In this study, sol–gel combining with hydrothermal methods were successfully used to synthesize N and S co-doped TiO
2
nanotubes (N@S-TiO
2
NTT) for efficient photocatalytic degradation of volatile ...organic compounds (VOCs). The obtained characterization results indicated that the synthesized N@S co-doped TiO
2
existed as nanotubes. Specific surface areas of these synthesized nanotubes was greatly that of these nanoparticles. The largest surface area recorded at N@S-TiO
2
nanotubes was 105.3 m
3
/g. FTIR spectrum results showed that the presence of N–H and S–O bond, which confirmed that nitrogen and sulfur were successfully doped into TiO
2
lattice. We also investigated that N@S dopants significantly improved the photocatalytic activity of TiO
2
nanotubes for efficient degradation of gaseous VOCs. Therefore, photocatalytic activity for VOCs degradation by the N@S-TiO
2
nanotubes was greater than that by the undoped TiO
2
nanotube. Optimized humidity for degradation of VOCs was medium condition (55–70%). Under dry conditions, lack of water for hydroxyl radical production led to decrease in photocatalytic activity. Under humidity conditions, the excess water molecules competed with VOCs for adsorbing on material surface leading to decrease in photocatalytic degradation efficiency. Under the optimized humidity, the highest photocatalytic efficiency of the synthesized N@S-TiO
2
nanotubes for degradation of gaseous VOCs for 3 h was approximately 94%. The VOCs degradation capacity by the synthesized N@S-TiO
2
nanotubes was approximately 90 (ppm/g h).
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal and rapidly progressing neurodegenerative disorder and the majority of ALS is sporadic, where misfolding and aggregation of Cu/Zn-superoxide dismutase ...(SOD1) is a feature shared with familial mutant-SOD1 cases. ALS is characterized by progressive neurospatial spread of pathology among motor neurons, and recently the transfer of extracellular, aggregated mutant SOD1 between cells was demonstrated in culture. However, there is currently no evidence that uptake of SOD1 into cells initiates neurodegenerative pathways reminiscent of ALS pathology. Similarly, whilst dysfunction to the ER–Golgi compartments is increasingly implicated in the pathogenesis of both sporadic and familial ALS, it remains unclear whether misfolded, wildtype SOD1 triggers ER–Golgi dysfunction. In this study we show that both extracellular, native wildtype and mutant SOD1 are taken up by macropinocytosis into neuronal cells. Hence uptake does not depend on SOD1 mutation or misfolding. We also demonstrate that purified mutant SOD1 added exogenously to neuronal cells inhibits protein transport between the ER–Golgi apparatus, leading to Golgi fragmentation, induction of ER stress and apoptotic cell death. Furthermore, we show that extracellular, aggregated, wildtype SOD1 also induces ER–Golgi pathology similar to mutant SOD1, leading to apoptotic cell death. Hence extracellular misfolded wildtype or mutant SOD1 induce dysfunction to ER–Golgi compartments characteristic of ALS in neuronal cells, implicating extracellular SOD1 in the spread of pathology among motor neurons in both sporadic and familial ALS.
Background: The innovation of an extensive journal writing approach has made a big difference in the field of teaching academic writing. Previous studies found mixed results relating to whether ...journal writing could help students enhance their writing accuracy. Purpose: The purpose of the current study is to investigate whether extensive journal writing (EJW) affects EFL high school students’ writing accuracy and fluency in the writing classroom.Method: Sixty students in one of the high schools located in Tra Vinh city participated in the study. The quasi-experimental study was conducted in ten weeks. The participants were divided into two groups, namely the control group and the experimental group. Students’ writing papers, including pre-tests and post-tests, were collected for data analysis. Inter-raters were employed for analytic rating scales and written errors analysis. Results: The results show that extensive journal writing had significant effects on the students’ writing performances compared to those of students in the control group. Additionally, the number of words written in the students’ post-test was increasing. Implication: The current study’s findings were innovative to the body of literature as the EJW could help students enhance their writing performances.
The primarily qualitative analysis reported in this paper is to investigate how the students, in a student-centered pedagogical focus, perceive their own learning progress in e-peer feedback ...activities, including the effectiveness of the use of blogs for e-peer responses in an L2 writing class. Thirty-two second year Vietnamese students at a university in Ho Chi Minh City participated in a 15-week writing course. Data collection was from the 20-item questionnaire and eight semi-structured interviews. Results of the study revealed that when students perceived good progression in their writing skills when they got involved in e-peer feedback on the blog and their writing was longer after revisions. In addition, the students highly evaluated the use of blogs for e-peer feedback activities because of its usefulness and effectiveness.
This work is dedicated to joint image restoration and contour detection considering the Ambrosio-Tortorelli functional. Two proximal alternating minimization schemes with convergence guarantees are ...provided, PALM-AT and SL-PAM-AT, as well as closed-form expressions of the involved proximity operators. A thorough numerical study is conducted in order to evaluate the performance of both numerical schemes as well as comparisons to state-of-the-art Mumford-Shah strategies.
Environmental heat stress creates a detriment to the welfare and performance in broiler chickens. While there are some dietary mineral and vitamin supplements that mitigate this condition, a rapid, ...plasma-based detection method would improve management response and broaden the scientific understanding of heat stress. A total of 960 broilers were used to determine the effect of heat stress and dietary electrolyte balance on blood biochemistry. Sex sorted chicks were allocated to 48 pens with 20 chicks per pen creating 6 treatments (3 diets x 2 house environments) with eight replicates and fed one of three dietary treatments: a control containing primarily sodium chloride (NaCl), a heat stress formulation containing bicarbonate (NaHCO
3
), or heat stress fortified with 200 ppm vitamin C and E (NaHCO
3
Fortified). Birds were housed in two different temperature-controlled environments either a thermoneutral (Control) or heat stressed (Heat Stress) environment. At day 28, 35 and 42 venous blood was collected and analyzed using rapid detection methods followed by post-mortem veterinary evaluations. Performance was measured at weekly intervals. Mortality was significantly higher in broilers exposed to heat stress as compared to thermoneutral, while broilers that received dietary sodium chloride also had higher mortality than bicarbonate fed birds. Heat stress significantly impacted potassium, hematocrit, uric acid, total protein, globulin, hematocrit, lymphocytes, sodium, and glucose. This study demonstrates that blood biochemistry of broiler chickens is influenced by dietary intervention and changing environmental conditions. This pattern suggests a blood biomarker footprint of sub-optimal nutrition or poor environmental conditions that may provide valuable information into physiological changes in response to dietary electrolytes, vitamins, and heat stress. Furthermore, this footprint may potentiate the development of diagnostic tools, combining biomarkers to determine nutrition and health status of individual broiler flocks, for nutritionists, veterinarians, and live production managers to manage flocks for environmental, humane, and productive purposes.
Models and algorithms for nonparametric estimation of finite multivariate mixtures have been recently proposed, where it is usually assumed that coordinates are independent conditional on the ...subpopulation from which each observation is drawn. Hence in these models the dependence structure comes only from the mixture. This assumption is relaxed, allowing for independent multivariate blocks of coordinates, conditional on the subpopulation from which each observation is drawn. Otherwise the density functions of these blocks are completely multivariate and nonparametric. An EM-like algorithm for this model is proposed, and some strategies for selecting the bandwidth matrix involved in the nonparametric estimation step of it are derived. The performance of this algorithm is evaluated through several numerical simulations. A real dataset of reasonably large dimension is experimented on this new model and algorithm to illustrate its potential from the model based, unsupervised clustering perspective.
Abstract
Nanotechnology enables in principle a precise mapping from design to device but relied so far on human intuition and simple optimizations. In nanophotonics, a central question is how to make ...devices in which the light-matter interaction strength is limited only by materials and nanofabrication. Here, we integrate measured fabrication constraints into topology optimization, aiming for the strongest possible light-matter interaction in a compact silicon membrane, demonstrating an unprecedented photonic nanocavity with a mode volume of
V
~ 3 × 10
−4
λ
3
, quality factor
Q
~ 1100, and footprint 4
λ
2
for telecom photons with a
λ
~ 1550 nm wavelength. We fabricate the cavity, which confines photons inside 8 nm silicon bridges with ultra-high aspect ratios of 30 and use near-field optical measurements to perform the first experimental demonstration of photon confinement to a single hotspot well below the diffraction limit in dielectrics. Our framework intertwines topology optimization with fabrication and thereby initiates a new paradigm of high-performance additive and subtractive manufacturing.
Introducing extra mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) into oocytes at fertilization can rescue poor quality oocytes. However, supplementation alters DNA methylation and gene expression profiles of ...preimplantation embryos. To determine if these alterations impacted offspring, we introduced mtDNA from failed-to-mature sister (autologous) or third party (heterologous) oocytes into mature oocytes and transferred zygotes into surrogates. Founders exhibited significantly greater daily weight gain (heterologous) and growth rates (heterologous and autologous) to controls. In weaners, cholesterol, bilirubin (heterologous and autologous), anion gap, and lymphocyte count (autologous) were elevated. In mature pigs, potassium (heterologous) and bicarbonate (autologous) were altered. mtDNA and imprinted gene analyses did not reveal aberrant profiles. Neither group exhibited gross anatomical, morphological, or histopathological differences that would lead to clinically significant lesions. Female founders were fertile and their offspring exhibited modified weight and height gain, biochemical, and hematological profiles. mtDNA supplementation induced minor differences that did not affect health and well-being.
Display omitted
•Adding extra mtDNA into oocytes produces healthy offspring that exhibit minor changes•Mitochondrial DNA and imprinting integrity do not appear to be impaired•The female founder population is fertile and produces normal litters•The next generation appears to modify the minor changes and is healthy
Reproductive medicine; Porcine reproduction; Developmental biology
Numerous inflammation-related pathways have been shown to play important roles in atherogenesis. Rapid and efficient assessment of the relative influence of each of those pathways is a challenge in ...the era of "omics" data generation. The aim of the present work was to develop a network model of inflammation-related molecular pathways underlying vascular disease to assess the degree of translatability of preclinical molecular data to the human clinical setting.
We constructed and evaluated the Vascular Inflammatory Processes Network (V-IPN), a model representing a collection of vascular processes modulated by inflammatory stimuli that lead to the development of atherosclerosis.
Utilizing the V-IPN as a platform for biological discovery, we have identified key vascular processes and mechanisms captured by gene expression profiling data from four independent datasets from human endothelial cells (ECs) and human and murine intact vessels. Primary ECs in culture from multiple donors revealed a richer mapping of mechanisms identified by the V-IPN compared to an immortalized EC line. Furthermore, an evaluation of gene expression datasets from aortas of old ApoE-/- mice (78 weeks) and human coronary arteries with advanced atherosclerotic lesions identified significant commonalities in the two species, as well as several mechanisms specific to human arteries that are consistent with the development of unstable atherosclerotic plaques.
We have generated a new biological network model of atherogenic processes that demonstrates the power of network analysis to advance integrative, systems biology-based knowledge of cross-species translatability, plaque development and potential mechanisms leading to plaque instability.
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