Immunofunctional assay of human growth hormone (hGH) in serum: A possible consensus for quantitative hGH measurement

Confirmation of the diagnosis of GH deficiency in adults and children involves provocative testing for human (h) GH. Different commercially available immunoassays yield largely discrepant results in the measurement of GH levels in human serum. These discrepancies result in doubtful relevance of cut-off levels proposed for GH provocative testing. We have developed an immunofunctional assay method that allows quantitation of only those GH forms in circulation that possess both binding sites of the hormone for its receptor and thus can initiate a biological signal in target cells. An anti-hGH monoclonal antibody recognizing binding site 2 of hGH is immobilized and used to capture hGH from the serum sample. Biotin-labeled recombinant GH-binding protein in a second incubation step forms a complex with those hGH molecular isoforms that have both binding sites for the receptor. The signal is detected after a short third incubation step with labeled streptavidin. The assay is sensitive (detection range, 0.1-100 micrograms/L) and has average inter- and intraassay precisions of 10.3% and 7.3% respectively. Endogenous GH-binding protein does not interfere with the hGH result; placental lactogen slows no detectable cross-reaction in this immunofunctional assay. The degree of immunofunctionally active hGH forms in serum samples, calculated by comparison of immunofunctional assay and RIA results, varied between 52-93%. We propose this immunofunctional assay for GH measurement as a new reference method for hGH quantitation in serum. The immunofunction assay translates only hGH forms into an assay signal that are capable of dimerizing GH receptors and, thus, of initiating a biological effect in target cells

Space Charge Limited Transport and Time of Flight Measurements in Tetracene Single Crystals: a Comparative Study

We report on a systematic study of electronic transport in tetracene single crystals by means of space charge limited current spectroscopy and time of flight measurements. Both $I$-$V$ and time of flight measurements show that the room-temperature effective hole-mobility reaches values close to $\mu \simeq 1$ cm$^2$/Vs and show that, within a range of temperatures, the mobility increases with decreasing temperature. The experimental results further allow the characterization of different aspects of the tetracene crystals. In particular, the effects of both deep and shallow traps are clearly visible and can be used to estimate their densities and characteristic energies. The results presented in this paper show that the combination of $I$-$V$ measurements and time of flight spectroscopy is very effective in characterizing several different aspects of electronic transport through organic crystals.Comment: Accepted by J. Appl. Phys.; tentatively scheduled for publication in the January 15, 2004 issue; minor revisions compared to previous cond-mat versio

Electronic polarization at surfaces and thin films of organic molecular crystals: PTCDA

The electronic polarization energies, P = (P+) + (P-), of a PTCDA (perylenetetracarboxylic acid dianhydride) cation and anion in a crystalline thin film on a metallic substrate are computed and compared with measurements of the PTCDA transport gap on gold and silver. Both experiments and theory show that P is 500 meV larger in a PTCDA monolayer than in 50 A films. Electronic polarization in systems with surfaces and interfaces are obtained self-consistently in terms of charge redistribution within molecules.Comment: 5 pages, 4 postscript figures embedde

On the existence of star products on quotient spaces of linear Hamiltonian torus actions

We discuss BFV deformation quantization of singular symplectic quotient spaces in the special case of linear Hamiltonian torus actions. In particular, we show that the Koszul complex on the moment map of an effective linear Hamiltonian torus action is acyclic. We rephrase the nonpositivity condition of Arms, Gotay and Jennings for linear Hamiltonian torus actions. It follows that reduced spaces of such actions admit continuous star products.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, uses psfra

A variant of the Mukai pairing via deformation quantization

We give a new method to prove a formula computing a variant of Caldararu's Mukai pairing \cite{Cal1}. Our method is based on some important results in the area of deformation quantization. In particular, part of the work of Kashiwara and Schapira in \cite{KS} as well as an algebraic index theorem of Bressler, Nest and Tsygan in \cite{BNT},\cite{BNT1} and \cite{BNT2} are used. It is hoped that our method is useful for generalization to settings involving certain singular varieties.Comment: 8 pages. Comments and suggestions welcom

All bicovariant differential calculi on Glq(3,C) and SLq(3,C)

All bicovariant first order differential calculi on the quantum group GLq(3,C) are determined. There are two distinct one-parameter families of calculi. In terms of a suitable basis of 1-forms the commutation relations can be expressed with the help of the R-matrix of GLq(3,C). Some calculi induce bicovariant differential calculi on SLq(3,C) and on real forms of GLq(3,C). For generic deformation parameter q there are six calculi on SLq(3,C), on SUq(3) there are only two. The classical limit q-->1 of bicovariant calculi on SLq(3,C) is not the ordinary calculus on SL(3,C). One obtains a deformation of it which involves the Cartan-Killing metric.Comment: 24 pages, LaTe

Toeplitz operators on symplectic manifolds

We study the Berezin-Toeplitz quantization on symplectic manifolds making use of the full off-diagonal asymptotic expansion of the Bergman kernel. We give also a characterization of Toeplitz operators in terms of their asymptotic expansion. The semi-classical limit properties of the Berezin-Toeplitz quantization for non-compact manifolds and orbifolds are also established.Comment: 40 page

Strong Connections on Quantum Principal Bundles

A gauge invariant notion of a strong connection is presented and characterized. It is then used to justify the way in which a global curvature form is defined. Strong connections are interpreted as those that are induced from the base space of a quantum bundle. Examples of both strong and non-strong connections are provided. In particular, such connections are constructed on a quantum deformation of the fibration $S^2 -> RP^2$. A certain class of strong $U_q(2)$-connections on a trivial quantum principal bundle is shown to be equivalent to the class of connections on a free module that are compatible with the q-dependent hermitian metric. A particular form of the Yang-Mills action on a trivial U\sb q(2)-bundle is investigated. It is proved to coincide with the Yang-Mills action constructed by A.Connes and M.Rieffel. Furthermore, it is shown that the moduli space of critical points of this action functional is independent of q.Comment: AMS-LaTeX, 40 pages, major revision including examples of connections over a quantum real projective spac

Symmetry Reduction by Lifting for Maps

We study diffeomorphisms that have one-parameter families of continuous symmetries. For general maps, in contrast to the symplectic case, existence of a symmetry no longer implies existence of an invariant. Conversely, a map with an invariant need not have a symmetry. We show that when a symmetry flow has a global Poincar\'{e} section there are coordinates in which the map takes a reduced, skew-product form, and hence allows for reduction of dimensionality. We show that the reduction of a volume-preserving map again is volume preserving. Finally we sharpen the Noether theorem for symplectic maps. A number of illustrative examples are discussed and the method is compared with traditional reduction techniques.Comment: laTeX, 31 pages, 5 figure