Nocistatin reverses nociceptin inhibition of glutamate release from rat brain slices

We have examined the effects of the recently described heptadecapeptide nocistatin on K+-evoked glutamate release from rat cerebrocortical slices in vitro. In vivo, nocistatin reverses the action of nociceptin. Nocistatin (100 nM, n = 7) did not inhibit K+-evoked glutamate release alone. Nociceptin (100 nM) inhibited glutamate release by 51.7 +/- 8.3% (P < 0.05, n = 6) and this was fully reversed by nocistatin (100 nM). Nocistatin also appears to be an antagonist of nociceptin action in vitro.     

Synthesis and characterization of chloro-sulphide glass-ceramics containing neodymium(III) ions

In this paper, we describe the preparation of Nd³⁺ doped glass-ceramics in the (GeS₂)₇₀-(Ga₂S₃)₂₀-(CsCl)₁₀ system. Neodymium has been introduced as metallic powder or incorporated as sulphide. Appropriate heat treatments of the base-glass lead to glass-ceramics with controllable crystal sizes that are transparent in the visible and infrared spectral ranges. X-ray diffraction as well as electron diffraction techniques were used to investigate the crystallization process. Differential scanning calorimetry indicates that neodymium ions are poor nucleating agents in this glass compared to erbium ions. Luminescence measurements were also performed and point out that although the ceramization process increases significantly the luminescence efficiency, the neodymium ions are only partially incorporated in the nanocrystals.     

Frequency allocation problem in a SDMA satellite communication system

Spatial Division Multiple Access (SDMA) is a principle of radio resource sharing that relies on the division of the space dimension into separated communication channels. SDMA basically relies on adaptive and dynamic beam-forming associated to a clever algorithm in charge of resource allocation. As satellite communication systems move towards an increasing number of users and a larger throughput for each of them, SDMA is one of the most promising techniques that can reach these two goals. This paper studies static Frequency Assignment Problems (FAP) in a satellite communication system involving a gateway connected to a terrestrial network and some user terminals located in a service area. Two scenarios are considered: one based on SDMA and the other based on usual spot coverage. We propose original integer linear programming formulations and greedy allocation algorithms for the FAP which involves unusual cumulative interference constraints. By considering the link budget of each user, the objective is to maximize the number of users that the system can serve. We show through computational experiments on realistic data that the FAP associated with the SDMA system can be solved efficiently, yielding substantial improvement compared to the traditional system.     

The effect of surface roughness on condensing steam

Heal transfer coefficients for steam condensing on the outside of a smooth, and three artificially roughened pipes have been obtained for a condensate film Reynolds Number range of 1,500 to 9,000. Dimensionless local and mean heat transfer coefficient are presented, and in all cases significant increases in tht coefficients for the rough pipes are observed.     

Aromatic volatile organic compounds absorption with phenyl-based deep eutectic solvents: A molecular thermodynamics and dynamics study

The suitability of phenyl-based deep eutectic solvents (DESs) as absorbents for toluene absorption was investigated by means of thermodynamic modeling and molecular dynamics (MD). The thermodynamic models perturbed-chain statistical associating fluid theory (PC-SAFT) and conductor-like screening model for real solvents (COSMO-RS) were used to predict the vapor–liquid equilibrium of DES–toluene systems. PC-SAFT yielded quantitative results even without using any binary fitting parameters. Among the five DESs studied in this work, [TEBAC][PhOH] consisting of triethyl benzyl ammonium chloride (TEBAC) and phenol (PhOH), was considered as the most suitable absorbent. Systems with [TEBAC][PhOH] had lowest equilibrium pressures of the considered DES–toluene mixtures, the best thermodynamic characteristics (i.e., Henry's law constant, excess enthalpy, Gibbs free energy of solvation of toluene), and the highest self-diffusion coefficient of toluene. The molecular-level mechanism was explored by MD simulations, indicating that [TEBAC][PhOH] has the strongest interaction of DES–toluene compared to the other DESs under study. This work provides guidance to rationally design novel DESs for efficient aromatic volatile organic compounds absorption.     

Use of volatile compound metabolic signatures in poultry liver to back-trace dietary exposure to rapidly metabolized xenobiotics

The study investigated the feasibility of using volatile compound signatures of liver tissues in poultry to detect previous dietary exposure to different types of xenobiotic. Six groups of broiler chickens were fed a similar diet either noncontaminated or contaminated with polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins/-furans (PCDD/Fs; 3.14 pg WHO-TEQ/g feed, 12% moisture), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs; 0.08 pg WHO-TEQ/g feed, 12% moisture), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs; 1.63 ng/g feed, 12% moisture), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs; 0.72 μg/g fresh matter), or coccidiostats (0.5 mg/g feed, fresh matter). Each chicken liver was analyzed by solid-phase microextraction - mass spectrometry (SPME-MS) for volatile compound metabolic signature and by gas chromatography - high resolution mass spectrometry (GC-HRMS), gas chromatography - tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS), and liquid chromatography - tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) to quantify xenobiotic residues. Volatile compound signature evidenced a liver metabolic response to PAH although these rapidly metabolized xenobiotics are undetectable in this organ by the reference methods. Similarly, the volatile compound metabolic signature enabled to differentiate the noncontaminated chickens from those contaminated with PBDEs or coccidiostats. In contrast, no clear signature was pointed out for slowly metabolized compounds such as PCDD/Fs and PCBs although their residues were found in liver at 50.93 (±6.71) and 0.67 (±0.1) pg WHO-TEQ/g fat, respectively.     

Weakly supervised approaches for quality estimation

Currently, quality estimation (QE) is mostly addressed using supervised learning approaches. In this paper we show that unsupervised and weakly supervised approaches (using a small training set) perform almost as well as supervised ones, for a significantly lower cost. More generally, we study the various possible definitions, parameters, evaluation methods and approaches for QE, in order to show that there are multiple possible configurations for this task.     

Trickle flow hydrodynamic multiplicity: Experimental observations and pore-scale capillary mechanism

Trickle bed reactors are encountered throughout the process industry. Considerable attention has been given to the study of the hydrodynamics of this type reactor. It has been identified that, in the trickle flow regime, the hydrodynamic parameters (e.g. pressure drop and liquid holdup) are not unique functions of the operating and system conditions, but depend on the flow history. This study reviews the experimental trends identified in literature on the basis of a limiting cases framework and then evaluates the three-dimensional pore-scale liquid distribution using computed tomography (CT) data. This leads to the identification of 20 phenomenological trends that characterize hydrodynamic multiplicity, including hydrodynamic flow hysteresis as well as the effects of pre-wetting. The CT study yields additional experimental insight into the role of capillary pressure and ultimately leads to the proposal of a capillary gate mechanism based on contact angle hysteresis as the root cause of multiplicity. The mechanism is incorporated into a simple pore-network model. It is shown that the qualitative performance of the model corresponds closely to the majority of phenomenological trends and is capable of explaining the observed experimental behaviour.