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Gaurav Arora

Publications and source records attributed to Gaurav Arora.

8 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2007

Molecular basis for calcium signaling in hepatic stellate cells.

Progressive liver fibrosis (with the resultant cirrhosis) is the primary cause of chronic liver failure. Hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) are critically important mediators of liver fibrosis. In the healthy liver, HSCs are quiescent lipid-storing cells limited to the perisinusoidal endothelium. However, in the injured liver, HSCs undergo myofibroblastic transdifferentiation (activation), which is a critical step in the development of organ fibrosis. HSCs express P2Y receptors linking extracellular ATP to inositol (1,4,5)-trisphosphate-mediated cytosolic Ca(2+) signals. Here, we report that HSCs express only the type I inositol (1,4,5)-trisphosphate receptor and that the receptor shifts into the nucleus and cell extensions upon activation. These cell extensions, furthermore, express sufficient machinery to enable local application of ATP to evoke highly localized Ca(2+) signals that induce localized contractions. These autonomous units of subcellular signaling and response reveal a new level of subcellular organization, which, in turn, establishes a novel paradigm for the local control of fibrogenesis in the liver.

Active Transport, Cell Nucleus↗
PubMed2006

Mass transport of O2 and N2 in nanoporous carbon (C168 schwarzite) using a quantum mechanical force field and molecular dynamics simulations.

A hierarchical approach is used to calculate the single-component fluxes of N2 and O2 in nanoporous carbon molecular sieves (represented by C168 schwarzite) over a wide range of pressures and pressure drops. The self- and corrected diffusivities are calculated using equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations with force fields for the gas-carbon interactions obtained from quantum mechanical calculations. These results are combined with previously reported adsorption isotherms of N2 and O2 in C168 to obtain transport diffusivities and, by use of the Fick's equation of mass transport, to obtain single-component fluxes across the membrane. The diffusion coefficients and fluxes are also calculated using an empirical potential, which has been obtained by fitting low coverage adsorption data of N2 and O2 on a planar graphite sheet. By analyzing the diffusivities calculated with the ab initio potential in the limit of infinite dilution over the temperature range from 80 to 450 K, it is observed that the N2/O2 separation is energetically driven and a high selectivity of O2 over N2 can be obtained at low temperatures. However, with the empirical potential both the energetic and entropic contributions to selectivity were found to be close to unity. Similarly, by calculating single-component fluxes and ideal selectivities at 300 K and finite pressures it is found that the ab initio potential better explains the large O2/N2 selectivities of similarly sized molecules that have been observed experimentally. An interesting reversal in ideal selectivity is observed by adjusting the pressure at the two ends of the membrane. As a consequence, we predict that a highly selective kinetic separation in favor of either nitrogen or oxygen could be obtained with the same membrane depending on the operating conditions.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2006

Air separation by single wall carbon nanotubes: Mass transport and kinetic selectivity.

Mass transport of pure nitrogen, pure oxygen, and their mixture (air) has been studied at 100 K in a single wall carbon nanotube of 12.53 A diameter. Phenomenological coefficients, and self- and corrected diffusivities are calculated using molecular-dynamics simulations, and transport diffusivities are obtained by combining these results with thermodynamic factors obtained from previous grand canonical Monte Carlo simulations [G. Arora and S. I. Sandler, J. Chem. Phys. 123, 044705 (2005)]. For mixtures, cross-term diffusion coefficients are found to be of similar order of magnitude as main-term diffusion coefficients over the entire range of pressure studied. These results are then combined with a continuum description of mass transport to determine the ideal and kinetic separation factors for a nanotube membrane. High permeances are observed for both pure components and the mixture inside the nanotubes. The concentration profiles, diffusivity profiles, and membrane fluxes are calculated, and it is demonstrated that by carefully adjusting the upstream and downstream pressures, a good kinetic selectivity can be achieved for air separation using single wall carbon nanotubes.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2005

A comparative study of nitrogen physisorption on different C70 crystal structures using an ab initio based potential.

Quantum mechanical calculations are performed using the recently developed hybrid method for interaction energies to determine atom site Lennard-Jones potential parameters for the interactions of molecular nitrogen with C(70) molecules. This ab initio based potential is used in grand canonical Monte Carlo simulations to predict surface adsorption properties of N(2) on five known C(70) structures: rhombohedral, fcc, ideal hcp, deformed hcp, and monoclinic crystals. Because of the presence of five-membered carbon rings and the surface curvature of C(70) molecule, the Lennard-Jones potential parameters for nitrogen-carbon interactions obtained from ab initio based calculations are found to be different from that with planar graphite. The simulation results obtained from these two sets of force fields are compared and shown to differ, particularly at low coverage, where the nitrogen-carbon interactions are more important than the nitrogen-nitrogen interactions. The surface area, monolayer capacity, and isosteric heat of adsorption are calculated for various C(70) crystals and found to change appreciably as a result of the shear-induced phase transformation from hcp to rhombohedral lattice.

Crystallography, X-Ray↗
PubMed2005

Air separation by single wall carbon nanotubes: thermodynamics and adsorptive selectivity.

Separation of a nitrogen-oxygen mixture (air) by single wall carbon nanotubes has been studied using grand canonical Monte Carlo simulations at a range of nanotube diameters, temperatures, and pressures. It is demonstrated that depending on these operating parameters, the extent of adsorptive selectivity can vary significantly. Detailed calculations are also presented for the adsorption isotherms, energies, and isosteric heats of pure nitrogen, oxygen, and their mixture at 100 K in a carbon nanotube of 12.53-A diameter. In single-component simulations, it is found that near saturation loading nitrogen forms only an annular layer close to the nanotube wall, while smaller-sized oxygen also occupies the region near the center of the nanotube. In mixture adsorption, the energetically favored nitrogen is preferentially adsorbed at low loadings. However, at high loadings oxygen replaces nitrogen due to the dominant entropic effects, and therefore a high selectivity towards oxygen is observed close to the saturation loading. The effect of the entropic change on mixture adsorption is evident from the calculated isosteric heats of adsorption. The mixture isotherms obtained from simulations are found to be in good agreement with the predictions based only on the pure component simulation results.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2004

Adsorption and diffusion of molecular nitrogen in single wall carbon nanotubes.

Using molecular simulation, the adsorption and self-diffusion of diatomic nitrogen molecules inside a single wall carbon nanotube have been studied over a range of nanotube diameters (8.61-15.66 A) and loadings at temperatures of 100 and 298 K. Nitrogen adsorption energy is found to increase as the nanotube diameter is reduced toward the molecular diameter of nitrogen. A discrete organization of the nitrogen into adsorbed layers is observed at high loadings that follows a regular progression determined primarily by geometric considerations. The formation of an adsorbate core at the center of the nanotube is found to increase the self-diffusion of nitrogen. A "wormlike" phase is found for the adsorbed nitrogen in the (15, 0) carbon nanotube at high loadings and at 100 K.

Adsorption↗