External validation of prognostic models for preeclampsia in a Dutch multicenter prospective cohort

Objective: To perform an external validation of all published prognostic models for first-trimester prediction of the risk of developing preeclampsia (PE). Methods: Women <14 weeks of pregnancy were recruited in the Netherlands. All systematically identified prognostic models for PE that contained predictors commonly available were eligible for external validation. Results: 3,736 women were included; 87 (2.3%) developed PE. Calibration was poor due to overestimation. Discrimination of 9 models for LO-PE ranged from 0.58 to 0.71 and of 9 models for all PE from 0.55 to 0.75. Conclusion: Only a few easily applicable prognostic models for all PE showed discrimination above 0.70, which is considered an acceptable performance

Retained austenite: transformation-induced plasticity

The deformation-induced phase transformation of metastable austenite to martensite is accompanied by macroscopic plastic strain and results in significant work hardening and the delayed onset of necking. Steels that exhibit such transformation-induced plasticity (TRIP) effect possess high strength-ductility ratios and improved toughness. Since the stability of the retained austenite (RA) phase is the rate controlling mechanism for the TRIP effect, the factors affecting the chemical and mechanical stability of RA in CMnSi TRIP steels are discussed. It was suggested that chemical stability plays a more important role at low strains, whereas other factors become responsible for RA behavior at higher strains. The importance of optimizing the processing parameters to achieve the desirable level of austenite stability is highlighted. Finally, the influence of mechanical testing conditions and the interaction between the phases during tensile testing are also detailed

The formation of complex microstructures after different deformation modes in advanced high-strength steels

The microstructure of transformation induced plasticity (TRIP) and dual phase (DP) multiphase steels after stamping of an industrial component at different strain levels was investigated using transmission electron microscopy. The TRIP steel microstructure showed a more complex dislocation substructure of ferrite at different strain levels than DP steel. The deformation microstructure of the stamped parts was compared to the deformation microstructure in these complex steels for different &quot;equivalent&quot; tensile strains. It was found that the microstructures are similar only at high levels of strain (&gt;10 pct) for both steels. &copy; 2014 The Minerals, Metals &amp; Materials Society and ASM International

Pleiotropic genes for metabolic syndrome and inflammation

Metabolic syndrome (MetS) has become a health and financial burden worldwide. The MetS definition captures clustering of risk factors that predict higher risk for diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular disease. Our study hypothesis is that additional to genes influencing individual MetS risk factors, genetic variants exist that influence MetS and inflammatory markers forming a predisposing MetS genetic network. To test this hypothesis a staged approach was undertaken. (a) We analyzed 17 metabolic and inflammatory traits in more than 85,500 participants from 14 large epidemiological studies within the Cross Consortia Pleiotropy Group. Individuals classified with MetS (NCEP definition), versus those without, showed on average significantly different levels for most inflammatory markers studied. (b) Paired average correlations between 8 metabolic traits and 9 inflammatory markers from the same studies as above, estimated with two methods, and factor analyses on large simulated data, helped in identifying 8 combinations of traits for follow-u