Evaluation of a Liquid Amine System for Spacecraft Carbon Dioxide Control

The analytical and experimental studies are described which were directed toward the acquisition of basic information on utilizing a liquid amine sorbent for in use in a CO2 removal system for manned spacecraft. Liquid amine systems are successfully used on submarines for control of CO2 generated by the crew, but liquid amines were not previously considered for spacecraft applications due to lack of development of satisfactory rotary phase separators. Developments in this area now make consideration of liquid amines practical for spacecraft system CO2 removal. The following major tasks were performed to evaluate liquid amine systems for spacecraft: (1) characterization, through testing, of the basic physical and thermodynamic properties of the amine solution; (2) determination of the dynamic characteristics of a cocurrent flow absorber; and (3) evaluation, synthesis, and selection of a liquid amine system concept oriented toward low power requirements. A low weight, low power system concept was developed. Numerical and graphical data are accompanied by pertinent observations

Trapping Records of Fruit Fly Pest Species (Diptera: Tephritidae) on Oahu (Hawaiian Islands): Analysis of Spatial Population Trends

Fruit fly monitoring traps with male lures (cue-lure, methyl eugenol, trimedlure, latilure) and food lure (torula yeast and BioLure) were maintained on the island of Oahu for three years (2006–2008) at 40 sites, characterized as rural or residential, with or without agriculture or feral forest in proximity. The 1.7 million flies collected belonged to species already known to be established in Hawaii (Bactrocera cucurbitae, B. dorsalis, B. latifrons, and Ceratitis capitata); no new invasive species were trapped, though the remotely possible presence of sibling species nearly identical to B. dorsalis can’t be ruled out. B. cucurbitae was predominant in leeward western Oahu and most abundant, in both rural and residential areas, wherever agriculture was practiced nearby. B. dorsalis was trapped in highest numbers in the windward northeastern portion of Oahu, and the presence of adjacent forest increased captures in both residential and rural environments. C. capitata was trapped in very large numbers at a coffee farm in Waialua and was rare at all other sites

FK506 and Cyclosporin A Enhance IL-6 Production in Monocytes: A single-Cell Assay

The effect of FK506 and cyclosporin A (CsA) on the production of interleukin 6 (IL-6) in adherent monocytes was studied at a single-cell level by the avidinbiotin- peroxidase complex methods. The percentage of IL-6-producing monocytes increased when stimulated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) at concentrations between 10 ng/ml and 10 μg/ml, in a dose dependent manner. Both FK506 and CsA enhanced the percentage of IL-6- producing monocytes stimulated with 100 pg/ml-1 μg/ml of LPS up to values near those obtained with 10 μg/ml of LPS. The enhancement by FK506 and CsA was not seen when monocytes were stimulated with a high concentration of LPS (10 μg/ml). When monocytes were stimulated with a low concentration of LPS (10 ng/ml), FK506 and CsA enhanced IL-6 production in a dose dependent manner, at a drug concentration of 0.12 nM–1.2 μM (0.1–1 000 ng/ml) for FK506 and 0.83 nM–8.3 μM (1–10 000 ng/ml) for CsA. The optimal effect of FK506 was achieved at a concentration 7-fold lower than that of CsA. In contrast, production of turnout necrosis factor-α (TNFα and interleukin 1β (IL-1β) was slightly suppressed by FK506 and CsA at the concentrations tested. Moreover, pretreatment of monocytes with FK506 and CsA had a significant enhancing effect on LPS-induced IL-6 production, while treatment with FK506 or CsA after LPS stimulation had no effects on IL-6 production, suggesting that the enhancing effect of each drug is exerted before LPS stimulation or at an early stage of the post-receptor pathway after LPS stimulation. These experiments demonstrate that FK506 and CsA can selectively enhance IL-6 production in monocytes under certain conditions in vitro and, possibly, also in vivo

A comparison study of regional atmospheric simulations with an elastic backscattering Lidar and sunphotometry in an urban area

We describe a comparison study of Aerosol Optical Thickness (AOT) from numerical simulations using a regional atmospheric model with an elastic backscattering lidar operating at 532 nm and a sunphotometer belonging to the AERONET network at São Paulo (23° S 46° W) city, Brazil, a very populated urban area. The atmospheric model includes an aerosol emission, transport and deposition module coupled to a radiative transfer parameterization, which takes the interaction between aerosol particles and short and long wave radiation into account. A period of one week was taken as case study during the dry season (late August) when intense biomass burning activities occur at remote areas in South America, and meteorological conditions disfavor the pollution dispersion in the city of São Paulo. The situation presented here showed how smoke from biomass burning in remote areas is transported to the south-east part of Brazil and affects the optical atmospheric conditions in São Paulo. The numerical simulations are corroborated by in situ measurements of AOT obtained by lidar and sun photometry

Restoration of endogenous wild-type p53 activity in a glioblastoma cell line with intrinsic temperature-sensitive p53 induces growth arrest but not apoptosis.

p53 protein is a transcription factor involved in multiple tumor-suppressor activities including cell cycle control and apoptosis. TP53 gene is frequently mutated in glioblastoma, suggesting the importance of inactivation of this gene product in gliomagenesis. Restoration of p53 function in glioblastoma cell lines deficient for p53 has shown that p53 induces growth arrest or apoptosis depending on the cell line and vector used to transduce wild-type TP53 alleles. Considering that astrocytes grow and express p53, it is not clear whether these results reflect physiologic responses or the result of p53 overexpression in combination with cellular responses to viral vector infection. Here, we reassessed this issue using a glioblastoma cell line (LN382) that expresses an endogenous temperature-sensitive mutant p53. This cell line expresses TP53 alleles (100% as determined by a p53 transcriptional assay in yeast) mutated at codon 197 GTG (Val) > CTG (Leu). We found that the p53 protein in these cells acted as an inactive mutant at 37 degrees C and as a functional wild-type p53 below 34 degrees C as demonstrated by several lines of evidence, including (i) restoration of transactivating ability in yeast, (ii) induction of p53-modulated genes such as CDKN1(p21) and transforming growth factor-alpha, (iii) disappearance of accumulated p53 protein in the nucleus and (iv) decrease in steady state p53 protein levels. This temperature switch allowed p53 levels, which were close to physiological levels to dramatically reduce LN382 cell proliferation by inducing a G(1)/S cell cycle block, but not to induce apoptosis. The lack of apoptosis was considered to be a result of the low level p53 expression, because increasing wild-type p53 levels by adenoviral-mediated gene transfer caused apoptosis in these cells. The LN382 cell line will be extremely useful for investigations into the roles of p53 in cellular responses to a variety of stimuli or damages

Bosonic t-J Model in a stacked triangular lattice and its phase diagram

In this paper, we study phase diagram of a system of two-component hard-core bosons with nearest-neighbor (NN) pseudo-spin antiferromagnetic (AF) interactions in a stacked triangular lattice. Hamiltonian of the system contains three parameters one of which is the hopping amplitude $t$ between NN sites, and the other two are the NN pseudo-spin exchange interaction $J$ and the one that measures anisotropy of pseudo-spin interactions. We investigate the system by means of the Monte-Carlo simulations and clarify the low-temperature phase diagram. In particular, we are interested in how the competing orders, i.e., AF order and superfluidity, are realized, and also whether supersolid forms as a result of hole doping into the state of the $\sqrt{3}\times \sqrt{3}$ pseudo-spin pattern with the $120^o$ structure.Comment: 18 pages, 17 figures, Version to appear in J.Phys.Soc.Jp

Aplicativo Multiplataforma para Monitoramento de Diabetes Mellitus

O Brasil é o quinto no número de pessoas com mais de 65 anos com diabetes, 12,5 milhões de pessoas diagnosticadas com diabetes, o que coloca o Brasil na quarta posição entre os 10 países com o maior número de indivíduos com diabetes [IDF, 2017]. Considerando a necessidade dos diabéticos que necessitam de monitoramento constante e regular da glicose [Dovc et al., 2018], este artigo apresenta o desenvolvimento de uma aplicação multi-plataforma. integrado a um site consulto