Abstract

Painful diabetic neuropathy is a disease of the peripheral sensory neuron with impaired opioid responsiveness. Since μ-opioid receptor (MOR) activation can inhibit the transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) activity in peripherally sensory neurons, this study investigated the mechanisms of impaired opioid inhibitory effects on capsaicin-induced TRPV1 activity in painful diabetic neuropathy. Intravenous injection of streptozotocin (STZ, 45 mg/kg) in Wistar rats led to a degeneration of insulin producing pancreatic β-cells, elevated blood glucose, and mechanical hypersensitivity (allodynia). In these animals, local morphine's inhibitory effects on capsaicin-induced nocifensive behavior as well as on capsaicin-induced TRPV1 current in dorsal root ganglion cells were significantly impaired. These changes were associated with a loss in MOR but not TRPV1 in peripheral sensory neurons. Intrathecal delivery of nerve growth factor in diabetic animals normalized sensory neuron MOR and subsequently rescued morphine's inhibitory effects on capsaicin-induced TRPV1 activity in vivo and in vitro. These findings identify a loss in functional MOR on sensory neurons as a contributing factor for the impaired opioid inhibitory effects on capsaicin-induced TRPV1 activity during advanced STZ-induced diabetes. Moreover, they support growing evidence of a distinct regulation of opioid responsiveness during various painful states of disease (e.g. arthritis, cancer, neuropathy) and may give novel therapeutic incentives.

Using a generalized derivative operator, we introduce and study a new class of harmonic univalent functions. In the present paper, we investigate some results for functions f belong to this class which include the necessary and sufficient coefficient bounds. Growth bounds and a closure property are also obtained.

Motivated by generalized derivative operator defined by the authors (El-Yagubi and Darus, 2013) and the technique of differential subordination, several interesting properties of the operator are given.

Melt electrospinning, a technique that has gained increasing attention since it easily can generate continuous ultrafine fibers directly from polymer melts without the use of any solvent. Therefore, it is considered as a safe, cost effective, and environmental friendly technique. However, with all those great advantages, the technique still suffers some drawbacks such as: large fiber diameter and low throughput. The hot air assisted melt differential electrospinning (MDES) is a new technique invented by our research team that can solve or eliminate those drawbacks. The most important features of our used apparatus are: Needleless nozzle that could generate multiple Taylor cones around the bottom edge of the nozzle, which can result in a high throughput. The stretching force acting on the jets can be further strengthened by an air current provided by an air pressure gun. Interference between the high voltage supply …

The aim of this paper is to introduce a new class of analytic functions in the unit disk, with negative coefficients, via a new generalized derivative operator. We prove coecient inequalities for the new class of functions and for a subclass of it, as well as distortion theorems for functions in this subclass and for their derivatives. We determine the extreme points of the newly introduced subclass.

Abstract:

The basic physical and mechanical properties of Libyan soil are analyzed through some experiments, including direct shear test, grading analysis test and compression test. According to the test results, the soil is named as low liquid limit silt featured by weak strength, high compressibility and permeability, which directly influences sub-grade stability, durability and pavement’s usability. In order to solve these problems, measures are discussed from two aspects, namely, soil improvement and construction method. The strength of the soil is apparently increased by the cement and lime adding, and the compressibility is decreased at the same time. And the rising height of capillary water reducing and protection forms for silt soil slope are also proved to be effective in the subgrade construction

Solventless melt electrospinning which allows mass production is substantially safe. It can produce fibres of hundreds of nanometres, one order of magnitude lower than that of conventional melt-blown spinning. In this paper, a comparison between different technologies producing ultra-fine fibre reveals the advancement of melt electrospinning method using umbellate spinneret for ultra-fine fibre mass production. Some typical industrial polymer materials was also spun using melt electrospinng method, including biodegradable materials like polylactic acid and polycaprolactone (PCL), which may contribute to some interesting applications. In addition, a machine for mass production is also proposed. Finally, proposition of the industrialisation of ultra-fine fibre by melt electrospinning is discussed.

Libya as many other regions under arid climates suffers from inadequate water resources to cover all the needs of this rapidly developing country. Increasing water amounts for population supply, agricultural irrigation and use for industry are needed. As groundwater is the main water source in the country it represents a natural resource of the highest economic and social importance. FEFLOW numerical model was implemented in a regional scale to show how the natural situation has been changed after heavy groundwater abstraction having occurred in the last decades in the northwestern part of Libya. Results of the numerical model indicated that the current zones of depression in piezometric surface could have been caused by smaller withdrawn amounts than previously estimated. Indicated differences in assessed withdrawn groundwater volumes seem to be quite high and might influence considerably the future possibilities of groundwater use in the study.

Keywords

Jifarah plain, groundwater, Coastal aquifer, Stalinization, FEFLOW model