NMR imaging and differential scanning calorimetry study on drying of pine,birch, and reed pulps and their mixtures

Drying, water fractions, and water distribution were investigated for pine, birch, and reed pulps and pine–birch, pine–reed, and pine–birch–reed pulp mixtures. Gravimetrically determined drying times showed that the drying rates of the pulps decreased at two to four inflection points. Characterizations of the dried pulps by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) showed a faster removal of free water than freezing and nonfreezing bound waters; all decreased simultaneously, however. DSC also revealed the critical water contents at which the free water and freezing bound water disappeared. The gravimetrically determined inflection points of the drying curves corresponded with the critical points determined by DSC. NMR line widths and images produced by ¹H‐NMR imaging revealed the nature and regions of the pulp drying. The constant growth rate of the NMR line widths with decreasing water content appeared to change at two inflection points, which fell approximately in the same water content regions as the inflection points of the drying curves. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 100: 937–945, 2006     

The Evaluation Of Ozonation and Chlorination On Disinfection By-Product Formation for a High-Bromide Water

High-bromide raw water was ozonated or chlorinated with and without hydrogen peroxide to study the effect of the disinfectants on the disinfection by-product (DBP) formation. Less bromate was formed when ozonation was made at the ambient pH of 5.8 as compared to ozonation at pH 7, showing the effectiveness of pH reduction in controlling the bromate formation. When chlorine dose was 1 mg/L instead of 2.3 mg/L, the trihalomethane formation was 50 μg/L instead of >100 μg/L, and the proportional distribution of the trihalomethanes was similar. The use of ozone for this water could provide good results in respect of the DBP formation.     

The oxidation of bitumen witnessed in-situ by infrared spectroscopy

During the production and recycling of asphalt concrete, bitumen in contact with inorganic particles is exposed to air at high temperatures. As a result an oxidation of bitumen, also known as aging, occurs. The reaction between bitumen and air at 163 °C was studied insitu with and without the presence of inorganic impurities by means of fourier transform infrared spectroscopy in the attenuated reflectance mode. This oxidation was discovered to be a step-wise reaction facilitated by the oxidation of thiols and creation of peroxides within the system. The rate of reaction was demonstrated to depend on the type of impurity present, of which iron (III) chloride was the strongest catalyst. It was further demonstrated that the oxidation reaction is inhibited by the adsorption of thiol species present in the system on copper particles. Combining copper with the iron (III) chloride-containing system also resulted in the inhibition of signal increase in the sulfoxide region of the spectra. The results of this preliminary research on the bitumen oxidation reaction presented are proposed for further research regarding control of aging of asphalt concrete, especially during the recycling works.     

Effects of Ospemifene on Drug Metabolism Mediated by Cytochrome P450 Enzymes in Humans in Vitro and in Vivo

The objective of these investigations was to determine the possible effects of the novel selective estrogen receptor modulator, ospemifene, on cytochrome P450 (CYP)-mediated drug metabolism. Ospemifene underwent testing for possible effects on CYP enzyme activity in human liver microsomes and in isolated human hepatocytes. Based on the results obtained in vitro, three Phase 1 crossover pharmacokinetic studies were conducted in healthy postmenopausal women to assess the in vivo effects of ospemifene on CYP-mediated drug metabolism. Ospemifene and its main metabolites 4-hydroxyospemifene and 4′-hydroxyospemifene weakly inhibited a number of CYPs (CYP2B6, CYP2C9, CYP2C19, CYP2C8, and CYP2D6) in vitro. However, only CYP2C9 activity was inhibited by 4-hydroxyospemifene at clinically relevant concentrations. Induction of CYPs by ospemifene in cultured human hepatocytes was 2.4-fold or less. The in vivo studies showed that ospemifene did not have significant effects on the areas under the plasma concentration-time curves of the tested CYP substrates warfarin (CYP2C9), bupropion (CYP2B6) and omeprazole (CYP2C19), demonstrating that pretreatment with ospemifene did not alter their metabolism. Therefore, the risk that ospemifene will affect the pharmacokinetics of drugs that are substrates for CYP enzymes is low.     

Molecular size fractions of treated aquatic humus

The effects of ozone, chlorine, hydrogen peroxide, and permanganate on the aquatic humic matter with different molecular size fractions and the organic acid formation in drinking water treatment were studied. Aquatic humus in lake water (LW), artificially recharged groundwater (AW), and purified artificially recharged groundwater (PW) were fractionated by high-pressure size-exclusion chromatography (HP-SEC) with UV-254nm detection before and after oxidation, a technique which resulted generally in seven peaks. The sum of the molecular size fractions (SMSF) of the LW was reduced by 47% during the bank filtration process, and the SMSF of the AW was reduced by 55% during the process in the water treatment plant. The oxidation of the AW resulted in reductions in the range of 18-35% of the SMSF; the respective range of the PW was 15-69%. However, the content of the total organic carbon (TOC) reduced only slightly, and a high correlation between the TOC and the SMSF (0.911) was observed in the whole material. The greatest decreases appeared in the highest-molecular-weight fractions while the low-molecular-weight fractions remained nearly unchanged. The total content of the six organic small-molecular-weight acids (sum of the organic acids, SOA) (formate, acetate, propionate, pyruvate, oxalate, and citrate) varied between 0.1-5.1% and 0.1-9.7% of the reduced TOC in the AW and the PW, respectively. The formation of the SOA, especially of oxalate, was the greatest after hydrogen peroxide combined with ozonation (as much as 1,100 microg/L), while chlorination resulted in the SOA of < 50 microg/L.     

Construction Management of a Small-Scale Accelerated Pavement Testing Facility

Research in accelerated pavement testing (APT) facilities has traditionally focused on the pavement performance such as rutting and fatigue cracking, but documentation on construction management and information of the actual pavement construction quality is limited. There are typically four critical factors that need to be considered to achieve the best possible outcome in construction: cost, schedule, construction process, and quality control, and management. With the objective of developing guidelines for planning and executing construction of a small-scale APT facility, this paper presents a case study documenting and evaluating the construction process and construction management efforts of two sensor-instrumented hot mix asphalt pavement test sections built in a small-scale APT facility. The focus of the experiment was to study bottom-up fatigue cracking of the flexible pavement structure. The presented information and lessons learned serve as a template and guide for agencies pursuing this type of research and pavement construction.     

Alterations in Serum Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids and Eicosanoids in Patients with Mild to Moderate Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)

Smoking is a major risk factor for several diseases including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). To better understand the systemic effects of cigarette smoke exposure and mild to moderate COPD—and to support future biomarker development—we profiled the serum lipidomes of healthy smokers, smokers with mild to moderate COPD (GOLD stages 1 and 2), former smokers, and never-smokers (n = 40 per group) (ClinicalTrials.gov registration: {"type":"clinical-trial","attrs":{"text":"NCT01780298","term_id":"NCT01780298"}}NCT01780298). Serum lipidome profiling was conducted with untargeted and targeted mass spectrometry-based lipidomics. Guided by weighted lipid co-expression network analysis, we identified three main trends comparing smokers, especially those with COPD, with non-smokers: a general increase in glycero(phospho)lipids, including triglycerols; changes in fatty acid desaturation (decrease in ω-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, and an increase in monounsaturated fatty acids); and an imbalance in eicosanoids (increase in 11,12- and 14,15-DHETs (dihydroxyeicosatrienoic acids), and a decrease in 9- and 13-HODEs (hydroxyoctadecadienoic acids)). The lipidome profiles supported classification of study subjects as smokers or non-smokers, but were not sufficient to distinguish between smokers with and without COPD. Overall, our study yielded further insights into the complex interplay between smoke exposure, lung disease, and systemic alterations in serum lipid profiles.     

A new method for evaluating the subjective image quality of photographs: dynamic reference

The Dynamic Reference (DR) method has been developed for subjective image quality experiments in which original or undistorted images are unavailable. The DR method creates reference image series from test images. Reference images are presented to observers as a slide show prior to evaluating their quality. As the observers view the set of reference images, they determine the overall variation in quality within the set of test images. This study compared the performance of the DR method to that of the standardized absolute category rating (ACR) and paired comparison (PC) methods. We measured the performance of each method in terms of time effort and discriminability. The results showed that the DR method is faster than the PC method and more accurate than the ACR method. The DR method is especially suitable for experiments that require highly accurate results in a short time.     

Noncholesterol Sterols as Surrogate Markers in Patients with Severe Alcoholic Hepatitis

Severe alcoholic hepatitis (AH) is a life‐threatening condition lacking good serologic markers to tailor treatment and predict recovery. We examined the cholesterol metabolism in severe AH to explore prognostic markers and evaluate the profile of cholesterol precursors, cholestanol and phytosterols, in this context. We assessed serum cholesterol, cholesterol precursors, cholestanol, phytosterols, and biochemical markers in 24 patients with severe AH treated with prednisolone and randomized to ciprofloxacin in the ratio 1:1. Response to prednisolone was assessed with the Lille model. Evaluations were made between responders and nonresponders to corticosteroid treatment and during follow‐up for 180 days. The findings were compared with those from patients with primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) (n = 156) and healthy individuals (n = 124). Responders to prednisolone had ~56–60% higher (p‐value 0.032–0.044) serum ratios to cholesterol of phytosterols, while the lathosterol/campesterol ratio was ~76% (p = 0.031) lower compared to nonresponders. Stigmasterol/cholesterol predicted response to corticosteroid therapy. Surrogate markers of cholesterol synthesis (lathosterol and desmosterol) inversely reflected those of absorption (cholestanol and phytosterols) in PSC and controls (r‐range ?0.247 to ?0.559, p < 0.01 for all), contrary to AH patients, among whom this reciprocal regulation was partially recovered on day 90 (lathosterol: r‐range ?0.733 to ?0.952, p < 0.05 for all). AH patients had ~26% lower lathosterol/cholesterol, but 1.13–3.87‐fold higher cholestanol/cholesterol and sitosterol/cholesterol compared to control groups (p < 0.05 for all). Median ferritin concentration at baseline was ~37% lower (p = 0.011) among the responders. Cholesterol precursors and phytosterols have a disease‐specific profile in AH. Phytosterols and ferritin may serve as surrogate markers for short‐term response.