Gliotoxicity, reverse transcriptase activity and retroviral RNA in monocyte/macrophage culture supernatants from patients with multiple sclerosis

Utilizing cultured lenses from normal and homozygous glutathione peroxidase (GSHPx-1) knockout mice and inhibitors for GSSG Reductase (GSSG Red), 1,3-bis(2-chlorethyl)-1-nitrosourea (BCNU) and catalase (Cat), 3-aminotriazole (3-AT), the ability to degrade H2O2 was examined at two H2O2 concentrations, 300 microM and 80 microM. It was found that GSHPx-1 contributed about 15% to the H2O2 degradation. The Cat contribution was concentration dependent being about 30% at 300 microM H2O2 and approximately 8% to 15% at 80 microM H2O2. GSH loss measured as nonprotein thiol (NP-SH) was shown to be linked to most of the remaining H2O2 degradation accounting for about 54% to 72% of the H2O2 degradation at 300 microM and 80 microM, respectively. However, based on evaluation of the ability of GSH to nonenzymatically degrade H2O2, it can only account for about 36% at 300 microM and 19% at 80 microM H2O2 of the observed lens H2O2 degradation. It is, therefore, concluded that lens GSH must be involved in other reactions either directly or indirectly related to H2O2 degradation.     

Taming reactive phenol tautomers and o-quinone methides with transition metals: a structure-reactivity relationship

Quinone methides act as important intermediates in organic syntheses, as well as in chemical and biological processes; however, examples of such isolated species are scarce as a result of their high reactivity. Phenol tautomers (keto form of phenol) are also important intermediates in several organic and organometallic reactions; nevertheless, isolated complexes are rare. This Account reviews the recent progress on the synthesis and reactivity of iridium and rhodium o-quinone methide complexes as well as on iridium-mediated ortho functionalization of phenols. This reaction was at the origin of the discovery of a general synthetic procedure to prepare the first metal-stabilized o-quinone methide.     

Chemical sensor based on a novel capacitive microwave flexible transducer with polymer nanocomposite-carbon nanotube sensitive film

Microsystem Technologies - This study presents the results on the feasibility of a resonant planar chemical capacitive sensor in the microwave frequency range suitable for gas detection and...     

A physically based diode model for circuit simulation

A physically based power PiN diode model is presented. Eigen value internal approximation method is used to solve the ambipolar diffusion equation. This model is implemented in SIMPLORER circuit simulator using VHDL‐AMS language. The proposed model can be used in both circuit simulators and the optimization of a given power PiN diode. Good agreement is obtained by comparing the results of the suggested model with experimental data. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Co-immobilization of chitosan and dermatan sulfate from Raja montagui skin on polyethylene terephthalate surfaces: Characterization and antibiofilm activity

In this work, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) was chemically modified by covalent co-immobilization of two separate layers of bioactive polymers composed of chitosan and a new dermatan sulfate isolated from Raja montagui skin. The new materials obtained were characterized by determination of carboxyl groups, ATR-FTIR spectroscopy, drop water contact angle, SEM, and TGA measurements. The different immobilizations modified the surface characteristics; especially when the first layer was dermatan sulfate (PET–DS–Chito) which presented the best surface wettability (71?±?3°). It also reduced the ability of Staphylococcus epidermidis to form biofilm on PET surfaces which could decrease the virulence of vascular prosthesis infections.     

Effect of vegetable and synthetic fibers on mechanical performance and durability of Metakaolin-based mortars

The use of vegetable fibers has regained interest in different fields. In fact, fibers may represent an alternative to traditional fibers incorporated in building materials, such as polypropylene fibers. Sustainable development requires the adoption of ecofriendly and natural materials. In this approach, using vegetable fibers as reinforcement for cementitious materials represents an interesting option for concrete industry. Thus, this article studies mechanical performances and transfer properties of cementitious mortars reinforced with vegetable fibers. The used fibers were Dis (DS), Alfa (AF), Date palm (DP) and Hemp (HE). They were subjected to prior treatment with calcium hydroxide. The results show that reinforced mortars with vegetable fibers represent a better deformation capacity than the control mortar without fibers; the best bending strength was recorded for hemp and date palm mortars; the addition of vegetable fibers leads to thermal conductivity decrease by 15% for a content of 0.1%. However, greater carbonation depths were recorded for vegetable fibers based mixes. These findings, for us, are promising for the use of vegetable fibers in cementitious materials.     

Evaluating Experimental Measurements of the IEEE 802.11p Communication Using ARADA LocoMate OBU Device Compared to the Theoretical Simulation Results

Wireless Personal Communications - Research interest has been focused on vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication systems, known as V2X technologies, namely in...     

Synthesis and in vitro evaluation of alpha-GalCer epimers

alpha-GalCer (also known as KRN7000) is an immunomodulatory glycolipid that is known to potently activate invariant natural killer T (NKT) cells upon CD1d-mediated stimulation. Because Th1 and Th2 cytokines, which are released after alpha-GalCer presentation, antagonize each other's effects, alpha-GalCer analogues that induce a biased Th1/Th2 response are highly awaited. In this context, we report the synthesis and in vitro evaluation of alpha-Gal-D-xylo-Cer and two alpha-Gal-L-lyxo-Cer analogues, one with the natural acyl chain, the other with a truncated chain.     

Performance Model of a WIMAX 2.0 All-IP 4G System

4G is promising a wireless broadband with data rates up to 1Gbps. The two candidate technologies for 4G are the Advanced Long Term Evolution (Advanced LTE) which is based on the 3GPP standards and the WiMAX 2.0 based on the IEEE 802.16 family of standards. The common feature of both technologies is that they will provide All-IP connectivity with flexible bit rates and quality of service guarantees for multiple classes of services including voice, mainly using voice over IP, data and video services. Most of the performance studies of 4G technologies use highly complex and sophisticated simulations due to the multiple complexity factors in investigating 4G technologies such as All-IP flexible bit rates, adaptive coding and modulation as well as the multi-services provided. These factors usually make any modelling attempt very difficult. This paper presents a numerical/analytical model for a 4G WiMAX cell based on a multi-dimensional Continuous-Time Markov Chain (CTMC) model. Performance measures were derived for the key performance indicators such as throughput and average bit rate per cell and per service class. By assuming minimum acceptable bit rates for certain quality of service guarantees, we derived measures for blocking probabilities. The model has been formulated and solved using MOSEL-2 (Modelling Specification and Evaluation Language) which captures the key features of a 4G system that affect services at session/call level. The resuls obtained from the model using sample parameters show that, the model can provide very useful insight to system behavior and can give good first indication to the performance of such a complex system.