Microstructure evolution and mechanical property response of TC11 titanium alloy under electroshock treatment

© 2020 The Authors This work investigated the effects of electroshock treatment (EST) on the microstructure variation and mechanical properties of TC11 alloy. The average hardness of the specimens decreased from 358 HV to 328 HV after EST of 0.04 s, then increased to 396 HV after EST of 0.06 s. After EST, the yield strength of specimen declined from 959 MPa to 797 MPa after EST of 0.04 s, and then increased to 1265 MPa after EST of 0.06 s, but the fracture strain decreased continuously. The variation in mechanical properties was closely related to the phase transition from the secondary α (αs) to β phase, and the precipitation of refined needlelike α martensite (αM). The diffusion of atoms accompanied by broaden αs/β boundary from 11.2 nm to 27.6 nm due to the phase transformation after EST by 0.04 s and the dislocation pileup at the boundary to form defects, which resulted the decrease in strength. While increasing the EST time to 0.06 s, the width of αM/β boundary decreased to 5.91 nm. All results indicated that the EST is an effective method for optimizing the microstructure and mechanical properties of titanium alloys in a short time

Mass cytometry reveals the corneal immune cell changes at single cell level in diabetic mice

IntroductionDiabetic ocular complications include sight-threatening consequences and decreased corneal sensitivity, characterized by decreased tear production, corneal sensitivity and delayed corneal epithelial wound healing. The pathogenesis of diabetic corneal disorders remains largely unknown. Growing evidence implies the participation of immune cells in the development of diabetic corneal diseases. Nonetheless, the immunological changes that result in diabetic corneal problems are largely unknown.MethodsMass cytometry by time of flight (CyTOF) was used to investigate immune cell cluster alterations associated with diabetic corneal disorders. CyTOF test was performed on corneal cells at a single level from 21-week-old diabetic (db/db) and non-diabetic (db/m) mice. A panel of 41 immune-related markers monitored different immune cell types in diabetic corneas. To investigate the proportion of each immune cell subpopulation, an unsupervised clustering method was employed, and T-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding was used to visualize the distinctions between different immune cell subsets.ResultsThrough CyTOF test, we identified 10 immune cell subsets in the corneal tissues. In a novel way, we discovered significant immune alterations in diabetic corneas, including pronounced alterations in T cells and myeloid cell subgroups in diabetic corneas linked to potential biomarkers, including CD103, CCR2, SiglecF, Ly6G, and CD172a. Comprehensive immunological profiling indicated remarkable changes in the immune microenvironment in diabetic corneas, characterized by a notable decrease in CD103+CD8+ tissue-resident memory T (TRM) cells and Tregs, as well as a dramatic increase of γδT cells and subsets of CD11b+Ly6G+ myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs).ConclusionCyTOF analysis revealed significant alterations in the immune microenvironment during the development of diabetic corneal complications. This study mapped the immune microenvironment landscape of type 2 diabetic corneas, providing a fundamental understanding of immune-driven diabetic corneal disorders

Recent Development of the Synthesis and Engineering Applications of One-Dimensional Boron Nitride Nanomaterials

One-dimensional (1D) nanomaterials with novel photoelectric, magnetic, mechanical, and electronic transport properties have long been the research focus throughout the world. Herein, the recent achievements in preparation of 1D boron nitride nanomaterials, including nanotubes, nanowires, nanoribbons, nanorods, and nanofibres are reviewed. As the most intriguing and researched polymorph, boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs) are introduced thoroughly involving their functionalization and doping. The electronics and engineering applications of 1D boron nitride nanomaterials are illustrated in nanoscale devices, hydrogen storage, polymer composites, and newly developed biomedical fields in detail

Electroshock treatment dependent microstructural evolution and mechanical properties of near-β titanium alloy manufactured by directed energy deposition

Effects of electroshock treatment (EST) on the microstructural evolution and mechanical properties of near-β titanium alloy (Ti-55531) formed by directed energy deposition (DED) was studied in this work. With the increase in EST time, the average hardness of specimen decreased from 426 HV to 316 HV, and the fracture strain increased significantly, which was attributed to the uniform dispersion of α phase along grain boundaries and inside the β grains. After EST, the texture intensity decreased in terms of the orientation distribution function (ODF), which was ascribed to the redistribution of α phase. Moreover, more atomic vacancies and lattice distortion were formed near the α/β interfaces, which were verified by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observation and ascribed to the migration of atoms near the interface under EST. External loadings facilitated the dislocation motion and lattice distortions near the interfaces, which resulted in the reduction in hardness and the improvement in ductility. The above results indicated that EST can quickly alter the microstructure and mechanical properties of DED titanium alloys as a simple and energy-saving method

PSR J1926-0652: A Pulsar with Interesting Emission Properties Discovered at FAST

We describe PSR J1926-0652, a pulsar recently discovered with the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST). Using sensitive single-pulse detections from FAST and long-term timing observations from the Parkes 64-m radio telescope, we probed phenomena on both long and short time scales. The FAST observations covered a wide frequency range from 270 to 800 MHz, enabling individual pulses to be studied in detail. The pulsar exhibits at least four profile components, short-term nulling lasting from 4 to 450 pulses, complex subpulse drifting behaviours and intermittency on scales of tens of minutes. While the average band spacing P3 is relatively constant across different bursts and components, significant variations in the separation of adjacent bands are seen, especially near the beginning and end of a burst. Band shapes and slopes are quite variable, especially for the trailing components and for the shorter bursts. We show that for each burst the last detectable pulse prior to emission ceasing has different properties compared to other pulses. These complexities pose challenges for the classic carousel-type models.Comment: 13pages with 12 figure

Seroprevalence of Neutralizing Antibodies to Human Adenovirus Type 4 and 7 in Healthy Populations From Southern China

Human adenoviruses type 4 (HAdV4) and 7 (HAdV7) are two major respiratory pathogens and sporadically cause outbreaks of acute respiratory diseases. The neutralizing antibody (nAb) response to these two adenoviruses in civilian populations, which is important for dissecting previous circulations and predicting potential outbreaks, remains largely unknown. In this study, we generated replication-competent HAdV4 and HAdV7 reporter viruses expressing secreted-alkaline-phosphatase (SEAP), and established neutralization assays to investigate the seroprevalence of pre-existing nAb in healthy volunteers from Hunan Province, southern China. The seropositivity rates are 58.4 and 63.8% for anti-HAdV4 nAb and anti-HAdV7 nAb, respectively. High nAb titers (> 1000) were frequently detected in HAdV4-seropositive individuals, whereas most HAdV7-seropositive volunteers had moderate nAb titers (201–1000). The seropositivity rates of anti-HAdV4 nAb and anti-HAdV7 nAb increase with age, with individuals younger than 20 exhibiting the lowest seropositivity rates. Both seropositivity rates and nAb titers are comparable between different sex groups. Notably, HAdV4-seropositive individuals tend to be HAdV7-seropositive and vice versa. Because HAdV4 antisera showed no neutralizing activity to HAdV7 whereas HAdV7 antisera cannot neutralize HAdV4, a subgroup of individuals might be susceptible to infection by HAdV4 and HAdV7 and thus generate nAb to both of them. These results revealed the continuous circulation of HAdV4 and HAdV7 and the lack of protective immunity in more than 35% of people, which emphasized the surveillance of these two HAdVs and the development of prophylactic vaccines

In-orbit background simulation of a type-B CATCH satellite

The Chasing All Transients Constellation Hunters (CATCH) space mission plans to launch three types of micro-satellites (A, B, and C). The type-B CATCH satellites are dedicated to locating transients and detecting their time-dependent energy spectra. A type-B satellite is equipped with lightweight Wolter-I X-ray optics and an array of position-sensitive multi-pixel Silicon Drift Detectors. To optimize the scientific payloads for operating properly in orbit and performing the observations with high sensitivities, this work performs an in-orbit background simulation of a type-B CATCH satellite using the Geant4 toolkit. It shows that the persistent background is dominated by the cosmic X-ray diffuse background and the cosmic-ray protons. The dynamic background is also estimated considering trapped charged particles in the radiation belts and low-energy charged particles near the geomagnetic equator, which is dominated by the incident electrons outside the aperture. The simulated persistent background within the focal spot is used to estimate the observation sensitivity, i.e. 4.22$\times$10$^{-13}$ erg cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$ with an exposure of 10$^{4}$ s and a Crab-like source spectrum, which can be utilized further to optimize the shielding design. The simulated in-orbit background also suggests that the magnetic diverter just underneath the optics may be unnecessary in this kind of micro-satellites, because the dynamic background induced by charged particles outside the aperture is around 3 orders of magnitude larger than that inside the aperture.Comment: 24 pages, 13 figures, 7 tables, accepted for publication in Experimental Astronom

The United States COVID-19 Forecast Hub dataset

Academic researchers, government agencies, industry groups, and individuals have produced forecasts at an unprecedented scale during the COVID-19 pandemic. To leverage these forecasts, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) partnered with an academic research lab at the University of Massachusetts Amherst to create the US COVID-19 Forecast Hub. Launched in April 2020, the Forecast Hub is a dataset with point and probabilistic forecasts of incident cases, incident hospitalizations, incident deaths, and cumulative deaths due to COVID-19 at county, state, and national, levels in the United States. Included forecasts represent a variety of modeling approaches, data sources, and assumptions regarding the spread of COVID-19. The goal of this dataset is to establish a standardized and comparable set of short-term forecasts from modeling teams. These data can be used to develop ensemble models, communicate forecasts to the public, create visualizations, compare models, and inform policies regarding COVID-19 mitigation. These open-source data are available via download from GitHub, through an online API, and through R packages