Abstract Objective To investigate the effect of photodynamic therapy mediated by hematoporphyrin derivative on cholangiocarcinoma QBC939 cell line apoptosis, invasion and its mechanism. Methods In vitro cultured cholangiocarcinoma QBC939 cell line was given different concentrations of hematoporphyrin derivatives with different light intensity. The relative growth inhibition rate of QBC939 cell line was detected by the CCK8 method.Flow cytometry assay was applied to detect QBC939 cell line apoptosis. Transwell model was applied to detect QBC939 cell line invasion. RT-PCR examination was used to detect the transcriptional changes of mRNA of vascular endothelial growth factor-C(VEGF-C), cyclooxygenase-2(COX-2) and Proliferating cell nuclear antigen(PCNA). Immunocytochemistry was used to measure the changes of VEGF-C, COX-2 and PCNA. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA) was used to examine the secretion of VEGF-C,COX-2 and PCNA in QBC939 cells. Results HPD-PDT inhibited QBC939 cell line growth in vitro,and significant difference of OD value between the PDT group and control group was observed(P<0.05).When the concentration of HPD was 8mg/L and the light irradiation was 5J/cm2,the relative growth inhibition rate of QBC939 cell line was 80%. Either drug concentration or light dose was increased,the result showed no statistically significant differences. Flow cytometry assay showed HPD-PDT could promote QBC939 cells apoptosis in early stage.When the concentration of HPD was 2mg/L and the light irradiation was 5J/cm2, HPD-PDT had no obvious inhibitory effect on QBC939 cell line growth,but could obviously inhibit QBC939 cell line invasion, and significant difference between the PDT group and control group was observed(P<0.01). The RT-PCR examination showed that HPD-PDT could reduce the transcriptional changes of mRNA of VEGF-C,COX-2 and PCNA in QBC939 cells. The research revealed that HPD-PDT could inhibit the proteins expression of VEGF-C,COX-2 and PCNA in QBC939 cells via immunocytochemistry examination. Results of ELISA demonstrated that HPD-PDT could decrease the secretion of VEGF-C,COX-2 and PCNA in QBC939 cells. Conclusion HPD-PDT could inhibit QBC939 cells growth, promote apoptosis in early stage and inhibit invasion. The growth inhibition effect may be achieved by the promotion of early apoptosis ,which may result from the lower expression of VEGF-C,COX-2 and PCNA from mRNA to protein level. HPD-PDT could inhibit QBC939 cells invasion to some extent, which may result from the lower expression of VEGF-C.

This study is a part of research investigation of the effective use of cementitious materials to improve the strength and durability of lightweight coconut shell concrete. In this study the influence of fly ash and silica fume at various replacement levels on the basis of strength, acid and sulphate resistance of coconut shell concrete were evaluated. Coconut shell concrete was made with crushed coconut shell as coarse aggregate with cement replacement of 0%, 5%, 10% and 15% silica fume and fly ash. The coconut shell concrete made with 0% replacement of cement was served as control concrete. The concrete mix proportion for this study was 1:1.58:0.6 with water/cementitious ratio of 0.4. The concrete samples were exposed to water curing, 5% MgSO4, 5% Na2SO4, pH1 and pH2 sulphuric acid solutions. Visible changes of the samples during the exposure were followed. Mass change and compressive strength change were measured at various days. The addition of flyash increases the slump value whereas slica fume reduces the slump due to high fineness. The 28 days compressive strength of coconut shell concrete with 10% silica fume is 22.66 N/mm2 whereas 10% fly ash shows 18.5 N/mm2 both satisfies the minimum requirement of structural lightweight concrete as per ASTM C330. At 365 days strength is 24.85 N/mm2 and 23.85 N/mm2 for the same mix. Structural concrete components undergo degradation when exposed to acid and sulphate environments. Transmission of sulphate ions through pores of concrete produces expansive products such as gypsum and ettringite in the internal microstructure of concrete. This chemical change leads to reduction in mass and strength of structural concrete. It was found that among admixtures used, the addition10% of flyash to cement significantly improved its sulfate and acid resistance than other mix. The mass loss and strength loss caused by MgSO4 seems to be slightly higher than that caused by Na2SO4 environment.

Background and Aims: Chronic postoperative pain (CPOP) is one of the complications of coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery. Considering the high incidence of cardiac surgery and the role of limiting of the CPOP syndrome, this study was aimed to compare the impact of two different status of the hand position during this surgery on postoperative shoulder pain.\nMaterials and methods: in this randomized clinical trial 581 patients candidate for heart coronary artery bypass surgery, were divided into two groups. In first group, patients were placed on the bed so their hands were put along the body and in second group their hands were put in perpendicular. Two weeks after the surgery, postoperative shoulder pains were evaluated.\nResults: Of the 581 patients, 173 patients were placed in a state of hand on the side of the body and 408 patients were placed in a state of hand perpendicular to the body. In the terms of the presence of shoulder pain after surgery, a significant correlation existed between the two groups, so on the method of on the side of the body 17.9% of patients had shoulder pain; and on the method of hand perpendicular to the body 33.8% had postoperative shoulder pain.\nConclusions: the findings of this study show that placing the hand next to the body in comparison with the status of perpendicular to the body can be combined with less prevalence of shoulder pain after surgery.

The excessive use of power electronics devices in industrial, commercial and residential purposes have lead to the deterioration of supply current and voltage wave forms, injecting harmonic pollution on to the supply system, which no doubt generates a major concern to power system engineers. Restricted standards set by IEEE-519 or IEC-61000-3-2 necessitates that, those unwanted harmonic injected current (into the utility networks) to fall below a specified range. Present day technological development, particularly in the field of power converters, introduces the application of active power filters as a modern weapon for harmonic current mitigation and reactive power compensation leading us to IEEE norms realization. This paper depicts comprehensively, comparison in terms of total harmonic distortion (THD) and simulation results, the most effectively fast response in harmonic mitigation between fuzzy logic based active power filter (APF) control and its artificial neural network (ANN) controller counterpart. In both cases, results were developed via simulation studies under MATLAB/SIMULINK environment.

Stability and bifurcations have received considerable attention in the physical, biological, and social sciences. Generally speaking, memory effect and time delay are a prevailing phenomenon in biological systems, since the\nevolution of species is not instantaneous, but mediated by heredity and some time lag required for maturity of species. A natural question is how memory effect and delay affect the evolution of species. Here, we consider\na fractional delayed logistic system and analytically investigate how memory effect and time delay affect the\nstability and Hopf bifurcation. The linear stability of the fractional logistic equation with time delay is investi-gated by analyzing the associated characteristic transcendental equation. Explicit algorithm for determining the stability of interval and the conditions of Hopf bifurcations occur at the positive equilibrium are obtained.

Diagnostic analysis is a necessary tool for tourism planning, because it highlights the encouraging and restrictive factors for tourism in a specific area, indicating, at the same time, the necessary measures to be taken in order to ensure an optimal development. However, studies are absolutely necessary in order to understand the evolution of the phenomenon in perspective, since the introduction of the future parameters of the study area in the decision models allows their verification and refocusing during the modeling process. Prospective research is closely linked to the natural and social economic systems, and it is intended to highlight the factors that encourage or, on the contrary, restrict the tourism planning of a territory. Based on these considerations, the focus of the present study has shifted to the identification and mapping of areas with high vulnerability to certain types of natural and anthropogenic risks, with direct impact on the tourism planning of the Iezer-Păpuşa mountain ridge. In the tourism planning process, decision makers have an image of the vulnerability of the territory to various categories of risks and consequently, they may adopt a variety of solutions and models, customized according to the existing natural conditions. In accordance with the restrictions imposed by these, one can establish the new locations and choose the placement of facilities and equipment in the field.

The foremost concerns in today’s VLSI circuits are the power dissipation and the consequent battery up-time that is affected due to the switching activities of the circuit under test. We have put forth an efficient test pattern generator that is perfect for built in self test (BIST) structures used in the testing of VLSI circuits. The BIST keeps the power dissipation under control without affecting the fault coverage. The test pattern generator we have presented aims at lowering the switching activity to a meager value. Adding to this, a unique technique has been proposed which re-orders the vectors in this test sequence which further reduces the switching activities that occur during the testing of these combinational circuits. This technique works to reduce the hamming distance between test vectors which brings down the dynamic power dissipations to a large extent.

This paper is an intent to quantify and analyse the impact of distributed generation(DG) in tamilnadu,India to examine what the benefits of decentralized generation would be for meeting rural loads. Use load flow analysis to simulation over a quantify the loss reduction and system improvement by having decentralized generation available line conditions for actual rural feeders in tamilnadu, India.Reactive and voltage profile was considered.This helps utilities to better plan their system in rural areas to meet dispersed loads,while optimizing the renewable and decentralised generation sources.

The purpose is to investigate the effect of laparoscopic carbon dioxide (CO2) pneumoperitoneum in simulated vitro environment on the expression of human ovarian cancer cell line SKOV3’s surface adhesion molecule CD44 and intercellular adhesion molecule-1(ICAM-1), and provide experimental safety evidence on laparoscopic surgery. Method: Human ovarian cancer cell line SKOV3 was selected and incubated in vitro. When cells reached logarithmic phase, place them in 100% CO2 15mmHg pressure environment for 1h, 2h, 3h respectively and compared with the control group for ovarian cancer cell line adhesion molecules CD44 and ICAM-1 expression variance using flow cytometry at 0h, 24h, 48h and 72h after CO2 treatment. Results: CO2 could produce a transient effect on ovarian cancer cell surface CD44 and ICAM-1 expression, and these two molecular had similar change profile such as the expression peak occurred at 0~48h and returned to control levels afterwards. Among different CO2 time treated groups, although 1h and 2h groups had expression increase in CD44 and ICAM-1, there was no significant difference comparing to the control groups. The expression peak in 3h was higher than 2h, but overall, the expression level in longer duration treated CO2 groups were higher. Conclusion: Longer time of CO2 pneumoperitoneum will enhance the adhesion capability of ovarian cancer cells, so conducting laparoscopic operation should be relatively safe.