Investigation of the liquid tar product from the pyrolysis of yak-milk casein and its application in curing of epoxy resin

The liquid tar product, obtained by pyrolysis of yak-milk casein was investigated and was applied for curing of epoxy resin. Physico-chemical and thermal characteristics, IR and 1 H NMR spectra were recorded and compared with the data obtained with the most often used hardener diethylenetriamine. The absorbancies of the liquid tar product were determined by quantitative IR analysis. The curing of epoxy resin was performed at room temperature for 24 h and at 105 o C for 150 min. The optimal quantity of the liquid tar product for providing maximal degree of cure at 105 o C is 22.22%; at room temperature it is a 20% mixture with diethylenetriamine 50:50 g/g. From the physico-mechanical characteristics of the cured bars and coatings it was concluded that the investigated product is a good hardener of epoxy resins

Geokinematics of Central Europe: New insights from the CERGOP-2/Environment Project

The Central European Geodynamics Project CERGOP/2, funded by the European Union from 2003to 2006 under the 5th Framework Programme, benefited from repeated measurements of thecoordinates of epoch and permanent GPS stations of the Central European GPS Reference Network(CEGRN), starting in 1994. Here we report on the results of the systematic processing of availabledata up to 2005. The analysis has yielded velocities for some 60 sites, covering a variety of CentralEuropean tectonic provinces, from the Adria indenter to the Tauern window, the Dinarides, thePannonian Basin, the Vrancea seismic zone and the Carpathian Mountains. The estimated velocitiesdefine kinematical patterns which outline, with varying spatial resolution depending on the stationdensity and history, the present day surface kinematics in Central Europe. Horizontal velocities areanalyzed after removal from the ITRF2000 estimated velocities of a rigid rotation accounting forthe mean motion of Europe: a ~2.3 mm/yr north-south oriented convergence rate between Adria andthe Southern Alps that can be considered to be the present day velocity of the Adria indenterrelative to the European foreland. An eastward extrusion zone initiates at the Tauern Window. Thelateral eastward flow towards the Pannonian Basin exhibits a gentle gradient from 1-1.5 mm/yrimmediately east of the Tauern Window to zero in the Pannonian Basin. This kinematic continuityimplies that the Pannonian plate fragment recently suggested by seismic data does not require aspecific Eulerian pole. On the southeastern boundary of the Adria microplate, we report a velocitydrop from 4-4.5 mm/yr motion near Matera to ~1 mm/yr north of the Dinarides, in the southwesternpart of the Pannonian Basin. A positive velocity gradient as one moves south from West Ukraineacross Rumania and Bulgaria is estimated to be 2 mm/yr on a scale of 600-800 km, as if the crustwere dragged by the counterclockwise rotation along the North Anatolian Fault Zone. This regimeapparently does not interfere with the Vrancea seismic zone: earthquakes there are sufficiently deep(> 100 km) that the brittle deformation at depth can be considered as decoupled from the creep atthe surface. We conclude that models of the Quaternary tectonics of Central and Eastern Europeshould not neglect the long wavelength, nearly aseismic deformation affecting the upper crust in theRomanian and Bulgarian regions

Ustekinumab as Induction and Maintenance Therapy for Crohn’s Disease

BACKGROUND Ustekinumab, a monoclonal antibody to the p40 subunit of interleukin-12 and inter-leukin-23, was evaluated as an intravenous induction therapy in two populations with moderately to severely active Crohn’s disease. Ustekinumab was also evaluated as subcutaneous maintenance therapy. METHODS We randomly assigned patients to receive a single intravenous dose of ustekinumab (either 130 mg or approximately 6 mg per kilogram of body weight) or placebo in two induction trials. The UNITI-1 trial included 741 patients who met the criteria for primary or secondary nonresponse to tumor necrosis factor (TNF) antagonists or had unacceptable side effects. The UNITI-2 trial included 628 patients in whom conventional therapy failed or unacceptable side effects occurred. Patients who completed these induction trials then participated in IM-UNITI, in which the 397 patients who had a response to ustekinumab were randomly assigned to receive subcutaneous maintenance injections of 90 mg of ustekinumab (either every 8 weeks or every 12 weeks) or placebo. The primary end point for the induction trials was a clinical response at week 6 (defined as a decrease from baseline in the Crohn’s Disease Activity Index [CDAI] score of ≥100 points or a CDAI score <150). The primary end point for the maintenance trial was remission at week 44 (CDAI score <150). RESULTS The rates of response at week 6 among patients receiving intravenous ustekinumab at a dose of either 130 mg or approximately 6 mg per kilogram were significantly higher than the rates among patients receiving placebo (in UNITI-1, 34.3%, 33.7%, and 21.5%, respectively, with P≤0.003 for both comparisons with placebo; in UNITI-2, 51.7%, 55.5%, and 28.7%, respectively, with P<0.001 for both doses). In the groups receiving maintenance doses of ustekinumab every 8 weeks or every 12 weeks, 53.1% and 48.8%, respectively, were in remission at week 44, as compared with 35.9% of those receiving placebo (P = 0.005 and P = 0.04, respectively). Within each trial, adverse-event rates were similar among treatment groups. CONCLUSIONS Among patients with moderately to severely active Crohn’s disease, those receiving intravenous ustekinumab had a significantly higher rate of response than did those receiving placebo. Subcutaneous ustekinumab maintained remission in patients who had a clinical response to induction therapy. (Funded by Janssen Research and Development; ClinicalTrials.gov numbers, NCT01369329, NCT01369342, and NCT01369355.

Genetics of colorectal cancer

Colorectal cancer is one of the commonest neoplastic disorders in humans, and a major cause of cancer related deaths. It is divided into sporadic, familial, and hereditary. Three major groups of genes participate in its pathogenesis: tumor suppressor genes, oncogenes, and mismatch repair genes. The function of tumor suppressor genes was discovered by Knudson in his ‘two hit` hypothesis, and Fearon and Vogelstein proposed their model for ‘multistep carcinogenesis`, responsible for the widely known adenoma-carcinoma sequence. From the inherited syndromes Familial Adenomatous Polyposis (to inborn mutation in the APC gene) and Herediraty Nonpolyposis Colorectal Cancer (is caused by inherited mutations in the mismatch repair genes, leading to microsatellite instability) lead to early onset of colorectal cancer. Recent studies revealed that sporadic colorectal cancer occurs in two distinct pathways, the first one being chromosomal instability, corresponding to FAP, and the second one named microsatellite instability, which corresponds to HNPCC. Today it is known that most of the sporadic cases, exhibiting microsatellite instability, are caused by promoter hypermethylation of MLH1 gene, leading to its inactivation. DNA methylation is an epigenetic phenomenon occurring normally in the cell and in large number of processes. It is not well studied, and could discover participation of other genes in colorectal tumorigenesis. RUNX3 gene, whose promoter hypermethylation is responsible for gastric cancer, is a member of RUNT family of transcription factors, taking part in TGFb mediated signal transduction, whichis of ten deregulated in tumors exhibiting microsatellitein stability. It would be interesting to find out whether certain clinicopathological features, such as proximal tumor location, low grade of differentiation, mucinous histology, and intratumoral lymphocyte infiltration could differentiate tumors showing promoter hypermethylation from those lacking these features

On the factorisation of matrix elements for systems with anti-unitary symmetry

For the case of corepresentations of anti-unitary magnetic groups a new generalisation of the Wigner-Eckart theorem, based on the symmetrised Clebsch-Gordan coefficients, or 3D-symbols, is given. It is shown that the reduced matrix elements are real for all types of corepresentations. The reduced matrix elements of coupled tensor operators are expressed in terms of the reduced matrix elements of their components

Chronic Hepatitis Due to Gluten Enteropathy – a Case Report

Background: Celiac disease is an immune-mediated enteropathy precipitated by exposure to dietary gluten in genetically predisposed individuals