Explaining high flow rate of water in carbon nanotubes via solid-liquid molecular interactions

Experimental and simulation measurements of water flow through carbon nanotubes have shown orders of magnitude higher flow rates than what was predicted using continuum fluid mechanics models. Different explanations have been offered, from slippage of water on the hydrophobic surface of the nanotubes to size confinement effects. In this work a model capable of explaining these observations, linking the enhanced flow rates observed to the solid–liquid molecular interactions at the nanotube wall is proposed. The model is capable of separating the effects on flow enhancement of the tube characteristic dimensions and the solid–liquid molecular interactions, accurately predicting the effect of each component for nanotubes of different sizes, wall surface chemistry and structure. Comparison with the experimental data available shows good agreement

Mitochondrial mutation in adult patient with Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy and renal failure

Background: Mitochondrial diseases (MDs) (1:5000-10000) represents a wide group of human disorders associated with mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variations causing defect of oxidative phosphorylation system, whereas nuclear genome mutations are somewhat rare. The extremely heterogeneous clinical phenotype, extending from oligosymptomatic condition to complex syndromes involving neurological, ophtalmological, gastroenterological and endocrine features, depends to the involved tissue well as to the specific mtDNA mutations and their heteroplasmic level. Diabetes and deafness are common features of mitochondrial diseases, while renal alterations are rarely reported, especially in adults, probably because of lack of association to mitochondrial conventional phenotypes. Case Presentation: We investigated a 62 years old male affected by hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) and renal failure that caused already a bilateral transplantation. Pathological anamnesis revealed also diabetes, deafness and Crohn disease. Family history of cardiomyopathy showed a strong mitochondrial involvement. The proband's mother, three brothers (one of which died of renal failure at 26 years), the sister and her child were affected. Materials and Methods: Genomic DNA from peripheral blood and buccal cells was extracted with the Kit-Nucleon-BACC2 (Illustra DNA-Extraction Kit-BACC2-GE Healthcare, UK) and the whole mitochondrial genome was amplified by two pair of primers designed in our laboratory to generate two overlapping fragments. The PCR products were then sequenced and compared to mitochondrial reference sequence (rCRS NC_012920). Results and Discussion: In both biological samples the mtDNA analysis showed the heteroplasmic A3243G mutation in the tRNALeu (UUR), frequently associated with MDs. A cardiological involvement leading to hypertrophic remodelling, caused to mitochondria intermyofibrillar proliferation, occurs up to 40% of patients with mtDNA disease. Molecular backgrounds of mitochondrial cardiomyopathy of adult age are still quite poorly known and the A3243G mutation in tRNA Leu(UUR) of mtDNA has been reported in 40-60% of patients with HCM. The interesting finding presented here support the knowledge that mitochondrial gene altertation represents a possible etiology in cardiological patients with unexplained renal failure. This is particularly true, as in this case, when other associated symtoms linked with dysfunctional oxidative phosphorylation are present. The case presented in this report further suggests that a differential diagnosis in presence of HCM should be solved by a multidisciplinary approach together with mutation analysis of mitochondrial DNA

On the accuracy of interpolation based on single-layer artificial neural networks

In the present paper, we consider one-hidden layer ANNs with a feedforward architecture, also referred to as shallow or two-layer networks, so that the structure is determined by the number and types of neurons. The determination of the parameters that define the function, called training, is done via the resolution of the approximation problem, so by imposing the interpolation through a set of specific nodes. We present the case where the parameters are trained using a procedure that is referred to as Extreme Learning Machine (ELM) that leads to a linear interpolation problem. In such hypotheses, the existence of an ANN interpolating function is guaranteed. The focus is then on the accuracy of the interpolation outside of the given sampling interpolation nodes when they are the equispaced, the Chebychev, and the randomly selected ones. The study is motivated by the well-known bell-shaped Runge example, which makes it clear that the construction of a global interpolating polynomial is accurate only if trained on suitably chosen nodes, ad example the Chebychev ones. In order to evaluate the behavior when growing the number of interpolation nodes, we raise the number of neurons in our network and compare it with the interpolating polynomial. We test using Runge's function and other well-known examples with different regularities. As expected, the accuracy of the approximation with a global polynomial increases only if the Chebychev nodes are considered. Instead, the error for the ANN interpolating function always decays and in most cases we observe that the convergence follows what is observed in the polynomial case on Chebychev nodes, despite the set of nodes used for training

Investigation on genetically modified soybean (RoundUp Ready) in goat nutrition: DNA detection in suckling kids

The presence of plant DNA fragments in blood, kidney, hearth, liver, spleen and muscle tissue from suckling kids was investigated by using PCR approach. Fragments of high copy number chloroplast and low copy soybean lectin genes were found in several samples of kids whose mother were fed diet containing conventional (control) or transgenic soybean (treated). Only in treated group, fragments of 35S and CP4 epsps soybean genes were found in several samples

Detection of plant species-specific dna (barley and soybean) in blood, muscle tissue, organs and gastrointestinal contents of rabbit

The aim of this study was to detect plant DNA sequences from low copy number genes of barley grain and soybean meal, the latter being subjected to solvent extraction process, in blood, liver, kidney, spleen, muscle tissue and digesta (duodenum, caecum and faeces from rectal ampulla) of rabbits. For fattening, Hyla rabbits (20 males and 20 females) were fed a diet including barley grain (15%) and soybean meal (12%). Animals were slaughtered at 74 d of age (2 ± 0.2 kg live weight) and samples collected from each animal. The quality of each DNA sample was verified using the UNIV P/Q primers used to amplify a mammalian specifi c portion of mtDNA 16S rRNA gene. The presence of plant DNA was subsequently ascertained on the same DNA samples, as well as on barley and soybean (control). Two classes of plant DNA sequences were monitored via real-time PCR, using SYBR(R) Green I Dye: a high copy number chloroplast gene (trnl) and a low copy number specific for barley (metal-dependent hydrolase-like protein) and soybean (lectin) genes. Melting curve analysis was used to identify the PCR products. The chloroplast fragment detection frequency was higher (P<0.01) in muscle (90%), liver (80%), kidney (80%) and spleen (80%) than in blood (40%) and digesta samples. In the latter, chloroplast DNA was found in 40 and 30% of duodenum and caecum contents respectively, and in 30% of faeces. The specificity of the amplicons obtained was checked by sequencing and annotation. In the samples positive for chloroplast fragments, the frequency of detection of barley specific sequence was higher (P<0.01) in liver (62.5%), kidney (62.5%), spleen (62.5%) and digesta (100%) than in blood (25%) and muscle (22.2%) samples. The soybean lectin gene was not detected in animal samples, although it was seen in plant samples. Results confirm that, except for gastrointestinal tract (GIT), plant single copy genes are more difficult to identify in animal samples.Tudisco, R.; Calabrò, S.; Bovera, F.; Cutrignelli, M.; Nizza, A.; Piccolo, V.; Infascelli, F. (2010). Detection of plant species-specific dna (barley and soybean) in blood, muscle tissue, organs and gastrointestinal contents of rabbit. World Rabbit Science. 18(2). doi:10.4995/WRS.2010.18.1118

In vitro fermentation of ten cultivars of barley silage.

The fermentation characteristics of whole-crop barley silages from ten different cultivars were evaluated by the in vitro gas production technique. The organic matter degradability of barley silage (62.9% in average) was comparable to those reported in our previous trials for oat (59.7%) and sorghum silages (65.5%); while the maximum gas production rate (5.38 ml/h in average) was slightly lower respect to oat (6.71 ml/h) and sorghum silage (6.74 ml/h). The mean nutritive value (4.00 MJ/kg DM) calculated on the basis of both chemical composition and in vitro fermentation data was comparable to that (4.16 MJ/kg DM) obtained in our previous research performed on corn silage, from crop sowed in the same area

Divertor currents optimization procedure for JET-ILW high flux expansion experiments

This paper deals with a divertor coil currents optimized procedure to design High Flux Expansion (HFE) configurations in the JET tokamak aimed to study the effects of flux expansion variation on the radiation fraction and radiated power re-distribution. A number of benefits of HFE configuration have been experimentally demonstrated on TCV, EAST, NSTX and DIII-D tokamaks and are under investigation for next generation devices, as DEMO and DTT. The procedure proposed here exploits the linearized relation between the plasma-wall gaps and the Poloidal Field (PF) coil currents. Once the linearized model is provided by means of CREATE-NL code, the divertor coils currents are calculated using a constrained quadratic programming optimization procedure, in order to achieve HFE configuration. Flux expanded configurations have been experimentally realized both in ohmic and heated plasma with and without nitrogen seeding. Preliminary results on the effects of the flux expansion variation on total power radiation increase will be also briefly discussed.EURATOM 63305