Adriamycin-loaded albumin-heparin conjugate microspheres for intraperitoneal chemotherapy

Adriamycin-loaded albumin-heparin conjugate microspheres (ADR-AHCMS) were evaluated as possible intraperitoneal (i.p.) delivery systems for site-specific cytotoxic action. The biocompatibility of the microspheres after intraperitoneal injection was tested first. 1 day after i.p. administration of empty as well as drug-loaded AHCMS to male Balb/c mice, only a moderate increase in i.p. neutrophils was measured. 3 days after injection neutrophil levels were comparable with the controls. No significant increases in the numbers of other cell types were observed, indicating an acute inflammatory response which can be considered to be mild. Antitumour efficacy was tested in an L1210 tumour-bearing mouse model and in a CC531 tumour-bearing rat model. The use of ADR-AHCMS leads to longer survival times of mice and improved tumour growth delay in rats, as compared with untreated controls and free drug treated animals. In both animal models higher adriamycin doses were initially tolerated if the drug was formulated in microspheres, although long-term adriamycin toxicity effects were evident in all treated groups. Doses and dosage schedules may be optimized to further reduce the toxic effects of the drug

PAMELA's cosmic positron from decaying LSP in SO(10) SUSY GUT

We propose two viable scenarios explaining the recent observations on cosmic positron excess. In both scenarios, the present relic density in the Universe is assumed to be still supported by thermally produced WIMP or LSP (\chi). One of the scenarios is based on two dark matter (DM) components (\chi,X) scenario, and the other is on SO(10) SUSY GUT. In the two DM components scenario, extremely small amount of non-thermally produced meta-stable DM component [O(10^{-10}) < n_X /n_\chi] explains the cosmic positron excess. In the SO(10) model, extremely small R-parity violation for LSP decay to e^\pm is naturally achieved with a non-zero VEV of the superpartner of one right-handed neutrino (\tilde{\nu}^c) and a global symmetry.Comment: 6 pages, Talks presented in PASCOS, SUSY, and COSMO/CosPA in 201

Unusual Higgs or Supersymmetry from Natural Electroweak Symmetry Breaking

This review provides an elementary discussion of electroweak symmetry breaking in the minimal and the next-to-minimal supersymmetric models with the focus on the fine-tuning problem -- the tension between natural electroweak symmetry breaking and the direct search limit on the Higgs boson mass. Two generic solutions of the fine-tuning problem are discussed in detail: models with unusual Higgs decays; and models with unusual pattern of soft supersymmetry breaking parameters.Comment: 23 pages, 6 figures; invited review by MPL

Quantification of Thickness Effects for Circumferential Through-Wall Cracked Pipe Bend with Un-Uniform Thickness under In-Plane Opening Bending

AbstractAn Elbow is one of the major component that make up the piping system of a nuclear power plant and chemical plant facilities. In general, the elbow is made by welding a straight pipe and bend part. So, periodic welding inspection is required due to the potential defects in weld zone. Recently, the application of induction heating pipe bend is increasing in order to reduce this problem. Pipe bend made by induction heating band is not necessary welding process because it is made by bending a straight pipe but the intrados thickness and the extrados thickness are different. On the other hand, J-integral is widely used to evaluate a structural integrity (to check crack stability) but the J estimation of pipe bend with un-uniform thickness is very difficult because of the thickness differences in each locations.This paper proposes a reference stress based J estimation scheme of circumferential through-wall cracked pipe bend with un-uniform thickness under in-plane opening bending loading condition. The pipe bend with un-uniform thickness is assumed to have different thickness between intrados and extrados and the crack to be located in the entre of the pipe bend, either at the intrados or extrados

Resource recovery using whey permeate to cultivate Phellinus linteus mycelium: Solid-state and submerged liquid fermentation

The growth characteristics of Phellinus linteus mycelium were assessed and compared under solid-state fermentation (SSF) and submerged liquid fermentation (SLF) systems on whey permeate medium. Response surface methodology was used to investigate the growth rates of mycelia under various conditions of operating temperature (T-O), initial pH, and substrate concentration ([S]). The optimal growth conditions of P. linteus mycelium were determined to be 26.1 degrees C, pH 4.6, and 60.3 g of lactose/L in the SSF system, and 29.0 degrees C, pH 5.0, and 65.3 g of lactose/L in the SLF system. The maximum growth rates were predicted to be 1.92 +/- 0.01 mm/d in SSF and 192.1 +/- 0.0 mg/L per day in SLF. Random trials were conducted to experimentally validate the evaluated optimal conditions. The differences between the modeled and observed values were only 5.3% in the SSF system and 6.1% in the SLF system. Significant engineering factors differed between the fermentation techniques; T-O was significant in both cultivation systems, whereas initial pH was significant in SSF but [51 was significant in SLF. Our findings can be used to guide the operation of the bioconversion process for cultivating P. linteus mycelium using whey permeate wastewater.1111Ysciescopu

Electron affinity of Li: A state-selective measurement

We have investigated the threshold of photodetachment of Li^- leading to the formation of the residual Li atom in the $2p ^2P$ state. The excited residual atom was selectively photoionized via an intermediate Rydberg state and the resulting Li^+ ion was detected. A collinear laser-ion beam geometry enabled both high resolution and sensitivity to be attained. We have demonstrated the potential of this state selective photodetachment spectroscopic method by improving the accuracy of Li electron affinity measurements an order of magnitude. From a fit to the Wigner law in the threshold region, we obtained a Li electron affinity of 0.618 049(20) eV.Comment: 5 pages,6 figures,22 reference

Bayesian stroke modeling details sex biases in the white matter substrates of aphasia

Ischemic cerebrovascular events often lead to aphasia. Previous work provided hints that such strokes may affect women and men in distinct ways. Women tend to suffer strokes with more disabling language impairment, even if the lesion size is comparable to men. In 1,401 patients, we isolated data-led representations of anatomical lesion patterns and hand-tailored a Bayesian analytical solution to carefully model the degree of sex divergence in predicting language outcomes ∼3 months after stroke. We located lesion-outcome effects in the left-dominant language network that highlight the ventral pathway as a core lesion focus across different tests of language performance. We provide newly detailed evidence for sex-specific brain-behavior associations in the domain-general networks associated with cortico-subcortical pathways, with unique contributions of the fornix in women and cingular fiber bundles in men. Our collective findings suggest diverging white matter substrates in how stroke causes language deficits in women and men. Clinically acknowledging such sex disparities has the potential to improve personalized treatment for stroke patients worldwide