Suchergebnisse

In this study, 3D interconnected nanoporous (3DNP) TiVNbMoTa HEAs were synthesized from the (TiVNbMoTa)25Ni75 as-cast precursor alloy using the liquid metal dealloying (LMD). The as-cast precursor demonstrated the initial dendritic microstructure consisting of fcc and hcp phases. At 600 °C after 1 h, tiny ligaments about 10 nm thickness were homogeneously synthesized. At 900 °C, the bulk transformation intensively took place at the original precursor alloy. Specifically, the dendritic morphology of the original phases disappeared, and the fraction of fcc phase decreased from 63% to 20%. This pre-transformation behavior significantly influences the dealloying mechanism. Kurdjumov–Sachs orientation relationship (OR) governed the ligament formation at the prior fcc phase while Pitsch-Schrader (P–S) OR controlled the ligament evolution at the prior hcp phase. An unusual mechanism of two-step dealloying was observed at the fcc phase region when the dealloying rate was decreased at the reaction front. The dissolution of Ni occurs by stepwise transformations of fcc=>hcp=>bcc. The prior fcc grain was transformed to the abnormally large hcp ligaments and tiny bcc ligaments. Then, the abnormal hcp ligaments were further dealloyed to smaller bcc ligaments following the P–S OR. This study pave the way for the design of compositionally complex porous materials with a customized morphology and advanced physical properties by dealloying. © 2021 The Authors. ; This work has supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIT) (No. NRF-2021R1C1C1007645 ). I.V. Okulov acknowledges support from German Science Foundation under the Leibniz Program (Grant MA 3333/13-1 ).

France is a major crop producer, with a production share of approx. 20% within the European Union. Yet, a discussion has recently started whether French yields are stagnating. While for wheat previous results are unanimously pointing to recent stagnation, there is contradictory evidence for maize and few to no results for other crops. Here we analyse a data set with more than 120,000 yield observations from 1900 to 2016 for ten crops (barley, durum and soft wheat, maize, oats, potatoes, rapeseed, sugar beet, sunflower and wine) in the 96 mainland French départements (NUTS3 administrative division). We dissect the evolution of yield trends over time and space, analyse yield variation and evaluate whether growth of yields has stalled in recent years. Yields have, on average across crops, multiplied four-fold over the course of the 20th century. While absolute yield variability has increased, the variation relative to the mean has halved – mean yields have increased faster than their variability. But growth of yields has stagnated since the 1990's for winter wheat, barley, oats, durum wheat, sunflower and wine on at least 25% of their areas. Reaching yield potentials is unlikely as a cause for stagnation. Maize, in contrast, shows no evidence for stagnation.

Cordycepin (3′-deoxyadenosine) is one of the major bioactive substances produced by Cordyceps militaris, a traditional medicinal mushroom. Cordycepin possesses several biological activities, including both pro-apoptotic and anti-apoptotic properties. In the present report, we investigated an effect of cordycepin on the survival of cells exposed to tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-α. We found that subtoxic doses of cordycepin increased susceptibility of cells to TNF-α-induced apoptosis. It was associated with suppression of nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB), a major prosurvival component involved in TNF-α signalling. The adenosine transporter and A3 adenosine receptor, but not A1 and A2 adenosine receptors, mediated both anti-NF-κB and pro-apoptotic effects. We found that cordycepin had the potential to phosphorylate eukaryotic translation initiation factor 2α (eIF2α) and that activation of eIF2α mimicked the suppressive effect of cordycepin on the NF-κB pathway. Furthermore, activation of eIF2α sensitized cells to TNF-α-induced apoptosis. To identify molecular events downstream of eIF2α, the role of mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) was examined. Selective activation of 3eIF2α, as well as treatment with cordycepin, caused phosphorylation of mTORC1. Rapamycin, an inhibitor of mTORC1, significantly reversed the suppressive effects of eIF2α on NF-κB. These results suggest that cordycepin sensitizes cells to TNF-α-induced apoptosis, at least in part, via induction of the eIF2α–mTORC1 pathway and consequent suppression of NF-κB.

Liquid metal dealloying (LMD) has recently attracted significant attention. Because the LMD process enables the production of three-dimensional (3D) interconnected non-noble metallic materials. In addition, the metallic melt medium is useful for the development of heterostructure (HS) metal–metal composites. However, the solidified liquid metal phase (low melting point metals such as Mg, Bi, Sn, or Cu) has a much lower strength than the developed ligament phase (e.g., Fe, FeCr, Ti, etc.). In this study, the soft Mg phase was strengthened by adding alloying element of Ni. A eutectic composition of Mg–10 at.% Ni melt leads to the formation of fine eutectic structure of (Mg–Mg2Ni) within 3D interconnected morphology. This hierarchical heterostructured composite consisted of FeCr ligament and Mg–Mg2Ni lamellar, and a high yield strength of 280 MPa and a noticeable elongation (1.5%) were achieved. The complex 3D morphology of ligament and lamellar geometrically constraint each other, and it prevents the early fracture of brittle Mg–Mg2Ni lamellar phase. The alloy design for the LMD melt gives insights for hierarchical HS materials with outstanding mechanical properties for structural applications. © 2021 The Authors. ; This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI (Grant Number JP20J14001 ). Yeonbeom Jeong acknowledges the support from the GP-MS at Tohoku University . This work has supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea grant funded by the Korea government(MSIT) (No. NRF-2021R1C1C1007645 ). This work was primarily supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas "Science of New-Class of Materials Based on Elemental Multiplicity and Heterogeneity (Grant No. 18H05452)" from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT, Japan) (H.K and T.W). This work was performed under the ICC-IMR Program of the Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University.