Butyrate and Propionate Restore the Cytokine and House Dust Mite Compromised Barrier Function of Human Bronchial Airway Epithelial Cells

Barrier dysfunction of airway epithelium contributes to the development of allergies, airway hyper-responsiveness and immunological respiratory diseases. Short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) enhance and restore the barrier function of the intestinal epithelium. This study investigated whether acetate, propionate and butyrate enhance the integrity of bronchial epithelial cells. Differentiating human bronchial epithelial cells (16HBE) grown on transwells were exposed to butyrate, propionate and acetate while trans-epithelial electrical resistance was monitored over time. Restorative effects of SCFA were investigated by subsequent incubation of cells with IL-4, IL-13 or house dust mite extract and SCFA. SCFA effects on IL-4-induced cytokine production and the expression of zonula occludens-1 (ZO-1) and Mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPK) signalling pathways were investigated by ELISA and Western blot assays. Propionate and butyrate enhanced the barrier function of differentiating 16HBE cells and induced complete recovery of the barrier function after exposure to the above-mentioned stimuli. Butyrate decreased IL-4-induced IL-6 production. IL-4 decreased ZO-1 protein expression and induced phosphorylation of extracellular signal-regulated protein kinases 1/2 (ERK1/2) and c-Jun N-terminal kinases (JNK) in 16HBE cells, both of which could be restored by SCFA. SCFA showed prophylactic and restorative effects on airway epithelial barrier function, which might be induced by increased ZO-1 expression.     

Phase equilibria in the zirconia–yttria/gadolinia–silica systems

Phase equilibria in ZrO₂-YO_1.5-SiO₂ (ZYS) and ZrO₂-GdO_1.5-SiO₂ (ZGS) were experimentally assessed at 1400?°C and 1600?°C as they can offer insight on reactions between thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) based on ZrO₂-YO_1.5/GdO_1.5 and molten silicate deposits in gas turbine engines. Features shared in both systems include the absence of ternary compounds and no ternary solubility in the binary phases. In ZYS however, a quaternary invariant reaction was observed that eliminates the zircon-disilicate equilibrium at higher temperatures. The results suggest no appreciable difference in the reactions between silica and thermal barrier oxides based on ZrO₂-YO_1.5 or ZrO₂-GdO_1.5, or environmental barrier coatings based on the corresponding Y/Gd silicates. The phase diagrams derived from these experiments are part of a broader effort to develop thermodynamic databases that can help guide the design of next-generation TBCs.     

Benefits of Flow Data for Flood-Protection Design

Stream gauging data play a vital role in the planning of flood mitigation strategies. A study of the value of stream flow data for the design of levee systems shows that the availability of a reasonable sample of pertinent data can be worth many times the cost of collecting that data.     

Cogasification of blended coal‐biomass in an air/steam BFB gasifier: Experimental investigation and model validation

A series of cogasification experiments were performed at a 100 kW bubbling fluidized bed (BFB) gasifier to gasify the blended pellets made from two types of coals and woody biomass, with biomass‐to‐fuel mass ratios of 0–30%. In the cogasification, a mixture of air and steam was fed from the BFB gasifier bottom as gasification agent and the blended biomass‐coal pellets were fed into the bed layer. Impacts of biomass mass fraction in the binary pellets and gasification operation temperature on producer gas composition were experimentally investigated. The experimental results have been used to validate a mathematical model developed in this study. From both experimental observation and model prediction, it was found that adding biomass into coal has overall negative impact on producer gas quality in terms of combustible substance contents, and the extents of the blending effect were different among fuel types which have different properties. © 2015 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 61: 1639–1647, 2015     

Novel,Printable Energetic Polymers

Novel, simple‐to‐make energetic mono‐ and bisvinylimidazolium perchlorate monomers are prepared and characterized. These energetic monomers offer the possibility to 3D print energetic polymers that may allow decreasing the content of the energetic filler in energetic devices without compromising their energetic properties. The new printable materials are suited for photocuring‐based additive manufacturing (AM), techniques, offering not only a large degree of control over the mechanical and energetic properties of the resulting solids, but also the production of complex geometries at high resolution.     

Solvent vapor treatment controls surface wettability in PMMA femtosecond-laser-ablated microchannels

A solvent vapor treatment was applied to femtosecond-laser-ablated microchannels in PMMA to selectively restore the original hydrophilic wetting behavior of the pristine surface. The hydrophobic surface of the microchannels from the submicron porosity induced by ablation becomes smoother and more transparent after the treatment. This simple and low-cost method, together with suitable masking, can produce wettability patterns that may be exploited to develop passive microfluidic elements such as valves and mixers.     

DEVELOPMENT TOOL FOR COMPUTER VISION SYSTEMS AT PIXEL LEVEL

This paper describes a tool to aid the development of computer vision applications for pixel-level diagnosis. A conceptual framework for constructing pixel processors is described. The proposed tool is based on two domains: one deals with numerical images, named features, and the other deals with symbolic images, named classes. A reduced set of image and operator types is defined. Based on it, an object-oriented language is described. The main objects define features and classes and their associated operators, namely procedures, classifiers, and rules. All system control is goal oriented and is designed to provide symbolic images as results when a request is received from a higher level of the image understanding system. Some knowledge engineering concepts, such as certainty control and instances, are also included.     

Selective adsorption of multivalent ions into TiC-derived nanoporous carbon

A TiC-derived carbon (TiC-CDC) was prepared, and the adsorption of large hexacyanocobaltate and tetrabutylammonium ions of approximately same size was examined on this carbon. While selectively absorbing these large ions, it rejects smaller chloride and ammonium ions in mixed electrolyte solutions. The result demonstrates the important role of electrostatic repulsive forces, space-efficient charge packing and hydrophobic ion interactions with the pore walls of TiC-CDC, similar to what is known for a variety of biological membranes.