Cigarette smoke is a known source of exposure to carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), especially benzoapyrene (BaP). Exposure to BaP in cigarette smoke is influenced by how a person ...smokes and factors, such as tobacco blend. To determine whether sustained use of reduced-nicotine cigarettes is associated with changes in exposure to nicotine and BaP, levels of BaP in spent cigarette filter butts were correlated with levels of BaP in cigarette smoke to estimate mouth-level intake (MLI) of BaP for 72 daily smokers given three progressively reduced nicotine content cigarettes. Urinary cotinine, a marker of nicotine exposure, and urinary 1-hydroxypyrene (1-HOP), a marker of PAH exposure, were measured throughout the study. Median daily BaP MLI and urine cotinine decreased in a similar manner as smokers switched to progressively lower nicotine cigarettes, despite relatively constant daily cigarette consumption. 1-HOP levels were less responsive to the use of reduced nicotine content cigarettes. We demonstrate that spent cigarette filter butt analysis is a promising tool to estimate MLI of harmful chemicals on a per cigarette or per-day basis, which partially addresses the concerns of the temporal influence of smoking behavior or differences in cigarette design on exposure.
Nonaqueous electrolytes play a key role in extending the operating temperature range of Li-ion batteries. In developing electrolytes for wide temperature operations, we adopted an approach of ...starting with thermally stable lithium tetrafluoroborate (LiBF
4) and lithium bis(oxalato)borate (LiB(C
2O
4)
2, or LiBOB) salts. We have demonstrated that the capacity of Li-ion cells fades much slower in electrolytes using LiBF
4 or LiBOB than in electrolytes using LiPF
6. For low temperatures applications, suitable solvent systems for LiBF
4 and LiBOB were explored. We found that the charge transfer resistance (
R
ct) is smaller in Li-ion cells in electrolytes based on LiBF
4 in selected solvent systems than that based on LiPF
6 and results in better capacity utilization at low temperatures. We also found that the electrolytes based on LiBOB in PC-based solvent system would allow Li-ion cells with graphite anode to be cycled. By comparing the properties of LiBF
4 and LiPF
6 in the propylene carbonate and diethyl carbonate (PC–DEC) solvent system, we found that it is possible to formulate proper solvent mixtures for enhanced conductivity for LiBF
4 and LiBOB salts at low temperatures. It is concluded that nonaqueous electrolytes for wide-temperature-range operations of Li-ion cells are achievable.
The lithium metal anode is considered the ultimate goal for pushing the energy density of lithium batteries to the theoretical maximum. “Coating” metallic lithium with protective (carbon) layers has ...been reported as a viable method to mitigate detrimental issues such as the dendritic lithium deposition and the continuous fracturing of the SEI layer. Herein, we propose a rather simple and economically efficient method employing carbonized filter paper positioned over the lithium metal electrode. After an initial spontaneous lithiation of the paper-derived 3D carbon network, lithium plating/stripping experiments reveal highly stable and rather low overpotentials—particularly when replacing the standard organic carbonate based electrolyte by ionic liquids. The final volumetric energy density of this and the many comparable approaches so far reported in literature, however, remains to be carefully considered, as illustrated by a rather quick calculation.
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•Acetaminophen formed CF, DCAN, DCAcAm, and TCAcAm during chlor(am)ination.•Yields of all DBPs were higher during chlorination than that chloramination.•Lower pH increased N-DBP ...formation and decreased CF formation.•Two formation pathways for CF, DCAN, DCAcAm, and TCAcAm were presented.•DBP toxicity from chlorination was higher than from chloramination.
The occurrence of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) in natural waters, which act as drinking water sources, raises concerns. Moreover, those compounds incompletely removed by treatment have the chance to form toxic disinfection byproducts (DBPs) during subsequent disinfection. In this study, acetaminophen (Apap), commonly used to treat pain and fever, was selected as a model PPCP. The formation of carbonaceous and nitrogenous DBPs, namely trihalomethanes, haloacetonitriles, and haloacetamides, during chlor(am)ination of Apap was investigated. Yields of chloroform (CF), dichloroacetonitrile (DCAN), dicholoacetamide (DCAcAm), and tricholoacetamide (TCAcAm), during chlorination were all higher than from chloramination. The yields of CF continuously increased over 48h during both chlorination and chloramination. During chlorination, as the chlorine/Apap molar ratios increased from 1 to 20, CF yields increased from 0.33±0.02% to 2.52±0.15%, while the yields of DCAN, DCAcAm and TCAcAm all increased then decreased. In contrast, during chloramination, increased chloramine doses enhanced the formation of all DBPs. Acidic conditions favored nitrogenous DBP formation, regardless of chlorination or chloramination, whereas alkaline conditions enhanced CF formation. Two proposed formation mechanisms are presented. The analysed DBPs formed during chlorination were 2 orders of magnitude more genotoxic and cytotoxicity than those from chloramination.
The discovery of postnatal mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) with their general multipotentiality has fueled much interest in the development of cell-based therapies. Proper identification of transplanted ...MSC is crucial for evaluating donor cell distribution, differentiation, and homing. Lack of an efficient marker of transplanted MSC has precluded our understanding of MSC-related regenerative studies, especially in large animal models such as pigs. In the present study, we produced transgenic pigs harboring an enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) gene. The pigs provide a reliable and reproducible source for obtaining stable EGFP-labeled MSC, which is very useful for donor cell tracking after transplantation. The undifferentiated EGFP-tagged MSC express elevated levels of EGFP while maintaining MSC stemness. These cells exhibited homogeneous surface epitopes and possessed classic tri-lineage differentiation potential into osteogenic, adipogenic, and chondrogenic lineages, with robust EGFP expression maintained in all differentiated progeny. Injection of donor MSC can dramatically increase thickness of infarcted myocardium and improve cardiac function in mice. Moreover, the MSC with their strong EGFP expression can be easily distinguished from the background autofluorescence in myocardial infarcts. We demonstrated an efficient, effective, and easy way to identify MSC after long-term culture and transplantation. With the transgenic model, we are able to obtain stem/progenitor cells in earlier passages compared to transfection of traceable markers into established MSC. As the integration site of the transgene is the same for all cells, we have lessened the potential for positional effects and the heterogeneity of the stem cells. The EGFP-transgenic pigs may serve as useful biomedical and agricultural models of somatic stem cell biology. PUBLICATION ABSTRACT
The robust control problem is studied for a class of large-scale networked control systems. The subsystems are in the nonlinear form, and they exchange information through the communication networks. ...The interconnections considered are nonlinear, and not the traditional linear form, which brings a challenging issue for the decentralized control design. We develop a new memoryless control scheme with the use of the decomposition for each subsystem that is based on the input matrix. By Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzyfication for each subsystem, the interconnected T-S fuzzy subsystems are obtained. When the upper bound functions of uncertain interconnections are known, we design a decentralized memoryless state feedback controller. When the parameters of bound functions are not available, the adaptive method is used, and the decentralized memoryless adaptive controller is developed. By the construction of a new Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional, we prove the stability of the resultant closed-loop system for the both cases. Finally, we apply the theoretic results to the decentralized controller design of networked interconnected chemical reactor systems. The simulations are performed, and the effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated.
The NOD-like receptor proteins (NLRP) is an important genes primarily involved in innate immunity. In this study, we identified a novel NLRP gene designated as AjNLRP3 (GenBank accession number ...MF663701) in Apostichopus japonicus using transcriptome sequencing and the rapid amplification of cDNA ends approach. The full-length of AjNLRP3 is 3642 bp and a putative open reading frame of 2424 bp encodes a polypeptide with 807 amino acid residues. The predicted molecular mass of the protein sequence predicted for AjNLRP3 is 93.03 kDa and its theoretical pI is 6.14. AjNLRP3 contains two low complexity regions, two internal repeat regions, and a NACHT domain. Spatial distribution expression analysis detected AjNLRP3 in all of the tissues tested, with greater expression levels in the body wall, moderate expression in the respiratory tree, and weaker levels in the intestine, tube feet, celomocytes, and longitudinal muscle. The expression levels of AjNLRP3 increased by 2.60-fold in the celomocytes and decreased by 0.87-fold in the respiratory tree of diseased sea cucumbers compared with those in healthy sea cucumbers. Time-course expression analysis under bacterial challenge in celomocytes showed that the expression of AjNLRP3 was significantly decreased by 0.23-fold at 8 h and by 0.20-fold at 24 h. In conclusion, this study showed that the AjNLRP3 protein found in the sea cucumber has a similar structure and biological function to that in other organisms, where it appears to be involved with the innate immune responses against bacterial infection.
A battery-capacitor hybrid power source was discharged under pulsed current conditions and various ambient temperatures. Significant improvements in voltage drop and run time were obtained with the ...hybrid device over the battery alone. An equivalent circuit was established to evaluate the voltage behavior of the hybrid device. It was found that at the peak discharge current, as much as 50% of the total energy supplied was provided by a capacitor with only about one-third of the battery's volume.
A fault-tolerant permanent-magnet traction module is proposed for subway application, which has three different operation modes: normal, isolation, and fault-tolerant mode. In normal mode, 2 ...three-phase permanent-magnet synchronous machines (PMSMs) are controlled by 2 three-leg voltage-source inverters (VSIs), respectively. The proposed module can output maximum torque and reach the maximum velocity. When one leg fails, the corresponding PMSM is isolated from the fault VSI and the fault subway train operates in isolation mode, in which the traction effort is reduced but the maximum velocity can be maintained under light load. However, the fault subway train will stop if the load is heavy. To avoid the stop, the fault subway train is switched into fault-tolerant mode, in which the healthy VSI and fault VSI are reconfigured to 1 five-leg VSI by a fault-tolerant bridge. Due to lower phase-phase voltage apportionment ratio, the fault-tolerant mode is not used until the velocity is decreased to half of the maximum velocity. In fault-tolerant mode, the nonadjacent selection principle is proposed to prevent the common leg from overcurrent damage. The subway train equipped with the proposed module can maintain basic operation performances if any leg fails. The performances are analyzed and the effectiveness is verified by experimental results.
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