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The solvolysis of poly(ethylene-terephthalate) (PET) is one of the most researched areas in chemical recycling. In this study PET aminolysis with isophorondiamine has been done - in opposition to recent trends - without excess reagent and the raw reaction product was further used without purification. The aminolysis product was thoroughly characterized with nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Isophoronediamine was used as a solvent to prepare amine crosslinker solutions for epoxy resins. The effect of the concentration on the cross-linking reaction and thermomechanical properties were investigated. The curing reaction was found to be significantly accelerated by the presence of the aminolysis product. Both the ethylene-glycol and the terephthal-amide-diamines have a catalytic effect on the reaction. The glass transition temperature decreased with increasing concentrations of the cross-linker solutions due to the decreasing cross-link density. Thus, raw aminolysis products can be utilized for epoxy curing and are advantageous in modifying slower curing cycloaliphatic cross linker systems.

In high-power coal dust steam boilers of power plants the phenomenon of pulsation in the furnace chamber can frequently be experienced. This can be determined through the measurement of pressure fluctuations. They provide a stochastic signal that can be analyzed with the help of probability rules. Such signals can only be defined by statistical features, or characteristic functions, never by direct analysis. The signal processing makes the determination of the stability of burning possible. There is a device for the continuous control of operation.

In high-performance steamboilers of power stations pulsation in the firing chamber often occurs. Pulsation can be determined by measuring the pressure vibration. According to experience they have a stochastic character and their information content can be analyzed with the help of probability laws. The direct analytical description of such signals is not possible, these can only be referred to with statistical data, or characteristic functions.

Dance and music training have shared and distinct features. Both demand long and intense physical training to master. Dance engages the whole body, and requires the integration of visual, auditory and motor information. In comparison, music engages specific parts of the body and primarily requires the integration of auditory and motor information. Comparing these two forms of long-term training offers a unique way to investigate brain plasticity. Therefore, in the present study we compared the effects of dance and music training on white matter (WM) structure using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), and examined the relationship between training-induced brain changes and specific measures of dance and music abilities. To this aim, groups of dancers and musicians matched for years of experience were tested on a battery of behavioural tasks and a range of DTI measures. Our findings show that dancers have increased diffusivity and reduced fibre coherence in WM regions, including the corticospinal tract, superior longitudinal fasciculus and the corpus callosum. In contrast, musicians showed reduced diffusivity and greater coherence of fibres in similar regions. Crucially, diffusivity measures were related to performance on dance and music tasks that differentiated the groups. This suggests that dance and music training produce opposite effects on WM structure. We hypothesize that intensive whole-body dance training may result in greater fanning of fibres connecting different brain regions, an increase in crossing fibres, or larger axon diameter. In contrast, musical training may result in more focussed enhancements of effector-specific pathways. These findings expand our understanding of brain plasticity by emphasizing that different types of training can have different long-term effects on brain structure (Takeuchi et al., 2011; Baer et al., 2015). •White matter structure was compared in highly trained dancers and musicians using DTI•Dancers had increased diffusivity and reduced coherence in sensorimotor pathways compared to musicians•The white matter differences found between dancers and musicians were related to performance on dance and music tasks.•Whole-body dance training and effector-specific music training have opposite effects on sensorimotor pathways•Increased diffusivity in dancers may result from larger axonal diameter, increased fanning or enhanced crossing of fibres

Studying individuals with specialized training, such as dancers and musicians, provides an opportunity to investigate how intensive practice of sensorimotor skills affects behavioural performance across various domains. While several studies have found that musicians have improved motor, perceptual and sensorimotor integration skills compared to untrained controls, fewer studies have examined the effect of dance training on such skills. Moreover, no study has specifically compared the effects of dance versus music training on perceptual or sensorimotor performance. To this aim, in the present study, expert dancers, expert musicians and untrained controls were tested on a range of perceptual and sensorimotor tasks designed to discriminate performance profiles across groups. Dancers performed better than musicians and controls on a dance imitation task (involving whole-body movement), but musicians performed better than dancers and controls on a musical melody discrimination task as well as on a rhythm synchronization task (involving finger tapping). These results indicate that long-term intensive dance and music training are associated with distinct enhancements in sensorimotor skills. This novel work advances knowledge of the effects of long-term dance versus music training and has potential applications in therapies for motor disorders.

We investigated an outbreak of leptospirosis among athletes and community residents after a triathlon was held in Springfield, Illinois. A telephone survey was conducted to collect clinical information and data on possible risk factors, community surveillance was established, and animal specimens and lake water samples were collected to determine the source of the leptospiral contamination. A total of 834 of 876 triathletes were contacted; 98 (12%) reported being ill. Serum samples obtained from 474 athletes were tested; 52 of these samples (11%) tested positive for leptospirosis. Fourteen (6%) of 248 symptomatic community residents tested positive for leptospirosis. Heavy rains that preceded the triathlon are likely to have increased leptospiral contamination of Lake Springfield. Among athletes, ingestion of 1 or more swallows of lake water was a predominant risk factor for illness. This is the largest outbreak of leptospirosis that has been reported in the United States. Health care providers and occupational and recreational users of bodies of freshwater in the United States should be aware of the risk of contracting leptospirosis, particularly after heavy rains.

Long-term motor training, such as dance or gymnastics, has been associated with increased diffusivity and reduced fiber coherence in regions including the corticospinal tract. Comparisons between different types of motor experts suggest that experience might result in specific structural changes related to the trained effectors (e.g., hands or feet). However, previous studies have not segregated the descending motor pathways from different body-part representations in motor cortex (M1). Further, most previous diffusion tensor imaging studies used whole-brain analyses based on a single tensor, which provide poor information about regions where multiple white matter (WM) tracts cross. Here, we used multi-tensor probabilistic tractography to investigate the specific components of the descending motor pathways in well-matched groups of dancers, musicians and controls. To this aim, we developed a procedure to identify the WM regions below the motor representations of the head, hand, trunk and leg that served as seeds for tractography. Dancers showed increased radial diffusivity (RD) in comparison with musicians, in descending motor pathways from all the regions, particularly in the right hemisphere, whereas musicians had increased fractional anisotropy (FA) in the hand and the trunk/arm motor tracts. Further, dancers showed larger volumes compared to both other groups. Finally, we found negative correlations between RD and FA with the age of start of dance or music training, respectively, and between RD and performance on a melody task, and positive correlations between RD and volume with performance on a whole-body dance task. These findings suggest that different types of training might have different effects on brain structure, likely because dancers must coordinate movements of the entire body, whereas musicians focus on fewer effectors.