1,252 research outputs found
Mechanical properties and cytotoxic evaluation of the Ti-3Nb-13Zr alloy
Ti-13Nb-13Zr is a new titanium alloy that was originally developed for medical implant applications.
This alloy combines a low elastic modulus, high strength, excellent hot and cold workability,
and superior corrosion resistance. Research on this alloy has shown that the mechanical properties
can be controlled over a significant range through hot working, heat treatment and cold-working.
The present study describes the mechanical properties and cytotoxic evaluation of the Ti-13Nb-13Zr
alloy, which was produced by furnace arc melting in argon atmosphere. The elemental constituents
were unalloyed Ti, Nb and Zr sheets.
The obtained ingots, which initial diameter were about 15 mm, have undergone sequences of
cold-working and heat treatments in order to achieve a final diameter of 6 mm. The tensile strength
of Ti-13Nb-13Zr achieved 1270 MPa (cold-worked – 60% reduction in area) and 860 MPa after
heat treatment (60% reduction in area + 1000 o C/1h + water quenched). The elastic module were 52
GPa and 60 GPa respectively.
Furthermore, the toxic effect of this alloy on cells was evaluated by a cytotoxicity test, a quantitative
method of colony suppression assay using Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cultured cells in
contact with diluted extracts of the biomaterials. The results showed that Ti-13Nb-13Zr alloy obtained
by furnace arc melting isn’t cytotoxic.Peer Reviewe
Seasonal Antarctic pressure variability during the twentieth century from spatially complete reconstructions and CAM5 simulations
As most permanent observations in Antarctica started in the 1950s, understanding Antarctic climate variations throughout the twentieth century remains a challenge. To address this issue, the non-summer multi-decadal variability in pressure reconstructions poleward of 60°S is evaluated and assessed in conjunction with climate model simulations throughout the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries to understand historical atmospheric circulation variability over Antarctica. Austral autumn and winter seasons show broadly similar patterns, with negative anomalies in the early twentieth century (1905–1934), positive pressure anomalies in the middle twentieth century (1950–1980), and negative pressure anomalies in the most recent period (1984–2013), consistent with concurrent trends in the SAM index. In autumn, the anomalies are significant in the context of estimates of interannual variability and reconstruction uncertainty across most of the Antarctic continent, and the reconstructed patterns agree best with model-generated patterns when the simulation includes the forced response to tropical sea surface temperatures and external radiative forcing. In winter and spring, the reconstructed anomalies are less significant and are consistent with internal atmospheric variability alone. The specific role of tropical SST variability on pressure trends in these seasons is difficult to assess due to low reconstruction skill in the region of strongest tropical teleconnections, the large internal atmospheric variability, and uncertainty in the SST patterns themselves. Indirect estimates of pressure variability, whether through sea ice reconstructions, proxy records, or improved models and data assimilation schemes, will help to further constrain the magnitude of internal variability relative to the forced responses expected from SST trends and external radiative forcing
cDNA Cloning of Biologically Active Chicken Interleukin-18
By searching a chicken EST database, we identified a cDNA clone that appeared to contain the entire open
reading frame (ORF) of chicken interleukin-18 (ChIL-18). The encoded protein consists of 198 amino acids
and exhibits approximately 30% sequence identity to IL-18 of humans and various others mammals. Sequence
comparisons reveals a putative caspase-1 cleavage site at aspartic acid 29 of the primary translation product,
indicating that mature ChIL-18 might consist of 169 amino acids. Bacterially expressed ChIL-18 in which the
N-terminal 29 amino acids of the putative precursor molecule were replaced by a histidine tag induced the
synthesis of interferon-Îł (IFN-Îł) in cultured primary chicken spleen cells, indicating that the recombinant
protein is biologically active
Effective Hamiltonian Theory and Its Applications in Quantum Information
This paper presents a useful compact formula for deriving an effective
Hamiltonian describing the time-averaged dynamics of detuned quantum systems.
The formalism also works for ensemble-averaged dynamics of stochastic systems.
To illustrate the technique we give examples involving Raman processes,
Bloch-Siegert shifts and Quantum Logic Gates.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, to be published in Canadian Journal of Physic
Dissipation-assisted quantum gates with cold trapped ions
It is shown that a two-qubit phase gate and SWAP operation between ground
states of cold trapped ions can be realised in one step by simultaneously
applying two laser fields. Cooling during gate operations is possible without
perturbing the computation and the scheme does not require a second ion species
for sympathetic cooling. On the contrary, the cooling lasers even stabilise the
desired time evolution of the system. This affords gate operation times of
nearly the same order of magnitude as the inverse coupling constant of the ions
to a common vibrational mode.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, substantially revised versio
Secondary instability and tertiary states in rotating plane Couette flow
Recent experimental studies have shown rich transition behaviour in rotating plane Couette flow (RPCF). In this paper we study the transition in supercritical RPCF theoretically by determination of equilibrium and periodic orbit tertiary states via Floquet analysis on secondary Taylor vortex solutions. Two new tertiary states are discovered which we name oscillatory wavy vortex flow (oWVF) and skewed vortex flow (SVF). We present the bifurcation routes and stability properties of these new tertiary states and, in addition, we describe a bifurcation procedure whereby a set of defected wavy twist vortices is approached. Further to this, transition scenarios at flow parameters relevant to experimental works are investigated by computation of the set of stable attractors which exist on a large domain. The physically observed flow states are shown to share features with states in our set of attractor
Is manganese-doped diamond a ferromagnetic semiconductor?
We use density-functional theoretical methods to examine the recent
prediction, based on a mean-field solution of the Zener model, that diamond
doped by Mn (with spin S=5/2) would be a dilute magnetic semiconductor that
remains ferromagnetic well above room temperature. Our findings suggest this to
be unlikely, for four reasons: (1) substitutional Mn in diamond has a low-spin
S=1/2 ground state; (2) the substitutional site is energetically unfavorable
relative to the much larger "divacancy" site; 3) Mn in the divacancy site is an
acceptor, but with only hyperdeep levels, and hence the holes are likely to
remain localized; (4) the calculated Heisenberg couplings between Mn in nearby
divacancy sites are two orders of magnitude smaller than for substitutional Mn
in germanium.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure
Atomic Force Microscopy of height fluctuations of fibroblast cells
We investigated the nanometer scale height fluctuations of 3T3 fibroblast
cells with the atomic force microscope (AFM) under physiological conditions.
Correlation between these fluctuations and lateral cellular motility can be
observed. Fluctuations measured on leading edges appear to be predominantly
related to actin polymerization-depolymerization processes. We found fast (5
Hz) pulsatory behavior with 1--2 nm amplitude on a cell with low motility
showing emphasized structure of stress fibres. Myosin driven contractions of
stress fibres are thought to induce this pulsation.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, 1 tabl
How close can an Inhomogeneous Universe mimic the Concordance Model?
Recently, spatially inhomogeneous cosmological models have been proposed as
an alternative to the LCDM model, with the aim of reproducing the late time
dynamics of the Universe without introducing a cosmological constant or dark
energy. This paper investigates the possibility of distinguishing such models
from the standard LCDM using background or large scale structure data. It also
illustrates and emphasizes the necessity of testing the Copernican principle in
order to confront the tests of general relativity with the large scale
structure.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figure
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