Radiation-Induced Senescence Reprograms Secretory and Metabolic Pathways in Colon Cancer HCT-116 Cells

Understanding the global metabolic changes during the senescence of tumor cells can have implications for developing effective anti-cancer treatment strategies. Ionizing radiation (IR) was used to induce senescence in a human colon cancer cell line HCT-116 to examine secretome and metabolome profiles. Control proliferating and senescent cancer cells (SCC) exhibited distinct morphological differences and expression of senescent markers. Enhanced secretion of pro-inflammatory chemokines and IL-1, anti-inflammatory IL-27, and TGF-β1 was observed in SCC. Significantly reduced levels of VEGF-A indicated anti-angiogenic activities of SCC. Elevated levels of tissue inhibitors of matrix metalloproteinases from SCC support the maintenance of the extracellular matrix. Adenylate and guanylate energy charge levels and redox components NAD and NADP and glutathione were maintained at near optimal levels indicating the viability of SCC. Significant accumulation of pyruvate, lactate, and suppression of the TCA cycle in SCC indicated aerobic glycolysis as the predominant energy source for SCC. Levels of several key amino acids decreased significantly, suggesting augmented utilization for protein synthesis and for use as intermediates for energy metabolism in SCC. These observations may provide a better understanding of cellular senescence basic mechanisms in tumor tissues and provide opportunities to improve cancer treatment.     

Minimizing transmission delays in vehicular ad hoc networks by optimized placement of road-side unit

Wireless Networks - In a vehicular ad hoc network (VANET), a road side unit (RSU) is a network traffic transmitter statically placed along the route to facilitate communication between vehicles and...     

Exploring the construction of social class in educational discourse: the rational order of the nation state versus global uncertainties

This article aims to create intellectual space in which issues of social inequality and education can be analyzed and discussed in relation to the multifaceted and multi-levelled complexities of the modern world. It is divided into three sections. Section One locates the concept of social class in the context of the modern nation state during the period after the Second World War. Focusing particularly on the impact of 'Fordism' on social organization and cultural relations, it revisits the articulation of social justice issues in the United Kingdom, and the structures put into place at the time to alleviate educational and social inequalities. Section Two problematizes the traditional concept of social class in relation to economic, technological and sociocultural changes that have taken place around the world since the mid-1980s. In particular, it charts some of the changes to the international labour market and global patterns of consumption, and their collective impact on the re-constitution of class boundaries in 'developed countries'. This is juxtaposed with some of the major social effects of neo-classical economic policies in recent years on the sociocultural base in developing countries. It discusses some of the ways these inequalities are reflected in education. Section Three explores tensions between the educational ideals of the 'knowledge economy' and the discursive range of social inequalities that are emerging within and beyond the nation state. Drawing on key motifs identified throughout, the article concludes with a reassessment of the concept of social class within the global cultural economy. This is discussed in relation to some of the major equity and human rights issues in education today.     

Antioxidant and anticholinesterase evaluation of selected Turkish Salvia species

Since Salvia species (Lamiaceae) have been recorded to be used against memory loss in European folk medicine, we herein examined in vitro anticholinesterase and antioxidant activities of 56 extracts prepared with petroleum ether, chloroform, ethyl acetate and methanol obtained from 14 Salvia species (Salvia albimaculata Hedge and Hub, Salvia aucheri Bentham var. canescens Boiss and Heldr, Salvia candidissima Vahl. ssp. occidentalis, Salvia ceratophylla L., Salvia cryptantha Montbret and Bentham, Salvia cyanescens Boiss and Bal., Salvia frigida Boiss, Salvia forskahlei L., Salvia halophilaHedge, Salvia migrostegia Boiss and Bal., Salvia multicaulis Vahl., Salvia sclarea L., Salvia syriaca L., Salvia verticillata L. ssp. amasiaca) growing in Turkey. The antioxidant activities were assessed by both chemical and enzymatic methods against 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical-scavenging and xanthine/xanthine oxidase (XO) system generated superoxide anion radical inhibition. Anticholinesterase effect of the extracts was tested against both acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) at concentrations of 0.2 and 1 mg/ml using a microplate-reader assay based on the Ellman method. Most of the extracts did not show any activity against AChE at 0.2 mg/ml, while the chloroform extracts had noticeable inhibition against BChE between 47.7% and 74.7%. The most active extracts at 1 mg/ml for AChE inhibition were observed to be petroleum ether extract of Salvia albimaculata (89.4%) and chloroform extract of Salvia cyanescens (80.2%), whereas ethyl acetate extracts of Salvia frigida and Salvia migrostegia, chloroform extracts of Salvia candidissima ssp. occidentalis and Salvia ceratophylla, as well as petroleum ether extract of Salvia cyanescens were found to inhibit potently BChE (92.2%, 89.6%, 91.1%, 91.3%, and 91.8%, respectively). Particularly, the ethyl acetate and methanol extracts were observed to be highly active against both DPPH and XO. Our data indicates that nonpolar extracts of Salvia species for anticholinesterase activity and the polar extracts for antioxidant activity are worth further phytochemical evaluation for identifying their active components.     

Removal of lead and cadmium ions by single and binary systems using phytogenic magnetic nanoparticles functionalized by 3-marcaptopropanic acid

The present research study is focused on green fabrication of superparamagnetic Phytogenic Magnetic Nanoparticles(PMNPs), and then its surface functionalization with 3-Mercaptopropionic acid(3-MPA). The resulting material(i.e. 3-MPA@PMNPs) characterized by FTIR, powder XRD, SEM, TEM, EDX, VSM, BET and TGA techniques and then further employed for the investigation of the adsorptive removal of lead(Pb~(2+)) and cadmium(Cd~(2+)) ions from aqueous solutions in single and binary systems. The material showed fastest adsorptive rate(98.23%) for Pb~(2+) and(96.5%) Cd~(2+)within the contact time of 60 min at pH 6.5 in the single system. The experimental data were fitted well to Langmuir isotherm, indicated monolayer adsorption of both metal ions onto 3-MPA@PMNPs and an estimated comparable adsorptive capacity of 68.41 mg·g~(-1)(Pb~(2+)) and 79.8 mg·g~(-1)(Cd~(2+)) at p H 6.5. However, kinetic data agreed well with pseudo-second-order model, and indicated that the removal mainly supported chemisorption and/or ion-exchange mechanism. Thermodynamic parameters such asΔGo, ΔHo, and ΔSo, were-3259.20, 119.35 and 20.73 for Pb2+, and-1491.10, 45.441 and 7.87 for Cd~(2+) at temperature 298.15 K, confirmed that adsorption was endothermic, spontaneous and favorable. The material demonstrated higher selectivity of Pb~(2+) and its removal efficiency was(98.20 ± 0.3)% in binary system experiments. The material persisted performance up-to seven(07) consecutive treatment cycles without losing their stability and offered comparable fastest magnetic separation(35 s) from aqueous solutions. Therefore, it is recommended that the prepared material can be employed to remove toxic heavy metal ions from water/wastewaters and this "green" method can easily be implemented at large scale in low economy countries.     

Failure Analysis of HAZ Cracking in Low C–CrMoV Steel Weldment

This case study describes the failure analysis of steel nozzle in which cracking was observed after a circumferential welding process. The nozzle assembly was made from low C–CrMoV alloy steel that was subsequently single pass butt welded using gas tungsten arc welding. No cracks were found in visual inspection of the welds; however, X-ray radiography showed small discontinuous cracks on the surface in the area adjacent to weld bead, i.e. heat affected zone. The welding of nozzle parts made of same material was a routine process and this type of cracking did not occur in the past. Therefore, it became essential to determine the root cause of the failure. A detailed investigation including visual examination, non-destructive testing, optical microscopy, microhardness measurements and residual stress measurements were carried out to find out the primary cause of failure and to identify actions required to avoid its reoccurrence in future. Results of the investigation revealed that the principal cause of failure was the presence of coarse untempered martensite in the heat affected zone due to localized heating. The localized heating was caused by high welding heat input or low welding speed and resulted in the high transformation stresses. These transformation stresses combined with the thermal stresses and the constraint conditions to cause intergranular brittle fracture.     

PIV investigations on particle velocity distribution in uniform swirling regime of fluidization

In this study, hydrodynamics of spherical particles in uniform swirling regime of a fluidized bed were investigated using MATLAB supported particle imaging velocimetry (PIV). A least investigated mesh-type distributor was used to fluidize the bed particles, at different air entry angles, for future applications in coating and granulation industry. A quarter of the bed was photographed using high speed imaging technique and the respective velocity fields of the swirling particles were produced using PIV technique. The Gaussian distribution of the particle velocity profiles was predicted at low superficial air velocity; particles near the border of the bed showed relatively low velocity than that swirled in the middle of the test section. However, at high superficial velocity, the particles near the central cone moved with velocity comparable to the particle velocity in the middle of the test section. Contrarily, the particles in the vicinity of the outer bed-wall maintained their steady state motion at all superficial air velocities. The average particle velocity experienced monotonic increase for more angular air intake. The magnitude of the particle velocity reduced by 6.35% for each \(3^{\circ }\) increment in the air entry angle.     

Study on the preparation and properties of novel block copolymeric materials based on structurally modified organometallic as well as organic polyamides and polydimethylsiloxane

Some novel ferrocene‐containing polyamide‐based block copolymer materials with telechelic polydimethylsiloxane oligomer and their organic analogues were prepared by solution‐phase polycondensation of ferrocene‐based organometallic and terephthaloyl‐ as well as isophthaloyl‐based organic acyl chlorides with a series of semi‐aromatic diamines having ether linkages together with variable aliphatic character. The corresponding polyamides of the synthesized materials, without polydimethylsiloxane segment, were also prepared for comparison of physicochemical properties. None of the synthesized organometallic and organic block copolymers along with their respective polyamides melted below 300 °C and their structural features were confirmed by their physical properties and spectroscopic studies. The weight‐average molecular weights and molecular parameters of all these materials were determined by the static laser light scattering technique. The materials were soluble in sulfuric acid and partially soluble in common organic solvents, and yet became readily soluble upon N‐trifluoroacetylation. The synthesized materials were further characterized by their water absorption characteristics, X‐ray diffraction studies and surface morphology (SEM and AFM) and thermal (DSC and TG) analyses, and their structure–property relationships were elucidated from these studies. The energies of pyrolysis for these materials were calculated by the Horowitz and Metzger method. © 2012 Society of Chemical Industry     

Testing of starch-based carbohydrate polymer coatings for enhanced urea performance

In this study, starch–urea–borate adhesives were developed for coating the slow release urea. The physical properties of the developed adhesives were studied as a function of temperature, heating time, stirring rate, and pH. It was found that for certain specific adhesive composition, pH and stirring rate, the complete gelatinization time and corresponding adhesive viscosity do not remain constant with temperature. The suspension heated at 75°C reached its maximum viscosity after 21 min of heating, thereafter, remained constant over time. In contrast, the suspension heated at 80°C reached its peak viscosity after 12 min of heating. Further heating after 12 min caused a steady decrease in viscosity from its peak value of 450–339 cP. Once the adhesive physical properties were completely understood, a dripping solution technique was used to coat the urea granules with coating thickness ranging from 0.15 to 0.7 mm. It was noticed that the overall nutrients release time of the coated urea was three times higher than the uncoated urea. It was also concluded that the mechanical strength of coated urea strongly depends on the adhesive composition and coating thickness.