Pressure dependence of 35Cl nuclear quadrupole resonance in 2,5-, 2,6- and 3,5-dichlorophenols

Pressure dependence of the 35Cl Nuclear Quadrupole Resonances (N.Q.R.) in 2,5-, 2,6- and 3,5-dichlorophenols (DCP) has been studied up to a pressure of about 6·5 kbar at room temperature. While the pressure dependence of the two resonance lines in 2,6-DCP is essentially similar, the lower frequency line in 2,5-DCP is almost pressure independent and the higher frequency line shows a linear variation with pressure upto about 3·5 kbar but shows a negative pressure coefficient beyond this pressure. The two lines in 3,5-DCP have a non-linear pressure dependence with the curvature changing smoothly with pressure. The pressure coefficient for both lines becomes negative beyond a pressure of 5 kbar. The pressure dependence of the N.Q.R. frequencies is discussed in relation to intra- and inter-molecular contacts. Also, a thermodynamic analysis of the data is carried out to determine the constant volume temperature derivative of the N.Q.R. frequency.

Physical activity, obesity status, and blood pressure in preschool children

Objective To examine the combined effects of physical activity and weight status on blood pressure (BP) in preschool-aged children. Study design The sample included 733 preschool-aged children (49% female). Physical activity was objectively assessed on 7 consecutive days by accelerometry. Children were categorized as sufficiently active if they met the recommendation of at least 60 minutes daily of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). Body mass index was used to categorize children as nonoverweight or overweight/obese, according to the International Obesity Task Force benchmarks. BP was measured using an automated BP monitor and categorized as elevated or normal using BP percentile-based cut-points for age, sex, and height. Results The prevalence of elevated systolic BP (SBP) and diastolic BP was 7.7% and 3.0%, respectively. The prevalence of overweight/obese was 32%, and about 15% of children did not accomplish the recommended 60 minutes of daily MVPA. After controlling for age and sex, overweight/obese children who did not meet the daily MVPA recommendation were 3 times more likely (OR 3.8; CI 1.6-8.6) to have elevated SBP than nonoverweight children who met the daily MVPA recommendation. Conclusions Overweight or obese preschool-aged children with insufficient levels of MVPA are at significantly greater risk for elevated SBP than their nonoverweight and sufficiently active counterparts.

Acute and chronic effects of dietary nitrate supplementation on blood pressure and the physiological responses to moderate-intensity and incremental exercise

Dietary nitrate (NO3−) supplementation with beetroot juice (BR) over 4–6 days has been shown to reduce the O2 cost of submaximal exercise and to improve exercise tolerance. However, it is not known whether shorter (or longer) periods of supplementation have similar (or greater) effects. We therefore investigated the effects of acute and chronic NO3− supplementation on resting blood pressure (BP) and the physiological responses to moderate-intensity exercise and ramp incremental cycle exercise in eight healthy subjects. Following baseline tests, the subjects were assigned in a balanced crossover design to receive BR (0.5 l/day; 5.2 mmol of NO3−/day) and placebo (PL; 0.5 l/day low-calorie juice cordial) treatments. The exercise protocol (two moderate-intensity step tests followed by a ramp test) was repeated 2.5 h following first ingestion (0.5 liter) and after 5 and 15 days of BR and PL. Plasma nitrite concentration (baseline: 454 ± 81 nM) was significantly elevated (+39% at 2.5 h postingestion; +25% at 5 days; +46% at 15 days; P < 0.05) and systolic and diastolic BP (baseline: 127 ± 6 and 72 ± 5 mmHg, respectively) were reduced by ∼4% throughout the BR supplementation period (P < 0.05). Compared with PL, the steady-state V̇o2 during moderate exercise was reduced by ∼4% after 2.5 h and remained similarly reduced after 5 and 15 days of BR (P < 0.05). The ramp test peak power and the work rate at the gas exchange threshold (baseline: 322 ± 67 W and 89 ± 15 W, respectively) were elevated after 15 days of BR (331 ± 68 W and 105 ± 28 W; P < 0.05) but not PL (323 ± 68 W and 84 ± 18 W). These results indicate that dietary NO3− supplementation acutely reduces BP and the O2 cost of submaximal exercise and that these effects are maintained for at least 15 days if supplementation is continued.

Evolution of texture during equal channel angular extrusion of commercially pure aluminum: Experiments and simulations

The evolution of crystallographic texture has been comprehensively studied for commercially pure Al as a function of amount of ECAE deformation for the three major routes of ECAE processing. It has been observed that processing through different routes leads to different type of texture, in both qualitative as well as quantitative sense. The results have been analyzed on the basis of existing concepts on ECAE deformation and simulations have been carried out using the simple shear model of ECAE implemented into the Viscoplastic Self Consistent model of polycrystal plasticity. The simulations revealed that non-octahedral slip is needed to reproduce the experimental texture development.

Investigation of the effects of extracellular osmotic pressure on morphology and mechanical 1 properties of individual chondrocyte

It has been demonstrated that most cells of the body respond to osmotic pressure in a systematic manner. The disruption of the collagen network in the early stages of osteoarthritis causes an increase in water content of cartilage which leads to a reduction of pericellular osmolality in chondrocytes distributed within the extracellular environment. It is therefore arguable that an insight into the mechanical properties of chondrocytes under varying osmotic pressure would provide a better understanding of chondrocyte mechanotransduction and potentially contribute to knowledge on cartilage degeneration. In this present study, the chondrocyte cells were exposed to solutions with different osmolality. Changes in their dimensions and mechanical properties were measured over time. Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) was used to apply load at various strain-rates and the force-time curves were logged. The thin-layer elastic model was used to extract the elastic stiffness of chondrocytes at different strain-rates and at different solution osmolality. In addition, the porohyperelastic (PHE) model was used to investigate the strain-rate dependent responses under the loading and osmotic pressure conditions. The results revealed that the hypo-osmotic external environment increased chondrocyte dimensions and reduced Young’s modulus of the cells at all strain-rates tested. In contrast, the hyper-osmotic external environment reduced dimensions and increased Young’s modulus. Moreover, by using the PHE model coupled with inverse FEA simulation, we established that the hydraulic permeability of chondrocytes increased with decreasing extracellular osmolality which is consistent with previous work in the literature. This could be due to a higher intracellular fluid volume fraction with lower osmolality.

Exact analysis of simply supported rhombic plates under uniform pressure

The simply supported rhombic plate under transverse load has received extensive attention from elasticians, applied mathematicians and engineers. All known solutions are based on approximate procedures. Now, an exact solution in a fast converging explicit series form is derived for this problem, by applying Stevenson's tentative approach with complex variables. Numerical values for the central deflexion and moments are obtained for various corner angles. The present solution provides a basis for assessing the accuracy of approximate methods for analysing problems of skew plates or domains.

Pressure and alloying effects on the metal to insulator transition in NiS2-xSex studied by infrared spectroscopy

The metal to insulator transition in the charge-transfer NiS2-xSex compound has been investigated through infrared reflectivity. Measurements performed by applying pressure to pure NiS2 (lattice contraction) and by Se alloying (lattice expansion) reveal that in both cases an anomalous metallic state is obtained. We find that optical results are not compatible with the linear Se-alloying vs pressure-scaling relation previously established through transport, thus pointing out the substantially different microscopic origin of the two transitions.

Evaluating the effects of international exposure from networks ties and mimetic pressure on clustered SMEs in Brazil

Research on the internationalisation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) has received increasing attention in recent years due to the important role they play in today’s economic environment. Internationalisation prompting, or awareness, is an already recognised phase of the innovation-related stages model (I-model). This phase of awareness is closely related to the international exposure that a firm may experience during the occasion when it realises its competitors are already internationalising. Although the literature has discussed the various forms in which international exposure may happen, there has been limited attention given to the extent of its effect on the internationalisation of clustered SMEs that behave according to the I-Model. This study will assess the applicability of the I-Model in a dynamic, competitive and co-operative setting of an industrial cluster. It also evaluates the impact (if any) of international exposure derived from networks and the mimetic pressure that these firms may experience due to their embeddedness in an industrial cluster. Results from this study will indicate the effectiveness of the improved adapted model that will provide a richer insight for both academic researchers and policy makers.

Strategies to limit the impact of nematode pressure on sugarcane productivity in the Isis

Two trials were done in this project. One was a continuation of work started under a previous GRDC/SRDC-funded activity, 'Strategies to improve the integration of legumes into cane based farming systems'. This trial aimed to assess the impact of trash and tillage management options and nematicide application on nematodes and crop performance. Methods and results are contained in the following publication: Halpin NV, Stirling GR, Rehbein WE, Quinn B, Jakins A, Ginns SP. The impact of trash and tillage management options and nematicide application on crop performance and plant-parasitic nematode populations in a sugarcane/peanut farming system. Proc. Aust. Soc. Sugar Cane Technol. 37, 192-203. Nematicide application in the plant crop significantly reduced total numbers of plant parasitic nematodes (PPN) but there was no impact on yield. Application of nematicide to the ratoon crop significantly reduced sugar yield. The study confirmed other work demonstrating that implementation of strategies like reduced tillage reduced populations of total PPN, suggesting that the soil was more suppressive to PPN in those treatments. The second trial, a variety trial, demonstrated the limited value of nematicide application in sugarcane farming systems. This study has highlighted that growers shouldn’t view nematicides as a ‘cure all’ for paddocks that have historically had high PPN numbers. Nematicides have high mammalian toxicity, have the potential to contaminate ground water (Kookana et al. 1995) and are costly. The cost of nematicide used in R1 was approx. $320 - $350/ha, adding $3.50/t of cane in a 100 t/ha crop. Also, our study demonstrated that a single nematicide treatment at the application rate registered for sugarcane is not very effective in reducing populations of nematode pests. There appears to be some levels of resistance to nematodes within the current suite of varieties available to the southern canelands. For example the soil in plots that were growing Q183 had 560% more root knot nematodes / 200mL soil compared to plots that grew Q245. The authors see great value in investment into a nematode screening program that could rate varieties into groups of susceptibility to both major sugarcane nematode pests. Such a rating could then be built into a decision support ‘tree’ or tool to better enable producers to select varieties on a paddock by paddock basis.

Similar solutions for the incompressible laminar boundary layer with pressure gradient in micropolar

This paper presents the similarity solution for the steady incompressible laminar boundary layer flow of a micropolar fluid past an infinite wedge. The governing equations have been solved numerically using fourth orderRunge-Kutta-Gill method. The results indicate the extent to which the velocity and microrotation profiles, and the surface shear stress are influenced by coupling, microrotation, and pressure gradient parameters. The important role played by the standard length of the micropolar fluid in determining the structure of the boundary layer has also been discussed.

Effect of environmental stress of low pressure on tyrosine aminotransferase and phenylalanine 4-hydroxylase activities in the rat.

Tyrosine aminotransferase activity in the liver increased about fourfold after 9h, on exposure of rats to stress of low pressure. 2. The phenylalanine hydroxylase activity increased about 60% on exposure for 24h or more. 3. An environmental pressure decrease of about 0.033 MN/m2 is needed to increase the activity of tyrosine aminotransferase. 4. Adrenalectomy completely abolished the increase in activity of tyrosine aminotransferase obtained on exposure to low pressure. 5. Treatment with cycloheximide or actinomycin D prevented the increase in activity of tyrosine aminotransferase. 6. Treatment with cycloheximide at the early part of exposure to stress prevented the increase in activity of phenylalanine hydroxylase obtained after 24h.

High-pressure magnetic susceptibility of the intermediate valence system EuPd2Si2

The pressure dependence (0-7 kbar) of the magnetic susceptibility is reported for the intermediate valence system EuPd2Si2 in the temperature interval 77-300K. It is found that the thermally induced valence transition becomes more gradual on application of pressure The characteristic fluctuation temperature Tf, also seems to be pressure dependent.