Modelling the Effects of Oil Prices on Global Fertilizer Prices and Volatility

The main purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effect of crude oil price on global fertilizer prices in both the mean and volatility. The endogenous structural breakpoint unit root test, ARDL model, and alternative volatility models, including GARCH, EGARCH, and GJR models, are used to investigate the relationship between crude oil price and six global fertilizer prices. The empirical results from ARDL show that most fertilizer prices are significantly affected by the crude oil price while the volatility of global fertilizer prices and crude oil price from March to December 2008 are higher than in other periods

Molecular conservation of estrogen-response associated with cell cycle regulation, hormonal carcinogenesis and cancer in zebrafish and human cancer cell lines

BMC Medical Genomics4

Fine structure of excitons in Cu2_2O

Three experimental observations on 1s-excitons in Cu$_2$O are not consistent with the picture of the exciton as a simple hydrogenic bound state: the energies of the 1s-excitons deviate from the Rydberg formula, the total exciton mass exceeds the sum of the electron and hole effective masses, and the triplet-state excitons lie above the singlet. Incorporating the band structure of the material, we calculate the corrections to this simple picture arising from the fact that the exciton Bohr radius is comparable to the lattice constant. By means of a self-consistent variational calculation of the total exciton mass as well as the ground-state energy of the singlet and the triplet-state excitons, we find excellent agreement with experiment.Comment: Revised abstract; 10 pages, revtex, 3 figures available from G. Kavoulakis, Physics Department, University of Illinois, Urban

Quantum saturation and condensation of excitons in Cu2_2O: a theoretical study

Recent experiments on high density excitons in Cu$_2$O provide evidence for degenerate quantum statistics and Bose-Einstein condensation of this nearly ideal gas. We model the time dependence of this bosonic system including exciton decay mechanisms, energy exchange with phonons, and interconversion between ortho (triplet-state) and para (singlet-state) excitons, using parameters for the excitonic decay, the coupling to acoustic and low-lying optical phonons, Auger recombination, and ortho-para interconversion derived from experiment. The single adjustable parameter in our model is the optical-phonon cooling rate for Auger and laser-produced hot excitons. We show that the orthoexcitons move along the phase boundary without crossing it (i.e., exhibit a ``quantum saturation''), as a consequence of the balance of entropy changes due to cooling of excitons by phonons and heating by the non-radiative Auger two-exciton recombination process. The Auger annihilation rate for para-para collisions is much smaller than that for ortho-para and ortho-ortho collisions, explaining why, under the given experimental conditions, the paraexcitons condense while the orthoexcitons fail to do so.Comment: Revised to improve clarity and physical content 18 pages, revtex, figures available from G. Kavoulakis, Physics Department, University of Illinois, Urban

Opto-mechanical measurement of micro-trap via nonlinear cavity enhanced Raman scattering spectrum

High-gain resonant nonlinear Raman scattering on trapped cold atoms within a high-fineness ring optical cavity is simply explained under a nonlinear opto-mechanical mechanism, and a proposal using it to detect frequency of micro-trap on atom chip is presented. The enhancement of scattering spectrum is due to a coherent Raman conversion between two different cavity modes mediated by collective vibrations of atoms through nonlinear opto-mechanical couplings. The physical conditions of this technique are roughly estimated on Rubidium atoms, and a simple quantum analysis as well as a multi-body semiclassical simulation on this nonlinear Raman process is conducted.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figure

Plasma matrix metalloproteinases in neonates having surgery for congenital heart disease

During cardiopulmonary-bypass matrix-metalloproteinases released may contribute to ventricular dysfunction. This study was to determine plasma matrix-metalloproteinases in neonates after cardiopulmonary-bypass and their relation to post-operative course. A prospective observational study included 18 neonates having cardiac surgery. Plasma matrix-metalloproteinases-2 and 9 activities were measured by gelatin-zymography pre-operatively, on starting cardiopulmonarybypass, 7–8 min after aortic cross-clamp release, and 1h, 4h, 24h, and 3d after cardiopulmonary-bypass. Plasma concentrations of their tissue inhibitors 1 and 2 were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Cardiac function was assessed by serial echocardiography. Paired t-tests and Wilcoxon tests were used to assess temporal changes, and linear correlation with simultaneous clinical and cardiac function parameters were assessed using Pearson's product-moment correlation coefficient. Plasma matrix-metalloproteinases activities and their tissue inhibitor concentrations decreased during cardiopulmonary-bypass. Matrix-metalloproteinase-2 plasma activity increased progressively starting 1h after cardiopulmonarybypass and returned to pre-operative levels at 24h. Matrix-metalloproteinase-9 plasma activity increased significantly after release of aortic cross-clamp, peaked 7–8min later, and returned to baseline at 24h. Plasma tissueinhibitor 1 and 2 concentrations increased 1h after cardiopulmonary-bypass. Cardiac function improved from 4h to 3d after surgery (p<0.05). There was no evidence of significant correlations between matrix-metalloproteinases or their inhibitors and cardiac function, inotrope scores, organ dysfunction scores, ventilation days, or hospital days. The temporal profile of plasma matrix-metalloproteinases and their inhibitors after cardiopulmonary-bypass in neonates are similar to adults. In neonates, further study should determine whether circulating matrix-metalloproteinases are useful biomarkers of disease activity locally within the myocardium, and hence of clinical outcomes

A Four-Gene Signature from NCI-60 Cell Line for Survival Prediction in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Purpose: Metastasis is the main cause of mortality in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. Genes that can discriminate the invasion ability of cancer cells may become useful candidates for clinical outcome prediction. We identify invasion-associated genes through computational and laboratorial approach that supported this idea in NSCLC. Experimental Design: We first conducted invasion assay to characterize the invasion abilities of NCI-60 lung cancer cell lines. We then systematically exploited NCI-60 microarray databases to identify invasion-associated genes that showed differential expression between the high and the low invasion cell line groups. Furthermore, using the microarray data of Duke lung cancer cohort (GSE 3141), invasion-associated genes with good survival prediction potentials were obtained. Finally, we validated the findings by conducting quantitative PCR assay on an in-house collected patient group (n = 69) and by using microarray data from two public western cohorts (n = 257 and 186). Results: The invasion-associated four-gene signature (ANKRD49, LPHN1, RABAC1, and EGLN2) had significant prediction in three validation cohorts (P = 0.0184, 0.002, and 0.017, log-rank test). Moreover, we showed that four-gene signature was an independent prognostic factor (hazard ratio, 2.354, 1.480, and 1.670; P = 0.028, 0.014, and 0.033), independent of other clinical covariates, such as age, gender, and stage. Conclusion: The invasion-associated four-gene signature derived from NCI-60 lung cancer cell lines had good survival prediction power for NSCLC patients. (Clin Cancer Res 2009;15(23):7309-15

Surface stiffening and enhanced photoluminescence of ion implanted cellulose - polyvinyl alcohol - silica composite

Novel Cellulose (Cel) reinforced polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)-Silica (Si) composite which has good stability and in vitro degradation was prepared by lyophilization technique and implanted using N3+ ions of energy 24 keV in the fluences of 1 x 10(15), 5 x 10(15) and 1 x 10(16) ions/cm(2). SEM analysis revealed the formation of microstructures, and improved the surface roughness on ion implantation. In addition to these structural changes, the implantation significantly modified the luminescent, thermal and mechanical properties of the samples. The elastic modulus of the implanted samples has increased by about 50 times compared to the pristine which confirms that the stiffness of the sample surface has increased remarkably on ion implantation. The photoluminescence of the native cellulose has improved greatly due to defect site, dangling bonds and hydrogen passivation. Electric conductivity of the ion implanted samples was improved by about 25%. Hence, low energy ion implantation tunes the mechanical property, surface roughness and further induces the formation of nano structures. MG63 cells seeded onto the scaffolds reveals that with the increase in implantation fluence, the cell attachment, viability and proliferation have improved greatly compared to pristine. The enhancement of cell growth of about 59% was observed in the implanted samples compared to pristine. These properties will enable the scaffolds to be ideal for bone tissue engineering and imaging applications.G.M.S. acknowledges CSIR, India (Grant no: 09/468 (0474)/2013-EMR-I) and S.N.K. thanks the award of Erasmus-Mundus Svaagata for providing financial support to carry out this research. G.M.S., N.S. and S.N.K. acknowledge the support of UGC National facility for characterization facility. J.A.G.T. acknowledges the support of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) through the project DPI2015-65401-C3-2-R (including the FEDER financial support). CIBER-BBN, Spain is an initiative funded by the VI National R&D Plan 2008-2011, Iniciativa Ingenio 2010, Consolider Program. CIBER actions are financed by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III with assistance from the European Regional Development Fund. AFM was conducted by the microscopy service of the UPV, whose advice was greatly appreciated.Shanthini, GM.; Sakthivel, N.; Menon, R.; Nabhiraj, PY.; Gómez-Tejedor, JA.; Meseguer Dueñas, JM.; Gómez Ribelles, JL.... (2016). Surface stiffening and enhanced photoluminescence of ion implanted cellulose - polyvinyl alcohol - silica composite. Carbohydrate Polymers. 153:619-630. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.carbpol.2016.08.016S61963015

Liquid biopsy in central nervous system metastases: a RANO review and proposals for clinical applications

Abstract Liquid biopsies collect and analyze tumor components in body fluids, and there is an increasing interest in the investigation of liquid biopsies as a surrogate for tumor tissue in the management of both primary and secondary brain tumors. Herein we critically review available literature on spinal fluid and plasma circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and cell-free tumor (ctDNA) for diagnosis and monitoring of leptomeningeal and parenchymal brain metastases. We discuss technical issues and propose several potential applications of liquid biopsies in different clinical settings (ie, for initial diagnosis, for assessment during treatment, and for guidance of treatment decisions). Last, ongoing clinical studies on CNS metastases that include liquid biopsies are summarized, and recommendations for future clinical studies are provided