The calcitonin gene-related peptide activates both cAMP and NO pathways to induce relaxation of circular smooth muscle cells of guinea-pig ileum

Inflammation is the clinical expression of chemical mediators such as the pro-inflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor (TNF-)-alpha produced by macrophages and other cells activated in the immune response. Hence, agents that can inhibit TNF-alpha may be useful in treating arthritis and other diseases resulting from uncontrolled inflammation. We now report that the cleavage of heparin by the enzyme heparinase I generates sulfated disaccharide (DS) molecules that can inhibit the production of TNF-alpha. Administration of nanogram amounts of the sulfated DS molecules to experimental animals inhibited delayed-type hypersensitivity to a skin sensitizer and arrested the joint swelling of immunologically induced adjuvant arthritis. Notably, the sulfated DS molecules showed a bell-shaped dose-response curve in vitro and in vivo: decreased effects were seen using amounts of the DS molecules higher than optimal. Thus, molecular regulators of inflammation can be released from the natural molecule heparin by the action of an enzyme.     

Skinfold thickness measurements are better predictors of body fat percentage than body mass index in male Spanish children and adolescents

OBJECTIVES: Risk factors for increased blood lead concentration (BPb) has been investigated. However, the effect of sibship and Chinese herbal medicine on BPb has not been systematically studied. In this study BPb data from voluntary testing was used to determine if Chinese herbal medicine and sibship were associated with BPb. METHODS: 319 children aged 1-7 were tested for BPb. Meanwhile, parents were interviewed to obtain information including consumption of Chinese herbal medicine, living environment, lifestyle, and sibship of the children tested. RESULTS: The mean (SD) BPb of 319 preschool children was 4.4 (2.4) micrograms/dl. The consumption of Ba-baw-san (a Chinese herbal medicine) was significantly associated with increased BPb in children (p = 0.038). Further multivariate regression analysis of BPb in 50 pairs of siblings showed the factors of being brothers explained 75% of variation for BPb, and being sisters and brother-sister explained 51% and 41% of variation respectively. CONCLUSION: Chinese herbal medicine and children's play patterns within the family expressed in different types of sibship are the main determinants of low concentrations of BPb in preschool children of Taiwan.     

Effect of solid surface composition on the migration of tributyltin in groundwater

Tributyltin (TBT) is the most important organotin compound that has been introduced into aquatic ecosystems. A better understanding of its interactions with solid surfaces is essential to estimate the possibilities of TBT migration through subsurface environments. For this purpose, TBT sorption onto a porous matrix of natural origin, a quartz sand as an aquifer material, was studied at low concentration levels with a monodirectional model of column type allowing sequential investigation of sorption and desorption processes. Different treatments of the solid phase were performed by injecting alkaline solutions, NaOH at pH 10.8 or NaClO-NaCl at pH 11.5, by decreasing the ionic strength or by adding kaolinite to change the surface composition and properties. The removal of iron and aluminum (hydr)oxides from the sand surface did not affect so much the sorption (decrease in 14% as compared to sorption on the raw sand). The original use of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy to control treatment efficiency and to characterize sand surface modifications permitted to relate TBT sorption onto the aquifer material to quartz, the main component of the sand, and clay minerals (mainly kaolinite) present at trace levels at the sand surface. A first attempt of transport modeling with these two surface sites showed the consistency of our assumption. Moreover, estimation of Langmuir-type constants showed that TBT sorption affinity for the quartz surface (KL = 26.7 L micromol(-1)) was much greater than for kaolinite (KL = 6.3 L micromol(-1)).     

Cost Contingency Management

In the practice of project management, cost contingencies have the objective of covering probable cost increases (risks) above target estimates. Due to the variable performance nature for a wide range of activities, contingencies not only should be properly calculated but also assigned in the budget estimation process and wisely controlled during project execution. In this article, the Monte Carlo simulation approach is recommended as part of a proposed methodology for cost contingency management, which also includes a heuristics for contingency assignment (allocation) among project activities, as long as the activities have some degree of uncertainty regarding their future costs.     

Biomarkers for cardiovascular risk assessment in autoimmune diseases

Autoimmune diseases, such as antiphospholipid syndrome, systemic lupus erythematosus, and rheumatoid arthritis, are characterized by a high prevalence of cardiovascular (CV) disease (CVD), which constitutes the leading causes of morbidity and mortality among such patients. Although such effects are partly explained by a higher prevalence of traditional CV risk factors, many studies indicate that such factors do not fully explain the enhanced CV risk in these patients. In addition, risk stratification algorithms based upon traditional CV risk factors are not as predictive in autoimmune diseases as in the general population. For these reasons, the timely and accurate assessment of CV risk in these high-risk populations still remains an unmet clinical need. An enhanced contribution of different inflammatory components of the immune response, as well as autoimmune elements (e.g. autoantibodies, autoantigens, and cellular response), has been proposed to underlie the incremental CV risk observed in these populations. Recent advances in proteomic tools have contributed to the discovery of proteins involved in CVDs, including some that may be suitable to be used as biological markers. In this review we summarize the main markers in the field of CVDs associated with autoimmunity, as well as the recent advances in proteomic technology and their application for biomarker discovery in autoimmune disease.     

In situ validation of MERIS marine reflectance off the southwest Iberian Peninsula: assessment of vicarious adjustment and corrections for near-land adjacency

Water-leaving reflectance (ρ_w) data from the European Space Agency ocean colour sensor Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) was validated with in situ ρ_w between October 2008 and November 2011, off Sagres on the southwest coast of the Iberian Peninsula. The study area is exceptional, since Stations A, B, and C at 2, 10, and 18 km offshore are in optically deep waters at approximately 40, 100, and 160 m, respectively. These stations showed consistently similar bio-optical properties, characteristic of Case 1 waters, enabling the evaluation of adjacency effects independent of the usual co-varying inputs of coastal waters. Using the third reprocessing of MERIS with the standard MEGS 8.1 processor, four different combinations of procedures were tested to improve the calibration between MERIS products and in situ data. These combinations included no vicarious adjustment (NoVIC), vicarious adjustment (VIC), and, for mitigating the effects of land adjacency on MERIS ρ_w, the improved contrast between ocean and land (ICOL) processor (version 2.7.4) and VIC + ICOL. Out of approximately 130 potential matchups for each station, 38–77%, 74–86%, and 88–90% were achieved at Stations A, B, and C, respectively, depending on which of the four combinations were used. Analyses of ρ_w comparing these various procedures, including statistics, scatter plots, histograms, and MERIS full-resolution images, showed that the VIC procedure compared with NoVIC produced minimal changes to the calibration. For example, at the oceanic Station C, the regression slope was closer to unity at all wavelengths with NoVIC compared to VIC, whereas, with the exception of wavelengths 412 and 443 nm, the intercept, mean ratio (MR), absolute percentage difference (APD), and relative percentage difference (RPD) were better with NoVIC. The differences for MR and APD indicate that there was marginal improvement for these two bands with VIC, and an over-adjustment with RPD. ICOL also showed inconsistent results for improving the retrieval of the near-shore conditions, but under some conditions, such as ρ_w at wavelength 560 nm, the improvement was striking. VIC + ICOL showed results intermediate between those of VIC and ICOL implemented separately. In relation to other validation sites, the offshore Station C at Sagres had much in common with the Mediterranean deep water, BOUSSOLE buoy, although the matchup statistics between MERIS ρ_w and in situ ρ_w were much better for Sagres than for BOUSSOLE. Strikingly, the matchup statistics for ρ_w at Sagres were very similar to those for the Acqua Alta Oceanographic Tower (AAOT), where the AAOT showed more scatter at 412 nm, probably because of the atmospheric correction where the aerosol optical thickness is higher at the AAOT. Conversely, Sagres showed much greater scatter at 665 nm in the red as the values were generally close to the limits of detection owing to the clearer waters at Sagres compared to the more turbid waters at the AAOT.     

IMPROVING ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN COMBINED MICROWAVE-CONVECITVE DRYING

Convective-microwave drying has been recognized as a convenient option for drying of valuable materials. However, the advantages of the method must be carefully evaluated in order to establish the limits for full scale operating conditions because, as demonstrated in this work, the reduction in the absolute drying time as a function of the applied microwave power is devalued by an increase in the unabsorbed microwave energy, decreasing the overall energy efficiency of the drying process.

Experimental study of the energy efficiency of combined microwave-convective drying of agar gel and Gelidium seaweeds was carried out in a laboratory scale microwave-convective dryer by continuously following the absorption of microwave energy by the sample as well as the change of the sample mass during the drying process, under different operating conditions. Several drying strategies based on the on-off application of the microwave power were proposed and evaluated from the point of view of both drying kinetics and energy efficiency in order to program and rationalize the use of microwave energy in the combined microwave-convective drying process.     

Synthesis and characterization of mesoporous TiO2 nanostructured films prepared by a modified sol-gel method for application in dye solar cells

Anatase TiO₂ colloidal dispersions were obtained by hydrothermal synthesis at 200 °C from titanium isopropoxide gels modified with acetic acid in the presence of a non-ionic surfactant. Absolute ethanol, anhydrous terpineol and ethyl cellulose were added to this anatase dispersion resulting in a 23 wt% TiO₂ paste. Mesoporous films for application as working electrodes in dye-sensitized solar cells were prepared by the screen-printing method, yielding reproducible films with thicknesses about 10 μm and desired porosity levels in a single printing operation. An average energy conversion efficiency of 5.2%, and a fill factor of 0.66 were achieved with anatase particle sizes ranging between 15 and 20 nm. The reproducibility of the results was confirmed by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy analysis.     

Selective oxidehydrogenation of ethane with CO2 over CeO2-based catalysts

Ceria catalysts were found active and selective to the oxidehydrogenation of ethane (ODE) with CO₂ and the actual contribution for C₂H₄ formation from heterogeneous catalysis was 75–55% in the range 953–993 K. The presence of calcium ions in solid solution in the ceria crystalline network increased significatively the selectivity to ethene and the efficiency of CO₂ as oxidant in the heterogeneous reaction.     

Clinical prediction of the early prognosis in acute myocardial infarct

Several clinical factors can influence the pathophysiology, clinical course and prognosis of acute myocardial by different means. Some of them may be easily detected through the history, physical examination or ECG in an early phase. The knowledge of these factors may help the therapeutic decision making of patients with myocardial infarction. The influence for the main clinical factors (age, sex, risk factors, cardiologic antecedents and evolutive findings) on the short-term prognosis of acute myocardial infarction is reviewed. An analysis of the likely mechanisms of the influence of these factors on infarct prognosis is also performed.