Kinematics of Tidal Debris from Omega Centauri's Progenitor Galaxy

We present the kinematic properties of a tidally disrupted dwarf galaxy in the Milky Way, based on the hypothesis that its central part once contained the most massive Galactic globular cluster, omega Cen. Dynamical evolution of a self-gravitating progenitor galaxy that follows the present-day and likely past orbits of omega Cen is calculated numerically and the kinematic nature of their tidal debris is analyzed, combined with randomly generated stars comprising spheroidal halo and flat disk components. We show that the retrograde rotation of the debris stars at $\sim -100$ km/s accords with a recently discovered, large radial velocity stream at $\sim 300$ km/s towards the Galactic longitude of $\sim 270^\circ$. These stars also contribute, only in part, to a reported retrograde motion of the outer halo at the North Galactic Pole. The prospects for future debris searches and the implications for the early evolution of the Galaxy are briefly presented.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ Letter

Effects of a single bout of walking on psychophysiologic responses and executive function in elderly adults: a pilot study

Background: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a single bout of walking on mood, psychophysiologic responses, and executive function in elderly adults.Methods: Twenty healthy, elderly adults (10 women and 10 men; mean age 70.50 ± 3.4 years) participated in this study. Mood, as assessed by the Profile of Mood States, and salivary α-amylase activity were examined before and after walking. Executive functions were also evaluated by the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test.Results: Negative feeling scores such as tension-anxiety, anger-hostility, and confusion significantly improved after walking. No significant differences were found for either salivary α-amylase activities or Wisconsin Card Sorting Test scores before and after walking. However, the changes in salivary α-amylase activity before and after walking correlated positively with the number of total errors and perseverative errors of Nelson in the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test.Conclusion: These results suggest that moderate exercise, such as self-paced one-time walking, induces beneficial psychologic effects in elderly adults. Meanwhile, the significant increase in salivary α-amylase activity after walking might temporarily cause deterioration of executive function

Comparing computer-generated and pathologist-generated tumour segmentations for immunohistochemical scoring of breast tissue microarrays

BACKGROUND: Tissue microarrays (TMAs) have become a valuable resource for biomarker expression in translational research. Immunohistochemical (IHC) assessment of TMAs is the principal method for analysing large numbers of patient samples, but manual IHC assessment of TMAs remains a challenging and laborious task. With advances in image analysis, computer-generated analyses of TMAs have the potential to lessen the burden of expert pathologist review. METHODS: In current commercial software computerised oestrogen receptor (ER) scoring relies on tumour localisation in the form of hand-drawn annotations. In this study, tumour localisation for ER scoring was evaluated comparing computer-generated segmentation masks with those of two specialist breast pathologists. Automatically and manually obtained segmentation masks were used to obtain IHC scores for thirty-two ER-stained invasive breast cancer TMA samples using FDA-approved IHC scoring software. RESULTS: Although pixel-level comparisons showed lower agreement between automated and manual segmentation masks (κ=0.81) than between pathologists' masks (κ=0.91), this had little impact on computed IHC scores (Allred; [Image: see text]=0.91, Quickscore; [Image: see text]=0.92). CONCLUSIONS: The proposed automated system provides consistent measurements thus ensuring standardisation, and shows promise for increasing IHC analysis of nuclear staining in TMAs from large clinical trials

Path-Integral for Quantum Tunneling

Path-integral for theories with degenerate vacua is investigated. The origin of the non Borel-summability of the perturbation theory is studied. A new prescription to deal with small coupling is proposed. It leads to a series, which at low orders and small coupling differs from the ordinary perturbative series by nonperturbative amount, but is Borel-summable.Comment: 25 pages + 12 figures (not included, but available upon request) [No changed in content in this version. Problem with line length fixed.

Upregulation of Protein Tyrosine Phosphatase Type IVA Member 3 (PTP4A3/PRL-3) is Associated with Tumor Differentiation and a Poor Prognosis in Human Hepatocellular Carcinoma

BACKGROUND: Protein tyrosine phosphatase type IVA member 3 (PTP4A3/PRL-3), a metastasis-associated phosphatase, plays multiple roles in cancer metastasis. We investigated PTP4A3/PRL-3 expression and its correlation with the clinicopathological features and prognosis in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). METHODS: Gene expression profiles of PTP4A3/PRL-3 were obtained in poorly differentiated HCC tissues. The results were validated independently by TaqMan gene expression assays and immunohistochemical analysis. RESULTS: According to the microarray profiles, PTP4A3/PRL-3 was upregulated in patients with poorly differentiated disease compared to patients with well-differentiated disease with hepatic backgrounds associated with hepatitis B or C. Validation analysis showed that the PTP4A3/PRL-3 mRNA and protein levels were significantly associated with poor differentiation (P < 0.0001), high serum α-fetoprotein (P < 0.01), high serum protein induced by vitamin K absence/antagonist-II (PIVKA-II), and hepatic vascular invasion (P < 0.05). The expression of PTP4A3/PRL-3 protein was also correlated with advanced cancer stages (P < 0.01); this resulted in a significantly poorer prognosis in both overall (P = 0.0024) and recurrence-free survival (P = 0.0227). According Cox regression univariate analysis, the positive expression of PTP4A3/PRL-3 was a poor risk prognostic factor (OS, P = 0.0031; recurrence-free survival, P = 0.0245). Cox regression multivariate analysis indicated that high PTP4A3/PRL-3 expression was an independent, unfavorable prognostic factor for overall survival (hazard ratio 0.542; P = 0.048). CONCLUSIONS: PTP4A3/PRL-3 might be closely associated with HCC progression, invasion, and metastasis. Its high expression had a negative impact on the prognosis of HCC patients. This strongly suggests that PTP4A3/PRL-3 should be considered as a prognostic factor. Further analysis should be pursued to evaluate it as a novel prognostic target. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1245/s10434-012-2395-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Comparison between Integrated Backscatter Intravascular Ultrasound and 64-Slice Multi-Detector Row Computed Tomography for Tissue Characterization and Volumetric Assessment of Coronary Plaques

Background: The purpose of this study was to determine the cut-off values of Hounsfield units (HU) for the discrimination of plaque components and to evaluate the feasibility of measurement of the volume of plaque components using multi-detector row computed tomography (MDCT). Methods: Coronary lesions (125 lesions in 125 patients) were visualized by both integrated backscatter intravascular ultrasound (IB-IVUS) and 64-slice MDCT at the same site. The IB values were used as a gold standard to determine the cut off values of HU for the discrimination of plaque components. Results: Plaques were classified as lipid pool (n =50), fibrosis (n =65) or calcification (n =35) by IB-IVUS. The HU of lipid pool, fibrosis and calcification were 18 ± 18 HU (−19 to 58 HU), 95 ± 24 HU (46 to 154 HU) and 378 ± 99 HU (188 to 605 HU), respectively. Using receiver operating characteristic curve analysis, a threshold of 50 HU was the optimal cutoff values to discriminate lipid pool from fibrosis. Lipid volume measured by MDCT was correlated with that measured by IB-IVUS (r =0.66, p <0.001), whereas fibrous volume was not (r =0.21, p =0.059). Conclusion: Lipid volume measured by MDCT was moderately correlated with that measured by IB-IVUS. MDCT may be useful for volumetric assessment of the lipid volume of coronary plaques, whereas the assessment of fibrosis volume was unstable

Cationic Terpolymerization of Vinyl Ethers, Oxetane, and Ketones via Concurrent Vinyl-Addition, Ring-Opening, and Carbonyl-Addition Mechanisms: Multiblock Polymer Synthesis and Mechanistic Investigation

Kanazawa A., Aoshima S.. Cationic Terpolymerization of Vinyl Ethers, Oxetane, and Ketones via Concurrent Vinyl-Addition, Ring-Opening, and Carbonyl-Addition Mechanisms: Multiblock Polymer Synthesis and Mechanistic Investigation. Macromolecules 50, 6595 (2017); https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.macromol.7b01250.Cationic terpolymerization of an alkyl vinyl ether (VE) with oxetane and methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) proceeded via concurrent vinyl-addition, ring-opening, and carbonyl-addition mechanisms. Highly selective crossover reactions occurred in a one-way cycle, resulting in the generation of multiblock polymers with constitutional repeating units comprising a poly(VE) block, a polyoxetane block, and a single MEK unit. The ketone efficiently functioned as a non-homopolymerizable monomer, which reacted with the oxetane-derived oxonium ion to generate an alkoxy group-adjacent carbocation or an oxocarbenium ion. Furthermore, the resulting carbocation allowed to react with only VEs. The polymerization, which was induced with an initiating system of Ph3C+PF6-, 2,6-di-tert-butylpyridine, and 1,4-dioxane, was partly mediated by long-lived propagating species. NMR analysis of the chain end structures revealed that mono- and difluorophosphate moieties generated via the hydrolysis of PF6- were partially responsible for the generation of these long-lived species