Oxalogenesis in parenteral nutrition solution components

Oxalate has been implicated in the etiology of nephrocalcinosis in premature infants as well as in the formation of insoluble precipitates in total parenteral nutrition (TPN) intravenous tubing. Oxidation of ascorbate to oxalate, especially in the presence of catalysts such as copper and iron, has been implicated in formation of these precipitates. The purpose of this project was to measure oxalate formation in certain TPN components separately and in combination. Neonatal TPN solution components in combination were infused at 5 mL/h under simulated clinical conditions used in a neonatal intensive care unit. Aliquots were assayed at intervals for oxalate by capillary electrophoresis. Oxalate is present in one TPN mixture at concentrations up to 8 ppm. The addition of ascorbate to an aqueous solution of trace metals may promote oxalogenesis.     

Artemisinin-derived sesquiterpene lactones as potential antitumour compounds: cytotoxic action against bone marrow and tumour cells

Epidemiologic and public health researchers frequently include several dependent variables, repeated assessments, or subgroup analyses in their investigations. These factors result in multiple tests of statistical significance and may produce type 1 experimental errors. This study examined the type 1 error rate in a sample of public health and epidemiologic research. A total of 173 articles chosen at random from 1996 issues of the American Journal of Public Health and the American Journal of Epidemiology were examined to determine the incidence of type 1 errors. Three different methods of computing type 1 error rates were used: experiment-wise error rate, error rate per experiment, and percent error rate. The results indicate a type 1 error rate substantially higher than the traditionally assumed level of 5% (p < 0.05). No practical or statistically significant difference was found between type 1 error rates across the two journals. Methods to determine and correct type 1 errors should be reported in epidemiologic and public health research investigations that include multiple statistical tests.     

Transport of lactic acid in Kluyveromyces marxianus: evidence for a monocarboxylate uniport.

Lactic acid-grown cells of a strain of Kluyveromyces marxianus transported D- and L-lactic acid by a saturable mechanism that was partially inducible and subject to glucose repression, with the following kinetic parameters at pH 5.4: Vmax = 1.00 (+/- 0.13) mmol h-1 per g dry weight and Ks = 0.42 (+/- 0.08) mM. Lactic acid transport was competitively inhibited by pyruvic, glycolic, acetic and bromoacetic acids. The latter, a non-metabolizable analogue, was transiently accumulated, the extent depending on the extracellular pH. The pH dependence of the Ks values for undissociated lactic acid and for the lactate anion indicated that the latter was the transported species. Lactate uptake was not accompanied by the simultaneous uptake of protons, potassium ions or sodium ions excluding symport mechanisms. Initial lactic acid uptake led to transient membrane hyperpolarization as measured with a fluorescent dye excluding also an electroneutral anion antiport mechanism. It was concluded that lactate anions use a monocarboxylate uniport and that the counter anion, possibly bicarbonate, uses a separate channel, the coupling being electrical and loose.     

Querying dynamic communities in online social networks简

Online social networks （OSNs） offer people the opportunity to join communities where they share a common interest or objective. This kind of community is useful for studying the human behavior, diffusion of information, and dynamics of groups. As the members of a community are always changing, an efficient solution is needed to query information in real time. This paper introduces the Follow Model to present the basic relationship between users in OSNs, and combines it with the MapReduce solution to develop new algorithms with parallel paradigms for querying. Two models for reverse relation and high-order relation of the users were implemented in the Hadoop system. Based on 75 GB message data and 26 GB relation network data from Twitter, a case study was realized using two dynamic discussion communities：#musicmonday and #beatcancer. The querying performance demonstrates that the new solution with the implementation in Hadoop significantly improves the ability to find useful information from OSNs.     

Anxiolytic activity of NPY receptor agonists in the conflict test

Selenium is an important trace element that was considered toxic for humans and animals for a long time. The best known biochemical role of selenium is, as a selenocysteine residue, to be a part of the active site of the enzyme glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px). The highest values of selenium have been found in protein foods (meat and fish); although selenium from vegetables sources are more available than from the other foods. Nowadays are not known exactly the recommended dietary allowances for humans, mainly for children. The selenium intake in Spain is 221 micrograms/person/day and the plasmatic values of Spanish people (87 +/- 14 micrograms/L) are within the European average (85 micrograms/L).     

A KINETIC MODEL FOR THE PRODUCTION OF LIQUIDS FROM THE FLASH PYROLYSIS OF BIOMASS

A kinetically based prediction model for the production of organic liquids from the flash pyrolysis of biomass is proposed. Wood or other biomass is assumed to be decomposed according to two parallel reactions yielding liquid tar and ( gas + char) The tar is then assumed to further react by secondary homogeneous reactions to form mainly gas as a product

The model provides a very good agreement with the experimental results obtained using a pilot plant fluidized bed pyrolysis reactor

The proposed model is shown to be able to predict the organic liquid yield as a function of the operating parameters of the process, within the optimal conditions for maximizing the tar yields, and the reaction rate constants compare reasonably well with those reported in the literature     

Central Role of Dendritic Cells in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension in Human and Mice

The pathogenesis of idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension (IPAH) is not fully understood, but evidence is accumulating that immune dysfunction plays a significant role. We previously reported that 31-week-old Tnfaip3^DNGR1-KO mice develop pulmonary hypertension (PH) symptoms. These mice harbor a targeted deletion of the TNFα-induced protein-3 (Tnfaip3) gene, encoding the NF-κB regulatory protein A20, specifically in type I conventional dendritic cells (cDC1s). Here, we studied the involvement of dendritic cells (DCs) in PH in more detail. We found various immune cells, including DCs, in the hearts of Tnfaip3^DNGR1-KO mice, particularly in the right ventricle (RV). Secondly, in young Tnfaip3^DNGR1-KO mice, innate immune activation through airway exposure to toll-like receptor ligands essentially did not result in elevated RV pressures, although we did observe significant RV hypertrophy. Thirdly, PH symptoms in Tnfaip3^DNGR1-KO mice were not enhanced by concomitant mutation of bone morphogenetic protein receptor type 2 (Bmpr2), which is the most affected gene in PAH patients. Finally, in human IPAH lung tissue we found co-localization of DCs and CD8+ T cells, representing the main cell type activated by cDC1s. Taken together, these findings support a unique role of cDC1s in PAH pathogenesis, independent of general immune activation or a mutation in the Bmpr2 gene.     

A decision-making module for aiding ship system automation design: A knowledge-based approach

The use of elements of artificial intelligence, including knowledge-based systems, becomes more and more widespread in aiding design problem solutions. The authors have been working on problems of control systems for many years. A design process involves many decision problems connected with, for example, a choice of a subsystem structure, subunits or particular elements selection. Because of such regards, it was decided to extend knowledge-based system with a module for support of such decision making.In this paper, an elaborated module for decision-making support is considered. The basic theoretical assumptions concerning the accepted method of multiattribute decision making based on pairwise comparison in categories of hierarchical decision process (AHP) is presented. Accepted knowledge representation in AHP method and pairwise comparison method and methods of expert knowledge acquisition are discussed. The module functioning is illustrated by an example of choice of temperature sensors in a system of fuel transport to Diesel engine of a main propulsion unit of a ship.