Molecular factors in human implantation: adhesion molecules, proteases and cytokines

Successful human reproduction remains an enigma, but this is slowly changing in the current era of expanding scientific knowledge. The discovery of various molecular factors such as adhesion molecules, proteases and cytokines have in recent years been at the forefront of medical research. The growing importance of immunology in particular has led to novel new immuno-modulatory therapies and increasing research into this new aspect of reproductive immunology may well prove to be the most important breakthrough in understanding the fundamentals of human reproduction. Implantation represents the first step in the complex interactions and processes involved in foetal-maternal interaction, which continues throughout pregnancy gestation and culminates in the birth of an infant. It is therefore vital that we understand the myriad processes controlling implantation in order to build a firm foundation for exploring reproductive immunology research in the new millennium. This review brings together and presents an overview of the potential roles of currently known molecular factors such as adhesion molecules, proteases, cytokines and its interaction with the maternal immune response, incorporating the findings of previous published research performed by the author on cytokines and reproductive immunology

Enhancement of plasticity in Ti-based metallic glass matrix composites by controlling characteristic and volume fraction of primary phase

In this study, Ti-based metallic glass matrix composites with high plasticity have been developed by controlling characteristic and volume fraction of primary phase embedded in the glass matrix. By careful alloy design procedure, the compositions of ß/glass phases, which are in metastable equilibrium have been properly selected, therefore the mechanical properties can be tailored by selecting the alloy compositions between the composition of ß and glass phases. The relation between the compressive yield strength and volume fraction of ß phase is well described using the rule of mixtures

Optical studies of carrier and phonon dynamics in Ga_{1-x}Mn_{x}As

We present a time-resolved optical study of the dynamics of carriers and phonons in Ga_{1-x}Mn_{x}As layers for a series of Mn and hole concentrations. While band filling is the dominant effect in transient optical absorption in low-temperature-grown (LT) GaAs, band gap renormalization effects become important with increasing Mn concentration in Ga_{1-x}Mn_{x}As, as inferred from the sign of the absorption change. We also report direct observation on lattice vibrations in Ga1-xMnxAs layers via reflective electro-optic sampling technique. The data show increasingly fast dephasing of LO phonon oscillations for samples with increasing Mn and hole concentration, which can be understood in term of phonon scattering by the holes.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures replaced Fig.1 after finding a mistake in previous versio

Vibrations of closed-shell Lennard-Jones icosahedral and cuboctahedral clusters and their effect on the cluster ground state energy

Vibrational spectra of closed shell Lennard-Jones icosahedral and cuboctahedral clusters are calculated for shell numbers between 2 and 9. Evolution of the vibrational density of states with the cluster shell number is examined and differences between icosahedral and cuboctahedral clusters described. This enabled a quantum calculation of quantum ground state energies of the clusters in the quasiharmonic approximation and a comparison of the differences between the two types of clusters. It is demonstrated that in the quantum treatment, the closed shell icosahedral clusters binding energies differ from those of cuboctahedral clusters more than is the case in classical treatment

Reactive-site mutants of N-TIMP-3 that selectively inhibit ADAMTS-4 and ADAMTS-5: biological and structural implications.

Published versio

Chirality-Selective Excitation of Coherent Phonons in Carbon Nanotubes

Using pre-designed trains of femtosecond optical pulses, we have selectively excited coherent phonons of the radial breathing mode of specific-chirality single-walled carbon nanotubes within an ensemble sample. By analyzing the initial phase of the phonon oscillations, we prove that the tube diameter initially increases in response to ultrafast photoexcitation. Furthermore, from excitation profiles, we demonstrate that an excitonic absorption peak of carbon nanotubes periodically oscillates as a function of time when the tube diameter undergoes radial breathing mode oscillations.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Combined Effect of Latex and Crumb Rubber on Mechanical Properties of Concrete for Railway Application

Crumb rubber incorporation is widely deemed to deteriorate the compressive strength of concrete. One of the dominant reasons for this strength reduction is known as the inferior bonding or weak interfacial transition zones (ITZ) between the crumb rubber and hardened cement paste. While Styrene-butadiene (SBR) latex is being used as a bonding agent in concrete manufacturing, the SBR latex usage holds the potential to compensate for the strength reduction from crumb rubber incorporation. This study focuses on evaluating the sole and combined effect of crumb rubber and SBR latex on the compressive strength, one optimum combination of latex modified rubberised mix (LMCRC) that had achieved 55.5 MPa of 28 days characteristic strength was chosen to compare its impact resistance and stress-strain response to a plain concrete (PC) with similar characteristic strength. Experimental results showed both crumb rubber and SBR latex incorporation induced a compressive strength reduction in the concrete. The optimum latex modified rubberised mix with w/c of 0.32, crumb rubber replacement of 20kg/m3, and 3% latex additives had outperformed the control mix with w/c ratio of 0.38 by 66.7% and 293% in the 400mm span impact test and 200mm span impact test, respectively. Besides, the latex modified rubberised mix showed higher Poisson’s ratio, and higher compressive strain which indicates more ductile behaviour as compared to the plain concrete

The ALMA Discovery of the Rotating Disk and Fast Outflow of Cold Molecular Gas in NGC 1275

We present ALMA Band 6 observations of the CO(2-1), HCN(3-2), and HCO$^{+}$(3-2) lines in the nearby radio galaxy / brightest cluster galaxy (BCG) of NGC 1275 with the spatial resolution of $\sim20$ pc. In the previous observations, CO(2-1) emission was detected as radial filaments lying in the east-west direction. We resolved the inner filament and found that the filament cannot be represented by a simple infalling stream both morphologically and kinematically. The observed complex nature of the filament resembles the cold gas structure predicted by recent numerical simulations of cold chaotic accretion. A crude estimate suggests that the accretion rate of the cold gas can be higher than that of hot gas. Within the central 100 pc, we detected a rotational disk of the molecular gas whose mass is \sim10^{8} M_{\sun}. This is the first evidence of the presence of massive cold gas disk on this spatial scale for BCGs. The disk rotation axis is approximately consistent with the axis of the radio jet on subpc scales. This probably suggests that the cold gas disk is physically connected to the innermost accretion disk which is responsible for jet launching. We also detected absorption features in the HCN(3-2) and HCO$^{+}$(3-2) spectra against the radio continuum emission mostly radiated by $\sim1.2$-pc size jet. The absorption features are blue-shifted from the systemic velocity by $\sim$300-600~km~s$^{-1}$, which suggests the presence of outflowing gas from the active galactic nucleus (AGN). We discuss the relation of the AGN feeding with cold accretion, the origin of blue-shifted absorption, and estimate of black hole mass using the molecular gas dynamics.Comment: Version 2 (accepted version). 18 pages, 16 figures. Accepted for publication in Ap