The Boston Bay Group: The Boulder Bed Problem

Guidebook for field trips to the Boston area and vicinity : 68th annual meeting, New England Intercollegiate Geological Conference, October 8-10, 1976: Trip A-1; B-

Mineralocorticoid receptor antagonism attenuates vascular apoptosis and injury via rescuing protein kinase B activation

This article may also be found at the publisher's website at http://hyper.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/53/2/158?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=habibi&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&resourcetype=HWCITEmerging evidence indicates that mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) blockade reduces the risk of cardiovascular events beyond those predicted by its blood pressure-lowering actions; however, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. To investigate whether protection elicited by MR blockade is through attenuation of vascular apoptosis and injury, independently of blood pressure lowering, we administered a low dose of the MR antagonist spironolactone or vehicle for 21 days to hypertensive transgenic Ren2 rats with elevated plasma aldosterone levels. Although Ren2 rats developed higher systolic blood pressures compared with Sprague-Dawley littermates, low-dose spironolactone treatment did not reduce systolic blood pressure compared with untreated Ren2 rats. Ren2 rats exhibited vascular injury as evidenced by increased apoptosis, hemidesmosome-like structure loss, mitochondrial abnormalities, and lipid accumulation compared with Sprague-Dawley rats, and these abnormalities were attenuated by MR antagonism. Protein kinase B activation is critical to vascular homeostasis via regulation of cell survival and expression of apoptotic genes. Protein kinase B serine473 phosphorylation was impaired in Ren2 aortas and restored with MR antagonism. In vivo MR antagonist treatment promoted antiapoptotic effects by increasing phosphorylation of BAD serine136 and expression of Bcl-2 and Bcl-xL, decreasing cytochrome c release and BAD expression, and suppressing caspase-3 activation. Furthermore, MR antagonism substantially reduced the elevated NADPH oxidase activity and lipid peroxidation, expression of angiotensin II, angiotensin type 1 receptor, and MR in Ren2 vasculature. These results demonstrate that MR antagonism protects the vasculature from aldosterone-induced vascular apoptosis and structural injury via rescuing protein kinase B activation, independent of blood pressure effects

Tensile Properties of the Individual Phases in Unreacted Multifilament Nb3_{3}Sn Wires

The room temperature elastic and plastic properties under uniaxial tensile loading of the different phases of an un-reacted, internal-tin process, Nb$_{3}$Sn wire have been determined by tensile tests of whole wires and of extracted Ta, Nb and Nb alloy filaments, as well as by indentation hardness measurements in metallographic wire cross sections

Thermal Shock Study on Different Advanced Ceramics by Laser Irradiation in Different Media

The thermal shock behavior of three commercial-advanced ceramics (SSiC, MgO-PSZ, Al2O3) is characterized in air and vacuum applying a laser thermal shock. The available testing system permits the reproducible setting of defined temperature profiles in thin disks and allows a heating-up thermal shock in various media. Due to the accurate determination of the time- and space-resolved temperature distribution, the local stress state can be calculated as a function of time. It is shown that the thermal shock strength is highest for SSiC and lowest in Al2O3 with MgO-PSZ in between. The approach presented in this work allows quantifying the stress state at failure in terms of tangential tensile stress. The investigated environment does not affect the thermal shock resistance under the studied experimental conditions

Temperature induced degradation of Nb-Ti/Cu composite superconductors

The degradation mechanisms of state-of-the-art Nb-Ti/Cu superconductors are described, based on in-situ synchrotron X-ray diffraction measurements during heat treatment. A quantitative description of the Nb-Ti/Cu degradation in terms of critical current density, Cu stabiliser resistivity and mechanical composite strength is presented. In an applied magnetic field a significant critical current degradation is already observed after a 5-minute 400 °C heat treatment, due to variations of á -Ti precipitate size and distribution within the Nb-Ti alloy filaments. A strong degradation of the strand mechanical properties is observed after several minutes heating above 550 °C, which is also the temperature at which the formation of Cu-Ti intermetallic phases is detected. Several minutes heating at 250 °C are sufficient to increase the RRR of the strongly cold work strands inside a Rutherford type cable from about 80 to about 240. Heating for several minutes at 400 °C does not cause a significant conductor degradation in self-field and, thus, leaves enough temperature margin for the electrical interconnection of Nb-Ti/Cu conductors with common low temperature solder

Tensile properties of the individual phases in superconducting multifilament Nb3Sn wires

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