The putative use of alpha-1-acid glycoprotein as a non-invasive marker of fibrosis

The acute phase response to injury or infection results in alterations in the expression of the plasma proteins produced by the liver. Many of these biomolecules are glycosylated with oligosaccharide chains covalently attached to the polypeptide backbone and the extent and composition of this glycosylation can be altered in a disease-dependent manner. Of particular interest is the observation that the acute phase glycoprotein, alpha-1-acid glycoprotein (AGP) has altered glycosylation in several physiological and pathological conditions. It is posited that changes induced in liver diseases may reflect disease severity and may therefore act as a non-invasive marker of fibrosis. This study has investigated the glycosylation of AGP in the plasma of people with varying degrees of cirrhosis and fibrosis. Hyperfucosylation was observed in all disease samples in comparison to normal plasma and was significantly increased in cirrhosis. Both sialic acid and N-acetylgalactosamine (GalNAc) were negatively associated with fibrosis. Two samples were found to express GalNAc, which as a constituent of the glycosylation of serum proteins is rare. In conclusion, fucose, sialic acid and other aspects of the glycosylation of AGP are influenced by the degree of fibrosis and as such may prove a valuable prognostic indicator of the development of cirrhosis.     

The power of programmed grammars with graphs from various classes

Programmed grammars, one of the most important and well investigated classes of grammars with context-free rules and a mechanism controlling the application of the rules, can be described by graphs. We investigate whether or not the restriction to special classes of graphs restricts the generative power of programmed grammars with erasing rules and without appearance checking, too. We obtain that Eulerian, Hamiltonian, planar and bipartite graphs and regular graphs of degree at least three are pr-universal in that sense that any language which can be generated by programmed grammars (with erasing rules and without appearance checking) can be obtained by programmed grammars where the underlying graph belongs to the given special class of graphs, whereas complete graphs, regular graphs of degree 2 and backbone graphs lead to proper subfamilies of the family of programmed languages.     

Regularity and derivative bounds for a convection-diffusion problem with a Neumann outflow condition

A convection-diffusion problem is considered on the unit square. The convective direction is parallel to two of the square's sides. A Neumann condition is imposed on the outflow boundary, with Dirichlet conditions on the other three sides. The precise relationship between the regularity of the solution and the global smoothness and corner compatibility of the data is elucidated. Pointwise bounds on derivatives of the solution are obtained; their dependence on the data regularity and compatibility and on the small diffusion parameter is made explicit. The analysis uses Fourier transforms and Mikhlin multipliers to sharpen regularity results previously published for certain subproblems in a decomposition of the solution.     

Dualities for the Domany–Kinzel Model

We study the Domany–Kinzel model, which is a class of discrete-time Markov processes in one-dimension with two parameters (p ₁,p ₂)[0,1]². When p ₁= and p ₂=(2– ²) with (,)[0,1]², the process can be identified with the mixed site-bond oriented percolation model on a square lattice with probabilities of a site being open and of a bond being open. This paper treats dualities for the Domany–Kinzel model _t ^A and the DKdual _t ^A starting from A. We prove that , as long as one of A,B is finite and p ₂p ₁.     

Product systems over right-angled Artin semigroups

We build upon Mac Lane's definition of a tensor category to introduce the concept of a product system that takes values in a tensor groupoid . We show that the existing notions of product systems fit into our categorical framework, as do the -graphs of Kumjian and Pask. We then specialize to product systems over right-angled Artin semigroups; these are semigroups that interpolate between free semigroups and free abelian semigroups. For such a semigroup we characterize all product systems which take values in a given tensor groupoid . In particular, we obtain necessary and sufficient conditions under which a collection of -graphs form the coordinate graphs of a -graph.     

Synthesis and studies of a tetradecanuclear manganese(II)/(III) cage

A novel Mn14 cluster is reported; this is a new nuclearity for manganese cages and highly unusual in that the ligands are not exclusively oxygen donors.