EXPERIMENTAL DETERMINATION OF LAMINAR BURNING VELOCITY OF BIOGAS AT PRESSURES UP TO 5 BAR

This paper presents a very detailed description of a new cylindrical constant volume combustion chamber designed for laminar burning velocity determination of gaseous mixtures at ambient temperature and initial pressure up to 6 bar. The experimental setup, the experimental procedure and the determination of the range of flame radius for laminar burning determination are all described in details. The laminar burning velocity of twelve synthetic biogas mixtures has been studied. Initial pressure varying between 1 and 5 bar, equivalence ratios, f, between 0.7 and 1.1 and percentage dilution, with a mixture of CO2 and N2, between 35 and 55% have been considered. Five experiments were run for each mixture providing a maximum percentage standard deviation of 8.11%. However, for two third of the mixtures this value is lower than 3.55%. A comparison with simulation using PREMIX for both GRI-Mech 3.0 and San Diego mechanisms has provided closer agreement for mixtures with equivalence ratio closer to stoichiometry whereas for f = 0.7 the deviation is larger than 15% for all pressures. Mixtures with lower equivalence ratio, higher dilution percentage and higher initial pressure presents the lower values of laminar burning velocity

Bi-Objective Community Detection (BOCD) in Networks using Genetic Algorithm

A lot of research effort has been put into community detection from all corners of academic interest such as physics, mathematics and computer science. In this paper I have proposed a Bi-Objective Genetic Algorithm for community detection which maximizes modularity and community score. Then the results obtained for both benchmark and real life data sets are compared with other algorithms using the modularity and MNI performance metrics. The results show that the BOCD algorithm is capable of successfully detecting community structure in both real life and synthetic datasets, as well as improving upon the performance of previous techniques.Comment: 11 pages, 3 Figures, 3 Tables. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:0906.061

PARP inhibitors affect growth, survival and radiation susceptibility of human alveolar and embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma cell lines

PARP inhibitors (PARPi) are used in a wide range of human solid tumours but a limited evidence is reported in rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS), the most frequent childhood soft-tissue sarcoma. The cellular and molecular effects of Olaparib, a specific PARP1/2 inhibitor, and AZD2461, a newly synthesized PARP1/2/3 inhibitor, were assessed in alveolar and embryonal RMS cells both as single-agent and in combination with ionizing radiation (IR)

Quality of life assessment in elderly patients with aggressive non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma treated with anthracycline-containing regimens. Report of a prospective study by the Intergruppo Italiano Linfomi

Background and Objectives. The aim of this study was to evaluate quality of life (QOL) in a group of elderly patients ( > 65 years) with aggressive non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) treated with chemotherapy regimens containing anthracyclines. Design and Methods. QOL was evaluated in a population of elderly patients with aggressive NHL enrolled in a phase III clinical trial run by the Intergruppo Italiano Linfomi (11L) from 1996 to 1999 to compare two different anthracycline-containing regimens (mini-CEOP vs P-VEBEC). The EORTC-QLQ-C30 questionnaire, which has already been validated in oncology, was used. The questionnaire was administered at the time of diagnosis, half way through the chemotherapy and at the time of restaging. Results. Ninety-one patients completed pre-therapy and post-therapy questionnaires and they are the subject of this report. Baseline QOL assessment showed a strong correlation of poor values of QOL with anemia and high risk according to the International Prognostic Index (IPI). At the end of treatment no functional scales showed worse values. A significant improvement was observed for pain (p = 0.003), appetite (p = 0.006), sleep (p = 0.015) and global health (p = 0.027). Considering only the 50 patients who achieved a complete remission (CR), an improvement was also recorded for emotional state (p = 0.10), role (P = 0.05), constipation (p = 0.04) and global QOL (p = 0.05). Interpretation and Conclusions. The EORTC-QLQ-C30 is feasible even in a population of elderly patients, in whom it had never been tested before. The improvement of QOL at the end of the treatment demonstrated that the symptoms of the disease have a greater negative influence on the patient's life than do the side effects of the therapy

Cytochalasin B Influences Cytoskeletal Organization and Osteogenic Potential of Human Wharton's Jelly Mesenchymal Stem Cells

Among perinatal stem cells of the umbilical cord, human Wharton's jelly mesenchymal stem cells (hWJ-MSCs) are of great interest for cell-based therapy approaches in regenerative medicine, showing some advantages over other MSCs. In fact, hWJ-MSCs, placed between embryonic and adult MSCs, are not tumorigenic and are harvested with few ethical concerns. Furthermore, these cells can be easily cultured in vitro, maintaining both stem properties and a high proliferative rate for several passages, as well as trilineage capacity of differentiation. Recently, it has been demonstrated that cytoskeletal organization influences stem cell biology. Among molecules able to modulate its dynamics, Cytochalasin B (CB), a cyto-permeable mycotoxin, influences actin microfilament polymerization, thus affecting several cell properties, such as the ability of MSCs to differentiate towards a specific commitment. Here, we investigated for the first time the effects of a 24 h-treatment with CB at different concentrations (0.1-3 mu M) on hWJ-MSCs. CB influenced the cytoskeletal organization in a dose-dependent manner, inducing changes in cell number, proliferation, shape, and nanomechanical properties, thus promoting the osteogenic commitment of hWJ-MSCs, as confirmed by the expression analysis of osteogenic/autophagy markers

Cytochalasin B Influences Cytoskeletal Organization and Osteogenic Potential of Human Wharton’s Jelly Mesenchymal Stem Cells

Among perinatal stem cells of the umbilical cord, human Wharton’s jelly mesenchymal stem cells (hWJ-MSCs) are of great interest for cell-based therapy approaches in regenerative medicine, showing some advantages over other MSCs. In fact, hWJ-MSCs, placed between embryonic and adult MSCs, are not tumorigenic and are harvested with few ethical concerns. Furthermore, these cells can be easily cultured in vitro, maintaining both stem properties and a high proliferative rate for several passages, as well as trilineage capacity of differentiation. Recently, it has been demonstrated that cytoskeletal organization influences stem cell biology. Among molecules able to modulate its dynamics, Cytochalasin B (CB), a cyto-permeable mycotoxin, influences actin microfilament polymerization, thus affecting several cell properties, such as the ability of MSCs to differentiate towards a specific commitment. Here, we investigated for the first time the effects of a 24 h-treatment with CB at different concentrations (0.1–3 μM) on hWJ-MSCs. CB influenced the cytoskeletal organization in a dose-dependent manner, inducing changes in cell number, proliferation, shape, and nanomechanical properties, thus promoting the osteogenic commitment of hWJ-MSCs, as confirmed by the expression analysis of osteogenic/autophagy markers

An observational study to assess Italian obstetrics providers' knowledge about preventive practices and diagnosis of congenital cytomegalovirus

Congenital cytomegalovirus (cCMV) infection can be easily prevented by hygienic measures. Up to date the majority of the studies in literature highlighted a reduction in cCMV antenatal counseling and its prevention. Our purpose was to evaluate obstetrics providers' knowledge about cCMV infection, management and the behavioral practices to avoid it. This is a cross-sectional survey carried out in Umberto I Hospital, "Sapienza"University of Rome between November 2019 and January 2020. We recruited 148 specialists and residents in Obstetrics and Gynecology through online anonymous multiple-choice 13-questions, 10 min-survey comparing responses between the two groups. A total of 94.6% of all participants said they always prescribe cytomegalovirus (CMV) serum screening: 73.6% of them regularly counsel about preventive practices, with specialists recording higher percentages (85.4 vs. 65.1%, p<0.005). We identified a good knowledge about the diagnostic pathway, but only 58.1% of our population knows the correct time of late amniocentesis. 12.2% of providers do not consider magnetic resonance (MRI) as a complementary exam. Prevention of maternal seroconversion is crucial: even if our data show an acceptable knowledge about antenatal counseling, we encourage clinicians to firmly inform and educate women about behavioral measures

Dimeric Self-assembling via Hydrogen Bonding and Emissive Behavior of a New Copper (I) Complex

This work describes the synthesis, structural characterization and emissive behavior of a new copper (I) complex based on 1-thiocarbamoyl-5-(4-methoxiphenyl)-3-phenyl-4,5-dihydro-1H-pyrazole ligand. A dimeric self-assembling via hydrogen bonding was determined by analyzing the short contacts present in the solid-state structure by means of X-ray crystallography. The spectroscopic properties were determined using UV-Vis and fluorescence experiments and an interesting behavior as bluish luminescence was assigned mainly to the mixed (MLCT + IL) electronic transitions of the Cu(I)d10 ® (S=C–Nligand) type. The complete characterization of the new copper (I) complex also included elemental analyses and IR spectroscopy. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17807/orbital.v9i1.95