PORPHYRIN-INDUCED PHOTODAMAGE TO ISOLATED HUMAN NEUTROPHILS

Abstract— Human neutrophils were irradiated with light at 340–380 nm in the presence of low concentrations of protoporphyrin or uroporphyrin. At increasing light doses or increasing concentrations of protoporphyrin, the neutrophils rapidly lost the ability of locomotion. Also, neutrophil chemiluminescence and hexose-monophosphate shunt activity rapidly declined. An early event was leakage of endogenous K⁺ followed by lactate dehydrogenase and at a later stage leakage of particle-bound acid phosphatase. A number of cellular enzymes were inactivated, the susceptibility to inactivation decreased in the order: succinate dehydrogenase > lactate dehydrogenase > glutamate dehydrogenase > acid phosphatase. Uroporphyrin had no effect on neutrophil functions, leakage of K⁺, or cellular enzymes. The results suggest that photodamage to the plasma membrane and the mitochondria are earlier events than photodamage to lysosomes.     

Unbounded derivations tangential to compact groups of automorphisms,II

Let G be a compact abelian group, and τ an action of G on a C¹-algebra $\text{U}$, such that $\text{U}$^τ(γ)$\text{U}$^τ(γ)¹ = $\text{U}$^τ(0) $\text{U}$^τ for all $\text{γ ?}\text{G}\text{?}$, where $\text{U}$^τ(γ) is the spectral subspace of $\text{U}$ corresponding to the character γ on G. Derivations δ which are defined on the algebra $\text{U}$_F of G-finite elements are considered. In the special case δ¦_{$\text{U}$^τ} = 0 these derivations are characterized by a cocycle on $\text{G}\text{?}$ with values in the relative commutant of $\text{U}$^τ in the multiplier algebra of $\text{U}$, and these derivations are inner if and only if the cocycles are coboundaries and bounded if and only if the cocycles are bounded. Under various restrictions on G and τ properties of the cocycle are deduced which again give characterizations of δ in terms of decompositions into generators of one-parameter subgroups of τ(G) and approximately inner derivations. Finally, a perturbation technique is devised to reduce the case δ($\text{U}$_F) ? $\text{U}$_F to the case δ($\text{U}$_F) ? $\text{U}$_F and δ¦_{$\text{U}$^τ} = 0. This is used to show that any derivation δ with D(δ) = $\text{U}$_F is wellbehaved and, if furthermore G = T¹ and δ($\text{U}$_F) ? $\text{U}$_F the closure of δ generates a one-parameter group of ¹-automorphisms of $\text{U}$. In the case G = T^d, d = 2, 3,… (finite), and δ($\text{U}$_F) ? $\text{U}$_F it is shown that δ extends to a generator of a group of ¹-automorphisms of the σ-weak closure of $\text{U}$ in any G-covariant representation.     

Sol-gel TiO2 decorated on eggshell nanocrystal as engineered adsorbents for removal of acid dye

Calcined eggshell (CES) food residue was modified by depositing sol-gel titanium dioxide (TiO₂) nanoparticles with narrow size distribution onto it through in situ precipitation and a novel hybrid nano biosorbent, namely TiO₂-CES, was obtained. The deposition was characterized and the TiO₂-CES nano network was used for efficient adsorption of single azo class anionic dye acid red nylon 57 (AN57) from aqueous solutions and the adsorption was pH dependent. Lower pH favored the sorption at the tested different pHs of 1.0–8.0. The calcination temperature had a cogent influence on the adsorption process. The sorption process reached equilibrium within 40?min, and the mathematical models were positively verified and could be described by a pseudo-second-order pattern, while equilibrium was described with Langmuir-type equation. In addition, the reusability study has proven that 0.5?M HNO₃ was efficient enough to desorb AN57 from the hybrid nano sorbent. All results validated that TiO₂-CES is Eco-Friendly adsorbent material practical treatment of dyes contaminated water.     

Spatial Autocorrelation for Subdivided Populations with Invariant Migration Schemes

For populations with geographic substructure and selectively neutral genetic data, the short term dynamics is a balance between migration and genetic drift. Before fixation of any allele, the system enters into a quasi equilibrium (QE) state. Hössjer and Ryman (2012) developed a general QE methodology for computing approximations of spatial autocorrelations of allele frequencies between subpopulations, subpopulation differentiation (fixation indexes) and variance effective population sizes. In this paper we treat a class of models with translationally invariant migration and use Fourier transforms for computing these quantities. We show how the QE approach is related to other methods based on conditional kinship coefficients between subpopulations under mutation-migration-drift equilibrium. We also verify that QE autocorrelations of allele frequencies are closely related to the expected value of Moran’s autocorrelation function and treat limits of continuous spatial location (isolation by distance) and an infinite lattice of subpopulations. The theory is illustrated with several examples including island models, circular and torus stepping stone models, von Mises models, hierarchical island models and Gaussian models. It is well known that the fixation index contains information about the effective number of migrants. The spatial autocorrelations are complementary and typically reveal the type of migration (local or global).     

Introducing cost-plus-loss analysis into a hierarchical forestry planning environment

Cost-plus-loss analysis of data for forestry planning has often been carried out for highly simplified planning situations. In this study, we suggest an advance in the cost-plus-loss methodology that aims to capture the hierarchical structure and iterative nature of planning by the large forest owner. The simulation system that is developed to simulate the planning process of the forest owner includes the tactical and operational levels of a continuous planning process. The system is characterized by annual re-planning of the tactical plan with a planning horizon of ten year and with the option to reassess data for selected stands before operational planning. Operational planning is done with a planning horizon of two years and the first year of the plan is considered to have been executed before moving the planning process one year forward. The annual cycle is repeated 10 times, simulating decisions made over a ten-year time horizon. The optimizing planning models of the system consider wood flow requirements, available harvest resources, seasonal variation of ground conditions and spatiality. The data used are evaluated according to standard procedures in cost-plus-loss analysis. Results from a test case indicate high decision losses when planning at both levels is based on the type of data prevalent in the stand databases of Swedish companies. The losses can be reduced substantially if higher-quality data are introduced before operational planning. In summary, the results indicate that the method makes it possible to analyze where in the planning process one needs better data and their value.     

Influence of temporal aggregation on strategic forest management under risk of wind damage

A key aspect when optimizing strategic and long-term forest management policies is the temporal aggregation utilizing time periods of a specific length. As the length of the time periods influence both the problem size and the possible interaction of the management policy with the state of the forest, it implicitly has a major influence on the feasibility of computing the optimal management policy and the quality of the resulting management policy. The objective of this study was twofold: (i) to evaluate the value of considering the risk of wind damage in large-scale strategic forestry management policies, (ii) to investigate the influence of the length of the time periods on the value of considering the risk of wind damage in the management policy. The analysis was executed utilizing a graph-based Markov decision process model capable of considering stochastic wind damage event, and a case study utilizing a forest estate consisting of 1200 ha of forestry, divided into 623 stands. Twenty-, ten-, and five-year-long time periods were utilized to evaluate the influence of the length of the time periods, while the value of considering the risk of wind damage in the management of the estate was evaluated by optimizing and evaluating long-term management policies recognizing and not recognizing the risk of wind damage. Results show that the value of considering the risk of wind damage was small for the whole estate. The expected net present value of the estate increased by ≤2% by managing the estate according to the risk of wind damage. Furthermore, while the length of the time periods had a small influence on the scale of the entire estate, it had a larger influence on the scale of a smaller subset of stands in the estate. For the whole estate, the value of considering the risk of wind damage varied with ≤1.5% depending on the length of the time periods. While for a selected subset of stands, the value of considering the risk of wind damage varied with ≤6.5% depending on the length of the time periods.     

A generalized linear model with smoothing effects for claims reserving

In this paper, we continue the development of the ideas introduced in England and Verrall (2001) by suggesting the use of a reparameterized version of the generalized linear model (GLM) which is frequently used in stochastic claims reserving. This model enables us to smooth the origin, development and calendar year parameters in a similar way as is often done in practice, but still keep the GLM structure. Specifically, we use this model structure in order to obtain reserve estimates and to systemize the model selection procedure that arises in the smoothing process. Moreover, we provide a bootstrap procedure to achieve a full predictive distribution.     

Biocompatible Water Soluble Polyacrylic Acid Coated CdSe/Cu Quantum Dot Conjugates for Biomolecule Detection

Biocompatible polyacrylic acid functionalized CdSe/Cu quantum dot conjugates were synthesized to be used for biomolecules detection. The study results demonstrate the conjugation of the 2.5-3 nm QD with gram negative bacteria with a low detection limit of 28 cfu/ml. The photoluminescence (PL) intensity was correlated to bacterial count, cellular proteins and exopolysaccharides in the tested samples. Confocal Scanning Laser Microscopy (CSLM) images showed significant QD uptake within the cells, both cytoplasm and DNA were the predominant targeted biomolecules, higher fluorescent uptake was shown in gram negative bacteria than that observed for gram positive bacteria. Moreover, PL showed that there was a distinction between live and dead cells as well as gram negative and gram positive cells. Cell viability was not affected even after 6 days (100% viability) rendering it a non-toxic QD. The method is simple and is performed in a single step within approximately 10 min as compared to multi-step protocols for classical microbial count or fluorescent dye staining. All the above results indicate that the CdSe/Cu-PAA QDs are suitable for biomolecule detection, bio-labeling and bioimaging applications.     

Spectral asymptotics of periodic elliptic operators

We demonstrate that the structure of complex second-order strongly elliptic operators H on with coefficients invariant under translation by can be analyzed through decomposition in terms of versions , , of H with z-periodic boundary conditions acting on where . If the s emigroup S generated by H has a H?lder continuous integral kernel satisfying Gaussian bounds then the semigroups generated by the have kernels with similar properties and extends to a function on which is analytic with respect to the trace norm. The sequence of semigroups obtained by rescaling the coefficients of by converges in trace norm to the semigroup generated by the homogenization of . These convergence properties allow asymptotic analysis of the spectrum of H. Received September 1, 1998; in final form January 14, 1999