Background: Current prenatal diagnosis requires invasive testing which carries a 1-4% procedure-related-risk of miscarriage; hence, non-invasive techniques are desired. The recent demonstration of cell-free-fetal-DNA enriched from maternal plasma has opened new possibilities for non-invasive-prenatal-diagnosis of not only genetic-disorders such as β-thalassaemia and haemophilia but also chromos...

This paper is concerned with numerical studies of the anode region of a high-intensity argon arc. The anode region is divided into three subzones: the anode boundary layer, the presheath and the sheath. The governing equations of the dominating processes with the boundary conditions taken from the solutions of LTE plasmas are solved by applying the Runge±Kutta procedure. One parameter h, i.e., ...

The interaction of radio-frequency waves with a plasma is described by a Fokker–Planck equation with an added quasilinear term. Methods for solving this equation on a computer are discussed. Presented at the 3rd European Workshop on Problems in the Numerical Modeling of Plasmas, Varenna, Italy, September 10–13, 1985. Reprinted in Problems in the Numerical Modeling of Plasmas, edited by K. Apper...

Background: The lipid peroxides and their degradation products are highly toxic to spermatozoa and may play a major role in sperm dysfunction. The purpose of this study was to determine the level of lipid peroxidation as indicated by malondialdehyde (MDA) in the spermatozoa and seminal plasma of asthenozoospermic and normozoospermic males. In addition, correlation of lipid peroxidation with mot...

We present an analytical method for the calculation of shapes of Stark-broadened spectral lines in plasmas, applicable to hydrogen and hydrogenlike transitions (including Rydberg ones) with Δn>1. The method is based on the recently suggested quasicontiguous approximation of the static Stark line shapes, while the dynamical effects are accounted for using the frequency-fluctuation-model approach...

Femtosecond laser-produced plasmas are bright ultrafast line x-ray sources potentially suitable for different applications including material science and biology. The conversion efficiency of the laser energy incident onto a solid target into the x-ray emission is significantly enhanced when a laser prepulse precedes the main pulse. The details of x-ray line emission from solid targets irradiat...

The accurate simulation of the plasma transport in helicon sources is a key aspect to improve design Helicon Plasma Thrusters (HPTs). Specifically, 3D-VIRTUS code was proven provide satisfactory estimations propulsive performance realistic HPTs (difference between measures and numerical thrust <30%). Nonetheless, further investigations are needed deepen influence that chemistry model, formulati...

The hydrophobic proteins of plant plasma membrane still remain largely unknown.  For example in the Arabidopsis genome, receptor-like kinases (RLKs) are plasma membrane proteins, functioning as the primary receptors in the signaling of stress conditions, hormones and the presence of pathogens form a diverse family of over 610 genes. A limited number of these proteins have appeard in pr...

        A simple, reproducible and rapid gas chromatographic method for precise determination of valproic acid (VPA) in human plasma has been developed. Total time for sample preparation and GC analysis is less than 45 min. After plasma protein precipitation, VPA was extracted into chloroform with suitable recovery. By using Stabilwax®<span styl...