The innate immune receptor NLRP3 recognizes tissue damage and initiates inflammatory processes through formation multiprotein complexes with the adaptor protein ASC and caspase-1, i.e. NLRP3 ...inflammasomes, which through cleavage of pro-IL-1β mediates release of bioactive IL-1β. We hypothesized that NLRP3 mediates tissue damage during acute myocardial infarction (MI) and sought to investigate the mechanisms herein in an experimental MI model in mice.
The left coronary artery (LCA) of WT, NLRP3-/- and ASC-/- mice of both genders was ligated for 30 min followed by 3 or 24 h reperfusion. For pre-conditioning studies, the TLR2 agonist Pam3CSK4 or PBS was injected intraperitoneally 60 min prior to LCA ligation. For mechanistic investigations, blood plasmas and left ventricle tissues were collected, and a hypothesis-driven selection of protein or mRNA targets was investigated.
Surprisingly, hearts from NLRP3-deficient mice featured larger infarct size than WT mice (p = 0.0048). In general, there were only modest changes with no significant pattern in myocardial infiltration of neutrophils and macrophages and systemic and myocardial cytokine expression between the three genotypes. Preconditioning with the TLR2 agonist Pam3CSK4 induced Akt phosphorylation and reduced infarct size in WT but not NLRP3 -or ASC -deficient hearts.
Absence of NLRP3 results in increased myocardial infarct size after in vivo ischemia reperfusion, seemingly due to dysfunction of the cardioprotective RISK pathway. Our data imply that NLRP3 contributes to cardio-protection during I/R and do not support a role for NLRP3 or ASC inhibition in the management of acute MI including revascularization therapy.
In order to achieve the optimum conditions for electroplating nanocrystalline nickel coating from Watts-type bath, the effect of some process parameters namely, bath temperature, current density, and ...saccharin addition on grain size and texture coefficient （TC= I（200）/I（111）） of the deposits were investigated by X-ray diffraction （XRD）. The results showed that in a bath containing 5 g/L saccharin, by increasing the bath temperature from 45℃ to 55℃, the grain size decreased, whereas further increase of bath temperature resulted in a contrary effect. By increasing the current density from 10 to 75 mA/cm^2, both the grain size and TC decreased, while further increase in current density had no significant effect on the grain size. At a given current density, the grain size and TC decreased rapidly by increasing the saccharin content before leveling off at 3 g/L of saccharin. Finally, based on the grain refining the optimum conditions for producing nanocrystalline nickel coating from Watts-type bath have been proposed.
Metallic nanoparticles and carbon nanomaterials have been extensively studied in enhanced oil recovery. Carbon nanotube (CNT)/TiO2 nanocomposite is synthesized and investigated in terms of contact ...angle, interfacial tension (IFT), emulsion stability, etc. Its performance in oil displacement in porous media is evaluated through glass micromodel experiment. The synthesized CNT/TiO2 is composed of TiO2-based nanocomposites and CNTs as reinforcement phase. TiO2 is the dominant crystalline phase, and TiO2 nanoparticles cover on the CNTs. CNT/TiO2 nanocomposite is able to alter the wetting conditions of the rock from strong oil-wet to hydrophilic conditions and effectively reduce the interfacial tension. CNT/TiO2 nanocomposite plays an effective role in stabilizing the Pickering emulsions, and even forms stable emulsions at high temperature as 90 °C. For NaCl concentration of up to 2%, a stable emulsion can be formed even after 7 days. It is observed from glass micromodel experiments that the CNT/TiO2 nanofluid provides a higher recovery factor denoting its promising performance in enhanced oil recovery.
The effect of cerium (Ce) addition (0.1, 0.3, 0.5, and 1.0 wt%) on the ambient and high-temperature mechanical properties of a commercially available B319 powertrain aluminum alloy was investigated. ...In addition, to characterize the effects that Ce has on the microstructure of the B319 alloy, field emission scanning electron microscopy, optical microscopy, X-ray diffraction, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and X-ray micro computed tomography were employed. Statistical significance of the results was evaluated using the single-factor ANOVA analysis. The microstructural analyses revealed that Q-AlCuMgSi, α-Al, Al2Cu, eutectic silicon (Si), and Al15(Fe,Mn)3Si2 were present in all of the B319 and B319 + Ce specimens. However, the addition of Ce led to the formation of Al3Ce4Si6 and AlCeSi2 as well as a refinement of eutectic Si. It was found that, addition of 0.1 wt% Ce to the B319 alloy considerably increased the yield and tensile strength at ambient temperature (~10% and ~9%, respectively) and at 250 °C (~14% and ~7%, respectively) as well as the alloy's % elongation and micro hardness (~18–60% and 11%, respectively). However, it was observed that further addition of Ce (up to 1.0 wt %) results in a slight decrease in the materials tensile strength, as compared to the B319 + 0.1% Ce sample. This is presumed to be attributed to the escalating amount of porosity and needle-like Ce bearing intermetallics that were observed in the higher Ce content samples. The results from this study provide the automotive industry with a new cost-effective method of improving the mechanical properties of their currently used powertrain alloys, allowing for greater efficiency and improved performance.
In this study, a hybrid treatment system (Fluidized Bed positioned in a biological reactor of an Activated Sludge process) was used to treat saline domestic wastewater. The performance of the ...mentioned hybrid system was compared with the conventional activated sludge. A pilot study was conducted, and Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Electrical Conductivity (EC), Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) and pH were measured to investigate treatment efficiency. Three saline wastewater samples with salt concentrations of 0.5, 1, and 1.5 % and detention times of 2, 4 and 6 h were loaded into both rectors of hybrid system and activated sludge.
The results showed that Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) removals at salt concentrations of 0.5, 1, 1.5 % were equal to 80, 71, 48.5 for the hybrid system and 62, 47.7, 26.5 for the activated sludge system respectively. Likewise, similar results obtained for other contamination indices indicating the superiority of the hybrid system in comparison to activated sludge system. Moreover, another advantage of the hybrid system was that the activated sludge needed sludge returning while sludge returning was not required in the hybrid system. In addition, by loading fixed rate of air into both systems, dissolved oxygen concentration in the hybrid reactor is higher than the conventional reactor.
Therefore, the hybrid system had a significantly higher efficiency than conventional reactor to treat saline domestic wastewater.
In this paper the convective heat transfer and friction factor of the nanofluids in a circular tube with constant wall temperature under turbulent flow conditions were investigated experimentally. ...Al2O3 nanoparticles with diameters of 40nm dispersed in distilled water with volume concentrations of 0.1–2vol.% were used as the test fluid. All physical properties of the Al2O3–water nanofluids needed to calculate the pressure drop and the convective heat transfer coefficient were measured. The results show that the heat transfer coefficient of nanofluid is higher than that of the base fluid and increased with increasing the particle concentrations. Moreover, the Reynolds number has a little effect on heat transfer enhancement. The experimental data were compared with traditional convective heat transfer and viscous pressure drop correlations for fully developed turbulent flow. It was found that if the measured thermal conductivities and viscosities of the nanofluids were used in calculating the Reynolds, Prandtl, and Nusselt numbers, the existing correlations perfectly predict the convective heat transfer and viscous pressure drop in tubes.
Acute GvHD (aGvHD) complicates up to 50% of allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplants and pre-transplant estimation of its risk can guide prophylaxis, monitoring and early intervention strategies. ...Inspired by the role of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFα) in the pathogenesis of aGvHD and the inconsistency of the association studies exploring single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the TNF gene, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of the available reports using PubMed and EMBASE. Original human studies reporting on the association between recipient TNF SNPs and grade II-IV aGvHD in a format convertible to effect size and confidence interval were included. One of the two most widely investigated SNPs (rs361525G>A) was marginally associated with increased risk of grade II-IV aGvHD in random-effects meta-analysis of six studies (627 patients in total, risk ratio=1.29, 95% confidence interval=0.99-1.69, P=0.06). If this result is validated in a large cohort with uniform conditioning and GvHD prophylaxis, TNF rs361525G>A may become a useful tool for aGvHD risk estimation before the transplant.
In this research, the convective heat transfer coefficients of water-based FMWNT nanofluid have been measured under both laminar and turbulent regimes flowing through a uniformly heated horizontal ...tube in entrance region. For the first time, we have compared effective parameters to measure the convective heat transfer coefficients for functionalized MWNT suspensions such as Re, mass fraction and temperature, altogether in entrance region. The experimental results indicate that the convective heat transfer coefficient of these nanofluids increases by up to 33–40% at a concentration of 0.25
wt.% compared with that of pure water in laminar and turbulent flows respectively and 20
°C.
Due to unique structural, mechanical and electrical properties of single wall carbon nanotubes, SWNTs, they have been proposed as promising hydrogen storage materials especially in automotive ...industries. This research deals with investing of CNT’s and some activated carbons hydrogen storage capacity. The CNT’s were prepared through natural gas decomposition at a temperature of 900˚C over cobalt-molybdenum nanoparticles supported by nanoporous magnesium oxide (Co–Mo/MgO) during a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process. The effects of purity of CNT (80–95%wt.) on hydrogen storage were investigated here. The results showed an improvement in the hydrogen adsorption capacity with increasing the purity of CNT’s. Maximum adsorption capacity was 0.8%wt. in case of CNT’s with 95% purity and it may be raised up with some purification to 1%wt. which was far less than the target specified by DOE (6.5%wt.). Also some activated carbons were manufactured and the results compared to CNTs. There were no considerable H
2-storage for carbon nanotubes and activated carbons at room-temperature due to insufficient binding between H
2 molecules carbon nanostructures. Therefore, hydrogen must be adsorbed via interaction of atomic hydrogen with the storage environment in order to achieve DOE target, because the H atoms have a very stronger interaction with carbon nanostructures.
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