Scheduled Delays? Scheduled Time Competition and On-Time Performance in the Airline Industry.

No abstractTime competition, on-time performance,

An Antioxidant Phytotherapy to Rescue Neuronal Oxidative Stress

Oxidative stress is involved in the pathogenesis of ischemic neuronal injury. A Chinese herbal formula composed of Poria cocos (Chinese name: Fu Ling), Atractylodes macrocephala (Chinese name: Bai Zhu) and Angelica sinensis (Chinese names: Danggui, Dong quai, Donggui; Korean name: Danggwi) (FBD), has been proved to be beneficial in the treatment of cerebral ischemia/reperfusion (I/R).This study was carried out to evaluate the protective effect of FBD against neuronal oxidative stress in vivo and in vitro. Rat I/R were established by middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) for 1 h, followed by 24 h reperfusion. MCAO led to significant depletion in superoxide dismutase and glutathione and rise in lipid peroxidation (LPO) and nitric oxide in brain. The neurological deficit and brain infarction were also significantly elevated by MCAO as compared with sham-operated group. All the brain oxidative stress and damage were significantly attenuated by 7 days pretreatment with the aqueous extract of FBD (250 mg kg−1, p.o.). Moreover, cerebrospinal fluid sampled from FBD-pretreated rats protected PC12 cells against oxidative insult induced by 0.2 mM hydrogen peroxide, in a concentration and time-dependent manner (IC50 10.6%, ET50 1.2 h). However, aqueous extract of FBD just slightly scavenged superoxide anion radical generated in xanthine–xanthine oxidase system (IC50 2.4 mg ml−1) and hydroxyl radical generated in Fenton reaction system (IC50 3.6 mg ml−1). In conclusion, FBD was a distinct antioxidant phytotherapy to rescue neuronal oxidative stress, through blocking LPO, restoring endogenous antioxidant system, but not scavenging free radicals

Peptide-fluorescent bacteria complex as luminescent reagents for cancer diagnosis

Currently in clinic, people use hematoxylin and eosin stain (H&E stain) and immunohistochemistry methods to identify the generation and genre of cancers for human pathological samples. Since these methods are inaccurate and time consuming, developing a rapid and accurate method to detect cancer is urgently demanded. In our study, binding peptides for lung cancer cell line A549 were identified using bacteria surface display method. With those binding peptides for A549 cells on the surface, the fluorescent bacteria (Escherichia coli with stably expressed green fluorescent protein) were served as specific detecting reagents for the diagnosis of cancers. The binding activity of peptide-fluorescent bacteria complex was confirmed by detached cancer cells, attached cancer cells and mice tumor xenograft samples. A unique fixation method was developed for peptide-bacteria complex in order to make this complex more feasible for the clinic use. This peptide-fluorescent bacteria complex has great potential to become a new diagnostic tool for clinical application

Preparation of Cefquinome Nanoparticles by Using the Supercritical Antisolvent Process

The supercritical antisolvent process was used successfully to prepare nanoparticles of cefquinome. These particles were observed by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and their average diameter was measured by laser particle size analyzer. In the experiments, dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) was selected as solvent to dissolve cefquinome sulfate. It was confirmed by orthogonal experiments that the concentration of solution was the primary factor in this process followed by feeding speed of solution, precipitation pressure, and precipitation temperature. Moreover, the optimal conditions of preparing nanoparticles of cefquinome by supercritical antisolvent process were that solution concentration was 100 mg/mL, solution flow speed was 1.5 mL/min, operating pressure was 13 Mpa, and operating temperature was 33°C. Confirmatory experiment was conducted under this condition. It was found that the appearance of particles was flakes and the average diameter of particles was 0.71 microns. Finally, influence law of individual factor on particle size was investigated by univariate analysis

NDRG2 Ameliorates Hepatic Fibrosis by Inhibiting the TGF-β1/Smad Pathway and Altering the MMP2/TIMP2 Ratio in Rats

Liver fibrosis is a worldwide clinical issue. It has been well established that activated hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) are responsible for excessive extracellular matrix (ECM) deposition in chronically damaged livers. The identification of key elements that control HSCs activation will help to further our understanding of liver fibrosis and improve the outcome of clinical treatment. This study demonstrates that N-Myc downstream-regulated gene 2 (NDRG2) is a potential regulator of liver fibrosis as NDRG2 mRNA and protein levels were reduced during HSCs activation. In addition, enhanced NDRG2 expression reduced Smad3 transcription and phosphorylation, which inhibited HSCs activation by blocking the TGF-β1 signal. Moreover, NDRG2 contributed to an increase in the ratio of matrix metalloproteinase 2 (MMP2) to tissue inhibitor of matrix metalloproteinase 2 (TIMP2), which may facilitate the degradation of the ECM. In dimethylnitrosamine (DMN)-induced fibrotic rat livers, adenovirus-mediated NDRG2 overexpression resulted in decreased ECM deposition and improved liver function compared with controls. In conclusion, the present findings indicate that the modulation of NDRG2 is a promising strategy for the treatment of liver fibrosis

Analysis and Experimental Study on Bearing Capacity of “All-Inclusive” Underpinning Joint

Aiming at the phenomenon of punching failure and large slip at the new-to-old concrete interface of “beam-column” underpinning joint, a new type of “all-inclusive” underpinning joint is tested and numerically analyzed, which adopts the spraying glue + grooving + planting bars + prestressed + hooping connection method. The experimental and numerical analysis results show that the connection method of “all-inclusive” underpinning joint can effectively avoid punching failure of the joint, and the failure mode is mainly flexure-shear. Then, the “all-inclusive” underpinning joint can delay the initial slip at the new-to-old concrete interface and reduce the overall slip. Finally, combining the theoretical and experimental results, a simplified calculation formula for the bearing capacity of the “all-inclusive” underpinning joint is improved. The theoretical results are in good agreement with the experimental results, which indicates that the calculation of the bearing capacity of the underpinning joint using the formula in this paper is feasible and can provide experimental and theoretical references for similar projects

Reactive molecular dynamics simulations of the initial stage of brown coal oxidation at high temperatures

To investigate the detailed mechanisms for brown coal oxidation at high temperatures, a ReaxFF reactive forcefield was used to perform a series of molecular dynamics simulations from 1000?K to 2500?K. Analyses indicated that the chemical system tend to be more reactive with increasing temperature. It was found that the oxidation process of brown coal primarily initiates from hydrogen abstraction reactions by O2 and related oxygenated radicals from phenolic hydroxyl groups, methyl groups, especially carboxyl groups in lower temperature to form peroxygen species, or by either thermal decomposition of brown coal backbone in higher temperature. These peroxygen species usually could chemically adsorb on the C-centered radicals of brown coal backbone. The weak OO bond in peroxygen makes them easier to break into oxygenated radical, which could also chemically adsorb on the C-centred radical to form hydroxyl group and other oxygenated compounds. In the oxidation process of brown coal, the decomposition and oxidation of aliphatic chain is easier than aromatic ring. The chemisorption of peroxygen radical induces the breakage of aromatic ring and accelerates the depth oxidation of brown coal. An increasing number of products are observed with increasing temperature

Molecular dynamics simulation of oxygen diffusion in dry and water-containing brown coal

Moisture content of brown coal has a pronounced impact on O(2) diffusion during coal oxidation. The transport behaviour of O(2) in dry and hydrated brown coal matrix with 10, 20, and 30wt% moisture contents have been studied by molecular dynamics ( MD) simulations at 298.15K and 0.1 MPa. By analysing the diffusion characteristics of O(2), it is found that the diffusion process results from jumps of O(2) molecules between adjacent cavities in the coal matrix. With the increase of moisture content, the swelling extent of coal matrix increases in the range of 10-30 wt%, resulting in increased cavity volume, cavity interconnectivity, and mobility of coal macromolecule. These factors are all beneficial to the transport process of O(2) molecule. In addition, O(2) molecule prefers to reside in the available water-poor coal cavity and unoccupied region of water-rich cavity according to the estimated binding energies

A supply chain model of vendor managed inventory

Supply chain management Distribution/logistics Inventory management Materials management Vendor managed inventory Consignment