Pressure drop and optimization meta-models for arbitrary low-height pleated filter shapes and flowrates

Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology - This study delivers equations useful for low-height pleated fibrous filter design: two pressure drop equations and one set of optimum design equations...     

Variation of antibiotic resistance in Salmonella Enteritidis,Escherichia coli O157:H7, and Listeria monocytogenes after exposure to acid,salt, and cold stress

Bacteria with antibiotic-resistant could seriously threaten to human health, increasing the treatment cost for infections and negatively affecting treatment outcomes. Stress adaptation is one possible mechanism for the acquisition or enhancement of antibiotic resistance in bacteria as a result of cross-protection. In this study, the effects of acid, salt, and cold stress on the antibiotic resistance of Salmonella Enteritidis, Listeria monocytogenes, and Escherichia coli O157:H7 were investigated using the disc diffusion method. For S. Enteritidis, acidic growth conditions increased resistance to ciprofloxacin and erythromycin (p < .05), and addition of 4% NaCl to growth media decreased resistance to chloramphenicol (p < .05). Irrespective of pH and the NaCl concentration of the growth medium, refrigerated E. coli O157:H7 showed increased resistance to amoxycillin, ciprofloxacin, gentamicin, streptomycin, and erythromycin (p < .05). Acid-adapted L. monocytogenes showed decreased the resistance to amoxycillin, ampicillin, chloramphenicol, ciprofloxacin, erythromycin, gentamicin, streptomycin, and tetracycline (p < .05). In conclusion, prolonged exposure of foodborne pathogens to acid, salt, and cold stress alters their antibiotic resistance. However, the effect of acid, salt, and cold stress on bacterial antibiotic resistance depend on both the bacterial species and the specific antibiotic. Therefore, multiple factors need to be considered for a foodborne antimicrobial resistant risk assessment.     

Defining Dry Eye from a Clinical Perspective

Over the past decades, the number of patients with dry eye disease (DED) has increased dramatically. The incidence of DED is higher in Asia than in Europe and North America, suggesting the involvement of cultural or racial factors in DED etiology. Although many definitions of DED have been used, discrepancies exist between the various definitions of dry eye disease (DED) used across the globe. This article presents a clinical consensus on the definition of DED, as formulated in four meetings with global DED experts. The proposed new definition is as follows: “Dry eye is a multifactorial disease characterized by a persistently unstable and/or deficient tear film (TF) causing discomfort and/or visual impairment, accompanied by variable degrees of ocular surface epitheliopathy, inflammation and neurosensory abnormalities.” The key criteria for the diagnosis of DED are unstable TF, inflammation, ocular discomfort and visual impairment. This definition also recommends the assessment of ocular surface epitheliopathy and neurosensory abnormalities in each patient with suspected DED. It is easily applicable in clinical practice and should help practitioners diagnose DED consistently. This consensus definition of DED should also help to guide research and clinical trials that, to date, have been hampered by the lack of an established surrogate endpoint.     

Leader-following consensus of fractional-order multi-agent systems via adaptive control

This article focuses on the consensus problem of leader-following fractional-order multi-agent systems (MASs) with general linear and Lipschitz nonlinear dynamics. First, the distributed adaptive protocols for linear and nonlinear fractional-order MASs are constructed, respectively. We allow the control coupling gains to be time varying for each agent. Moreover, the adaptive modification schemes for the control gain are designed, which renders smaller control gains and thus requires smaller amplitude on the control input without sacrificing consensus convergence. Second, based on fractional-order Lyapunov stability theorem and Barbalat's lemma, two novel sufficient conditions in terms of linear matrix inequalities are provided to ensure that the leader-following consensus can be obtained in the case for any undirected connected communication graph. Furthermore, we show that the proposed algorithm also works for consensus of agents with intrinsic Lipschitz nonlinear dynamics. As a result, the proposed framework requires no global information and thus can be implemented in a fully distributed manner. Finally, the numerical simulations are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of obtained the theoretical results.     

In vivo Kinetic Biodistribution of Nano‐Sized Outer Membrane Vesicles Derived from Bacteria

Evaluation of kinetic distribution and behaviors of nanoparticles in vivo provides crucial clues into their roles in living organisms. Extracellular vesicles are evolutionary conserved nanoparticles, known to play important biological functions in intercellular, inter‐species, and inter‐kingdom communication. In this study, the first kinetic analysis of the biodistribution of outer membrane vesicles (OMVs)—bacterial extracellular vesicles—with immune‐modulatory functions is performed. OMVs, injected intraperitoneally, spread to the whole mouse body and accumulate in the liver, lung, spleen, and kidney within 3 h of administration. As an early systemic inflammation response, increased levels of TNF‐α and IL‐6 are observed in serum and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid. In addition, the number of leukocytes and platelets in the blood is decreased. OMVs and cytokine concentrations, as well as body temperature are gradually decreased 6 h after OMV injection, in concomitance with the formation of eye exudates, and of an increase in ICAM‐1 levels in the lung. Following OMV elimination, most of the inflammatory signs are reverted, 12 h post‐injection. However, leukocytes in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid are increased as a late reaction. Taken together, these results suggest that OMVs are effective mediators of long distance communication in vivo.