Assessment of the phenotypic effects of Platelet Rich Fibrin on Mesenchymal Stem Cells derived from Minced Pulp

Our aim is to investigate the effects of autologous platelet-rich fibrin (PRF) on Mesenchymal Stem cell derived from Minced Pulp (MP-MSCs). We first developed a mouse model of PRF to study the phenotypic effects of PRF in cultured cells. We obtained PRF from the blood and prepared PRF-enriched culture media. The phenotypic effects of PRF on MP-MSCs were determined by assessing the changes in cell proliferation, differentiation and immunophenotypic profiling. The mRNA levels of ALP, OCN, DMP1 and DSPP were determined by qRT-PCR. It was found that PRF increased the proliferation capacity of MP-MSCs and reduced the cell doubling time. With PRF exposure, the MP-MSCs were able to retain their immunophenotypic characteristics defining them as MSCs, as the cells expressing surface markers CD105, CD146 and CD73 were higher. MP-MSCs were able to undergo osteogenic differentiation in the presence of PRF and the mRNA levels of OCN was significantly increased in the presence of PRF. To assess the odontogenic differentiation of cells in response to PRF, we prepared dentin-slice model in which we cultured MP-MSCs embedded in PRF. Histological sections of the dentin slice model revealed that there was increase in the cellularity of the pulp tissue along the edges of the pulp tissue. Based on our findings, PRF can act as a source of growth factors cell proliferation, migration and differentiation

Complex geodesics, their boundary regularity, and a Hardy--Littlewood-type lemma

We begin by giving an example of a smoothly bounded convex domain that has complex geodesics that do not extend continuously up to $\partial\mathbb{D}$. This example suggests that continuity at the boundary of the complex geodesics of a convex domain $\Omega\Subset \mathbb{C}^n$, $n\geq 2$, is affected by the extent to which $\partial\Omega$ curves or bends at each boundary point. We provide a sufficient condition to this effect (on $\mathcal{C}^1$-smoothly bounded convex domains), which admits domains having boundary points at which the boundary is infinitely flat. Along the way, we establish a Hardy--Littlewood-type lemma that might be of independent interest.Comment: 10 pages; to appear in Ann. Acad. Sci. Fennicae. Mat

Study of participant-spectator matter, thermalization and other related phenomena for neutron-rich colliding pair

We study the participant-spectator matter, density and temperature reached in heavy-ion reactions of neutron-rich systems having N/Z varying from 1.0 to 2.0 at 50 and 250 MeV/nucleon. The N/Z dependence of these quantities is also investigated. Our results show a weak dependence on the N/Z ratio of the system on these quantities. We also shed light on the role of N/Z ratio on the thermalization achieved in a reaction. We find similar weak N/Z dependence on thermalization also.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figure

Z0Z^0--Z0′{Z^0}^\prime and ordinary-exotic fermion mixings revisited using some special observables

We investigate the mixing of an extra ${Z^0}^\prime$ with the standard $Z^0$ and mixings of exotic fermions with their standard counterparts through some precisely measured electroweak observables. These observables are geared to search for physics beyond the Standard Model. We observe that although most of such mixings are severely constrained by the recent LEP data, some of the mixing angles could still be rather large, awaiting future tests.Comment: 11 pages, CERN-TH. 7196/94, Late

Evidence on the dynamics of investment-cash flow sensitivity

An important debate in the literature relates to the use of investment-cash flow sensitivity (ICFS) to measure finance constraint faced by firms. This debate is grounded on four prominent issues: a priori sorting of firms, treatment of distressed firms, use of cash flow to represent only internal liquidity of firms and restricting firms to a single regime. In this paper we investigate these issues using a sample of 2676 Indian manufacturing firms over the period 1994 to 2009. We use firm level estimates of ICFS to sort firms into positively cash flow sensitive (PCF-sensitive) group, cash flow insensitive (CF-insensitive) group and, negatively cash flow sensitive (NCF-sensitive) group. We find that all three group of firms start with high levels of investment. But, only the PCF-sensitive firms have high level of cash flows. With age, the investment of all three groups of firms remains stationary. But, for CF-insensitive firms only the cash flow rises with age. Further, we use a multinomial logistic regression to study the determinants of ICFS in the three groups. The results suggest that the interpretation of NCF-sensitive, PCF-sensitive and CF-insensitive as distressed, financially constrained and financially unconstrained, respectively, can be contested by the data