Furosine induces DNA damage and cell death in selected human cell lines: a strong toxicant to kidney Hek-293 cells

Food Science and Biotechnology - Ne-(2-furoylmethyl)-l-lysine (furosine) is well-known indicator of early stage of Maillard reaction in processed food. Yet the toxicological aspects associated with...     

Context-aware multimodal recommendations of multimedia data in cyber situational awareness

Multimedia Tools and Applications - The current proliferation of large amounts of multimedia data creates an unprecedented challenge for security analysts in the context of Cyber Situational...     

Paraoxonase‐1 (PON1) activity as a risk factor for atherosclerosis in chronic renal failure patients

Paraoxonase is a high‐density lipoprotein‐associated enzyme and has been shown to reduce the susceptibility to low‐density lipoprotein peroxidation. This study aimed to investigate the activity of serum paraoxonase in uremic patients on hemodialysis (HD) and in the predialysis period, and to evaluate the correlations of vascular disease with paraoxonase activity. Thirty patients with chronic renal failure (CRF) undergoing HD (group 1), 30 patients with CRF under conservative treatment (group 2), and 30 healthy controls (group 3) were included. Basal, salt‐stimulated, and arylesterase activity were tested by UV spectrophotometry. Serum lipid parameters were determined. B‐Mode Doppler ultrasound was used to assess common carotid intima‐media thickness (IMT). Basal paraoxonase, salt‐stimulated, and arylesterase activity showed no significant difference between group 1 and group 2. However, it was significantly lower in group 1 and in group 2 than controls. Carotid IMT was significantly higher in group 1 than group 2 and both were significantly higher than controls. Basal paraoxonase‐1 (PON1), salt‐stimulated PON1, and arylesterase activity correlate with BUN, but only basal PON1 and salt‐stimulated PON1 correlate with serum albumin. Linear regression showed that the most significant determinant of carotid IMT was PON1 arylesterase activity in group 1 and arylesterase activity and basal PON1 activity in group 2. Patients with CRF, whether under HD or conservative treatment, have reduced basal and stimulated paraoxonase activities, and this could be an important factor causing increased vascular disease in those patients. Modifying this factor can be of great value to protect against this common complication.     

A Compromise Programming Model to Integrated Urban Water Management

Integrated urban water management is an important and critical matter in every city and country. Many objectives and criteria such as satisfaction of the urban water consumers, the national benefits and social hazards must be considered in the integrated urban water management. So the integrated urban water management can be considered as a multi-objective problem. In this paper, a mathematical model which uses the compromise programming model is presented to optimize this multi-objective problem. Three famous objectives involving water distribution cost, leakage water and social satisfaction level are considered. To evaluate the performance and efficiency of the proposed model, Hamedan potable water network is chosen as a case study. Results show that the proposed model is capable to present effective solutions for the considered problem. So the proposed mathematical model can be used as an efficient tool for the integrated urban water management in every urban area.     

The Structure and Kinetics of the Nanoscale Precipitation Processes in Al-1.0 wt pct Mg2Si-0.4 wt pct Mg-0.5 wt pct Ag Alloy

The influence of addition of 0.4 wt pct Mg on the precipitation sequence in the balanced Al-1.0 wt pct Mg₂Si bearing 0.5 wt pct Ag has been investigated during the continuous heating of the quenched alloy from the solid solution state. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy techniques have been used. The DSC experiments showed that all processes occurred are thermally activated. The activation energies of the precipitation processes have been determined and hence the kinetics of these precipitates have been determined. The obtained results have shown that the existence of excess Mg inhibits the formation of the early stage clusters of solute-vacancy clusters. These clusters can be assisted by the binding energies between solute Si, Mg, and Ag atoms and the excess vacancies. On the other hand, excess Mg accelerates the precipitation of random, β′-phase and β-phase precipitates.     

First principles density functional calculations of half-metallic ferromagnetism in Zn1-xCrxS and Cd1-xCrxS

We employ the full-potential linearized augmented plane wave plus local orbital (FP-L/APW + lo) method based on spin-polarized density functional theory (DFT) in order to investigate the structural, electronic and magnetic properties of ordered dilute ferromagnetic semiconductors Zn_1?xCr_xS and Cd_1?xCr_xS (x = 0.25) in the zinc blende (B3) phase. For the exchange-correlation functional, the generalized gradient approximation GGA (Wu-Cohen 06) has been used. Results of calculated electronic band structures and density of states of these dilute magnetic semiconductors (DMSs) are discussed in terms of the contribution of Cr 3d⁵ 4s¹, Zn 3d¹⁰ 4s², Cd 4d¹⁰ 5s² and S 3s² 3p⁴ partial density of states. For Cr-based systems without n or p-type doping, the stability of the ferromagnetic spin state versus the antiferromagnetic state is predicted. Band structure and density of states studies show half-metallic ferromagnetic nature for both alloys, Zn_1?xCr_xS and Cd_1?xCr_xS. Calculations of the s–d exchange constant N₀α and p–d exchange constant N₀β clearly indicate the magnetic nature of these compounds. From the calculated total magnetic moments we observe that p–d hybridization reduces the local magnetic moment of Cr from its free space charge value and produces small local magnetic moments on the nonmagnetic Zn, Cd and S sites. The robustness of half-metallicity of Zn_1?xCr_xS and Cd_1?xCr_xS as a function of lattice constant is also discussed.     

Jet array driven flow on the nozzle plate of an inkjet printhead in deposition of molten nylon materials

During research into an inkjet-integrated manufacturing process, jetting of molten caprolactam was investigated using a piezoelectric drop-on-demand printhead. Due to the start-up purging step and the surface energy differences, a wetting melt layer on the printhead's nozzle plate was formed. With appropriate parameters, a stable jet array was made. However, contamination on the nozzle plate disturbed the jet stability resulting in jet trajectory errors and even jet failures. Particles were used to characterise the melt flow field on the nozzle plate during jetting when multiple nozzles were actuated. Particle tracking velocimetry revealed that movement of the particles followed a specific pattern when the jet array was developed. Flow pattern driven by an actuating nozzle influenced those of adjacent nozzles. The movement of particles towards and from the actuating nozzles was observed at the same time and position with velocities up to 2 mm/s. This showed that a complex flow system was generated on the nozzle plate during jetting with multiple nozzles which influenced the reliability of the inkjet printhead.     

Sequential model-based segmentation and recognition of image structures driven by visual features and spatial relations

A sequential segmentation framework, where objects in an image are successively segmented, generally raises some questions about the “best” segmentation sequence to follow and/or how to avoid error propagation. In this work, we propose original approaches to answer these questions in the case where the objects to segment are represented by a model describing the spatial relations between objects. The process is guided by a criterion derived from visual attention, and more precisely from a saliency map, along with some spatial information to focus the attention. This criterion is used to optimize the segmentation sequence. Spatial knowledge is also used to ensure the consistency of the results and to allow backtracking on the segmentation order if needed. The proposed approach was applied for the segmentation of internal brain structures in magnetic resonance images. The results show the relevance of the optimization criteria and the interest of the backtracking procedure to guarantee good and consistent results.