Throughflow Velocity Crossing the Dome of Erupting Bubbles in 2-D Fluidized Beds

A new non-intrusive method for measuring the throughflow velocity crossing the dome of erupting bubbles in freely bubbling 2-D fluidized beds is presented. Using a high speed video-camera, the dome acceleration, drag force and throughflow velocity profiles are obtained for different experiments, varying the superficial gas velocity. The acceleration profiles show greater values in the dome zone where the gravity component is negligible. The drag force and the throughflow velocity profiles show a uniform value in the central region of the dome (40 deg \u3c \u3c 140 deg) and the total throughflow increases with the superficial gas velocity

Hydrodynamic Characteristics of a Fluidized Bed with Rotating Distributor

The performance of a novel rotating distributor fluidized bed is presented. The pressure drop and the standard deviation of pressure fluctuations, σp, were used to find the minimum fluidization velocity, Umf, and to characterize the quality of fluidization at different rotational speeds of the distributor plate. Experiments were conducted in the freely bubbling regime in a 0.19 m i.d. fluidized bed, operating with Group B particles according to Geldart’s classification. A decrease in Umf is observed when the rotational speed increases. Frequency analysis of pressure fluctuations shows that fluidization can be controlled by the adjustable rotational speed, at several excess gas velocities

Organized Disassembly of Photosynthesis During Programmed Cell Death Mediated By Long Chain Bases.

In plants, pathogen triggered programmed cell death (PCD) is frequently mediated by polar lipid molecules referred as long chain bases (LCBs) or ceramides. PCD interceded by LCBs is a well-organized process where several cell organelles play important roles. In fact, light-dependent reactions in the chloroplast have been proposed as major players during PCD, however, the functional aspects of the chloroplast during PCD are largely unknown. For this reason, we investigated events that lead to disassembly of the chloroplast during PCD mediated by LCBs. To do so, LCB elevation was induced with Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato (a non-host pathogen) or Fumonisin B1 in Phaseolus vulgaris. Then, we performed biochemical tests to detect PCD triggering events (phytosphingosine rises, MPK activation and H2O2 generation) followed by chloroplast structural and functional tests. Observations of the chloroplast, via optical phenotyping methods combined with microscopy, indicated that the loss of photosynthetic linear electron transport coincides with the organized ultrastructure disassembly. In addition, structural changes occurred in parallel with accumulation of H2O2 inside the chloroplast. These features revealed the collapse of chloroplast integrity and function as a mechanism leading to the irreversible execution of the PCD promoted by LCBs

Separation and Determination of Some of the Main Cholesterol-Related Compounds in Blood by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (Selected Ion Monitoring Mode)

Oxysterols are metabolites produced in the first step of cholesterol metabolism, which is related to neurodegenerative disorder. They can be detected by testing blood, plasma, serum, or cerebrospinal fluid. In this study, some cholesterol precursors and oxysterols were determined by gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry. The selected cholesterol-related compounds were desmosterol, lathosterol, lanosterol, 7 -hydroxycholesterol, 7 -hydroxycholesterol, 24(S)-hydroxycholesterol, 25-hydroxycholesterol, 7-ketocholesterol, and 27-hydroxycholesterol. A powerful method was developed and validated considering various analytical parameters, such as linearity index, detection and quantification limits, selectivity and matrix effect, precision (repeatability), and trueness (recovery factor) for each cholesterol-related compound. 7 -hydroxycholesterol, 7 -hydroxycholesterol, and desmosterol exhibited the lowest detection and quantification limits, with 0.01 and 0.03 g/mL, respectively, in the three cases. 7-ketocholesterol and lathosterol showed matrix effect percentages between 95.5% and 104.8%, respectively (demonstrating a negligible matrix effect), and very satisfactory repeatability values (i.e., overall performance of the method). Next, the method was applied to the analysis of a very interesting selection of mouse plasma samples (9 plasma extracts of non-transgenic and transgenic mice that had been fed different diets). Although the number of samples was limited, the current study led to some biologically relevant conclusions regarding brain cholesterol metabolism.The authors are grateful for the interesting collaboration with the biotechnology-based company Neuron Bio. The research project was funded by CEI BioTic/University of Granad

Markovian Chemicals “in silico” Design (MARCH-INSIDE), a Promising Approach for Computer-Aided Molecular Design III: 2.5D Indices for the Discovery of Antibacterials

The 9th International Electronic Conference on Synthetic Organic Chemistry session Computational ChemistryThe present work continues our series on the use of MARCH-INSIDE molecular descriptors [parts I and II: J. Mol. Mod. (2002) 8: 237-245 and (2003) 9: 395-407]. These descriptors encode information regarding to the distribution of electrons in the molecule based on a simple stochastic approach to the idea of electronegativity equalization (Sanderson’s principle). Here, 3D-MARCH-INSIDE molecular descriptors for 667 organic compounds are used as input for a Linear Discriminant Analysis. This 2.5D-QSAR model discriminates between antibacterial compounds and non-antibacterial ones with a 92.9 % of accuracy in training sets. On the other hand, the model classifies correctly 94.0 % of the compounds in test set. Additionally, the present QSAR performs similar-to-better than other methods reported elsewhere. Finally, the discovery of a novel compound illustrates the use of the method. This compound, 2-bromo-3-(furan-2-yl)-3-oxo-propionamide have MIC50 of 6.25 and 12.50 µg/mL against Ps. Aeruginosa ATCC 27853 and E. Coli ATCC 27853 respectively while ampicillim, amoxicillim, clindamycin, and metronidazole have, for instance, MIC50 values higher 250 µg/mL against E. Coli. Consequently, the present method may becomes a useful tool for the in silico discovery of antibacterialsWe thank the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology (SAF2003-02222), for partial financial support. Molina RR, Castañedo C, and Almeida SM, acknowledges support from the Universität Rostock, German

Socio-demographic determinants of coinfections by HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C viruses in central Italian prisoners

BACKGROUND: The coinfections HIV/HCV/HBV are an important health issue in penitentiary communities. The aim of the study was to examine HIV, HBV and HCV coinfections determinants amongst prisoners in the jails of Southern Lazio (Central Italy), in the period 1995-2000. METHODS: Diagnosis of seropositivities for HIV, HBV and HCV was made using ELISA method. A multiple logistic regression analysis was conducted to verify the influence of socio-demographic factors on the HIV/HBV/HCV coinfections. RESULTS: HIV/HCV, HBV/HCV and HIV/HBV coinfections were detected in 42 (4%), 203 (17.9%) and 31 (2.9%) inmates, respectively. These coinfections are significantly associated with the status of drug addiction (OR = 16.02; p = 0.012; OR = 4.15; p < 0.001; OR = 23.57; p = 0.002), smoking habits (OR = 3.73; p = 0.033; OR = 1.42; p = 0.088; OR = 4.25; p = 0.053) and Italian nationality (OR = 7.05; p = 0.009; OR = 2.31; p < 0.001; OR = 4.61; p = 0.04). CONCLUSION: The prevalence of HIV, HBV and HCV seropositivity in jails suggests that information and education programs for inmates could be useful to reduce the spread of such infections

The Fourteenth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: First Spectroscopic Data from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey and from the second phase of the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment

The fourth generation of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-IV) has been in operation since July 2014. This paper describes the second data release from this phase, and the fourteenth from SDSS overall (making this, Data Release Fourteen or DR14). This release makes public data taken by SDSS-IV in its first two years of operation (July 2014-2016). Like all previous SDSS releases, DR14 is cumulative, including the most recent reductions and calibrations of all data taken by SDSS since the first phase began operations in 2000. New in DR14 is the first public release of data from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS); the first data from the second phase of the Apache Point Observatory (APO) Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE-2), including stellar parameter estimates from an innovative data driven machine learning algorithm known as "The Cannon"; and almost twice as many data cubes from the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at APO (MaNGA) survey as were in the previous release (N = 2812 in total). This paper describes the location and format of the publicly available data from SDSS-IV surveys. We provide references to the important technical papers describing how these data have been taken (both targeting and observation details) and processed for scientific use. The SDSS website (www.sdss.org) has been updated for this release, and provides links to data downloads, as well as tutorials and examples of data use. SDSS-IV is planning to continue to collect astronomical data until 2020, and will be followed by SDSS-V.Comment: SDSS-IV collaboration alphabetical author data release paper. DR14 happened on 31st July 2017. 19 pages, 5 figures. Accepted by ApJS on 28th Nov 2017 (this is the "post-print" and "post-proofs" version; minor corrections only from v1, and most of errors found in proofs corrected