Natural Stone Waste Powders Applied to SCC Mix Design

In order to comply with current trends concerning sustainability, saving of primary materials and energy\ud savings, this paper addresses Eco-concrete. The major focus thereby is on the increased efficiency of cement\ud use. Applying a new mix design method for concrete, cement contents can be decreased and partially be substituted\ud by other fine powders, preferentially by waste powders which have no mass application so far. This\ud paper is giving examples of successfully introduced waste powders and characterizes the concretes produced\ud with these powders. These innovative, low cement concrete types obtain medium strength and exhibit furthermore\ud self-compacting abilities. This paper additionally highlights possibilities for the direct use of natural\ud stone sludges or filter cakes. A new grading based design method, developed in the authors’ research\ud group, enables the efficient use of all materials available. The method is applicable to self-compacting concretes,\ud earth-moist concretes and conventionally vibrated concretes

Cavity-enhanced optical detection of carbon nanotube Brownian motion

Optical cavities with small mode volume are well-suited to detect the vibration of sub-wavelength sized objects. Here we employ a fiber-based, high-finesse optical microcavity to detect the Brownian motion of a freely suspended carbon nanotube at room temperature under vacuum. The optical detection resolves deflections of the oscillating tube down to 50pm/Hz^1/2. A full vibrational spectrum of the carbon nanotube is obtained and confirmed by characterization of the same device in a scanning electron microscope. Our work successfully extends the principles of high-sensitivity optomechanical detection to molecular scale nanomechanical systems.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figure

Secukinumab versus adalimumab for psoriatic arthritis: comparative effectiveness up to 48 weeks using a matching-adjusted indirect comparison

Secukinumab and adalimumab are approved for adults with active psoriatic arthritis (PsA). In the absence of direct randomized controlled trial (RCT) data, matching-adjusted indirect comparison can estimate the comparative effectiveness in anti-tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-naïve populations. Individual patient data from the FUTURE 2 RCT (secukinumab vs. placebo; N = 299) were adjusted to match baseline characteristics of the ADEPT RCT (adalimumab vs. placebo; N = 313). Logistic regression determined adjustment weights for age, body weight, sex, race, methotrexate use, psoriasis affecting ≥ 3% of body surface area, Psoriasis Area and Severity Index score, Health Assessment Questionnaire Disability Index score, presence of dactylitis and enthesitis, and previous anti-TNF therapy. Recalculated secukinumab outcomes were compared with adalimumab outcomes at weeks 12 (placebo-adjusted), 16, 24, and 48 (nonplacebo-adjusted). After matching, the effective sample size for FUTURE 2 was 101. Week 12 American College of Rheumatology (ACR) response rates were not significantly different between secukinumab and adalimumab. Week 16 ACR 20 and 50 response rates were higher for secukinumab 150 mg than for adalimumab (P = 0.017, P = 0.033), as was ACR 50 for secukinumab 300 mg (P = 0.030). Week 24 ACR 20 and 50 were higher for secukinumab 150 mg than for adalimumab (P = 0.001, P = 0.019), as was ACR 20 for secukinumab 300 mg (P = 0.048). Week 48 ACR 20 was higher for secukinumab 150 and 300 mg than for adalimumab (P = 0.002, P = 0.027), as was ACR 50 for secukinumab 300 mg (P = 0.032). In our analysis, patients with PsA receiving secukinumab were more likely to achieve higher ACR responses through 1 year (weeks 16-48) than those treated with adalimumab. Although informative, these observations rely on a subgroup of patients from FUTURE 2 and thus should be considered interim until the ongoing head-to-head RCT EXCEED can validate these findings. Novartis Pharma AG

Self-localization of magnon Bose-Einstein condensates in the ground state and on excited levels: from harmonic to box-like trapping potential

Long-lived coherent spin precession of 3He-B at low temperatures around 0.2 Tc is a manifestation of Bose-Einstein condensation of spin-wave excitations or magnons in a magnetic trap which is formed by the order-parameter texture and can be manipulated experimentally. When the number of magnons increases, the orbital texture reorients under the influence of the spin-orbit interaction and the profile of the trap gradually changes from harmonic to a square well, with walls almost impenetrable to magnons. This is the first experimental example of Bose condensation in a box. By selective rf pumping the trap can be populated with a ground-state condensate or one at any of the excited energy levels. In the latter case the ground state is simultaneously populated by relaxation from the exited level, forming a system of two coexisting condensates.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

On the origin of the extremely different solubilities of polyethers in water

The solubilities of polyethers are surprisingly counter-intuitive. The best-known example is the difference between polyethylene glycol ([–CH2–CH2–O–]n) which is infinitely soluble, and polyoxymethylene ([–CH2–O–]n) which is completely insoluble in water, exactly the opposite of what one expects from the C/O ratios of these molecules. Similar anomalies exist for oligomeric and cyclic polyethers. To solve this apparent mystery, we use femtosecond vibrational and GHz dielectric spectroscopy with complementary ab initio calculations and molecular dynamics simulations. We find that the dynamics of water molecules solvating polyethers is fundamentally different depending on their C/O composition. The ab initio calculations and simulations show that this is not because of steric effects (as is commonly believed), but because the partial charge on the O atoms depends on the number of C atoms by which they are separated. Our results thus show that inductive effects can have a major impact on aqueous solubilities

Evidence for magnon BEC in superfluid 3He-A

International audienceThe phenomenon of phase-coherent precession of magnetization in superfluid 3He and the related effects of spin superfluidity are based on the true Bose-Einstein condensation of magnons. Several different states of coherent precession have been observed in 3He-B: homogeneously precessing domain (HPD); persistent signal formed byQ-balls at very low temperatures; coherent precession with fractional magnetization; and two new modes of the coherent precession in compressed aerogel. Here we demonstrate the evidence of magnons Bose-Einstein condensation in 3He-A in a compressed aerogel

ICP polishing of silicon for high quality optical resonators on a chip

Miniature concave hollows, made by wet etching silicon through a circular mask, can be used as mirror substrates for building optical micro-cavities on a chip. In this paper we investigate how ICP polishing improves both shape and roughness of the mirror substrates. We characterise the evolution of the surfaces during the ICP polishing using white-light optical profilometry and atomic force microscopy. A surface roughness of 1 nm is reached, which reduces to 0.5 nm after coating with a high reflectivity dielectric. With such smooth mirrors, the optical cavity finesse is now limited by the shape of the underlying mirror

Seizure characterisation using frequency-dependent multivariate dynamics

The characterisation of epileptic seizures assists in the design of targeted pharmaceutical seizure prevention techniques and pre-surgical evaluations. In this paper, we expand on recent use of multivariate techniques to study the crosscorrelation dynamics between electroencephalographic (EEG) channels. The Maximum Overlap Discrete Wavelet Transform (MODWT) is applied in order to separate the EEG channels into their underlying frequencies. The dynamics of the cross-correlation matrix between channels, at each frequency, are then analysed in terms of the eigenspectrum. By examination of the eigenspectrum, we show that it is possible to identify frequency dependent changes in the correlation structure between channels which may be indicative of seizure activity. The technique is applied to EEG epileptiform data and the results indicate that the correlation dynamics vary over time and frequency, with larger correlations between channels at high frequencies. Additionally, a redistribution of wavelet energy is found, with increased fractional energy demonstrating the relative importance of high frequencies during seizures. Dynamical changes also occur in both correlation and energy at lower frequencies during seizures, suggesting that monitoring frequency dependent correlation structure can characterise changes in EEG signals during these. Future work will involve the study of other large eigenvalues and inter-frequency correlations to determine additional seizure characteristics