330 research outputs found
Diamagnetism of Confined Dirac Fermions in Disordered Graphene
The diamagnetism of confined Dirac fermions submitted to a uniform magnetic
field in disordered graphene is investigated. The solutions of the energy
spectrum are used to discuss the orbital magnetism from a statistical
mechanical point of view. More precisely, by the technique of Green functions
the self-energy for short and long-ranged disorders is obtained. This allows us
to determine the susceptibility for short and long-ranged disorders together
with confinement. We compare our results with already published work and point
out the relevance of these findings to a systematic formulation of the
diamagnetism in a confining potential.Comment: 21 pages. Version to appear in JP
Triple peptide vaccination as consolidation treatment in women affected by ovarian and breast cancer: clinical and immunological data of a phase I/II clinical trial
Vaccination with priming and expansion of tumour
reacting T cells is an important therapeutic option to be used
in combination with novel checkpoint inhibitors to increase
the specificity of the T cell infiltrate and the efficacy of the
treatment. In this phase I/II study, 14 high-risk disease-free
ovarian (OC) and breast cancer (BC) patients after completion
of standard therapies were vaccinated with MUC1, ErbB2
and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) HLA-A2+-restricted
peptides and Montanide. Patients were subjected to 6 doses
of vaccine every two weeks and a recall dose after 3 months.
ECOG grade 2 toxicity was observed at the injection site. Eight
out of 14 patients showed specific CD8+ T cells to at least one
antigen. None of 4 patients vaccinated for compassionate use
showed a CD8 activation. An OC patient who suffered from
a lymph nodal recurrence, showed specific anti-ErbB2 CD8+
T cells in the bulky aortic lymph nodes suggesting homingof the activated T cells. Results confirm that peptide vaccination
strategy is feasible, safe and well tolerated. In particular
OC patients appear to show a higher response rate compared
to BC patients. Vaccination generates a long-lasting immune
response, which is strongly enhanced by recall administrations.
The clinical outcome of patients enrolled in the trial
appears favourable, having registered no deceased patients
with a minimum follow-up of 8 years. These promising data,
in line with the results of similar studies, the high compliance
of patients observed and the favourable toxicity profile, support
future trials of peptide vaccination in clinically disease-free
patients who have completed standard treatments
Complexity of biogeographic pattern in the endangered crayfish Austropotamobius italicus in northern Italy: molecular insights of conservation concern.
The protection of freshwater biodiversity has become a priority task for conservation practices, as freshwater ecosystems host high levels of cryptic diversity, while also record similarly high rates of extinction. The Italian white-clawed crayfish Austropotamobius italicus is an endemic freshwater crustacean, threatened by several anthropogenic impacts such as habitat fragmentation, pol- lution, invasion of exotics, and climate change. Previous phylogenetic studies conducted in Italy pointed out a complex phylogeographic framework for the species, with four different subspecies currently recognized. Conserva- tion efforts, particularly when involving restocking and reintroduction, require a detailed knowledge of their pop- ulation genetics. In this study we describe the genetic structure of A. italicus populations in northern Italy (Lombardy Alpine foothills and northern Apennines) by using the informative mitochondrial marker cytochrome c oxidase subunit I, in order to assess their current evolu- tionary diversity and past phylogeographic history from a conservation perspective. Our results contribute to the mapping of the contact area among A. i. carsicus and A. i. carinthiacus in the Orobie Larian Prealps. Moreinterestingly, we highlight the existence of two deeply differentiated evolutionary lineages within A. i. carsicus, showing alternative phylogeographic patterns and past demographic trends. We propose to consider these two clades as distinct molecular operational taxonomic units for the conservation of this endangered crayfish
Discovery of chemotherapy-associated ovarian cancer antigens by interrogating memory T cells
According to the immunogenic cell death hypothesis, clinical chemotherapy treatments may result in CD8(+) and CD4(+) T-cell responses against tumor cells. To discover chemotherapy-associated antigens (CAAs), T cells derived from ovarian cancer (OC) patients (who had been treated with appropriate chemotherapy protocols) were interrogated with proteins isolated from primary OC cells. We screened for immunogenicity using two-dimensional electrophoresis gel-eluted OC proteins. Only the selected immunogenic antigens were molecularly characterized by mass-spectrometry-based analysis. Memory T cells that recognized antigens associated with apoptotic (but not live) OC cells were correlated with prolonged survival in response to chemotherapy, supporting the model of chemotherapy-induced apoptosis as an adjuvant of anti-tumor immunity. The strength of both memory CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells producing either IFN- or IL-17 in response to apoptotic OC antigens was also significantly greater in Responders to chemotherapy than in nonresponders. Immunogenicity of some of these antigens was confirmed using recombinant proteins in an independent set of patients. The T-cell interrogation system represents a strategy of reverse tumor immunology that proposes to identify CAAs, which may then be validated as possible prognostic tumor biomarkers or cancer vaccines
Education can improve the negative perception of a threatened long-lived scavenging bird, the Andean condor
Human-wildlife conflicts currently represent one of the main conservation problems for wildlife species around the world. Vultures have serious conservation concerns, many of which are related to people's adverse perception about them due to the belief that they prey on livestock. Our aim was to assess local perception and the factors influencing people's perception of the largest scavenging bird in South America, the Andean condor. For this, we interviewed 112 people from Valle FĂ©rtil, San Juan province, a rural area of central west Argentina. Overall, people in the area mostly have an elementary education, and their most important activity is livestock rearing. The results showed that, in general, most people perceive the Andean condor as an injurious species and, in fact, some people recognize that they still kill condors. We identified two major factors that affect this perception, the education level of villagers and their relationship with livestock ranching. Our study suggests that conservation of condors and other similar scavengers depends on education programs designed to change the negative perception people have about them. Such programs should be particularly focused on ranchers since they are the ones who have the worst perception of these scavengers. We suggest that highlighting the central ecological role of scavengers and recovering their cultural value would be fundamental to reverse their persecution and their negative perception by people.Fil: Cailly Arnulphi, VerĂłnica BeatrĂz. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientĂficas y TĂ©cnicas. Centro CientĂfico TecnolĂłgico Conicet - San Juan. Centro de Investigaciones de la Geosfera y Biosfera. Universidad Nacional de San Juan. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas FĂsicas y Naturales. Centro de Investigaciones de la Geosfera y Biosfera; ArgentinaFil: Lambertucci, Sergio Agustin. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientĂficas y TĂ©cnicas. Centro CientĂfico TecnolĂłgico Conicet - Patagonia Norte. Instituto de Investigaciones en Biodiversidad y Medioambiente. Universidad Nacional del Comahue. Centro Regional Universidad Bariloche. Instituto de Investigaciones en Biodiversidad y Medioambiente; ArgentinaFil: Borghi, Carlos Eduardo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientĂficas y TĂ©cnicas. Centro CientĂfico TecnolĂłgico Conicet - San Juan. Centro de Investigaciones de la Geosfera y Biosfera. Universidad Nacional de San Juan. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas FĂsicas y Naturales. Centro de Investigaciones de la Geosfera y Biosfera; Argentin
Combining old and new evidence to increase the known biodiversity value of the Sahamalaza Peninsula, Northwest Madagascar
Prior herpetological surveys in 1996 and 2000 identified 14 species of amphibians and 32 species of reptiles from the Sahamalaza Peninsula. This work increases the total number of amphibian and reptile species known from this area to 20 and 43 respectively. To maximise our chances of species detection, survey effort covered the entire wet season and part of the dry season, and utilised a combination of opportunistic searching, transect searching, pitfall trapping, and acoustic recording. We identified species through an integrative taxonomic approach, combining morphological, bio-acoustic and molecular taxonomy. Together, this enabled the detection of cryptic and seasonally inactive species that were missed in the shorter prior surveys that relied on morphological identification alone. The taxonomic identification of amphibians utilised a fragment of the mitochondrial 16S rRNA gene; taxonomic identification of reptiles utilised a fragment of the mitochondrial COI gene, and when necessary, also mitochondrial fragments of the 16S rRNA ND1, ND2, ND4 genes. All sequences were deposited in Genbank and COI sequences were also deposited in the BOLD database to foster taxonomic identification of malagasy reptiles. We report two new taxa: a species of Boophis, since described as B. ankarafensis, and a candidate new species of microhylid (genus: Stumpffia). We document range expansions of Boophis tsilomaro, Cophyla berara, Blaesodactylus ambonihazo beyond their type localities. Along with significant range expansions across a range of taxa, including Blommersia sp. Ca05, Boophys brachychir, Brookesia minima, Ebenavia inunguis, Geckolepis humbloti, Madascincus stumpffi, Pelomedus subrufa and Phelsuma kochi. Forest in the peninsula is under extreme pressure from human exploitation. Unless unsustainable agricultural and pastoral practices encroaching on these habitats halt immediately, both forest and the species that occur there, several of which appear to be local endemics, may be irreversibly lost
Adjuvant vaginal interventional radiotherapy in early-stage non-endometrioid carcinoma of corpus uteri: a systematic review
Purpose: This systematic review focused on rare histological types of corpus uteri malignancy, including uterine carcinosarcoma (UCS), uterine clear cell carcinoma (UCCC), and uterine papillary serous carcinoma (UPSC), and it is proposed to assist with clinical decision-making. Adjuvant treatment decisions must be made based on available evidences. We mainly investigated the role of vaginal interventional radiotherapy (VIRt) in UCS, UCCC, and UPSC managements.
Material and methods: A systematic research using PubMed and Cochrane library was conducted to identify full articles evaluating the efficacy of VIRt in early-stage UPSC, UCCC, and UCS. A search in ClinicalTrials.gov was performed in order to detect ongoing or recently completed trials as well as in PROSPERO for ongoing or recently completed systematic reviews. Survival outcomes and toxicity rates were obtained.
Results: All studies were retrospective. For UCS, the number of evaluated patients was 432. The 2- to 5-year aver- age local control (LC) was 91% (range, 74.2-96%), disease-free survival (DFS) 88% (range, 82-94%), overall survival (OS) 79% (range, 53.8-84.3%), the average 5-year cancer-specific survival (CSS) was 70% (range, 70-94%), and G3-G4 toxicity was 0%. For UCCC, the number of investigated patients was 335 (UCCC – 124, mixed – 211), with an average 5-year LC of 100%, DFS of 83% (range, 82-90%), OS of 93% (range, 83-100%), and G3-G4 toxicity of 0%. For UPSC, the number of examined patients was 1,092 (UPSC – 866, mixed – 226). The average 5-year LC was 97% (range, 87.1-100%), DFS 84% (range, 74.7-95.6%), OS 93% (range, 71.9-100%), CSS 89% (range, 78.9-94%), and G3-G4 toxicity was 0%.
Conclusions: These data suggest that in adequately selected early-stage UPSC and UCCC patients, VIRt alone may be suitable in women who underwent surgical staging and received adjuvant chemotherapy. In early-stage UCS, a multidisciplinary therapeutic approach has to be planned, considering high-rate of pelvic and distant relapses
Phase II study of the combination carboplatin plus celecoxib in heavily pre-treated recurrent ovarian cancer patients
Cyclooxygenase-2 overexpression is associated with poor outcome and resistance to platinum-based chemotherapy in ovarian cancer. We evaluated the antitumor activity and safety of the combination carboplatin plus the COX-2 inhibitor celecoxib in recurrent heavily-treated OC patients
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