Boron and Gadolinium Loaded Fe3O4 Nanocarriers for Potential Application in Neutron Capture Therapy

In this article, a novel method of simultaneous carborane- and gadolinium-containing compounds as efficient agents for neutron capture therapy (NCT) delivery via magnetic nanocarriers is presented. The presence of both Gd and B increases the efficiency of NCT and using nanocarriers enhances selectivity. These factors make NCT not only efficient, but also safe. Superparamagnetic Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles were treated with silane and then the polyelectrolytic layer was formed for further immobilization of NCT agents. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX), ultraviolet–visible (UV-Vis) and Mössbauer spectroscopies, dynamic light scattering (DLS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), vibrating-sample magnetometry (VSM) were applied for the characterization of the chemical and element composition, structure, morphology and magnetic properties of nanocarriers. The cytotoxicity effect was evaluated on different cell lines: BxPC-3, PC-3 MCF-7, HepG2 and L929, human skin fibroblasts as normal cells. average size of nanoparticles is 110 nm; magnetization at 1T and coercivity is 43.1 emu/g and 8.1, respectively; the amount of B is 0.077 mg/g and the amount of Gd is 0.632 mg/g. Successful immobilization of NCT agents, their low cytotoxicity against normal cells and selective cytotoxicity against cancer cells as well as the superparamagnetic properties of nanocarriers were confirmed by analyses above.     

Relative-humidity profiling in the troposphere with a Raman lidar

We describe a Raman-lidar-based approach to acquiring profiles of the relative humidity of air. For this purpose we combined in one instrument the Raman-lidar techniques that are used for the profiling of water vapor and temperature. This approach enabled us to acquire, for the first time to our knowledge, vertical profiles of relative humidity through the entire troposphere exclusively from Raman-lidar data. The methods applied to determining the water-vapor mixing ratio, temperature, and relative humidity and the corresponding uncertainties caused by systematic errors and signal noise are presented. The lidar-derived profiles are compared with profiles measured with radiosondes. Radiosonde observations are also used to calibrate the Raman lidar. Close agreement of the profiles of relative humidity measured with lidar and those measured with radiosonde demonstrates the potential of this novel approach.     

Robust quantification of in vitro angiogenesis through image analysis

An automated image analysis method for quantification of in vitro angiogenesis is presented. The method is designed for in vitro angiogenesis assays that are based on co-culturing endothelial cells with fibroblasts. Such assays are used in many current studies in which anti-angiogenic agents for the treatment of cancer are being sought. This search requires accurate quantification of the stimulatory and inhibitory effects of the different agents. The quantification method gives lengths and sizes of the tubule complexes as well as the numbers of junctions in each of them. The method is tested with a set of test images obtained with a commercially available in vitro angiogenesis assay. The results correctly indicate the inhibitory effect of suramin and the stimulatory effect of vascular endothelial growth factor. Moreover, the image analysis method is shown to be robust against variations in illumination. We have implemented a software package that utilizes the methods. The software as well as a set of test images are available at http://www.cs.tut.fi/sgn/csb/angioquant/.     

The mushroom bodies of Drosophila melanogaster: an immunocytological and golgi study of Kenyon cell organization in the calyces and lobes

Golgi impregnations reveal a variety of dendritic morphologies amongst Kenyon cells in the mushroom bodies of Drosophila melanogaster. Different morphological types of Kenyon cells contribute axon-like processes to five divisions of the medial and vertical lobes. Four of these divisions have characteristic affinities to antibodies raised against aspartate, glutamate, and taurine. A newly described posterior subdivision of the medial lobe, here named the betac lobe with its vertical branch alphac, comprises glutamatergic Kenyon cells that are probably homologous to glutamatergic Kenyon cells in the cockroach and honey bee, and are the last neurons to differentiate. The first neurons to differentiate, which supply the gamma lobe, are equipped with clawed dendritic specializations and are the structural homologues of clawed class II Kenyon cells supplying the gamma lobes in cockroaches and honey bees. Three intermediate divisions lie between the betac lobe and gamma lobe. These are, from the back towards the front, the beta lobe, the beta' lobe, and a narrow division between beta' and gamma called the beta" lobe. The fused calyx of the Drosophila mushroom body is comparable to the double calyces of Hymenoptera, here exemplified by a basal taxon, Diprion pini. Further similarities between the hymenopteran calyces and those of Drosophila are suggested by the segregation of different types of Kenyon cell dendrites within the calyx neuropil. The organization of afferents from the antennal lobes also defines regions in the Drosophila calyx that may be homologous to the lip and basal ring regions of the honey bee calyces. As in honey bees, GABAergic processes densely invade Drosophila's calyces, which also contain a sparse but uniform distribution of octopaminergic elements. Microsc. Res. Tech. 62:151-169, 2003.     

Nanopore Sequencing for De Novo Bacterial Genome Assembly and Search for Single-Nucleotide Polymorphism

Nanopore sequencing (ONT) is a new and rapidly developing method for determining nucleotide sequences in DNA and RNA. It serves the ability to obtain long reads of thousands of nucleotides without assembly and amplification during sequencing compared to next-generation sequencing. Nanopore sequencing can help for determination of genetic changes leading to antibiotics resistance. This study presents the application of ONT technology in the assembly of an E. coli genome characterized by a deletion of the tolC gene and known single-nucleotide variations leading to antibiotic resistance, in the absence of a reference genome. We performed benchmark studies to determine minimum coverage depth to obtain a complete genome, depending on the quality of the ONT data. A comparison of existing programs was carried out. It was shown that the Flye program demonstrates plausible assembly results relative to others (Shasta, Canu, and Necat). The required coverage depth for successful assembly strongly depends on the size of reads. When using high-quality samples with an average read length of 8 Kbp or more, the coverage depth of 30× is sufficient to assemble the complete genome de novo and reliably determine single-nucleotide variations in it. For samples with shorter reads with mean lengths of 2 Kbp, a higher coverage depth of 50× is required. Avoiding of mechanical mixing is obligatory for samples preparation. Nanopore sequencing can be used alone to determine antibiotics-resistant genetic features of bacterial strains.     

Magnetoelastic metamaterials

The study of advanced artificial electromagnetic materials, known as metamaterials, provides a link from material science to theoretical and applied electrodynamics, as well as to electrical engineering. Being initially intended mainly to achieve negative refraction, the concept of metamaterials quickly covered a much broader range of applications, from microwaves to optics and even acoustics. In particular, nonlinear metamaterials established a new research direction giving rise to fruitful ideas for tunable and active artificial materials. Here we introduce the concept of magnetoelastic metamaterials, where a new type of nonlinear response emerges from mutual interaction. This is achieved by providing a mechanical degree of freedom so that the electromagnetic interaction in the metamaterial lattice is coupled to elastic interaction. This enables the electromagnetically induced forces to change the metamaterial structure, dynamically tuning its effective properties. This concept leads to a new generation of metamaterials, and can be compared to such fundamental concepts of modern physics as optomechanics of photonic structures or magnetoelasticity in magnetic materials.     

Normal Form for Second Order Differential Equations

Applying methods of CR-geometry, we give a solution to the local equivalence problem for second order (smooth or analytic) ordinary differential equations. We do so by presenting a complete normal form (which is smooth or analytic respectively) for this class of ordinary differential equations (ODEs). The normal form is optimal in the sense that it is defined up to the automorphism group of the model (flat) ODE y ^″ =?0. For a generic ODE, we also provide a unique (up to a discrete group action) normal form. By doing so, we give a solution to a problem which remained unsolved since the work of Arnold (1988). As another application of the normal form, we obtain distinguished curves associated with a differential equation that we call chains due to their analogy with the chains defined by Chern and Moser (Acta Math. 7;133:219–271).     

Influence of hydrogen sulfide on the efficiency of xenon recovery from natural gas by gas hydrate crystallisation

A mathematical simulation of the gas hydrate formation based on a gas mixture approximated to natural gas composition – CH₄+H₂S?+?CO₂+Xe at a normalized increase in hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) concentration in gas mixture from 3.08·10^?4?vol.% to 4.88?vol.%, at changes in the gas hydrate formation temperatures from 273.15?K to 283.15?K. It is shown that xenon (Xe) distribution coefficient decreases from 12.37 to 5.90, and is more dependent on the change in H₂S concentration than on the change in the gas hydrate formation temperature. Effective Xe recovery from natural gas at the gas hydrate formation temperature is 273.15?K, and at a minimum impurity concentration with a dissociation pressure close to Xe.     

Incremental Deterministic Public-Key Encryption

Motivated by applications in large storage systems, we initiate the study of incremental deterministic public-key encryption. Deterministic public-key encryption, introduced by Bellare, Boldyreva, and O’Neill (CRYPTO ’07), provides an alternative to randomized public-key encryption in various scenarios where the latter exhibits inherent drawbacks. A deterministic encryption algorithm, however, cannot satisfy any meaningful notion of security for low-entropy plaintexts distributions, but Bellare et al. demonstrated that a strong notion of security can in fact be realized for relatively high-entropy plaintext distributions. In order to achieve a meaningful level of security, a deterministic encryption algorithm should be typically used for encrypting rather long plaintexts for ensuring a sufficient amount of entropy. This requirement may be at odds with efficiency constraints, such as communication complexity and computation complexity in the presence of small updates. Thus, a highly desirable property of deterministic encryption algorithms is incrementality: Small changes in the plaintext translate into small changes in the corresponding ciphertext. We present a framework for modeling the incrementality of deterministic public-key encryption. Our framework extends the study of the incrementality of cryptography primitives initiated by Bellare, Goldreich and Goldwasser (CRYPTO ’94). Within our framework, we propose two schemes, which we prove to enjoy an optimal tradeoff between their security and incrementality up to lower-order factors. Our first scheme is a generic method which can be based on any deterministic public-key encryption scheme, and, in particular, can be instantiated with any semantically secure (randomized) public-key encryption scheme in the random-oracle model. Our second scheme is based on the Decisional Diffie–Hellman assumption in the standard model. The approach underpinning our schemes is inspired by the fundamental “sample-then-extract” technique due to Nisan and Zuckerman (JCSS ’96) and refined by Vadhan (J. Cryptology ’04), and by the closely related notion of “locally computable extractors” due to Vadhan. Most notably, whereas Vadhan used such extractors to construct private-key encryption schemes in the bounded-storage model, we show that techniques along these lines can also be used to construct incremental public-key encryption schemes.