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The present paper investigates steady eutectic growth with the isotropic surface tension by using the analytical approach. We consider the case that Peclet number ϵ is small and the segregation coefficient κ is close to the unit, and obtain a family of the global steady state solutions with two free parameters: the Peclet number ϵ and tilt angle φ, which may describe the basic states of both tilted and non-tilted eutectic growth. It is found that due to the singularity of the triple point in the system, there is a thin boundary layer in the vicinity of the triple point, where the curvature and the temperature of interface vary drastically. The quantitative comparisons between the theoretical predictions with recent available experimental data are made with no adjustable parameter. The agreements are very good. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective To study the effect of endocrine disruptor chemicals in cow milk on female reproductive system. Methods A two-generation reproduction was conducted according to U. S. FDA standard. Milk was fed in special bottle to Wistar rats of both sexes through two successive generations (F0 and F1) in the milk group while artificial milk was fed to rats in the control group. Twenty-four rats of each sex were mated in each group. Measurements were made according to this guideline. Results Reproductive parameters in the milk group such as fertility index, gestation index, weights of uterus and ovary, days of vaginal opening, estrous cycles, histological morphological changes were comparable to those in the control group. However, the means of body weight had some differences. The body weight gains increased significantly in the milk-treated group in F1 and F2 generation compared with those in the control group. The concentration of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) in blood in the milk group was comparable to that in the control group, but the standard deviation changed greatly in the milk-treated rats. Conclusion Endocrine disruptor chemicals in milk have no severe effects on the female reproductive system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper is concerned with the global instability mechanisms for the basic steady state of lamellar eutectic growth with curved and tilted interface affected by the triple point. We solve the related linear eigenvalue problem (EVP) by using the analytical approach for the case that the Peclet number is small and the segregation coefficient parameter κ is close to the unit. It is found that the system involves two types of global instability mechanisms: the 'exchange of stability' invoked by the non-oscillatory, unstable modes and the global wave instabilities invoked by four types of oscillatory unstable modes, namely (AA)-, (SS)-, (AS)- and (SA)-mode. The quantization conditions for these modes are derived, the neutral curves for these global instabilities on the parameters plane are calculated. The stability criterion yields the range of the interlamellar spacing and explains the interfacial pattern transitions observed in the experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Drug-induced mitochondrial toxicity has become one of the key reasons for which some drugs fail to enter market or are withdrawn from market. Thus early identification of new chemical entities that injure mitochondrial function grows to be very necessary to produce safer drugs and directly reduce attrition rate in later stages of drug development. In this study, support vector machine (SVM) method combined with genetic algorithm (GA) for feature selection and conjugate gradient method (CG) for parameter optimization (GA-CG-SVM), has been employed to develop prediction model of mitochondrial toxicity. We firstly collected 288 compounds, including 171 MT+ and 117 MT−, from different literature resources. Then these compounds were randomly separated into a training set (253 compounds) and a test set (35 compounds). The overall prediction accuracy for the training set by means of 5-fold cross-validation is 84.59%. Further, the SVM model was evaluated by using the independent test set. The overall prediction accuracy for the test set is 77.14%. These clearly indicate that the mitochondrial toxicity is predictable. Meanwhile impacts of the feature selection and SVM parameter optimization on the quality of SVM model were also examined and discussed. The results implicate the potential of the proposed GA-CG-SVM in facilitating the prediction of mitochondrial toxicity. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Trombe wall is an effective method for passively absorbing solar energy and providing heat to buildings. This paper conducts a comparative experiment between Trombe wall buildings and glass curtain wall buildings during the winter season in Songpan County, western Sichuan. The climate characteristics of the western Sichuan plateau are analyzed, and the potential applications of these two building types in the region are investigated. To further understand the heat transfer mechanism of Trombe wall buildings, numerical simulations are carried out to analyze the indoor thermal environment of buildings with varying air channel thicknesses. The results show that Trombe wall buildings are more effective at delaying heat loss compared to glass curtain wall buildings, due to the thermal storage of the Trombe wall providing heat at night. This makes Trombe wall buildings well-suited for regions with strong solar radiation and large temperature differences between day and night, such as the alpine region. However, excessively small air channel thickness can lead to excessive air flow speed during the day, causing more heat loss and weaker insulation at night. Conversely, excessively large air channel thickness reduces air flow temperature difference and diminishes the heat brought into the room. Among different air channels, a thickness of 100 mm performs best with a temperature difference between the inlet and outlet of about 45 °C. At 13:00 o 'clock, the maximum airflow rate of approximately 5.8 L/s is achieved for a thickness of 100 mm, whereas for thicknesses of 150 mm and 50 mm, the corresponding values are 4.9 L/s and 4.1 L/s, respectively. It is important to note that blindly increasing air channel thickness to raise indoor temperature is not a practical or reasonable engineering solution. The measured and numerical results can provide valuable reference value for the improvement and development of Trombe wall buildings in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In our previous study, a series of 6-aryl-3-amino-thieno[2,3-b]pyridine derivatives exhibited potent antiproliferative activities and an unique hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)-specific anticancer activity was also observed. In further anti-inflammatory research, thienopyridine derivative 1a showed potent inhibition of nitric oxide (NO) production. So a series of thienopyridine analogues of 1a were synthesized and evaluated for anti-inflammatory activities. The structure–activity relationships (SARs) revealed that the most potent analogues 1f and 1o were identified as potent inhibitors of NO production with IC50 values of 3.30 and 3.24μM, respectively. These results suggest that these 6-aryl-3-amino-thieno[2,3-b]pyridine derivatives might potentially constitute a novel class of anti-inflammatory agents, which require further studies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Novel thienopyridine derivatives 1b–1r were synthesized, based on a hit compound 1a that was found in a previous cell-based screening of anticancer drugs. Compounds 1a–1r have the following features: (1) their anticancer activity in vitro was first reported by our group. (2) The most potent analog 1g possesses hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)-specific anticancer activity. It can specifically inhibit the proliferation of the human hepatoma HepG2 cells with an IC50 value of 0.016μM (compared with doxorubicin as a positive control, whose IC50 was 0.37μM). It is inactive toward a panel of five different types of human cancer cell lines. (3) Compound 1g remarkably induces G0/G1 arrest and apoptosis in HepG2 cells in vitro at low micromolar concentrations. These results, especially the HCC-specific anticancer activity of 1g, suggest their potential in targeted chemotherapy for HCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]