Corrosion of iron in highly acidic hydro-organic solutions

In acidic water-organic solvents of ethylene glycol (EGOH), propylene glycol (PGOH), methanol (MeOH) and ethanol (EtOH), iron corrosion was studied by monitoring the corrosion potential, the potentiodynamic polarization curves and electrochemical impedance diagrams. In these aqueous glycols and alcoholic solutions containing HCl having concentrations of 0.5 up to 9 M, it has been shown by electrochemical analysis (I-E curves) that dissolution mechanism of iron is similar to that one in pure acidic aqueous solutions if only we take into account the relative amount of water in the medium. Based in our experimental data, water has an important role in the transfer kinetics of protons to the metallic electrode and limits electro dissolution rate of iron. When water quantity is sufficient at the metal surface, the acidity is a governing factor in the evolution of corrosion process.     

Growth,Proliferation and Metastasis of Prostate Cancer Cells Is Blocked by Low-Dose Curcumin in Combination with Light Irradiation

Although anti-cancer properties of the natural compound curcumin have been reported, low absorption and rapid metabolisation limit clinical use. The present study investigated whether irradiation with visible light may enhance the inhibitory effects of low-dosed curcumin on prostate cancer cell growth, proliferation, and metastasis in vitro. DU145 and PC3 cells were incubated with low-dosed curcumin (0.1–0.4 µg/mL) and subsequently irradiated with 1.65 J/cm² visible light for 5 min. Controls remained untreated and/or non-irradiated. Cell growth, proliferation, apoptosis, adhesion, and chemotaxis were evaluated, as was cell cycle regulating protein expression (CDK, Cyclins), and integrins of the α- and β-family. Curcumin or light alone did not cause any significant effects on tumor growth, proliferation, or metastasis. However, curcumin combined with light irradiation significantly suppressed tumor growth, adhesion, and migration. Phosphorylation of CDK1 decreased and expression of the counter-receptors cyclin A and B was diminished. Integrin α and β subtypes were also reduced, compared to controls. Irradiation distinctly enhances the anti-tumor potential of curcumin in vitro and may hold promise in treating prostate cancer.     

Gut Serpinome: Emerging Evidence in IBD

Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) are incurable disorders whose prevalence and global socioeconomic impact are increasing. While the role of host genetics and immunity is well documented, that of gut microbiota dysbiosis is increasingly being studied. However, the molecular basis of the dialogue between the gut microbiota and the host remains poorly understood. Increased activity of serine proteases is demonstrated in IBD patients and may contribute to the onset and the maintenance of the disease. The intestinal proteolytic balance is the result of an equilibrium between the proteases and their corresponding inhibitors. Interestingly, the serine protease inhibitors (serpins) encoded by the host are well reported; in contrast, those from the gut microbiota remain poorly studied. In this review, we provide a concise analysis of the roles of serine protease in IBD physiopathology and we focus on the serpins from the gut microbiota (gut serpinome) and their relevance as a promising therapeutic approach.     

Green media-aware medical IoT system

Rapid proliferation in state-of-the art technologies has revolutionized the medical market for providing urgent, effective and economical health facilities to aging society. In this context media (i.e., video) transmission is considered as a quite significant step during first hour of the emergency for presenting a big and better picture of the event. However, the energy hungry media transmission process and slow progress in battery technologies have become a major and serious problem for the evolution of video technology in medical internet of things (MIoT) or internet of medical things (IoMT). So, promoting Green (i.e., energy-efficient) transmission during voluminous and variable bit rate (VBR) video in MIoT is a challenging and crucial problem for researchers and engineers. Therefore, the need arose to conduct research on Green media transmission techniques to cater the need of upcoming wearable healthcare devices. Thus, this research contributes in two distinct ways; first, a novel and sustainable Green Media Transmission Algorithm (GMTA) is proposed, second, a mathematical model and architecture of Green MIoT are designed by considering a 8-min medical media stream named, ‘Navigation to the Uterine Horn, transection of the horn and re-anastomosis’ to minimize transmission energy consumption in media-aware MIoT, and to develop feasible media transmission schedule for sensitive and urgent health information from physian to patients and vice vers through extremely power hungry natured wearable devices. The experimental results demonstrate that proposed GMTA saves energy up to 41%, to serve the community.

     

An evidential fusion approach for activity recognition in ambient intelligence environments

With the growing emergence of ambient intelligence, ubiquitous computing, sensor networks and wireless networking technologies, “ubiquitous networked robotics” is becoming an active research domain of intelligent autonomous systems. It targets new innovative applications in which robotic systems will become part of these networks of artifacts to provide novel capabilities and various assistive services anywhere and anytime, such as healthcare and monitoring services for elderly in Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) environments. Situation recognition, in general, and activity recognition, in particular, provide an added value on the contextual information that can help the ubiquitous networked robot to autonomously provide the best service that meet the needs of the elderly. Dempster–Shafer theory of evidence and its derivatives are an efficient tool to handle uncertainty and incompleteness in smart homes and ubiquitous computing environments. However, their combination rules yield counter-intuitive results in high conflicting activities. In this paper, we propose a new approach to support conflict resolution in activity recognition in AAL environments. This approach is based on a new mapping for conflict evidential fusion to increase the efficiency and accuracy of activity recognition. It gives intuitive interpretation for combining multiple sources in all conflicting situations. The proposed approach, evaluated on a real world smart home dataset, achieves 78% of accuracy in activity recognition. The obtained results outperform those obtained with the existing combination rules.     

Thermo-mechanical response of UHPFRC at early age — Experimental study and numerical simulation

The thermal effects on the Ultra High Performance Fiber Reinforced Concrete (UHPFRC) behavior are still not completely known. Under high temperatures, the processes that interact at early age are thermo-activated. All the experimental results obtained within this research confirmed it. Besides, certain authors observed a non-monotonous effect of temperature on the autogenous shrinkage and the creep of normal and high performance concretes. To clarify the thermal effect on the early age UHPFRC behavior an extensive experimental study was carried out. Tests results showed a non-monotonous effect of temperature on the autogenous shrinkage. In addition, finite element numerical simulations were performed to predict the experimental results and to validate existing models for different curing conditions. These models are necessary to predict accurately the deformations, the stresses and the damage (cracking) in the case of structural elements subjected to in-situ temperature variations.     

Statistical modeling of electrochemical reactivation conditions for detecting sensitization to IGC of austenitic stainless steel type 316L

The aim of this study was to determine the optimum conditions of the DL EPR test in order to evaluate the highest values of the degree of sensitization (DOS) of a forged austenitic stainless steel type 316L evaluated by the ratio I _r/I _a or Q _r/Q _a in %. The criteria of sensitization to the IGC corresponds toI _r/I _a > 1% and Q _r/Q _a > 1%. A model using a full factorial design has been established, and the selected factors were the sweep rate (dE/dt), sulphuric acid concentration (H₂SO₄), ammonium thiocyanate concentration (NH₄SCN), and temperature in °C. A first order model is obtained by using a 2⁴ full factorial design. An experimental test carried out using a 2⁴ factorial design indicated that all the factors and their interactions have a positive effect on the response I _r/I _a. Furthermore, the highest value detected ofI _r/I _a was found to be 65.6%. On the other hand, a microstructural study based on an optical microscope and a scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) has been carried out for annealed and aged samples (550°C-80000 h). The profiles of the chromium, nickel, and molybdenum concentration established by X-ray microanalysis in STEM confirm a decrease of the content of these elements leading to the formation of Cr-depleted zones responsible for the sensitization to the IGC. The text was submitted by the authors in English.