Ni-free Ti-base shape memory alloys (SMA) have been systematically developed by our group for biomedical applications in order to replace Ti-Ni SMAs which posses the possibility of Ni-hypersensitivity. In this study, superelastic behavior of solution-treated Ti-24 mol%Nb-3 mol%Al alloy was investigated by means of tensile tests at room temperature (RT) as well as microstructural observation. The alloy was fabricated by Ar arc-melting followed by a homogenization at 1273 K and then cold-rolled with the reduction of 99% in thickness without intermediate annealing. The cold-rolled sheets were solution treated at 1273 K for 1.8 ks in vacuum. Then, cyclic loading-unloading tensile tests were performed at RT. In the tensile tests, the tensile direction was systematically changed from rolling direction (RD) to transverse direction (TD) in the plane of the cold-rolled sheets. It was found by the tensile tests that the superelastic behavior strongly depends on the tensile direction and the number of deformation cycles. The solution-treated alloy after 99% cold rolling exhibits the best superelasticity when loaded along RD. The nature of the anisotropy in the superelastic behavior is discussed related with the texture developed during the fabrication process. It is concluded that the thermo-mechanical treatment performed in this study is quite useful as a superelastic treatment for the Ti-base SMAs, and that this alloy should be used industrially by taking into account such anisotropy of superelasticity.

Textures of severely cold-rolled Ti-24 mol%Nb-3 mol%Al superelastic alloy were examined by X-ray pole figure measurements for the bcc parent phase () and the relationship between transformation strain and loading direction was evaluated on the basis of the lattice correspondence and change in the potential energy of an external stress. A well-developed recrystallization texture of h110i f112g type was confirmed by X-ray pole figure measurements for the material which was 99% cold-rolled followed by a solution-treatment at 1273 K. Crystallographic analysis showed that the maximum dilatation component of the martensitic transformation from to 00 is h110i parallel to the rolling direction (RD). An energy consideration revealed that only one 00 -variant (lattice-correspondence variant) can be induced by the tensile stress along RD when the recrystallization texture appears. The transformation strain generated under the RD tension was about three times larger than that generated under the tension along transverse direction (TD). These calculations were in good agreement with experimental evidences.

BackgroundMicrobial flora in several organs of HIV-infected individuals have been characterized; however, the palatine tonsil bacteriome and mycobiome and their relationship with each other remain unclear. Determining the palatine tonsil microbiome may provide a better understanding of the pathogenesis of oral and systemic complications in HIV-infected individuals. We conducted a cross-sectional study to characterize the palatine tonsil microbiome in HIV-infected individuals.ResultsPalatine tonsillar swabs were collected from 46 HIV-infected and 20 HIV-uninfected individuals. The bacteriome and mycobiome were analyzed by amplicon sequencing using Illumina MiSeq. The palatine tonsil bacteriome of the HIV-infected individuals differed from that of HIV-uninfected individuals in terms of the decreased relative abundances of the commensal genera Neisseria and Haemophilus. At the species level, the relative abundances and presence of Capnocytophaga ochracea, Neisseria cinerea, and Selenomonas noxia were higher in the HIV-infected group than those in the HIV-uninfected group. In contrast, fungal diversity and composition did not differ significantly between the two groups. Microbial intercorrelation analysis revealed that Candida and Neisseria were negatively correlated with each other in the HIV-infected group. HIV immune status did not influence the palatine tonsil microbiome in the HIV-infected individuals.ConclusionsHIV-infected individuals exhibit dysbiotic changes in their palatine tonsil bacteriome, independent of immunological status.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12866-018-1274-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

-A process to make self-aligned top-gate amorphous indium-gallium-zinc-oxide (a-IGZO) thin-film transistors (TFTs) on polyimide foil is presented. The source/drain (S/D) region's parasitic resistance reduced during the SiN interlayer deposition step. The sheet resistivity of S/D region after exposure to SiN interlayer deposition decreased to 1.5 kΩ/□. TFTs show field-effect mobility of 12.0 cm 2 /(V.s), sub-threshold slope of 0.5 V/decade, and current ratio (I ON/OFF ) of >10 7. The threshold voltage shifts of the TFTs were 0.5 V in positive (+1.0 MV/cm) bias direction and 1.5 V in negative (À1.0 MV/cm) bias direction after extended stressing time of 10 4 s. We achieve a stage-delay of~19.6 ns at V DD = 20 V measured in a 41-stage ring oscillator. A top-emitting quarter-quarter-video-graphics-array active-matrix organic light-emitting diode display with 85 ppi (pixels per inch) resolution has been realized using only five lithographic mask steps. For operation at 6 V supply voltage (V DD ), the brightness of the display exceeds 150 cd/m 2 .