Herbal Composition LI73014F2 Alleviates Articular Cartilage Damage and Inflammatory Response in Monosodium Iodoacetate-Induced Osteoarthritis in Rats

The aim of this study was to determine the anti-osteoarthritic effects of LI73014F2, which consists of Terminalia chebula fruit, Curcuma longa rhizome, and Boswellia serrata gum resin in a 2:1:2 ratio, in the monosodium iodoacetate (MIA)-induced osteoarthritis (OA) rat model. LI73014F2 was orally administered once per day for three weeks. Weight-bearing distribution and arthritis index (AI) were measured once per week to confirm the OA symptoms. Synovial membrane, proteoglycan layer, and cartilage damage were investigated by histological examination, while synovial fluid interleukin-1β level was analyzed using a commercial kit. Levels of pro-inflammatory mediators/cytokines and matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) in the cartilage tissues were investigated to confirm the anti-osteoarthritic effects of LI73014F2. LI73014F2 significantly inhibited the MIA-induced increase in OA symptoms, synovial fluid cytokine, cartilage damage, and expression levels of pro-inflammatory mediators/cytokines and MMPs in the articular cartilage. These results suggest that LI73014F2 exerts anti-osteoarthritic effects by regulating inflammatory cytokines and MMPs in MIA-induced OA rats.     

On commensurator growth

We study a new asymptotic invariant of a pair consisting of a group and a subgroup, which we call the commensurator growth. We compute the commensurator growth for several examples, concentrating mainly on the case of a locally compact topological group and a lattice inside it.     

Size characterization of metal oxide nanoparticles in commercial sunscreen products

There is an increase in the usage of engineered metal oxide (TiO₂ and ZnO) nanoparticles in commercial sunscreens due to their pleasing esthetics and greater sun protection efficiency. A number of studies have been done concerning the safety of nanoparticles in sunscreen products. In order to do the safety assessment, it is pertinent to develop novel analytical techniques to analyze these nanoparticles in commercial sunscreens. This study is focused on developing analytical techniques that can efficiently determine particle size of metal oxides present in the commercial sunscreens. To isolate the mineral UV filters from the organic matrices, specific procedures such as solvent extraction were identified. In addition, several solvents (hexane, chloroform, dichloromethane, and tetrahydrofuran) have been investigated. The solvent extraction using tetrahydrofuran worked well for all the samples investigated. The isolated nanoparticles were characterized by using several different techniques such as transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, dynamic light scattering, differential centrifugal sedimentation, and x-ray diffraction. Elemental analysis mapping studies were performed to obtain individual chemical and morphological identities of the nanoparticles. Results from the electron microscopy techniques were compared against the bulk particle sizing techniques. All of the sunscreen products tested in this study were found to contain nanosized (≤100 nm) metal oxide particles with varied shapes and aspect ratios, and four among the 11 products were showed to have anatase TiO₂.     

Preparation of microporous polymers in the form of particles and a thin film from hyperbranched polyphenylenes

The use of a hyperbranched polymer as a building block for the synthesis of a microporous organic polymer was demonstrated. Hyperbranched polyphenylenes (HBPs) were prepared from (3,5‐dibromophenyl)boronic acid, which contained numerous unreacted bromophenyl end groups. Utilizing metal‐catalyzed coupling reactions between these functional groups, cross‐linked porous polymers were obtained. Although the HBPs did not show porosity, their cross‐linked polymers had highly porous structures with Brunauer–Emmett–Teller surface areas of up to 2030 m²/g. An insoluble porous thin film was fabricated by spin casting of a solution containing a HBP followed by Sonogashira cross‐coupling reaction. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2015 , 53, 2336–2342     

Overall approaches and experiences of first-time participants in the Nuclear Forensics International Technical Working Group’s Fourth Collaborative Material Exercise (CMX-4)

Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry - The Fourth Collaborative Material Exercise (CMX-4) of the Nuclear Forensics International Technical Working Group (ITWG) registered the largest...     

A hybrid framework for optimizing beam angles in radiation therapy planning

The purpose of this paper is twofold: (1) to examine strengths and weaknesses of recently developed optimization methods for selecting radiation treatment beam angles and (2) to propose a simple and easy-to-use hybrid framework that overcomes some of the weaknesses observed with these methods. Six optimization methods—branch and bound (BB), simulated annealing (SA), genetic algorithms (GA), nested partitions (NP), branch and prune (BP), and local neighborhood search (LNS)—were evaluated. Our preliminary test results revealed that (1) one of the major drawbacks of the reported algorithms was the limited ability to find a good solution within a reasonable amount of time in a clinical setting, (2) all heuristic methods require selecting appropriate parameter values, which is a difficult chore, and (3) the LNS algorithm has the ability to identify good solutions only if provided with a good starting point. On the basis of these findings, we propose a unified beam angle selection framework that, through two sequential phases, consistently finds clinically relevant locally optimal solutions. Considering that different users may use different optimization approaches among those mentioned above, the first phase aims to quickly find a good feasible solution using SA, GA, NP, or BP. This solution is then used as a starting point for LNS to find a locally optimal solution. Experimental results using this unified method on five clinical cases show that it not only produces consistently good-quality treatment solutions but also alleviates the effort of selecting an initial set of appropriate parameter values that is required by all of the existing optimization methods.