Immune modulation by curcumin: The role of interleukin-10

Cytokines are small secreted proteins released by different types of cells with specific effects on cellular signaling and communication via binding to their receptors on the cell surface. IL-10 is known to be a pleiotropic and potent anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive cytokine that is produced by both innate and adaptive immunity cells including dendritic cells, macrophages, mast cells, natural killer cells, eosinophils, neutrophils, B cells, CD8⁺ T cells, and T_H1, T_H2, and T_H17 and regulatory T cells. Both direct and indirect activation of the stress axis promotes IL-10 secretion. IL-10 deregulation plays a role in the development of a large number of inflammatory diseases such as neuropathic pain, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, systemic lupus erythematosus, type 1 diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease, and allergy. Curcumin is a natural anti-inflammatory compound able to induce the expression and production of IL-10 and enhancing its action on a large number of tissues. In vitro and in pre-clinical models curcumin is able to modulate the disease pathophysiology of conditions such as pain and neurodegenerative diseases, bowel inflammation, and allergy, but also of infections and cancer through its effect on IL-10 secretion. In humans, at least one part of the positive effects of curcumin on health could be related to its ability to enhance IL-10 -mediated effects.     

One-step synthesis of single-phase (Co,Mg, Ni,Cu, Zn) O High entropy oxide nanoparticles through SCS procedure: Thermodynamics and experimental evaluation

Evaluation of the thermodynamic aspects of the synthesis process offers a better insight through the single-step synthesis of high entropy oxide particles. The thermodynamic calculations were used to specify the required conditions (fuel type and fuel amount) for the synthesis of single-phase (Co, Mg, Ni, Cu, Zn) O particles. Moreover, the impact of the activities coefficients alteration on the formation of (Co, Mg, Ni, Cu, Zn) O single-phase was calculated. Experiments were carried out using glycine, urea, citric acid, and hexamine at various fuel to oxidizer ratios (φ = 1.05, 1, 0.95, and 0.9) to explore the effect of fuel type and φ values on physicochemical properties of final product. Obtained results indicated that single-phase (Co, Mg, Ni, Cu, Zn) O powders were synthesized using glycine at the fuel-lean condition. Prepared powders exhibited promising crystallinity (59%), the thermal stability of 400 °C, 28 nm particle size, high porosity, and 15 m². g^?1 surface area.     

Applicability of the method of fundamental solutions to interaction of fully nonlinear water waves with a semi-infinite floating ice plate

In this research effort, a meshless numerical model was developed to study the hydroelastic interaction of an incident wave with a semi-infinite horizontal floating plate. It is assumed that the fluid is homogenous, inviscid and incompressible. Fundamental solution of the governing Laplace equation is considered to be radial basis functions. In this method, only a few boundary points are located on the boundary. Moreover, there are a few source points that are located outside the computational domain. Two additional source points are introduced to deal with the plate's edge conditions. The problem is solved using collocations at only a few boundary points. When density and thickness of the plate are reduced to zero, good agreements with other numerical works are observed.     

The Effect of Conformation Method and Sintering Technique on the Densification and Grain Growth of Nanocrystalline 8 mol% Yttria-Stabilized Zirconia

Uniaxial dry pressing (DP) and slip casting (SC) were used to form green bodies of nanocrystalline 8 mol% yttria-stabilized zirconia powder processed via the glycine-nitrate combustion method. The SC method was shown to be a more efficient, yielding more homogenous green bodies with higher green density (60% theoretical density) which contained smaller pores with narrower distribution. Improved green properties resulted in lowering the sintering temperature of SC bodies by about 200°C compared with DP compacts. Consequently, the grain growth in sintered bodies formed by SC was relatively abated. By taking the benefits of the wet conformation method, the final grain size of nearly full dense (>97% TD) structures was reduced by 39% (i.e. from 2.15 to 1.3 μm). To reveal the effect of sintering technique, DP bodies were sintered via both microwave and two-step sintering methods. While the grain size of two-step sintered samples was <300 nm, sintering via microwave radiation yielded a nearly full dense structure with a mean grain size of 0.9 μm. The results show that conventionally sintered SC bodies posses higher indentation fracture toughness (FT) (∼3 MPa·m^1/2) compared with DP samples (1.6 MPa·m^1/2). Interestingly, it was shown that, without applying any modified sintering technique, the hardness and FT of SC bodies with coarser structures are completely close to those of samples sintered via microwave heating.     

Micropower CMOS Integrated Low-Noise Amplification, Filtering, and Digitization of Multimodal Neuropotentials

Electrical activity in the brain spans a wide range of spatial and temporal scales, requiring simultaneous recording of multiple modalities of neurophysiological signals in order to capture various aspects of brain state dynamics. Here, we present a 16-channel neural interface integrated circuit fabricated in a 0.5 mum 3M2P CMOS process for selective digital acquisition of biopotentials across the spectrum of neural signal modalities in the brain, ranging from single spike action potentials to local field potentials (LFP), electrocorticograms (ECoG), and electroencephalograms (EEG). Each channel is composed of a tunable bandwidth, fixed gain front-end amplifier and a programmable gain/resolution continuous-time incremental DeltaSigma analog-to-digital converter (ADC). A two-stage topology for the front-end voltage amplifier with capacitive feedback offers independent tuning of the amplifier bandpass frequency corners, and attains a noise efficiency factor (NEF) of 2.9 at 8.2 kHz bandwidth for spike recording, and a NEF of 3.2 at 140 Hz bandwidth for EEG recording. The amplifier has a measured midband gain of 39.6 dB, frequency response from 0.2 Hz to 8.2 kHz, and an input-referred noise of 1.94 muV _rms while drawing 12.2 muA of current from a 3.3 V supply. The lower and higher cutoff frequencies of the bandpass filter are adjustable from 0.2 to 94 Hz and 140 Hz to 8.2 kHz, respectively. At 10-bit resolution, the ADC has an SNDR of 56 dB while consuming 76 muW power. Time-modulation feedback in the ADC offers programmable digital gain (1-4096) for auto-ranging, further improving the dynamic range and linearity of the ADC. Experimental recordings with the system show spike signals in rat somatosensory cortex as well as alpha EEG activity in a human subject.     

Selective recognition of chloroacetic acids by imprinted polyaniline film

A novel conductive imprinted polyaniline (PAN) film is prepared by adding template during the PAN film preparation. Monochloroacetic acid (MCA) and trichloroacetic acid (TCA) were used as templates. The conductivity of imprinted PAN films was measured by the four‐point probe method. The conductivity changes of imprinted PAN films were compared to reference PAN reflecting the MCA and TCA specific sites on the surface of PAN films. The conductivities were linearly dependent on the template concentrations, and linear calibration curves were obtained in the range 1–30 and 1–40 ppm of the MCA and TCA, respectively. Excellent method reproducibility (standard deviation 0.04 S/cm⁻¹) was observed for the determination of 15 ppm MCA. The effect of various factors on preparation, properties, and recognition effects of the imprinted PAN films was investigated. The best electrical and mechanical properties were obtained with 7 × 10⁻⁴ mmol MCA as a template and doping agent. The measurements are carried out under room temperature, and the maximum conductivities are reached after about 10 and 20 min for reference and imprinted PAN film, respectively. Selectivity experiments were carried out with standard MCA, TCA, and five analogs (dichloro‐, dibromo‐, and monobromoacetic acid) in water. The results exhibited a good selectivity for the templates compared to structurally related compounds. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2011     

Microstructural and diametral tensile strength evaluation of the zirconia-mullite composite

The purpose of the current research was to investigate the effect of duration of the mechanical activation process of starting materials on Vickers micro-hardness and diametral tensile strength of zirconia-mullite composites. Zirconia-mullite composites with 1:1?M ratio were fabricated by sintering of the mechanically activated kaolinite, gibbsite, and zircon powder mixture as inexpensive and convenient starting materials. Results of dynamic light scattering analysis showed that the mean particle size of the starting powders was reduced from 2.5?µm to 80?nm after 72?h of the mechanical activation process. X-ray diffraction analysis showed that zirconia and mullite were crystallized after 2?h thermal treatment at 1550?°C. Based on the semi-quantification results of X-ray diffraction patterns, increasing the duration of the milling process from 6 to 72?h had a positive effect on improving the amount of tetragonal zirconia in the final matrix. Scanning electron microscopy results revealed a fine and homogeneous distribution of zirconia particles in the mullite matrix after 72?h of the mechanical activation process. Increasing the duration of milling process from 6?h to 72?h had a remarkable effect in increasing the diametral tensile strength values from 30 to 220?MPa. Vickers micro-hardness values were also enhanced considerably from 7.30 to 11.12?GPa by increasing the milling time.     

The significant role of the glycine-nitrate ratio on the physicochemical properties of CoxZn1−xO nanoparticles

In this study, Co_xZn₁⁻_xO (X = 0, 0.06, 0.18, 0.36, 0.54, and 1) nanoparticles were synthesized by one-step solution combustion synthesis method. The critical role of X values and fuel (glycine)-to-oxidizer (F/O) ratios (0.75, 1, and 1.25) were investigated on the physicochemical properties of synthesized particles. X-ray diffraction (XRD) results showed that by increasing the X molar fraction, up to 0.36 mol. %, at the F/O ratios of 0.75, 1, and 1.25, crystallite size decreases from 31 to 26, 39 to 31, and 64 to 43 nm, respectively. ZnO-Co₃O₄ mixed oxide nanopowders were directly crystallized at X = 0.54 in all F/O ratios. Semi-quantification evaluations of XRD results showed that the F/O ratio had a direct effect on the quantities of the crystallized and the content of the amorphous phases. According to the vibrating sample magnetometer analysis results (VSM), the greatest magnetization saturation (M_s) value of 30 emu/g was obtained at X = 1 and F/O ratio of 1.25. Calorimetry analysis revealed that by increasing the content of the doping agent, ie, cobalt ion, up to the molar fraction of 0.18, dark green color is observed in the specimens, and the deepest green color was obtained at F/O = 1 .