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Abstract: Syphacia obvelata is a rodent nematode parasite with high prevalence in laboratory mice. In our previous work we have demonstrated that this gut-dwelling helminth induces significant hematopoietic changes, characterized by increased myelopoiesis and erythropoiesis in infected animals, and accompanied with altered reactivity of bone marrow hematopoietic progenitors to interleukin (IL)-17. In this study we extended these investigations by demonstrating that naturally acquired S. obvelata infection induces significant alterations in murine bone marrow cells manifested at the molecular level. Namely, S. obvelata infection induced sustained phosphorylation of the members of three major groups of distinctly regulated mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs), the p38, the c-Jun amino-terminal kinase (JNK) and the extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK), as well as enhanced expression of mRNA for the inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) in the bone marrow cells of infected animals. Furthermore, the infection interfered with the IL-17-mediated effects in bone marrow cells, since in normal mice IL-17 significantly enhanced phosphorylation of p38 MAPK and upregulated the expression of iNOS and the constitutive, endothelial (e)NOS mRNA, while in S. obvelata-infected animals IL-17 did not influence the MAPKs activation, but markedly down-regulated the expression of both NOS isoforms. The data obtained demonstrating that S. obvelata is able to manipulate signal transduction pathways in the hosts'' bone marrow cells, pointed to the multiple layers of immunomodulatory ability of this pinworm parasite and highlighted the importance of working under pinworm-free conditions when using experimental murine models for immunohematopoietic investigations. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Through the use of effectively unlimited energy from the environment, contemporary heat pump installations have proven to be a highly efficient means for satisfying both heating and cooling needs. As such, they are often regarded as a key driver in the electrification process of the thermal domain. Keeping in mind the significant share of the thermal demand in building energy requirements, this aspect in particular is projected to have a great impact on the overall energy efficiency improvement of buildings and increase of demand-side flexibility. The latter point is considered crucial for improving the precarious balance against the contemporary intermittent power supply obtained from a variety of renewable sources. However, in the process of increasing their efficiency, heat pump systems are becoming significantly more complex with combinations of various different sources of energy from the ground, air and the Sun. By extension, the complexity of managing their operation has also increased and proves to be a challenge even for experienced plant operators. In order to aid in this regard, relevant literature suggests that optimization algorithms can be considered as a viable tool. This paper explores the limited extent of existing state-of-the-art approaches for hybrid heat pump control via metaheuristic optimization and broadens the subject matter with a comparative study that analyzes and benchmarks several metaheuristic approaches found in the literature on similar problems. A real-world multisource heat pump installation in Ferrara is utilized as the basis for the study. [Display omitted] • Novel systematization of optimization applications for heat pump operation and design. • Modeling approach suitable for novel optimization-assisted control algorithms. • Optimization as an enabler for increased operational efficiency of future HP systems. • Comparative analysis of optimization performances for a selection of metaheuristics. • Analysis of reference tracking and convergence results in GA being the best algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Interleukin-17 belongs to a family of pro-inflammatory cytokines with pleiotropic effects, which can be associated with several inflammatory diseases of the muscle tissue. Although elevated levels of interleukin-17 have been described in inflammatory myopathies, its role in muscle homeostasis remains to be elucidated. The requirement of the urokinase type plasminogen activator in skeletal myogenesis was recently demonstrated in vivo and in vitro, suggesting its involvement in the regulation of extracellular matrix remodeling, cell migration and myoblast fusion. Our previous results have demonstrated that interleukin-17 inhibits myogenic differentiation of C2C12 myoblasts in vitro concomitantly with the inhibition of cell migration. However, the involvement of urokinase type plasminogen activator in interleukin-17-inhibited myogenesis and migration remained to be analyzed. Therefore, the effect of interleukin-17 on the production of urokinase type plasminogen activator by C2C12 myoblasts was determined in the present study. Our results demonstrated that interleukin-17 strongly inhibits urokinase type plasminogen activator expression during myogenic differentiation. This reduction of urokinase type plasminogen activator production corresponded with the inhibition of cell migration by interleukin-17. Activation of p38 signaling pathway elicited by interleukin-17 mediated the inhibition of both urokinase type plasminogen activator expression and cell migration. Additionally, IL-17 inhibited C2C12 cells migration by causing the cells to reorganize their cytoskeleton and lose polarity. Therefore, our results suggest a novel mechanism by which interleukin-17 regulates myogenic differentiation through the inhibition of urokinase type plasminogen activator expression and cell migration. Accordingly, interleukin-17 may represent a potential clinical target worth investigating for the treatment of inflammatory muscle diseases. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The present study evaluated the role of interleukin (IL) 17 in multilineage commitment of C2C12 myoblastic cells and investigated associated signaling pathways. The results concerning the effects on cell function showed that IL-17 inhibits the migration of C2C12 cells, while not affecting their proliferation. The data regarding the influence on differentiation demonstrated that IL-17 inhibits myogenic differentiation of C2C12 cells by down-regulating the myogenin mRNA level, myosin heavy chain expression and myotube formation, but promotes their osteogenic differentiation by up-regulating the Runt-related transcription factor 2 mRNA level, cyclooxygenase-2 expression and alkaline phosphatase activity. IL-17 exerted these effects by activating ERK1,2 mitogen activated protein kinase signaling pathway, which in turn regulated the expression of relevant genes and proteins to inhibit myogenic differentiation and induce osteogenic differentiation. Additional analysis showed that the induction of osteogenic differentiation by IL-17 is independent of BMP signaling. The results obtained demonstrate the potential of IL-17 not only to inhibit the myogenic differentiation of C2C12 myoblasts but also to convert their differentiation pathway into that of osteoblast lineage providing new insight into the capacities of IL-17 to modulate the differentiation commitment. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

[Display omitted] • KI/γ-Al 2 O 3 catalyst for high yield biodiesel production by oil transesterification. • Modified sol–gel synthesis produces catalyst with superior catalytic performances. • Optimal process parameters for transesterification reaction were achieved. • Al-O-K groups take the role as catalytically active centers in transesterification. • Alcoholysis significantly depends on physicochemical properties of catalyst support. The essence of this study is synthesis of a newly developed and efficient heterogeneous catalyst based on aluminum oxide support promoted with potassium iodide (KI) as active dopant responsible for pronounced catalyst activity. Modified sol–gel, reflux and hydrothermal method were used for synthesis of aluminum-oxide support using aluminum isopropoxide as a precursor. The γ-Al 2 O 3 support and KI/γ-Al 2 O 3 catalyst samples were examined by various experimental techniques. Effects of several operational parameters were considered and those are: methanol to sunflower oil molar ratio, catalyst loadings, reaction time and reaction stirring rate. The obtained results indicated that modified sol–gel method for synthesis of γ-Al 2 O 3 catalyst support is the most favorable for obtaining the catalyst with superior catalytic performances in transesterification of sunflower oil. A maximum conversion (triglycerides to methyl esters) of 99.99% was achieved using the SG-KI/γ-Al 2 O 3 -770 catalyst under following optimal process parameters: 15:1 methanol to sunflower oil molar ratio, 2.5 wt% catalysts loading, 600 rpm stirring rate and 4 h of the reaction run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Pinworm parasites commonly infect laboratory mice with high prevalence even in well-managed animal colonies. Although often considered as irrelevant, these parasites if undetected may significantly interfere with the experimental settings and alter the interpretation of final results. There are a few reports documenting the effects of pinworms on research and the effects of pinworms on the host hematopoiesis have not yet been investigated. In this study we examined the changes within various hematopoietic cell lineages in the bone marrow, spleen, peripheral blood and peritoneal space during naturally acquired Syphacia obvelata infection in inbred CBA mice. The data obtained showed significant hematopoietic alterations, characterized by increased myelopoiesis and erythropoiesis in S. obvelata-infected animals. In order to additionally evaluate if this pinworm infection modifies hematopoietic cells'' reactivity, we examined the effect of murine interleukin-17, T cell-derived cytokine implicated in the regulation of hematopoiesis and inflammation, on the growth of bone marrow progenitor cells and demonstrated that bone marrow myeloid and erythroid progenitors from S. obvelata-infected mice displayed altered sensitivity to IL-17 when compared to non-infected controls. Taken together the alterations presented pointed out that this rodent pinworm is an important environmental agent that might significantly modify the hosts'' hematopoietic response, and therefore interfere with the experimental settings and alter the interpretation of the final results. However, the results obtained also contributed new data concerning the activity of IL-17 on bone marrow hematopoietic cells, supporting our previous reports that depending on physiological/pathological status of the organism IL-17 exerts differential effects on the growth of progenitor cells. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]