Cell division depends on the separation of sister chromatids in anaphase. In yeast, sister separation is initiated by cleavage of cohesin by the protease separase. In vertebrates, most cohesin is ...removed from chromosome arms by a cleavage-independent mechanism. Only residual amounts of cohesin are cleaved at the onset of anaphase, coinciding with its disappearance from centromeres. We have identified two separase cleavage sites in the human cohesin subunit SCC1 and have conditionally expressed noncleavable SCC1 mutants in human cells. Our results indicate that cohesin cleavage by separase is essential for sister chromatid separation and for the completion of cytokinesis.
We conducted a phase‐I study to test the practicability and usefulness of a short (15–30 min) clinical interview for the assessment of cancer patients’ spiritual needs and preferences. Physicians ...assessed the spirituality of their patients using the semi‐structured interview SPIR. The interview focuses on the meaning and effect of spirituality in the patient’s life and coping system. Visual Analogue Scales (VAS) and Questionnaires were completed following the interview for rating whether SPIR had been helpful or distressing, and to what extent spirituality seemed important in the patient’s life and in coping with cancer disease. Thirty oncological outpatients who all agreed to participate were included. The majority wanted their doctor to be interested in their spiritual orientation. Patients and interviewing physicians evaluated the SPIR interview as helpful (patients mean 6.76 ± 2.5, physicians 7.31 ± 1.9, scale from 0 to 10) and non‐distressing (patients 1.29 ± 2.5, physicians 1.15 ± 1.3, scale from 0 to 10). Following the interview, doctors were able to correctly gauge the importance of spirituality for their patients. Patients who considered the interview as very helpful (VAS > 7) were more often female (P = 0.002). There were no differences between patients who evaluated the SPIR as very helpful and those who did not, as far as diagnosis, educational level or belonging to a religious community were concerned. The present study shows that a short clinical assessment of cancer patients’ spirituality is well received by both patients and physicians. The SPIR interview may be a helpful tool for addressing the spiritual domain, planning referrals and ultimately strengthening the patient–physician relationship.
The European X-ray Free Electron Laser (XFEL.EU) is an international research facility presently under construction in the area of Hamburg, Germany, which will start its operation at the end of 2016 ...1. The superconducting linear accelerator of the facility will deliver electron bunches with an energy of up to 17.5 GeV, arranged in trains of typically 2700 bunches at a repetition rate of 4.5 MHz. Each train will be followed by a gap of 99.4 ms. Spatially coherent X-rays are generated from the electron bunches in a series of undulators based on the Self-Amplified Spontaneous Emission (SASE) process, in three photon beamlines extending over a length of up to 200 m. Each beamline serves two experiments with different scientific goals. PUBLICATION ABSTRACT
Ongoing investigations for the improvement of Geant4 accuracy and computational performance resulting by refactoring and reengineering parts of the code are discussed. Issues in refactoring that are ...specific to the domain of physics simulation are identified and their impact is elucidated. Preliminary quantitative results are reported.
A number of physics data libraries for Monte Carlo simulation are reviewed. The development of a package for the management of physics data is described: its design, implementation and computational ...benchmarks. This package improves the data management tools originally developed for Geant4 electromagnetic physics models based on data libraries. The implementation exploits recent evolutions of the C++ libraries appearing in the C++0x draft, which are intended for inclusion in the next C++ ISO Standard. The new tools improve the computational performance of physics data management.
Recent efforts for the improvement of the accuracy of physics data libraries used in particle transport are summarized. Results are reported about a large scale validation analysis of atomic ...parameters used by major Monte Carlo systems (Geant4, EGS, MCNP, Penelope etc.); their contribution to the accuracy of simulation observables is documented. The results of this study motivated the development of a new atomic data management software package, which optimizes the provision of state-of-the-art atomic parameters to physics models. The effect of atomic parameters on the simulation of radioactive decay is illustrated. Ideas and methods to deal with physics models applicable to different energy ranges in the production of data libraries, rather than at runtime, are discussed.
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