Features of radiation damage of Ni-Ti alloy under exposure to heavy ions of gaseous elements

The consistent patterns of changes in structural and phase state, hardening and temperature ranges of martensitic transformations in Ni-Ti alloy with the shape memory effect after implantation of heavy ions 16O3+, 40Ar8+ and 84Kr15+ under comparable parameters have been experimentally studied. It is found that under the impact of 84Kr15+ ions, a two-layer surface structure with radiation-hardened second layer is formed, radiation-stimulated phase transformation B19'>B2 occurs in the near-surface layer and out-range area, and the martensitic transformation temperature increases toward higher values after implantation of 40Ar8+ and 84Kr15+ ions

Study of irradiation temperature effect on change of structural, optical, and strength properties of BeO ceramics when irradiated with Ar8+ and Xe22 heavy ions

This paper presents the results of the study of the effect of irradiation temperature on structural and optical distortions and deformations, as well as the strength properties of BeO ceramics as a result of irradiation with Ar8+ and Xe22+ ions at a radiation dose of 5 × 1013 cm-2. The choice of radiation dose is due to the effect of overlapping defective areas arising along the trajectories of ions in ceramics, which makes it possible to model radiation damage caused by the effect of accumulation as a result of cascade collisions and overlapping damaged areas. The temperature range of 300–1000 K was chosen to simulate different operating conditions, as well as the possibility of simulating partial annealing of defects during irradiation at high temperatures. During the research, it was established that high-temperature radiation reduces influence of size of electronic and nuclear power losses of ions of Ar8+ and Xe22+ with energy of 70 MeV and 231 MeV, respectively, on extent of radiation damage of ceramics of BeO. Irradiation at a temperature of 1000 K results in an equal 14% change in dislocation density for these particles, a comparable decrease in the yield intensity of optically stimulated luminescence by 5% and 15%, as well as microhardness by 25% and 30%, respectively. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.This research was funded by the Science Committee of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan (No. AP08855828)

Stent-assisted coiling of acute ruptured cerebral aneurysms

The necessity of quick surgical treatment of acute ruptured cerebral aneurysms was demonstrated in large studies by the ISAT and ISUIA, which also proved the advantage of the endovascular method over the surgical one. Ballonassistence is widely used in treatment of aneurysms with wide neck and unfavorable vascular anatomy, but the radicality of the treatment is insufficient. The aim of this study was to demonstrate the efficacy and safety of stent-assisted embolization of «acute» cerebral aneurysms. Material and methods. A retrospective analysis of the treatment of 234 patients with «acute» cerebral aneurysms was carried out. Results. Only coils were used in 40.6 % of cases (n = 95), balloon-assistance, in 40.2 % of cases (n = 94), and stent-assistance, in 19.2 % of cases (n = 45). There were 11.5 % (n = 27) clinically significant complications. Total aneurysm occlusion (Raymond-Roy I) was achieved in 187 cases (79.9 %); the radicality at the control examination was 67.1 % (157 patients). Discussion. The radicality of the treatment with stents was slightly higher then with balloons and coils at the end of operation (84.4 %, n = 38 and 78.8 %, n = 149, p > 0.05), but it was significantly higher at the control examination (80.0 %, n = 36 and 60.8 %, n = 115, respectively, p <0.05). Also, we had no statistically significant difference of the complication rate in the «stent» and «no stent» groups; therefore, the clinical outcomes of endovascular treatment of cerebral aneurysms did not depend on the choice of treatment method. Conclusions. Intracranial stents allow achieving good results of the embolization of complex aneurysms in the acute period of intracranial hemorrhage without increasing the risk of surgical treatment

Novel KRAS Gene Mutations in Sporadic Colorectal Cancer

In this article, we report 7 novel KRAS gene mutations discovered while retrospectively studying the prevalence and pattern of KRAS mutations in cancerous tissue obtained from 56 Saudi sporadic colorectal cancer patients from the Eastern Province.Genomic DNA was extracted from formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded cancerous and noncancerous colorectal tissues. Successful and specific PCR products were then bi-directionally sequenced to detect exon 4 mutations while Mutector II Detection Kits were used for identifying mutations in codons 12, 13 and 61. The functional impact of the novel mutations was assessed using bioinformatics tools and molecular modeling.KRAS gene mutations were detected in the cancer tissue of 24 cases (42.85%). Of these, 11 had exon 4 mutations (19.64%). They harbored 8 different mutations all of which except two altered the KRAS protein amino acid sequence and all except one were novel as revealed by COSMIC database. The detected novel mutations were found to be somatic. One mutation is predicted to be benign. The remaining mutations are predicted to cause substantial changes in the protein structure. Of these, the Q150X nonsense mutation is the second truncating mutation to be reported in colorectal cancer in the literature.Our discovery of novel exon 4 KRAS mutations that are, so far, unique to Saudi colorectal cancer patients may be attributed to environmental factors and/or racial/ethnic variations due to genetic differences. Alternatively, it may be related to paucity of clinical studies on mutations other than those in codons 12, 13, 61 and 146. Further KRAS testing on a large number of patients of various ethnicities, particularly beyond the most common hotspot alleles in exons 2 and 3 is needed to assess the prevalence and explore the exact prognostic and predictive significance of the discovered novel mutations as well as their possible role in colorectal carcinogenesis

Temperature Dependent Catalytic Activity of Ag/PET Ion-Track Membranes Composites

Electroless deposition has been used to coat finely porous polyethylene terephthalate (PET) track-etched membranes with silver, forming silver nanotubes within the pores with inner and outer diameters of 60 and 100 nm. The sample's X-ray diffraction pattern shows a face-centered cubic crystalline phase of silver with the lattice constant 4.0838 nm. The average size of silver nanoclusters, as obtained from the scanning electron microscopy analysis is about 30 nm which is consistent with the X-ray diffraction results. The temperature dependent catalytic activity of prepared composites is demonstrated for two model reactions such as reduction of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) and decomposition of hydrogen peroxide. Apparent constant rates and activation energy as well as reusability of catalysts were determined. The developed composite catalyst could be used consecutively for several runs without any damages for 4-NP reduction. For hydrogen peroxide reaction decomposition the reaction rate of the second cycle is reduced 2.4 times. Moreover, the second reuse reduced conversion of H₂O₂ to 54.7% suggests removal of active Ag centers during the first cycle of testing