Improving the superplastic properties of a two-phase Mg–8% Li alloy through processing by ECAP

Significant grain refinement was achieved in a cast Mg–8 mass% Li alloy through processing by equal-channel angular pressing (ECAP) using a die having an internal channel angle of 110° and a pressing temperature of 473 K. Following extrusion and subsequent ECAP through two passes, the alloy exhibited excellent superplastic properties including a maximum elongation of ~970% at 473 K when using an initial strain rate of 1.0 × 10?4 s?1. The strain rate sensitivities under the optimum superplastic conditions were measured as m ? 0.4–0.6. The maximum elongation achieved in this investigation is very high by comparison with other Mg alloys tested in tension at similar temperatures and strain rates

Effect of copper addition on the cluster formation behavior of Al-Mg-Si, Al-Zn-Mg, and Al-Mg-Ge in the natural aging

The time-dependent resistivity of Al-Mg-Si(-Cu), Al-Zn-Mg(-Cu), and Al-Mg-Ge(-Cu) alloys are studied over a range of constant temperatures between 255 K and 320 K. The resistivity vs time curves for the samples show three temperature stages associated with solute element–vacancy clustering. Cu addition was found to make the stage transition time longer for the studied samples. Arrhenius plots of the transition time vs temperature provide the activation energy (Q) of clustering from stage I to II and II to III. While the Cu addition increased the Q(I to II) values of Al-1.0 pct Mg2Si-0.20 pct Cu and Al-2.68 pct Zn-3.20 pct Mg-0.20 pct Cu, it was found that the added Cu decreased the Q(I to II) value of Al-0.44 pct Mg-0.19Ge-0.18 pct Cu. The Q(II to III) values of Al-1.0 pct Mg2Si and Al-2.68 pct Zn-3.20 pct Mg were slightly decreased by the Cu addition. The different effect of added Cu on the Q values is discussed in terms of diffusivity and binding energy between vacancies and solute elements.acceptedVersio

BLV-CoCoMo-qPCR: a useful tool for evaluating bovine leukemia virus infection status

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Bovine leukemia virus (BLV) is associated with enzootic bovine leukosis, which is the most common neoplastic disease of cattle. BLV infects cattle worldwide, imposing a severe economic impact on the dairy cattle industry. Recently, we developed a new quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method using Coordination of Common Motifs (CoCoMo) primers to measure the proviral load of known and novel BLV variants in BLV-infected animals. Indeed, the assay was highly effective in detecting BLV in cattle from a range of international locations. This assay enabled us to demonstrate that proviral load correlates not only with BLV infection capacity as assessed by syncytium formation, but also with BLV disease progression. In this study, we compared the sensitivity of our BLV-CoCoMo-qPCR method for detecting BLV proviruses with the sensitivities of two real-time PCR systems, and also determined the differences of proviral load with serotests.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>BLV-CoCoMo-qPCR was found to be highly sensitive when compared with the real-time PCR-based TaqMan MGB assay developed by Lew <it>et al</it>. and the commercial TaKaRa cycleave PCR system. The BLV copy number determined by BLV-CoCoMo-qPCR was only partially correlated with the positive rate for anti-BLV antibody as determined by the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, passive hemagglutination reaction, or agar gel immunodiffusion. This result indicates that, although serotests are widely used for the diagnosis of BLV infection, it is difficult to detect BLV infection with confidence by using serological tests alone. Two cattle were experimentally infected with BLV. The kinetics of the provirus did not precisely correlate with the change in anti-BLV antibody production. Moreover, both reactions were different in cattle that carried different bovine leukocyte antigen (BoLA)-DRB3 genotypes.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our results suggest that the quantitative measurement of proviral load by BLV-CoCoMo-qPCR is useful tool for evaluating the progression of BLV-induced disease. BLV-CoCoMo-qPCR allows us to monitor the spread of BLV infection in different viewpoint compared with classical serotest.</p

Estimation of bovine leukemia virus (BLV) proviral load harbored by lymphocyte subpopulations in BLV-infected cattle at the subclinical stage of enzootic bovine leucosis using BLV-CoCoMo-qPCR

Bovine leukemia virus (BLV) is associated with enzootic bovine leukosis (EBL), which is the most commonneoplastic disease of cattle. BLV infection may remain clinically silent at the aleukemic (AL) stage, cause persistentlymphocytosis (PL), or, more rarely, B cell lymphoma. BLV has been identified in B cells, CD2+Tcells,CD3+Tcells,CD4+Tcells,CD8+Tcells,γ/δT cells, monocytes, and granulocytes in infected cattle that do not have tumors,although the most consistently infected cell is the CD5+B cell. The mechanism by which BLV causes uncontrolledCD5+B cell proliferation is unknown. Recently, we developed a new quantitative real-time polymerase chainreaction (PCR) method, BLV-CoCoMo-qPCR, which enabled us to demonstrate that the proviral load correlates notonly with BLV infection, as assessed by syncytium formation, but also with BLV disease progression. The presentstudy reports the distribution of BLV provirus in peripheral blood mononuclear cell subpopulations isolated fromBLV-infected cows at the subclinical stage of EBL as examined by cell sorting and BLV-CoCoMo-qPCRFil: Panei, Carlos Javier. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata; Argentina. Discovery Riken Institute; Japón. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias; ArgentinaFil: Takeshima, Shin-nosuke. Discovery Riken Institute; JapónFil: Omori, Takashi. Nippon Institute For Biological Sciences; JapónFil: Nunoya, Tetsuo. Nippon Institute For Biological Sciences; JapónFil: Davis, William C.. Washington State University; Estados UnidosFil: Ishizaki, Hiroshi. Naro Institute Of Livestock And Grassland Sciences; JapónFil: Matoba, Kazuhiro. Naro Institute Of Livestock And Grassland Sciences; JapónFil: Aida, Yoko. Discovery Riken Institute; Japó