836 research outputs found
Proteomics and Metabolomics in Aortic Stenosis: Studying Healthy Valves for a Better Understanding of the Disease
Phase separation in coupled chaotic maps on fractal networks
The phase ordering dynamics of coupled chaotic maps on fractal networks are
investigated. The statistical properties of the systems are characterized by
means of the persistence probability of equivalent spin variables that define
the phases. The persistence saturates and phase domains freeze for all values
of the coupling parameter as a consequence of the fractal structure of the
networks, in contrast to the phase transition behavior previously observed in
regular Euclidean lattices. Several discontinuities and other features found in
the saturation persistence curve as a function of the coupling are explained in
terms of changes of stability of local phase configurations on the fractals.Comment: (4 pages, 4 Figs, Submitted to PRE
A slip-based model for the size-dependent effective thermal conductivity of nanowires
The heat flux across a nanowire is computed based on the Guyer-Krumhansl
equation. Slip conditions with a slip length depending on both temperature and
nanowire radius are introduced at the outer boundary. An explicit expression
for the effective thermal conductivity is derived and compared to existing
models across a given temperature range, providing excellent agreement with
experimental data for Si nanowires
Modular Invariance and Characteristic Numbers
We show that a general miraculous cancellation formula, the divisibility of
certain characteristic numbers and some other topologiclal results are con-
sequences of the modular invariance of elliptic operators on loop spaces.
Previously we have shown that modular invariance also implies the rigidity of
many elliptic operators on loop spaces.Comment: 14 page
Proteomic Biomarkers of Atherosclerosis
Biomarkers provide a powerful approach to understanding the spectrum of cardiovascular diseases. They have application in screening, diagnostic, prognostication, prediction of recurrences and monitoring of therapy. The “omics” tool are becoming very useful in the development of new biomarkers in cardiovascular diseases. Among them, proteomics is especially fitted to look for new proteins in health and disease and is playing a significant role in the development of new diagnostic tools in cardiovascular diagnosis and prognosis. This review provides an overview of progress in applying proteomics to atherosclerosis. First, we describe novel proteins identified analysing atherosclerotic plaques directly. Careful analysis of proteins within the atherosclerotic vascular tissue can provide a repertoire of proteins involved in vascular remodelling and atherogenesis. Second, we discuss recent data concerning proteins secreted by atherosclerotic plaques. The definition of the atheroma plaque secretome resides in that proteins secreted by arteries can be very good candidates of novel biomarkers. Finally we describe proteins that have been differentially expressed (versus controls) by individual cells which constitute atheroma plaques (endothelial cells, vascular smooth muscle cells, macrophages and foam cells) as well as by circulating cells (monocytes, platelets) or novel biomarkers present in plasma
Microfluidic-based immunohistochemistry for breast cancer diagnosis: a comparative clinical study.
Breast cancer is a highly heterogeneous disease. The efficacy of tailored therapeutic strategies relies on the precise detection of diagnostic biomarkers by immunohistochemistry (IHC). Therefore, considering the increasing incidence of breast cancer cases, a concomitantly time-efficient and accurate diagnosis is clinically highly relevant. Microfluidics is a promising innovative technology in the field of tissue diagnostic, enabling for rapid, reliable, and automated immunostaining. We previously reported the microfluidic-based HER2 (human epidermal growth factor receptor 2) detection in breast carcinomas to greatly correlate with the HER2 gene amplification level. Here, we aimed to develop a panel of microfluidic-based IHC protocols for prognostic and therapeutic markers routinely assessed for breast cancer diagnosis, namely HER2, estrogen/progesterone receptor (ER/PR), and Ki67 proliferation factor. The microfluidic IHC protocol for each marker was optimized to reach high staining quality comparable to the standard procedure, while concomitantly shortening the staining time to 16 min-excluding deparaffinization and antigen retrieval step-with a turnaround time reduction up to 7 folds. Comparison of the diagnostic score on 50 formaldehyde-fixed paraffin-embedded breast tumor resections by microfluidic versus standard staining showed high concordance (overall agreement: HER2 94%, ER 95.9%, PR 93.6%, Ki67 93.7%) and strong correlation (ρ coefficient: ER 0.89, PR 0.88, Ki67 0.87; p < 0.0001) for all the analyzed markers. Importantly, HER2 genetic reflex test for all discordant cases confirmed the scores obtained by the microfluidic technique. Overall, the microfluidic-based IHC represents a clinically validated equivalent approach to the standard chromogenic staining for rapid, accurate, and automated breast cancer diagnosis
Nonlinear weakly curved rod by Γ-Convergence
We present a nonlinear model of weakly curved rod, namely the type of curved rod where the curvature is of the order of the diameter of the cross-section. We use an approach analogous to the one for rods and curved rods and start from the strain energy functional of three dimensional nonlinear elasticity. We do not impose any constitutional behavior of the material and work in a general framework. To derive the model, by means of Γ-convergence, we need to set the order of strain energy (i.e., its relation to the thickness of the body h). We analyze the situation when the strain energy (divided by the order of volume) is of the order h 4. This is the same approach as the one used in Föppl-von Kármán model for plates and the analogous model for rods. The obtained model is analogous to Marguerre-von Kármán for shallow shells and its linearization is the linear shallow arch model which can be found in the literature
The CMBR ISW and HI 21-cm Cross-correlation Angular Power Spectrum
The late-time growth of large scale structures (LSS) is imprinted in the CMBR
anisotropy through the Integrated Sachs Wolfe (ISW) effect. This is perceived
to be a very important observational probe of dark energy. Future observations
of redshifted 21-cm radiation from the cosmological neutral hydrogen (HI)
distribution hold the potential of probing the LSS over a large redshift range.
We have investigated the possibility of detecting the ISW through
cross-correlations between the CMBR anisotropies and redshifted 21-cm
observations. Assuming that the HI traces the dark matter, we find that the
ISW-HI cross-correlation angular power spectrum at an angular multipole l is
proportional to the dark matter power spectrum evaluated at the comoving wave
number l/r, where r is the comoving distance to the redshift from which the HI
signal originated. The amplitude of the cross-correlation signal depends on
parameters related to the HI distribution and the growth of cosmological
perturbations. However the cross-correlation is extremely weak as compared to
the CMBR anisotropies and the predicted HI signal. As a consequence the
cross-correlation signal is smaller than the cosmic variance, and a
statistically significant detection is not very likely.Comment: 13 pages, 4 eps figures, submitte
The Higher Derivative Expansion of the Effective Action by the String Inspired Method. Part II
We apply the string inspired worldline formalism to the calculation of the
higher derivative expansion of one-loop effective actions in non-Abelian gauge
theory. For this purpose, we have completely computerized the method, using the
symbolic manipulation programs FORM, PERL and M. Explicit results are given to
sixth order in the inverse mass expansion, reduced to a minimal basis of
invariants specifically adapted to the method. Detailed comparisons are made
with other gauge-invariant algorithms for calculating the same expansion. This
includes an explicit check of all coefficients up to fifth order.Comment: 37 pages, LaTeX, 3 figures, typos corrected, to appear in Ann. Phys.
(N.Y.
The Higher Derivative Expansion of the Effective Action by the String-Inspired Method, Part I
The higher derivative expansion of the one-loop effective action for an
external scalar potential is calculated to order O(T**7), using the
string-inspired Bern-Kosower method in the first quantized path integral
formulation. Comparisons are made with standard heat kernel calculations and
with the corresponding Feynman diagrammatic calculation in order to show the
efficiency of the present method.Comment: 13 pages, Plain TEX, 1 figure may be obtained from the authors,
HD-THEP-93-4
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