Auger Spectra and Different Ionic Charges Following 3s, 3p and 3d Sub-Shells Photoionization of Kr Atoms

The decay of inner-shell vacancy in an atom through radiative and non-radiative transitions leads to final charged ions. The de-excitation decay of 3s, 3p and 3d vacancies in Kr atoms are calculated using Monte-Carlo simulation method. The vacancy cascade pathway resulted from the de-excitation decay of deep core hole in 3s subshell in Kr atoms is discussed. The generation of spectator vacancies during the vacancy cascade development gives rise to Auger satellite spectra. The last transitions of the de-excitation decay of 3s, 3p and 3d holes lead to specific charged ions. Dirac-Fock-Slater wave functions are adapted to calculate radiative and non-radiative transition probabilities. The intensity of Kr^{4+} ions are high for 3s hole state, whereas Kr^{3+} and Kr^{2+} ions have highest intensities for 3p and 3d hole states, respectively. The present results of ion charge state distributions agree well with the experimental data.Comment: Published in SIGMA (Symmetry, Integrability and Geometry: Methods and Applications) at http://www.emis.de/journals/SIGMA

Semiclassical Hartree-Fock theory of a rotating Bose-Einstein condensation

In this paper, we investigate the thermodynamic behavior of a rotating Bose-Einstein condensation with non-zero interatomic interactions theoretically. The analysis relies on a semiclassical Hartree-Fock approximation where an integral is performed over the phase space and function of the grand canonical ensemble is derived. Subsequently, we use this result to derive several thermodynamic quantities including the condensate fraction, critical temperature, entropy and heat capacity. Thereby, we investigate the effect of the rotation rate and interactions parameter on the thermodynamic behavior. The role of finite size is discussed. Our approach can be extended to consider the rotating condensate in optical potential

Auger Spectra and Different Ionic Charges Following 3s, 3p and 3d Sub-Shells Photoionization of Kr Atoms

The decay of inner-shell vacancy in an atom through radiative and non-radiative transitions leads to final charged ions. The de-excitation decay of 3s, 3p and 3d vacancies in Kr atoms are calculated using Monte-Carlo simulation method. The vacancy cascade pathway resulted from the de-excitation decay of deep core hole in 3s subshell in Kr atoms is discussed. The generation of spectator vacancies during the vacancy cascade development gives rise to Auger satellite spectra. The last transitions of the de-excitation decay of 3s, 3p and 3d holes lead to specific charged ions. Dirac-Fock-Slater wave functions are adapted to calculate radiative and non-radiative transition probabilities. The intensity of Kr⁴⁺ ions are high for 3s hole state, whereas Kr³⁺ and Kr²⁺ ions have highest intensities for 3p and 3d hole states, respectively. The present results of ion charge state distributions agree well with the experimental data. Remove selecte

Serum Activins and Follistatin during the Treatment of Chronic Hepatitis C Genotypes 1 and 4 and Their Correlations with Viral Load and Liver Enzymes: A Preliminary Report

Aims. To measure the effect of pegylated interferon-α therapy on serum activin-A, activin-B, and follistatin and their correlation with viral load and liver fibrosis in chronic hepatitis C (CHC). Methods. This study was cross-sectional and sera were collected from 165 participants classified into 7 groups: 40 healthy negative control, 33 treatment naïve patients as positive control, 19 patients at week 4, 22 at week 12, and 19 at week 24 of treatment initiation and 21 responders and 11 nonresponders at the end of 48-week treatment protocol. Serum candidate proteins were measured using ELISA and liver fibrosis was assessed by AST platelet ratio index (APRI). Results. CHC significantly increased activins and decreased follistatin compared to negative control (P<0.05). Activin-A and follistatin levels returned to the levels of negative control group at weeks 4, 12, and 24 following treatment initiation and were significantly different from positive control (P<0.05). Both proteins were significantly different between responders and nonresponders. Activin-A correlated positively and significantly with the viral load and APRI. Conclusion. CHC modulates serum activin-A and follistatin and they appear to be influenced by pegylated interferon-α therapy. Further studies are needed to explore the role of activins in CHC

Caffeic acid phenyl ester prevents cadmium intoxication induced disturbances in erythrocyte indices and blood coagulability, hepatorenal dysfunction and oxidative stress in rats

Here we investigated the protective role of caffeic acid phenyl ester (CAPE) on erythrocyte indices and osmotic resistance, blood coagulation, hepato-renal function and antioxidant status in cadmium (Cd) toxicity in rats. Cd intoxication was induced by intraperitoneal injection (i.p.) of cadmium chloride (1mg/kg/day) for 21 days, and CAPE was daily given (10μmol/kg; i.p.) also for 21 days. At day 22, blood samples, livers and kidneys were prepared for screening of: (1) erythrocyte indices: red blood cell (RBC) count, osmotic fragility, hemoglobin (HGB) concentration, hematocrit (HCT), mean corpuscular volume (MCV), mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH), and mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC); (2) blood coagulation tests: prothrombin time (PT), activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT), and fibrinogen (FIB) level; (3) serum levels of liver and kidney function biomarkers (aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, alkaline phosphatase, albumin, creatinine and blood urea nitrogen); (4) blood, liver and kidney levels of Cd; and (5) serum and hepato-renal concentrations of glutathione (GSH), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS). Cd intoxication significantly impaired hepato-renal function, prolonged PT and APTT, reduced FIB, decreased RBC count and osmoresistnacy as well as the values of HGB, HCT, MCV, MCH and MCHC. Interestingly, therapy with CAPE successfully eliminated Cd and significantly stabilized erythrocyte indices, blood coagulability and hepato-renal functional status in Cd-intoxication. Additionally, CAPE therapy significantly reversed the decreases in GSH and SOD, and the increases in TBARs that were induced by Cd intoxication. In conclusion, CAPE can represent a promising therapeutic agent in eliminating Cd and counteracting its hematological, hemostasis and hepatorenal toxic effects

Combinatorial strategies based on CRAd-IL24 and CRAd-ING4 virotherapy with anti-angiogenesis treatment for ovarian cancer

BACKGROUND: A major hurdle incurrent to the human clinical application of conditionally replicative adenovirus (CRAd)-based virotherapy agents is their limited therapeutic efficacy. In this study we evaluated whether arming our previously reported Ad5/3Δ24 CRAd vector containing a 24-base pair deletion in the E1A conserved region 2, which allows selective replication within Rb-p16-deficient tumor cells, to express therapeutic genes could improve oncolytic virus potency in ovarian cancer cells. We choose to assess the therapeutic benefits achieved by virus-mediated expression of interleukin 24 (IL-24), a cytokine-like protein of the IL-10 family, and the inhibitor of growth 4 (ING4) tumor suppressor protein. RESULTS: The generated CRAd-IL24 and CRAd-ING4 vectors were tested in ovarian cancer cell lines in vitro to compare their replication, yield, and cytotoxic effects with control CRAd Ad5/3∆24 lacking the therapeutic gene. These studies showed that CRAd-IL24 infection resulted in significantly increased yield of infectious particles, which translated to a marked enhancement of virus-induced cytotoxic effects as compared to CRAd-ING4 and non-armed CRAd. Testing CRAd-IL24 and CRAd-ING4 vectors combined together did not revealed synergistic effects exceeding oncolytic potency of single CRAD-IL24 vector. Both CRAds were also tested along with anti-VEGF monoclonal antibody Avastin and showed no significant augmentation of viral cytolysis by anti-angiogenesis treatment in vitro. CONCLUSIONS: Our studies validated that arming with these key immunomodulatory genes was not deleterious to virus-mediated oncolysis. These findings thus, warrant further preclinical studies of CRAd-IL24 tumoricidal efficacy in murine ovarian cancer models to establish its potential utility for the virotherapy of primary and advanced neoplastic diseases

Review Article Activins and Follistatin in Chronic Hepatitis C and Its Treatment with Pegylated-Interferon-Based Therapy

Pegylated-interferon-based therapy for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C (CHC) is considered suboptimal as not all patients respond to the treatment and it is associated with several side effects that could lead to dose reduction and/or termination of therapy. The currently used markers to monitor the response to treatment are based on viral kinetics and their performance in the prediction of treatment outcome is moderate and does not combine accuracy and their values have several limitations. Hence, the development of new sensitive and specific predictor markers could provide a useful tool for the clinicians and healthcare providers, especially in the new era of interferon-free therapy, for the classification of patients according to their response to the standard therapy and only subscribing the novel directly acting antiviral drugs to those who are anticipated not to respond to the conventional therapy and/or have absolute contraindications for its use. The importance of activins and follistatin in the regulation of immune system, liver biology, and pathology has recently emerged. This review appraises the up-to-date knowledge regarding the role of activins and follistatin in liver biology and immune system and their role in the pathophysiology of CHC