Comparison of Various Mean Field Formulations for Retrieving Refractive Indices of Aerosol Particles Containing Inclusions

Application of effective medium approximation (EMA) methods to two-component systems are presented. Systems studied are composed of water, sulfate, soot, and dust as these are commonly encountered atmospheric aerosol components. Atmospheric models often employ EMAs to include internally mixed aerosols without the computational burden of exact theory. In the current work, several types of mixing rules (Maxwell-Garnet, Bruggeman, and coherent potential approximation) have been applied to various two-component internally mixed particles at 550 nm using volume fractions of the minor component below 0.1. As expected, results show that the formulations tested produce very similar effective refractive indices indicating that electric field interactions between inclusions is negligible at the tested volume fractions. This indicates that the differences in component refractive index has only a minor effect on the validity of the EMA at the tested volume fractions. In all cases considered, the linear average of the refractive indices of the two components provides an upper limit for the EMAs

Quantitative Analysis of a Metalloprotein Compositional Stoichiometry with PIXE and PESA

An absolute measurement of the heavy element concentrations in a dried sample of aqueous protein solution has been combined with the absolute measurement of protein molecular concentration in the same sample. The ratio of these two measurements yields the metal-to-protein compositional stoichiometry of the metalloprotein. This combination of two Ion Beam Analysis techniques (Particle-Induced X-ray Emission and Proton Elastic Scattering Analysis) allows quantitative assessment of the metal atom to protein ratio in metalloproteins without direct measurement of sulfur atoms within the protein for the first time. While these results only demonstrate success with a single well-known metalloprotein, this combination of measurement ratios holds promise for future Ion Beam Analysis studies of metalloproteins

Characterization of Tris (5-amino-1,10-phenanthroline) Ruthenium(II/III) Polymer Films Using Cyclic Voltammetry and Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry

Platinum electrodes were chemically modified with tris(5-amino-1,10-phenanthroline) ruthenium(II) via electropolymerization. The characterization of the thin films was accomplished with cyclic voltammetry (CV) and Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry (RBS). Data indicates a strong correlation between the peak currents from the characterization cyclic voltammograms and the number of cycles of electropoly-merization. Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry showed the same trend, and verified that film thickness is strongly dependent on the concentration of the monomer ruthenium solution. Film thickness was determined from the change in ion beam energy as it passed through the film and was calculated to be 1.0 x 1018 atoms/cm2 – 3.4 x 1018 atoms/cm2, depending upon the number of electropolymerization cycles. The electrodes also showed differences in surface roughness, which were dependent on film thickness

Inter-examination precision of magnitude-based MRI for estimation of segmental hepatic proton density fat fraction in obese subjects.

PurposeTo prospectively describe magnitude-based multi-echo gradient-echo hepatic proton density fat fraction (PDFF) inter-examination precision at 3 Tesla (T).Materials and methodsIn this prospective, Institutional Review Board-approved, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliant study, written informed consent was obtained from 29 subjects (body mass indexes > 30 kg/m2). Three 3T MRI examinations were obtained over 75-90 min. Segmental, lobar, and whole liver PDFF were estimated (using three, four, five, or six echoes) by magnitude-based multi-echo MRI in colocalized regions of interest. For estimate (using three, four, five, or six echoes), at each anatomic level (segmental, lobar, whole liver), three inter-examination precision metrics were computed: intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC), standard deviation (SD), and range.ResultsMagnitude-based PDFF estimates using each reconstruction method showed excellent inter-examination precision for each segment (ICC ≥ 0.992; SD ≤ 0.66%; range ≤ 1.24%), lobe (ICC ≥ 0.998; SD ≤ 0.34%; range ≤ 0.64%), and the whole liver (ICC = 0.999; SD ≤ 0.24%; range ≤ 0.45%). Inter-examination precision was unaffected by whether PDFF was estimated using three, four, five, or six echoes.ConclusionMagnitude-based PDFF estimation shows high inter-examination precision at segmental, lobar, and whole liver anatomic levels, supporting its use in clinical care or clinical trials. The results of this study suggest that longitudinal hepatic PDFF change greater than 1.6% is likely to represent signal rather than noise

Inter-examination precision of magnitude-based MRI for estimation of segmental hepatic proton density fat fraction in obese subjects.

PurposeTo prospectively describe magnitude-based multi-echo gradient-echo hepatic proton density fat fraction (PDFF) inter-examination precision at 3 Tesla (T).Materials and methodsIn this prospective, Institutional Review Board-approved, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliant study, written informed consent was obtained from 29 subjects (body mass indexes > 30 kg/m2). Three 3T MRI examinations were obtained over 75-90 min. Segmental, lobar, and whole liver PDFF were estimated (using three, four, five, or six echoes) by magnitude-based multi-echo MRI in colocalized regions of interest. For estimate (using three, four, five, or six echoes), at each anatomic level (segmental, lobar, whole liver), three inter-examination precision metrics were computed: intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC), standard deviation (SD), and range.ResultsMagnitude-based PDFF estimates using each reconstruction method showed excellent inter-examination precision for each segment (ICC ≥ 0.992; SD ≤ 0.66%; range ≤ 1.24%), lobe (ICC ≥ 0.998; SD ≤ 0.34%; range ≤ 0.64%), and the whole liver (ICC = 0.999; SD ≤ 0.24%; range ≤ 0.45%). Inter-examination precision was unaffected by whether PDFF was estimated using three, four, five, or six echoes.ConclusionMagnitude-based PDFF estimation shows high inter-examination precision at segmental, lobar, and whole liver anatomic levels, supporting its use in clinical care or clinical trials. The results of this study suggest that longitudinal hepatic PDFF change greater than 1.6% is likely to represent signal rather than noise

A Novel Role of Myosin VI in Human Prostate Cancer

Myosin VI is an actin motor that moves to the minus end of the polarized actin filament, a direction opposite to all other characterized myosins. Using expression microarrays, we identified myosin VI as one of the top genes that demonstrated cancer-specific overexpression in clinical prostate specimens. Protein expression of myosin VI was subsequently analyzed in arrayed prostate tissues from 240 patients. Notably, medium-grade prostate cancers demonstrated the most consistent cancer-specific myosin VI protein overexpression, whereas prostate cancers associated with more aggressive histological features continued to overexpress myosin VI but to a lesser extent. Myosin VI protein expression in cell lines positively correlated with the presence of androgen receptor. Small interference RNA-mediated myosin VI knockdown in the LNCaP human prostate cancer cell line resulted in impaired in vitro migration and soft-agar colony formation. Depletion of myosin VI expression was also accompanied by global gene expression changes reflective of attenuated tumorigenic potential, as marked by a nearly 10-fold induction of TXNIP (VDUP1), a tumor suppressor with decreased expression in prostate cancer specimens. These results support that myosin VI is critical in maintaining the malignant properties of the majority of human prostate cancers diagnosed today