2,710 research outputs found
Geometric effects of a quarter of corrugated torus
In the spirit of the thin-layer quantization scheme, we give the effective
Shr\"{o}dinger equation for a particle confined to a corrugated torus, in which
the geometric potential is substantially changed by corrugation. We find the
attractive wells reconstructed by the corrugation not being at identical
depths, which is strikingly different from that of a corrugated nanotube,
especially in the inner side of the torus. By numerically calculating the
transmission probability, we find that the resonant tunneling peaks and the
transmission gaps are merged and broadened by the corrugation of the inner side
of torus. These results show that the quarter corrugated torus can be used not
only to connect two tubes with different radiuses in different directions, but
also to filter the particles with particular incident~energies.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figure
Opinion dynamics on directed small-world networks
In this paper, we investigate the self-affirmation effect on formation of
public opinion in a directed small-world social network. The system presents a
non-equilibrium phase transition from a consensus state to a disordered state
with coexistence of opinions. The dynamical behaviors are very sensitive to the
density of long-range interactions and the strength of self-affirmation. When
the long-range interactions are sparse and individual generally does not insist
on his/her opinion, the system will display a continuous phase transition, in
the opposite case with high self-affirmation strength and dense long-range
interactions, the system does not display a phase transition. Between those two
extreme cases, the system undergoes a discontinuous phase transition.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure
Expression of Oct-4 in oncogenic miR-155-positive oral squamous carcinoma cells
Purpose: To identify effective molecular diagnostic methods for oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) to facilitate treatment of the disease in its initial stages.Methods: To identify molecular markers, OSCC tissue samples were collected from cancer patients and healthy controls. CD44+ cells were sorted using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Immunohistochemistry and immunostaining experiments were performed to identify markers for OSCC.Results: The qRT-PCR data confirmed the presence of oncogenic miR-155 in the OSCC samples. The immunohistochemical and immunostaining results confirmed the expression of Oct-4, an important target for the early diagnosis of OSCC, in oncogenic miR-155-positive OSCCs.Conclusion: Detection of the expression of miR-155 and Oct-4, which are key molecular markers, may be useful in improving the early diagnosis of OSCC.Keywords: CD44, oral squamous cell carcinoma, oncogenic miR-155, Oct-
Effect of Baicalin on inflammatory mediator levels and microcirculation disturbance in rats with severe acute pancreatitis
Objective: To investigate the effect of Bacailin on inflammatory mediator levels and microcirculation disturbance in severe acute pancreatitis (SAP) rats and explore its therapeutic mechanism on this disease. Methods: SAP model rats were randomly divided into model control group and Baicalin treated group, 45 rats in each group. The same number of normal rats were included in sham-operated group. These groups were further subdivided into 3 h, 6 h and 12 h subgroups, respectively (15 rats in each subgroup). At 3, 6 and 12 hours after operation, rats were killed to conduct the following experiments: (1) to examine the mortality rates of rats, the ascites volume and pancreatic pathological changes in each group; (2) to determine the contents of amylase, PLA~2~, TXB~2~, PGE~2~, PAF and IL-1[beta]; in blood as well as the changes in blood viscosity.Results: (1) Compared to model control group, treatment with Baicalin is able to improve the pathological damage of the pancreas, lower the contents of amylase and multiple inflammatory mediators in blood, decrease the amount of ascitic fluid and reduce the mortality rates of SAP rats; (2) at 3 hours after operation, the low-shear whole blood viscosity in Baicalin treated group was significantly lower than that in model control group;at 12 hours after operation, both the high-shear and low-shear whole blood viscosity in Baicalin treated group were also significantly lower than those in model control group.Conclusion: Baicalin, as a new drug, has good prospects in the treatment of SAP since it can exert therapeutic effects on this disease through inhibiting the production of inflammatory mediators, lowering blood viscosity, improving microcirculation and mitigating the pathological damage of the pancreas
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