Concentrations and determinants of organochlorine levels among pregnant women in Eastern Spain

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) comprise a large variety of toxic substances with ample distribution. While exposure to these toxins occurs mainly through diet, maternal POP levels may be influenced by certain sociodemographic, environmental, or lifestyle factors. This is important given that these substances may have adverse effects on fetal development. The aim of this study is to examine the sociodemographic, environmental, lifestyle, and dietary determinants of the levels of hexachlorobenzene (HCB), b-hexachlorocyclohexane (b-HCH), 1,1,1-trichloro-2,2-bis(4-chlorophenyl)ethane (4,4′-DDT), 1,1-dichloro-2,2-bis(4-chlorophenyl)ethylene (4,4′-DDE), and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB congeners 118, 138, 153, 180) measured in the blood of pregnant women participating in a mother-child cohort study conducted in Valencia (Spain).The study population consisted of 541 pregnant women who formed part of the INMA (Childhood and the Environment) cohort (2004-2006). POP levels were determined in blood taken during the 12th week of pregnancy with the aid of gas chromatography with electron capture detection. Sociodemographic, environmental, and dietary information was obtained from a questionnaire. Multivariate Tobit regression models were constructed in order to assess the association between POP levels and selected covariates.The results showed that all the women had detectable levels of at least one of these compounds while in 43% of the subjects, all eight compounds were detected. The compounds found in the greatest number of women were 4,4′-DDE (100%) and PCBs 153 and 180 (95%). The most important determinants of high POP levels were the mother's age, country of origin, increased body mass index, and number of weeks of breastfeeding after previous pregnancies. With regard to diet, 4,4′-DDT and 4,4′-DDE levels increased with the intake of meat, fruit, and cereal. PCB 153 levels increased with the intake of seafood. The levels of HCB, b-HCH, 4,4′-DDT, and 4,4′-DDE observed in this study were slightly higher than in other studies, whereas the PCB levels were similar.     

Transformation Methods for the Numerical Integration of Three-Dimensional Singular Functions

The implementations of the eXtended Finite Element Method and the Boundary Element Method need to face the challenge of integrating singular functions. Since standard quadrature techniques usually produce inaccurate results, a number of specific algorithms have been developed to address this problem. We present a general framework for the systematic formulation of the three-dimensional case. The classical cubic transformation is also considered, including an analytical optimization of its parameters for improved practical efficiency.     

Use of cysteine to remove mercury from shark muscle

The efficiency of cysteine to remove mercury from sliced and minced shark was evaluated. Treatment with 0.5% cysteine at pH 2.0–2.5 and subsequent washing with sodium chloride (5%) failed to remove the mercury from the sliced shark. The efficiency of 0.5% cysteine at pH 7.0 in removing mercury from minced shark was 40–45% (dry material), obtained by two of the three methods studied. This removal rate was considered relatively low for it failed to attend to the practical proposal of decontaminating species of fish highly contaminated by mercury. The need for fuller understanding of the mechanisms involved in the removal of mercury by cysteine was also considered.     

IR连接传感器使温度监控变简单

测量对地有几十伏电压的电路元件的温度是困难的.而且,随着电压的增加,此工作变得更困难.在高EMI环境中测量温度也是困难的.解决这些难题的一个良好方案是靠红外(IR)信号实现温度探头到读出测定位的连接.     

Geometric Parameterization Technique for Continuation Power Flow Based on Quadratic Curve

The electricity sector, especially in emerging countries, has experienced several transformations, mainly resulting from the increase of electricity demand. This encourages more investment in the generation sector and causes increasing concerns with the development and improvement of tools for static voltage stability analysis of electrical power systems. This paper presents a new geometric parameterization technique for continuation power flow (CPF) that works based on the addition of a parabola that passes through three points in the plane formed by the variables of total real power losses and loading factor. This technique eliminates the Jacobian matrix singularity at the maximum loading point, which allows obtaining the solution trajectory (P–V curve) without any need to change the parameter, which is a very common procedure in the currently available CPFs. Intending to define a simple and efficient step size control procedure, the total real power losses values are normalized by its base case value. The results obtained by applying the proposed technique to the IEEE-300 bus system and two real large systems of 638 and 787 buses show its effectiveness.     

Improved Bioactivity of Antimicrobial Peptides by Addition of Amino‐Terminal Copper and Nickel (ATCUN) Binding Motifs

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are promising candidates to help circumvent antibiotic resistance, which is an increasing clinical problem. Amino‐terminal copper and nickel (ATCUN) binding motifs are known to actively form reactive oxygen species (ROS) upon metal binding. The combination of these two peptidic constructs could lead to a novel class of dual‐acting antimicrobial agents. To test this hypothesis, a set of ATCUN binding motifs were screened for their ability to induce ROS formation, and the most potent were then used to modify AMPs with different modes of action. ATCUN binding motif‐containing derivatives of anoplin (GLLKRIKTLL‐NH₂), pro‐apoptotic peptide (PAP; KLAKLAKKLAKLAK‐NH₂), and sh‐buforin (RAGLQFPVGRVHRLLRK‐NH₂) were synthesized and found to be more active than the parent AMPs against a panel of clinically relevant bacteria. The lower minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values for the ATCUN–anoplin peptides are attributed to the higher pore‐forming activity along with their ability to cause ROS‐induced membrane damage. The addition of the ATCUN motifs to PAP also increases its ability to disrupt membranes. DNA damage is the major contributor to the activity of the ATCUN–sh‐buforin peptides. Our findings indicate that the addition of ATCUN motifs to AMPs is a simple strategy that leads to AMPs with higher antibacterial activity and possibly to more potent, usable antibacterial agents.     

Contact between rolling beams and flat surfaces

This work presents a new approach to model the contact between a circular cross section beam and a flat surface. In a finite element environment, when working with beam elements in contact with surfaces, it is common to consider node or line to surface approaches for describing contact. An offset can be included in normal gap function due to beam cross section dimensions. Such a procedure can give good results in frictionless scenarios, but the friction effects are not usually properly treated. When friction plays a role (e.g., rolling problems or alternating rolling/sliding) more elaboration is necessary. It is proposed here a method that considers an offset not only in normal gap. The basic idea is to modify the classical definition of tangential gap function in order to include the effect of rigid body rotation that occurs in a rolling scenario and, furthermore, consider the moment of friction force. This paper presents the new gap function definition and also its consistent linearization for a direct implementation in a Newton‐Raphson method to solve nonlinear structural problems modeled using beam elements. The methodology can be generalized to any interaction involving elements with rotational degrees of freedom. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

FGM and laminated doubly curved shells and panels of revolution with a free-form meridian: A 2-D GDQ solution for free vibrations

In this paper, the generalized differential quadrature (GDQ) method is applied to study the dynamic behavior of functionally graded materials (FGMs) and laminated doubly curved shells and panels of revolution with a free-form meridian. The First-order Shear Deformation Theory (FSDT) is used to analyze the above mentioned moderately thick structural elements. In order to include the effect of the initial curvature a generalization of the Reissner-Mindlin theory, proposed by Toorani and Lakis, is adopted. The governing equations of motion, written in terms of stress resultants, are expressed as functions of five kinematic parameters, by using the constitutive and kinematic relationships. The solution is given in terms of generalized displacement components of points lying on the middle surface of the shell. Simple Rational Bézier curves are used to define the meridian curve of the revolution structures. Firstly, the differential quadrature (DQ) rule is introduced to determine the geometric parameters of the structures with a free-form meridian. Secondly, the discretization of the system by means of the GDQ technique leads to a standard linear eigenvalue problem, where two independent variables are involved. Results are obtained taking the meridional and circumferential co-ordinates into account, without using the Fourier modal expansion methodology. Comparisons between the Reissner-Mindlin and the Toorani-Lakis theory are presented. Furthermore, GDQ results are compared with those obtained by using commercial programs such as Abaqus, Ansys, Nastran, Straus and Pro/Mechanica. Very good agreement is observed. Finally, different lamination schemes are considered to expand the combination of the two functionally graded four-parameter power-law distributions adopted. The treatment is developed within the theory of linear elasticity, when materials are assumed to be isotropic and inhomogeneous through the lamina thickness direction. A two-constituent functionally graded lamina consists of ceramic and metal those are graded through the lamina thickness. A parametric study is performed to illustrate the influence of the parameters on the mechanical behavior of shell and panel structures considered.     

Delivery of chemotropic proteins and improvement of dopaminergic neuron outgrowth through a thixotropic hybrid nano-gel

Chemotropic proteins guide neuronal projections to their final target during embryo development and are useful to guide axons of neurons used in transplantation therapies. Site-specific delivery of the proteins however is needed for their application in the brain to avoid degradation and pleiotropic affects. In the present study we report the use of Poly (ethylene glycol)-Silica (PEG-Si) nanocomposite gel with thixotropic properties that make it injectable and suitable for delivery of the chemotropic protein semaphorin 3A. PEG-Si gel forms a functional gradient of semaphorin that enhances axon outgrowth of dopaminergic neurons from rat embryos or differentiated from stem cells in culture. It is not cytotoxic and its properties allowed its injection into the striatum without inflammatory response in the short term. Long term implantation however led to an increase in macrophages and glial cells. The inflammatory response could have resulted from non-degraded silica particles, as observed in biodegradation assays.