High-Throughput Directed Self-Assembly of Core–Shell Ferrimagnetic Nanoparticle Arrays

Magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) provide a set of building blocks for constructing stimuli-responsive nanoscale materials with properties that are unique to this scale. The size and the composition of MNPs are tunable to meet the requirements for a range of applications including biosensors and data storage. Although many of these technologies would significantly benefit from the organization of nanoparticles into higher-order architectures, the precise placement and arrangement of nanoparticles over large areas of a surface remain a challenge. Herein, we demonstrate the viability of magnetic nanoparticles for patterned recording media utilizing a template-directed self-assembly process to afford well-defined nanostructures of magnetic nanoparticles and access these assemblies using magnetic force microscopy and a magnetic recording head. Photolithographically defined holes were utilized as templates to form assemblies of ferrimagnetic nanoparticle rings or pillars selectively over a large area (>1 cm²) in just 30 s. This approach is applicable to other nanoparticle systems as well and enables their high-throughput self-assembly for future advanced device fabrication

Bilingualism and language management in Czech minority in Croatia

This thesis attends to the issue of a Czech minority in Croatia, local bilingualism and language management on various levels: from the level of an individual, over the level of the entire Czech minority living there and local government, up to the state level and its laws. In the first chapter I have summarized the history of Czech migration to the territory of today's Croatia, mainly during the 19th century, and their gradual organization after they found themselves located out of their home country when the Austria-Hungary dismembered. The second chapter describes current situation in the minority - its organizational structure, cultural life, school system and its information and publishing activities. The safeguard of its existence by law and constitution is also of importance. The third chapter dedicates to the language situation in the Czech minority in Croatia: Czech-croatian and Croatian-czech bilingualism, differentness in dialectological origin of the language, language as a system and factors that influence both, the language and its users. The chapter is supplemented by the examples of spoken and written discourse of Czech fellow countrymen. The last chapter describes the progression and results of a research that was performed in minor companies with mixed language employees in the town of..

Additional file 3 of Molecular characterization of Gleason patterns 3 and 4 prostate cancer using reverse Warburg effect-associated genes

MTE primer sequences. Table S3. MTE primer sequences. (XLSX 45.9 kb

Monolayer Assembly of Ferrimagnetic Co_<i>x</i>Fe_3–<i>x</i>O₄ Nanocubes for Magnetic Recording

We report a facile synthesis of monodisperse ferrimagnetic Co_<i>x</i>Fe_3–<i>x</i>O₄ nanocubes (NCs) through thermal decomposition of Fe­(acac)₃ and Co­(acac)₂ (acac = acetylacetonate) in the presence of oleic acid and sodium oleate. The sizes of the NCs are tuned from 10 to 60 nm, and their composition is optimized at <i>x</i> = 0.6 to show strong ferrimagnetism with the 20 nm Co_0.6Fe_2.4O₄ NCs showing a room temperature <i>H</i>_c of 1930 Oe. The ferrimagnetic NCs are self-assembled at the water–air interface into a large-area (in square centimeter) monolayer array with a high packing density and (100) texture. The 20 nm NC array can be recorded at linear densities ranging from 254 to 31 kfci (thousand flux changes per inch). The work demonstrates the great potential of solution-phase synthesis and self-assembly of magnetic array for magnetic recording applications

Identification and Validation of Protein Biomarkers of Response to Neoadjuvant Platinum Chemotherapy in Muscle Invasive Urothelial Carcinoma

<div><p>Background</p><p>The 5-year cancer specific survival (CSS) for patients with muscle invasive urothelial carcinoma of the bladder (MIBC) treated with cystectomy alone is approximately 50%. Platinum based neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) plus cystectomy results in a marginal 5-10% increase in 5-year CSS in MIBC. Interestingly, responders to NAC (</p><p>Methods</p><p>mRNA expression data from a prior report on a NAC-treated MIBC cohort were re-analyzed in conjunction with the antibody database of the Human Protein Atlas (HPA) to identify candidate protein based biomarkers detectable by immunohistochemistry (IHC). These candidate biomarkers were subsequently tested in tissue microarrays derived from an independent cohort of NAC naive MIBC biopsy specimens from whom the patients were treated with neoadjuvant gemcitabine cisplatin NAC and subsequent cystectomy. The clinical parameters that have been previously associated with NAC response were also examined in our cohort.</p><p>Results</p><p>Our analyses of the available mRNA gene expression data in a discovery cohort (n = 33) and the HPA resulted in 8 candidate protein biomarkers. The combination of GDPD3 and SPRED1 resulted in a multivariate classification tree that was significantly associated with NAC response status (Goodman-Kruskal γ = 0.85 p<0.0001) in our independent NAC treated MIBC cohort. This model was independent of the clinical factors of age and clinical tumor stage, which have been previously associated with NAC response by our group. The combination of both these protein biomarkers detected by IHC in biopsy specimens along with the relevant clinical parameters resulted in a prediction model able to significantly stratify the likelihood of NAC resistance in our cohort (n = 37) into two well separated halves: low-26% n = 19 and high-89% n = 18, Fisher’s exact p = 0.0002).</p><p>Conclusion</p><p>We illustrate the feasibility of translating a gene expression signature of NAC response from a discovery cohort into immunohistochemical markers readily applicable to MIBC biopsy specimens in our independent cohort. The results from this study are being characterized in additional validation cohorts. Additionally, we anticipate that emerging somatic mutations in MIBC will also be important for NAC response prediction. The relationship of the findings in this study to the current understanding of variant histologic subtypes of MIBC along with the evolving molecular subtypes of MIBC as it relates to NAC response remains to be fully characterized.</p></div

Representative IHC for GDPD3 and SPRED1 from the HPA and our MIBC cohort.

<p>The staining patterns in the cohort of urothelial carcinomas present within the Human Protein Atlas with the same antibodies used in this study, are recapitulated in our cohort of muscle invasive urothelial carcinoma of the bladder.</p

(A) The application of a previously developed classification tree based on the clinical parameters of age greater than 60 and clinical stage greater than cT2 is significantly associated with NR rate in the GC NAC TMA cohort. (B) A multivariate classification tree based on the IHC staining of GDPD3 and SPRED1 is also significantly associated with NR rate in the GC NAC TMA cohort. (C) A multivariate classification tree combining the IHC staining of GDPD3 and SPRED1 along with the relevant clinical factors (clinical low risk = age≤60 & cT≤2) simplifies the stratification of NAC resistance into two well separated halves.

<p>(A) The application of a previously developed classification tree based on the clinical parameters of age greater than 60 and clinical stage greater than cT2 is significantly associated with NR rate in the GC NAC TMA cohort. (B) A multivariate classification tree based on the IHC staining of GDPD3 and SPRED1 is also significantly associated with NR rate in the GC NAC TMA cohort. (C) A multivariate classification tree combining the IHC staining of GDPD3 and SPRED1 along with the relevant clinical factors (clinical low risk = age≤60 & cT≤2) simplifies the stratification of NAC resistance into two well separated halves.</p

Muscle invasive urothelial carcinoma of the bladder cohorts.

<p>Patient preoperative clinical demographics based on cohort group. No statistically significant differences were observed within the GC NAC cohort based on the availability of tissue for TMA incorporation (^a) or across the NAC and no NAC cohorts (^b). Medians were compared by Kruskal-Wallis tests, all others were Fisher’s exact tests.</p><p>Muscle invasive urothelial carcinoma of the bladder cohorts.</p

Gene expression patterns of response and resistance to NAC in MIBC.

<p>The heatmap and hierarchical dendrogram of the samples (rows—mRNA, columns—samples) using the 21 target mRNA species identified from the Kato et al. cohort shows robust differences that correlate well to NAC response status. Unsupervised clustering revealed three distinct yet related sample groups designated as A, B, and C in the dendrogram. The two genes selected in the IHC based prediction model are highlighted in yellow.</p