Chitin is produced in large amounts by fungi, insects, and other organisms and has been implicated in the pathogenesis of asthma. Airway epithelial cells are in direct contact with environmental ...particles and serve as the first line of defense against inhaled allergens and pathogens. The potential contributions of airway epithelial cells to chitin-induced asthma remain poorly understood. We hypothesized that chitin directly stimulates airway epithelial cells to release cytokines that promote type 2 immune responses and to induce expression of molecules which are important in innate immune responses. We found that chitin exposure rapidly induced the expression of three key type 2-promoting cytokines, IL-25, IL-33 and TSLP, in BEAS-2B transformed human bronchial epithelial cells and in A549 and H292 lung carcinoma cells. Chitin also induced the expression of the key pattern recognition receptors TLR2 and TLR4. Chitin induced the expression of miR-155, miR-146a and miR-21, each of which is known to up-regulate the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Also the expression of SOCS1 and SHIP1 which are known targets of miR-155 was repressed by chitin treatment. The monoterpene phenol carvacrol (Car) and its isomer thymol (Thy) are found in herbal essential oils and have been shown to inhibit allergic inflammation in asthma models. We found that Car/Thy inhibited the effects of chitin on type 2-promoting cytokine release and on the expression of TLRs, SOCS1, SHIP1, and miRNAs. Car/Thy could also efficiently reduce the protein levels of TLR4, inhibit the increase in TLR2 protein levels in chitin plus Car/Thy-treated cells and increase the protein levels of SHIP1 and SOCS1, which are negative regulators of TLR-mediated inflammatory responses. We conclude that direct effects of chitin on airway epithelial cells are likely to contribute to allergic airway diseases like asthma, and that Car/Thy directly inhibits epithelial cell pro-inflammatory responses to chitin.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Since their inception with Bitcoin in the late 2000s, cryptocurrencies have grown exponentially, reshaping traditional financial paradigms. This transformative journey, while innovative, brings forth ...pressing concerns about their energy consumption and carbon footprint. While many studies tend to zoom in on Bitcoin, this paper broadens the perspective by evaluating energy consumption across various cryptocurrencies. We analyze nine cryptocurrency projects, chosen for their market value, technology, and data availability. These span a spectrum from pioneering to emerging digital coins, offering a holistic view of the crypto realm. To contextualize, we juxtapose the energy usage of these digital currencies with traditional payment means like Visa and Mastercard. Our analysis shows vast differences in energy use among cryptocurrencies, largely tied to their consensus algorithms. Notably, while Bitcoin stands out as highly energy-intensive, several newer digital currencies have energy footprints mirroring those of conventional payment methods. Additionally, CO2 emissions estimation presents challenges due to variances in miner locations and regional energy sources, with potential higher emissions if concentrated in carbon-intensive regions like China. Nonetheless, the silver lining emerges as many cryptocurrencies, especially those beyond Bitcoin, register considerably lower CO2 emissions. By moving the lens beyond Bitcoin, this paper paints a more nuanced picture of the environmental ramifications of the crypto world.
Abstract
The Ardabil plain, with an approximate area of 1097.2 km
2
in northwestern Iran, has experienced land subsidence due to intensive groundwater withdrawal and long seasons of drought in recent ...years. Different techniques have been used to investigate and evaluate subsidence in this region including: Global Positioning Systems (GPS), Levelling, and Geotechnical methods. These methods are typically expensive, time-consuming, and identify only a small fraction of the areas prone to subsidence. This study employs an Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) technique to measure the long-term subsidence of the plain. An open-source SAR interferometry time series analysis package, LiCSBAS, that integrates with the automated Sentinel-1 InSAR processor (COMET-LiCSAR) is used to analyze Sentinel-1 satellite images from October 2014 to January 2021. Processing of Sentinel-1 images shows that the Ardabil plain has been facing rapid subsidence due to groundwater pumping and reduced rainfall, especially between May 2018 to January 2019. The maximum subsidence rate was 45 mm/yr, measured at the southeastern part of the plain. While providing significant advantages (less processing time and disk space) over other InSAR processing packages, implementation of the LiCSBAS processing package and its accuracy for land subsidence measurements at different scales needs further evaluation. This study provides a procedure for evaluating its efficiency and accuracy for land subsidence measurements by comparing its measurements with the results of the GMTSAR and geotechnical numerical modeling. The results of geotechnical numerical modeling showed land subsidence with an average annual rate of 38 mm between 2006 and 2020, which was close to measurements using the InSAR technique. Comparison of the subsidence measurements of the Ardabil plain using the LiCSBAS package with results obtained from other techniques shows that LiCSBAS is able to accurately detect land deformation at large scales (~ km). However, they may not be optimized for more local deformations such as infrastructure monitoring.
In recent years, several empirical and semiempirical relationships have been proposed to predict the small-strain shear modulus of unsaturated fine-grained soils along different hydraulic and ...mechanical loadings paths. However, a major deficiency of these relationships is the absence of a coupled linkage between hydraulic and mechanical processes that occur in unsaturated conditions. Specifically, the void ratio and effective stress are considered uncoupled, and changes in soil volume are rarely considered when implementing soil water retention curves in these equations. This study aims to address these deficiencies by discussing the coupled effect of hydraulic and mechanical processes in unsaturated soils and presenting a semiempirical model to predict the small-strain shear modulus, Gmax, of unsaturated low plasticity soils subjected to volume and effective stress changes along different mechanical and hydraulic stress paths. Predictions from this model and three other recently proposed models in the literature are compared with experimental results obtained from a series of suction-controlled bender element tests on silty soil specimens to validate the proposed model. The comparison reveals that the model proposed in this study provides more consistent predictions of the small-strain shear modulus during hydraulic hysteresis, as well as different paths of loading and unloading.
The unequal distribution of healthcare services is the main obstacle to achieving health equity and sustainable development goals. Spatial accessibility to healthcare services is an area of interest ...for health planners and policymakers. In this study, we focus on the spatial accessibility to four different types of healthcare services, including hospitals, pharmacies, clinics, and medical laboratories at Isfahan’s census blocks level, in a multivariate study. Regarding the nature of spatial accessibility, machine learning unsupervised clustering methods are utilized to analyze the spatial accessibility in the city. Initially, the study area was grouped into five clusters using three unsupervised clustering methods: K-Means, agglomerative, and bisecting K-Means. Then, the intersection of the results of the methods is considered to be conclusive evidence. Finally, using the conclusive evidence, a supervised clustering method, KNN, was applied to generate the map of the spatial accessibility situation in the study area. The findings of this study show that 47%, 22%, and 31% of city blocks in the study area have rich, medium, and poor spatial accessibility, respectively. Additionally, according to the study results, the healthcare services development is structured in a linear pattern along a historical avenue, Chaharbagh. Although the scope of this study was limited in terms of the supply and demand rates, this work gives more information and spatial insights for researchers, planners, and policymakers aiming to improve accessibility to healthcare and sustainable urban development. As a recommendation for further research work, it is suggested that other influencing factors, such as the demand and supply rates, should be integrated into the method.
Within the past decade, since impediments in nonrenewable fuel sources and the contamination they cause, utilizing green energies, such as those that are sun-oriented, in tandem with electric ...vehicles, is a developing slant. Coordinating electric vehicle (EV) charging stations with sun-powered boards (PV) reduces the burden of EV charging on the control framework. This paper presents a state-of-the-art literature review on remote control transmission frameworks for charging the batteries of electric vehicles utilizing sun-based boards as a source of power generation. The goal of this research is to advance knowledge in the wireless power transfer (WPT) framework and explore more about solar-powered electric vehicle charging stations. To do this, a variety of solar-powered electric vehicle charging station types are thoroughly studied. Following a study of many framework elements, the types of WPT components are explored in a different section. Within the wireless power transmission framework for solar-powered electric vehicle charging, compensators and various coil structures are also investigated, along with the advantages of each coil over the others. This study also discusses the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in WPT frameworks and highlights the important aspects of developing an AI model.
Recent years have seen the development of cutting-edge technology, such as offshore wind turbines and wave energy converters. It has previously been investigated whether integrating offshore wind ...turbines with wave energy converters is feasible. Diversifying the sources of offshore renewable energy also lowers investment costs and power fluctuation. This paper focuses on the development of a hybrid wind–wave energy system as well as the development of a techno-economic model to assess the system performance for a case study. A levelized cost of energy is calculated for the hybrid system by the Norwegian North Sea based on current knowledge about the technology costs. The economic benefits of sharing the common components of a wind-wave hybrid farm are inspected. Combinations of different wind–wave offshore hybrid systems are presented. Three technologies for both offshore wind turbines and wave energy converters are compared to find the most cost-efficient device pairing. The potential benefits of a shared infrastructure and the operational expenses are included in the evaluation. The combination yielding the lowest production cost of the cases studied is a combination of 160 MW of wind power and 40 MW of wave power, with a levelized cost of energy of EUR 107/MWh when the shared costs are 15%. In the study region, the average electricity price in Autumn 2022 was over EUR 300/MWh due to the European energy crisis.
The results of previous studies on silt and clay indicated that variations in the small strain shear modulus, Gmax, during hydraulic hysteresis had a non-linear increasing trend with matric suction, ...with greater values upon wetting. However, due to differences in material properties and inter-particle forces, a different behavior is expected for the Gmax of unsaturated sand. Although considerable research has been devoted in recent years to characterizing the behavior of the Gmax of sand during drying, less attention has been paid to the effect of hydraulic hysteresis on Gmax and its variations during wetting. In the study presented herein, an effective stress-based semi-empirical model was developed to predict the variations in the Gmax of unsaturated sand during hydraulic hysteresis. The proposed model incorporated the impact of the possible changes in volume through an empirical void ratio function as well as the effect of the degree of saturation through the use of suction stress. The effective stress was also defined using the concept of suction stress. The efficiency of the proposed model was evaluated by comparing the model predictions with the results of an experimental testing program involving the measurement of the Gmax of sand with different grain size distributions during hydraulic hysteresis. Specifically, a suction-controlled triaxial testing device, equipped with a pair of bender elements, was used to define the hysteretic trends in Gmax for different values of mean net stress. The model was found to provide satisfactory predictions of the trends in Gmax with matric suction, as well as its peak value and the suction corresponding to the occurrence of the peak Gmax. It also provided satisfactory predictions of the variations in Gmax upon subsequent wetting.
This study employs dynamic centrifuge testing and numerical modeling to assess the seismic response of a soft soil profile. The soil profile comprises a 23.4 m thick layer of lightly overconsolidated ...kaolinite clay overlying a 2.3 m dense sand layer. The centrifuge model underwent strong base shaking, and accelerations, pore pressures, and settlements were recorded at various depths. These experimental results are then compared to those obtained from a nonlinear dynamic analysis using the finite difference program FLAC. The clay layer is represented using the PM4Silt (Plasticity Model for Silt) constitutive model, calibrated based on laboratory test data. The numerical model yields reasonable predictions of accelerations at various depths, though it exhibits less nonlinearity compared to the centrifuge test. Pore pressures in the shallow clay layer match well between the physical and numerical models, but the simulation overpredicts pressures at greater depths. Despite some discrepancies between the experimental data and numerical results, the study demonstrates that numerical modeling, with appropriate calibration, can adequately replicate the seismic response of soft clay soil layers.
Despite substantial efforts, no effective treatment has been discovered for severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. Therefore, vaccination to reach herd immunity is ...the ultimate solution to control the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. This study aimed to evaluate the potency, toxicity, and protection of candidate PastoCoAd vaccines as novel mix and match of recombinant adenovirus type 5 (rAd5) containing the full-length spike protein (rAd5-S), rAd5 containing the receptor-binding domain of S protein and nucleoprotein (rAd5 RBD-N), and SOBERANA dimeric RBD protein of SARS-CoV-2. Three vaccine candidates were developed against SARS-CoV-2 using adenoviral vectors, including the prime-boost (rAd5-S/rAd5 RBD-N), heterologous prime-boost (rAd5-S/ SOBERANA vaccine), and prime only (mixture of rAd5-S and rAd5 RBD-N). The rAd5-S and rAd5 RBD-N were produced with a Cytomegalovirus promoter and the human tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) leader sequence. The immunogenicity of vaccine candidates was also evaluated in mouse, rabbit, and hamster models and protection was evaluated in a hamster model. Following the injection of vaccine candidates, no significant toxicity was observed in the tissues of animal models. The immunogenicity studies of mice, rabbits, and hamsters showed that responses of total IgG antibodies were significantly higher with the prime-only and heterologous prime-boost vaccines as compared to the other groups (P < 0.009). Virus neutralizing antibodies were detected, and the level of cytokines related to humoral and cellular immunity increased significantly in all vaccinated models. A high cellular immunity response was found in the vaccinated groups compared to the controls. On the other hand, the vaccine challenge test showed that the virus titers significantly decreased in the pharynx and lung tissues of vaccinated hamsters compared to the control group. These successful findings suggest the safety and protection produced by the heterologous prime-boost vaccine (adenovector/ SOBERANA RBD), as well as a single dose of adenovector vaccine in animal models.
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