Gold nanoparticle and mean inactivation dose of human intestinal colon cancer HT-29 cells

Background: Mean inactivation dose is a useful radiobiological parameter for the comparison of human cell survival curves. Objectives: Given the importance and accuracy of these parameters, in the present study, the radio sensitivity enhancement of colon cancer (HT-29) cells in the presence of gold nanoparticles (GNPs) were studied using the mean inactivation dose (MID). Materials and Methods: Naked-GNPs with 50 nm diameters were incubated with HT-29 cells. The cytotoxicity and uptake of these particles on HT-29 cells were assessed. After determining the optimum GNPs concentration, the cells were incubated with gold nanoparticle for 24 hours. The change in the MID value as well as the radio sensitization enhancement under irradiation with 9 MV X-ray beams in the presence of GNPs were evaluated by multiple (3-(4, 5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-5-(3-carboxymethoxyphenyl)-2-(4-sulfophenyl)-2H-tetrazolium)MTS assay. Results: Cell survival in the presence of GNPs was more than 90% and the maximum uptake of GNPs was observed at 60 μM of gold nanoparticles. In contrast, in the presence of GNPs combined with radiation, cell survival and MID value significantly decreased, so that the radio sensitization enhancement was 1.4. Conclusions: Due to the significant reduction in the mean inactivation dose of colon cancer cells in the presence of gold nanoparticles, it seems that GNPs are suitable options to achieve a new approach in order to improve radiotherapy efficiency without increasing the prescribed radiation dose

Monitored data on occupants’ presence and actions in an office building

Within a study, an open plan area and one closed office in a university building with a floor area of around 200 m2 were monitored. The present data set covers a period of one year (from 2013-01-01 to 2013-12-31). The collected data pertains to indoor environmental conditions (temperature, humidity) as well as plug loads and external factors (temperature, humidity, wind speed, and global irradiance) along with occupants’ presence and operation of windows and lights. The monitored data can be used for multiple purposes, including the development and validation of occupancy-related models

Evaluation of the effect of fat content of sunflower meal on rumen fungi growth and population by direct (quantitative competitive polymerase chain reaction) and indirect (dry matter and neutral detergent fibre disappearance) methods

The major aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of fat content of sunflower meal (150 and 30 g fat /kg dry matter, high and low fat, respectively) on population, growth and activity of rumen anaerobic fungi by using direct (quantitative competitive polymerase chain reaction, QC-PCR) and indirect (dry matter (DM) and neutral detergent fibre (NDF) disappearance in rumen fungi media culture for 12 days) methods. The results of QC-PCR showed that rumen anaerobic fungi population in the medium containing high fat sunflower meal was greater as compared to low fat sunflower meal (+0.14 vs. +0.10) (P<0.05). Also, disappearance of dry matter after 12 days incubation with rumen fungi will be 36.1 and 35.7 g/100 g DM for high and low fat sunflower meal, respectively) (P>0.05). High fat of sunflower meal caused increase in natural detergent fibre disappearance 12 days after culturing as compared to low fat sunflower meal (145.2 vs 139.2 mg/g dry matter, respectively) (P<0.05). Therefore, it appears that fat content of sunflower meal does not negatively affect the population, growth and activity of rumen fungi.Key words: Fat, sunflower meal, rumen fungi, quantitative competitive polymerase chain reaction, disappearance

Half-Seed Analysis for Comparing Linolenic Acid Synthesis Between High and Low Oleic Acid Sunflower Inbred Lines

The modification of fatty acid composition of two sunflowers inbred lines, HA89 and R978, low oleic acid (normal) and high oleic acid (mutant) respectively, in seeds and during the first stages of growth (A1-B2) was studied under controlled conditions. Enzymatic mechanisms have great effect on the catabolism of seed stored lipids. Temperature and oxygen regulation influence developing sunflower seeds. For simultaneous study of seed and developing seed, half-seed analysis technique was used. The behavior of the fatty acids during the germination in cotyledon of seed showed the increase of linolenic acid in both lines, demonstrating the activity of linoleic acid desaturase (\uc46-desaturase). But linoleic acid as a substrate for linoleate desaturase increased during all stages of developing only in mutant line that revealed higher activity of oleic acid desaturase (\uc412-desaturase) in transforming oleic acid to linoleic acid in this line, and lower activity of this enzyme in low oleic acid line, the reasons probably being the low availability of substrate of this enzyme in low oleic acid line and the complexity of enzymatic mechanisms. The modification of fatty acids in developing sunflower, depends not only on ambient conditions such as temperature and oxygen regulation as described by many authors, but also on the genotype. \ua9 2004, by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston. All rights reserved

Prediction of plug loads in office buildings: Simplified and probabilistic methods

To predict buildings’ energy use, multiple systems and processes must be considered. Next to factors such as building fabric and construction, indoor environmental control systems, and weather conditions, the energy demand attributable to buildings’ internal heat gains resulting from inhabitants, lighting, and equipment usage also needs to be addressed. Given this background, the present contribution focuses on plug loads in office buildings associated mainly with computers and peripherals. Using long-term observational data obtained from a continuously monitored office building in Vienna, we specifically explore the relationship between inhabitants’ presence, installed power for equipment, and the resulting electrical energy use. The findings facilitate the formulation of both simplified and probabilistic office plug loads predictions methods. Thereby, the model evaluation results suggest that the non-stochastic model provides fairly reasonable predictions of annual energy use associated with plug loads. However, the stochastic plug load model – together with a stochastic occupancy model – outperforms the simplified model in predicting the plug loads peak and distribution

Competition and Selection Among Conventions

In many domains, a latent competition among different conventions determines which one will come to dominate. One sees such effects in the success of community jargon, of competing frames in political rhetoric, or of terminology in technical contexts. These effects have become widespread in the online domain, where the data offers the potential to study competition among conventions at a fine-grained level. In analyzing the dynamics of conventions over time, however, even with detailed on-line data, one encounters two significant challenges. First, as conventions evolve, the underlying substance of their meaning tends to change as well; and such substantive changes confound investigations of social effects. Second, the selection of a convention takes place through the complex interactions of individuals within a community, and contention between the users of competing conventions plays a key role in the convention's evolution. Any analysis must take place in the presence of these two issues. In this work we study a setting in which we can cleanly track the competition among conventions. Our analysis is based on the spread of low-level authoring conventions in the eprint arXiv over 24 years: by tracking the spread of macros and other author-defined conventions, we are able to study conventions that vary even as the underlying meaning remains constant. We find that the interaction among co-authors over time plays a crucial role in the selection of them; the distinction between more and less experienced members of the community, and the distinction between conventions with visible versus invisible effects, are both central to the underlying processes. Through our analysis we make predictions at the population level about the ultimate success of different synonymous conventions over time--and at the individual level about the outcome of "fights" between people over convention choices.Comment: To appear in Proceedings of WWW 2017, data at https://github.com/CornellNLP/Macro