Long-term changes of hydrogen-containing species in the stratosphere

Understanding the 1% per year increase of stratospheric water vapour from 1954 to 2000 is a great challenge in atmospheric science. The increase is predominantly caused by long-term changes in transport of water vapour into the stratosphere and systematic increases of tropospheric methane levels. This paper gives a review on stratospheric water vapour changes for the 1980 and 2000 time period with emphasis on the contribution of methane oxidation. Predictions for 2050 indicate that likely increases of tropospheric methane levels will lead to an increase of upper stratospheric water vapour values of about 0.4 ppmv. A similar value is predicted as an upper limit of effects of a future hydrogen economy. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Re-use of spent cell culture medium in pilot scale and rapid preparative purification with membrane chromatography

Riese U, Lütkemeyer D, Heidemann R, Büntemeyer H, Lehmann J. Re-use of spent cell culture medium in pilot scale and rapid preparative purification with membrane chromatography. Journal of Biotechnology. 1994;34(3):247-257.Based on experiments in bench scale, a recycling of spent cell culture medium was performed in a 100-l pilot scale bioreactor. The cell cultivation has been done as a repeated batch procedure after the initial batch in the following four repeated batches spent medium from the previous batch was partially re-used. After microfiltration and ultrafiltration a part of the filtrate was mixed with a concentrate of amino acids and glucose, sterile filtered and subsequently filled back into the bioreactor. Up to 65% of the harvested cell- and product-free spent medium was re-used in each repeated batch. This procedure results in a saving of pure and waste water volume and saving of supplemented proteins as transferrin, insulin and lipoproteins and, therefore, also in a reduction of the production costs. A strongly acidic membrane ion exchanger was evaluated for the ability to purify the monoclonal antibodies from the pilot scale cultivation. Within minutes, gram quantities of product could be purified in a high flux system, especially developed for this purpose, achieving purities of 80%. The capacity of the acidic membrane ion exchanger was found in former investigations to be 1 mg cm -2 with recoveries up to 96%. Final purification was carried out by gel column filtration

Effectiveness of a standardized patient education program on therapy-related side effects and unplanned therapy interruptions in oral cancer therapy: a cluster-randomized controlled trial

Purpose: Oral agents for cancer treatment are increasingly prescribed due to their benefits. However, oral cancer medications are difficult to handle and have a considerable potential for side effects. This type of therapy requires a high level of self-management competence by the patient. A standardized patient education program provided by physicians and oncology nurses may positively influence the handling of oral agents. The aim of the study was to evaluate the impact of a standardized patient education program provided by specially trained oncology nurses on therapy management regarding side effects and unplanned therapy interruptions. Methods: One hundred sixty-five patients from 28 office-based oncology practices from all over Germany participated in this cluster-randomized controlled study. Patients of both intervention (n = 111) and standard care groups (n = 54) received the usual oncologist counseling; in addition, the patients from the intervention group (k = 17 practices) received an education from specially trained oncology nurses. The time of observation was 3 months per patient. Results: The patients of the intervention group reported fewer side effects (skin rash, pain, fatigue, nausea, vomiting). Patients in the standard care group interrupted the therapy more frequently without informing their oncologist, compared to the intervention group. Conclusions: Patients benefit from a standardized patient education program provided by specially trained oncology nurses. They tend to handle side effects and critical situations better

What causes the irregular cycle of the atmospheric tape recorder signal in HCN?

Variations in the mixing ratio of long-lived trace gases entering the stratosphere in the tropics are carried upward with the rising air with the signal being observable throughout the tropical lower stratosphere. This phenomenon, referred to as "atmospheric tape recorder" has previously been observed for water vapor, CO2, and CO which exhibit an annual cycle. Recently, based on Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) and the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment Fourier Transform Spectrometer (ACE-FTS) satellite measurements, the tape recorder signal has been observed for hydrogen cyanide (HCN) but with an approximately two-year period. Here we report on a model simulation of the HCN tape recorder for the time period 2002-2008 using the Chemical Lagrangian Model of the Stratosphere (CLaMS). The model can reproduce the observed pattern of the HCN tape recorder signal if time-resolved emissions from fires in Indonesia are used as lower boundary condition. This finding indicates that inter-annual variations in biomass burning in Indonesia, which are strongly influenced by El Nino events, control the HCN tape recorder signal. A longer time series of tropical HCN data will probably exhibit an irregular cycle rather than a regular biannual cycle. Citation: Pommrich, R., R. Muller, J.-U. Grooss, G. Gunther, P. Konopka, M. Riese, A. Heil, M. Schultz, H.-C. Pumphrey, and K. A. Walker (2010), What causes the irregular cycle of the atmospheric tape recorder signal in HCN?, Geophys. Res. Lett., 37, L16805, doi:10.1029/2010GL044056

Triangles in the graph of conjugacy classes of normal subgroups

[EN] Let G be a finite group and N a normal subgroup of G. We determine the structure of N when the graph G(N), which is the graph associated to the conjugacy classes of G contained in N, has no triangles and when the graph consists in exactly one triangle.The research of the first and second authors is supported by the Valencian Government, Proyecto PROMETEOII/2015/011. The first and the third authors are also partially supported by Universitat Jaume I, Grant P11B2015-77.Beltrán, A.; Felipe Román, MJ.; Melchor, C. (2017). Triangles in the graph of conjugacy classes of normal subgroups. Monatshefte für Mathematik. 182(1):5-21. https://doi.org/10.1007/S00605-015-0866-9S5211821Bertram, E.A., Herzog, M., Mann, A.: On a graph related to conjugacy classes of groups. Bull. London Math. Soc. 22(6), 569-575 (1990)Beltrán, A., Felipe, M.J., Melchor, C.: Graphs associated to conjugacy classes of normal subgroups in finite groups. J. Algebra 443, 335-348 (2015)Camina, A.R.: Arithmetical conditions on the conjugacy class numbers of a finite group. J. London Math. Soc. 2(5), 127-132 (1972)Deaconescu, M.: Classification of finite groups with all elements of prime order. Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 106(3), 625-629 (1989)Doerk, K., Hawkes, T.: Finite soluble groups. de Gruyter Expositions in Mathematics, vol. 4. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin (1992)Fang, M., Zhang, P.: Finite groups with graphs containing no triangles. J. Algebra 264(2), 613-619 (2003)Higman, G.: Finite groups in which every element has prime power order. J. London Math. Soc. 32, 335-342 (1957)Manz, O., Wolf, T.R.: Representations of solvable groups. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge (1993)Riese, U., Shahabi, M.A.: Subgroups which are the union of four conjugacy classes. Commun. Algebra 29(2), 695-701 (2001)Shahryari, M., Shahabi, M.A.: Subgroups which are the union of three conjugate classes. J. Algebra 207(1), 326-332 (1998)The GAP Group.: GAP–groups, algorithms and programming, Vers. 4.4.12. (2008). http://www.gap-system.or

Betacellulin Induces Increased Retinal Vascular Permeability in Mice

BACKGROUND: Diabetic maculopathy, the leading cause of vision loss in patients with type 2 diabetes, is characterized by hyper-permeability of retinal blood vessels with subsequent formation of macular edema and hard exudates. The degree of hyperglycemia and duration of diabetes have been suggested to be good predictors of retinal complications. Intervention studies have determined that while intensive treatment of diabetes reduced the development of proliferative diabetic retinopathy it was associated with a two to three-fold increased risk of severe hypoglycemia. Thus we hypothesized the need to identify downstream glycemic targets, which induce retinal vascular permeability that could be targeted therapeutically without the additional risks associated with intensive treatment of the hyperglycemia. Betacellulin is a 32 kD member of the epidermal growth factor family with mitogenic properties for the retinal pigment epithelial cells. This led us to hypothesize a role for betacellulin in the retinal vascular complications associated with diabetes. METHODS AND FINDINGS: In this study, using a mouse model of diabetes, we demonstrate that diabetic mice have accentuated retinal vascular permeability with a concomitant increased expression of a cleaved soluble form of betacellulin (s-Btc) in the retina. Intravitreal injection of soluble betacellulin induced retinal vascular permeability in normoglycemic and hyperglycemic mice. Western blot analysis of retinas from patients with diabetic retinopathy showed an increase in the active soluble form of betacellulin. In addition, an increase in the levels of A disintegrin and metalloproteinase (ADAM)-10 which plays a role in the cleavage of betacellulin was seen in the retinas of diabetic mice and humans. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that excessive amounts of betacellulin in the retina may contribute to the pathogenesis of diabetic macular edema