Fifteen-S-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid (15-S-HETE) specifically antagonizes the chemotactic action and glomerular synthesis of leukotriene B4 in the rat

Fifteen-S-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid (15-S-HETE) specifically antagonizes the chemotactic action and glomerular synthesis of leukotriene B4 in the rat. In models of experimental glomerulonephritis, there is temporal concordance between the shift in the glomerular cellular infiltrate from neutrophils (PMN) to macrophages/monocytes and the suppression of glomerular leukotriene B4 (LTB4) generation. Since macrophages are a rich source of 15-lipoxygenase (15-LO) products, we investigated whether the principal product of arachidonate 15-lipoxy-genation, 15-S-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid (15-S-HETE), was capable of antagonizing the proinflammatory actions of LTB4 in the rat. PMN exhibited chemotaxis to LTB4 in a dose dependent manner with an LC50 of 10-8 M. When rat neutrophils were pre-treated with 15-S-HETE, chemotaxis to LTB4 was inhibited in a dose dependent manner (maximal at 30 µM 15-S-HETE) but, the same concentration did not inhibit chemotaxis to n-formyl-1-methionyl-1-phenylalanine (FMP). 12-S-HETE (30µM) did not inhibit chemotaxis to LTB4. Glomeruli from rats injected with nephrotoxic serum three hours earlier generated increased levels of LTB4; prior exposure of such glomeruli to 15-S-HETE totally normalized LTB4 production. The glomerular production of 15-S-HETE and LTB4 was also determined 3 hours, 72 hours and 2 weeks after administration of nephrotoxic serum. Whereas there was an early, short-lived, burst of LTB4 followed by a return to baseline levels, the production of 15-S-HETE increased steadily over the two week period and was present in amounts fivefold greater than LTB4. Thus, these studies assign a role for locally generated 15-LO derivatives in arresting LTB4-promoted PMN infiltration and suppressing LTB4 synthesis. Coupled with our previous demonstration of counterregula-tory interactions between lipoxins and cysteinyl leukotrienes, the current studies provide further support for a generalized anti-inflammatory role for 15-LO products through specific antagonism and/or inhibition of leukotriene synthesis and biologic activities

Efficiency of dispersive wave generation in dual concentric core microstructured fiber

We describe the generation of powerful dispersive waves that are observed when pumping a dual concentric core microstructured fiber by means of a sub-nanosecond laser emitting at the wavelength of~1064 nm. The presence of three zeros in the dispersion curve, their spectral separation from the pump wavelength, and the complex dynamics of solitons originated by the pump pulse break-up, all contribute to boost the amplitude of the dispersive wave on the long-wavelength side of the pump. The measured conversion efficiency towards the dispersive wave at 1548 nm is as high as 50%. Our experimental analysis of the output spectra is completed by the acquisition of the time delays of the different spectral components. Numerical simulations and an analytical perturbative analysis identify the central wavelength of the red-shifted pump solitons and the dispersion profile of the fiber as the key parameters for determining the efficiency of the dispersive wave generation process.Comment: 11 pages, 12 figure

Approach for testing the material behavior in roll forming in a small scale

Roll forming of ultra-high strength steels (UHSS) and other high strength alloys is an advanced manufacturing methodology with the ability of cold forming those materials to complex three-dimensional shapes for lightweight structural applications. Due to their high strength, most of these materials have a reduced ductility which excludes conventional sheet forming methods under cold forming conditions. Roll forming is possible due to its low strains and incremental forming characteristic. Recent research investigates the development of high strength nano-structured aluminum sheet and titanium alloys, as well as their behaviour in roll forming with regard to formability, material behaviour and shape defects. The development of new materials is often limited to small scale samples due to the high preparation costs. In contrast, industrial application needs larger scale tests for validation, especially in roll forming where a minimum sheet length is required to feed the sample trough the roll forming machine. This work describes a novel technique for studying roll forming of a short length of experimental material. DP780 steel strips (500mm &ndash; 1300mm length) were welded between two mild steel carrier sheets of similar width and thickness giving an overall strip length of 2m. Roll forming trials were performed and longitudinal edge strain, bow and springback determined on the welded samples and samples formed of full length DP780 strip before and after cut off. The experimental results of this work show that this method gives a reasonable approach for predicting material behavior in roll forming transverse to the rolling direction. In contrast to that significant differences in longitudinal bow were observed between the welded sections and the sections formed of full length DP780 strip; this indicates that the applicability of this method is limited with regard to predicting longitudinal material behavior in roll forming.<br /

Constitutive modelling of high strength titanium alloy Ti-6Al-4 V for sheet forming applications at room temperature

To enable the design and optimisation of forming processes at room temperature the material behaviour of Ti-6Al-4 V needs to be accurately represented in numerical analysis and this requires an advanced material model. In particular, an accurate representation of the shape and size of the yield locus as well as its evolution during forming is important. In this study a rigorous set of experiments on the quasi-static deformation behaviour of a Ti-6Al-4 V alloy sheet sample at room temperature was conducted for various loading conditions and a constitutive material model developed. To quantify the anisotropy and asymmetry properties, tensile and compression tests were carried out for different specimen orientations. To examine the Bauschinger effect and the transient hardening behaviour in - plane tensile - compression and compression - tensile tests were performed. Balanced biaxial and plane strain tension tests were conducted to construct and validate the yield surface of the Ti-6Al-4 V alloy sheet sample at room temperature. A recently proposed anisotropic elastic-plastic constitutive material model, so-called HAH, was employed to describe the behaviour, in particular for load reversals. The HAH yield surface is composed of a stable component, which includes plastic anisotropy and is distorted by a fluctuating component. The key of the formulation is the use of a suitable yield function that reproduces the experimental observations well for the stable component. Meanwhile, the rapid evolution of the material structure must be captured at the macro - scale level by the fluctuating component embedded in the HAH model. Compared to conventional hardening equations, the proposed model leads to higher accuracy in predicting the Bauschinger effect and the transient hardening behaviour for the Ti-6Al-4 V sheet sample tested at room temperature. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.1167Ysciescopu

A COMPARISON BETWEEN THE PSYCHOMETRIC PROPERTIES OF THE REVISED ORIGINAL AND SHORT PSYCHOTICISM SCALE DERIVED FROM EYSENCK PERSONALITY QUESTIONNAIRE REVISED AMONG KUWAITI UNDERGRADUATESمقارنة بين الخصائص السيكو مترية للصورة الأصلية والقصيرة لمقياس الذهانية المتفرع من استخبار آيزنك المعدل للشخصية لدى عينات من طلبة جامعة الكويت

Abstract: The aim of this study is to compare the psychometric properties of the original version and the short version of the Psychoticism Scale, which are Derived from Eysenck Personality Questionnaire Revised. In this study, a sample consisting of (1842) students from Kuwait University (538) male and (1304) female students were used in this study to examine the gender differences and to test the reliability and validity for Psychoticism Scale which are derived from original (EPQ-R) and the short version (EPQR-S) . The Original (EPQ-R) and Short (EPQR-S) Psychoticism Scales, the short version of the NEO FFI-S, and the Big Five Inventory BFI were administered to the sample. The results revealed significant gender differences in the two Psychoticism scales (EPQ-R & EPQR-S) of Psychoticism, in favor of males. The results also revealed the variation of the reliability coefficients for the two Psychoticism Scales. The alpha coefficient was 0.63 for males, and 0.65 for females from the original Psychoticism Scale (EPQ-R). While the alpha coefficient was 0.65 for males and 0.64 for females from the short Psychoticism Scale (EPQR-S). The results of the exploratory factor analysis also resulted in extracting five factors from both the original and the short version of Psychoticism Scales. Moreover, the results revealed significant positive correlations between psychoticism and neuroticism, and low positive correlations between psychoticism and both extraversion and openness. While the results showed a significant negative correlation between psychoticism and both lie, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness . ملخص البحث: تهدف هذه الدراسة إلى المقارنة بين الخصائص السيكو مترية للصورة الأصلية والصورة القصيرة لمقياس الذهانية المتفرع من استخبار آيزنك المعدل للشخصية. استخدمت في هذه الدراسة عينة قوامها (1842) من طلاب جامعة الكويت بواقع (538) من الطلبة و (1304) من الطالبات، وذلك لفحص الفروق بين الجنسين ولحساب الثبات والصدق. تم تطبيق مقياسي الذهانية المتفرعان من الصورة الأصلية ( EPQ-R) والصورة القصيرة (EPQR-S)لاستخبار آيزنك المعدل للشخصية ، والصورة القصيرة المعدلة من قائمة العوامل الخمسة للشخصية NEO FFI-S ، وقائمة الخمسة الكبار BFI. وقد أسفرت النتائج عن وجود فروق جوهرية بين الجنسين في مقياسي الذهانية المتفرعان من الصورة الأصلية والقصيرة لصالح الطلاب. كما كشفت النتائج عن تباين معاملات الثبات لمقياسي الذهانية المتفرعان من الصورة الأصلية والصورة القصيرة لاستخبار آيزنك المعدل للشخصية، بلغ متوسط معامل ألفا 0.63 للذكور، و0.65 للإناث من الصورة الأصلية لمقياس الذهانية. في حين بلغ متوسط معامل ألفا 0.65للذكور، و0.64 للإناث من الصورة القصيرة لمقياس الذهانية. كما اسفرت نتائج الصدق العاملي الاستكشافي عن استخلاص خمسة عوامل مكونة للصورة الأصلية والقصيرة من مقياس الذهانية. كما كشفت النتائج عن ارتباطات جوهرية موجبة بين الذهانية والعصابية، وارتباطات موجبة متدنية بين الذهانية وكل من الإنبساط ةالإنفتاح. في حين أظهرت النتائج عن ارتباطات جوهرية سالبة بين الذهانية وكل من الكذب والقبول واتقان

A novel free-fall reactor for (catalytic) pyrolysis of biomass and plastics

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Lectin staining and Western blot data showing differential sialylation of nutrient-deprived cancer cells to sialic acid supplementation

This report provides data that are specifically related to the differential sialylation of nutrient deprived breast cancer cells to sialic acid supplementation in support of the research article entitled, “Nutrient-deprived cancer cells preferentially use sialic acid to maintain cell surface glycosylation" [1]. Particularly, breast cancer cells, when supplemented with sialic acid under nutrient deprivation, display sialylated glycans at the cell surface, but non-malignant mammary cells show sialylated glycans intracellularly. The impact of sialic acid supplementation under nutrient deprivation was demonstrated by measuring levels of expression and sialylation of two markers, EGFR1 and MUC1. This Data in Brief article complements the main manuscript by providing detailed instructions and representative results for cell-level imaging and Western blot analyses of changes in sialylation during nutrient deprivation and sialic acid supplementation. These methods can be readily generalized for the study of many types of glycosylation and various glycoprotein markers through the appropriate selection of fluorescently-labeled lectins

Détection de particules micrométriques en suspension dans l'air par technique LIBS (Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy)

International audienceLes aérosols peuvent être définis comme des particules solides ou liquides en suspension dans un gaz avec des diamètres s'échelonnant du nanomètre jusqu'à plusieurs micromètres. La génération d'aérosols dans les procédés industriels peut représenter une menace pour les travailleurs comme pour l'environnement. La possible émission, sous forme de particules de tailles micrométriques/submicroniques, de métaux lourds issus des rejets canalisés d'industries (telles que les fonderies ou les incinérateurs) ou bien encore de pelotes de nanotubes de carbone sur leur lieu de production, en sont deux exemples. Les rejets de métaux lourds dans l'atmosphère sont essentiellement d'origine anthropique et produits par des industries impliquant notamment des procédés de combustion comme les incinérateurs et les fonderies. Compte tenu des effets nocifs avérés des métaux lourds sur l'homme et l'environnement, les rejets sont encadrés par des réglementations (arrêtés du 02 février 1998 et du 20 septembre 2002). L'évolution de celles-ci, toujours plus stricte, nécessite le développement d'outils adaptés et notamment, d'une instrumentation de terrain permettant l'analyse in-situ en automatique avec une résolution temporelle adéquate. Les travaux présentés ici sont focalisés sur la quantification en temps réel de la fraction particulaire dans une gamme de tailles s'échelonnant de 1 à 10 µm. Depuis leur découverte, les nanotubes de carbone (NTC) suscitent un intérêt croissant eu égard aux très nombreuses applications possibles dans de nombreux domaines industriels. Les nombreuses applications potentielles des NTC soulèvent l'enthousiasme mais également des inquiétudes. Les possible effets que pourraient avoir les NTC sur la santé humaine sont très mal connus et les recherches sur ces sujets toujours en cours. Leur morphologie en forme de fibre est inquiétante car elle rappelle celle de l'amiante. Au risque lié à la morphologie des NTC s'ajoute celui de la toxicité chimique des éléments contenus dans les nanotubes de carbone, souvent des éléments de catalyse. Sur les lieux de production, la voie aérienne est la source la plus probable de contamination. Bien que les procédés de production soient sécurisés, une possible fuite n'est jamais à écarter. De plus, le risque d'exposition existe à plusieurs étapes de production, tels que le conditionnement du produit final par exemple. Il est donc nécessaire de disposer d'outils de terrain permettant d'accéder à la taille et à la morphologie mais aussi à la composition chimique des particules émises. Il existe à l'heure actuelle peu d'instruments permettant, in-situ et en temps réel, de détecter l'émission de particules et de mesurer les concentrations émises selon leur nature chimique élémentaire. La technique LIBS (Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy) ou spectroscopie de plasma induit par laser semble adaptée à une telle problématique. C'est pourquoi elle a été appliquée dans les deux cas susmentionné