Metabolomic and proteomic analysis of breast cancer patient samples suggests that glutamate and 12-HETE in combination with CA15-3 may be useful biomarkers reflecting tumour burden

Evaluation of protein and metabolite expression patterns in blood using mass spectrometry and high-throughput antibody-based screening platforms has potential for the discovery of new biomarkers for managing breast cancer patient treatment. Previously identified blood-based breast cancer biomarkers, including cancer antigen 15.3 (CA15-3) are useful in combination with imaging (computed tomography scans, magnetic resonance imaging, X-rays) and physical examination for monitoring tumour burden in advanced breast cancer patients. However, these biomarkers suffer from insufficient levels of accuracy and with new therapies available for the treatment of breast cancer, there is an urgent need for reliable, non-invasive biomarkers that measure tumour burden with high sensitivity and specificity so as to provide early warning of the need to switch to an alternative treatment. The aim of this study was to identify a biomarker signature of tumour burden using cancer and non-cancer (healthy controls/non-malignant breast disease) patient samples. Results demonstrate that combinations of three candidate biomarkers from Glutamate, 12-Hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid, Beta-hydroxybutyrate, Factor V and Matrix metalloproteinase-1 with CA15-3, an established biomarker for breast cancer, were found to mirror tumour burden, with AUC values ranging from 0.71 to 0.98 when comparing non-malignant breast disease to the different stages of breast cancer. Further validation of these biomarker panels could potentially facilitate the management of breast cancer patients, especially to assess changes in tumour burden in combination with imaging and physical examination.

Abnormal levels of heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein A2B1 (hnRNPA2B1) in tumour tissue and blood samples from patients diagnosed with lung cancer

Lung cancer is the second most common type of cancer in the world and is the most common cause of cancer-related death in both men and women. Research into causes, prevention and treatment of lung cancer is ongoing and much progress has been made recently in these areas, however survival rates have not significantly improved. Therefore, it is essential to develop biomarkers for early diagnosis of lung cancer, prediction of metastasis and evaluation of treatment efficiency, as well as using these molecules to provide some understanding about tumour biology and translate highly promising findings in basic science research to clinical application. In this investigation, two-dimensional difference gel electrophoresis and mass spectrometry were initially used to analyse conditioned media from a panel of lung cancer and normal bronchial epithelial cell lines. Significant proteins were identified with heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein A2B1 (hnRNPA2B1), pyruvate kinase M2 isoform (PKM2), Hsc-70 interacting protein and lactate dehydrogenase A (LDHA) selected for analysis in serum from healthy individuals and lung cancer patients. hnRNPA2B1, PKM2 and LDHA were found to be statistically significant in all comparisons. Tissue analysis and knockdown of hnRNPA2B1 using siRNA subsequently demonstrated both the overexpression and potential role for this molecule in lung tumorigenesis. The data presented highlights a number of in vitro derived candidate biomarkers subsequently verified in patient samples and also provides some insight into their roles in the complex intracellular mechanisms associated with tumour progression.

New benzidine procedure for determination of manganese in biological samples

A simple and accurate method for the determination of 0.25 to 1.0 μg. of manganese (in samples containing 1 to 4 μg. of manganese) has been developed by modifying the conditions for the reaction between permanganate and benzidine. Manganese is oxidized with potassium periodate in orthophosphoric acid and selectively estimated in the presence of excess oxidant with benzidine in formic acid. The procedure is applicable for estimation of manganese in biological samples, with recoveries in the range 97.5 to 106.1%.

Dynamic programming based optimum non-uniform samples for speech reconstruction and coding

Non-uniform sampling of a signal is formulated as an optimization problem which minimizes the reconstruction signal error. Dynamic programming (DP) has been used to solve this problem efficiently for a finite duration signal. Further, the optimum samples are quantized to realize a speech coder. The quantizer and the DP based optimum search for non-uniform samples (DP-NUS) can be combined in a closed-loop manner, which provides distinct advantage over the open-loop formulation. The DP-NUS formulation provides a useful control over the trade-off between bitrate and performance (reconstruction error). It is shown that 5-10 dB SNR improvement is possible using DP-NUS compared to extrema sampling approach. In addition, the close-loop DP-NUS gives a 4-5 dB improvement in reconstruction error.

Elusive superconductivity in polycrystalline samples of layered lanthanum nickelates

La2-xNiO4, La2-xSrxNiO4 and related layered nickelates have been investigated for possible presence of superconductivity. While there is clear onset of diamagnetism around 20 K in many of these nickelates, we do not, however, find any anomaly in the electrical resistivity, magnetoresistance or thermopower around 20 K. High energy spectroscopic studies show Ni to be in the 2+ oxidation state accompanied by a substantial proportion of oxygen holes.

A simple low-cost electrical switching analyzer for I-V characterization of switching samples and devices

The phenomena of nonlinear I-V behavior and electrical switching find extensive applications in power control, information storage, oscillators, etc. The study of I-V characteristics and switching parameters is necessary for the proper application of switching materials and devices. In the present work, a simple low-cost electrical switching analyzer has been developed for the measurement of the electrical characteristics of switching materials and devices. The system developed consists of a microcontroller-based excitation source and a high-speed data acquisition system. The design details of the excitation source, its interface with the high-speed data acquisition system and personal computer, and the details of the application software developed for automated measurements are described. Typical I-V characteristics and switching curves obtained with the system developed are also presented to illustrate the capability of the instrument developed.

Nanoscale studies of materials using x-ray synchrotron radiation and mesoscopic modelling

X-ray synchrotron radiation was used to study the nanostructure of cellulose in Norway spruce stem wood and powders of cobalt nanoparticles in cellulose support. Furthermore, the growth of metallic clusters was modelled and simulated in the mesoscopic size scale. Norway spruce was characterized with x-ray microanalysis at beamline ID18F of the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble. The average dimensions and the orientation of cellulose crystallites was determined using x-ray microdiffraction. In addition, the nutrient element content was determined using x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy. Diffraction patterns and fluorescence spectra were simultaneously acquired. Cobalt nanoparticles in cellulose support were characterized with x-ray absorption spectroscopy at beamline X1 of the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron in Hamburg, complemented by home lab experiments including x-ray diffraction, electron microscopy and measurement of magnetic properties with a vibrating sample magnetometer. Extended x-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy (EXAFS) and x-ray diffraction were used to solve the atomic arrangement of the cobalt nanoparticles. Scanning- and transmission electron microscopy were used to image the surfaces of the cellulose fibrils, where the growth of nanoparticles takes place. The EXAFS experiment was complemented by computational coordination number calculations on ideal spherical nanocrystals. The growth process of metallic nanoclusters on cellulose matrix is assumed to be rather complicated, affected not only by the properties of the clusters themselves, but essentially depending on the cluster-fiber interfaces as well as the morphology of the fiber surfaces. The final favored average size for nanoclusters, if such exists, is most probably a consequence of these two competing tendencies towards size selection, one governed by pore sizes, the other by the cluster properties. In this thesis, a mesoscopic model for the growth of metallic nanoclusters on porous cellulose fiber (or inorganic) surfaces is developed. The first step in modelling was to evaluate the special case of how the growth proceeds on flat or wedged surfaces.

Influence of Starch Polysaccharide on the Remolded Properties of 2 Indian clay Samples

The reported presence in marine clays and the recognized role of polysaccharide as a bonding agent provided the motivation to examine the role of starch polysaccharide in the remoulded properties of nonswelling (kaolinite) and swelling (bentonite) groups of clays. The starch polysaccharide belongs to a group of naturally occurring, large-sized organic molecules (termed polymers) and is built up by extensive repetition of simple chemical units called repeat units. The results of the study indicate that the impact of the starch polysaccharide on the remoulded properties of clays is dependent on the mineralogy of the clays. On addition to bentonite clay, the immensely large number of segments (repeat units) of the starch polysaccharide create several polymer segment - clay surface bonds that cause extensive aggregation of the bentonite units layers. The aggregation of the bentonite unit layers greatly curtails the available surface area of the clay mineral for diffuse ion layer formation. The reduction in diffuse ion layer thickness markedly lowers the consistency limits and vane shear strength of the bentonite clay. On addition to kaolinite, the numerous polymer segment - clay surface bonds enhance the tendency of the kaolinite particles to flocculate. The enhanced particle flocculation is responsible apparently for a small to moderate increase in the liquid limit and remoulded undrained strength of the nonswelling clay.

Signatures of an anomalous Nernst effect in a mesoscopic two-dimensional electron system

We investigate the Nernst effect in a mesoscopic two-dimensional electron system (2DES) at low magnetic fields, before the onset of Landau level quantization. The overall magnitude of the Nernst signal agrees well with semiclassical predictions. We observe reproducible mesoscopic fluctuations in the signal that diminish significantly with an increase in temperature. We also show that the Nernst effect exhibits an anomalous component that is correlated with an oscillatory Hall effect. This behavior may be able to distinguish between different spin-correlated states in the 2DES.

Enhanced charge and spin currents in the one-dimensional disordered mesoscopic Hubbard ring

We consider a one-dimensional mesoscopic Hubbard ring with and without disorder and compute charge and spin stiffness as a measure of the permanent currents. For finite disorder we identify critical disorder strength beyond which the charge currents in a system with repulsive interactions are larger than those for a free system. The spin currents in the disordered repulsive Hubbard model are enhanced only for small U, where the magnetic state of the system corresponds to a charge-density wave pinned to the impurities. For large U, the state of the system corresponds to localized isolated spins and the spin currents are found to be suppressed. For the attractive Hubbard model we find that the charge currents are always suppressed compared to the free system at all length scales.

Giant magnetoresistance in bulk samples of LaMnO3 with varying Mn4+ content

Magnetoresistance (MR) in bulk samples of LaMnO3 has been investigated by varying the Mn4+ content from 10 to 33 per cent by chemical means, without aliovalent doping. With the increase in Mn4+ content, the structure of LaMnO3 changes first from orthorhombic to rhombohedral and then to cubic and the material becomes increasingly ferromagnetic, exhibiting a resistivity maximum akin to an insulator-metal transition at T-Peak, just below the ferromagnetic T-c. The magnitude of MR is highest in the cubic sample (with 33% Mn4+) around the T-Peak, and negligible in the non-magnetic orthorhombic sample (12% Mn4+).

Dapsone a new diazotizing reagent for the spectrophotometric determination of nitrite in waste and natural water samples

A new diazotizing reagent for the spectrophotometric determination of nitrite is described. The method is based on diazotization-coupling reaction between dapsone and phloroglucinol in hydrochloric acid medium. The reactions were conducted at room temperature, the molor absorptivity at 425 nm is 4.28 x 10(4) 1 Mol, (1)cm(-1) and was stable for 50 h. Beer's law was obeyed in the nitrite range of 0.008 - 1.0 mug ml(-1). Tolerance limits were tested for 33 species. The method has been found to be applicable for the determination of nitrite in natural and wastewater.

Spin-orbital ordering and mesoscopic phase separation in the double perovskite Ca2FeReO6

Neutron powder diffraction measurements on Ca2FeReO6 reveal that this double perovskite orders ferrimagnetically and shows anomalous lattice parameter behavior below T-C=521 K. Below similar to300 K and similar to160 K we observe that the high-T monoclinic crystal structure separates into two and three monoclinic phases, respectively. A magnetic field suppresses the additional phases at low T in favor of the highest-T phase. These manifestations of the orbital degree of freedom of Re 5d electrons indicate that these electrons are strongly correlated and the title compound is a Mott insulator, with competing spin-orbitally ordered states.