Anti-osteoporosis effect of Notopterygium incisum Ting ex H. T. Chang extract in rats

Purpose: To investigate the effect of Notopterygium incisum Ting ex H.T. Chang extract (NICE) on ovariectomy-induced osteoporosis in rats. Methods: Female Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly assigned to a normal group (control) and five ovariectomy (OVX) subgroups: OVX with vehicle (OVX), OVX with positive control drug alendronate sodium tablets (1.8 mg/kg/week), and OVX with varying NICE doses (45, 90, or 180 mg/kg/day). After rats were subjected to ovariectomy for 4 weeks, alendronate or NICE were administered orally daily for 16 weeks. The bone mineral density (BMD) of the L4 vertebrae and right femurs of all rats was estimated. The serum hormones estradiol (E2), follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH) levels and serum alkaline phosphatase (ALP), osteocalcin (OC) and telopeptides of collagen type I (CTx) levels of rats were detrmined. Results: The results show that NICE dose-dependently inhibited bone mineral density (BMD) reduction of L4 vertebrae and femurs (p < 0.05). Compared with OVX group, serum E2, FSH and LH levels was significantly increased in osteoporosis rats (p < 0.01), but serum ALP, CTx, and OC concentrations were significantly lower (p < 0.05). On the other hand, bone trabeculae in the three NICE groups and nilestriol group were all wider, while the space and connections increased. Conclusion: These findings indicate that NICE mitigates OVX-induced osteoporosis in rats, and hence can potentially be developed for the management of osteoporosis

Techno-Economic Analysis of Biodiesel Production from Microalgae: A Review

The development of the microalgae-based biodiesel technology has become a hot research topic in the bioenergy field in recent years. Presently, the technical possibility of the conversion of microalgae to biodiesel has been confirmed at the laboratory scale. The fundamental issues impeding the industrialization of microalgae-based biodiesel include the high cost of production and the lack of research on the scaling-up technology. In this paper, the technical challenges and economic aspects of biodiesel production from microalgae were analyzed. It was found that the production cost of microalgae-based biodiesel mainly come from three processes: microalgae cultivation, harvest, and lipid extraction, among which microalgae cultivation represented the highest cost. Finally, the prospect of the industrialization of the microalgae-based biodiesel was proposed. Citation: Junying Chen, Qingliang Li, Chun Chang, Jing Bai, Liping Liu, Shuqi Fang ,Hongliang Li, Techno-Economic Analysis of Biodiesel Production from Microalgae: A Review, Trends in Renewable Energy, 2017, 3(2): 141-52. DOI: 10.17737/tre.2017.3.2.003

Bioaerosol Deposition on an Air-Conditioning Cooling Coil

This study is concerned with the role of a fin-and-tube heat exchanger in modifying microbial indoor air quality. Specifically, depositional losses of ambient bioaerosols and particles onto dry (not cooled) and wet (cool) coil surfaces were measured for different airspeeds passing through the test coil. Total, bacterial and fungal DNA concentrations in condensate water produced by a wet coil were also quantified by means of fluorescent dsDNA-binding dye and qPCR assays. Results revealed that the deposition of bioaerosols and total particles is substantial on coil surfaces, especially when wet and cool. The average deposition fraction was 0.14 for total DNA, 0.18 for bacterial DNA and 0.22 for fungal DNA on the dry coil, increasing to 0.51 for total DNA, 0.50 for bacterial DNA and 0.68 for fungal DNA on the wet coil. Overall, as expected, deposition fractions increased with increasing particle size and increasing airspeed. Deposited DNA was removed from the cooling coil surfaces through the flow of condensing water at a rate comparable to the rate of direct deposition from air. A downward trend of bacterial and fungal DNA measured in condensate water over time provides suggestive evidence of biological growth on heat exchangers during nonoperational times of a ventilation system. This investigation provides new information about bioaerosol deposition onto a conventional fin-and-tube cooling coil, a potentially important factor influencing indoor exposure to microbial aerosols in air-conditioned buildings

A novel method for mining highly imbalanced high-throughput screening data in PubChem

Motivation: The comprehensive information of small molecules and their biological activities in PubChem brings great opportunities for academic researchers. However, mining high-throughput screening (HTS) assay data remains a great challenge given the very large data volume and the highly imbalanced nature with only small number of active compounds compared to inactive compounds. Therefore, there is currently a need for better strategies to work with HTS assay data. Moreover, as luciferase-based HTS technology is frequently exploited in the assays deposited in PubChem, constructing a computational model to distinguish and filter out potential interference compounds for these assays is another motivation

Prediction of potential drug targets based on simple sequence properties

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>During the past decades, research and development in drug discovery have attracted much attention and efforts. However, only 324 drug targets are known for clinical drugs up to now. Identifying potential drug targets is the first step in the process of modern drug discovery for developing novel therapeutic agents. Therefore, the identification and validation of new and effective drug targets are of great value for drug discovery in both academia and pharmaceutical industry. If a protein can be predicted in advance for its potential application as a drug target, the drug discovery process targeting this protein will be greatly speeded up. In the current study, based on the properties of known drug targets, we have developed a sequence-based drug target prediction method for fast identification of novel drug targets.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Based on simple physicochemical properties extracted from protein sequences of known drug targets, several support vector machine models have been constructed in this study. The best model can distinguish currently known drug targets from non drug targets at an accuracy of 84%. Using this model, potential protein drug targets of human origin from Swiss-Prot were predicted, some of which have already attracted much attention as potential drug targets in pharmaceutical research.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We have developed a drug target prediction method based solely on protein sequence information without the knowledge of family/domain annotation, or the protein 3D structure. This method can be applied in novel drug target identification and validation, as well as genome scale drug target predictions.</p

Indoor and outdoor particles in an air-conditioned building during and after the 2013 haze in Singapore

Particles released from biomass burning can contribute to severe air pollution. We monitored indoor and outdoor particles in a mechanically ventilated and air-conditioned building during and after the 2013 haze event in Singapore. Continuous monitoring of time-and size-resolved particles in the diameter range 0.01-10 μm was conducted for two weeks in each sampling campaign. During the haze event, the averaged size-resolved outdoor particle volume concentrations (dV/d(logDp)) for diameters larger than 0.3 μm were considerably higher than those during the post-haze days (9-185 μm3 cm-3 versus 1-35 μm3 cm-3). However, the average number concentration of particles with diameters in the range 10-200 nm was substantially lower on the hazy days than on the post-haze days (11,400 to 14,300 particles cm-3 for hazy days, versus an average of 23,700 particles cm-3 on post-haze days). The building mechanical ventilation system, equipped with MERV 7 filters, attenuated the penetration and persistence of outdoor particles into the monitored building. Indoor particle concentrations, in the diameter ranges 0.3-1.0 μm and 1.0-2.5 μm, closely tracked the corresponding patterns of outdoor particle concentrations. For particles in the size range 0.01-1.0 μm, the size-resolved mean indoor/outdoor (I/O) ratios were in the range 0.12-0.65 with the highest mean I/O ratio at 0.3 μm (0.59 in AC on mode and 0.64 in AC off mode). The air conditioning and mechanical ventilation system with MERV 7 filters provided low single-pass removal efficiency (less than ~ 30%) for particles with diameters of 0.01-1.0 μm. During the haze, for particles larger than ~0.2 μm, lower I/O ratios and higher removal efficiencies occurred with the air conditioning operating as compared to with mechanical ventilation only. This observation suggests the possibility of particle loss to air conditioning system surfaces, possibly enhanced by thermophoretic or diffusiophoretic effects

Determination of Narrow Coal Pillar Width and Roadway Surrounding Rock Support Technology in Gob Driving Roadway

In order to determine the rational width of coal pillars and study the surrounding rock control technology of gob side entry driving with a narrow coal pillar, this paper first calculates the width of narrow coal pillar according to limit equilibrium theory; after that, the lateral support pressure and plastic zone development of the goaf is analyzed by numerical simulation to determine the rational width of reserved coal pillar; finally, through the ring breaking deformation regulation of surrounding rock of the gob side entry, the deformation and failure characteristics of the gob-side roadway during excavation and the influence of mining on the deformation and failure of the gob-side roadway are analyzed. The research results show that, combined with theoretical analysis and numerical simulation, the width of narrow coal pillar is decided to be 10 m; the deformation of the coal pillar side of the gob side roadway is much bigger than the roof subsidence, the deformation of the solid coal wall and the floor deformation; after the bolt support design of the gob side roadway, the deformation and damage of the gob side roadway during the driving period is small; during mining, the deformation of the narrow coal pillar wall is the key factor to determine the stability of the gob roadway; under the bolt support scheme, the overall deformation and failure of surrounding rock of the goaf roadway is small, and the control effect of the surrounding rock of the goaf roadway is good

Analysis on Water Inrush Prevention Mechanism of Paste-Filled Floor above Confined Water

To study the influence of filling step and advancing distance on the deformation and failure of a working face floor, a mechanical model based on elastic foundation beam theory is established. The deflection and bending moment curves of the floor under different filling steps and advancing distance are obtained by Maple. Then, a fluid&ndash;solid coupling model of paste-filling mining on confined water is established by FLAC3D. The effects of different filling steps and advancing distance on the floor displacement, stress, and plastic zone of the floor are analyzed. The results show that there is a &ldquo;concave&rdquo; quadratic relationship between the filling step and the maximum displacement of the floor, and there is a &ldquo;convex&rdquo; quadratic relationship between the advancing distance and the maximum displacement of the floor. The maximum stress of the floor increases linearly with the increase in filling distance and tends to be stable with the increase in advancing distance. Moreover, the increase in filling steps will lead to the continuous increase in longitudinal failure. This study could guide paste-filling mining above confined water

Research on the width of filling body in gob-side entry retaining with high-water materials

To determine the filling body’s width along the gob-side remained roadway which is underneath the gob, the authors analyzed the interaction mechanism between the roof and the supporting body along the remained roadway, based on the elastic thin plate theory of the stope roof. The stress state and mechanical response of the filling body along the remained roadway were studied. Specifically, firstly, the supporting pressure of the coal pillar which is on one side of the gob-side remained roadway was deduced. Also, an equation that is used to calculate the width of the balance area in the stress limit state was acquired. Then, an equation that is used to calculate the roof cutting force on one side of the supporting body was obtained. By using FLAC3D, the authors investigated the displacement field and stress field response laws of rock masses around the roadway with different filling body’s widths. The results show that with the filling body’s width increasing, the supporting ability of the filling body increases. Meanwhile, the rock mass displacement around the roadway and the filling body deformation decrease. The better the filling body’s supporting effect is, the higher the roof cutting force will be. When the filling body’s width is larger than 3.0 m, its internal bearing ability becomes stable and the filling body’s deformation became non-apparent. Finally, analysis shows that the filling body’s width should be 2.5 m. Furthermore, the authors conducted field tests in the supply roadway 1204, using high-water materials and acquired expected outcomes. Keywords: Gob-side entry retaining, High-water materials, Numerical simulation, Support along the roadwa

Anchoring mechanism and application of hydraulic expansion bolts used in soft rock roadway floor heave control

Comparing with the resin bolt, the hydraulic expansion bolt has different anchoring mechanism and application advantage. According to the working mechanism of the hydraulic expansion bolt, its anchoring force is expressed in four forms including support anchoring force, tension anchoring force, expansion anchoring force and tangent anchoring force, and their values can be obtained on the basis of each calculation formula. Among them, the expansion anchoring force, which is the unique anchoring force of the hydraulic expansion bolt, can provide confining pressure to increase the strength of rock. Aiming at solving the problem of stability control in the soft rock roadway in Jinbaotun Coal Mine which has a double layer of 40 U-type sheds and cannot provide enough resistance support to control floor heave, the study reveals the mechanism of floor heave in the soft rock roadway, and designs the reasonable support parameters of the hydraulic expansion bolts. The observed results of floor convergence indicate that the hydraulic expansion bolts can prevent the development and flow of the plastic zone in the floor rock to control floor heave. Research results enrich the control technology in the soft rock roadway. Keywords: Hydraulic expansion bolt, Anchoring force, Soft rock roadway, Floor heave, Shed suppor