Neutrophils Mediate Pulmonary Artery Thrombosis In Situ

Pulmonary embolism is a life-threatening condition, which can result in respiratory insufficiency and death. Blood clots occluding branches of the pulmonary artery (PA) are traditionally considered to originate from thrombi in deep veins (usually in legs). However, growing evidence suggests that occlusion of the vessels in the lungs can develop without preceding deep vein thrombosis (DVT). In this work, we used an inferior vena cava (IVC) complete ligation model of DVT in Wistar rats to explore the possibility and mechanisms of PA thrombosis under the conditions where all routes of thrombotic mass migration from peripheral veins are blocked. We demonstrate that rats both with normal and reduced neutrophil counts developed thrombi in the IVC, although, neutropenia caused a substantial decrease in thrombus size and a shift from fresh fibrin toward mature fibrin and connective tissue inside the thrombus. Massive fibrin deposition was found in the PA branches in the majority of DVT rats with normal neutrophil counts, but in none of the neutropenic animals. Neutrophil ablation also abolished macroscopic signs of lung damage. Altogether, the results demonstrate that thrombi in the lung vasculature can form in situ by mechanisms that require local neutrophil recruitment taking place in the DVT setting.     

Chloride and Indium‐Chloride‐Complex Inorganic Ligands for Efficient Stabilization of Nanocrystals in Solution and Doping of Nanocrystal Solids

Here, the surface functionalization of CdSe and CdSe/CdS core/shell nanocrystals (NCs) with compact chloride and indium‐chloride‐complex ligands is reported. The ligands provide not only short interparticle distances but additionally control doping and passivation of surface trap states, leading to enhanced electronic coupling in NC‐based arrays. The solids based on these NCs show an excellent electronic transport behavior after heat treatment at the relatively low temperature of 190 °C. Indeed, the indium‐chlorido‐capped 4.5 nm CdSe NC based thin‐film field‐effect transistor reaches a saturation mobility of μ = 4.1 cm² (V s)^?1 accompanied by a low hysteresis, while retaining the typical features of strongly quantum confined semiconductor NCs. The capping with chloride ions preserves the high photoluminescence quantum yield ( ≈ 66%) of CdSe/CdS core/shell NCs even when the CdS shell is relatively thin (six monolayers). The simplicity of the chemical incorporation of chlorine and indium species via solution ligand exchange, the efficient electronic passivation of the NC surface, as well as their high stability as dispersions make these materials especially attractive for wide‐area solution‐processable fabrication of NC‐based devices.     

On the use of Buchberger criteria in G2V algorithm for calculating Gröbner bases

It has been experimentally demonstrated by Faugère that his F₅ algorithm is the fastest algorithm for calculating Gröbner bases. Computational efficiency of F₅ is due to not only applying linear algebra but also using the new F₅ criterion for revealing useless zero reductions. At the ISSAC 2010 conference, Gao, Guan, and Volny presented G²V, a new version of the F₅ algorithm, which is simpler than the original version of the algorithm. However, the incremental structure of G²V used in the algorithm for applying the F₅ criterion is a serious obstacle from the point of view of application of Buchberger’s second criterion. In this paper, a modification of the G²V algorithm is presented, which makes it possible to use both Buchberger criteria. To experimentally study computational effect of the proposed modification, we implemented the modified algorithm in Maple. Results of comparison of G²V and its modified version on a number of test examples are presented.     

An electromagnetism metaheuristic for solving the Maximum Betweenness Problem

In this paper we present an electromagnetism (EM) metaheuristic for solving NP hard Maximum Betweenness Problem (MBP). A new encoding scheme with appropriate objective functions is implemented. Specific representation of the individuals enables the EM operators to explore the searching space in a way that achieves high quality solutions. An effective 1-swap based local search procedure improved by the specific caching technique is performed on each EM point. The algorithm is tested both on real and artificial instances from the literature. Experimental results show that the proposed EM approach achieves all previously known optimal solutions, except one, and achieves the best-known solutions or outperforms other approaches on all large-scale instances, except two. Provided statistical analysis indicates that the EM approach is significantly better than other approaches.     

Possibilities of production of nanopowders with high power ELV electron accelerator

Electron-beam evaporation of various natural and industrial materials in the atmosphere of different gases at atmospheric pressure can be used for the synthesis of nanosize powders. These powders are characterized by high purity and may exhibit unusual properties. In particular, nanopowders of silicon dioxide and oxide (SiO₂, SiO), magnesia (MgO), alumina (Al₂O₃), titania (TiO₂), gadolinium oxide (Gd₂O₃), various metals (tantalum, molybdenum, nickel, aluminium, copper, silver), semiconductor (Si), nitrides (AlN, TiN), and some other substances had been produced. The process of nanopowder synthesis is highly effective; in particular, the yield of oxides can exceed ten kilograms per hour.     

Ruthenium- and Osmium-Arene Complexes of 2-Substituted Indolo[3,2-c]quinolines: Synthesis, Structure, Spectroscopic Properties, and Antiproliferative Activity

The synthesis of new modified indolo[3,2-c]quinoline ligands L(1)-L(8) with metal-binding sites is reported. By coordination to ruthenium- and osmium-arene moieties 16 complexes of the type [(η(6)-p-cymene)M(L)Cl]Cl (1a,b-8a,b), where M is Ru(II) or Os(II) and L is L(1)-L(8), have been prepared. All compounds were comprehensively characterized by elemental analysis, electrospray ionization mass spectrometry, IR, UV-vis, and NMR spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, and single-crystal X-ray diffraction (2a, 4a, 4b, 5a, 7a, and 7b). The complexes were tested for antiproliferative activity in vitro in three human cancer cell lines, namely, CH1 (ovarian carcinoma), SW480 (colon adenocarcinoma), and A549 (non-small-cell lung cancer), yielding IC(50) values in the submicromolar or low micromolar range.