Resveratrol, (RES), a phytoalexin, is well-known for its anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant properties. SEB, a superantigen, is known to trigger ALI and cause mortality. In the current study, we tested the effect of RES in a dual-dose model of SEB exposure that triggers ALI and causes 100% mortality in C3H/HeJ-mice. The data revealed RES attenuated SEB-induced ALI and prevented mortality. Forty eight hours post-SEB exposure, lung-infiltrating mononuclear cells were tested for microRNA expression profile to determine the epigenetic regulation by resveratrol. SEB-activated splenocytes were pre-treated with 50 μM of RES or vehicle for metabolic profile analysis by measuring oxygen consumption rate (OCR) and extracellular acidification rate (ECAR). We also noted significant decline in miR-193a in the lungs of RES-treated SEB group, which targeted and caused an increase in TGFβ2 and TGFβR3, potent inhibitors of T-cell proliferation, by using RT-PCR and validation by transfection studies. RES-induced downregulation of miR-193a also influenced the activity of mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) as well as pyruvate kinase muscle isozyme2 (PKM2) genes, and caused RES-treated SEB-activated T cells to be quiescent metabolically in comparison to the energetic vehicle-treated SEB-activated T cells. Together, RES caused inhibition in the proliferation of SEB-activated T-cells by alterations in miR expression and metabolic profiles. (Supported by NIH grants P01AT003961, R01AT006888, R01ES019313, R01MH094755, P20GM103641 and R01AI129788).
sensor sampling rate (SSR) may be an effective and crucial field in networked control systems. Changing sensor sampling period after designing the networked control system is a critical matter for the stability of the system. In this article, a wireless networked control system with multi-rate sensor sampling is proposed to control the temperature of a multi-zone greenhouse. Here, a behavior based Mamdany fuzzy system is used in three approaches, first is to design the fuzzy temperature controller, second is to design a fuzzy gain selector and third is to design a fuzzy error handler. The main approach of the control system design is to control the input gain of the fuzzy temperature controller depending on the cur
... Show MoreBackground : It has been suggested that pretreatment with a statin agent prior to
myocardial infarction limits myocardial
creatine kinase release, and thus may act to
limit myocardial infarct size in humans.
Objective : To examine the effect of very
early statin initiation for acute myocardial
infarction (AMI), to the extent of
myonecrosis as manifested by peak serum
creatine kinase levels.
Methods : Patients with AMI admitted to AlKindy teaching hospital cardiac care unit
from 1st February 2007 to 28th February
2008, who fulfilled the inclusion criteria
cited in the present study, were randomly
assigned into two study groups. The statin
group patients have received a single oral
dose of 40 mg
An experimental model is used to simulate the loss of soil lateral confinement due to excavation nearby an individual axially loaded pile. The effects of various parameters, such as the horizontal distance of excavation, depth of excavation and pile slenderness ratios are investigated. The experimental analysis results showed the effect of excavation is more remarkable as the horizontal distance of excavation becomes closer to the pile than half pile length. The effect of excavation diminishes gradually as the horizontal distance increases beyond that distance for all the investigated pile slenderness ratios and depths of excavation. The pile head deflection, settlement and bending moments along pile increase with decreasing horizontal d
... Show MoreIn the present work, the behavior of thick-walled cylinder of elasto-plastic material (polymeric material) has been studied analytically. The study is based on modified Von-Mises yield criterion (for non metallic material). The equations of stress distribution are obtained for the cylinder under general cases of elastic expansion, plastic initiation and elastic-plastic expansion.
A computer program is developed for evaluating the stress distribution. The solution is carried out for worst boundary conditions when the cylinder is subjected to the combination of pressure load, inertia load, and temperature gradient.
The results are presente
... Show MoreThe tunnel’s stability during construction is a very important matter. Some methods have been proposed for stability evaluation, but the hazard warning levels (HWLs) are more applicable among these methods. Despite monitoring and applying HWLs, several collapses in Shibli twin tunnels in Iran have cast doubts on the accuracy of this criterion in the presence of water. In this study, the critical strains under different water contents were measured through uniaxial compressive strength tests on 11 different shale and marl samples. A comparison of laboratory tests and numerical results shows that the influence of the moisture content on the critical strain is negligible. In addition, the results show that there is no dir
... Show MoreShumblan (SH) is one of the most undesirable aquatic plants widespread in the irrigation channels and water bodies. This work focuses on boosting the biogas potential of shumblan by co-digesting it with other types of wastes without employing any chemical or thermal pretreatments as done in previous studies. A maximum biogas recovery of 378 ml/g VS was reached using shumblan with cow manure as inoculum in a ratio of 1:1. The methane content of the biogas was 55%. Based on volatile solid (VS) and C/N ratios, biogas productions of 518, 434, and 580 ml/g VS were obtained when the shumblan was co-digested with food wastes (SH:F), paper wastes (SH:P), and green wastes (SH:G) respectively. No significant changes of methane contents were observ
... Show MoreObjective: To study the effect of epidural spinal injection over one year in case of spinal stenosis. Methodology: This prospective study included 566 patients with spinal stenosis seen at Al-Kindy Teaching and Al-Sader, Hospitals who were treated by local epidural steroid injection. They were followed up for at least five subsequent visits after seven days, one month, three months, six months, and one year to assess efficacy. Result: Mean age of patients was 49.5 years, with a predominance of females (65%). L4/L5 was the most involved level in the spinal stenosis (70%). Grade II stenosis accounted for (45.4%) of cases. The pairwise comparison revealed that there was significant decrease in proportions of patients with pain in day
... Show MoreTransmission lines are generally subjected to faults, so it is advantageous to determine these faults as quickly as possible. This study uses an Artificial Neural Network technique to locate a fault as soon as it happens on the Doukan-Erbil of 132kv double Transmission lines network. CYME 7.1-Programming/Simulink utilized simulation to model the suggested network. A multilayer perceptron feed-forward artificial neural network with a back propagation learning algorithm is used for the intelligence locator's training, testing, assessment, and validation. Voltages and currents were applied as inputs during the neural network's training. The pre-fault and post-fault values determined the scaled values. The neural network's p
... Show MoreAn integrated GIS-VBA (Geographical Information System – Visual Basic for Application), model is developed for selecting an optimum water harvesting dam location among an available locations in a watershed. The proposed model allows quick and precise estimation of an adopted weighted objective function for each selected location. In addition to that for each location, a different dam height is used as a nominee for optimum selection. The VBA model includes an optimization model with a weighted objective function that includes beneficiary items (positive) , such as the available storage , the dam height allowed by the site as an indicator for the potential of hydroelectric power generation , the rainfall rate as a source of water . In a
... Show MoreExistence of these soils, sometimes with high gypsum content, caused difficult problems to the buildings and strategic projects due to dissolution and leaching of gypsum by the action of waterflow through soil mass. In this research, a new technique is adopted to investigate the performance of replacement and geosynthetic reinforcement materials to improve the gypseous soil behavior through experimential set up manufactured loaclally specially for this work. A series of tests were carried out using steel container (600*600*500) mm. A square footing (100*100) mm was placed at the center of the top surface of the bed soil. The results showed that the most effective thickness for the dune sand layer with geotextile at the interface, within
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