Discogenic Low Back Pain: Anatomy,Pathophysiology and Treatments of Intervertebral Disc Degeneration

Intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration is a major contributing factor for discogenic low back pain (LBP), causing a significant global disability. The IVD consists of an inner core proteoglycan-rich nucleus pulposus (NP) and outer lamellae collagen-rich annulus fibrosus (AF) and is confined by a cartilage end plate (CEP), providing structural support and shock absorption against mechanical loads. Changes to degenerative cascades in the IVD cause dysfunction and instability in the lumbar spine. Various treatments include pharmacological, rehabilitation or surgical interventions that aim to relieve pain; however, these modalities do not halt the pathologic events of disc degeneration or promote tissue regeneration. Loss of stem and progenitor markers, imbalance of the extracellular matrix (ECM), increase of inflammation, sensory hyperinnervation and vascularization, and associated signaling pathways have been identified as the onset and progression of disc degeneration. To better understand the pain originating from IVD, our review focuses on the anatomy of IVD and the pathophysiology of disc degeneration that contribute to the development of discogenic pain. We highlight the key mechanisms and associated signaling pathways underlying disc degeneration causing discogenic back pain, current clinical treatments, clinical perspective and directions of future therapies. Our review comprehensively provides a better understanding of healthy IVD and degenerative events of the IVD associated with discogenic pain, which helps to model painful disc degeneration as a therapeutic platform and to identify signaling pathways as therapeutic targets for the future treatment of discogenic pain.     

Electrical studies on a single,binary, and ternary nanocomposites of Mn3O4@TiO2@rGO

Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics - The present work is concerned with studying the electrical and dielectric properties of a single, binary, and ternary nanocomposite of Mn3O4...     

Preparation of Nano-TiO2/Diatomite Composites by Non-hydrolytic Sol–Gel Process and its Application in Photocatalytic Degradation of Crystal Violet

Silicon - The dispersion of anatase TiO2 on diatomic material was a prospective route to avoid agglomerates of these particles. In this work, the TiO2/diatomite composites were prepared using a...     

Analytical approaches of meat authentication in food

Meat industry sector is likely exposed to illegal practices which involve replacement of meat ingredients with other animal species. Meat products are commonly modified during processing, and the cases have been rampant in certain part of the world. Meanwhile, individual consumption patterns are affected by religious belief and health reason. For instance, Muslims and Jews are prohibited from consuming pork and allergic reaction to certain meat species affects choices of meat products. Thus, food authentication is vital as it offers protection to consumers from fraudulent act. Numerous authentication techniques have been developed to tackle food fraud issues. Authentication methods are categorised mainly as targeted analysis which provides quantitative outcome and non-targeted analysis which offers qualitative result. In the present review, both targeted and non-targeted analyses for meat species authentication are discussed based on previous research conducted using these methods and how they serve the purpose for authentication.     

Cordial physico-chemical characteristics of some trimethylolpropane triesters as base synthetic lubricant for turbo- jet aircrafts

The use of synthetic ester oils is presently an absolute necessity. Polyols ester type is the preferable synthetic lubricant to meet the demands of the lightweight gas turbine engine that used in civilian and military air crafts overcoming the lack ability of mineral lubricants. In this work, trimethylolpropanetributyrate, triheptanoate and trinonanoate esters were prepared using Dean Stark apparatus under specified optimum conditions verifying a conversion of 96.8–98.5% within 5.3–6.3?h. The esters were characterized by; i.r., elementary and average mean molecular weight determination, density, viscosity…etc. Some of their cordial properties were correlated to their chain length and some correlations were deduced. Comparison of these properties with the French Air specification 3514 (Nato 0–150) and those for the commercial turbonycoil 13B which is used for French aircrafts indicates that, some of the prepared esters are suitable as base turbine oils. These synthetic base oils may be blended with addition of the appropriate additives to produce final turbine oil for air crafts of speed regime coming towards supersonic.     

Lower bounds for dilation,wirelength, and edge congestion of embedding graphs into hypercubes

The Journal of Supercomputing - Interconnection networks provide an effective mechanism for exchanging data between processors in a parallel computing system. One of the most efficient...     

Surfactant‐modified feldspar: Isotherm,kinetic, and thermodynamic of binary system dye removal

In this article, surface modification of feldspar using hexadecyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (HDTMA) and its dye removal ability in single and binary systems was studied. Acid Black 1 (AB1) and Acid Red 14 (AR14) were used as model dyes. The monocomponent Langmuir isotherm model was applied to experimental data and the isotherm constants were calculated for both dyes. The monolayer coverage capacities of surfactant‐modified feldspar (HDTMA‐feldspar) for AB1 and AR14 dyes in single solution system were found as 6.369 mg/g and 3.984 mg/g, respectively. It was observed that the equilibrium uptake amounts of AB1 and AR14 dye in binary mixture onto sorbent decreased with increasing concentrations of the other dye resulting in their antagonistic effect. Equilibrium adsorption for binary systems was analyzed by using the Extended Langmuir and Jain and Snoeyink Modified Extended Langmuir models. The rate of kinetic processes of single and binary dye systems onto adsorbent was described by using two kinetics adsorption models. The pseudo‐second‐order model was the best choice among the kinetic models to describe the adsorption behavior of single and binary dyes onto HDTMA‐feldspar. Thermodynamic parameters showed that dye adsorption on HDTMA‐feldspar were exothermic and unspontaneous in nature. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2012     

Effect of the growing area conditions on differentiation between Chemlali and Chétoui olive oils

This paper reports a discrimination study based on the antioxidant compounds, oxidative stability, aroma and sensory profiles of virgin olive oils from the main Tunisian cultivars, Chemlali and Chétoui, grown in two different locations, north and south Tunisia, with important differences in altitude, latitude and climatic conditions. There were significant differences between the oils from both cultivars when grown in the different environments. At higher altitude, the oils showed a greater amount of oleic acid, phenols and a higher stability, whilst in the open the oils had higher saturated and linoleic acid content. Aroma profiles were also influenced by the pedoclimatic conditions; hence, oils from the South had the highest level of (E)-2-hexenal and 1-hexanol, whereas varieties from the North were higher in (E)-3-hexenyl acetate and hexyl acetate. In general, and independently of the growing area conditions, oils from Chétoui olives had higher levels of antioxidants, greater oxidative stability, higher antiradical activities and more marked intensity of bitterness. These results can be used to discriminate and to characterise the Chemlali and Chétoui olive oils from each region.     

70-Gb/s amplitude-shift-keyed system with 10-GHz clock recovery circuit using duty cycle division multiplexing

The performance of ASK over DCDM for up to seven channels is reported. The aggregate bit rate of 70 Gb/s is achieved with only 160-GHz modulation bandwidth. The clock and data recovery are realized at 10-GHz clock rate, which is very economic and efficient. At 7 × 10 Gb/s, the worst receiver sensitivity of −10 dBm, OSNR of 41.5 dB and chromatic dispersion tolerance of ±7 ps/nm are achieved. Whereas, for the best channel, the receiver sensitivity, OSNR, and chromatic dispersion tolerance are −23.5 dBm, 29 dB, and ±36 ps/nm, respectively.