Lateral and normal forces between patterned substrates induced by nematic fluctuations

We consider a nematic liquid crystal confined by two parallel flat substrates whose anchoring conditions vary periodically in one lateral direction. Within the Gaussian approximation, we study the effective forces between the patterned substrates induced by the thermal fluctuations of the nematic director. The shear force oscillates as function of the lateral shift between the patterns on the lower and the upper substrates. We compare the strength of this fluctuation-induced lateral force with the lateral van der Waals force arising from chemically structured adsorbed monolayers. The fluctuation-induced force in normal direction is either repulsive or attractive, depending on the model parameters.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figure

Altered pituitary hormone secretion in male rats exposed to Bisphenol A

Bisphenol A (BPA) is a xenobiotic estrogenic compound. This compound has been suspected to have estrogenic effects on reproductive system of males and females. In this present study we investigated possible low-dose effects of BPAon Luteinizing Hormone in rats. Male Wistar rats (12-13 weeks old) were administrated a daily intra peritoneal 10 μg/kgbw/day, 50 μg/kgbw/day, 100 μg/kgbw/ day dose of BPA for 6, 6, and 12 days, and one day after last injection, serum level of Luteinizing Hormone was examined by ELISA method. All data were expressed as means ± SE. Two-way ANOVA was performed. Analysis of data showed that in all dose groups, plasma level of Luteinizing Hormone significantly decreased compared to control group. The present study showed that BPA at low doses affects Luteinizing Hormone, one of main hormones in spermatogenesis in the adult Wistar rats, and subsequently alters the steroidgenesis in testicular Leydig cells

Efficient and Easily Reusable Metal-Free Heterogeneous Catalyst Beads for the Conversion of CO2 into Cyclic Carbonates in the Presence of Water as Hydrogen-Bond Donor

Two porous Amberlite resin beads consisting of ammonium-functionalized polystyrene cross-linked with divinylbenzene were demonstrated to be efficient, easily recyclable, and viable metal-free heterogeneous catalysts for the reaction of CO2 with epoxides to yield cyclic carbonates. The catalysts were prepared from two affordable, commercially available resin beads, which differ in the nature of their functional groups, i.e., trimethylammonium chloride or dimethylethanolammonium chloride. These materials were converted through a straightforward ion-exchange step into their iodide counterparts (Amb-I-900 and Amb-OH-I-910). The ion-exchanged resin beads were tested as heterogeneous catalysts for the reaction of CO2 with styrene oxide at different reaction conditions (45-150 °C, 2-60 bar of CO2, 3-18 h). The effect of the presence of water as a hydrogen-bond donor in combination with a heterogeneous catalyst was systematically investigated here for the first time. With both catalysts, the presence of water led to higher yields of cyclic carbonate (from 12% to 58% with Amb-I-900 and from 59% to 66% with Amb-OH-I-910; ≥98% selectivity). The highest catalytic activity was observed with Amb-OH-I-910, due to the presence of -OH groups in its active site, which together with water enhanced the activity through hydrogen-bonding interactions. This catalytic system attained higher turnover numbers and turnover frequencies (TON = 505, TOF = 168 for reaction at 150 °C) and improved cyclic carbonate productivity compared to the state-of-the-art supported polymeric bead catalysts and was active in catalyzing the synthesis of styrene carbonate also at low temperature (33% yield at 45 °C and 10 bar of CO2). Additionally, the Amb-OH-I-910 proved to be a versatile catalyst for the conversion of a variety of epoxides into their corresponding cyclic carbonates with good to excellent yields and very high selectivity (≥98%). The two polymeric bead catalysts could be easily recovered and reused without significant loss in their activity and thus represent an easily accessible, environmentally friendly, cost-effective catalytic system for the synthesis of cyclic carbonates from CO2

Comparing Data Mining with Ensemble Classification of Breast Cancer Masses in Digital Mammograms

Medical diagnosis sometimes involves detecting subtle indi-cations of a disease or condition amongst a background of diverse healthy individuals. The amount of information that is available for discover-ing such indications for mammography is large and has been growing at an exponential rate, due to population wide screening programmes. In order to analyse this information data mining techniques have been utilised by various researchers. A question that arises is: do flexible data mining techniques have comparable accuracy to dedicated classification techniques for medical diagnostic processes? This research compares a model-based data mining technique with a neural network classification technique and the improvements possible using an ensemble approach. A publicly available breast cancer benchmark database is used to determine the utility of the techniques and compare the accuracies obtained

A comparative study between codes of spectrum for a single degree of freedom (sdof) system in two different hazardous regions.

Since in structure and earthquake engineering design of structures using response spectrum method (RSM) is very important, this study has been performed for a single degree of freedom (SDOF) system. Firstly the concept and the way of construction of response spectrum has been briefly explained. Then the records of some strong earthquakes in USA and Iran as two hazardous regions have been plotted, after that selected response spectrums (RS) of each country has been compared with each other and finally with standard response code of its own country. It was concluded:1) For a given ground motion the response of a SDOF system only depends on its natural vibration period (T) and damping ratio(ζ).2) When the effective damping ratio of a structure increases, its dynamic responses will decrease which demands the use of higher value of damping ratio in the structure. Also the FORTRAN computer programme for solving the Duhamel's Integral has been improved in this paper

Association of invasive breast carcinoma and multicentric high grade astrocytoma: a case report with a review.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women. Multicentric gliomas are uncommon lesions of the central nervous system (CNS) with an unprecise rate of occurrence that diffusely infiltrate large portions of the brain. High grade astrocytoma is the most agressive form of gliomas and often has a distinct neuroimaging pattern with a poor prognosis. We report a case of a 29-year-old woman patient with primary breast carcinoma and high grade astrocytoma subsequently developed. The woman was treated by mastectomy and 20 months post-diagnosis of the cancer she exhibited a transient facial paralysis. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed two cranial masses suspicious of metastasis. A complete tumor removal from the brain was performed. On histological examination, this tumor was a high grade astrocytoma

Computable randomness is about more than probabilities

We introduce a notion of computable randomness for infinite sequences that generalises the classical version in two important ways. First, our definition of computable randomness is associated with imprecise probability models, in the sense that we consider lower expectations (or sets of probabilities) instead of classical 'precise' probabilities. Secondly, instead of binary sequences, we consider sequences whose elements take values in some finite sample space. Interestingly, we find that every sequence is computably random with respect to at least one lower expectation, and that lower expectations that are more informative have fewer computably random sequences. This leads to the intriguing question whether every sequence is computably random with respect to a unique most informative lower expectation. We study this question in some detail and provide a partial answer

OCEAN: a randomized Phase III study of melflufen + dexamethasone to treat relapsed refractory multiple myeloma

Melflufen is a novel peptide-drug conjugate that rapidly delivers a cytotoxic payload into tumor cells. It has emerged as a potential new multiple myeloma treatment, particularly for late-stage forms of the disease. Here we describe the rationale and design of OCEAN (NCT03151811), a randomized, head-to-head, superiority, open-label, global, Phase III study evaluating the efficacy and safety of melflufen + dexamethasone versus pomalidomide + dexamethasone. Eligible patients with relapsed refractory multiple myeloma have received 2-4 previous treatments and are refractory to both lenalidomide and their last treatment. Patients are excluded if they have previously received pomalidomide. The primary endpoint is progression-free survival, and key secondary endpoints include overall response rate, duration of response and overall survival