Corrosion and Grain Boundry Character Distribution(GBCD)in 316L Austenitic Stainless Steel

IGC (Inter-granular corrosion), in a single phase materials, is expected to depend on (a) Chemistry, (b) Grain size and (c) GBCD( Grain boundary character distr-ibution). In the present study, 316L austenitic stainless steel was deformed to different extent by unidirectional and by cross rolling. Subsequent solution: ing , i.e. a combination of primary recrystallization and grain growth, did not bring any noticeable difference in bulk texture. The GBCD, especially the 23 twin boundaries, were, however, significantly different. A difference of more than five times in low CSL (coincident site lattice) boun-daries were obtained. An effort was made to relate the effect of GBCD on corrosion - by DL- EPR (Double loop electrochemical potentiokinetic reactivation)

Validation of less-invasive hemodynamic monitoring with Pulsioflex in critically ill patients

status: publishe

Time course of altered DNA methylation evoked by critical illness and by early administration of parenteral nutrition in the paediatric ICU

Background: A genome-wide study identifed de novo DNA methylation alterations in leukocytes of children at paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) discharge, ofering a biological basis for their impaired long-term development. Early parenteral nutrition (early-PN) in PICU, compared with omitting PN in the frst week (late-PN), explained diferential methylation of 23% of the afected CpG-sites. We documented the time course of altered DNA methylation in PICU and the impact hereon of early nutritional management. Results: We selected 36 early-PN and 36 late-PN matched patients, and 42 matched healthy children. We quantifed DNA methylation on days 3, 5 and 7 for the 147 CpG-sites of which methylation was normal upon PICU admission in this subset and altered by critical illness at PICU discharge. Methylation in patients difered from healthy children for 64.6% of the 147 CpG-sites on day 3, for 72.8% on day 5 and for 90.5% on day 7 as revealed by ANOVA at each time point. Within-patients methylation time course analyses for each CpG-site identifed diferent patterns based on paired t test p value and direction of change. Rapid demethylation from admission to day 3 occurred for 76.2% of the CpG-sites, of which 67.9% remained equally demethylated or partially remethylated and 32.1% further demethylated beyond day 3. From admission to day 3, 19.7% of the CpG-sites became hypermethylated, of which, beyond day 3, 34.5% remained equally hypermethylated or partially demethylated again and 65.5% further hypermethylated. For 4.1% of the CpG-sites, changes only appeared beyond day 3. Finally, for the CpG-sites afected by early-PN on the last PICU day, earlier changes in DNA methylation were compared for early-PN and late-PN patients, revealing that 38.9% were already diferentially methylated by day 3, another 25.0% by day 5 and another 13.9% by day 7. Conclusions: Critical illness- and early-PN-induced changes in DNA methylation occurred mainly within 3 days. Most abnormalities were at least partially maintained or got worse with longer time in PICU. Interventions targeting aberrant DNA methylation changes should be initiated earl

Transesterification of PHA to Oligomers Covalently Bonded with (Bio)Active Compounds Containing Either Carboxyl or Hydroxyl Functionalities

© 2015 The Authors. Published by Public Library of Science. This is an open access article available under a Creative Commons licence. The published version can be accessed at the following link on the publisher’s website: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0120149This manuscript presents the synthesis and structural characterisation of novel biodegradable polymeric controlled-release systems of pesticides with potentially higher resistance to weather conditions in comparison to conventional forms of pesticides. Two methods for the preparation of pesticide-oligomer conjugates using the transesterification reaction were developed. The first method of obtaining conjugates, which consist of bioactive compounds with the carboxyl group and polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) oligomers, is "one-pot" transesterification. In the second method, conjugates of bioactive compounds with hydroxyl group and polyhydroxyalkanoates oligomers were obtained in two-step method, through cyclic poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) oligomers. The obtained pesticide-PHA conjugates were comprehensively characterised using GPC, 1H NMR and mass spectrometry techniques. The structural characterisation of the obtained products at the molecular level with the aid of mass spectrometry confirmed that both of the synthetic strategies employed led to the formation of conjugates in which selected pesticides were covalently bonded to PHA oligomers via a hydrolysable ester bond

Retinoic acid induces HL-60 cell differentiation via the upregulation of miR-663

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Differentiation of the acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cell line HL-60 can be induced by all trans-retinoic acid (ATRA); however, the mechanism regulating this process has not been fully characterized.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Using bioinformatics and <it>in vitro </it>experiments, we identified the microRNA gene expression profile of HL-60 cells during ATRA induced granulocytic differentiation.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Six microRNAs were upregulated by ATRA treatment, miR-663, miR-494, miR-145, miR-22, miR-363* and miR-223; and three microRNAs were downregulated, miR-10a, miR-181 and miR-612. Additionally, miR-663 expression was regulated by ATRA. We used a lentivirus (LV) backbone incorporating the spleen focus forming virus (SFFV-F) promoter to drive miR-663 expression, as the CMV (Cytomegalovirus) promoter is ineffective in some lymphocyte cells. Transfection of LV-miR-663 induced significant HL-60 cell differentiation <it>in vitro</it>.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our results show miR-663 may play an important role in ATRA induced HL-60 cell differentiation. Lentivirus delivery of miR-663 could potentially be used directly as an anticancer treatment in hematological malignancies</p

Home Range and Ranging Behaviour of Bornean Elephant (Elephas maximus borneensis) Females

BACKGROUND: Home range is defined as the extent and location of the area covered annually by a wild animal in its natural habitat. Studies of African and Indian elephants in landscapes of largely open habitats have indicated that the sizes of the home range are determined not only by the food supplies and seasonal changes, but also by numerous other factors including availability of water sources, habitat loss and the existence of man-made barriers. The home range size for the Bornean elephant had never been investigated before. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The first satellite tracking program to investigate the movement of wild Bornean elephants in Sabah was initiated in 2005. Five adult female elephants were immobilized and neck collars were fitted with tracking devices. The sizes of their home range and movement patterns were determined using location data gathered from a satellite tracking system and analyzed by using the Minimum Convex Polygon and Harmonic Mean methods. Home range size was estimated to be 250 to 400 km(2) in a non-fragmented forest and 600 km(2) in a fragmented forest. The ranging behavior was influenced by the size of the natural forest habitat and the availability of permanent water sources. The movement pattern was influenced by human disturbance and the need to move from one feeding site to another. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Home range and movement rate were influenced by the degree of habitat fragmentation. Once habitat was cleared or converted, the availability of food plants and water sources were reduced, forcing the elephants to travel to adjacent forest areas. Therefore movement rate in fragmented forest was higher than in the non-fragmented forest. Finally, in fragmented habitat human and elephant conflict occurrences were likely to be higher, due to increased movement bringing elephants into contact more often with humans

A quality, energy and environmental assessment tool for the European cold chain

According to 5th Informatory Note on Refrigeration and Food published by the International Institute of Refrigeration, 20% of the global losses in perishable products was due to lack of refrigeration. It is expected that increased use of refrigeration to reduce these losses will help meet the increasing food demands of the growing world population. However, the use of refrigeration already accounts for about 15% of world’s electricity usage. In addition, the use of refrigeration significantly contributes to global warming via emission of CO2. In this paper, a software tool was developed to assess food quality and safety evolution, energy usage and CO2 emission of different refrigeration technologies along the European cold chain. A reference product was chosen for the main different food categories in the European cold chain. Software code to predict the products temperature using the room temperature as input, based on validated heat and mass transfer models, were written in Matlab (The Mathworks Inc., Natick, USA). Also, based on validated kinetic models for the different quality indicators of the reference products, a software code was written to calculate the quality and safety evolutions of the food product, using the predicted product temperature as input. Finally, software code to calculate the energy usage and Total Equivalent Warming Impact (TEWI) value of different refrigeration technologies was also written in Matlab. All three software codes were integrated, and a graphical user interface was developed. Using the graphical user interface, a user can tailor a cold chain scenario by adding different cold chain blocks. Each cold chain block has properties that can be modified. The tool can be used to compare different cold chains with respect to quality, safety, energy usage, and environmental impact