Friction stir welding (FSW), a mature solid-state joining method, has become a revolutionary welding technique over the past two decades because of its energy efficiency, environmental friendliness ...and high-quality joints. FSW is highly efficient in the joining of Al alloys, Mg alloys, Ti alloys, polymers and other dissimilar materials. Recently, FSW has gained considerable scientific and technological attention in several fields, including aerospace, railway, renewable energy and automobile. To broaden the adoption of FSW in manufacturing fields, three inherent issues—back support, weld thinning and keyhole defects—must be addressed to ensure the structural integrity, safety and service life of the manufactured products. This review covers the recent progress on the control strategies for these inherent issues, which are basically divided into self-supported FSW, non-weld-thinning FSW and friction stir-based remanufacturing. Herein, the aim is to focus on the corresponding technical development, process parameters, metallurgical features and mechanical properties. Additionally, the challenges and future outlooks are emphasized systematically.
We report on the implementation of ultracold atoms as a source in a state of the art atom gravimeter. We perform gravity measurements with 10 nm s−2 statistical uncertainties in a so-far largely ...unexplored temperature range for such a high accuracy sensor, down to 50 nK. This allows for an improved characterization of the most limiting systematic effect, related to wavefront aberrations of light beamsplitters. A thorough model of the impact of this effect onto the measurement is developed and a method is proposed to correct for this bias based on the extrapolation of the measurements down to zero temperature. Finally, an uncertainty of 13 nm s−2 is obtained in the evaluation of this systematic effect, which can be improved further by performing measurements at even lower temperatures. Our results clearly demonstrate the benefit brought by ultracold atoms to the metrological study of free falling atom interferometers. By tackling their main limitation, the method presented here allows reaching record-breaking accuracies for inertial sensors based on atom interferometry.
Sarcopenia is a disease that becomes more prevalent as the population ages, since it is directly linked to the process of senility, which courses with muscle atrophy and loss of muscle strength. Over ...time, sarcopenia is linked to obesity, being known as sarcopenic obesity, and leads to other metabolic changes. At the molecular level, organokines act on different tissues and can improve or harm sarcopenia. It all depends on their production process, which is associated with factors such as physical exercise, the aging process, and metabolic diseases. Because of the seriousness of these repercussions, the aim of this literature review is to conduct a review on the relationship between organokines, sarcopenia, diabetes, and other metabolic repercussions, as well the role of physical exercise. To build this review, PubMed-Medline, Embase, and COCHRANE databases were searched, and only studies written in English were included. It was observed that myokines, adipokines, hepatokines, and osteokines had direct impacts on the pathophysiology of sarcopenia and its metabolic repercussions. Therefore, knowing how organokines act is very important to know their impacts on age, disease prevention, and how they can be related to the prevention of muscle loss.
The yellow fever virus (YFV) epidemic in Brazil is the largest in decades. The recent discovery of YFV in Brazilian
species mosquitos highlights a need to monitor the risk of reestablishment of urban ...YFV transmission in the Americas. We use a suite of epidemiological, spatial, and genomic approaches to characterize YFV transmission. We show that the age and sex distribution of human cases is characteristic of sylvatic transmission. Analysis of YFV cases combined with genomes generated locally reveals an early phase of sylvatic YFV transmission and spatial expansion toward previously YFV-free areas, followed by a rise in viral spillover to humans in late 2016. Our results establish a framework for monitoring YFV transmission in real time that will contribute to a global strategy to eliminate future YFV epidemics.
Abstract
The phase of the quantum-mechanical wave function can encode a topological structure with wide-ranging physical consequences, such as anomalous transport effects and the existence of edge ...states robust against perturbations. While this has been exhaustively demonstrated for electrons, properties associated with the elementary quasiparticles in magnetic materials are still underexplored. Here, we show theoretically and via inelastic neutron scattering experiments that the bulk ferromagnet Mn
5
Ge
3
hosts gapped topological Dirac magnons. Although inversion symmetry prohibits a net Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction in the unit cell, it is locally allowed and is responsible for the gap opening in the magnon spectrum. This gap is predicted and experimentally verified to close by rotating the magnetization away from the
c
-axis with an applied magnetic field. Hence, Mn
5
Ge
3
realizes a gapped Dirac magnon material in three dimensions. Its tunability by chemical doping or by thin film nanostructuring defines an exciting new platform to explore and design topological magnons. More generally, our experimental route to verify and control the topological character of the magnons is applicable to bulk centrosymmetric hexagonal materials, which calls for systematic investigation.
Nonsolvent induced phase separation (NIPS) is a widely occuring process used in industrial membrane production, nanotechnology and Nature to produce microstructured polymer materials. A variety of ...process-dependent morphologies are produced when a polymer solution is exposed to a nonsolvent that, following a period where mass is exchanged, precipitates and solidifies the polymer. Despite years of investigation, both experimental and theoretical, many questions surround the pathways to the microstructures that NIPS can produce. Here, we provide simulation results from a model that simultaneously captures both the processess of solvent/nonsolvent exchange and phase separation. We show that the time it takes the nonsolvent to diffuse to the bottom of the film is an important timescale, and that phase separation is possible at times both much smaller and much larger than this scale. Our results include both one-dimensional simulations of the mass transfer kinetics and two- and three-dimensional simulations of morphologies at both short and long times. We find good qualitative agreement with experimental heuristics, but we conclude that an additional model for the vitrification process will be key for fully explaining experimental observations of microstructure formation.
A study of the combined effects of both mass transfer and phase separation kinetics on the widely used process of nonsolvent induced phase separation (NIPS)
via
a two-fluid model.
Raman spectroelectrochemistry is a powerful technique for characterizing structural changes of materials during electrochemical reactions and investigating the mechanism of film deposition and ...adsorption processes on the surfaces of electrodes. Moreover, in situ measurements enable identification of catalytic sites and reaction intermediates, which facilitates the comprehension of reaction mechanisms. The limitations of this technique include the high-cost and the complexity of the experimental arrangement required by commercial spectroelectrochemical cells (SEC). Thus, 3D-printing technology emerges as an excellent alternative for the production of SEC, with desirable shape, low-cost, and robustness in a short period of time. In this work, an SEC and a 3D-printed working electrode were fabricated from acrylonitrile–butadiene–styrene (ABS) and conductive graphene polylactic acid (PLA) filaments, respectively. The proposed SEC and the 3D-printed electrode were printed within 3.5 h with an estimated cost of materials of less than US $2. Then, the 3D-printed SEC and the electrode were used in a study of structural changes of Prussian blue according to different voltage bias.
Adipose, skeletal, and hepatic muscle tissues are the main endocrine organs that produce adipokines, myokines, and hepatokines. These biomarkers can be harmful or beneficial to an organism and still ...perform crosstalk, acting through the endocrine, paracrine, and autocrine pathways. This study aims to review the crosstalk between adipokines, myokines, and hepatokines. Far beyond understanding the actions of each biomarker alone, it is important to underline that these cytokines act together in the body, resulting in a complex network of actions in different tissues, which may have beneficial or non-beneficial effects on the genesis of various physiological disorders and their respective outcomes, such as type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM2), obesity, metabolic syndrome, and cardiovascular diseases (CVD). Overweight individuals secrete more pro-inflammatory adipokines than those of a healthy weight, leading to an impaired immune response and greater susceptibility to inflammatory and infectious diseases. Myostatin is elevated in pro-inflammatory environments, sharing space with pro-inflammatory organokines, such as tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), interleukin-1 (IL-1), resistin, and chemerin. Fibroblast growth factor FGF21 acts as a beta-oxidation regulator and decreases lipogenesis in the liver. The crosstalk mentioned above can interfere with homeostatic disorders and can play a role as a potential therapeutic target that can assist in the methods of diagnosing metabolic syndrome and CVD.
Biodegradable micro/nanoparticles generated from PLGA have recently attracted attention due to their clinically proven biocompatibility, especially for immunization purposes. These polymeric ...particulate delivery systems are able to present antigens and activate both humoral and cellular responses. Many studies have discussed the ideal size of these particles in contributing to the generation of the different types of immune response. However, these studies do not demonstrate the effect of micro or nanoparticles, without any encapsulated bioactive, on phagocytic cells after the uptake process. In this context, the aim of this study was to analyze the in vitro inflammatory behavior of J774 murine macrophages after particles' uptake, since nano/microparticles per se can differently activate phagocytic cells, using or not appropriate receptors, inducing distinct inflammatory responses. An o/w emulsion solvent extraction–evaporation method was chosen to prepare the particles. We determined their diameters, zeta potential and morphology. Fluorescent particles' uptake by J774 murine “macrophage-like” cells was also analyzed. To evaluate the in vitro inflammatory profile of these cells after micro or nanoparticles' uptake, we conducted NF-κB translocation assay by confocal microscopy and also determined the pro-inflammatory cytokines production provoked by the particles.
► PLGA micro/nanoparticles without any encapsulated bioactive compound can differently activate J774 macrophages. ► PLGA microparticles are not able to be phagocytosed by J774 macrophages with the same avidity demonstrated for nanoparticles but instead, they attach to cell membrane and constitute more potent inflammatory stimulus after the uptake process. ► Microparticles are more potent inflammatory stimulus than nanoparticles in activating NF-κB translocation to cell nucleus.
Diabetes mellitus (DM) is an ensemble of metabolic conditions that have reached pandemic proportions worldwide. Pathology's multifactorial nature makes patient management, including lifelong drug ...therapy and lifestyle modification, extremely challenging. Currently, there is growing evidence about the effectiveness of using herbal supplements in preventing and controlling DM. Curcumin is a bioactive component found
, which exhibits several physiological and pharmacological properties such as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anticancer, neuroprotective, and anti-diabetic activities. For these reasons, our objective is to systematically review the effects of
or curcumin on DM. Databases such as PUBMED and EMBASE were searched, and the final selection included sixteen studies that fulfilled the inclusion criteria. The results showed that curcumin's anti-diabetic activity might be due to its capacity to suppress oxidative stress and inflammatory process. Also, it significantly reduces fasting blood glucose, glycated hemoglobin, and body mass index. Nanocurcumin is also associated with a significant reduction in triglycerides, VLDL-c, total cholesterol, LDL-c, HDL-c, serum C reactive protein, and plasma malonaldehyde. Therefore, it can be considered in the therapeutic approach of patients with DM.
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