The Association of Bone Mineral Density with Cardiovascular Disease

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) and osteoporosis are common age-related conditions with major public health impact. Mounting evidence suggests a link between the two diseases. The purpose of this research was to investigate the association of BMD measures (areal and volumetric) with prevalent CVD, incident CVD, and subclinical measures of atherosclerosis.We utilized data from two prospective epidemiological studies: a) the Health, Aging, and Body Composition (Health ABC) study that enrolled a population of older men and women (age 68-80 years, 51% women, 42% black), and b) the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN) that followed a cohort of women through the menopause transition (age 45-58 years, 61% white, 64% peri-menopausal).In the cross-sectional Health ABC analysis, lower volumetric BMD (vBMD) measures of the spine were associated with higher CVD prevalence in men and women, and areal BMD (aBMD) of the trochanter was related to CVD in women. Additionally, aBMD of the total hip was related to subclinical peripheral arterial disease in men.In the SWAN analysis, we observed an inverse cross-sectional association between trabecular vBMD of the spine and aortic calcification. Meanwhile, no associations with coronary artery calcification were noted after adjusting for age.In the longitudinal Health ABC analysis, lower vBMD measures of the spine were associated with higher CVD incidence in white men, but not in blacks. In women, aBMD of the femoral neck was associated with incident CVD in the full cohort. In race-specific analyses, aBMD measures of the total hip, femoral neck, and trochanter exhibited significant relationships with incident CVD in black women, but not in whites.These relationships were independent of age and shared risk factors between osteoporosis and CVD. The inflammatory cytokines interleukin-6 and tumor necrosis factor-alpha, oxidized LDL, and endogenous estradiol did not explain these associations. Overall, our findings provide epidemiological evidence for the presence of an inverse association between BMD and CVD. An understanding of the common mechanisms underlying bone loss and atherogenesis has significant public health implications as it may set the stage for dual-purpose preventive and therapeutic interventions that target both osteoporosis and CVD

Use of Digital Assessments how to Utilize Digital Bloom to Accommodate Online Learning and Assessments?

As there has always been a concern regarding creation of reliable online assessments by educators, this academic article provides an idea for creating of online assignments for the inexperienced assessment literate teachers. This proposed model will show how to utilize Bloom’s model to create digital online assignments using ICT tools. The inspiration of this proposed model is taken from a combination of Benjamin Bloom’s Taxonomy and Andrew Churches Digital Bloom’s Taxonomy, as both focuses on the teaching and learning environment. Due to the pandemic 2020 approximate estimation of 87% of world’s student’s population (McGee, 2013; UNESCO, 2020) faced the issue of school closure, which gave a rise to online teaching, learning. Therefore, this paper examines the need of creation of reliable assessments which caters to the different students’ abilities. By this proposed model and with the Integration of Information and Communication Technology with Benjamin Bloom’s Cognitive Domain, this article will add a new dimension towards the online assessment. The main objective of this article is to utilize the common language and the terminology from the Blooms taxonomy for assessing the students depending on their needs and abilities to achieve the targeted learning outcomes

Cavitation Induction by Projectile Impacting on a Water Jet

The present paper focuses on the simulation of the high-velocity impact of a projectile impacting on a water-jet, causing the onset, development and collapse of cavitation. The simulation of the fluid motion is carried out using an explicit, compressible, density-based solver developed by the authors using the OpenFOAM library. It employs a barotropic two-phase flow model that simulates the phase-change due to cavitation and considers the co-existence of non-condensable and immiscible air. The projectile is considered to be rigid while its motion through the computational domain is modelled through a direct-forcing Immersed Boundary Method. Model validation is performed against the experiments of Field et al. [Field, J., Camus, J. J., Tinguely, M., Obreschkow, D., Farhat, M., 2012. Cavitation in impacted drops and jets and the effect on erosion damage thresholds. Wear 290–291, 154–160. doi:10.1016/j.wear.2012.03.006. URL http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0043164812000968 ], who visualised cavity formation and shock propagation in liquid impacts at high velocities. Simulations unveil the shock structures and capture the high-speed jetting forming at the impact location, in addition to the subsequent cavitation induction and vapour formation due to refraction waves. Moreover, model predictions provide quantitative information and a better insight on the flow physics that has not been identified from the reported experimental data, such as shock-wave propagation, vapour formation quantity and induced pressures. Furthermore, evidence of the Richtmyer-Meshkov instability developing on the liquid-air interface are predicted when sufficient dense grid resolution is utilised

Toxicological Significance of Silicon-protein Interaction

In order to understand the molecular mechanism of the toxicity of Si containing particulate air pollutants, the interaction between silicate anion and proteins was studied. On the basis of molecular sieving profile, the presence of a protein fraction capable of binding silicic acid was detected in rat lung and serum. The binding is firm being able to withstand dialysis, Si-binding by Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) follows stoichiometric principles indicating true chemical reaction in terms of effects of pH, temperature and period of incubation. Fluorescence spectrum of the BSA-Si complex decreased with an increase in Si concentration. Effect of Si-binding on trypsin activity against albumin showed that proteins other than albumin could also interact with Si-trypsin containing silica showed distinctly low, catalytic activity against native BSA. When both the substrate and enzyme contained bound Si, the activity further reduced by 36 per cent as compared to both pure trypsin and pure BSA, clearly indicating that binding of Si with substrate or enzyme proteins can adversely effect the biological activity. Complexing with proteins is likely to play a role in pathogenesis of pneumoconiosis, elimination of dusts, formation of silicate stones in plants and animals, and possibly in the reported role of Si in nutrition, cardiovascular diseases and ageing

Post-chemotherapy residual mass in stage IIC seminomatous testicular tumor

Introduction The management of patients with residual masses following chemotherapy for advanced seminoma remains a difficult problem with no clear guidelines. While most patients with advanced seminoma achieve a complete or partial response with cisplatin based chemotherapy1, a significant number will reveal a residual mass on follow up CT scan or MR imaging2,3. Management options for post chemotherapy residual mass in a case of seminoma include close observation, radiation therapy and excisional surgery. While 80 to 85% of residual masses represent either fibrosis or necrotic tissue needing no further therapy, 10 to 15% may contain viable tumor which, if not recognized and effectively treated, may be lethal. A case of a stage II seminoma with post chemotherapy residual mass is presented and contemporary literature on this topic is reviewed

Friction and wear of nanocrystalline materials and nanolaminated composites.

In the search of new wear resistant coatings for applications such as cutting tools and turbine refurbishing, a wide range of coatings, belonging to emerging classes of materials, namely, nanocrystalline materials and nanolayered composites, have been produced and tested. These coatings were produced using an rf magnetron sputtering system and include monolithic nanocrystalline metals (Al,Ti,Cu), nanolaminated composites composed of alternating layers of metal/ceramic (Al/Al\sb2O\sb3, Ti/TiN) and metal/metal (Ti/Cu). The metal layer thickness in the as-sputtered films of Al/Al\sb2O\sb3 ranged from 70 to 500 nm, and 150 to 450 nm in Ti/TiN. The nonmetals (Al\sb2O\sb3,TiN) layer thicknesses ranged from 10 to 40 nm and total film thicknesses of 10-15 $\mu$m. As-sputtered nanocrystalline aluminum films with an average grain size of 16.4 nm were isothermally annealed at 573 K to increase the grain size up to 98.0. nm. All materials were characterized and tested for their tribological properties. Friction and wear tests were performed under unlubricated sliding conditions using pin-on-disc type tribometer which was designed and constructed for measuring wear rates and coefficients of friction of thin films in air and in vacuum. The coefficient of friction of the materials tested against the stainless steel pin varied with the sliding distance. At the early stages of sliding the coefficient of friction rose to a peak, followed by a decrease to a steady-state value. The transition to the steady-state in the friction curve corresponded to a transition from severe wear to mild wear. In aluminum the value of the peak coefficient of friction decreased from \rm\mu\sb{p} = 1.4 for a coarse grain size of 10\sp6nm to \rm\mu\sb{p} = 0.6 for a grain size of 16.4 nm when tested under ambient conditions. The coefficient of friction of nanocrystalline aluminum showed a 30% increase when tested in vacuum (10\sp{-6} torr). Within the grain size range of 15-100 nm, the wear rates were found to be linearly dependent on the square root of the grain size \rm(W\sb{s} = 8.5\times 10\sp{-4} + (2.44 \times 10\sp{-4}).\ D\sp{1/2} for severe wear and \rm W\sb{m} = {-}1.9 \times 10\sp{-4} + (5.1 \times 10\sp{-5}).\ D\sp{1/2} for mild wear). The peak value of the coefficient of friction decreased about 70% in Al/Al\sb2O\sb3 (with 200 nm Al layer thickness) while a 60% improvement in the steady-state coefficient of friction was measured in Ti/TiN (with 150 nm Ti layer thickness) in comparison to the as-sputtered monolithic aluminum and titanium films, respectively. An increase in wear resistance with decreasing layer thickness was also observed (for example, \rm W\sb{s} = 7.0 \times 10\sp{-5} + (2.9 \times 10\sp{-7}).\ \lambda\sp{0.5}\sb{Ti}). Mechanical properties (hardness and elastic moduli) of the films were measured using an ultra-microindentation system. Hardness measurement of nanocrystalline aluminum revealed that within the grain size range 15-100 nm the hardness-grain size data obeys a Hall-Petch type relationship (i.e., \rm H = 34\ \lbrack MPa\rbrack + 0.21 \lbrack MPa\cdot m\sp{0.5}\rbrack\ D\sp{-0.5}\ \lbrack m\sp{-0.5}\rbrack). The hardness of Al/Al\sb2O\sb3 and Ti/TiN could also be described in the formalism of the Hall-Petch type indicating that ceramic layers inhibit slip transfer across metallic layers. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)Dept. of Mechanical, Automotive, and Materials Engineering. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis1996 .F37. Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 59-08, Section: B, page: 4384. Advisers: D. O. Northwood; A. T. Alpas. Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 1996

Auger Resonant Raman Spectroscopy Used to Study the Angular Distributions of the Xe 4d5/2 → 6p Decay Spectrum

The Auger resonant Raman effect can be used as a method to eliminate natural lifetime broadening in resonant Auger spectra. We have coupled this method with high-resolution photons from the Advanced Light Source to study angular distributions and decay rates of the Xe4d5/2→6p resonant Auger lines. The angular distribution parameters β of almost all possible final ionic 5p4(3P, 1D, 1S)6p states have been determined. Our data, which remove the discrepancy between previous lower-resolution experimental results, are compared to different theoretical results

Mechanical and crystallographic anisotropy in zirconium alloy tubing.

The annealing behaviour of 60% tube reduced and stress relieved Zircaloy-4 nuclear fuel cladding material is studied over the temperature range 300 to 1000\sp\circC for annealing times of 10\sp3, 10\sp4 and 10\sp5 seconds. For annealing temperatures up to 500\sp\circC there is little change in texture and mechanical anisotropy; rather, the tubing becomes softer due to recovery and removal of cold-work. In the temperature range 500 to 800\sp\circC, there is change in microhardness due to recrystallization and grain growth effects. For annealing temperatures above 800\sp\circC, the overall room temperature strength of the tubing is increased due to phase changes and the tubing exhibits a more mechanically anisotropic behaviour. The data on the mechanical anisotropy ratio (minimum/maximum hardness) shows that the recrystallized structure produced at about 500\sp\circC for annealing times 10\sp3 and 10\sp4 seconds is more mechanically anisotropic than the as-received tubing. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)Dept. of Mechanical, Automotive, and Materials Engineering. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis1991 .F375. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 31-01, page: 0412. Thesis (M.A.Sc.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 1991

Special issue on plenary and invited papers from ICOPS 2009

The nine papers in this special issue were originally presented at the 36th IEEE International Conference on Plasma Science (ICOPS) 2009, held jointly with the 23rd Symposium on Fusion Engineering (SOFE) in San Diego, CA, from May 31 to June 5, 2009