A low-cost mouse cage warming system provides improved intra-ischemic and post-ischemic body temperature control – application for reducing variability in experimental stroke studies

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sung-Ha Hong ◽  
Jeong-Ho Hong ◽  
Matthew T. Lahey ◽  
Liang Zhu ◽  
Jessica M. Stephenson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Body Temperature ◽  
Temperature Control ◽  
Support System ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Ambient Air ◽  
Experimental Stroke ◽  
List Type ◽  
Precise Control ◽  
Post Stroke ◽  
Ischemic Period

AbstractExperimental guidelines have been proposed to improve the rigor and reproducibility of experimental stroke studies in rodents. As brain temperature is a strong determinant of ischemic injury, tight management of brain or body temperature (Tcore) during the experimental protocol is highly recommended. However, little guidance is provided regarding how or for how long temperature support should be provided. We compared a commonly used heat support method (cage on heating pad) with a low-cost custom built warm ambient air cage (WAAC) system. Both heat support systems were evaluated for the middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAo) model in mice. The WAAC system provided improved temperature control (more normothermic Tcore and less Tcore variation) during the intra-ischemic period (60 min) and post-ischemic period (3 hrs). Neurologic deficit score showed significantly less variance at post-stroke day 1 (PSD1) in WAAC system mice. Mean infarct volume was not statistically different by heat support system, however, standard deviation was 54% lower in the WAAC system group. In summary, we provide a simple low-cost heat support system that provides superior Tcore management in mice during the intra-ischemic and post-ischemic periods, which results in reduced variability of experimental outcomes.HighlightsWe describe the fabrication of a low-cost mouse cage warming system (warmed ambient air cage; WAAC system) that can be assembled and applied in any stroke laboratory.The WAAC system provides more precise control of post-stroke mouse body temperature compared with traditional heating pad warming system.The more precise control of post-stroke core temperature reduces variability in some experimental measures in more severely injured mice.

scholarly journals Experimental Stroke Induces Chronic Gut Dysbiosis and Neuroinflammation in Male Mice

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allison L. Brichacek ◽  
Divine C. Nwafor ◽  
Stanley A. Benkovic ◽  
Sreeparna Chakraborty ◽  
Sophia M. Kenney ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ischemic Stroke ◽  
Immune Cell ◽  
Intestinal Inflammation ◽  
Experimental Stroke ◽  
List Type ◽  
Study Objective ◽  
Post Stroke ◽  
Gut Dysbiosis ◽  
Intestinal Pathology ◽  
Chronic Intestinal Inflammation

AbstractRecent literature implicates gut epithelia mucosa and intestinal microbiota as important players in post-stroke morbidity and mortality. As most studies have focused on the acute effects of stroke on gut dysbiosis, our study objective was to measure chronic, longitudinal changes in the gut microbiota and intestinal pathology following ischemic stroke. We hypothesized that mice with experimental ischemic stroke would exhibit chronic gut dysbiosis and intestinal pathology up to 36 days post-stroke compared to sham controls. Male C57BL/6J mice were subjected to 60 minutes of transient middle cerebral artery occlusion (tMCAO) or sham surgery. To determine the long-term effects of tMCAO on gut dysbiosis, fecal boli were collected pre- and post-tMCAO on days 0, 3, 14, and 28. Bioinformatics analysis demonstrate significant differences in abundance among Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes taxa at the phylum, family, and species levels in tMCAO compared to sham mice that persisted up to one month post-stroke. The most persistent changes in post-stroke microbial abundance were a decrease in bacteria family S24-7 and significant increases in Ruminococcaceae. Overall, these changes resulted in a persistently increased Firmicutes:Bacteroidetes ratio in stroke animals. Intestinal histopathology showed evidence of chronic intestinal inflammation that included marked increases in immune cell infiltration with mild-moderate epithelial hyperplasia and villous blunting. Increased astrocyte and microglial activity were also detected one-month post-stroke. These results demonstrate that acute, post-stroke disruption of the gut-brain-microbiota axis progresses to chronic gut dysbiosis, intestinal inflammation, and chronic neuroinflammation.Clinical PerspectivesThe microbiota-gut-brain axis, recently implicated in several neurological disorders, remains largely unexplored at chronic time points post-tMCAO.Our results demonstrate chronic gut dysbiosis, prolonged behavioral deficits, and persistent cerebral and intestinal inflammation post-tMCAO in male C57BL/6J mice.These results suggest that manipulation of microbiota may help reduce poor outcomes after stroke and lead to improved post-stroke functional recovery.

Biophysical constraints on the thermal ecology of dinosaurs

Paleobiology ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 341-368 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael P. O'Connor ◽  
Peter Dodson
Keyword(s):  
Blood Flow ◽  
Body Temperature ◽  
Metabolic Rate ◽  
The Body ◽  
Behavioral Thermoregulation ◽  
Seasonal Adjustment ◽  
List Type ◽  
Metabolic Rates ◽  
Body Temperatures ◽  
Precise Control

A physical, model-based approach to body temperatures in dinosaurs allows us to predict what ranges of body temperatures and what thermoregulatory strategies were available to those dinosaurs. We argue that 1.The huge range of body sizes in the dinosaurs likely resulted in very different thermal problems and strategies for animals at either end of this size continuum.2.Body temperatures of the smallest adult dinosaurs and of hatchlings and small juveniles would have been largely insensitive to metabolic rates in the absence of insulation. The smallest animals in which metabolic heating resulted in predicted body temperatures ≥ 2°C above operative temperatures (Te) weigh 10 kg. Body temperature would respond rapidly enough to changes in Te to make behavioral thermoregulation possible.3.Body temperatures of large dinosaurs (>1000 kg) likely were sensitive to both metabolic rate and the delivery of heat to the body surface by blood flow. Our model suggests that they could adjust body temperature by adjusting metabolic rate and blood flow. Behavioral thermoregulation by changing microhabitat selection would likely have been of limited utility because body temperatures would have responded only slowly to changes in Te.4.Endothermic metabolic rates may have put large dinosaurs at risk for overheating unless they had adaptations to shed the heat as necessary. This would have been particularly true for dinosaurs with masses > 10,000 kg, but simulations suggest that for animals as small as 1000 kg in the Tropics and in temperate latitudes during the summer, steady-state body temperatures would have exceeded 40°C. Slow response of body temperatures to changes in Te suggests that use of day-night thermal differences would have buffered dinosaurs from diel warming but would not have lowered body temperatures sufficiently for animals experiencing high mean daily Te.5.Endothermic metabolism and metabolic heating might have been useful for intermediate and large-sized (100–3000 kg) dinosaurs but often in situations that demanded marked seasonal adjustment of metabolic rates and/or precise control of metabolism (and heat-loss mechanisms) as typically seen in endotherms.

scholarly journals Deployment, Calibration, and Cross-Validation of Low-Cost Electrochemical Sensors for Carbon Monoxide, Nitrogen Oxides, and Ozone for an Epidemiological Study

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (12) ◽  
pp. 4214
Author(s):  
Christopher Zuidema ◽  
Cooper S. Schumacher ◽  
Elena Austin ◽  
Graeme Carvlin ◽  
Timothy V. Larson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Monoxide ◽  
Exposure Assessment ◽  
Epidemiological Study ◽  
Electrochemical Sensors ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Puget Sound ◽  
Ambient Air ◽  
Ambient Air Pollution ◽  
Calibration Models ◽  
Study Participants

We designed and built a network of monitors for ambient air pollution equipped with low-cost gas sensors to be used to supplement regulatory agency monitoring for exposure assessment within a large epidemiological study. This paper describes the development of a series of hourly and daily field calibration models for Alphasense sensors for carbon monoxide (CO; CO-B4), nitric oxide (NO; NO-B4), nitrogen dioxide (NO2; NO2-B43F), and oxidizing gases (OX-B431)—which refers to ozone (O3) and NO2. The monitor network was deployed in the Puget Sound region of Washington, USA, from May 2017 to March 2019. Monitors were rotated throughout the region, including at two Puget Sound Clean Air Agency monitoring sites for calibration purposes, and over 100 residences, including the homes of epidemiological study participants, with the goal of improving long-term pollutant exposure predictions at participant locations. Calibration models improved when accounting for individual sensor performance, ambient temperature and humidity, and concentrations of co-pollutants as measured by other low-cost sensors in the monitors. Predictions from the final daily models for CO and NO performed the best considering agreement with regulatory monitors in cross-validated root-mean-square error (RMSE) and R2 measures (CO: RMSE = 18 ppb, R2 = 0.97; NO: RMSE = 2 ppb, R2 = 0.97). Performance measures for NO2 and O3 were somewhat lower (NO2: RMSE = 3 ppb, R2 = 0.79; O3: RMSE = 4 ppb, R2 = 0.81). These high levels of calibration performance add confidence that low-cost sensor measurements collected at the homes of epidemiological study participants can be integrated into spatiotemporal models of pollutant concentrations, improving exposure assessment for epidemiological inference.

scholarly journals Room-Temperature Solution-Processed 0D/1D Bilayer Electrodes for Translucent CsPbBr3 Perovskite Photovoltaics

Nanomaterials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 1489
Author(s):  
Bhaskar Parida ◽  
Saemon Yoon ◽  
Dong-Won Kang
Keyword(s):  
Solar Cells ◽  
Indium Tin Oxide ◽  
High Performance ◽  
Room Temperature ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Perovskite Solar Cells ◽  
Ambient Air ◽  
Plasma Damage ◽  
Temperature Solution ◽  
Ito Nanoparticles

Materials and processing of transparent electrodes (TEs) are key factors to creating high-performance translucent perovskite solar cells. To date, sputtered indium tin oxide (ITO) has been a general option for a rear TE of translucent solar cells. However, it requires a rather high cost due to vacuum process and also typically causes plasma damage to the underlying layer. Therefore, we introduced TE based on ITO nanoparticles (ITO-NPs) by solution processing in ambient air without any heat treatment. As it reveals insufficient conductivity, Ag nanowires (Ag-NWs) are additionally coated. The ITO-NPs/Ag-NW (0D/1D) bilayer TE exhibits a better figure of merit than sputtered ITO. After constructing CsPbBr3 perovskite solar cells, the device with 0D/1D TE offers similar average visible transmission with the cells with sputtered ITO. More interestingly, the power conversion efficiency of 0D/1D TE device was 5.64%, which outperforms the cell (4.14%) made with sputtered-ITO. These impressive findings could open up a new pathway for the development of low-cost, translucent solar cells with quick processing under ambient air at room temperature.

Desaturation of exhaled air in camels

1981 ◽  
Vol 211 (1184) ◽  
pp. 305-319 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Drinking Water ◽  
Heat Exchange ◽  
Body Temperature ◽  
Water Vapour ◽  
Mechanical Model ◽  
Ambient Air ◽  
Body Core Temperature ◽  
Hygroscopic Properties ◽  
Exhaled Air ◽  
Body Core

We have found that camels can reduce the water loss due to evaporation from the respiratory tract in two ways: (1) by decreasing the temperature of the exhaled air and (2) by removal of water vapour from this air, resulting in the exhalation of air at less than 100% relative humidity (r. h.). Camels were kept under desert conditions and deprived of drinking water. In the daytime the exhaled air was at or near body core temperature, while in the cooler night exhaled air was at or near ambient air temperature. In the daytime the exhaled air was fully saturated, but at night its humidity might fall to approximately 75% r. h. The combination of cooling and desaturation can provide a saving of water of 60% relative to exhalation of saturated air at body temperature. The mechanism responsible for cooling of the exhaled air is a simple heat exchange between the respiratory air and the surfaces of the nasal passageways. On inhalation these surfaces are cooled by the air passing over them, and on exhalation heat from the exhaled air is given off to these cooler surfaces. The mechanism responsible for desaturation of the air appears to depend on the hygroscopic properties of the nasal surfaces when the camel is dehydrated. The surfaces give off water vapour during inhalation and take up water from the respiratory air during exhalation. We have used a simple mechanical model to demonstrate the effectiveness of this mechanism.

Facile preparation of smooth perovskite films for efficient meso/planar hybrid structured perovskite solar cells

2015 ◽  
Vol 51 (49) ◽  
pp. 10038-10041 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meng Zhang ◽  
Hua Yu ◽  
Jung-Ho Yun ◽  
Miaoqiang Lyu ◽  
Qiong Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Solar Cells ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Perovskite Solar Cells ◽  
Ambient Air ◽  
Drying Method ◽  
Facile Preparation ◽  
Halide Perovskite ◽  
Organolead Halide

Smooth organolead halide perovskite films were prepared by a facile blow-drying method in ambient air for achieving efficient and low cost meso/planar hybrid structured perovskite solar cells.

Maintaining Low Exhaust Emissions With Turbocharged Gas Engines Using a Feedback Air–Fuel Ratio Control System

1987 ◽  
Vol 109 (4) ◽  
pp. 487-490 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. W. Eckard ◽  
J. V. Serve´
Keyword(s):  
Control System ◽  
Temperature Control ◽  
Exhaust Emissions ◽  
Ambient Conditions ◽  
Load Range ◽  
Heating Value ◽  
Gas Engine ◽  
Precise Control ◽  
Natural Gas Engine ◽  
Fuel Ratio

Maintaining low exhaust emissions on a turbocharged, natural gas engine through the speed and load range requires precise control of the air–fuel ratio. Changes in ambient conditions or fuel heating value will cause the air–fuel ratio to change substantially. By combining air–gas pressure with preturbine temperature control, the air–fuel ratio can be maintained regardless of changes in the ambient conditions or the fuel’s heating value. Design conditions and operating results are presented for an air–fuel controller for a turbocharged engine.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document