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Cellular solids and porous materials have been considered as one of the most suitable lightweight multifunctional materials for a wide range of commercial and industrial applications, e.g. in medicine, military. Their use contributes to an immediate and significant weight reduction and material savings of the components but also to multifunctionality due to their 3D cellular structures (open-cells or closedcells). Herein, hybrid structures based on cellular materials are developed and studied by combining open-cell aluminum foam with cork. These hybrid structures were prepared by infiltrating a mixture containing polymer-coated cork powders into the open-cell foam. The samples are geometrically analyzed using X-ray microcomputed tomography to extract morphological and topological properties of the voids and the solid phase. The mechanical, thermal, acoustic, and fire retardancy properties of these aluminum foam-cork hybrid structures are evaluated and compared with their individual components (open-cell aluminum alloy foam and agglomerated cork). published

NIPA1 (nonimprinted in Prader-Willi/Angelman syndrome 1) mutations are known to cause hereditary spastic paraplegia type 6, a neurodegenerative disease that phenotypically overlaps to some extent with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Previously, a genomewide screen for copy number variants found an association with rare deletions in NIPA1 and ALS, and subsequent genetic analyses revealed that long (or expanded) polyalanine repeats in NIPA1 convey increased ALS susceptibility. We set out to perform a large-scale replication study to further investigate the role of NIPA1 polyalanine expansions with ALS, in which we characterized NIPA1 repeat size in an independent international cohort of 3955 patients with ALS and 2276 unaffected controls and combined our results with previous reports. Meta-analysis on a total of 6245 patients with ALS and 5051 controls showed an overall increased risk of ALS in those with expanded (>8) GCG repeat length (odds ratio = 1.50, p = 3.8×10-5). Together with previous reports, these findings provide evidence for an association of an expanded polyalanine repeat in NIPA1 and ALS. ispartof: NEUROBIOLOGY OF AGING vol:74 ispartof: location:United States status: published

Multifunctional materials represent one of the most current and promising class of materials for engineering applications. This type of materials shows enhanced performance resulting from the combination of the individual constituents’ properties [1]. Hybrid foams are a particular class of these materials usually prepared by filling the voids of the foam with a secondary material. Aluminum open-cell foams are one of the most interesting multifunctional materials with applicable properties, such as high thermal and electrical conductivities and high internal surface area, recyclability and non-flammability. However, they are mechanically weak compared to other materials. This drawback can be overcome with the combination of a stronger filling material (polymer) [2, 3]. In this study, an aluminum open-cell (OC) foam was filled with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), resulting in polydimethylsiloxane-aluminum (PDMS-OC) hybrid foam. Quasi-static and dynamic uniaxial compressive tests and infrared thermography were performed to compare the PDMS-OC hybrid foams with the individual components (OC foam and PDMS). The effect of the incorporation at a low content of graphene-based materials (GBMs) dispersed into the PDMS matrix was also evaluated. Results show an improvement of the compressive strength and energy absorption capacity of hybrid foams compared to the individual components (OC foams and PDMS). The use of the PDMS as a void filler also changed the typical layer-wise collapse mechanism of the aluminum open-cell foam. Simultaneously, the elastomeric behavior of PDMS allowed that the material can undergo higher loads without cracking. The PDMS enforced a symmetric deformation by folding in the middle of the hybrid foams. The high energy absorption values of aluminum OC foams embedded with PDMS compensated for the mass increase due to the PDMS filler. The incorporation of GBMs introduces voids into the PDMS matrix and avoids higher degree of crosslinking/polymerization in PDMS. The thermal conductivity of the OC/PDMS hybrid foams was slightly higher comparatively to the PDMS specimens. This effect is more pronounced with the addition of GBMs in the PDMS matrix.