209 research outputs found
Neagoe Basarab – modelul „omului desăvârșit și întreg”
No full textThis article is about the teachings of Neagoe Basarab in regards to the behavior of the future ruler. They are presented as a manual for practical morals where the orthodox faith intertwines with the bravery, merging the attributes of the Saint with those of the Hero. The religious significances of this moral code can be found under double appearance, for both division of the virtues (“Indwelling of God”, fasting, patience, love, gentleness, humility) and meeting of sins (lack of moderation in regards to gastronomy, drinking, gossiping, laughter and women, believed to be behind the many sins). Besides the theological instruction, the teachings of Neagoe Basarab puts into the foreground a moralist who knows the pitfalls and subtleties of the language, the finesse of meditation and the skill to push ideas to metaphysics. After Acad. Eugen Simion had commented the discursive levels of the chapters devoted to medieval diplomacy and art of the adorned speech (the parables and biblical parables), in the third part of this study the author focuses on the general meanings of the Teachings … Along with other specialists (Dan Zamfirescu, G. Mihăilă), the author believes that the paternity of the work belongs to Neagoe Basarab – even if specialists’ talks remain open – and this work, written in a liturgical language and translated into Romanian after a century, it has to be added to Romanian literary heritage. This real treatise – with teachings addressed to those who aspire to become fulfilled and upright people – does not avoid any of the great virtues of the ruler (in which Neagoe Basarab embodies the heroism and sanctity vocations) and it is our first masterpiece
Spectroscopy
No full textThroughout the day, we apply experimental methods to estimate time, mass, volume, distance, velocity, and temperature—how much to eat (mass), what clothes to wear (temperature), how long will it take to get somewhere (distance, velocity, and time). Preparing a meal requires some precision with respect to these factors, and the kitchen was the first laboratory for chemists and engineers. We continue to share many concepts related to instrumentation and experimental design. This book presents the basic principles of measurement particular to chemical engineering. Redacting this manuscript has been a collaborative effort; its original inspiration was J.P. Holman’s textbook entitled “Experimental Methods for Engineers.” In this 2nd edition, we revise the text entirely, correct typos (and other errors), and add a chapter on mass and distance and spectroscopy. Each chapter begins with a historical perspective to recognize the work of early pioneers but also to stimulate the imagination of the students. For example, 10 000 years ago, man created plaster from limestone. Plaster requires temperatures nearing 900°C, which is 150°C higher than an open pit fire. It requires 1000 kg of wood (chopped by stone axes), 500 kg of limestone, a pit 2 m in diameter and 0.7 m deep, rocks to insulate, and two days to burn. Modern manufacturing errors are costly and a nuisance; in prehistoric times, errors would have been considerably more than just an inconvenience.
In Chapter 1, we list the seven steps of the scientific method and review the rules of nomenclature—units of physical quantities, abbreviations, conversion between SI and British Units, writing convention. Chapter 2 introduces significant figures and what we mean by accuracy, precision, and error analysis. In this second edition, we report an explicit equation to calculate how many experiments are necessary to achieve a specified confidence interval. Chapter 3 reviews data analysis including hypothesis testing, data smoothing, and statistical tests. We summarize design of experiments, and we include more detail in this edition to describe factorial designs, outlining them and other complementary designs with detailed examples. Chapter 4 is new and introduces stress, strain, and electrical properties that relate to manufacturing sensors for mass and force. We apply these concepts in Chapters 5 and 6 that deal with pressure and temperature measurements. In each of these chapters, we first review basic concepts, including thermodynamics. Then we describe the sensors that rely on mechanical and electrical properties.
Chapters 7 and 8 continue with chemical engineering fundamentals of fluid flow and physicochemical properties. The former begins with Bernoulli’s equation and Reynolds number, then lists common flow meters. The three physicochemical properties that Chapter 8 presents include viscosity, thermal conductivity, and diffusion. It demonstrates how these properties are related and introduces non-dimensional numbers. Examples throughout the book help the students grasp the mechanics of solving problems but also to underline pitfalls in solving them. Measuring gas and liquid concentration by chromatography and mass spectrometry is the subject of Chapter 9. In this edition, we dedicate more scope to troubleshooting the chromatographic instruments. Spectroscopic instruments we detail in Chapter 11. This summary includes sections written by eminent chemists. We have selected the most powerful techniques used to characterize the physicochemical properties of solids and include infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance, UV/Vis, X-ray absorption, and refractometry Whereas Chapter 11 probes the nature of the solids phases, composition and morphology, Chapter 10 concentrates on powder properties—particle shape, size distribution, density, and surface area. The first edition of this book was a collaborative effort in which Melina Hamdine early on drafted several chapters in French, including Physicochemical Properties, Analysis of Powders and Solids, and Design of Experiments. Prof. Bala Srinivasan contributed to Chapter 3 on experimental design. Katia Senécal was “instrumental” in gathering the essential elements for the chapters, including Measurement Analysis, Pressure, Temperature, and Flow Rate. Prof. Bruno Detuncq collaborated in the revision of these chapters. Danielle Béland led the redaction of the chapter on chromatography to determine concentration, with some assistance from Cristian Neagoe. He also wrote the section concerning spectroscopy. Amina Benamer contributed extensively to this project, including preparing solutions to the problems after each chapter, writing sections related to refractometry and X-ray, and translating. Second-year students from the Department also participated by proposing original problems that were added at the end of each chapter (together with the name of the author of the problem). I would particularly like to recognize Paul Patience for his tremendous contribution throughout the creative process of preparing this manuscript. The depth of his reflection has been appreciated tremendously (LATEX). He also co-authored the section on pyrometry. Christian Patience prepared many of the drawings and Nicolas Patience helped with translating from French to English, as did Nadine Aboussouan.
This second edition is no less a collaborative effort. Ariane Bérard expanded Chapter 3 with examples of experimental designs. Prof. J. Gostick contributed the chapter on Mass and Force instrumentation. Stefano Lucini wrote the section on troubleshooting GC and HPLC instruments, while F. Galli contributed to the section on mass spectrometry with Patrice Perreault, who was devout at identifying errors and proposing additional problems. Marco Rigamonti and He Li wrote sections of Chapter 10. Collaborators on Chapter 11 included Daria C. Boffito, Cristian Neagoe, Giuseppina Cerrato, Claudio Boffito, Gian Luca Chiarello, Claudia L. Bianchi, Marco G. Rigamonti, and Amina Benamer. This chapter is a tremendous contribution to the book because it details simply which instruments measure which physicochemical property and then describes how they work
Ultrasound-assisted impregnation for high temperature Fischer-Tropsch catalysts
No full textA fraction of the petroleum extracted from oil reservoirs contains associated natural gas. Rather than building infrastructure to recover low volumes of this natural gas, the industry flares or vents it to the atmosphere, which contributes to atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions but also reduces the air quality locally because it contains gaseous sulphur and nitrogen compounds. Converting the natural gas (NG) to hydrocarbons with a small-scale two-step gas-to-liquids process, is an alternative to flaring and venting. In the first step, NG reacts with oxygen to form syngas (Catalytic Partial Oxidation) and in the second step the syngas reacts over metallic catalysts to form higher paraffins at 210 degrees C to 300 degrees C-Fischer Tropsch synthesis (FT). For the first time, we synthesize bimetallic FeCo FT catalysts with ultrasound. An ultrasonic horn agitates the solution during the entire impregnation process. The active phase dispersion of the sonicated catalysts was superior to the catalyst synthesized without ultrasound, while reducing the impregnation time by a factor of three. We tested our catalysts in a lab-scale, fixed-bed reactor at 270 degrees C and 300 degrees C, and achieved 80% conversion over 3-days on stream and a 40% yield of C2+
Involvement of Golgin-160 in cell surface transport of renal ROMK channel: Co-expression of Golgin-160 increases ROMK currents
No full textThe weak inward rectifier potassium channel ROMK is important for water and salt reabsorption in the kidney. Here we identified Golgin-160 as a novel interacting partner of the ROMK channel. By using yeast two-hybrid assays and co-immunoprecipitations from transfected cells, we demonstrate that Golgin-160 associates with the ROMK C-terminus. Immunofluorescence microscopy confirmed that both proteins are co-localized in the Golgi region. The interaction was further confirmed by the enhancement of ROMK currents by the co-expressed Golgin-160 in Xenopus oocytes. The increase in ROMK current amplitude was due to an increase in cell surface density of ROMK protein. Golgin-160 also stimulated current amplitudes of the related Kir2.1, and of voltage-gated Kv1.5 and Kv4.3 channels, but not the current amplitude of co-expressed HERG channel. These results demonstrate that the Golgi-associated Golgin-160 recognizes the cytoplasmic C-terminus of ROMK, thereby facilitating the transport of ROMK to the cell surface. However, the stimulatory effect on the activity of more distantly-related potassium channels suggests a more general role of Golgin-160 in the trafficking of plasma membrane proteins. Copyright © 2006 S. Karger AG
Ant Colony Optimization Band Selection for Classification of Multispectral Earth Observation Imagery
No full textThe "good-cop bad-cop" TGF-beta role in breast cancer modulated by non-coding RNAs
No full textBackground: Lack of early diagnosis methods and the development of drug resistance are among the main reasons for increased mortality rates within breast cancer patients. These two aspects are governed by specific pro-carcinogenic modifications, where TGBβ-induced EMT is one of the leading actors. Endowment of the epithelial cells with mesenchymal characteristics allows them to migrate and invade secondary tissues in order to form malignant sites and also confers chemoresistance. TGFβ which role switches from the tumor suppressor cytokine to the oncogenic one favoring the tumor microenvironment regulates this process. Scope of review: This review aims to comprehensively present the updated TGFβ-induced EMT in breast cancer, including the regulatory role of the non-coding RNAs with focus on the miR-200 family and newly discovered lncRNAs such as HOTAIRM1. Additionally, a new phenotype, P-EMT, also modulated by miR-200 and miR-34 families that form complex feedback loops with TGFβ, SNAI1 and ZEB1/2 is presented under an updated form. Major conclusions: The hallmarks of EMT are becoming increasingly associated with aggressive forms of breast cancer and low survival rates among patients. Considering that this phenotypical switch can trigger drug resistance, invasion and metastasis, inhibition of EMT could represent an important milestone in mammary cancer treatment. General significance: The present review assembles the most recent data regarding TGFβ induced EMT, including the input of non-coding RNAs, contributing to the possible development of new targeted treatment strategies for cancer patients
The Clinical Utility of miR-21 and let-7 in Non-small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC). A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
No full textNon-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) remains a problem worldwide due to its rapid progression and low rate of response to treatment. The heterogeneity of these tumors observed in histopathology exam but also in the mutational status and gene expression pattern makes this malignancy difficult to treat in clinic. The present study investigated the effect of miR-21 and let-7 family members as prognostic biomarkers in NSCLC patients based on the results published in different studies regarding this subject until March 2019. The analysis revealed that these two transcripts are steady biomarkers for prediction of patient outcome or survival. Upregulated expression of miR-21 is associated with poor outcome of patients with NSCLC [HR = 1.87, 95% CI = (1.41, 2.47), p < 0.001]. The analysis regarding let-7 family, specifically let-7a/b/e/f, revealed that downregulated expression of these transcripts predicts poor outcome for NSCLC patients [HR = 2.61, 95% CI = (1.58, 4.30), p < 0.001]. Besides, the reliability of these microRNAs is reflected in the fact that their prognostic significance is constant given the different sample types (tissue, FFPE tissue, serum, serum/plasma or exosomes) used in the selected studies
Interplay between cancer cells, macrophages and natural killer cells may actually decide the outcome of therapy with sorafenib
No full textCombining the chemotherapeutic effects of epigallocatechin 3-gallate with siRNA-mediated p53 knock-down results in synergic pro-apoptotic effects
No full textIoana Berindan-Neagoe,1,2 Cornelia Braicu,1 Alexandru Irimie3,41Department of Functional Genomics and Experimental Pathology, Cancer Institute, &ldquo;Ion Chiricuta&rdquo;, Cluj-Napoca, Romania; 2Department of Immunology, University of Medicine and Pharmacy, &ldquo;I. Hatieganu&rdquo;, Cluj-Napoca, Romania; 3Department of Surgical Oncology, University of Medicine and Pharmacy, &ldquo;I. Hatieganu&rdquo;, Cluj-Napoca, Romania; 4Department of Surgery, Cancer Institute, &ldquo;Ion Chiricuta&rdquo;, Cluj-Napoca, RomaniaAbstract: Plant extracts and compounds are applied to a wide variety of diseases in which traditional drugs have proven ineffective. A quickly developing trend in biomedicine is the therapeutic use of siRNA (short interfering RNA) structures. The focus of this study was on evaluating the gene expression involved in the modulation of apoptosis, in cases of combinatorial treatment (-)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) and/or p53siRNA. EGCG in combination with p53siRNA exerts synergic pro-apoptotic effects that are greater than those of each agent taken individually. There is a cumulative antiproliferative effect, induced by EGCG and p53siRNA treatment, and it is mediated through the activation of a large number of pro-apoptotic genes and the inhibition of anti-apoptotic protein expression levels. p53siRNA promotes the convergence of the extrinsic and intrinsic pathways in a synergic manner with EGCG. The chemotherapeutic effects of EGCG in combination with p53siRNA therapy induced a synergic pro-apoptotic effect, indicating the potential for development of promising new anticancer therapies.Keywords: p53siRNA, apoptosis, HeLa cell
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