Exhaled breath condensate: Determination of non-volatile compounds and their potential for clinical diagnosis and monitoring. A review

Exhaled breath condensate is a promising, non-invasive, diagnostic sample obtained by condensation of exhaled breath. Starting from a historical perspective of early attempts of breath testing towards the contemporary state-of-the-art breath analysis, this review article focuses mainly on the progress in determination of non-volatile compounds in exhaled breath condensate. The mechanisms by which the aerosols/droplets of non-volatile compounds are formed in the airways are discussed with methodological consequences for sampling. Dilution of respiratory droplets is a major problem for correct clinical interpretation of the measured data and there is an urgent need for standardization of EBC. This applies also for collection instrumentation and therefore various commercial and in-house built devices are described and compared with regard to their design, function and collection parameters. The analytical techniques and methods for determination of non-volatile compounds as potential markers of oxidative stress and lung inflammation are scrutinized with an emphasis on method suitability, sensitivity and appropriateness. The relevance of clinical findings for each group of possible non-volatile markers of selected pulmonary diseases and methodological recommendations with emphasis on interdisciplinary collaboration that is essential for future development into a fully validated clinical diagnostic tool are given.     

A puzzle of the radio-quiet quasar PG 1407+265: Are optical and X-ray emissions produced from a relativistic jet?

PG 1407+265 is a radio quiet quasar that has a relativistic jet.In this report,we show some peculiar properties of its optical and X-ray emissions,which indicate possible non-thermal origins produced from the jet.We use a simple synchrotron + synchrotron self Compton (SSC) model to fit the emissions with different ratios of energy densities between the magnetic field and electrons (η≡U B/U e),which predicts a different γ-ray luminosity.The First LAT AGN Catalog (1LAC) did not include PG 1407+265,which indic...     

Relaxation dynamics and fragility during liquid–glass transitions of poly(propylene glycol)s

The acoustic and thermal properties of the liquid–glass transitions of propylene glycol and its oligomers, poly (propylene glycol)s, were studied by temperature modulated DSC and Brillouin scattering. The fragility indices were determined from Angell plots using the observed modulation frequency dependence of the complex heat capacity. The variation in the glass transition temperatures is discussed on the basis of the free volume theory. The relaxation time of the structural relaxation obeys the Vogel–Fulcher law, and its high frequency end is in good agreement with the result of the dielectric measurement in the literature. The correlation between the observed thermal expansion coefficients and the glass transition temperature is discussed based on the free volume theory. The sound velocity and attenuation were accurately determined as a function of the temperature by Brillouin scattering by combination with the refractive index measurement. The relaxation dynamics were discussed by considering the relaxation from segmental motions. All of these physical properties were discussed based on the third-order anharmonicity and the Grüneisen parameter.     

On the Size of a Cap in PG(n,q) with q Even and n ≥ 3

Let m2(n,q), m2(n,q) be, respectively, the maximum value, the second largest value of k for which there exists a complete k-cap in PG(n,q). In this paper, the known upper bound on m2(3,q), q even, q 8, is improved. This new upper bound on m2(3,q) is then used to improve the upper bounds on m2(n,q), q even, q 8 and n 4.     

丙酮/1,2-丙二醇体系的化学诱导动态电子自旋极化研究

285 nm紫外激光照射下,用时间分辨电子自旋共振(TRESR)波谱仪研究了光解丙酮/1,2-丙二醇(ACETONE/PG)体系,得到了丙酮羰自由基(CH3)2.COH和1,2-丙二醇羰自由基CH3.COHCHOH的发射/吸收(E/A)型极化信号,这是一个自由基对(RPM)极化过程。在酸性环境中,溶剂分子的CIDEP谱明显减弱,(CH3)2.COH的CIDEP谱无明显变化,由此可判断光解ACETONE/PG体系是一个夺氢反应;在碱性环境中,(CH3)2.COH反应生成负离子基(CH3)2.CO-.     

Lactic acid bacteria in dairy food: Surface characterization and interactions with food matrix components

This review gives an overview of the importance of interactions occurring in dairy matrices between Lactic Acid Bacteria and milk components. Dairy products are important sources of biological active compounds of particular relevance to human health. These compounds include immunoglobulins, whey proteins and peptides, polar lipids, and lactic acid bacteria including probiotics. A better understanding of interactions between bioactive components and their delivery matrix may successfully improve their transport to their target site of action. Pioneering research on probiotic lactic acid bacteria has mainly focused on their host effects. However, very little is known about their interaction with dairy ingredients. Such knowledge could contribute to designing new and more efficient dairy food, and to better understand relationships between milk constituents. The purpose of this review is first to provide an overview of the current knowledge about the biomolecules produced on bacterial surface and the composition of the dairy matter. In order to understand how bacteria interact with dairy molecules, adhesion mechanisms are subsequently reviewed with a special focus on the environmental conditions affecting bacterial adhesion. Methods dedicated to investigate the bacterial surface and to decipher interactions between bacteria and abiotic dairy components are also detailed. Finally, relevant industrial implications of these interactions are presented and discussed.     

Cutsets and anti-chains in linear lattices

Consider the poset, ordered by inclusion, of subspaces of a four-dimensional vector space over a field with 2 elements. We prove that, for this poset, any cutset (i.e., a collection of elements that intersects every maximal chain) contains a maximal anti-chain of the poset. In analogy with the same result by Duffus, Sands, and Winkler [D. Duffus, B. Sands, P. Winkler, Maximal chains and anti-chains in Boolean lattices, SIAM J. Discrete Math. 3 (2) (1990) 197-205] for the subset lattice, we conjecture that the above statement holds in any dimension and for any finite base field, and we prove some special cases to support the conjecture.     

Invertible symmetric 3 × 3 binary matrices and GQ(2, 4)

We reveal an intriguing connection between the set of 27 (disregarding the identity) invertible symmetric 3?×?3 matrices over GF(2) and the points of the generalized quadrangle GQ(2,?4). The 15 matrices with eigenvalue one correspond to a copy of the subquadrangle GQ(2,?2), whereas the 12 matrices without eigenvalues have their geometric counterpart in the associated double-six. The fine details of this correspondence, including the precise algebraic meaning/analogue of collinearity, are furnished by employing the representation of GQ(2,?4) as a quadric in PG(5,?2) of projective index one. An interesting physics application of our findings is also mentioned.     

基于荧光玻璃的高效LED白光技术

采用高温熔融法制备了一定质量比例的SiO_2-YAG∶Ce~(3+)片状荧光玻璃,厚度为0.2 mm,分析其XRD物相、光学和SEM微观结构、PL光谱。结果表明:荧光玻璃保留了晶相,荧光粉颗粒在玻璃基质中均匀分布,荧光玻璃和荧光粉的激发响应关系一致。在465 nm蓝光激发下,发射波长均在535 nm附近,表明荧光玻璃除含有玻璃相,还有荧光粉的物质结构特性。将不同波长蓝光芯片与不同荧光粉含量的荧光玻璃进行封装测试,结果表明:器件的流明效率可达到234.81 lm/W;色温和显色指数均随荧光粉含量增加而单调下降,呈现高色温和低显色指数;荧光粉质量分数从6%增加至15%时,不同波长激发下的色坐标x与y呈现大致相同的线性变化率。采用450 nm激光激发荧光玻璃,测试样品温度变化发现温升较缓,温降迅速,耐热性能优越。实验结果表明,将荧光玻璃用于LED白光照明封装,能实现流明效率和耐热性能的大幅提升,形成良好的白光输出。