Hydroxyapatite-Barium Titanate Biocoatings Using Room Temperature Coblasting

Funding Information: The authors are grateful for the FEDER funds through the COMPETE 2020 Program and National Funds through FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., in the scope of the projects LA/P/0037/2020, UIDP/50025/2020 and UIDB/50025/2020 of the Associate Laboratory Institute of Nanostructures, Nanomodelling and Nanofabrication—i3N, and DENTALBLAST project (ref. n° 17956). Publisher Copyright: © 2023 by the authors.The use of orthopaedic and dental implants is expanding as a consequence of an ageing population and also due to illness or trauma in younger age groups. The implant must be biocompatible, bioactive and interact favourably with the recipient’s bone, as rapid osseointegration is key to success. In this work, Ti-6Al-4V plates were coated using the CoBlastTM technique, with hydroxyapatite (HAp) and HAp/BaTiO3 (barium titanate, BT) non-piezoelectric cubic nanopowders (HAp/cBT) and piezoelectric tetragonal micropowders (HAp/tBT). The addition of BT, a piezoelectric ceramic, is a strategy to accelerate osseointegration by using surface electric charges as cues for cells. For comparison with commercial coatings, plates were coated with HAp using the plasma spray technique. Using XRD and FTIR, both plasma spray and CoBlastTM coatings showed crystalline HAp and no presence of by-products. However, the XRD of the plasma-sprayed coatings revealed the presence of amorphous HAp. The average surface roughness was close to the coatings’ thickness (≈5 μm for CoBlastTM and ≈13 μm for plasma spray). Cytotoxicity assays proved that the coatings are biocompatible. Therefore, it can be concluded that for HAp-based coatings, CoBlastTM is a viable alternative to plasma spray, with the advantage of facilitating room temperature addition of other ceramics, like piezoelectric BaTiO3.publishersversionpublishe

Draft of Cheyenne & Arapahoe Report

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Relationships between body growth indices and environmental factors on the reproductive cycle of the Gymnodactylus geckoides Spix, 1825 (Squamata, Gymnophthalmidae) in Northeast Brazil

In this study, we analyzed the energy and reproductive cycles of female and male Gymnodactylus geckoides in the Caatinga area of northeast Brazil. We investigated whether these proxies of body condition, such as reproductive cells maturation and cellular structures changed in response to variation in abiotic and biotic factors (i.e., humidity, temperature, seasonality, body temperature, growing rate and gonad volume), using individuals stored under scientific conditions collected between September 2018 and December 2021. The condition factor showed an isometric growth pattern in the population studied. Meanwhile, the lipid, hepatic, and gonad factors correlated with body growth and showed monthly and seasonal variations, as well as reproductive cell maturation and cellular structure morphology. The cycles displayed constant replacement of energy reserves and mature reproductive cells, indicating constant and acyclic reproduction in G. geckoides. Energy reserves appear to be used for many reproductive activities, including meeting, gestation, and egg laying that occur at different frequencies during different periods in the dry and rainy seasons. Therefore, the reproductive cycle is likely to be strongly controlled by biotic factors, which are modeled using abiotic factors and environmental conditions (environmental patterns which proportionate greater resource availability). Our study is the first to investigate energy cycles and reproductive strategies in G. geckoides. It has shown that this species stores greater amounts of energy during the rainy season and then depletes these reserves during the dry period, since the rainy season correspond to the increase in energy consumption, mainly because of gestation and egg laying.Asociación Herpetológica Argentin

Relationships between body growth indices and environmental factors on the reproductive cycle of the Gymnodactylus geckoides Spix, 1825 (Squamata, Gymnophthalmidae) in Northeast Brazil

In this study, we analyzed the energy and reproductive cycles of female and male Gymnodactylus geckoides in the Caatinga area of northeast Brazil. We investigated whether these proxies of body condition, such as reproductive cells maturation and cellular structures changed in response to variation in abiotic and biotic factors (i.e., humidity, temperature, seasonality, body temperature, growing rate and gonad volume), using individuals stored under scientific conditions collected between September 2018 and December 2021. The condition factor showed an isometric growth pattern in the population studied. Meanwhile, the lipid, hepatic, and gonad factors correlated with body growth and showed monthly and seasonal variations, as well as reproductive cell maturation and cellular structure morphology. The cycles displayed constant replacement of energy reserves and mature reproductive cells, indicating constant and acyclic reproduction in G. geckoides. Energy reserves appear to be used for many reproductive activities, including meeting, gestation, and egg laying that occur at different frequencies during different periods in the dry and rainy seasons. Therefore, the reproductive cycle is likely to be strongly controlled by biotic factors, which are modeled using abiotic factors and environmental conditions (environmental patterns which proportionate greater resource availability). Our study is the first to investigate energy cycles and reproductive strategies in G. geckoides. It has shown that this species stores greater amounts of energy during the rainy season and then depletes these reserves during the dry period, since the rainy season correspond to the increase in energy consumption, mainly because of gestation and egg laying.Asociación Herpetológica Argentin

A proposal for the evaluation of the bioeconomic efficiency of beef cattle production systems

ABSTRACT The objective of this study was to identify types of production system and their main indicators on bioeconomic efficiency, using qualitative and quantitative methods to evaluate beef cattle farms in the western region of the state of Rio Grande do Sul. A survey was carried out with 43 farmers operating in the western region of that state. All farms operated with complete cycle production systems in areas larger or equal to 900 ha. A qualitative questionnaire with binary answers and a quantitative questionnaire with numerical answers were applied. Technology and Management drivers were used for the calculation of the efficiency index of farmers obtained by both questionnaires. Farmers were divided into three clusters: low-efficiency level (LEL), intermediate-efficiency level (IEM), or high-efficiency level (HEL), as a result of the comparison of the scores obtained for the analyzed parameters. Subfactors resulting from each comparison (LEL × IEL; LEL × HEL, and IEL × HEL) were different as a function of the comparison and of the methods applied. Low-efficiency level farmers need to improve essential production processes, such as technology and management, as well as health management practices together with the financial management of the production system. Intermediate-efficiency level farmers need to improve their routine animal management, pasture management, and calculation of financial indicators to become highly efficient. The quantitative method allowed to identify underestimation (39.3%) or overestimation (24.2%) when farmers were are classified in clusters. Different methods may be used, but those based on quantitative information have stronger discrimination power to identify different types of farmers

Probing nonlocal effects in metals with graphene plasmons

In this paper we analyze the effects of nonlocality on the optical properties of a system consisting of a thin metallic film separated from a graphene sheet by a hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) layer. We show that nonlocal effects in the metal have a strong impact on the spectrum of the surface plasmon-polaritons on graphene. If the graphene sheet is shaped into a grating, we show that the extinction curves can be used to shed light on the importance of nonlocal effects in metals. Therefore, graphene surface plasmons emerge as a tool for probing nonlocal effects in metallic nanostructures, including thin metallic films. As a byproduct of our study, we show that nonlocal effects lead to smaller losses for the graphene plasmons than what is predicted by a local calculation. We show that these effects can be very well mimicked using a local theory with an effective spacer thickness larger than its actual value.The authors thank Sébastien Nanot and Itai Epstein for valuable discussions and comments. E.J.C.D., Yu.V.B. and N.M.R.P. acknowledge support from the European Commission through the project GrapheneDriven Revolutions in ICT and Beyond (Ref. No. 785219), and from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) in the framework of the Strategic Financing UID/FIS/04650/2013. E.J.C.D. acknowledges FCT for the grant CFUM-BI-14/2016. D.A.I. acknowledges the FPI grant BES-2014-068504. F.H.L.K. acknowledges financial support from the Government of Catalonia trough the SGR grant (2014-SGR-1535), and from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, through the Severo Ochoa Programme for Centres of Excellence in R&D (SEV-2015-0522), support by Fundacio Cellex Barcelona, CERCA Programme / Generalitat de Catalunya and the Mineco grants Ramn y Cajal (RYC-2012-12281) and Plan Nacional (FIS201347161-P and FIS2014-59639-JIN). Furthermore, the research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme under grant agreement no.696656 Graphene Flagship, the ERC starting grant (307806, CarbonLight), and project GRASP (FP7-ICT-2013-613024-GRASP). N. A. M. is a VILLUM Investigator supported by VILLUM FONDEN (grant No. 16498). Center for Nano Optics is financially supported by the University of Southern Denmark (SDU 2020 funding). Center for Nanostructured Graphene is supported by the Danish National Research Foundation (DNRF103).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Stroke Correlates in Chagasic and Non-Chagasic Cardiomyopathies

BACKGROUND: Aging and migration have brought changes to the epidemiology and stroke has been shown to be independently associated with Chagas disease. We studied stroke correlates in cardiomyopathy patients with focus on the chagasic etiology. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We performed a cross-sectional review of medical records of 790 patients with a cardiomyopathy. Patients with chagasic (329) and non-chagasic (461) cardiomyopathies were compared. There were 108 stroke cases, significantly more frequent in the Chagas group (17.3% versus 11.1%; p<0.01). Chagasic etiology (odds ratio [OR], 1.79), pacemaker (OR, 2.49), atrial fibrillation (OR, 3.03) and coronary artery disease (OR, 1.92) were stroke predictors in a multivariable analysis of the entire cohort. In a second step, the population was split into those with or without a Chagas-related cardiomyopathy. Univariable post-stratification stroke predictors in the Chagas cohort were pacemaker (OR, 2.73), and coronary artery disease (CAD) (OR, 2.58); while atrial fibrillation (OR, 2.98), age over 55 (OR, 2.92), hypertension (OR, 2.62) and coronary artery disease (OR, 1.94) did so in the non-Chagas cohort. Chagasic stroke patients presented a very high frequency of individuals without any vascular risk factors (40.4%; OR, 4.8). In a post-stratification logistic regression model, stroke remained associated with pacemaker (OR, 2.72) and coronary artery disease (OR, 2.60) in 322 chagasic patients, and with age over 55 (OR, 2.38), atrial fibrillation (OR 3.25) and hypertension (OR 2.12; p = 0.052) in 444 non-chagasic patients. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Chagas cardiomyopathy presented both a higher frequency of stroke and an independent association with it. There was a high frequency of strokes without any vascular risk factors in the Chagas as opposed to the non-Chagas cohort. Pacemaker rhythm and CAD were independently associated with stroke in the Chagas group while age over 55 years, hypertension and atrial fibrillation did so in the non-Chagas cardiomyopathies

Probing the ultimate plasmon confinement limits with a Van der Waals heterostructure

Data and materials availability: All data needed to evaluate the conclusions in the paper are present in the paper and/or the Supplementary MaterialsThe ability to confine light into tiny spatial dimensions is important for applications such as microscopy, sensing and nanoscale lasers. While plasmons offer an appealing avenue to confine light, Landau damping in metals imposes a trade-off between optical field confinement and losses. We show that a graphene-insulator-metal heterostructure can overcome that trade-off, and demonstrate plasmon confinement down to the ultimate limit of the lengthscale of one atom. This is achieved by far-field excitation of plasmon modes squeezed into an atomically thin hexagonal boron nitride dielectric h-BN spacer between graphene and metal rods. A theoretical model which takes into account the non-local optical response of both graphene and metal is used to describe the results. These ultra-confined plasmonic modes, addressed with far-field light excitation, enables a route to new regimes of ultra-strong light-matter interactions.The authors thank Gerasimos Konstantatos and Valerio Pruneri for the intensive use of their respective FTIRs, very insightful discussions with Marco Polini, Thomas Christensen, Asger Mortenson and Javier Aizpurua on non-local effects and with Achim Woessner on simulation and modelling of graphene acoustic plasmonsmodes. Funding: We acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, through the Severo Ochoa Programme for Centres of Excellence in R&D (SEV-2015-0522), support by Fundacio Cellex Barcelona, the Mineco grants Ramon y Cajal (RYC-2012-12281), Plan Nacional (FIS201347161-P and FIS2014-59639-JIN), and the Government of Catalonia trough the SGR grant (2014-SGR-1535). Furthermore, the research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union H2020 Programme under grant agreement no. 604391 Graphene Flagship, the ERC starting grant (307806, CarbonLight) and project GRASP (FP7-ICT-2013613024-GRASP).D.A.I.acknowledges the FPI gran tBES-2014-068504. N.M.R.P.andE.J.C.D acknowledge support from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) in the framework of the Strategic Financing UID/FIS/04650/2013. This work was supported in part by the Center for Excitonics, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences under Award No. de-sc0001088, and the Army Research Office (grant number 16112776). J.-Y.H. and J.K. acknowledge support from the USA FOSRFATEMURI, GrantNo. FA9550-15-1-0514. Author contributions: F.H.L.K, D.A.I. and S.N. conceived the idea; E.J.C.D and N.M.R.P. developed the analytical model; S.N., C.P., J.O.,D.E. and D.A.I. fabricated the devices; S.N., R.P.and D.A.I.performed measurements; D.A.I., M.L., I.E., and S.N. performed data analysis; J.Y.H. and J.K. provided h-BN; D.A.I., S.N., E.J.C.D., N.M.R.P, I.E., D.E. and F.H.L.K wrote the manuscript; D.E. and F.K. supervised the project. Competing interests: None of the authors have competing interests.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio