Breast cancer and human papillomavirus infection: No evidence of HPV etiology of breast cancer in Indian women

Background: Two clinically relevant high-risk HPV (HR-HPV) types 16 and 18 are etiologically associated with the development of cervical carcinoma and are also reported to be present in many other carcinomas in extra-genital organ sites. Presence of HPV has been reported in breast carcinoma which is the second most common cancer in India and is showing a fast rising trend in urban population. The two early genes E6 and E7 of HPV type 16 have been shown to immortalize breast epithelial cells in vitro, but the role of HPV infection in breast carcinogenesis is highly controversial. Present study has therefore been undertaken to analyze the prevalence of HPV infection in both breast cancer tissues and blood samples from a large number of Indian women with breast cancer from different geographic regions. Methods: The presence of all mucosal HPVs and the most common high-risk HPV types 16 and 18 DNA was detected by two different PCR methods - (i) conventional PCR assays using consensus primers (MY09/11, or GP5 +/GP6+) or HPV16 E6/E7 primers and (ii) highly sensitive Real-Time PCR. A total of 228 biopsies and corresponding 142 blood samples collected prospectively from 252 patients from four different regions of India with significant socio-cultural, ethnic and demographic variations were tested. Results: All biopsies and blood samples of breast cancer patients tested by PCR methods did not show positivity for HPV DNA sequences in conventional PCRs either by MY09/11 or by GP5+/GP6+/HPV16 E6/E7 primers. Further testing of these samples by real time PCR also failed to detect HPV DNA sequences. Conclusions: Lack of detection of HPV DNA either in the tumor or in the blood DNA of breast cancer patients by both conventional and real time PCR does not support a role of genital HPV in the pathogenesis of breast cancer in Indian women.

High level stable expression of rat brain type IIA sodium channel ?-subunit in CHO cells

The neuronal sodium channels are responsible for the rising phase of action potential and are composed of three subunits, of which the alpha-subunit has been shown to be adequate for most of its functional properties. We have stably expressed the rat brain type IIA sodium channel alpha-subunit in CHO cell tine using a CMV promoter-based vector. The expression was confirmed by detecting a 6.5 kb RNA corresponding to sodium channel alpha-subunit using Northern hybridization. The cells stably expressing the alpha-subunit, yield isolated sodium currents of amplitudes greater than 4nA when studied in whole-cell configuration of the patch-clamp technique. The sodium currents are characterized by activation and inactivation properties similar to neuronal sodium channels, and are blocked by the voltage gated sodium channel blocker tetrodotoxin (TTX).

Noise-spike-induced escape in a bistable system driven by colored noise: Noise with long correlation times

An escape mechanism in a bistable system driven by colored noise of large but finite correlation time (tau) is analyzed. It is shown that the fluctuating potential theory [Phys. Rev. A 38, 3749 (1988)] becomes invalid in a region around the inflection points of the bistable potential, resulting in the underestimation of the mean first passage time at finite tau by this theory. It is shown that transitions at large but finite tau are caused by noise spikes, with edges rising and falling exponentially in a time of O(tau). Simulation of the dynamics of the bistable system driven by noise spikes of the above-mentioned nature clearly reveal the physical mechanism behind the transition.

The orientational relaxation of bipolar active regions

In the mean, bipolar active regions are oriented nearly toroidally, according to Hale's polarity law, with a latitude-dependent tilt known as Joy's Law. The tilt angles of individual active regions deviate from this mean behavior and change over time. It has been found that on average the change is toward the mean angle at a rate characteristic of 4.37 days (Howard, 1996). We show that this orientational relaxation is consistent with the standard model of flux tube emergence from a deep dynamo layer. Under this scenario Joy's law results from the Coriolis effect on the rising flux tube (D'Silva and Choudhuri, 1993), and departures from it result from turbulent buffeting of the tubes (Longcope and Fisher, 1996). We show that relaxation toward Joy's angle occurs because the turbulent perturbations relax on shorter time scales than the perturbations from the Coriolis force. The turbulent perturbations relax more rapidly because they are localized to the topmost portion of the convection zone while the Coriolis perturbations are more widely distributed. If a fully-developed active region remains connected to the strong toroidal magnetic field at the base of the convection zone, its tilt will eventually disappear, leaving it aligned perfectly toroidally. On the other hand, if the flux becomes disconnected from the toroidal field the bipole will assume a tilt indicative of the location of disconnection. We compare models which are connected and disconnected from the toroidal field. Only those disconnected at points very deep in the convection zone a-re consistent with observed time scale of orientational relaxation.

Plume structure in high-Rayleigh-number convection

Near-wall structures in turbulent natural convection at Rayleigh numbers of $10^{10}$ to $10^{11}$ at A Schmidt number of 602 are visualized by a new method of driving the convection across a fine membrane using concentration differences of sodium chloride. The visualizations show the near-wall flow to consist of sheet plumes. A wide variety of large-scale flow cells, scaling with the cross-section dimension, are observed. Multiple large-scale flow cells are seen at aspect ratio (AR)= 0.65, while only a single circulation cell is detected at AR= 0.435. The cells (or the mean wind) are driven by plumes coming together to form columns of rising lighter fluid. The wind in turn aligns the sheet plumes along the direction of shear. the mean wind direction is seen to change with time. The near-wall dynamics show plumes initiated at points, which elongate to form sheets and then merge. Increase in rayleigh number results in a larger number of closely and regularly spaced plumes. The plume spacings show a common log–normal probability distribution function, independent of the rayleigh number and the aspect ratio. We propose that the near-wall structure is made of laminar natural-convection boundary layers, which become unstable to give rise to sheet plumes, and show that the predictions of a model constructed on this hypothesis match the experiments. Based on these findings, we conclude that in the presence of a mean wind, the local near-wall boundary layers associated with each sheet plume in high-rayleigh-number turbulent natural convection are likely to be laminar mixed convection type.

Theoretical determination of HI vertical scale heights in the dwarf galaxies DDO 154, Ho II, IC 2574 and NGC 2366

In this paper, we model dwarf galaxies as a two-component system of gravitationally coupled stars and atomic hydrogen gas in the external force field of a pseudo-isothermal dark matter halo, and numerically obtain the radial distribution of HI vertical scale heights. This is done for a group of four dwarf galaxies (DDO 154, Ho II, IC 2574 and NGC 2366) for which most necessary input parameters are available from observations. The formulation of the equations takes into account the rising rotation curves generally observed in dwarf galaxies. The inclusion of self-gravity of the gas into the model at par with that of the stars results in scale heights that are smaller than what was obtained by previous authors. This is important as the gas scale height is often used for deriving other physical quantities. The inclusion of gas self-gravity is particularly relevant in the case of dwarf galaxies where the gas cannot be considered a minor perturbation to the mass distribution of the stars. We find that three out of four galaxies studied show a flaring of their HI discs with increasing radius, by a factor of a few within several disc scale lengths. The fourth galaxy has a thick HI disc throughout. This flaring arises as a result of the gas velocity dispersion remaining constant or decreasing only slightly while the disc mass distribution declines exponentially as a function of radius.

Analytical Solution of Joule-Heating Equation for Metallic Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube Interconnects

In this paper, we address a closed-form analytical solution of the Joule-heating equation for metallic single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs). Temperature-dependent thermal conductivity kappa has been considered on the basis of second-order three-phonon Umklapp, mass difference, and boundary scattering phenomena. It is found that kappa, in case of pure SWCNT, leads to a low rising in the temperature profile along the via length. However, in an impure SWCNT, kappa reduces due to the presence of mass difference scattering, which significantly elevates the temperature. With an increase in impurity, there is a significant shift of the hot spot location toward the higher temperature end point contact. Our analytical model, as presented in this study, agrees well with the numerical solution and can be treated as a method for obtaining an accurate analysis of the temperature profile along the CNT-based interconnects.

0.84 ps Resolution Clock Skew Measurement via Subsampling

An all-digital on-chip clock skew measurement system via subsampling is presented. The clock nodes are sub-sampled with a near-frequency asynchronous sampling clock to result in beat signals which are themselves skewed in the same proportion but on a larger time scale. The beat signals are then suitably masked to extract only the skews of the rising edges of the clock signals. We propose a histogram of the arithmetic difference of the beat signals which decouples the relationship of clock jitter to the minimum measurable skew, and allows skews arbitrarily close to zero to be measured with a precision limited largely by measurement time, unlike the conventional XOR based histogram approach. We also analytically show that the proposed approach leads to an unbiased estimate of skew. The measured results from a 65 nm delay measurement front-end indicate that for an input skew range of +/- 1 fan-out-of-4 (FO4) delay, +/- 3 sigma resolution of 0.84 ps can be obtained with an integral error of 0.65 ps. We also experimentally demonstrate that a frequency modulation on a sampling clock maintains precision, indicating the robustness of the technique to jitter. We also show how FM modulation helps in restoring precision in case of rationally related clocks.

Modeling of the Effects of Process Variations on Circuit Delay at 65nm

A novel methodology for modeling the effects of process variations on circuit delay performance is proposed by relating the variations in process parameters to variations in delay metric of a complex digital circuit. The delay of a 2-input NAND gate with 65nm gate length transistors is extensively characterized by mixed-mode simulations which is then used as a library element. The variation in saturation current Ionat the device level, and the variation in rising/falling edge stage delay for the NAND gate at the circuit level, are taken as performance metrics. A 4-bit x 4-bit Wallace tree multiplier circuit is used as a representative combinational circuit to demonstrate the proposed methodology. The variation in the multiplier delay is characterized, to obtain delay distributions, by an extensive Monte Carlo analysis. An analytical model based on CV/I metric is proposed, to extend this methodology for a generic technology library with a variety of library elements.

Decoupling of diffusion from viscosity: Difference scenario for translational and rotational motions

Recent experiments have indicated a dramatically different viscosity dependence of the translational and the rotational diffusion coefficients in a supercooled liquid as the glass transition temperature is approached from above. While the translational motion seems to be decoupled from the rising viscosity (eta), the rotational motion seems to remain firmly coupled to eta. In order to understand the microscopic origin of this behavior, we have carried nut detailed theoretical calculations of both the quantities by using a self-consistent mode-coupling theory (MCT). it is found that when the size of the solute is same as that of the solvent molecules, the conventional MCT fails to predict the observed decoupling. The solvent inhomogeneity is found to play a decisive role in determining the decoupling. The difference in the viscosity dependence between rotation and translational diffusion coefficient is discussed.

Artificial neural network application to power system voltage stability improvement

As power systems grow in their size and interconnections, their complexity increases. Rising costs due to inflation and increased environmental concerns has made transmission, as well as generation systems be operated closer to design limits. Hence power system voltage stability and voltage control are emerging as major problems in the day-to-day operation of stressed power systems. For secure operation and control of power systems under normal and contingency conditions it is essential to provide solutions in real time to the operator in energy control center (ECC). Artificial neural networks (ANN) are emerging as an artificial intelligence tool, which give fast, though approximate, but acceptable solutions in real time as they mostly use the parallel processing technique for computation. The solutions thus obtained can be used as a guide by the operator in ECC for power system control. This paper deals with development of an ANN architecture, which provide solutions for monitoring, and control of voltage stability in the day-to-day operation of power systems.

Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian finite-element method for computation of two-phase flows with soluble surfactants

A finite-element scheme based on a coupled arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian and Lagrangian approach is developed for the computation of interface flows with soluble surfactants. The numerical scheme is designed to solve the time-dependent Navier-Stokes equations and an evolution equation for the surfactant concentration in the bulk phase, and simultaneously, an evolution equation for the surfactant concentration on the interface. Second-order isoparametric finite elements on moving meshes and second-order isoparametric surface finite elements are used to solve these equations. The interface-resolved moving meshes allow the accurate incorporation of surface forces, Marangoni forces and jumps in the material parameters. The lower-dimensional finite-element meshes for solving the surface evolution equation are part of the interface-resolved moving meshes. The numerical scheme is validated for problems with known analytical solutions. A number of computations to study the influence of the surfactants in 3D-axisymmetric rising bubbles have been performed. The proposed scheme shows excellent conservation of fluid mass and of the total mass of the surfactant. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Estimation of vapour pressure and partial pressure of subliming compounds by low-pressure thermogravimetry

A method for the estimation of vapour pressure and partial pressure of subliming compounds under reduced pressure, using rising temperature thermogravimetry, is described in this paper. The method is based on our recently developed procedure to estimate the vapour pressure from ambient pressure thermogravimetric data using Langmuir equation. Using benzoic acid as the calibration standard, vapour pressure temperature curves are calculated at 80, 160 and 1000 mbar for salicylic acid and vanadyl bis-2,4-pentanedionate, a precursor used for chemical vapour deposition of vanadium oxides. Using a modification of the Langmuir equation, the partial pressure of these materials at different total pressures is also determined as a function of temperature. Such data can be useful for the deposition of multi-metal oxide thin films or doped thin films by chemical vapour deposition (CVD).

Impacts of climate change on regional water resources

Water is the most important medium through which climate change influences human life. Rising temperatures together with regional changes in precipitation patterns are some of the impacts of climate change that have implications on water availability, frequency and intensity of floods and droughts, soil moisture, water quality, water supply and water demands for irrigation and hydropower generation. In this article we provide an introduction to the emerging field of hydrologic impacts of climate change with a focus on water availability, water quality and irrigation demands. Climate change estimates on regional or local spatial scales are burdened with a considerable amount of uncertainty, stemming from various sources such as climate models, downscaling and hydrological models used in the impact assessments and uncertainty in the downscaling relationships. The present article summarizes the recent advances on uncertainty modeling and regional impacts of climate change for the Mahanadi and Tunga-Bhadra Rivers in India.

Thermoelectric properties of Indium doped Cu2GeSe3

Cu2Ge1-xInxSe3 (x = 0, 0.05, 0.1, 0.15) compounds were prepared by a solid state synthesis. The powder X-ray diffraction pattern of the undoped sample revealed an orthorhombic phase. The increase in doping content led to the appearance of additional peaks related to cubic and tetragonal phases along with the orthorhombic phase. This may be due to the substitutional disorder created by Indium doping. Scanning Electron Microscopy micrographs showed a continuous large grain growth with low porosity, which confirms the compaction of the samples after hot pressing. Elemental composition was measured by Electron Probe Micro Analyzer and confirmed that all the samples are in the stoichiometric ratio. The electrical resistivity (rho) systematically decreased with an increase in doping content, but increased with the temperature indicating a heavily doped semiconductor behavior. A positive Seebeck coefficient (S) of all samples in the entire temperature range reveal holes as predominant charge carriers. Positive Hall coefficient data for the compounds Cu2InxGe1-xSe3 (x = 0, 0.1) at room temperature (RT) confirm the sign of Seebeck coefficient. The trend of rho as a function of doping content for the samples Cu2InxGe1-xSe3 with x = 0 and 0.1 agrees with the measured charge carrier density calculated from Hall data. The total thermal conductivity increased with rising doping content, attributed to an increase in carrier thermal conductivity. The thermal conductivity revealed 1/T dependence, which indicates the dominance of Umklapp phonon scattering at elevated temperatures. The maximum thermoelectric figure of merit (ZT) = 0.23 at 723 K was obtained for Cu2In0.1Ge0.9Se3. (C)2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.