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Amygdala and serotonergic system abnormalities have been documented in major depressive disorder (MDD). However, most studies have been conducted on recurrent MDD, and only a few have assessed their interaction. This study aimed to concurrently examine both the amygdala and serotonergic systems and their clinical relevance in first-episode, drug-naïve MDD. This study included 27 patients with first-episode, drug-naïve MDD and 27 age- and gender-matched healthy controls (HCs). The amygdala substructure volumes were performed with Freesurfer from a 1.5 T magnetic resonance image. Serotonin transporter (SERT) availability was detected by single-photon emission computed tomography with 123I-ADAM. The Benjamini-Hochberg method was applied to adjust for multiple comparisons. No significant difference was found in the amygdala substructure volume and SERT availability between the two groups, respectively. Within MDD patients, the right medial, cortical nucleus, and centromedial volumes were positively associated with caudate SERT availability, respectively. Moreover, the right lateral nucleus volume in the amygdala was positively correlated with depression severity. However, these significances did not survive correction for multiple testing. There were no significant abnormalities in the amygdala substructure volumes and SERT availability in patients with first-episode, drug-naïve MDD. We did not observe an association between amygdala substructure volume and serotonergic dysregulation and their correlations with depression severity in patients with MDD. A larger sample size is warranted to elucidate the actual correlation. • The MDD group vs. controls showed no significant differences in the amygdala substructure volumes and SERT availability. • Amygdala substructure volumes were not associated with SERT availability in patients with MDD. • Neither amygdala nucleus volume nor SERT availability was associated with depression severity in MDD patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Surface energies described by Hansen solubility parameters (HSP) of a synthetic organophilic fluoromica (MAE), molybdenum disulfide (MoS 2 ), and graphene are used to predict their delamination properties in a cyclic olefin copolymer (COC). This prediction suggests MAE as the most appropriate filler for COC, followed by MoS 2 and graphene. Nanocomposites are prepared via solution process and have been investigated on their delamination state using X-ray-diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and angle-resolved light scattering (ARS). Nanocomposites based on MAE shown morphologies close to complete delamination. Agglomerations are detected in the case of MoS 2 and graphene. For a potential barrier application, water vapor transmission rates (WVTR) are experimentally determined. In such nanocomposites, inorganic fillers increase the diffusion length of water, known as tortuous path model, which enhances the barrier properties. Highest barrier enhancements are obtained using MAE based nanocomposites reducing the WVTR down to 40% of the initial value. The prediction of delamination based on Hansen solubility parameters is found to be a very helpful tool for selecting fillers in composites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The influence of different surface energies described by Hansen solubility parameters (HSP) on the exfoliation of organophilic fluoromicas is investigated. HSP values of four synthetic organophilic fluoromica with different surfactants have been predetermined. Those surfactants change the fluoromica surface energies described by HSP. The HSP are used to calculate the dispersibility of the various organophilic fluoromica in chloroform via Flory-Huggins (F-H) theory. The F-H parameter (χ) describes the effective difference in HSP related surface energies of particles and chloroform molecules, which is related to the energy cost of exfoliation. An influence of F-H parameter is detected on the delamination state of organophilic fluoromica. The delamination state is evaluated quantitatively using atomic force microscopy (AFM). In the case of a high F-H parameter (χ > 0.15), aggregated and unstable fluoromica dispersions are obtained. Whereas in the case of F-H parameters near zero, exfoliated and stable fluoromica dispersions are achieved. The presence of surfactant on the surface of exfoliated fluoromica flakes is proven by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and density functional theory (DFT) calculation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A method to measure Hansen solubility parameters for organophilic fluoromica is developed. For this purpose, fluoromica with four different intercalated molecules (surfactants) have been dispersed in various solvents. These surfactants change the fluoromica surface energies described by Hansen solubility parameters (HSP). The three Hansen solubility parameters (dispersion, polar and hydrogen bonding) of different organophilic fluoromicas have been obtained by using gravimetric analysis. The dispersion parameters for all four organophilic fluoromicas are almost identical, with a value around 17 MPa . Whereas polar and H-bonding parameters are varying with the used surfactants. Surprisingly the polar and hydrogen bonding values for hydrophobic alkyl chain tailored surfactants are higher than those for a hydrophilic surfactant with poly(ethylene glycol) chains. The determined HSP values allow calculating the dispersibility of the organophilic fluoromica in solvents via the Flory-Huggins (F-H) parameter. These F-H parameters describes the effective difference in HSP related surface energies of particles and solvent molecules and are used to identify potential solvents for an exfoliation process. With this approach, beside known solvents such as chloroform, also new potential candidates such as trichloroethylene, and benzyl ethyl ether are identified for dispersing/exfoliating modified organophilic fluoromica. This work is accompanied by X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements to gain knowledge about the interlayer space of the different organophilic fluoromicas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is an innovative method for cancer treatment that involves the administration of a photosensitizing agent followed by exposure to visible light. An appreciable amount of a particular light source is a key to activate photosensitizers in PDT. However, the external excitation light source is a problem for clinical application because of the limitation of tissue-penetrating properties. Additionally, the wavelength of laser emission should match the absorption wavelength of each photosensitizer for efficient generation of reactive oxygen species and cell killing. In this study, Renilla luciferase-immobilized quantum dots-655 (QD-RLuc8) was used for bioluminescence resonance energy transfer (BRET)-mediated PDT to resolve these problems. The bioluminescent QD-RLuc8 conjugate exhibits self-illumination at 655 nm after coelenterazine addition, which can activate the photosensitizer, Foscan®-loaded micelles for PDT. Our results show that BRET-mediated PDT by QD-RLuc8 plus coelenterazine (20 μg/mL) successfully generated reactive oxygen species (40.8%), killed ∼ 50% A549 cells at 2 μg/mL equivalent Foscan® in vitro and significantly delayed tumor growth in vivo due to cell apoptosis under TUNEL analysis without obvious weight loss. Based on immunohistochemical observations, the proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA)-negative area of tumor sections after BRET-mediated PDT was obviously increased compared to the PDT-untreated groups without an external light source. We conclude that this nanotechnology-based PDT possesses several clinical benefits, such as overcoming light penetration issues and treating deeper lesions that are intractable by PDT alone. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Salvianolic acid B (Sal B), a bioactive compound from Salvia miltiorrhiza, widely used to treat cardiovascular diseases, and stromal cell-derived factor-1α (SDF-1α)/CXCR4 pathway has been correlated with balloon angioplasty-induced neointimal formation. The purposes of the present study were to investigate whether Sal B can inhibit SDF-1α/CXCR4-mediated effects on the cell proliferation and migration of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) and to examine its possible molecular mechanisms. Under 0.5% FBS medium, all of the cellular studies were investigated on VSMCs (A10 cells) stimulated with 10ng/ml SDF-1α alone or co-treated with 0.075mg/ml Sal B. Our results showed that SDF-1α markedly stimulated the cell growth and migration of A10 cells, whose effects can be significantly reversed by co-incubation of Sal B. Similarly, Sal B also obviously down-regulated the SDF-1α-stimulated up-regulation of CXCR4 (total and cell-surface levels), Raf-1, MEK, ERK1/2, phospho-ERK1/2, FAK and phospho-FAK as well as an increase of the promoter activity of NF-κB. Besides, Sal B also effectively attenuated balloon angioplasty-induced neointimal hyperplasia. In conclusion, suppressing the expression levels of CXCR4 receptor and downstream molecules of SDF-1α/CXCR4 axis could possibly explain one of the pharmacological mechanisms of Sal B on prevention of cell proliferation, migration and subsequently neointimal hyperplasia. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Weblog is a good paradigm of online social network which constitutes web-based regularly updated journals with reverse chronological sequences of dated entries, usually with blogrolls on the sidebars, allowing bloggers link to favorite site which they are frequently visited. In this study we propose a blog recommendation mechanism that combines trust model, social relation and semantic analysis and illustrates how it can be applied to a prestigious online blogging system – wretch in Taiwan. By the results of experimental study, we found a number of implications from the Weblog network and several important theories in domain of social networking were empirically justified. The experimental evaluation reveals that the proposed recommendation mechanism is quite feasible and promising. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: A method of preparing a polymer-supported catalyst for hydrogen generation is introduced in this article. This polymer-supported catalyst is the structure of ruthenium (Ru) nanoparticle immobilized on a monodisperse polystyrene (PSt) microsphere. The diameter of the Ru nanoparticle is around 16nm, and the diameter of the PSt microsphere is 2.65um. This preparation method is accomplished by two unique techniques: one is sodium lauryl sulfate/sodium formaldehyde sulfoxylate (SLS/SFS) interface-initiated system, the other is 2-methacrylic acid 3-(bis-carboxymethylamino)-2-hydroxy-propyl ester (GMA-IDA) chelating monomer. By taking advantage of these two techniques, Ru3+ ion will be chelated and then reduced to Ru(0) nanoparticle over PSt surface predominantly. The hydrolysis of alkaline sodium borohydride (NaBH4) solution catalyzed by this Ru-immobilized polymer-supported catalyst is also examined in this article. It reveals that the hydrogen generation rate is 215.9ml/ming-cat. in a diluted solution containing 1wt.% NaBH4 and 1wt.% NaOH, and this Ru-immobilized polymer-supported catalyst could be recycled during the reaction. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This study presents a new approach in developing an expert system to assess financial quality of an enterprise. In dealing with the complexity of financial statement analysis, this approach separates knowledge content into domain knowledge of financial statements and operational knowledge of analysts’ analytical process. The former represents the well defined relationships of accounting items of financial statements. The latter represents the reasoning processes that use the domain knowledge to appraise the quality of given financial statements. We apply ontology to model the content of domain knowledge, and use decision rules to represent operational knowledge. This system integrates Protégé, as domain knowledge base, and JESS, as operational knowledge base, into one complete expert system. The performance validity of the system was verified with financial statements from Taiwanese stock market. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The pulverized coal injection (PCI) system was modified from single lance injection into double lance injection at No. 3 Blast Furnace of CSC. It is beneficial to reduce the cost of coke. However, the injected coal was found very close to the inner wall of the tuyere during the operation, such as to cause the possibility of erosion for the tuyere. In this study a three-dimensional mathematical model has been developed based on a computational fluid dynamics software PHOENICS to simulate the fluid flow phenomena inside blast furnace tuyere. The model was capable of handling steady-state, three-dimensional multi-phase flow of pulverized coal injection. The model was applied to simulate the flow patterns of the injection coal inside the tuyere with two kinds of lance design for the PCI system. The distribution of injection coal was simulated such as to estimate the possibility of erosion for the tuyere. The calculated results agreed with the operating experience of CSC plant and the optimum design of double lance was suggested. The model was also applied to simulate the oxygen concentration distribution with these different oxygen enrichments for the coal/oxygen lance system. The calculated results agreed with the experimental measurement. These test results demonstrate that the model is both reasonably reliable and efficient. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Tumor necrosis factor-α stimulates fractalkine production by mesangial cells and regulates monocyte transmigration: Down-regulation by cAMP. Background. Fractalkine is a CX3 C chemokine for mononuclear cells that has been implicated in the recruitment and accumulation of monocytes seen in glomerular diseases. We investigated the mechanisms by which tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α stimulates mesangial cell (MC) fractalkine expression, and the effects of MC-derived fractalkine on monocyte transmigration. Methods. Cultured rat MCs were incubated with TNF-α, with or without pretreatment with pharmacologic inhibitors of protein kinases or transcriptional factors downstream to TNF-α. Fractalkine mRNA and protein were analyzed by Northern and Western blotting. Translocation of nuclear factor (NF)-κB was evaluated by immunocytochemical staining. Monocyte transmigration was determined by in vitro chemotaxis assay. Results. TNF-α stimulated MC fractalkine mRNA as well as cell-bound and soluble protein expression in a dose- and time-dependent manner. The soluble fractalkine was shed from the cell-bound form via metalloproteinase-dependent cleavage, and mediated in part TNF-α–induced monocyte transmigration in vitro. The incubation of MCs with calphostin C [a selective inhibitor of protein kinase C (PKC)] or PD98059 [a selective inhibitor of p42/44 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) kinase] attenuated TNF-α–stimulated fractalkine mRNA and protein expression. Coincubation of MCs with calphostin C and PD98059 resulted in a synergistic inhibition of TNF-α–stimulated fractalkine mRNA and protein expression. Incubation of MCs with phorbol myristate acetate (PMA) for four hours resulted in an increase in fractalkine mRNA expression that could be suppressed by calphostin C or depletion of PKC by pretreatment with PMA for 24 hours. Further, activation of PKC-depleted MCs with TNF-α stimulated... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]