Comprehensive study of the effect of hot-dipping process parameters on Sn-Sb coating properties for α-brass substrate

This study's main purpose is to achieve an optimal hot-dip coating condition of Sn-Sb for an α-brass alloy. Therefore, the hot-dipping parameters, including pre-flux lubricants, immersion temperature, time, and withdrawal speed were investigated. ZnCl2 and SnCl2 were used as pre-flux bath additives. The temperature of the immersion bath was selected to be in the range of 250-300 °C. Also, the exposing time and withdrawal speed of the specimens during the hot-dipping process were in the range of 10-60 sec and 254-1524 mm/min, respectively. Visual inspection of the coating revealed that by using SnCl2 as a pre-flux additive, high-quality smooth coating is achieved. According to the AFM result, the initial roughness value of the substrate was 450 nm. The coating's roughness value with SnCl2 and SnCl2+ZnCl2 pre-fluxes were in the range of 300-500 and 700-900 nm, respectively. Therefore, ZnCl2 pre-flux is associated with a rougher surface. Corrosion test analysis revealed that both coating condition with different pre-fluxes leads to increasing corrosion resistance however better improvement in corrosion behavior is accomplished by smooth coating surface. The quantitative analysis of the polarization curve revealed that the corrosion rate of the smooth coating is decreased 7-12.5 times in comparison with the substrate. According to the SEM analysis, the predominant phases which were appeared at the interface of the coating and substrate were Cu3Sn and Cu6Sn5. SEM analysis revealed that the Cu3Sn intermetallic compound was this first phase, which was promoted near to the substrate vicinity during the hot-dipping process

Specific Responses of Salmonella enterica to Tomato Varieties and Fruit Ripeness Identified by In Vivo Expression Technology

Recent outbreaks of vegetable-associated gastroenteritis suggest that enteric pathogens colonize, multiply and persist in plants for extended periods of time, eventually infecting people. Genetic and physiological pathways, by which enterics colonize plants, are still poorly understood.To better understand interactions between Salmonella enterica sv. Typhimurium and tomatoes, a gfp-tagged Salmonella promoter library was screened inside red ripe fruits. Fifty-one unique constructs that were potentially differentially regulated in tomato relative to in vitro growth were identified. The expression of a subset of these promoters was tested in planta using recombinase-based in vivo expression technology (RIVET) and fitness of the corresponding mutants was tested. Gene expression in Salmonella was affected by fruit maturity and tomato cultivar. A putative fadH promoter was upregulated most strongly in immature tomatoes. Expression of the fadH construct depended on the presence of linoleic acid, which is consistent with the reduced accumulation of this compound in mature tomato fruits. The cysB construct was activated in the fruit of cv. Hawaii 7997 (resistant to a race of Ralstonia solanacearum) more strongly than in the universally susceptible tomato cv. Bonny Best. Known Salmonella motility and animal virulence genes (hilA, flhDC, fliF and those encoded on the pSLT virulence plasmid) did not contribute significantly to fitness of the bacteria inside tomatoes, even though deletions of sirA and motA modestly increased fitness of Salmonella inside tomatoes.This study reveals the genetic basis of the interactions of Salmonella with plant hosts. Salmonella relies on a distinct set of metabolic and regulatory genes, which are differentially regulated in planta in response to host genotype and fruit maturity. This enteric pathogen colonizes tissues of tomatoes differently than plant pathogens, and relies little on its animal virulence genes for persistence within the fruit

Measurement of the cross-section and charge asymmetry of WW bosons produced in proton-proton collisions at s=8\sqrt{s}=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper presents measurements of the $W^+ \rightarrow \mu^+\nu$ and $W^- \rightarrow \mu^-\nu$ cross-sections and the associated charge asymmetry as a function of the absolute pseudorapidity of the decay muon. The data were collected in proton--proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC and correspond to a total integrated luminosity of 20.2~\mbox{fb^{-1}}. The precision of the cross-section measurements varies between 0.8% to 1.5% as a function of the pseudorapidity, excluding the 1.9% uncertainty on the integrated luminosity. The charge asymmetry is measured with an uncertainty between 0.002 and 0.003. The results are compared with predictions based on next-to-next-to-leading-order calculations with various parton distribution functions and have the sensitivity to discriminate between them.Comment: 38 pages in total, author list starting page 22, 5 figures, 4 tables, submitted to EPJC. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at https://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/STDM-2017-13

Search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum in pp collisions at √ s = 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Results of a search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum are reported. The search uses 20.3 fb−1 of √ s = 8 TeV data collected in 2012 with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Events are required to have at least one jet with pT > 120 GeV and no leptons. Nine signal regions are considered with increasing missing transverse momentum requirements between Emiss T > 150 GeV and Emiss T > 700 GeV. Good agreement is observed between the number of events in data and Standard Model expectations. The results are translated into exclusion limits on models with either large extra spatial dimensions, pair production of weakly interacting dark matter candidates, or production of very light gravitinos in a gauge-mediated supersymmetric model. In addition, limits on the production of an invisibly decaying Higgs-like boson leading to similar topologies in the final state are presente

Search for direct stau production in events with two hadronic tau-leptons in root s=13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for the direct production of the supersymmetric partners ofτ-leptons (staus) in final stateswith two hadronically decayingτ-leptons is presented. The analysis uses a dataset of pp collisions corresponding to an integrated luminosity of139fb−1, recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LargeHadron Collider at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. No significant deviation from the expected StandardModel background is observed. Limits are derived in scenarios of direct production of stau pairs with eachstau decaying into the stable lightest neutralino and oneτ-lepton in simplified models where the two staumass eigenstates are degenerate. Stau masses from 120 GeV to 390 GeV are excluded at 95% confidencelevel for a massless lightest neutralino

Search for chargino-neutralino production with mass splittings near the electroweak scale in three-lepton final states in √s=13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for supersymmetry through the pair production of electroweakinos with mass splittings near the electroweak scale and decaying via on-shell W and Z bosons is presented for a three-lepton final state. The analyzed proton-proton collision data taken at a center-of-mass energy of √s=13  TeV were collected between 2015 and 2018 by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139  fb−1. A search, emulating the recursive jigsaw reconstruction technique with easily reproducible laboratory-frame variables, is performed. The two excesses observed in the 2015–2016 data recursive jigsaw analysis in the low-mass three-lepton phase space are reproduced. Results with the full data set are in agreement with the Standard Model expectations. They are interpreted to set exclusion limits at the 95% confidence level on simplified models of chargino-neutralino pair production for masses up to 345 GeV

Annual research review: Digital health interventions for children and young people with mental health problems: a systematic and meta-review

Digital health interventions (DHIs), including computer-assisted therapy, smartphone apps and wearable technologies, are heralded as having enormous potential to improve uptake and accessibility, efficiency, clinical effectiveness and personalisation of mental health interventions. It is generally assumed that DHIs will be preferred by children and young people (CYP) given their ubiquitous digital activity. However, it remains uncertain whether: DHIs for CYP are clinically and cost-effective, CYP prefer DHIs to traditional services, DHIs widen access and how they should be evaluated and adopted by mental health services. This review evaluates the evidence-base for DHIs and considers the key research questions and approaches to evaluation and implementation. We conducted a meta-review of scoping, narrative, systematic or meta-analytical reviews investigating the effectiveness of DHIs for mental health problems in CYP. We also updated a systematic review of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of DHIs for CYP published in the last 3 years. Twenty-one reviews were included in the meta-review. The findings provide some support for the clinical benefit of DHIs, particularly computerised cognitive behavioural therapy (cCBT), for depression and anxiety in adolescents and young adults. The systematic review identified 30 new RCTs evaluating DHIs for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism, anxiety, depression, psychosis, eating disorders and PTSD. The benefits of DHIs in managing ADHD, autism, psychosis and eating disorders are uncertain, and evidence is lacking regarding the cost-effectiveness of DHIs. Key methodological limitations make it difficult to draw definitive conclusions from existing clinical trials of DHIs. Issues include variable uptake and engagement with DHIs, lack of an agreed typology/taxonomy for DHIs, small sample sizes, lack of blinded outcome assessment, combining different comparators, short-term follow-up and poor specification of the level of human support. Research and practice recommendations are presented that address the key research questions and methodological issues for the evaluation and clinical implementation of DHIs for CYP

Rosiglitazone synergizes anticancer activity of cisplatin and reduces its nephrotoxicity in 7, 12-dimethyl benz{a}anthracene (DMBA) induced breast cancer rats

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Antineoplastic drug cisplatin remains the drug of choice for various solid tumours including breast cancer. But dose dependent nephrotoxicity is the major drawback in majority of platinum based chemotherapy regimens. Recent reports have shown that inflammatory pathways are the main offender for cisplatin induced nephrotoxicity. The present study was undertaken to assess the effect of rosiglitazone, a PPARγ agonist and an anti-inflammatory agent, on cisplatin induced nephrotoxicity, and its anticancer activity in DMBA induced breast cancer rats.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Mammary tumours were induced in female Sprague-Dawley rats by feeding orally with dimethylbenz [a]anthracene (DMBA) (60 mg/kg). Cisplatin induced nephropathy was assessed by measurements of blood urea nitrogen, albumin and creatinine levels. Posttranslational modifications of histone H3, mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase p38 expression and PPAR-γ expression were examined by western blotting.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Our data shows involvement of TNF-α in preventing cisplatin induced nephrotoxicity by rosiglitazone. Rosiglitazone pre-treatment to cisplatin increases the expression of p38, PPAR-γ in mammary tumours and shows maximum tumour reduction. Furthermore, cisplatin induced changes in histone acetylation, phosphorylation and methylation of histone H3 in mammary tumours was ameliorated by pre-treatment of rosiglitazone. Suggesting, PPAR-γ directly or indirectly alters aberrant gene expression in mammary tumours by changing histone modifications.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>To best of our knowledge this is the first report which shows that pre-treatment of rosiglitazone synergizes the anticancer activity of cisplatin and minimizes cisplatin induced nephrotoxicity in DMBA induced breast cancer.</p

Impact of Continuous Axenic Cultivation in Leishmania infantum Virulence

Experimental infections with visceral Leishmania spp. are frequently performed referring to stationary parasite cultures that are comprised of a mixture of metacyclic and non-metacyclic parasites often with little regard to time of culture and metacyclic purification. This may lead to misleading or irreproducible experimental data. It is known that the maintenance of Leishmania spp. in vitro results in a progressive loss of virulence that can be reverted by passage in a mammalian host. In the present study, we aimed to characterize the loss of virulence in culture comparing the in vitro and in vivo infection and immunological profile of L. infantum stationary promastigotes submitted to successive periods of in vitro cultivation. To evaluate the effect of axenic in vitro culture in parasite virulence, we submitted L. infantum promastigotes to 4, 21 or 31 successive in vitro passages. Our results demonstrated a rapid and significant loss of parasite virulence when parasites are sustained in axenic culture. Strikingly, the parasite capacity to modulate macrophage activation decreased significantly with the augmentation of the number of in vitro passages. We validated these in vitro observations using an experimental murine model of infection. A significant correlation was found between higher parasite burdens and lower number of in vitro passages in infected Balb/c mice. Furthermore, we have demonstrated that the virulence deficit caused by successive in vitro passages results from an inadequate capacity to differentiate into amastigote forms. In conclusion, our data demonstrated that the use of parasites with distinct periods of axenic in vitro culture induce distinct infection rates and immunological responses and correlated this phenotype with a rapid loss of promastigote differentiation capacity. These results highlight the need for a standard operating protocol (SOP) when studying Leishmania species

Scientific Evidence and Rationale for the Development of Curcumin and Resveratrol as Nutraceutricals for Joint Health

Interleukin 1β (IL-1β) and tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) are key cytokines that drive the production of inflammatory mediators and matrix-degrading enzymes in osteoarthritis (OA). These proinflammatory cytokines bind to their respective cell surface receptors and activate inflammatory signaling pathways culminating with the activation of nuclear factor κB (NF-κB), a transcription factor that can be triggered by a host of stress-related stimuli including, excessive mechanical stress and ECM degradation products. Once activated, NF-κB regulates the expression of many cytokines, chemokines, adhesion molecules, inflammatory mediators, and several matrix-degrading enzymes. Therefore, proinflammatory cytokines, their cell surface receptors, NF-κB and downstream signaling pathways are therapeutic targets in OA. This paper critically reviews the recent literature and outlines the potential prophylactic properties of plant-derived phytochemicals such as curcumin and resveratrol for targeting NF-κB signaling and inflammation in OA to determine whether these phytochemicals can be used as functional foods