306 research outputs found
Determining and modelling a complete time-temperature-transformation diagram for a Pt-based metallic glass former through combination of conventional and fast scanning calorimetry
State of the art fast differential scanning calorimetry (FDSC) is used to complement conventional differential
scanning calorimetry (DSC) studies about the isothermal time-temperature-transformation (TTT) diagram of the
bulk metallic glass forming liquid Pt42.5Cu27Ni9.5P21 to allow a comprehensive study of the crystallization kinetics of this system over a broad temperature range. FDSC and DSC data align well in the low-temperature
region of the crystallization nose but show distinct discrepancies in the high-temperature region as the FDSC
studies reveal faster crystallization times. The results are mathematically described and discussed based on the
Johnson-Mehl-Avrami-Kolmogorov (JMAK) equation. Thereby, either homogeneous or heterogeneous nucleation
is assumed, depending on the respective experimental conditions in FDSC and DSC studies. With this approach,
the complete TTT diagram can be modelled as superposition of two sequential JMAK fits
Excitation and Injury of Adult Ventricular Cardiomyocytes by Nano- to Millisecond Electric Shocks
Intense electric shocks of nanosecond (ns) duration can become a new modality for more efficient but safer defibrillation. We extended strength-duration curves for excitation of cardiomyocytes down to 200 ns, and compared electroporative damage by proportionally more intense shocks of different duration. Enzymatically isolated murine, rabbit, and swine adult ventricular cardiomyocytes (VCM) were loaded with a Ca2+ indicator Fluo-4 or Fluo-5N and subjected to shocks of increasing amplitude until a Ca2+ transient was optically detected. Then, the voltage was increased 5-fold, and the electric cell injury was quantified by the uptake of a membrane permeability marker dye, propidium iodide. We established that: (1) Stimuli down to 200-ns duration can elicit Ca2+ transients, although repeated ns shocks often evoke abnormal responses, (2) Stimulation thresholds expectedly increase as the shock duration decreases, similarly for VCMs from different species, (3) Stimulation threshold energy is minimal for the shortest shocks, (4) VCM orientation with respect to the electric field does not affect the threshold for ns shocks, and (5) The shortest shocks cause the least electroporation injury. These findings support further exploration of ns defibrillation, although abnormal response patterns to repetitive ns stimuli are of a concern and require mechanistic analysis
Cationic vacancy induced room-temperature ferromagnetism in transparent conducting anatase Ti_{1-x}Ta_xO_2 (x~0.05) thin films
We report room-temperature ferromagnetism in highly conducting transparent
anatase Ti1-xTaxO2 (x~0.05) thin films grown by pulsed laser deposition on
LaAlO3 substrates. Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS), x-ray
diffraction (XRD), proton induced x-ray emission (PIXE), x-ray absorption
spectroscopy (XAS) and time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry
(TOF-SIMS) indicated negligible magnetic contaminants in the films. The
presence of ferromagnetism with concomitant large carrier densities was
determined by a combination of superconducting quantum interference device
(SQUID) magnetometry, electrical transport measurements, soft x-ray magnetic
circular dichroism (SXMCD), XAS, and optical magnetic circular dichroism (OMCD)
and was supported by first-principle calculations. SXMCD and XAS measurements
revealed a 90% contribution to ferromagnetism from the Ti ions and a 10%
contribution from the O ions. RBS/channelling measurements show complete Ta
substitution in the Ti sites though carrier activation was only 50% at 5% Ta
concentration implying compensation by cationic defects. The role of Ti vacancy
and Ti3+ was studied via XAS and x-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS)
respectively. It was found that in films with strong ferromagnetism, the Ti
vacancy signal was strong while Ti3+ signal was absent. We propose (in the
absence of any obvious exchange mechanisms) that the localised magnetic
moments, Ti vacancy sites, are ferromagnetically ordered by itinerant carriers.
Cationic-defect-induced magnetism is an alternative route to ferromagnetism in
wide-band-gap semiconducting oxides without any magnetic elements.Comment: 21 pages, 10 figures, to appear in Philosophical Transaction - Royal
Soc.
The red-sky enigma over Svalbard in December 2002
On 6 December 2002, during winter darkness, an extraordinary event occurred in the sky, as viewed from Longyearbyen (78° N, 15° E), Svalbard, Norway. At 07:30 UT the southeast sky was surprisingly lit up in a deep red colour. The light increased in intensity and spread out across the sky, and at 10:00 UT the illumination was observed to reach the zenith. The event died out at about 12:30 UT. Spectral measurements from the Auroral Station in Adventdalen confirm that the light was scattered sunlight. Even though the Sun was between 11.8 and 14.6deg below the horizon during the event, the measured intensities of scattered light on the southern horizon from the scanning photometers coincided with the rise and setting of the Sun. Calculations of actual heights, including refraction and atmospheric screening, indicate that the event most likely was scattered solar light from a target below the horizon. This is also confirmed by the OSIRIS instrument on board the Odin satellite. The deduced height profile indicates that the scattering target is located 18–23km up in the stratosphere at a latitude close to 73–75° N, southeast of Longyearbyen. The temperatures in this region were found to be low enough for Polar Stratospheric Clouds (PSC) to be formed. The target was also identified as PSC by the LIDAR systems at the Koldewey Station in Ny-Ålesund (79° N, 12° E). The event was most likely caused by solar illuminated type II Polar Stratospheric Clouds that scattered light towards Svalbard. Two types of scenarios are presented to explain how light is scattered.publishedVersio
On the Strength of the Carbon Nanotube-Based Space Elevator Cable: From Nano- to Mega-Mechanics
In this paper different deterministic and statistical models, based on new
quantized theories proposed by the author, are presented to estimate the
strength of a real, thus defective, space elevator cable. The cable, of ~100
megameters in length, is composed by carbon nanotubes, ~100 nanometers long:
thus, its design involves from the nano- to the mega-mechanics. The predicted
strengths are extensively compared with the experiments and the atomistic
simulations on carbon nanotubes available in the literature. All these
approaches unequivocally suggest that the megacable strength will be reduced by
a factor at least of ~70% with respect to the theoretical nanotube strength,
today (erroneously) assumed in the cable design. The reason is the unavoidable
presence of defects in a so huge cable. Preliminary in silicon tensile
experiments confirm the same finding. The deduced strength reduction is
sufficient to pose in doubt the effective realization of the space elevator,
that if built as today designed will surely break (according to the s opinion).
The mechanics of the cable is also revised and possibly damage sources
discussed
A simplified model for TIG-dressing numerical simulation
journal_title: Modelling and Simulation in Materials Science and Engineering article_type: paper article_title: A simplified model for TIG-dressing numerical simulation copyright_information: © 2017 IOP Publishing Ltd date_received: 2016-12-01 date_accepted: 2017-02-22 date_epub: 2017-03-1
Functional improvement and maturation of rat and human engineered heart tissue by chronic electrical stimulation
Spontaneously beating engineered heart tissue (EHT) represents an advanced in vitro model for drug testing and disease modeling, but cardiomyocytes in EHTs are less mature and generate lower forces than in the adult heart. We devised a novel pacing system integrated in a setup for videooptical recording of EHT contractile function over time and investigated whether sustained electrical field stimulation improved EHT properties. EHTs were generated from neonatal rat heart cells (rEHT, n=96) or human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC)-derived cardiomyocytes (hEHT, n=19). Pacing with biphasic pulses was initiated on day 4 of culture. REHT continuously paced for 16-18 days at 0.5Hz developed 2.2× higher forces than nonstimulated rEHT. This was reflected by higher cardiomyocyte density in the center of EHTs, increased connexin-43 abundance as investigated by two-photon microscopy and remarkably improved sarcomere ultrastructure including regular M-bands. Further signs of tissue maturation include a rightward shift (to more physiological values) of the Ca(2+)-response curve, increased force response to isoprenaline and decreased spontaneous beating activity. Human EHTs stimulated at 2Hz in the first week and 1.5Hz thereafter developed 1.5× higher forces than nonstimulated hEHT on day 14, an ameliorated muscular network of longitudinally oriented cardiomyocytes and a higher cytoplasm-to-nucleus ratio. Taken together, continuous pacing improved structural and functional properties of rEHTs and hEHTs to an unprecedented level. Electrical stimulation appears to be an important step toward the generation of fully mature EHT
Hybrid stars with the color dielectric and the MIT bag models
We study the hadron-quark phase transition in the interior of neutron stars
(NS). For the hadronic sector, we use a microscopic equation of state (EOS)
involving nucleons and hyperons derived within the Brueckner-Bethe-Goldstone
many-body theory, with realistic two-body and three-body forces. For the
description of quark matter, we employ both the MIT bag model with a density
dependent bag constant, and the color dielectric model. We calculate the
structure of NS interiors with the EOS comprising both phases, and we find that
the NS maximum masses are never larger than 1.7 solar masses, no matter the
model chosen for describing the pure quark phase.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
Prevalence of Disorders Recorded in Dogs Attending Primary-Care Veterinary Practices in England
Purebred dog health is thought to be compromised by an increasing occurence of inherited diseases but inadequate prevalence data on common disorders have hampered efforts to prioritise health reforms. Analysis of primary veterinary practice clinical data has been proposed for reliable estimation of disorder prevalence in dogs. Electronic patient record (EPR) data were collected on 148,741 dogs attending 93 clinics across central and south-eastern England. Analysis in detail of a random sample of EPRs relating to 3,884 dogs from 89 clinics identified the most frequently recorded disorders as otitis externa (prevalence 10.2%, 95% CI: 9.1-11.3), periodontal disease (9.3%, 95% CI: 8.3-10.3) and anal sac impaction (7.1%, 95% CI: 6.1-8.1). Using syndromic classification, the most prevalent body location affected was the head-and-neck (32.8%, 95% CI: 30.7-34.9), the most prevalent organ system affected was the integument (36.3%, 95% CI: 33.9-38.6) and the most prevalent pathophysiologic process diagnosed was inflammation (32.1%, 95% CI: 29.8-34.3). Among the twenty most-frequently recorded disorders, purebred dogs had a significantly higher prevalence compared with crossbreds for three: otitis externa (P = 0.001), obesity (P = 0.006) and skin mass lesion (P = 0.033), and popular breeds differed significantly from each other in their prevalence for five: periodontal disease (P = 0.002), overgrown nails (P = 0.004), degenerative joint disease (P = 0.005), obesity (P = 0.001) and lipoma (P = 0.003). These results fill a crucial data gap in disorder prevalence information and assist with disorder prioritisation. The results suggest that, for maximal impact, breeding reforms should target commonly-diagnosed complex disorders that are amenable to genetic improvement and should place special focus on at-risk breeds. Future studies evaluating disorder severity and duration will augment the usefulness of the disorder prevalence information reported herein
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