Abstract:This study discusses the use of the Morrison model to estimate the strain-hardening exponent (n) in the presence of precipitation hardening for an API X80 steel pipe. As the grain size becomes larger, high values of n are expected according to the Morrison equation. However, the grain size alone is not sufficient to explain the changes of the strain-hardening exponent (n) after hot-induction bending. The vanadium in the ferritic solid solution has an important influence on the decrease of the precipitation hardening, and consequently on the increase of the values of n, despite the refinement of the grain size and high dislocation densities. Therefore, the effects of grain boundaries on the capability to uniformly distribute deformations within the plastic regime become negligible, which limits the application of the Morrison model to estimate the values of n.
BackgroundThe quasispecies composition of Hepatitis C virus (HCV) could have important implications with regard to viral persistence and response to interferon-based therapy. The complete NS5A was analyzed to evaluate whether the composition of NS5A quasispecies of HCV 1a/1b is related to responsiveness to combined interferon pegylated (PEG-IFN) and ribavirin therapy.MethodsViral RNA was isolated from serum samples collected before, during and after treatment from virological sustained responder (SVR), non-responder (NR) and the end-of-treatment responder patients (ETR). NS5A region was amplified, cloned and sequenced. Six hundred and ninety full-length NS5A sequences were analyzed.ResultsThis study provides evidence that lower nucleotide diversity of the NS5A region pre-therapy is associated with viral clearance. Analysis of samples of NRs and the ETRs time points showed that genetic diversity of populations tend to decrease over time. Post-therapy population of ETRs presented higher genetic distance from baseline probably due to the bottleneck phenomenon observed for those patients in the end of treatment. The viral effective population of those patients also showed a strong decrease after therapy. Otherwise, NRs demonstrated a continuous variation or stability of effective populations and genetic diversity over time that did not seem to be related to therapy. Phylogenetic relationships concerning complete NS5A sequences obtained from patients did not demonstrate clustering associated with specific response patterns. However, distinctive clustering of pre/post-therapy sequences was observed. In addition, the evolution of quasispecies over time was subjected to purifying or relaxed purifying selection. Codons 157 (P03), 182 and 440 (P42), 62 and 404 (P44) were found to be under positive selective pressure but it failed to be related to the therapy.ConclusionThese results confirm the hypothesis that a relationship exists between NS5A heterogeneity and response to therapy in patients infected with chronic hepatitis C.
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