Creep damage behaviors of red sandstone subjected to uniaxial compression after high-temperature heat treatment using acoustic emission technology

This work discusses the results from tests conducted to investigate the uniaxial compression and creep behavior of red sandstone. An original untreated sample and an 800°C treated sample were selected to carry out the experiments. High temperature had an obvious influence on the mechanical properties of the red sandstone. The relationship between creep strain and instantaneous strain, as well as the instantaneous deformation modulus and creep viscosity coefficient, was analyzed. High temperature reduced the ability of the red sandstone to resist instantaneous deformation and creep deformation. Acoustic emission (AE) technology was also used in the loading process of uniaxial compression and creep tests, providing a powerful means for damage evolutionary analysis of the red sandstone.     

Impact and visibility of Norwegian,Finnish and Spanish journals in the fields of humanities

Scientometrics - This article analyses the impact and visibility of scholarly journals in the humanities that are publishing in the national languages in Finland, Norway and Spain. Three types of...     

The multi-modal interface of Robot-Era multi-robot services tailored for the elderly

Socially assistive robotic platforms are now a realistic option for the long-term care of ageing populations. Elderly users may benefit from many services provided by robots operating in different environments, such as providing assistance inside apartments, serving in shared facilities of buildings or guiding people outdoors. In this paper, we present the experience gained within the EU FP7 ROBOT-ERA project towards the objective of implementing easy-to-use and acceptable service robotic system for the elderly. In particular, we detail the user-centred design and the experimental evaluation in realistic environments of a web-based multi-modal user interface tailored for elderly users of near future multi-robot services. Experimental results demonstrate positive evaluation of usability and willingness to use by elderly users, especially those less experienced with technological devices who could benefit more from the adoption of robotic services. Further analyses showed how multi-modal modes of interaction support more flexible and natural elderly–robot interaction, make clear the benefits for the users and, therefore, increase its acceptability. Finally, we provide insights and lessons learned from the extensive experimentation, which, to the best of our knowledge, is one of the largest experimentation of a multi-robot multi-service system so far.     

Engineering of poly(ε-caprolactone) microcarriers to modulate protein encapsulation capability and release kinetic

Drug delivery applications using biodegradable polymeric microspheres are becoming an important means of delivering therapeutic agents. The aim of this work was to modulate the microporosity of poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) microcarriers to control protein loading capability and release profile. PCL microparticles loaded with BSA (bovine serum albumin) have been de novo synthesized with double emulsion solvent evaporation technique transferred and adapted for different polymer concentrations (1.7 and 3% w/v) and stabilizer present in the inner aqueous phase (0.05, 0.5 and 1% w/v). SEM (scanning electron microscope) and CLSM (confocal laser scanning microscope) analysis map the drug distribution in homogeneously distributed cavities inside the microspheres with dimensions that can be modulated by varying double emulsion process parameters. The inner structure of BSA-loaded microspheres is greatly affected by the surfactant concentration in the internal aqueous phase, while a slight influence of polymer concentration in the oil phase was observed. The surfactant concentration mainly determines microspheres morphology, as well as drug release kinetics, as confirmed by our in-vitro BSA release study. Moreover, the entrapped protein remained unaltered during the protein encapsulation process, retaining its bio-activity and structure, as shown through a dedicated gel chromatographic analytical method.     

Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI) Reprograms Circulating Extracellular Vesicles from ACS Patients Impairing Their Cardio-Protective Properties

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are promising therapeutic tools in the treatment of cardiovascular disorders. We have recently shown that EVs from patients with Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS) undergoing sham pre-conditioning, before percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) were cardio-protective, while EVs from patients experiencing remote ischemic pre-conditioning (RIPC) failed to induce protection against ischemia/reperfusion Injury (IRI). No data on EVs from ACS patients recovered after PCI are currently available. Therefore, we herein investigated the cardio-protective properties of EVs, collected after PCI from the same patients. EVs recovered from 30 patients randomly assigned (1:1) to RIPC (EV-RIPC) or sham procedures (EV-naive) ({"type":"clinical-trial","attrs":{"text":"NCT02195726","term_id":"NCT02195726"}}NCT02195726) were characterized by TEM, FACS and Western blot analysis and evaluated for their mRNA content. The impact of EVs on hypoxia/reoxygenation damage and IRI, as well as the cardio-protective signaling pathways, were investigated in vitro (HMEC-1 + H9c2 co-culture) and ex vivo (isolated rat heart). Both EV-naive and EV-RIPC failed to drive cardio-protection both in vitro and ex vivo. Consistently, EV treatment failed to activate the canonical cardio-protective pathways. Specifically, PCI reduced the EV-naive Dusp6 mRNA content, found to be crucial for their cardio-protective action, and upregulated some stress- and cell-cycle-related genes in EV-RIPC. We provide the first evidence that in ACS patients, PCI reprograms the EV cargo, impairing EV-naive cardio-protective properties without improving EV-RIPC functional capability.     

CLIMAX: CelL‐Interleaved Merged ATM conneXions

The realization of multiway group communications and scaleable IP switching over ATM networks requires merging of virtual connections to be possible. This capability, known as VC merging, cannot be provided by ATM networks which use a standard ATM protocol stack. This paper describes CLIMAX, a simple and efficient solution that allows for VC merging while keeping the typical advantages of cell‐switching. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Transient measurement of phononic states with covariance-based stochastic spectroscopy

We present a novel approach to transient Raman spectroscopy, which combines stochastic probe pulses and a covariance-based detection to measure stimulated Raman...