•High pressure ScCO2 geochemical reactor was used to simulate CO2 sequestration.•Inter and intrapore, coal compressibility during mercury intrusion are discussed.•Mercury intrusion process is ...classified into 3 stages based on fractal analysis.•Coal rank and ash content are affecting coal structure during CO2 sequestration.•CO2 sequestration makes all the samples easier to be compressed than raw samples.
A high pressure supercritical CO2 (HP-ScCO2) geochemical reactor was used to simulate CO2 sequestration into deep coal seam under around 40°C and 9.8MPa for 72h and fractal analysis were employed to study the mercury intrusion data of 4 different coal rank samples before and after the ScCO2–H2O treatment, focusing on the pore structure. It is revealed from the mercury porosimetry data that after exposure to the ScCO2–H2O fluid, the true density of coal samples are changed as well as total pore volume and porosity most importantly in the increase of micro-pore range. Fractal analysis is introduced to distinguish inter- and intraparticle pores at lower mercury intrusion pressure and to identify the initial pressure associated with the coal compressibility. Three values of fractal dimension (D1, D2 and D3) are obtained under different pressure ranges, which can be classified corresponding to three different mercury intrusion processes. Varied D1 values are mainly due to the accumulation mode of samples in the penetrometer and can be used to distinguish the interpore and intrapore intrusion process at lower pressure range of mercury intrusion. D2 values represents the mercury intrusion into intrapores. D3 value is decreasing as coal rank increased and can be used to describe the initial pressure when coal samples begin to be compressed or deformed at higher pressure of mercury intrusion. The experiments revealed that CO2 sequestration process changed the physical properties of coal samples, especially in compression resistance. Coal rank and ash content in coal are very important factors which will affect the variation of coal structure during CO2 sequestration.
Percutaneous mitral valve repair with the MitraClip in the COAPT study significantly reduced overall mortality and hospitalization in patients with at least moderate to severe mitral valve ...regurgitation, in comparison to guideline-compliant drug treatment alone. Consequently, the assumption that secondary mitral regurgitation is more a consequence than the cause of systolic heart failure needs to be revised; however, data from the simultaneously published MITRA-FR study showed no prognostic benefits for patients with advanced heart failure and severely enlarged left ventricle; therefore, MitraClip treatment should only be performed after careful patient selection and heart team decision. With respect to future patient selection further studies are needed to better define cut-offs for treatment or exclusion criteria and to identify patients who profit the most from treatment. Also, new catheter-based techniques and alternative approaches to treat functional mitral regurgitation need to be investigated.
Nitroalkene fatty acid derivatives manifest a strong electrophilic nature, are clinically detectable, and induce multiple transcriptionally regulated anti-inflammatory responses. At present, the ...characterization and quantification of endogenous electrophilic lipids are compromised by their Michael addition with protein and small-molecule nucleophilic targets. Herein, we report a
trans-nitroalkylation reaction of nitro-fatty acids with β-mercaptoethanol (BME) and apply this reaction to the unbiased identification and quantification of reaction with nucleophilic targets.
Trans-nitroalkylation yields are maximal at pH 7 to 8 and occur with physiological concentrations of target nucleophiles. This reaction is also amenable to sensitive mass spectrometry-based quantification of electrophilic fatty acid–protein adducts upon electrophoretic resolution of proteins. In-gel
trans-nitroalkylation reactions also permit the identification of protein targets without the bias and lack of sensitivity of current proteomic approaches. Using this approach, it was observed that fatty acid nitroalkenes are rapidly metabolized in vivo by a nitroalkene reductase activity and mitochondrial β-oxidation, yielding a variety of electrophilic and nonelectrophilic products that could be structurally characterized upon BME-based
trans-nitroalkylation reaction. This strategy was applied to the detection and quantification of fatty acid nitration in mitochondria in response to oxidative inflammatory conditions induced by myocardial ischemia–reoxygenation.
Aims We sought to assess the feasibility of catheter-based mitral valve repair using the MitraClip system in high-surgical-risk patients with mitral regurgitation (MR) ≥grade 3+. Methods and results ...MitraClip therapy was performed in 51 consecutive patients 73 ± 10 years; 34 (67%) men with symptomatic functional n = 35 (69%) or organic MR n = 16 (31%). Mean logistic EuroSCORE was 29 ± 22%; Society of Thoracic Surgeons score was 15 ± 11. Left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction was 36 ± 17%. In 35 patients (69%), adverse mitral valve morphology and/or severe LV dysfunction were present. MitraClip implantation was successful in 49 patients (96%). Most patients n = 34/49 (69%) were treated with a single clip, whereas 14 patients (29%) received two clips and one patient received three clips. Mean device and fluoroscopy times were 105 ± 65 min and 44 ± 28 min, respectively. Procedure-related reduction in MR severity was one grade in 16 patients (31%), two grades in 24 patients (47%), and three grades in 9 patients (18%). Forty-four of the 49 successfully treated patients (90%) showed clinical improvement at discharge NYHA functional class ≥III in 48 patients (98%) before and 16 patients (33%) after the procedure (P < 0.0001). There were no procedure-related major adverse events and no in-hospital mortality. Conclusion Mitral valve repair using the MitraClip system was shown to be feasible in patients at high surgical risk primarily determined by an adverse mitral valve morphology and/or severe LV dysfunction.
The interventional treatment of mitral valve regurgitation by the MitraClip procedure has grown rapidly in Germany and Europe during the past years. The MitraClip procedure has the potential to treat ...high-risk patients with secondary mitral valve regurgitation and poor left ventricular function. Furthermore, patients with primary mitral valve regurgitation may be treated successfully by the MitraClip procedure in case of high surgical risk or in very old patients. At the same time it has been emphasised that the MitraClip interventional treatment is still at an early stage of clinical development. The largest clinical experience with the MitraClip procedure so far is probably present in some German cardiovascular centers, which here summarise their recommendations on the current indications and procedural steps of the MitraClip treatment. These recommendations of the AGIK and ALKK may present a basis for future development.
A recently reported protocol demonstrates efficient CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii1. The published protocol demonstrates transformation and editing of a wall-less strain of C. ...reinhardtii using plasmid encoded Cas9 and sgRNA. However, the published protocol utilizes a complex electroporation waveform that cannot be generated by most electroporation systems. It is unknown whether transformation via this complex electroporation waveform is essential for high efficiency of Cas9 edits, perhaps by optimizing Cas9 or guide RNA gene expression or incorporation into the genome. We demonstrate that a simple electroporation waveform can deliver plasmid encoded CRISPR/Cas9 into and edit the genome of a wall-less strain of C. reinhardtii as efficiently as the more complex waveform. Our modified electroporation protocol makes the plasmid based CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing method accessible to a greater number of Chlamydomonas researchers.•Our protocol uses a simple electroporation waveform to replace a complex waveform used to achieve efficient CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing in a wall-less strain of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.•We also increased concentration of plasmids to maintain high gene editing efficiency.•We minimized modifications to other steps of the original protocol.
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Van der Waals forces often dominate interactions and adhesion between fine particles and, in turn, decisively influence the bulk behaviour of powders. However, so far there is no effective means to ...characterize the adhesive behaviour of such particles. A complication is that most powder particles have rough surfaces, and it is the asperities on the surfaces that touch, confounding the actual surface that is in contact. Conventional approaches using surface energy provide limited information regarding adhesion, and pull-off forces measured through atomic force microscope (AFM) are highly variable and difficult to interpret. In this paper we develop a model which combines the Rumpf–Rabinovich and the JKR–DMT theories to account simultaneously for the effects of surface roughness and deformation on adhesion. This is applied to a ‘
characteristic asperity’ which may be easily obtained from AFM measurements. The concept of
adhesiveness, a material property reflecting the influences of elastic deformability, surface roughness, and interfacial surface energy, is introduced as an efficient and quantitative measure of the adhering tendency of a powder. Furthermore, a novel concept of
specific adhesiveness is proposed as a convenient tool for characterizing and benchmarking solid materials. This paper provides an example to illustrate the use of the proposed theories.
Radar-observed vertical structure of precipitation as defined by contoured frequency by altitude diagrams (CFADs) is related to dynamic and thermodynamic environmental parameters. CFADs from 559 ...storms occurring over the years 2004–11 in the vicinity of Locarno, Switzerland, combined with Interim ECMWF Re-Analysis (ERA-Interim) data show that the radar-observed vertical structure of precipitation correlates with synoptic pattern (as defined by 1000- and 500-hPa geopotential heights), integrated water vapor flux, atmospheric stability, and vertical profiles of temperature, moisture, and wind. Following the analysis of vertical structure and environmental parameters, a generalized linear model (GLM) is developed for radar-observed vertical structure as a function of data from ERA-Interim. The GLM provides expected values for the vertical extent and magnitude of radar reflectivity and predicts storm vertical structure type with 79% overall accuracy. The relationships found between environmental parameters and storm vertical structure underscore the importance of including both dynamic and thermodynamic variables when evaluating climate change effects on precipitation. In addition, the ability of the GLM to reproduce storm types shows the potential for using GLMs as a link between lower-resolution global model data and high-resolution precipitation observations.
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