Shock wave initiation of the Ti5Si3 reaction in elemental powders

Elemental powder mixes were subjected to plane wave shock processing which reduced the initial porosity to essentially zero. Two powder mixes in a 5:3 Ti:Si atomic ratio were used: -325 mesh Ti and Si (<45 mu m), and -100 mesh Ti and Si (<150 mu m) with shock pressures up to 7.3 GPa and shock energies up to 671 J/g. Shock pressures were calculated using hugoniot parameters for porous elemental powder mixtures and shock energies were taken to be the work done by the shock (P Delta V/2). Shock energy thresholds for complete reaction of the elemental powders were found which depend upon powder particle size and the initial porosity of the powder. The threshold energy for the larger powder mix was found to be similar to 8O% larger than that for the smaller powder. A decrease in initial porosity from 0.49 to 0.40 caused an increase in threshold shock energy of about 75% for both powders. At shock energies slightly below the threshold energy, evidence for the reaction of solid Ti and liquid Si was observed in small isolated regions. These regions contained spherical micronodules with the composition of TiSi2 in Si. The results are compared to those of previous studies reported in the literature, and mechanisms for reaction initiation and the observed threshold values are proposed

All Virtue is Relative: A Response to Prior

In “The Challenge of Measuring Media Exposure: Reply to Dilliplane, Goldman, and Mutz,” Markus Prior suggests that scholars should avoid using a new method of measuring exposure to political television that we evaluated in a recent article published in the American Journal of Political Science. We respond to each of his criticisms, concluding that although no measurement approach is without its flaws, scholars should always use the best approach that is available at any given point in time

The Friendly Media Phenomenon: A Cross-National Analysis of Cross-Cutting Exposure

We hypothesize that in the real world, as opposed to the lab, the norm is for people to experience friendly media that favor their political predispositions when political favoritism is perceived at all. For this reason, media are generally limited in their ability to create cross-cutting exposure. We test this hypothesis using representative survey data drawn from 11 different countries with varying media systems. We further hypothesize that television will contribute more to cross-cutting exposure than newspapers. Finally, and most importantly, we test the hypothesis that the more the structure of a country’s media system parallels that of its political parties, the more that country’s population will be dominated by exposure to like-minded views via mass media. We find confirmation for all 3 of these hypotheses and discuss their implications for the role of mass media in providing exposure to cross-cutting political perspectives

Effects of Mass Media on Prejudice

The way outgroup members are portrayed in the media is widely believed to have consequences for levels of prejudice and stereotyping in the mass public. The visual nature of television and its heavy viewership make it a key source of information for impressions that ingroup members may have of other social groups. However, most research to date has focused on documenting the portrayals of various groups in television content, with only a few studies documenting the causal impact of television viewing. To further understanding of this hypothesis, we outline the contributions and limitations of past work, and point to the most promising theoretical frameworks for studying media influence on outgroup attitudes

Wear Properties of A Shock Consolidated Metallic Glass and Glass-Crystalline Mixtures

Powder flakes prepared from 50 μm thick melt spun ribbons of Markomet 1064 (Ni_(52.5)Mo_(38)Cr_8 B_(1.5) wt%) were shock consolidatedin the unannealed and annealed condition. The unannealed flakes (microhardness 933 kg/mm^2) are amorphous while flakes annealed at 900ºC for 2 hours have an fcc structure with a grain size of 0.3 μm and microhardness of 800 kg/mm^2. The shock consolidated amorphous powder compact (250 kJ/kg shock energy) shows no crystal peaks in an X-ray diffractometer scan. Compacts of annealed powder (400 to 600 kJ/kg shock energies) contain amorphous material (18-21%) which was rapidly quenched from the melt formed at interparticle regions during the consolidation process. The microhardness of the amorphous interparticle material is 1100 kg/mm^2. Wear properties of the compacts measured in low velocity pin on disk tests show low average dynamic friction values (∿0.03). The 60 hour cumulative wear appears to correlate with the energy of shock compaction and surface porosity of the compacts rather than the metallic glass content

Modelling inactivation of Staphylococcus spp. on sliced Brazilian dry-cured loin with thermosonication and peracetic acid combined treatment

peer-reviewedUltrasound (US) has a high capacity to increase food safety. Although high and/or moderate temperature in combination with US has been studied, the knowledge about cooling/low temperatures as well as its combined effect with chemical preservation methods is scarce. Therefore, the aim of this study was to describe the inactivation of Staphylococcus spp. (SA) present in the natural microbiota of sliced Brazilian dry-cured loin (BDL) using US (40 kHz and 5.40 W/g) at 1.6–17.9 kJ/g, temperature (T) between 6.4 and 73.6 °C and peracetic acid (PA) between 5.5 and 274.5 mg/L employing the Central Composite Rotatable Design. The model fully describes how the combination of US, T, and PA affects SA inactivation. In BDL, an increase in US acoustic energy density (kJ/g) allows the reduction of T necessary to inactivate SA because of the occurrence of synergistic effect. However, US applied at low T was inefficient. On the other hand, PA was more efficient at low T, since high T degraded this compound at different rates according to the holding T. Therefore, the data indicates a relation between the technologies used in the combined decontamination of sliced BDL improving dry-cured meat safety

Fluctuations and differential contraction during regeneration of Hydra vulgaris tissue toroids

We studied regenerating bilayered tissue toroids dissected from Hydra vulgaris polyps and relate our macroscopic observations to the dynamics of force-generating mesoscopic cytoskeletal structures. Tissue fragments undergo a specific toroid-spheroid folding process leading to complete regeneration towards a new organism. The time scale of folding is too fast for biochemical signalling or morphogenetic gradients which forced us to assume purely mechanical self-organization. The initial pattern selection dynamics was studied by embedding toroids into hydro-gels allowing us to observe the deformation modes over longer periods of time. We found increasing mechanical fluctuations which break the toroidal symmetry and discuss the evolution of their power spectra for various gel stiffnesses. Our observations are related to single cell studies which explain the mechanical feasibility of the folding process. In addition, we observed switching of cells from a tissue bound to a migrating state after folding failure as well as in tissue injury. We found a supra-cellular actin ring assembled along the toroid's inner edge. Its contraction can lead to the observed folding dynamics as we could confirm by finite element simulations. This actin ring in the inner cell layer is assembled by myosin- driven length fluctuations of supra-cellular {\alpha}-actin structures (myonemes) in the outer cell-layer.Comment: 19 pages and 8 figures, submitted to New Journal of Physic

Numerical observation of non-axisymmetric vesicles in fluid membranes

By means of Surface Evolver (Exp. Math,1,141 1992), a software package of brute-force energy minimization over a triangulated surface developed by the geometry center of University of Minnesota, we have numerically searched the non-axisymmetric shapes under the Helfrich spontaneous curvature (SC) energy model. We show for the first time there are abundant mechanically stable non-axisymmetric vesicles in SC model, including regular ones with intrinsic geometric symmetry and complex irregular ones. We report in this paper several interesting shapes including a corniculate shape with six corns, a quadri-concave shape, a shape resembling sickle cells, and a shape resembling acanthocytes. As far as we know, these shapes have not been theoretically obtained by any curvature model before. In addition, the role of the spontaneous curvature in the formation of irregular crenated vesicles has been studied. The results shows a positive spontaneous curvature may be a necessary condition to keep an irregular crenated shape being mechanically stable.Comment: RevTex, 14 pages. A hard copy of 8 figures is available on reques

Genome-Wide Association Studies of Coffee Intake in UK/US Participants of European Ancestry Uncover Gene-Cohort Influences

Coffee is one of the most widely consumed beverages. We performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of coffee intake in US-based 23andMe participants (N =130,153) and identified 7 significant loci, with many replicating in three multi-ancestral cohorts. We examined genetic correlations and performed a phenome-wide association study across thousands of biomarkers and health and lifestyle traits, then compared our results to the largest available GWAS of coffee intake from UK Biobank (UKB; N =334,659). The results of these two GWAS were highly discrepant. We observed positive genetic correlations between coffee intake and psychiatric illnesses, pain, and gastrointestinal traits in 23andMe that were absent or negative in UKB. Genetic correlations with cognition were negative in 23andMe but positive in UKB. The only consistent observations were positive genetic correlations with substance use and obesity. Our study shows that GWAS in different cohorts could capture cultural differences in the relationship between behavior and genetics