Abstract Bamboo has been widely used in construction for its high strength, lightweight and low cost. It usually fails from the skin because of macroscopic fiber splitting. Previous research focused on the strength of bamboo at structural scale without insight to its chemistry and microstructure of the skin and how they relate to its facture. In this research, we combine multiscale computational modeling with experimental methods to characterize the distribution of silica particles within the bamboo skin and investigate their effect on fracture. We use microscope to characterize the chemical and microscopic feature of bamboo skin and find silica particles generally distributed in bamboo skin and their pairwise distances follow a normal distribution. We use molecular dynamics simulations and finite element analysis to investigate the effect of silica particles and their unique distribution on the fracture of bamboo skin. It is noted that the silica forms a perfect bonding interface to cellulose fibers and the particles significantly increase the critical stress up to 6.28% than pure cellulose matrix for cracks that randomly occurs. We find that such an enhancement in critical stress against random cracks is only guaranteed by the distribution of silica particles in bamboo skin, as such an enhancement is not observed for other randomly assigned silica particles, suggesting that the silica distribution in bamboo skin is optimal for critical stress improvement for random cracks. This research output can inspire the development of more durable and sustainable bamboo products as well as innovative synthetic composite materials.

On January 2020, the WHO Director General declared that the outbreak constitutes a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. The world has faced a worldwide spread crisis and is still dealing with it. The present paper represents a white paper concerning the tough lessons we have learned from the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, an international and heterogenous multidisciplinary panel of very differentiated people would like to share global experiences and lessons with all interested and especially those responsible for future healthcare decision making. With the present paper, international and heterogenous multidisciplinary panel of very differentiated people would like to share global experiences and lessons with all interested and especially those responsible for future healthcare decision making.

Eurasian jays have been reported to protect their caches by responding to cues about either the visual perspective or current desire of an observing conspecific, similarly to other corvids. Here, we used established paradigms to test whether these birds can – like humans – integrate multiple cues about different mental states and perform an optimal response accordingly. Across five experiments, which also include replications of previous work, we found little evidence that our jays adjusted their caching behaviour in line with the visual perspective and current desire of another agent, neither by integrating these social cues nor by responding to only one type of cue independently. These results raise questions about the reliability of the previously reported effects and highlight several key issues affecting reliability in comparative cognition research.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess and compare the symmetric and asymmetric effects of consumer sentiment on house prices in each state of the USA. This is the first study that uses state-level data. Design/methodology/approach Both linear and nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag approaches are used to assess the asymmetric effects of consumer sentiment on house prices in each state of the USA. Findings When the authors estimated a linear symmetric model, this paper found short-run effects of consumer sentiment on house prices in 34 states that lasted into the long-run in only 13 states. The comparable numbers by estimating a nonlinear asymmetric model were 47 and 22, respectively. The increase in the number of states where consumer sentiment affects house prices was attributed to the nonlinear adjustments of consumer sentiment. Originality/value The authors deviate from previous research and assess the impact of consumer sentiment on house prices by using data from each state of the USA. The authors also deviate from previous research by demonstrating that the effects could be asymmetric. No study has done this at the state-level.

The adsorption of materials-binding peptides to technologically relevant 2D nanosheets of h-BN could be transformative for both property modulation and materials applications. To enhance binding, integration of non-natural functionalities into the biomolecule could prove to be important. However, very little is understood regarding the impact of these biomolecular structural alterations on the binding, which could influence the affinity and surface-adsorbed structures. Here, the effect of fatty acid incorporation site and carbon chain length is investigated using the BP7 peptide, previously identified with affinity for h-BN. The peptide was modified at either the N- or C-terminus with a fatty acid chain length of 6-12 carbons long. The binding affinity and bio-overlayer viscoelasticity are quantified using quartz crystal microbalance analysis. While fatty acid conjugation did not substantially affect the affinity of the resultant biomolecules, it did alter the viscoelasticity of the biomolecular overlayer on the h-BN surface based upon the carbon chain length and incorporation site. Molecular dynamics simulations demonstrate interplay between enthalpic and entropic effects in modifying the overlayer viscoelasticity. The simulations predict that C-terminal conjugation promotes the enhancement of upright adsorbed states, compared with the N-terminal case, with this effect most pronounced for the 10-carbon chain.

“Prosocial Behavior‘‘ means cooperating and acting in a way to benefit others. Since more and more diverse road users (such as electronic bicycles, scooters, etc.) but also vehicles at different levels of automation are sharing the safety-critical road environment, acting prosocial will become increasingly important in the future for both human and automated traffic participants. A few papers so far have already begun to address this issue, but currently, there exist no systematic methodological approaches to research this area. In the proposed workshop, we plan to define more specifically what characterizes prosocial behavior in future traffic scenarios where automated and manual vehicles meet and interact with all kinds of vulnerable road users. We further want to identify important scenarios and discuss potential evaluation methods for researching prosocial behavior. Ultimately, these findings will be integrated into a research agenda actively pursued by cooperation initiated during this event.

Background Evidence is lacking for safe and effective treatments for juvenile localised scleroderma (JLS). Methotrexate (MTX) is commonly used first line and mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) second line, despite a limited evidence base. A head to head trial of these two medications would provide data on relative efficacy and tolerability. However, a frequentist approach is difficult to deliver in JLS, because of the numbers needed to sufficiently power a trial. A Bayesian approach could be considered. Methods An international consensus meeting was convened including an elicitation exercise where opinion was sought on the relative efficacy and tolerability of MTX compared to MMF to produce prior distributions for a future Bayesian trial. Secondary aims were to achieve consensus agreement on critical aspects of a future trial. Results An international group of 12 clinical experts participated. Opinion suggested superior efficacy and tolerability of MMF compared to MTX; where most likely value of efficacy of MMF was 0.70 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.34-0.90) and of MTX was 0.68 (95% CI 0.41-0.8). The most likely value of tolerability of MMF was 0.77 (95% CI 0.3-0.94) and of MTX was 0.62 (95% CI 0.32-0.84). The wider CI for MMF highlights that experts were less sure about relative efficacy and tolerability of MMF compared to MTX. Despite using a Bayesian approach, power calculations still produced a total sample size of 240 participants, reflecting the uncertainty amongst experts about the performance of MMF. Conclusions Key factors have been defined regarding the design of a future Bayesian approach clinical trial including elicitation of prior opinion of the efficacy and tolerability of MTX and MMF in JLS. Combining further efficacy data on MTX and MMF with prior opinion could potentially reduce the pre-trial uncertainty so that, when combined with smaller trial sample sizes a compelling evidence base is available.

Efforts to reduce air pollution in developing countries may require increased use of biomass fuels. Even biomass fuels are a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels there is limited quantitative information concerning heavy metal content in their ashes. Therefore, this study focuses on the determination of the heavy metal concentrations in wood pellet ash obtained from the combustion of 10 pellet brans from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Italy, the effects of adding the ashes to soils, and the assessment of health risk assessment. Ash content was determined by gravimetric method. The amount and composition of ash remaining after combustion of wood pellets varies considerably according to the type of biomass and wood from which the pellet is made. Samples were prepared by wet digestion using HNO3, and heavy metals are determined by atomic absorption spectroscopy-flame and graphite furnace. The results showed that the lowest concentration in ashes was obtained for Co 0.01 mg kg−1 and the highest for Fe 571.63 mg kg−1. The Hazard Index (HI), calculated for non-cancerous substances for children was 2.23E−01, and the total Risk index was 4.54E−05. As for adults, HI was 1.51E−02, while the Risk index value was 3.21E−06. Human health risk calculated through HI and Risk index for children and adults associated with analyzed pellets is not of significant concern. The calculated enrichment factor and metal pollution index for wood pellet ashes indicate the risk of soil contamination with heavy metals. From this point of view, analyzed samples of ashes could be a serious contaminant of soil, so further monitoring is required.