Thermal Performance Analysis of an Underground Closed Chamber with Human Body Heat Sources under Natural Convection

In this article, a combined experimental and numerical study has been performed to investigate the thermal performance of a mine refuge chamber (MRC) under natural convection. In the current study, a 20-hour heating experiment is carried out in a fifty-person MRC laboratory and the heat lamps are utilized to simulate the human heat loss. A new analytical model is proposed to predict the air temperature and validated against the experimental data. Sensitivity analysis is performed to further investigate the effects of the thermal parameters of the rock. Results indicated that: (1) two different air temperature increase stages, rapid and slow increase stages, are observed in the MRC; (2) A new analytical method for predicting the air temperature in MRC under natural convection is proposed, it shows that the air temperature increasing trend becomes slow with the increase of the thermal conductivity, density and specific heat capacity of the rock; (3) the surface heat transfer coefficient on the vertical walls reaches the largest and it increases linearly with air temperature.Peer reviewe

Analysis on relationship between extreme pathways and correlated reaction sets

Background: Constraint-based modeling of reconstructed genome-scale metabolic networks has been successfully applied on several microorganisms. In constraint-based modeling, in order to characterize all allowable phenotypes, network-based pathways, such as extreme pathways and elementary flux modes, are defined. However, as the scale of metabolic network rises, the number of extreme pathways and elementary flux modes increases exponentially. Uniform random sampling solves this problem to some extent to study the contents of the available phenotypes. After uniform random sampling, correlated reaction sets can be identified by the dependencies between reactions derived from sample phenotypes. In this paper, we study the relationship between extreme pathways and correlated reaction sets.Results: Correlated reaction sets are identified for E. coli core, red blood cell and Saccharomyces cerevisiae metabolic networks respectively. All extreme pathways are enumerated for the former two metabolic networks. As for Saccharomyces cerevisiae metabolic network, because of the large scale, we get a set of extreme pathways by sampling the whole extreme pathway space. In most cases, an extreme pathway covers a correlated reaction set in an \u27all or none\u27 manner, which means either all reactions in a correlated reaction set or none is used by some extreme pathway. In rare cases, besides the \u27all or none\u27 manner, a correlated reaction set may be fully covered by combination of a few extreme pathways with related function, which may bring redundancy and flexibility to improve the survivability of a cell. In a word, extreme pathways show strong complementary relationship on usage of reactions in the same correlated reaction set.Conclusion: Both extreme pathways and correlated reaction sets are derived from the topology information of metabolic networks. The strong relationship between correlated reaction sets and extreme pathways suggests a possible mechanism: as a controllable unit, an extreme pathway is regulated by its corresponding correlated reaction sets, and a correlated reaction set is further regulated by the organism\u27s regulatory network.<br /

Donor Bone Marrow-Derived T Cells Inhibit GVHD Induced by Donor Lymphocyte Infusion in Established Mixed Allogeneic Hematopoietic Chimeras

Delayed administration of donor lymphocyte infusion (DLI) to established mixed chimeras has been shown to achieve anti-tumor responses without graft-vs.-host disease (GVHD). Herein we show that de novo donor BM-derived T cells that are tolerant of the recipients are important in preventing GVHD in mixed chimeras receiving delayed DLI. Mixed chimeras lacking donor BM-derived T cells developed significantly more severe GVHD than those with donor BM-derived T cells after DLI, even though both groups had comparable levels of total T cells at the time of DLI. Post-DLI depletion of donor BM-derived T cells in mixed chimeras, as late as 20 days after DLI, also provoked severe GVHD. Although both CD4 and CD8 T cells contributed to the protection, the latter were significantly more effective, suggesting that inhibition of GVHD was not mainly mediated by CD4 regulatory T cells. The lack of donor BM-derived T cells was associated with markedly increased accumulation of DLI-derived alloreactive T cells in parenchymal GVHD target tissues. Thus, donor BM-derived T cells are an important factor in determining the risk of GVHD and therefore, offer a potential therapeutic target for preventing and ameliorating GVHD in the setting of delayed DLI in established mixed chimeras

Joint Association of Dietary Pattern and Physical Activity Level with Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors among Chinese Men: A Cross-Sectional Study

The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to investigate the joint associations of physical activity level (PAL) and dietary patterns in relation to cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors among Chinese men. The study population consisted of 13 511 Chinese males aged 18–59 years from the 2002 China National Nutrition and Health Survey. Based on dietary data collected by a food frequency questionnaire, four dietary patterns were identified and labeled as “Green Water” (high consumption of rice, vegetables, seafood, pork, and poultry), “Yellow Earth” (high consumption of wheat flour products and starchy tubers), “New Affluent” (high consumption of animal sourced foods and soybean products), and “Western Adopter” (high consumption of animal sourced foods, cakes, and soft drinks). From the information collected by a 1-year physical activity questionnaire, PAL was calculated and classified into 4 categories: sedentary, low active, active, and very active. As compared with their counterparts from the New Affluent pattern, participants who followed the Green Water pattern had a lower likelihood of abdominal obesity (AO; 50.2%), hypertension (HT; 37.9%), hyperglycemia (HG; 41.5%), elevated triglyceride (ETG; 14.5%), low HDL (LHDL; 39.8%), and metabolic syndrome (MS; 51.9%). When compared to sedentary participants, the odds ratio of participants with very active PAL was 0.62 for AO, 0.85 for HT, 0.71 for HG, 0.76 for ETG, 0.74 for LHDL, and 0.58 for MS. Individuals who followed both very active PAL and the Green Water pattern had a lower likelihood of CVD risk factors (AO: 65.8%, HT: 39.1%, HG: 57.4%, ETG: 35.4%, LHDL: 56.1%, and MS: 75.0%), compared to their counterparts who followed both sedentary PAL and the New Affluent pattern. In addition, adherence to both healthy dietary pattern and very active PAL presented a remarkable potential for CVD risk factor prevention

Effects of probiotic Bacillus as a substitute for antibiotics on antioxidant capacity and intestinal autophagy of piglets

The objective of this study was to evaluate effects of probiotic Bacillus amyloliquefaciens (Ba) as a substitute for antibiotics on growth performance, antioxidant ability and intestinal autophagy of piglets. Ninety piglets were divided into three groups: G1 (containing 150 mg/Kg aureomycin in the diet); G2 (containing 75 mg/Kg aureomycin and 1 × 10(8) cfu/Kg Ba in the diet); G3 (containing 2 × 10(8) cfu/Kg Ba in the diet without any antibiotics). Each treatment had three replications of ten pigs per pen. Results showed that Ba replacement significantly increased the daily weight gain of piglets. Moreover, improved antioxidant status in serum and jejunum was noted in Ba-fed groups as compared with aureomycin group. Increased gene expression of antioxidant enzymes and elevated nuclear factor erythroid 2 related factor 2 (Nrf2) in jejunum was also observed in Ba-fed groups. Besides, Ba replacement significantly decreased jejunal c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) phosphorylation compared with antibiotic group. Western blotting results also revealed that replacing all antibiotics with Ba initiated autophagy in the jejunum as evidenced by increased microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3 II (LC3-II) abundance. Taken together, these results indicate that replacing aureomycin with Ba can improve growth performance and antioxidant status of piglets via increasing antioxidant capacity and intestinal autophagy, suggesting a good potential for Ba as an alternative to antibiotics in feed. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13568-017-0353-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

tissue of rat adjuvant-induced arthritis

Triptolide has been clinically used to treat patients with rheumatoid arthritis, in which chemokine receptors play an important role in immune and inflammatory responses. To investigate the effect of triptolide on CCR5, we used complete Freund’s adjuvant to produce adjuvant-induced arthritis (AIA) in rats. Our data show that both CCR5 mRNA and protein levels in synovial tissue of rats with AIA are significantly higher than those in normal rats. Triptolide can significantly inhibit rat AIA-induced overexpression of CCR5 at both mRNA and protein levels. These results may contribute to better understanding of the therapeutic effects of triptolide in rheumatoid arthritis. Key words: triptolide, CCR5, adjuvant induced arthritis, rheumatoid arthriti