Guides to sustainable built-environment development

This paper presents the findings of a comparative analysis of documents addressing sustainable development in relation to the built environment. The analysis has identified commonality in interpretations of sustainability for the built environment and enabled the collation of a set of principles or guidelines that represent current thinking on how the objectives of sustainable development could be interpreted for the built environment.

Analytical techniques for indentation of viscoelastic materials

Indentation of linearly viscoelastic materials is explored using elastic-viscoelastic correspondence analysis for both conical-pyramidal and spherical indentation. Boltzmann hereditary integrals are used to generate displacement-time solutions for loading at constant rate and creep following ramp loading. Experimental data for triangle- and trapezoidal-loading are examined for commercially-available polymers and compared with analytical solutions. Emphasis is given to the use of multiple experiments to test the fidelity and predictive capability of the obtained material creep function. Plastic deformation occurs in sharp indentation of glassy polymers and is found to complicate the viscoelastic analysis. A new method is proposed for estimating a material time-constant from peak displacement or hardness data obtained in pyramidal indentation tests performed at different loading rates.

Viscoelastic properties of bone as a function of hydration state determined by nanoindentation

Spherical indentation creep testing was used to examine the effect of hydration state on bone mechanical properties. Analysis of creep data was based on the elastic-viscoelastic correspondence principle and utilized a direct solution for the finite loading-rate experimental conditions. The zero-time shear modulus was computed from the creep compliance function and compared to the indentation modulus obtained via conventional indentation analysis, based on an elastic unloading response. The method was validated using a well-known polymer material under three different loading conditions. The method was applied to bone samples prepared with different water content by partial exchange with ethanol, where 70% ethanol was considered as the baseline condition. A hydration increase was associated with a 43% decrease in stiffness, while a hydration decrease resulted in a 20% increase in bone tissue stiffness.

Widening engineering horizons: Addressing the complexity of sustainable development

The complex, fragmented and diverse aspects of a sustainable development perspective are translated into an eight-point framework that defines a problem boundary larger than that traditionally adopted by civil engineers. This leads to practical questions intended to inform engineers who ask 'am I being sustainable?' during project implementation. The value of the questions is tested against a case history of a wastewater treatment project. This demonstrates the relevance of the questions to successive project delivery phases of defining the problem, choosing a solution and implementing that solution through design, construction and operation. The case history highlights that answers to several of the additional questions raised by considering this wider problem space are currently buried within government and clients' policies, regulations and standard practice; these answers may not be accessible to the professional engineer.

云南矮马资源及种质研究总结

矮马在国内重新发现后，我们对云南矮马历经７年的调查研究，取得如下主要结果：（１）据史料记述，考古物证，血液蛋白多态测定，云南极可能是矮马渊源地；（２）对全省１２个地（州）实地调查及５个地（州）的了解，证明云南全省均有矮马，其数量占全国矮马总数的８５％～９０％，表明云南为矮马的中心产区。矮马的分布密度与生态环境、社会经济、文化、交通状况密切相关，与海拔、气温关系不大；（３）对正常的成年矮马和普通马，屠测６９项指标，其差异达显著和极显著水平的占５２．２７％；（４）对头骨形态和１０５项尺度观测，两种马间差异达显著和极显著水准的占７２．３８％，表明二者为独立的品种。通过臼齿大小及齿面雏褶形态鉴别，两者间存在明显差异，并确认两种马均为古老品种；（５）测定矮马、普通马的血液生理生化指标２８项４６个指标，有７个指标存在显著和极显著差异。（６）两种马的染色体数均为２ｎ＝６４，Ｃ带结构异染色质存在明显差异，反映出两种马间遗传进化上的差异；（７）对矮马、普通马的６种血液蛋白和同功酶测定，测到９个多态位点，结果在ＴＦ上两者有明显差异。对矮马、普通马样本，测定４４个遗传座位，１０个多态遗传座位中ＰＧＭ及ＴＦ在两品种间差异显著.

Sphenadilactones A and B, two novel nortriterpenoids from Schisandra sphenanthera

Two novel nortriterpenoid compounds, sphenadilactones A (1) and B (2), have been isolated from the leaves and stems of Schisandra sphenanthera. The structural elucidation of 1 and 2 was accomplished by extensive NMR analysis. The relative stereochemistry

Chronotropic and inotropic effects of adenosine and AMP on the isolated systemic heart of Octopus vulgaris

The effect of adenosine on the function of the heart in Octopus vulgaris was studied using an isolated heart preparation. Bolus injections of adenosine or AMP (adenosine precursor) induced both positive chronotropic and inotropic effects. The maximum inotropic effect preceded the maximum chronotropic effect. The impermeable adenosine analogue 2-chloroadenosine elicited a similar effect, while the adenosine uptake blocker dipyridamole did not affect the adenosine response. These results suggest that adenosine acted extracellularly. The concentration-response curves of adenosine and AMP were also determined, by evaluating the effects on ventricular and coronary function. Under these conditions, the potent chronotropic effect elicited by both substances apparently masked or compensated for the inotropic effect, owing to the negative force-frequency relationship known to occur in the octopus heart. The AMP displayed a lower threshold than adenosine, suggesting an higher affinity for the purinergic receptors involved or a strict association between 5'-nucleotidase and the adenosine receptor on the plasma membrane.

Vortex deformation and breaking in superconductors: a microscopic description

Vortex breaking has traditionally been studied for non-uniform critical current densities, although it may also appear due to non-uniform pinning force distributions. In this article we study the case of a high-pinning/low-pinning/high-pinning layered structure. We have developed an elastic model for describing the deformation of a vortex in these systems in the presence of a uniform transport current density J for any arbitrary orientation of the transport current and the magnetic field. If J is above a certain critical value, J(c), the vortex breaks and a finite effective resistance appears. Our model can be applied to some experimental configurations where vortex breaking naturally exists. This is the case for YBa2Cu3O7-delta (YBCO) low-angle grain boundaries and films on vicinal substrates, where the breaking is experienced by Abrikosov-Josephson vortices (AJV) and Josephson string vortices (SV), respectively. With our model, we have experimentally extracted some intrinsic parameters of the AJV and SV, such as the line tension is an element of(l) and compared it to existing predictions based on the vortex structure.

Thermal-creep analysis of concrete bridges

The creep effects on sequentially built bridges are analysed by the theory of thermal creep. Two types of analysis are used: time dependent and steady state. The traditional uniform creep analysis is also introduced briefly. Both simplified and parabolic normalising creep-temperature functions are used in the analysis for comparison. Numerical examples are presented, calculated by a computer program based on the theory of thermal creep and using the displacement method. It is concluded that different assumptions within thermal creep can lead to very different results when compared with uniform creep analysis. The steady-state analysis of monolithically built structures can serve as a limit to evaluate total creep effects for both monolithically and sequentially built structures. The importance of the correct selection of the normalising creep-temperature function is demonstrated.

苏拉维西猴（Macaca nigra）的肝细胞癌

本文报道了一只实验室出生的，成年维性苏拉维西猴的肝细胞癌的病理解剖学和病理组织学变化，同时还讨论了自发性糖尿病和D型逆转录病毒与肝细胞癌的关系。