190 research outputs found
Информационные технологии в управлении интеллектуальным капиталом организации
The report examines how organization can use information technologies for management of intellectual capital
Inhibition of HIV-1 in Cell Culture by Synthetic Humate Analogues Derived from Hydroquinone: Mechanism of Inhibition
AbstractHumic acids are natural constituents of soil and ground water and mainly consist of mixtures of polycyclic phenolic compounds. A similar complex of compounds with a mean size of about 1000 Da, designated HS-1500, was synthesized by oxidation of hydroquinone. HS-1500 inhibited HIV-1 infection of MT-2 cells with an IC50of 50–300 ng/ml and showed a mean cell toxicity of about 600 μg/ml. Inhibition of HIV-induced syncytium formation was observed at 10–50 μg/ml. Treatment of free and cell-attached HIV with HS-1500 irreversibly reduced its infectivity, whereas the susceptibility of target cells for the virus was not impaired by treatment prior to infection. The HIV envelope protein gp120SU bound to sepharose-coupled HS-1500 and could be eluted by high salt and detergent. HS-1500 interfered with the CD4-induced proteolytic cleavage of the V3 loop of virion gp120SU. Furthermore, binding of V3 loop-specific antibodies was irreversibly inhibited, whereas binding of soluble CD4 to gp120SU on virus and infected cells was not affected. In conclusion, our data suggest, that the synthetic humic acid analogue inhibits the infectivity of HIV particles by interference with a V3 loop-mediated step of virus entry
Basis set convergence in extended systems: infinite hydrogen fluoride and hydrogen chloride chains
Basis set convergence of the Hartree-Fock and the correlation energy is
examined for the hydrogen bonded infinite bent chains (HF)_infinity and
(HCl)_infinity. We employ series of correlation consistent basis sets up to
quintuple zeta quality together with a coupled cluster method (CCSD) to
describe electron correlation on ab initio level. The Hartree-Fock energy
converges rapidly with increasing basis set quality whereas the correlation
energy is found to be slowly convergent for the same series of basis sets. We
study basis set extrapolation for (HF)_infinity and (HCl)_infinity and show
that it substantially enhances the accuracy of both the Hartree-Fock and the
correlation energy in extended systems.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, 4 tables, LaTeX, corrected typo
Low-cost probabilistic 3D denoising with applications for ultra-low-radiation computed tomography
We propose a pipeline for synthetic generation of personalized Computer Tomography (CT) images, with a radiation exposure evaluation and a lifetime attributable risk (LAR) assessment. We perform a patient-specific performance evaluation for a broad range of denoising algorithms (including the most popular deep learning denoising approaches, wavelets-based methods, methods based on Mumford-Shah denoising, etc.), focusing both on accessing the capability to reduce the patient-specific CT-induced LAR and on computational cost scalability. We introduce a parallel Probabilistic Mumford-Shah denoising model (PMS) and show that it markedly-outperforms the compared common denoising methods in denoising quality and cost scaling. In particular, we show that it allows an approximately 22-fold robust patient-specific LAR reduction for infants and a 10-fold LAR reduction for adults. Using a normal laptop, the proposed algorithm for PMS allows cheap and robust (with a multiscale structural similarity index >90%) denoising of very large 2D videos and 3D images (with over 107 voxels) that are subject to ultra-strong noise (Gaussian and non-Gaussian) for signal-to-noise ratios far below 1.0. The code is provided for open access.Web of Science86art. no. 15
Exhaled Volatile Organic Compounds during Inflammation Induced by TNF-α in Ventilated Rats
Systemic inflammation alters the composition of exhaled breath, possibly helping clinicians
diagnose conditions such as sepsis. We therefore evaluated changes in exhaled breath of rats given
tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α). Thirty male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly assigned
to three groups (n = 10 each) with intravenous injections of normal saline (control), 200 µg·kg−1
bodyweight TNF-α (TNF-α-200), or 600 µg·kg−1 bodyweight TNF-α (TNF-α-600), and were observed
for 24 h or until death. Animals were ventilated with highly-purified synthetic air to analyze exhaled
air by multicapillary column–ion mobility spectrometry. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were
identified from a database. We recorded blood pressure and cardiac output, along with cytokine
plasma concentrations. Control rats survived the 24 h observation period, whereas mean survival
time decreased to 22 h for TNF-α-200 and 23 h for TNF-α-600 rats. Mean arterial pressure decreased in
TNF-α groups, whereas IL-6 increased, consistent with mild to moderate inflammation. Hundreds of
VOCs were detected in exhalome. P-cymol increased by a factor-of-two 4 h after injection of TNF-α-600
compared to the control and TNF-α-200. We found that 1-butanol and 1-pentanol increased in both
TNF-α groups after 20 h compared to the control. As breath analysis distinguishes between two doses
of TNF-α and none, we conclude that it might help clinicians identify systemic inflammatio
Correlated ab-initio calculations for ground-state properties of II-VI semiconductors
Correlated ab-initio ground-state calculations, using relativistic
energy-consistent pseudopotentials, are performed for six II-VI semiconductors.
Valence () correlations are evaluated using the coupled cluster approach
with single and double excitations. An incremental scheme is applied based on
correlation contributions of localized bond orbitals and of pairs and triples
of such bonds. In view of the high polarity of the bonds in II-VI compounds, we
examine both, ionic and covalent embedding schemes for the calculation of
individual bond increments. Also, a partitioning of the correlation energy
according to local ionic increments is tested. Core-valence ()
correlation effects are taken into account via a core-polarization potential.
Combining the results at the correlated level with corresponding Hartree-Fock
data we recover about 94% of the experimental cohesive energies; lattice
constants are accurate to \sim 1%; bulk moduli are on average 10% too large
compared with experiment.Comment: 10 pages, twocolumn, RevTex, 3 figures, accepted Phys. Rev.
Ground-state properties of rutile: electron-correlation effects
Electron-correlation effects on cohesive energy, lattice constant and bulk
compressibility of rutile are calculated using an ab-initio scheme. A
competition between the two groups of partially covalent Ti-O bonds is the
reason that the correlation energy does not change linearly with deviations
from the equilibrium geometry, but is dominated by quadratic terms instead. As
a consequence, the Hartree-Fock lattice constants are close to the experimental
ones, while the compressibility is strongly renormalized by electronic
correlations.Comment: 1 figure to appear in Phys. Rev.
Low Serum Levels of Soluble Receptor Activator of Nuclear Factor κ B Ligand (sRANKL) Are Associated with Metabolic Dysregulation and Predict Long-Term Mortality in Critically Ill Patients
Soluble receptor activator of nuclear factor κ B ligand (sRANKL) is a member of the tumor necrosis factor receptor superfamily, and therefore, involved in various inflammatory processes. The role of sRANKL in the course of bone remodeling via activation of osteoclasts as well as chronic disease progression has been described extensively. However, the potential functional importance of sRANKL in critically ill or septic patients remained unknown. Therefore, we measured sRANKL serum concentrations in 303 critically ill patients, including 203 patients with sepsis and 100 with non-sepsis critical illness. Results were compared to 99 healthy controls. Strikingly, in critically ill patients sRANKL serum levels were significantly decreased at intensive care unit (ICU) admission (p = 0.011) without differences between sepsis and non-sepsis patients. Inline, sRANKL was correlated with markers of metabolic dysregulation, such as pre-existing diabetes and various adipokines (e.g., adiponectin, leptin receptor). Importantly, overall mortality of critically ill patients in a three-year follow-up was significantly associated with decreased sRANKL serum concentrations at ICU admission (p = 0.038). Therefore, our study suggests sRANKL as a biomarker in critically ill patients which is associated with poor prognosis and overall survival beyond ICU stay
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