Forthcoming Contributions

Table of Contents

Forthcoming Contributions     

CMIS/P++: extensions to CMIS/P for increased expressiveness andefficiency in the manipulation of management information

CMIS/P is the OSI systems management service and protocol used as the base technology for the telecommunications management network. It is a generic object oriented protocol that provides multiple object access capabilities to managed object clusters administered by agent applications. Its navigation and object selection capabilities rely on traversing containment relationships. This is restrictive because information models for emerging broadband technologies (SDH/SONET, ATM) exhibit various other relationships. We present extensions to the CMIS service that provide a richer access language and show how these extensions can be supported by corresponding extensions to the CMIP protocol. These extensions allow traversal of any object relationship and filtering out objects at any stage of the selection process. CMIS++ provides much greater expressive power than CMIS, while CMIP++ supports the remote evaluation of the corresponding expressions, minimizing the management traffic required for complex management information retrieval. These extensions follow an incremental approach, starting from a version compatible with the current standard and gradually adding sophisticated features. The applicability and importance of the proposed concepts is demonstrated through an example from SDH management, while we also discuss implementation considerations     

Inflammatory fibroid polyp of the stomach. Report of a case

Inflammatory fibroid polyp (IFP) is a rare lesion of the gastroenteric tract more frequently occurring at the level of the stomach. The etiopathogenesis of IFP as well as the nature of the cells constituting these lesions remain unknown. Abdominal pain and anaemia due to chronic blood loss are the most common presenting features but neither radiology and CT scanning nor endoscopy are capable to achieve any conclusive diagnostic information. Histologic examination of the specimen obtained by endoscopic or surgical excision is considered to be the only way for the definitive exclusion of a neoplastic nature. A case of IFP treated by means of total gastrectomy is presented.     

Concentration and preservation of very low abundance biomarkers in urine, such as human growth hormone (hGH), by Cibacron Blue F3G-A loaded hydrogel particles

Urine is a potential source of diagnostic biomarkers for detection of diseases, and is a very attractive means of non-invasive biospecimen collection. Nonetheless, proteomic measurement in urine is very challenging because diagnostic biomarkers exist in very low concentration (usually below the sensitivity of common immunoassays) and may be subject to rapid degradation. Hydrogel nanoparticles functionalized with Cibacron Blue F3G-A (CB) have been applied to address these challenges for urine biomarker measurement. We chose one of the most difficult low abundance, but medically relevant, hormones in the urine: human growth hormone (hGH). The normal range of hGH in serum is 1 to 10 ng/mL but the urine concentration is suspected to be a thousand times less, well below the detection limit (50 pg/mL) of sensitive clinical hGH immunoassays. We demonstrate that CB particles can capture, preserve and concentrate hGH in urine at physiological salt and urea concentrations, so that hGH can be measured in the linear range of a clinical immunometric assay. Recombinant and cadaveric hGH were captured from synthetic and human urine, concentrated and measured with an Immulite chemiluminescent immunoassay. Values of hGH less than 0.05 ng/mL (the Immulite detection limit) were concentrated to 2 ng/mL, with a urine volume of 1 mL. Dose response studies using 10 mL of urine demonstrated that the concentration of hGH in the particle eluate was linearly dependent on the concentration of hGH in the starting solution, and that all hGH was removed from solution. Thus if the starting urine volume is 100 mL, the detection limit will be 0.1 pg/mL. Urine from a healthy donor whose serum hGH concentration was 1.34 ng/mL was studied in order detect endogenous hGH. Starting from a volume of 33 mL, the particle eluate had an hGH concentration of 58 pg/mL, giving an estimated initial concentration of hGH in urine of 0.175 pg/mL. The nanotechnology described here appears to have the desired precision, accuracy and sensitivity to support large scale clinical studies of urine hGH levels.      

Pd (1?wt%)/LaMn0.4Fe0.6O3 Catalysts Supported Over Silica SBA-15: Effect of Perovskite Loading and Support Morphology on Methane Oxidation Activity and SO2 Tolerance

Catalysts of palladium (1?wt%) deposited over silica SBA-15 supported LaMn_0.4Fe_0.6O₃ perovskite (with perovskite loading of 10, 30 and 40?wt%), characterized by several techniques (BET, SAXS, XRD, TPR) are tested in the combustion of methane. Bulk LaMn_0.4Fe_0.6O₃ with the corresponding supported Pd catalyst are also considered for comparison purpose. Dispersing LaMn_0.4Fe_0.6O₃ oxide over silica SBA-15 improves the activity of the supported palladium catalysts to an extent depending on the perovskite loading. After ageing at 600?°C for 14?h, Pd catalysts supported over SBA-15 loaded with 30 and 40?wt% of LaMn_0.4Fe_0.6O₃, deactivate less as compared to Pd over bulk perovskite. Moreover, during catalytic tests carried out in the presence of 10?vol. ppm SO₂ these catalysts exhibit better sulphur tolerance and higher regeneration capability as compared to the Pd/LaMn_0.4Fe_0.6O₃. The superior performance of such catalysts is attributed to the good dispersion of the LaMn_0.4Fe_0.6O₃ over the SBA-15, with consequent increase of the perovskite surface area with respect to bulk perovskite. In addition, the porous structure of the silica contributes to a better stabilization of the active species against sintering and acts as a chemical sink during the catalyst exposure to SO₂.