Microphysical modeling of ultrane hydrocarbon-containing aerosols in aircraft emissions

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2011.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Cataloged from student submitted PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 109-115).Combustion engines emit precursors of ne particulate matter (PM) into the atmosphere. Numerous gaseous species, soot particles, and liquid aerosols in the aircraft exhaust are involved in PM formation, and these very ne, nanometer-size particles potentially have signicant impacts on climate, human health, and air quality. In particular, the organic content of the particles is important to determine physical and chemical properties of PM and consequently their potential impacts on the environment. The main objective of this thesis is to understand the role of organic compounds in PM evolution by developing a microphysical model that incorporates organic compounds into the formation mechanism of binary aqueous aerosols. While binary aerosol models with sulfuric acid and water have been widely studied, the understanding of the effect of organics on the formation and growth of aerosols is still insufficient. This work demonstrates important interactions and competitions in the formation of multi-component aerosols with organic compounds, sulfuric acid, and water in aircraft emissions. Hydrocarbon-containing aerosols have been identied as a major component of ground-level aircraft emission, especially at low power operations. This thesis describes selected surrogates of organic species and introduces estimation techniques for their thermophysical properties. The surrogates of organic species include water-insoluble hydrocarbons and water-soluble oxygenated hydrocarbons. Simulation results suggest that certain hydrocarbon compounds play an important role in the formation of aviation aerosol with interactions with both homogeneous sulfuric acidwater aerosols and soot particles in the organic-rich aircraft plume. Hydrocarbons contribute to the growth of existing homogeneous liquid particles, whereas their contribution to aerosol number density is negligible compared to that of sulfuric acid and water, which largely determine the formation of homogeneous aerosols. Also, low volatility hydrocarbons (e.g., benzopyrene, coronene) are observed to be partitioned into soot particles and induce competition with the uptake of water-soluble species, while light water-soluble oxygenated hydrocarbons enhance the uptake of water and sulfuric acid on soot particles.by Mina Jun.Ph.D

Uncertainty analysis of an aviation climate model and an aircraft price model for assessment of environmental effects

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2007.Includes bibliographical references (p. 91-95).Estimating, presenting, and assessing uncertainties are important parts in assessment of a complex system. This thesis focuses on the assessment of uncertainty in the price module and the climate module in the Aviation Environmental Portfolio Management Tool (APMT). The aircraft price module is a part of the Partial Equilibrium Block (PEB) and the climate module is a part of the Benefits Valuation Block (BVB) of the APMT. The PEB estimates a future fleet and flight schedule and evaluates manufacturer costs, operator costs, and consumer surplus. The BVB estimates changes in health and welfare for climate, local air quality, and noise from noise and emissions inventories output from the Aviation Environmental Design Tool (AEDT). The assessment was conducted with various uncertainty assessment and sensitivity analysis methods: the nominal range sensitivity analysis (NRSA), the hybrid Monte Carlo sensitivity analysis, the Monte Carlo regression analysis, the vary-all-but-one Monte Carlo analysis, and the global sensitivity analysis with Sobol' indices and total sensitivity indices. Except the NRSA, all other analysis methods are based on the Monte Carlo simulation with random sampling. All uncertainty assessment methods provided the same ranking of significant variables in both APMT modules. Two or three significant variables are clearly distinguished from other insignificant variables. In the price module, seat coefficients are the most significant parameters, and age is an insignificant factor between input variables of the regression model. In the climate module, statistical analyses showed that climate sensitivity and short-lived RF are most significant variables that contribute the variability of all three outputs. However, the HMC analysis suggested that discount rate is the most sensitive factor in the NPV estimation.(cont.) Comparing the Sobol's indices with the total sensitivity indices showed that there are no significant interactions to change the ranking of significant variables in both modules.by Mina Jun.S.M

Cisplatin-induced programmed cell death ligand-2 expression is associated with metastasis ability in oral squamous cell carcinoma.

Programmed cell death ligands (PD-Ls) are expressed in tumor cells where they bind to programmed cell death-1, an immunocyte co-receptor, resulting in tumor cell evasion from the immune system. Chemotherapeutic drugs have been recently reported to induce the expression of PD-L, such as PD-L1, in some cancer cells. However, little is known regarding PD-L2 expression and its role in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). In this study, we examined the effect of cisplatin on the expression and regulation of PD-L2 in OSCC cell lines and analyzed malignant behavior in PD-L2-expressing cells using colony, transwell and transformation assays. In addition, we examined PD-L2 expression in the tumor tissues of OSCC patients using cytology and tissue microarray methods. In OSCC cell lines, cisplatin treatment upregulated PD-L2 expression, along with that of the drug efflux transporter ABCG2, via signal transducers and activator of transcription (STAT) 1/3 activation. Moreover, PD-L2-positive or PD-L2-overexpressing cells demonstrated upregulation in both invasion and transformation ability but not in proliferation compared with PD-L2-negative or PD-L2-silencing cells. PD-L2 expression was also observed in OSCC cells of cytology samples and tissue from OSCC patients. The intensity of PD-L2 expression was correlated with more malignant morphological features in the histological appearance and an invasive pattern. Our findings indicate that cisplatin-upregulated PD-L2 expression in OSCC via STAT1/3 activation and the expression of PD-L2 are likely to be associated with malignancy in OSCC. The PD-L2 expression in cisplatin-resistant OSCC cells may be a critical factor in prognosis of advanced OSCC patients.福岡歯科大学2019年

Lattice effects on the current-voltage characteristics of superconducting arrays

The lattice effects on the current-voltage characteristics of two-dimensional arrays of resistively shunted Josephson junctions are investigated. The lattice potential energies due to the discrete lattice structure are calculated for several geometries and directions of current injection. We compare the energy barrier for vortex-pair unbinding with the lattice pinning potential, which shows that lattice effects are negligible in the low-current limit as well as in the high-current limit. At intermediate currents, on the other hand, the lattice potential becomes comparable to the barrier height and the lattice effects may be observed in the current-voltage characteristics.Comment: 5 pages including 5 figures in two columns, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Uptake Coefficients of Some Volatile Organic Compounds by Soot and Their Application in Understanding Particulate Matter Evolution in Aircraft Engine Exhaust Plumes

To assist microphysical modeling on particulate matter (PM) evolution emitted from aircraft engines, uptake coefficients of some volatile organic compounds on soot were experimentally determined in this study. The determined values vary from (1.0±0.1)×10⁻⁶ for water-miscible propylene glycol to (2.5±0.1)×10⁻⁵ for 2,6-dimethylnaphthalene, a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon. An inverse power-law correlation between uptake coefficient on soot and solubility in water was observed. Using the correlation, microphysical simulations were performed for the exhaust plume evolution from an idling aircraft, and we found that the model-predicted volatile PM composition on soot is comparable with those results from past field measurements.United States. Department of Defense (Contract W912HQ-08-C-0052

Identification of genes modulated by high extracellular calcium in coculuture of mouse osteoblasts and bone marrow cells by oligo chip assay

Calcium concentration in the bone resorption lacunae is high and is in the mM concentration range. Both osteoblast and osteoclast have calcium sensing receptor in the cell surface, suggesting the regulatory role of high extracellular calcium in bone metabolism. In vitro, high extracellular calcium stimulated osteoclastogenesis in coculture of mouse osteoblasts and bone marrow cells. Therefore we examined the genes that were commonly regulated by both high extracellular calcium and 1,25(OH)2vitaminD3 (VD3) by using mouse oligo 11 K gene chip. In the presence of 10 mM [Ca2+]e or 10 nM VD3, mouse calvarial osteoblasts and bone marrow cells were co-cultured for 4 days when tartrate resistant acid phosphatase-positive multinucleated cells start to appear. Of 11,000 genes examined, the genes commonly regulated both by high extracellular calcium and by VD3 were as follows; 1) the expression of genes which were osteoclast differentiation markers or were associated with osteoclastogenesis were up-regulated both by high extracellular calcium and by VD3; trap, mmp9, car2, ctsk, ckb, atp6b2, tm7sf4, rab7, 2) several chemokine and chemokine receptor genes such as sdf1, scya2, scyb5, scya6, scya8, scya9, and ccr1 were up-regulated both by high extracellular calcium and by VD3, 3) the genes such as mmp1b, mmp3 and c3 which possibly stimulate bone resorption by osteoclast, were commonly up-regulated, 4) the gene such as c1q and msr2 which were related with macrophage function, were commonly down-regulated, 5) the genes which possibly stimulate osteoblast differentiation and/or mineralization of extracellular matrix, were commonly down-regulated; slc8a1, admr, plod2, lox, fosb, 6) the genes which possibly suppress osteoblast differentiation and/or mineralization of extracellular matrix, were commonly up-regulated; s100a4, npr3, mme, 7) the genes such as calponin 1 and tgfbi which possibly suppress osteoblast differentiation and/or mineralization of extracellular matrix, were up-regulated by high extracellular calcium but were down-regulated by VD3. These results suggest that in coculture condition, both high extracellular calcium and VD3 commonly induce osteoclastogenesis but suppress osteoblast differentiation/mineralization by regulating the expression of related genes.본 연구는 보건복지부 보건의료기술진흥사업의 지원에 의하여 이루어진 것임(03-PJ1-PG3-20500-0013)

Trans-omics Impact of Thymoproteasome in Cortical Thymic Epithelial Cells

The thymic function to produce self-protective and self-tolerant T cells is chiefly mediated by cortical thymic epithelial cells (cTECs) and medullary TECs (mTECs). Recent studies including single-cell transcriptomic analyses have highlighted a rich diversity in functional mTEC subpopulations. Because of their limited cellularity, however, the biochemical characterization of TECs, including the proteomic profiling of cTECs and mTECs, has remained unestablished. Utilizing genetically modified mice that carry enlarged but functional thymuses, here we show a combination of proteomic and transcriptomic profiles for cTECs and mTECs, which identified signature molecules that characterize a developmental and functional contrast between cTECs and mTECs. Our results reveal a highly specific impact of the thymoproteasome on proteasome subunit composition in cTECs and provide an integrated trans-omics platform for further exploration of thymus biology

Structuring research methods and data with the research object model:genomics workflows as a case study

Background: One of the main challenges for biomedical research lies in the computer-assisted integrative study of large and increasingly complex combinations of data in order to understand molecular mechanisms. The preservation of the materials and methods of such computational experiments with clear annotations is essential for understanding an experiment, and this is increasingly recognized in the bioinformatics community. Our assumption is that offering means of digital, structured aggregation and annotation of the objects of an experiment will provide necessary meta-data for a scientist to understand and recreate the results of an experiment. To support this we explored a model for the semantic description of a workflow-centric Research Object (RO), where an RO is defined as a resource that aggregates other resources, e. g., datasets, software, spreadsheets, text, etc. We applied this model to a case study where we analysed human metabolite variation by workflows. Results: We present the application of the workflow-centric RO model for our bioinformatics case study. Three workflows were produced following recently defined Best Practices for workflow design. By modelling the experiment as an RO, we were able to automatically query the experiment and answer questions such as "which particular data was input to a particular workflow to test a particular hypothesis?", and "which particular conclusions were drawn from a particular workflow?". Conclusions: Applying a workflow-centric RO model to aggregate and annotate the resources used in a bioinformatics experiment, allowed us to retrieve the conclusions of the experiment in the context of the driving hypothesis, the executed workflows and their input data. The RO model is an extendable reference model that can be used by other systems as well. Availability: The Research Object is available at http://www.myexperiment.org/packs/428 The Wf4Ever Research Object Model is available at http://wf4ever.github.io/r

Regulation of in situ to invasive breast carcinoma transition

The transition of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) to invasive carcinoma is a key event in breast tumor progression that is poorly understood. Comparative molecular analysis of tumor epithelial cells from in situ and invasive tumors has failed to identify consistent tumor stage-specific differences. However, the myoepithelial cell layer, present only in DCIS, is a key distinguishing and diagnostic feature. To determine the contribution of non-epithelial cells to tumor progression, we analyzed the role of myoepithelial cells and fibroblasts in the progression of in situ carcinomas using a xenograft model of human DCIS. Progression to invasion was promoted by fibroblasts, but inhibited by normal myoepithelial cells. The invasive tumor cells from these progressed lesions formed DCIS rather than invasive cancers when re-injected into naive mice. Molecular profiles of myoepithelial and epithelial cells isolated from primary normal and cancerous human breast tissue samples corroborated findings obtained in the xenograft model. These results provide the proof of principle that breast tumor progression could occur in the absence of additional genetic alterations and that tumor growth and progression could be controlled by replacement of normal myoepithelial inhibitory signals