RH simulation model for canvas paintings protected by an aluminium backplate and an additional hygroscopic layer

To protect a canvas easel painting, a common conservation strategy is to add a back plate at the stretcher, creating a closed air void. This plate protects not only from dust but mainly from temperature and relative humidity (RH) variations in the room and moisture changes in the wall on which it is hanging. The addition of hygroscopic layers can reduce the amplitude and change phase of humidity oscillations. This paper proposes a new mathematical model that can be used to predict moisture levels within the canvas when this conservation strategy is applied. The model is compared against the temperature and RH detailed experimental data, captured and shown in the latest paper by Padfield et al. Back protection of canvas painting. Our paper presents values of T, RH and mixing ratio (MR) obtained at the different layers of an easel painting, protected and unprotected, with cotton and without it, submitted to different room and wall temperature and RH cycles. The experimental results show a phase displacement between the canvas temperatures and the corresponding RH values in the canvas air boundary layer. In some cases this phase shift, which is an unexpected behaviour, allows RH and temperatures to achieve their maximum value at the same time. The purpose of the model is to simulate the RH response at the different air boundary layers inside the air void, such as the canvas, the aluminium back plate, and the hygroscopic cotton protection, produced by cyclic variations of temperature in the room or the wall. The model is built simulating four interrelated processes: the canvas permeation flow, the air infiltration rate between room and void, the equilibrium moisture content (EMC) and the vapour sorption rate for the canvas and the cotton. A key innovation of the model is the dependence between EMC, sorption rate, and RH condition, which captures the counter-intuitive behaviours observed in the data. The model results agree with the experimental results. The developed tool allows the interpretation of the processes involved and to extend the simulations to other cases, materials, and conditions

Near-Membrane Dynamics and Capture of TRPM8 Channels within Transient Confinement Domains

The cold and menthol receptor, TRPM8, is a non-selective cation channel expressed in a subset of peripheral neurons that is responsible for neuronal detection of environmental cold stimuli. It was previously shown that members of the transient receptor potential (TRP) family of ion channels are translocated toward the plasma membrane (PM) in response to agonist stimulation. Because the spatial and temporal dynamics of cold receptor cell-surface residence may determine neuronal activity, we hypothesized that the movement of TRPM8 to and from the PM might be a regulated process. Single particle tracking (SPT) is a useful tool for probing the organization and dynamics of protein constituents in the plasma membrane.We used SPT to study the receptor dynamics and describe membrane/near-membrane behavior of particles containing TRPM8-EGFP in transfected HEK-293T and F-11 cells. Cells were imaged using total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF) microscopy and the 2D and 3D trajectories of TRPM8 molecules were calculated by analyzing mean-square particle displacement against time. Four characteristic types of motion were observed: stationary mode, simple Brownian diffusion, directed motion, and confined diffusion. In the absence of cold or menthol to activate the channel, most TRPM8 particles move in network covering the PM, periodically lingering for 2–8 s in confined microdomains of about 800 nm radius. Removing cholesterol with methyl-beta-cyclodextrin (MβCD) stabilizes TRPM8 motion in the PM and is correlated with larger TRPM8 current amplitude that results from an increase in the number of available channels without a change in open probability.These results reveal a novel mechanism for regulating TRPM8 channel activity, and suggest that PM dynamics may play an important role in controlling electrical activity in cold-sensitive neurons

Risk of HIV transmission through condomless sex in serodifferent gay couples with the HIV-positive partner taking suppressive antiretroviral therapy (PARTNER): final results of a multicentre, prospective, observational study.

Peer reviewe

Improving the Shoes Customization Process Through a Digitally-Enabled Framework

Product customization is largely considered one of the most important competitive factors in several industrial sectors, including high-end footwear. However, in this sector, products are generally manufactured through manual and artisanal operations, processes are not standardized and repeatable, and the personal skills of expert operators play a leading role. The objective of the present paper is to propose a workflow enabled by a framework including several technologies (computer aided design tool, augmented reality systems, traceability infrastructure), to support industrial companies of the high-end footwear sector during the different phases of shoes customization (from configuration to delivery). All these technologies jointly contribute to innovate the shoes customization process by increasing the flexibility of internal processes, improving the ability of companies to answer to specific requirements thanks to the direct involvement of customers, maximizing the efficiency of data sharing, making the organizational, design, production and management processes more efficient and repeatable, and reducing the customer response time

Nociceptor-derived brain-derived neurotrophic factor regulates acute and inflammatory but not neuropathic pain

Conditional mouse knock-outs provide an informative approach to drug target validation where no pharmacological blockers exist or global knock-outs are lethal. Here, we used the Cre-loxP system to delete BDNF in most nociceptive sensory neurons. Conditional null animals were healthy with no sensor), neuron loss. However, pain-related behavior was substantially altered. Baseline thermal thresholds were reduced. Carrageenan-induced thermal hyperalgesia was inhibited. Formalin-induced pain behavior was attenuated in the second phase, and this correlated with abolition of NMDA receptor NR1 Ser(896/897) phosphorylation and ERK1 and ERK2 activation in the dorsal horn; AMPA receptor phosphorylation (GluR1/Ser(831)) was unaffected. NGF-induced thermal hyperalgesia was halved, and mechanical secondary hyperalgesia caused by intramuscular NGF was abolished. By contrast, neuropathic pain behavior developed normally. Nociceptor-derived BDNF thus plays an important role in regulating inflammatory pain thresholds and secondary hyperalgesia, but BDNF released only from nociceptors plays no role in the development of neuropathic pain. (c) 2005 Elsevier Inc. All right reserved