Expansion of radiative cooling of the laser induced plasma

To study the expansion and cooling process of the laser induced plasma generated by nanosecond pulsed laser ablation, experiments have been conducted which measure the position of the external shockwaves and the temperature of the vapor plumes. The positions of external shockwaves were determined by a femtosecond laser time-resolved imaging system. Vapor plume temperature was determined from spectroscopic measurements of the plasma emission lines. A model which considers the mass, momentum, and energy conservation of the region affected by the laser energy was developed. It shows good agreement to the experimental data

Ocimum gratissimum Aqueous Extract Protects H9c2 Myocardiac Cells from H2O2-Induced Cell Apoptosis through Akt Signalling

Increased cell death of cardiomyocyte by oxidative stress is known to cause dysfunction of the heart. O. gratissimum is one of the more well-known medicinal plants among the Ocimum species and widely used in treatment of inflammatory diseases. In this study, we hypothesized that aqueous extract of O. gratissimum leaf (OGE) may protect myocardiac cell H9c2 from oxidative injury by hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). Our results revealed that OGE pretreatment dose-dependently protects H9c2 cells from cell death when exposed to H2O2. Additionally, DNA condensation induced by H2O2 was also reduced by OGE pretreatment, suggesting that Ocimum gratissimum extract may attenuate H2O2-induced chromosome damage. Further investigation showed that OGE pretreatment inhibited H2O2-induced activation of caspase-3 and caspase-9, as well as H2O2-induced upregulation of proapoptotic Apaf-1 and the release of cytosolic cytochrome c, but has little effect on the activation of caspase-8. Additionally, OGE pretreatment significantly upregulated Bcl-2 expression and Akt phosphorylation, and slightly affected the phosphorylation of mitogen-activated protein kinases including p38 MAPK and JNK. Taken together, our findings revealed that Ocimum gratissimum extract effectively inhibited the mitochondrial pathway and upregulated Bcl-2 expression, which may be important in protecting H9c2 cells from H2O2-induced cell death

Metal particles produced by laser ablation for ICP-MSmeasurements

Pulsed laser ablation (266nm) was used to generate metal particles of Zn and Al alloys using femtosecond (150 fs) and nanosecond (4 ns) laser pulses with identical fluences of 50 J cm{sup -2}. Characterization of particles and correlation with Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer (ICP-MS) performance was investigated. Particles produced by nanosecond laser ablation were mainly primary particles with irregular shape and hard agglomerates (without internal voids). Particles produced by femtosecond laser ablation consisted of spherical primary particles and soft agglomerates formed from numerous small particles. Examination of the craters by white light interferometric microscopy showed that there is a rim of material surrounding the craters formed after nanosecond laser ablation. The determination of the crater volume by white light interferometric microscopy, considering the rim of material surrounding ablation craters, revealed that the volume ratio (fs/ns) of the craters on the selected samples was approximately 9 (Zn), 7 (NIST627 alloy) and 5 (NIST1711 alloy) times more ablated mass with femtosecond pulsed ablation compared to nanosecond pulsed ablation. In addition, an increase of Al concentration from 0 to 5% in Zn base alloys caused a large increase in the diameter of the particles, up to 65% while using nanosecond laser pulses. When the ablated particles were carried in argon into an ICP-MS, the Zn and Al signals intensities were greater by factors of {approx} 50 and {approx} 12 for fs vs. ns ablation. Femtosecond pulsed ablation also reduced temporal fluctuations in the {sup 66}Zn transient signal by a factor of ten compared to nanosecond laser pulses

Garlic Oil Alleviates MAPKs- and IL-6-mediated Diabetes-related Cardiac Hypertrophy in STZ-induced DM Rats

Garlic oil has been reported to protect the cardiovascular system; however, the effects and mechanisms behind the cardioprotection of garlic oil on diabetes-induced cardiaomyopathy are unclear. In this study, we used streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats to investigate whether garlic oil could protect the heart from diabetes-induced cardiomyopathy. Wistar STZ-induced diabetic rats received garlic oil (0, 10, 50 or 100 mg kg_1 body weight) by gastric gavage every 2 days for 16 days. Normal rats without diabetes were used as control. Cardiac contractile dysfunction and cardiac pathologic hypertrophy responses were observed in diabetic rat hearts. Cardiac function was examined using echocardiography. In addition to cardiac hypertrophy-related mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPK) pathways (e.g., p38, c-Jun N-terminal kinases (JNK) and extracellularly responsive kinase (ERK1/2)), the IL-6/MEK5/ERK5 signaling pathway was greatly activated in the diabetic rat hearts, which contributes to the up-regulation of cardiac pathologic hypertrophy markers including atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) and B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP), and leads to cardiac contractile dysfunction. Garlic oil treatment significantly inhibited the up-regulation in MAPK (e.g., p38, JNK and ERK1/2) and IL-6/MEK5/ERK5 signaling pathways in the diabetic rat hearts, reducing the levels of cardiac pathologic hypertrophy markers such as ANP and BNP, and improving the cardiac contractile function. Collectively, data from these studies demonstrate that garlic oil shows the potential cardioprotective effects for protecting heart from diabetic cardiomyopathy

Women with endometriosis have higher comorbidities: Analysis of domestic data in Taiwan

AbstractEndometriosis, defined by the presence of viable extrauterine endometrial glands and stroma, can grow or bleed cyclically, and possesses characteristics including a destructive, invasive, and metastatic nature. Since endometriosis may result in pelvic inflammation, adhesion, chronic pain, and infertility, and can progress to biologically malignant tumors, it is a long-term major health issue in women of reproductive age. In this review, we analyze the Taiwan domestic research addressing associations between endometriosis and other diseases. Concerning malignant tumors, we identified four studies on the links between endometriosis and ovarian cancer, one on breast cancer, two on endometrial cancer, one on colorectal cancer, and one on other malignancies, as well as one on associations between endometriosis and irritable bowel syndrome, one on links with migraine headache, three on links with pelvic inflammatory diseases, four on links with infertility, four on links with obesity, four on links with chronic liver disease, four on links with rheumatoid arthritis, four on links with chronic renal disease, five on links with diabetes mellitus, and five on links with cardiovascular diseases (hypertension, hyperlipidemia, etc.). The data available to date support that women with endometriosis might be at risk of some chronic illnesses and certain malignancies, although we consider the evidence for some comorbidities to be of low quality, for example, the association between colon cancer and adenomyosis/endometriosis. We still believe that the risk of comorbidity might be higher in women with endometriosis than that we supposed before. More research is needed to determine whether women with endometriosis are really at risk of these comorbidities

The Variation of Milk Somatic Cell Counts, Electrical Conductivities, Milk Serum Lactate Dehydrogenase Activities and Milk Production in Goats

本試驗之目的在探討山羊乳之體細胞數、導電度、乳清乳酸去氫及其同功之活性與乳量之關係，以監測羊乳之品質及乳房之健康。本試驗選用二十隻泌乳母羊，在泌乳期間每週採取上午及下午之分房乳樣一次，以分析羊乳之體細胞數、導電度與乳清乳酸去氫及其同功之活性。另外，每週亦測定個別羊隻之乳量，並每月進行一次乳樣之細菌分離。試驗結果顯示，個別羊隻之乳量均以上午顯著較下午為高（P<0.05）；羊乳之導電度則以上午較下午為高，惟其差異不顯著；而羊乳之體細胞數及乳清乳酸去氫之活性均以下午顯著較上午為高（P<0.05）。羊乳之體細胞數、乳清乳酸去氫活性與乳量間均呈極顯著之負相關（P<0.01），而導電度與乳量間則呈顯著之負相關（P<0.05），三者之相關係數分別為-0.42、-0.52、-0.12。羊乳之體細胞數、乳清乳酸去氫活性與導電度皆呈顯著之正相關（P<0.05），其中羊乳之體細胞數與乳清乳酸去氫活性之相關係數為0.65，羊乳體細胞數與導電度之相關係數為0.15，而乳清乳酸去氫活性與導電度之相關係數為0.21。羊乳之乳清乳酸去氫同功LDH1及LDH２之活性與羊乳之體細胞數均呈顯著之負相關（P<0.05），其相關係數分別為-0.57與-0.20，LDH２則無差異性，而LDH3、LDH4、LDH5等同功之活性則與羊乳之體細胞數呈顯著之正相關（P<0.05），其相關係數分別為0.66、0.37、0.28。當母羊乳房之分房感染病原菌時，則感染分房之羊乳乳清乳酸去氫同功LDH2、LDH3、LDH4及LDH5之活性均顯著較正常分房為高（P<0.01），而LDH1同功之活性則顯著較正常分房者為低（P<0.01）。綜合以上之結果顯示，羊乳之體細胞數與乳清乳酸去氫及其同功活性之檢測可作為監測乳用山羊乳房健康之指標。The purposes of this study were conducted to investigate the variation of milk somatic cell counts (SCC), electrical conductivities (EC), milk serum lactate dehydrogenase activities and milk production in goats for monitoring the health of udder and the quality of goat milk. Individual half udder samples of morning and evening milking were taken from twenty does weekly. In addition, milk production of individual doe was recorded weekly, and the bacterial isolation of each half udder milk sample was tested monthly. The result showed that the milk production of morning milking in individual doe was significantly higher than those in evening milking, the electrical condutivites of morning milking samples were higher than those in the evening milking samples, but there were no significant difference can be seen, while the somatic cell counts and lactate dehydrogenase activities of evening milking samples were significantly higher than those in the morning milking samples (P<0.05 ). The correlation coefficients of somatic cell counts, lactate dehydrogenase activities and electrical conductivities with milk production were —0.42, -0.52 and —0.12 respectively, while the correlation coefficients of somatic cell counts with lactate dehydrogenase activities, somatic cell counts with electrical conductivites, and lactate dehydrogenase activities with electrical conductivities were 0.65, 0.15 and 0.21 respectively. The correlation coefficients of LDH1 and LDH2 with SCC were —0.57 and —0.20 respectively, while the coefficients of LDH3, LDH4 and LDH5 with SCC were 0.66, 0.37 and 0.28 respectively. In does, the LDH3, LDH4 and LDH5 activities of infected half udder were significantly higher than those in the normal half udder (p<0.01), while the LDH1 activities in half udder were significantly lower than those in the normal half udder (p<0.01). The result of this study indicated that the analysis of somatic cell counts and lactate dehydrogenase activities can be used as an indicator for monitoring the subclinical mastitis of dairy goat.壹、中文摘要……………………………………….. 1 貳、前言……………………………………………… 3 參、文獻檢討……………………………………….. 4 一、本省乳用山羊事業發展之概況……….. 4 二、山羊乳房之構造及生理………………… 12 三、山羊乳腺之分泌型式與特性…………. 20 四、山羊之乳房炎…………………………… 23 五、羊隻常用之乳房炎檢測方法………….. 40 六、乳酸去氫在乳房炎診斷上之應用….. 53 七、導電度在乳房炎診斷上之應用……….. 60 肆、試驗材料與方法………………………………. 66 伍、結果與討論…………………………………….. 72 陸、結論…………………………………………….. 103 柒、參考文獻……………………………………….. 104 捌、英文摘要……………………………………….. 10

Noise and Vibration Characteristic Studies of Twin Screw Compressor in Different Operating Conditions

The tonal noise or vibration of air-cooled or water-cooled chillers with rotary twin screw compressors is crucial for environmental concerns. This work aims to perform the receiver tests regarding the radiated noise and structural vibration due to the compressor in different operating conditions. The sound pressure near the compressor is recorded by the one-third octave and narrow band frequency analyzers, respectively. For environmental concern, the one-third octave band spectrum is frequently adopted to evaluate the radiated noise, while the narrow band spectrum can be used to characterize the noise sources. The axial, vertical and horizontal accelerations on the compressor shell at the motor and oil-injection locations are also monitored to correlate the structure-borne noise. Other than the comparison of spectral content between radiated noise and compressor shell vibration, the frequency response functions and the coherence functions are examined to further characterize the relation between noise and vibration. This work lays out the general steps and measurement procedures for noise and vibration evaluation in primary stage for receiver tests considering different load capacities. The vibration energy transmission path tests as well as the refrigerant pulsation effects on the compressor noise and vibration can then be carried out accordingly