Estimation of Agricultural Groundwater Usage by Well Pumping Efficiency and Electric Consumption

Source: ICHE Conference Archive - https://mdi-de.baw.de/icheArchive

Multi-Segment Foam Flow Field in Ambient Pressure Polymer Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell

In order to produce low-cost flow field plates for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells, we used nickel foam in this study rather than conventional flow field. Nickel foam has high electron conductivity, thermal conductivity, and mechanical strength. Electrochemical impedance spectrum analysis is carried out to evidence the use on flow field plates of nickel foam. From the impedance fitting results, the nickel foam cases showed the lower contact resistance than the serpentine. However, such plates have poor performance at low temperatures and ambient pressure. In order to overcome this, a multi-segment foam flow field is designed in this study. This increased the performance of the polarization curve by 70% from 162 to 275.5 mw cm-2 than the original nickel foam design. Also, the mass transfer resistance was reduced, and the Warburg impedance value of the operation voltage decreased by 0.4 V. The numerical analysis results demonstrate that increased segment numbers can increase the performance of the multi-segment foam flow field

Chronic Kidney Disease Stage Is a Modulator on the Association between High-Sensitivity C-Reactive Protein and Coronary Vasospastic Angina

The prevalence of coronary vasospasm and also the factors associated with coronary vasospasm in CKD is still unclear. In this cross-sectional study of 859 consecutive CKD patients with angina pectoris received coronary catheterization, we evaluated the factors associated with coronary vasospasm. Patients with vasospasm were older and had higher peripheral blood white cell counts, higher peripheral blood monocyte cell counts, higher haemoglobin levels, higher hs-CRP levels, and lower levels of serum creatinine than patients without vasospasm. The results of multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that peripheral blood monocyte count and hs-CRP level were independently associated with coronary vasospasm in patients with stage 1 CKD. Only peripheral blood monocyte count but not hs-CRP was independently associated with coronary vasospasm in patients with stages 2 and 3 of CKD. In conclusion, peripheral blood monocyte count is independently associated with coronary vasospasm in patients with stage 1–3 CKD, whereas hs-CRP is only independently associated with coronary vasospasm in patients with stage 1 CKD

Transcriptional activation of the Axl and PDGFR-α by c-Met through a ras- and Src-independent mechanism in human bladder cancer

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>A cross-talk between different receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) plays an important role in the pathogenesis of human cancers.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Both NIH-Met5 and T24-Met3 cell lines harboring an inducible human c-Met gene were established. C-Met-related RTKs were screened by RTK microarray analysis. The cross-talk of RTKs was demonstrated by Western blotting and confirmed by small interfering RNA (siRNA) silencing, followed by elucidation of the underlying mechanism. The impact of this cross-talk on biological function was demonstrated by Trans-well migration assay. Finally, the potential clinical importance was examined in a cohort of 65 cases of locally advanced and metastatic bladder cancer patients.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A positive association of Axl or platelet-derived growth factor receptor-alpha (PDGFR-α) with c-Met expression was demonstrated at translational level, and confirmed by specific siRNA knock-down. The transactivation of c-Met on Axl or PDGFR-α <it>in vitro </it>was through a <it>ras</it>- and Src-independent activation of mitogen-activated protein kinase/extracellular signal-regulated kinase (MEK/ERK) pathway. In human bladder cancer, co-expression of these RTKs was associated with poor patient survival (<it>p </it>< 0.05), and overexpression of c-Met/Axl/PDGFR-α or c-Met alone showed the most significant correlation with poor survival (<it>p </it>< 0.01).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>In addition to c-Met, the cross-talk with Axl and/or PDGFR-α also contributes to the progression of human bladder cancer. Evaluation of Axl and PDGFR-α expression status may identify a subset of c-Met-positive bladder cancer patients who may require co-targeting therapy.</p

Inhibitory Effect of Anoectochilus formosanus Extract on Hyperglycemia-Related PD-L1 Expression and Cancer Proliferation

Traditional herb medicine, golden thread (Anoectochilus formosanus Hayata) has been used to treat various diseases. Hyperglycemia induces generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and enhancement of oxidative stress which are risk factors for cancer progression and metastasis. In this study, we evaluated hypoglycemic effect of A. formosanus extracts (AFEs) in an inducible hyperglycemia animal model and its capacity of free-radical scavenging to establish hyperglycemia-related carcinogenesis. AFE reduced blood glucose in hyperglycemic mice while there was no change in control group. The incremental area under blood glucose response curve was decreased significantly in hyperglycemic mice treated with AFE in a dose-dependent manner. AFE and metformin at the same administrated dose of 50 mg/kg showed similar effect on intraperitoneal glucose tolerance test in hyperglycemic mice. Free-radical scavenger capacity of AFE was concentration dependent and 200 μg/ml of AFE was able to reduce more than 41% of the free radical. Treatment of cancer cells with AFE inhibited constitutive PD-L1 expression and its protein accumulation. It also induced expression of pro-apoptotic genes but inhibited proliferative and metastatic genes. In addition, it induced anti-proliferation in cancer cells. The results suggested that AFE not only reduced blood glucose concentration as metformin but also showed its potential use in cancer immune chemoprevention/therapy via hypoglycemic effect, ROS scavenging and PD-L1 suppression

Measurements of fiducial and differential cross sections for Higgs boson production in the diphoton decay channel at s√=8 TeV with ATLAS

Measurements of fiducial and differential cross sections are presented for Higgs boson production in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of s√=8 TeV. The analysis is performed in the H → γγ decay channel using 20.3 fb−1 of data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The signal is extracted using a fit to the diphoton invariant mass spectrum assuming that the width of the resonance is much smaller than the experimental resolution. The signal yields are corrected for the effects of detector inefficiency and resolution. The pp → H → γγ fiducial cross section is measured to be 43.2 ±9.4(stat.) − 2.9 + 3.2 (syst.) ±1.2(lumi)fb for a Higgs boson of mass 125.4GeV decaying to two isolated photons that have transverse momentum greater than 35% and 25% of the diphoton invariant mass and each with absolute pseudorapidity less than 2.37. Four additional fiducial cross sections and two cross-section limits are presented in phase space regions that test the theoretical modelling of different Higgs boson production mechanisms, or are sensitive to physics beyond the Standard Model. Differential cross sections are also presented, as a function of variables related to the diphoton kinematics and the jet activity produced in the Higgs boson events. The observed spectra are statistically limited but broadly in line with the theoretical expectations

Search for squarks and gluinos in events with isolated leptons, jets and missing transverse momentum at s√=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The results of a search for supersymmetry in final states containing at least one isolated lepton (electron or muon), jets and large missing transverse momentum with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider are reported. The search is based on proton-proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy s√=8 TeV collected in 2012, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20 fb−1. No significant excess above the Standard Model expectation is observed. Limits are set on supersymmetric particle masses for various supersymmetric models. Depending on the model, the search excludes gluino masses up to 1.32 TeV and squark masses up to 840 GeV. Limits are also set on the parameters of a minimal universal extra dimension model, excluding a compactification radius of 1/R c = 950 GeV for a cut-off scale times radius (ΛR c) of approximately 30