Synergistic therapeutic effect of arsenic trioxide and radiotherapy in BALB/C nude mice bearing nasopharyngeal carcinoma xenografts

It has been shown that arsenic trioxide (ATO) induced apoptosis in human nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells and inhibited the growth of nasopharyngeal carcinoma xenografts (NPCX) in nude mice. Aim: The present study was designed to determine whether ATO at the non-toxic dose level could potentiate the therapeutic effectiveness of radiation therapy in nasopharyngeal carcinoma, using a BALB/C nude mouse xenograft model. Methods: The mice bearing NPCX were treated with radiation alone (2, 4, and 6 Gy), ATO alone (4 mg/kg/day x 6 days), and ATO plus radiation at the same dosage levels. Time of tumor growth delay (defined as the time necessary for the tumor to grow four-fold of its initial volume after, compared with untreated tumors) and toxic effects were determined. Results: The low dose ATO alone has no pronounced effects on tumor growth delay compared to untreated control. However, compared with radiation alone, the combined regimen delayed the tumor growth by 2–10 days and had no significant toxic effects such as the liver function damage. Conclusions: Combination of ATO at non-toxic dose level and radiation has synergistic effects on tumor growth inhibition in vivo and is well tolerated.Установлено, что триоксид мышьяка (ТОМ) индуцирует апоптоз в клетках карциномы носоглотки человека и ингибирует рост ксенографта карциномы носоглотки у атимических мышей. Цель работы — установить терапевтическую эффективность радиотерапии в комбинации ТОМ в нетоксичной дозе мышам линии BALB/ с ксенографтом карциномы носоглотки. Методы: животные с ксенографтом карциномы носоглотки получали либо только радиотерапию (2, 4 и 6 Гр) или ТОМ (4 мг/кг/день в течение 6 дней), или их комбинацию в тех же режимах и дозах. Задержку роста опухоли определяли как различие во времени, необходимом для достижения опухолью 4-кратного объема по сравнению с начальным объемом в опытной группе versus такового в контрольной группе. Результаты: введение ТОМ в низкой дозе не оказывало выраженного влияния на рост опухоли по сравнению с показателями в конт­рольной группе, а в комбинации с облучением приводило к задержке роста опухоли на 2–12 сут по сравнению с показателями у животных, получавших только лучевую терапию при отсутствии выраженных побочных эффектов. Выводы: комбинация ТОМ в нетоксической дозе и лучевой терапии приводит к ингибированию роста опухоли in vivo и не вызывает побочных эффектов. Ключевые слова: триоксид мышьяка, радиотерапия, ксенографт карциномы носоглотки

A Readout System for the STAR Time Projection Chamber

We describe the readout electronics for the STAR Time Projection Chamber. The system is made up of 136,608 channels of waveform digitizer, each sampling 512 time samples at 6-12 Mega-samples per second. The noise level is about 1000 electrons, and the dynamic range is 800:1, allowing for good energy loss ($dE/dx$) measurement for particles with energy losses up to 40 times minimum ionizing. The system is functioning well, with more than 99% of the channels working within specifications.Comment: 22 pages + 8 separate figures; 2 figures are .jpg photos to appear in Nuclear Instruments and Method

Multiple superconducting gap and anisotropic spin fluctuations in iron arsenides: Comparison with nickel analog

We present extensive 75As NMR and NQR data on the superconducting arsenides PrFeAs0.89F0.11 (Tc=45 K), LaFeAsO0.92F0.08 (Tc=27 K), LiFeAs (Tc = 17 K) and Ba0.72K0.28Fe2As2 (Tc = 31.5 K) single crystal, and compare with the nickel analog LaNiAsO0.9F0.1 (Tc=4.0 K) . In contrast to LaNiAsO0.9F0.1 where the superconducting gap is shown to be isotropic, the spin lattice relaxation rate 1/T1 in the Fe-arsenides decreases below Tc with no coherence peak and shows a step-wise variation at low temperatures. The Knight shift decreases below Tc and shows a step-wise T variation as well. These results indicate spinsinglet superconductivity with multiple gaps in the Fe-arsenides. The Fe antiferromagnetic spin fluctuations are anisotropic and weaker compared to underdoped copper-oxides or cobalt-oxide superconductors, while there is no significant electron correlations in LaNiAsO0.9F0.1. We will discuss the implications of these results and highlight the importance of the Fermi surface topology.Comment: 6 pages, 11 figure

Validation of “Care of the Dying Evaluation” in emergency medicine (CODEEM): pilot phase of End-of-life Management Protocol Offered Within Emergency Room (EMPOWER) study

Background: An increasing number of patients who present to emergency departments are at their endof-life phase and have significant palliative care needs such as in symptom control for pain and dyspnoea. Evaluating quality of care provided is imperative, yet there is no suitable tool validated in the emergency and Asian settings. We aim to examine the face and construct validity, and reliability of a newly developed questionnaire, Care of the Dying Evaluation - Emergency Medicine, for measuring the quality of end-of-life care in an Asian emergency context. Methods: A mixed methods pilot study was conducted. Participants composed of the next-of-kin to thirty dying patients who presented to the emergency departments of three public hospitals in Singapore. Qualitative evaluation, using cognitive "think-aloud" interviews, and quantitative analysis were employed. Percentage agreement and κ statistic were measured to evaluate temporal stability of the questionnaire. Cronbach's α and item-total correlations were used to assess internal consistency within the constructs. Confirmatory factor analysis was performed for construct validity. Results: All participants reported clear understanding of the questionnaire with no ambiguity; a minority felt the questions caused emotional distress (7/30, 23.3%). The questions showed moderate to good testretest reliability. Internal consistencies within the constructs were good for "ENVIRONMENT" and "CARE", and moderate for "COMMUNICATION". Factor loadings range from 0.40 to 0.99. Conclusions: The Care of the Dying Evaluation - Emergency Medicine questionnaire may be valid and reliable for use in an Asian emergency setting. Our prospective multicentre study using this evaluation tool may provide more insight on the quality of care rendered to dying patients and identify areas for improvement. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT03906747)

Measurement of the Atmospheric Muon Spectrum from 20 to 3000 GeV

The absolute muon flux between 20 GeV and 3000 GeV is measured with the L3 magnetic muon spectrometer for zenith angles ranging from 0 degree to 58 degree. Due to the large exposure of about 150 m2 sr d, and the excellent momentum resolution of the L3 muon chambers, a precision of 2.3 % at 150 GeV in the vertical direction is achieved. The ratio of positive to negative muons is studied between 20 GeV and 500 GeV, and the average vertical muon charge ratio is found to be 1.285 +- 0.003 (stat.) +- 0.019 (syst.).Comment: Total 32 pages, 9Figure

Probing exotic phenomena at the interface of nuclear and particle physics with the electric dipole moments of diamagnetic atoms: A unique window to hadronic and semi-leptonic CP violation

The current status of electric dipole moments of diamagnetic atoms which involves the synergy between atomic experiments and three different theoretical areas -- particle, nuclear and atomic is reviewed. Various models of particle physics that predict CP violation, which is necessary for the existence of such electric dipole moments, are presented. These include the standard model of particle physics and various extensions of it. Effective hadron level combined charge conjugation (C) and parity (P) symmetry violating interactions are derived taking into consideration different ways in which a nucleon interacts with other nucleons as well as with electrons. Nuclear structure calculations of the CP-odd nuclear Schiff moment are discussed using the shell model and other theoretical approaches. Results of the calculations of atomic electric dipole moments due to the interaction of the nuclear Schiff moment with the electrons and the P and time-reversal (T) symmetry violating tensor-pseudotensor electron-nucleus are elucidated using different relativistic many-body theories. The principles of the measurement of the electric dipole moments of diamagnetic atoms are outlined. Upper limits for the nuclear Schiff moment and tensor-pseudotensor coupling constant are obtained combining the results of atomic experiments and relativistic many-body theories. The coefficients for the different sources of CP violation have been estimated at the elementary particle level for all the diamagnetic atoms of current experimental interest and their implications for physics beyond the standard model is discussed. Possible improvements of the current results of the measurements as well as quantum chromodynamics, nuclear and atomic calculations are suggested.Comment: 46 pages, 19 tables and 16 figures. A review article accepted for EPJ

Pathway-based subnetworks enable cross-disease biomarker discovery

Surgical oncolog

Search for jet extinction in the inclusive jet-pT spectrum from proton-proton collisions at s=8 TeV

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published articles title, journal citation, and DOI.The first search at the LHC for the extinction of QCD jet production is presented, using data collected with the CMS detector corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 10.7  fb−1 of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 8 TeV. The extinction model studied in this analysis is motivated by the search for signatures of strong gravity at the TeV scale (terascale gravity) and assumes the existence of string couplings in the strong-coupling limit. In this limit, the string model predicts the suppression of all high-transverse-momentum standard model processes, including jet production, beyond a certain energy scale. To test this prediction, the measured transverse-momentum spectrum is compared to the theoretical prediction of the standard model. No significant deficit of events is found at high transverse momentum. A 95% confidence level lower limit of 3.3 TeV is set on the extinction mass scale

Repositioning of the global epicentre of non-optimal cholesterol

High blood cholesterol is typically considered a feature of wealthy western countries1,2. However, dietary and behavioural determinants of blood cholesterol are changing rapidly throughout the world3 and countries are using lipid-lowering medications at varying rates. These changes can have distinct effects on the levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and non-HDL cholesterol, which have different effects on human health4,5. However, the trends of HDL and non-HDL cholesterol levels over time have not been previously reported in a global analysis. Here we pooled 1,127 population-based studies that measured blood lipids in 102.6 million individuals aged 18 years and older to estimate trends from 1980 to 2018 in mean total, non-HDL and HDL cholesterol levels for 200 countries. Globally, there was little change in total or non-HDL cholesterol from 1980 to 2018. This was a net effect of increases in low- and middle-income countries, especially in east and southeast Asia, and decreases in high-income western countries, especially those in northwestern Europe, and in central and eastern Europe. As a result, countries with the highest level of non-HDL cholesterol—which is a marker of cardiovascular risk—changed from those in western Europe such as Belgium, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and Malta in 1980 to those in Asia and the Pacific, such as Tokelau, Malaysia, The Philippines and Thailand. In 2017, high non-HDL cholesterol was responsible for an estimated 3.9 million (95% credible interval 3.7 million–4.2 million) worldwide deaths, half of which occurred in east, southeast and south Asia. The global repositioning of lipid-related risk, with non-optimal cholesterol shifting from a distinct feature of high-income countries in northwestern Europe, north America and Australasia to one that affects countries in east and southeast Asia and Oceania should motivate the use of population-based policies and personal interventions to improve nutrition and enhance access to treatment throughout the world.</p