Decoding therapeutic roles of adipose tissue-derived stromal cells and their extracellular vesicles in liver disease

Acute and chronic liver damage are associated with severe pathogenic conditions, including loss of functional liver tissue (hepatocyte cell death), inflammation and fibrosis. Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC) have therapeutic potential and, upon systemic infusion, they have the ability to home to the injured liver. MSC improve liver function and ameliorate fibrosis, rendering a promising therapeutic strategy for patients with end-stage liver disease. Despite the fact that MSC are able to differentiate into hepatocytes, especially in in vitro conditions, their therapeutic effect in acute and chronic liver disease are believed to be primarily based on paracrine signaling, mediated through the release of trophic factors and extracellular vesicles (EVs). Several trophic molecules have been indicated to convey the therapeutic effects of MSC, while the role of MSC-derived EVs has not yet been thoroughly investigated. EVs carry various regulatory nucleic acids and proteins and deliver their cargo into target cells. Cargo of EVs modulates key cellular processes in the recipient cells, such as transcription, post-transcriptional modification and signal transduction. In this thesis, we studied the therapeutic potential of EVs produced by human adipose tissue-derived MSC (ASC) in murine (in vivo), cellular (in vitro), and tissue (ex vivo) models of human acute and chronic liver disease

Automatic Disassembly Task Sequence Planning of Aircrafts at their End-of-Life

RÉSUMÉ Une prise de conscience des problèmes environnementaux à l'échelle mondiale ainsi que des avantages économiques a stimulé les chercheurs à trouver les possibilités de réutiliser et de recycler les produits en fin de vie. Chaque année plusieurs centaines d'avions atteignent globalement fin de leur navigabilité et doivent être retirés du service actif. De ce fait, une attention accrue est maintenant accordée à la fin de vie des avions. Désassemblage joue un rôle important dans la prise de décision de fin de vie. La faisabilité économique du processus de démontage avec beaucoup d'incertitudes est une préoccupation majeure limitant sa mise en oeuvre dans la pratique de l'industrie. De nombreuses recherches dans le domaine de la planification et des opérations de processus de démontage a été fait, qui visent de plus en plus la faisabilité économique du démontage avec la réduction des temps de démontage de proposer des séquences de démontage optimisées. Par conséquent, ces dernières années, de nombreux chercheurs ont publié des articles sur la planification de la séquence de démontage des produits en fin de vie qui est un problème NP-complet optimisation combinatoire. Néanmoins, il y a eu un peu d'attention à la planification de la séquence de démontage d'avions en fin de vie. Cette thèse aborde la planification de séquence de démontage des pièces réutilisables d'avions en fin de vie avant le démantèlement pour le recyclage. Puisque les composants récupérés vont être utilisés à nouveau, une approche non-destructive tout en respectant les instructions fournies dans le manuel d'entretien d'avion intitulé « Aircraft Maintenance Manuel » (AMM) pour le retrait des pièces est prise en considération. Ordonnancement de désassemblage dans cette recherche ne traite pas le séquençage le démontage des pièces comme dans d'autres études, mais il planifie séquence de tâches de démontage dans l'AMM. Une tâche de démontage consiste combinaison d'opérations pour la préparation du démontage ou le procède de démontage pour un ou plusieurs pièces. Tout d'abord, un modèle de séquençage de démontage est proposé par l'examen structure des tâches de démontage dans l'AMM. Ensuite, un code Matlab est développé qui lit la base de données énuméré des tâches et sous-tâches qui sont acquises à partir de l'AMM et génère la séquence de démontage des tâches et sous-tâches automatiquement en utilisant le modèle proposé. Le code est capable de générer des séquences de désassemblage de tâches pour n’importe quelle pièce sollicitée.----------ABSTRACT An awareness of the world’s environmental problems plus economic benefits has stimulated researchers to seek the opportunities to reuse and recycle end-of-life (EOL) products. Each year hundreds of aircraft globally reach end of their airworthiness and should be withdrawn from active service. Due to this fact, increased attention is now being paid to EOL of aircrafts. Disassembly plays an important role in EOL decision making. The economic feasibility of the disassembly process with lots of uncertainties is a main concern limiting its implementation in industry practice. Many researches in the field of disassembly process planning and operations has been done that aim increasing economic feasibility of disassembly with reducing disassembly times with proposing optimized disassembly sequences. Consequently, in recent years, many scholars have published articles on disassembly sequence planning of EOL products that is a NP-complete combinatorial optimization problem. Nevertheless, there has been a scant attention towards disassembly sequence planning of EOL aircrafts. This thesis addresses disassembly sequence planning of reusable components of EOL aircrafts before dismantling it for recycling. Since retrieved components are going to be used again, a nondestructive approach with respecting all instructions provided in aircraft maintenance manual (AMM) for removal of parts is taken into consideration. Disassembly scheduling in this work does not deal with scheduling disassembly of components as in other works but it schedules sequence of removal Tasks in AMM. A removal task consists combination of operations for preparation of disassembly or process of disassembly for a part or multiple parts. At first, a disassembly sequencing model with considering structure of disassembly tasks in AMM is proposed. Afterwards a Matlab code is developed which reads from enumerated database of tasks and subtasks that are acquired from AMM and generates disassembly sequence of tasks and subtasks automatically using the proposed model. The code is capable of generating disassembly sequences of tasks for any given removal task of solicited part. Finally, a greedy and an adaptive greedy algorithm are proposed to optimize disassembly sequence of tasks with minimizing changes in visited zones of disassembly operations. Results generated in Matlab code, suggests effectiveness of proposed adaptive greedy algorithm

Comparative assessment of proliferation and immunomodulatory potential of Hypericum perforatum plant and callus extracts on mesenchymal stem cells derived adipose tissue from multiple sclerosis patients

Background Mesenchymal stem cells-derived adipose tissue (AT-MSCs) are recognized for the treatment of inflammatory diseases including multiple sclerosis (MS). Hypericum perforatum (HP) is an anti-inflammatory pharmaceutical plant with bioactive compounds. Plant tissue culture is a technique to improve desired pharmacological potential. The aim of this study was to compare the anti-inflammatory and proliferative effects of callus with field-growing plant extracts of HP on AT-MSCs derived from MS patients. Materials and methods AT-MSCs were isolated and characterized. HP callus was prepared and exposure to light spectrum (blue, red, blue-red, and control). Total phenols, flavonoids, and hypericin of HP callus and plant extracts were measured. The effects of HP extracts concentrations on proliferation were evaluated by MTT assay. Co-culture of AT-MSCs: PBMCs were challenged by HP plant and callus extracts, and Tregs percentage was assessed by flow cytometry. Results Identification of MSCs was performed. Data showed that blue light could stimulate total phenols, flavonoids, and hypericin. MTT test demonstrated that plant extract in concentrations (0.03, 1.2, 2.5 and 10 mu g/ml) and HP callus extract in 10 mu g/ml significantly increased. Both HP extracts lead to an increase in Tregs percentage in all concentrations. In particular, a comparison between HP plant and callus extracts revealed that Tregs enhanced 3-fold more than control groups in the concentration of 10 mu g/ml callus. Conclusions High concentrations of HP extracts showed effectiveness on AT-MSCs proliferation and immunomodulatory properties with a certain consequence in callus extract. HP extracts may be considered as supplementary treatments for the patients who receiving MSCs transplantation

Investigating the mutual interactions of 19th century western women and their environment in George Gissing’s New Grub Street and The Nether World

The present article explores an Ecofeministic approach to two novels of George Gissing, New Grub Street (1891), The Nether World (1889) based on the two notions of oppression and domination. George Gissing is the great English writer of the 19th and early 20th centuries, whose real novels can be considered as a reflection of the society of those days. During the 19th century and early 20th century, the urbanization was culminated, and the man’s connection to nature was almost destroyed. This was accompanied by the oppression of women in the patriarchal society of that time which clearly indicates the fact that nature and women are empirically connected. By examining two notions of oppression and domination in Gissing’s novels in this research, the researcher aimed to study the connection of nature and women as they are threatened by the same enemy – a toxic mindset of domination and control that degrades both women and environment to show that women and nature are both oppressed and dominated by masculine rules of patriarchal society of 19th century. The strategies and solutions of the female characters to save themselves and their nature from oppressions and dominations are also studied. This study concluded that the interactions between human and the environment, as well as the oppressive relationship between men and women in 19th century, have been well illustrated and criticized in Gissing novels

The presence of autoantibodies to cytoplasmic rod and ring particles in the serum of patients with chronic hepatitis C virus infection

Background: Chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) is associated with extra hepatic autoimmune disorders, while peg-IFNa-2a/RBV combination therapy may exacerbate these conditions. Autoantibodies to cytoplasmic structures, called rod and ring particles (RR), have strong associations with these patients and are identified by HEp-2 cells. Objectives: Our purpose was to study the correlation of autoantibodies to cytoplasmic rod and ring particles in the serum of patients with chronic HCV infection with their response to standard therapy. Methods: Serum samples were gathered from 120 patients with HCV infection (40 naive treatments, 40 with sustained virological response (SVR), and 40 with relapse response) during peg-IFNa-2a/RBV combination therapy and analyzed for the presence of RR antibodies by IIF on commercially available HEp-2 cell substrate slides from Euroimmun (Lu beck, Germany). Results: Anti-rod and ring (anti-RR) autoantibodies were detected in only the serum of 1 out of 120 patients (0.8), which belonged to a patient (out of 40) with relapse response (2.5). No correlation was found between the types of response to peg-IFNa-2a/RBV combination therapy and the presence of anti-RR autoantibodies. Conclusions: The only HCV patient with RR autoantibodies previously had received IFN/ribavirin antiviral therapy. The presence of these autoantibodies is extremely rare in Iranian HCV patients. Further studies are warranted to determine the role of genetic background and geographical pattern in the prevalence of these novel autoantibodies worldwide. � 2016, Kowsar Corp

Species diversity and ecological studies Euglenophyta in the Zayandeh Rood lake dam

Zayandeh Rood Lake, as the largest Isfahan natural Lake, is located in the west of Isfahan city with the area of about 48 km2. Sampling of Euglenophyta was done in four stations from August 2005 through June 2006. Ecological factors such as pH, EC, salinity, temperature and various nutrients were measured. A total of 4 genus and 9 species were identified in this lake. Euglena proxima Dang., Phacus caudatus var. ovalis Drez. and Trachelomonas robusta Swir., showed high density 1420, 952, 2380 cell/cm3, respectively. In this lake density of Euglenophyta increased in warm seasons because of high ions such as nitrate and phosphate. Based upon algal flora results, Zayandeh Rood dam lake could be regarded as an oligo-mesotrophic lake