George Bellas Greenough (1778–1855), co-founder and first President of the Geological Society of London, was less an original researcher but rather a most diligent gatherer of little pieces of ...information, which he compiled in numerous notebooks. His geological ideas had been greatly influenced by the German professor Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (1752–1840), an admirer of Jean-André de Luc (1727–1817). Probably, Greenough's most important published contributions to geology were his annual addresses, which he gave to the Geological Society in his function as the Society's president, discussing critically the previous year's scientific results. In these speeches, rhetoric brilliance — owing to his training as a lawyer — added to the weight of his official office. Among the topics which interested him most was the question of ‘central heat’ as prerequisite for the generation of larger amounts of magma, and the question of rapid ‘elevation’ of land by earthquakes and its implication for a dynamic Earth. Both phenomena Greenough found exceedingly hard to accept. His private papers, letters and notebooks, most of them held at the library of University College London, give insight into Greenough's personality, motivation and geological views.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
Pancreatic cancer is characterized by an increasing incidence and an extremely poor prognosis. It is resistant to most of the conventional treatment modalities. Histomorphologically, it presents with ...a strong desmoplastic reaction around cancer cells, and lymphocytes are typically localized as aggregates in the fibrotic interstitial tissue. Using the method of multi‐epitope imaging with fluorochrome‐tagged specific MoAbs which allows the simultaneous localization and characterization of T cells in tissues, we studied phenotypes and distribution of tumour‐infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) in pancreatic cancer. CD3+ T cells comprised up to 90% of the tumour‐infiltrating cells which were either CD4+ or CD8+, most of them being memory cells (CD45RO+). In decreasing order of frequency, T lymphocytes carried the markers for CD45RO, CD18, CD103 and TCR γδ. Very few natural killer cells (CD56+) were observed. Twenty percent of CD8+were labelled with CD103. These CD8+ CD103+T cells, analogous to the gut intraepithelial lymphocytes (IEL), were found in the fibrous interstitial tissue. Furthermore, an inverse correlation was found between the expression of CD18, the β2‐integrin, which mediates adhesion of activated lymphocytes, and CD45RO in the CD8+subset of TIL (P = 0.046). In conclusion, phenotyping of T lymphocytes in pancreatic cancer raises the possibility that pancreatic cancer cells develop several strategies to escape the T cell‐induced cytolysis by (i) the aggregation of cytotoxic CD8+ CD103+ T cells in the fibrous tissue distant from the tumour cells, and (ii) the presence of CD18‐bearing cells which lack the expression of the activation marker CD45RO.
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BFBNIB, DOBA, FZAB, GIS, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The international research project RECONCILE has addressed central questions regarding polar ozone depletion, with the objective to quantify some of the most relevant yet still uncertain physical and ...chemical processes and thereby improve prognostic modelling capabilities to realistically predict the response of the ozone layer to climate change. This overview paper outlines the scope and the general approach of RECONCILE, and it provides a summary of observations and modelling in 2010 and 2011 that have generated an in many respects unprecedented dataset to study processes in the Arctic winter stratosphere. Principally, it summarises important outcomes of RECONCILE including (i) better constraints and enhanced consistency on the set of parameters governing catalytic ozone destruction cycles, (ii) a better understanding of the role of cold binary aerosols in heterogeneous chlorine activation, (iii) an improved scheme of polar stratospheric cloud (PSC) processes that includes heterogeneous nucleation of nitric acid trihydrate (NAT) and ice on non-volatile background aerosol leading to better model parameterisations with respect to denitrification, and (iv) long transient simulations with a chemistry-climate model (CCM) updated based on the results of RECONCILE that better reproduce past ozone trends in Antarctica and are deemed to produce more reliable predictions of future ozone trends. The process studies and the global simulations conducted in RECONCILE show that in the Arctic, ozone depletion uncertainties in the chemical and microphysical processes are now clearly smaller than the sensitivity to dynamic variability.
Context. A complex environment exists in the inner few astronomical units of planet-forming disks. High-angular-resolution observations play a key role in our understanding of the disk structure and ...the dynamical processes at work. Aims. In this study we aim to characterize the mid-infrared brightness distribution of the inner disk of the young intermediate-mass star HD 163296 from early VLTI/MATISSE observations taken in the L - and N -bands. We put special emphasis on the detection of potential disk asymmetries. Methods. We use simple geometric models to fit the interferometric visibilities and closure phases. Our models include a smoothed ring, a flat disk with an inner cavity, and a 2D Gaussian. The models can account for disk inclination and for azimuthal asymmetries as well. We also perform numerical hydrodynamical simulations of the inner edge of the disk. Results. Our modeling reveals a significant brightness asymmetry in the L -band disk emission. The brightness maximum of the asymmetry is located at the NW part of the disk image, nearly at the position angle of the semimajor axis. The surface brightness ratio in the azimuthal variation is 3.5 ± 0.2. Comparing our result on the location of the asymmetry with other interferometric measurements, we confirm that the morphology of the r < 0.3 au disk region is time-variable. We propose that this asymmetric structure, located in or near the inner rim of the dusty disk, orbits the star. To find the physical origin of the asymmetry, we tested a hypothesis where a vortex is created by Rossby wave instability, and we find that a unique large-scale vortex may be compatible with our data. The half-light radius of the L -band-emitting region is 0.33 ±0.01 au, the inclination is 52° −7° +5° , and the position angle is 143° ± 3°. Our models predict that a non-negligible fraction of the L -band disk emission originates inside the dust sublimation radius for μ m-sized grains. Refractory grains or large (≳10 μ m-sized) grains could be the origin of this emission. N -band observations may also support a lack of small silicate grains in the innermost disk ( r ≲ 0.6 au), in agreement with our findings from L -band data.
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FMFMET, NUK, UL, UM, UPUK
A study of the two-body decays B±→Xcc¯K±, where Xcc¯ refers to one charmonium state, is reported by the BABAR Collaboration using a data sample of 424 fb−1. The absolute determination of branching ...fractions for these decays are significantly improved compared to previous BABAR measurements. Evidence is found for the decay B+→X(3872)K+ at the 3σ level. The absolute branching fraction BB+→X(3872)K+=2.1±0.6(stat)±0.3(syst)×10−4 is measured for the first time. It follows that BX(3872)→J/ψπ+π−=(4.1±1.3)%, supporting the hypothesis of a molecular component for this resonance.
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CMK, CTK, FMFMET, IJS, NUK, PNG, UL, UM
Summary
Before a multicentre trial of 3‐D conformal radiotherapy to treat cancer of the pancreas, participating clinicians were asked to complete an accreditation exercise. This involved planning two ...test cases according to the study protocol, then returning hard copies of the plans and dosimetric data for review. Any radiation technique that achieved the specified constraints was allowed. Eighteen treatment plans were assessed. Seven plans were prescribed incorrect doses and two of the planning target volumes did not comply with protocol guidelines. All plans met predefined normal tissue dose constraints. The identified errors were attributable to unforeseen ambiguities in protocol documentation. They were addressed by feedback and corresponding amendments to protocol documentation. Summary radiobiological measures including total weighted normal tissue equivalent uniform dose varied significantly between centres. This accreditation exercise successfully identified significant potential sources of protocol violations, which were then easily corrected. We believe that this process should be applied to all clinical trials involving radiotherapy. Due to the limitations of data analysis with hard‐copy information only, it is recommended that complete planning datasets from treatment‐planning systems be collected through a digital submission process.
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BFBNIB, DOBA, FZAB, GIS, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
As a consequence of recent studies the treatment of gastrointestinal cancers has become challenging and is undergoing constant changes on the basis of the results of new trials. The steering ...committee of the working group on gastrointestinal cancers of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Verdauungs- und Stoffwechselkrankheiten has decided to summarise and present recent updates of the current treatment guidelines and recommendations for the most relevant gastrointestinal malignancies. In this review we have included recent findings from large trials on esophageal, gastric, pancreatic, cholangiocellular and liver cancers, as well as colorectal cancers, neuroendocrine tumours and lymphomas. This includes an update on the combination with novel targeted agents and the introduction of potential predictive biomarkers in the selection of the appropriate treatment strategy.
Total cell number as well as differential cell numbers representing the inner cell mass (ICM) and trophectoderm were determined by a differential staining technique for preimplantation pig embryos ...recovered between 5 and 8 days after the onset of oestrus. Total cell number increased rapidly over this time span and significant effects were found between embryos of the same chronological age from different females. Inner cells could be detected in some but not all embryos of 12â16 cells. The proportion of inner cells was low in morulae but increased during differentiation of ICM and trophectoderm in early blastocysts. The proportion of ICM cells then decreased as blastocysts expanded and hatched. Some embryos were cultured in vitro and others were transferred to the oviducts of immature mice as a surrogate in vivo environment and assessed for morphology and cell number after several days. Although total cell number did not reach in vivo levels, morphological development and cell number increase was sustained better in the immature mice than in vitro. The proportion of ICM cells in blastocysts formed in vitro was in the normal range.
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