Influence of sulphuric acid anodising on the fatigue strength of a 7075-T73 aluminium alloy

The influence of a sulphuric acid anodising process on the fatigue behaviour of a 7075-T73 aluminium alloy has been investigated. Single edge circular notch (SECN) fatigue specimens were used enabling localisation of fatigue damage and assisting detection of fatigue crack initiation and growth. Elastic finite element modelling was performed to quantify the stress concentration factor and von Mises equivalent stress distribution of the notched region. A surface replication method in combination with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was adopted for in-situ monitoring of the fatigue damage. It was shown that the presence of pitting, developed during the anodic coating pre-treatment, adversely affected the fatigue performance. SEM surface examinations after fatigue cycling indicated the presence of micro-cracks, developed at pit sites. Interestingly these sites were not found to be the source of crack initiation when examined post SEM fractographic analysis. Thus, the stress concentration effect of the corrosion pits was found to be predominant leading to a reduction in fatigue life of approximately 60% for the anodic coated versus untreated specimens

Reduction of calcified plaque volume in ex vivo pericardial tissue, with nanobubbles

The present research investigated the effect of nanobubbles in Ringer's solution on calcified plaque within ex vivo coronary and peripheral artery tissue. The goal of the work was to determine whether nanobubbles generated using an alternating magnetic field (AMF) system can reproducibly reduce the size of plaque obstructions in ex vivo pericardial tissue specimens compared to that in an untreated control. Nanoparticle tracking analysis (NTA) measurements were used to first confirm that AMF can produce nanobubbles in Ringer's solution as well as it does in water. Experiments were performed in which ex vivo human coronary artery and peripheral artery tissues containing plaque were exposed to Ringer's solution with and without the presence of AMF generated nanobubbles. Measurements on intravascular optical coherence tomography (IVOCT) images consistently indicated that plaque volume is significantly reduced in the presence of nanobubbles. A theory of induced dissolution by nanobubble/nanoparticle cluster formation provides a causal explanation for the observed reductions in plaque size

Corrosion of Al0.1CoCrFeNi High Entropy Alloy in a Molten Eutectic Salt

Article describes study which investigates the hot corrosion behavior of Al0.1CoCrFeNi high entropy alloy (HEA) and Ni-base Alloy 718

Genetic association analysis of vitamin D pathway with obesity traits

OBJECTIVE: Observational studies have examined the link between vitamin D deficiency and obesity traits. Some studies have reported associations between vitamin D pathway genes such as VDR, GC and CYP27B1 with body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC); however, the findings have been inconsistent. Therefore, we investigated the involvement of vitamin D metabolic pathway genes in obesity-related traits in a large population-based study. METHODS: We undertook a comprehensive analysis between 100 tagging single nucleotide polymorphisms (tagSNPs) in genes encoding for DHCR7, CYP2R1, VDBP, CYP27B1, CYP27A1, CYP24A1, VDR and RXRG, and obesity traits in 5224 participants (aged 45 years) in the 1958 British birth cohort (1958BC). We further extended our analyses to investigate the associations between SNPs and obesity traits using the summary statistics from the GIANT (Genetic Investigation of Anthropometric Traits) consortium (n=123 865). RESULTS: In the 1958BC (n=5224), after Bonferroni correction, none of the tagSNPs were associated with obesity traits except for one tagSNP from CYP24A1 that was associated with waist-hip ratio (WHR) (rs2296239, P=0.001). However, the CYP24A1 SNP was not associated with BMI-adjusted WHR (WHRadj) in the 1958BC (rs2296239, P=1.00) and GIANT results (n=123 865, P=0.18). There was also no evidence for an interaction between the tagSNPs and obesity on BMI, WC, WHR and WHRadj in the 1958BC. In the GIANT consortium, none of the tagSNPs were associated with obesity traits. CONCLUSIONS: Despite a very large study, our findings suggest that the vitamin D pathway genes are unlikely to have a major role in obesity-related traits in the general population