Display omitted
•Detrimental effect of water in low temperature SCR due to competitive adsorption.•Effect of water on o-DCB oxidation depends on surface V species and temperature.•N2O production in ...SCR decreases in the presence of water.•Water prevents the formation of deactivating species in o-DCB oxidation.•Water competes with o-DCB for the adsorption sites.
VOX/TiO2 catalysts with different vanadium loading were prepared in order to study the influence of vanadium species on the effect of water in the simultaneous NO reduction through NH3-SCR and o-DCB oxidation reactions. The presence of isolated, polymeric and crystalline species and their redox and acid properties were evaluated by N2-Adsorption, XRD, Raman, H2-TPR, XPS and NH3-TPD. Water has a bimodal and reversible effect in both NO reduction and o-DCB oxidation depending on vanadium species and temperature. In SCR, water has a detrimental effect at low temperature due to competitive adsorption with NO and NH3, while at high temperature it promotes an increase of NO conversion associated to the suppression of side-reactions, which increase the selectivity towards N2. In o-DCB oxidation, the effect of water is the sum of two contributions: one positive, related to the removal of surface adsorbed detrimental species; and one negative, associated to the competitive adsorption with o-DCB. Thus, at high temperature water acts as inhibitor, while at low temperature water has a promotional effect in the highly dispersed vanadium catalysts due to their tendency to suffer deactivation, mainly by carbonaceous materials. The presence of water also favors total oxidation and decreases the formation of chlorinated by products.
This study was performed on 50 human embryos and fetuses between 7 and 17 weeks of development. Reichert's cartilage is formed in the second pharyngeal arch in two segments. The longer cranial or ...styloid segment is continuous with the otic capsule; its inferior end is angulated and is situated very close to the oropharynx. The smaller caudal segment is in contact with the body and greater horn of the hyoid cartilaginous structure. No cartilage forms between these segments. The persistent angulation of the inferior end of the cranial or styloid segment of Reichert's cartilage and its important neurovascular relationships may help explain the symptomatology of Eagle's syndrome.
Objective
Animal models have suggested that anogenital distance (AGD) at birth reflects androgen levels during in utero development and predicts adult AGD. A recent study showed an association ...between perineal length and androgen levels in men, suggesting that serum testosterone levels in adulthood will depend on factors involved during the fetal period. The aim of this study is to assess the relationship between AGD measures and reproductive hormone levels in women.
Design
Cross‐sectional study conducted between February and November 2011.
Setting
University‐affiliated fertility clinics.
Population
100 young college students.
Methods
Physical and gynaecological examinations were conducted on university students. All participants provided a blood sample for determination of reproductive hormones and completed an epidemiological questionnaire on lifestyles and gynaecological history. We used multiple linear regression analysis to examine the associations between perineal length measurements anus‐fourchette (AGDAF) and anus‐clitoris (AGDAC) and reproductive hormone levels.
Main outcome measures
Anogenital distance measurements and reproductive hormone levels.
Results
In the multiple linear regression analyses, AGDAF was positively associated with serum testosterone levels. Serum testosterone increased 0.06 ng/ml (95%CI 0.01, 0.10; P = 0.02) for each 1‐cm increase in AGDAF. None of the measurements was associated with other reproductive hormones.
Conclusions
Anogenital distance may predict normal reproductive development in women, and may be a new tool of potential clinical interest to evaluate ovarian function. Our results suggest that serum testosterone levels in adulthood may depend on factors operating in the prenatal period.
BACKGROUND The development of non-invasive diagnostic methods for endometriosis requires sensitive and disease specific biomarkers. Here, we describe the use of aspirated endometrial fluid from women ...with and without endometriosis as a novel biological sample for biomarker discovery. METHODS Differential protein expression profiling of aspirates from women with early endometriosis (n = 14), advanced endometriosis (n = 32) and without evidence of the disease (n = 32) was assessed by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE). A biomarker validation study was performed in an independent cohort (early endometriosis n = 6 and advanced endometriosis n = 14, controls n = 15). RESULTS The analysis resulted in the identification of 31 proteins showing statistically significant differences in expression. The proteins identified are related to cell signalling, cell death and cell movement, processes that may be involved in the onset and/or progression of endometriosis. The differences in expression observed for 14-3-3 (signal transduction) and moesin (cytoskeletal structure) were confirmed in an independent group of endometriosis patients. CONCLUSIONS Endometrial fluid represents a novel sample for proteomic analysis offering reliable, disease specific information on protein expression, facilitating the discovery of biomarkers for endometriosis. The results described here complement previous proteomic studies, providing new endometriosis-related proteins to be validated as diagnostic markers.
•Flash PEO ensures low energy consumption of the coating synthesis.•4-Methylsalycilate-loaded PEO coating ensures active corrosion protection of Mg.•Inhibitor-loaded PEO coatings are more protective ...than chromate conversion coatings.•Excellent full system performance in paint adhesion and neutral salt spray tests.•Flash-PEO/inhibitor/Li-leaching primer system outperforms CCC/chromated primer.
In the present work, a flash-PEO coating is developed on AZ31B alloy in a combination of silicate, phosphate, and fluoride based electrolyte in order to offer a green alternative to chromate conversion coatings. Multilevel active protection is achieved through synergetic combination of self-sealing effect of PEO coating itself and active inhibition provided by an organic inhibitor impregnated in PEO pores in a post-treatment step. The results indicate that flash-PEO coatings, loaded with organic corrosion inhibitors, can be recommended for exploitation on industrial level as an equally effective corrosion protection system alternative to CCC for paint-bearing and paint-free applications.
People with diabetes must carefully monitor their blood glucose levels, especially after eating. Blood glucose management requires a proper combination of food intake and insulin boluses. Glucose ...prediction is vital to avoid dangerous post-meal complications in treating individuals with diabetes. Although traditional methods, and also artificial neural networks, have shown high accuracy rates, sometimes they are not suitable for developing personalised treatments by physicians due to their lack of interpretability. This study proposes a novel glucose prediction method emphasising interpretability: Interpretable Sparse Identification by Grammatical Evolution. Combined with a previous clustering stage, our approach provides finite difference equations to predict postprandial glucose levels up to two hours after meals. We divide the dataset into four-hour segments and perform clustering based on blood glucose values for the two-hour window before the meal. Prediction models are trained for each cluster for the two-hour windows after meals, allowing predictions in 15-minute steps, yielding up to eight predictions at different time horizons. Prediction safety was evaluated based on Parkes Error Grid regions. Our technique produces safe predictions through explainable expressions, avoiding zones D (0.2% average) and E (0%) and reducing predictions on zone C (6.2%). In addition, our proposal has slightly better accuracy than other techniques, including sparse identification of non-linear dynamics and artificial neural networks. The results demonstrate that our proposal provides interpretable solutions without sacrificing prediction accuracy, offering a promising approach to glucose prediction in diabetes management that balances accuracy, interpretability, and computational efficiency.
The quantum Hall effect, in which a two-dimensional sample's Hall conductivities become quantized, is a remarkable transport anomaly commonly observed at strong magnetic fields. However, it may also ...appear at zero magnetic field if time-reversal symmetry is broken. Charge-neutral bilayer graphene is unstable to a variety of competing and closely related broken symmetry states, some of which have non-zero quantized Hall conductivities. Here we explore those states by stabilizing them with external fields. Transport spectroscopy measurements reveal two distinct states that have two quantum units of Hall conductivity, stabilized by large magnetic and electric fields, respectively. The majority spins of both phases form a quantum anomalous Hall state, and the minority spins constitute a Kekulé state with spontaneous valley coherence for phase I and a quantum valley Hall state for phase II. Our results shed light on the rich set of competing ordered states in bilayer graphene.
•Deficient telomerase activity in preovulatory stages resulted in the accumulation of aged granulosa cells.•When the mathematical model used the highest rate of telomerase activity the middle-age ...cells increased and young cells too.•The aging rate was increasing throughout the development of the follicle, but the aging rate was inversely related to telomerase activity.•h represents the number of divisions that cells can undergo before acquiring critically short telomeres, which will block cell division. The higher the h value is, the greater the division capacity becomes. At a specific time interval, cells with lower h will be closer to their limit of cell division capacity, therefore, the aging rate will be high. At the same specific time interval, with the same rate of telomerase activity, the aging rate is lower for higher values of h.
The aim of this work is to study the aging rate at which human follicles reach the preovulatory state. To this end, both telomere length and telomerase activity effects on granulosa cells (GCs) aging has been studied. GCs are somatic cells which determine the development of the oocyte. A human preantral follicle takes approximately 85 days to achieve the preovulatory size, going through several stages (Gougeon, 1996). The telomere length of GCs of each class of follicles, during folliculogenesis, are modelled using a chemical master equation formalism similar to the one in Wesch et al. (2016). Seven differential ordinary systems of equations, corresponding to seven stages of the follicule maturation, concatenated in time, are considered. The mitotic and death rates are approximated by using the mean number of GCs in each class of follicles and the time they remain on each stage. The influence of different telomerase activity rates and the telomere shortening of the preovulatory follicle is studied. Some cases of infertility are associated with low levels of telomerase activity and short telomeres in GCs. The method aims at understanding how low levels of telomerase activity in preovulatory stages lead to the accumulation of aged GCs. In the case of higher telomerase activities, the mathematical model predicts a more juvenile outcome in preovulatory follicles. Juvenile GCs, could be critical for embryo development if the oocyte were fertilized, since GCs, transformed in corpus luteum, must divide and increase their size (Alila and Hansel, 1984) to sustain early pregnancy (Csapo et al., 1972).
The electronic properties of graphene depends on how many layers are involved. Monolayer graphene is a zero-gapped semi-metal. Bilayer graphene is a small-gapped semiconductor. Magnetotransport ...measurements indicate trilayer graphene can be both, depending on its stacking.
PDF
