CFD modelling of a pilot-scale counter-current spray drying tower for the manufacture of detergent powder

A steady-state, three-dimensional, multiphase CFD modelling of a pilot-plant counter-current spray drying tower is carried out to study the drying behavior of detergent slurry droplets. The software package ANSYS Fluent is employed to solve the heat, mass and momentum transfer between the hot gas and the polydispersed droplets/particles using the Eulerian-Lagrangian approach. The continuous phase turbulence is modelled using the differential Reynolds stress model. The drying kinetics is modelled using a single droplet drying model[1] which is incorporated into the CFD code using user-defined functions. Heat loss from the insulated tower wall to the surrounding is modelled by considering thermal resistances due to deposits on the inside surface, wall, insulation and outside convective film. For the particle-wall interaction, the restitution coefficient is specified as a constant value as well as a function of particle moisture content. It is found that the variation in the value of restitution coefficient with moisture causes significant changes in the velocity, temperature and moisture profiles of the gas as well as the particles. Overall, a reasonably good agreement is obtained between the measured and predicted powder temperature, moisture content and gas temperature at the bottom and top outlets of the tower; considering the complexity of the spray drying process, simplifying assumptions made in both the CFD and droplet drying models and the errors associated with the measurements

Sialic Acid Glycobiology Unveils Trypanosoma cruzi Trypomastigote Membrane Physiology.

Trypanosoma cruzi, the flagellate protozoan agent of Chagas disease or American trypanosomiasis, is unable to synthesize sialic acids de novo. Mucins and trans-sialidase (TS) are substrate and enzyme, respectively, of the glycobiological system that scavenges sialic acid from the host in a crucial interplay for T. cruzi life cycle. The acquisition of the sialyl residue allows the parasite to avoid lysis by serum factors and to interact with the host cell. A major drawback to studying the sialylation kinetics and turnover of the trypomastigote glycoconjugates is the difficulty to identify and follow the recently acquired sialyl residues. To tackle this issue, we followed an unnatural sugar approach as bioorthogonal chemical reporters, where the use of azidosialyl residues allowed identifying the acquired sugar. Advanced microscopy techniques, together with biochemical methods, were used to study the trypomastigote membrane from its glycobiological perspective. Main sialyl acceptors were identified as mucins by biochemical procedures and protein markers. Together with determining their shedding and turnover rates, we also report that several membrane proteins, including TS and its substrates, both glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored proteins, are separately distributed on parasite surface and contained in different and highly stable membrane microdomains. Notably, labeling for α(1,3)Galactosyl residues only partially colocalize with sialylated mucins, indicating that two species of glycosylated mucins do exist, which are segregated at the parasite surface. Moreover, sialylated mucins were included in lipid-raft-domains, whereas TS molecules are not. The location of the surface-anchored TS resulted too far off as to be capable to sialylate mucins, a role played by the shed TS instead. Phosphatidylinositol-phospholipase-C activity is actually not present in trypomastigotes. Therefore, shedding of TS occurs via microvesicles instead of as a fully soluble form

Thickening of the pulmonary artery wall in acute intramural hematoma of the ascending aorta

BACKGROUND: The occurrence of pulmonary artery obstruction in the course of acute aortic dissection is an unusual complication. The mechanism implicated is the rupture of the outer layer of the aorta and the subsequent hemorrhage into the adventitia of the pulmonary artery that causes its wall thickening and, at times, produces extrinsic obstruction of the vessel. There are no reports of this complication in acute intramural hematoma. CASE PRESENTATION: An 87-year-old woman was admitted to the hospital in shock after having had severe chest pain followed by syncope. An urgent transesophageal echocardiogram revealed the presence of acute intramural hematoma, no evidence of aortic dissection, severe pericardial effusion with cardiac tamponade, and periaortic hematoma that involved the pulmonary artery generating circumferential wall thickening of its trunk and right branch with no evidence of flow obstruction. Urgent surgery was performed but the patient died in the operating room. The post mortem examination, in the operating room, confirmed that there was an extensive hematoma around the aorta and beneath the adventitial layer of the pulmonary artery, with no evidence of flow obstruction. CONCLUSION: This is the first time that this rare complication is reported in the scenario of acute intramural hematoma and with the transesophageal echocardiogram as the diagnostic tool

Gender associated differences in determinants of quality of life in patients with COPD: a case series study

BACKGROUND: The influence of gender on the expression of COPD has received limited attention. Quality of Life (QoL) has become an important outcome in COPD patients. The aim of our study was to explore factors contributing to gender differences in Quality of Life of COPD patients. METHODS: In 146 men and women with COPD from a pulmonary clinic we measured: Saint George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ), age, smoking history, PaO(2), PaCO(2), FEV(1), FVC, IC/TLC, FRC, body mass index (BMI), 6 minute walk distance (6MWD), dyspnea (modified MRC), degree of comorbidity (Charlson index) and exacerbations in the previous year. We explored differences between genders using Mann-Whitney U-rank test. To investigate the main determinants of QoL, a multiple lineal regression analysis was performed using backward Wald's criteria, with those variables that significantly correlated with SGRQ total scores. RESULTS: Compared with men, women had worse scores in all domains of the SGRQ (total 38 vs 26, p = 0.01, symptoms 48 vs 39, p = 0.03, activity 53 vs 37, p = 0.02, impact 28 vs 15, p = 0.01). SGRQ total scores correlated in men with: FEV(1)% (-0.378, p < 0.001), IC/TLC (-0.368, p = 0.002), PaO(2 )(-0.379, p = 0.001), PaCO(2 )(0.256, p = 0.05), 6MWD (-0.327, p = 0.005), exacerbations (0.366, p = 0.001), Charlson index (0.380, p = 0.001) and MMRC (0.654, p < 0.001). In women, the scores correlated only with FEV(1)% (-0.293, p = 0.013) PaO(2 )(-0.315, p = 0.007), exacerbations (0.290, p = 0.013) and MMRC (0.628, p < 0.001). Regression analysis (B, 95% CI) showed that exercise capacity (0.05, 0.02 to 0.09), dyspnea (17.6, 13.4 to 21.8), IC/TLC (-51.1, -98.9 to -3.2) and comorbidity (1.7, 0.84 to 2.53) for men and dyspnea (9.7, 7.3 to 12.4) and oxygenation (-0.3, -0.6 to -0.01) for women manifested the highest independent associations with SGRQ scores. CONCLUSION: In moderate to severe COPD patients attending a pulmonary clinic, there are gender differences in health status scores. In turn, the clinical and physiological variables independently associated with those scores differed in men and women. Attention should be paid to the determinants of QoL scores in women with COPD

Unravelling the rate of action of hits in the Leishmania donovani box using standard drugs amphotericin B and miltefosine

In recent years, the neglected diseases drug discovery community has elected phenotypic screening as the key approach for the identification of novel hit compounds. However, when this approach is applied, important questions related to the mode of action for these compounds remain unanswered. One of such questions is related to the rate of action, a useful piece of information when facing the challenge of prioritising the most promising hit compounds. In the present work, compounds of the "Leishmania donovani box" were evaluated using a rate of action assay adapted from a replicative intracellular high content assay recently developed. The potency of each compound was determined every 24 hours up to 96 hours, and standard drugs amphotericin B and miltefosine were used as references to group these compounds according to their rate of action. Independently of this biological assessment, compounds were also clustered according to their minimal chemical scaffold. Comparison of the results showed a complete correlation between the chemical scaffold and the biological group for the vast majority of compounds, demonstrating how the assay was able to bring information on the rate of action for each chemical series, a property directly linked to the mode of action. Overall, the assay here described permitted us to evaluate the rate of action of the "Leishmania donovani box" using two of the currently available drugs as references and, also, to propose a number of fast-acting chemical scaffolds present in the box as starting points for future drug discovery projects to the wider scientific community. The results here presented validate the use of this assay for the determination of the rate of action early in the discovery process, to assist in the prioritisation of hit compounds

Tensor product representation of Kothe-Bochner spaces and their dual spaces

We provide a tensor product representation of Kothe-Bochner function spaces of vector valued integrable functions. As an application, we show that the dual space of a Kothe-Bochner function space can be understood as a space of operators satisfying a certain extension property. We apply our results in order to give an alternate representation of the dual of the Bochner spaces of p-integrable functions and to analyze some properties of the natural norms that are defined on the associated tensor products.First and third authors are supported by grant MTM201453009-P of the Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (Spain). Second and fourth authors are supported by grant MTM2012-36740-C02-02 of the Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (Spain).Calabuig, JM.; Jiménez Fernández, E.; Juan Blanco, MA.; Sánchez Pérez, EA. (2016). Tensor product representation of Kothe-Bochner spaces and their dual spaces. Positivity. 20(1):155-169. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11117-015-0347-3S155169201Bochner, S.: Integration von Funktionen, deren Werte die Elemente eines Vectorraumes sind. Fundamenta Mathematicae 20, 262–276 (1933)Calabuig, J.M., Delgado, O., Juan, M.A., Sánchez, E.A.: Pérez, On the Banach lattice structure of $$L^1_w$$ L w 1 of a vector measure on a $$\delta$$ δ -ring. Collect. Math. 65, 6567–85 (2014)Calabuig, J.M., Delgado, O., Sánchez Pérez, E.A.: Factorizing operators on Banach function spaces through spaces of multiplication operators. J. Math. Anal. Appl. 364(1), 88–103 (2010)Calabuig, J.M., Gregori, P., Sánchez, E.A.: Pérez, Radon-Nikodým derivatives for vector measures belonging to Köthe function spaces. J. Math. Anal. Appl. 348, 469–479 (2008)Cerdà, J., Hudzik, H., Mastyło, M.: Geometric properties of Köthe-Bochner spaces. Math. Proc. Cambridge Philos. Soc. 120(3), 521–533 (1996)Chakraborty, N.D., Basu, S.: Spaces of p-tensor integrable functions and related Banach space properties. Real Anal. Exchange 34, 87–104 (2008)Chakraborty, N.D., Basu, S.: Integration of vector-valued functions with respect to vector measures defined on $$\delta$$ δ -rings. Ill. J. Math. 55(2), 495–508 (2011)Defant, A., Floret, K.: Tensor norms and operator ideals. North-Holland, Amsterdam (1993)Delgado, O., Juan, M.A.: Representation of Banach lattices as $$L^{1}_{w}$$ L w 1 spaces of a vector measure defined on a $$\delta -$$ δ - ring. Bull. Belgian Math. Soc. 19, 239–256 (2012)Diestel, J., Uhl, J.J.: Vector measures. Am. Math. Soc, Providence (1977)Dobrakov, I.: On integration in Banach spaces, VII. Czechoslovak Math. J. 38, 434–449 (1988)García-Raffi, L.M., Jefferies, B.: An application of bilinear integration to quantum scattering. J. Math. Anal. Appl. 415, 394–421 (2014)Gregori Huerta, P.: Espacios de medidas vectoriales. Thesis, Universidad de Valencia, ISBN:8437060591 (2005)Jefferies, B., Okada, S.: Bilinear integration in tensor products. Rocky Mt. J. Math. 28, 517–545 (1998)Lewis, D.R.: On integrability and summability in vector spaces. Ill. J. Math. 16, 294–307 (1972)Lin, P.-K.: Köthe-Bochner function spaces. Birkhauser, Boston (2004)Lindenstrauss, J., Tzafriri, L.: Classical Banach spaces II. Springer, Berlin (1979)Okada, S., Ricker, W.J., Sánchez Pérez, E.A.: Optimal Domains and integral extensions of operators acting in function spaces. Operator Theory Advances and Applications, vol. 180. Birkhäuser, Basel (2008)Pallu de La Barriére, R.: Integration of vector functions with respect to vector measures. Studia Univ. Babes-Bolyai Math. 43, 55–93 (1998)Rodríguez, J.: On integration of vector functions with respect to vector measures. Czechoslovak Math. J. 56, 805–825 (2006

Arterial line pressure control enhanced extracorporeal blood flow prescription in hemodialysis patients

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In hemodialysis, extracorporeal blood flow (Qb) recommendation is 300–500 mL/min. To achieve the best Qb, we based our prescription on dynamic arterial line pressure (DALP).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This prospective study included 72 patients with catheter Group 1 (G1), 1877 treatments and 35 arterio-venous (AV) fistulae Group 2 (G2), 1868 treatments. The dialysis staff was trained to prescribe Qb sufficient to obtain DALP between -200 to -250 mmHg. We measured ionic clearance (IK: mL/min), access recirculation, DALP (mmHg) and Qb (mL/min). Six prescription zones were identified: from an optimal A zone (Qb > 400, DALP -200 to -250) to zones with lower Qb E (Qb < 300, DALP -200 to -250) and F (Qb < 300, DALP > -199).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Treatments distribution in A was 695 (37%) in G1 vs. 704 (37.7%) in G2 (<it>P </it>= 0.7). In B 150 (8%) in G1 vs. 458 (24.5%) in G2 (<it>P </it>< 0.0001). Recirculation in A was 10.0% (Inter quartile rank, IQR 6.5, 14.2) in G1 vs. 9.8% (IQR 7.5, 14.1) in G2 (<it>P </it>= 0.62). IK in A was 214 ± 34 (G1) vs. 213 ± 35 (G2) (<it>P </it>= 0.65). IK Anova between G2 zones was: A vs. C and D (<it>P </it>< 0.000001). Staff prescription adherence was 81.3% (G1) vs. 84.1% (G2) (<it>P </it>= 0.02).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In conclusion, an optimal Qb can de prescribed with DALP of -200 mmHg. Staff adherence to DLAP treatment prescription could be reached up to 81.3% in catheters and 84.1% in AV fistulae.</p

A gene-centric analysis of activated partial thromboplastin time and activated protein C resistance using the HumanCVD focused genotyping array.

Activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT) is an important routine measure of intrinsic blood coagulation. Addition of activated protein C (APC) to the aPTT test to produce a ratio, provides one measure of APC resistance. The associations of some genetic mutations (eg, factor V Leiden) with these measures are established, but associations of other genetic variations remain to be established. The objective of this work was to test for association between genetic variants and blood coagulation using a high-density genotyping array. Genetic association with aPTT and APC resistance was analysed using a focused genotyping array that tests approximately 50 000 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in nearly 2000 cardiovascular candidate genes, including coagulation pathway genes. Analyses were conducted on 2544 European origin women from the British Women's Heart and Health Study. We confirm associations with aPTT at the coagulation factor XII (F12)/G protein-coupled receptor kinase 6 (GRK6) and kininogen 1 (KNG1)/histidine-rich glycoprotein (HRG) loci, and identify novel SNPs at the ABO locus and novel locus kallikrein B (KLKB1)/F11. In addition, we confirm association between APC resistance and factor V Leiden mutation, and identify novel SNP associations with APC resistance in the HRG and F5/solute carrier family 19 member 2 (SLC19A2) regions. In conclusion, variation at several genetic loci influences intrinsic blood coagulation as measured by both aPTT and APC resistance

Comparison of Internal Ribosome Entry Site (IRES) and Furin-2A (F2A) for Monoclonal Antibody Expression Level and Quality in CHO Cells

10.1371/journal.pone.0063247PLoS ONE85