Improvement of the Heat-Dissipating Performance of Powder Coating with Graphene.

In this study, the epoxy powder was blended with graphene to improve its thermal conductivity and heat dissipation efficiency. The thermal conductivity of the graphene-loaded coating was increased by 167 folds. In addition, the emissivity of the graphene-loaded coating was 0.88. The epoxy powder was further coated on aluminum plate through powder coating process in order to study the effect on the performance of heat dissipation. In the case of natural convective heat transfer, the surface temperature of the graphene-loaded coated aluminum plate was 96.7 °C, which was 27.4 °C lower than that of bare aluminum plate (124.1 °C) at a heat flux of 16 W. In the case of forced convective heat transfer, the surface temperature decreased from 77.8 and 68.3 °C for a heat flux of 16 W. The decrease in temperature can be attributed to the thermal radiation. These results show that the addition of graphene nanoparticles in the coating can increase the emissivity of the aluminum plate and thus improving the heat dissipation.

Increased ALZ-50 immunoreactivity in CSF of pseudotumor cerebri patients.

Pseudotumor cerebri (PTC) is characterized by increased intracranial pressure and papilledema without a mass lesion. PTC predominantly affects obese women. Currently, the pathogenesis of PTC is obscure. Since cytoskeletal abnormalities are found in many neurodegenerative diseases, we hypothesized that some cytoskeletal protein might be involved in the pathophysiology of PTC. Western blotting with specific antibody probes was employed to evaluate ALZ-50 immunoreactive protein, cytoskeletal microtubule-associated protein (MAP), and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples from 8 PTC patients and 6 controls. Immunoblotting of ALZ-50 in CSF revealed intense staining of 50 kDa protein bands in 7 of 8 PTC patients, while weak staining was found in 4 of 6 controls. Moderate staining of ALZ-50 was seen in 1 of 8 PTC patients and in 2 of 6 controls. CSF blots with anti-ALZ-50 antibody also showed intense staining of a 65 kDa protein band in 3 of the 8 patients but in none of the controls. In anti-MAP CSF blots of the PTC patients and controls, weak staining of the MAP 60 kDa and 50 kDa protein bands was observed. Weak staining of 60 kDa bands was also observed in anti-GFAP CSF blots of all PTC patients and controls. In CSF blots reacted with anti-GFAP antibody, 65 kDa and 32 kDa bands were evident in some PTC patients, but in none of the controls. This study indicates that ALZ-50 immunoreactivity is elevated in CSF of PTC patients. The ALZ-50 immunoreactive protein, either normal tau protein or its phosphorylated variant, may be useful as a biomarker for the diagnosis of PTC. Since the ALZ-50 monoclonal antibody was generated against brain homogenate from Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients, this study suggests a possible link between PTC and AD.