This document summarises the talks and discussions happened during the VBSCan Split17 workshop, the first general meeting of the VBSCan COST Action network. This collaboration is aiming at a ...consistent and coordinated study of vector-boson scattering from the phenomenological and experimental point of view, for the best exploitation of the data that will be delivered by existing and future particle colliders.
This document summarises the talks and discussions happened during the VBSCan Split17 workshop, the first general meeting of the VBSCan COST Action network. This collaboration is aiming at a ...consistent and coordinated study of vector-boson scattering from the phenomenological and experimental point of view, for the best exploitation of the data that will be delivered by existing and future particle colliders.
Cell adhesion in the multiple myeloma (MM) microenvironment has been recognized as a major mechanism of MM cell survival and the development of drug resistance. Here we addressed the hypothesis that ...the protein junctional adhesion molecule-A (JAM-A) may represent a novel target and a clinical biomarker in MM. We evaluated JAM-A expression in MM cell lines and in 147 MM patient bone marrow aspirates and biopsies at different disease stages. Elevated JAM-A levels in patient-derived plasma cells were correlated with poor prognosis. Moreover, circulating soluble JAM-A (sJAM-A) levels were significantly increased in MM patients as compared with controls. Notably, in vitro JAM-A inhibition impaired MM migration, colony formation, chemotaxis, proliferation and viability. In vivo treatment with an anti-JAM-A monoclonal antibody (αJAM-A moAb) impaired tumor progression in a murine xenograft MM model. These results demonstrate that therapeutic targeting of JAM-A has the potential to prevent MM progression, and lead us to propose JAM-A as a biomarker in MM, and sJAM-A as a serum-based marker for clinical stratification.
Purpose
Prior reports on the location and sizes of brain metastases almost entirely focus on patients with primary breast and pulmonary cancer. This is the first study comparing multiple other types ...of cancer that metastasize to the brain.
Methods
This monocentric retrospective study includes 369 untreated patients with 3313 intraaxial brain metastases. Following semi-manual segmentation of metastases on post-contrast T1WI, cumulative spatial probability distribution maps of brain metastases were created for the whole group and for all primary tumors. Furthermore, mixed effects logistic regression model analysis was performed to determine if the primary tumor, patient age, and patient sex influence lesion location.
Results
The cerebellum as location of brain metastases was proportionally overrepresented. Breast and pulmonary cancer caused higher number of brain metastases to what would normally be expected. Multivariate analyses revealed a significant accumulation of brain metastases from skin cancer in a frontal and from breast and gastrointestinal cancer in a cerebellar location.
Conclusion
Distribution of brain metastases is very heterogeneous for the distinct primaries, possibly reflecting the diversity of mechanisms involved in brain metastases formation. In daily clinical practice distribution patters may be beneficial to predict the primary cancer site, if unknown.
The dielectric function and the effective conjugation length of an organic material determine the binding energy of an exciton formed after photon absorption. In ladder polymers the conjugation ...length is large and the size of the exciton is in principle not limited by its conjugation length, since it can delocalize along the backbone of the polymer. In this work, the anisotropic dielectric function of poly(benzimidazobenzophenanthroline) (BBL) in the UV-visible and infrared spectral range is obtained by DFT calculations and by modeling ellipsometric data, revealing both ionic and electronic contributions. For spin-coated BBL polymer thin films, we show uniaxial anisotropic behavior with high differences between the in-plane and out-of-plane dielectric function. We obtain a high dielectric constant of 8.3 in the direction of the polymer.
Premise of the study: The clusioid clade includes five families (i.e., Bonnetiaceae, Calophyllaceae, Clusiaceae s.s., Hypericaceae, and Podostemaceae) represented by 94 genera and ~1900 species. ...Species in this clade form a conspicuous element of tropical forests worldwide and are important in horticulture, timber production, and pharmacology. We conducted a taxon-rich multigene phylogenetic analysis of the clusioids to clarify phylogenetic relationships in this clade. METHODS: We analyzed plastid (matK, ndhF, and rbcL) and mitochondrial (matR) nucleotide sequence data using parsimony, maximum likelihood, and Bayesian inference. Our combined data set included 194 species representing all major clusioid subclades, plus numerous species spanning the taxonomic, morphological, and biogeographic breadth of the clusioid clade. Key results: Our results indicate that Tovomita (Clusiaceae s.s.), Harungana and Hypericum (Hypericaceae), and Ledermanniella s.s. and Zeylanidium (Podostemaceae) are not monophyletic. In addition, we place four genera that have not been included in any previous molecular study: Ceratolacis, Diamantina, and Griffithella (Podostemaceae), and Santomasia (Hypericaceae). Finally, our results indicate that Lianthus, Santomasia, Thornea, and Triadenum can be safely merged into Hypericum (Hypericaceae). CONCLUSIONS: We present the first well-resolved, taxon-rich phylogeny of the clusioid clade. Taxon sampling and resolution within the clade are greatly improved compared to previous studies and provide a strong basis for improving the classification of the group. In addition, our phylogeny will form the foundation for our future work investigating the biogeography of tropical angiosperms that exhibit Gondwanan distributions.
Objective:
The present research examined the relation of psychiatric disorders to tobacco dependence and cessation outcomes.
Method:
Data were collected from 1,504 smokers (58.2% women; 83.9% White; ...mean age = 44.67 years,
SD
= 11.08) making an aided smoking cessation attempt as part of a clinical trial. Psychiatric diagnoses were determined with the Composite International Diagnostic Interview structured clinical interview. Tobacco dependence was assessed with the Fagerström Test of Nicotine Dependence (FTND) and the Wisconsin Inventory of Smoking Dependence Motives (WISDM).
Results:
Diagnostic groups included those who were never diagnosed, those who had ever been diagnosed (at any time, including in the past year), and those with past-year diagnoses (with or without prior diagnosis). Some diagnostic groups had lower follow-up abstinence rates than did the never diagnosed group (
p
s < .05). At 8 weeks after quitting, strong associations were found between cessation outcome and both past-year mood disorder and ever diagnosed anxiety disorder. At 6 months after quitting, those ever diagnosed with an anxiety disorder (
OR
= .72,
p
= .02) and those ever diagnosed with more than one psychiatric diagnosis (
OR
= .74,
p
= .03) had lower abstinence rates. The diagnostic categories did not differ in smoking heaviness or the FTND, but they did differ in dependence motives assessed with the WISDM.
Conclusion:
Information on recent or lifetime psychiatric disorders may help clinicians gauge relapse risk and may suggest dependence motives that are particularly relevant to affected patients. These findings also illustrate the importance of using multidimensional tobacco dependence assessments.
Recent debates on the number of plant species in the vast lowland rain forests of the Amazon have been based largely on model estimates, neglecting published checklists based on verified voucher ...data. Here we collate taxonomically verified checklists to present a list of seed plant species from lowland Amazon rain forests. Our list comprises 14,003 species, of which 6,727 are trees. These figures are similar to estimates derived from nonparametric ecological models, but they contrast strongly with predictions of much higher tree diversity derived from parametric models. Based on the known proportion of tree species in neotropical lowland rain forest communities as measured in complete plot censuses, and on overall estimates of seed plant diversity in Brazil and in the neotropics in general, it is more likely that tree diversity in the Amazon is closer to the lower estimates derived from nonparametric models. Much remains unknown about Amazonian plant diversity, but this taxonomically verified dataset provides a valid starting point for macroecological and evolutionary studies aimed at understanding the origin, evolution, and ecology of the exceptional biodiversity of Amazonian forests.
Objectives
Mechanisms of wound healing are often impaired in patients with osteonecrosis of the jaw (ONJ). According to the guidelines for the treatment of this disease, early surgical intervention ...is indicated. However, surgery often faces complications such as wound healing disorders. The application of platelet-rich fibrin (PRF) after necrosectomy between bone and mucosa may constitute a promising approach to improve surgical results. An aspect that was not investigated until now is that PRF acts as a “bio-carrier” for antibiotics previously applied intravenously.
Materials and methods
We investigated the antimicrobial properties of PRF in 24 patients presenting ONJ undergoing systemic antibiosis with ampicillin/sulbactam. We measured the concentration of ampicillin/sulbactam in plasma and PRF and performed agar diffusion tests. Ampicillin/sulbactam was applied intravenously to the patient 10 minutes for blood sampling for PRF. No further incorporation of patients’ blood or PRF product with antibiotic drugs was obtained. Four healthy patients served as controls.
Results
Our results revealed that PRF is highly enriched with ampicillin/sulbactam that is released to the environment. The antibiotic concentration in PRF was comparable to the plasma concentration of ampicillin/sulbactam. The inhibition zone (IZ) of PRF was comparable to the standard ampicillin/sulbactam discs used in sensitivity testing.
Conclusions
The results of our study demonstrated that PRF is a reliable bio-carrier for systemic applied antibiotics and exhibits a large antimicrobial effect.
Clinical relevance
We describe a clinically useful feature of PRF as a bio-carrier for antibiotics. Especially when applied to poorly perfused tissues and bone such as in ONJ, the local release of antibiotics can reduce wound healing disorders like infections.
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