Scalable Purification and Characterization of the Anticancer Lunasin Peptide from Soybean

Lunasin is a peptide derived from the soybean 2S albumin seed protein that has both anticancer and anti-inflammatory activities. Large-scale animal studies and human clinical trials to determine the efficacy of lunasin in vivo have been hampered by the cost of synthetic lunasin and the lack of a method for obtaining gram quantities of highly purified lunasin from plant sources. The goal of this study was to develop a large-scale method to generate highly purified lunasin from defatted soy flour. A scalable method was developed that utilizes the sequential application of anion-exchange chromatography, ultrafiltration, and reversed-phase chromatography. This method generates lunasin preparations of >99% purity with a yield of 442 mg/kg defatted soy flour. Mass spectrometry of the purified lunasin revealed that the peptide is 44 amino acids in length and represents the original published sequence of lunasin with an additional C-terminal asparagine residue. Histone-binding assays demonstrated that the biological activity of the purified lunasin was similar to that of synthetic lunasin. This study provides a robust method for purifying commercial-scale quantities of biologically-active lunasin and clearly identifies the predominant form of lunasin in soy flour. This method will greatly facilitate the development of lunasin as a potential nutraceutical or therapeutic anticancer agent

Finite Temperature Aging Holography

We construct the gravity background which describes the dual field theory with aging invariance. We choose the decay modes of the bulk scalar field in the internal spectator direction to obtain the dissipative behavior of the boundary correlation functions of the dual scalar fields. In particular, the two-time correlation function at zero temperature has the characteristic features of the aging system: power law decay, broken time translation and dynamical scaling. We also construct the black hole backgrounds with asymptotic aging invariance. We extensively study characteristic behavior of the finite temperature two-point correlation function via analytic and numerical methods.Comment: 38 pages and 5 figures, expanded discussions on correlator, one mistake is fixed, modified discussion on shear viscosity, to appear in JHE

Scaling Laws in Human Language

Zipf's law on word frequency is observed in English, French, Spanish, Italian, and so on, yet it does not hold for Chinese, Japanese or Korean characters. A model for writing process is proposed to explain the above difference, which takes into account the effects of finite vocabulary size. Experiments, simulations and analytical solution agree well with each other. The results show that the frequency distribution follows a power law with exponent being equal to 1, at which the corresponding Zipf's exponent diverges. Actually, the distribution obeys exponential form in the Zipf's plot. Deviating from the Heaps' law, the number of distinct words grows with the text length in three stages: It grows linearly in the beginning, then turns to a logarithmical form, and eventually saturates. This work refines previous understanding about Zipf's law and Heaps' law in language systems.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Aging Logarithmic Conformal Field Theory : a holographic view

We consider logarithmic extensions of the correlation and response functions of scalar operators for the systems with aging as well as Schr\"odinger symmetry. Aging is known to be the simplest nonequilibrium phenomena, and its physical significances can be understood by the two-time correlation and response functions. Their logarithmic part is completely fixed by the bulk geometry in terms of the conformal weight of the dual operator and the dual particle number. Motivated by recent experimental realizations of Kardar-Parisi-Zhang universality class in growth phenomena and its subsequent theoretical extension to aging, we investigate our two-time correlation functions out of equilibrium, which show several qualitatively different behaviors depending on the parameters in our theory. They exhibit either growing or aging, i.e. power-law decaying, behaviors for the entire range of our scaling time. Surprisingly, for some parameter ranges, they exhibit growing at early times as well as aging at later times.Comment: 1+26 pages, 15 figure

MRI classification of interspinous ligament degeneration of the lumbar spine: intraobserver and interobserver reliability and the frequency of disagreement

Posterior spinal ligament pathology is becoming increasingly recognized as a significant cause of low back pain. Despite the growing clinical importance of interspinous ligament degeneration in low back pain patients, formal reliability studies for the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) evaluation of interspinous ligaments have not been performed. We proposed an MRI classification system for interspinous ligament degeneration and conducted a comprehensive reliability and reproducibility assessment. Fifty patients who had low back pain with or without leg discomfort (26 males and 24 females) with a mean age of 48.8 years (range 23–85 years) were studied. The classification for lumbar interspinous ligament degeneration was developed on the basis of the literature using mid-sagittal T1- and T2-weighted images. Three spine surgeons independently graded a total of 200 interspinous ligament levels. Intraobserver and interobserver reliability were assessed by kappa statistics. The frequency of disagreement was also identified. The intraobserver agreement was excellent in all readers (kappa range 0.840–0.901). The interobserver agreement was lower as expected, and was substantial to excellent (kappa range 0.726–0.818). Overall complete agreement was obtained in 87.8% of all interspinous ligament levels. A difference of 1, 2, and 3 grades occurred in 8.1, 3.0, and 1.1% of readings, respectively. This proposed MRI classification of interspinous ligament degeneration was simple, reliable, and reproducible. Its use as a standardized nomenclature in clinical and radiographic research may be recommended

The frequency of NPM1 mutations in childhood acute myeloid leukemia

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Mutations in the nucleophosmin <it>(NPM1) </it>gene have been solely associated with childhood acute myeloid leukemia (AML). We evaluated the frequency of <it>NPM1 </it>mutations in childhood AML, their relation to clinical and cytogenetic features and the presence of common <it>FLT3 </it>and <it>RAS </it>mutations.</p> <p>Results</p> <p><it>NPM1 </it>mutations were found in 8% of cases. They involved the typical type 'A' mutation and one novel mutation characterized by two individual base pair substitutions, which resulted in 2 amino acid changes (W290) and (S293) in the NPM protein. <it>FLT3</it>/ITD mutations were observed in 12% of the cases and in one <it>NPM1-</it>mutated case bearing also t(8;21) (q22;q22). No common <it>RAS </it>mutations were identified.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>A relatively consistent <it>NPM1 </it>mutation rate was observed, but with variations in types of mutations. The role of different types of <it>NPM1 </it>mutations, either individually or in the presence of other common gene mutations may be essential for childhood AML prognosis.</p

Properties of Graphene: A Theoretical Perspective

In this review, we provide an in-depth description of the physics of monolayer and bilayer graphene from a theorist's perspective. We discuss the physical properties of graphene in an external magnetic field, reflecting the chiral nature of the quasiparticles near the Dirac point with a Landau level at zero energy. We address the unique integer quantum Hall effects, the role of electron correlations, and the recent observation of the fractional quantum Hall effect in the monolayer graphene. The quantum Hall effect in bilayer graphene is fundamentally different from that of a monolayer, reflecting the unique band structure of this system. The theory of transport in the absence of an external magnetic field is discussed in detail, along with the role of disorder studied in various theoretical models. We highlight the differences and similarities between monolayer and bilayer graphene, and focus on thermodynamic properties such as the compressibility, the plasmon spectra, the weak localization correction, quantum Hall effect, and optical properties. Confinement of electrons in graphene is nontrivial due to Klein tunneling. We review various theoretical and experimental studies of quantum confined structures made from graphene. The band structure of graphene nanoribbons and the role of the sublattice symmetry, edge geometry and the size of the nanoribbon on the electronic and magnetic properties are very active areas of research, and a detailed review of these topics is presented. Also, the effects of substrate interactions, adsorbed atoms, lattice defects and doping on the band structure of finite-sized graphene systems are discussed. We also include a brief description of graphane -- gapped material obtained from graphene by attaching hydrogen atoms to each carbon atom in the lattice.Comment: 189 pages. submitted in Advances in Physic

Polyp measurement based on CT colonography and colonoscopy: variability and systematic differences

To assess the variability and systematic differences in polyp measurements on optical colonoscopy and CT colonography. Gastroenterologists measured 51 polyps by visual estimation, forceps comparison and linear probe. CT colonography observers randomly assessed polyp size two-dimensionally (abdominal and intermediate window) and three-dimensionally (manually and semi-automatically). Linear mixed models were used to assess the variability and systematic differences between CT colonography and optical colonoscopy techniques. The variability of forceps and linear probe measurements was comparable and both showed less variability than measurement by visual assessment. Measurements by linear probe were 0.7 mm smaller than measurements by visual assessment or by forceps. The variability of all CT colonography techniques was lower than for measurements by forceps or visual assessment and sometimes lower (only 2D intermediate window and manual 3D) compared with measurements by linear probe. All CT colonography measurements judged polyps to be larger than optical colonoscopy, with differences ranging from 0.7 to 2.3 mm. A linear probe does not reduce the measurement variability of endoscopists compared with the forceps. Measurement differences between observers on CT colonography were usually smaller than at optical colonoscopy. Polyps appeared larger when using various CT colonography techniques than when measured during optical colonoscop

Origin of structural difference in metabolic networks with respect to temperature

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Metabolism is believed to adaptively shape-shift with changing environment. In recent years, a structural difference with respect to temperature, which is an environmental factor, has been revealed in metabolic networks, implying that metabolic networks transit with temperature. Subsequently, elucidatation of the origin of these structural differences due to temperature is important for understanding the evolution of life. However, the origin has yet to be clarified due to the complexity of metabolic networks.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Consequently, we propose a simple model with a few parameters to explain the transitions. We first present mathematical solutions of this model using mean-field approximation, and demonstrate that this model can reproduce structural properties, such as heterogeneous connectivity and hierarchical modularity, in real metabolic networks both qualitatively and quantitatively. We next show that the model parameters correlate with optimal growth temperature. In addition, we present a relationship between multiple cyclic properties and optimal growth temperature in metabolic networks.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>From the proposed model, we find that such structural properties are determined by the emergence of a short-cut path, which reduces the minimum distance between two nodes on a graph. Furthermore, we investigate correlations between model parameters and growth temperature; as a result, we find that the emergence of the short-cut path tends to be inhibited with increasing temperature. In addition, we also find that the short-cut path bypasses a relatively long path at high temperature when the emergence of the new path is not inhibited. Even further, additional network analysis provides convincing evidence of the reliability of the proposed model and its conclusions on the possible origins of differences in metabolic network structure.</p

Search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum in pp collisions at √ s = 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Results of a search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum are reported. The search uses 20.3 fb−1 of √ s = 8 TeV data collected in 2012 with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Events are required to have at least one jet with pT > 120 GeV and no leptons. Nine signal regions are considered with increasing missing transverse momentum requirements between Emiss T > 150 GeV and Emiss T > 700 GeV. Good agreement is observed between the number of events in data and Standard Model expectations. The results are translated into exclusion limits on models with either large extra spatial dimensions, pair production of weakly interacting dark matter candidates, or production of very light gravitinos in a gauge-mediated supersymmetric model. In addition, limits on the production of an invisibly decaying Higgs-like boson leading to similar topologies in the final state are presente