Al-based foams as permanent cores in al castings: Effect of surface skin thickness and composition on infiltration and core-shell bonding

An emerging and still poorly explored application of aluminum foams is their potential use as permanent cores (inserts) in the casting of aluminum alloys. In this context, Al-based foams can introduce a weight reduction, the obtainment of cavities, a strength increase, the ability to absorb impact energy and vibration, acoustic insulation ability, the possibility to simplify the technological processes (no removal/recycling of traditional sand cores), and finally, they can be fully recyclable. Cymat-type Al foams with thin outer skin were used as permanent cores in Al-alloy gravity casting in the present research. Al-foams were characterized in terms of porosity, density, cell wall and skin thickness, surface chemical composition and morphology, and compression resistance. Cast objects with foam inserts were characterized by means of optical microscopy. The preservation of up to 50% of the initial porosity was observed for foam inserts with higher density. Metallurgical bonding between the foam core and the cast metal was observed in some regions

An international cohort study of autosomal dominant tubulointerstitial kidney disease due to REN mutations identifies distinct clinical subtypes

There have been few clinical or scientific reports of autosomal dominant tubulointerstitial kidney disease due to REN mutations (ADTKD-REN), limiting characterization. To further study this, we formed an international cohort characterizing 111 individuals from 30 families with both clinical and laboratory findings. Sixty-nine individuals had a REN mutation in the signal peptide region (signal group), 27 in the prosegment (prosegment group), and 15 in the mature renin peptide (mature group). Signal group patients were most severely affected, presenting at a mean age of 19.7 years, with the prosegment group presenting at 22.4 years, and the mature group at 37 years. Anemia was present in childhood in 91% in the signal group, 69% prosegment, and none of the mature group. REN signal peptide mutations reduced hydrophobicity of the signal peptide, which is necessary for recognition and translocation across the endoplasmic reticulum, leading to aberrant delivery of preprorenin into the cytoplasm. REN mutations in the prosegment led to deposition of prorenin and renin in the endoplasmic reticulum Golgi intermediate compartment and decreased prorenin secretion. Mutations in mature renin led to deposition of the mutant prorenin in the endoplasmic reticulum, similar to patients with ADTKD-UMOD, with a rate of progression to end stage kidney disease (63.6 years) that was significantly slower vs. the signal (53.1 years) and prosegment groups (50.8 years) (significant hazard ratio 0.367). Thus, clinical and laboratory studies revealed subtypes of ADTKD-REN that are pathophysiologically, diagnostically, and clinically distinct

The assessment of interrogative suggestibility in adolescents: modalities, gender, and cognitive control

Forty-two fifth and sixth grade students with a mean age of 11.63 years participated in this study to examine the relationship between visual memory, interrogative suggestibility, attention, and gender. Ss were given the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale II (GSS 2), the Cognitive Control Battery (CCB) to measure attention and memory, and were shown a video segment from a popular children\u27s show. Results showed a significant negative relationship between yielding to suggestive questions (yield) and interpersonal pressure (shift) on the GSS 2 and visual memory scores on the CCB. No significant relationship was found between distractibility and suggestibility. Moreover, females were more likely to yield to misleading questions pertaining to the video. The notion of measuring interrogative suggestibility with different perceptual modalities and forensic applications are discussed

Do social partners affect same-sex sexual behaviour in male water striders?

Same-sex sexual behaviour (SSB) represents an emergent trait of two interacting same-sex individuals. Although empirical studies have investigated how social environments can influence SSB, little is known about the effect of the interacting partner and its associated phenotype on SSB. In species where females are larger than males or males express male-specific behaviour, a male's morphology or behaviour can serve as a way for other males to recognize its sex and express SSBs. Here we used both a trait-based and variance-partitioning approach to test for the effect of the interacting male's identity and his multivariate phenotype on SSB, using water striders, Gerris lacustris, as a model. We repeatedly subjected males to dyadic interactions with the same and different partners and measured their SSBs. We used the variance-partitioning approach to estimate the partner's identity effect, and the trait-based approach to assess which trait of the partner explains changes in SSB. We found that the partner's SSB reduced the tendency of males to show SSB. SSB was affected by their interacting partner's identity, but the partner effect was not due to the repeatable components ('personality') of the partner's SSB. Males also did not differ in their responses to variation in the partner's SSB at different levels (between-partner, or partner 'personality', and within-partner levels, or partner 'plasticity'). Taken together, these findings provide the first empirical evidence that SSB can be plastically expressed in response to traits in social partners. We also highlight the usefulness of combining the trait-based and variance-partitioning approach to test whether partners represent a component of the social environment affecting the expression of labile traits. (C) 2016 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Sicilian and Southern-Italian red-figure potteries: a provenance study on findings from Gela by portable X-ray fluorescence

In this contribute we present an archaeometric study carried out by non-destructive method on a selection of red-figure vases datable between the second half of the fifth century B.C. and the beginning of the third century B.C., and found at Gela, an important Greek colony on the southern coast of Sicily. This class of vessels includes valuable artifacts, found in different archeological contexts through Sicily and Southern Italy and preserved in several Museums. So far, scholars have attributed hypothetically these vases to single painters only on the basis of the drawing style and the iconography of the depicted scenes (Trendall, 1989) and they have made assumptions about the location of the different workshops merely according to the distribution of findings (Barresi, 2014; Denoyelle & Iozzo, 2009; Spigo, 1987). The only archaeometric study on the provenance of these ceramics is a recent research on vases from the archaeological site of Locri Epizephiri (Mirti et al., 2004). However, the possibility to address a more comprehensive investigation about location of production centers and to reconstruct the production system and the circulation of the fine vessels would require the collection of several archaeometric data on red-figure vessels variously founded in different archeological contexts and attributed to as many as painters. The occurrence of both figured vases in excellent conditionand small fragments attributed to famous painters often does not allow the sampling. In the matter in question, the application of non-destructive approach is advisable. For the aforementioned, a selection of red-figure vases preserved at the Archaeological Museum of Gela (Sicily) and stylistically attributed to several painters whose activity has been localized both in Sicily and in South-Italy, have been analyzed by portable X-ray fluorescence method. In detail, measurements have been carried out on both bulk and red surface though a Brucker portable XRF spectrometer (Tracer IV-SD). The obtained results have been processed by statistical methods with the aim to differentiate the provenance of the studied artifacts on chemical bases

Molecular mechanism of inhibition of estrogen-induced cathepsin D gene expression by 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) in MCF-7 cells.

17 beta-Estradiol (E2) induces cathepsin D mRNA levels and intracellular levels of immunoreactive protein in MCF-7 human breast cancer cells. 2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) alone does not affect cathepsin D gene expression in this cell line; however, in cells cotreated with TCDD and E2, TCDD inhibited E2-induced cathepsin D mRNA levels, the rate of gene transcription, and levels of immunoreactive protein. The inhibitory responses were observed within 30 to 120 min after the cells were treated with TCDD. TCDD also inhibited E2-induced secreted alkaline phosphatase activity in aryl hydrocarbon (Ah)-responsive MCF-7 and wild-type mouse Hepa 1c1c7 cells cotransfected with the human estrogen receptor (hER) and the pBC12/S1/pac plasmid, which contains the 5' promoter region (-296/+57) of the cathepsin D gene and an alkaline phosphatase reporter gene. The E2-responsive ER/Sp1 sequence (-199 to -165) in the cathepsin D 5' region contains an imperfect GTGCGTG (-175/-181) xenobiotic responsive element (XRE); the role of this sequence in Ah responsiveness was investigated in gel electrophoretic mobility shift assays and with plasmid constructs containing a wild-type ER/Sp1 oligonucleotide or a mutant ER/Sp1-"XRE" oligonucleotide containing two C-->A mutations in the XRE sequence (antisense strand). In plasmid constructs which contained a chloramphenicol acetyltransferase reporter gene and the wild-type ER/Sp1 promoter sequence, E2-induced chloramphenicol acetyltransferase activity and mRNA levels were inhibited by TCDD whereas no inhibition was observed with the mutant ER/Sp1-"XRE" plasmids. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays showed that the nuclear or transformed cytosolic Ah receptor complex blocked formation of the ER-Sp1 complex with the wild-type but not the ER/Sp1 mutant oligonucleotide. Moreover, incubation of the wild-type bromodeoxyuridine-substituted ER/Sp1 oligonucleotide with the nuclear Ah receptor complex gave a specifically bound cross-linked 200-kDa band. These data demonstrate that Ah receptor-mediated inhibition of E2-induced cathepsin D gene expression is due to disruption of the ER-Sp1 complex by targeted interaction with an overlapping XRE