Rayleigh Scattering Cross Section Redward of Lyα\alpha by Atomic Hydrogen

We present a low energy expansion of the Kramers-Heisenberg formula for atomic hydrogen in terms of $(\omega/\omega_l)$, where $\omega_l$ and $\omega$ are the angular frequencies corresponding to the Lyman limit and the incident radiation, respectively. The leading term is proportional to $(\omega/\omega_l)^4$, which admits a well-known classical interpretation. With higher order terms we achieve accuracy with errors less than 4 % of the scattering cross sections in the region $\omega/\omega_l\le 0.6$. In the neighboring region around Ly$\alpha$ ($\omega/\omega_l >0.6$), we also present an explicit expansion of the Kramers-Heisenberg formula in terms of $\Delta\omega\equiv (\omega-\omega_{Ly\alpha})/\omega_{Ly\alpha}$. The accuracy with errors less than 4 % can be attained for $\omega/\omega_l \ge 0.6$ with the expansion up to the fifth order of $\Delta\omega$. We expect that these formulae will be usefully applied to the radiative transfer in high neutral column density regions, including the Gunn-Peterson absorption troughs and Rayleigh scattering in the atmospheres of giants.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure

Robust Co-catalytic Performance of Nanodiamonds Loaded on WO3 for the Decomposition of Volatile Organic Compounds under Visible Light

Proper co-catalysts (usually noble metals), combined with semiconductor materials, are commonly needed to maximize the efficiency of photocatalysis. Search for cost-effective and practical alternatives for noble-metal co-catalysts is under intense investigation. In this work, nanodiamond (ND), which is a carbon nanomaterial with a unique sp(3)(core)/sp(2)(shell) structure, was combined with WO3 (as an alternative co-catalyst for Pt) and applied for the degradation of volatile organic compounds under visible light. NDs-loaded WO3 showed a highly enhanced photocatalytic activity for the degradation of acetaldehyde (similar to 17 times higher than bare WO3), which is more efficient than other well-known co-catalysts (Ag, Pd, Au, and CuO) loaded onto WO3 and comparable to Pt-loaded WO3. Various surface modifications of ND and photoelectochemical measurements revealed that the graphitic carbon shell (sp(2)) on the diamond core (spa) plays a crucial role in charge separation and the subsequent interfacial charge transfer. As a result, ND/WO3 showed much higher production of OH radicals than bare WO3 under visible light. Since ND has a highly transparent characteristic, the light shielding that is often problematic with other carbon-based co-catalysts was considerably lower with NDs-loaded WO3. As a result, the photocatalytic activity of NDs/WO3 was higher than that of WO3 loaded with other carbon-based co-catalysts (graphene oxide or reduced graphene oxide). A range of spectroscopic and photo(electro)chemical techniques were systematically employed to investigate the properties of NDs-loaded WO3. ND is proposed as a cost-effective and practical nanomaterial to replace expensive noble-metal co-catalysts.1124Ysciescopu

Effects and treatment methods of acupuncture and herbal medicine for premenstrual syndrome/premenstrual dysphoric disorder: systematic review

BACKGROUND: During their reproductive years about 10% of women experience some kind of symptoms before menstruation (PMS) in a degree that affects their quality of life (QOL). Acupuncture and herbal medicine has been a recent favorable therapeutic approach. Thus we aimed to review the effects of acupuncture and herbal medicine in the past decade as a preceding research in order to further investigate the most effective Korean Medicine treatment for PMS/PMDD. METHODS: A systematic literature search was conducted using electronic databases on studies published between 2002 and 2012. Our review included randomized controlled clinical trials (RCTs) of acupuncture and herbal medicine for PMS/PMDD. Interventions include acupuncture or herbal medicine. Clinical information including statistical tests was extracted from the articles and summarized in tabular form or in the text. Study outcomes were presented as the rate of improvement (%) and/or end-of-treatment scores. RESULTS: The search yielded 19 studies. In screening the RCTs, 8 studies in acupuncture and 11 studies in herbal medicine that matched the criteria were identified. Different acupuncture techniques including traditional acupuncture, hand acupuncture and moxibustion, and traditional acupuncture technique with auricular points, have been selected for analysis. In herbal medicine, studies on Vitex Agnus castus, Hypericum perforatum, Xiao yao san, Elsholtzia splendens, Cirsium japonicum, and Gingko biloba L. were identified. Experimental groups with Acupuncture and herbal medicine treatment (all herbal medicine except Cirsium japonicum) had significantly improved results regarding PMS/PMDD. CONCLUSIONS: Limited evidence supports the efficacy of alternative medicinal interventions such as acupuncture and herbal medicine in controlling premenstrual syndrome and premenstrual dysphoric disorder. Acupuncture and herbal medicine treatments for premenstrual syndrome and premenstrual dysphoric disorder showed a 50% or better reduction of symptoms compared to the initial state. In both acupuncture and herbal medical interventions, there have been no serious adverse events reported, proving the safety of the interventions while most of the interventions provided over 50% relief of symptoms associated with PMS/PMDD. Stricter diagnostic criteria may have excluded many participants from some studies. Also, depending on the severity of symptoms, the rate of improvement in the outcomes of the studies may have greatly differed

Topological Structure of Dense Hadronic Matter

We present a summary of work done on dense hadronic matter, based on the Skyrme model, which provides a unified approach to high density, valid in the large $N_c$ limit. In our picture, dense hadronic matter is described by the {\em classical} soliton configuration with minimum energy for the given baryon number density. By incorporating the meson fluctuations on such ground state we obtain an effective Lagrangian for meson dynamics in a dense medium. Our starting point has been the Skyrme model defined in terms of pions, thereafter we have extended and improved the model by incorporating other degrees of freedom such as dilaton, kaons and vector mesons.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures, Talk given at the KIAS-APCTP Symposium in Astro-Hadron Physics "Compact Stars: Quest for New States of Dense Matter", November 10-14, 2003, Seoul, Korea, published by World Scientific. Based on talk by B.-Y. Par

Improvisation of classification performance based on feature optimization for differentiation of Parkinson’s disease from other neurological diseases using gait characteristics

Most neurological disorders that include Parkinson’s disease (PD) as well as other neurological diseases such as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and Huntington’s disease (HD) have some common abnormalities regarding the movement, vocal, and cognitive behaviors of sufferers. Variations in the manifestation of these types of abnormality help distinguish one disorder from another. In this study, differentiation was performed based on the gait characteristics of patients afflicted by different neurological disorders. In the recent past, many researchers have applied different machine learning and feature selection techniques to the classification of different groups of patients based on common abnormalities. However, in an era of modernization where the focus is on timely low-cost automatization and pattern recognition, such techniques require improvisation to provide high performance. We attempted to improve the performance of such techniques using different feature optimization methods, such as a genetic algorithm (GA) and principal component analysis (PCA), and applying different classification approaches, i.e., linear, nonlinear, and probabilistic classifiers. In this study, gait dynamics data of patients suffering with PD, ALS, and HD were collated from a public database, and a binary classification approach was used by taking PD as one group and adopting ALS+HD as another group. Performance comparison was achieved using different classification techniques that incorporated optimized feature sets obtained from GA and PCA. In comparison with other classifiers using different feature sets, the highest accuracy (97.87%) was obtained using random forest combined with GA-based feature sets. The results provide evidence that could assist medical practitioners in differentiating PD from other neurological diseases using gait characteristics

Roles of lysine-specific demethylase 1 (LSD1) in homeostasis and diseases

Abstract Lysine-specific demethylase 1 (LSD1) targets mono- or di-methylated histone H3K4 and H3K9 as well as non-histone substrates and functions in the regulation of gene expression as a transcriptional repressor or activator. This enzyme plays a pivotal role in various physiological processes, including development, differentiation, inflammation, thermogenesis, neuronal and cerebral physiology, and the maintenance of stemness in stem cells. LSD1 also participates in pathological processes, including cancer as the most representative disease. It promotes oncogenesis by facilitating the survival of cancer cells and by generating a pro-cancer microenvironment. In this review, we discuss the role of LSD1 in several aspects of cancer, such as hypoxia, epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, stemness versus differentiation of cancer stem cells, as well as anti-tumor immunity. Additionally, the current understanding of the involvement of LSD1 in various other pathological processes is discussed.This work was supported by Creative Research Initiatives Programs (Research Science Research Center Program (Cellular Heterogeneity Research Center, NRF-2016 R1A5A1011974) to K.I.K.; Young Researcher Program (NRF2019R1C1C1004022) to D.K. from the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT

Input of terrestrial organic matter linked to deglaciation increased mercury transport to the Svalbard fjords

Deglaciation has accelerated the transport of minerals as well as modern and ancient organic matter from land to fjord sediments in Spitsbergen, Svalbard, in the European Arctic Ocean. Consequently, such sediments may contain significant levels of total mercury (THg) bound to terrestrial organic matter. The present study compared THg contents in surface sediments from three fjord settings in Spitsbergen: Hornsund in the southern Spitsbergen, which has high annual volume of loss glacier and receives sediment from multiple tidewater glaciers, Dicksonfjorden in the central Spitsbergen, which receives sediment from glacifluvial rivers, and Wijdefjorden in the northern Spitsbergen, which receive sediments from a mixture of tidewater glaciers and glacifluvial rivers. Our results showed that the THg (52 +/- 15 ng g(-1)) bound to organic matter (OM) was the highest in the Hornsund surface sediments, where the glacier loss (0.44 km(3) yr(-1)) and organic carbon accumulation rates (9.3 similar to 49.4 g m(-2) yr(-1)) were elevated compared to other fjords. Furthermore, the delta C-13 (-27 similar to -24 parts per thousand) and delta S-34 values (-10 similar to 15 parts per thousand) of OM indicated that most of OM were originated from terrestrial sources. Thus, the temperature-driven glacial melting could release more OM originating from the meltwater or terrestrial materials, which are available for THg binding in the European Arctic fjord ecosystems.11Ysciescopu

A Synergistic Anti-Diabetic Effect by Ginsenosides Rb1 and Rg3 through Adipogenic and Insulin Signaling Pathways in 3T3-L1 Cells

Although ginsenosides Rb1 and Rg3 have been identified as the significant ginsenosides found in red ginseng that confer anti-diabetic actions, it is unclear whether insulin-sensitizing effects are mediated by the individual compounds or by their combination. To determine the effect of ginsenosides Rb1 and Rg3 on adipocyte differentiation, 3T3-L1 preadipocytes were induced to differentiate the standard hormonal inducers in the absence or presence of ginsenosides Rb1 or Rg3. Additionally, we determined the effects of Rb1, Rg3, or their combination on the expression of genes related to adipocyte differentiation, adipogenic transcription factors, and the insulin signaling pathway in 3T3-L1 cells using semi-quantitative RT-PCR. Rb1 significantly increased the expression of CEBP alpha, PPAR gamma, and aP2 mRNAs. However, Rg3 exerted its maximal stimulatory effect on these genes at 1 mu M concentration, while a high concentration (50 mu M) showed inhibitory effects. Similarly, treatment with Rb1 and Rg3 (1 mu M) increased the expression of IRS-1, Akt, PI3K, GLUT4, and adiponectin. Importantly, co-treatment of Rb1 and Rg3 (9:1) induced the maximal expression levels of these mRNAs. Our data indicate that the anti-diabetic activity of red ginseng is, in part, mediated by synergistic actions of Rb1 and Rg3, further supporting the significance of minor Rg3