• 제목/요약/키워드: University of Birmingham

검색결과 184건 처리시간 0.025초

A Molecular Mucosal Adjuvant To Enhance Immunity Against Pneumococcal Infection In The Elderly

  • Fukuyama, Yoshiko;Ikeda, Yorihiko;Ohori, Junichiro;Sugita, Gen;Aso, Kazuyoshi;Fujihashi, Keiko;Briles, David E.;McGhee, Jerry R.;Fujihashi, Kohtaro
    • IMMUNE NETWORK
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    • 제15권1호
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    • pp.9-15
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    • 2015
  • Streptococcus pneumoniae (the pneumococcus) causes a major upper respiratory tract infection often leading to severe illness and death in the elderly. Thus, it is important to induce safe and effective mucosal immunity against this pathogen in order to prevent pnuemocaccal infection. However, this is a very difficult task to elicit protective mucosal IgA antibody responses in older individuals. A combind nasal adjuvant consisting of a plasmid encoding the Flt3 ligand cDNA (pFL) and CpG oligonucleotide (CpG ODN) successfully enhanced S. pneumoniae-specific mucosal immunity in aged mice. In particular, a pneumococcal surface protein A-based nasal vaccine given with pFL and CpG ODN induced complete protection from S. pneumoniae infection. These results show that nasal delivery of a combined DNA adjuvant offers an attractive potential for protection against the pneumococcus in the elderly.

A Study of Debinding Behavior and Microstructural Development of Sintered Al-Cu-Sn Alloy

  • Kim, J.S.;Chang, I.T.;Falticeanu, C.L.;Davies, G.J.;Jiang, K.C.
    • 한국분말야금학회:학술대회논문집
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    • 한국분말야금학회 2006년도 Extended Abstracts of 2006 POWDER METALLURGY World Congress Part2
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    • pp.722-723
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    • 2006
  • A new method has been developed to fabricate microcomponents by a combination of photolithography and sintering of metallic powder mixtures, without the need for compression and the addition of Mg. This involves (1) the fabrication of a micromould, (2) mould filling of the powder/binder mixture, (3) debinding and (3) sintering. The starting powdered materials consisted of a mixture of aluminium powder(average size of 2.5 um) and alloying elemental powder of Cu and Sn(less than 70nm), at appropriate proportions to achieve nominal compositions of Al-6wt%Cu, Al-6wt%Cu-3wt%Sn. This paper presents detailed investigation of debinding behaviour and microstructural development.

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Making Alumina Microcomponents from Al Powder

  • Kim, J.S.;Jiang, K.;Falticeanu, L.;Daviesd, G.J.;Chang, I.
    • 한국분말야금학회:학술대회논문집
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    • 한국분말야금학회 2006년도 Extended Abstracts of 2006 POWDER METALLURGY World Congress Part2
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    • pp.864-865
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    • 2006
  • Alumina microcomponents have distinguishing advantages over Si counterpart. However, the shrinkage of alumina, as high as 20%, makes it difficult to produce precision components meeting a high tolerance. A new fabrication process presented to greatly reduce the shrinkage by producing alumina microcomponents from ultrafine Al powder. The process consists of forming Al powder components through sintering and turning the Al powder component into alumina. In this way, the shrinkage occurring in sintering the Al powder component will be compensated by the expansion appearing when the Al powder component turns into alumina. The process has proven successful.

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Korean Red Ginseng aqueous extract improves markers of mucociliary clearance by stimulating chloride secretion

  • Cho, Do-Yeon;Skinner, Daniel;Zhang, Shaoyan;Lazrak, Ahmed;Lim, Dong Jin;Weeks, Christopher G.;Banks, Catherine G.;Han, Chang Kyun;Kim, Si-Kwan;Tearney, Guillermo J.;Matalon, Sadis;Rowe, Steven M.;Woodworth, Bradford A.
    • Journal of Ginseng Research
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    • 제45권1호
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    • pp.66-74
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    • 2021
  • Background: Abnormal chloride (Cl-) transport has a detrimental impact on mucociliary clearance in both cystic fibrosis (CF) and non-CF chronic rhinosinusitis. Ginseng is a medicinal plant noted to have anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial properties. The present study aims to assess the capability of red ginseng aqueous extract (RGAE) to promote transepithelial Cl- secretion in nasal epithelium. Methods: Primary murine nasal septal epithelial (MNSE) [wild-type (WT) and transgenic CFTR-/-], fisher-rat-thyroid (FRT) cells expressing human WT CFTR, and TMEM16A-expressing human embryonic kidney cultures were utilized for the present experiments. Ciliary beat frequency (CBF) and airway surface liquid (ASL) depth measurements were performed using micro-optical coherence tomography (μOCT). Mechanisms underlying transepithelial Cl- transport were determined using pharmacologic manipulation in Ussing chambers and whole-cell patch clamp analysis. Results: RGAE (at 30㎍/mL of ginsenosides) significantly increased Cl- transport [measured as change in short-circuit current (ΔISC = ㎂/㎠)] when compared with control in WT and CFTR-/- MNSE (WT vs control = 49.8±2.6 vs 0.1+/-0.2, CFTR-/- = 33.5±1.5 vs 0.2±0.3, p < 0.0001). In FRT cells, the CFTR-mediated ΔISC attributed to RGAE was small (6.8 ± 2.5 vs control, 0.03 ± 0.01, p < 0.05). In patch clamp, TMEM16A-mediated currents were markedly improved with co-administration of RGAE and uridine 5-triphosphate (8406.3 +/- 807.7 pA) over uridine 5-triphosphate (3524.1 +/- 292.4 pA) or RGAE alone (465.2 +/- 90.7 pA) (p < 0.0001). ASL and CBF were significantly greater with RGAE (6.2+/-0.3 ㎛ vs control, 3.9+/-0.09 ㎛; 10.4+/-0.3 Hz vs control, 7.3 ± 0.2 Hz; p < 0.0001) in MNSE. Conclusion: RGAE augments ASL depth and CBF by stimulating Cl- secretion through CaCC, which suggests therapeutic potential in both CF and non-CF chronic rhinosinusitis.

Three-Dimensional Microstructural Modelling of Wear, Crack Initiation and Growth in Rail Steel

  • Fletcher, D.I.;Franklin, F.J.;Garnham, J.E.;Muyupa, E.;Papaelias, M.;Davis, C.L.;Kapoor, A.;Widiyarta, M.;Vasic, G.
    • International Journal of Railway
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    • 제1권3호
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    • pp.106-112
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    • 2008
  • Rolling-sliding, cyclic contact of wheel and rail progressively alters the microstructure of the contacting steels, eventually leading to micro-scale crack initiation, wear and macro-scale crack growth in the railhead. Relating the microstructural changes to subsequent wear and cracking is being accomplished through modelling at three spatial scales: (i) bulk material (ii) multi-grain and (iii) sub-grain. The models incorporate detailed information from metallurgical examinations of used rails and tested rail material. The initial 2-dimensional models representing the rail material are being further developed into 3-dimensional models. Modelling is taking account of thermal effects, and traffic patterns to which the rails are exposed.

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