Membrane healing and restoration of contractility after mechanical injury in isolated skeletal muscle fibers of the frog.

In single isolated skeletal muscle fibers of the frog, we studied (i) the recovery from large sarcolemmal mechanical injuries of the response to electric stimulation and (ii) the integrity of the sarcolemma under the light microscope. In Ringer's solution, the damaged cells stopped contracting and deteriorated completely within 1 hr. In the presence of phosphatidylcholine (0.025 g/ml in Ringer's solution), the injured cells initially responded with local twitches. Within 0.5 hr, contractility and membrane integrity started to recover and both were back to control levels within 3 hr. When these cells were placed back in normal Ringer's solution, they remained viable and active for several hours. Our results suggest that phosphatidylcholine can protect muscle fibers from the effects of sarcolemmal injury.

FOIA, Inc.

Government transparency is imagined as a public good necessary to a robust democracy. Consistent with that vision, Congress enacted the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to allow oversight and accountability of governmental activities. No actors are more central to the design than journalists, who were not only the prime intended users, but who were intimately involved in crafting the law itself. But this democracy-enhancing ideal is at odds with FOIA’s reality: at some agencies, commercial — not public — interests dominate the landscape of FOIA requesters. This Article provides the first in-depth academic study of the commercial use of FOIA, drawing on original datasets from six federal agencies. It uses these agencies as case studies to examine the way that businesses derive profit-making value from free or low-cost federal records. Remarkably, these datasets also reveal a cottage industry of companies whose entire business model is to request federal records under FOIA and resell them at a profit. Information resellers are not isolated occurrences, but rather are some of the most frequent FOIA requesters — often submitting hundreds or even thousands of requests a year — at a variety of federal agencies. Commercial users certainly have legitimate information needs, but, as this Article demonstrates, the volume and character of the current commercial use of FOIA undermines its efficacy as a transparency tool. Private businesses in essence receive a substantial subsidy without any corresponding public good, all while draining agency resources that might otherwise be used to respond to FOIA requests that serve its central oversight and accountability aims. Moreover, information resellers have become the de facto locus for federal records for whole industries, effectively privatizing an important public function. Counter-intuitively, limiting commercial requesting will not solve this problem. Instead, this Article proposes a targeted and aggressive policy of requiring government agencies to affirmatively disclose sets of records that are routinely the subject of FOIA requests — a surprisingly large number of the documents sought by commercial requesters. By meeting information needs in a more efficient manner that is available equally to all, affirmative disclosure will enable federal agencies to reclaim public records from the private market and free up resources to better serve FOIA requests that advance its democratic purpose.

FOIA, Inc.

Government transparency is imagined as a public good necessary to a robust democracy. Consistent with that vision, Congress enacted the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to allow oversight and accountability of governmental activities, imagining the prime intended users to be journalists. But this democracy-enhancing ideal is at odds with FOIA’s reality: at some agencies, commercial—not public—interests dominate the landscape of FOIA requesters. This Article provides the first in-depth academic study of the commercial use of FOIA, drawing on original datasets from six federal agencies. It documents how corporations, in pursuit of private profit, have overrun FOIA’s supremely inexpensive processes and, in so doing, potentially crowded out journalists and other government watchdogs from doing what the law was intended to facilitate: thirdparty oversight of governmental actors. It also reveals a cottage industry of companies whose entire business model is to request federal records under FOIA and resell them at a profit, which distorts the transparency system even further. Counterintuitively, limiting commercial requesting will not solve this problem. Instead, this Article proposes a targeted and aggressive policy of requiring government agencies to affirmatively disclose sets of records that are the subject of routine FOIA requests—a surprisingly large number of the documents sought by commercial requesters. By meeting information needs in a more efficient manner that is available equally to all, affirmative disclosure will enable federal agencies to reclaim public records from the private market and free up resources to better serve FOIA requests that advance its democratic purpose.

Self-sensing properties of alkali activated blast furnace slag (BFS) composites reinforced with carbon fibers

In recent years, several researchers have shown the good performance of alkali activated slag cement and concretes. Besides their good mechanical properties and durability, this type of cement is a good alternative to Portland cements if sustainability is considered. Moreover, multifunctional cement composites have been developed in the last decades for their functional applications (self-sensing, EMI shielding, self-heating, etc.). In this study, the strain and damage sensing possible application of carbon fiber reinforced alkali activated slag pastes has been evaluated. Cement pastes with 0, 0.29 and 0.58 vol % carbon fiber addition were prepared. Both carbon fiber dosages showed sensing properties. For strain sensing, function gage factors of up to 661 were calculated for compressive cycles. Furthermore, all composites with carbon fibers suffered a sudden increase in their resistivity when internal damages began, prior to any external signal of damage. Hence, this material may be suitable as strain or damage sensor.

NaOH and KOH for preparing activated carbons used in energy and environmental applications

Alkaline hydroxides, especially sodium and potassium hydroxides, are multi-million-ton per annum commodities and strong chemical bases that have large scale applications. Some of them are related with their consequent ability to degrade most materials, depending on the temperature used. As an example, these chemicals are involved in the manufacture of pulp and paper, textiles, biodiesels, soaps and detergents, acid gases removal (e.g., SO2) and others, as well as in many organic synthesis processes. Sodium and potassium hydroxides are strong and corrosive bases, but they are also very stable chemicals that can melt without decomposition, NaOH at 318ºC, and KOH at 360ºC. Hence, they can react with most materials, even with relatively inert ones such as carbon materials. Thus, at temperatures higher than 360ºC these melted hydroxides easily react with most types of carbon-containing raw materials (coals, lignocellulosic materials, pitches, etc.), as well as with most pure carbon materials (carbon fibers, carbon nanofibers and carbon nanotubes). This reaction occurs via a solid-liquid redox reaction in which both hydroxides (NaOH or KOH) are converted to the following main products: hydrogen, alkaline metals and alkaline carbonates, as a result of the carbon precursor oxidation. By controlling this reaction, and after a suitable washing process, good quality activated carbons (ACs), a classical type of porous materials, can be prepared. Such carbon activation by hydroxides, known since long time ago, continues to be under research due to the unique properties of the resulting activated carbons. They have promising high porosity developments and interesting pore size distributions. These two properties are important for new applications such as gas storage (e.g., natural gas or hydrogen), capture, storage and transport of carbon dioxide, electricity storage demands (EDLC-supercapacitors-) or pollution control. Because these applications require new and superior quality activated carbons, there is no doubt that among the different existing activating processes, the one based on the chemical reaction between the carbon precursor and the alkaline hydroxide (NaOH or KOH) gives the best activation results. The present article covers different aspects of the activation by hydroxides, including the characteristics of the resulting activated carbons and their performance in some environment-related applications. The following topics are discussed: i) variables of the preparation method, such as the nature of the hydroxide, the type of carbon precursor, the hydroxide/carbon precursor ratio, the mixing procedure of carbon precursor and hydroxide (impregnation of the precursor with a hydroxide solution or mixing both, hydroxide and carbon precursor, as solids), or the temperature and time of the reaction are discussed, analyzing their effect on the resulting porosity; ii) analysis of the main reactions occurring during the activation process, iii) comparative analysis of the porosity development obtained from different activation processes (e.g., CO2, steam, phosphoric acid and hydroxides activation); and iv) performance of the prepared activated carbon materials on a few applications, such as VOC removal, electricity and gas storages.

Biodiesel production by acid catalysis with heteropolyacids supported on activated carbon fibers

Different catalysts, based on heteropolyacids supported on activated carbon fibers, have been prepared for palmitic acid esterification reaction. The influence of the catalyst (heteropolyacid) and the support on the catalytic activity have been analyzed. The results prove that an adequate combination of both is required to achieve the most suitable catalysts. Regarding to the heteropolyacid, phosphomolybdic acid seems to be the most suitable appropriate taking into account its lowest leaching. About the support, it must show an optimum microporosity, which must be wide enough to allow the entrance and exit of the reagents and products but not too wide in order to avoid the leaching of the catalyst. In addition, both decreasing of the catalytic activity and its recovery over several cycles have been analyzed.

Nanoarchitectures Based on Layered Titanosilicates Supported on Glass Fibers: Application to Hydrogen Storage

This work reports on the synthesis of nanosheets of layered titanosilicate JDF-L1 supported on commercial E-type glass fibers with the aim of developing novel nanoarchitectures useful as robust and easy to handle hydrogen adsorbents. The preparation of those materials is carried out by hydrothermal reaction from the corresponding gel precursor in the presence of the glass support. Because of the basic character of the synthesis media, silica from the silicate-based glass fibers can be involved in the reaction, cementing its associated titanosilicate and giving rise to strong linkages on the support with the result of very stable heterostructures. The nanoarchitectures built up by this approach promote the growth and disposition of the titanosilicate nanosheets as a house-of-cards radially distributed around the fiber axis. Such an open arrangement represents suitable geometry for potential uses in adsorption and catalytic applications where the active surface has to be available. The content of the titanosilicate crystalline phase in the system represents about 12 wt %, and this percentage of the adsorbent fraction can achieve, at 298 K and 20 MPa, 0.14 wt % hydrogen adsorption with respect to the total mass of the system. Following postsynthesis treatments, small amounts of Pd (<0.1 wt %) have been incorporated into the resulting nanoarchitectures in order to improve their hydrogen adsorption capacity. In this way, Pd-layered titanosilicate supported on glass fibers has been tested as a hydrogen adsorbent at diverse pressures and temperatures, giving rise to values around 0.46 wt % at 298 K and 20 MPa. A mechanism of hydrogen spillover involving the titanosilicate framework and the Pd nanoparticules has been proposed to explain the high increase in the hydrogen uptake capacity after the incorporation of Pd into the nanoarchitecture.

Role of dietary fibers in the nutritional management of hyperuricemia

Foods rich in adenine and hypoxanthine may contribute to the increase of uricemia. Hyperuricemia is associated with other pathological conditions pertaining to metabolic syndrome. Objective: the assessement of the impact of fiber rich diet on uricemia in patients with metabolic syndrome. Methods: the study involved 46 male patients with metabolic syndrome who claimed to have reduced mobility in fingers, hypertension, obesity, hyperglycemia and hyperuricemia. A validated questionnaire about dietary habits was applied at the beginning of the study and after 6 weeks of fiber-rich diet by eliminating from patients diet preparations of animal food and increased intake of vegetable foods. Blood presure, body mass index, blood glucose and uric acids were measured at the beginning of the study and after 6 weeks of fiber rich diet by daily consumption of 2 servings of added grains - 60g totally and vegetables 200g, fruits 300g respectively. Results: The study shows that at baseline all patients had an inadequate dietary intake of dietary fiber, 28.5 ± 2.2 g/day instead of 38 g per day.The increase in fiber intake of 10 ± 5 g/day was associated with a decrease of serum uric acid by 69.87% from 8.3  0.6 mg/dL to 5.8  0.5 mg/dL, p = 0.008, non-significant decrease of BMI (from 26.8  4.5 to 26.4  4.6 kg/m2, p<0.01), significant decrease of glycemia (from 130  0.8 to 105  4.2mg/dL, p <0.001) and significant decrease in blood pressure (from 150  10.6 to 130  8.4 mmHg, p <0.001). Conclusion: The fiber rich diet decreased blood uric acid, blood glucose levels an arterial pressure in patients with metabolic syndrome.

Effects of the fibers distribution in the human eardrum: A biomechanical study

The eardrum separates the external ear from the middle ear and it is responsible to convert the acoustical energy into mechanical energy. It is divided by pars tensa and pars flaccida. The aim of this work is to analyze the susceptibility of the four quadrants of the pars tensa under negative pressure, to different lamina propria fibers distribution. The development of associated ear pathology, in particular the formation of retraction pockets, is also evaluated. To analyze these effects, a computational biomechanical model of the tympano-ossicular chain was constructed using computerized tomography images and based on the finite element method. Three fibers distributions in the eardrum middle layer were compared: case 1 (eardrum with a circular band of fibers surrounding all quadrants equally), case 2 (eardrum with a circular band of fibers that decreases in thickness in posterior quadrants), case 3 (eardrum without circular fibers in the posterior/superior quadrant). A static analysis was performed by applying approximately 3000Pa in the eardrum. The pars tensa of the eardrum was divided in four quadrants and the displacement of a central point of each quadrant analyzed. The largest displacements of the eardrum were obtained for the eardrum without circular fibers in the posterior/superior quadrant.

Effects of the fibers distribution in the human eardrum: A biomechanical study

The eardrum separates the external ear from the middle ear and it is responsible to convert the acoustical energy into mechanical energy. It is divided by pars tensa and pars flaccida. The aim of this work is to analyze the susceptibility of the four quadrants of the pars tensa under negative pressure, to different lamina propria fibers distribution. The development of associated ear pathology, in particular the formation of retraction pockets, is also evaluated. To analyze these effects, a computational biomechanical model of the tympano-ossicular chain was constructed using computerized tomography images and based on the finite element method. Three fibers distributions in the eardrum middle layer were compared: case 1 (eardrum with a circular band of fibers surrounding all quadrants equally), case 2 (eardrum with a circular band of fibers that decreases in thickness in posterior quadrants), case 3 (eardrum without circular fibers in the posterior/superior quadrant). A static analysis was performed by applying approximately 3000Pa in the eardrum. The pars tensa of the eardrum was divided in four quadrants and the displacement of a central point of each quadrant analyzed. The largest displacements of the eardrum were obtained for the eardrum without circular fibers in the posterior/superior quadrant.

A detector based on silica fibers for ion beam monitoring in a wide current range

A detector based on doped silica and optical fibers was developed to monitor the profile of particle accelerator beams of intensity ranging from 1 pA to tens of µA. Scintillation light produced in a fiber moving across the beam is measured, giving information on its position, shape and intensity. The detector was tested with a continuous proton beam at the 18 MeV Bern medical cyclotron used for radioisotope production and multi-disciplinary research. For currents from 1 pA to 20 µA, Ce3+ and Sb3+ doped silica fibers were used as sensors. Read out systems based on photodiodes, photomultipliers and solid state photomultipliers were employed. Profiles down to the pA range were measured with this method for the first time. For currents ranging from 1 pA to 3 µA, the integral of the profile was found to be linear with respect to the beam current, which can be measured by this detector with an accuracy of ∼1%. The profile was determined with a spatial resolution of 0.25 mm. For currents ranging from 5 µA to 20 µA, thermal effects affect light yield and transmission, causing distortions of the profile and limitations in monitoring capabilities. For currents higher than ∼1 µA, non doped optical fibers for both producing and transporting scintillation light were also successfully employed.

BMB Enterprises Inc. right-of-way request for a hydroelectric generating facility, Deep Creek Mountains, environmental assessment (EA).

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