Plasma prefractionation methods for proteomic analysis and perspectives in clinical applications

Plasma is a rich source of biomarkers with clinical relevance. However, the wide dynamic range of protein concentration hinders the detection of low abundance proteins. Plasma prefractionation methods serve as indispensable tools to reduce plasma complexity, allowing the opportunity to explore tissue‐derived proteins which leak into the circulation. This review summarizes common approaches in plasma prefractionation methods for proteomic analysis and then discusses some considerations in plasma prefractionation for clinical applications, reviewing some examples of its use in clinical situations.     

Preparation of LiNiVO4 nano-powder using tartaric acid as a complexing agent

LiNiVO₄ was prepared from Li₂CO₃, Ni(CH₃COO)₂·4H₂O and NH₄VO₃ using tartaric acid as a complexing agent with 1:1–1:4 mole ratios of metals:tartaric acid and subsequent calcination at 350–700 °C for 6–12 h. Inverse spinel LiNiVO₄ was detected using XRD. FTIR and Raman analyses revealed the presence of stretching band of VO₄ tetrahedrons. Only Ni, V and O were detected by EDX. The 1:4 mole ratio for the product with 450 °C calcination for 6 h analyzed by SEM, TEM and electron diffraction (ED) composes of LiNiVO₄ nano-powder with 10–30 nm in diameter.     

Hydraulic Characteristics of Gabion-Stepped Weirs

Experimental studies on the hydraulics of flow through and over gabion-stepped weirs are presented. Two flow components were observed, i.e., base flow through the void between filled stones and overflow on the gabions. The energy loss ratios in the gabion-stepped weirs are greater than those in the corresponding horizontal stepped weirs by approximately 7, 10, and 14% for weir slopes of 30, 45, and 60°, respectively. As a result, the velocity at the outlet is lower. Stone size and shape have little influence on the energy loss and flow velocity as compared to the increasing effect of the weir slope. The pressure acting on the step face for the gabion-stepped weirs is less than that of the horizontal steps owing to the cushioning effect generated by filled stones. To reduce pressure on a step face at a fixed discharge for different weir slopes, the void ratio of the filled stones should be low to allow a small amount of base flow. The pressure distribution pattern on the horizontal face of a step is provided.     

Effect of throat diameters of the ejector on the performance of the refrigeration cycle using a two-phase ejector as an expansion device

This paper is a part in a series that reports on the experimental study of the performance of the two-phase ejector expansion refrigeration cycle. In the present study, three two-phase ejectors are used as an expansion device in the refrigeration cycle. The effects of throat diameter of the motive nozzle, on the coefficient of performance, primary mass flow rate of the refrigerant, secondary mass flow rate of the refrigerant, recirculation ratio, average evaporator pressure, compressor pressure ratio, discharge temperature and cooling capacity, which have never before appeared in open literature, are presented. The effects of the heat sink and heat source temperatures on the system performance are also discussed.     

Investigation of pool boiling of nanofluids using artificial neural networks and correlation development techniques

The nucleate pool boiling heat transfer characteristics of TiO₂ nanofluids are investigated to determine the important parameters' effects on the heat transfer coefficient and also to have reliable empirical correlations based on the neural network analysis. Nanofluids with various concentrations of 0.0001, 0.0005, 0.005, and 0.01 vol.% are employed. The horizontal circular test plate, made from copper with different roughness values of 0.2, 2.5 and 4 μm, is used as a heating surface. The artificial neural network (ANN) training sets have the experimental data of nucleate pool boiling tests, including temperature differences between the temperatures of the average heater surface and the liquid saturation from 5.8 to 25.21 K, heat fluxes from 28.14 to 948.03 kW m^− 2. The pool boiling heat transfer coefficient is calculated using the measured results such as current, voltage, and temperatures from the experiments. Input of the ANNs are the 8 numbers of dimensional and dimensionless values of the test section, such as thermal conductivity, particle size, physical properties of the fluid, surface roughness, concentration rate of nanoparticles and wall superheating, while the outputs of the ANNs are the heat flux and experimental pool boiling heat transfer coefficient from the analysis. The nucleate pool boiling heat transfer characteristics of TiO₂ nanofluids are modeled to decide the best approach, using several ANN methods such as multi-layer perceptron (MLP), generalized regression neural network (GRNN) and radial basis networks (RBF). Elimination process of the ANN methods is performed together with the copper and aluminum test sections by means of a 4-fold cross validation algorithm. The ANNs performances are measured by mean relative error criteria with the use of unknown test sets. The performance of the method of MLP with 10-20-1 architecture, GRNN with the spread coefficient 0.7 and RBFs with the spread coefficient of 1000 and a hidden layer neuron number of 80 are found to be in good agreement, predicting the experimental pool boiling heat transfer coefficient with deviations within the range of ± 5% for all tested conditions. Dependency of output of the ANNs from input values is investigated and new ANN based heat transfer coefficient correlations are developed, taking into account the input parameters of ANNs in the paper.     

Development of high 1-deoxynojirimycin (DNJ) content mulberry tea and use of response surface methodology to optimize tea-making conditions for highest DNJ extraction

Mulberry 1-deoxynojirimycin (DNJ), a potent α-glucosidase inhibitor, suppresses postprandial blood glucose, thereby possibly preventing diabetes mellitus. At present, mulberry dry teas are commercially supplied as functional foods in many countries, but these products may not provide an effective dose (6 mg DNJ/60 kg human wt) due to their low DNJ content (about 100 mg/100 g of dry wt). Therefore, development of tea with higher DNJ content is desirable. To do this, we investigated distribution of DNJ content and α-glucosidase inhibitory activity in 35 Thai mulberry varieties. DNJ content in young leaves varied among mulberry varieties from 30 to 170 mg/100 g of dry leaves. Varieties having highest DNJ content were Kam, Burirum 60 and Burirum 51. Leaf position affected DNJ content: shoots > young leaves > mature leaves. DNJ concentration and α-glucosidase inhibitory activity were highly correlated (r = 0.84), suggesting that α-glucosidase inhibitory activity of mulberry leaves is mainly due to DNJ. Consequently, high DNJ content mulberry tea was produced from shoots of varieties such as Burirum 60, which contains 300 mg/100 g of dry wt. Tea-making conditions were optimized for highest DNJ extraction using response surface methodology. Approximate 95% of total DNJ in high DNJ content dry tea was extracted when temperature was maintained at 98 °C for 400 s; these conditions could be applicable for preparation of commercial products with high DNJ content. One cup (230 ml, a normal serving) of DNJ-enriched mulberry tea contained enough DNJ (6.5 mg) to effectively suppress postprandial blood glucose.     

Microwave-assisted synthesis of CePO<Subscript>4</Subscript> nanorod phosphor with violet emission

Monoclinic and hexagonal CePO4 nanoparticles and nanorods were successfully synthesized from Ce(NO3) 3·6H2O and Na3PO4·12H2O solu-tions at pH 1-5 by a 180 W microwave radiation for 60 min.The products were characterized by X-ray diffraction(XRD) ,Fourier transform infrared(FTIR) spectroscopy,and scanning electron microscopy(SEM) .XRD patterns revealed that the products are hexagonal CePO4 structures at pH 2-5,and monoclinic CePO4 structures at pH 1.SEM characterization shows that these products were nanoparticles,short nanorods,and long nanorods,controlled by the pH of the precursor solutions.Optical properties of the nanorods were also investigated by ultraviolet-visible(UV-vis) and photoluminescence(PL) spectroscopy.     

Finite circular fin method for wavy fin-and-tube heat exchangers under fully and partially wet surface conditions

The present study proposes the finite circular fin method for analyzing the heat and mass transfer characteristics of wavy fin-and-tube heat exchangers under fully and partially wet surface conditions. The analysis is carried out by dividing the wavy fin-and-tube heat exchanger into many tiny segments. The tiny segments can be analyzed based on surface conditions, i.e. fully wet, fully dry or partially wet surface condition. From the experimental results, it is found that the heat and mass transfer characteristics are insensitive to the inlet relative humidity but the effect of relative humidity on mass transfer characteristic become more pronounced when the partially wet surface condition takes place. The heat transfer characteristic is independent of the fin spacing. Effect of fin spacing on mass transfer characteristic is small when fin spacing is larger than 2.5 mm. However, at smaller fin spacing, the mass transfer characteristic slightly decreases when the relative humidity increases. The ratios of h_c,o/h_d,oC_p,a are in the range of 0.6–1.2. Correlations are proposed to describe the heat and mass transfer characteristics. These correlations can describe 95.63% of the heat transfer characteristic within 15% and 95.14% of the mass transfer characteristic within 20%. Correspondingly, 94.68% of the ratios of h_c,o/h_d,oC_p,a are predicted by the proposed correlation within 20%.     

Experimental investigation of evaporation heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop of R-410A in a multiport mini-channel

The evaporation heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop of R-410A flowing through a horizontal aluminium rectangular multiport mini-channel having 3.48 mm hydraulic diameter are experimentally investigated. The test runs are performed at mass flux ranging between 200 and 400 kg/m² s. The heat fluxes are between 5 and 14.25 kW/m² and the saturation temperatures range between 10 and 30 °C. The pressure drop across the test section is directly measured by a differential pressure transducer. The effects of the imposed wall heat flux, mass flux, vapour quality, and saturation temperature on the evaporation heat transfer and pressure drop are also discussed. The results from the present experiment are compared with those obtained from the existing correlation. New correlations for the evaporation heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop of R-410A flowing through a multiport mini-channel are proposed for practical applications.     

Characterization of Bi2S3 nanorods and nano-structured flowers prepared by a hydrothermal method

Bismuth sulfide nanorods and nano-structured flowers were synthesized by hydrothermal reaction of bismuth nitrate pentahydrate and thiourea solutions, containing 1 and 2 ml of 65% HNO₃, respectively. By using X-ray diffraction (XRD), selected area electron diffraction (SAED), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and high resolution TEM (HRTEM), the products were specified as orthorhombic Bi₂S₃ in the shapes of nanorods and flower-like clusters of nanorods, with the growth of nanorods in the [001] direction. A diffraction pattern was also simulated, and was in good accordance with the SAED pattern obtained from the experiment.