Bolted Joints in Three Axially Braided Carbon Fibre/Epoxy Textile Composites with Moulded-in and Drilled Fastener Holes

Experimental behaviour of bolted joints in triaxial braided (0°/±45°) carbon fibre/epoxy composite laminates with drilled and moulded-in fastener holes has been investigated in this paper. Braided laminates were manufactured by vacuum infusion process using 12 K T700S carbon fibres (for bias and axial tows) and Araldite LY-564 epoxy resin. Moulded-in fastener holes were formed using guide pins which were inserted in the braided structure prior to the vacuum infusion process. The damage mechanism of the specimens was investigated using ultrasonic C-Scan technique. The specimens were dimensioned to obtain a bearing mode of failure. The bearing strength of the specimens with moulded-in hole was reduced in comparison to the specimens with drilled hole, due to the increased fibre misalignment angle following the pin insertion procedure. An improvement on the bearing strength of moulded-in hole specimens might be developed if the specimen dimensions would be prepared for a net-tension mode of failure where the fibre misalignment would not have an effect as significant as in the case of bearing failure mode, but this mode should be avoided since it leads to sudden catastrophic failures.     

Computer-Aided Diagnosis by Tissue Image Analysis as an Optical Biopsy in Hysteroscopy

This review of our experience in computer-assisted tissue image analysis (CATIA) research shows that significant information can be extracted and used to diagnose and distinguish normal from abnormal endometrium. CATIA enabled the evaluation and differentiation between the benign and malignant endometrium during diagnostic hysteroscopy. The efficacy of texture analysis in the endometrium image during hysteroscopy was examined in 40 women, where 209 normal and 209 abnormal regions of interest (ROIs) were extracted. There was a significant difference between normal and abnormal endometrium for the statistical features (SF) features mean, variance, median, energy and entropy; for the spatial grey-level difference matrix (SGLDM) features contrast, correlation, variance, homogeneity and entropy; and for the gray-level difference statistics (GLDS) features homogeneity, contrast, energy, entropy and mean. We further evaluated 52 hysteroscopic images of 258 normal and 258 abnormal endometrium ROIs, and tissue diagnosis was verified by histopathology after biopsy. The YCrCb color system with SF, SGLDM and GLDS color texture features based on support vector machine (SVM) modeling correctly classified 81% of the cases with a sensitivity and a specificity of 78% and 81%, respectively, for normal and hyperplastic endometrium. New technical and computational advances may improve optical biopsy accuracy and assist in the precision of lesion excision during hysteroscopy. The exchange of knowledge, collaboration, identification of tasks and CATIA method selection strategy will further improve computer-aided diagnosis implementation in the daily practice of hysteroscopy.     

Clinical Evidence on the Potential Beneficial Effects of Probiotics and Prebiotics in Cardiovascular Disease

The ‘gut microbiome’—the hundreds of trillions of bacteria in the human gastrointestinal tract—serves several functions. The gut microbiome includes all the microorganisms, bacteria, viruses, protozoa, and fungi in the gastrointestinal tract and their genetic material. It helps digest indigestible foods and produces nutrients. Through the metabolism of sugars and proteins, it helps the intestinal barrier, the immune system, and metabolism. Some bacteria, such as those in the gut microbiome, cause disease, but others are essential to our health. These “good” microbes protect us from pathogens. Numerous studies have linked an unhealthy gut microbiome to obesity, insulin resistance, depression, and cardiometabolic risk factors. To maximize probiotic benefits in each case, knowledge of probiotic bacterial strains and how to consume them should be increased. This study aims to examine the benefits of probiotic and prebiotic organisms on cardiovascular health, specifically on heart disease, coronary heart disease, stroke, and hypertension. To complete the research, a literature review was conducted by gathering clinical studies and data. The clinical evidence demonstrates the beneficial effect of probiotics and prebiotic microorganisms on the gut microbiome, which has multiple benefits for overall health and especially for cardiovascular diseases.     

Increased Concentration of the Nitromethyl Aci-Anion in nitromethane-amine mixtures

We have investigated the concentration of the nitromethyl aci-anion in nitromethane and nitromethane-diethylenetriamine mixtures. Ultra-violet absorption spectroscopy and electrical conductivity measurements have given direct experimental evidence that the aci-anion concentration is increased as compared to that in pure nitromethane. The increase is consistent with a shift in the acid-base equilibrium. In any one mixture that is in contact with air, we have also observed a subsequent decrease in the aci-anion concentration as a function of time. A newly observed band in the vibrational spectrum of nitromethane has been assigned to the aci-anion and was used to confirm the decrease in its concentration with time. We discuss the previously suggested link between the aci-anion and the sensitivity of nitromethane and conclude that it is unlikely that there exists any correlation.     

AiCEF: an AI-assisted cyber exercise content generation framework using named entity recognition

Content generation that is both relevant and up to date with the current threats of the target audience is a critical element in the success of any cyber security exercise (CSE). Through this work, we explore the results of applying machine learning techniques to unstructured information sources to generate structured CSE content. The corpus of our work is a large dataset of publicly available cyber security articles that have been used to predict future threats and to form the skeleton for new exercise scenarios. Machine learning techniques, like named entity recognition and topic extraction, have been utilised to structure the information based on a novel ontology we developed, named Cyber Exercise Scenario Ontology (CESO). Moreover, we used clustering with outliers to classify the generated extracted data into objects of our ontology. Graph comparison methodologies were used to match generated scenario fragments to known threat actors’ tactics and help enrich the proposed scenario accordingly with the help of synthetic text generators. CESO has also been chosen as the prominent way to express both fragments and the final proposed scenario content by our AI-assisted Cyber Exercise Framework. Our methodology was assessed by providing a set of generated scenarios for evaluation to a group of experts to be used as part of a real-world awareness tabletop exercise.

     

Adapting to energy storage needs: gaps and challenges arising from the European directive for the electricity internal market

Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy - The increasing integration of renewable energy sources into the electricity sector for decarbonization purposes necessitates effective energy storage...     

Zeolite NaY‐Promoted Monocyclization of Epoxy Polyene Terpenes: A Unique Route for the Direct Synthesis of Incompletely Cyclized Naturally Occurring Terpenols

A variety of epoxy polyene terpenes cyclize readily by confinement within zeolite NaY to form primarily products of monocyclization. The monocyclization pathway is highly predominant, irrespectively of the side chain of the epoxy terpene, while the monocyclic products possess regioselectively an exomethylenic double bond. The selective monocyclization in the case of epoxyfarnesyl acetate, epoxyfarnesylacetone or 2,3‐epoxysqualene, provides a direct route to the synthesis of a variety of natural products, such as elengasidiol, farnesiferols B–D, achilleol A, camelliol C and to four farnesylacetone‐derived metabolites isolated from the brown algae Cystophora monoliformis. The optical rotation of achilleol A derived from the cyclization of (S)‐2,3‐epoxysqualene matches with that of the natural product, thus the absolute configuration of achilleol A was established as 1S,3R. From the mechanistic point of view, the NaY‐promoted cyclization of 9,10‐epoxygeranylacetone, selectively deuterium labelled at the C‐10 methyl group, is >97% stereoselective with respect to the topicity of the gem‐dimethyl group. This result is in agreement with a concerted mechanism. Finally, we have proved through labelling experiments, for the first time, that the biomimetic transformation of epoxy polyene terpenes to 2,3,4‐trimethylcyclohexanones upon acid catalysis is a highly stereoselective process. Thus, the less hindered gem‐methyl group on the epoxide functionality becomes α‐ to the carbonyl in the final isomerized product.