670 research outputs found
Nanomedicines as cancer therapeutics: Current status
As of 21st century, cancer is arguably the most complex and challenging disease known to mankind and an inevitable public health concern of this millennium. Nanotechnology, suitably amalgamated with cancer research, has ushered an era of highly personalized and safer medicines which can improve cancer diagnosis and therapy. A wide variety of nanomedicines are currently under investigation, including polymeric/non-polymeric nanoparticles, dendrimers, quantum dots, carbon nanotubes, lipid- and micelle-based nanoparticles. The bases of these nanomedicines in reducing toxicity associated with cancer therapy are their ability to carry a large payload and multivalent-ligand targeting. This imparts specificity for targeting the tissues as well as bypass resistance mechanisms. The major hurdles on these future medicines are potential toxicity of nanoparticles, which imposes the need of extensive regulatory evaluation before nanomedicines could be utilized as cancer therapeutics. This review highlights nanopharmaceuticals that have been investigated in oncology for various applications (diagnosis, therapeutic delivery and theranostics). It also discusses the effects of nano-sized materials on tissues/organ functions, the possibility of overcoming multi-drug resistance by using nanomedicines and their current clinical status
Xanthine oxidase-derived reactive oxygen metabolites contribute to liver necrosis: protection by 4-hydroxypyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidine
AbstractXanthine oxidase (XO) generates reactive oxygen metabolites (ROM) as a by-product while catalyzing their reaction. The present study implicates these ROM in the pathogenesis of liver necrosis produced in rats by the intraperitoneal administration of thioacetamide (TAA; 400 mg/kg b.wt.). After 16 h of TAA administration, the activity of rat liver XO increased significantly compared to that of the control group. At the same time, the level of serum marker enzymes of liver necrosis (aminotransferases and alkaline phosphatase) and tissue malondialdehyde content also increased in TAA treated rats. Tissue malondialdehyde concentration is an indicator of lipid peroxidation and acts as a useful marker of oxidative damage. Pretreatment of rats with XO inhibitor (4-hydroxypyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidine; allopurinol (AP)) followed by TAA could lower the hepatotoxin-mediated rise in malondialdehyde level as well as the level of marker enzymes associated with liver necrosis. The survival rate also increased in rats given AP followed by the lethal dose of TAA. In either case, the effect of AP was dose-dependent. Results presented in the paper indicate that increased production of XO-derived ROM contributes to liver necrosis, which can be protected by AP
The second and third Sonine coefficients of a freely cooling granular gas revisited
In its simplest statistical-mechanical description, a granular fluid can be
modeled as composed of smooth inelastic hard spheres (with a constant
coefficient of normal restitution ) whose velocity distribution
function obeys the Enskog-Boltzmann equation. The basic state of a granular
fluid is the homogeneous cooling state, characterized by a homogeneous,
isotropic, and stationary distribution of scaled velocities, .
The behavior of in the domain of thermal velocities ()
can be characterized by the two first non-trivial coefficients ( and
) of an expansion in Sonine polynomials. The main goals of this paper are
to review some of the previous efforts made to estimate (and measure in
computer simulations) the -dependence of and , to report new
computer simulations results of and for two-dimensional systems,
and to investigate the possibility of proposing theoretical estimates of
and with an optimal compromise between simplicity and accuracy.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures; v2: minor change
Radiative corrections to low energy neutrino reactions
We show that the radiative corrections to charged current (CC) nuclear
reactions with an electron(positron) in the final state are described by a
universal function. The consistency of our treatment of the radiative
corrections with the procedure used to extract the value of the axial coupling
constant is discussed. To illustrate we apply our results to
(anti)neutrino deuterium disintegration and to fusion in the sun. The
limit of vanishing electron mass is considered, and a simple formula valid for
E_{obs}\gsim 1 MeV is obtained. The size of the nuclear structure-dependent
effects is also discussed. Finally, we consider CC transitions with an
electron(positron) in the initial state and discuss some applications to
electron capture reactions.Comment: 23 pages, 5 figure
Supernova Neutrinos and the LSND Evidence for Neutrino Oscillations
The observation of the energy spectrum from a supernova burst
can provide constraints on neutrino oscillations. We derive formulas for
adiabatic oscillations of supernova antineutrinos for a variety of 3- and
4-neutrino mixing schemes and mass hierarchies which are consistent with the
LSND evidence for oscillations.
Finally, we explore the constraints on these models and LSND given by the
supernova SN1987A 's observed by the Kamiokande-2 and IMB-3
detectors.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures. Changes with respect to original version:
appendix added; minor changes in text, figures, reference
Innovative Overheating solution for solar thermal collector using a reflective surface included in the air gap
In this work, a new solution to prevent the overheating of solar collectors in the case of stagnation is presented. The solution proposed consists of inserting a reflective sheet inside the solar collector between the absorber and the glass cover to reduce the incoming energy by reflecting solar radiation. This protection is switched ON or OFF according to the absorber temperature. A prototype has been manufactured and tested in outside conditions and in laboratory. A numerical model of the solar collector with the protection was developed and has been validated. The calculated temperature values are very close to the measured data. The experimental and numerical results showed the good behaviour of the proposed solution
Generalized Parton Distributions from Hadronic Observables: Non-Zero Skewness
We propose a physically motivated parametrization for the unpolarized
generalized parton distributions, H and E, valid at both zero and non-zero
values of the skewness variable, \zeta. Our approach follows a previous
detailed study of the \zeta=0 case where H and E were determined using
constraints from simultaneous fits of the experimental data on both the nucleon
elastic form factors and the deep inelastic structure functions in the non
singlet sector. Additional constraints at \zeta \neq 0 are provided by lattice
calculations of the higher moments of generalized parton distributions. We
illustrate a method for extracting generalized parton distributions from
lattice moments based on a reconstruction using sets of orthogonal polynomials.
The inclusion in our fit of data on Deeply Virtual Compton Scattering is also
discussed. Our method provides a step towards a model independent extraction of
generalized distributions from the data. It also provides an alternative to
double distributions based phenomenological models in that we are able to
satisfy the polynomiality condition by construction, using a combination of
experimental data and lattice, without resorting to any specific mathematical
construct.Comment: 29 pages, 8 figures; added references, changed text in several place
Reexamining nonstandard interaction effects on supernova neutrino flavor oscillations
Several extensions of the standard electroweak model allow new four-fermion
interactions (nu_a nu_b * ff) with strength eps_ab*G_F, where (a,b) are flavor
indices. We revisit their effects on flavor oscillations of massive
(anti)neutrinos in supernovae, in order to achieve, in the region above the
protoneutron star, an analytical treatment valid for generic values of the
neutrino mixing angles (omega,phi,psi)=(theta_12,theta_13,theta_23). Assuming
that eps_ab<<1, we find that the leading effects on the flavor transitions
occurring at high (H) and low (L) density along the supernova matter profile
can be simply embedded through the replacements phi-->phi+eps_H and
omega-->omega+eps_L, respectively, where eps_H and eps_L are specific linear
combinations of the eps_ab's. Similar replacements hold for eventual
oscillations in the Earth matter. From a phenomenological point of view, the
most relevant consequence is a possible uncontrolled bias (phi-->phi+eps_H) in
the value of the mixing angle phi inferred by inversion of supernova neutrino
data. Such a drawback, however, does not preclude the discrimination of the
neutrino mass spectrum hierarchy (direct or inverse) through supernova neutrino
oscillations.Comment: Text clarified, one figure added. To appear in PR
Sum rules and dualities for generalized parton distributions: is there a holographic principle?
To leading order approximation, the physical content of generalized parton
distributions (GPDs) that is accessible in deep virtual electroproduction of
photons or mesons is contained in their value on the cross-over trajectory.
This trajectory separates the t-channel and s-channel dominated GPD regions.
The underlying Lorentz covariance implies correspondence between these two
regions through their relation to GPDs on the cross-over trajectory. This point
of view leads to a family of GPD sum rules which are a quark analogue of finite
energy sum rules and it guides us to a new phenomenological GPD concept. As an
example, we discuss the constraints from the JLab/Hall A data on the dominant
u-quark GPD H. The question arises whether GPDs are governed by some kind of
holographic principle.Comment: 45 pages, 4 figures, Sect. 2 reorganized for clarity. Typos in Eq.
(20) corrected. 4 new refs. Matches published versio
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