TRPM8 as an Anti–Tumoral Target in Prostate Cancer Growth and Metastasis Dissemination

In the fight against prostate cancer (PCa), TRPM8 is one of the most promising clinical targets. Indeed, several studies have highlighted that TRPM8 involvement is key in PCa progression because of its impact on cell proliferation, viability, and migration. However, data from the literature are somewhat contradictory regarding the precise role of TRPM8 in prostatic carcinogenesis and are mostly based on in vitro studies. The purpose of this study was to clarify the role played by TRPM8 in PCa progression. We used a prostate orthotopic xenograft mouse model to show that TRPM8 overexpression dramatically limited tumor growth and metastasis dissemination in vivo. Mechanistically, our in vitro data revealed that TRPM8 inhibited tumor growth by affecting the cell proliferation and clonogenic properties of PCa cells. Moreover, TRPM8 impacted metastatic dissemination mainly by impairing cytoskeleton dynamics and focal adhesion formation through the inhibition of the Cdc42, Rac1, ERK, and FAK pathways. Lastly, we proved the in vivo efficiency of a new tool based on lipid nanocapsules containing WS12 in limiting the TRPM8–positive cells’ dissemination at metastatic sites. Our work strongly supports the protective role of TRPM8 on PCa progression, providing new insights into the potential application of TRPM8 as a therapeutic target in PCa treatment.     

Efficient elimination of environmental pollutants through sorption-reduction and photocatalytic degradation using nanomaterials

With the rapid development of industrial, large amounts of different inorganic and organic pollutants are released into the natural environments. The efficient elimination of environmental pollutants, i.e., photocatalytic degradation of persistent organic pollutants into nontoxic organic/inorganic chemicals, in-situ solidification or sorption-reduction of heavy metal ions, is crucial to protect the environment. Nanomaterials with large surface area, active sites and abundant functional groups could form strong surface complexes with different kinds of pollutants and thereby could efficiently eliminate the pollutants from the aqueous solutions. In this review, we mainly focused on the recent works about the synthesis of nanomaterials and their applications in the efficient elimination of different organic and inorganic pollutants from wastewater and discussed the interaction mechanism from batch experimental results, the advanced spectroscopy techniques and theoretical calculations. The adsorption and the photocatalytic reduction of organic pollutants and the sorption/reduction of heavy metal ions are generally considered as the main methods to decrease the concentration of pollutants in the natural environment. This review highlights a new way for the real applications of novel nanomaterials in environmental pollution management, especially for the undergraduate students to understand the recent works in the elimination of different kinds of inorganic and organic chemicals in the natural environmental pollution management.     

Tribo-electrostatic separation of a quaternary granular mixture of plastics

Many tribo-electrostatic separation studies of binary mixtures of millimeter-sized plastic particles have been performed. The objective of this work is an experimental investigation for separating a quaternary mixture comprising four different plastic types issued from waste electrical and electronic equipment. The feasibility of the separation of such quaternary mixtures by the sliding mode tribocharging with a metal wall was demonstrated. The separation of a mixture comprising PA, PC, high impact polystyrene, and polyvinyl chloride granules is better in terms of both purity and recovery when charging the particles by sliding contact with the metal wall, then in the case of a fluidized bed device.     

Contribution of angular measurements to intelligent gear faults diagnosis

Currently, work on the automation of vibration diagnosis is mainly based on indicators extracted from Time sampled Acceleration signals. There are other attractive alternatives such as those based on Angle synchronized measurements, which can provide a considerable number of more relevant and diverse indicators and, thus, lead to better performance in gear fault classification. The diversity of angular measurements (Instantaneous Angular Speed, Transmission Error and Angular sampled Acceleration) represents potential sources of relevant information in fault detection and diagnosis systems. These complementary measurements of existing signals or new relevant signals allow the construction of Feature Vector (FV) offering robust and effective classification methods even for different or non-stationary running speed conditions. In this paper, we propose to build several FVs based on indicators derived from the angular techniques to compare them to the ones calculated from the time signals, proving their superior performance in detection and identification of gear faults. It will be a question to demonstrate the effectiveness of angular indicators in increasing classification performances, using a supervised classifier based on Artificial Neural Networks and thus determining the most suitable signals.     

New Bacteriocins from Lacticaseibacillus paracasei CNCM I-5369 Adsorbed on Alginate Nanoparticles Are Very Active against Escherichia coli

Lacticaseibacillus paracasei CNCM I-5369, formerly Lactobacillus paracasei CNCM I-5369, produces bacteriocins that are remarkably active against Gram-negative bacteria, among which is the Escherichia coli-carrying mcr-1 gene that is involved in resistance to colistin. These bacteriocins present in the culture supernatant of the producing strain were extracted and semi-purified. The fraction containing these active bacteriocins was designated as E20. Further, E20 was loaded onto alginate nanoparticles (Alg NPs), leading to a highly active nano-antibiotics formulation named hereafter Alg NPs/E20. The amount of E20 adsorbed on the alginate nanoparticles was 12 wt.%, according to high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis. The minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) values obtained with E20 ranged from 250 to 2000 μg/mL, whilst those recorded for Alg NPs/E20 were comprised between 2 and 4 μg/mL, which allowed them to gain up to 500-fold in the anti-E. coli activity. The damages caused by E20 and/or Alg NPs/E20 on the cytology of the target bacteria were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) imaging and the quantification of intracellular proteins released following treatment of the target bacteria with these antimicrobials. Thus, loading these bacteriocins on Alg NPs appeared to improve their activity, and the resulting nano-antibiotics stand as a promising drug delivery system.     

Heat transfer enhancement in self-sustained oscillatory flow in a staggered baffled vertical channel under the buoyancy effect

Unsteady laminar heat transfer enhancement in asymmetrically heated vertical baffled channel under buoyancy effect is investigated numerically. The baffles are installed on the two walls in an offset manner with constant spacing. The governing equations are solved by the finite volume formulation using openFoam© open-source code. Air (Pr?=?0.71) is used as working fluid. The effects of Reynolds number (100–1400) and Grashof number (2.5?×?10⁴ to 2?×?10⁵) in addition to the baffle height (0.1–0.5) on heat transfer and friction factor are studied. The results are given in the form of dimensionless isotherm contours and streamlines in addition to the Nusselt number and friction factor. The results obtained revealed that the flow bifurcates to self-sustained oscillatory flow at moderate Reynolds number (below 600 for a blockage ratio of 0.25). The unsteady self-sustained flow leads to heat transfer enhancement up to 2.8 times for baffle height h_b?=?0.25 and up to 3.7 when compared to the smooth channel. Unfortunately, this heat transfer is accompanied by an important increase in pumping power.     

Treatment of landfill leachate using Fenton process and coagulation/flocculation

Coagulation/flocculation process, Fenton oxidation and combinations between them were studied, aiming to provide an efficient method for the treatment of partially stabilized leachates. Leachates were collected from a municipal landfill site, samples containing around 3800 mg/L COD, BOD₅/COD ratio about 0.11 and pH around 8. The sequence of stages implemented was: (a) coagulation/flocculation; (b) Fenton oxidation; (c) coagulation/flocculation followed by Fenton oxidation which resulted in a best COD removal (63.62%) and (d) Fenton oxidation followed by coagulation/flocculation.     

First-principles calculations of ground-state and high-pressure phase of magnesium telluride

We study the ground-state properties of MgTe and the behavior under pressure using the new full potential augmented plane wave plus local orbital method (FP-LAPW + lo) within the local spin density approximation (LSDA) to density functional theory. The calculations were performed in the rocksalt (B1), cesium chloride (B2), zincblende (B3), wurtzite (B4) and nickel arsenide (B8₁) type structures. Our calculations clearly indicate that there is a structural transition from the B8 to B2, confirming recent experimental suggestions and also show that the ground-state phase of MgTe is the nickel arsenide (B8₁) structure.     

Polymer nanocomposites for microactuation and magneto-electric transduction

In the last decade, electroactive polymers have attracted much attention especially because of their very actuating capabilities. Large strain is experimentally observed, but under quite high electrical field, which can be a severe drawback for actuating applications. First part of the present paper is concerned with the reduction of applied field onto electroactive polymer films to get a given strain level. Polyurethane (PU) films filled with carbon black (CB) nanoparticles exhibit relatively high strain level under a field of only 12.5 kV/mm. The simple easy-tomake method solution cast method was applied. Even though the generated stress level is still quite low, the present work shows high strain level under quite low field appliance by easy manufacturing, lightweight, and flexible polymer film. Besides, another interest of the present paper is in magneto-elasto-electric effect of a polymer film filled with some magnetic nano particles. Films filled with nonpiezoelectric but with magnetite particles has still short history. With the use of magneto materials, a large magnetic DC bias field is generally required, and it causes big problem on application. The films filled with some magnetite nanoparticles (Fe3O4 and Nickel) are fabricated then examined. It is clearly demonstrated that our films do not require any DC bias. Although linear polarization value is relatively small, the first step of the studies on magnetite nano-filled film is presented.