Effect of sub-zero cooling on microstructure and mechanical properties of a low alloyed austempered ductile iron

The effect of sub-zero cooling on microstructure and mechanical properties of a low alloyed austempered ductile iron has been investigated. Austempering of samples was performed at 325! and 400℃ after austenitizing at 875℃ and 950℃. The sub-zero treatments were carried out by cooling down the samples to -30℃, -70℃ and -196℃. The changes in volume fraction of austenite and mechanical properties were determined after cooling to each temperature. The austenite volume fraction of samples which were austenitized at 875℃ and austempered at 325℃ remained unchanged, whilst it reduced in samples austenitized at 950℃ and 875℃ for austempering temperature of 400℃. In these specimens, some austenite transformed to martensite after subzero cooling. Mechanical property measurements showed a slight increase in strength and hardness and decrease in elongation and toughness due to this transformation behavior

Bio-antioxidants Activity: Their Mechanisms and Measurement Methods

Bioactive food components (such as phenolic compounds, carotenoids, anthocyanins, tochopherols, ascorbic acid, flavonoids, minerals, enzymes and pectin) are active ingredients in food or dietary supplements, which proven to have an important role in health, and are safe for human consumption. These compounds exert their antioxidant effects by different mechanisms such as single electron transfer or hydrogen atom transfer, and their efficiencies can be evaluated by several methods such as ferric reducing ability of plasma, oxygen radical absorbance capacity assay, total radical trapping antioxidant parameter, total oxidant scavenging capacity, conjugated dienes, lipoxygenase activity inhibition assay, chemiluminescence, deoxyribose, tocopheroxyl radical attenuating ability, and nitric oxide radicals trapping. In this review, these mechanisms and methods will be discussed in details

Predicting the competitive position of extended gates: the case of inland customs zones

The extended gate concept aims to reduce the pressure on international ports by postponing administrative processes from these border gates to inland terminals. At present, this approach is used mainly in the container transport industry in European and Asian ports. In this paper we study an extended gate concept, where inland customs services are made available from all entry points of a country. Our aim is to predict the portion of the current flow through border gates that is diverted to these inland customs zones. We propose a time-series gravity models to predict these changes and estimate the parameters of this model using publicly available data for different cargo groups. The focus of our application is Iran, a nation with a large and emerging economy, where goods currently enter through 26 main border gates. In addition to this flow diversion model we explain how flow matrices can be synthesized from the available transport statistics. Our calculations indicate that transportation cost, travel time and customs tariff discounts are the most important for the choice of customs zone. The attractiveness of extended gates increases as the direct cost of transportation between the border gate and destination province rises. Extended customs zones in Iran would have an average share of import flows in 2025 of around 13% and attract a volume of 8.4 million metric tons of goods

Higher order curvature information and its application in a modified diagonal Secant method

A secant equation (quasi-Newton) has one of the most important rule to find an optimal solution in nonlinear optimization. Curvature information must satisfy the usual secant equation to ensure positive definiteness of the Hessian approximation. In this work, we present a new diagonal updating to improve the Hessian approximation with a modifying weak secant equation for the diagonal quasi-Newton (DQN) method. The gradient and function evaluation are utilized to obtain a new weak secant equation and achieve a higher order accuracy in curvature information in the proposed method. Modified DQN methods based on the modified weak secant equation are globally convergent. Extended numerical results indicate the advantages of modified DQN methods over the usual ones and some classical conjugate gradient methods

Altered functional properties of a missense variant in the TRESK K+ channel (KCNK18) associated with migraine and intellectual disability

Mutations in the KCNK18 gene that encodes the TRESK K2P potassium channel have previously been linked with typical familial migraine with aura. Recently, an atypical clinical case has been reported in which a male individual carrying the p.Trp101Arg (W101R) missense mutation in the KCNK18 gene was diagnosed with intellectual disability and migraine with brainstem aura. Here we report the functional characterization of this new missense variant. This mutation is located in a highly conserved residue close to the selectivity filter, and our results show although these mutant channels retain their K+ selectivity and calcineurin-dependent regulation, the variant causes an overall dramatic loss of TRESK channel function as well as an initial dominant-negative effect when co-expressed with wild-type channels in Xenopus laevis oocytes. The dramatic functional consequences of this mutation thereby support a potentially pathogenic role for this variant and provide further insight into the relationship between the structure and function of this ion channel

Evaluation of antioxidant activity of methanolic extracts and some fractions of Salvia verticillata L. using three different methods

Background: Bradykinin has effects on histaminic response,vessels seepage,cellular reproduction,causing fever, pain and coughs caused by ACE controllers (3,4,6). Noscapin has controlled Bradykinins contractional effects on guinea pigs trachea and rats vazodofran (5,6). noscapin stops the secondary effects of eskimi in brains edema, with antagonizing the responses caused by Bradykinin (3,4,8). Objective: considering that opium's alkaloids act as agonist of peptide systems like ankephalins and RAS, its interesting to know the effects of this alkaloids and among them Noscapine on B3 Bradykinin receptors on smooth muscle guinea pig trachea? Method: All variables are reported as mean and standard deviation. We have used pair test and the informations were processed by Excel, Statistical analysis with ANOVA (LSD) SPSS 9. Results: we took diagrams in to consideration and indicated that the contract ional effect of Bradykinin decreased dependent on density, in presence of three different amount of noscapines concentration. In this study we could demonstrate that noscapine interact with Bradykenin as a non competitive antagonist

Encapsulation of Barberry Fruit Extracts by Spray Drying and Liposome Entrapment

Barberry is a native Iranian plant including species Berberis integerrima and B. vulgaris. Barberry fruit is used for preparing sauces, jellies, carbonated drinks, candies, food colour powders, jams, marmalades, chocolates, juices, and nectars. They are used as a natural food colorant rich in anthocyanins instead of harmful artificial ones. They contain polyphenols and antioxidants that reduce damage from free radicals and prevent chronic diseases and cancers. Barberry fruit extracts were encapsulated in maltodextrin by spray drying and liposome entrapment. The sizes of spray dried particles were reported 1–20 μm by SEM. Dimensions of empty and extract loaded liposomes (B. vulgaris and B. integerrima) were 18–28, 37–51, and 51–77 nm, respectively, by FE-SEM. The moist diameter of liposomes measured by dynamic light scattering (DLS) method at day 0 and after 6 months at –18 °C were as follows; empty liposomes: 163.9±2.23 and 378.90±4.98, liposomes loaded with extracts: 135.2±2.04 and 160.90±2.19 (B. vulgaris) and 113.4±1.83 and 144.20±2.01 nm (B. integerrima). Evaluation of thermal-oxidative decomposition from differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) results at 0–45–90 days showed that the antioxidant activity and the onset temperature of the encapsulated extract was higher than the control. The extracts encapsulated in liposomes, especially B. integerrima extract, had better antioxidant properties

The nuclear lamina couples mechanical forces to cell fate in the preimplantation embryo via actin organization

During preimplantation development, contractile forces generated at the apical cortex segregate cells into inner and outer positions of the embryo, establishing the inner cell mass (ICM) and trophectoderm. To which extent these forces influence ICM-trophectoderm fate remains unresolved. Here, we found that the nuclear lamina is coupled to the cortex via an F-actin meshwork in mouse and human embryos. Actomyosin contractility increases during development, upregulating Lamin-A levels, but upon internalization cells lose their apical cortex and downregulate Lamin-A. Low Lamin-A shifts the localization of actin nucleators from nucleus to cytoplasm increasing cytoplasmic F-actin abundance. This results in stabilization of Amot, Yap phosphorylation and acquisition of ICM over trophectoderm fate. By contrast, in outer cells, Lamin-A levels increase with contractility. This prevents Yap phosphorylation enabling Cdx2 to specify the trophectoderm. Thus, forces transmitted to the nuclear lamina control actin organization to differentially regulate the factors specifying lineage identity