Rosemary and cancer prevention: preclinical perspectives

Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in Australia. Nutrition, particularly intake of vegetables and certain plant components, has been reported to have a major role in cancer risk reduction. Recently, there has been a growing research interest in rosemary, a common household plant grown in many parts of the world. This study aims to review scientific evidence from all studies, published from 1996 to March 2010 that examined the protective effects of rosemary on colorectal cancer and other types of cancer. Literature evidence from animal and cell culture studies demonstrates the anticancer potential of rosemary extract, carnosol, carnosic acid, ursolic acid, and rosmarinic acid. No evidence for other rosemary constituents was found. The reported anticancer properties were found to arise through the molecular changes in the multiple-stage process of cancer development, which are dose related and not tissue or species specific. This is evidenced by the ability of rosemary to suppress the development of tumors in several organs including the colon, breast, liver, stomach, as well as melanoma and leukemia cells. The results suggested that the different molecular targets modulated by rosemary and its active constituents are useful indicators of success in clinical cancer chemo-prevention trials.     

Ultrafast switching in nanoscale phase-change random access memory with superlattice-like structures

Phase-change random access memory cells with superlattice-like (SLL) GeTe/Sb(2)Te(3) were demonstrated to have excellent scaling performance in terms of switching speed and operating voltage. In this study, the correlations between the cell size, switching speed and operating voltage of the SLL cells were identified and investigated. We found that small SLL cells can achieve faster switching speed and lower operating voltage compared to the large SLL cells. Fast amorphization and crystallization of 300 ps and 1 ns were achieved in the 40 nm SLL cells, respectively, both significantly faster than those observed in the Ge(2)Sb(2)Te(5) (GST) cells of the same cell size. 40 nm SLL cells were found to switch with low amorphization voltage of 0.9 V when pulse-widths of 5 ns were employed, which is much lower than the 1.6 V required by the GST cells of the same cell size. These effects can be attributed to the fast heterogeneous crystallization, low thermal conductivity and high resistivity of the SLL structures. Nanoscale PCRAM with SLL structure promises applications in high speed and low power memory devices.     

The use of the BiPAP biphasic positive airway pressure system in acute spinal cord injury

Transurethral electrovaporization of the prostate (TVP) is a new minimally invasive procedure for treatment of enlargement of prostate. Between April 1996 and September 1997, TVP was carried out in 109 cases with symptoms of lower urinary tract obstruction. A Stortz spike electrode and a Stortz vapor cutting electrode were used for vaporization electrodes. Efficacy parameters evaluated included International Prostate Symptom Score, peak uroflow and postvoid residual volume. By September 1997, 32 cases (spike electrode) and 33 cases (vapor cutting electrode) could be followed up and evaluated. They have shown both subjective and objective voiding improvement. The improvements in subjective symptom scores and objective voiding parameters were not significantly different between the two electrode groups. Early complications included urinary retention, intraoperative burn, stress incontinence, blood transfusion and postoperative hemorrhage. Late complications included urethral stricture, bladder neck contracture and bladder stone. TVP was found to have several advantages, particularly minimal bleeding and the low incidence of postoperative morbidity. The technique is simple and symptoms improve at an early stage following surgery. This study demonstrates that TVP is a safe and effective modality for treatment of BPH. However, long-term studies with larger numbers of patients are needed.     

On the derivation of first integrals for similarity solutions

In two recent papers the authors have obtained a number of first integrals for similarity solutions of nonlinear diffusion and of general high-order nonlinear evolution equation. Such integrals exist only for special parameter values and are obtained via integration of the ordinary differential equation, which results when the functional form of the solution is substituted into the governing partial differential equation. In this paper we show that these special parameter values also occur in a natural way when we utilize the first order partial differential equation instead of the explicit functional form and we ask under what conditions can a first integral with respect to either of the independent variables x or t be deduced. This simple procedure generates all previous results and presents the idea of similarity solutions in an entirely new light. That is, the significant features of similarity solutions for partial differential equations are not necessarily the explicit functional form and subsequent reduction to an ordinary differential equation but rather that the solutions sort are common to two partial differential equations. The process is illustrated with reference to an extensive number of examples including nonlinear diffusion, general diffusion equations containing a number of parameters and high-order nonlinear evolution equations. In addition a new exact solution for nonlinear diffusion is obtained which is illustrated graphically.     

Graphical Editor for Manuscripts

Existing software for handling textual variants suffers froma number of faults, and is generally designed for a narrow rangeof text types. This paper develops a new data structure forvariants, suitable for a wider range of texts, which also solvesmost of the problems associated with the representation of variantdata. A prototype applet, which can graphically display thenew data structure is described, as also the current state ofthe editor being developed from it.     

DPSK Receiver with Implicit Diversity for the Linearly Frequency-Selective Rayleigh Fading Channel

A simple DPSK receiver for the linearly frequency-selective fading channel is presented. The channel is modelled as an f-power series truncated to the first two terms [1], [2]. Two specifically designed time invariant filters are used to remove the channel-induced ISI and separate the two implicit diversity branches. The received samples from each filter are then differentially decoded and linearly combined. Analytical and simulation results for binary DPSK demonstrate that this receiver shows significant improvement over the conventional receiver, which uses matched filtering and a product demodulator.     

Gas flow proportional counter for low temperature conversion electron Mössbauer spectroscopy

The construction of a simple gas flow proportional counter suitable for operation between 100 K and 400 K without the need for an evacuated cryogenic system is described. Different gas mixtures have been studied over the temperature range and it was found that He/5% CO is most suitable at 100 K. The system has been tested using standard foils to obtain the optimum operating conditions. Low concentration iron based samples have also been studied to show the importance of investigating surface phenomena at different temperatures.     

High frequency stage I corrosion fatigue of austenitic stainless steel (316L)

High frequency (123 Hz) fatigue crack propagation studies were conducted under rising ΔK conditions (R-ratio = 0.22) on single edge notch specimens of austenitic stainless steel (type 316L) that contained an annealed precrack. Tests were conducted in near neutral (pH 5.5) solutions of 1 M NaCl and 1 M NaCl + 0.01 M Na₂S₂O₃ under potentiostatically controlled conditions and in desiccated air. Attention was directed primarily to the near threshold behavior and the stage I (crystallographic) region of cracking. Good mixing between the crack solution and bulk solution was obtained and crack retardation and arrest effects, due to surface roughness induced closure, were minimized at high anodic potentials by electrochemical erosion. Thermodynamic considerations showed that hydrogen played no role in fatigue crack propagation. Analysis of the results in terms of the estimated effective cyclic stress intensity, ΔK _eff, showed a systematic effect of potential on the average crack growth increment per cycle,da/dN. Anodic dissolution processes were considered to make an insignificant contribution toda/dN. A model was proposed for stage I fatigue cracking based on the effect of oxide nucleation rate on restricted slip reversal. The essential features of the model were considered to be relevant to cracking in aqueous environments and in desiccated air.     

Stage I corrosion fatigue crack crystallography in austenitic stainless steel (316L)

The crystallographic and fractographic aspects of stage I corrosion fatigue of SS 316L have been studied with the aid of etch pitting techniques. Single edge notch specimens were fatigued at 123 Hz in desiccated air and near neutral (pH 5.5) aqueous environments of 1 M NaCl and 1 M NaCl + 0.01 M Na₂S₂O₃. The fractographic features were found to be independent of the testing conditions. The orientation of primary facets and the crystallographic directions of crack propagation were identified. Six combinations of crack plane and direction were observed with primary facet orientations of {111}, {110}, and {001}. The primary facet crystallography was shown to arise from microscale propagation along a single variant of {111} or alternating periods of microscale propagation along a conjugate pair of {111} variants. The mechanism of cracking was discussed and shown to be consistent with a model of restricted slip reversibility (RSR), where environmental interactions with emergent slip steps influence the amount of slip reversibility.     

Particle size distribution dynamics during precipitative softening: declining solution composition

Particle removal is a critical step in the treatment of surface water for potable use, and the majority of drinking water treatment plants employ precipitative coagulation processes such as alum and iron “sweep-floc” coagulation or lime softening for particle pre-treatment. Unfortunately, little is quantitatively known about how particle size distributions are shaped by simultaneous precipitation and flocculation. In an earlier paper, we demonstrated the effects of the saturation ratio, the mixing intensity and the seed concentration on the rates of homogeneous nucleation, precipitative growth and flocculation during precipitation of calcium carbonate at constant solution composition using electronic particle counting techniques. In this work, we extend those findings to systems more closely emulating the conditions in actual softening processes (i.e., declining solution composition). Key findings include the strong dependence of the rate of flocculation on the initial saturation ratio and demonstration of the benefits of seeding precipitative softening from the perspective of optimizing the effluent particle size distribution. The mixing intensity during precipitation was also shown to strongly influence the final particle size distribution. Implications of the findings with respect to softening practice are discussed.