The Role of α1-Adrenoceptor Antagonists in the Treatment of Prostate and Other Cancers

This review evaluates the role of α-adrenoceptor antagonists as a potential treatment of prostate cancer (PCa). Cochrane, Google Scholar and Pubmed were accessed to retrieve sixty-two articles for analysis. In vitro studies demonstrate that doxazosin, prazosin and terazosin (quinazoline α-antagonists) induce apoptosis, decrease cell growth, and proliferation in PC-3, LNCaP and DU-145 cell lines. Similarly, the piperazine based naftopidil induced cell cycle arrest and death in LNCaP-E9 cell lines. In contrast, sulphonamide based tamsulosin did not exhibit these effects. In vivo data was consistent with in vitro findings as the quinazoline based α-antagonists prevented angiogenesis and decreased tumour mass in mice models of PCa. Mechanistically the cytotoxic and antitumor effects of the α-antagonists appear largely independent of α 1-blockade. The proposed targets include: VEGF, EGFR, HER2/Neu, caspase 8/3, topoisomerase 1 and other mitochondrial apoptotic inducing factors. These cytotoxic effects could not be evaluated in human studies as prospective trial data is lacking. However, retrospective studies show a decreased incidence of PCa in males exposed to α-antagonists. As human data evaluating the use of α-antagonists as treatments are lacking; well designed, prospective clinical trials are needed to conclusively demonstrate the anticancer properties of quinazoline based α-antagonists in PCa and other cancers.     

An effective oxidation approach for luminescence enhancement in CdS quantum dots by H2O2

The effects of surface passivation on the photoluminescence (PL) properties of CdS nanoparticles oxidized by straightforward H₂O₂ injection were examined. Compared to pristine cadmium sulfide nanocrystals (quantum efficiency ≅ 0.1%), the surface-passivated CdS nanoparticles showed significantly enhanced luminescence properties (quantum efficiency ≅ 20%). The surface passivation by H₂O₂ injection was characterized using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and time-resolved PL. The photoluminescence enhancement is due to the two-order increase in the radiative recombination rate by the sulfate passivation layer.     

Variable thermal loading analysis on (111) plane of single crystal gold

The temperature response on the properties of single crystal gold (111) plane at elevated temperatures was considered in this work. The ability to perform nanoindentation experiments at elevated temperatures opens up significant new possibilities in nanotechnology. The experiments are performed at various temperatures of 373 K, 473 K and 573 K with tailor made Berkovitch tip of radius 100 nm to study the behavior of single crystal gold. The new phenomenon of material bouncing back under the indenter at the end of unloading was clearly noted, due to the accumulation of high energy. The results for different temperatures were compared. Our experiments clearly show the onset of the first burst of dislocation glide, which is indicated by a sudden increase of displacement with no increase of loading, the onset of plastic deformation in connection with the periodic bursts, and the strain hardening, softening and release effects. Pile up was also observed. The complete elastic range was found. There was significant drop in the hardness, elastic modulus and the increase in depth with increasing temperature. The elastic recovery was reduced at higher temperatures.     

Case study of safe lowering of an in service gas pipeline

This paper describes an experimental investigation carried out involving instrumentation, measurement and monitoring of stresses in a large diameter gas pipeline during its lowering operations. It also highlights the ingenious techniques developed and adopted to overcome the difficulties pertaining to long leadwires, measurement of existing strains on the curved surface of a pipeline and protection of strain gauge installations. These novel methods were used to ensure smooth and proper functioning of strain gauge instrumentation even under the severe field conditions at site for more than two weeks, till the lowering operations and pipeline monitoring was successfully completed.     

Solid waste removes toxic liquid waste: adsorption of chromium(VI) by iron complexed protein waste

The leather processing industry generates huge amounts of wastes, both in solid and liquid form. Fleshing from animal hides/skins is one such waste that is high in protein content. In this study, raw fleshing has been complexed with iron and is used for removal of chromium(VI). The effect of pH and the initial concentration of chromium(VI) on the removal of Cr(IV) by iron treated fleshing is presented. Iron treatment is shown to greatly improve adsorption of the fleshing for hexavalent chromium. The ultimate adsorption capacity of iron treated fleshing is 51 mg of chromium(VI) per gram of fleshing. That of untreated fleshing is 9 mg/g such that iron treatment increases the adsorption capacity of fleshing by 10-fold. The measured adsorption kinetics is well described by a pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The uptake of chromium(VI) by fleshing is best described by the Langmuir adsorption isotherm model. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic (XPS) studies show that the iron is incorporated into the protein matrix. Shifts in XPS spectra suggest that dichromate binding occurs with iron at active adsorption sites and that iron treated fleshing removes chromium(VI) without reducing it to chromium(III).     

Toxicity screening of candidate materials for the fabrication of a bubble oxygenator: A preliminary report

The hazards encountered in the clinical use of medical devices and implants have been referred in this paper to emphasise the need for and relevance of carrying out appropriate toxicological investigations before such items are manufactured and marketed. Different formulations of polyvinyl chloride, low density polyethylene, high density polyethylene and polyester fabric were subjected to various tests to determine their biocompatibility/safety for their eventual use as components in a bubble oxygenator. The test methods together with the results obtained are described and discussed.     

Anisotropic Hybrid Hydrogels with Superior Mechanical Properties Reminiscent of Tendons or Ligaments

Mimicking the hierarchically anisotropic structure and excellent mechanical properties of natural tissues, such as tendons and ligaments, using biomaterials is challenging. Despite recent achievements with anisotropic hydrogels, limitations remain because of difficulties in achieving both structural and mechanical characteristics simultaneously. A simple approach for fabricating hybrid hydrogels with a hierarchically anisotropic structure and superior mechanical properties that are reminiscent of tendons or ligaments is proposed. Alginate–polyacrylamide double‐network (DN) hydrogels incorporated with high aspect ratio mesoporous silica microparticles are stretched and fixed via subsequent drying and ionic crosslinking to achieve multiscale structures composed of an anisotropically aligned polymer network embedded with aligned microparticles. The mechanical properties of hydrogels can be further controlled by the degree of stretching, quantities, and functional groups of inorganic microparticles, and types of crosslinking cations. The subsequent reswelling results in a high water content (>80%) similar to that of natural tendons while high strength, modulus, and toughness are maintained. The optimized anisotropic hybrid hydrogel exhibits a tensile modulus of 7.2 MPa, strength of 1.3 MPa, and toughness of 1.4 MJ m^?3 even in the swollen state, which is 451‐, 27‐, and 2.2 times higher than that observed in the non‐swollen tough DN hydrogel. This study suggests a new strategy for fabricating anisotropic hydrogels with superior mechanical properties to develop new biomaterials for artificial tendons or ligaments.     

Differential flatness of two one-forms in arbitrary number of variables

Given a differentially flat system of ODEs, flat outputs that depend only on original variables but not on their derivatives are called zero-flat outputs and systems possessing such outputs are called zero-flat. In this paper we present a theory of zero-flatness for a system of two one-forms in arbitrary number of variables (t,x¹,…,x^N). Our approach splits the task of finding zero-flat outputs into two parts. First part involves solving for distributions that satisfy a set of algebraic conditions. The second part involves finding an integrable distribution from the solution set of the first part. Typically this part involves solving PDEs. Our results are also applicable in determining if a control affine system in n states and n−2 controls has flat outputs that depend only on states. We illustrate our method by examples.