Proteomics in aortic aneurysm – What have we learnt so far?

Aortic aneurysm is a deceptively indolent disease that can cause severe complications such as aortic rupture and dissection. In the normal aorta, vascular smooth muscle cells within the medial layer produce and sustain the extracellular matrix (ECM) that provides structural support but also retains soluble growth factors and regulates their distribution. Although the ECM is an obvious target to identify molecular processes leading to structural failure within the vessel wall, an in-depth proteomics analysis of this important sub-proteome has not been performed. Most proteomics analyses of the vasculature to date used homogenized tissue devoid of spatial information. In such homogenates, quantitative proteomics comparisons are hampered by the heterogeneity of clinical samples (i.e. cellular composition) and the dynamic range limitations stemming from highly abundant cellular proteins. An unbiased proteomics discovery approach targeting the ECM instead of the cellular proteome may decipher the complex, multivalent signals that are presented to cells during aortic remodelling. A better understanding of the ECM in healthy and diseased vessels will provide important pathogenic insights and has potential to reveal novel biomarkers.     

ProDA: An End-to-End Wavelet-Based OLAP System for Massive Datasets

ProDA employs wavelets to support exact, approximate, and progressive OLAP queries on large multidimensional datasets, while keeping update costs relatively low. ProDA not only supports online execution of ad hoc analytical queries on massive datasets, but also extends the set of supported analytical queries to include the entire family of polynomial aggregate queries as well as the new class of plot queries.     

Ionization coefficient of monolayer graphene nanoribbon

A semi-analytical model for impact ionization coefficient of graphene nanoribbon (GNR) is presented. The model is derived by calculating probability of electrons reaching ionization threshold energy E_t and the distance travelled by electron gaining E_t. In addition, ionization threshold energy is semi-analytically modelled for GNR. During modelling, we justify our assumptions using analytical modelling and comparison with simulation. Furthermore, it is shown that conventional silicon models are not valid for calculation of ionization coefficient of GNR. Finally, the profile of ionization is presented using the proposed models and the results are compared with that of silicon.     

Measurement of the amount and rate of methane dissolution in pure water and aqueous solution of SDS + multi-wall carbon nanotubes + β-cyclodextrin

In this paper, the impact of the mixture of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) + multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) + β-cyclodextrin on the quantity and initial rate of methane dissolved in water is investigated. The experiments were performed at a temperature range of 278.15–303.15 K and an initial pressure of 0.5 MPa. The experimental results show that simultaneous utilization of β-cyclodextrin (0.01 mass fraction), MWCNTs (0.0005 mass fraction), and SDS (0.001 mass fraction) at 278.15 K increases the amount and the rate of methane dissolution in water by 29.90% and 173.78%, respectively, compared to pure water. An increase in the temperature decreases the quantity and the initial rate of methane dissolution in all solutions containing additives. However, no consistent relationship is observed between the temperature and the enhancement percentage of solubility of methane in solutions containing additives.     

Induction time,storage capacity,and rate of methane hydrate formation in the presence of SDS and silver nanoparticles

In this communication, the kinetic parameters of methane hydrate formation (induction time, quantity and rate of gas uptake, storage capacity (SC), and apparent rate constant) in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), synthetized silver nanoparticles (SNPs), and mixture of SDS?+?SNPs have been studied. Experimental measurements were performed at temperature of 273.65?K and initial pressure of 7?MPa in a 460?cm³ stirred batch reactor. Our results show that adding SDS, SNPs and their mixture increases the quantity of gas uptake, water to hydrate conversion, and SC of methane hydrate formation, noticeably. Using 300?ppm SDS increases the SC and the quantity of methane uptake 615, and 770%, respectively, compared with pure water. Investigating the hydrate growth rate at the start of hydrate formation process shows that, using SNPs, SDS, and their mixture increases the initial apparent rate constant of hydrate rate, considerably. Our results show that the system of methane?+?water?+?SDS 500?ppm?+?SNPs 45?µM represents the maximum value of initial apparent rate constant, compared with other tested systems.     

Comparison of the critical liquid volume fraction to rectilinear-diameter methods for prediction of the critical density of ethylene and oxygen

A comparison of the prediction of the critical density for ethylene and oxygen from available coexistence density values using three methods is presented. The conventional rectilinear diameter, the rectilinear diameter with an additional term to represent the postulated curvature near the critical point, and the critical liquid volume fraction were each utilized to predict critical density values for ethylene and oxygen. The correlating functions and fitted constants for the three techniques are given for different ranges of saturation density values. The accepted saturation lines for ethylene and oxygen calculated from new correlations of thermodynamic properties for these fluids were used in this study. The critical density of ethylene was predicted using coexistence density values from 220 to 230 K and from 220 to 282.34 K. Similarly, the critical density for oxygen was predicted using coexistence densities from 100 to 116 K, from 100 to 154.004 K, and from 100 to 154.571 K. Values of the critical density predicted using the three methods are compared with the accepted critical density values for these fluids. The ability of the three methods to predict accurate critical density values using saturation densities at temperatures removed from the critical point is assessed.Paper presented at the Ninth Symposium on Thermophysical Properties, June 24–27, 1985, Boulder, Colorado, U.S.A.     

Oxidation of alcohols with tert-butylhydroperoxide catalyzed by Mn (II) complexes immobilized in the pore channels of mesoporous hexagonal molecular sieves (HMS)

The oxidation of alcohols with tert-butylhydroperoxide (TBHP), in the presence of Mn²⁺ complexes immobilized in the pore channels of mesoporous hexagonal molecular sieves (HMS), were investigated. It was found that immobilized [Mn(bpy)₂]²⁺/HMS is an efficient catalyst for the oxidation of alcohols such as benzyl alcohol, n-hexanol and cyclohexanol. The effects of reaction time, amount of Mn²⁺ in the catalyst, type of substrates and oxidants in this catalysis system were investigated. At optimum conditions, TBHP is more efficient oxidant with respect to H₂O₂. Following order has been observed for the percentage of conversions of alcohols: benzylic >1° >2°.     

Fault detection in analogue circuits using hybrid evolutionary algorithm and neural network

With the development of analog integrated circuits technology and due to the complexity, and various types of faults that occur in analog integrated circuits, fault detection is a new idea, has been studied in recent decades. In this paper a three amplifier state variable filter is used as circuit under test (CUT) and, a hybrid neural network is proposed for soft fault diagnosis of the CUT. Genetic algorithm (GA) has the powerful ability of searching the global optimal solution, and back propagation (BP) algorithm has the feature of rapid convergence on the local optima. The hybrid of two algorithm will improve the evolving speed of neural network. GA-BP scheme adopts GA to search the optimal combination of weights in the solution space, and then uses BP algorithm to obtain the accurate optimal solution quickly. Experiment results show that the proposed GA-BP scheme is more efficient and effective than BP algorithm.