Mathematical Modelling of Shaft based direct Reduction processes of Iron manufacture with Recirculation of Moisture free flue Gases

Shaft furnaces account for over 80 percent of the world production of the directly reduced iron that is fed' to an electric arc- furnace as an alternative to the blast furn-ace basic oxygen steelmaking route. The process is charac-terised by high rates of production as well as high deg-rees of metallisation of the product for its economic melting in the electric arc furnace for its survival in the present day competitive world. This is best done by keeping the amount of hot reducirig gases such as CO and H2 well above the theoretical minimum as the same would tend to ensure rapid preheating of the incoming uniformly sized burdan materials and the accompanying high rates of Iron ore reduction . The unutilised portions of CO and H, in the flue gates are partly recycled back to the furnace through a reformer where CO2 in flue gases is used to conve, the natural gas into CO and H2 at around 10000, and partly used as fuel tc. meet. the energy requirements of the reformer. As the flue gases are to be cooled to get rid of the dust particles, most of the water vapours, present in the gases a5 a result of reduction of iron ore by hydrogen in the shaft, are removed by condensatio

Factors associated with a prolonged hospital stay during induction chemotherapy in newly diagnosed high risk pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Background High Risk (HR) or Very High Risk (VHR) acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) treated with 4 drug induction chemotherapy is often associated with adverse events. The aim of this study was to identify risk factors associated with a prolonged inpatient length of stay LOS during induction chemotherapy. Procedure Data from patients (N = 73) (age<21 years) was collected through a retrospective chart review. Univariable and multivariable logistic regression was used to test for statistical significance. The overall survival and disease (leukemia)-free survival were analyzed using the Kaplan–Meier method and log-rank test. Results Of the 73 patients, 42 (57%) patients were discharged on day 4 of induction (short LOS, group A), while 31 (43%) patients (group B) experienced a prolonged LOS or an ICU stay (16 ± 27.7 days, median hospital stay = 8 days vs 4 days (group A), p = 0.02) due to organ dysfunction, infectious or metabolic complications. Group B patients were more likely to have a lower platelet count, serum bicarbonate, and a higher blood urea nitrogen (BUN) on day 4 of treatment (OR = 4.52, 8.21, and 3.02, respectively, p < 0.05). Multivariable analysis identified low serum bicarbonate (p = 0.002) and a platelet count<20,000/μL (p = 0.02) on day 4 of induction to be predictive of a prolonged LOS. Twenty six (group A (n = 16, 36%) and B (n = 11, 35%), p = 0.8) patients experienced unplanned admissions, within 30 days of discharge. Conclusions A significant proportion of newly diagnosed HR or VHR pediatric ALL patients experience a prolonged LOS and unplanned re-admissions. Aggressive discharge planning and close follow up is indicated in this cohort of patients

Role of Phenolics in Anti-Atherosclerotic Property of Thuja occidentalis Linn.

The present study was carried out to evaluate the Lipid peroxidation activity and related hypolipidaemic activity of an (EFTO) ethanol fraction of extract of aerial part of Thuja occidentalis Linn. (Cupressaceae). Lipid peroxidation activity was carried out to evaluate the antioxidant potential, and hypolipidaemic activity on cholesterol fed rats. The antioxidant activity of ethanol fraction was increased in a concentration dependent manner. About 100, 150, 200, 250 & 300 μg EFTO (ethanol fraction of extract of aerial part of Thuja occidentalis) inhibited the FeSO4 induced lipid peroxidation in a dose dependent manner and showed IC50 value 195.60μg/ml. in hypolipidaemic activity EFTO at the dose of 200 mg and 400mg/kg body weight significantly reduced serum cholesterol (77 and 92%), LDL (53 and 84%), triglycerides (27 and 46%). The increase in HDL to total cholesterol ratio and reduction in atherogenic index in EFTO treated groups strongly supports anti-atherosclerotic property of Thuja occidentalis. The results obtained in this study indicate that EFTO can be a potential source of natural antioxidant and activities related to this

Recent advances on skin-resident stem/progenitor cell functions in skin regeneration, aging and cancers and novel anti-aging and cancer therapies.

Recent advances in skin-resident adult stem/progenitor cell research have revealed that these immature and regenerative cells with a high longevity provide critical functions in maintaining skin homeostasis and repair after severe injuries along the lifespan of individuals. The establishment of the functional properties of distinct adult stem/progenitor cells found in skin epidermis and hair follicles and extrinsic signals from their niches, which are deregulated during their aging and malignant transformation, has significantly improved our understanding on the etiopathogenesis of diverse human skin disorders and cancers. Particularly, enhanced ultraviolet radiation exposure, inflammation and oxidative stress and telomere attrition during chronological aging may induce severe DNA damages and genomic instability in the skin-resident stem/progenitor cells and their progenies. These molecular events may result in the alterations in key signalling components controlling their self-renewal and/or regenerative capacities as well as the activation of tumour suppressor gene products that trigger their growth arrest and senescence or apoptotic death. The progressive decline in the regenerative functions and/or number of skin-resident adult stem/progenitor cells may cause diverse skin diseases with advancing age. Moreover, the photoaging, telomerase re-activation and occurrence of different oncogenic events in skin-resident adult stem/progenitor cells may also culminate in their malignant transformation into cancer stem/progenitor cells and skin cancer initiation and progression. Therefore, the anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant treatments and stem cell-replacement and gene therapies as well as the molecular targeting of their malignant counterpart, skin cancer-initiating cells offer great promise to treat diverse skin disorders and cancers

Influence of Growth Regulators and Explant on Plant Regeneration in Tomato

Influence of different growth regulators was studied on&nbsp;in vitro&nbsp;growth and regeneration of tomato (Solanum esculentum) explants derived from hypocotyls and cotyledons of aseptically grown seedlings. On the basis of regeneration frequency, number of shoot primordia and shoots produced per explants, it is concluded that the best regeneration is achieved on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with 0.5 mg L"1&nbsp;of indole-3-acetic acid and 1.0 mg L"1&nbsp;zeatin. In all the genotypes studied, a good percentage of regeneration frequency was observed in hypocotyl explants used

The differential catalytic activity of ribosome-inactivating proteins saporin 5 and 6 is due to a single substitution at position 162

Saporin, a type I ribosome-inactivating protein produced by the soapwort plant Saponaria officinalis belongs to a multigene family that encodes its several isoforms. The saporin seed isoform 6 has significantly higher N-glycosidase and cytotoxic activities compared with the seed isoform 5, although the two have identical active sites. In the present study, we have investigated the contribution of non-conservative amino acid changes outside the active sites of these isoforms towards their differential catalytic activity. The saporin 6 residues Lys134, Leu147, Phe149, Asn162, Thr188 and Asp196 were replaced by the corresponding saporin 5 residues, Gln134, Ser147, Ser149, Asp162, Ile188 and Asn196, to generate six variants of saporin 6, K134Q, L147S, F149S, N162D, T188I and D196N. By functional characterization, we show that the change in amino acid Asn162 in saporin 6 to aspartic acid residue of saporin 5 contributes mainly to the lower catalytic activity of saporin 5 compared with saporin 6. The non-involvement of other non-conservative amino acids in the differential catalytic activity of these isoforms was confirmed with the help of the double mutations N162D/K134Q, N162D/L147S, N162D/F149S, N162D/T188I and N162D/D196N

Potential applications of curcumin and its novel synthetic analogs and nanotechnology-based formulations in cancer prevention and therapy.

Curcumin has attracted great attention in the therapeutic arsenal in clinical oncology due to its chemopreventive, antitumoral, radiosensibilizing and chemosensibilizing activities against various types of aggressive and recurrent cancers. These malignancies include leukemias, lymphomas, multiple myeloma, brain cancer, melanoma and skin, lung, prostate, breast, ovarian, liver, gastrointestinal, pancreatic and colorectal epithelial cancers. Curcumin mediates its anti-proliferative, anti-invasive and apoptotic effects on cancer cells, including cancer stem/progenitor cells and their progenies, through multiple molecular mechanisms. The oncogenic pathways inhibited by curcumin encompass the members of epidermal growth factor receptors (EGFR and erbB2), sonic hedgehog (SHH)/GLIs and Wnt/β-catenin and downstream signaling elements such as Akt, nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) and signal transducers and activators of transcription (STATs). In counterbalance, the high metabolic instability and poor systemic bioavailability of curcumin limit its therapeutic efficacy in human. Of great therapeutic interest, the selective delivery of synthetic analogs or nanotechnology-based formulations of curcumin to tumors, alone or in combination with other anticancer drugs, may improve their chemopreventive and chemotherapeutic efficacies against cancer progression and relapse. Novel curcumin formulations may also be used to reverse drug resistance, eradicate the total cancer cell mass and improve the anticarcinogenic efficacy of the current anti-hormonal and chemotherapeutic treatments for patients with various aggressive and lethal cancers

Hypoxia-inducing factors as master regulators of stemness properties and altered metabolism of cancer- and metastasis-initiating cells.

Accumulating lines of experimental evidence have revealed that hypoxia-inducible factors, HIF-1α and HIF-2α, are key regulators of the adaptation of cancer- and metastasis-initiating cells and their differentiated progenies to oxygen and nutrient deprivation during cancer progression under normoxic and hypoxic conditions. Particularly, the sustained stimulation of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), insulin-like growth factor-1 receptor (IGF-1R), stem cell factor (SCF) receptor KIT, transforming growth factor-β receptors (TGF-βRs) and Notch and their downstream signalling elements such as phosphatidylinositol 3\u27-kinase (PI3K)/Akt/molecular target of rapamycin (mTOR) may lead to an enhanced activity of HIFs. Moreover, the up-regulation of HIFs in cancer cells may also occur in the hypoxic intratumoral regions formed within primary and secondary neoplasms as well as in leukaemic cells and metastatic prostate and breast cancer cells homing in the hypoxic endosteal niche of bone marrow. The activated HIFs may induce the expression of numerous gene products such as induced pluripotency-associated transcription factors (Oct-3/4, Nanog and Sox-2), glycolysis- and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) programme-associated molecules, including CXC chemokine receptor 4 (CXCR4), snail and twist, microRNAs and angiogenic factors such as vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). These gene products in turn can play critical roles for high self-renewal ability, survival, altered energy metabolism, invasion and metastases of cancer cells, angiogenic switch and treatment resistance. Consequently, the targeting of HIF signalling network and altered metabolic pathways represents new promising strategies to eradicate the total mass of cancer cells and improve the efficacy of current therapies against aggressive and metastatic cancers and prevent disease relapse