Self-consistent variational theory for globules

A self-consistent variational theory for globules based on the uniform expansion method is presented. This method, first introduced by Edwards and Singh to estimate the size of a self-avoiding chain, is restricted to a good solvent regime, where two-body repulsion leads to chain swelling. We extend the variational method to a poor solvent regime where the balance between the two-body attractive and the three-body repulsive interactions leads to contraction of the chain to form a globule. By employing the Ginzburg criterion, we recover the correct scaling for the $\theta$-temperature. The introduction of the three-body interaction term in the variational scheme recovers the correct scaling for the two important length scales in the globule - its overall size $R$, and the thermal blob size $\xi_{T}$. Since these two length scales follow very different statistics - Gaussian on length scales $\xi_{T}$, and space filling on length scale $R$ - our approach extends the validity of the uniform expansion method to non-uniform contraction rendering it applicable to polymeric systems with attractive interactions. We present one such application by studying the Rayleigh instability of polyelectrolyte globules in poor solvents. At a critical fraction of charged monomers, $f_c$, along the chain backbone, we observe a clear indication of a first-order transition from a globular state at small $f$, to a stretched state at large $f$; in the intermediate regime the bistable equilibrium between these two states shows the existence of a pearl-necklace structure.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figur

Area Efficient Level Sensitive Flip-Flops – A Performance Comparison

Due to increased demand of portable and battery operated devices, ultra-low power and high speed devices with less area requirement are important nowadays. Latch is the basic element for all the sequential circuits. This paper presents comparison of various circuits of D latch on the basis of power consumption, area efficiency and delay. Basically in these latches transmission gates are replaced by pass transistors to reduce the transistor count. Comparison results indicate that latch design with least transistor count is the best choice for portable applications. Keywords: area efficient, latch, sub-threshold region, pass transistor, low power, level sensitive flip-flops, flip-flops

Renal tumor leading to acute respiratory distress syndrome – A rare occurrence

Adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) generally develops in the setting of sepsis, aspiration, shock or some other identifiable cause. Pulmonary involvement with neoplastic disease is an unusual but recognized cause of ARDS and has been rarely reported. Here we report a case of ARDS due to renal tumor most probably renal cell carcinoma (RCC).KEY WORDS: ARDS; Renal tumor; Adult respiratory distress syndrom

3D-printing: An emerging and a revolutionary technology in pharmaceuticals

© 2018 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA. One of the novel and progressive technology employed in pharmaceutical manufacturing, design of medical device and tissue engineering is three-dimensional (3D) printing. 3D printing technologies provide great advantages in 3D scaffolds fabrication over traditional methods in the control of pore size, porosity, and interconnectivity. Various techniques of 3D-printing include powder bed fusion, fused deposition modeling, binder deposition, inkjet printing, photopolymerization and many others which are still evolving. 3D-printing technique been employed in developing immediate release products, various systems to deliver multiple release modalities etc. 3D printing has opened the door for new generation of customized drug delivery with built-in flexibility for safer and effective therapy. Our mini-review provides a quick snapshot on an overview of 3D printing, various techniques employed, applications and its advancements in pharmaceutical sciences

A rolling horizon approach for optimal management of microgrids under stochastic uncertainty

This work presents a Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) approach based on a combination of a rolling horizon and stochastic programming formulation. The objective of the proposed formulation is the optimal management of the supply and demand of energy and heat in microgrids under uncertainty, in order to minimise the operational cost. Delays in the starting time of energy demands are allowed within a predefined time windows to tackle flexible demand profiles. This approach uses a scenario-based stochastic programming formulation. These scenarios consider uncertainty in the wind speed forecast, the processing time of the energy tasks and the overall heat demand, to take into account all possible scenarios related to the generation and demand of energy and heat. Nevertheless, embracing all external scenarios associated with wind speed prediction makes their consideration computationally intractable. Thus, updating input information (e.g., wind speed forecast) is required to guarantee good quality and practical solutions. Hence, the two-stage stochastic MILP formulation is introduced into a rolling horizon approach that periodically updates input information

Functional relevance of SATB1 in immune regulation and tumorigenesis

© 2018 The Special AT-rich Sequence Binding Protein 1 (SATB1) is a chromatin organiser and transcription factor which regulates numerous cellular processes such as differentiation, proliferation and apoptosis through effects on gene expression. SATB1 undergoes various post-translational modifications, which determine its interaction with co-activators and co-repressors to induce regulation of gene transcription. SATB1 is an identified oncogene, its increased expression is associated with poor prognosis in many cancers. This paper provides a review on SATB1-mediated immune responses and on its target genes in the context of tumorigenesis and tumour progression. Specifically, we discuss the role of SATB1 in tumour immunity, Epithelial to Mesenchymal Transition (EMT), metastasis and multidrug resistance. Therapeutic targeting of aberrant SATB1 may be an important strategy in the treatment of cancer

Aspiration of mediastinal hydatid cyst – A case report

Mediastinal hydatid cyst is very rare and has been only anecdotally reported in the literature. Because of surrounding vital structures, the cyst should be treated without delay, surgery being the mainstay of treatment. Here we report a case of hydatid cyst of the mediastinum which was managed by trans-thoracic aspiration followed by albendazole therapy

Detection of Basal Cell Carcinoma using Electrical Impedance and Neural Networks

Variations in electrical impedance over frequency might be used to distinguish basal cell carcinoma (BCC) from benign skin lesions, although the patterns that separate the two are nonobvious. Artificial neural networks (ANNs) may be good pattern classifiers for this application. A preliminary study to show the potential of neural networks to distinguish benign from malignant skin lesions using electrical impedance is presented. Electrical impedance was measured in vivo from 1 kHz to 1 MHz at five virtual depths on 18 BCC and 16 benign or premalignant lesions. A feed-forward neural network was trained using back propagation to classify these lesions. Two methods of preprocessing were used to account for the impedance of normal skin and the size of the lesion, one based on estimating the impedance of the lesion relative to adjacent normal skin and one based on estimating the impedance of the lesion independent of size or surrounding normal skin. Neural networks were able to classify measurements in a test set with 100% accuracy for the first preprocessing technique and 85% accuracy for the second. These results indicate electrical impedance may be a promising clinical diagnostic tool for basal cell carcinoma or other forms of skin cancer