In vitro growth and activity of chondrocytes on three dimensional polycaprolactone/chitosan scaffolds

Porous polycaprolactone/chitosan blend scaffolds with various compositional proportions were prepared using a particulate‐leaching method. The pore parameters of resultant scaffolds were found to be mainly modulated by porogen. The compressive mechanical properties and hydrophilicity of scaffolds were examined by measuring their compressive modulus and stress strength as well as swelling index. Selected chondrocytes isolated from articular cartilage of knee joints of rabbits were seeded on these scaffolds, and further in vitro cultured for various periods. The growth and activity of seeded cells were estimated by counting numbers of cells proliferated on scaffolds and measuring the amounts of proteoglycans and type II collagen synthesized by the seeded cells. It was found that some scaffolds composed of proper component ratios and having appropriate pore parameters exhibited promising characteristics for the adhesion and proliferation of seeded cells while maintaining the phenotype and activity of the cells. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Dereplication of known pregnane glycosides and structural characterization of novel pregnanes in Marsdenia tenacissima by high‐performance liquid chromatography and electrospray ionization‐tandem mass spectrometry

In the search for novel natural products in plants, particularly those with potential bioactivity, it is important to efficiently distinguish novel compounds from previously isolated, known compounds, a process known as dereplication. In this study, electrospray ionization‐multiple stage tandem mass spectrometry (ESI‐MSⁿ) was used to study the behaviour of 12 pregnane glycosides and genins previously isolated from Marsdenia tenacissima, a traditional Chinese medicinal plant, as a basis for dereplication of compounds in a plant extract. In addition to [M + Na]⁺ and [M + NH₄]⁺ ions, a characteristic [M‐glycosyl + H]⁺ ion was observed in full‐scan mode with in‐source fragmentation. Sequential in‐trap collision‐induced dissociation of [M + Na]⁺ ions from 11,12‐diesters revealed consistent preferred losses of substituents first from C‐12, then from C‐11, followed by losses of monosaccharide fragments from the C‐3 tri‐ and tetrasaccharide substituents. A crude methanol extract of M. tenacissima stems was analysed using high‐performance liquid chromatography coupled to ESI‐MS. Several previously isolated pregnane glycosides were dereplicated, and the presence of an additional nine novel pregnane glycosides is predicted on the basis of the primary and fragment ions observed, including two with a previously unreported C₄H₇O C‐11/C‐12 substituent of pregnane glycosides. This study is the first report of prediction of the structures of novel pregnane glycosides in a crude plant extract by a combination of in‐source fragmentation and in‐trap collision‐induced dissociation and supports the usefulness of LC‐ESI‐MSⁿ not only for dereplication of active compounds in extracts of medicinal plants but also for detecting the presence of novel related compounds. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Improved self-consistent and resolution-of-identity approximated Becke'05 density functional model of nondynamic electron correlation

In a recent letter [E. Proynov, Y. Shao, and J. Kong, Chem. Phys. Lett. 493, 381 (2010)], Becke's B05 model of nondynamic electron correlation in density functional theory was implemented self-consistently with computational efficiency (the "SCF-RI-B05" scheme). Important modifications of the algorithm were done in order to make the self-consistency feasible. In the present work, we give a complete account of the SCF-RI-B05 algorithm, including all the formulae for the analytical representation of the B05 functional and for its self-consistent field (SCF) potential. The average performance of the SCF-RI-B05 method reported in the above letter was somewhat less accurate, compared to the original B05 implementation, mainly because the parameters of the original B05 model were optimized with post-local-spin-density calculations. In this work, we report improved atomization energies with SCF-RI-B05, based on a SCF re-optimization of its four linear parameters. The re-optimized SCF-RI-B05 scheme is validated also on reaction barriers, and on the subtle energetics of NO dimer, an exemplary system of strong nondynamic correlation. It yields both the binding energy and the singlet-triplet splitting of the NO dimer correctly, and close to the benchmarks reported in the literature.     

Recent advances of variational model in medical imaging and applications to computer aided surgery

In this paper, we review some mathematical models in medical image processing. Due to the superiority in modeling and computation, variational methods have been proven to be powerful techniques, which have been extremely popular and dramatically improved in the past two decades. On one hand, many models have been proposed for nearly all kinds of applications. On the other hand, a lot of models can be globally optimized and also many computation tools have been introduced. Under the variational framework, we focus on two basic problems in medical imaging: image restoration and segmentation, which are core components for kinds of specific tasks. For image restoration, we discuss some models on both additive and multiplicative noises. For image segmentation, we review some models on both whole image segmentation and specific target delineation, with the later being a key step in computer aided surgery. Additionally, we present some models on liver delineation and give their applications to living donor liver transplantation.     

矩阵广义逆新的扰动上界

利用矩阵的奇异值分解方法,研究了矩阵广义逆的扰动上界,得到了在F-范数下矩阵广义逆的扰动上界定理,所得定理推广并彻底改进了近期的相关结果.相应的数值算例验证了定理的有效性.     

Characterization of Domains of Self-Adjoint Ordinary Differential Operators II

We characterize the self-adjoint domains of general even order linear ordinary differential operators in terms of real-parameter solutions of the differential equation. This for endpoints which are regular or singular and for arbitrary deficiency index. This characterization is obtained from a new decomposition of the maximal domain in terms of limit-circle solutions. These are the solutions which contribute to the self-adjoint domains in analogy with the celebrated Weyl limit-circle solutions in the second order Sturm–Liouville case. As a special case we obtain the previously known characterizations when one or both endpoints are regular.     

Multiobjective programming problems with (G,C,ρ)-convexity

In this paper, we deal with multiobjective programming problems involving functions which are not necessarily differential. A new concept of generalized convexity, which is called (G,C,??)-convexity, is introduced. We establish not only sufficient but also necessary optimality conditions for multiobjective programming problems from a viewpoint of the new generalized convexity. When the sufficient conditions are utilized, the corresponding duality theorems are derived for general Mond-Weir type dual program.     

Sensitivity to a break in interaural correlation is co-modulated by intensity level and interaural delay

This study investigated whether sound intensity affects listeners' sensitivity to a break in interaural correlation (BIC) embedded in wideband noise at different interaural delays. The results show that the detection duration threshold remained stable at the intensity between 60 and 70?dB SPL, but increased in accelerating fashion as the intensity decreased toward 40?dB SPL. Moreover, the threshold elevated linearly as the interaural delay increased from 0 to 4?ms, and the elevation slope became larger as the intensity decreased from 50 to 40?dB SPL. Thus, detecting the BIC is co-modulated by both intensity and interaural delay.     

Field-assisted spin-polarized electron transport through a single quantum well with spin-orbit coupling

We have investigated theoretically the field-driven electron transport through a single-quantum-well semiconductor heterostructure with spin-orbit coupling.The splitting of the asymmetric Fano-type resonance peaks due to the Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling is found to be highly sensitive to the direction of the incident electron.The splitting of the Fano-type resonance induces the spin-polarization dependent electron current.The location and the line shape of the Fano-type resonance can be controlled by adjusting the energy and the direction of the incident electron,the oscillation frequency,and the amplitude of the external field.These interesting features may be used to devise tunable spin filters and realize pure spin transmission currents.     

Influence of defect states on band gaps two-dimensional phononic crystal in the of4340 steel in an epoxy

The band structures of a new two-dimensional triangle-shaped array geometry of 4340 steel cylinders of square cross section in an epoxy resin were studied by the plane-wave expansion and supercell calculation method. The band gaps of this type of phononic crystals with different defects were calculated such as defect-free, 60 crystal linear defect states, 120 crystal linear defect states, and 180 crystal linear defect states. It was found that the band gap will emerge in different linear defects of the phononic crystals and the bandwidth of linear defect states is larger than that of the free-defect crystal by about 2.14 times within the filling fraction F = 0.1-0.85. In addition, the influence of the filling fraction on the relative width of the minimum band gap is discussed.