N-(2,5-Dimeth­oxy­phen­yl)-N′-[4-(2-hy­droxy­eth­yl)phen­yl]urea

In the title compound, C17H20N2O4, the 2,5-dimeth­oxy­phenyl unit is essentially planar, with an r.m.s. deviation of 0.015 Å. The dihedral angle between the benzene rings is 43.66 (4)°. The mol­ecular structure is stabilized by a short intra­molecular N—H⋯O hydrogen bond. In the crystal, inter­molecular N—H⋯O and O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds link the mol­ecules into a three-dimensional network

Cilostazol Prevents Tumor Necrosis Factor-␣-Induced Cell Death by Suppression of Phosphatase and Tensin Homolog Deleted from Chromosome 10 Phosphorylation and Activation of Akt/Cyclic AMP Response Element-Binding Protein Phosphorylation

ABSTRACT This study examines the signaling mechanism by which cilostazol prevents neuronal cell death. Cilostazol (ϳ0.1-100 M) prevented tumor necrosis factor-␣ (TNF-␣)-induced decrease in viability of SK-N-SH and HCN-1A cells, which was antagonized by 1 M iberiotoxin, a maxi-K channel blocker. TNF-␣ did not suppress the viability of the U87-MG cell, a phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted from chromosome 10 (PTEN)-null glioblastoma cell, but it did decrease viability of U87-MG cells transfected with expression vectors for the sense PTEN, and this decrease was also prevented by cilostazol. Cilostazol as well as 1,3-dihydro-1-[2-hydroxy-5-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]-5-(trifluoromethyl)-2H-benzimidazol-2-one (NS-1619) and (3S)-(ϩ)-(5-chloro-2-methoxyphenyl)-1,3-dihydro-3-fluoro-6-(trifluoromethyl)-2H-indole-2-one (BMS 204352), maxi-K channel openers, prevented increased DNA fragmentation evoked by TNF-␣, which were antagonizable by iberiotoxin. TNF-␣-induced increased PTEN phosphorylation and decreased Akt/ cyclic AMP response element-binding protein (CREB) phosphorylation were significantly prevented by cilostazol, those of which were antagonized by both iberiotoxin and paxilline, maxi-K channel blockers. The same results were evident in U87-MG cells transfected with expression vectors for sense PTEN. Cilostazol increases the K ϩ current in SK-N-SH cells by activating maxi-K channels without affecting the ATP-sensitive K ϩ channel. Thus, our results for the first time provide evidence that cilostazol prevents TNF-␣-induced cell death by suppression of PTEN phosphorylation and activation of Akt/CREB phosphorylation via mediation of the maxi-K channel opening. Recent research has shown that the phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted from chromosome 10 (PTEN) is implicated in the regulation of several cellular functions, including cell viability from apoptosi

A Prediction Rule to Identify Severe Cases among Adult Patients Hospitalized with Pandemic Influenza A (H1N1) 2009

The purpose of this study was to establish a prediction rule for severe illness in adult patients hospitalized with pandemic influenza A (H1N1) 2009. At the time of initial presentation, the baseline characteristics of those with severe illness (i.e., admission to intensive care unit, mechanical ventilation, or death) were compared to those of patients with non-severe illnesses. A total of 709 adults hospitalized with pandemic influenza A (H1N1) 2009 were included: 75 severe and 634 non-severe cases. The multivariate analysis demonstrated that altered mental status, hypoxia (PaO2/FiO2 ≤ 250), bilateral lung infiltration, and old age (≥ 65 yr) were independent risk factors for severe cases (all P < 0.001). The area under the ROC curve (0.834 [95% CI, 0.778-0.890]) of the number of risk factors were not significantly different with that of APACHE II score (0.840 [95% CI, 0.790-0.891]) (P = 0.496). The presence of ≥ 2 risk factors had a higher sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value than an APACHE II score of ≥ 13. As a prediction rule, the presence of ≥ 2 these risk factors is a powerful and easy-to-use predictor of the severity in adult patients hospitalized with pandemic influenza A (H1N1) 2009

Eco-architecture analysis as a method of end-of-life decision making for sustainable product design

ABSTRACT In recent years, sustainable product design has become a great concern to product manufacturers. An effective way to enhance the product sustainability is to design products that are easy to disassemble and recycle. An EOL strategy is concerned with how to disassemble a product and what to do with each of the resulting disassembled parts. A sound understanding of the EOL strategy from the early design stage could improve the ease of disassembly and recycling in an efficient and effective manner. We introduce a novel concept of eco-architecture which represents a scheme by which the physical components are allocated to EOL modules. An EOL module is a physical chunk of connected components or a feasible subassembly which can be simultaneously processed by the same EOL option without further disassembly. In this paper, a method for analyzing and optimizing the eco-architecture of a product in the architecture design stage is proposed. Using mathematical programming, it produces an optimal eco-architecture based on the estimation of the economic values and costs for possible EOL modules under the given environmental regulations

Eco-architecture analysis for end-of-life decision making

In order to improve ease of disassembly and recycling of a product at its retirement stage, it is essential to design a product architecture that allows for easy disassembly and recycling. In this paper, a novel concept of eco-architecture is introduced, and the eco-architecture analysis, a design approach supporting the end-of-life decision making process, is proposed. The eco-architecture is the product architecture described from the end-of-life (EOL) viewpoint, in which a product is represented as an assembly of end-of-life modules. Not only does it prescribe an EOL strategy, but it also gives information about the connections and arrangement among EOL modules. Therefore, understanding the eco-architecture is helpful in enhancing the disassembly and recycling capabilities of an architecture design. The proposed eco-architecture analysis supports architecture improvement; it helps designers to derive the most desirable eco-architecture which entails the optimal end-of-life strategy. It also facilitates the extraction of meaningful redesign guidelines which make it possible to improve an architecture in an efficient and effective manner.KUTZ M, 2007, ENV CONSCIOUS MECH DGonzalez B, 2005, INT J PROD RES, V43, P2071, DOI 10.1080/00207540412331333423EGGERT RJ, 2005, ENG DESIGNLAMBERT AJD, 2005, DISASSEMBLY MODELINGSAMAN MZM, 2005, P 4 INT C DES MAN SUTAKEUCHI S, 2005, P ASME 2005 INT DESSodhi R, 2004, J ENG DESIGN, V15, P69, DOI 10.1080/0954482031000150152FIXSON SK, 2004, P ASME 2004 DES ENGULRICH KT, 2003, PRODUCT DESIGN DEVQIAN X, 2003, P 2003 IEEE INT S EL, P114Dong J, 2003, P I MECH ENG B-J ENG, V217, P299, DOI 10.1243/095440503321590479Lambert AJD, 2002, COMPUT IND ENG, V43, P553Sand JC, 2002, CONCURRENT ENG-RES A, V10, P153, DOI 10.1106/106329302027638Das SK, 2002, INT J PROD RES, V40, P1335, DOI 10.1080/00207540110102142Seo K, 2002, INT J ADV MANUF TECH, V19, P461ZHANG Y, 2002, J SUSTAINABLE PRODUC, V2, P53HUNDAL MS, 2002, MECH LIFE CYCLE HDBErdos G, 2001, INT J PROD RES, V39, P1203, DOI 10.1080/00207540010009705Lee SG, 2001, INT J ADV MANUF TECH, V18, P148Feldmann K, 2001, P I MECH ENG B-J ENG, V215, P683Lee DH, 2001, P I MECH ENG B-J ENG, V215, P695DAS S, 2001, P 2001 IEEE INT S EL, P241, DOI 10.1109/ISEE.2001.924533O''''''''Shea B, 2000, CONCURRENT ENG-RES A, V8, P158, DOI 10.1106/Q949-RTM7-K0T6-E3YKKuo TC, 2000, INT J PROD RES, V38, P993Das SK, 2000, INT J PROD RES, V38, P657Gu P, 1999, ROBOT CIM-INT MANUF, V15, P387Lambert AJD, 1999, COMPUT IND ENG, V36, P723Kroll E, 1999, ROBOT CIM-INT MANUF, V15, P191Veerakamolmal P, 1999, J ELECTRON MANUF, V9, P79Duverlie P, 1999, INT J ADV MANUF TECH, V15, P895Ong NS, 1999, INT J ADV MANUF TECH, V15, P425MURAYAMA T, 1999, P 1 INT S ENV CONSC, P746, DOI 10.1109/ECODIM.1999.747709Krikke HR, 1998, INT J PROD RES, V36, P111Pnueli Y, 1997, INT J PROD RES, V35, P921LEE BH, 1997, P IEEE INT S EL ENV, P19, DOI 10.1109/ISEE.1997.605208JOHNSON MR, 1995, INT J PROD RES, V33, P3119ULRICH K, 1995, RES POLICY, V24, P419CHEN RW, 1994, IEEE T COMPON PACK A, V17, P502ISHII K, 1994, MATER DESIGN, V15, P225DOWIE T, 1994, DDRTR15 MANCH METR UMARKS MD, 1993, P ASME DES THEOR MET, P83SUZUKI T, 1993, P IEEE INT C ROB AUT, P507, DOI 10.1109/ROBOT.1993.291907

Automatic derivation of transition matrix for end-of-life decision making

Recently strengthened environmental regulations have obligated manufacturing companies to treat end-of-life (EOL) products both environmentally consciously and economically. EOL treatment begins with disassembling a product into recyclable or disposable sub-assemblies. Therefore, the economic value of an EOL product is largely a function of the plan for its disassembly: the means by which it is to be disassembled into smaller sub-assemblies, and the choice of sub-assemblies to be disassembled first. In order to make these decisions, a disassembly structure describing every possible sub-assembly division and its disassembly path from the original product has to be presented in a typical form. A widely used form of such a structure is a transition matrix. A transition matrix shows all feasible sub-assemblies and their disassembly hierarchy. Whereas it can be easily transformed into mathematical disassembly planning problem, the tedious work required for its generation limits its practical use. In this paper, we propose an algorithm for automatic derivation of a transition matrix. The proposed algorithm provides an efficient way to derive a transition matrix based on a product''''''''s architectural information, which includes the product''''''''s physical connections and the relative geometric locations between individual parts. The algorithm was validated in deriving a transition matrix of a car door-trim. Our algorithm can significantly expand the applicability of transition-matrix-based disassembly planning research.Lambert AJD, 2002, COMPUT IND ENG, V43, P553TAKEUCHI S, 2005, ASME INT DES ENG TECGonzalez B, 2005, INT J PROD RES, V43, P2071, DOI 10.1080/00207540412331333423Lambert AJD, 2007, COMPUT OPER RES, V34, P536, DOI 10.1016/j.cor.2005.03.012Adenso-Diaz B, 2007, OR SPECTRUM, V29, P535, DOI 10.1007/s00291-005-0028-xCappelli F, 2007, J ENG DESIGN, V18, P563, DOI 10.1080/09544820601013019KWAK MJ, 2008, INT J PRODU IN PRESSErdos G, 2001, INT J PROD RES, V39, P1203, DOI 10.1080/00207540010009705Kang JG, 2001, CIRP ANN-MANUF TECHN, V50, P343Lambert AJD, 1999, COMPUT IND ENG, V36, P723Ong NS, 1999, INT J ADV MANUF TECH, V15, P425COOK W, 1998, COMBINATORIAL OPTIMIMOORE KE, 1998, IEEE INT C SYST MAN, V1, P13Pnueli Y, 1997, INT J PROD RES, V35, P921Rosen DW, 1996, J INTELL MANUF, V7, P145Lambert AJD, 2003, INT J PROD RES, V41, P3721, DOI 10.1080/0020754031000120078ROMNEY B, 1995, ASME INT COMP ENG C, P699KANEHARA T, 1993, IEEE RSJ INT C INT R, V3, P2286WOO TC, 1991, J ENG IND-T ASME, V113, P207DEMELLO LSH, 1990, IEEE T ROBOTIC AUTOM, V6, P188DEFAZIO TL, 1987, IEEE T ROBOTIC AUTOM, V3, P640

Characteristics and trends of published adult hip research over the last decade

Purpose: We designed this study to demonstrate recent trends in the proportion of adult hip research in orthopedics, to identify countries leading the adult hip research, and to evaluate the relationship between the economic power of the countries and their contributions. Materials and Methods: Studies published in seven select orthopedic journals were retrieved from PubMed. Among them, we determined the number of adult hip studies. The countries-of-origin of adult hip studies, and the economic power of the countries were investigated. Results: A total of 7218 orthopedic publications and 1993 (27.6%) addressed adult hip research were identified. Adult hip studies increased from 313 (23.7%) in 2000 to 555 (27.9%) in 2011. Twenty-five countries accounted for 97.6% of the total number of adult hip studies, and gross domestic product correlated with publication volume (Spearman&apos;s rho, 0.723; p=0.000). Conclusion: Researchers from a limited number of developed countries have published their studies in the adult hip discipline.Y