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Multivalent ions take a significant role in the sorption of soluble polysaccharides on solid cellulose substrates and thus demonstrate an important principle in structural polysaccharide organisation. Sorption of Fe(III)–alginate complexes on lyocell fibres as model for the insoluble cellulose matrix has been studied between pH 3–13, at 30 and 60 °C. Sorption maximum of the Fe(III)–alginate complex was observed at pH 3 where the sorbed amounts of alginate and iron were 6,600 and 85 mg iron per kg cellulose respectively. Under the experimental conditions used, a concentration of 0.05 mM Fe(III) is sufficient to achieve surface sorption of Fe(III)–alginate complex. The alginate sorption exhibited minor dependence on molar ratio of Fe(III) to alginate. In environmental scanning electron microscopy no deposition of Fe-hydroxides on the fiber surface was detected. The thickness of the adsorbed Fe(III)–alginate layer on the fiber surface was estimated with 12–22 nm. Tensile strength and abrasion resistance of Fe(III)–alginate treated fibers were not reduced through the sorption treatment. Alginate modified cellulose is of interest as material for medical application, as sorbent and textile finish.

This paper presents a multi-octave power amplifier based on mixed continuous modes. It consists of resistive-reactive series of continuous modes and a phase shift parameter. The issue of impedance duplication is solved in the case of exceeding an octave bandwidth. By introducing a phase shift parameter, the bandwidth is further expanded obviously. Then, a compact network and its design method are proposed to meet impedance requirements. For validation, a 0.5-4.0 GHz power amplifier is designed and fabricated. And the measured results show that the saturated output power is between 40.0 dBm and 42.8 dBm in target band. From 60% to 71% drain efficiency is obtained with a gain greater than 10 dB. The size of the proposed PA is greatly compact, which is only with 3.6 cm $\times6.0$ cm.

The development of smart delivery systems that are robust in circulation and quickly release drugs following selective internalization into target cancer cells is a key to precision cancer therapy. Interestingly, reduction-sensitive polymeric nanomedicines showing high plasma stability and triggered cytoplasmic drug release behavior have recently emerged as one of the most exciting platforms for targeted delivery of various anticancer drugs including small chemical drugs, proteins, and nucleic acids. In vivo studies in varying tumor models reveal that these reduction-sensitive multifunctional nanomedicines outperform the currently used clinical formulations and reduction-insensitive counterparts, bringing about not only significantly enhanced tumor selectivity, accumulation and inhibition efficacy but also markedly reduced systemic toxicity and improved therapeutic index. In this review, we will highlight the cutting-edge advancement with a focus on in vivo performances as well as future perspectives on reduction-sensitive polymeric nanomedicines for targeted cancer therapy.

Abstract The main objective of this study is to investigate the performance of low-cost glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) in strengthening the extremely low strength and poorly-detailed concrete columns typically found in a rural area of Thailand. These structures were usually constructed by local people without following any standard guidelines. A detailed survey of these structures revealed that longitudinal reinforcement in reinforced concrete columns is comprised of round bars along with widely spaced stirrups. Further, the compressive strength of concrete is observed very low i.e., 5.0 MPa. This type of column is referred as “Non-engineered Reinforced Concrete Column” or NRCC. To achieve the research objectives, two reinforced concrete columns representative of existing NRCC columns were constructed and subjected to cyclic loadings. One column was tested as built to serve as a control column, whereas second column was strengthened by using locally available low cost bi-directional GFRP. Both columns were subjected to lateral loading along with constant axial load to simulate the effect of earthquake forces. Test results indicate that the ultimate failure mode of the control column is very brittle. Severe crushing of concrete and spalling of concrete cover along with buckling of the longitudinal steel bars was observed at very low drift levels. The maximum lateral strength (14.73 kN) was observed at the drift level of 0.75 %. Following this, lateral load carrying capacity was rapidly dropped and gravity collapse was occurred at 1.75 % lateral drift. In contrast, the counterpart GFRP column performed very well under cyclic loading. The maximum lateral strength (19.47 kN) was observed at the drift level of 1.22 %. The damage was almost invisible up to 3% drift and the lateral strength degradation occurred gradually up to 8% drift. Finally, the well-known Paulay and Priestley’s model based on plastic hinge theory together with the method essentially based on ACI440 equations were used to calculate the lateral resistance and drift of both control and GFRP strengthened columns. The predicted results in terms of lateral forces are found in well agreement with the experimental results, however, predicted results in terms of lateral displacements are found on conservative side especially for lateral displacements at the onset of ultimate lateral load and 20 % drop in lateral load carrying capacity.

To evaluate the effect of loading the long and short heads of the biceps on glenohumeral range of motion and humeral head position. Eight cadaveric shoulders were tested in 60° abduction in the scapula and coronal plane. Muscle loading was applied based on cross-sectional area ratios. The short and long head of the biceps were loaded individually followed by combined loading. Range of motion was measured with 2.2 Nm torque, and the humeral head apex position was measured using a MicroScribe. A paired t test with Bonferroni correction was used for statistics. Long head loading decreased internal rotation in both the scapular (17.9 %) and coronal planes (5.7 %) and external rotation in the scapular plane (2.6 %) (P < 0.04). With only short head loading, maximum internal rotation was significantly increased in the scapular and coronal plane. Long head and short head loading shifted the humeral head apex posteriorly in maximum internal rotation in both planes with the long head shift being significantly greater than the short head. Long head loading also shifted the humeral apex inferiorly in internal rotation and inferiorly posteriorly in neutral rotation in the scapular plane. With the long head unloaded, there was a significant superior shift with short head loading in both planes. Loading the long head of the biceps had a much greater effect on glenohumeral range of motion and humeral head shift than the short head of the biceps; however, in the absence of long head loading, with the short head loaded, maximum internal rotation increases and the humeral head shifts superiorly, which may contribute to impingement following tenodesis of the long head of the biceps. These small changes in rotational range of motion and humeral head position with biceps tenodesis may not lead to pathologic conditions in low-demand patients; however, in throwers, biceps tenodesis may lead to increased contact pressures in late-cocking and deceleration that will likely translate to decreased performance therefore every effort should be made to preserve the biceps-labral complex.

Web applications are getting closer to the performance of native applications taking advantage of new standard–based technologies. The recent HTML5 standard includes, among others, the Web Workers API that allows executing JavaScript applications on multiple threads, or workers. However, the internals of the browser’s JavaScript virtual machine does not expose direct relation between workers and running threads in the browser and the utilization of logical cores in the processor. As a result, developers do not know how performance actually scales on different environments and therefore what is the optimal number of workers on parallel JavaScript codes. This paper presents the first performance scalability analysis of parallel web apps with multiple workers. We focus on two case studies representative of different worker execution models. Our analyses show performance scaling on different parallel processor microarchitectures and on three major web browsers in the market. Besides, we study the impact of co–running applications on the web app performance. The results provide insights for future approaches to automatically find out the optimal number of workers that provide the best tradeoff between performance and resource usage to preserve system responsiveness and user experience, especially on environments with unexpected changes on system workload. Peer Reviewed

International audience; This study is the first synthesis of chemical composition and stable isotopes values for the Kerguelen archipelago waters. The stable isotope values for rainfall and river waters in the Kerguelen archipelago allow a calculation of the Local Meteoric Water Line (δD rainfall = 8.43 x δ18O rainfall + 11) and a summer runoff line (δD river drainage = 7.45 x δ18O river drainage + 6). Surface waters with low- ion concentrations, chlorine facies and stable isotope values infiltrate through fractures and lava flows recharging deeper groundwaters. Thermal groundwater with low- (7 to 50 °C) and high- (50 to 100 °C) temperatures emerges in different localities in the volcanic archipelago. The low-temperature thermal waters might represent a mixture of high-temperature water with rainfall, thermal gradient changes or shallower infiltration compared to that for high-temperature thermal waters. The Rallier du Baty and Val Travers areas contain geothermal fluids with high-temperature springs, fumaroles and a large water flow. In the Rallier du Baty, the major ion chemistry and O, H, C and S stable isotope ratio of low (7 to 50 °C) temperature spring waters in Rallier du Baty area demonstrate a geothermal-system recharged by meteoric water (δD H2O liquid = 7.0 x δ18O H2O liquid + 0.5) rather than sea water. The chemical and isotopic compositions of elevated temperature spring waters (50 to 100 °C) have a long and complex history of meteoric water interacting with cooling magmas (δD H2O liquid = 1.78 x δ18O H2O liquid – 23). Surficial precipitation of aragonite, kaolinite, pyrite, native sulfur attest to a long livied geothermal system. A temperature of the geothermal reservoir has been estimated between 193 and 259 °C by cation geothermometry. The combination of minerals observed, major ion composition of water with thermodynamic modeling and stable isotope data suggest a geothermal system with a series of water/rock interactions from 50 to 250 °C. The conductive cooling of rising of H2O−CO2-rich fluids have produced a H2O−CO2 phase separation with the precipitation of secondary minerals.

This article deals with material research of selected types of quartz and quartzites in order to determine the priority of their use in the production of ferrosilicon and pure silicon, respectively. The highest quality quartzes and quartzites are commonly used in metallurgy, but not all types of these silicon raw materials are suitable for the production of ferrosilicon and pure silicon, despite their similar chemical composition. Behavior differences can be observed in the process conditions of heating and carbothermic production of ferrosilicon and silicon. These differences depend, in particular, on the nature and content of impurities, and the granularity (lumpiness) and microstructure of individual grains. The research focused primarily on determining the physicochemical and metallurgical properties of silicon raw materials. An integral part of the research was also the creation of a new methodology for determining the reducibility of quartzes (or quartzites), which could be used for real industrial processes and should be very reliable. The results of the laboratory experiments and evaluation of the physicochemical and metallurgical properties of the individual quartzes (or quartzites) are presented in the discussion. Based on comparison of the tested samples’ properties, their priority of use was determined. This research revealed the highest quality in quartzite from Sweden (Dalbo deposit) and Ukraine (Ovruč deposit) and quartz from Slovakia (Švedlár deposit). The use of these raw materials in industrial conditions is expected to result in the achievement of better production parameters, such as higher yield and product quality and lower electricity consumption.