\u3cem\u3eβ\u3c/em\u3e-Homopipitzolone

The structure of β-homopipitzolone (one of the two isomers of an intermediate product in the homocedrole synthesis) has been unequivocally established as 1 O-hydroxy-2,6,9-trimetbyltricyclo[6.3.1.01,6] dodeca-9-ene-5, II, 12-trione with relative IR,2R,6R,8S configuration

Near infra-red photoimmunotherapy with anti-CEA-IR700 results in extensive tumor lysis and a significant decrease in tumor burden in orthotopic mouse models of pancreatic cancer.

Photoimmunotherapy (PIT) of cancer utilizes tumor-specific monoclonal antibodies conjugated to a photosensitizer phthalocyanine dye IR700 which becomes cytotoxic upon irradiation with near infrared light. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the efficacy of PIT on human pancreatic cancer cells in vitro and in vivo in an orthotopic nude mouse model. The binding capacity of anti-CEA antibody to BxPC-3 human pancreatic cancer cells was determined by FACS analysis. An in vitro cytotoxicity assay was used to determine cell death following treatment with PIT. For in vivo determination of PIT efficacy, nude mice were orthotopically implanted with BxPC-3 pancreatic tumors expressing green fluorescent protein (GFP). After tumor engraftment, the mice were divided into two groups: (1) treatment with anti-CEA-IR700 + 690 nm laser and (2) treatment with 690 nm laser only. Anti-CEA-IR700 (100 μg) was administered to group (1) via tail vein injection 24 hours prior to therapy. Tumors were then surgically exposed and treated with phototherapy at an intensity of 150 mW/cm2 for 30 minutes. Whole body imaging was done subsequently for 5 weeks using an OV-100 small animal imaging system. Anti-CEA-IR700 antibody bound to the BxPC3 cells to a high degree as shown by FACS analysis. Anti-CEA-IR700 caused extensive cancer cell killing after light activation compared to control cells in cytotoxicity assays. In the orthotopic models of pancreatic cancer, the anti-CEA-IR700 group had significantly smaller tumors than the control after 5 weeks (p<0.001). There was no significant difference in the body weights of mice in the anti-CEA-IR700 and control groups indicating that PIT was well tolerated by the mice

Anaerobic co-digestion of pear residues and sewage sludge using a CSTR digester. Influence of the feed procedure

Anaerobic co-digestion of pear residues with sewage sludge is feasible. Important differences are obtained from the two feed regimes tested, with better results for the so-called continuous feed. The organic loading rate (OLR) is the important parameter for the methane productionUniversidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Investigation of noise sources in the LTP interferometer S2-AEI-TN-3028

All breadboards for the LTP interferometer showed an extra noise term that was, until recently, not fully understood. In this report that noise term is investigated in detail. It turns out that it is caused by sidebands on the light. In our lab, these sidebands were caused by nonlinear mixing processes in the power amplifiers that drive the AOM, if electromagnetic interference at a frequency near the operating frequency (ca. 80 MHz) is picked up by the power amplifier. The disturbing nearby frequency is the frequency of the other AOM, with a difference of exactly f_het, causing multiple sidebands at integer multiples of f_het from the carrier. They appear as pairs with a phase relationship that corresponds to phase-modulation (PM). Experiments with a very different electrical setup (in Glasgow) also showed sidebands which demonstrates that they are not caused by peculiarities of the Hannover setup. While the effect of a pair of first-order PM sidebands cancels and causes no harm, only one of the second-order sidebands produces noise which cannot be cancelled by its second-order mirror image. Hence the second-order sidebands are the dominant noise source. Various strategies of mitigation are also investigated. The two most important ones, both of which are already implemented as baseline for the LTP interferometer, are (1) to reduce the sidebands by careful EMC design and dedicated testing, and (2) to stabilize the optical pathlength difference (OPD) between the two fibers with a Piezo device. The combination of these two measures will reduce this error term to insignificance. We have also investigated other noise sources such as laser amplitude noise and beam jitter noise. Laser amplitude noise does have an influence on the total performance of the interferometer. Using a laser amplitude stabilization (part of the baseline), its influence can also be sufficiently reduced. Contrary to earlier worries, we did not find a significant noise contribution from beam jitter noise in conjunction with quadrant photodiodes. As part of this investigation we have also developed a mathematical model for the sideband coupling that fully describes their effect and has been experimentally verified. Furthermore we have developed various numerical procedures to find correlations between auxiliary data streams (such as alignment signals) and the main interferometer output. They are useful for diagnostic purposes, but in general too complex to implement on LTP. Using only those procedures that are the baseline for the FM, the noise performance of the LTP EM interferometer in the lab is now well below its specifications at all frequencies, with remaining noise sources mainly driven by ground-based disturbances, such that we are confident that the LTP interferometer will perform well on orbit and will enable the detailed study of the behaviour and noise performance of the inertial sensor and DFACS systems, which indeed is the primary job of the interferometer. Comment of the Author: Version 1.2 2008/07/0

Effect of NaHCO3 addition on the anaerobic co-digestion of fruit and vegetable waste and sewage sludge performance

Digestion of FVW residues with sewage sludge is feasible as long as the FVW to sludge ratio fed to the batch digester is not too large. The pH is the main variable determining the reactor performance and can be controlled by NaHCO3 addition.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Conformal mechanics inspired by extremal black holes in d=4

A canonical transformation which relates the model of a massive relativistic particle moving near the horizon of an extremal black hole in four dimensions and the conventional conformal mechanics is constructed in two different ways. The first approach makes use of the action-angle variables in the angular sector. The second scheme relies upon integrability of the system in the sense of Liouville.Comment: V2: presentation improved, new material and references added; the version to appear in JHE

Interferometric characterization of the optical window for LISA Pathfinder and LISA

In LISA Pathfinder and LISA the position fluctuations of drag free test masses will be determined interferometrically to picometer precision. To this end, laser light is brought to interference on an ultra stable optical bench after being reflected on the test mass, which needs to be in an ultra-high vacuum. The present baseline for both missions includes a separate vacuum enclosure for each test mass, so that the sensing laser beam has to pass through an optical window. This window is therefore a transmissive element in the interferometer and its associated pathlength fluctuations are potentially significant. We have selected an athermal glass that should minimize the thermally induced pathlength changes.Several prototype windows, both mounted and unmounted, have been produced and characterized. The pathlength sensitivity to both temperature fluctuations and temperature gradients has been measured with a dedicated interferometer prototype. We have also compared the long-term stability of the LISA Technology Package interferometer when an optical window is present in the optical path to the situation without window. Finally, glass samples have been radiated and the absorption in the glass after the radiation tests has been measured to be negligible at the wavelength of interest (1064 nm). We present here the results of our measurements, which indicate that using a window does not influence the interferometer performance