影响较小;相同配比时,固化剂体系大掺量磷石膏混合料7d无侧限抗压强度是水泥体系的1.5倍以上,磷尾砂与自制固化剂的适配性优于黏土,且配比为90%磷石膏+10%固化剂的大掺量磷石膏混合料7d无侧限抗压强度度达3.4MPa,经疏水改性后强度提升至4.2MPa,疏水剂与自制固化剂的复配较好地改善了磷石膏自身亲水特性,提升了其水稳性能。     

复杂环境下结合EMD的GPS-IR水位反演方法

利用法国布雷斯特(Brest)港BRST测站和英国塞文大桥监测系统GNSS双频观测数据,分别在静态和高动态环境下进行GPS-IR水位反演,探究传统GNSS监测系统进行水位反演的可行性与精度.结果表明:L1波段反演精度高于L2波段;在静态场景下,GPS-IR水位反演结果与验潮站数据相关系数大于0.98,在高动态场景下,桥梁GPS-IR水位反演精度稍低.利用经验模态分解(EMD)方法对算法进行改进,提高了在桥梁复杂环境下GPS-IR水位反演结果的精度,均方根误差(RMSE)相比经典方法降低约50%.本文方法提高了GPS-IR技术在不同水域环境下的适用性,在水位监测中具有很好的应用前景.     

大塑性变形制备超细晶生物医用钛合金的研究进展

生物医用钛合金具有高强度、良好的耐蚀性能、较低的弹性模量、优异的生物相容性,已成为具有广阔应用前景的医用金属材料之一.与传统医用钛合金相比,超细晶医用钛合金具有更高的强度与更好的疲劳性能以及耐腐蚀性能.此外,超细晶钛合金可诱导骨组织向内生长,增加界面结合强度,加快骨修复进程,在硬组织修复材料领域具有广阔的应用前景.阐述了各种大塑性变形（Severe Plastic Deformation）法制备超细晶生物医用钛合金的研究状况与最新进展,指出了SPD法制备医用钛合金中存在的技术问题和发展方向,并展望了利用SPD法对生物医用钛合金改性将成为生物医用材料的研究热点.     

基于提升小波的红外和可见光图像融合方法

提出了一种基于提升小波变换的红外和可见光图像融合方法.对红外图像进行检测分割,将提取到的目标重要信息融合到可见光图像中.然后进行图像的提升小渡分解,对不同尺度下小波系数进行融合,以像素的局部平均梯度为高频系数融合准则,充分加入原始图像的边缘细节信息.最后依据融合后的小波系数重构图像.实验结果表明,该方法改善了融合效果,提高了运算速度.     

Inserts for fastening sheet molding compounds

New stainless steel inserts are developed for fastening sheet molding compound (SMC). Using these molded-in inserts, SMC components can be assembled without protrusions. The inserts consist of two mating surfaces which interlock through the existence of a shoulder male boss and a shoulder female counterbore. Repeated assembly and disassembly can take place without damaging the material being fastened. The strength of the joint, when using these interlocking inserts, is comparable to that when using bolts. Also being investigated is the strength of the joint after being immersed in water for half a month. The difference between the dry and wet strengths for the inserted samples is less than that for the bolted samples. Load versus extension plots show that these particular inserts provide a more rigid joint than a bolted connection.     

ILB®, a Low Molecular Weight Dextran Sulphate,Restores Glutamate Homeostasis,Amino Acid Metabolism and Neurocognitive Functions in a Rat Model of Severe Traumatic Brain Injury

In a previous study, we found that administration of ILB^®, a new low molecular weight dextran sulphate, significantly improved mitochondrial functions and energy metabolism, as well as decreased oxidative/nitrosative stress, of brain tissue of rats exposed to severe traumatic brain injury (sTBI), induced by the closed-head weight-drop model of diffused TBI. Using aliquots of deproteinized brain tissue of the same animals of this former study, we here determined the concentrations of 24 amino acids of control rats, untreated sTBI rats (sacrificed at 2 and 7 days post-injury) and sTBI rats receiving a subcutaneous ILB^® administration (at the dose levels of 1, 5 and 15 mg/kg b.w.) 30 min post-impact (sacrificed at 2 and 7 days post-injury). Additionally, in a different set of experiments, new groups of control rats, untreated sTBI rats and ILB^®-treated rats (administered 30 min after sTBI at the dose levels of 1 or 5 mg/kg b.w.) were studied for their neurocognitive functions (anxiety, locomotor capacities, short- and long-term memory) at 7 days after the induction of sTBI. Compared to untreated sTBI animals, ILB^® significantly decreased whole brain glutamate (normalizing the glutamate/glutamine ratio), glycine, serine and γ-aminobutyric acid. Furthermore, ILB^® administration restored arginine metabolism (preventing nitrosative stress), levels of amino acids involved in methylation reactions (methionine, L-cystathionine, S-adenosylhomocysteine), and N-acetylaspartate homeostasis. The macroscopic evidences of the beneficial effects on brain metabolism induced by ILB^® were the relevant improvement in neurocognitive functions of the group of animals treated with ILB^® 5 mg/kg b.w., compared to the marked cognitive decline measured in untreated sTBI animals. These results demonstrate that ILB^® administration 30 min after sTBI prevents glutamate excitotoxicity and normalizes levels of amino acids involved in crucial brain metabolic functions. The ameliorations of amino acid metabolism, mitochondrial functions and energy metabolism in ILB^®-treated rats exposed to sTBI produced significant improvement in neurocognitive functions, reinforcing the concept that ILB^® is a new effective therapeutic tool for the treatment of sTBI, worth being tested in the clinical setting.     

Modeling Self-Rollable Elastomeric Films for Building Bioinspired Hierarchical 3D Structures

In this work, an innovative model is proposed as a design tool to predict both the inner and outer radii in rolled structures based on polydimethylsiloxane bilayers. The model represents an improvement of Timoshenko’s formula taking into account the friction arising from contacts between layers arising from rolling by more than one turn, hence broadening its application field towards materials based on elastomeric bilayers capable of large deformations. The fabricated structures were also provided with surface topographical features that would make them potentially usable in different application scenarios, including cell/tissue engineering ones. The bilayer design parameters were varied, such as the initial strain (from 20 to 60%) and the bilayer thickness (from 373 to 93 µm). The model matched experimental data on the inner and outer radii nicely, especially when a high friction condition was implemented in the model, particularly reducing the error below 2% for the outer diameter while varying the strain. The model outperformed the current literature, where self-penetration is not excluded, and a single value of the radius of spontaneous rolling is used to describe multiple rolls. A complex 3D bioinspired hierarchical elastomeric microstructure made of seven spirals arranged like a hexagon inscribed in a circumference, similar to typical biological architectures (e.g., myofibrils within a sarcolemma), was also developed. In this case also, the model effectively predicted the spirals’ features (error smaller than 18%), opening interesting application scenarios in the modeling and fabrication of bioinspired materials.     

State-of-the-Art on Wound Vitality Evaluation: A Systematic Review

The vitality demonstration refers to determining if an injury has been caused ante- or post-mortem, while wound age means to evaluate how long a subject has survived after the infliction of an injury. Histology alone is not enough to prove the vitality of a lesion. Recently, immunohistochemistry, biochemistry, and molecular biology have been introduced in the field of lesions vitality and age demonstration. The study was conducted according to the preferred reporting items for systematic review (PRISMA) protocol. The search terms were “wound”, “lesion”, “vitality”, “evaluation”, “immunohistochemistry”, “proteins”, “electrolytes”, “mRNAs”, and “miRNAs” in the title, abstract, and keywords. This evaluation left 137 scientific papers. This review aimed to collect all the knowledge on vital wound demonstration and provide a temporal distribution of the methods currently available, in order to determine the age of lesions, thus helping forensic pathologists in finding a way through the tangled jungle of wound vitality evaluation.     

Limited Accuracy of Pan-Trk Immunohistochemistry Screening for NTRK Rearrangements in Follicular-Derived Thyroid Carcinoma

Patients with advanced thyroid cancer harboring NTRK rearrangements can be treated with highly effective selective inhibitors. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) analysis, to detect Trk protein expression, represents an appealing screening strategy for NTRK rearrangements, but its efficacy has been poorly explored in thyroid cancer. The aim of this study is to investigate the diagnostic utility of Trk IHC in the identification of NTRK rearrangements. A series of 26 follicular-derived thyroid tumors, positive for NTRK rearrangements, and 28 NTRK fusion-negative controls were retrospectively analyzed by IHC using the pan-Trk monoclonal antibody (clone {"type":"entrez-protein","attrs":{"text":"EPR17341","term_id":"523383444","term_text":"EPR17341"}}EPR17341) on the Ventana system. Area under the curve (AUC), sensitivity and specificity were calculated by ROC analysis. Trk expression was detected in 25 samples, including 22 out of the 26 NTRK-rearranged (84.6%) and three out of 28 NTRK-negative samples (10.7%). Four out of twenty-six NTRK-rearranged thyroid tumors were negative for Trk expression (15.4%), all carrying the ETV6/NTRK3 fusion. The AUC, sensitivity and specificity were 0.87, 0.85 and 0.89, respectively. A screening based on IHC analysis showed limited sensitivity and specificity in the identification of NTRK-rearranged tumors. Since falsely negative results could preclude the administration of effective targeted drugs, alternative detection strategies should be considered for thyroid cancer.