Nitric oxide metabolites in patients with asthma: induced sputum versus blood

AbstractNitric oxide (NO) plays an important role in physiological regulation of the airways. The monitoring of airway inflammation has being observed in bronchial asthma directly, by sputum examination, and indirectly, by measurements in peripheral blood. To investigate the diagnostic value of these two methods, we compared NO metabolites in induced sputum and serum obtained in patients with asthma and control subjects. Hypertonic saline induced sputum and serum were obtained in 13 patients with asthma and 10 control subjects. NO metabolite level was assayed by using modified Griess reaction. Eosinophil cationic protein (ECP) was measured by fluoroimmunoassay, and detected interleukin (IL)-5 by a sandwich ELISA. The accuracy of the tests was measured by plotting the data in receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves and comparing the area under the curve for NO metabolites. Asthmatic patients, compared with control subjects, had significantly higher NO metabolites in induced sputum (1252·5±203·3 moll−1 vs. 557·2±101±.5 mol l−1, P < 0·01) but not in serum. IL-5 in induced sputum was detected more frequently in patients with asthma than in control subjects [1113 (84·6%) vs. 110 (10%), P < 0·01]. Asthmatic patients, compared with control subjects, had significantly higher ECP concentration in induced sputum (1270·0 ± 197·9 g 1 vs. 154·6 ± 47·4 g l−1, P < 0·01). There were significant positive correlations between NO metabolites in induced sputum and eosinophils, ECP in induced sputum (r=0·58 P<0·05; r=0·64, P<0·01) in patients with asthma but not in serum. The area under the ROC curve showed that NO metabolites in induced sputum (0·78) are more accurate marker than NO metabolites in serum (0·53) (P<0·05). These findings suggest that NO metabolites in induced sputum is a more valuable indicator to monitor asthmatic airway inflammation than those in serum

Constraints on the Formation of the Planet Around HD188753A

The claimed discovery of a Jupiter-mass planet in the close triple star system HD 188753 poses a problem for planet formation theory. A circumstellar disk around the planet's parent star would be truncated close to the star, leaving little material available for planet formation. In this paper, we attempt to model a protoplanetary disk around HD 188753A using a fairly simple alpha-disk model, exploring a range of parameters constrained by observations of T Tauri-type stars. The disk is truncated to within 1.5 to 2.7 AU, depending on model parameters. We find that the in situ formation of the planet around HD 188753A is implausible.Comment: Accepted version, to appear in ApJ. 23 pages, 5 figures (3 in color

Isometric Representations of Totally Ordered Semigroups

Let S be a subsemigroup of an abelian torsion-free group G. If S is a positive cone of G, then all C*-algebras generated by faithful isometrical non-unitary representations of S are canonically isomorphic. Proved by Murphy, this statement generalized the well-known theorems of Coburn and Douglas. In this note we prove the reverse. If all C*-algebras generated by faithful isometrical non-unitary representations of S are canonically isomorphic, then S is a positive cone of G. Also we consider G = Z\times Z and prove that if S induces total order on G, then there exist at least two unitarily not equivalent irreducible isometrical representation of S. And if the order is lexicographical-product order, then all such representations are unitarily equivalent.Comment: February 21, 2012. Kazan, Russi

An adsorption chromatography assay to probe bulk particle transport through hydrogels

Biopolymer-based hydrogels such as mucus and the basal lamina play a key role in biology, where they control the exchange of material between different compartments. They also pose a barrier that needs to be overcome for successful drug delivery. Characterizing the permeability properties of such hydrogels is mandatory for the development of suitable drug delivery vectors and pharmaceutics. Here, we present an experimental method to measure bulk particle transport through hydrogels. We validate our assay by applying it to mucin hydrogels and show that the permeability properties of these mucin hydrogels can be modulated by polymer density and pH, in agreement with previous results obtained from single particle tracking. The method we present here is easy to handle, inexpensive, and high-throughput compatible. It is also a suitable platform for the design and screening of drugs that aim at modifying the barrier properties of hydrogels. This system can also aid in the characterization and development of synthetic gels for a range of biomedical applications.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant P50-GM068763)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant P30-ES002109

Production and optical properties of liquid scintillator for the JSNS2^{2} experiment

The JSNS$^{2}$ (J-PARC Sterile Neutrino Search at J-PARC Spallation Neutron Source) experiment will search for neutrino oscillations over a 24 m short baseline at J-PARC. The JSNS$^{2}$ inner detector will be filled with 17 tons of gadolinium-loaded liquid scintillator (LS) with an additional 31 tons of unloaded LS in the intermediate $\gamma$-catcher and outer veto volumes. JSNS$^{2}$ has chosen Linear Alkyl Benzene (LAB) as an organic solvent because of its chemical properties. The unloaded LS was produced at a refurbished facility, originally used for scintillator production by the RENO experiment. JSNS$^{2}$ plans to use ISO tanks for the storage and transportation of the LS. In this paper, we describe the LS production, and present measurements of its optical properties and long term stability. Our measurements show that storing the LS in ISO tanks does not result in degradation of its optical properties.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures