Effect of hydrostatic pressure on anelastic stress relaxation in a mixed-alkali silicate glass

The effect of hydrostatic pressure on the anelastic stress relaxation of a mixed-alkali silicate glass (0.05 Na₂O, 0.95 K₂O, 3 SiO₂) was studied at 75°C between ambient pressure and 6 kbar. The activation volume of diffusion was found to be - 4.2 cm³/mole. It is proposed that a reequilibration of the defect population at pressure gives rise to the negative activation volume of diffusion --Abstract, page ii

Fretting Corrosion Behavior of Additive Manufactured and Cryogenic-Machined Ti6Al4V for Biomedical Applications

Metal ion release, caused by synergistic effect of wear and corrosion, is one of the major concerns related to the prostheses lifetime. In this work, samples of additive manufactured Ti6Al4V are machined under dry cutting and cryogenic cooling conditions and their performances in terms of corrosion and fretting corrosion response are investigated. A wet and temperature-controlled apparatus equipped with an electro-chemical cell is designed and set-up in order to evaluate the fretting corrosion effect acting at the interfaces. The obtained results show that the cryogenic machining improves the corrosion and fretting corrosion behavior of the investigated additive manufactured Ti6Al4V

Phospholipase D functional ablation has a protective effect in an Alzheimer's disease Caenorhabditis elegans model

Phospholipase D (PLD) is a key player in the modulation of multiple aspects of cell physiology and has been proposed as a therapeutic target for Alzheimer's disease (AD). Here, we characterize a PLD mutant, pld-1, using the Caenorhabditis elegans animal model. We show that pld-1 animals present decreased phosphatidic acid levels, that PLD is the only source of total PLD activity and that pld-1 animals are more sensitive to the acute effects of ethanol. We further show that PLD is not essential for survival or for the normal performance in a battery of behavioral tests. Interestingly, pld-1 animals present both increased size and lipid stores levels. While ablation of PLD has no important effect in worm behavior, its ablation in an AD-like model that overexpresses amyloid-beta (Aβ), markedly improves various phenotypes such as motor tasks, prevents susceptibility to a proconvulsivant drug, has a protective effect upon serotonin treatment and reverts the biometric changes in the Aβ animals, leading to the normalization of the worm body size. Overall, this work proposes the C. elegans model as a relevant tool to study the functions of PLD and further supports the notion that PLD has a significant role in neurodegeneration.We would like to thank members of the Oliveira and Maciel labs for discussions, for critical analysis of data and discussions on the manuscript. Ricardo Rosa for his technical assistance in lifespan assays and Carlos Bessa for his technical suggestions. Thanks to the Caenorhabditis Genetics Center (CGC), which is funded by the National Institutes of Health – National Center for Research Resources, for some of the nematode strains. Costs with acquisition and transfer of genetic C. elegans models were covered by Tiago Gil Oliveira. This work was supported by grants from the Portuguese North Regional Operational Program (ON.2 – O Novo Norte) under the National Strategic Reference Framework (QREN), through the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER), the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology PD/BD/52286/2013 (Francisca Vaz Bravo) as well as NIH ADRC grant P50 AG008702 to Scott A. Small (project G.D.P.) and NIH grant R21 AG045020 to G.D.P.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The ACS Nearby Galaxy Survey Treasury IV. The Star Formation History of NGC 2976

We present resolved stellar photometry of NGC 2976 obtained with the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) as part of the ACS Nearby Galaxy Survey Treasury (ANGST) program. The data cover the radial extent of the major axis of the disk out to 6 kpc, or ~6 scale lengths. The outer disk was imaged to a depth of M_F606W ~ 1, and an inner field was imaged to the crowding limit at a depth of M_F606W ~ -1. Through detailed analysis and modeling of these CMDs we have reconstructed the star formation history of the stellar populations currently residing in these portions of the galaxy, finding similar ancient populations at all radii but significantly different young populations at increasing radii. In particular, outside of the well-measured break in the disk surface brightness profile, the age of the youngest population increases with distance from the galaxy center, suggesting that star formation is shutting down from the outside-in. We use our measured star formation history, along with H I surface density measurements, to reconstruct the surface density profile of the disk during previous epochs. Comparisons between the recovered star formation rates and reconstructed gas densities at previous epochs are consistent with star formation following the Schmidt law during the past 0.5 Gyrs, but with a drop in star formation efficiency at low gas densities, as seen in local galaxies at the present day. The current rate and gas density suggest that rapid star formation in NGC 2976 is currently in the process of ceasing from the outside-in due to gas depletion. This process of outer disk gas depletion and inner disk star formation was likely triggered by an interaction with the core of the M81 group >~1 Gyr ago that stripped the gas from the galaxy halo and/or triggered gas inflow from the outer disk toward the galaxy center.Comment: 22 pages, 14 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication by Ap

Paternal attractiveness and the effects of differential allocation of parental investment

The differential allocation hypothesis (DAH) predicts that an individual should vary its reproductive investment according to the attractiveness of its mate. A recently revised version of the DAH makes explicit that investment can be positive, i.e. higher for the offspring of attractive males which should be of higher quality, or negative, i.e. higher for offspring of unattractive males, for example compensating for inheriting poor paternal genes. Moreover, investment can be made by the father and the mother. Here, we tested whether experimental manipulation of male attractiveness affected parental investment at different reproductive stages and thus influenced fitness-related traits in offspring. In two aviaries, all male zebra finches, Taeniopygia guttata, were given red leg rings to increase attractiveness and in two aviaries all males received green leg rings to decrease attractiveness. This controlled for assortative mating between treatments. Ring colour was merely an experimental manipulation of male attractiveness, not paternal quality, so we might expect additional investment to elevate offspring quality. Eggs were cross-fostered between and within treatments to allow differentiation of effects of investment in eggs and nestlings. Clutch and brood sizes were standardized. Both positive and negative investment were observed: Eggs from red-ringed fathers had higher yolk to albumen ratios than eggs from green-ringed fathers. Nestlings from eggs laid and incubated by parents in the red-ringed group had higher hatching masses than those in the green-ringed group. Both parents in the green-ringed group fed nestlings more frequently than red-ringed parents. Offspring performance was influenced by the treatment of both foster and biological parents, but combined effects of these different investment patterns on fitness-related traits were ambiguous. Male attractiveness appeared to affect patterns of reproductive investment but not consistently across all forms of reproductive investment suggesting that the costs and benefits of differential allocation vary among individuals and across contexts