Towards a feasible income equality

To reach perfect income equality, factors that determine individual income, such as intelligence, inherited wealth, personalities, and social skills, should be identical for everyone. That is an infeasible ideal. Chae Un Kim and Ji-Won Park propose a more feasible and realistic concept of income equality that could be incorporated in the Gini coefficient, the most widely used measure of inequality, guaranteeing the maximisation of overall social welfare without hampering overall economic efficacy

Carotid Endarterectomy for Symptomatic Complete Occlusion of the Internal Carotid Artery

We described 9 consecutive patients who underwent operative carotid artery exploration with attempted carotid endarterectomy (CEA) for symptomatic internal carotid artery (ICA) occlusion. Indications for this surgery based on vascular imaging included segmental occlusion of the proximal ICA and also extensive occlusion of the distal ICA in selected patients in whom color-flow duplex ultrasound showed a poorly echogenic or anechoic thrombus with a flow void, suggestive of an acute thrombus. CEA was performed successfully to restore blood flow in all 9 patients:CEA in 5 and CEA with Fogarty thrombectomy in 4. Postoperative magnetic resonance (MR) angiography confirmed that revascularization had been successful in all 9 patients, and MR imaging displayed improved perfusion in 4 patients. Despite the lack of a generalized efficacy of surgical revascularization for symptomatic ICA occlusion, our study demonstrated that preoperative vascular imaging allows the selection of patients who may benefit from CEA

Adjuvant Chemotherapy in Microsatellite Instability-High Gastric Cancer

Purpose Microsatellite instability (MSI) status may affect the efficacy of adjuvant chemotherapy in gastric cancer. In this study, the clinical characteristics of MSI-high (MSI-H) gastric cancer and the predictive value of MSI-H for adjuvant chemotherapy in large cohorts of gastric cancer patients were evaluated. Materials and Methods This study consisted of two cohorts. Cohort 1 included gastric cancer patients who received curative resection with pathologic stage IB-IIIC. Cohort 2 included patients with MSI-H gastric cancer who received curative resection with pathologic stage II/III. MSI was examined using two mononucleotide markers and three dinucleotide markers. Results Of 359 patients (cohort 1), 41 patients (11.4%) had MSI-H. MSI-H tumors were more frequently identified in older patients (p < 0.001), other histology than poorly cohesive, signet ring cell type (p=0.005), intestinal type (p=0.028), lower third tumor location (p=0.005), and absent perineural invasion (p=0.027). MSI-H status has a tendency of better disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) in multivariable analyses (hazard ratio [HR], 0.4; p=0.059 and HR, 0.4; p=0.063, respectively). In the analysis of 162 MSI-H patients (cohort 2), adjuvant chemotherapy showed a significant benefit with respect to longer DFS and OS (p=0.047 and p=0.043, respectively). In multivariable analysis, adjuvant chemotherapy improved DFS (HR, 0.4; p=0.040). Conclusion MSI-H gastric cancer had distinct clinicopathologic findings. Even in MSI-H gastric cancer of retrospective cohort, adjuvant chemotherapy could show a survival benefit, which was in contrast to previous prospective studies and should be investigated in a further prospective trial.

Silibinin induces apoptosis via calpain-dependent AIF nuclear translocation in U87MG human glioma cell death

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Silibinin, a natural polyphenolic flavonoid, has been reported to induce cell death in various cancer cell types. However, the molecular mechanism is not clearly defined. Our previous study showed that silibinin induces glioma cell death and its effect was effectively prevented by calpain inhibitor. The present study was therefore undertaken to examine the role of calpain in the silibinin-induced glioma cell death.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>U87MG cells were grown on well tissue culture plates and cell viability was measured by MTT assay. ROS generation and △ψ_mwere estimated using the fluorescence dyes. PKC activation and Bax expression were measured by Western blot analysis. AIF nuclear translocation was determined by Western blot and immunocytochemistry.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Silibinin induced activation of calpain, which was blocked by EGTA and the calpain inhibitor Z-Leu-Leu-CHO. Silibinin caused ROS generation and its effect was inhibited by calpain inhibitor, the general PKC inhibitor GF 109203X, the specific PKC_δinhibitor rottlerin, and catalase. Silibinin-induce cell death was blocked by calpain inhibitor and PKC inhibitors. Silibinin-induced PKC_δactivation and disruption of △ψ_mwere prevented by the calpain inhibitor. Silibinin induced AIF nuclear translocation and its effect was prevented by calpain inhibitor. Transfection of vector expressing microRNA of AIF prevented the silibinin-induced cell death.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Silibinin induces apoptotic cell death through a calpain-dependent mechanism involving PKC, ROS, and AIF nuclear translocation in U87MG human glioma cells.</p

The Boltzmann fair division for distributive justice

Fair division is a significant, long-standing problem and is closely related to social and economic justice. The conventional division methods such as cut-and-choose are hardly applicable to real-world problems because of their complexity and unrealistic assumptions about human behaviors. Here we propose a fair division method from a completely different perspective, using the Boltzmann division. The mathematical model of the Boltzmann division was developed for both homogeneous and heterogeneous cake-cutting problems, and the realistic human factors (contributions, needs, and preferences) of the multiple participating players could be successfully integrated. The Boltzmann division was then optimized by maximizing the players&apos; total utility. We show that the Boltzmann fair division is a division method favorable to the socially disadvantaged or underprivileged, and it is drastically simple yet highly versatile and can be easily fine-tuned to directly apply to a variety of social, economic, and political division problems

Field modulation in Na-incorporated Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) polycrystalline films influenced by alloy-hardening and pair-annihilation probabilities

The influence of Na on Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) solar cells was investigated. A gradient profile of the Na in the CIGS absorber layer can induce an electric field modulation and significantly strengthen the back surface field effect. This field modulation originates from a grain growth model introduced by a combination of alloy-hardening and pair-annihilation probabilities, wherein the Cu supply and Na diffusion together screen the driving force of the grain boundary motion (GBM) by alloy hardening, which indicates a specific GBM pinning by Cu and Na. The pair annihilation between the ubiquitously evolving GBMs has a coincident probability with the alloy-hardening event