Abnormalities of retinal metabolism in diabetes or experimental galactosemia. VI. Comparison of retinal and cerebral cortex metabolism, and effects of antioxidant therapy

Metabolic abnormalities observed in retina and in cerebral cortex were compared in diabetic rats and experimentally galactosemic rats. Diabetes or experimental galactosemia of 2 months duration significantly increased oxidative stress in retina, as shown by elevation of retinal thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) and subnormal activities of antioxidant defense enzymes, but had no such effect in the cerebral cortex. Activities of sodium potassium adenosine triphosphatase [(Na,K)-ATPase] and calcium ATPase became subnormal in retina as well as in cerebral cortex. In contrast, protein kinase C (PKC) activity was elevated in retina but not in cerebral cortex in the same hyperglycemic rats. Dietary supplementation with an antioxidant mixture (containing ascorbic acid, Trolox, alpha-tocopherol acetate, N-acetyl cysteine, beta-carotene, and selenium) prevented the diabetes-induced and galactosemia-induced elevation of retinal oxidative stress, the elevation of retinal PKC activity and the decrease of retinal ATPases. In cerebral cortex, administration of the antioxidant diet also prevented the diabetes-induced decreases in (Na,K)-ATPase and calcium ATPases, but had no effect on TBARS and activities of PKC and antioxidant-defense enzymes. The results indicate that retina and cerebral cortex differ distinctly in their response to elevation of tissue hexose, and that cerebral cortex is more resistant than retina to diabetes-induced oxidative stress. The greater resistance to oxidative stress in cerebral cortex, as compared to retina, is consistent with the resistance of cerebral cortex to microvascular disease in diabetes, and with a hypothesis that oxidative stress contributes to microvascular disease in diabetes. Dietary supplementation with these antioxidants offers a means to inhibit multiple hyperglycemia-induced retinal metabolic abnormalities.     

Dimerization of 1-butene in liquid phase reaction: Influence of structure, pore size and acidity of Beta zeolite and MCM-41 mesoporous material

Dimerization of 1-butene in liquid phase was studied over H-Beta zeolite catalyst and MCM-41 mesoporous material in an autoclave at temperature of 473 K and at pressure of 20 bar using n-heptane as a solvent. Liquid phase product analysis was carried out using GC-MS and a pattern recognition technique, Soft Independent Modeling of Class Analogy (SIMCA). Acidity of the catalysts was determined by FTIR, phase purity using X-ray powder diffraction, surface area by nitrogen adsorption and morphology of zeolite and mesoporous material crystals using scanning electron microscope. Influence of acidity, pore size and structure of H-Beta zeolite and H-MCM-41 mesoporous material on the conversion of n-butene and selectivity to C₈ hydrocarbon such as 2,2,4-trimethylpentene, dimethylpentene and 2-methylpentene was investigated. H-MCM-41 mesoporous material exhibited higher selectivities to C₈ hydrocarbons than H-Beta zeolite catalyst. However, conversion of n-butene was higher over H-Beta zeolite catalyst than H-MCM-41 mesoporous material.     

Isomerization of α-Pinene Oxide Over Iron-Modified Zeolites

Fe-modified mordenite, ferrierite, Y, ZSM-5, ZSM-12 and beta zeolite catalysts were prepared by solid state ion-exchange and conventional liquid phase ion-exchange methods from aqueous solutions. Sn- modified H-beta-300 zeolite catalyst was prepared by the later method. The characterization of proton form, Fe and Sn modified zeolites was carried out using X-ray powder diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, Mössbauer spectroscopy with magnetic measurements, transmission electron microscopy, nitrogen adsorption, X-ray absorption spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, inductively coupled plasma spectroscopy, thermo-gravimetric analysis and FTIR spectroscopy using pyridine as a probe molecule. Isomerization of α-pinene oxide over the Fe and Sn modified zeolite catalysts was carried out in the liquid phase using a batch-wise glass reactor. Formation of campholenic aldehyde and fencholenic aldehyde were observed to be influenced by the structure, acidity of zeolite and contents of Fe and Sn, reaction temperature and the catalysts pretreatment.     

Interface

Mobilising Knowledge Resources in the Global South: Learning by Doing and Learning by Thinking

Between Planning Practice and the Academic World: Some Comments from a Brazilian Experience

Thinking about Johannesburg

Learning by Doing

Finding and Sharing Knowledge Resources in the Global South     

On the way to improve cetane number in diesel fuels: Ring opening of decalin over Ir-modified embedded mesoporous materials

Embedded materials prepared from MCM-41 together with BE or TON were synthesized, characterized and tested in the ring opening of decalin in a temperature range of 523–623 K. The characterization results revealed that both microporous and mesoporous phases were present in the catalyst. Ir-modification did not change the phase purity, affecting, however, the acidity due to metal-support interactions. The parameters studied in ring opening of decalin were support structure, presence of Ir and temperature. The detailed analysis of 2D/3D isomers and ring opening products showed that the main ring opening products contained ethyl side chain. The Ir-modified embedded mesoporous catalysts were active and relatively selective in the ring opening of decalin, giving 35% selectivity to the ring opening products at 98% conversion at 573 K and 6 MPa.     

Evaluating the efficiency of integrated systems in the process industry–Case: Steam cracker

A literature survey indicates that decisions about whether to reject or accept an investment are largely based on financial factors. The survey also indicates that a comparison of different efficiency improvement studies is difficult because their results are not readily commensurable. From the management perspective, more information on the physical aspects affecting efficiency is needed. From the engineering perspective, studies on integrated processes deal with a number of criteria that are often in conflict with each other, and for which information is difficult to produce.This paper discusses ways to analyse efficiency improvement studies in integrated industrial processes. The paper demonstrates how these analyses could be made more comprehensive. The paper presents a case study where test runs and simulations were carried out to improve process efficiency by adjusting process operating parameters. The case study was re-evaluated using a novel approach that has been developed to assess the efficiency of integrated systems. This includes considerations from three design perspectives: energy efficiency, material efficiency and operational efficiency, which, when analysed simultaneously, result in a more complete set of design and evaluation criteria.     

An experimental stationary quadrotor with variable DOF

Unmanned air vehicles (UAV) and especially quadrotors have drawn great attention in recent years because of their maneuverability, ease of design and control. Most of the works concentrate mostly on control; yet, design and communication are also some sub-topics. In this research, a stationary, four rotor air vehicle with limited/controlled degree of freedom is constructed so that various control algorithms and their changing effects with varying vehicle dynamics can be studied on the ground for safety purposes. Ascending/descending, pitch/yaw/roll motions can be limited/controlled by setting the vehicle’s degree of freedom mechanically, resulting better net observability of the control algorithms on the vehicle’s dynamic performance. Design, in terms of mechanics, mechatronics and software is presented and the usability of the system is shown. Parallel self tuning fuzzy PD + PD control is applied to the system for preliminary studies and results are discussed. Inspite of the sensor noise, satisfactory pitch/roll/yaw control is achieved.     

Doomed program points

Any programming error that can be revealed before compiling a program saves precious time for the programmer. While integrated development environments already do a good job by detecting, e.g., data-flow abnormalities, current static analysis tools suffer from false positives (“noise”) or require strong user interaction. We propose to avoid this deficiency by defining a new class of errors. A program fragment is doomed if its execution will inevitably fail, regardless of which state it is started in. We use a formal verification method to identify such errors fully automatically and, most significantly, without producing noise. We report on experiments with a prototype tool.