Chemical Recycling of Polyurethane Waste via a Microwave-Assisted Glycolysis Process

In this work, we explored a microwave-assisted glycolysis process to chemically recycle rigid polyurethane (PU) foam waste to obtain a single-phase product with suitable physio-chemical properties as a secondary raw material for the preparation of new rigid PU products. Such an approach was compared to a conventionally heated (ConvH) process, analyzing the performances of different catalysts. The use of microwaves allowed a 94% decrease in the reaction time scale of rigid PU depolymerization, with a concurrent 45% reduction in energy expense. By using a PU/diethylene glycol mass ratio of 1.5, best performances were obtained with a 30 mmol/100gPU potassium acetate concentration, both in terms of the product viscosity and aromatic amine byproduct content. The glycolysis products recovered were employed in substitution to virgin polyol for rigid PU foam preparation, showing improved compressive strength and comparable thermal insulation properties up to a 30% content with respect to the traditional non-recycled counterpart

Inhibitor of NF- B Kinases and Are Both Essential for High Mobility Group Box 1-Mediated Chemotaxis

none15Inhibitor of NF-kappa B kinases beta (IKK beta) and alpha (IKK alpha) activate distinct NE-kappa B signaling modules. The IKK beta/canonical NF-kappa B pathway rapidly responds to stress-like conditions, whereas the IKK alpha/noncanonical pathway controls adaptive immunity. Moreover, IKK alpha can attenuate IKK beta-initiated inflammatory responses. High mobility group box 1 (HMGB1), a chromatin protein, is an extracellular signal of tissue damage-attracting cells in inflammation, tissue regeneration, and scar formation. We show that IKK alpha and IKK beta are each critically important for HMGB1-elicited chemotaxis of fibroblasts, macrophages, and neutrophils in vitro and neutrophils in vivo. By time-lapse microscopy we dissected different parameters of the HMGB1 migration response and found that IKK alpha and IKK beta are each essential to polarize cells toward HMGB1 and that each kinase also differentially affects cellular velocity in a time-dependent manner. In addition, HMGB1 modestly induces noncanonical IKK alpha-dependent p52 nuclear translocation and p52/RelB target gene expression. Akin to IKK alpha and IKK beta, p52 and RelB are also required for HMGB1 chemotaxis, and p52 is essential for cellular orientation toward an HMGB1 gradient. RAGE, a ubiquitously expressed HMGB1 receptor, is required for HMGB1 chemotaxis. Moreover, IKK beta, but not IKK alpha, is required for HMGB1 to induce RAGE mRNA, suggesting that RAGE is at least one IKK beta target involved in HMGB1 migration responses, and in accord with these results enforced RAGE expression rescues the HMGB1 migration defect of IKK beta, but not IKKa, null cells. Thus, proinflammatory HMGB1 chemotactic responses mechanistically require the differential collaboration of both IKK-dependent NF-kappa B signaling pathways.noneM. Penzo;R. Molteni;T. Suda;S. Samaniego;A. Raucci;D. M. Habiel;F. Miller;H. p. Jiang;J. Li;R. Pardi;R. Palumbo;E. Olivotto;R. R. Kew;M. E. Bianchi;K. B. MarcuM. Penzo;R. Molteni;T. Suda;S. Samaniego;A. Raucci;D. M. Habiel;F. Miller;H. p. Jiang;J. Li;R. Pardi;R. Palumbo;E. Olivotto;R. R. Kew;M. E. Bianchi;K. B. Marc

Thorough assessment of the effectiveness of belimumab in a large Spanish multicenter cohort of systemic lupus erythematosus patients

To provide an overview on the current use of belimumab (BLM) in SLE patients in clinical practice and to examine its efficacy in terms of standardized outcomes, drug survival, as well as patient and safety profiles.Funding was received from GlaxoSimthKline to support the statistical analysis of this work. Disclosure statement: I.A-G.: received payments for educa- tional talks from: GSK, AstraZeneca. J.M.P-R.: member of speakers’ bureau: Advisory boards for GSK, Otsuka, Astrazeneca, Gebro. Received grants/research support: Investigator Sponsorized Study Grant from GSK. Research support from Pfizer International (Competitive International Grants for Learning and Change). T.C.S-M.: received payments for educational talks and consulting activities from: GSK, Otzuka, Vifor. Received grants/research support: Investigator Sponsorized Study Grant from GSK. J.A.G-P.: received payments for educational talks from Abbvie, Astra Zeneca, GSK, Janssen, Lilly, Pfizer, Gala´ pagos and Otsuka. B.F-S.: received payments for educational talks from Abbvie, Astrazeneca, MSD and BMS for presentations. I.J.R-F.: received honoraria as speaker in GSK scientific meetings and as a member of advisory boards.Medicin

Highly-parallelized simulation of a pixelated LArTPC on a GPU

The rapid development of general-purpose computing on graphics processing units (GPGPU) is allowing the implementation of highly-parallelized Monte Carlo simulation chains for particle physics experiments. This technique is particularly suitable for the simulation of a pixelated charge readout for time projection chambers, given the large number of channels that this technology employs. Here we present the first implementation of a full microphysical simulator of a liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) equipped with light readout and pixelated charge readout, developed for the DUNE Near Detector. The software is implemented with an end-to-end set of GPU-optimized algorithms. The algorithms have been written in Python and translated into CUDA kernels using Numba, a just-in-time compiler for a subset of Python and NumPy instructions. The GPU implementation achieves a speed up of four orders of magnitude compared with the equivalent CPU version. The simulation of the current induced on $10^3$ pixels takes around 1 ms on the GPU, compared with approximately 10 s on the CPU. The results of the simulation are compared against data from a pixel-readout LArTPC prototype

The DUNE Far Detector Vertical Drift Technology, Technical Design Report

International audienceDUNE is an international experiment dedicated to addressing some of the questions at the forefront of particle physics and astrophysics, including the mystifying preponderance of matter over antimatter in the early universe. The dual-site experiment will employ an intense neutrino beam focused on a near and a far detector as it aims to determine the neutrino mass hierarchy and to make high-precision measurements of the PMNS matrix parameters, including the CP-violating phase. It will also stand ready to observe supernova neutrino bursts, and seeks to observe nucleon decay as a signature of a grand unified theory underlying the standard model. The DUNE far detector implements liquid argon time-projection chamber (LArTPC) technology, and combines the many tens-of-kiloton fiducial mass necessary for rare event searches with the sub-centimeter spatial resolution required to image those events with high precision. The addition of a photon detection system enhances physics capabilities for all DUNE physics drivers and opens prospects for further physics explorations. Given its size, the far detector will be implemented as a set of modules, with LArTPC designs that differ from one another as newer technologies arise. In the vertical drift LArTPC design, a horizontal cathode bisects the detector, creating two stacked drift volumes in which ionization charges drift towards anodes at either the top or bottom. The anodes are composed of perforated PCB layers with conductive strips, enabling reconstruction in 3D. Light-trap-style photon detection modules are placed both on the cryostat's side walls and on the central cathode where they are optically powered. This Technical Design Report describes in detail the technical implementations of each subsystem of this LArTPC that, together with the other far detector modules and the near detector, will enable DUNE to achieve its physics goals

Highly-parallelized simulation of a pixelated LArTPC on a GPU

The rapid development of general-purpose computing on graphics processing units (GPGPU) is allowing the implementation of highly-parallelized Monte Carlo simulation chains for particle physics experiments. This technique is particularly suitable for the simulation of a pixelated charge readout for time projection chambers, given the large number of channels that this technology employs. Here we present the first implementation of a full microphysical simulator of a liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) equipped with light readout and pixelated charge readout, developed for the DUNE Near Detector. The software is implemented with an end-to-end set of GPU-optimized algorithms. The algorithms have been written in Python and translated into CUDA kernels using Numba, a just-in-time compiler for a subset of Python and NumPy instructions. The GPU implementation achieves a speed up of four orders of magnitude compared with the equivalent CPU version. The simulation of the current induced on $10^3$ pixels takes around 1 ms on the GPU, compared with approximately 10 s on the CPU. The results of the simulation are compared against data from a pixel-readout LArTPC prototype

The DUNE Far Detector Vertical Drift Technology, Technical Design Report

International audienceDUNE is an international experiment dedicated to addressing some of the questions at the forefront of particle physics and astrophysics, including the mystifying preponderance of matter over antimatter in the early universe. The dual-site experiment will employ an intense neutrino beam focused on a near and a far detector as it aims to determine the neutrino mass hierarchy and to make high-precision measurements of the PMNS matrix parameters, including the CP-violating phase. It will also stand ready to observe supernova neutrino bursts, and seeks to observe nucleon decay as a signature of a grand unified theory underlying the standard model. The DUNE far detector implements liquid argon time-projection chamber (LArTPC) technology, and combines the many tens-of-kiloton fiducial mass necessary for rare event searches with the sub-centimeter spatial resolution required to image those events with high precision. The addition of a photon detection system enhances physics capabilities for all DUNE physics drivers and opens prospects for further physics explorations. Given its size, the far detector will be implemented as a set of modules, with LArTPC designs that differ from one another as newer technologies arise. In the vertical drift LArTPC design, a horizontal cathode bisects the detector, creating two stacked drift volumes in which ionization charges drift towards anodes at either the top or bottom. The anodes are composed of perforated PCB layers with conductive strips, enabling reconstruction in 3D. Light-trap-style photon detection modules are placed both on the cryostat's side walls and on the central cathode where they are optically powered. This Technical Design Report describes in detail the technical implementations of each subsystem of this LArTPC that, together with the other far detector modules and the near detector, will enable DUNE to achieve its physics goals