Rapid tamoxifen-induced inactivation of an estrogenic response is accompanied by a localized epigenetic modification but not by mutations

Ethidium was found to be efficiently cross-linked to DNA by glyoxal. Kinetic studies showed that the rate of the cross-linking reaction is strongly dependent on the glyoxal concentration. Comparative studies using a series of phenanthridines and acridines showed that NH2 groups at both the 2 and 7 positions on the phenanthridine ring are necessary for efficient cross-linking. Studies using synthetic polydeoxynucleotides showed that the 2-amino group of guanine is absolutely required for cross-linking. Fluorescence contact energy transfer and relative viscosity experiments showed that the cross-linked drug remains intercalated into DNA. DNA gel electrophoresis and melting studies demonstrated that cross-linked ethidium does not dissociate the DNA double helix to single strands.     

Effect of temperature on the separation of some Δ9-cis-trans isomers of methyl esters of fatty acids by open tubular gas chromatography

The influence of temperature on the gas chromatographic separation ofcis-trans isomers of the methyl esters of some monounsaturated fatty acids was studied on capillary columns coated with Apiezon L, BDS and DEGS. As far as methyl oleate and methyl elaidate are concerned, the separation is better at lower temperatures on Apiezon L (180–210 C) and at higher temperatures on polyester phases (BDS, DEGS; 150–180 C). The influence of temperature on the separation ofcis-trans isomers on the three stationary phases under study is explained by the higher values of δECL/δt forcis isomers. The variation of the equivalent carbon chain length with temperature can be used for the identification ofcis-trans isomers in natural mixtures.     

On testing for serial correlation of unknown form using wavelet thresholding

Omnibus procedures for testing serial correlation are developed, using spectral density estimation and wavelet shrinkage. The asymptotic distributions of the wavelet coefficients under the null hypothesis of no serial correlation are derived. Under some general conditions on the wavelet basis, the wavelet coefficients asymptotically follow a normal distribution. Furthermore, they are asymptotically uncorrelated. Adopting a spectral approach and using results on wavelet shrinkage, new one-sided test statistics are proposed. As a spatially adaptive estimation method, wavelets can effectively detect fine features in the spectral density, such as sharp peaks and high frequency alternations. Using an appropriate thresholding parameter, shrinkage rules are applied to the empirical wavelet coefficients, resulting in a non-linear wavelet-based spectral density estimator. Consequently, the advocated approach avoids the need to select the finest scale J, since the noise in the wavelet coefficients is naturally suppressed. Simple data-dependent threshold parameters are also considered. In general, the convergence of the spectral test statistics toward their respective asymptotic distributions appears to be relatively slow. In view of that, Monte Carlo methods are investigated. In a small simulation study, several spectral test statistics are compared, with respect to level and power, including versions of these test statistics using Monte Carlo simulations.     

Deterioration of Concrete by the Oxidation of Sulphide Minerals in the Aggregate

Cases of degradation of concrete associated to iron sulphides in aggregates were recently recognized in the Trois-Rivi6res area, Canada. The aggregate used to produce concrete was an anorthositic gabbro containing various proportions of pyrite, pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite and pentlandite. Quantitative microanalysis on sulphide minerals show that pyrrhotite contains small amount of Ni, Co, Cu and As substituting for Fe in the mineral structure. Considering element substitution, x value in the chemical formula （Fe~.xS） was calculated to 0.099 in the pyrrhotite studied. Petrographic examination of damaged concretes showed the presence of oxidized pyrrhotite. The observation of polished samples shows, in several cases, that the pyrite is intact while the pyrrhotite presents evident signs of oxidation. In the presence of water and oxygen, pyrrhotite oxidizes to form iron oxyhydroxides and sulphuric acid. The acid then reacts with the phases of the cement paste and provokes the formation of gypsum and ettringite. These minerals were observed by SEM-EDS （scanning electron microscope/energy dispersive x-ray spectrometer） and their precipitation causes a volume increase that creates expansion and cracking of the concrete.     

Testing for multivariate autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity using wavelets

Test statistics for autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (ARCH) in the residuals from a possibly nonlinear and dynamic multivariate regression model are considered. The new approach is based on estimation of the multivariate spectral density of squared and cross-residuals. A simple wavelet-based spectral density estimator is advocated, which is a particularly suitable analytic tool when the spectral density exhibits peaks or kinks that may arise from strong cross-dependence, seasonal patterns and other forms of periodic behaviors. In several circumstances, the spectral density may have peaks at various frequencies, such as seasonal frequencies, and the wavelet method may capture them effectively. Compared to kernel-based test statistics for multivariate ARCH effects, the weighting scheme offered by the new wavelet-based test statistics differs in several important aspects. An asymptotic analysis under the null hypothesis of no ARCH effects shows that the wavelet-based test statistic converges in distribution to a convenient standard normal distribution. Under fixed alternatives, the consistency of the wavelet-based test statistics is established in a class of static regression models with uncorrelated but dependent errors. In a Monte Carlo study comparisons are made under various alternatives between the proposed wavelet-based test statistics, the kernel-based test statistics for ARCH effects, and several popular portmanteau test statistics for ARCH effects available in the literature.     

Evaluation of surface-active agents by mechanical properties of highly filled composites

Mechanical spectroscopy is used to study the behavior under accelerated aging of surface-active additives in highly filled composites using a binder based on an hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene. First, the mechanical properties of composites containing an amine polyester or an aziridine polyester are compared to those of a composite without any surface-active agents. It is thus confirmed that the aziridine polyester is a better surface-active agent than the amine polyester. The improvement in properties from the aziridine polyester is not affected by accelerated aging at 333°K. It was also established that composites with a mixture of both polyesters showed adequate initial mechanical properties and maintained those properties upon accelerated aging. Various hypotheses are proposed to explain the behavior of surface-active agents.     

Characterization and leachability of electric arc furnace dust made from remelting of stainless steel

Electric arc furnace dust (EAFD) is a toxic waste product made in the remelting of scrap steel. The results of a Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP) conducted on a sample of EAFD originating from the remelting of stainless steel scrap showed that the total Cr and Cr (VI) liquor concentrations (9.7 and 6.1 mg/L, respectively) exceeded the Toxicity Characteristic Regulatory Level (TCRL). The EAFD showed a complex heterogeneous mineralogy with spinel minerals group predominance. A sequential extractions method has permitted the determination of the amount of available metals (potentially mobile component) from the EAFD as follows: Cr (3%), Ni (6%), Pb (49%) and Zn (40%). Solubility controls on Cr, Pb, Zn and Ni were identified in the EAFD. This means that the Cr, Pb, Zn and Ni concentrations in solution were controlled by the solubility of some phases from EAFD. The concentrations of Ni and Zn, which are metals not regulated by TCRL were below 0.41 and 1.3 mg/L, respectively. The solubility control on Pb was sufficient to decrease its concentration (<0.24 mg/L) to a level below the TCRL. However, the control on Cr was not sufficient to decrease its concentration (between 117 and 331 mg/L) to below the TCRL.     

MRI-based automated computer classification of probable AD versus normal controls

Automated computer classification (ACC) techniques are needed to facilitate physician's diagnosis of complex diseases in individual patients. We provide an example of ACC using computational techniques within the context of cross-sectional analysis of magnetic resonance images (MRI) in neurodegenerative diseases, namely Alzheimer's dementia (AD). In this paper, the accuracy of our ACC methodology is assessed when presented with real life, imperfect data, i.e., cohorts of MRI with varying acquisition parameters and imaging quality. The comparative methodology uses the Jacobian determinants derived from dense deformation fields and scaled grey-level intensity from a selected volume of interest centered on the medial temporal lobe. The ACC performance is assessed in a series of leave-one-out experiments aimed at separating 75 probable AD and 75 age-matched normal controls. The resulting accuracy is 92% using a support vector machine classifier based on least squares optimization. Finally, it is shown in the Appendix that determinants and scaled grey-level intensity are appreciably more robust to varying parameters in validation studies using simulated data, when compared to raw intensities or grey/white matter volumes. The ability of cross-sectional MRI at detecting probable AD with high accuracy could have profound implications in the management of suspected AD candidates.     

An Efficient Method to Correct Under-Dispersion in Ensemble Streamflow Prediction of Inflow Volumes for Reservoir Optimization

Ensemble streamflow prediction (ESP) has been widely used to gain insight on possible future inflows to hydropower reservoirs. However underestimation of climate, model structure and initial condition uncertainty often leads to under-dispersed ESP forecasts. In this paper, we present a novel approach called “Hindcast-mode Uncertainty Estimation” (HUE) to efficiently add variability in ESP forecasts to reduce their under-dispersion. The method was tested on a Canadian catchment used by Rio Tinto – Aluminium division to produce hydropower for their aluminium smelting plants. This project was focused on correcting long-term predictions of freshet runoff volumes to optimize drawdown volumes, with up to 6 months of lead time. It was found that by adding an error term to the hydrological model’s snow water equivalent (SWE) state variable at the time of forecast in hindcasting mode, the resulting simulation could be forced to perfectly reproduce the freshet runoff volume. This error term was computed for all years on record which enabled modeling of the error’s distribution. This distribution can then be sampled from to add noise to the model’s SWE at the start of a new ESP forecast. Results show that the current winter ESP forecasts are strongly under-dispersed for the freshet runoff volume estimation and that the proposed method is able to widen the ESPs to correct the under-dispersion problem. This was validated by using Talagrand diagrams which shifted from a U-shape (prior to HUE) to a uniform distribution (with HUE). The project objectives of correcting the ESP forecast’s under-dispersion in spring runoff estimations was thus attained with minimal effort, bypassing the need to perform more complex ensemble data assimilation techniques.