Spirulina in Clinical Practice: Evidence-Based Human Applications

Spirulina or Arthrospira is a blue-green alga that became famous after it was successfully used by NASA as a dietary supplement for astronauts on space missions. It has the ability to modulate immune functions and exhibits anti-inflammatory properties by inhibiting the release of histamine by mast cells. Multiple studies investigating the efficacy and the potential clinical applications of Spirulina in treating several diseases have been performed and a few randomized controlled trials and systematic reviews suggest that this alga may improve several symptoms and may even have an anticancer, antiviral and antiallergic effects. Current and potential clinical applications, issues of safety, indications, side-effects and levels of evidence are addressed in this review. Areas of ongoing and future research are also discussed

Processing of strong flux trapping high T(subc) oxide superconductors: Center director's discretionary fund

Magnetic suspension effect was first observed in samples of YBa2Cu3O7/AgO(Y-123/AgO) composites. Magnetization measurements of these samples show a much larger hysteresis which corresponds to a large critical current density. In addition to the Y-123AgO composites, recently similar suspension effects in other RE-123/AgO, where RE stands for rare-Earth elements, were also observed. Some samples exhibit even stronger flux pinning than that of the Y-123/AgO sample. An interesting observation was that in order to form the composite which exhibits strong flux trapping effect the sintering temperature depends on the particular RE-123 compound used. The paper presents the detailed processing conditions for the formation of these RE-123/AgO composites, as well as the magnetization and critical field data

Magnetic Surgical Instruments for Robotic Abdominal Surgery.

This review looks at the implementation of magnetic-based approaches in surgical instruments for abdominal surgeries. As abdominal surgical techniques advance toward minimizing surgical trauma, surgical instruments are enhanced to support such an objective through the exploration of magnetic-based systems. With this design approach, surgical devices are given the capabilities to be fully inserted intraabdominally to achieve access to all abdominal quadrants, without the conventional rigid link connection with the external unit. The variety of intraabdominal surgical devices are anchored, guided, and actuated by external units, with power and torque transmitted across the abdominal wall through magnetic linkage. This addresses many constraints encountered by conventional laparoscopic tools, such as loss of triangulation, fulcrum effect, and loss/lack of dexterity for surgical tasks. Design requirements of clinical considerations to aid the successful development of magnetic surgical instruments, are also discussed

Realistic interpretation of a superposition state does not imply a mixture

Contrary to previous claims, it is shown that, for an ensemble of either single-particle systems or multi-particle systems, the realistic interpretation of a superposition state that mathematically describes the ensemble does not imply that the ensemble is a mixture. Therefore it cannot be argued that the realistic interpretation is wrong on the basis that some predictions derived from the mixture are different from the corresponding predictions derived from the superposition state

GEO 600 and the GEO-HF upgrade program: successes and challenges

The German-British laser-interferometric gravitational wave detector GEO 600 is in its 14th year of operation since its first lock in 2001. After GEO 600 participated in science runs with other first-generation detectors, a program known as GEO-HF began in 2009. The goal was to improve the detector sensitivity at high frequencies, around 1 kHz and above, with technologically advanced yet minimally invasive upgrades. Simultaneously, the detector would record science quality data in between commissioning activities. As of early 2014, all of the planned upgrades have been carried out and sensitivity improvements of up to a factor of four at the high-frequency end of the observation band have been achieved. Besides science data collection, an experimental program is ongoing with the goal to further improve the sensitivity and evaluate future detector technologies. We summarize the results of the GEO-HF program to date and discuss its successes and challenges

Braneworld Tensor Anisotropies in the CMB

Cosmic microwave background (CMB) observations provide in principle a high-precision test of models which are motivated by M theory. We set out the framework of a program to compute the tensor anisotropies in the CMB that are generated in braneworld models. In the simplest approximation, we show the braneworld imprint as a correction to the power spectra for standard temperature and polarization anisotropies.Comment: Minor corrections and references added. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

(1+3) Covariant Dynamics of Scalar Perturbations in Braneworlds

We discuss the dynamics of linear, scalar perturbations in an almost Friedmann-Robertson-Walker braneworld cosmology of Randall-Sundrum type II using the 1+3 covariant approach. We derive a complete set of frame-independent equations for the total matter variables, and a partial set of equations for the non-local variables which arise from the projection of the Weyl tensor in the bulk. The latter equations are incomplete since there is no propagation equation for the non-local anisotropic stress. We supplement the equations for the total matter variables with equations for the independent constituents in a cold dark matter cosmology, and provide solutions in the high and low-energy radiation-dominated phase under the assumption that the non-local anisotropic stress vanishes. These solutions reveal the existence of new modes arising from the two additional non-local degrees of freedom. Our solutions should prove useful in setting up initial conditions for numerical codes aimed at exploring the effect of braneworld corrections on the cosmic microwave background (CMB) power spectrum. As a first step in this direction, we derive the covariant form of the line of sight solution for the CMB temperature anisotropies in braneworld cosmologies, and discuss possible mechanisms by which braneworld effects may remain in the low-energy universe.Comment: 22 pages replaced with additional references and minor corrections in Revtex4, and accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

The Effect Of Refolding Conditions On The Protein Solubility Recovered From Inclusion Bodies

Recombinant proteins are expressed as inclusion bodies in bacterial enriched native-like secondary structure and thus give a great potential in biotechnological utilities. However, the quality of soluble proteins recovered from inclusion bodies is questionable because the refolded protein with wrong conformation will assemble to form aggregates. In this study, enhanced green fluorescent protein-inclusion bodies was used as the model protein to investigate the effects of protein concentration and purity on protein refolding. Three different types of solubized enhanced green fluorescent protein-inclusion bodies were refolded which were solubized inclusion bodies with cell debris, solubized inclusion bodies with detergent washing, and purified solubized inclusion bodies using preparative native urea-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. For the first and second conditions, the solubized enhanced green fluorescent protein-inclusion bodies were refolded at a high protein concentration and low protein purity environment. Polyacrylamide gel images show the refolded protein changed in conformation and increased in size when the solubized inclusion bodies underwent various refolding periods. Meanwhile, the refolded protein under the third refolding condition has a correct protein conformation and achieved the highest refolding yield. Studying the effects of refolding conditions using different types of solubized inclusion bodies may provide researchers with possible approaches to avoid soluble aggregates formation

Music-related activities on Facebook

Despite the current prevalence of users performing musical activities on social media, and on Facebook in particular, little research has examined these behaviors from the perspective of consumer psychology. A cross-sectional, convenience sample of 400 participants (Mage = 22.56, SDage = 7.79) completed an online questionnaire. The findings illustrated that the constructs of opinion leadership, innovativeness, and self-efficacy within the consumer psychology literature were associated with performing music-related activities on Facebook, including the active creation/consumption of music content and use of music listening applications. Thus, music activities performed on Facebook have an overt consumer psychological component. These findings indicate that to understand music-related activities on social media, further research should consider psychological variables in explaining this common and economically important activity