The application of the soft impression technique to evaluate flow stress, creep and frictional deformation of polycrystalline diamond and cubic boron nitride

Metal shaping processes are clear examples of engineering applications where a hard material is worn by a softer one - i.e. the tool and workpiece respectively. The soft impressor technique, introduced by Brookes and Green (1973), has proved valuable in measuring the relevant mechanical properties of tool materials - e.g. the measurement of the flow stress of diamond single crystals at temperatures up to 1500°C (Brookes, 1992). In this work, the technique has been extended further in order to form a basis for the comparison and evaluation of ultra-hard materials. Three main aspects of the performance of these tool materials have been covered: the effect of temperature on flow stress; cumulative deformation under point loading conditions; wear due to repeated traversals (fatigue).In the first part, the technique has been extended to determine the flow stress of polycrystalline diamond and cubic boron nitride as a function of temperature and a mathematical model has been proposed to estimate the flow stress in isotropic polycrystalline materials. This model was first analysed by Love (1928) and was used as the basis on which to identify the threshold pressure above which dislocation movement is initiated in diamond single crystals (Brookes et al (1990)). The applicability of this model for polycrystals was verified by correlating the yield strength of polycrystalline copper, measured in tension, with the determination of minimum contact mean pressure to plastically deform the same material. According to the model, the first evidence of plastic deformation should be observed at the contact periphery and this has been verified in this work. Consequently, using this approach, the effect of temperature on the flow stress of polycrystalline diamond (Syndax) and polycrystalline cubic boron nitride (Amborite) has been established and it is shown that there are three distinct regimes. In regime I, the deformation is brittle and fracture occurs above a given mean pressure; in regime II dislocations are mobile and the flow stress decreases sharply as the temperature rises; and in regime III the flow stress is independent of the temperature.# In the earlier work, the brittle - ductile transition temperature (BOT) has been identified as that temperature where regime I ends and II begins. Above the BDT, time dependent plastic flow has been observed, in all of these materials, leading to a measurable increase in the size of the impression. However, this particular type of cumulative deformation, described as impression creep, is shown to be different to conventional creep as measured under uniaxial stress conditions.Finally, the room temperature friction and deformation of various polycrystalline diamond based specimens, Le. aggregates with a binder phase of cobalt (Syndite) or silicon carbide (Syndax), a polycrystalline coating produced by a chemical vapour deposition processes (CVDite) and cubic boron nitride (Amborite) were studied when softer metallic and ceramic sliders were used. As a result of increasing the number of traversals, significant wear of the CVDite diamond coating by softer metallic sliders (aluminium and mild steel) was observed. This could be attributed to the high level of residual stresses in the diamond layer which is thought to be due to the difference in the thermal expansion coefficients of the coatings and their substrates. Burton et al (1995) reported a strain of 0.3% on the surface of the diamond coating and hence the tensile stress on the upper side of the coating will be equivalent to about 3.0 GPa. This value is comparable to the theoretical cleavage strength of diamond. It is suggested an additional tensile stress, due to the sliding friction, could have caused cleavage of individual diamond crystals. The resultant wear debris then becoming embedded in the metallic slider. These embedded diamond particles in the tip of the slider could be responsible for the increased friction and wear

Structure of achievement goals orientation in light of (2x2) and (3x2) models among Qassim University students: using structural modeling

The current study aimed to examine the construct validity of various achievement goals models by recognizing the factorial structure of them among college students in Saudi Arabia, as well as to identify the variations between male and female students in their achievement goals factorial structure. In addition to examining the variations of achievement goal factorial structure due to academic specialization. The study sample consisted of (558) students from Qassim University. Two measures were applied to the sample, the first was2x2 achievement goal questionnaire and the second was 3x2 achievement goal questionnaire. The Structural Equation Model was used to analysis data, and the results are as the following; 1 – The best representation model for achievement goals structure was the 2x2 model. Which confirms that each theoretically assumed goals represent real independent structure. 2 – That the corresponding Goodness of fit indices for all theoretically assumed structure of achievement goals in light of the (3x2) model don't achieve acceptable fit indices. 3 – Goodness of fit indices corresponding to the (2x2) model or the (3x2) model do not differ between males and females. 4 – Goodness of fit indices corresponding to the (2x2) model or the (3x2) model do not differ according to students nature of study

A Novel Method for Integrative Biological Studies

DNA microarray technology has been extensively utilized in the biomedical field, becoming a standard in identifying gene expression signatures for disease diagnosis/prognosis and pharmaceutical practices. Although cancer research has benefited from this technology, challenges such as large-scale data size, few replicates and complex heterogeneous data types remain; thus the biomarkers identified by various studies have a small proportion of overlap because of molecular heterogeneity. However, it is desirable in cancer research to consider robust and consistent biomarkers for drug development as well as diagnosis/prognosis. Although cancer is a highly heterogeneous disease, some mechanism common to developing cancers is believed to exist; integrating datasets from multiple experiments increases the accuracy of predictions because increasing the sample size improves and enhances biomarkers detection. Therefore, integrative study is required for compiling multiple cancer data sets when searching for the common mechanism leading to cancers. Some critical challenges of integration analysis remain despite many successful methods introduced. Few is able to work on data sets with different dimensionalities. More seriously, when the replicate number is small, most existing algorithms cannot deliver robust predictions through an integrative study. In fact, as modern high-throughput technology matures to provide increasingly precise data, and with well-designed experiments, variance across replicates is believed to be small for us to consider a mean pattern model. This model assumes that all the genes (or metabolites, proteins or DNA copies) are random samples of a hidden (mean pattern) model. The study implements this model using a hierarchical modelling structure. As the primary component of the system, a multi-scale Gaussian (MSG) model, designed to identify robust differentially-expressed genes to be integrated, was developed for predicting differentially expressed genes from microarray expression data of small replicate numbers. To assure the validity of the mean pattern hypothesis, a bimodality detection method that was a revision of the Bimodality index was proposed

Low infra red laser light irradiation on cultured neural cells: effects on mitochondria and cell viability after oxidative stress

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Considerable interest has been aroused in recent years by the well-known notion that biological systems are sensitive to visible light. With clinical applications of visible radiation in the far-red to near-infrared region of the spectrum in mind, we explored the effect of coherent red light irradiation with extremely low energy transfer on a neural cell line derived from rat pheochromocytoma. We focused on the effect of pulsed light laser irradiation vis-à-vis two distinct biological effects: neurite elongation under NGF stimulus on laminin-collagen substrate and cell viability during oxidative stress.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We used a 670 nm laser, with extremely low peak power output (3 mW/cm²) and at an extremely low dose (0.45 mJ/cm²). Neurite elongation was measured over three days in culture. The effect of coherent red light irradiation on cell reaction to oxidative stress was evaluated through live-recording of mitochondria membrane potential (MMP) using JC1 vital dye and laser-confocal microscopy, in the absence (photo bleaching) and in the presence (oxidative stress) of H₂O₂, and by means of the MTT cell viability assay.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We found that laser irradiation stimulates NGF-induced neurite elongation on a laminin-collagen coated substrate and protects PC12 cells against oxidative stress.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These data suggest that red light radiation protects the viability of cell culture in case of oxidative stress, as indicated by MMP measurement and MTT assay. It also stimulates neurite outgrowth, and this effect could also have positive implications for axonal protection.</p

Photobiomodulation of breast and cervical cancer stem cells using low-intensity laser irradiation

Abstract: Breast and cervical cancers are dangerous threats with regard to the health of women. The two malignancies have reached the highest record in terms of cancer-related deaths among women worldwide. Despite the use of novel strategies with the aim to treat and cure advanced stages of cancer, post-therapeutic relapse believed to be caused by cancer stem cells is one of the challenges encountered during tumor therapy. Therefore, further attention should be paid to cancer stem cells when developing novel anti-tumor therapeutic approaches. Low-intensity laser irradiation is a form of phototherapy making use of visible light in the wavelength range of 630–905 nm. Low-intensity laser irradiation has shown remarkable results in a wide range of medical applications due to its biphasic dose and wavelength effect at a cellular level. Overall, this article focuses on the cellular responses of healthy and cancer cells after treatment with lowintensity laser irradiation alone or in combination with a photosensitizer as photodynamic therapy and the influence that various wavelengths and fluencies could have on the therapeutic outcome. Attention will be paid to the biomodulative effect of low-intensity laser irradiation on cancer stem cells