The use of nanotechnology in cardiovascular disease

Cardiovascular diseases claim a number of lives globally; many of which are preventable. With the increase in diets that consist of high saturated fat, salt, and sugar, people often living sedentary lifestyles, and a rise in cases of obesity, the incidence of cardiovascular disease is increasing. These contributing factors, coupled with more advanced methods of diagnosis, have delivered statistics that clearly show that there is a rising trend in the prevalence of cardiovascular disease. Treatment for cardiovascular diseases is limited currently to oral medicines or invasive surgery. There is a huge gap in this area of medicine for novel therapeutics for improved patient outcomes. Nanotechnology may provide a solution to more effective treatment of disease, with better prognoses and a reduced side effect profile. This review will explore for potential solutions to the limited pharmacological therapies currently on the market and the future that lies ahead for the place of nanotechnology within cardiovascular medicine

Pseudo-K\"ahler Lie algebras with abelian complex structures

We study Lie algebras endowed with an abelian complex structure which admit a symplectic form compatible with the complex structure. We prove that each of those Lie algebras is completely determined by a pair (U,H) where U is a complex commutative associative algebra and H is a sesquilinear hermitian form on U which verifies certain compatibility conditions with respect to the associative product on U. The Riemannian and Ricci curvatures of the associated pseudo-K\"ahler metric are studied and a characterization of those Lie algebras which are Einstein but not Ricci flat is given. It is seen that all pseudo-K\"ahler Lie algebras can be inductively described by a certain method of double extensions applied to the associated complex asssociative commutative algebras

Experimental recovery of a qubit from partial collapse

We describe and implement a method to restore the state of a single qubit, in principle perfectly, after it has partially collapsed. The method resembles the classical Hahn spin-echo, but works on a wider class of relaxation processes, in which the quantum state partially leaves the computational Hilbert space. It is not guaranteed to work every time, but successful outcomes are heralded. We demonstrate using a single trapped ion better performance from this recovery method than can be obtained employing projection and post-selection alone. The demonstration features a novel qubit implementation that permits both partial collapse and coherent manipulations with high fidelity.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Gauge covariance and the fermion-photon vertex in three- and four- dimensional, massless quantum electrodynamics

In the quenched approximation, the gauge covariance properties of three vertex Ans\"{a}tze in the Schwinger-Dyson equation for the fermion self energy are analysed in three- and four- dimensional quantum electrodynamics. Based on the Cornwall-Jackiw-Tomboulis effective action, it is inferred that the spectral representation used for the vertex in the gauge technique cannot support dynamical chiral symmetry breaking. A criterion for establishing whether a given Ansatz can confer gauge covariance upon the Schwinger-Dyson equation is presented and the Curtis and Pennington Ansatz is shown to satisfy this constraint. We obtain an analytic solution of the Schwinger-Dyson equation for quenched, massless three-dimensional quantum electrodynamics for arbitrary values of the gauge parameter in the absence of dynamical chiral symmetry breaking.Comment: 17 pages, PHY-7143-TH-93, REVTE

Prevalence of working smoke alarms in local authority inner city housing: randomised controlled trial

Objectives To identify which type of smoke alarm is most likely to remain working in local authority inner city housing, and to identify an alarm tolerated in households with smokers. Design Randomised controlled trial. Setting Two local authority housing estates in inner London. Participants 2145 households. Intervention Installation of one of five types of smoke alarm (ionisation sensor with a zinc battery; ionisation sensor with a zinc battery and pause button; ionisation sensor with a lithium battery and pause button; optical sensor with a lithium battery; or optical sensor with a zinc battery). Main outcome measure Percentage of homes with any working alarm and percentage in which the alarm installed for this study was working after 15 months. Results 54.4% (1166/2145) of all households and 45.9% (465/1012) of households occupied by smokers had a working smoke alarm. Ionisation sensor, lithium battery, and there being a smoker in the household were independently associated with whether an alarm was working (adjusted odds ratios 2.24 (95% confidence interval 1.75 to 2.87), 2.20 (1.77 to 2.75), and 0.62 (0.52 to 0.74)). The most common reasons for non-function were missing battery (19%), missing alarm (17%), and battery disconnected (4%). Conclusions Nearly half of the alarms installed were not working when tested 15 months later. Type of alarm and power source are important determinants of whether a household had a working alarm

ONE LOOP QED VERTEX IN ANY COVARIANT GAUGE: ITS COMPLETE ANALYTIC FORM

The one loop vertex in QED is calculated in arbitrary covariant gauges as an analytic function of its momenta. The vertex is decomposed into a longitudinal part, that is fully responsible for ensuring the Ward and Ward-Takahashi identities are satisfied, and a transverse part. The transverse part is decomposed into 8 independent components each being separately free of kinematic singularities in $\bf any$ covariant gauge in a basis that modifies that proposed by Ball and Chiu. Analytic expressions for all 11 components of the ${O(\alpha)}$ vertex are given explicitly in terms of elementary functions and one Spence function. These results greatly simplify in particular kinematic regimes.Comment: 35 pages, latex, 2 figures, Complete postscript file available from: ftp://cpt1.dur.ac.uk/pub/preprints/dtp95/dtp9506/dtp9406.p

Potential of hybrid iron oxide–gold nanoparticles as thermal triggers for pancreatic cancer therapy

Theranostics are emerging platforms for rapid cancer diagnosis and therapy. Hybrid iron oxide–gold nanoparticles (HNPs) have shown potential as theranostics due to their ability for imaging using MRI, heating using laser irradiation and carrier abilities for drug molecules after surface functionalization. The ability of HNPs to act as localised nano-heaters has been well documented for tumour ablation applications where maximal heating effect is desired. However, the use of HNPs as thermal triggers for drug release requires more control over temperature output and careful consideration of heat dissipation. In this work we report the potential of HNPs to act as localised nano-heaters in vitro and ocument the cellular effect prior and post laser irradiation in human pancreatic adenocarcinoma (BxPC-3) cell lines. The data showed that after incubation of 50 mg mL 1 HNPs, a thermal increase of up to 9 C was observed in the cells after laser irradiation with the total area experiencing heat dissipation from the laser beam being 346 mm2. Although the total temperature experienced by cells was below the perceived temperature for irreversible cell damage, after 24 h significant levels of HSP27 and HSP70 were evident with a drop in cell viability to 85%. This indicated that even with rapid irradiation at low temperatures the cells were undergoing stress. Upon I.T. injection in pancreatic xenograft models, a similar heating capacity was observed at identical concentration which also resulted in bulk tumour dissipation. The findings from this work highlight the factors which must be taken into consideration when designing HNPs as theranostics for heat triggered drug delivery

Nonperturbative Vertices in Supersymmetric Quantum Electrodynamics

We derive the complete set of supersymmetric Ward identities involving only two- and three- point proper vertices in supersymmetric QED. We also present the most general form of the proper vertices consistent with both the supersymmetric and U(1) gauge Ward identities. These vertices are the supersymmetric equivalent of the non supersymmetric Ball-Chiu vertices.Comment: seventeen pages late