Antiallergic effects of ethanol extract of Cnidium monnieri (L.) Cuss. on DNCB-induced atopic dermatitis in mice

Purpose: To study the anti-allergic effects of ethanol extract of Cnidium monnieri (L.) Cuss. on 2, 4-dinitrochlorobenzene (DNCB)-induced atopic dermatitis in mice.Method: Atopic dermatitis (AD) was induced by DNCB in Balb/c mice, and the mice randomly divided into normal group, negative control group, hydrocortisone group, and ethanol extract of Cnidium monnieri (L.) Cuss. (EECM) group. Ear swelling was determined by measuring the thicknesses of the left and right ears of each mouse. Spleen and thymus indices were calculated from spleen, thymus and body weight values. The levels of TNF-α and IgE in serum were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Hematoxylin-eosin (H & E) staining and toluidine blue staining were used to evaluate pathological changes in ear tissue, while high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was performed to ascertain the bioactive compounds in EECM.Results: Compared with the negative control group, EECM significantly alleviated skin lesions, reduced thickness of ear swelling, and decreased spleen and thymus indexes of mice (p < 0.05). Moreover, EECM significantly reduced epidermal thickness (p < 0.01). However, EECM did not significantly alter the number of mast cells (p > 0.05). The expressions of TNF-α and IgE in serum were also significantly down-regulated (p < 0.01, p < 0.05). Results from HPLC revealed that the contents of bergapten, imperatorin and osthole in EECM were 0.73, 3.69 and 9.40 mg/g, respectively.Conclusion: EECM ameliorates AD in mice via inhibition of inflammation and by a mechanism that might be related to the regulation of TNF-α and IgE levels. The major bioactive constituents of EECM are osthole, imperatorin and bergapten. Thus, this plant extract has a potential to be developed for the treatment of of atopic dermatitis

Flutter and Thermal Buckling Analysis for Composite Laminated Panel Embedded with Shape Memory Alloy Wires in Supersonic Flow

The flutter and thermal buckling behavior of laminated composite panels embedded with shape memory alloy (SMA) wires are studied in this research. The classical plate theory and nonlinear von-Karman strain-displacement relation are employed to investigate the aeroelastic behavior of the smart laminated panel. The thermodynamic behaviors of SMA wires are simulated based on one-dimensional Brinson SMA model. The aerodynamic pressure on the panel is described by the nonlinear piston theory. Nonlinear governing partial differential equations of motion are derived for the panel via the Hamilton principle. The effects of ply angle of the composite panel, SMA layer location and orientation, SMA wires temperature, volume fraction and prestrain on the buckling, flutter boundary, and amplitude of limit cycle oscillation of the panel are analyzed in detail

Hydrophobic multiscale cavities for high-performance and self-cleaning surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) sensing

Cavity array, with excellent optical capture capability, has received increasing attention for the surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS)-active substrates. Here, we proposed molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) nanocavities growing on pyramid Si (PSi) composed of in situ reduced Au nanoparticles (AuNPs), which can form the multiscale cavities (MSCs), and is facile for the couple of the plasmon. We demonstrated that the PSi/MoS2/Au MSCs can serve as highly sensitive, uniform, and stable SERS substrates for rhodamine 6G (R6G), crystal violet, and adenosine triphosphate detection, benefiting from the synergistic effect of the enhanced light trapping and the effective plasmonic couple. The couple of the plasmon in the MSCs is evidently proved by finite-difference time domain simulation, showing the strong electromagnetic field is located around the cavity wall. Moreover, the excellent hydrophobicity of the PSi/MoS2/AuNPs substrate endows it with the ability for the directional monitoring of organic pollutant in a mixture of oil and water. Finally, we demonstrated the MSCs with outstanding photocatalytic performance could achieve the renewable utilization by self-cleaning, which was attributed to the fast electron transfer and effective light absorption. The proposed PSi/MoS2/AuNPs MSC represents a robust mean using the plasmonic metal/semiconductor heterostructure for high-performance SERS sensors and photodegradation

A Hyperplane Clustering Algorithm for Estimating the Mixing Matrix in Sparse Component Analysis

The method of sparse component analysis in general has two steps: the first step is to identify the mixing matrix A in the linear model X=AS , and the second step is to recover the sources S . To improve the first step, we propose a novel hyperplane clustering algorithm under some sparsity assumptions of the latent components S . We apply an existing clustering function with some modifications to detect the normal vectors of the hyperplanes concentrated by observed data X , then those normal vectors are clustered to identify the mixing matrix A . An adaptive gradient method is developed to optimize the clustering function. The experimental results indicate that our algorithm is faster and more effective than the existing algorithms. Moreover, our algorithm is robust to the insufficient sparse sources, and can be used in a sparser source assumption

The ILHWLAD-MCDM Framework for the Evaluation of Concrete Materials under an Intuitionistic Linguistic Fuzzy Environment

Concrete, one of the sources of energy consumption and carbon emissions, is widely used in the construction industry. The selection of concrete materials raises the question of energy sustainability and turns it into a complex multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) issue. To address this, we present an MCDM framework based on the intuitionistic linguistic hybrid weighted logarithmic averaging distance (ILHWLAD). To begin with, the intuitionistic linguistic numbers are used to deal with the uncertainty and fuzziness of the decision-making process. In addition, in view of the significance and the ordered position of the input arguments, an intuitionistic linguistic hybrid weighted logarithmic averaging distance (ILHWLAD) operator is defined. We, then, initiate the criteria system and present the MCDM framework based on the ILHWLAD to select the finest concrete. A case study involving four alternative materials, namely, autoclaved aerated concrete (AAC), hollow concrete blocks (HCB), expanded polystyrene (EPS), and lime hemp concrete (LHC), is presented to verify the scientificity of the framework

Characterising the asphalt concrete fracture performance from X-ray CT Imaging and finite element modelling

© 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Crack distress causes asphalt pavement failure under repeated traffic loading. The objective of this study is to investigate the fracture properties of asphalt concrete through three dimensional (3D) numerical simulation using finite element method (FEM). The parameters and datum utilised for finite element models were captured from a grey matrix, which can be converted from digital images scanned by an X-ray computed tomography (CT) apparatus. Afterwards, the uniaxial compression test was simulated using FEM and was also conducted in laboratory to study the stress distribution and to evaluate the degree of damage during the loading process. Eighteen cylindrical asphalt concrete specimens were prepared with three different types of gradations: asphalt concrete, stone matrix asphalt and open-graded friction course. The uniaxial compression test was carried out on these specimens. Before and after each step, the specimens were scanned using X-ray CT to analyse the crack growth behaviour inside the asphalt concrete and to investigate the effect of gradation on the fracture characteristics. The degree of fracture can be evaluated by data analysis from the grey intensity histogram. The evaluation on asphalt concrete crack properties based on FEM with X-ray CT imaging was found to be practicable and reproducible. Additionally, the gradation was found to be an influential factor affecting the crack propagation of asphalt concrete