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Ceramic/polymer dental composites inspired on the microstructure of human enamel are produced by robocasting combined with polymer infiltration. Robocasting is first used to additively manufacture a network of interconnected hydroxyapatite (HAp) rods aligned perpendicular to the occlusal surface, mimicking the natural material. A co-continuous composite is then obtained by immersing the sintered ceramic skeleton in an epoxy resin bath that is subsequently cured. The mechanical performance of the resulting bioinspired composite was evaluated through biaxial bending and sliding-wear tests. The results obtained are compared with those of two commercial dental composites. Despite being a first prototype, the bioinspired material exhibited mechanical properties very close, both in terms of biaxial strength (63 ± 4 MPa) and wear resistance (specific wear rate (7 ± 2)·10−5 mm3/Nm), to the commercial solutions. The proposed ground-breaking strategy appears, then, as a very promising alternative for the production of innovative dental composites with near-net shape and improved durability.

Innovative scaffolds consisting of a cartesian mesh of interpenetrated composite struts of polycaprolactone (PCL) and β-tricalcium phosphate (β-TCP) in a core/shell configuration are developed. Photocurable slurries with high solid-loading (40 vol% TCP) and reduced viscosity were produced by adding camphor and used to fabricate ceramic preforms with hollow struts through Digital Light Processing (DLP). After sintering the structures were suction-infiltrated by molten PCL, resulting in co-continuous composite scaffolds. Their mechanical performance was evaluated in compressive and bending tests and analyzed under the light of stress fields calculated by finite element numerical simulations. Toughness of the scaffolds was notably increased after incorporating the polymeric core. The new co-continuous architecture facilitates impregnation and improves the isotropy of the reinforcement provided by the polymeric core over other reported alternatives but increases the stresses in the ceramic. This was compensated, however, by the increased intrinsic strength associated to using a more concentrated feedstock.

Bioactive ceramic scaffolds for bone regeneration consisting of a three-dimensional mesh of interpenetrating struts with square section were fabricated via Digital Light Processing (DLP). The ability of the technique to manufacture 3D porous structures from β-tricalcium phosphate (β-TCP) powders with different dimensions of struts and pores was evaluated, identifying the possibilities and limitations of the manufacturing process. Small pore sizes were found to seriously complicate the elimination of excess slurry from the scaffold’s innermost pores. The effect of the strut/pore size on the mechanical performance of the scaffolds under compressive stresses was also evaluated, but no significant influence was found. Under compressive stresses, the structures resulted weaker when tested perpendicularly to the printing plane due to interlayer shear failure. Interlayer superficial grooves are proposed as potential failure-controlling defects, which could also explain the lack of a Weibull size effect on the mechanical strength of the fabricated DLP scaffolds.

Porous structures consisting of a tetragonal three-dimensional mesh of interpenetrating coaxial tubes were fabricated by robocasting from hydroxyapatite (HA) inks. After sintering the structures, polycaprolactone (PCL) was infiltrated within the tubes core by injection of a polymer solution. The addition of the polymer enhanced the mechanical performance in terms of toughness over dense- and hollow-strut all-ceramic scaffolds, specially under bending stresses. PCL impregnation improved also the compressive strength over hollow-strut scaffolds —although dense-strut structures remained stronger especially in compression. Thus, this coaxial core-shell strut configuration combines the best features of each material: the necessary stiffness and excellent osteoconductivity of the bioceramic, with the high toughness and ductility of the biopolymer; and allows the fabrication of hybrid scaffolds with the interconnected macroporosity necessary for cell ingrowth. Hence, this work successfully provides a proof-of-concept of this novel strategy for the mechanical enhancement of bioceramic-based scaffolds while preserving their osteoconductive properties.

A novel method for the fabrication of hybrid polymer/ceramic porous scaffolds with core/shell struts is developed. Robocasting with coaxial needles is used to deposit beta-tricalcium phosphate scaffolds with hollow rods, which are subsequently filled with a polycaprolactone melt by suction. The polymeric core provides outstanding improvement of the toughness of the structure in bending, with strain energy density increasing nearly two orders of magnitude and continuous polymeric fibres holding the structure together even after large deflections. Moreover, flexural strength is not significantly reduced compared to dense-strut structures; and the macroporosity of the scaffold and osteoconductivity of bioceramic surfaces are preserved.

International audience; The High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) observatory and the High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) are two leading instruments in the ground-based very-high-energy γ-ray domain. HAWC employs the water Cherenkov detection (WCD) technique, while H.E.S.S. is an array of Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs). The two facilities therefore differ in multiple aspects, including their observation strategy, the size of their field of view, and their angular resolution, leading to different analysis approaches. Until now, it has been unclear if the results of observations by both types of instruments are consistent: several of the recently discovered HAWC sources have been followed up by IACTs, resulting in a confirmed detection only in a minority of cases. With this paper, we go further and try to resolve the tensions between previous results by performing a new analysis of the H.E.S.S. Galactic plane survey data, applying an analysis technique comparable between H.E.S.S. and HAWC. Events above 1 TeV are selected for both data sets, the point-spread function of H.E.S.S. is broadened to approach that of HAWC, and a similar background estimation method is used. This is the first detailed comparison of the Galactic plane observed by both instruments. H.E.S.S. can confirm the γ-ray emission of four HAWC sources among seven previously undetected by IACTs, while the three others have measured fluxes below the sensitivity of the H.E.S.S. data set. Remaining differences in the overall γ-ray flux can be explained by the systematic uncertainties. Therefore, we confirm a consistent view of the γ-ray sky between WCD and IACT techniques.

The High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) gamma-ray observatory is located close to the equator (latitude $18^{\circ }$ N), at an altitude of 4100 m above sea level. HAWC has 295 water Cherenkov detectors (WCD), each containing four photomultiplier tubes (PMT). The main purpose of HAWC is the determination of the energy and arrival direction of very high energy gamma rays produced by energetic processes in the universe, HAWC also has a scaler system which counts the arrival of secondary particles to the detector. In this work we show that the scaler system of HAWC is an ideal instrument for solar modulation and space-weather studies due to its large area and high sensitivity. In order to prepare the scaler system for low energy heliospheric studies, we model and correct the efficiency variation of each PMT of the array, which result in a capability to measure variations $> 0.01\%$ with high accuracy. Using the singular value decomposition method, we correct the rate deviations of all PMTs of the array, due to changes in efficiency, gain and operational voltage. We isolate and remove the atmospheric modulations of the PMTs count rates measured by the TDC-scaler data acquisition system. In particular, the atmospheric pressure at the HAWC site exhibits an oscillating behavior with a period of ∼12 hours and we make use of this periodic property to estimate the pressure coefficients for the HAWC TDC-scaler system. These corrections performed on the TDC-scaler system make the HAWC TDC-scaler system an ideal instrument for solar modulation and space-weather studies. As examples of this capability, we present the preliminary analysis of the solar modulation of cosmic rays at three time scales observed by HAWC, with an unprecedented accuracy.

Hybrid scaffolds consisting of a three-dimensional network of hollow struts of β-tricalcium phosphate (β-TCP) with cores filled with polycaprolactone (PCL) were fabricated. For the development of the ceramic structures the additive manufacturing technique known as Digital Light Processing (DLP) was employed. After sintering, cores were infiltrated with molten PCL by suction. The enhancement of the scaffolds’ compressive strength and toughness upon infiltration was evaluated through uniaxial compression tests. The effect of the core diameter on the mechanical performance was also analyzed. Moreover, a comprehensive finite element analysis was carried out to broaden the study on the effect of core/shell respective diameters and to analyze the role of the modulus of the core material on the strength of the hybrid structure.

The MGRO J2019+37 region is one of the brightest sources in the sky at TeV energies. It was detected in the second HAWC catalog as 2HWC J2019+367 and here we present a detailed study of this region using data from HAWC. This analysis resolves the region into two sources: HAWC J2019+368 and HAWC J2016+371. We associate HAWC J2016+371 with the evolved supernova remnant CTB 87, although its low significance in this analysis prevents a detailed study at this time. An investigation of the morphology (including possible energy-dependent morphology) and spectrum for HAWC J2019+368 is the focus of this work. We associate HAWC J2019+368 with PSR J2021+3651 and its X-ray pulsar wind nebula, the Dragonfly nebula. Modeling the spectrum measured by HAWC and Suzaku reveals a ∼7 kyr pulsar and nebula system producing the observed emission at X-ray and γ-ray energies.

The management of downy mildew (Plasmopara halstedii) in sunflower, is heavily dependent on genetic resistance, whilst entomopathogenic fungi (EF) can reduce other sunflower diseases. In this work, we characterized P. halstedii from Spain and other countries collected in the past few years. Twenty-three races were identified (the most frequent in Spain being 310, 304, 705 and 715), with an increasing proportion of highly virulent races. Five isolates from countries other than Spain overcame the resistance in RHA-340. In addition, we assessed the efficacy of five EF against downy mildew and their effects on sunflower growth in axenic conditions. None of the entomopathogens reduced disease severity, nor did they have any effect on plant growth when applied together with P. halstedii. In contrast, three EF reduced some of the plant growth variables in the absence of the pathogen. Microbiological and molecular diagnostics suggest that the axenic system and the short experimental time used in this study did not favor the successful establishment of EF in the plants or their potential biocontrol effect. Our results show a shift in P. halstedii racial patterns and suggest that soil as a growth substrate and long infection times are needed for EF effectiveness against downy mildew., Spanish National Research Council project PIE201940E058 to L.M.-R., Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness project AGL2016-80483-R to E. Quesada-Moraga and Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports, grant number FPU16/03983 to P.M.-F.

Nature has evolved ingenious armour designs, like the flexible carapaces of armadillo and boxfish consisting of hexagonal segments connected by collagen fibres, that serve as bioinspiration for modern ballistic armours. Here, Finite element modelling (FEM) used to analyze the effect of scale geometry and other impact parameters on the ballistic protection provided by a bioinspired segmented ceramic armour. For this purpose, the impact of cylindrical fragment simulating projectiles (FSPs) onto alumina-epoxy non-overlapping scaled plates was simulated. Scale geometrical parameters (size, thickness and shape) and impact conditions (FSP diameter, speed, location) are varied and the amount of damage produced in the ceramic tiles and the final residual velocity of the FSP after the impact are evaluated. It is found that segmentation drastically reduces the size of the damaged area without significantly reducing the ballistic protection in centred impact, provided the tile size is kept over a critical value. Such critical tile size (∼20 mm, inscribed diameter, for impacts at 650 m/s) is independent of the scale thickness, but decreases with projectile speed, although never below the diameter of the projectile. Off-centred impacts reduce the ballistic protection and increase the damaged area, but this can be minimized with an appropriate tile shape. In this sense and in agreement with the natural hexagonal tiles of the boxfish and armadillo, hexagonal scales are found to be optimal, exhibiting a variation of ballistic protection—measured as reduction of projectile speed—with impact location under 12%. Design guidelines for the fabrication of segmented protection systems are proposed in the light of these numerical results. Keywords: Scaled armour, Ballistic impact, Alumina, Epoxy, Finite element analysis, Bioinspiration

Composite bioinks made of 45S5 Bioglass ® and β-TCP (β-tricalcium phosphate) were elaborated from raw powders using carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) as a single multifunctional processing additive. The developed inks were used to fabricate straight rods, which were then sintered at 1000 °C and 1100 °C. The densities and bending strengths of the sintered rods were measured, and both parameters were found to increase with the 45S5 bioglass content, most dramatically beyond 60 vol% of 45S5 bioglass. X-Ray Diffraction analysis revealed the occurrence of significant changes in the phase composition of the material, including formation of new phases like parawollastonite, rhenanite or hydroxyapatite. Comparison of the results obtained for pure TCP with those of previous studies, where other processing additives different from CMC were used, suggests that CMC might be hampering the sintering of β-TCP.

A simple graphite-based recipe is proposed for use as secondary fugitive ink for robocasting. The ink exhibits excellent rheological performance and physico-chemical compatibility with other ceramic inks and can be completely burned-out by a heat treatment at 800 °C for 2 h. The simplicity of the preparation process, together with its low cost, make it an optimal choice for this task. The development of such an ink will greatly facilitate the manufacture of complex ceramic parts requiring the use of a support structure during assembly by direct ink writing.

The High Altitude Water Cherenkov observatory (HAWC) is an air shower array devised for TeV gamma-ray astronomy. HAWC is located at an altitude of 4100 m a.s.l. in Sierra Negra, Mexico. HAWC consists of 300 Water Cherenkov Detectors, each instrumented with 4 photomultiplier tubes (PMTs). HAWC re-uses the Front-End Boards from the Milagro experiment to receive the PMT signals. These boards are used in combination with Time to Digital Converters (TDCs) to record the time and the amount of light in each PMT hit (light flash). A set of VME TDC modules (128 channels each) is operated in a continuous (dead time free) mode. The TDCs are read out via the VME bus by Single-Board Computers (SBCs), which in turn are connected to a gigabit Ethernet network. The complete system produces ~ 500 MB/s of raw data. A high-throughput data processing system has been designed and built to enable real-time data analysis. The system relies on off-the-shelf hardware components, an open-source software technology for data transfers (ZeroMQ) and a custom software framework for data analysis (AERIE). Multiple trigger and reconstruction algorithms can be combined and run on blocks of data in a parallel fashion, producing a set of output data streams which can be analyzed in real time with minimal latency (< 5 s). This paper provides an overview of the hardware set-up and an in-depth description of the software design, covering both the TDC data acquisition system and the real-time data processing system. The performance of these systems is also discussed., 14 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Nucl. Instrum. Meth. A

Robocasting and pressureless spark plasma sintering are combined for the first time to fabricate geometrically-complex B4C components. It is shown that robocasting allows B4C green pieces to be printed with near-net shape from inks with suitable rheological properties, and that subsequent pressureless spark plasma sintering permits an ultrafast, energy-efficient, solid-state densification that yields B4C parts with adequate mechanical properties. Furthermore, the usefulness of cold-isostatic pressing to improve the densification of the pieces is evaluated, and the benefits of robocasting over conventional dry powder compaction are identified. Finally, the scalability for the production of large B4C pieces is discussed.

Imposing restrictions without assuming underlying distributions to modelize complex realities is a valuable methodological tool. However, if a subset of restrictions were not correctly specified, the usual test-statistics for correctly specified models tend to reject erronously a simple null hypothesis. In this setting, we may say that the model suffers from misspecification. We study the behavior of empirical phi-divergence test-statistics, introduced in Balakrishnan et al. Statistics 49:951–977 (2015), by using the exponential tilted empirical likelihood estimators of Schennach Ann Stat 35:634–672 (2007), as a good compromise between the efficiency of the significance level for small sample sizes and the robustness under misspecification.

45S5 bioactive glass composite scaffolds reinforced with reduced graphene oxide (rGO) were fabricated for the first time by robocasting (direct-writing) technique. Composite scaffolds with 0–3 vol.% content of rGO platelets were printed, and then consolidated by pressureless sintering at 550 or 1000 °C in Ar atmosphere. It was found that the addition of rGO platelets up to 1.5 vol.% content enhanced the mechanical performance of the 45S5 bioactive glass scaffolds in terms of strength and toughness. Best performance was obtained for 1 vol.% rGO, which yielded an enhancement of the fracture toughness of ∼850 and 380% for sintering temperatures of 550 and 1000 °C, respectively, while the compressive strength increased by ∼290 and 75%. rGO addition thus emerges as a promising approach for the fabrication of novel bioglass scaffolds with improved mechanical performance without deterioration of their bioactivity, which may then find use in load-bearing bone tissue engineering applications.

In this paper we explore the possibilities of applying $$\phi $$ -divergence measures in inferential problems in the field of latent class models (LCMs) for multinomial data. We first treat the problem of estimating the model parameters. As explained below, minimum $$\phi $$ -divergence estimators (M $$\phi $$ Es) considered in this paper are a natural extension of the maximum likelihood estimator (MLE), the usual estimator for this problem; we study the asymptotic properties of M $$\phi $$ Es, showing that they share the same asymptotic distribution as the MLE. To compare the efficiency of the M $$\phi $$ Es when the sample size is not big enough to apply the asymptotic results, we have carried out an extensive simulation study; from this study, we conclude that there are estimators in this family that are competitive with the MLE. Next, we deal with the problem of testing whether a LCM for multinomial data fits a data set; again, $$\phi $$ -divergence measures can be used to generate a family of test statistics generalizing both the classical likelihood ratio test and the chi-squared test statistics. Finally, we treat the problem of choosing the best model out of a sequence of nested LCMs; as before, $$\phi $$ -divergence measures can handle the problem and we derive a family of $$\phi $$ -divergence test statistics based on them; we study the asymptotic behavior of these test statistics, showing that it is the same as the classical test statistics. A simulation study for small and moderate sample sizes shows that there are some test statistics in the family that can compete with the classical likelihood ratio and the chi-squared test statistics.

The discovery of the TeV point source 2HWC J2006+341 was reported in the second HAWC gamma-ray catalog. We present a follow-up study of this source here. The TeV emission is best described by an extended source with a soft spectrum. At GeV energies, an extended source is significantly detected in Fermi-LAT data. The matching locations, sizes and spectra suggest that both gamma-ray detections correspond to the same source. Different scenarios for the origin of the emission are considered and we rule out an association to the pulsar PSR J2004+3429 due to extreme energetics required, if located at a distance of 10.8 kpc., Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures. To appear in ApJL

We present the first catalog of gamma-ray sources emitting above 56 and 100 TeV with data from the High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Observatory, a wide field-of-view observatory capable of detecting gamma rays up to a few hundred TeV. Nine sources are observed above 56 TeV, all of which are likely Galactic in origin. Three sources continue emitting past 100 TeV, making this the highest-energy gamma-ray source catalog to date. We report the integral flux of each of these objects. We also report spectra for three highest-energy sources and discuss the possibility that they are PeVatrons., Accepted by Physical Review Letters

Due to the high energies and long distances to the sources, astrophysical observations provide a unique opportunity to test possible signatures of Lorentz invariance violation (LIV). Superluminal LIV enables the decay of photons at high energy. The High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Observatory is among the most sensitive gamma-ray instruments currently operating above 10 TeV. HAWC finds evidence of 100 TeV photon emission from at least four astrophysical sources. These observations exclude, for the strongest of the limits set, the LIV energy scale to $2.2\times10^{31}$ eV, over 1800 times the Planck energy and an improvement of 1 to 2 orders of magnitude over previous limits., Accepted for publication in Physical Review Letters

The in vitro bioactivity and degradation behavior of 45S5 bioglass robocast scaffolds is investigated by immersion tests in simulated body fluid (SBF). A comparative study is conducted between fully amorphous scaffolds, sintered at 550 °C, and mostly crystalline structures, sintered at 1000 °C. The degradation behavior is evaluated through measurements of the weight loss and solution pH variations upon immersion in SBF. The concurrent formation of calcium-rich precipitates on the scaffold surface during immersion in SBF solution was also monitored. The effect of the degradation on the scaffolds’ mechanical performance in compression is subsequently analyzed. Finally, in vitro cell culture experiments were performed to evaluate the proliferation behavior of osteoblast-like cells onto both types of robocast scaffolds. Amorphous scaffolds exhibited an enhanced in vitro degradation and faster calcium carbonate precipitation. However, cell proliferation was not enhanced in the glassy structures compared to the crystalline scaffolds, which demonstrated also a better mechanical performance, as expected.

The effect of different dip-coating variables-solvent, deposition temperature and polymer concentration-on the mechanical performance of polycaprolactone-coated 45S5 bioglass robocast scaffolds is systematically analyzed in this work. The reproducible geometry of the scaffolds produced by this additive manufacturing technique makes them an optimal model system and facilitates the analysis. The results suggest that the mechanical performance of the hybrid scaffolds is improved monotonically with polymer concentration, but this concentration cannot be increased indefinitely if the macroporosity interconnectivity, and thus the scaffold׳s capacity to promote tissue ingrowth, are to be preserved. An optimal concentration, and therefore viscosity (~1-4Pas in the present case), exists for any given set of process variables (scaffold geometry and material, polymer, solvent and process temperature) that yields coatings with optimal reinforcement and minimal reduction of scaffold functionality. Solvent and process temperature do not directly affect the strengthening provided by the polymeric coating. However they can determine the maximum concentration at the critical viscosity, and thereby the maximum achievable mechanical performance of the resulting hybrid scaffold.

The dynamical pattern formation of clusters of magnetic particles in a low-concentration magnetorheological fluid, under the influence of a superposition of two perpendicular sinusoidal fields, is studied experimentally. By varying the frequency and phase shift of the perpendicular fields, this configuration enables us to experimentally analyze a wide range of field configurations, including the case of a pure rotating field and the case of an oscillating unidirectional field. The fields are applied parallel to the horizontal plane where the fluid lies or in the vertical plane. For fields applied in the horizontal plane, we observed that, when the ratio of the frequencies increases, the average cluster size exhibits a kind of periodic resonances. When the phase shift between the fields is varied, the average chain length reaches maximal values for the cases of the rotating field and the unidirectional case. We analyze and discuss these results in terms of a weighted average of the time-dependent Mason number. In the case of a rotating field on the vertical plane, we also observe that the competition between the magnetic and the viscous forces determines the average cluster size. We show that this configuration generates a series of physically meaningful self-organization of clusters and transport phenomena.

To date, the recovery of large bone defects is a major clinical challenge despite the availability of numerous therapeutic procedures including tissue engineering. Although there is a pressing need for large tissue-engineered constructs, inadequate vascularization remains an insurmountable barrier for successful clinical translation. Considering that vascularization is a prerequisite for osteogenesis, we proposed an advanced design of large customized porous β-tricalcium phosphate (TCP) scaffolds with biomimetic vascular hierarchy which upon embedding of femoral axial vascular bundles significantly improved overall vascularity of the scaffolds. Such scaffolds also promoted osteogenesis when they were coated with recombinant bone morphogenetic protein-2 (rhBMP-2). Compared to the conventional TCP scaffolds (S), the newly designed multi-channeled β-TCP (CS) scaffolds led to adequate blood vessels and bone-like tissue formation throughout their porous hierarchy within 4 weeks of implantation. Especially, the scaffolds coated with rhBMP-2 and embedded with flow-through vascular bundle (FVB) were able to form more uniform vascularized bone within 2 weeks post-implantation. Based on the clinical, radiographic, angiographic and histological assessments, the newly designed multi-channeled scaffolds were found to be promising for successful recovery of large bone defects.

36th International Cosmic Ray Conference, ICRC2019, Madison, USA, 24 Jul 2019 - 1 Aug 2019; 9 pages (2019)., The search for Dark Matter (DM) has great potential to reveal physics beyond the Standard Model. As such, searches for evidence of DM particles are being carried out using a wide range of techniques, such as direct searches for DM particles, searches for DM produced with colliders, and indirect searches for the Standard Model annihilation products of DM. Dwarf spheroidal galaxies (dSphs) are excellent targets for indirect Dark Matter searches due to their relatively high DM content and negligible expected astrophysical background. A collaboration was formed to maximise the sensitivity of DM searches towards dSphs by combining for the first time dSph data from three imaging air Cherenkov telescope (IACT) arrays: HESS, MAGIC, and VERITAS; the Fermi-LAT satellite, and the water Cherenkov detector HAWC. Due to the diverse nature of the instruments involved, each experiment will analyse their individual datasets from multiple targets and then the results will be combined at the likelihood level. For consistency of the likelihoods across the five experiments, a common approach is used to treat the astrophysical factor (J-Factor) for each target and an agreed set of annihilation channels are considered. We also agree on a common statistical approach and treatment of instrumental systematic uncertainties. The results are presented in terms of constraints on the velocity-weighted cross section for DM self-annihilation as a function of the DM particle mass.

An indirect measurement of the antiproton flux in cosmic rays is possible as the particles undergo deflection by the geomagnetic field. This effect can be measured by studying the deficit in the flux, or shadow, created by the Moon as it absorbs cosmic rays that are headed towards the Earth. The shadow is displaced from the actual position of the Moon due to geomagnetic deflection, which is a function of the energy and charge of the cosmic rays. The displacement provides a natural tool for momentum/charge discrimination that can be used to study the composition of cosmic rays. Using 33 months of data comprising more than 80 billion cosmic rays measured by the High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) observatory, we have analyzed the Moon shadow to search for TeV antiprotons in cosmic rays. We present our first upper limits on the $\bar{p}/p$ fraction, which in the absence of any direct measurements, provide the tightest available constraints of $\sim1\%$ on the antiproton fraction for energies between 1 and 10 TeV.

This article is part of the Research Topic: Advances in Oil Crops Research—Classical and New Approaches to Achieve Sustainable Productivity.-- Edited by: Dragana Miladinović, Johann Vollmann, Leire Molinero-Ruiz and Mariela Torres., Verticillium wilt and leaf mottle of sunflower, caused by the fungus Verticillium dahliae (Vd) has become a major constraint to sunflower oil production in temperate European countries. Information about Vd from sunflower is very scarce despite genetics, molecular traits and pathogenic abilities of fungal strains affecting many other crops being widely known. Understanding and characterizing the diversity of Vd populations in those countries where sunflowers are frequent and severely affected by the fungus are essential for efficient breeding for resistance. In this study, we have analyzed genetic, molecular and pathogenic traits of Vd isolates affecting sunflower in European countries. When their genetics was investigated, almost all the isolates from France, Italy, Spain, Argentina, and Ukraine were assigned to vegetative compatibility group (VCG) 2B. In Bulgaria, Turkey, Romania, and Ukraine, some isolates were assigned to VCG6, but some others could not be assigned to any VCG. Genotyping markers used for Vd affecting crops other than sunflower showed that all the isolates were molecularly identified as race 2 and that markers of defoliating (D) and non-defoliating (ND) pathotypes distinguished two well-differentiated clusters, one (E) grouping those isolates from Eastern Europe and the other (W) all those from the Western Europe and Argentina. All the isolates in cluster W were VCG2B, while the isolates in cluster E belonged to an unknown VCG or to VCG6. When the host range was investigated in the greenhouse, the fungus was highly pathogenic to artichoke, showing the importance of farming alternatives in the management of Verticillium attacks. Sunflower genotypes were inoculated with a selection of isolates in two experiments. Two groups were identified, one including the isolates from Western Europe, Argentina, and Ukraine, and the other including isolates from Bulgaria, Romania, and Turkey. Three pathogenic races were differentiated: V1, V2-EE (Eastern Europe) and V2-WE (Western Europe). Similarly, three differentials are proposed for race identification: HA 458 (universal susceptible), HA 89 (resistant to V2-EE, susceptible to V2-WE) and INRA2603 (susceptible to V2-EE, resistant to V2-WE). The diversity found in Vd affecting sunflower must be taken into account in the search for resistance to the pathogen for European environments of sunflower production., Financial support for this research was partially provided by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness (AGL2010-17909 and AGL2016-80483-R grants) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

This paper reports on the preparation of cellular materials by different techniques. Bioactive and resorbable scaffolds based on biphasic calcium phosphate were produced by 3D-printing using extrudable pastes through fine nozzles, according to a pre-defined spatial arrangement considered suitable for bone regeneration and tissue engineering applications. Milled powders of cathode ray glass tubes and egg shell wastes were mixed and compacted to produce recycled glass foams via viscous flow sintering and thermal decomposition of the egg shell component that played the role of foaming agent. © 2016 Portuguese Society of Materials (SPM)

The effect of polymer infiltration on the mechanical properties of 13–93 bioactive glass scaffolds fabricated by robocasting has been investigated. Biodegradable polymers—poly (lactic acid) (PLA) and poly (e-caprolactone) (PCL)—were infiltrated into selected robocast scaffolds by immersion of the structure in a polymer melt. The mechanical enhancement achieved upon impregnation on robocast 13-93 structures with fully-dense struts was found to be lower than in the currently existing literature due to the absence of microporosity. The modulus increase is negligible and the strengthening achieved is limited (

Strengthening and toughening of robocast 45S5 Bioglass®-derived scaffolds sintered at different temperatures (550–1000 °C) is attempted by PLA infiltration following two different approaches: immersion of sintered scaffolds in molten PLA, to obtain fully-impregnated structures, or in a solution of PLA to produce polymeric coatings. PLA-coated scaffolds showed significantly higher strength and toughness than bare scaffolds both in compression and, especially, in bending. However, molten PLA degraded chemically in the presence of the alkaline ions in 45S5 Bioglass®, an interaction never before reported in the literature, which resulted in color change and cracking of PLA, and which prevented fully-impregnated structures from exhibiting a significant mechanical enhancement over simply coated structures.

The effect of different polymeric coatings, including natural and synthetic compositions, on the mechanical performance of 45S5 bioglass robocast scaffolds is systematically analyzed in this work. Fully amorphous 45S5 bioglass robocast scaffolds sintered at 550 °C were impregnated with natural (gelatin, alginate, and chitosan) and synthetic (polycaprolactone, PCL and poly-lactic acid, PLA) polymers through a dip-coating process. Mechanical enhancement provided by these coatings in terms of both compressive strength and strain energy density was evaluated. Natural polymers, in general, and chitosan, in particular, were found to produce the greater reinforcement. The effect of these coatings on the in vitro bioactivity and degradation behavior of 45S5 bioglass robocast scaffolds was also investigated through immersion tests in simulated body fluid (SBF). Coatings from natural polymers, especially chitosan, are shown to have a positive effect on the bioactivity of 45S5 bioglass, accelerating the formation of an apatite-like layer. Besides, most coating compositions reduced the degradation (weight loss) rate of the scaffold, which has a positive impact on the evolution of their mechanical properties.

In this paper we present a new method for deriving a random linear extension of a poset. This new strategy combines Probability with Combinatorics and obtains a procedure where each minimal element of a sequence of subposets is selected via a probability distribution. The method consists in obtaining a weight vector on the elements of P, so that an element is selected with a probability proportional to its weight. From some properties on the graph of adjacent linear extensions, it is shown that the probability distribution can be obtained by solving a linear system. The number of equations involved in this system relies on the number of what we have called positioned antichains, that allows a reduced number of equations. Finally, we give some examples of the applicability of the algorithm. This procedure cannot be applied to every poset, but it is exact when it can be used. Moreover, the method is quick and easy to implement. Besides, it allows a simple way to derive the number of linear extensions of a given poset.

The High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) gamma-ray observatory is a wide field-of-view observatory sensitive to 500 GeV - 100 TeV gamma rays and cosmic rays. With its observations over 2/3 of the sky every day, the HAWC observatory is sensitive to a wide variety of astrophysical sources, including possible gamma rays from dark matter. Dark matter annihilation and decay in the Milky Way Galaxy should produce gamma-ray signals across many degrees on the sky. The HAWC instantaneous field-of-view of 2 sr enables observations of extended regions on the sky, such as those from dark matter in the Galactic halo. Here we show limits on the dark matter annihilation cross-section and decay lifetime from HAWC observations of the Galactic halo with 15 months of data. These are some of the most robust limits on TeV and PeV dark matter, largely insensitive to the dark matter morphology. These limits begin to constrain models in which PeV IceCube neutrinos are explained by dark matter which primarily decays into hadrons., 24 pages, 11 figures

The influence of polymer infiltration on the flexural strength and toughness of β-tricalcium phosphate (β-TCP) scaffolds fabricated by robocasting (direct-write assembly) is analyzed. Porous structures consisting of a tetragonal three-dimensional lattice of interpenetrating rods were impregnated with biodegradable polymers (poly(lactic acid) (PLA) and poly(e-caprolactone) (PCL)) by immersion of the structure in a polymer melt. Infiltration increased the flexural strength of these model scaffolds by a factor of 5 (PCL) or 22 (PLA), an enhancement considerably greater than that reported for compression strength of analogue materials. The greater strength improvement in bending was attributed to a more effective transfer of stress to the polymer under this solicitation since the degree of strengthening associated to the sealing of precursor flaws in the ceramic rod surfaces should remain unaltered. Impregnation with either polymer also improved further than in compression the fracture energy of the scaffolds (by more than two orders of magnitude). This increase is associated to the extraordinary strengthening provided by impregnation and to a crack bridging toughening mechanism produced by polymer fibrils.

in press; International audience; Submerged membrane bioreactors (sMBR's) are a promising technology for nitrogen removal in recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS's). However, there are still relatively few reports on the experimental application of this strategy. In this study, a laboratory-scale system, mimicking a RAS fitted with a sMBR, \rouge{was} designed and automated, and a simple dynamic sMBR model including biological and physical phenomena \rouge{was} validated. The system \blue{was} analyzed based on measurements collected by a data logging structure involving a programmable logic controller (PLC), an \rouge{industrial network protocol} and a LabView application software. This study confirms the \rouge{suitability} of sMBR systems \blue{within} aquaculture applications. The dynamic model has good predictive capabilities and could be used for the design of advanced control structures, such as model predictive control.

The High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Gamma-ray Observatory is an extensive air shower detector operating in central Mexico, which has recently completed its first two years of full operations. If for a burst like GRB 130427A at a redshift of 0.34 and a high-energy component following a power law with index -1.66, the high-energy component is extended to higher energies with no cut-off other than from extragalactic background light attenuation, HAWC would observe gamma rays with a peak energy of $\sim$300 GeV. This paper reports the results of HAWC observations of 64 gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) detected by $\mathit{Swift}$ and $\mathit{Fermi}$, including three GRBs that were also detected by the Large Area Telescope ($\mathit{Fermi}$-LAT). An ON/OFF analysis method is employed, searching on the time scale given by the observed light curve at keV-MeV energies and also on extended time scales. For all GRBs and time scales, no statistically significant excess of counts is found and upper limits on the number of gamma rays and the gamma-ray flux are calculated. GRB 170206A, the third brightest short GRB detected by the Gamma-ray Burst Monitor on board the $\mathit{Fermi}$ satellite ($\mathit{Fermi}$-GBM) and also detected by the LAT, occurred very close to zenith. The LAT measurements can neither exclude the presence of a synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) component nor constrain its spectrum. Instead, the HAWC upper limits constrain the expected cut-off in an additional high-energy component to be less than $100~\rm{GeV}$ for reasonable assumptions about the energetics and redshift of the burst., Comment: 19 pages, 6 figures, published in ApJ

International audience; Given a capacity, the set of dominating k-additive capacities is a convex polytope called the k-additive monotone core; thus, it is defined by its vertices. In this paper we deal with the problem of deriving a procedure to obtain such vertices in the line of the results of Shapley and Ichiishi for the additive case. We propose an algorithm to determine the vertices of the n-additive monotone core and we explore the possible translations for the k-additive case.

In this Letter, owing to a production error, the penultimate version of the PDF was published. The HTML version was always correct. The PDF has been corrected online.

A survey of the inner Galaxy region of Galactic longitude l in [+15, +50] degree and latitude b in [-4,+4] degree is performed using one-third of the High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Observatory operated during its construction phase. To address the ambiguities arising from unresolved sources in the data, we use a maximum likelihood technique to identify point source candidates. Ten sources and candidate sources are identified in this analysis. Eight of these are associated with known TeV sources but not all have differential fluxes compatible with previous measurements. Three sources are detected with significances $>5\,\sigma$ after accounting for statistical trials, and are associated with known TeV sources., Comment: Submitted to ApJ, 34 pages, 6 figures. Contact authors: Hao Zhou and C. Michelle Hui

In this paper we deal with the problem of obtaining the set of k-additive measures dominating a fuzzy measure. This problem extends the problem of deriving the set of probabilities dominating a fuzzy measure, an important problem appearing in Decision Making and Game Theory. The solution proposed in the paper follows the line developed by Chateauneuf and Jaffray for dominating probabilities and continued by Miranda et al. for dominating k-additive belief functions. Here, we address the general case transforming the problem into a similar one such that the involved set functions have non-negative Mobius transform; this simplifies the problem and allows a result similar to the one developed for belief functions. Although the set obtained is very large, we show that the conditions cannot be sharpened. On the other hand, we also show that it is possible to define a more restrictive subset, providing a more natural extension of the result for probabilities, such that it is possible to derive any k-additive dominating measure from it.

International audience; We give the exact upper and lower bounds of the Möbius inverse of monotone and normalized set functions (a.k.a. normalized capacities) on a finite set of n elements. We find that the absolute value of the bounds tend to 4 n/2 √ πn/2 when n is large. We establish also the exact bounds of the interaction transform and Banzhaf interaction transform, as well as the exact bounds of the Möbius inverse for the subfamilies of k-additive normalized capacities and p-symmetric normalized capacities.

We present the development of a real-time flare monitor for the High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) observatory. The flare monitor has been fully operational since 2017 January and is designed to detect very high energy (VHE; $E\gtrsim100$ GeV) transient events from blazars on time scales lasting from 2 minutes to 10 hours in order to facilitate multiwavelength and multimessenger studies. These flares provide information for investigations into the mechanisms that power the blazars' relativistic jets and accelerate particles within them, and they may also serve as probes of the populations of particles and fields in intergalactic space. To date, the detection of blazar flares in the VHE range has relied primarily on pointed observations by imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes. The recently completed HAWC observatory offers the opportunity to study VHE flares in survey mode, scanning 2/3 of the entire sky every day with a field of view of $\sim$1.8 steradians. In this work, we report on the sensitivity of the HAWC real-time flare monitor and demonstrate its capabilities via the detection of three high-confidence VHE events in the blazars Markarian 421 and Markarian 501., Comment: 19 pages, 14 figures, revised version submitted to The Astrophysical Journal on 1 June 2017

Direct-writing fabrication techniques, such as robocasting, have been ignored up to date for the production of scaffolds from 45S5 Bioglass (R), probably due to difficulties in the preparation of stable high solids loading colloidal suspensions (inks) from 45S5 Bioglass (R) powders using traditional approaches. Here, we report how these difficulties can be overcome. Aqueous suspensions containing 45 vol% of 45S5 Bioglass (R) were successfully prepared using carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) as single multifunctional (dispersant, binder, gelation agent) processing additive. Playing with the molecular weight (MW) and amount of CMC enabled tuning the theological properties of the inks to meet the stringent requirements of robocasting. An incomplete surface coverage allowing bridging flocculation to occur is the key to obtain highly performing inks. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

In this paper, we present a generalization of the concept of balanced game for finite games. Balanced games are those having a nonempty core, and this core is usually considered as the solution of game. Based on the concept of k-additivity, we define to so-called k-balanced games and the corresponding generalization of core, the k-additive core, whose elements are not directly imputations but k-additive games. We show that any game is k-balanced for a suitable choice of k, so that the corresponding k-additive core is not empty. For the games in the k-additive core, we propose a sharing procedure to get an imputation and a representative value for the expectations of the players based on the pessimistic criterion. Moreover, we look for necessary and sufficient conditions for a game to be k-balanced. For the general case, it is shown that any game is either balanced or 2-balanced. Finally, we treat the special case of capacities., Nous présentons une généralisation du concept de jeu balancé pour les jeux finis. En se basant sur la notion de jeu k-additif, nous définissons les jeux k-balancés, et la généralisation correspondante du coeur, que nous appelons le coeur k-additif, dont les éléments ne sont pas directement des imputations mais des jeux k-aditifs. Nous définissons également les jeux k-balancés monotones et le coeur k-additif monotone. Nous montrons que tout jeu est k-balancé pour une certaine valeur de k. Cette valeur vaut 2 pour les jeux, mais est en général différente pour le coeur k-additif monotone. Nous proposons une procédure de partage pour produire une imputation à partir d'un jeu k-additif contenu dans le coeur k-additif.

International audience; In this work, the sintering and grain growth of hydroxyapatite green bodies are analyzed in order to identify the optimum heat treatments for the preparation of porous hydroxyapatite scaffolds. Sintering in air at temperatures ranging between 1100 and 1200 °C yields dense materials with narrow grain-size distributions. The scaffolds are formed by the infiltration of polymer foams with hydroxyapatite slurries or by robocasting, a novel rapid-prototyping technique. Examples of the microstructures achieved with each approach are presented. It is observed that both techniques can be used to fabricate scaffolds with adequate pore size to promote bone ingrowth.

International audience; In this paper we deal with the set of $k$-additive belieffunctions dominating a given capacity. We follow the lineintroduced by Chateauneuf and Jaffray for dominating probabilities and continued by Grabisch for general $k$-additive measures.First, we show that the conditions for the general $k$-additive case lead to a very wide class of functions and this makes that the properties obtained for probabilities are no longer valid. On the other hand, we show that these conditions cannot be improved.We solve this situation by imposing additional constraints on the dominating functions. Then, we consider the more restrictive case of $k$-additive belief functions. In this case, a similar result with stronger conditions is proved. Although better, this result is not completely satisfactory and, as before, the conditionscannot be strengthened. However, when the initial capacity is a belief function, we find a subfamily of the set of dominating $k$-additive belief functions from which it is possible to derive any other dominant $k$-additive belief function, and such that theconditions are even more restrictive, obtaining the natural extension of the result for probabilities. Finally, we apply these results in the fields of Social Welfare Theory and Decision Under Risk.

International audience; We present the notion of k-intolerant bi-capacity, extending to the case of bipolar scales the notion of k-intolerant capacity recently proposed by Marichal. In a second part, we extend to the bipolar case the notion of veto criteria.

Consider a decision problem in which the preferences of the decision maker can be modelled through the Choquet integral [2] with respect to a fuzzy measure [10]. This means that he follows some behavioural rules while making decision (see [1], [9]). Next step consists in obtaining such a measure. The problem of identifying fuzzy measures from learning data has always been a difficult problem occurring in the practical use of fuzzy measures [5], [6].