2,560 research outputs found
Effect of benzamide on the corrosion inhibition of mild steel in sulphuric acid
The effect of benzamide as a chemical inhibitor on mild steel corrosion in 0.5M H2SO4 was studied at ambient temperature. The experimental work was performed with gravimetric and potentiostatic polarization measurement methods. Potentiostatic polarization measurement was performed with a potentiostat (Autolab PGSTAT 30ECOCHIMIE) interfaced with a computer for data acquisition and analysis. The benzamide inhibitor achieved very effective corrosion inhibition of the steel specimens in the H2SO4 test medium. The inhibition performance increased with increasing concentration of the inhibitor. Benzamideâs best performance was achieved with the 4 g 200 mLâ1 H2SO4 concentration and closely followed by the 3 g 200 mLâ1 of the H2SO4. In 0.5 MH2SO4, the 4 g and 3 g 200 mLâ1 H2SO4 gave the optimal performance with weight loss of 2.99 g at 480 h of the experiment, respectively. The corrosion rate for 4 gâs was 6.4mmyrâ1. The experiment also achieved polarization resistance values of 3.98 and 2.37E+01Ί; corrosion rate,CR, of 7.48E+00 and 1.26E+01mmyrâ1 and current density (Icorr) values of 6.45Eâ04 and 1.08E â 03A cmâ2, respectively. The corrosion inhibition efficiency values are, respectively, 60 and 70 % for both 3 g and 4 g 200 mLâ1 H2SO4 concentrations at 48 h.Results of ba and bc indicated a mixed type inhibitor. Benzamide adsorption on the steelâs surface obeys the Freundlich adsorption isotherm.Keywords: Electrochemical corrosion, benzamide, inhibitor, sulphuric acid, mild steel, polarizatio
Identification of epidermal Pdx1 expression discloses different roles of Notch1 and Notch2 in murine KrasG12D-induced skin carcinogenesis in vivo
Background
The Ras and Notch signaling pathways are frequently activated during development to control many diverse cellular processes and are often dysregulated during tumorigenesis. To study the role of Notch and oncogenic Kras signaling in a progenitor cell population, Pdx1-Cre mice were utilized to generate conditional oncogenic KrasG12D mice with ablation of Notch1 and/or Notch2.
Methodology/Principal Findings
Surprisingly, mice with activated KrasG12D and Notch1 but not Notch2 ablation developed skin papillomas progressing to squamous cell carcinoma providing evidence for Pdx1 expression in the skin. Immunostaining and lineage tracing experiments indicate that PDX1 is present predominantly in the suprabasal layers of the epidermis and rarely in the basal layer. Further analysis of keratinocytes in vitro revealed differentiation-dependent expression of PDX1 in terminally differentiated keratinocytes. PDX1 expression was also increased during wound healing. Further analysis revealed that loss of Notch1 but not Notch2 is critical for skin tumor development. Reasons for this include distinct Notch expression with Notch1 in all layers and Notch2 in the suprabasal layer as well as distinctive p21 and β-catenin signaling inhibition capabilities.
Conclusions/Significance
Our results provide strong evidence for epidermal expression of Pdx1 as of yet not identified function. In addition, this finding may be relevant for research using Pdx1-Cre transgenic strains. Additionally, our study confirms distinctive expression and functions of Notch1 and Notch2 in the skin supporting the importance of careful dissection of the contribution of individual Notch receptors
Darinaparsin Is a Multivalent Chemotherapeutic Which Induces Incomplete Stress Response with Disruption of Microtubules and Shh Signaling
Chemotherapeutics and other pharmaceuticals are common sources of cellular stress. Darinaparsin (ZIO-101) is a novel organic arsenical under evaluation as a cancer chemotherapeutic, but the drug's precise mechanism of action is unclear. Stress granule formation is an important cellular stress response, but the mechanisms of formation, maintenance, and dispersal of RNA-containing granules are not fully understood. During stress, small, diffuse granules initially form throughout the cytoplasm. These granules then coalesce near the nucleus into larger granules that disperse once the cellular stress is removed. Complete stress granule formation is dependent upon microtubules. Human cervical cancer (HeLa) cells, pre-treated with nocodazole for microtubule depolymerization, formed only small, diffuse stress granules upon sodium arsenite treatment. Darinaparsin, as a single agent, also induced the formation of small, diffuse stress granules, an effect similar to that of the combination of nocodazole with sodium arsenite. Darinaparsin inhibited the polymerization of microtubules both in vivo and in vitro. Interestingly, upon removal of darinaparsin, the small, diffuse stress granules completed formation with coalescence in the perinuclear region prior to disassembly. These results indicate that RNA stress granules must complete formation prior to disassembly, and completion of stress granule formation is dependent upon microtubules. Finally, treatment of cells with darinaparsin led to a reduction in Sonic hedgehog (Shh) stimulated activation of Gli1 and a loss of primary cilia. Therefore, darinaparsin represents a unique multivalent chemotherapeutic acting on stress induction, microtubule polymerization, and Shh signaling
Size of Fireballs Created in High Energy Lead-Lead Collisions as Inferred from Coulomb Distortions of Pion Spectra
We compute the Coulomb effects produced by an expanding, highly charged
fireball on the momentum distribution of pions. We compare our results to data
on Au+Au at 11.6 A GeV from E866 at the BNL AGS and to data on Pb+Pb at 158 A
GeV from NA44 at the CERN SPS. We conclude that the distortion of the spectra
at low transverse momentum and mid-rapidity can be explained in both
experiments by the effect of the large amount of participating charge in the
central rapidity region. By adjusting the fireball expansion velocity to match
the average transverse momentum of protons, we find a best fit when the
fireball radius is about 10 fm, as determined by the moment when the pions
undergo their last scattering. This value is common to both the AGS and CERN
experiments.Comment: Enlarged discussion, new references added, includes new analysis of
pi-/pi+ at AGS energies. 12 pages 5 figures, uses LaTex and epsfi
Determining the Cosmic Distance Scale from Interferometric Measurements of the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect
We determine the distances to 18 galaxy clusters with redshifts ranging from
z~0.14 to z~0.78 from a maximum likelihood joint analysis of 30 GHz
interferometric Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect (SZE) and X-ray observations. We
model the intracluster medium (ICM) using a spherical isothermal beta model. We
quantify the statistical and systematic uncertainties inherent to these direct
distance measurements, and we determine constraints on the Hubble parameter for
three different cosmologies. These distances imply a Hubble constant of 60 (+4,
-4) (+13, -18) km s-1 Mpc-1 for an Omega_M = 0.3, Omega_Lambda = 0.7 cosmology,
where the uncertainties correspond to statistical followed by systematic at 68%
confidence. With a sample of 18 clusters, systematic uncertainties clearly
dominate. The systematics are observationally approachable and will be
addressed in the coming years through the current generation of X-ray
satellites (Chandra & XMM-Newton) and radio observatories (OVRO, BIMA, & VLA).
Analysis of high redshift clusters detected in future SZE and X-ray surveys
will allow a determination of the geometry of the universe from SZE determined
distances.Comment: ApJ Submitted; 40 pages, 9 figures (fig 3 B&W for size constraint),
13 tables, uses emulateapj5 styl
Chronic pain, perceived stress, and cellular aging: an exploratory study
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Chronic pain conditions are characterized by significant individual variability complicating the identification of pathophysiological markers. Leukocyte telomere length (TL), a measure of cellular aging, is associated with age-related disease onset, psychosocial stress, and health-related functional decline. Psychosocial stress has been associated with the onset of chronic pain and chronic pain is experienced as a physical and psychosocial stressor. However, the utility of TL as a biological marker reflecting the burden of chronic pain and psychosocial stress has not yet been explored.</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>The relationship between chronic pain, stress, and TL was analyzed in 36 ethnically diverse, older adults, half of whom reported no chronic pain and the other half had chronic knee osteoarthritis (OA) pain. Subjects completed a physical exam, radiographs, health history, and psychosocial questionnaires. Blood samples were collected and TL was measured by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). Four groups were identified characterized by pain status and the Perceived Stress Scale scores: 1) no pain/low stress, 2) no pain/high stress, chronic pain/low stress, and 4) chronic pain/high stress. TL differed between the pain/stress groups (<it>p </it>= 0.01), controlling for relevant covariates. Specifically, the chronic pain/high stress group had significantly shorter TL compared to the no pain/low stress group. Age was negatively correlated with TL, particularly in the chronic pain/high stress group (<it>p </it>= 0.03).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Although preliminary in nature and based on a modest sample size, these findings indicate that cellular aging may be more pronounced in older adults experiencing high levels of perceived stress and chronic pain.</p
Feasibility of Universal Anomaly Detection without Knowing the Abnormality in Medical Images
Many anomaly detection approaches, especially deep learning methods, have
been recently developed to identify abnormal image morphology by only employing
normal images during training. Unfortunately, many prior anomaly detection
methods were optimized for a specific "known" abnormality (e.g., brain tumor,
bone fraction, cell types). Moreover, even though only the normal images were
used in the training process, the abnormal images were often employed during
the validation process (e.g., epoch selection, hyper-parameter tuning), which
might leak the supposed ``unknown" abnormality unintentionally. In this study,
we investigated these two essential aspects regarding universal anomaly
detection in medical images by (1) comparing various anomaly detection methods
across four medical datasets, (2) investigating the inevitable but often
neglected issues on how to unbiasedly select the optimal anomaly detection
model during the validation phase using only normal images, and (3) proposing a
simple decision-level ensemble method to leverage the advantage of different
kinds of anomaly detection without knowing the abnormality. The results of our
experiments indicate that none of the evaluated methods consistently achieved
the best performance across all datasets. Our proposed method enhanced the
robustness of performance in general (average AUC 0.956)
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Beyond words: Aesthetic knowledge and knowing in design
Aesthetic knowledge comes from practitioners understanding the look, feel, smell, taste and sound of things. It is vital to work in many organizational contexts. In this paper, we explore aesthetic knowledge and knowing in organizations through detailed observation of design work in the architectural practice Edward Cullinan Architects. Through our research, we explore aesthetic knowledge in the context of architectural work, we unpack what it is, how it is generated, and how it is applied in design projects, shared between practitioners and developed at the level of the organization. Our analysis suggests that aesthetic knowledge plays an important part in organizational practice, not only as the symbolic context for work, but as an integral part of the work that people do. It suggests that aesthetic reflexivity, which involves an opening up and questioning of what is known, is experienced as part of practice as well as a `time out' from practice
Reflections on Sculptural Thinking in Fashion Design
This paper explores three-dimensional thinking in fashion design; it does this by engaging with theories, concepts and philosophies related to thought and the experience of creating three-dimensional artifacts, which are common to both sculpture and fashion. Central to this relationship is the employment of the senses with respect to perception and cognition. Of particular interest is the sense of touch,and how sensory experience encounters notions of empathy and mimicry in a phenomenological encounter with others: whether animate or inanimate. The research emerged through conversations
between a fashion designer, Kevin Almond and a contemporary artist, Stephen Swindells. The sensibility of the paper, and much ofthe analysis and debates, thus adopt a creative practitioners
perspective. A conceptual current running through the conversation, and subsequently the paper, touched upon whether following a line of thought becomes analogous to visually and mentally tracing a human form in a psychological space â and what is the significance for fashion of the interrelationships between sculptural thinking and
phenomenological encounters with others within urban environments
Cell Spatial Analysis in Crohn's Disease: Unveiling Local Cell Arrangement Pattern with Graph-based Signatures
Crohn's disease (CD) is a chronic and relapsing inflammatory condition that
affects segments of the gastrointestinal tract. CD activity is determined by
histological findings, particularly the density of neutrophils observed on
Hematoxylin and Eosin stains (H&E) imaging. However, understanding the broader
morphometry and local cell arrangement beyond cell counting and tissue
morphology remains challenging. To address this, we characterize six distinct
cell types from H&E images and develop a novel approach for the local spatial
signature of each cell. Specifically, we create a 10-cell neighborhood matrix,
representing neighboring cell arrangements for each individual cell. Utilizing
t-SNE for non-linear spatial projection in scatter-plot and Kernel Density
Estimation contour-plot formats, our study examines patterns of differences in
the cellular environment associated with the odds ratio of spatial patterns
between active CD and control groups. This analysis is based on data collected
at the two research institutes. The findings reveal heterogeneous
nearest-neighbor patterns, signifying distinct tendencies of cell clustering,
with a particular focus on the rectum region. These variations underscore the
impact of data heterogeneity on cell spatial arrangements in CD patients.
Moreover, the spatial distribution disparities between the two research sites
highlight the significance of collaborative efforts among healthcare
organizations. All research analysis pipeline tools are available at
https://github.com/MASILab/cellNN.Comment: Submitted to SPIE Medical Imaging. San Diego, CA. February 202
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