Pre-Transplant Serum Leptin Levels and Relapse of Acute Myeloid Leukemia after Allogeneic Transplantation

Weight loss and metabolic activity influence outcome after allogeneic stem cell transplantation (alloSCT). This study evaluates pre-conditioning Leptin, a peptide hormone involved in metabolism and immune homeostasis, as a prognostic factor for survival, relapse and non-relapse mortality (NRM) following alloSCT. Leptin serum levels prior to conditioning were determined in a cohort of patients transplanted for various hematologic malignancies (n = 524) and correlated retrospectively with clinical outcome. Findings related to patients with acute leukemia (AL) from this sample were validated in an independent cohort. Low pre-conditioning serum Leptin was an independent prognostic marker for increased risk of relapse (but not of NRM and overall mortality) following alloSCT for AL of intermediate and advanced stage (beyond first complete remission). Multivariate analysis revealed a hazard ratio (HR) for relapse of 0.75 per log2 increase (0.59–0.96, p = 0.020). This effect was similar in an independent validation cohort. Pre-conditioning serum Leptin was validated as a prognostic marker for early relapse by fitting the multivariate Cox model to the validation data. Pre-conditioning serum Leptin levels may serve as an independent prognostic marker for relapse following alloSCT in intermediate and advanced stage AL patients. Prospective studies are required to prove whether serum Leptin could be used for guiding nutritional intervention in patients with AL undergoing alloSCT.     

Genetic Deficiency and Pharmacological Stabilization of Mast Cells Ameliorate Pressure Overload-Induced Maladaptive Right Ventricular Remodeling in Mice

Although the response of the right ventricle (RV) to the increased afterload is an important determinant of the patient outcome, very little is known about the underlying mechanisms. Mast cells have been implicated in the pathogenesis of left ventricular maladaptive remodeling and failure. However, the role of mast cells in RV remodeling remains unexplored. We subjected mast cell-deficient WBB6F1-KitW/W-v (Kit^W/Kit^W-v) mice and their mast cell-sufficient littermate controls (MC^+/+) to pulmonary artery banding (PAB). PAB led to RV dilatation, extensive myocardial fibrosis, and RV dysfunction in MC^+/+ mice. In PAB Kit^W/Kit^W-v mice, RV remodeling was characterized by minimal RV chamber dilatation and preserved RV function. We further administered to C57Bl/6J mice either placebo or cromolyn treatment starting from day 1 or 7 days after PAB surgery to test whether mast cells stabilizing drugs can prevent or reverse maladaptive RV remodeling. Both preventive and therapeutic cromolyn applications significantly attenuated RV dilatation and improved RV function. Our study establishes a previously undescribed role of mast cells in pressure overload-induced adverse RV remodeling. Mast cells may thus represent an interesting target for the development of a new therapeutic approach directed specifically at the heart.     

Antitumor Activity of Ionic Liquids Based on Ampicillin

Significant antiproliferative effects against various tumor cell lines were observed with novel ampicillin salts as ionic liquids. The combination of anionic ampicillin with appropriate ammonium, imidazolium, phosphonium, and pyridinium cations yielded active pharmaceutical ingredient ionic liquids (API‐ILs) that show potent antiproliferative activities against five different human cancer cell lines: T47D (breast), PC3 (prostate), HepG2 (liver), MG63 (osteosarcoma), and RKO (colon). Some API‐ILs showed IC₅₀ values between 5 and 42 nM , activities that stand in dramatic contrast to the negligible cytotoxic activity level shown by the ampicillin sodium salt. Moreover, very low cytotoxicity against two primary cell lines—skin (SF) and gingival fibroblasts (GF)—indicates that the majority of these API‐ILs are nontoxic to normal human cell lines. The most promising combination of antitumor activity and low toxicity toward healthy cells was observed for the 1‐hydroxyethyl‐3‐methylimidazolium–ampicillin pair ([C₂OHMIM][Amp]), making this the most suitable lead API‐IL for future studies.     

Thermodynamic modeling of vapor-liquid equilibria and excess properties of the binary systems containing diethers and n-alkanes by cubic equation of state

A comparison of the performances of two different approaches of cubic equations of state models, based on a classical van der Waals and mixing rules incorporating theG ^E equation, was carried out for correlation of Vapor-Liquid Equilibria (VLE), H^E and C _P ^E data alone, and simultaneous correlation of VLE+H^E, VLE+C _P ^E , H^E +C _P ^E and VLE+H^E +C _P ^E data for the diethers (1,4-dioxane or 1,3-dioxolane) with n-alkane systems. For all calculations the Peng-Robinson-Stryjek-Vera cubic equation of state (PRSV CEOS) was used. A family of mixing rules for the PRSV CEOS based on the Modified van der Waals one-fluid mixing rule (MvdW1) and two well-known CEOS/G^E mixing rules (MHV1 and MHV2), was considered. The NRTL equation, as the G^E model with linear or reciprocal temperature dependent parameters, was incorporated in the CEOS/G^E models. The results obtained by the CEOS/G^E models exhibit significant improvement in comparison to the MvdW1 models.     

Electrospun Poly(styrene) Fibers as a Protection for the First- and the Second-Generation Grubbs’ Catalyst

The study presents a novel method for protection of the first- and the second-generation Grubbs’ catalyst, by incorporation in poly(styrene) fibers through electrospinning technique. Both catalysts are sensitive to the presence of the amine hardeners in the epoxy-based self-healing composites and require protection from deactivation to retain their ability to promote polymerization reaction of the healing agent. Comparison of healing efficiencies of both catalysts suggested that poly(styrene) fibers offer better protection and dispersion for the first-generation Grubbs’ catalyst, although all the samples exhibited high-healing efficiency. Difference in stereoselectivity between two catalysts was also indicated.     

CONVECTTVE HEAT AND MASS TRANSFER IN MOISTURE DESORPTION OF OAK WOOD BY INTRODUCING CHARACTERISTIC TRANSFER COEFFICIENTS

ABSTRACT

This paper presents the effect of forced convective heat and mass transfer coefficients on the predictive ability of a dynamic isothermal set of coupled partial differential equations. The analysis showed that the two coefficient two-dimensional model, resulted in a very good prediction of the experimental data.

The concept of experiment involves: six temperatures, six relative air humidities and three values of circulation velocity. Dimensions of oak (Quercus petraea) wood samples were 250×80×25mm. The experimental installation, designed and constructed for this study, enables the drying process of relatively small samples to be similar to the drying process of real timber.     

Fully-Naphthalenoid Hydrocarbons and their Conjugation Modes

Abstract

A fully-naphthalenoid hydrocarbon (FUN) is a benzenoid hydrocarbon whose all π-electrons can be (formally) grouped into disjoint naphthalene-units. The cyclic conjugation in FUNs is studied by means of the energy-effects of their various cycles. It is found that the dominant conjugation modes in FUNs are those involving the 6- and 10-membered cycles of the “full” naphthalene fragments. The cycles belonging to the “empty” domains of a FUN have significantly smaller energy-effects.     

A CALCULATION METHOD OF OBTAINING DESORPTION ISOTHERMS OF BEECH (FAGUSMOESL4CA) WOOD

ABSTRACT

This paper presents the specific methods to obtain sorption isotherms. Sorption isotherms were first obtained experimentally for 20°C and 100°C and then, by using the presented method, isotherms were also obtained for 50°C and 80°C. The same treatment can be applied in finding any isotherm sorption in the temperature range between 20°Cand 100°C.

The experiments were carried out on beech (Fagus moesiaca) and sample dimensions were 3×3×3cm. Based on the results of the experiment, by regression analysis, the most suitable analytic formula was proposed. It relsites temperature and air humidity with the equilibrium moisture content in wood. Experimental results were compared with psychrometric tables and Bramhall's formula for desorption curves with good agreement. This proves that the method presented in this paper is precise and efficient to decrease the lime needed to obtain sorption isotherms experimentally.     

Effect of preparation route on the microstructure and electrical conductivity of co-doped ceria

Dense Ce_0.8Sm_0.1Gd_0.1O_2?δ electrolytes were fabricated by sintering of CeO₂ solid solutions which were prepared from metal nitrates and NaOH using self propagating room temperature synthesis (SPRT). Three different routes were employed to obtain CeO₂ solid solution powders: (I) hand mixing of reactants, (II) ball milling of reactants and (III) ball milling of Ce_0.8Sm_0.2O_2?δ and Ce_0.8Gd_0.2O_2?δ solid solutions previously prepared by ball milling of corresponding nitrates and NaOH. Density measurements showed that ball milling, which is more convenient than hand mixing, is an effective way to obtain almost full dense samples after presureless sintering at 1550 °C for 1 h. These samples had larger grain size and consequently higher conductivity than the samples obtained by hand mixing. The highest conductivity of 2.704×10^?2 (Ω cm)^?1was measured at 700 °C in a sample prepared by route II. It was found that reduced grain size in samples obtained by hand mixing leads to a decrease in grain boundary conductivity and therefore decrease in the total conductivity. The results showed that mixing of single doped ceria solid solutions improved densification and inhibited grain growth.     

Hydrogen Effervescence from Aluminum Alloy Melts

With expansion of integrated computational materials engineering, new mathematical models are required for the assessment of processes that traditionally were manually monitored on factory production floors. The Richards logistic function is used to describe the total amount of porosity in an as-cast aluminum alloy sample after treatment under near vacuum and atmospheric pressures. The acquired function constants were correlated to the different process parameters during solidification. It is found that the Richards logistic function describes the best formation of porosity in aluminum alloy melts. The maximum porosity (M _P) and lowest porosity level (L _P) constants are directly related to the highest and lowest porosity levels in the analyzed samples, while the rate (r) defines the increase of porosity with respect to an increase in dissolved hydrogen between the threshold and mass transfer limits. The Richards logistic function can be used instead of traditional low-order mathematical equations to predict threshold limit and amount of porosity in solidified aluminum alloys by assessing the hydrogen concentration in aluminum alloy melts.