We examined the correlation between lung cancer incidence/mortality and country-specific socioeconomic development, and evaluated its most recent global trends. We retrieved its age-standardized ...incidence rates from the GLOBOCAN database, and temporal patterns were assessed from global databases. We employed simple linear regression analysis to evaluate their correlations with Human Development Index (HDI) and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita. The average annual percent changes (AAPC) of the trends were evaluated from join-point regression analysis. Country-specific HDI was strongly correlated with age-standardized incidence (r = 0.70) and mortality (r = 0.67), and to a lesser extent GDP (r = 0.24 to 0.55). Among men, 22 and 30 (out of 38 and 36) countries showed declining incidence and mortality trends, respectively; whilst among women, 19 and 16 countries showed increasing incidence and mortality trends, respectively. Among men, the AAPCs ranged from -2.8 to -0.6 (incidence) and -3.6 to -1.1 (mortality) in countries with declining trend, whereas among women the AAPC range was 0.4 to 8.9 (incidence) and 1 to 4.4 (mortality) in countries with increasing trend. Among women, Brazil, Spain and Cyprus had the greatest incidence increase, and all countries in Western, Southern and Eastern Europe reported increasing mortality. These findings highlighted the need for targeted preventive measures.
Mammary gland morphogenesis begins during fetal development but expansion of the mammary tree occurs postnatally in response to hormones, growth factors and extracellular matrix. Hyaluronan (HA) is ...an extracellular matrix polysaccharide that has been shown to modulate growth factor-induced branching in culture. Neither the physiological relevance of HA to mammary gland morphogenesis nor the role that HA receptors play in these responses are currently well understood. We show that HA synthase (HAS2) is expressed in both ductal epithelia and stromal cells but HA primarily accumulates in the stroma. HA accumulation and expression of the HA receptors CD44 and RHAMM are highest during gestation when gland remodeling, lateral branch infilling and lobulo-alveoli formation is active. Molecular weight analyses show that approximately 98% of HA at all stages of morphogenesis is >300kDa. Low levels of 7–114kDa HA fragments are also detected and in particular the accumulation of 7–21kDa HA fragments are significantly higher during gestation than other morphogenetic stages (p<0.05). Using these in vivo results as a guide, in culture analyses of mammary epithelial cell lines (EpH4 and NMuMG) were performed to determine the roles of high molecular weight, 7–21kDa (10kDa MWavg) and HA receptors in EGF-induced branching morphogenesis. Results of these assays show that while HA synthesis is required for branching and 10kDa HA fragments strongly stimulate branching, the activity of HA decreases with increasing molecular weight and 500kDa HA strongly inhibits this morphogenetic process. The response to 10kDa HA requires RHAMM function and genetic deletion of RHAMM transiently blunts lateral branching in vivo. Collectively, these results reveal distinct roles for HA polymer size in modulating growth factor induced mammary gland branching and implicates these polymers in both the expansion and sculpting of the mammary tree during gestation.
•Remodeling mammary glands contain mixtures of HA polymer sizes (98%>500 kDa and <2% 7–114 kDa).•7–21kDa HA fragments are highest during gestation and uniquely promote EGF induced branching morphogenesis in culture.•High molecular weight HA suppresses the stimulatory effect of fragments.•Fragment effects are mediated by CD44 and RHAMM.
Multilayer thin films were prepared by the layer‐by‐layer (LBL) deposition method using a rhenium‐containing hyperbranched polymer and poly2‐(3‐thienyl)ethoxy‐4‐butylsulfonate (PTEBS). The radii of ...gyration of the hyperbranched polymer in solutions with different salt concentrations were measured by laser light scattering. A significant decrease in molecular size was observed when sodium trifluoromethanesulfonate was used as the electrolyte. The conditions of preparing the multilayer thin films by LBL deposition were studied. The growth of the multilayer films was monitored by absorption spectroscopy and spectroscopic ellipsometry, and the surface morphologies of the resulting films were studied by atomic force microscopy. When the pH of a PTEBS solution was kept at 6 and in the presence of salt, polymer films with maximum thickness were obtained. The multilayer films were also fabricated into photovoltaic cells and their photocurrent responses were measured upon irradiation with simulated air mass (AM) 1.5 solar light. The open‐circuit voltage, short‐circuit current, fill factor, and power conversion efficiency of the devices were 1.2 V, 27.1 μ A cm−2, 0.19, and 6.1×10−3 %, respectively. The high open‐circuit voltage was attributed to the difference in the HOMO level of the PTEBS donor and the LUMO level of the hyperbranched polymer acceptor. A plot of incident photon‐to‐electron conversion efficiency versus wavelength also suggests that the PTEBS/hyperbranched polymer junction is involved in the photosensitization process, in which a maximum was observed at approximately 420 nm. The relatively high capacitance, determined from the measured photocurrent rise and decay profiles, can be attributed to the presence of large counter anions in the polymer film.
Current affairs: Multilayer thin films were prepared from a rhenium‐containing hyperbranched polymer and an ionic polythiophene derivative (see picture; ITO=indium tin oxide). Photosensitization originates from the polymer junction and the films can be fabricated into photovoltaic cells. The maximum incident photon‐to‐electron conversion efficiency is 0.2 %.
A ruthenium‐catalyzed asymmetric epoxidation of various olefins using tert‐butyl hydroperoxide (TBHP) as the oxidant is reported. By applying ruthenium(pyridinebisoxazoline)‐(pyridinedicarboxylate) ...complexes 1 Ru(pybox)(pydic), 1 as catalysts, aromatic and aliphatic olefins yielded the corresponding epoxides at room temperature in good to excellent yields and enantioselectivities up to 65% ee. Slow addition of the stoichiometric oxidant significantly improved the yield and the chemoselectivity of the reaction.
A new class of easily tunable
N,
N,
N-pyridinebisimidazoline (pybim) ligands have been synthesized. The synthesis and tunability of these chiral tridentate ligands are much easier and flexible ...compared to the popular pyboxes, making the former a suitable ligand tool box for various asymmetric transformations. Ruthenium complexes of the new ligands were synthesized and applied in the asymmetric epoxidation of olefins using hydrogen peroxide as the oxidant. Excellent yields and moderate to good enantioselectivities were achieved in the epoxidation of aromatic olefins.
We present a measurement of the correlation between the spins of t and tbar quarks produced in proton-antiproton collisions at the Tevatron Collider at a center-of-mass energy of 1.96 TeV. We apply a ...matrix element technique to dilepton and single-lepton+jets final states in data accumulated with the D0 detector that correspond to an integrated luminosity of 9.7 fb$^{-1}$. The measured value of the correlation coefficient in the off-diagonal basis, $O_{off} = 0.89 \pm 0.22$ (stat + syst), is in agreement with the standard model prediction, and represents evidence for a top-antitop quark spin correlation difference from zero at a level of 4.2 standard deviations.
We present a measurement of the cross sections for the associated production of a $W$ boson with at least one heavy quark jet, $b$ or $c$, in proton-antiproton collisions. Data corresponding to an ...integrated luminosity of 8.7 fb$^{-1}$ recorded with the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron \ppbar Collider at $\sqrt{s}=1.96$ TeV are used to measure the cross sections differentially as a function of the jet transverse momenta in the range 20 to 150 GeV. These results are compared to calculations of perturbative QCD theory as well as predictions from Monte Carlo generators.