23,702 research outputs found

    Fabrication of metal matrix composites under intensive shearing

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    Current processing methods for metal matrix composites (MMC) often produces agglomerated reinforced particles in the ductile matrix and also form unwanted brittle secondary phases due to chemical reaction between matrix and the reinforcement. As a result they exhibit extremely low ductility. In addition to the low ductility, the current processing methods are not economical for producing engineering components. In this paper we demonstrate that these problems can be solved to a certain extent by a novel rheo-process. The key step in this process is application of sufficient shear stress on particulate clusters embedded in liquid metal to overcome the average cohesive force of the clusters. Very high shear stress can be achieved by using the specially designed twin-screw machine, developed at Brunel University, in which the liquid undergoes high shear stress and high intensity of turbulence. Experiments with Al alloys and SiC reinforcement reveal that, under high shear stress and turbulence conditions Al liquid penetrates into the clusters and disperse the individual particle within the cluster, thus leading to a uniform microstructure

    Leptonic decay of Heavy-light Mesons in a QCD Potential Model

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    We study the masses and decay constants of heavy-light flavour mesons D, Ds, B and Bs in a QCD Potential model. The mesonic wavefunction is used to compute the masses of D and B mesons in the ground state and the wavefunction is transformed to momentum space to estimate the pseudoscalar decay constants of these mesons. The leptonic decay widths and branching ratio of these mesons for different leptonic channels are also computed to compare with the experimental values. The results are found to be compatible with available data.Comment: 9 pages,3 table

    Genotoxic Effects of Low- and High-LET Radiation on Human Epithelial Cells Grown in 2-D Versus 3-D Culture

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    Risk estimation for radiation-induced cancer relies heavily on human epidemiology data obtained from terrestrial irradiation incidents from sources such as medical and occupational exposures as well as from the atomic bomb survivors. No such data exists for exposures to the types and doses of high-LET radiation that will be encountered during space travel; therefore, risk assessment for space radiation requires the use of data derived from cell culture and animal models. The use of experimental models that most accurately replicate the response of human tissues is critical for precision in risk projections. This work compares the genotoxic effects of radiation on normal human epithelial cells grown in standard 2-D monolayer culture compared to 3-D organotypic co-culture conditions. These 3-D organotypic models mimic the morphological features, differentiation markers, and growth characteristics of fully-differentiated normal human tissue and are reproducible using defined components. Cultures were irradiated with 2 Gy low-LET gamma rays or varying doses of high-LET particle radiation and genotoxic damage was measured using a modified cytokinesis block micronucleus assay. Our results revealed a 2-fold increase in residual damage in 2 Gy gamma irradiated cells grown under organotypic culture conditions compared to monolayer culture. Irradiation with high-LET particle radiation gave similar results, while background levels of damage were comparable under both scenarios. These observations may be related to the phenomenon of "multicellular resistance" where cancer cells grown as 3-D spheroids or in vivo exhibit an increased resistance to killing by chemotherapeutic agents compared to the same cells grown in 2-D culture. A variety of factors are likely involved in mediating this process, including increased cell-cell communication, microenvironment influences, and changes in cell cycle kinetics that may promote survival of damaged cells in 3-D culture that would otherwise die or be rendered reproductively inactive in 2-D culture

    Radiation Quality Effects on Transcriptome Profiles in 3-d Cultures After Particle Irradiation

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    In this work, we evaluate the differential effects of low- and high-LET radiation on 3-D organotypic cultures in order to investigate radiation quality impacts on gene expression and cellular responses. Reducing uncertainties in current risk models requires new knowledge on the fundamental differences in biological responses (the so-called radiation quality effects) triggered by heavy ion particle radiation versus low-LET radiation associated with Earth-based exposures. We are utilizing novel 3-D organotypic human tissue models that provide a format for study of human cells within a realistic tissue framework, thereby bridging the gap between 2-D monolayer culture and animal models for risk extrapolation to humans. To identify biological pathway signatures unique to heavy ion particle exposure, functional gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was used with whole transcriptome profiling. GSEA has been used extensively as a method to garner biological information in a variety of model systems but has not been commonly used to analyze radiation effects. It is a powerful approach for assessing the functional significance of radiation quality-dependent changes from datasets where the changes are subtle but broad, and where single gene based analysis using rankings of fold-change may not reveal important biological information. We identified 45 statistically significant gene sets at 0.05 q-value cutoff, including 14 gene sets common to gamma and titanium irradiation, 19 gene sets specific to gamma irradiation, and 12 titanium-specific gene sets. Common gene sets largely align with DNA damage, cell cycle, early immune response, and inflammatory cytokine pathway activation. The top gene set enriched for the gamma- and titanium-irradiated samples involved KRAS pathway activation and genes activated in TNF-treated cells, respectively. Another difference noted for the high-LET samples was an apparent enrichment in gene sets involved in cycle cycle/mitotic control. It is plausible that the enrichment in these particular pathways results from the complex DNA damage resulting from high-LET exposure where repair processes are not completed during the same time scale as the less complex damage resulting from low-LET radiation
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