QI SONG¹, JUN ZHANG¹, QIANG ZHANG¹, JING LIU¹, KE LV¹, JIALU YAO^1,2,3,*, YAFENG ZHOU^2,3,*

BIOCELL, Vol.44, No.4, pp. 623-629, 2020, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2020.012645

Abstract Macrophages play an essential role in the myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury (MIRI), and the macrophage shifting from M1 to M2 phenotypes might be a potential strategy for the treatment of MIRI. It has been reported that miR-182 plays an important role in MSC-Exo-associated macrophage polarization. As circBCRC-3 is a newly discovered circle RNA that worked as a sponge of miR-182, this research aimed to find if circBCRC-3 plays a role in MSC-Exo-associated macrophage polarization. Firstly, circBCRC-3 was identified by divergent primers in mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). Secondly, the exosome of MSCs was isolated and identified by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), nanoparticle-tracking… More >

DONG ZHAO, QIANG JI^*, SHIJIE ZHU, KAI ZHU, CHUNSHENG WANG^*

BIOCELL, Vol.44, No.3, pp. 315-321, 2020, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2020.09169

Abstract Except for the standard aortic valve replacement, no effective medical treatment is available to prevent or delay calcific aortic valve disease (CAVD) progression. Recently, macrophages and high-mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) are the most intriguing candidates in various inflammatory disorders. However, the association between serum HMGB1, CAVD, and macrophage polarization remains unclear. Therefore, we examined whether the level of serum HMGB1 is clinically associated with aortic valve calcification and whether HMGB1 treatment can promote macrophage differentiation toward M1 or M2 phenotype. This experimental study included 19 CAVD patients and 20 healthy controls whose serum HMGB1 levels were examined by ELISA… More >

C. González-Guisasola¹, O. Gil-Castell^1,2, R. Teruel-Juanes¹, A. Ribes-Greus^1,*

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.8, No.9, pp. 1171-1180, 2020, DOI:10.32604/jrm.2020.04399

Abstract Composite polymer electrolyte membranes were prepared with poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA). Two different molecular weight (M_w), 67·10³ and 130·10³ g·mol⁻¹ were selected, cross-linked with sulfosuccinic acid (SSA) and doped graphene oxide (GO). The effects on the membranes obtained from these polymers were characterized in order to evaluate the fuel cell performance. Electron microscopy showed a proper nanoparticle distribution in the polymer matrix. The chemical structure was evaluated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The absence of a crystalline structure and the enhancement on the thermal stability with the addition of 1% of GO was demonstrated by thermal characterization. Total transference number… More >

Raya Safa, Ronald Thomas, Peter P. Karpawich

Congenital Heart Disease, Vol.12, No.1, pp. 99-104, 2017

Abstract Background: The early ECG repolarization QRS pattern (ERp), with J-point elevation of 0.1 mV in two contiguous inferior and/or lateral leads, can be associated with ventricular arrhythmias among adults. The significance of an ERp in the young is unknown.
Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess the prevalence of ERp among young patients (pts), describe and correlate the characteristics with clinical presentations and any arrhythmias.
Methods: This was a 1 y retrospective review of ECGs obtained from patients referred specifically for documented arrhythmias, possible arrhythmia-related symptoms or sports clearance. ECGs were analyzed for ERp (J-point, ascending/horizontal patterns, location)… More >

VICTOR BENNO MEYER-ROCHOW^1,2,*, MONALISA MISHRA¹

BIOCELL, Vol.33, No.2, pp. 115-120, 2009, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2009.33.115

Abstract We are describing a rhabdom organization of the eye of the chrysanthemum beetle Phytoecia rufiventris that to date has not been described from any other insect. In cerambycid beetles free rhabdomeres, forming a circular, open rhabdom, surround a central rhabdom made up of the rhabdomeres of one or two cells. In Phytoecia rufiventris the central rhabdomeres are missing throughout the eye and the microvilli of the outer 6 rhabdomeres are regularly oriented in three directions. Following the classification of rhabdom types suggested by Wachmann (1979), we suggest to name the rhabdom arrangement seen in the retina of Phytoecia rufiventris “Grundmuster… More >

Shuling Hu¹, Shengping Shen^1,2

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.13, No.1, pp. 63-88, 2009, DOI:10.3970/cmc.2009.013.063

Abstract The electric field gradient effect is very strong for nanoscale dielectrics. In addition, neither the surface effect nor electrostatic force can be ignored. In this paper, the electric Gibbs free energy variational principle for nanosized dielectrics is established with the strain/electric field gradient effects, as well as the effects of surface and electrostatic force. As regards the surface effects both the surface stress and surface polarization are considered. From this variational principle, the governing equations and the generalized electromechanical Young-Laplace equations, which take into account the effects of strain/electric field gradient, surface and electrostatic force, are derived. The generalized bulk… More >

Jie Wang

The International Conference on Computational & Experimental Engineering and Sciences, Vol.20, No.3, pp. 77-78, 2011, DOI:10.3970/icces.2011.020.077

Abstract Ferroelectric nanostructures exhibit vortex structures with the shrinking of the relevant lengths to the nanometer scale because of the strong depolarization field. The vortex structure in the nanoscale ferroelectrics, similar to the vortex structure in magnetic nanostructure, is regarded as a toroidal order which is different from the common homogeneous polarization order. The finding of the vortex in ferroelectric nanostructures opens exciting opportunities for designing nanomemory devices, which holds a promise to increase the density of ferroelectric nonvolatile random access memories by several orders of magnitude. The switching behavior of polarization vortex under a curled field is different from the… More >

Girish K.¹, Hema Singh²

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.52, No.3, pp. 197-212, 2016, DOI:10.3970/cmc.2016.052.196

Abstract Aerospace structures can be approximately modeled as a combination of canonical structures such as cylinder, cone and ellipsoid. Thus the RCS estimation of such canonical structures is of prime interest. Furthermore metamaterials possess peculiar electromagnetic properties which can be useful in modifying the RCS of structures. This paper is aimed at calculating the RCS of an infinitely long PEC circular cylinder coated with one or two layers of metamaterial. The incident and scattered fields of coated cylinder are expressed in terms of series summation of Bessel and Hankel functions. The unknown coefficients of summation are obtained by applying appropriate boundary… More >

Ying Xu¹, Shengping Shen^1,2

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.28, No.1, pp. 81-96, 2012, DOI:10.3970/cmc.2012.028.081

Abstract This paper considers the surface effect through the surface and bulk electric Gibbs free energy. The analytical expressions are derived for the effective elastic, dielectric and piezoelectric modulus for nano-structural elements in electromechanical coupling problems. Numerical examples for PZT are given to illustrate the size effects on the electromechanical properties of nano-particles, nano-wires and nano-films quantitatively. The solution shows that the electromechanical properties of piezoelectric nano-material are size-dependent but the size effects on the elastic property and dielectric property are different. More >

L.A. de Lacerda¹, J. M. da Silva¹

CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.14, No.3, pp. 153-160, 2006, DOI:10.3970/cmes.2006.014.153

Abstract A two-dimensional boundary element formulation is presented and coupled to a genetic algorithm to identify polarization curves of buried slender structures. The dual boundary element method is implemented to model the cathodic protection of the metallic body and the genetic algorithm is employed to deal with the inverse problem of determining the non-linear polarization curve, which describes the relation between current density and electrochemical potential at the soil metal interface. In this work, this non-linear relation resulting from anodic and cathodic reactions is represented by a classical seven parameters expression. Stratified soil resistivity is modeled with a piece-wise homogeneous domain.… More >