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Heat treatment is the critical step in achieving a refined microstructure and enhanced mechanical properties of TiAl-based alloys. This study investigated the influence of heat treatment temperature, cooling method, and heat treatment time on the microstructure and mechanical properties of an extruded powder metallurgy Ti-48Al alloy, and achieved the control of fully lamellar fine microstructures and the enhancement of performance through a simple heat treatment, rather than the traditional approach of homogenization followed by heat treatment. The results indicate that the heat treatment temperature determines the type of microstructure, while the cooling rate dictates the lamellar width. As the heat treatment temperature was increased from the two-phase region to the α single-phase region, the microstructure transitioned from duplex to near lamellar, and the alloy strength initially increased and then decreased, influenced by both the lamellar colony ratio and grain size. A rapid cooling rate (water quenching) induces a non-diffusive massive phase transformation, whereas a slow cooling rate (air cooling) gradually forms α2/γ lamellar colonies. Therefore, a suitable heat treatment regime for the powder metallurgy Ti-48Al alloy was determined to be 1340 °C/5 min/air cooling. The microstructure of the alloy was near lamellar, consisting of lamellar colonies approximately 50 μm and a small number of γ equiaxed grains of about 10 μm. Subsequently, the alloy exhibited a room temperature tensile strength of 784 MPa and a yield strength of 763 MPa, representing improvements of 17.0% and 38.7% over the extruded alloy, respectively. This research provides a reference for establishing a heat treatment process for powder metallurgy TiAl alloys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Xinjiang brown cattle are highly resistant to disease and tolerant of roughage feeding. The identification of genes regulating mastitis resistance in Xinjiang brown cattle is a novel means of genetic improvement. In this study, the blood levels of IL-1β, IL-6, IL-10, TNF-α, and TGF-β in Xinjiang brown cattle with high and low somatic cell counts (SCCs) were investigated, showing that cytokine levels were higher in cattle with high SCCs. The peripheral blood transcriptomic profiles of healthy and mastitis-affected cattle were constructed by RNA-seq. Differential expression analysis identified 1632 differentially expressed mRNAs (DE-mRNAs), 1757 differentially expressed lncRNAs (DE-lncRNAs), and 23 differentially expressed circRNAs (DE-circRNAs), which were found to be enriched in key pathways such as PI3K/Akt, focal adhesion, and ECM-receptor interactions. Finally, ceRNA interaction networks were constructed using the differentially expressed genes and ceRNAs. It was found that keynote genes or mRNAs were also enriched in pathways such as PI3K-Akt, cholinergic synapses, cell adhesion molecules, ion binding, cytokine receptor activity, and peptide receptor activity, suggesting that the key genes and ncRNAs in the network may play an important role in the regulation of bovine mastitis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A fluorescent probe (probe C) based on coumarin-thiourea conjugate was developed for selective detection of Hg2+. Addition of Hg2+ to probe C induced obvious enhancement of the fluorescence intensity. Probe C exhibited good selectivity toward Hg2+ and good anti-interference performance over other common competitive metal ions including Na+, K+, Ag+, Cu2+, Zn2+, Co2+, Ni2+, Mn2+, Mg2+, Fe2+, Fe3+, Ca2+ and Al3+. The detection limit of probe C for Hg2+ was calculated to be 0.44 nM. It was capable of detecting Hg2+ ion in a wide pH range of 1.0–10.0. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of wide-ranging dairy herd improvement (DHI) measurements has resulted in the investigation of somatic cell count (SCC) and the identification of many genes associated with mastitis resistance. In this study, blood samples of Xinjiang brown cattle with different SCCs were collected, and genome-wide DNA methylation was analyzed by MeDIP-seq. The results showed that peaks were mostly in intergenic regions, followed by introns, exons, and promoters. A total of 1,934 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) associated with mastitis resistance in Xinjiang brown cattle were identified. The enrichment of differentially methylated CpG islands of the TRAPPC9 and CD4 genes was analyzed by bisulfate genome sequencing. The methylation rate of differentially methylated CpGs was higher in the TRAPPC9 gene of cattle with clinical mastitis (mastitis group) compared with healthy cattle (control group), while methylation of differentially methylated CpGs was significantly lower in CD4 of the mastitis group compared with the control group. RT-qRCR analysis showed that the mastitis group had significantly reduced expression of CD4 and TRAPPC9 genes compared to the control group ( p < 0.05). Furthermore, Mac-T cells treated with lipopolysaccharide and lipoteichoic acid showed significant downregulation of the TRAPPC9 gene in the mastitis group compared with the control group. The identified epigenetic biomarkers provide theoretical reference for treating cow mastitis, breeding management, and the genetic improvement of mastitis resistance in Xinjiang brown cattle., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Wang, Ma, Yan, Dong, Zhang, Zhang, Zhang, Zhang, Xu and Huang.)