Increased viability of odontoblast-like cells subjected to low-level laser irradiation

Studies have shown that the increase of cell metabolism depends on the low level laser therapy (LLLT) parameters used to irradiate the cells. However, the optimal laser dose to up-regulate pulp cell activity remains unknown. Consequently, the aim of this study was to evaluate the metabolic response of odontoblast-like cells (MDPC-23) exposed to different LLLT doses. Cells at 20000 cells/cm² were seeded in 24-well plates using plain culture medium (DMEM) and were incubated in a humidified incubator with 5% CO₂ at 37°C. After 24 h, the culture medium was replaced by fresh DMEM supplemented with 5% (stress by nutritional deficit) or 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS). The cells were exposed to different laser doses from a near infrared diode laser prototype designed to provide a uniform irradiation of the wells. The experimental groups were: G1: 1.5 J/cm² + 5% FBS; G2: 1.5 J/cm² + 10% FBS; G3: 5 J/cm² + 5% FBS; G4: 5 J/cm² + 10% FBS; G5: 19 J/cm² + 5% FBS; G6: 19 J/cm² + 10% FBS. LLLT was performed in 3 consecutive irradiation cycles with a 24-hour interval. Non-irradiated cells cultured in DMEM supplemented with either 5 or 10% FBS served as control groups. The analysis of the metabolic response was performed by the MTT assay 3 h after the last irradiation. G1 presented an increase in SDH enzyme activity and differed significantly (Mann-Whitney test, p < 0.05) from the other groups. Analysis by scanning electron microscopy showed normal cell morphology in all groups. Under the tested conditions, LLLT stimulated the metabolic activity of MDPC-23 cultured in DMEM supplemented with 5% FBS and exposed to a laser dose of 1.5 J/cm². These findings are relevant for further studies on the action of near infrared lasers on cells with odontoblast phenotype.     

Burstiness and fractional diffusion on complex networks

Many dynamical processes on real world networks display complex temporal patterns as, forinstance, a fat-tailed distribution of inter-events times, leading to heterogeneouswaiting times between events. In this work, we focus on distributions whose averageinter-event time diverges, and study its impact on the dynamics of random walkers onnetworks. The process can naturally be described, in the long time limit, in terms ofRiemann-Liouville fractional derivatives. We show that all the dynamical modes possess, inthe asymptotic regime, the same power law relaxation, which implies that the dynamics doesnot exhibit time-scale separation between modes, and that no mode can be neglected versusanother one, even for long times. Our results are then confirmed by numericalsimulations.     

Persistence stability for geometric complexes

In this paper we study the properties of the homology of different geometric filtered complexes (such as Vietoris–Rips, ?ech and witness complexes) built on top of totally bounded metric spaces. Using recent developments in the theory of topological persistence, we provide simple and natural proofs of the stability of the persistent homology of such complexes with respect to the Gromov–Hausdorff distance. We also exhibit a few noteworthy properties of the homology of the Rips and ?ech complexes built on top of compact spaces.     

Critical exponents for Fréedericskz transition in nematics between concentric cylinders

The equilibrium tilt angle profile in a cell limited by two concentric cylinders filled with nematic liquid crystals is determined for strong homeotropic anchoring at the surfaces. The anchoring condition is such that the nematic director is perpendicular to the cylinder axes and a radial nonuniform electric field is applied to investigate a Fréedericksz transition. The distortions induced by the field remain in the plane perpendicular to the cylinder axes, and a threshold field is analytically determined indicating a transition from a pure splay to a splay-bend conformation of the director. It is shown that this transition can be induced by the thickness of the region between the two cylinders, and can be detected even in the absence of an external field. If the maximum value of the tilt angle is assumed as an order parameter, its behavior near to the transition can be used to obtain the critical exponent, which is the same as the one obtained in the mean field approximation. These results are indications that nontrivial consequences may occur when complex fluids are subject to non-planar geometries.     

Large antipodal families

A family {A _i | i ∈ I} of sets in ℝ ^d is antipodal if for any distinct i, j ∈ I and any p ∈ A _i , q ∈ A _j , there is a linear functional ϕ:ℝ ^d → ℝ such that ϕ(p) ≠ ϕ(q) and ϕ(p) ≤ ϕ(r) ≤ ϕ(q) for all r ∈ ∪ _i∈I A _i . We study the existence of antipodal families of large finite or infinite sets in ℝ³. The research was supported by the Hungarian-South African Intergovernmental Scientific and Technological Cooperation Programme, NKTH Grant no. ZA-21/2006 and South African National Research Foundation Grant no. UID 61853, as well as Hungarian National Foundation for Scientific Research Grants no. NK 67867, no. T47102, and no. K72537.     

On the merits of Raman spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analysis to asses carbon nanotube structural modifications

Raman spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and transmission electron microscopy are used to assess structural changes generated on the surface of multi-walled (MWCNTs) and single-walled (SWCNTs) carbon nanotubes. Different levels of structural modifications are generated by the use of acidic oxidative treatments. It is found that Raman spectroscopy is a very powerful technique to assess structural modification of SWCNTs with initial low defect concentration. For MWCNTs grown by chemical vapor deposition, which already contain a high density of structural defects in their as-produced state, Raman spectroscopy is not a very sensitive tool to detect the generation of further defects or other structural modifications introduced through acidic treatments. For this later case, TGA is a sensitive technique to assess structural modifications on the nanotubes.     

Melting of cubic boron nitride at extreme pressures

Due to its large pressure range of stability and inert nature, cubic boron nitride has been proposed as a potential pressure standard for high pressure experiments. It is extremely refractive upon compression, although its melting temperature is not known beyond 10 GPa. We apply first-principles molecular dynamics to evaluate the thermodynamics of zincblende structured (cubic) and liquid boron nitride at extreme temperatures and pressures, and compute the melting curve up to 1 TPa by integration of the Clapeyron equation. The resulting equations of state reveal that liquid boron nitride becomes denser than the solid phase at pressures of around 0.5 TPa. This is expressed as a turnover in the melting curve, which reaches a maximum at 510 GPa and 6550 ± 700 K. The origin of this density crossover is explained in terms of the underlying liquid structure, which diverges from that of the zincblende structured solid as the phases are compressed.     

The identification problem for complex-valued Ornstein–Uhlenbeck operators in $$L^p(\mathbb {R}^d,\mathbb {C}^N)$$

In this paper we study perturbed Ornstein–Uhlenbeck operators

$$\begin{aligned} \left[ \mathcal {L}_{\infty } v\right] (x)=A\triangle v(x) + \left\langle Sx,\nabla v(x)\right\rangle -B v(x),\,x\in \mathbb {R}^d,\,d\geqslant 2, \end{aligned}$$

for simultaneously diagonalizable matrices \(A,B\in \mathbb {C}^{N,N}\). The unbounded drift term is defined by a skew-symmetric matrix \(S\in \mathbb {R}^{d,d}\). Differential operators of this form appear when investigating rotating waves in time-dependent reaction diffusion systems. We prove under certain conditions that the maximal domain \(\mathcal {D}(A_p)\) of the generator \(A_p\) belonging to the Ornstein–Uhlenbeck semigroup coincides with the domain of \(\mathcal {L}_{\infty }\) in \(L^p(\mathbb {R}^d,\mathbb {C}^N)\) given by

$$\begin{aligned} \mathcal {D}^p_{\mathrm {loc}}(\mathcal {L}_0)=\left\{ v\in W^{2,p}_{\mathrm {loc}}\cap L^p\mid A\triangle v + \left\langle S\cdot ,\nabla v\right\rangle \in L^p\right\} ,\,1<p<\infty . \end{aligned}$$

One key assumption is a new \(L^p\)-dissipativity condition

$$\begin{aligned} |z|^2\mathrm {Re}\,\left\langle w,Aw\right\rangle + (p-2)\mathrm {Re}\,\left\langle w,z\right\rangle \mathrm {Re}\,\left\langle z,Aw\right\rangle \geqslant \gamma _A |z|^2|w|^2\;\forall \,z,w\in \mathbb {C}^N \end{aligned}$$

for some \(\gamma _A>0\). The proof utilizes the following ingredients. First we show the closedness of \(\mathcal {L}_{\infty }\) in \(L^p\) and derive \(L^p\)-resolvent estimates for \(\mathcal {L}_{\infty }\). Then we prove that the Schwartz space is a core of \(A_p\) and apply an \(L^p\)-solvability result of the resolvent equation for \(A_p\). In addition, we derive \(W^{1,p}\)-resolvent estimates. Our results may be considered as extensions of earlier works by Metafune, Pallara and Vespri to the vector-valued complex case.

     

Mittag–Leffler Functions and the Truncated $${\mathcal {}}$$-fractional Derivative

In this paper, we introduce a new type of fractional derivative, which we called truncated \({\mathcal {V}}\)-fractional derivative, for \(\alpha \)-differentiable functions, by means of the six-parameter truncated Mittag–Leffler function. One remarkable characteristic of this new derivative is that it generalizes several different fractional derivatives, recently introduced: conformable fractional derivative, alternative fractional derivative, truncated alternative fractional derivative, M-fractional derivative and truncated M-fractional derivative. This new truncated \({\mathcal {V}}\)-fractional derivative satisfies several important properties of the classical derivatives of integer order calculus: linearity, product rule, quotient rule, function composition and the chain rule. Also, as in the case of the Caputo derivative, the derivative of a constant is zero. Since the six parameters Mittag–Leffler function is a generalization of Mittag–Leffler functions of one, two, three, four and five parameters, we were able to extend some of the classical results of the integer-order calculus, namely: Rolle’s theorem, the mean value theorem and its extension. In addition, we present a theorem on the law of exponents for derivatives and as an application we calculate the truncated \({\mathcal {V}}\)-fractional derivative of the two-parameter Mittag–Leffler function. Finally, we present the \({\mathcal {V}}\)-fractional integral from which, as a natural consequence, new results appear as applications. Specifically, we generalize the inverse property, the fundamental theorem of calculus, a theorem associated with classical integration by parts, and the mean value theorem for integrals. We also calculate the \({\mathcal {V}}\)-fractional integral of the two-parameter Mittag–Leffler function. Further, we were able to establish the relation between the truncated \({\mathcal {V}}\)-fractional derivative and the truncated \({\mathcal {V}}\)-fractional integral and the fractional derivative and fractional integral in the Riemann–Liouville sense when the order parameter \(\alpha \) lies between 0 and 1 (\(0<\alpha <1\)).     

A new lot sizing and scheduling heuristic for multi-site biopharmaceutical production

Biopharmaceutical manufacturing requires high investments and long-term production planning. For large biopharmaceutical companies, planning typically involves multiple products and several production facilities. Production is usually done in batches with a substantial set-up cost and time for switching between products. The goal is to satisfy demand while minimising manufacturing, set-up and inventory costs. The resulting production planning problem is thus a variant of the capacitated lot-sizing and scheduling problem, and a complex combinatorial optimisation problem. Inspired by genetic algorithm approaches to job shop scheduling, this paper proposes a tailored construction heuristic that schedules demands of multiple products sequentially across several facilities to build a multi-year production plan (solution). The sequence in which the construction heuristic schedules the different demands is optimised by a genetic algorithm. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach on a biopharmaceutical lot sizing problem and compare it with a mathematical programming model from the literature. We show that the genetic algorithm can outperform the mathematical programming model for certain scenarios because the discretisation of time in mathematical programming artificially restricts the solution space.