Cutaneous idiosyncratic drug reactions (CIDRs) are usually unpredictable, ranging from mild maculopapular exanthema (MPE) to severe cutaneous adverse drug reactions (SCARs) such as drug reaction with ...eosinophilia and systemic symptoms (DRESS), Stevens‐Johnson syndrome (SJS), and toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN). Increasing evidence suggests that HLA alleles are strongly associated with drug‐induced‐CIDRs. The pathomechanisms for CIDRs include genetic polymorphisms affecting complex immune‐specific HLA/drug antigen/T‐cell receptor interactions and drug metabolism. Pharmacogenomic tests to prevent CIDRs have been widely implemented in clinical practice in recent years.
Key insights in materials at extreme temperatures and pressures can be gained by accurate measurements that determine the electrical conductivity. Free-electron laser pulses can ionize and excite ...matter out of equilibrium on femtosecond time scales, modifying the electronic and ionic structures and enhancing electronic scattering properties. The transient evolution of the conductivity manifests the energy coupling from high temperature electrons to low temperature ions. Here we combine accelerator-based, high-brightness multi-cycle terahertz radiation with a single-shot electro-optic sampling technique to probe the evolution of DC electrical conductivity using terahertz transmission measurements on sub-picosecond time scales with a multi-undulator free electron laser. Our results allow the direct determination of the electron-electron and electron-ion scattering frequencies that are the major contributors of the electrical resistivity.
Gastric cancer is one of the most common malignant cancers, with poor prognosis and high mortality rates worldwide. Therefore, development of an effective therapeutic method without side effects is ...an urgent need. It has been reported that cationic antimicrobial peptides can selectively bind to negatively charged prokaryotic and cancer cell membranes and exert cytotoxicity without causing severe drug resistance. In the current study, we prepared a series of peptide fragments derived from bovine lactoferrin and evaluated their anticancer potency toward the gastric cancer cell line AGS. Cell viability assay revealed that a 25-AA peptide fragment, lactoferricin B25 (LFcinB25), exhibited the most potent anticancer capability against AGS cells. Lactoferricin B25 selectively inhibited AGS cell growth in a dose-dependent manner, exhibiting a half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) value of 64μM. Flow cytometry showed a notable increment of the sub-G1 populations of the cell cycle, indicating the induction of apoptosis by LFcinB25. Western blot analysis further revealed that upon LFcinB25 treatment for 2 to 6h, apoptosis-related caspases-3, 7, 8, 9, and poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) were cleaved and activated, whereas autophagy-related LC3-II and beclin-1 were concomitantly increased. Thus, both apoptosis and autophagy are involved in the early stage of LFcinB25-induced cell death of AGS cells. However, upon treatment with LFcinB25 for 12 to 24h, LC3-II began to decrease, whereas cleaved beclin-1 increased in a time-dependent manner, suggesting that consecutive activation of caspases cleaved beclin-1 to inhibit autophagy, thus enhancing apoptosis at the final stage. These findings provide support for future application of LFcinB25 as a potential therapeutic agent for gastric cancer.
High-entropy alloys (HEAs) are considered as potential structural materials for aerospace and defense applications where impacts are recurrently encountered. The dynamic mechanical properties and the ...underlying deformation and damage mechanisms are significant for safety assessment and structural design optimization, but are underinvestigated. In this work, two types of plate impact experiments, i.e., shock compression and spallation, are performed on typical quaternary CoCrFeNi HEA (at%), to investigate its dynamic mechanical properties and microscopic deformation/damage mechanisms. Free-surface velocity histories are measured to evaluate the mechanical properties and damage processes, including the Hugoniot elastic limit (HEL; ∼0.8 GPa), spall strength (∼3.2 GPa) and pullback rates. The spall strength of the CoCrFeNi HEA is higher than those of most medium- and high-entropy alloys ever reported, except for the Al0.1CoCrFeNi HEA. The deformed samples are characterized with scanning electron microscopy, electron backscatter diffraction and transmission electron microscopy. Shock-induced dislocation slip and deformation twinning dominate plastic deformation. With increasing impact velocity, dislocation density increases significantly and twin bundles appear instead of individual twins. For incipient spallation, voids nucleate preferentially at grain boundaries, especially at grain boundary triple junctions. Damage in the CoCrFeNi HEA is ductile in nature.
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•CoCrFeNi HEA demonstrates an excellent spall strength-ductility combination.•Nano-twin bundles, rather than individual nano-twins, apper at uf = 901 m s−1.•Voids nucleate at grain boundaries, especially at grain boundary triple junctions.•Heterogeneous-structured dimples reveal ductile damage in CoCrFeNi HEA.
Municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) ash is rich in heavy metals and salts. The disposal of MSWI ash without proper treatment may cause serious environmental problems. Recently, the local cement ...industry in Taiwan has played an important role in the management of solid wastes because it can utilize various kinds of wastes as either fuels or raw materials. The objective of this study is to assess the possibility of MSWI ash reuse as a raw material for cement production. The ash was first washed with water and acid to remove the chlorides, which could cause serious corrosion in the cement kiln. Various amounts of pre-washed ash were added to replace the clay component of the raw materials for cement production. The allowable limits of chloride in the fly ash and bottom ash were found to be 1.75% and 3.50% respectively. The results indicate that cement production can be a feasible alternative for MSWI ash management. It is also evident that the addition of either fly ash or bottom ash did not have any effect on the compressive strength of the clinker. Cement products conformed to the Chinese National Standard (CNS) of Type II Portland cement with one exception, the setting time of the clinker was much longer.
This article investigates the toxicology of gaseous products of pentafluoroethane (HFC-125) after the interaction of thermal decomposition with B-class flame together with hexafluoropropane ...(HFC-236fa) for comparison. For necessary analysis, gas chromatography, ion chromatography, and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry were employed during the interaction between the fire extinguishing agents (FEAs) and n-heptane flame in experiments. The results show that hydrogen fluoride (HF) output was proportional to the pool fire size and interaction time for the two FEAs. Moreover, further toxicology evaluations show that the thermolysis gaseous products of HFC-236fa with n-heptane flame interaction inflict much more harm on the lungs of laboratory mice than that of HFC-125 in pathology tests, thus indicating that besides the HF, other organic traces of gases, such as CF
3
CH=CF
2
, CF
3
CH
2
CF
3
, and so on, might have serious impacts on their toxicology. It is expected that these investigative results would be of great help to the further study of FEAs on the toxicology evaluation not only the fire suppression of HFC-125.
The size and structure of flocs during floc formation were monitored for various coagulation mechanisms. Two distinctive mechanisms, namely, enmeshment and electrostatic patch, govern the dynamics of ...kaolin particles coagulation by polyaluminum chloride (PACl). They were investigated by small angle static light scattering (SASLS) and solid-state
27Al NMR. In addition, a novel wet SEM (WSEM) was used in-situ to image the morphology of the aggregate in aqueous solution. Synthetic suspended particles were coagulated by two PACl products, a commercial product (PACl) and one laboratory product (PACl-E). The PACl-E contained more than 60% Al
13 while the PACl contained only 7% Al
13, with large percentage of colloidal Al. For coagulation by PACl at neutral pH and high dosage where the strong repulsion between particles occurs, the enmeshment ruled by reaction-limited aggregation (RLA) results in larger sweep flocs as well as higher fractal dimensional structure. For coagulation by PACl-E at alkaline pH and low dosage, the flocs were coagulated predominately by electrostatic patch with Al
13 aggregates. At such condition, it is likely that diffusion-limited aggregation (DLA) predominately rule PACl-E coagulation. The fractal dimension (
D
s) values of PACl and PACl-E flocs formed at enmeshment and electrostatic patch increased with dosage, respectively. When breakage of flocs occurs, the breakage rate of PACl-E flocs is slower than that of sweep flocs. By WSEM imaging, the adsorption of spherical Al precipitates onto the particles was observed to form sweep flocs with a rough and ragged contour, while the PACl-E flocs were formed with a smooth and glossy structure.
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