An investigation of the mechanism of advanced oxidation processes (AOP) involving free radicals and charged species.

Hydrogen peroxide is a key component in Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOP). Its decomposition at different pH conditions has been studied and some interesting results were observed. When the pH value of hydrogen peroxide solution is less than 9, its rate of decomposition is independent of pH. On the other hand, in the pH range of 9-12.6, its rate of decomposition increases as pH increases, and goes through a maximum value then suddenly decreases with respect to pH. A reaction kinetic model with three rate constants in the form of beta probability function was used to describe the experimental data of the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide at various pH values. The decomposition of hydrogen peroxide at different pH conditions with UV radiation was also examined. The results showed that the higher the alkalinity, the higher the decomposition rate of hydrogen peroxide. A reaction kinetic model was proposed to describe the experimental data of the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide at various pH values under UV radiation. The decomposition of phenol at different pH conditions in the presence of H2O2/UV was studied not only in order to verify the kinetic model of the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide under UV radiation but also to investigate the mechanism of the decomposition of phenol. The results showed that the higher the alkalinity, the lower the decomposition rate of phenol. These results were in good agreement with those of the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide under UV radiation. A mechanism for the decomposition of phenol at various pH conditions was proposed. The effect of bicarbonate ion, a known scavenger of free radicals, on the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide with and without UV radiation has been investigated. The results showed that bicarbonate ion not only is a free radical scavenger but also causes an incremental increase in hydrogen peroxide decomposition. A reaction kinetic model was proposed to describe the experimental data of the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide at different bicarbonate ion concentrations. The effect of bicarbonate ion on the decomposition of phenol in the presence of H2O2/UV was studied in order to verify all kinetic models proposed in this study

Analyzing FreeRTOS Scheduling Behaviors with the Spin Model Checker

FreeRTOS is a real-time operating system with configurable scheduling policies. Its portability and configurability make FreeRTOS one of the most popular real-time operating systems for embedded devices. We formally analyze the FreeRTOS scheduler on ARM Cortex-M4 processor in this work. Specifically, we build a formal model for the FreeRTOS ARM Cortex-M4 port and apply model checking to find errors in our models for FreeRTOS example applications. Intriguingly, several errors are found in our application models under different scheduling policies. In order to confirm our findings, we modify application programs distributed by FreeRTOS and reproduce assertion failures on the STM32F429I-DISC1 board

Full-Length Enrich c-DNA Libraries-Clear Cell-Renal Cell Carcinoma

Clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC), the most common subtype of RCC, is characterized by high metastasis potential and strong resistance to traditional therapies, resulting in a poor five-year survival rate of patients. Several therapies targeted to VEGF pathway for advanced RCC have been developed, however, it still needs to discover new therapeutic targets for treating RCC. Genome-wide gene expression analyses have been broadly used to identify unknown molecular mechanisms of cancer progression. Recently, we applied the oligo-capping method to construct the full-length cDNA libraries of ccRCC and adjacent normal kidney, and analyzed the gene expression profiles by high-throughput sequencing. This paper presents a review for recent findings on therapeutic potential of MYC pathway and nicotinamide N-methyltransferase for the treatment of RCC

Involvement of Prohibitin Upregulation in Abrin-Triggered Apoptosis

Abrin (ABR), a protein purified from the seeds of Abrus precatorius, induces apoptosis in various types of cancer cells. However, the detailed mechanism remains largely uncharacterized. By using a cDNA microarray platform, we determined that prohibitin (PHB), a tumor suppressor protein, is significantly upregulated in ABR-triggered apoptosis. ABR-induced upregulation of PHB is mediated by the stress-activated protein kinase/c-Jun NH2-terminal kinase (SAPK/JNK) pathway, as demonstrated by chemical inhibitors. In addition, ABR significantly induced the expression of Bax as well as the activation of caspase-3 and poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) in Jurkat T cells, whereas the reduction of PHB by specific RNA interference delayed ABR-triggered apoptosis through the proapoptotic genes examined. Moreover, our results also indicated that nuclear translocation of the PHB-p53 complex may play a role in the transcription of Bax. Collectively, our data show that PHB plays a role in ABR-induced apoptosis, which may be helpful for the development of diagnostic or therapeutic agents

A biophysical elucidation for less toxicity of Agglutinin than Abrin-a from the Seeds of Abrus Precatorius in consequence of crystal structure

X-ray crystal structure determination of agglutinin from abrus precatorius in Taiwan is presented. The crystal structure of agglutinin, a type II ribosome-inactivating protein (RIP) from the seeds of Abrus precatorius in Taiwan, has been determined from a novel crystalline form by the molecular replacement method using the coordinates of abrin-a as the template. The structure has space group P41212 with Z = 8, and been refined at 2.6 Å to R-factor of 20.4%. The root-mean-square deviations of bond lengths and angles from the standard values are 0.009 Å and 1.3°. Primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary structures of agglutinin have been described and compared with those of abrin-a to a certain extent. In subsequent docking research, we found that Asn200 of abrin-a may form a critical hydrogen bond with G4323 of 28SRNA, while corresponding Pro199 of agglutinin is a kink hydrophobic residue bound with the cleft in a more compact complementary relationship. This may explain the lower toxicity of agglutinin than abrin-a, despite of similarity in secondary structure and the activity cleft of two RIPs

The influence of expertise and experimental paradigms on the visual behavior of tennis athletes in returning a serve

To return a serve, one must pick up information from the server’s kinematics and anticipate the ball trajectory. Although the perceptual requirements are important, the literature diverges in terms of the differences between experts and novices as well as the importance of the experimental paradigm (in-situ vs. video-based) for the results. This study aimed to address both concerns. We compared experts’ (n=7, 20.6±1.1 years of age) and novices’ (n=7, 20.0±0.4 years of age) visual pattern when returning a serve (Experiment 1) and the influence of the experimental paradigm in experts (Experiment 2). Experts fixated more and longer the upper body and ball, while novices showed a more distributed pattern and with longer fixations outside of the server’s body. Also, the pattern was different when comparing in-situ and laboratory settings, differing mainly in fixation frequency. The influence of expertise was observed in qualitative (relative) and quantitative (absolute) measures of visual behavior with the setting having an important influence. Thus, studies should be as close to the actual situation if trying to understand experts’ behavior