Hiatal hernia (HH) is associated with gastro-oesophageal reflux (GOR) and/or GOR disease and may contribute to idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). We hypothesised that HH evaluated by computed ...tomography is more common in IPF than in asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and correlates with abnormal GOR measured by pH probe testing. Rates of HH were compared in three cohorts, IPF (n=100), COPD (n=60) and asthma (n=24), and evaluated for inter-observer agreement. In IPF, symptoms and anti-reflux medications were correlated with diffusing capacity of the lung for carbon monoxide (D(L,CO)) and composite physiologic index (CPI). HH was correlated with pH probe testing in IPF patients (n=14). HH was higher in IPF (39%) than either COPD (13.3%, p=0.00009) or asthma (16.67%, p=0.0139). The HH inter-observer κ agreement was substantial in IPF (κ=0.78) and asthma (κ=0.86), and moderate in COPD (κ=0.42). In IPF, HH did not correlate with lung function, except in those on anti-reflux therapy, who had a better D(L,CO) (p<0.03) and CPI (p<0.04). HH correlated with GOR as measured by DeMeester scores (p<0.04). HH is more common in IPF than COPD or asthma. In an IPF cohort, HH correlated with higher DeMeester scores, confirming abnormal acid GOR. Presence of HH alone was not associated with decreased lung function.
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a progressive lung disease causing irreversible lung scarring and loss of pulmonary function. IPF Patients suffer from a high rate of pulmonary infections and ...acute exacerbations of disease that further contribute to pulmonary decline. Low expression of the inducible T-cell costimulatory molecule (ICOS) in peripheral blood mononuclear cells predicts decreased survival of IPF patients, but the mechanisms by which ICOS protects are unclear. Using a model of bleomycin-induced lung injury and fibrosis, we now demonstrate that ICOS expression enhances survival from lung injury rather than regulating fibrogenesis. Of ICOS-expressing cells, type 2 innate lymphocytes (ILC2s) are the first to respond to bleomycin-induced injury, and this expansion is ICOS dependent. Interestingly, a similar decrease in ICOS
ILCs was found in lung tissue from IPF patients. Interleukin (IL)-5, produced primarily by ILC2s, was significantly reduced after lung injury in ICOS
mice, and strikingly, treatment with IL-5 protected both ICOS
and wild-type mice from mortality. These results imply that low ICOS expression and decreased lung ILC2s in IPF patients may contribute to poor recovery from infections and acute exacerbation and that IL-5 treatment may be a novel therapeutic strategy to overcome these defects and protect against lung injury.
The harmful effect of ionic liquids (ILs) on the environment is one of the important elements of scientific research conducted around the world. This study presents the effect of ionic liquids, ...containing the asymmetric cations benzyltrimethylammonium chloride BenzTMACl and benzyltriethylammonium chloride BenzTEACl, on physiological and biochemical changes in common radish plants and spring barley seedlings. The examined ILs demonstrated low toxicity to higher plants. The compound that exhibited higher phytotoxicity to these plant species was BenzTMACl, whereas the plant that was more resistant to such ILs was common radish. Both the ionic liquids, particularly at higher concentrations, led to changes in the metabolism of plants, which resulted in a decrease of chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, total chlorophyll, and carotenoids content. The observed changes were positively correlated with increasing concentrations of the examined ILs in the soil. In the case of spring barley, a decrease in the fresh weight and an increase in the dry weight of the seedlings were also observed. The evidence of oxidative stress occurrence in spring barley was observed due to the accumulation of malondialdehyde and free proline, as well as due to an increase in the activity of catalase and peroxidase. The changes in these biomarkers indicating oxidative stress occurrence in common radish plants were much lower. An increase in the content of chloride ions was observed in both the plants.
The article presents a novel application of the most up-to-date computational approach, i.e., artificial intelligence, to the problem of the compression of closed-cell aluminium. The objective of the ...research was to investigate whether the phenomenon can be described by neural networks and to determine the details of the network architecture so that the assumed criteria of accuracy, ability to prognose and repeatability would be complied. The methodology consisted of the following stages: experimental compression of foam specimens, choice of machine learning parameters, implementation of an algorithm for building different structures of artificial neural networks (ANNs), a two-step verification of the quality of built models and finally the choice of the most appropriate ones. The studied ANNs were two-layer feedforward networks with varying neuron numbers in the hidden layer. The following measures of evaluation were assumed: mean square error (
), sum of absolute errors (
) and mean absolute relative error (
). Obtained results show that networks trained with the assumed learning parameters which had 4 to 11 neurons in the hidden layer were appropriate for modelling and prognosing the compression of closed-cell aluminium in the assumed domains; however, they fulfilled accuracy and repeatability conditions differently. The network with six neurons in the hidden layer provided the best accuracy of prognosis at MARE≤2.7% but little robustness. On the other hand, the structure with a complexity of 11 neurons gave a similar high-quality of prognosis at MARE≤3.0% but with a much better robustness indication (80%). The results also allowed the determination of the minimum threshold of the accuracy of prognosis: MARE≥1.66%. In conclusion, the research shows that the phenomenon of the compression of aluminium foam is able to be described by neural networks within the frames of made assumptions and allowed for the determination of detailed specifications of structure and learning parameters for building models with good-quality accuracy and robustness.
The article presents modelling using artificial neural networks (ANN) of the phenomenon of creep of comply polymer SIKA PS which can be used in various applications in civil engineering. Data for ...modelling was gathered in compressive experiments conveyed under a set of fixed conditions of compressive stress and temperature. Part of the datawas pre-processed by smoothing and rediscretisation and served as inputs and targets for network training and part of the data was left raw as control set for verification of prognosing capability. Assumed neural network architectures were one- and two-layer feedforward networks with Bayesian regularisation as a learning method. Altogether 55 networks with 8 to 12 neurons in varying structural configurations were trained. Fitting and prognosing verification was performed using mean absolute relative error as a measure; also, results were plotted and assessed visually. In result, the research allowed for formulation of a new rheological model for comply polymer SIKA PS in time, stress and temperature field domain with fitting quality of mean absolute relative error 1.3% and prognosis quality of mean absolute relative error 8.73%. The model was formulated with the use of a two-layer network with 5+5 neurons.
It is a common situation that seismic excitations may lead to collisions between adjacent civil engineering structures. This phenomenon, called earthquake-induced structural pounding, may result in ...serious damage or even the total collapse of the colliding structures. Filling the gap between two buildings erected close to one another by using visco-elastic materials can be considered to be one of the most effective methods to avoid seismic pounding. In this paper, a new polymer-metal composite material made of polyurethane and closed-cell aluminum foam is proposed as a pounding energy absorber for protection against earthquake hazards. The composite was created in two versions, with and without an adhesive interface. A series of experiments which reflect the conditions of seismic collision were performed: quasi-static compression, dynamic uniaxial compression and low-cycle dynamic compression with 10 loops of unloading at 10% strain. The composite material's behavior was observed and compared with respect to uniform material specimens: polymer and metal foam. The experimental results showed that the maximum energy absorption efficiency in the case of the new material with the bonding layer was improved by 34% and 49% in quasi-static and dynamic conditions, respectively, in comparison to a sole polymer bumper. Furthermore, the newly proposed composites dissipated from 35% to 44% of the energy absorbed in the cyclic procedure, whereas the polymer specimen dissipated 25%. The capacity of the maintenance of the dissipative properties throughout the complete low-cycle loading was also satisfactory: it achieved an additional 100% to 300% of the energy dissipated in the first loading-unloading loop.
Abstract Background Interstitial pneumonia with autoimmune features (IPAF) has recently been defined by an international Taskforce to characterize interstitial lung disease associated with systemic ...manifestations limited to subtle serological and clinical autoimmune abnormalities and not fulfilling the international criteria for the diagnosis of a given connective tissue disease. Objective to report on a series of patients with IPAF, and to compare their outcome to that of a cohort of patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). Methods Retrospective analysis of consecutive patients in a single institution over a 3-year period. Results Out of 778 consecutive patients with interstitial lung disease, 55% had idiopathic interstitial pneumonia (including 20.1% with IPF), 21.5% had connective tissue disease, and 7.3% had IPAF. Patients (49% of females) had a mean FVC of 64% and a mean DLco of 49%. Serologic criteria for IPAF were the most frequent (93%), followed by “morphologic” criteria (79%), and clinical criteria (47%). Fifty three percent of patients had a NSIP pattern on CT. Nailfold capillaroscopy found giant capillaries in 13/30 patients tested (23%). No significant was found in overall survival between patients with IPAF and those with IPF. Conclusion The recently defined criteria for IPAF are fulfilled by a significant proportion of patients referred for interstitial lung disease. As compared to those with IPF, patients with IPAF are more frequently females, have distinctive characteristics, have relatively frequent abnormalities at nailfold capillaroscopy, with no difference in age or in overall survival. Prospective studies are needed to guide the management of IPAF.
Matrix metalloproteinases MMP-2 and MMP-9 are implicated in invasion and metastasis of malignant tumors. We investigated the expression and activation of MMP-2 and MMP-9 in lung cancer compared with ...normal lung parenchyma, and looked for a potential marker of malignancy.
Thirty-six pulmonary carcinomas and paired normal lung specimens were analyzed by gelatin zymography and computer-assisted image analysis for the expression of MMP-2 and MMP-9.
We showed that expression of both type IV collagenases was remarkably higher in carcinoma samples than in lung parenchyma. The MMP-9 levels in lung cancer were over twofold higher than in normal lung tissues. The levels of latent and active forms of MMP-2 in lung cancer samples were, correspondingly, 3.8- and 17-fold higher than in lung parenchyma. The tumor/normal (T/N) ratios of MMP-2 were negatively correlated with the hemoglobin levels and erythrocytes number.
A high level of the active form of MMP-2 in almost all of the carcinomas and the near lack of its activation in normal lung parenchyma shows that MMP-2 activation is associated with the malignant phenotype and may serve as a good marker of malignancy. The correlation between low hemoglobin level and T/N ratio of MMP-2 may indicate significance of MMP-2 for angiogenesis.
This paper assesses the impact of spent engine oil on activity of dehydrogenase, nitrate reductase, catalase and o-diphenol oxidase in sandy soil, and evaluates biostimulation with selenates in the ...restoration of homeostasis of soil with spent engine oil. The experiment was carried out on loamy sand samples with organic carbon content of 8.71 g/kg, with the following variable factors: dose of spent engine oil: 0, 2, 10, 50 g/kg dry matter (DM) of soil; selenate application: without selenate, selenite (IV) and selenate (VI) in the amount of 0.05 mmol/kg DM of soil; day of experiment: 1, 7, 14, 28, 56, 112. Obtained results showed that spent engine oil increased activity of dehydrogenase and catalase. Application of selenite (IV) and selenate (VI) to soil non-contaminated with spent engine oil stimulated activity of dehydrogenase and nitrate reductase and inhibited in o-diphenol oxidase. Among selenates tested regarding biostimulation of oxidoreductases in soil contained spent engine, selenate (VI) is more useful than selenite (IV).
The 72kDa matrix metalloproteinase (MMP-2) and the 92kDa matrix metalloproteinase (MMP-9), are type IV collagenases that have been implicated as important factors in cancer invasion and metastasis ...formation. We have used quantitative zymography and computer-assisted image analysis to measure the levels of MMP-9 and MMP-2 in 19 samples of serum of lung cancer patients and in 23 samples of normal serum. Mean levels of MMP-9 were significantly elevated in cancer samples compared with normal sera (1·33±0·61 μ U μ l−1vs. 0·37±0·10μ U μ l−1, P<0·0001). MMP-2 levels did not differ significantly in these two groups. However, there was no significant correlation between serum MMP-9 activity and the disease stage. We found that circulation levels of MMP-9 in lung cancer patients is 3·6-fold higher than in healthy volunteers, however, we do not consider this elevation to be a direct reflection of MMP-9 over-production by tumour cells.
PDF
