213 research outputs found
Numerical modeling of the thermal contact in metal forming processes
Heat flow across the interface of solid bodies in
contact is an important aspect in several engineering applications.
This work presents a finite element model for the
analysis of thermal contact, which takes into account the
effect of contact pressure and gap dimension in the heat
flow across the interface between two bodies. Additionally,
the frictional heat generation is also addressed, which
is dictated by the contact forces predicted by the mechanical
problem. The frictional contact problem and thermal
problem are formulated in the frame of the finite element
method. A new law is proposed to define the interfacial heat
transfer coefficient (IHTC) as a function of the contact pressure
and gap distance, enabling a smooth transition between
two contact status (gap and contact). The staggered scheme
used as coupling strategy to solve the thermomechanical
problem is briefly presented. Four numerical examples are presented to validate the finite element model and highlight
the importance of the proposed law on the predicted
temperature.The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial
support of the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology
(FCT) under the project PTDC/EMS-TEC/1805/2012 and by
FEDER funds through the program COMPETE Programa Operacional
Factores de Competitividade, under the project CENTRO-07-0224-
FEDER-002001 (MT4MOBI). The second author is also grateful to the
FCT for the postdoctoral grant SFRH/BPD/101334/2014. The authors
would like to thank Prof. A. Andrade-Campos for helpful contributions
on the development of the finite element code presented in this work.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Erythroid Promoter Confines FGF2 Expression to the Marrow after Hematopoietic Stem Cell Gene Therapy and Leads to Enhanced Endosteal Bone Formation
Fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF2) has been demonstrated to be a promising osteogenic factor for treating osteoporosis. Our earlier study shows that transplantation of mouse Sca-1+ hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells that are engineered to express a modified FGF2 leads to considerable endosteal/trabecular bone formation, but it also induces adverse effects like hypocalemia and osteomalacia. Here we report that the use of an erythroid specific promoter, β-globin, leads to a 5-fold decrease in the ratio of serum FGF2 to the FGF2 expression in the marrow cavity when compared to the use of a ubiquitous promoter spleen focus-forming virus (SFFV). The confined FGF2 expression promotes considerable trabeculae bone formation in endosteum and does not yield anemia and osteomalacia. The avoidance of anemia in the mice that received Sca1+ cells transduced with FGF2 driven by the β-globin promoter is likely due to attenuation of high-level serum FGF2-mediated stem cell mobilization observed in the SFFV-FGF2 animals. The prevention of osteomalacia is associated with substantially reduced serum Fgf23/hypophosphatemia, and less pronounced secondary hyperparathyroidism. Our improved stem cell gene therapy strategy represents one step closer to FGF2-based clinical therapy for systemic skeletal augmentation
Teeth of the red fox Vulpes vulpes (L., 1758) as a bioindicator in studies on fluoride pollution
An examination was made of fluoride content in the mandibular first molars of the permanent teeth of the red fox Vulpes vulpes living in north-west (NW) Poland. The teeth were first dried to a constant weight at 105°C and then ashed. Fluorides were determined potentiometrically, and their concentrations were expressed in dry weight (DW) and ash. The results were used to perform an indirect estimation of fluoride pollution in the examined region of Poland. The collected specimens (n = 35) were classified into one of the three age categories: immature (im, 6–12 months), subadult (subad, from 12 to 20 months) and adult (ad, >20 months). The mean concentrations (geometric mean) of fluoride were similar in the im and subad groups (230 and 296 mg/kg DW and 297 and 385 mg/kg ash, respectively), and significantly smaller than in the ad group (504 and 654 mg/kg, respectively, in DW and ash). Basing on other reports that the ∼400 mg/kg DW concentration of fluoride in bones in the long-lived wild mammals generally reflects the geochemical background, it was found that 57% of the foxes in NW Poland exceeded this value by 9% to 170%. This indirectly reflects a moderate fluoride contamination in the tested region
Comparison between histopathologic features of leprosy in reaction lesions in HIV coinfected and non-coinfected patients*
The functional assessment Berg Balance Scale is better capable of estimating fall risk in the elderly than the posturographic Balance Stability System
β-Citronellol, an alcoholic monoterpene with inhibitory properties on the contractility of rat trachea
Diagnosis of overweight and obesity in adolescents from the 1993 Pelotas Birth Cohort Study, Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil: comparison of two diagnostic criteria
Recurrent blooms of Heterosigma akashiwo (Raphidophyceae) in the Piraquê Channel, Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon, southeast Brazil
Use of multidimensional item response theory methods for dementia prevalence prediction: an example using the Health and Retirement Survey and the Aging, Demographics, and Memory Study
Background: Data sparsity is a major limitation to estimating national and global dementia burden. Surveys with full diagnostic evaluations of dementia prevalence are prohibitively resource-intensive in many settings. However, validation samples from nationally representative surveys allow for the development of algorithms for the prediction of dementia prevalence nationally. Methods: Using cognitive testing data and data on functional limitations from Wave A (2001–2003) of the ADAMS study (n = 744) and the 2000 wave of the HRS study (n = 6358) we estimated a two-dimensional item response theory model to calculate cognition and function scores for all individuals over 70. Based on diagnostic information from the formal clinical adjudication in ADAMS, we fit a logistic regression model for the classification of dementia status using cognition and function scores and applied this algorithm to the full HRS sample to calculate dementia prevalence by age and sex. Results: Our algorithm had a cross-validated predictive accuracy of 88% (86–90), and an area under the curve of 0.97 (0.97–0.98) in ADAMS. Prevalence was higher in females than males and increased over age, with a prevalence of 4% (3–4) in individuals 70–79, 11% (9–12) in individuals 80–89 years old, and 28% (22–35) in those 90 and older. Conclusions: Our model had similar or better accuracy as compared to previously reviewed algorithms for the prediction of dementia prevalence in HRS, while utilizing more flexible methods. These methods could be more easily generalized and utilized to estimate dementia prevalence in other national surveys
Review of the efficacy of placebo in comparative clinical trials between typical and atypical antipsychotics
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