Asymptotic Iteration Method Solutions to the Relativistic Duffin-Kemmer-Petiau Equation

A simple exact analytical solution of the relativistic Duffin-Kemmer-Petiau equation within the framework of the asymptotic iteration method is presented. Exact bound state energy eigenvalues and corresponding eigenfunctions are determined for the relativistic harmonic oscillator as well as the Coulomb potentials. As a non-trivial example, the anharmonic oscillator is solved and the energy eigenvalues are obtained within the perturbation theory using the asymptotic iteration method.Comment: 17 pages written with LaTeX Revtex4. accepted for publication in Journal of Mathematical Physic

Photophysical and photochemical properties of a novel thiol terminated low symmetry zinc phthalocyanine complex and its gold nanoparticles conjugate

A novel thiol functionalized zinc phthalocyanine complex (ZnPcSH) is reported in this work. This complex was conjugated to gold nanoparticles. The photophysical and photochemical properties of the complex and the conjugate were investigated. Upon conjugation a blue shift was observed from the UV-Vis spectra. The conjugate showed a decrease in the fluorescence quantum yield and lifetime. An increase in the triplet quantum yield and lifetime was observed for ZnPcSH following conjugation to gold nanoparticles. Both ZnPcSH and its conjugate with gold nanoparticles showed high singlet oxygen quantum yields with the conjugate being higher than the Pc alone

Diagnostic and prognostic role of TFF3, Romo-1, NF-кB and SFRP4 as biomarkers for endometrial and ovarian cancers: a prospective observational translational study

Purpose: This study aimed to evaluate trefoil factor 3 (TFF3), secreted frizzled-related protein 4 (sFRP4), reactive oxygen species modulator 1 (Romo1) and nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) as diagnostic and prognostic markers of endometrial cancer (EC) and ovarian cancer (OC). Methods: Thirty-one patients with EC and 30 patients with OC undergone surgical treatment were enrolled together with 30 healthy controls in a prospective study. Commercial ELISA kits determined serum TFF-3, Romo-1, NF-кB and sFRP-4 concentrations. Results: Serum TFF-3, Romo-1 and NF-кB levels were significantly higher in patients with EC and OC than those without cancer. Regarding EC, none of the serum biomarkers differs significantly between endometrial and non-endometrioid endometrial carcinomas. Mean serum TFF-3 and NF-кB levels were significantly higher in advanced stages. Increased serum levels of TFF-3 and NF-кB were found in those with a higher grade of the disease. Regarding OC, none of the serum biomarkers differed significantly among histological subtypes. Significantly increased serum levels of NF-кB were observed in patients with advanced-stage OC than those with stage I and II diseases. No difference in serum biomarker levels was found between those who had a recurrence and those who had not. The sensibility and specificity of these four biomarkers in discriminating EC and OC from the control group showed encouraging values, although no one reached 70%. Conclusions: TFF-3, Romo-1, NF-кB and SFRP4 could represent new diagnostic and prognostic markers for OC and EC. Further studies are needed to validate our results

Effect of Er:YAG laser enamel conditioning and moisture on the microleakage of a hydrophilic sealant

For a given sealant, successful pit and fissure sealing is principally governed by the enamel conditioning technique and the presence of moisture contamination. A new generation of hydrophilic resin sealants is reported to tolerate moisture. This study investigates the impact of Er:YAG laser pre-conditioning and moisture contamination on the microleakage of a recent hydrophilic sealant. Occlusal surfaces of extracted human molars were either acid etched (n = 30), or successively lased and acid etched (n = 30). Ten teeth from each group were either air-dried, water-contaminated, or saliva-contaminated prior to sealing with UltraSeal XT® hydro™. Samples were inspected for penetration of fuchsin dye following 3000 thermocycles between 5 and 50 °C, and the enamel–sealant interfaces were observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Significant differences in microleakage were evaluated using the Mann–Whitney U test with Bonferroni adjustment (p = 0.05). Laser pre-conditioning significantly reduced dye penetration irrespective of whether the enamel surface was moist or dry. Microleakageof water-contaminated acid etched teeth was significantly greater than that of their air-dried or saliva-contaminated counterparts. SEM analysis demonstrated good adaptation in all groups with the exception of water-contaminated acid etched teeth which exhibited relatively wide gaps. In conclusion, this hydrophilic sealant tolerates the presence of saliva, although water was found to impair its sealing ability. Laser pre-conditioning significantly decreases microleakage in all cases

A comprehensive analysis of the epidemiology and clinical characteristics of anti-LRP4 in myasthenia gravis

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Effect of Wood-derived Charcoal Content on Properties of Wood Plastic Composites

The effect of wood-derived charcoal flour on the water resistance and mechanical properties of wood plastic composite (WPC) panels was investigated. The hot press molded WPC panels were produced from polypropylene (37 wt%) with maleic anhydride-grafted polypropylene (MAPP, 3 wt%) and different mixtures of wood flour and charcoal flour. The amount of charcoal flour was gradually increased up to 60 wt%. The thickness swelling and water absorption of WPC panels considerably decreased with increasing charcoal flour content. The internal bond strength and bending properties of the WPC panels significantly improved with increasing charcoal flour content. This was mainly attributed to the high amount of pores and gaps in the charcoal flour. Melted polypropylene could get into the pores and gaps during the hot press molding, which lead to a better interfacial adhesion between polymer matrix and wood filler. The results showed that the charcoal flour could be partially substituted for the wood flour in the production of WPC panels having higher dimensional stability and internal bond strength

Revisiting clustering as matrix factorisation on the Stiefel manifold

International audienceThis paper studies clustering for possibly high dimensional data (e.g. images, time series, gene expression data, and many other settings), and rephrase it as low rank matrix estimation in the PAC-Bayesian framework. Our approach leverages the well known Burer-Monteiro factorisation strategy from large scale optimisation, in the context of low rank estimation. Moreover, our Burer-Monteiro factors are shown to lie on a Stiefel manifold. We propose a new generalized Bayesian estimator for this problem and prove novel prediction bounds for clustering. We also devise a componentwise Langevin sampler on the Stiefel manifold to compute this estimator

Detection of collagen triple helix repeat containing-1 and nuclear factor (erythroid-derived 2)-like 3 in colorectal cancer

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Collagen Triple Helix Repeat Containing-1 (CTHRC1) and Nuclear factor (erythroid-derived 2)-like 3 (NFE2L3) may be useful biomarker candidates for the diagnosis of colorectal cancer (CRC) since they have shown an increase messenger RNA transcripts (mRNA) expression level in adenomas and colorectal tumours when compared to normal tissues.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>To evaluate CTHRC1 and NFE2L3 as cancer biomarkers, it was generated and characterised several novel specific polyclonal antibodies (PAb), monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) and soluble Fab fragments (sFabs) against recombinant CTHRC1 and NFE2L3 proteins, which were obtained from different sources, including a human antibody library and immunised animals. The antibodies and Fab fragments were tested for recognition of native CTHRC1 and NFE2L3 proteins by immunoblotting analysis and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in colorectal cell lines derived from tumour and cancer tissues.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Both, antibodies and a Fab fragment showed high specificity since they recognised only their corresponding recombinant antigens, but not a panel of different unrelated- and related proteins.</p> <p>In Western blot analysis of CTHRC1, a monoclonal antibody designated CH21D7 was able to detect a band of the apparent molecular weight of a full-length CTHRC1 in the human colon adenocarcinoma cell line HT29. This result was confirmed by a double antibody sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (DAS-ELISA) with the monoclonal antibodies CH21D7 and CH24G2, detecting CTHRC1 in HT29 and in the colon adenocarcinoma cell line SW620.</p> <p>Similar experiments were performed with PAb, MAbs, and sFab against NFE2L3. The immunoblot analysis showed that the monoclonal antibody 41HF8 recognised NFE2L3 in HT29, and leukocytes. These results were verified by DAS-ELISA assay using the pairs PAb/sFab E5 and MAb 41HF8/sFab E5.</p> <p>Furthermore, an immunoassay for simultaneous detection of the two cancer biomarkers was developed using a Dissociation-Enhanced Lanthanide Fluorescent Immunoassay technology (DELFIA).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>In conclusion, the antibodies obtained in this study are specific for CTHRC1 and NFE2L3 since they do not cross-react with unrelated- and related proteins and are useful for specific measurement of native CTHRC1 and NFE2L3 proteins. The antibodies and immunoassays may be useful for the analysis of CTHRC1 and NFE2L3 in clinical samples and for screening of therapeutic compounds in CRC.</p

Cthrc1 Is a Positive Regulator of Osteoblastic Bone Formation

Bone mass is maintained by continuous remodeling through repeated cycles of bone resorption by osteoclasts and bone formation by osteoblasts. This remodeling process is regulated by many systemic and local factors.We identified collagen triple helix repeat containing-1 (Cthrc1) as a downstream target of bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP2) in osteochondroprogenitor-like cells by PCR-based suppression subtractive hybridization followed by differential hybridization, and found that Cthrc1 was expressed in bone tissues in vivo. To investigate the role of Cthrc1 in bone, we generated Cthrc1-null mice and transgenic mice which overexpress Cthrc1 in osteoblasts (Cthrc1 transgenic mice). Microcomputed tomography (micro-CT) and bone histomorphometry analyses showed that Cthrc1-null mice displayed low bone mass as a result of decreased osteoblastic bone formation, whereas Cthrc1 transgenic mice displayed high bone mass by increase in osteoblastic bone formation. Osteoblast number was decreased in Cthrc1-null mice, and increased in Cthrc1 transgenic mice, respectively, while osteoclast number had no change in both mutant mice. In vitro, colony-forming unit (CFU) assays in bone marrow cells harvested from Cthrc1-null mice or Cthrc1 transgenic mice revealed that Cthrc1 stimulated differentiation and mineralization of osteoprogenitor cells. Expression levels of osteoblast specific genes, ALP, Col1a1, and Osteocalcin, in primary osteoblasts were decreased in Cthrc1-null mice and increased in Cthrc1 transgenic mice, respectively. Furthermore, BrdU incorporation assays showed that Cthrc1 accelerated osteoblast proliferation in vitro and in vivo. In addition, overexpression of Cthrc1 in the transgenic mice attenuated ovariectomy-induced bone loss.Our results indicate that Cthrc1 increases bone mass as a positive regulator of osteoblastic bone formation and offers an anabolic approach for the treatment of osteoporosis