Anti-inflammatory effects of naringin in chronic pulmonary neutrophilic inflammation in cigarette smoke-exposed rats

Naringin, a well-known flavanone glycoside of grapefruit and citrus fruits, was found to be as an effective anti-inflammatory compound in our previous lipopolysaccharide-induced acute lung injury mouse model via blockading activity of nuclear factor κB. The current study sought to explore the anti-inflammatory effects of naringin on chronic pulmonary neutrophilic inflammation in cigarette smoke (CS)-induced rats. Seventy Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into seven groups to study the effects of CS with or without various concentrations of naringin or saline for 8 weeks. The results revealed that naringin supplementation at 20, 40, and 80mg/kg significantly increased body weight of CS-induced rats as compared to that in the CS group. Moreover, naringin of 20, 40, and 80mg/kg prevented CS-induced infiltration of neutrophils and activation of myeloperoxidase and matrix metalloproteinase-9, in parallel with suppression of the release of cytokines, such as tumor necrosis factor-α and interleukin-8 (IL-8). IL-10 in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid was significantly suppressed after CS exposure, but dose dependently elevated by naringin. The results from hematoxylin and eosin staining revealed that naringin dose dependently reduced CS-induced infiltration of inflammatory cells, thickening of the bronchial wall, and expansion of average alveolar airspace. In conclusion, our data suggest that naringin is an effective anti-inflammatory compound for attenuating chronic pulmonary neutrophilic inflammation in CS-induced rats. © Copyright 2012, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. and Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition 2012.published_or_final_versio

Extremely stringent activation of p16<i>INK4a</i> prevents immortalization of uterine cervical epithelial cells without human papillomavirus oncogene expression

published_or_final_versio

p21/Cyclin E pathway modulates anticlastogenic function of Bmi-1 in cancer cells.

Apart from regulating stem cell self-renewal, embryonic development and proliferation, Bmi-1 has been recently reported to be critical in the maintenance of genome integrity. In searching for novel mechanisms underlying the anticlastogenic function of Bmi-1, we observed, for the first time, that Bmi-1 positively regulates p21 expression. We extended the finding that Bmi-1 deficiency induced chromosome breaks in multiple cancer cell models. Interestingly, we further demonstrated that knockdown of cyclin E or ectopic overexpression of p21 rescued Bmi-1 deficiency-induced chromosome breaks. We therefore conclude that p21/cyclin E pathway is crucial in modulating the anticlastogenic function of Bmi-1. As it is well established that the overexpression of cyclin E potently induces genome instability and p21 suppresses the function of cyclin E, the novel and important implication from our findings is that Bmi-1 plays an important role in limiting genomic instability in cylin E-overexpressing cancer cells by positive regulation of p21.published_or_final_versio

Performance Evaluation Effect of Nb2O5 Particulate on the Microstructural, Wear and Anti-corrosion Resistance of Zn–Nb2O5 Coatings on Mild Steel for Marine Application

In this study, we developed Zn–Nb2O5 composite coatings from sulfate bath for wear and corrosion performance on mild steel by electrodeposition technique. The effect of Nb2O5 particulate on the Zn–Nb2O5 properties was investigated. The particle volume fraction was varied within between 10 and 20 wt%. The structural properties of the composite coatings were characterized using scanning electron microscope equipped with energy-dispersive spectrometer. The hardness and wear of the composite coating were measured with diamond base microhardness indenter tester and sliding CETR reciprocating wear testers, respectively. The corrosion properties were examined in 3.65% NaCl using AUTOLAB 101 Metrohm potentiostat–galvanostat with linear polarization technique. The results showed that average hardness value of 192.6 and 200.6 HV and passivation potential of 4.39E?08 and 5.30E?08(X) were obtained for the 10–20 wt% Nb2O5 particulate on the Zn–Nb2O5 coatings. The wear performance improves by 63.4% as against the control sample. In all, this study established that up to 20 wt% of Nb2O5 in Zn–Nb2O5 composite coating significant corrosion, wear and microhardness propagation resistance of mild steel was attained

Determinants of Acceptance of Cervical Cancer Screening in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

To describe how demographic characteristics and knowledge of cervical cancer influence screening acceptance among women living in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Multistage cluster sampling was carried out in 45 randomly selected streets in Dar es Salaam. Women between the ages of 25-59 who lived in the sampled streets were invited to a cervical cancer screening; 804 women accepted and 313 rejected the invitation. Information on demographic characteristics and knowledge of cervical cancer were obtained through structured questionnaire interviews. Women aged 35-44 and women aged 45-59 had increased ORs of 3.52 and 7.09, respectively, for accepting screening. Increased accepting rates were also found among single women (OR 2.43) and among women who had attended primary or secondary school (ORs of 1.81 and 1.94). Women who had 0-2 children were also more prone to accept screening in comparison with women who had five or more children (OR 3.21). Finally, knowledge of cervical cancer and awareness of the existing screening program were also associated with increased acceptance rates (ORs of 5.90 and 4.20). There are identifiable subgroups where cervical cancer screening can be increased in Dar es Salaam. Special attention should be paid to women of low education and women of high parity. In addition, knowledge and awareness raising campaigns that goes hand in hand with culturally acceptable screening services will likely lead to an increased uptake of cervical cancer screening

Effect of WO3 Nanoparticle Loading on the Microstructural, Mechanical and Corrosion Resistance of Zn Matrix/TiO2-WO3 Nanocomposite Coatings for Marine Application

In this study, for marine application purposes, we evaluated the effect of process parameter and particle loading on the microstructure, mechanical reinforcement and corrosion resistance properties of a Zn-TiO2-WO3 nanocomposite produced via electrodeposition. We characterized the morphological properties of the composite coatings with a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) equipped with an Energy Dispersive Spectrometer (EDS). We carried out mechanical examination using a Dura Scan hardness tester and a CERT UMT-2 multi-functional tribological tester. We evaluated the corrosion properties by linear polarization in 3.5% NaCl. The results show that the coatings exhibited good stability and the quantitative particle loading greatly enhanced the structural and morphological properties, hardness behavior and corrosion resistance of the coatings. We observed the precipitation of this alloy on steel is greatly influenced by the composite characteristics

Effective Rheology of Bubbles Moving in a Capillary Tube

We calculate the average volumetric flux versus pressure drop of bubbles moving in a single capillary tube with varying diameter, finding a square-root relation from mapping the flow equations onto that of a driven overdamped pendulum. The calculation is based on a derivation of the equation of motion of a bubble train from considering the capillary forces and the entropy production associated with the viscous flow. We also calculate the configurational probability of the positions of the bubbles.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur

Search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum in pp collisions at √ s = 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Results of a search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum are reported. The search uses 20.3 fb−1 of √ s = 8 TeV data collected in 2012 with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Events are required to have at least one jet with pT > 120 GeV and no leptons. Nine signal regions are considered with increasing missing transverse momentum requirements between Emiss T > 150 GeV and Emiss T > 700 GeV. Good agreement is observed between the number of events in data and Standard Model expectations. The results are translated into exclusion limits on models with either large extra spatial dimensions, pair production of weakly interacting dark matter candidates, or production of very light gravitinos in a gauge-mediated supersymmetric model. In addition, limits on the production of an invisibly decaying Higgs-like boson leading to similar topologies in the final state are presente

Polyenylpyrrole Derivatives Inhibit NLRP3 Inflammasome Activation and Inflammatory Mediator Expression by Reducing Reactive Oxygen Species Production and Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase Activation

10.1371/journal.pone.0076754PLoS ONE810-POLN

Species-specified VOC emissions derived from a gridded study in the Pearl River Delta, China

This study provides a top-down approach to establish an emission inventory of volatile organic compounds (VOC) based on ambient measurements, by combining the box model and positive matrix factorization (PMF) model. Species-specified VOC emissions, source contributions, and spatial distributions are determined based on regional-scale gridded measurements between September 2008 to December 2009 in the Pearl River Delta (PRD), China. The most prevalent anthropogenic species in the PRD was toluene estimated by the box model to be annual emissions of 167.8 ± 100.5 Gg, followed by m,p-xylene (68.0 ± 45.0 Gg), i-pentane (49.2 ± 40.0 Gg), ethene (47.6 ± 27.6 Gg), n-butane (47.5 ± 40.7 Gg), and benzene (46.8 ± 29.0 Gg). Alkanes such as propane, i-butane, and n-pentane were 2–8 times higher in box model than emission inventories (EI). Species with fewer emissions were highly variable between EI and box model results. Hotspots of VOC emissions were identified in southwestern PRD and port areas, which were not reflected by bottom-up EI. This suggests more research is needed for VOC emissions in the EI, especially for fuel evaporation, industrial operations and marine vessels. The species-specified top-down method can help improve the quality of these emission inventories