Auger Spectra and Different Ionic Charges Following 3s, 3p and 3d Sub-Shells Photoionization of Kr Atoms

The decay of inner-shell vacancy in an atom through radiative and non-radiative transitions leads to final charged ions. The de-excitation decay of 3s, 3p and 3d vacancies in Kr atoms are calculated using Monte-Carlo simulation method. The vacancy cascade pathway resulted from the de-excitation decay of deep core hole in 3s subshell in Kr atoms is discussed. The generation of spectator vacancies during the vacancy cascade development gives rise to Auger satellite spectra. The last transitions of the de-excitation decay of 3s, 3p and 3d holes lead to specific charged ions. Dirac-Fock-Slater wave functions are adapted to calculate radiative and non-radiative transition probabilities. The intensity of Kr^{4+} ions are high for 3s hole state, whereas Kr^{3+} and Kr^{2+} ions have highest intensities for 3p and 3d hole states, respectively. The present results of ion charge state distributions agree well with the experimental data.Comment: Published in SIGMA (Symmetry, Integrability and Geometry: Methods and Applications) at http://www.emis.de/journals/SIGMA

Combinatorial strategies based on CRAd-IL24 and CRAd-ING4 virotherapy with anti-angiogenesis treatment for ovarian cancer

BACKGROUND: A major hurdle incurrent to the human clinical application of conditionally replicative adenovirus (CRAd)-based virotherapy agents is their limited therapeutic efficacy. In this study we evaluated whether arming our previously reported Ad5/3Δ24 CRAd vector containing a 24-base pair deletion in the E1A conserved region 2, which allows selective replication within Rb-p16-deficient tumor cells, to express therapeutic genes could improve oncolytic virus potency in ovarian cancer cells. We choose to assess the therapeutic benefits achieved by virus-mediated expression of interleukin 24 (IL-24), a cytokine-like protein of the IL-10 family, and the inhibitor of growth 4 (ING4) tumor suppressor protein. RESULTS: The generated CRAd-IL24 and CRAd-ING4 vectors were tested in ovarian cancer cell lines in vitro to compare their replication, yield, and cytotoxic effects with control CRAd Ad5/3∆24 lacking the therapeutic gene. These studies showed that CRAd-IL24 infection resulted in significantly increased yield of infectious particles, which translated to a marked enhancement of virus-induced cytotoxic effects as compared to CRAd-ING4 and non-armed CRAd. Testing CRAd-IL24 and CRAd-ING4 vectors combined together did not revealed synergistic effects exceeding oncolytic potency of single CRAD-IL24 vector. Both CRAds were also tested along with anti-VEGF monoclonal antibody Avastin and showed no significant augmentation of viral cytolysis by anti-angiogenesis treatment in vitro. CONCLUSIONS: Our studies validated that arming with these key immunomodulatory genes was not deleterious to virus-mediated oncolysis. These findings thus, warrant further preclinical studies of CRAd-IL24 tumoricidal efficacy in murine ovarian cancer models to establish its potential utility for the virotherapy of primary and advanced neoplastic diseases

Fractional Action Cosmology with Power Law Weight Function

Motivated by an earlier work on fractional-action cosmology with a periodic weight function [1], we extend it by choosing a power-law weight function in the action. In this approach, we obtain a varying gravitational coupling constant. We then model dark energy in this paradigm and obtain relevant cosmological parameters.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures, Contributed talk published in the proceedings of "3rd Italian-Pakistani Workshop on Relativistic Astrophysics

Ion charge state distributions following K-shell ionization in atoms

Ion charge state distributions and the mean charge state following K-shell ionization in atoms are calculated. The Monte Carlo method is applied to calculate the vacancy cascades after K-shell vacancy creation. The radiative and non-radiative transitions are calculated for singly ionized atoms. The transition rates for multi-ionized atoms are obtained using a statistical scaling procedure based on the transition probabilities for singly ionized atoms. The electron shake-off process due to the change of atomic potential, which occurs from core hole production and de-excitation decays, is considered in the calculation. The present results agree well with the available experimental values

Defining a murine ovarian cancer model for the evaluation of conditionally-replicative adenovirus (CRAd) virotherapy agents

Abstract Background Virotherapy represents a promising approach for ovarian cancer. In this regard, conditionally replicative adenovirus (CRAd) has been translated to the context of human clinical trials. Advanced design of CRAds has sought to exploit their capacity to induce anti-tumor immunization by configuring immunoregulatory molecule within the CRAd genome. Unfortunately, employed murine xenograft models do not allow full analysis of the immunologic activity linked to CRAd replication. Results We developed CRAds based on the Ad5/3-Delta24 design encoding cytokines. Whereas the encoded cytokines did not impact adversely CRAd-induced oncolysis in vitro, no gain in anti-tumor activity was noted in immune-incompetent murine models with human ovarian cancer xenografts. On this basis, we explored the potential utility of the murine syngeneic immunocompetent ID8 ovarian cancer model. Of note, the ID8 murine ovarian cancer cell lines exhibited CRAd-mediated cytolysis. The use of this model now enables the rational design of oncolytic agents to achieve anti-tumor immunotherapy. Conclusions Limits of widely employed murine xenograft models of ovarian cancer limit their utility for design and study of armed CRAd virotherapy agents. The ID8 model exhibited CRAd-induced oncolysis. This feature predicate its potential utility for the study of CRAd-based virotherapy agents