Targeted Treatment of Differentiated and Medullary Thyroid Cancer

The incidence of thyroid cancer is increasing, with a concomitant increase in the number of patients with advanced and metastatic disease. Discoveries regarding the pathogenesis of thyroid cancer have led to the recent development of new therapeutic agents that are beginning to appear on the market. Many of these new agents are targeted kinase inhibitors primarily affecting oncogenic kinases (BRAF V600E, RET/PTC) or signaling kinases (VEGFR, PDGFR). Some of these agents report significant partial response rates, while others attain stabilization of disease as their best response. Their impact on survival is unclear. While these agents target similar pathways, a wide variety of differences exist regarding efficacy and side effect profile. Current expert opinion advises that these agents be used only in a specific subset of patients

Thermal Re-emission Model

Starting from a continuum description, we study the non-equilibrium roughening of a thermal re-emission model for etching in one and two spatial dimensions. Using standard analytical techniques, we map our problem to a generalized version of an earlier non-local KPZ (Kardar-Parisi-Zhang) model. In 2+1 dimensions, the values of the roughness and the dynamic exponents calculated from our theory go like $\alpha \approx z \approx 1$ and in 1+1 dimensions, the exponents resemble the KPZ values for low vapor pressure, supporting experimental results. Interestingly, Galilean invariance is maintained althrough.Comment: 4 pages, minor textual corrections and typos, accepted in Physical Review B (rapid

Translocator protein in late stage Alzheimer\u27s disease and Dementia with Lewy bodies brains

OBJECTIVE: Increased translocator protein (TSPO), previously known as the peripheral benzodiazepine receptor (PBR), in glial cells of the brain has been used as a neuroinflammation marker in the early and middle stages of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer\u27s disease (AD) and Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB). In this study, we investigated the changes in TSPO density with respect to late stage AD and DLB. METHODS: TSPO density was measured in multiple regions of postmortem human brains in 20 different cases: seven late stage AD cases (Braak amyloid average: C; Braak tangle average: VI; Aged 74-88, mean: 83 ± 5 years), five DLB cases (Braak amyloid average: C; Braak tangle average: V; Aged 79-91, mean: 84 ± 4 years), and eight age-matched normal control cases (3 males, 5 females: aged 77-92 years; mean: 87 ± 6 years). Measurements were taken by quantitative autoradiography using [ RESULTS: No significant changes were found in TSPO density of the frontal cortex, striatum, thalamus, or red nucleus of the AD and DLB brains. A significant reduction in TSPO density was found in the substantia nigra (SN) of the AD and DLB brains compared to that of age-matched healthy controls. INTERPRETATION: This distinct pattern of TSPO density change in late stage AD and DLB cases may imply the occurrence of microglia dystrophy in late stage neurodegeneration. Furthermore, TSPO may not only be a microglia activation marker in early stage AD and DLB, but TSPO may also be used to monitor microglia dysfunction in the late stage of these diseases

Level Set Approach to Reversible Epitaxial Growth

We generalize the level set approach to model epitaxial growth to include thermal detachment of atoms from island edges. This means that islands do not always grow and island dissociation can occur. We make no assumptions about a critical nucleus. Excellent quantitative agreement is obtained with kinetic Monte Carlo simulations for island densities and island size distributions in the submonolayer regime.Comment: 7 pages, 9 figure

Multiscale Kinetic Monte-Carlo for Simulating Epitaxial Growth

We present a fast Monte-Carlo algorithm for simulating epitaxial surface growth, based on the continuous-time Monte-Carlo algorithm of Bortz, Kalos and Lebowitz. When simulating realistic growth regimes, much computational time is consumed by the relatively fast dynamics of the adatoms. Continuum and continuum-discrete hybrid methods have been developed to approach this issue; however in many situations, the density of adatoms is too low to efficiently and accurately simulate as a continuum. To solve the problem of fast adatom dynamics, we allow adatoms to take larger steps, effectively reducing the number of transitions required. We achieve nearly a factor of ten speed up, for growth at moderate temperatures and large D/F.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures; revised text, accepted by PR

Precision Measurement of the Radiative B\Beta Decay of the Free Neutron

The standard model predicts that, in addition to a proton, an electron, and an antineutrino, a continuous spectrum of photons is emitted in the $\beta$ decay of the free neutron. We report on the RDK II experiment which measured the photon spectrum using two different detector arrays. An annular array of bismuth germanium oxide scintillators detected photons from 14 to 782~keV. The spectral shape was consistent with theory, and we determined a branching ratio of 0.00335 $\pm$ 0.00005 [stat] $\pm$ 0.00015 [syst]. A second detector array of large area avalanche photodiodes directly detected photons from 0.4 to 14~keV. For this array, the spectral shape was consistent with theory, and the branching ratio was determined to be 0.00582 $\pm$ 0.00023 [stat] $\pm$ 0.00062 [syst]. We report the first precision test of the shape of the photon energy spectrum from neutron radiative decay and a substantially improved determination of the branching ratio over a broad range of photon energies

Vehicle Systems Panel deliberations

The Vehicle Systems Panel addressed materials and structures technology issues related to launch and space vehicle systems not directly associated with the propulsion or entry systems. The Vehicle Systems Panel was comprised of two subpanels - Expendable Launch Vehicles & Cryotanks (ELVC) and Reusable Vehicles (RV). Tom Bales, LaRC, and Tom Modlin, JSC, chaired the expendable and reusable vehicles subpanels, respectively, and co-chaired the Vehicle Systems Panel. The following four papers are discussed in this section: (1) Net Section components for Weldalite Cryogenic Tanks, by Don Bolstad; (2) Build-up Structures for Cryogenic Tanks and Dry Bay Structural Applications, by Barry Lisagor; (3) Composite Materials Program, by Robert Van Siclen; (4) Shuttle Technology (and M&S Lessons Learned), by Stan Greenberg