Aims
SOX2 is a key regulatory gene in embryonic stem cells. Although it has been implicated in cancer progression, its role in breast carcinoma is poorly understood.
Materials and methods
Fifty‐seven ...ductal carcinomas in situ (DCIS), 552 invasive breast carcinomas and 107 corresponding metastatic lymph nodes were evaluated immunohistochemically for the expression of SOX2. Its correlation with clinicopathological features, other biomarker profiles and patients’ outcomes were analysed.
Results
SOX2 was detected in 19.0% (105 of 552) of invasive breast carcinomas and 12.3% (seven of 57) of DCIS. Expression correlated with larger tumour size (P = 0.005) and higher grade (P = 0.002). It was associated negatively with ER (P = 0.015) and PR (P = 0.046) expression, but positively with Ki67 index (P = 0.013). Interestingly, it was also associated with neuroendocrine marker expression (synpatophysin and chromogranin/synaptophysin, P = 0.048 and 0.028, respectively). Expression appeared to be independent from that of common stem cell markers, namely CD44, CD24 and aldehyde dehydrogenase 1 (ALDH1). Furthermore, a higher rate of expression was observed in metastatic lymph nodes than in the corresponding primary tumours (P = 0.034). High SOX2 expression was correlated with poor disease‐free survival (log‐rank=9.489, P = 0.012) and was an independent prognostic factor (HR=2.918, P = 0.015) in patients with high nodal stages.
Conclusions
In summary, SOX2 expression was related to adverse breast carcinoma profile and poor outcome in selected patient groups.
In our previous studies, comparative proteomics demonstrated that lactate dehydrogenase B subunit (LDH- B) is down-regulated in high grade compared to non-high grade urinary bladder urothelial ...carcinoma (UBUC). However, this finding has not been validated by clinical cohort investigation. Therefore, in the present study, 269 primary localised UBUC specimens were examined for LDH-B expression to clarify the relevance of LDH-B expression level to UBUC progression.
Immunohistochemistry (IHC) was implemented to investigate LDH-B protein expression in 269 primary localised UBUC specimens and to evaluate the association with tumour progression and prognosis.
Our data demonstrated that dwindled LDH-B expression level was strongly associated with increment of primary tumour status (p< 0.0001), higher histological grade (p = 0.0024), and the presence of vascular (p = 0.0118) as well as perineurial (p = 0.0094) invasion, suggesting that LDH-B might be related to tumour progression. At the univariate level, low LDH-B expression is one of many parameters which significantly predicted both disease- specific survival (DSS) (p=0.0001) and metastasis-free survival (MeFS) (p = 0.0024). In Cox multivariate regression model, higher pT status was the strongest independent prognosticator for both DSS (p= 0.0006) and MeFS (p = 0.0067) while low LDH-B expression remained prognostically significant for DSS (p = 0.0401).
The above results confirmed the prognostic roles of LDH-B in UBUC.
To describe the epidemiology, clinical and laboratory features and outcomes of dengue in returned Australian travellers, applying the revised WHO dengue classification (2009) to this population.
...Retrospective case series analysis of confirmed dengue cases hospitalised at one of four Australian tertiary hospitals, January 2012 - May 2015.
Clinical features, laboratory findings and outcomes of patients with dengue; dengue classification according to 2009 WHO guidelines.
208 hospitalised patients (median age, 32 years; range, 4-76 years) were included in the study. Dengue was most frequently acquired in Indonesia (94 patients, 45%) and Thailand (40, 19%). The most common clinical features were fever (98% of patients) and headache (76%). 84 patients (40%) met the WHO criteria for dengue with warning signs, and one the criteria for severe dengue; the most common warning signs were mucosal bleeding (44 patients, 21%) and abdominal pain (43, 21%). Leukopenia (176 patients, 85%), thrombocytopenia (133, 64%), and elevated liver enzyme levels (154, 76%) were the most common laboratory findings. 46 patients (22%) had serological evidence of previous exposure to dengue virus. WHO guidelines were documented as a management benchmark in ten cases (5%); 46 patients (22%) received non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs).
A significant proportion of returning Australian travellers hospitalised for dengue have unrecognised warning signs of severe disease. Many received NSAIDs, which can increase the risk of haemorrhage in dengue. As travel to Asia from Australia continues to increase, it is vital for averting serious outcomes that clinicians can recognise and manage dengue.
Tracking Ransomware End-to-end Huang, Danny Yuxing; Aliapoulios, Maxwell Matthaios; Li, Vector Guo ...
2018 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (SP)
Conference Proceeding
Open access
Ransomware is a type of malware that encrypts the files of infected hosts and demands payment, often in a crypto-currency like Bitcoin. In this paper, we create a measurement framework that we use to ...perform a large-scale, two-year, end-to-end measurement of ransomware payments, victims, and operators. By combining an array of data sources, including ransomware binaries, seed ransom payments, victim telemetry from infections, and a large database of bitcoin addresses annotated with their owners, we sketch the outlines of this burgeoning ecosystem and associated third-party infrastructure. In particular, we are able to trace the financial transactions, from the acquisition of bitcoins by victims, through the payment of ransoms, to the cash out of bitcoins by the ransomware operators. We find that many ransomware operators cashed out using BTC-e, a now-defunct Bitcoin exchange. In total we are able to track over 16 million USD in likely ransom payments made by 19,750 potential victims during a two-year period. While our study focuses on ransomware, our methods are potentially applicable to other cybercriminal operations that have similarly adopted Bitcoin as their payment channel.
Software defined networks (SDNs) depart from traditional network architectures by explicitly allowing third-party software access to the network's control plane. Thus, SDN protocols such as OpenFlow ...give network operators the ability to innovate by authoring or buying network controller software independent of the hardware. However, this split design can make planning and designing large SDNs even more challenging than traditional networks. While existing network emulators allow operators to ascertain the behavior of traditional networks when subjected to a given workload, we find that current approaches fail to account for significant vendor-specific artifacts in the SDN switch control path. We benchmark OpenFlow-enabled switches from three vendors and illustrate how differences in their implementation dramatically impact latency and throughput. We present a measurement methodology and emulator extension to reproduce these control-path performance artifacts, restoring the fidelity of emulation.
Extremely limited research exploring the photocatalytic potential of main group metals, such as aluminum, gallium, and tin, has been undertaken due to their weak light harvesting properties. This ...study reports the efficient transformation of sugars to 5‐hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) with high yield employing an original heterogenous photocatalyst comprising a gallium(III) complex immobilized on an alumina support. Under visible light irradiation, the reaction rate of HMF formation is ~143 times higher than the equivalent thermal reaction performed in the absence of light. The turnover number (TON) the heterogeneous gallium (III) photocatalyst was as high as 1500, which was two orders of magnitude higher than the TON of the homogeneous gallium (III) system. It is proposed that photoirradiation significantly enhances the Lewis acidity of the catalyst by forming a semi‐coordination state between gallium(III) and N‐donor ligands, enabling the increased interaction of reactant sugar molecules with gallium(III) active sites. Consistent with this, the photoresponsive coordination of the gallium(III) complex and the abstraction of the hydroxy group by the metal under irradiation with visible light is observed by NMR spectroscopy for the first time. These findings demonstrate that efficient photocatalysts derived from the main group elements can facilitate biomass conversion using visible light.
A central feature of the immune system is the migratory behavior of its cellular components. Thus, fully understanding the generation and maintenance of immune responses must include consideration of ...how hematopoietic cells home to, interact within, and exit from secondary lymphoid organs as well as peripheral tissues. Recent advances in in situ imaging techniques now permit direct observation of these events in their physiologic settings with high spatiotemporal resolution. This review summarizes progress in this area of investigation from a lymphocentric perspective. We highlight controversies, point out key unanswered questions, and briefly outline what we believe are some of the near-term directions that in situ microscopic analysis of the immune system will take.
The processing, microstructure, and material properties of monolithic Si3N4 were investigated by using two amorphous Si3N4 nanopowders doped with (1) 6wt% Y2O3 and (2) 6wt% Y2O3+8wt% Al2O3. The ...orthorhombic Si2N2O-based phase was found in the two as-sintered bulks. Carbothermal reduction treatment (CRT) was thus applied at 1400°C for 10h with 3wt% and 6wt% carbon black added to the precursor powders of the Si–Y–O–N and Si–Y–Al–O–N systems, respectively, resulting in an increased nitrogen-to-oxygen (N:O) ratio and elimination of Si2N2O within the sintered bulks. The possible mechanisms of nucleation and grain growth of Si3N4 are discussed during CRT and the sintering process. The best wear resistance was achieved in ultrafine Si3N4 doped with Y2O3, which has good hardness, indentation toughness and a protective tribo-film.
Tumors express peptide antigens capable of being recognized by tumor-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL). Immunization of mice with a carcinogen-induced colorectal tumor, CT26, engineered to ...secrete granulocyte/macrophage colony-stimulating factor, routinely generated both short-term and long-term CTL lines that not only lysed the parental tumor in vitro, but also cured mice of established tumor following adoptive transfer in vivo. When either shortterm or long-term CTL lines were used to screen peptides isolated from CT26, one reverse-phase high performance liquid chromatography peptide fraction consistently sensitized a surrogate target for specific lysis. The bioactivity remained localized within one fraction following multiple purification procedures, indicating that virtually all of the CT26-specific CTL recognized a single peptide. This result contrasts with other tumor systems, where multiple bioactive peptide fractions have been detected. The bioactive peptide was identified as a nonmutated nonamer derived from the envelope protein (gp 70) of an endogenous ecotropic murine leukemia provirus. Adoptive transfer with CTL lines specific for this antigen demonstrated that this epitope represents a potent tumor rejection antigen. The selective expression of this antigen in multiple non-viral-induced tumors provides evidence for a unique class of shared immunodominant tumor associated antigens as targets for antitumor immunity.
This letter investigates the microwave characteristics of the liquid crystal tunable capacitors for the first time. With the dielectric anisotropy properties, the liquid crystal capacitors present ...very different characteristics compared to the semiconductor or MEMS tunable capacitors. A quality factor of 310 with a control voltage of 5 V was achieved at 4 GHz. A tuning range of 25.3% for the control voltages from 0 to 5 V was obtained at 5 GHz. The results demonstrate the potential applications of liquid crystals as dielectric materials for capacitors with high quality factors and wide tuning ranges at high frequencies, particularly suitable for the future flexible electronics with transparent substrates.
PDF
