Circulating levels of matrix proteases and their inhibitors in pregnant women with and without a history of recurrent pregnancy loss

Background: We have recently shown that serum relaxin-2 levels are attenuated in women with a history of recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL). We sought to determine whether a history of RPL is also associated with changes in serum matrix metalloproteases (MMPs) and tissue inhibitors of matrix metalloproteases (TIMP) -1 and -2. Methods: We obtained serum from 20 pregnant women with a history of RPL and 20 age-matched pregnant women with no history of RPL (NRPL) at 6-8, 10-12, 20, and 34 weeks gestation, and from cord blood. We quantified total serum concentrations of MMP-1, MMP-3, MMP-9 and TIMP-1 and TIMP-2 by ELISA. We determined whether these serum marker levels were associated with a history of RPL and delivery before 37 weeks gestation. Results: There was no difference in the rates of miscarriage, preterm birth or prelabour rupture of fetal membranes between RPL and NRPL. However babies born to RPL were lighter than those born to NRPL. Serum MMP-1, 9, and TIMP-1 did not differ between RPL and NRPL but MMP-3 was higher in RPL vs. NRPL at 6-8 weeks (P < 0.05). Serum TIMP-2 levels were higher in RPL women at all gestations (P < 0.01). The ratio of RLX-2 (reported previously) to TIMP-2 at 10-12 weeks gestation was more strongly associated with a history of RPL than either peptide separately - area under the ROC curves for RLX-2 0.79 (95% CI 0.57 to 0.92), TIMP-2 0.83 (95% CI 0.63 to 0.95), and for RLX-2: TIMP-2 ratio 0.92 (95% CI 0.74 to 0.99). Conclusions: Women with a history of RPL demonstrate increased serum TIMP-2 and reduced RLX-2 during a subsequent viable pregnancy. Determination of both markers in early pregnancy enhances the discrimination of women with a history of RPL. These observations suggest roles for these two peptides in early implantation and placental development. Whether these may prove to be reliable early predictive markers for subsequent pregnancy loss in the index pregnancy is unknown and will require further studies

Unparticle Physics in the Moller Scattering

We investigate the virtual effects of vector unparticles in the Moller scattering. We derive the analytic expression for scattering amplitudes with unpolarized beams. We obtain 95% confidence level limits on the unparticle couplings $\lambda_{V}$ and $\lambda_{A}$ with integrated luminosity of $L_{int}=50, 500 fb^{-1}$ and $\sqrt{s}=100, 300$ and 500 GeV energies. We show that limits on $\lambda_{V}$ are more sensitive than $\lambda_{A}$.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, 4 table

The common nodulation genes of Astragalus sinicus rhizobia are conserved despite chromosomal diversity

The nodulation genes of Mesorhizobium sp. (Astragalus sinicus) strain 7653R were cloned by functional complementation of Sinorhizobium meliloti nod mutants. The common nod genes, nodD, nodA, and nodBC, were identified by heterologous hybridization and sequence analysis. The nodA gene was found to be separated from nodBC by approximately 22 kb and was divergently transcribed. The 2.0-kb nodDBC region was amplified by PCR from 24 rhizobial strains nodulating A. sinicus, which represented different chromosomal genotypes and geographic origins. No polymorphism was found in the size of PCR products, suggesting that the separation of nodA from nodBC is a common feature of A. sinicus rhizobia. Sequence analysis of the PCR-amplified nodA gene indicated that seven strains representing different 16S and 23S ribosomal DNA genotypes had identical nodA sequences. These data indicate that, whereas microsymbionts of A. sinicus exhibit chromosomal diversity, their nodulation genes are conserved, supporting the hypothesis of horizontal transfer of nod genes among diverse recipient bacteria

Protecting Quantum Information with Entanglement and Noisy Optical Modes

We incorporate active and passive quantum error-correcting techniques to protect a set of optical information modes of a continuous-variable quantum information system. Our method uses ancilla modes, entangled modes, and gauge modes (modes in a mixed state) to help correct errors on a set of information modes. A linear-optical encoding circuit consisting of offline squeezers, passive optical devices, feedforward control, conditional modulation, and homodyne measurements performs the encoding. The result is that we extend the entanglement-assisted operator stabilizer formalism for discrete variables to continuous-variable quantum information processing.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figur

Data mining of corporate financial fraud based on neural network model

Under the active market economy, more and more listed companies emerge. Because of the various interest relationships faced by listed companies, some enterprises which are not well managed or want to enhance company’s value will choose to forge financial reports by improper means. In order to find out the false financial reports as accurately as possible, this paper briefly introduced the relevant indicators for judging the fraudulence of financial reports of listed companies and the recognition model of financial reports based on back propagation (BP) neural network. Then the selection of the input relevant indexes was improved. The improved BP neural network was simulated and analyzed in MATLAB software and compared with the traditional BP neural network and support vector machine (SVM). The results showed that the importance of total assets net profit, earnings per share, cash reinvestment rate, operating gross profit and pre-tax ratio of profit to debt was the top 5 among 20 judgment indexes. In the identification of testing samples of financial report, the accuracy, precision, recall rate and F value all showed that the performance of the improved BP neural network was better than that of the traditional BP network and SVM

Multizone decomposition for simulation of time-dependent problems using the multiquadric scheme

AbstractThis paper discusses the application of the multizone decomposition technique with multiquadric scheme for the numerical solutions of a time-dependent problem. The construction of the multizone algorithm is based on a domain decomposition technique to subdivide the global region into a number of finite subdomains. The reduction of ill-conditioning and the improvement of the computational efficiency can be achieved with a smaller resulting matrix on each subdomain. The proposed scheme is applied to a hypothetical linear two-dimensional hydrodynamic model as well as a real-life nonlinear two-dimensional hydrodynamic model in the Tolo Harbour of Hong Kong to simulate the water flow circulation patterns. To illustrate the computational efficiency and accuracy of the technique, the numerical results are compared with those solutions obtained from the same problem using a single domain multiquadric scheme. The computational efficiency of the multizone technique is improved substantially with faster convergence without significant degradation in accuracy

Optimal conclusive teleportation of a d-dimensional unknown state

We formulate a conclusive teleportation protocol for a system in d-dimensional Hilbert space utilizing the positive operator valued measurement at the sending station. The conclusive teleportation protocol ensures some perfect teleportation events when the channel is only partially entangled, at the expense of lowering the overall average fidelity. We find the change of the fidelity as optimizing the conclusive teleportation events and discuss how much information remains in the inconclusive parts of the teleportation.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure; figure correcte