Mitochondrial caseinolytic protease p: A possible novel prognostic marker and therapeutic target in cancer

Caseinolytic protease P (ClpP) is a mitochondrial serine protease. In mammalian cells, the heterodimerization of ClpP and its AAA+ ClpX chaperone results in a complex called ClpXP, which has a relevant role in protein homeostasis and in maintaining mitochondrial functionality through the degradation of mitochondrial misfolded or damaged proteins. Recent studies demonstrate that ClpP is upregulated in primary and metastatic human tumors, supports tumor cell proliferation, and its overexpression desensitizes cells to cisplatin. Interestingly, small modulators of ClpP activity, both activators and inhibitors, are able to impair oxidative phosphorylation in cancer cells and to induce apoptosis. This review provides an overview of the role of ClpP in regulating mitochondrial functionality, in supporting tumor cell proliferation and cisplatin resistance; finally, we discuss whether this protease could represent a new prognostic marker and therapeutic target for the treatment of cancer

Numerical Investigation on mixture formation and combustion process of innovative piston bowl geometries in a swirl-supported light-duty diesel engine

In recent years, several innovative diesel combustion systems were developed and optimized in order to enhance the air and injected fuel mixing for engine e-ciency improvements and to mitigate the formation of fuel-rich regions for soot emissions reduction. With these aims, a three-dimensional computational fl uid dynamics (3D-CFD) numerical study was carried out in order to evaluate the impact of three di erent piston bowl geometries on a passenger car four-cylinder diesel engine, 1.6 liters. Once the numerical model was validated considering the baseline re-entrant bowl, two inno vative bowl geometries were defi ned: one based on the stepped-lip bowl; the other including a number of radial bumps equal to the nozzle holes number. Firstly, the rated power engine operating condition was investigated under nonreacting conditions to evaluate the piston bowl e ects on the in-cylinder mixing. Results highlight for both the innovative piston bowls better air utilization with respect to the re-entrant bowl: The stepped-lip bowl creates a dual toroidal vortex leading to a higher air/fuel mixing, while the radial-bumps bowl signifi cantly a ects the jet-To-jet interaction and promotes the recirculation of the fuel jet downstream to the bump, where the available oxygen enhances the mixing rate. After that, the combustion analysis was carried out for both rated power and partial-load engine operating conditions. Results confi rmed that thanks to the better air-fuel mixing, the combustion process can be improved thanks to the innovative bowl designs, both increasing the engine e-ciency at full-load condition and minimizing the engine-out soot emissions at partial-load operating point

Formation and evolution of clumpy tidal tails around globular clusters

We present some results of numerical simulations of a globular cluster orbiting in the central region of a triaxial galaxy on a set of 'loop' orbits. Tails start forming after about a quarter of the globular cluster orbital period and develop, in most cases, along the cluster orbit, showing clumpy substructures as observed, for example, in Palomar 5. If completely detectable, clumps can contain about 7,000 solar masses each, i.e. about 10% of the cluster mass at that epoch. The morphology of tails and clumps and the kinematical properties of stars in the tails are studied and compared with available observational data. Our finding is that the stellar velocity dispersion tends to level off at large radii, in agreement to that found for M15 and Omega Centauri.Comment: LaTeX 2e, uses AASTeX v5.x, 40 pages with 18 figures. Submitted to The Astronomical Journa

Numerical Assessment on the Influence of Engine Calibration Parameters on Innovative Piston Bowls Designed for Light-Duty Diesel Engines

The optimization of the piston bowl design has been shown to have a great potential for air–fuel mixing improvement, leading to significant fuel consumption and pollutant emissions reductions for diesel engines. With this aim, a conventional re-entrant bowl for a 1.6 L light-duty diesel engine was compared with two innovative piston designs: a stepped-lip bowl and a radial-bumps bowl. The potential benefits of these innovative bowls were assessed through 3D-CFD simulations, featuring a calibrated spray model and detailed chemistry. To analyse the impact of these innovative designs, two different engine operating conditions were scrutinized, corresponding to the rated power and a partial load, respectively. Under the rated power engine operating condition, a start of injection sensitivity was then carried out to assess the optimal spray–wall interaction. Results highlighted that, thanks to optimal injection phasing, faster mixing-controlled combustion could be reached with both the innovative designs. Moreover, the requirements in terms of swirl were also investigated, and a higher swirl ratio was found to be necessary to improve the mixing process, especially for the radial-bumps design. Finally, at part-load operating conditions, different exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) rates were analysed for two injection pressure levels. The stepped-lip and radial-bumps bowls highlighted reduced indicated specific fuel consumption (ISFC) and soot emissions values over different rail pressure levels, guaranteeing NOx control thanks to the higher EGR tolerance compared with the re-entrant bowl. The results suggested the great potential of the investigated innovative bowls for improving efficiency and reducing emissions, thus paving the way for further possible optimization through the combination of these designs

Plasduino: an inexpensive, general purpose data acquisition framework for educational experiments

Based on the Arduino development platform, Plasduino is an open-source data acquisition framework specifically designed for educational physics experiments. The source code, schematics and documentation are in the public domain under a GPL license and the system, streamlined for low cost and ease of use, can be replicated on the scale of a typical didactic lab with minimal effort. We describe the basic architecture of the system and illustrate its potential with some real-life examples.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figures, presented at the XCIX conference of the Societ\`a Italiana di Fisic

Numerical Assessment of Additive Manufacturing-Enabled Innovative Piston Bowl Design for a Light-Duty Diesel Engine Achieving Ultra-Low Engine-Out Soot Emissions

The design of diesel engine piston bowls plays a fundamental role in the optimization of the combustion process, to achieve ultra-low soot emissions. With this aim, an innovative piston bowl design for a 1.6-liter light-duty diesel engine was developed through a steel-based additive manufacturing (AM) technique, featuring both a sharp step and radial bumps in the inner bowl rim. The potential benefits of the proposed hybrid bowl were assessed through a validated three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (3D-CFD) model, including a calibrated spray model and detailed chemistry. Firstly, the optimal spray targeting was identified for the novel hybrid bowl over different injector protrusions and two swirl ratio (SR) levels. Considering the optimal spray targeting, an analysis of the combustion process was carried out over different engine working points, both in terms of flame-wall interaction and soot formation. At rated power engine operating conditions, the hybrid bowl highlighted faster mixing-controlled combustion due to the reduced flame-to-flame interaction and the higher air entrainment into the flame front. At partial-load operating points, the hybrid bowl showed a remarkable soot reduction in comparison with the re-entrant bowl due to a more intense soot oxidation rate in the late combustion phase. Moreover, for the hybrid bowl, a robust Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) tolerance was highlighted, leading to a flat soot-brake-specific oxides of nitrogen (BSNOx) trade-off. At constant BSNOx, a 70% soot reduction was achieved without any detrimental effect on fuel consumption, suggesting the high potential of the proposed innovative bowl for soot attenuation

Numerical and optical soot characterization through 2-color pyrometry technique for an innovative diesel piston bowl design

The development of innovative diesel piston bowl designs has shown significant improvement of the near-wall flame evolution, resulting in lower fuel consumption and engine-out soot emissions. With this aim, a novel hybrid piston bowl for a 1.6 L light-duty diesel engine was designed, coupling a sharp-stepped bowl and radial-bumps in the inner bowl rim. The effects of the proposed hybrid bowl were analysed through both single-cylinder optical engine and 3D-CFD models, which feature a detailed chemical kinetic mechanism and the Particulate Mimic (PM) soot model. The 2-color pyrometry optical technique was adopted to obtain the optical soot density (KL) and the temperature of the soot surface. Then, a line-of-sight integration of the numerical soot distribution was adopted to obtain a planar KL distribution, which is directly comparable with the experimental KL images. The results showed a good agreement in terms of soot distribution between 3D-CFD and experiments, confirming the high prediction capabilities of the developed numerical methodology. The synergetic application of numerical and optical techniques highlighted that the hybrid bowl strongly mitigates the flame-to-flame interaction with respect to a conventional re-entrant bowl, leading to lower soot formation in the flame collision area. Moreover, faster flame propagation toward the cylinder axis is highlighted with a consequent higher soot oxidation rate in the late combustion phase

The Megamaser Cosmology Project. X. High Resolution Maps and Mass Constraint for SMBHs

We present high resolution (sub-mas) VLBI maps of nuclear H2O megamasers for seven galaxies. In UGC6093, the well-aligned systemic masers and high-velocity masers originate in an edge-on, flat disk and we determine the mass of the central SMBH to be M_SMBH = 2.58*10^7Msun(+-7%). For J1346+5228, the distribution of masers is consistent with a disk, but the faint high-velocity masers are only marginally detected, and we constrain the mass of the SMBH to be in the range 1.5-2.0*10^7Msun. The origin of the masers in Mrk1210 is less clear, as the systemic and high-velocity masers are misaligned and show a disorganized velocity structure. We present one possible model in which the masers originate in a tilted, warped disk, but we do not rule out the possibility of other explanations including outflow masers. In NGC6926, we detect a set of redshifted masers, clustered within a pc of each other, and a single blueshifted maser about 4.4pc away, an offset that would be unusually large for a maser disk system. Nevertheless, if it is a disk system, we estimate the enclosed mass to be M_SMBH<4.8*10^7 Msun . For NGC5793, we detect redshifted masers spaced about 1.4pc from a clustered set of blueshifted features. The orientation of the structure supports a disk scenario as suggested by Hagiwara et al.(2001). We estimate the enclosed mass to be M SMBH<1.3*10^7 Msun. For NGC2824 and J0350-0127, the masers may be associated with pc or sub-pc scale jets or outflows.Comment: Accepted by Ap