1,430 research outputs found
Conjoined twin presenting as a case of “hanging breech” in labor – Case report
Conjoined twin is a rare phenomenon. This is a report of suspected undiagnosed bicephalus conjoined twin that presented as hanging breech which was delivered by craniotomy. It presented with management challenge, from attempted home delivery to a primary healthcare facilty and finally refered to the Specialist Hospital. The diagnosis was made after delivery. The finding was a male stillborn infant with normal body parts but two heads. Clinicians should look out for these complications when confronted with hanging breech.Keywords: Conjoined‑twin; hanging breech; labo
Radioprotective effect of lidocaine on neurotransmitter agonist-induced secretion in irradiated salivary glands.
Previously we verified the radioprotective effect of lidocaine on the function and ultrastructure of salivary glands in rabbits. However, the underlying mechanism of lidocaine's radioprotective effect is unknown. We hypothesized that lidocaine, as a membrane stabilization agent, has a protective effect on intracellular neuroreceptor-mediated signaling and hence can help preserve the secretory function of salivary glands during radiotherapy.
Rabbits were irradiated with or without pretreatment with lidocaine before receiving fractionated radiation to a total dose of 35 Gy. Sialoscintigraphy and saliva total protein assay were performed before radiation and 1 week after the last radiation fraction. Isolated salivary gland acini were stimulated with either carbachol or adrenaline. Ca(2+) influx in response to the stimulation with these agonists was measured using laser scanning confocal microscopy.
The uptake of activity and the excretion fraction of the parotid glands were significantly reduced after radiation, but lidocaine had a protective effect. Saliva total protein concentration was not altered after radiation. For isolated acini, Ca(2+) influx in response to stimulation with carbachol, but not adrenaline, was impaired after irradiation; lidocaine pretreatment attenuated this effect.
Lidocaine has a radioprotective effect on the capacity of muscarinic agonist-induced water secretion in irradiated salivary glands
Fast DNA translocation through a solid-state nanopore
We report translocation experiments on double-strand DNA through a silicon
oxide nanopore. Samples containing DNA fragments with seven different lengths
between 2000 to 96000 basepairs have been electrophoretically driven through a
10 nm pore. We find a power-law scaling of the translocation time versus
length, with an exponent of 1.26 0.07. This behavior is qualitatively
different from the linear behavior observed in similar experiments performed
with protein pores. We address the observed nonlinear scaling in a theoretical
model that describes experiments where hydrodynamic drag on the section of the
polymer outside the pore is the dominant force counteracting the driving. We
show that this is the case in our experiments and derive a power-law scaling
with an exponent of 1.18, in excellent agreement with our data.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures. Submitted to PR
Dragging a polymer chain into a nanotube and subsequent release
We present a scaling theory and Monte Carlo (MC) simulation results for a
flexible polymer chain slowly dragged by one end into a nanotube. We also
describe the situation when the completely confined chain is released and
gradually leaves the tube. MC simulations were performed for a self-avoiding
lattice model with a biased chain growth algorithm, the pruned-enriched
Rosenbluth method. The nanotube is a long channel opened at one end and its
diameter is much smaller than the size of the polymer coil in solution. We
analyze the following characteristics as functions of the chain end position
inside the tube: the free energy of confinement, the average end-to-end
distance, the average number of imprisoned monomers, and the average stretching
of the confined part of the chain for various values of and for the number
of monomers in the chain, . We show that when the chain end is dragged by a
certain critical distance into the tube, the polymer undergoes a
first-order phase transition whereby the remaining free tail is abruptly sucked
into the tube. This is accompanied by jumps in the average size, the number of
imprisoned segments, and in the average stretching parameter. The critical
distance scales as . The transition takes place when
approximately 3/4 of the chain units are dragged into the tube. The theory
presented is based on constructing the Landau free energy as a function of an
order parameter that provides a complete description of equilibrium and
metastable states. We argue that if the trapped chain is released with all
monomers allowed to fluctuate, the reverse process in which the chain leaves
the confinement occurs smoothly without any jumps. Finally, we apply the theory
to estimate the lifetime of confined DNA in metastable states in nanotubes.Comment: 13pages, 14figure
Chaperone-assisted translocation of a polymer through a nanopore
Using Langevin dynamics simulations, we investigate the dynamics of
chaperone-assisted translocation of a flexible polymer through a nanopore. We
find that increasing the binding energy between the chaperone and
the chain and the chaperone concentration can greatly improve the
translocation probability. Particularly, with increasing the chaperone
concentration a maximum translocation probability is observed for weak binding.
For a fixed chaperone concentration, the histogram of translocation time
has a transition from long-tailed distribution to Gaussian distribution with
increasing . rapidly decreases and then almost saturates with
increasing binding energy for short chain, however, it has a minimum for longer
chains at lower chaperone concentration. We also show that has a minimum
as a function of the chaperone concentration. For different , a
nonuniversal dependence of on the chain length is also observed.
These results can be interpreted by characteristic entropic effects for
flexible polymers induced by either crowding effect from high chaperone
concentration or the intersegmental binding for the high binding energy.Comment: 10 pages, to appear in J. Am. Chem. So
Self-energy limited ion transport in sub-nanometer channels
The current-voltage characteristics of the alpha-Hemolysin protein pore
during the passage of single-stranded DNA under varying ionic strength, C, are
studied experimentally. We observe strong blockage of the current, weak
super-linear growth of the current as a function of voltage, and a minimum of
the current as a function of C. These observations are interpreted as the
result of the ion electrostatic self-energy barrier originating from the large
difference in the dielectric constants of water and the lipid bilayer. The
dependence of DNA capture rate on C also agrees with our model.Comment: more experimental material is added. 4 pages, 7 figure
Blinking statistics of a molecular beacon triggered by end-denaturation of DNA
We use a master equation approach based on the Poland-Scheraga free energy
for DNA denaturation to investigate the (un)zipping dynamics of a denaturation
wedge in a stretch of DNA, that is clamped at one end. In particular, we
quantify the blinking dynamics of a fluorophore-quencher pair mounted within
the denaturation wedge. We also study the behavioural changes in the presence
of proteins, that selectively bind to single-stranded DNA. We show that such a
setup could be well-suited as an easy-to-implement nanodevice for sensing
environmental conditions in small volumes.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, LaTeX, IOP style. Accepted to J Phys Cond Mat
special issue on diffusio
Observations and predictions at CesrTA, and outlook for ILC
In this paper, we will describe some of the recent experimental measurements
[1, 2, 3] performed at CESRTA [4], and the supporting simulations, which probe
the interaction of the electron cloud with the stored beam. These experiments
have been done over a wide range of beam energies, emittances, bunch currents,
and fill patterns, to gather sufficient information to be able to fully
characterize the beam-electron-cloud interaction and validate the simulation
programs. The range of beam conditions is chosen to be as close as possible to
those of the ILC damping ring, so that the validated simulation programs can be
used to predict the performance of these rings with regard to electroncloud-
related phenomena. Using the new simulation code Synrad3D to simulate the
synchrotron radiation environment, a vacuum chamber design has been developed
for the ILC damping ring which achieves the required level of photoelectron
suppression. To determine the expected electron cloud density in the ring, EC
buildup simulations have been done based on the simulated radiation environment
and on the expected performance of the ILC damping ring chamber mitigation
prescriptions. The expected density has been compared with analytical estimates
of the instability threshold, to verify that the ILC damping ring vacuum
chamber design is adequate to suppress the electron cloud single-bunch
head-tail instability.Comment: 11 pages, contribution to the Joint INFN-CERN-EuCARD-AccNet Workshop
on Electron-Cloud Effects: ECLOUD'12; 5-9 Jun 2012, La Biodola, Isola d'Elba,
Ital
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