Technion – Israel Institute of Technology

About: Technion – Israel Institute of Technology is a education organization based out in Haifa, Israel. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Upper and lower bounds. The organization has 31714 authors who have published 79377 publications receiving 2603976 citations. The organization is also known as: Technion Israel Institute of Technology & Ṭekhniyon, Makhon ṭekhnologi le-Yiśraʼel.

Energy issues in desalination processes.

Abstract: Water, energy, and environmental issues are closely related. New water techniques consume energy, and innovative renewable energy techniques using biofuels and biodiesel consume an incredible amount of water. Different desalination techniques that consume different energy levels from different sources are in use today. Some people, environmentalists, decision makers, and even scientists, mainly in nonscientific publications, consider energy consumption in desalination to be too high and are seeking new ways of reducing it, which often involves increasing capital investment. Efforts should be directed at reducing not only energy consumption but also total water cost. A competent grasp of thermodynamics and heat and mass transfer theory, as well as a proper understanding of current desalination processes, is essential for ensuring beneficial improvements in desalination processes. Thermodynamics sets the absolute minimum limit of the work energy required to separate water from a salt solution. Unavoidable i...

The tumor suppressor p53 down-regulates glucose transporters GLUT1 and GLUT4 gene expression.

Abstract: Tumorigenesis is associated with enhanced cellular glucose uptake and increased metabolism Because the p53 tumor suppressor is mutated in a large number of cancers, we evaluated whether p53 regulates expression of the GLUT1 and GLUT4 glucose transporter genes Transient cotransfection of osteosarcoma-derived SaOS-2 cells, rhabdomyosarcoma-derived RD cells, and C2C12 myotubes with GLUT1-P-Luc or GLUT4-P-Luc promoter-reporter constructs and wild-type p53 expression vectors dose dependently decreased both GLUT1 and GLUT4 promoter activity to approximately 50% of their basal levels PG(13)-Luc activity, which was used as a positive control for functional p53 expression, was increased up to approximately 250-fold by coexpression of wild-type p53 The inhibitory effect of wild-type p53 was greatly reduced or abolished when cells were transfected with p53 with mutations in amino acids 143, 248, or 273 A region spanning -66/+163 bp of the GLUT4 promoter was both necessary and sufficient to mediate the inhibitory effects of p53 Furthermore, in vitro translated p53 protein was found to bind directly to two sequences in that region p53-DNA binding was completely abolished by excess unlabeled probe but not by nonspecific DNA and was super-shifted by the addition of an anti-p53 antibody Taken together, our data strongly suggest that wild-type p53 represses GLUT1 and GLUT4 gene transcription in a tissue-specific manner Mutations within the DNA-binding domain of p53, which are usually associated with malignancy, were found to impair the repressive effect of p53 on transcriptional activity of the GLUT1 and GLUT4 gene promoters, thereby resulting in increased glucose metabolism and cell energy supply This, in turn, would be predicted to facilitate tumor growth

Cholesterol Lowering in Intermediate-Risk Persons without Cardiovascular Disease

Abstract: BackgroundPrevious trials have shown that the use of statins to lower cholesterol reduces the risk of cardiovascular events among persons without cardiovascular disease. Those trials have involved persons with elevated lipid levels or inflammatory markers and involved mainly white persons. It is unclear whether the benefits of statins can be extended to an intermediate-risk, ethnically diverse population without cardiovascular disease. MethodsIn one comparison from a 2-by-2 factorial trial, we randomly assigned 12,705 participants in 21 countries who did not have cardiovascular disease and were at intermediate risk to receive rosuvastatin at a dose of 10 mg per day or placebo. The first coprimary outcome was the composite of death from cardiovascular causes, nonfatal myocardial infarction, or nonfatal stroke, and the second coprimary outcome additionally included revascularization, heart failure, and resuscitated cardiac arrest. The median follow-up was 5.6 years. ResultsThe overall mean low-density lipop...