Investigation of environmental pollution effects on stone monuments in the case of Santa Maria La Blanca, Seville (Spain)

The aim of the study was to characterize specimens submitted to the effects of weathering in an urban atmosphere. Samples investigated were stones covered by crusts and deposits of thickness ranging from micrometers to millimetres due to traffic pollutants and mineral dust. The pieces were collected in the Church of Santa Maria La Blanca in Seville (South Spain). In the Historical Centre of this city, the traffic is the main source of sulphur oxides.     

Numerical modelling of unsteady convective–diffusive heat transfer with a control volume hybrid method

Presented in this paper is a numerical methodology for the solution of the parabolic governing partial differential equation that describes unsteady advection–diffusion heat transfer. The formulation presented here is shown to be free from the numerical oscillation commonly associated with advection–diffusion heat transfer regardless of the value of the Peclet number. The formulation involves the absorption of the advection term in the unsteady heat equation into the capacitance term. This process is achieved with the use of a control volume methodology applied to each nodal element on a finite-volume mesh. This is shown to ensure that spurious energy losses and gains are avoided and provides for consistency between temperature and energy change. This approach provides unconditional stability and it is shown that good accuracy is achievable with relatively large time-steps.     

2,4-Bis(methylsulfanyl)pyrimidine o-quinodimethane: a versatile building block for functionalized fused pyrimidines

Two alternative methods for the preparation of new pyrimidine Diels-Alder cycloadducts from the readily available 2,4-bis(methylsulfanyl)-5,6-dihydrocyclobuta[d]pyrimidine are presented. In the first method, the in situ generated pyrimidine ortho-quinodimethane reacts with various dienophiles to form the respective cycloadducts bearing two methylthio groups, which can be easily replaced by other functional groups. In the second method, one or both of the methylsulfanyl groups of the starting pyrimidine are replaced first and the resulting functionalized pyrimidines are able to undergo Diels-Alder cyclization with different dienophiles to form pyrimidine cycloadducts. These alternative synthetic strategies provide access to a wide variety of pyrimidine cycloadducts with a different substitution pattern on the pyrimidine ring. Yield data indicate that the electronic nature of the functional groups strongly influence the efficiency of the cycloaddition reaction.     

Radial equivalence for the two basic nonlinear degenerate diffusion equations

In this paper we prove that there exists an explicit correspondence between the radially symmetric solutions of two well-known models of nonlinear diffusion, the porous medium equation and the p-Laplacian equation. We establish exact correspondence formulas between these solutions. We also study in detail the application of the results in the important case of self-similar solutions. In particular, we derive the existence of new self-similar solutions for the evolution p-Laplacian equation.     

Effectiveness of Photodynamic Therapy in Elimination of HPV‐16 and HPV‐18 Associated with CIN I in Mexican Women

This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of photodynamic therapy (PDT), using δ‐aminolevulinic acid (5‐ALA), in the elimination of premalignant cervical lesions in Mexican patients with human papillomavirus (HPV) infection and/or cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN). Thirty women diagnosed with CIN I and/or positive for HPV participated in the study. Topical 6% 5‐ALA in gel form was applied to the uterine cervix; after 4 h, the lesion area was irradiated with a light dose of 200 J cm^?2 at 635 nm. This procedure was performed three times at 48‐h intervals. Clinical follow‐up was performed at 3, 6, and 12 months after the initial PDT administration, by colposcopy, cervical cytology, histopathological analysis, polymerase chain reaction, and hybrid capture. Of HPV‐infected patients without evidence of CIN I, 80% cleared the infection, while HPV associated with CIN I was eliminated in 83% of patients (P < 0.05). At 12 months, CIN I had regressed in 57% of patients, although this response was not statistically significant. PDT using 6% 5‐ALA is concluded to be effective in eliminating HPV infection associated or not with CIN I.     

A well posed problem in singular Fickian diffusion

We prove that the problem of solving $$u_t = (u^{m - 1} u_x )_x {\text{ for }} - 1< m \leqq 0$$ with initial conditionu(x, 0)=φ(x) and flux conditions at infinity \(\mathop {\lim }\limits_{x \to \infty } u^{m - 1} u_x = - f(t),\mathop {\lim }\limits_{x \to - \infty } u^{m - 1} u_x = g(t)\) , admits a unique solution \(u \in C^\infty \{ - \infty< x< \infty ,0< t< T\} \) for every φεL¹(R), φ≧0, φ≡0 and every pair of nonnegative flux functionsf, g ε L _loc ^∞ [0, ∞) The maximal existence time is given by $$T = \sup \left\{ {t:\smallint \phi (x)dx > \int\limits_0^t {[f} (s) + g(s)]ds} \right\}$$ This mixed problem is ill posed for anym outside the above specified range.     

Application of thiophilic chromatography to deplete serum immunoglobulins in sample preparation for bidimensional electrophoresis

Serum is a typical sample for non-invasive studies in clinical research. Its proteome characterization is challenging, since requires extensive protein depletion. Methods used nowadays for removal of high-abundance proteins are expensive or show quite often a low loading capacity, which has strong repercussions on the number of samples and replicates per analysis.In order to deplete immunoglobulins (Igs) and albumin (HSA) from 1 mL serum samples, we have developed a protocol based on a combination of thiophilic chromatography, not previously used in clinical proteomics, and a HSA-specific resin. Ig/HSA-depleted samples, immunoglobulinome and albuminone were analyzed by 2-DE. Thiophilic chromatography, coupled with HSA-depletion, allows a good 2-DE resolution as well as the visualization of new spots. Moreover, it yields enough protein to evaluate technical variability and facilitate subsequent protein identification. To validate the protocol, we carried out a preliminary comparative study between triplicate Igs/HSA-depleted serum samples from healthy control individuals and recently diagnosed/untreated rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. RA patients showed several acute phase proteins, as well as additional serum proteins, differentially and significantly regulated.Therefore, thiophilic chromatography can be used as an efficient and economical method in 2-DE to deplete immunoglobulins from large human serum samples before a more extensive fractioning.