Post-Glitch RXTE-PCA Observations of the Vela Pulsar

We report the results of analysis of observations of the Vela Pulsar by PCA on RXTE. Our data consists of two parts. The first part contains observations at 1, 4, and 9 days after the glitch in 1996 and has 27000 sec. total exposure time. The second part of observations were performed three months after this glitch and have a total exposure time of 93000 sec. We found pulsations in both sets. The observed spectrum is a power-law with no apparent change in flux or count rate. The theoretical expectations of increase in flux due to internal heating after a glitch are smaller than the uncertainty of the observations.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures in 9 ps/eps files. Accepted for publication in A&A Main Journa

Effects of High Temperature on Carbonated Calcium Silicate Cement (CSC) and Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) Paste

This paper presents a comparative study on the effects of high temperature (~500°C) on carbonated calcium silicate-based cement (CSC), hydrated ordinary Portland cement (OPC), and hydrated OPC with 20% fly ash (FA) paste samples. The CSC is primarily composed of calcium–silicate minerals with different calcium to silica atomic ratios, such as wollastonite, rankinite, and pseudowollastonite. The major difference between CSC- and OPC-based systems is that the CSC system generates strength from the carbonation reaction, while strength development of OPC-based systems depends on the hydration reaction. The microstructure of the carbonated CSC paste consist mainly of calcium carbonate, polymerized silica gel, and unreacted cement grains. The loss of stiffness due to the high-temperature exposure was found to be substantially lower for CSC samples compared with that of the hydrated OPC and OPC + FA paste samples. This observation was also consistent with the observed mass losses of these paste samples upon their exposure to high temperatures during the thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The higher resistance of CSC paste samples to high temperature is attributed to the presence of microscopic phases which have higher decomposition temperatures than the phases present in the OPC. For the same reason, the increases in total porosities (measured using helium pycnometer) of the hydrated paste samples after exposure to 510°C were significantly higher than those of the CSC paste samples

Autologous anti-SOX2 antibody responses reflect intensity but not frequency of antigen expression in small cell lung cancer

Background: Anti-SOX2 antibody responses are observed in about 10 to 20% of small cell lung cancer (SCLC) patients. The aim of this study was to determine whether such responses reflect a particular pattern of SOX2 protein expression in the tumor and whether this pattern associates with clinical outcome. Methods. Paraffin embedded tumor tissues, obtained from SCLC patients who had no evidence of paraneoplastic autoimmune degeneration, were evaluated for SOX2 expression by immunohistochemistry for both intensity and extent of staining. Sera from the same patients were tested for autologous antibodies against recombinant SOX2 by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Correlates between overall survival and various clinical parameters including SOX2 staining and serology were determined. Results: SOX2 protein expression was observed in tumor tissue in 89% of patients. Seventeen patients (29%) were seropositive for SOX2 antibodies and, in contrast to SOX2 staining, the presence of antibody correlated with limited disease stage (p = 0.05). SOX2 seropositivity showed a significant association with the intensity of SOX2 staining in the tumor (p = 0.02) but not with the frequency of SOX2 expressing cells. Conclusion: Anti-SOX2 antibodies associate with better prognosis (limited stage disease) while SOX2 protein expression does not; similar to reports from some earlier studies. Our data provides an explanation for this seemingly contrasting data for the first time as SOX2 antibodies can be observed in patients whose tumors contain relatively few but strongly staining cells, thus supporting the possible presence of active immune-surveillance and immune-editing targeting SOX2 protein in this tumor type. © 2014 Atakan et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd

Local site effects in Ataköy, Istanbul, Turkey, due to a future large earthquake in the Marmara Sea

Since the 1999 Izmit and Düzce earthquakes in northwest Turkey, many seismic hazard studies have focused on the city of Istanbul. An important issue in this respect is local site effects: strong amplifications are expected at a number of locations due to the local geological conditions. In this study we estimate the local site effects in the Ataköy area (southwestern Istanbul) by applying several techniques using synthetic data (hybrid 3-D modelling and 1-D modelling) and comparing to empirical data. We apply a hybrid 3-D finite-difference method that combines a complex source and wave propagation for a regional 1-D velocity model with site effects calculated for a local 3-D velocity structure. The local velocity model is built from geological, geotechnical and geomorphological data. The results indicate that strongest spectral amplifications (SA) in the Ataköy area occur around 1 Hz and that amplification levels are largest for alluvial sites where SA reaching a factor of 1.5-2 can be expected in the case of a large earthquake. We also compare our results to H/V (horizontal to vertical component of the recorded signal) spectral ratios calculated for microtremor data recorded at 30 sites as well as to ambient noise synthetics simulated using a 1-D approach. Because the applied methods complement each other, they provide comprehensive and reliable information about the local site effects in Ataköy. Added to that, our results have significant implications for the southwestern parts of Istanbul built on similar geological formations, for which, therefore, similar SA levels are expecte

Full Electrostatic Control of Nanomechanical Buckling

Buckling at the micro and nanoscale generates distant bistable states which can be beneficial for sensing, shape-reconfiguration and mechanical computation applications. Although different approaches have been developed to access buckling at small scales, such as the use heating or pre-stressing beams, very little attention has been paid so far to dynamically and precisely control all the critical bifurcation parameters, the compressive stress and the lateral force on the beam. Precise and on-demand generation of compressive stress on individually addressable microstructures is especially critical for morphologically reconfigurable devices. Here, we develop an all-electrostatic architecture to control the compressive force, as well as the direction and amount of buckling, without significant heat generation on micro/nano structures. With this architecture, we demonstrated fundamental aspects of device function and dynamics. By applying voltages at any of the digital electronics standards, we have controlled the direction of buckling. Lateral deflections as large as 12% of the beam length were achieved. By modulating the compressive stress and lateral electrostatic force acting on the beam, we tuned the potential energy barrier between the post-bifurcation stable states and characterized snap-through transitions between these states. The proposed architecture opens avenues for further studies that can enable efficient actuators and multiplexed shape-shifting devices

Autologous anti-SOX2 antibody responses reflect intensity but not frequency of antigen expression in small cell lung cancer

Cataloged from PDF version of article.Background: Anti-SOX2 antibody responses are observed in about 10 to 20% of small cell lung cancer (SCLC) patients. The aim of this study was to determine whether such responses reflect a particular pattern of SOX2 protein expression in the tumor and whether this pattern associates with clinical outcome. Methods. Paraffin embedded tumor tissues, obtained from SCLC patients who had no evidence of paraneoplastic autoimmune degeneration, were evaluated for SOX2 expression by immunohistochemistry for both intensity and extent of staining. Sera from the same patients were tested for autologous antibodies against recombinant SOX2 by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Correlates between overall survival and various clinical parameters including SOX2 staining and serology were determined. Results: SOX2 protein expression was observed in tumor tissue in 89% of patients. Seventeen patients (29%) were seropositive for SOX2 antibodies and, in contrast to SOX2 staining, the presence of antibody correlated with limited disease stage (p = 0.05). SOX2 seropositivity showed a significant association with the intensity of SOX2 staining in the tumor (p = 0.02) but not with the frequency of SOX2 expressing cells. Conclusion: Anti-SOX2 antibodies associate with better prognosis (limited stage disease) while SOX2 protein expression does not; similar to reports from some earlier studies. Our data provides an explanation for this seemingly contrasting data for the first time as SOX2 antibodies can be observed in patients whose tumors contain relatively few but strongly staining cells, thus supporting the possible presence of active immune-surveillance and immune-editing targeting SOX2 protein in this tumor type. © 2014 Atakan et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd

A nanocommunication system for endocrine diseases

Nanotechnology is a newand very promising area of research which will allow several new applications to be created in different fields, such as, biological, medical, environmental, military, agricultural, industrial and consumer goods. This paper focuses specifically on nanocommunications, which will allow interconnected devices, at the nano-scale, to achieve collaborative tasks, greatly changing the paradigm in the fields described. Molecular communication is a new communication paradigm which allows nanomachines to exchange information using molecules as carrier. This is the most promising nanocommunication method within nanonetworks, since it can use bio-inspired techniques, inherit from studied biological systems, which makes the connection of biologic and man-made systems a easier process. At this point, the biggest challenges in these type of nanocommunication are to establish feasible and reliable techniques that will allow information to be encoded, and mechanisms that ensure a molecular communication between different nodes. This paper focus on creating concepts and techniques to tackle these challenges, and establishing new foundations on which future work can be developed. The created concepts and techniques are then applied in an envisioned medical application, which is based on a molecular nanonetwork deployed inside the Human body. The goal of this medical application is to automatously monitor endocrine diseases using the benefits of nanonetworks, which in turn connects with the internet, thus creating a Internet of NanoThings system. The concepts and techniques developed are evaluated by performing several simulations and comparing with other researches, and the results and discussions are presented on the later sections of this paper

TREC-Rio trial: a randomised controlled trial for rapid tranquillisation for agitated patients in emergency psychiatric rooms [ISRCTN44153243]

Agitated or violent patients constitute 10% of all emergency psychiatric treatment. Management guidelines, the preferred treatment of clinicians and clinical practice all differ. Systematic reviews show that all relevant studies are small and none are likely to have adequate power to show true differences between treatments. Worldwide, current treatment is not based on evidence from randomised trials. In Brazil, the combination haloperidol-promethazine is frequently used, but no studies involving this mix exist. TREC-Rio (Tranquilização Rápida-Ensaio Clínico [Translation: Rapid Tranquillisation-Clinical Trial]) will compare midazolam with haloperidol-promethazine mix for treatment of agitated patients in emergency psychiatric rooms of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. TREC-Rio is a randomised, controlled, pragmatic and open study. Primary measure of outcome is tranquillisation at 20 minutes but effects on other measures of morbidity will also be assessed. TREC-Rio will involve the collaboration of as many health care professionals based in four psychiatric emergency rooms of Rio as possible. Because the design of this trial does not substantially complicate clinical management, and in several aspects simplifies it, the study can be large, and treatments used in everyday practice can be evaluated

An experimental and modeling study on the reactivity of extremely fuel-rich methane/dimethyl ether mixtures

Chemical reactions in stoichiometric to fuel-rich methane/dimethyl ether/air mixtures (fuel air equiva- lence ratio φ=1–20) were investigated by experiment and simulation with the focus on the conversion of methane to chemically more valuable species through partial oxidation. Experimental data from dif- ferent facilities were measured and collected to provide a large database for developing and validating a reaction mechanism for extended equivalence ratio ranges. Rapid Compression Machine ignition delay times and species profiles were collected in the temperature range between 660 and 1052 K at 10 bar and equivalence ratios of φ= 1–15. Ignition delay times and product compositions were measured in a shock tube at temperatures of 630–1500 K, pressures of 20–30 bar and equivalence ratios of φ= 2 and 10. Ad- ditionally, species concentration profiles were measured in a flow reactor at temperatures between 473 and 973 K, a pressure of 6 bar and equivalence ratios of φ= 2, 10, and 20. The extended equivalence ratio range towards extremely fuel-rich mixtures as well as the reaction-enhancing effect of dimethyl ether were studied because of their usefulness for the conversion of methane into chemically valuable species through partial oxidation at these conditions. Since existing reaction models focus only on equivalence ratios in the range of φ= 0.3–2.5, an extended chemical kinetics mechanism was developed that also covers extremely fuel-rich conditions of methane/dimethyl ether mixtures. The measured ignition delay times and species concentration profiles were compared with the predictions of the new mechanism, which is shown to predict well the ignition delay time and species concentration evolution measure- ments presented in this work. Sensitivity and reaction pathway analyses were used to identify the key reactions governing the ignition and oxidation kinetics at extremely fuel-rich conditions