The serine/threonine kinase Akt, a downstream effector of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K), is known to play an important role in antiapoptotic signaling and has been implicated in the ...aggressiveness of a number of different human cancers including acute myelogenous leukemia (AML). We have investigated the therapeutic potential of the novel Akt inhibitor, perifosine, on human AML cells. Perifosine is a synthetic alkylphospholipid, a new class of antitumor agents, which target plasma membrane and inhibit signal transduction networks. Perifosine was tested on THP-1 and MV 4-11 cell lines, as well as primary leukemia cells. Perifosine treatment induced cell death by apoptosis in AML cell lines. Perifosine caused Akt and ERK 1/2 dephosphorylation as well as caspase activation. In THP-1 cells, the proapoptotic effect of perifosine was partly dependent on the Fas/FasL system and c-jun-N-kinase activation. In MV 4-11 cells, perifosine downregulated phosphorylated Akt, but not phosphorylated FLT3. Moreover, perifosine reduced the clonogenic activity of AML, but not normal, CD34(+) cells, and markedly increased blast cell sensitivity to etoposide. Our findings indicate that perifosine, either alone or in combination with existing drugs, might be a promising therapeutic agent for the treatment of those AML cases characterized by upregulation of the PI3K-Akt survival pathway.
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DOBA, EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, IZUM, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
High abundances of juvenile fish in certain ports suggest they might provide alternative nursery habitats for several species. To further investigate this possibility, post-settlement growth, metal ...uptake and body condition were estimated in 127 juveniles of two seabream species, collected in 2014–15, inside and outside the highly polluted ports of the Bay of Toulon. This showed that differences in local pollution levels (here in Hg, Cu, Pb and Zn) are not consistently mirrored within fish flesh. Muscle metal concentrations, below sanitary thresholds for both species, were higher in ports for Cu, Pb and V only. Otherwise, fish muscle composition principally differed by species or by year. Juvenile growth and condition were equivalent at all sites. Higher prey abundance in certain ports might therefore compensate the deleterious effects of pollution, resulting in similar sizes and body conditions for departing juvenile fish than in nearby natural habitats.
•Growth, condition and contamination were assessed in Diplodus juveniles from ports.•Muscle concentrations for trace elements were generally higher inside ports.•Juvenile growth and condition were equivalents inside and outside ports.•High primary production could compensate pollution deleterious effects in ports.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZRSKP
Epilepsy is a class of chronic neurological disorders characterized by transient and unexpected electrical disturbances of the brain. The automated analysis of the electroencephalogram (EEG) signal ...can be instrumental for the proper diagnosis of this mental condition. This work presents a systematic assessment of the performance of different variants of the binary magnetic optimization algorithm (BMOA), two of which are introduced here, while serving as feature selectors for epileptic EEG signal identification. In this context, the optimum-path forest classifier was adopted as a classification model, whereas different wavelet families were considered for EEG feature extraction. In order to compare the performance of the improved BMOA variants against the traditional one, as well as other metaheuristic techniques, namely particle swarm optimization, binary bat algorithm, and genetic algorithm, we employed a well-known EEG benchmark dataset composed of five classes of EEG signals (two of which comprising normal patients with eyes open or closed, and the remaining comprising ill patients with different levels of epilepsy). Overall, the results evidenced the robustness of the proposed BMOA and its variants.
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DOBA, EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, IZUM, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OBVAL, ODKLJ, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
Objectives To determine service utilization and identify patient characteristics associated with service utilization in youth with obesity presenting for structured weight management, and to explore ...weight-related outcomes associated with service utilization. Study design In this retrospective study conducted between January 2008 and December 2013, we examined variables associated with the care of 2089 patients aged 2-18 years presenting for an initial visit to 2 tertiary care-based, multidisciplinary structured weight management clinics. Results Only 53% of patients returned for a second visit, 29% returned for a third visit, and virtually none (0.5%) completed the recommended 6 visits within 6 months. Patients who were Hispanic, government-insured, and whose parent/s spoke Spanish were more likely to return to clinic. Of those patients who returned for at least a second visit, 70% demonstrated a reduction in or maintenance of body mass index z -score. Conclusions Patient retention remains a significant barrier to effective pediatric weight management. Structured weight management programs should increase their efforts to engage patients and families at the initial visit and identify and address barriers to follow up.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZRSKP
The cryopreservation of epididymal sperm is important to preserve genetic material from valuable deceased males. This study evaluated the viability of sperm samples from eight stallions under three ...conditions: (1) collected using an artificial vagina (EJ-0h), (2) recovered from the epididymal cauda immediately after orchiectomy (EP-0h), and (3) recovered from the epididymal cauda after 24h of storage at 5°C (EP-24h). To obtain EJ-0h sperm, two ejaculates were collected from each stallion. After 1 week, the stallions were submitted to bilateral orchiectomy, and one of the removed epididymides was flushed to obtain EP-0h sperm. The contralateral epididymis was stored at 5°C for 24h before being flushed to obtain EP-24h sperm. The sperm samples were analyzed at three different times: immediately after sperm recovery, after dilution in the freezing extender, and post-thawing. A fertility trial was performed using 39 estrous cycles. After ovulation induction with 1mg of deslorelin acetate (i.m.), mares were inseminated with 800×106 sperm. The total number of sperm recovered was 7.8±4.7×109 for EJ-0h sperm, 12.9±9.2×109 for EP-0h sperm and 12.0±8.0×109 for EP-24h sperm. The sperm motility, evaluated by total motility, progressive motility and the percentage of rapid cells, was similar among the samples before and after freezing (P>0.05). However, the plasma membrane integrity was different between EJ-0h and EP-0h pre-freezing and between EJ-0h and EP-24h post-thawing (P<0.05). The conception rates were similar between groups inseminated with sperm recovered from the epididymal cauda immediately after orchiectomy (EP-0h), after 24h of storage at 5°C of the epididymal cauda (EP-24h) and with ejaculated sperm (EJ-0h) (P>0.05). In conclusion, the viability and fertility of cauda epididymal sperm are similar to those of ejaculated sperm.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
We present a field-programmable gate array (FPGA)-based technique for the on-line identification of highly ionizing particles in a liquid xenon (LXe) detector. The method was developed and ...successfully exploited to select <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">\alpha </tex-math></inline-formula> particles emitted by 241 Am sources submerged in LXe in an overwhelming, mostly beam-related, <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">\gamma </tex-math></inline-formula>-ray background. After revising the main features of xenon and other liquid noble gases as ultra-violet (UV) scintillating media, we describe the algorithm idea and its firmware implementation. We then present the results in terms of efficiency and background suppression for the real-time <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">\alpha </tex-math></inline-formula>-particle tagging and the limits of the MEG trigger configuration. Finally, we show that in MEG II we are going to overcome the main issues and further improve the performances.
Abstract
Ultra-thin metallic anode and cathode wires are frequently
employed in low-mass gaseous detectors for precision experiments,
where the amount of material crossed by charged particles must be
...minimised. We present here the results of an analysis of the
mechanical stress and chemical corrosion effects observed in 40
and 50 μm diameter silver plated aluminum wires
mounted within the volume of the MEG II drift chamber, which caused
the breakage of about one hundred wires (over a total of
≈ 12000). This analysis is based on the careful inspection
of the broken wires by means of optical and electronic microscopes
and on a detailed recording of all breaking incidents. We present a
simple empirical model which relates the number of broken wires to
their exposure time to atmospheric relative humidity and to their
mechanical tension, which is necessary for mechanical stability in
the presence of electrostatic fields of several kV/cm. Finally we
discuss how wire breakages can be avoided or at least strongly
reduced by operating in controlled atmosphere during the mounting
stages of the wires within the drift chamber and by choosing a
25 % thicker wire diameter, which has very small effects on the
detector resolution and efficiency and can be obtained by using a
safer fabrication technique.
Inflammation of the seminal vesicle interferes with fertility and is a persistent problem that is difficult to treat. The aim of this study was to evaluate the semen quality of 5 stallions with ...seminal vesiculitis before and after local treatment. All stallions were endoscopically treated for seminal vesiculitis during 10 consecutive days. The glandular lumen was accessed and flushed with a Ringer Lactate solution prior to antibiotic infusion. The antibiotic was selected based on the antibiogram from bacterial culture of samples previously collected from the seminal vesicles. The kinetic parameters (total motility – TM; progressive motility – PM; and rapid sperm - RAP), plasma membrane integrity (PMI), percentage of leukocyte (LEUK) and colony forming units (CFU) of fresh semen samples were evaluated. Additionally, nitric oxide (NO) content in seminal plasma was measured. All parameters were assessed before (T0), one week after treatment (T1) and one month after therapy (T2). The sperm kinetics and plasma membrane integrity showed an improvement in T1 that didn’t last until T2. Percentage of leukocytes and CFU decreased on fresh semen and NO decreased on seminal plasma at T1 but were similar between T0 and T2. The results demonstrate that one week (T1) of local treatment leads to an improvement in sperm quality. However, this was not maintained one month (T2) after therapy, as seminal parameters at this time are similar to the pre-treatment values (T0), indicating the recurrence of the disease one month after therapy.
•Seminal vesiculitis causes pyospermia and consequent reduction of seminal quality in stallions.•Local treatment with flushes and antibiotics causes a transient improvement in seminal quality, allowing the use of ejaculate.•The recurrence of infection is one of the main problems to be solved in cases of seminal vesiculitis.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
The relationship between food concentration and reproductive capability has been reported for many copepods. Such information can indirectly provide insight as to how species invade new habitats. ...Arctodiaptomus dorsalis (Marsh, 1907), originally described from the United States, has been found to be present in more than 20 Philippine inland water bodies and has also been documented to prefer eutrophic conditions. By feeding this copepod different concentrations of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii Dangeard, 1888 (4 × 10³ cells ml⁻¹, 5 × 10⁴ cells ml⁻¹, 10⁵ cells ml⁻¹, and 2 × 10⁵ cells ml⁻¹), we investigated the effect of food concentration on different reproductive parameters of A. dorsalis: hatching success (HS), clutch size (CS), latency time (LT), inter-clutch duration (ICD), egg production rate (EPR), and fecundity (F). With increasing food concentration HS varied from 13.64% to 50.74%, and CS from 8.50 to 10.57 eggs clutch⁻¹, but these differences were not statistically significantly. EPR significantly increased with food concentration from 3.00 to 7.54 eggs female⁻¹ d⁻¹, while ICD and LT both significantly decreased from 2.00 to 1.71 d and 1.58 to 0.71 d, respectively. F significantly increased from 3.4 to 59.2 eggs female⁻¹ with increasing food concentration, with a maximum of 104 eggs in nine clutches for one individual. The spawning interval thus became shorter and clutches are produced at higher rates at high food concentrations. The successful invasion of A. dorsalis into the inland waters of the Philippines, therefore, could be attributed to the natural eutrophic conditions of these habitats, which has been further aggravated by anthropogenic nutrient inputs into the ecosystem.
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BFBNIB, NMLJ, NUK, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
Stallion semen cryopreservation, despite its impact on the horse industry, is not an established technology. During the last years, a number of modifications have been proposed to the freezing ...process, however, a large population of stallions still have poor semen quality and fertility after frozen-thawed. Glycerol toxicity could be a reason for the variation on stallion sperm freezability. There are limited publications concerning the use of alternative cryoprotectants for equine sperm. Glycerol is contraceptive for some species and other cryoprotectors, such as amides, have been show to be a good option for freezing semen of these species. Recent reports have shown encouraging data respecting the use of amides as cryoprotectants for stallions, with more remarkable improvements for semen from stallions that freeze poorly when glycerol is used.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
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