Application of nanotechnology in removal of NAPLs from contaminated aquifers: a source clean-up experimental study

Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy - This work investigates the removal of non-aqueous phase liquids (NAPLs) from groundwater resources using nanotechnology. We present results of a series...     

Cognitive, clinical, and functional characteristics of verbally superior schizophrenia patients.

The existence of small numbers of schizophrenia patients with superior ability in specific cognitive domains is implied by meta-analytic evidence as well as by occasional empirical reports. The authors identified 25 patients with superior (i.e., ≥90th percentile) ability on the Vocabulary subtest of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale 3rd edition (Wechsler, 1997). These cognitively advantaged patients were compared with 22 healthy participants performing at the superior level and with 126 schizophrenia patients and 50 healthy participants scoring below the superior range. Verbally superior schizophrenia patients and verbally superior healthy participants had similar cognitive profiles and life skills performance, but diverged markedly in terms of independent "real-world" functioning. Verbally superior patients significantly outperformed more typical patients in other aspects of cognitive performance, life skills, and support requirements. However, severity of positive and negative symptoms was equivalent in the patient groups. Detailed biobehavioral study of cognitively exceptional patients may offer new insights into mechanisms mediating psychotic disorders. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Foam Cells as Therapeutic Targets in Atherosclerosis with a Focus on the Regulatory Roles of Non-Coding RNAs

Atherosclerosis is a major cause of human cardiovascular disease, which is the leading cause of mortality around the world. Various physiological and pathological processes are involved, including chronic inflammation, dysregulation of lipid metabolism, development of an environment characterized by oxidative stress and improper immune responses. Accordingly, the expansion of novel targets for the treatment of atherosclerosis is necessary. In this study, we focus on the role of foam cells in the development of atherosclerosis. The specific therapeutic goals associated with each stage in the formation of foam cells and the development of atherosclerosis will be considered. Processing and metabolism of cholesterol in the macrophage is one of the main steps in foam cell formation. Cholesterol processing involves lipid uptake, cholesterol esterification and cholesterol efflux, which ultimately leads to cholesterol equilibrium in the macrophage. Recently, many preclinical studies have appeared concerning the role of non-encoding RNAs in the formation of atherosclerotic lesions. Non-encoding RNAs, especially microRNAs, are considered regulators of lipid metabolism by affecting the expression of genes involved in the uptake (e.g., CD36 and LOX1) esterification (ACAT1) and efflux (ABCA1, ABCG1) of cholesterol. They are also able to regulate inflammatory pathways, produce cytokines and mediate foam cell apoptosis. We have reviewed important preclinical evidence of their therapeutic targeting in atherosclerosis, with a special focus on foam cell formation.     

Fusion of multimodal medical images using nonsubsampled shearlet transform and particle swarm optimization

Multidimensional Systems and Signal Processing - Medical imaging has been an indispensable tool in modern medicine in last decades. Various types of imaging systems provide structural and...     

Flow regime-based modeling of heat transfer and pressure drop in microchannel flow boiling

Local heat transfer coefficients and pressure drops during boiling of the dielectric liquid fluorinert FC-77 in parallel microchannels were experimentally investigated in recent work by the authors. Detailed visualizations of the corresponding two-phase flow regimes were performed as a function of a wide range of operational and geometric parameters. A new transition criterion was developed for the delineation of a regime where microscale effects become important to the boiling process and a conventional, macroscale treatment becomes inadequate. A comprehensive flow regime map was developed for a wide range of channel dimensions and experimental conditions, and consisted of four distinct regions – bubbly, slug, confined annular, and alternating churn/annular/wispy-annular flow regimes. In the present work, physics-based analyses of local heat transfer in each of the four regimes of the comprehensive map are formulated. Flow regime-based models for prediction of heat transfer coefficient in slug flow and annular/wispy-annular flow are developed and compared to the experimental data. Also, a regime-based prediction of pressure drop in microchannels is presented by computing the pressure drop during each flow regime that occurs along the microchannel length. The results of this study reveal the promise of flow regime-based modeling efforts for predicting heat transfer and pressure drop in microchannel boiling.     

Microchannel size effects on local flow boiling heat transfer to a dielectric fluid

Heat transfer with liquid–vapor phase change in microchannels can support very high heat fluxes for use in applications such as the thermal management of high-performance electronics. However, the effects of channel cross-sectional dimensions on the two-phase heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop have not been investigated extensively. In the present work, experiments are conducted to investigate the local flow boiling heat transfer of a dielectric fluid, Fluorinert FC-77, in microchannel heat sinks. Experiments are performed for mass fluxes ranging from 250 to 1600 kg/m² s. Seven different test pieces made from silicon and consisting of parallel microchannels with nominal widths ranging from 100 to 5850 μm, all with a nominal depth of 400 μm, are considered. An array of temperature sensors on the substrate allows for resolution of local temperatures and heat transfer coefficients. The results of this study show that for microchannels of width 400 μm and greater, the heat transfer coefficients corresponding to a fixed wall heat flux as well as the boiling curves are independent of channel size. Also, heat transfer coefficients and boiling curves are independent of mass flux in the nucleate boiling region for a fixed channel size, but are affected by mass flux as convective boiling dominates. A strong dependence of pressure drop on both channel size and mass flux is observed. The experimental results are compared to predictions from a number of existing correlations for both pool boiling and flow boiling heat transfer.     

Nanopore Molecularly Imprinted Polymer Membranes for Environmental Usage: Selective Separation of 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic Acid as a Toxic Herbicide from Water

Nanopore molecularly imprinted polymers and membranes for selective separation of 2,4-dichlorophennoxyacetic acid were prepared using 2,4-dichlorophennoxyacetic acid as a template molecule, methacrylic acid as a functional monomer and trimethylolpropane trimethacrylate as a cross linker. Recognition properties of molecularly imprinted membranes were evaluated by performing binding experiments with analog phenoxyacetic acid. Flux, permeability, and permselectivity of the membranes as well as their properties were studied. Molecularly imprinted membrane-2 showed the equilibrium binding capacity of 34.57 mg/g and a selectivity factor of 12.96 toward 2,4-dichlorophennoxyacetic acid at 500 mg/l concentration. Permeability experiments indicated that molecularly imprinted membrane can recognize and absorb 2,4-dichlorophennoxyacetic acid from aqueous solutions’ selectively.     

玉米秸秆生物炭对水中对苯醌的吸附性能研究

资源环境问题一直受到人们的广泛关注,农业废弃物玉米秸秆可以用来提取油气,副产物生物炭预期能够用于环境治理。在600℃条件下,通过简单的限氧热解法制备得到玉米秸秆生物炭,将其用于吸附去除在高级氧化过程中产生的中间氧化产物——对苯醌,研究了玉米秸秆生物炭的投加量和溶液初始pH值对吸附效果的影响,玉米秸秆生物炭吸附对苯醌的动力学、热力学作用机理,玉米秸秆生物炭的再生利用性能等。研究结果表明:①玉米秸秆生物炭能够高效吸附去除对苯醌,投加量为0.8 g/L时的去除率可达到97.2%。②在较宽的pH值变化范围内(3.0～11.0)均表现出了较高的去除能力,且生物炭和对苯醌之间产生的∏-∏电子供体-受体(∏-∏electron-donor-acceptor interaction)相互作用占主导。③Elovich和准二级动力学模型均能较好地拟合试验动力学数据,表明玉米秸秆生物炭与对苯醌之间可能存在扩散控制的化学吸附过程。④基于Langmuir模型的玉米秸秆生物炭对对苯醌的最大吸附量q_(max)为94.6 mg/g;与Langmuir模型相比,Freundlich模型能够更好地拟合试验热力学数据,且玉米秸秆生物炭对对苯醌的吸附在很大程度上是多分子层吸附过程。⑤多次循环再生后的玉米秸秆生物炭仍具有较好的吸附去除率。     

Theoretical Analysis of the Underwater Incremental Adaptive Network Performance Based on the VLC Technology

In this paper, the underwater implementation of the incremental adaptive networks is proposed based on the visible light communication technology. The underwater distance between transmitter and receiver nodes and the salinity and temperature levels of the considered water determines the stochastical properties of the underwater link that is modeled with the Log-normal distribution. The incremental network performance can be expressed with the excess mean square error and mean square deviation values and we used them in this paper for our theoretical analysis. Our findings showed that the distances between the nodes must not be more than 10 m or the incremental network will diverge from its estimation goal. The network performance is analyzed through multiple link distances and the results are presented with several simulations. The simulation results are devised in order to elaborate the effects of the underwater turbulent links on the performances of estimating adaptive network. Also, the impacts of different salinity and temperature levels are analyzed theoretically and the results are compared with the simulation results.