Corrosion of cast aluminum alloys: a review

Research on corrosion resistance of cast aluminum alloys is reviewed in this article. The effect of the main microstructural features of cast aluminum alloys such as secondary dendrite arm spacing (SDAS), eutectic silicon morphology, grain size, macrosegregation, microsegregation, and intermetallic compounds is discussed. Moreover, the corrosion resistance of cast aluminum alloys obtained by modern manufacturing processes such as semi-solid and additive manufacturing are analyzed. Finally, the protective effects provided by different coatings on the aluminum cast alloys?such as anodized, plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO), and laser?is reviewed. Some conclusions and future guidelines for future works are proposed

First steps in the logic-based assessment of post-composed phenotypic descriptions

In this paper we present a preliminary logic-based evaluation of the integration of post-composed phenotypic descriptions with domain ontologies. The evaluation has been performed using a description logic reasoner together with scalable techniques: ontology modularization and approximations of the logical difference between ontologies

A systematic review on the muscular activation on the lower limbs with five different variations of the deadlift exercise

The deadlift is one of the most widely used resistance exercises by different types of trainees and with different aims including aesthetics, performance and health. There are numerous variations of the deadlift exercise which have different effects on the exercise biomechanics and muscular activation. The main objective of this research was to systematically review the literature looking forward to gathering data on the muscular activation on the lower limbs with different variations of the deadlift exercise (conventional, sumo, Romanian, straight legs and hex-bar). 19 articles met the inclusion criteria and were included in the analysis. Quality of the articles was assessed through the PEDro scale. Main findings were that deadlift is a posterior-chain dominant exercise. Changes in activation between the variations majorly depend on the hip flexion in relation to the knee flexion. For instance, the straight-legs deadlift does not involve knee flexion and mainly activates hip extensors. Other factors such as the distance between the load and the centre of mass, the knee flexion planes, or the total intensity also condition the muscular activation. For example, the hex-bar deadlift allows the subject being in alignment with the load and performing the exercise with relatively vertical back, which provokes an increase on the activation of the knee extensors. In conclusion, this study may help the strength and conditioning professionals and practitioners with the exercise selection depending on the muscular targets and the individual characteristics of the athlete

Incidence and prevalence of injuries in futsal: A systematic review of the literature

Futsal athletes are exposed to a high number of injures. Purpose: This study aimed to gather data on the injures produced in futsal, attending to the prevalence, part of the body injured, type of injury and mechanism, and severity. Also, to evaluate the influence that sociodemographic factors and the position on the pitch may have on the injuries. Finally, we pursued to summarize the prevention strategies proposed by the expert literature. Design: Different search strategies were entered in PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Sport Discuss databases. Results: 36 articles were selected to be reviewed. Futsal is situated among the sports with the highest injury incidence, being the main body part injured the lower limb, specifically the knees and ankles. Regarding the type of injury and the mechanism causing the injury, bone injuries are usually related to contact with rivals and muscle, tendon, and ligament injuries related to non-contact mechanisms. In this concern, non-contact injuries are frequently more severe than impact injuries. There is not a clear consensus on if more injuries occur in training or games, and on the severity of the major part of the injuries that occur in futsal. Concerning sex, male players seem to present a higher prevalence of ankle injuries while woman players present more incidence of knee sprains. The age was reported to be correlated with the incidence of injuries during futsal practice. No influence of the position on the field of play on the prevalence of injuries was observed in the literature. Some recommendations are gathered concerning the prevention of injuries. These recommendations are focused on player equipment, playing facilities, rules, physical assessment, and appropriate strength and conditioning preparation. Conclusion: The results presented in this study may help coaches and practitioners to understand crucial factors on the common injuries that occur in futsal. This may allow them to prevent potential injuries and maintain the athlete’s performance

Resistance training for chronic low back pain in the elderly: A systematic review

Chronic low back pain is a musculoskeletal pathology with a considerably high prevalence in the elderly. This condition increases disability and negatively affects the quality of life. Muscular resistance training is being used as a cornerstone in interventions for elder people due to the numerous benefits associated with physical and functional health. For this reason, the purpose of this study was to systematically review the literature on the main characteristics of resistance training programs in the elder population with chronic low back pain. A literature search in five databases (PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Sports Discuss, and Cochrane Library) was carried out. Inclusion-exclusion criteria were used to select experimental studies applying resistance training programs to aging adults older than 60 ages with chronic lumbar pain. PEDro scale was used to evaluate the quality of the included studies. From the first 223 articles retrieved, 8 were selected to be further analysed. All the studies presented good methodological quality (PEDro scale from 6 to 10) and low bias risk. In summary, resistance training programs have been proven useful to significantly reduce pain and inability. Furthermore, significant improvements in quality of life and muscular strength parameters are guaranteed

Heterogeneity in Multiple Sclerosis: Scratching the Surface of a Complex Disease

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is the most common demyelinating disease of the central nervous system. Although the etiology and the pathogenesis of MS has been extensively investigated, no single pathway, reliable biomarker, diagnostic test, or specific treatment have yet been identified for all MS patients. One of the reasons behind this failure is likely to be the wide heterogeneity observed within the MS population. The clinical course of MS is highly variable and includes several subcategories and variants. Moreover, apart from the well-established association with the HLA-class II DRB1*15:01 allele, other genetic variants have been shown to vary significantly across different populations and individuals. Finally both pathological and immunological studies suggest that different pathways may be active in different MS patients. We conclude that these “MS subtypes” should still be considered as part of the same disease but hypothesize that spatiotemporal effects of genetic and environmental agents differentially influence MS course. These considerations are extremely relevant, as outcome prediction and personalised medicine represent the central aim of modern research

An Expanded 2D Fused Aromatic Network with 90-Ring Hexagons

Two-dimensional fused aromatic networks (2D FANs) have emerged as a highly versatile alternative to holey graphene. The synthesis of 2D FANs with increasingly larger lattice dimensions will enable new application perspectives. However, the synthesis of larger analogues is mostly limited by lack of appropriate monomers and methods. Herein, we describe the synthesis, characterisation and properties of an expanded 2D FAN with 90-ring hexagons, which exceed the largest 2D FAN lattices reported to date

Reuse of terminological resources for efficient ontological engineering in Life Sciences

This paper is intended to explore how to use terminological resources for ontology engineering. Nowadays there are several biomedical ontologies describing overlapping domains, but there is not a clear correspondence between the concepts that are supposed to be equivalent or just similar. These resources are quite precious but their integration and further development are expensive. Terminologies may support the ontological development in several stages of the lifecycle of the ontology; e.g. ontology integration. In this paper we investigate the use of terminological resources during the ontology lifecycle. We claim that the proper creation and use of a shared thesaurus is a cornerstone for the successful application of the Semantic Web technology within life sciences. Moreover, we have applied our approach to a real scenario, the Health-e-Child (HeC) project, and we have evaluated the impact of filtering and re-organizing several resources. As a result, we have created a reference thesaurus for this project, named HeCTh

Vitamin D receptor ChIP-seq in primary CD4+ cells: relationship to serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels and autoimmune disease

PMCID: PMC3710212This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited