Expression of p21(waf1/cip1) protein in transitional cell bladder tumours and its prognostic value

Selective antagonists to the Type 3 serotonin receptor (5HT3) in combination with corticosteroids are now considered the standard of care for the prevention of emesis from moderately to highly emetogenic chemotherapy. Here we address issues of optimal dose, schedule and route of administration of four currently available selectable 5HT3 antagonists. This paper utilizes an evidence based medicine approach to the literature regarding this class of drugs, emphasizing the results large, randomized, controlled trials to make formal recommendations concerning optimal use of this important new class of anti-emetic agents. We conclude that for each drug there is a plateau in therapeutic efficacy at a definable dose level above which further dose escalation does not improve outcome. Furthermore, a single dose is as effective as multiple doses or continuous infusion, and finally, emerging data demonstrate that the oral route is equally efficacious as the intravenous route of administration, even with highly emetogenic chemotherapy.     

Reactivity of Aluminum Nitride Powder in Aqueous Silicon Nitride and Silicon Carbide Slurries

The reactivity of AlN powder with water in supernatants obtained from centrifuged Si₃N₄ and SiC slurries was studied by monitoring the pH versus time. Various Si₃N₄ and SiC powders were used, which were fabricated by different production routes and had surfaces oxidized to different degrees. The reactivity of the AlN powder in the supernatants was found to depend strongly on the concentration of dissolved silica in these slurries relative to the surface area of the AlN powder in the slurry. The hydrolysis of AlN did not occur if the concentration of dissolved silica, with respect to the AlN powder surface, was high enough (1 mg SiO₂/(m² AlN powder)) to form a layer of aluminosilicates on the AlN powder surface. This assumption was verified by measuring the pH of more concentrated (31 vol%) Si₃N₄ and SiC suspensions also including 5 wt% of AlN powder (with respect to the solids).     

On the conformation of the cellulose solvent N-methylmorpholine-N-oxide (NMMO) in solution

The N-oxide group of the cellulose solvent N-methylmorpholine-N-oxide showed a strong preference for the axial position compared with N-methyl as determined by NMR experiments and computational studies. In solvents with negligible solvent-solute interaction, about 95% of the NMMO molecules obtained a typical chair conformation with an axial N-O (1) while 5% had an equatorial N-O (2) at room temperature (25 °C). Other conformations (boat and twist) are energetically largely disfavored. N-Benzylmorpholine-N-oxide was prepared as reference compound possessing 100% axial N-O. Aprotic solvents of increasing polarity slightly shifted the conformation equilibrium towards the more polar conformer 2. The effect of protic solvents, capable of forming H-bonds, was more pronounced, with water increasing the percentage of 2 to 25% of the total population. Addition of sugar model compounds reversed this effect, so that formation of 2 was suppressed and exclusively 1 was found, indicating a strong interaction between the latter conformer and the carbohydrate.     

Photocatalytic activity of a new composite material of Fe (III) oxide nanoparticles wrapped by a matrix of polymeric carbon nitride and amorphous carbon

Polymeric carbon nitride was synthesized from urea and doped with Cu and Fe to act as co-catalysts. The material doped with Fe was a new composite material composed of Fe(III) oxides (acting as a co-catalyst) wrapped by the polymer layers and amorphous carbon. Furthermore, the copper doped material was described in a previous report. The photocatalytic degradation of the azo dye direct blue 1 (DB) was studied using as photocatalysts: pure carbon nitride (CN), carbon nitride doped with Cu (CN-Cu) and carbon nitride doped with Fe (CN-Fe). The catalysts were characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller method (BET), etc. The adsorption phenomenon was studied using the Langmuir and Freundlich models. For the kinetic study, a solution of 500 mg L^?1 of DB1 was treated with each catalyst, visible light and H₂O₂. The dye concentration was measured by spectrophotometry at the wavelength of 565 nm, and the removal of the total organic content (TOC) was quantified. BET analysis yielded surface areas of 60.029, 20.116 and 70.662 m²g^?1 for CN, CN-Cu and CN-Fe, respectively. The kinetics of degradation were pseudo-first order, whose constants were 0.093, 0.039 and 0.110 min^?1 for CN, CN-Cu and CN-Fe, respectively. The total organic carbon (TOC) removal reached the highest value of 14.46% with CN-Fe.     

Proteomic profile of differentially expressed plasma proteins from dystrophic mice and following suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid treatment

Purpose: Histone Deacetylase Inhibitors (DI) ameliorates dystrophic muscle regeneration restoring muscular strength in the mdx mouse model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). The further development of these compounds as drugs for DMD treatment is currently hampered by the lack of knowledge about DIs effect in large dystrophic animal models and that of suitable biomarkers to monitor their efficacy. Experimental design: In this study we applied proteomic analysis to identify differentially expressed proteins present in plasma samples from mdx mice treated with the Suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA) and relative normal controls (WT). Results: Several differentially expressed proteins were identified between untreated wild type and mdx mice. Among these, fibrinogen, epidermal growth factor 2 receptor, major urinary protein and glutathione peroxidase 3 (GPX3) were constitutively up‐regulated in mdx, while complement C3, complement C6, gelsolin, leukaemia inhibitory factor receptor (LIFr), and alpha 2 macroglobulin were down‐regulated compared to WT mice. SAHA determined the normalization of LIFr and GPX3 protein level while apoliprotein E was de novo up‐regulated in comparison to vehicle‐treated mdx mice. Conclusions and clinical relevance: Collectively, these data unravel potential serological disease biomarkers of mdx that could be useful to monitor muscular dystrophy response to DI treatment.     

A VLSI recurrent network of integrate-and-fire neurons connected by plastic synapses with long-term memory.

Electronic neuromorphic devices with on-chip, on-line learning should be able to modify quickly the synaptic couplings to acquire information about new patterns to be stored (synaptic plasticity) and, at the same time, preserve this information on very long time scales (synaptic stability). Here, we illustrate the electronic implementation of a simple solution to this stability-plasticity problem, recently proposed and studied in various contexts. It is based on the observation that reducing the analog depth of the synapses to the extreme (bistable synapses) does not necessarily disrupt the performance of the device as an associative memory, provided that 1) the number of neurons is large enough; 2) the transitions between stable synaptic states are stochastic; and 3) learning is slow. The drastic reduction of the analog depth of the synaptic variable also makes this solution appealing from the point of view of electronic implementation and offers a simple methodological alternative to the technological solution based on floating gates. We describe the full custom analog very large-scale integration (VLSI) realization of a small network of integrate-and-fire neurons connected by bistable deterministic plastic synapses which can implement the idea of stochastic learning. In the absence of stimuli, the memory is preserved indefinitely. During the stimulation the synapse undergoes quick temporary changes through the activities of the pre- and postsynaptic neurons; those changes stochastically result in a long-term modification of the synaptic efficacy. The intentionally disordered pattern of connectivity allows the system to generate a randomness suited to drive the stochastic selection mechanism. We check by a suitable stimulation protocol that the stochastic synaptic plasticity produces the expected pattern of potentiation and depression in the electronic network.     

Stereometric analysis of nanostructured boehmite coatings synthesized by aluminum nitride powder hydrolysis

We studied the morphological properties of precipitated, nanostructured, boehmite coatings on a polished alumina surface by exploiting the aluminum nitride (AlN) powder hydrolysis at elevated temperatures. The hydrolysis tests of the 3 wt% AlN powder suspensions in the temperature range 50–90 °C were performed in order to estimate the time needed for the synthesis of the coatings. They consisted of interlocked boehmite lamellas, positioned perpendicularly to the ceramic surface, and they exhibited a strong temperature-dependent size and surface density. The aim of this research was a quantitative assessment of the as-formed boehmite coatings. Based on electron microscopy micrographs, a stereometric analysis of the as-prepared coatings was performed in order to estimate the relevant geometric parameters of the lamellas. In spite of the temperature-dependent lamellas’ size and surface density, the specific volume of the coatings was similar for all the synthesis temperatures.     

Synthesis and characterization of Cu-doped polymeric carbon nitride

Polymeric carbon nitride doped with copper through a solid-state reaction was characterized by several techniques, among them are UV-visible spectroscopy, infrared spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, etc. The material is a semiconductor with a wide band gap of 2.74 eV. Sites of both Cu(I) and Cu(II) were detected, apparently only coordinated by the polymer. The material comprises crumpled nanosheets, and is substantially an amorphous layered material with a prevalent 2D structure with low inter-planar interactions, as shown by X-ray diffractometry and TeraHertz spectroscopy. Photo-oxidation of benzyl alcohol was used to probe the active sites of the material, comparing them with the non-doped material. The higher activity and selectivity toward salicylic alcohol of the non-doped material can be due to both a more localized electron transfer and a longer lifetime of the hole–electron pair. Cu-CN favored the oxidation of hydroxymethyl group. Therefore, the presence of copper can favor different reaction pathways with respect to the non-doped material.     

Comparing the impact of bentonite addition for both must clarification and wine fining on the chemical profile of wine from Chambave Muscat grapes

The impact of bentonite fining is generally studied on final wines, and few studies have evaluated it throughout the winemaking process. This work studied the fate of proteins and terpenols, the main targets of bentonite addition, during the processing of Chambave Muscat aromatic grapes. The experimental trials were performed in two vintages (2006 and 2007) and included the following processes: bentonite addition to must only (100 g hL^?1 in both vintages), fining of wine only (100 g hL^?1 in both vintages), double bentonite treatment on must and wine (200 and 150 g hL^?1 in 2006 and in 2007, respectively) and no treatment (control). The results demonstrated that the treatment allowing the best removal of protein was the addition of bentonite to must only. Moreover, a lower removal of free terpenols was observed in samples from double treatment compared with wines fined with bentonite only after alcoholic fermentation.     

Structural modifications in stretch-induced crystallization in PVDF films as measured by small-angle X-ray scattering

The nanostructure of stretched and nonstretched PVDF samples was studied by small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). The crystallinity of the samples was determined by wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and crystalline phases by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The nanostructure can be described by a lamellar stacking of crystalline and amorphous layers, with a fairly well defined long period D and a diffuse-boundary in the interface between the crystalline and amorphous phases. The crystallinity of the stretched sample was found to be greater than that of the nonstretched sample. The long period D and the thicknesses of the crystalline lamellae T_c were found to be greater in the stretched sample than those in the nonstretched sample. The thickness of the diffuse-boundary was evaluated as being ∼ 1.4 nm in the nonstretched sample and 1.1 nm in the stretched sample. It was concluded that the growth of the thickness of the crystalline layer induced by the stretching process (stretch-induced crystallization) occurs partially at expense of the diffuse boundary and also by the coarsening of the structure with the stretching process, because of the diminution in the surface area to volume ratio observed. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2012