The growth of bilayer defects and the induction of interdigitated domains in the lipid-loss process of supported phospholipid bilayers

AbstractThe lipid-loss process has been studied with in situ atomic force microscopy (AFM) at six different temperatures for supported dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) bilayers. A typical structural characteristic is the creation and the growth of bilayer defects as lipid molecules are lost from the bilayer. The rate of the lipid loss has an Arrhenius behavior, with an activation energy of 37 kT, where kT is the thermal energy at room temperature. For the lipid-loss processes at temperatures above 45°C, interdigitated membrane domains are induced and are mostly in contact with some bilayer defects. These domains disappear at the increase of the area of bilayer defects. Possible mechanisms of these phenomena are discussed

Theoretical study on self-synchronization of two homodromy rotors coupled with a pendulum rod in a far-resonant vibrating system

The objective of this paper is to investigate the self-synchronization of two homodromy rotors coupled with a pendulum rod in a far-resonant vibrating system. Using the average method and revisionary small parameters, we derive the dimensionless equation of the self-synchronization criterion and synchronous stability of the vibrating system. Meanwhile, to prove the correctness of the theoretical analysis, the diversity feature of the vibrating system is simulated numerically. Both results of theoretical analysis and numerical simulation show that increasing the length of the pendulum rod or decreasing the mass of the rotor connected with pendulum rod can ensure the self-synchronization and synchronous stability of two homodromy rotors in the vibrating system

Global Electroweak Symmetric Vacuum

Although the Higgs potential in the Standard Model (SM) contains only a simple electroweak symmetry breaking vacuum in the small field region, additional metastable or global vacua could exist in models beyond the SM. In this paper, we study one intriguing scenario with an additional electroweak symmetric vacuum that could be the global one. For the thermal universe ending at the current metastable vacuum, the electroweak symmetry should stay non-restored at high temperatures. We realize the scenario in a model with Higgs-portal couplings to SM singlet scalars with approximately global O(N) symmetries with a large N. For a large portion of model parameter space, both the quantum and thermal tunneling rates are suppressed such that our current metastable vacuum is long-lived enough. Our scenario predicts order-one changes for the Higgs self-couplings and a large contribution to the signal of the off-shell Higgs invisible decay. It can be partly probed at the LHC Run 3 and well tested at the high luminosity LHC. We also discuss the subcritical (anti-de Sitter) bubbles from the thermal tunneling that could have a large population and interesting cosmological implications.Comment: 38 pages, 9 figures; v2: references added, final version in JHE

Ferritin level prospectively predicts hepatocarcinogenesis in patients with chronic hepatitis B virus infection

Previous studies have detected a higher level of ferritin in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), but a potential causal association between serum ferritin level and hepatocarcinogenesis remains to be clarified. Using a well-established prospective cohort and longitudinally collected serial blood samples, the association between baseline ferritin levels and HCC risk were evaluated in 1,152 patients infected with hepatitis B virus (HBV), a major risk factor for HCC. The association was assessed by Cox proportional hazards regression model using univariate and multivariate analyses and longitudinal analysis. It was demonstrated that HBV patients who developed HCC had a significantly higher baseline ferritin level than those who remained cancer-free (188.00 vs. 108.00 ng/ml, P\u3c0.0001). The patients with a high ferritin level (≥200 ng/ml) had 2.43-fold increased risk of HCC compared to those with lower ferritin levels [hazard ratio (HR), 2.43; 95% confidence interval, 1.63-3.63]. A significant trend of increasing HRs along with elevated ferritin levels was observed (P for trend \u3c0.0001). The association was still significant after multivariate adjustment. Incorporating ferritin into the α-fetoprotein (AFP) model significantly improved the performance of HCC prediction (the area under the curve from 0.74 to 0.77, P=0.003). Longitudinal analysis showed that the average ferritin level in HBV patients who developed HCC was persistently higher than in those who were cancer-free during follow-up. HCC risk reached a peak at approximately the fifth year after baseline ferritin detection. Moreover, stratified analyses showed that the association was noted in both males and females, and was prominent in patients with a low AFP value. In short, serum ferritin level could independently predict the risk of HBV-related HCC and may have a complementary role in AFP-based HCC diagnosis. Future studies are warranted to validate these findings and test its clinical applicability in HCC prevention and management. © 2018, Spandidos Publication

Supplementation of iron alone and combined with vitamins improves haematological status, erythrocyte membrane fluidity and oxidative stress in anaemic pregnant women

Pregnancy is a condition exhibiting increased susceptibility to oxidative stress, and Fe plays a central role in generating harmful oxygen species. The objective of the present study is to investigate the changes in haematological status, oxidative stress and erythrocyte membrane fluidity in anaemic pregnant women after Fe supplementation with and without combined vitamins. The study was a 2 months double-blind, randomised trial. Pregnant women (n 164) were allocated to four groups: group C was the placebo control group; group I was supplemented daily with 60 mg Fe (ferrous sulphate) daily; group IF was supplemented daily with Fe plus 400 µg folic acid; group IM was supplemented daily with Fe plus 2 mg retinol and 1 mg riboflavin, respectively. After the 2-month trial, Hb significantly increased by 15·8, 17·3 and 21·8 g/l, and ferritin by 2·8, 3·6 and 11·0 µg/l, in the I, IF and IM groups compared with placebo. Polarisation (¿) and microviscosity (¿) decreased significantly in other groups compared with placebo, indicating an increase in membrane fluidity. Significant decreases of ¿ and ¿ values compared with group C were 0·033 and 0·959 for group I, 0·037 and 1·074 for group IF and 0·064 and 1·865 for group IM, respectively. In addition, significant increases of glutathione peroxidase activities and decreases of malondialdehyde were shown in all treated groups, as well as increases of plasma retinol and urine riboflavin in group IM. The findings show that supplementation with Fe and particularly in combination with vitamins could improve the haematological status as well as oxidative stress and erythrocyte membrane fluidit