Study of in vivo tumor state and response to therapy by analysis of DNA distribution

Comparative studies of cefamandole and cephalothin were carried out in 32 cancer patients. After rapid intravenous injection of 1 gm cefamandole or cephalothin, the peak mean serum concentrations in 11 patients achieved at 0.25 hr were 103.4 mcg/ml and 56.7 mcg/ml, respectively. Except at 6 hr, the serum concentration of cefamandole was higher (p less than 0.05) at all times. The terminal half-lives (t 1/2) were similar, being 1.2 hr for cefamandole and 1.0 hr for cephalothin. Cefamandole, 1 gm intramuscularly, induced a peak mean serum concentration of 26.6 mcg/ml at 1 hr, with a slow decay. Intermittent cefamandole (2 gm intravenously every 6 hr) induced very high mean serum concentrations (7 patients), but at 4 hr the concentrations were similar to those after 1 gm intravenously. Per cent of urinary excretion was similar for both drugs regardless of dose and mode of administration. Continuous-infusion cefamandole or cephalothin (2 gm loading followed by 2 gm every 6 hr) in 14 patients showed consistently higher serum concentrations for cefamandole (p less than 0.05) over a 5-day period. There was no evidence of drug accumulation in the multiple-dose studies. Both the single- and multiple-dose schedules were well tolerated.     

Exposure to enriched environment improves spatial learning performances and enhances cell density but not choline acetyltransferase activity in the hippocampus of ventral subicular-lesioned rats.

The authors demonstrated the efficacy of enriched housing conditions in promoting the behavioral recovery and neuronal survival following subicular lesion in rats. Chemical lesioning of the ventral subiculum impaired the spatial learning performances in rats. The lesion also induced a significant degree of neurodegeneration in the CA1 and CA3 areas of the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex. Exposure to enriched housing conditions improved the behavioral performance and partially attenuated the neurodegeneration in the hippocampus. The choline acetyl transferase (ChAT) activity in the hippocampus remained unchanged following ventral subicular lesion and also following exposure to an enriched environment. The study implicates the effectiveness of activity-dependent neuronal plasticity induced by environmental enrichment in adulthood following brain insult. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Investigations on surface composition and microstructure of sintered barium titanate

The paper describes studies on surface atomic composition, microstructure and microarea elemental distribution in sintered undoped as well as donor or acceptor doped polycrystalline barium titanate ceramics. The specimens examined are derived from barium titanate powders synthesized by two different wet chemical procedures namely oxalate precursor route and gel-to-crystallite conversion. The compositional analysis is carried out by backscattering spectrometry (BS) involving 3.05 MeV ¹⁶O(α,α)¹⁶O resonant scattering while investigations on microstructure and microarea elemental distribution are performed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), respectively. The specimens prepared by either method are monophasic; however, their surface atomic composition, microstructural features as well as electrical characteristics are significantly different. The specimens obtained by oxalate precursor route generally have Ti rich surfaces and exhibit coarse to fine grained microstructure depending on the nature and extent of doping. The Mn-doped specimens exhibit appreciable O deficiency. The specimens prepared by gel to crystallite conversion, in contrast, usually have Ba enriched surfaces and exhibit fine-grained microstructure. EDS measurements show the segregation of acceptors such as Mn, Cu and Zn in the grain boundaries of oxalate precursor derived ceramics. Further, the relative atomic ratio of Ti to Ba at the sites of segregations is higher compared to other locations.     

Microwave dielectric behavior of nanocrystalline titanium dioxide thin films

Dielectric behavior of titania thin films, deposited by DC magnetron sputtering on to borosilicate glass substrates, in the microwave region is reported. Deposition in a 100% pure oxygen DC plasma is demonstrated. The nanocrystalline films showed a crystallite size range between 16 and 50 nm. The crystallite size decreased with increase in film thickness between 150 and 700 nm and increase in rate of deposition. Refractive index decreased with increase in percentage of oxygen in the sputter gas. The dielectric constants were measured using the extended cavity perturbation technique at 8.98, 10.01 and 10.98 GHz. The dielectric constant and loss tangent showed a very small decrease with increase in frequency but exhibited a stronger dependence on processing parameters as well as crystallite size. The dielectric constant peaked at a value of 46 (±0.1) at a frequency of 8.98 GHz with 50% O₂ in the plasma, decreasing above and below it. Similarly, it peaked at a value of 46 (±0.1) for a crystallite size of 40 nm decreasing thereafter. Interestingly, the dielectric constant also showed a maximum at a bandgap of 3.36 eV at the same value. In each case the maximum dielectric constant was accompanied by a minimum in the dielectric loss. The variation in the dielectric properties can be correlated with microstructural changes as evidenced by SEM and AFM images.     

An effective hybrid approach to remote-sensing image classification

This article presents a hybrid fuzzy classifier for effective land-use/land-cover (LULC) mapping. It discusses a Bayesian method of incorporating spatial contextual information into the fuzzy noise classifier (FNC). The FNC was chosen as it detects noise using spectral information more efficiently than its fuzzy counterparts. The spatial information at the level of the second-order pixel neighbourhood was modelled using Markov random fields (MRFs). Spatial contextual information was added to the MRF using different adaptive interaction functions. These help to avoid over-smoothing at the class boundaries. The hybrid classifier was applied to advanced wide-field sensor (AWiFS) and linear imaging self-scanning sensor-III (LISS-III) images from a rural area in India. Validation was done with a LISS-IV image from the same area. The highest increase in accuracy among the adaptive functions was 4.1% and 2.1% for AWiFS and LISS-III images, respectively. The paper concludes that incorporation of spatial contextual information into the fuzzy noise classifier helps in achieving a more realistic and accurate classification of satellite images.     

Effect of Controlled Atmosphere Storage and Chitosan Coating on Quality of Fresh-Cut Jackfruit Bulbs

Fresh-cut jackfruit bulbs were evaluated for quality changes as effect of an additive pretreatment with CaCl₂, ascorbic acid, citric acid, and sodium benzoate followed by chitosan coating. Different types of samples such as pretreated and coated, only pretreated, only coated, and untreated were subjected to controlled atmosphere (CA) storage (3 kPa O₂?+?6 or 3 kPa CO₂; N2 balance) or normal air at 6 °C. CA conditions, pretreatment, as well as chitosan coating in synergy with each other, could significantly minimize the loss in total phenolics and ascorbic acid content of the samples to the levels of around 5% and 17%, respectively, during extended storage up to 50 days. Chitosan coating could also restrict the changes in microbial load. The CA condition of 3 kPa O₂?+?6 kPa CO₂ was found to render higher efficacy in retaining quality attributes of the samples.     

Hyperbranched polyurethane (HBPU)-urea and HBPU-imide coatings: Effect of chain extender and NCO/OH ratio on their properties

Effect of chain extender and NCO/OH ratio on the properties of hyperbranched polyurethane (HBPU)-urea and HBPU-imide coatings were examined. The NCO terminated pre-polymers were prepared by reacting the first (G1) and the second (G2) generation hyperbranched polyester polyols (HBP-G1 and HBP-G2) with excess diisocyanate. The excess NCO content of the prepolymer was reacted with different chain extenders viz., 3-aminopropyl triethoxysilane (APTES), pyromellitic dianhydride (PMDA) and N-hydroxyphthalimide (NHTM) to obtain HBPU-urea or HBPU-imide coatings. The structure–property relationships of the different coatings were investigated by FTIR peak deconvolution, and these data suggests the highest extent of hydrogen bonding interaction for PMDA-based coatings, which increases with increasing NCO/OH ratio. Film properties were evaluated by TGA, DMTA, UTM and contact angle measurements; these results were supported by FTIR deconvolution results. As per contact angle measurements, hydrophobicity of coatings increased by increasing NCO/OH ratio. The adhesive strength, abrasion resistance, alkali resistance, and gel content of the coatings were also evaluated.     

Structural,linear and nonlinear optical,electrical and NBO reports on 4-aminopyridine-1-ium 4-aminobenzoate single crystal for SHG,optoelectronics and violet laser emission applications

Good quality NLO single crystal 4-aminopyridine-1-ium 4-aminobenzoate (4AP4AB) were grown by slow evaporation method. The Single crystal XRD analysis shows that the 4AP4AB compound belongs to the monoclinic system with non-centrosymmetric group C. Further, the molecular structure and vibrational assignments of the grown crystal were analysed by NMR and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) analysis. NBO analysis analysed inter and intramolecular interactions. Optical and thermal stabilities have been characterized by UV–Visible and DSC analysis. Linear optical parameters of the 4AP4AB crystal were quantified and listed by UV–visible study. Vicker's microhardness test at room temperature shows that the hardness number increases with increasing the load. The laser damage threshold (LDT) energy has been measured using an Nd:YAG laser. The impedance analysis recorded the dielectric response of the grown 4AP4AB crystal. The appearance of semicircle in Cole–Cole plot represents the dielectric relaxation and resistivity of the 4AP4AB crystal. Solid-state parameters of 4AP4AB were quantified and listed for the theoretical approaches.

     

Quantitative determination of castor oil in edible and heat-abused oils by13C nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy

Application of¹³C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy for detection of castor oil (CO) in various edible oils, such as coconut oil, palm oil, groundnut oil and mustard oil, is described. Characteristic signals observed at δ 132.4, δ 125.6, δ 71.3, δ 36.8 and δ 35.4 ppm, due to C10, C9, C12, C13 and C11 carbons of ricinoleic acid (RA) in CO, were selected for distinguishing it from edible oils. Quantitative¹³C NMR spectra of oils were recorded in CDCl₃ with a gated decoupling technique. The minimum detection limits for qualitative and quantitative analyses were 2.0 and 3.0%, respectively. The proposed method is simple, nondestructive and requires no sample pretreatment. Its application to heat-abused oils has also been demonstrated successfully without any of the interferences observed in most other methods.     

Support for Implementation of Evolutionary Concurrent Systems

Concurrent programs that embed specifications of synchronizations in the body of their component are difficult to extend and modify. Small changes in a concurrent program, particularly changes in the interactions among components, may require re-implementation of a large number of components. Even specifications of components cannot be reused easily. This paper presents a concurrent program composition mechanism in which both specification and implementation of computations and interactions are completely separated. Separation of specifications and implementations facilitates extensions and modifications of programs by allowing one to separately change the implementations of computations and interactions. It also supports their reusability. The paper also describes the design and implementation of a concurrent object-oriented programming language based on this model, including a compiler for the language, and reports on the execution behavior of programs written in the language.