Compensation of atmospheric CO2 buildup through engineered chemical shrinkage

Retrieval of background carbon dioxide into regional chemical extractors would counter anthropogenic inputs in a manner friendly to established industries. We demonstrate via atmospheric transport/scaling calculations that for idealized flat removal units, global coverage could be less than two hundred thousand square kilometers. The disrupted area drops to a small fraction of this with engineering into the vertical to bypass laminarity. Fence structures and artificial roughness elements can both be conceived. Sink thermodynamics are analyzed by taking calcium hydroxide as a sample reactant. Energy costs could be minimized at near the endothermicity of binding reversal. In the calcium case the value is 25 kcal mole-1, as against a fuel carbon content of 150 in the same units. Aqueous kinetics are less than favorable for the hydroxide, but misting could counteract slow liquid phase transfer. Properties of superior scrubbers are outlined

Microspore derived embryo formation and doubled haploid plant production in broccoli (Brassica oleracea L. var italica) according to nutritional and environmental conditions

In cell culture, the maintenance of proper growing conditions is a key approach for improving the formation of embryos, and is useful in the production of doubled haploid (DH) plants. Optimal nutritional and environmental conditions for the microspore culture of Brassica oleracea L. var italica were determined in order to reduce time and effort in breeding. The optimal conditions for microspore embryo formation differed depending on genotype. Microspore-derived embryos (MDE) formation was influenced by the strength of the NLN medium, the microelement and sugar concentration, and the heat shock temperature and period. The 0.5XNLN liquid medium was the most favorable for MDE formation. The most efficient formation of MDE was observed in the 0.5X NLN liquid medium, without the addition of microelements. When 13 or 15% sucrose was added to the 0.5X NLN liquid medium, the amount of normal MDE formation increased. The optimum heat shock temperature and period for MDE formation was 32.5°C and 24 h, respectively. A polyploidy test indicated that 30% of the microspore derived plants were diploid throughout the embryogenesis process.Key words: Embryogenesis, heat shock, microelements, NLN medium, polyploidy test

Local Time Variation in the Large-Scale Structure of Saturn's Magnetosphere

The large-scale structure of Saturn's magnetosphere is determined by internal and external factors, including the rapid planetary rotation rate, significant internal hot and cold plasma sources, and varying solar wind pressure. Under certain conditions the dayside magnetospheric magnetic field changes from a dipolar to more disk-like structure, due to global force balance being approximately maintained during the reconfiguration. However, it is still not fully understood which factors dominantly influence this behavior, and in particular how it varies with local time. We explore this in detail using a 2-D force-balance model of Saturn's magnetodisk to describe the magnetosphere at different local time sectors. For model inputs, we use recent observational results that suggest a significant local time asymmetry in the pressure of the hot (>3 keV) plasma population, and magnetopause location. We make calculations under different solar wind conditions, in order to investigate how these local time asymmetries influence magnetospheric structure for different system sizes. We find significant day/night asymmetries in the model magnetic field, consistent with recent empirical studies based on Cassini magnetometer observations. We also find dawn-dusk asymmetries in equatorial current sheet thickness, with the varying hot plasma content and magnetodisk radius having comparable influence on overall structure, depending on external conditions. We also find significant variations in magnetic mapping between the ionosphere and equatorial disk, and ring current intensity, with substantial enhancements in the night and dusk sectors. These results have consequences for interpreting many magnetospheric phenomena that vary with local time, such as reconnection events and auroral observations

Time-Efficient Read/Write Register in Crash-prone Asynchronous Message-Passing Systems

The atomic register is certainly the most basic object of computing science. Its implementation on top of an n-process asynchronous message-passing system has received a lot of attention. It has been shown that t \textless{} n/2 (where t is the maximal number of processes that may crash) is a necessary and sufficient requirement to build an atomic register on top of a crash-prone asynchronous message-passing system. Considering such a context, this paper visits the notion of a fast implementation of an atomic register, and presents a new time-efficient asynchronous algorithm. Its time-efficiency is measured according to two different underlying synchrony assumptions. Whatever this assumption, a write operation always costs a round-trip delay, while a read operation costs always a round-trip delay in favorable circumstances (intuitively, when it is not concurrent with a write). When designing this algorithm, the design spirit was to be as close as possible to the one of the famous ABD algorithm (proposed by Attiya, Bar-Noy, and Dolev)

Study of Correlation Between Heavy Metal Concentration, Street Dust and Level of Traffic in Major Roads of Kano Metropolis, Nigeria

This study was aimed at evaluating heavy metal contents in street dust of five major roads within the trunk of Kano metropolis. The dust were collected from heavy traffic roads of the city which include Zaria road (ZR), Maiduguri road (MR), Katsina road (KR), Hadejia road (HR) and Bayero University Kano road (BR). Triplicates samples were collected and the number of vehicles that pass through each road was recorded for one hour. The metal concentration of the dust was determined using atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS). Strong positive correlation exist between the amount of dust collected and the number of vehicles that passed in all the roads except for Hadejia road with r2 = 0.32 which is less positive. The metal contents in dust of the five streets were higher than the WHO reference value. The positive correlation between the number of vehicles and metal type was significant (P<0.05) for Zn, Fe, and Mg in ZR, Pb and Fe in HR; Fe and Mn in BR, while between street dust and metal type was significant (p<0.05) for Zn and Fe in ZR; Fe and Cu in KR; Ca in HR and Fe in BR. The high positive correlation observed in this study may mean that the metals in the street dust originate from common anthropogenic sources. Higher than reference values of the heavy metals in street dust, indicate hazard associated with residing or conducting business along the major street in the city. The finding is in support of government effort in protecting its citizenries by prohibiting road site business

Angiogenic output in viral hepatitis, C and B, and HCV-associated hepatocellular carcinoma

Introduction: Angiogenesis is known to play a pivotal role in most of malignancy, including HCC, and in chronic inflammation.Aim: To investigate the angiogenic output in HCV and HBV infection and its implication in the development of HCV associated HCC.Materials and methods: Blood samples were collected and grouped as; HS healthy subjects control group; HCC–HCV; chronic HCV infected patient group (HCV+ve) who are positive for serum anti-HCV antibodies and HCV–RNA; anti-HCV antibody positive and HCV–RNA negative patient group (HCVve); patients with positive HBsAg and HBV-DNA group (HBV+ve); and HBsAg positive and HBV-DNA negative patient group (HBVve). Serum levels of vascular endothelial growth factor, angiopoietin-2, endostatin and angiostatin were assessed in different studied groups.Results: The level of sVEGF was insignificantly elevated in both HCV+ve and HCVve groups when compared with controls, while Ang-2, sES and sAS were significantly elevated in both groups as compared with healthy controls. The studied parameters were significantly elevated in HBV-+ve patients when compared with the control. However, HBVve patients showed significantly elevated levels in sAng-2, sES and sAS when compared with the control while the level of sVEGF was equal to that of controls. In patients with HCC, the studied parameters showed a significant elevation when compared with healthy controls and patients either with HBV or HCV infection except for sAS in the case of HCV-+ve patients and VEGF for HBV-+ve patients who were also higher but not significant.Conclusion: The increased hepatic angiogenesis in chronic HCV and HBV could provide the molecular basis for liver carcinogenesis and contribute to the increased risk of HCC in patients with cirrhosis due to HCV and/or HBV.KEYWORDS Angiogenesis; HCC; HCV; HB

Disaccahrides-based cryo-formulant effect on modulating phospho/mitochondrial lipids and biological profiles of human leukaemia cells

BACKGROUND/AIMS: The use of novel cryo-additive agents to increase cell viability post-cryopreservation is paramount to improve future cell based-therapy treatments. We aimed to establish the Human Leukemia (HL-60) cells lipidomic and biological patterns when cryo-preserved in DMSO alone and with 300 µM Nigerose (Nig), 200 µM Salidroside (Sal) or a combination of Nig (150 µM) and Sal (100 µM). METHODS: HL-60 cells were pre-incubated with Nig/Sal prior, during and post cryopreservation, and subjected to global lipidomic analysis. Malondialdeyhde (MDA), released lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and reactive oxygen scavenger (ROS) measurements were also carried out to evaluate levels of lipid peroxidation and cytotoxicity. RESULTS: Cryopreserving HL-60 cells in DMSO with Nig and Sal provided optimal protection against unsaturated fatty acid oxidation. Post-thaw, cellular phospholipids and mitochondrial cardiolipins were increased by Nig/Sal as the ratio of unsaturated to saturated fatty acids 2.08 +/- 0.03 and 0.95 +/- 0.09 folds respectively in comparison to cells cryopreserved in DMSO alone (0.49 +/- 0.05 and 0.86 +/- 0.10 folds). HL-60 lipid peroxidation levels in the presence of DMSO + Nig and Sal combined were significantly reduced relative to pre-cryopreservation levels (10.91 +/- 2.13 nmole) compared to DMSO (17.1 +/- 3.96 nmole). DMSO + Nig/Sal combined also significantly reduced cell cytotoxicity post-thaw (0.0128 +/- 0.00182 mU/mL) in comparison to DMSO (0.0164 +/- 0.00126 mU/mL). The combination of Nig/Sal also reduced significantly ROS levels to the levels of prior cryopreservation of HL-60. CONCLUSION: Overall, the establishment of the cryopreserved HL-60 cells lipidomic and the corresponding biological profiles showed an improved cryo-formulation in the presence of DMSO with the Nig/Sal combination by protecting the, mitochondrial inner membrane, unsaturated fatty acid components (i. e. Cardiolipins) and total phospholipids

Predicting suicides after outpatient mental health visits in the Army Study to Assess Risk and Resilience in Servicemembers (Army STARRS).

The 2013 US Veterans Administration/Department of Defense Clinical Practice Guidelines (VA/DoD CPG) require comprehensive suicide risk assessments for VA/DoD patients with mental disorders but provide minimal guidance on how to carry out these assessments. Given that clinician-based assessments are not known to be strong predictors of suicide, we investigated whether a precision medicine model using administrative data after outpatient mental health specialty visits could be developed to predict suicides among outpatients. We focused on male nondeployed Regular US Army soldiers because they account for the vast majority of such suicides. Four machine learning classifiers (naive Bayes, random forests, support vector regression and elastic net penalized regression) were explored. Of the Army suicides in 2004-2009, 41.5% occurred among 12.0% of soldiers seen as outpatient by mental health specialists, with risk especially high within 26 weeks of visits. An elastic net classifier with 10-14 predictors optimized sensitivity (45.6% of suicide deaths occurring after the 15% of visits with highest predicted risk). Good model stability was found for a model using 2004-2007 data to predict 2008-2009 suicides, although stability decreased in a model using 2008-2009 data to predict 2010-2012 suicides. The 5% of visits with highest risk included only 0.1% of soldiers (1047.1 suicides/100 000 person-years in the 5 weeks after the visit). This is a high enough concentration of risk to have implications for targeting preventive interventions. An even better model might be developed in the future by including the enriched information on clinician-evaluated suicide risk mandated by the VA/DoD CPG to be recorded