Covalent modification of protein by drugs may disrupt self-tolerance, leading to lymphocyte activation. Until now, determination of the threshold required for this process has not been possible. Therefore, we performed quantitative mass spectrometric analyses to define the epitopes formed in tolerant and hypersensitive patients taking the β-lactam antibiotic piperacillin and the threshold required for T cell activation. A hydrolyzed piperacillin hapten was detected on four lysine residues of human serum albumin (HSA) isolated from tolerant patients. The level of modified Lys541 ranged from 2.6 to 4.8%. Analysis of plasma from hypersensitive patients revealed the same pattern and levels of modification 1–10 d after the commencement of therapy. Piperacillin-responsive skin-homing CD4+ clones expressing an array of Vβ receptors were activated in a dose-, time-, and processing-dependent manner; analysis of incubation medium revealed that 2.6% of Lys541 in HSA was modified when T cells were activated. Piperacillin–HSA conjugates that had levels and epitopes identical to those detected in patients were shown to selectively stimulate additional CD4+ clones, which expressed a more restricted Vβ repertoire. To conclude, the levels of piperacillin–HSA modification that activated T cells are equivalent to the ones formed in hypersensitive and tolerant patients, which indicates that threshold levels of drug Ag are formed in all patients. Thus, the propensity to develop hypersensitivity is dependent on other factors, such as the presence of T cells within an individual’s repertoire that can be activated with the β-lactam hapten and/or an imbalance in immune regulation.
Tillage tools are subject to friction and low-stress abrasive wear processes with the potential deterioration of the desired soil quality, loss of mechanical weed efficacy, and downtime for replacing worn tools. Limited experimental methods exist to quantify investigate the effect of wear-resistant coatings on shape parameters of soil-engaging tools. ASTM standard sand/rubber wheel abrasion and pin-on-disk tests are not able to simulate wear characteristics of the complex shape of the tillage tools. Even though the tribology of tillage tools can be realistic from field tests, tillage wear tests under field conditions are expensive and often challenging to generate repeatable engineeri
Traffic management at road intersections is a complex requirement that has been an important topic of research and discussion. Solutions have been primarily focused on using vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs). Key issues in VANETs are high mobility, restriction of road setup, frequent topology variations, failed network links, and timely communication of data, which make the routing of packets to a particular destination problematic. To address these issues, a new dependable routing algorithm is proposed, which utilizes a wireless communication system between vehicles in urban vehicular networks. This routing is position-based, known as the maximum distance on-demand routing algorithm (MDORA). It aims to find an optimal route on a hop-by-ho
... Show MoreIn this research, CNRs have been synthesized using pyrolysis of plastic waste(pp) at 1000 ° C for one hour in a closed reactor made from stainless steel, using magnesium oxide (MgO) as a catalyst. The resultant carbon nano rods were purified and characterized using energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD). The surface characteristics of carbon rods were observed with the Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM). The carbon was evenly spread and had the highest concentration from SEM-EDX characterization. The results of XRD and FESEM have shown that carbon Nano rods (CNRs) were present in Nano figures, synthesized at 1000 ° C and with pyrolysis temperature 400° C. One of t
... Show MoreFluidization process is widely used by a great assortment of industries worldwide and represents a trillion dollar industry [6]. They are currently used in separation, classification, drying and mixing of particles, chemical reactions and regeneration processes; one of these processes is the mass transfer from an immersed surface to a gas fluidized bed
<span lang="EN-US">Proper employment of Hybrid Wind/ PV system is often implemented near the load, and it is linked with the grid to study dynamic stability analysis. Generally, instability is because of sudden load demand variant and variant in renewable sources generation. As well as, weather variation creates several factors that affect the operation of the integrated hybrid system. So this paper introduces output result of a PV /wind via power electronic technique; DC chopper; that is linked to Iraqi power system to promote the facilitating achievement of Wind/ PV voltage. Moreover, PSS/E is used to study dynamic power stability for hybrid system which is attached to an effective region of Iraqi Network. The hybrid system
... Show MoreThe catalytic cracking of three feeds of extract lubricating oil, that produced as a by-product from the process of furfural extraction of lubricating oil base stock in AL-Dura refinery at different operating condition, were carried out at a fixed bed laboratory reactor. The initial boiling point for these feeds was 140 ºC for sample (1), 86 ºC for sample (2) and 80 ºC for sample (3). The catalytic cracking processes were carried out at temperature range 325-400 ºC and initially at atmospheric pressure after 30 minutes over 9.88 % HY-zeolite catalyst load. The comparison between the conversion at different operating conditions of catalytic cracking processes indicates that a high yield was obtained at 375°C, according to gasoline pr
... Show MoreMass transfer has been studied at rotating cylinder electrodes fabricated with spiral-wound woven-wire meshes using reduction of copper as a test reaction. The experimental data were correlated by an empirical expression between the Sherwood number and the Reynolds number, both regarding the hydraulic diameter as a characteristic length. It was found that the Sherwood number was dependent upon the Reynolds number to the power of 0.521. An enhancement factor was adopted to compare the efficiency of the new rotating cylinder electrode with previous three-dimensional rotating cylinder electrodes. The results showed that the new type has a mass-transfer enhancement factor 2.3 times higher than those obtained with smooth rotating cylinder electr
... Show More