Mesenchymal stem cells and cell-free preparations for treating atopic dermatitis

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic cutaneous inflammatory disease caused by an interaction between genetic, immune and epidermal barrier factors. Several treatments can be used to treat this disease but there are patients that do not respond to actual drugs. So, there is a need to develop effective therapies for AD. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are non-hematopoietic multipotent adult progenitor cells with immunomodulatory power and self-regenerating capacity to repair tissue damage, so they could be a potential effective treatment for AD. MSCs-Conditioned Medium (CM) and MSCs-exosomes are cell-free preparation with molecules secreted by stem cells that could be also beneficial for AD. This viewpoint reviews the actual development of MSCs, MSCs-CM and MSCs-exosomes for treating patients with AD.     

PUBIFICATION OF WET PROCESS PHOSPHOHIC ACID BY SOLVENT EXTRACTION WITH DIBUTYL ETHER. PART. I. LIQUID-LIQUID EQUILIBRIUM OF THE SYSTEM WATER-PHOSPHORIC ACID-DIBUTYL ETHER AT 25°C.

Solubility and liquid-liquid phase equilibrium data have been determinated for the ternary system water-Phosphoric Acid-Dibutyl Ether at 25°

Data for the binodal curve have been obtained by analyzing the phosphoric acid percentage in both aqueous and organic phases. The plait point composition has been calculated by the Hand, Coolidge and Sherwood methods. The phosphoric acid extraction capacity of dibutyl ether has been compared to that of several solvents previously studied in the Alicante Chemical Engineering Division, showing that dibutyl ether has a phosphoric acid extraction capacity similar to propyl-ether and lower than isoamyl alcohol.     

Microcomputer-Aided Evaluation of Earthquake-Induced Permanent Slope Displacements

Ageotechnical engineering microcomputer program has been developed for the determination of permanent slope displacements resulting from earthquake shaking. The Newmark procedure, in which accelerations in excess of yield accelerations are double integrated to obtain displacements, has been incorporated into the program DISPLMT. Several user options are available for describing the yield acceleration function, including variation with time and variation with displacement. Screen graphics are available which allow the user to observe the down slope movements of the Newmark sliding block as they increase with time during the simulated earthquake. DISPLMT has been used to calculate the permanent movements of an earth dam using acceleration-time histories and soil shear stresses determined from a separate analysis. Modification to the conventional Newmark procedure, by introduction of a "slip layer," has been made in the analysis of a dam. Permanent slope displacements can be analyzed using the recommended procedure, which involves fairly simple computations that can be performed in a reasonable period of time with the exclusive use of microcomputers.     

A heuristic for production scheduling and inventory control in the presence of sequence-dependent setup times

The consideration of sequence-dependent setup times is one of the most difficult aspects of production scheduling problems. This paper reports on the development of a heuristic procedure to address a realistic production and inventory control problem in the presence of sequence-dependent setup times. The problem considers known monthly demands, variable production rates, holding costs, minimum and maximum inventory levels per product, and regular and overtime capacity limits. The problem is formulated as a Mixed-Integer Program (MIP), where subtour elimination constraints are needed to enforce the generation of job sequences in each month. By relaxing the subtour elimination constraints, the MIP formulation can be used to find a lower bound on the optimal solution. CPLEX 3.0 is used to calculate lower bounds for relatively small instances of this production problem, which are then used to assess the merit of a proposed heuristic. The heuristic is based on a simple short-term memory tabu search method that coordinates linear programming and traveling salesperson solvers in the search for optimal or near-optimal production plans.     

PLACE‐BASED AND RACE‐BASED EXCLUSION FROM MORTGAGE LOANS: EVIDENCE FROM THREE CITIES IN THE NETHERLANDS

ABSTRACT: Do place and race matter in mortgage loan applications? This article presents evidence from mortgage markets in the Dutch cities of Arnhem, The Hague, and Rotterdam, suggesting that place, and to a lesser extent also race, do matter. In general, race and place are not factors of direct exclusion, but (1) zip codes are included in credit scoring systems, and (2) both place and race are significant factors in the assessments by loan officers because applicants who do not meet all formal criteria are more often accepted (“overrides”) for indigenous Dutch and low‐risk neighborhoods than for ethnic minorities and high‐risk neighborhoods. In addition, a “national mortgage guarantee” is compulsory for loan applications in high‐risk neighborhoods and thereby used as a substitute for redlining, comparable to the compulsoriness of private mortgage insurance in the United States. Some lenders also engage in direct redlining by rejecting low‐risk “national mortgage guarantee” loans in high‐risk neighborhoods, a practice potentially explained by transaction cost economizing. Since the high‐risk neighborhoods in all three cities accommodate relatively large shares of ethnic minority groups, they are hit twice: through place‐based and through race‐based exclusion. In other words, place‐based disparate treatment results in race‐based disparate impact. The neighborhood does matter; place‐based exclusion in the mortgage market has a neighborhood effect.     

Measurement of Convective Heat Transfer Coefficients During Food Freezing Processes

Any prediction of freezing time for a food product depends on accurate heat transfer coefficients. The purpose of this investigation was to examine experimental procedures for accurate determination of convective transfer coefficients during freezing of food products. Measurements of heat transfer coefficients during cooling of any acrylic transducer and ground beef with similar size and shape were conducted at air temperatures below initial freezing point of the product. The results indicate that accurate measurements of the coefficients can be achieved through nonlinear regression analysis of temperature histories within an acrylic transducer.