Tensile Response of Adhesively Bonded Composite-to-composite Single-lap Joints in the Presence of Bond Deficiency

This paper studies the quasi-static tensile response of adhesively bonded composite-to-composite single-lap joints in the presence of weak and kissing bonds, as an attempt for characterisation of bond deficiencies likely to occur in polymer composite bonded repair. Cytec FM®94 adhesive film (0.25 mm nominal thickness) was used for all joints to bond two 2mm-thickness carbon fibre polymer composite laminates manufactured from unidirectional Hexcel M21/T800S pre-pregs. Peel-ply surface treatment was used for all joints. The bonds were deteriorated via five methods: pre-curing the centre of bond area prior to the cure of the bond edges, increasing the curing temperature rate, reducing the curing time, and embedding PTFE films over the centre of the bond. For the last method, the studies were carried out by embedding PTFE films on one and two sides of the adhesive film. The bond deterioration was followed by non-destructive inspections using ultrasound C-scanning. The ultimate failure load of the joints with defected bonds (i.e. weak and kissing bonds) was measured and compared to that of the joints with no defect (i.e. good bonds). It was found that rapid curing and short-time curing reduces more than 50% of the load carrying capacity of the single-lap joins in tension while the joints with weak bonds introduced by pre-curing of a large area of the bond (>60%) can take up more than 65% of the ultimate load of the joint with good bond. Also, optical microscopy of the bond surfaces after failure showed changes in failure type for the rapid and short-time cure, strongly correlated with their significant failure load reduction

Atom Transfer and Single-Adatom Contacts

The point contact of a tunnel tip approaching towards Ag(111) and Cu(111) surfaces is investigated with a low temperature scanning tunneling microscope. A sharp jump-to-contact, random in nature, is observed in the conductance. After point contact, the tip-apex atom is transferred to the surface, indicating that a one-atom contact is formed during the approach. In sharp contrast, the conductance over single silver and copper adatoms exhibits a smooth and reproducible transition from tunneling to contact regime. Numerical simulations show that this is a consequence of the additional dipolar bonding between the homoepitaxial adatom and the surface atoms.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Cd3As2 is Centrosymmetric

This is a revised version of a manuscript that was originally posted here in February of 2014. It has been accepted at the journal Inorganic Chemistry after reviews that included those of two crystallographers who made sure all the t's were crossed and the i's were dotted. The old work (from 1968) that said that Cd3As2 was noncentrosymmetric was mistaken, with the authors of that study making a type of error that in the 1980s became infamous in crystallography. As a result of the increased scrutiny of the issue of centrosymmetricity of the 1980's, there are now much better analysis tools to resolve the issue fully, and its important to understand that not just our crystals are centrosymmetric, even the old guy's crystals were centrosymmetric (and by implication everyone's are). There is no shame in having made that error back in the day and those authors would not find the current centrosymmetric result controversial; their paper is excellent in all other aspects. This manuscript describes how the structure is determined, explains the structure schematically, calculates the electronic structure based on the correct centrosymmetric crystal structure, and gives the structural details that should be used for future analysis and modeling.Comment: Accepted by ACS Inorganic Chemistr

Promoter methylation analysis of WNT/β-catenin pathway regulators and its association with expression of DNMT1 enzyme in colorectal cancer

Background: Aberrant DNA methylation as the most important reason making epigenetic silencing of genes is a main mechanism of gene inactivation in patients with colorectal cancer. In this study, we decided to identify promoter methylation status of ten genes encoding WNT negative regulators, and measure the expression of DNMT1 enzyme in colorectal cancer samples. Results: Aberrant methylation of APC gene was statistically significant associated with age over 50 (p = 0.017), DDK3 with male (p < 0.0001), SFRP4, WIF1, and WNT5a with increasing tumor stage (p = 0.004, p = 0.029, and p = 0.004), SFRP4 and WIF1 with tumor differentiation (p = 0.009 and p = 0.031) and SFRP2 and SFRP5 with histological type (p = 0.001 and p = 0.025). The increasing number of methylated genes correlated with the expression levels of the DNMT1 mRNA. Conclusions: The rate of gene promoter methylation of WNT pathway regulators is high in colorectal cancer cells. Hyper-methylation is associated with increased expression of the DNMT1 enzyme. © 2014 Mansour Samaei et al.; licensee BioMed Central

Downregulation of plasma MiR-142-3p and MiR-26a-5p in patients with colorectal carcinoma

Background: Colorectal cancer is one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers and cancer- related death worldwide. Identification of new specific biomarkers could be helpful to detection of this malignancy. Altered plasma microRNA expression has been identified in many cancers, including colorectal cancer. Objectives: The main objective of this study was to identify the circulating microRNAs with the most expression changes in colorectal cancer patients compared with neoplasm free healthy individuals. Materials and Methods: MicroRNA expression profiling was performed on plasma samples of 37 colorectal cancer patients and 8 normal subjects using microRNA microarray. Quantitative real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction was used to validate the two selected altered microR NAs. Plasma samples from 61 colorectal cancer patients and 24 normal subjects were used in our validation study. Results: In profiling study we found a panel of six plasma microRNAs with significant downregulation. MicroRNA-142-3p and microRNA-26a-5p were selected and validated by polymerase chain reaction. Our results demonstrated that expression levels of plasma microRNA-142-3p and microRNA-26a-5p were significantly downregulated in patients with colorectal cancer when compared to control group. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that downregulation of plasma microRNA-142-3p and microRNA-26a-5p might serve as novel noninvasive biomarkers in the diagnosis of colorectal cancer, although more studies are needed to highlight the theoretical strengths. © 2015, Iranian Journal of Cancer Prevention

Failure of Scattering Interference in the Pseudogap State of Cuprate Superconductors

We calculate scattering interference patterns for various electronic states proposed for the pseudogap regime of the cuprate superconductors. The scattering interference models all produce patterns whose wavelength changes as a function of energy, in contradiction to the energy-independent wavelength seen by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) experiments in the pseudogap state. This suggests that the patterns seen in STM local density of states measurements are not due to scattering interference, but are rather the result of some form of ordering.Comment: To be submitted to Phys. Rev.

Crust-mantle interaction inferred from the petrology and Sr-Nd-Pb isotope geochemistry of Eocene arc lavas from the Kahrizak Mountains, north-Central Iran

The Eocene volcanic rocks from the Kahrizak Mountains in north-central Iran are part of the Urumieh-Dokhtar magmatic arc, which runs parallel to the Main Zagros Thrust segment of the Neo-Tethys suture. These volcanic rocks, similar to those from eastern Pontides and northern Anatolia, Turkey, were mainly produced during the Eocene magmatic flare-up associated with the Arabia-Eurasia convergence. The rock suite includes basalt, trachyandesite/andesite and trachydacite/rhyolite lavas and pyroclastic deposits that evolved compositionally from calc-alkalic to shoshonitic. Their normalized trace element concentration patterns are moderately enriched in light rare earth element and depleted in high field-strength elements (HFSE; e.g., Nb, Ta, Ti). They have narrow ranges of initial Pb isotopic ratios and ^(143)Nd/^(144)Nd_i, but highly variable ^(87)Sr/^(86)Sr_i. The new analyses indicate that the parental magmas of the volcanic rocks were derived from a mantle source that had been enriched by fluids released from a subducted oceanic slab. The fluids introduced significant amounts of large ion lithophile elements, but negligible HFSE to the source. The parental magmas underwent fractional crystallization and assimilation of upper crustal materials to produce the range of volcanic rocks. Integration of new analyses with regional data suggests that the Eocene volcanic rocks from north-central Iran, together with ~coeval volcanic rocks in eastern Pontides and northern Anatolia, were most probably derived from a lithospheric mantle source that had been previously metasomatized by fluids derived from a subducted slab before and during the Arabia-Eurasia collision

The effect of dietary dextrin levels on growth performance, body composition and hepatosomatic index in juvenile Siberian sturgeon, Acipenser baerii

The present study was carried out to determine the ability of Acipenser baerii in utilizing carbohydrate (dextrin) as a non protein energy source substituted with animal oil. A total of 65 juveniles A. baerii with an initial mean weight of 689 ± 62 g were distributed in 15 fiber glass tanks. Five diets were formulated including 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20% of dextrin and fed for 8 weeks. Fish were weighed monthly and growth was evaluated in each treatment. At the end of experiment, body composition and hepatosomatic index were analyzed. There was no significant differences in body weight increase (BWI) and final weight (FW) among different groups (p>0.05). Increase of dextrin levels in diets led to an increase in feed conversation ratio (FCR) in fish fed diets containing 15 and 20% dextrin as compared to that in the control group and in fish fed the diet containing 10% dextrin although the differences were not significant (p>0.05). The specific growth rate (SGR) in all treatments were the same (p>0.05). The highest body protein and lipid were observed in fish fed diets containing 10 and 20% dextrin, respectively (p0.05). In conclusion, juvenile A. baerii can be fed diets with high levels of dietary dextrin as a non protein energy source with no deleterious effects and a partial replacement of cheap carbohydrate with lipid is suggested to obtain the necessary energy in commercial diets

Evolution of the Density of States Gap in a Disordered Superconductor

It has only recently been possible to study the superconducting state in the attractive Hubbard Hamiltonian via a direct observation of the formation of a gap in the density of states N(w). Here we determine the effect of random chemical potentials on N(w) and show that at weak coupling, disorder closes the gap concurrently with the destruction of superconductivity. At larger, but still intermediate coupling, a pseudo-gap in N(w) remains even well beyond the point at which off-diagonal long range order vanishes. This change in the elementary excitations of the insulating phase corresponds to a crossover between Fermi- and Bose-Insulators. These calculations represent the first computation of the density of states in a finite dimensional disordered fermion model via the Quantum Monte Carlo and maximum entropy methods.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure