Basal slip mediated tension twin variant selection in magnesium WE43 alloy

Tension twinning nucleation and evolution in Mg WE43 alloy over a large sampling area was investigated using a quasi-in-situ EBSD/SEM method during interrupted compression testing. The results showed tension twins with both high and low macroscopic Schmid factor (MSF) were activated under a compressive stress of 100 MPa with a strain rate of 10−1 s−1. Basal slip in most grains dominated at this stress, so nucleation of twin variants required little interaction with non-basal slip, which was different from other studies that reported prismatic slip and/or tension twinning were required to activate some low MSF tension twin variants. The geometric compatibility factor (m') was demonstrated to be an important factor to determine tension twin variant selection assisted by basal slip. The analysis indicated m' played a critical role over MSF in tension twin variant selection during twin nucleation stage, and final twin variant types were insensitive to increasing stress, but they inherited twin variant types determined at twin nucleation stage. Moreover, which specific grain boundary of a grain with hard orientation for basal slip would nucleate which twin variant could be also validated by m' and largely depended on two factors: (a) high value of m' with 1st or 2nd rank between the tension twinning of nucleated twin variant and basal slip in adjoining grains; and (b) intensive basal slip activity in the neighbouring grains before twin nucleation

Oxidation State of Capping Agent Affects Spatial Reactivity on Gold Nanorods

Despite enormous progress toward controlling the shapes and surface chemistry of colloidal nanoparticles, spatial control of nanoparticle surface chemistry remains a major challenge. In recent years, there have been tantalizing reports demonstrating anisotropic silica coating of gold nanorods in which silica is deposited only on the sides by functionalizing the nanorods with poly­(ethylene glycol) methyl ether thiol (PEG-thiol) prior to silica coating, but such results have been difficult to reproduce. We report that the oxidation state of PEG-thiol is key to anisotropic silica coating, with the disulfide, not the thiol, leading to side silica coating. PEG-disulfide appears to selectively functionalize the ends of gold nanorods, and robust methods are developed to reliably deposit side silica shells on PEG-disulfide functionalized gold nanorods

Characterizing the potency and impact of carbon ion therapy in a primary mouse model of soft tissue sarcoma

Carbon ion therapy (CIT) offers several potential advantages for treating cancers compared with X-ray and proton radiotherapy including increased biological efficacy and more conformal dosimetry. However, CIT potency has not been characterized in primary tumor animal models. Here, we calculate the relative biological effectiveness (RBE) of carbon ions compared to X-rays in an autochthonous mouse model of soft tissue sarcoma. We used Cre/loxP technology to generate primary sarcomas in KrasLSL-G12D/+; p53fl/fl mice. Primary tumors were irradiated with a single fraction of carbon ions (10 Gy), X-rays (20 Gy, 25 Gy, or 30 Gy), or observed as controls. The RBE was calculated by determining the dose of X-rays that resulted in similar time to post-treatment tumor volume quintupling and exponential growth rate as 10 Gy carbon ions. The median tumor volume quintupling time and exponential growth rate of sarcomas treated with 10 Gy carbon ions and 30 Gy X-rays were similar: 27.3 days and 28.1 days, and 0.060 mm3/day and 0.059 mm3/day, respectively. Tumors treated with lower doses of X-rays had faster regrowth. Thus, the RBE of carbon ions in this primary tumor model is 3. When isoeffective treatments of carbon ions and X-rays were compared, we observed significant differences in tumor growth kinetics, proliferative indices, and immune infiltrates. We found that carbon ions were three times as potent as X-rays in this aggressive tumor model and identified unanticipated differences in radiation response that may have clinical implications

Neoadjuvant Radiation Therapy and Surgery Improves Metastasis-Free Survival over Surgery Alone in a Primary Mouse Model of Soft Tissue Sarcoma.

This study aims to investigate whether adding neoadjuvant radiotherapy (RT), anti-programmed cell death protein-1 (PD-1) antibody (anti-PD-1), or RT + anti-PD-1 to surgical resection improves disease-free survival for mice with soft tissue sarcomas (STS). We generated a high mutational load primary mouse model of STS by intramuscular injection of adenovirus expressing Cas9 and guide RNA targeting Trp53 and intramuscular injection of 3-methylcholanthrene (MCA) into the gastrocnemius muscle of wild-type mice (p53/MCA model). We randomized tumor-bearing mice to receive isotype control or anti-PD-1 antibody with or without radiotherapy (20 Gy), followed by hind limb amputation. We used micro-CT to detect lung metastases with high spatial resolution, which was confirmed by histology. We investigated whether sarcoma metastasis was regulated by immunosurveillance by lymphocytes or tumor cell-intrinsic mechanisms. Compared with surgery with isotype control antibody, the combination of anti-PD-1, radiotherapy, and surgery improved local recurrence-free survival (P = 0.035) and disease-free survival (P = 0.005), but not metastasis-free survival. Mice treated with radiotherapy, but not anti-PD-1, showed significantly improved local recurrence-free survival and metastasis-free survival over surgery alone (P = 0.043 and P = 0.007, respectively). The overall metastasis rate was low (∼12%) in the p53/MCA sarcoma model, which limited the power to detect further improvement in metastasis-free survival with addition of anti-PD-1 therapy. Tail vein injections of sarcoma cells into immunocompetent mice suggested that impaired metastasis was due to inability of sarcoma cells to grow in the lungs rather than a consequence of immunosurveillance. In conclusion, neoadjuvant radiotherapy improves metastasis-free survival after surgery in a primary model of STS