Impact of Congenital Heart Disease on Brain Development and Neurodevelopmental Outcome

Advances in cardiac surgical techniques and perioperative intensive care have led to improved survival in babies with congenital heart disease (CHD). While it is true that the majority of children with CHD today will survive, many will have impaired neurodevelopmental outcome across a wide spectrum of domains. While continuing to improve short-term morbidity and mortality is an important goal, recent and ongoing research has focused on defining the impact of CHD on brain development, minimizing postnatal brain injury, and improving long-term outcomes. This paper will review the impact that CHD has on the developing brain of the fetus and infant. Neurologic abnormalities detectable prior to surgery will be described. Potential etiologies of these findings will be discussed, including altered fetal intrauterine growth, cerebral blood flow and brain development, associated congenital brain abnormalities, and risk for postnatal brain injury. Finally, reported neurodevelopmental outcomes after surgical repair of CHD will be reviewed

Dynamic response of phenolic resin and its carbon-nanotube composites to shock wave loading

We investigate with nonreactive molecular dynamics simulations the dynamic response of phenolic resin and its carbon-nanotube (CNT) composites to shock wave compression. For phenolic resin, our simulations yield shock states in agreement with experiments on similar polymers except the “phase change” observed in experiments, indicating that such phase change is chemical in nature. The elastic–plastic transition is characterized by shear stress relaxation and atomic-level slip, and phenolic resin shows strong strain hardening. Shock loading of the CNT-resin composites is applied parallel or perpendicular to the CNT axis, and the composites demonstrate anisotropy in wave propagation, yield and CNT deformation. The CNTs induce stress concentrations in the composites and may increase the yield strength. Our simulations suggest that the bulk shock response of the composites depends on the volume fraction, length ratio, impact cross-section, and geometry of the CNT components; the short CNTs in current simulations have insignificant effect on the bulk response of resin polymer

Left-right loading dependence of shock response of (111)//(112) Cu bicrystals: Deformation and spallation

We investigate with molecular dynamics the dynamic response of Cu bicrystals with a special asymmetric grain boundary (GB), (111)//(112)〈110〉, and its dependence on the loading directions. Shock loading is applied along the GB normal either from the left or right to the GB. Due to the structure asymmetry, the bicrystals demonstrate overall strong left-right loading dependence of its shock response, including compression wave features, compression and tensile plasticity, damage characteristics (e.g., spall strength), effective wave speeds and structure changes, except that spallation remains dominated by the GB damage regardless of the loading directions. The presence or absence of transient microtwinning also depends on the loading directions

Deformation and spallation of shocked Cu bicrystals with Σ3 coherent and symmetric incoherent twin boundaries

We perform molecular dynamics simulations of Cu bicrystals with two important grain boundaries (GBs), Σ3 coherent twin boundaries (CTB), and symmetric incoherent twin boundaries (SITB) under planar shock wave loading. It is revealed that the shock response (deformation and spallation) of the Cu bicrystals strongly depends on the GB characteristics. At the shock compression stage, elastic shock wave can readily trigger GB plasticity at SITB but not at CTB. The SITB can induce considerable wave attenuation such as the elastic precursor decay via activating GB dislocations. For example, our simulations of a Cu multilayer structure with 53 SITBs (∼1.5-μm thick) demonstrate a ∼80% elastic shock decay. At the tension stage, spallation tends to occur at CTB but not at SITB due to the high mobility of SITB. The SITB region transforms into a threefold twin via a sequential partial dislocation slip mechanism, while CTB preserves its integrity before spallation. In addition, deformation twinning is a mechanism for inducing surface step during shock tension stage. The drastically different shock response of CTB and SITB could in principle be exploited for, or benefit, interface engineering and materials design

On the S-wave piD-scattering length in the relativistic field theory model of the deuteron

The S-wave scattering length of the strong pion-deuteron (pi D) scattering is calculated in the relativistic field theory model of the deuteron suggested in [1,2].The theoretical result agrees well with the experimental data. The important role of the Delta-resonance contribution to the elastic pi D-scattering is confirmed.Comment: 7 pages, no figures, accepted for publication in Z. Phys.

Shock compression and spallation of single crystal tantalum

We present molecular dynamics simulations of shock-induced plasticity and spall damage in single crystal Ta described by a recently developed embedded-atom-method (EAM) potential and a volumedependent qEAM potential. We use impact or Hugoniotstat simulations to investigate the Hugoniots, deformation and spallation. Both EAM and qEAM are accurate in predicting, e.g., the Hugoniots and γ - surfaces. Deformation and spall damage are anisotropic for Ta single crystals. Our preliminary results show that twinning is dominant for [100] and [110] shock loading, and dislocation, for [111]. Spallation initiates with void nucleation at defective sites from remnant compressional deformation or tensile plasticity. Spall strength decreases with increasing shock strength, while its rate dependence remains to be explored

A rice ABC transporter, OsABCC1, reduces arsenic accumulation in the grain

Arsenic (As) is a chronic poison that causes severe skin lesions and cancer. Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is a major dietary source of As; therefore, reducing As accumulation in the rice grain and thereby diminishing the amount of As that enters the food chain is of critical importance. Here, we report that a member of the Oryza sativa C-type ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporter (OsABCC) family, OsABCC1, is involved in the detoxification and reduction of As in rice grains. We found that OsABCC1 was expressed in many organs, including the roots, leaves, nodes, peduncle, and rachis. Expression was not affected when plants were exposed to low levels of As but was up-regulated in response to high levels of As. In both the basal nodes and upper nodes, which are connected to the panicle, OsABCC1 was localized to the phloem region of vascular bundles. Furthermore, OsABCC1 was localized to the tonoplast and conferred phytochelatin-dependent As resistance in yeast. Knockout of OsABCC1 in rice resulted in decreased tolerance to As, but did not affect cadmium toxicity. At the reproductive growth stage, the As content was higher in the nodes and in other tissues of wild-type rice than in those of OsABCC1 knockout mutants, but was significantly lower in the grain. Taken together, our results indicate that OsABCC1 limits As transport to the grains by sequestering As in the vacuoles of the phloem companion cells of the nodes in rice.open117318Ysciescopu