307 research outputs found
Coexistent duodenal ulcer among patients with gastric carcinoma
To examine the prevalence of coexistent duodenal ulcers among patients with gastric carcinoma in an otherwise intact stomach, we surveyed 604 endoscopically and pathologically diagnosed gastric carcinoma patients and thoroughly inspected their duodenums. Twenty-two (3,6%) of them had either active ulcers or scars in the duodenum. This prevalence was significantly less than that among 99 (16,4%) of 604 age- and gender-matched control with endoscopically confirmed duodenal ulcers (P < 0,0001). Almost one-half of patients with coexistent cancer and duodenal ulcer experienced no change in abdominal symptoms when gastric cancer was diagnosed. Barium meal study appeared not to be sensitive enough to diagnose the coexistent ulcers. However, the nature of the lesions, including disease location, macroscopic appearance, chance of early cancer and metastasis, was no different in 22 patients with coexistent cancer and duodenal ulcer than in 582 patients with cancer alone. The present study suggests that although duodenal ulcer is unlikely to be a predisposing factor for gastric cancer, thorough screening by means of endoscopy is necessary in dyspepsic ulcer patients since duodenal ulcer and gastric cancer are not incompatible
Exact Results on Potts Model Partition Functions in a Generalized External Field and Weighted-Set Graph Colorings
We present exact results on the partition function of the -state Potts
model on various families of graphs in a generalized external magnetic
field that favors or disfavors spin values in a subset of
the total set of possible spin values, , where and are
temperature- and field-dependent Boltzmann variables. We remark on differences
in thermodynamic behavior between our model with a generalized external
magnetic field and the Potts model with a conventional magnetic field that
favors or disfavors a single spin value. Exact results are also given for the
interesting special case of the zero-temperature Potts antiferromagnet,
corresponding to a set-weighted chromatic polynomial that counts
the number of colorings of the vertices of subject to the condition that
colors of adjacent vertices are different, with a weighting that favors or
disfavors colors in the interval . We derive powerful new upper and lower
bounds on for the ferromagnetic case in terms of zero-field
Potts partition functions with certain transformed arguments. We also prove
general inequalities for on different families of tree graphs.
As part of our analysis, we elucidate how the field-dependent Potts partition
function and weighted-set chromatic polynomial distinguish, respectively,
between Tutte-equivalent and chromatically equivalent pairs of graphs.Comment: 39 pages, 1 figur
Exact Potts Model Partition Functions for Strips of the Honeycomb Lattice
We present exact calculations of the Potts model partition function
for arbitrary and temperature-like variable on -vertex
strip graphs of the honeycomb lattice for a variety of transverse widths
equal to vertices and for arbitrarily great length, with free
longitudinal boundary conditions and free and periodic transverse boundary
conditions. These partition functions have the form
, where
denotes the number of repeated subgraphs in the longitudinal direction. We give
general formulas for for arbitrary . We also present plots of
zeros of the partition function in the plane for various values of and
in the plane for various values of . Explicit results for partition
functions are given in the text for (free) and (cylindrical),
and plots of partition function zeros are given for up to 5 (free) and
(cylindrical). Plots of the internal energy and specific heat per site
for infinite-length strips are also presented.Comment: 39 pages, 34 eps figures, 3 sty file
Improving the Activity of Rh/Al2O3 Catalyst for NO Reduction by Na Addition in the Presences of H2O and O-2
The effect of Na addition on the performance of Rh/Al2O3 catalyst for NO reduction with CO in the presence of H2O and O-2 was investigated. The reacted catalysts were analyzed by the FTIR technique to identify the products for further investigation on the possible catalytic reaction mechanisms and the reasons behind the H2O poisoning. Experimental results show that the removal efficiency of NO by Rh/Al2O3 catalyst was 63% at 250 degrees C but that decreased as the H2O content increased. Adding Na to modify the Rh/ Al2O3 catalyst significantly enhanced the conversion of NO to 99% at 250-300 degrees C even as the H2O content was 1.6 vol%. The FTIR analyses results reveal that the abundant H2O in the flue gas can compete with NO to adsorb on the surfaces of Rh/Al2O3 and Rh-Na/Al2O3 catalysts and further enhance the formation of NO3 that reacts with H. The effects of H2O on Rh/Al2O3 and Rh-Na/Al2O3 catalysts can be eliminated by increasing the reaction temperature to higher than 300 degrees C. Rh-Na/Al2O3 is a feasible catalyst for NO reduction at such condition with relative high H2O and O-2 contents
An efficient composite growing N-doped TiO2 on multi-walled carbon nanotubes through sol-gel process
High-activity, visible-light-driven photocatalysts were prepared by forming N-doped TiO2 on multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). The use of MWCNTs as the support in a N-doped TiO2 system favored electron trapping, because the recombination process could be retarded, thus promoting photocatalytic activity. The prepared photocatalysts were systematically characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Brunaure-Emmett-Teller (BET) spectroscopy, and UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV-Vis/DRS). The results indicated that the N-doped TiO2 coated on MWCNTs improved the surface area and slightly modified the optical properties of the composite. The activities of the photocatalysts were probed by photodegradation of methanol in the presence of visible light irradiation. The experimental results revealed that the strong interphase linkage between the MWCNTs and the N-doped TiO2 played a significant role in improving photocatalytic activity. However, the mechanical process for MWCNT-TiO2-x N (x) mixtures showed lower activity than just pure N-doped TiO2. In this study, N-doped TiO2 precursors coated with pretreated MWCNTs during a sol-gel process could effectively form a MWCNT-TiO2-x N (x) composite. The composite showed excellent activity and effectively enhanced the efficiency of N-doped TiO2 under the visible light region
Potts model on recursive lattices: some new exact results
We compute the partition function of the Potts model with arbitrary values of
and temperature on some strip lattices. We consider strips of width
, for three different lattices: square, diced and `shortest-path' (to be
defined in the text). We also get the exact solution for strips of the Kagome
lattice for widths . As further examples we consider two lattices
with different type of regular symmetry: a strip with alternating layers of
width and , and a strip with variable width. Finally we make
some remarks on the Fisher zeros for the Kagome lattice and their large
q-limit.Comment: 17 pages, 19 figures. v2 typos corrected, title changed and
references, acknowledgements and two further original examples added. v3 one
further example added. v4 final versio
On the Potts model partition function in an external field
We study the partition function of Potts model in an external (magnetic)
field, and its connections with the zero-field Potts model partition function.
Using a deletion-contraction formulation for the partition function Z for this
model, we show that it can be expanded in terms of the zero-field partition
function. We also show that Z can be written as a sum over the spanning trees,
and the spanning forests, of a graph G. Our results extend to Z the well-known
spanning tree expansion for the zero-field partition function that arises
though its connections with the Tutte polynomial
Oxygen radical-mediated oxidation reactions of an alanine peptide motif - density functional theory and transition state theory study
Background: Oxygen-base (O-base) oxidation in protein backbone is important in the protein backbone fragmentation due to the attack from reactive oxygen species (ROS). In this study, an alanine peptide was used model system to investigate this O-base oxidation by employing density functional theory (DFT) calculations combining with continuum solvent model. Detailed reaction steps were analyzed along with their reaction rate constants. Results: Most of the O-base oxidation reactions for this alanine peptide are exothermic except for the bond-breakage of the C-alpha-N bond to form hydroperoxy alanine radical. Among the reactions investigated in this study, the activated energy of OH alpha-H abstraction is the lowest one, while the generation of alkylperoxy peptide radical must overcome the highest energy barrier. The aqueous situation facilitates the oxidation reactions to generate hydroxyl alanine peptide derivatives except for the fragmentations of alkoxyl alanine peptide radical. The C-alpha-C-beta bond of the alkoxyl alanine peptide radical is more labile than the peptide bond. Conclusion: the rate-determining step of oxidation in protein backbone is the generation of hydroperoxy peptide radical via the reaction of alkylperoxy peptide radical with HO2. The stabilities of alkylperoxy peptide radical and complex of alkylperoxy peptide radical with HO2 are crucial in this O-base oxidation reaction
Transfer Matrices and Partition-Function Zeros for Antiferromagnetic Potts Models. V. Further Results for the Square-Lattice Chromatic Polynomial
We derive some new structural results for the transfer matrix of
square-lattice Potts models with free and cylindrical boundary conditions. In
particular, we obtain explicit closed-form expressions for the dominant (at
large |q|) diagonal entry in the transfer matrix, for arbitrary widths m, as
the solution of a special one-dimensional polymer model. We also obtain the
large-q expansion of the bulk and surface (resp. corner) free energies for the
zero-temperature antiferromagnet (= chromatic polynomial) through order q^{-47}
(resp. q^{-46}). Finally, we compute chromatic roots for strips of widths 9 <=
m <= 12 with free boundary conditions and locate roughly the limiting curves.Comment: 111 pages (LaTeX2e). Includes tex file, three sty files, and 19
Postscript figures. Also included are Mathematica files data_CYL.m and
data_FREE.m. Many changes from version 1: new material on series expansions
and their analysis, and several proofs of previously conjectured results.
Final version to be published in J. Stat. Phy
Multiplex Amplification Refractory Mutation System Polymerase Chain Reaction (ARMS-PCR) for diagnosis of natural infection with canine distemper virus
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Canine distemper virus (CDV) is present worldwide and produces a lethal systemic infection of wild and domestic <it>Canidae</it>. Pre-existing antibodies acquired from vaccination or previous CDV infection might interfere the interpretation of a serologic diagnosis method. In addition, due to the high similarity of nucleic acid sequences between wild-type CDV and the new vaccine strain, current PCR derived methods cannot be applied for the definite confirmation of CD infection. Hence, it is worthy of developing a simple and rapid nucleotide-based assay for differentiation of wild-type CDV which is a cause of disease from attenuated CDVs after vaccination. High frequency variations have been found in the region spanning from the 3'-untranslated region (UTR) of the matrix (M) gene to the fusion (F) gene (designated M-F UTR) in a few CDV strains. To establish a differential diagnosis assay, an amplification refractory mutation analysis was established based on the highly variable region on M-F UTR and F regions.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Sequences of frequent polymorphisms were found scattered throughout the M-F UTR region; the identity of nucleic acid between local strains and vaccine strains ranged from 82.5% to 93.8%. A track of AAA residue located 35 nucleotides downstream from F gene start codon highly conserved in three vaccine strains were replaced with TGC in the local strains; that severed as target sequences for deign of discrimination primers. The method established in the present study successfully differentiated seven Taiwanese CDV field isolates, all belonging to the Asia-1 lineage, from vaccine strains.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The method described herein would be useful for several clinical applications, such as confirmation of nature CDV infection, evaluation of vaccination status and verification of the circulating viral genotypes.</p
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