Higgs Boson Mass, Sparticle Spectrum and Little Hierarchy Problem in Extended MSSM

We investigate the impact of TeV-scale matter belonging to complete vectorlike multiplets of unified groups on the lightest Higgs boson in the MSSM. We find that consistent with perturbative unification and electroweak precision data the mass m_h can be as large as 160 GeV. These extended MSSM models can also render the little hierarchy problem less severe, but only for lower values of m_h < 125 GeV. We present estimates for the sparticle mass spectrum in these models.Comment: 27 pages, 14 figure

Efficient unified Montgomery inversion with multibit shifting

Computation of multiplicative inverses in finite fields GF(p) and GF(2/sup n/) is the most time-consuming operation in elliptic curve cryptography, especially when affine co-ordinates are used. Since the existing algorithms based on the extended Euclidean algorithm do not permit a fast software implementation, projective co-ordinates, which eliminate almost all of the inversion operations from the curve arithmetic, are preferred. In the paper, the authors demonstrate that affine co-ordinate implementation provides a comparable speed to that of projective co-ordinates with careful hardware realisation of existing algorithms for calculating inverses in both fields without utilising special moduli or irreducible polynomials. They present two inversion algorithms for binary extension and prime fields, which are slightly modified versions of the Montgomery inversion algorithm. The similarity of the two algorithms allows the design of a single unified hardware architecture that performs the computation of inversion in both fields. They also propose a hardware structure where the field elements are represented using a multi-word format. This feature allows a scalable architecture able to operate in a broad range of precision, which has certain advantages in cryptographic applications. In addition, they include statistical comparison of four inversion algorithms in order to help choose the best one amongst them for implementation onto hardware

Melamine trisulfonic acid as an efficient catalyst for the synthesis of 2,6-dimethyl-4-substituted-1,4-dihydropyridine-3,5-diethyl/dimethylcarboxylate derivatives via Hantzsch reaction in solvent free condition

AbstractA facile and highly efficient one-pot synthesis of 1,4-dihydropyridine derivatives (1,4-DHPs) is reported via three component condensation reaction of aldehydes, ethyl acetoacetate or methyl acetoacetate and ammonium acetate using environmentally benign melamine trisulfonic acid (MTSA) as a catalyst in solvent free condition at 60°C. The method presented here is applied to the tenets of green chemistry to the generation of biologically interesting products under solvent-free media that is less expensive and less toxic than those with organic solvents. Also, the catalyst is recyclable and could be reused without significant loss of activity. Even after three runs for the reaction, the catalytic activity of MTSA was almost the same as that of the freshly used catalyst.The method also offers several advantages including high yields and simple work-up procedure

MDR1 siRNA loaded hyaluronic acid-based CD44 targeted nanoparticle systems circumvent paclitaxel resistance in ovarian cancer.

Development of multidrug resistance (MDR) is an almost universal phenomenon in patients with ovarian cancer, and this severely limits the ultimate success of chemotherapy in the clinic. Overexpression of the MDR1 gene and corresponding P-glycoprotein (Pgp) is one of the best known MDR mechanisms. MDR1 siRNA based strategies were proposed to circumvent MDR, however, systemic, safe, and effective targeted delivery is still a major challenge. Cluster of differentiation 44 (CD44) targeted hyaluronic acid (HA) based nanoparticle has been shown to successfully deliver chemotherapy agents or siRNAs into tumor cells. The goal of this study is to evaluate the ability of HA-PEI/HA-PEG to deliver MDR1 siRNA and the efficacy of the combination of HA-PEI/HA-PEG/MDR1 siRNA with paclitaxel to suppress growth of ovarian cancer. We observed that HA-PEI/HA-PEG nanoparticles can efficiently deliver MDR1 siRNA into MDR ovarian cancer cells, resulting in down-regulation of MDR1 and Pgp expression. Administration of HA-PEI/HA-PEG/MDR1 siRNA nanoparticles followed by paclitaxel treatment induced a significant inhibitory effect on the tumor growth, decreased Pgp expression and increased apoptosis in MDR ovarian cancer mice model. Our findings suggest that CD44 targeted HA-PEI/HA-PEG/MDR1 siRNA nanoparticles can serve as a therapeutic tool with great potentials to circumvent MDR in ovarian cancer

Influence of hyperhomocysteinemia on the cellular redox state - Impact on homocysteine-induced endothelial dysfunction

Hyperhomocysteinemia is an independent risk factor for the development of atherosclerosis. An increasing body of evidence has implicated oxidative stress as being contributory to homocysteines deleterious effects on the vasculature. Elevated levels of homocysteine may lead to increased generation of superoxide by a biochemical mechanism involving nitric oxide synthase, and, to a lesser extent, by an increase in the chemical oxidation of homocysteine and other aminothiols in the circulation. The resultant increase in superoxide levels is further amplified by homocysteinedependent alterations in the function of cellular antioxidant enzymes such as cellular glutathione peroxidase or extracellular superoxide dismutase. One direct clinical consequence of elevated vascular superoxide levels is the inactivation of the vasorelaxant messenger nitric oxide, leading to endothelial dysfunction. Scavenging of superoxide anion by either superoxide dismutase or 4,5-dihydroxybenzene 1,3-disulfonate (Tiron) reverses endothelial dysfunction in hyperhomocysteinemic animal models and in isolated aortic rings incubated with homocysteine. Similarly, homocysteineinduced endothelial dysfunction is also reversed by increasing the concentration of the endogenous antioxidant glutathione or overexpressing cellular glutathione peroxidase in animal models of mild hyperhomocysteinemia. Taken together, these findings strongly suggest that the adverse vascular effects of homocysteine are at least partly mediated by oxidative inactivation of nitric oxide

CIDI-Lung-Seg: A Single-Click Annotation Tool for Automatic Delineation of Lungs from CT Scans

Accurate and fast extraction of lung volumes from computed tomography (CT) scans remains in a great demand in the clinical environment because the available methods fail to provide a generic solution due to wide anatomical variations of lungs and existence of pathologies. Manual annotation, current gold standard, is time consuming and often subject to human bias. On the other hand, current state-of-the-art fully automated lung segmentation methods fail to make their way into the clinical practice due to their inability to efficiently incorporate human input for handling misclassifications and praxis. This paper presents a lung annotation tool for CT images that is interactive, efficient, and robust. The proposed annotation tool produces an "as accurate as possible" initial annotation based on the fuzzy-connectedness image segmentation, followed by efficient manual fixation of the initial extraction if deemed necessary by the practitioner. To provide maximum flexibility to the users, our annotation tool is supported in three major operating systems (Windows, Linux, and the Mac OS X). The quantitative results comparing our free software with commercially available lung segmentation tools show higher degree of consistency and precision of our software with a considerable potential to enhance the performance of routine clinical tasks.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures; to appear in the proceedings of 36th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC 2014

Succinimide-N-sulfonic acid as an efficient recyclable catalyst for the synthesis of some fused indolo pyrano pyrimidinone derivatives

A new, simple, thermally efficient and solvent-free condensation of 2-amino-4,5-dihydro-4-phenylpyrano[3,2-b]indole-3-carbonitrile derivatives with coumarin-3-carboxylic acid employing succinimide-N-sulfonic acid (SuSA) as catalyst for the synthesis of a series of 5,6-dihydro-2-(2-oxo-2H-chromen-3-yl)-5-phenyl-indolo[2',3':5,6]pyrano[2,3-d]pyrimidin-4(3H)-one derivatives is described. This method has the advantages of high yield, simple methodology, and short reaction time, as well as being green in terms of avoiding the use of toxic catalysts and solvents. Furthermore, the catalyst could be recycled and reused four times without significant loss of activity. Thiourea dioxide (TUD) catalyzed efficient three-component coupling reactions of aromatic aldehydes, 3-hydroxyindole and malononitrile in water at 70 ºC was described as the preparation of 2-amino-4,5-dihydro-4-phenylpyrano[3,2-b]indole-3-carbonitrile derivatives. KEY WORDS: Succinimide-N-sulfonic acid, Thiourea dioxide, Coumarin-3-carboxylic acid, Indolo pyrano  pyrimidineone derivatives Bull. Chem. Soc. Ethiop. 2015, 29(3), 457-471.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/bcse.v29i3.1

ISOLATION OF EGG DROP SYNDROME VIRUS AND ITS MOLECULAR CHARACTERIZATION USING SODIUM DODECYL SULPHATE POLYACRYLAMIDE GEL ELECTROPHORESIS

Six isolates of egg drop syndrome (EDS) virus were recovered from five different outbreaks of EDS in commercial laying hens in and around Faisalabad. The aberrant eggs were fed to the susceptible laying hens for experimental induction of infection. The samples from infected birds (egg washing, cloacal swabs, oviducts and spleens) were collected, processed and inoculated into 11-day old duck embryos. The presence of virus in harvested allanto-amniotic fluid was monitored by spot and microhaemagglutination tests and confirmed by haemagglutination inhibition and agar gel precipitation tests. The EDS virus grew well in duck embryos and agglutinated only avian but not mammalian red blood cells. These isolates were purified through velocity density gradient centrifugation. Protein concentration was determined through Lowry method and sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) was conducted by loading 300 µg protein concentration on 12.5% gel using discontinuous buffer system. All the six isolates showed 13 polypeptides, which were identical to those described in the referral EDS-76 virus (strain-127). The molecular weights of the polypeptides ranged from 6.5 KDa to 126 KDa