In vitro response of hFOB cells to pamidronate modified sodium silicate coated cellulose scaffolds

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the suitability of cellulose-based scaffolds coated with pure sodium silicate gel and sodium silicate gels accumulated with different concentrations of the bisphosphonate pamidronate as scaffolds for attachment, proliferation and differentiation of human fetal osteoblasts (hFOB 1.19). Human osteoblasts were cultured in vitro for a period up to 14 days on different cellulose scaffolds. Unmodified and sodium silicate coated cellulose scaffolds were used as control. Two surface-coated modifications of cellulose were applied. The scaffolds were coated in a modified two-step dip coating process with pure sodium silicate gel and pamidronate enriched sodium silicate gel, respectively. In order to investigate the influence of the pamidronate, concentrations of 0.667 mg Na-pamidronate/ml sodium silicate solution, 0.333 mg Na-pamidronate/ml sodium silicate solution and 3.33 x 10(-3) mg Na-pamidronate/ml sodium silicate solution were used for the coating process. Cell proliferation, vitality and attachment were examined by means of cell counting, WST-1 test, fluorescence and scanning electron microscopy. The relative grade of differentiation of hFOB cells was examined by using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) analysis for the gene expression of alkaline phosphatase and osteocalcin. Proliferation and differentiation of human osteoblasts was enhanced by the sodium silicate coatings accumulated with pamidronate compared to pure sodium silicate coatings. There was a reciprocal correlation of vitality with the concentration of pamidronate. The highest vitality was found on surfaces with the lowest pamidronate accumulation. Alkaline phosphatase, an early differentiation marker, was overexpressed after 7 days in cells on all pamidronate-containing surfaces (up to 350% compared to untreated cellulose). Osteocalcin, a late differentiation marker, was overexpressed after 14 days in cells on all coated surfaces (up to 300,000% compared to untreated cellulose). The results indicate that due to the modified coating procedure a homogeneous coating and thus, an enhancement of cell attachment and subsequent cellular functions can be achieved. Low concentrations of pamidronate seem to have a relevant effect on cell proliferation and vitality and, therefore, can be recommended for the improvement of the properties of a biomaterial.     

On the minimal cover property and certain notions of finite

In set theory without the axiom of choice, we investigate the deductive strength of the principle “every topological space with the minimal cover property is compact”, and its relationship with certain notions of finite as well as with properties of linearly ordered sets and partially ordered sets.     

Response Surface Methodology to Optimize the Isolation of Dominant Volatile Compounds from Monofloral Greek Thyme Honey Using SPME-GC-MS

This study aimed at an experimental design of response surface methodology (RSM) in the optimization of the dominant volatile fraction of Greek thyme honey using solid-phase microextraction (SPME) and analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). For this purpose, a multiple response optimization was employed using desirability functions, which demand a search for optimal conditions for a set of responses simultaneously. A test set of eighty thyme honey samples were analyzed under the optimum conditions for validation of the proposed model. The optimized combination of isolation conditions was the temperature (60 °C), equilibration time (15 min), extraction time (30 min), magnetic stirrer speed (700 rpm), sample volume (6 mL), water: honey ratio (1:3 v/w) with total desirability over 0.50. It was found that the magnetic stirrer speed, which has not been evaluated before, had a positive effect, especially in combination with other factors. The above-developed methodology proved to be effective in the optimization of isolation of specific volatile compounds from a difficult matrix, like honey. This study could be a good basis for the development of novel RSM for other monofloral honey samples.     

Increased strontium uptake in trabecular bone of ovariectomized calcium‐deficient rats treated with strontium ranelate or strontium chloride

Based on clinical trials showing the efficacy to reduce vertebral and non‐vertebral fractures, strontium ranelate (SrR) has been approved in several countries for the treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis. Hence, it is of special clinical interest to elucidate how the Sr uptake is influenced by dietary Ca deficiency as well as by the formula of Sr administration, SrR versus strontium chloride (SrCl₂). Three‐month‐old ovariectomized rats were treated for 90 days with doses of 25 mg kg^?1 d^?1 and 150 mg kg^?1 d^?1 of SrR or SrCl₂ at low (0.1% Ca) or normal (1.19% Ca) Ca diet. Vertebral bone tissue was analysed by confocal synchrotron‐radiation‐induced micro X‐ray fluorescence and by backscattered electron imaging. Principal component analysis and k‐means clustering of the acquired elemental maps of Ca and Sr revealed that the newly formed bone exhibited the highest Sr fractions and that low Ca diet increased the Sr uptake by a factor of three to four. Furthermore, Sr uptake in bone of the SrCl₂‐treated animals was generally lower compared with SrR. The study clearly shows that inadequate nutritional calcium intake significantly increases uptake of Sr in serum as well as in trabecular bone matrix. This indicates that nutritional calcium intake as well as serum Ca levels are important regulators of any Sr treatment.     

Countable compact Hausdorff spaces need not be metrizable in ZF

We show that the existence of a countable, first countable, zero-dimensional, compact Hausdorff space which is not second countable, hence not metrizable, is consistent with ZF.

     

Comparison of BLADE and conventional T2-TSE sequences for the sagittal visualization of the cervical spinal cord in multiple sclerosis patients — A case report

The purpose of this study is to report the significant differences found in the identification of lesions in cervical spinal cord of two patients with multiple sclerosis when using the BLADE T2-TSE and BLADE T2-TIRM sequences as opposed to the conventional T2-TSE and T2-TIRM sequences for sagittal acquisition at 1.5 T. In both patients, one more lesion was identified with the BLADE sequences than with the conventional ones. Consequently, we suggest the use of BLADE T2-TSE and BLADE T2-TIRM sequences in place of conventional ones for sagittal examination of the cervical spinal cord of multiple sclerosis patients. The advantages of ΤΙRΜ to reveal the pathology of the cervical spinal cord and the advantage of BLADE sequences to improve image quality should be combined in a sequence that could be ideal for cervical spinal cord examinations.     

Pattern-recognition system,designed on GPU,for discriminating between injured normal and pathological knee cartilage

The aim was to design a pattern-recognition (PR) system for discriminating between normal and pathological knee articular cartilage of the medial femoral (MFC) and tibial condyles (MTC). The data set comprised segmented regions of interest (ROIs) from coronal and sagittal 3-T magnetic resonance images of the MFC and MTC cartilage of young patients, 28 with abnormality-free knee and 16 with pathological findings. The PR system was designed employing the probabilistic neural network classifier, textural features from the segmented ROIs and the leave-one-out evaluation method, while the PR system's precision to “unseen” data was assessed by employing the external cross-validation method. Optimal system design was accomplished on a consumer graphics processing unit (GPU) using Compute Unified Device Architecture parallel programming. PR system design on the GPU required about 3.5 min against 15 h on a CPU-based system. Highest classification accuracies for the MFC and MTC cartilages were 93.2% and 95.5%, and accuracies to “unseen” data were 89% and 86%, respectively. The proposed PR system is housed in a PC, equipped with a consumer GPU, and it may be easily retrained when new verified data are incorporated in its repository and may be of value as a second-opinion tool in a clinical environment.     

Raman analysis of proteoglycans simultaneously in bone and cartilage

Bone and cartilage are connective tissues with distinct organic matrix (collagen and non‐collagenous proteins) composition facilitating their biological function. Proteoglycans (PGs), a member of the non‐collagenous proteins fulfill functions that are determined by both their core protein and their glycosaminoglycan chains. The purpose of the present study was to identify Raman bands that are representative of PG concentration and may be used in both bone and cartilage tissues. To achieve this goal, we analyzed a series of reference PGs and collagens, as well as turkey leg tendon to verify the laser polarization independency of the identified bands. Additionally, the applicability of these bands in both cartilage and bone tissue simultaneously was tested in a healthy femoral head by Raman imaging and hierarchical cluster analysis to describe the distribution of PGs at the micron level from articular cartilage to subchondral bone. The results of the study show that the Raman band ~1375 cm⁻¹ can be used as a PGs marker band in both cartilage and bone. Moreover, articular cartilage has a lower content of organic matrix (mostly type II collagen), while the middle and deep transitional zone haves a higher concentration of PGs. The calcified cartilage is characterized by a lower content of PGs and total organic matrix (estimated from the integrated area of the amide III band). Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Computing generalized Nash equilibria by polynomial programming

We present a new way to solve generalized Nash equilibrium problems. We assume the feasible set to be compact. Furthermore all functions are assumed to be polynomials. However we do not impose convexity on either the utility functions or the action sets. The key idea is to use Putinar’s Positivstellensatz, a representation result for positive polynomials, to replace each agent’s problem by a convex optimization problem. The Nash equilibria are then feasible solutions to a system of polynomial equations and inequalities. Our application is a model of the New Zealand electricity spot market with transmission losses based on a real dataset.     

Investigation of Photosystem II Functional Size in Higher Plants under Physiological and Stress Conditions Using Radiation Target Analysis and Sucrose Gradient Ultracentrifugation

The photosystem II (PSII) reaction centre is the critical supramolecular pigment–protein complex in the chloroplast which catalyses the light-induced transfer of electrons from water to plastoquinone. Structural studies have demonstrated the existence of an oligomeric PSII. We carried out radiation inactivation target analysis (RTA), together with sucrose gradient ultracentrifugation (SGU) of PSII, to study the functional size of PSII in diverse plant species under physiological and stress conditions. Two PSII populations, made of dimeric and monomeric core particles, were revealed in Pisum sativum, Spinacea oleracea, Phaseulus vulgaris, Medicago sativa, Zea mais and Triticum durum. However, this core pattern was not ubiquitous in the higher plants since we found one monomeric core population in Vicia faba and a dimeric core in the Triticum durum yellow-green strain, respectively. The PSII functional sizes measured in the plant seedlings in vivo, as a decay of the maximum quantum yield of PSII for primary photochemistry, were in the range of 75–101 ± 18 kDa, 2 to 3 times lower than those determined in vitro. Two abiotic stresses, heat and drought, imposed individually on Pisum sativum, increased the content of the dimeric core in SGU and the minimum functional size determined by RTA in vivo. These data suggest that PSII can also function as a monomer in vivo, while under heat and drought stress conditions, the dimeric PSII structure is predominant.