Bone metabolism markers in patients with Basedow-Graves disease

Collagen type I is the main collagen type found in bones. Carboxyterminal propeptide, deriving and cleaved from procollagen type I (PICP) during collagen synthesis, is delivered into the blood, where it might represent an useful marker of bone formation similarly to osteocalcin. PICP, osteocalcin, alkaline phosphatase, serum and urinary calcium excretion were measured in 58 premenopausal females affected by Graves' disease and also 28 of them after attainment of euthyroidism by methimazole treatment to study these biochemical indices of bone remodelling before and after treatment. Before therapy PICP (mean +/- S.D.: 244.2 +/- 112.3 vs. 136.8 +/- 32.4 micrograms/l), osteocalcin (mean +/- S.D.: 17.8 +/- 6.7 vs. 7.5 +/- 2.7 micrograms/l) and other markers were significantly (p < 0.05) higher than sex and age matched controls (n = 24). Treatment induced a significant decrease of PICP, alkaline phosphatase, calcaemia and calciuria compared to pretreatment values, while osteocalcin did not significantly differ (mean +/- S. D.: 17.8 +/- 6.7 vs. 14.7 +/- 8.7 micrograms/l). These data suggest that hyperthyroidism due to Graves' disease causes an increase of serum levels of these markers, but further studies are necessary to asses the differences between PICP and osteocalcin as markers of osteoblast activity in hyperthyroidism.     

Pick's disease: clinical or anatomopathological entity?

The Pick's disease categorization as a entity founded in its clinical presentation is a polemical matter of discussion between continental european and anglosaxon groups. We present a clinical case which support a characteristic pathochrony, anatomical localization and initial symptomatology of Pick's disease, which possibility its clinical differentiation with other dementias.     

Linear and non-linear optical transmission from multi-walled carbon nanotubes

The multi walled carbon nanotubes grown by the CVD technique were suspended in methanol and their linear and non-linear transmission properties have been studied. It is observed that the linear transmission spectrum, measured in the range 450–1100 nm, depicts features similar to those of single walled nanotubes. The observed features may be well characterized as the van-Hove singularities of the one-dimensional electronic density of states. Further, excellent non-linear optical properties have been observed in these suspensions. Experiments are conducted to study the optical limiting behavior in the visible (532 nm) as well as in the near infra-red (1064 nm) region by using a dual beam pulsed pump-CW probe, technique. The grown multi walled carbon nanotubes show a strong limiting behavior at both of these wavelengths. The recovery time as observed from the probe beam transmission is measured at different values of the incident pulse energy. The results are discussed in the light of the existing results.     

Improved fingerprint identification with supervised filtering enhancement

An important step in the fingerprint identification system is the reliable extraction of distinct features from fingerprint images. Identification performance is directly related to the enhancement of fingerprint images during or after the enrollment phase. Among the various enhancement algorithms, artificial-intelligence-based feature-extraction techniques are attractive owing to their adaptive learning properties. We present a new supervised filtering technique that is based on a dynamic neural-network approach to develop a robust fingerprint enhancement algorithm. For pattern matching, a joint transform correlation (JTC) algorithm has been incorporated that offers high processing speed for real-time applications. Because the fringe-adjusted JTC algorithm has been found to yield a significantly better correlation output compared with alternate JTCs, we used this algorithm for the identification process. Test results are presented to verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.     

EGF-induced redistribution of erbB2 on breast tumor cells: flow and image cytometric energy transfer measurements

The effects of the CCK(B) antagonists, CAM1028 and CI988 and a CCK(A) antagonist, CAM1481, were studied on the anxiety-related behaviour produced by withdrawal from chronic ethanol treatment, using the elevated plus maze. Cessation of chronic ethanol administration produced a profile, in both mice and rats, consistent with increase in anxiety-related behaviour. In mice, SC administration of CAM1028 or CI988 reduced the decrease in the time spent on the open arms, the number of entries into these arms and the increases in the latencies to first open arm entry, after withdrawal from the ethanol treatment. The increases in stretched attend postures and head dips from the closed arms and the central square seen during the withdrawal phase, were also decreased by the CCK(B) antagonists, but the decreases in the number of rears and in general activity were unaffected. The doses of CAM1028 and CI988 tested were 0.1 and 1 mg/kg; for some of the withdrawal-induced changes in behaviour only the 1 mg/kg dose was effective. In contrast, the CCK(A) antagonist, CAM1481, at the same doses, had little effect on the anxiety-related behaviour produced by withdrawal from chronic ethanol treatment, although it did decrease the changes in the number of rears and the head dipping behaviour. In rats, the majority of the changes produced by withdrawal from chronic ethanol treatment were decreased by CAM1028 at 1 mg/kg, although the decreases in open arm entries, rearing behaviour and in overall activity were unaffected. CAM1028, CI988 and CAM1481 had no effects on the behaviour of control mice or rats in the plus-maze. The results show that CCK(B) antagonists were effective in decreasing the majority of the anxiogenic effects of withdrawal from chronic ethanol treatment.     

Experimental investigation of input–output characteristics of a travelling-wave ultrasonic motor

Speed, position and load characteristics of the ultrasonic motor is considerably influenced from the input characteristics such as driving frequency, magnitude and phase difference of phase voltages. Input and output characteristics of a traveling-wave ultrasonic motor have been investigated from the experimental point of view in the present study. For this aim, a half-bridge serial-resonance inverter based drive system has been designed and then implemented. The inverter is featured with pulse width modulation and pulse frequency modulation techniques. The frequency, amplitude and phase angle of two-phase sinusoidal output of the driver has been designed to be changed for the control purpose. Then the measuring circuits and tools have been set up to obtain required measurements. Input characteristics such as duty ratio of control signal-dc reference voltage, dc reference voltage-driving frequency and output characteristics such as driving frequency-rotor speed, driving frequency-feedback voltage, phase voltage-rotor speed are obtained from the experiments. Also load characteristics are studied with experiments. Afterwards these characteristics are discussed in details. This study gives a systematical experimental approach in order to demonstrate operating and control principles and characteristics of the travelling-wave ultrasonic motor.     

Mechanochemical synthesis of ternary chalcogenide chalcostibite CuSbS2 and its characterization

Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics - In this work, the very rapid one-step mechanochemical synthesis of nanocrystalline ternary chalcogenide chalcostibite CuSbS2 prepared from...     

Aloe vera-based antibacterial porous sponges for wound dressing applications

Journal of Porous Materials - The antibacterial sponges with high macroporosity, high interconnectivity and high biocompatibility is a significant concern for wound healing applications. In this...     

Investigation of hydrogen generation from sodium borohydride using different cobalt catalysts

Effective Co/Cu, CoB/Cu, and CoBM (M = Mo,Zn,Fe)/Cu catalysts were prepared on the copper surface by a simple electroless deposition method using a morpholine borane as a reducing agent in the glycine solution. The activity of the deposited catalysts was investigated for hydrogen generation from an alkaline sodium borohydride solution. It was determined that these synthesized catalysts demonstrated the catalytic activity for the hydrolysis reaction of NaBH₄. The lowest obtained activation energy (E_A) of the hydrolysis reaction of NaBH₄was 27 kJ mol^?1 for the CoBMo/Cu catalyst. The hydrogen generation rate of 15.30 ml min^?1 was achieved using CoBMo/Cu catalysts at 313 K and it increased ~3.5 times with the increase of temperature to 343 K. The highest hydrogen generation rate obtained by CoBMo/Cu films may be related to the hierarchical cauliflower-shaped 3D structures and the high roughness surface area. Moreover, the CoBMo/Cu catalyst showed an excellent reusability.