Identification of the molecular pathways involved in paediatric and adult acute myeloid leukaemia

Acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) affects 3100 people every year in the UK, around 1% of whom are under 19 years of age. Despite improvements in immunotherapeutic treatment opportunities for AML, the rates of survival particularly in adults remain poor. We wanted to determine whether adult and paediatric AML, share common molecular pathways and therefore, the same therapies could be used to treat each.Previous dataset analysis provided a group of differentially expressed genes in different risk subgroups of AML. Using a variety of analysis tools and a comprehensive literature review, the role of these antigens and microRNAs (miRs) were investigated in various diseases and specifically AML. Models were generated using miRs as biomarkers to predict prognosis grouping based on expression and qPCR was performed to evaluate their use as a biomarker in patient sera.Nine leukaemia associated` antigens (LAAs) and four miRs were identified for further study due to their effects on patient prognosis. Investigation of the LAAs showed potential roles in cancerous drivers and leukaemogenesis, interacting with known important pathways. Following area under the curve analysis, mRNA-sequencing data from TCGA and TARGET demonstrated that combinations of miRs made powerful predictors of prognosis. qPCR showed no significant difference in expression levels of DEmiRs in sera samples.BIRC5 may be a key target for specific subtypes of AML and the other LAAs have been found to interact with key pathways in other cancers. However, these often have little to no research in AML patients or cell lines. Furthermore, only miR-1915-5p showed promise as a serum biomarker, however, further investigation is needed following this study

Henry James, Sr. and the American experience.

In this biography, I have endeavored to discuss Henry James, Sr.'s career, his responses to the transformations--both social and personal--which marked his age and touched his life. I have tried to analyze the ideas that comprised the system he labeled "society the redeemed form of man, " to discuss his impact on his family, and to discern the similarities and differences between his own experiences and those of other Americans. The first two chapters focus on the development of James' life and the progression of his works, the third chapter concentrates on his ideas and the final two chapters depict his familial relationships and his role as a symbolic American.Henry James, Sr.'s experiences were those of incessant transformations. During his lifetime, which spanned the major portion of the nineteenth century, he witnessed the immense changes that affected American society, underwent an evolution in his own life from a young man of scholarly and theological ambitions to a crusader for a "redeemed" society, and observed the development of his two eldest sons, William and Henry, from precocious infants and inquisitive adolescents to writers of international repute

Correlation between the quenching of total GT+ strength and the increase of E2 strength

Relations between the total beta+ Gamow-Teller (GT+) strength and the E2 strength are further examined. It is found that in shell-model calculations for N=Z nuclei, in which changes in deformation are induced by varying the single-particle energies, the total GT+ or GT- strength decreases monotonically with increasing values of the B(E2) from the ground state to the first excited J=2+ state. Similar trends are also seen for the double GT transition amplitude (with some exceptions) and for the spin part of the total M1 strength as a function of B(E2).Comment: 11 pages and 3 figures (Figures will be sent on request

Molecular Mechanisms and Therapies of Myeloid Leukaemia

Acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) is defined as a malignant disorder of the bone marrow (BM) that is characterised by the clonal expansion and differentiation arrest of myeloid progenitor cells [...

Systematics of the Quadrupole-Quadrupole Interaction and Convergence Properties

Our main concern in this work is to show how higher shell admixtures affect the spectrum of a Q.Q interaction. We first review how, in the valence space, the familiar SU(3) result for the energy spectrum can be obtained using a coordinate space Q.Q interaction rather than the Elliott one which is symmetric in r and p. We then reemphasize that the Elliott spectrum goes as L(L+1) where L is the orbital angular momentum. While in many cases this is compatible with the rotational formula which involves I(I+1), where I is the total angular momentum, there are cases, e.g. odd-odd nuclei, where there is disagreement. Finally, we consider higher shell admixtures and devise a scheme so as to obtain results, with the Q.Q interaction, which converge as the model spaces are increased. We consider not only ground state rotational bands but also those that involve intruder states.Comment: 13 pages, Revtex, to appear in Annals of Physic

Community Engagement Institute 2017

Agenda documenting time and dates of speaker presentations. Presentations varied from topics surrounding higher education, community-engaged research, service learning, collaboration between education and communities, and community-academic partner spotlights

Chronic kidney disease in aged cats: Clinical features, morphology, and proposed pathogeneses

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is the most common metabolic disease of domesticated cats, with most affected cats being geriatric (>12 years of age). The prevalence of CKD in cats exceeds that observed in dogs, and the frequency of the diagnosis of CKD in cats has increased in recent decades. Typical histologic features include interstitial inflammation, tubular atrophy, and fibrosis with secondary glomerulosclerosis. In contrast to people and dogs, primary glomerulopathies with marked proteinuria are remarkably rare findings in cats. Although a variety of primary renal diseases have been implicated, the disease is idiopathic in most cats. Tubulointerstitial changes, including fibrosis, are present in the early stages of feline CKD and become more severe in advanced disease. A variety of factors—including aging, ischemia, comorbid conditions, phosphorus overload, and routine vaccinations—have been implicated as factors that could contribute to the initiation of this disease in affected cats. Factors that are related to progression of established CKD, which occurs in some but not all cats, include dietary phosphorus intake, magnitude of proteinuria, and anemia. Renal fibrosis, a common histologic feature of aged feline kidneys, interferes with the normal relationship between peritubular capillaries and renal tubules. Experimentally, renal ischemia results in morphologic changes similar to those observed in spontaneous CKD. Renal hypoxia, perhaps episodic, may play a role in the initiation and progression of this disease

Classification of Extensions of Classifiable C*-algebras

We classify extensions of certain classifiable C*-algebras using the six term exact sequence in K-theory together with the positive cone of the K_0-groups of the distinguished ideal and quotient. We then apply our results to a class of C*-algebras arising from substitutional shift spaces.Comment: 22 pages, Reordered some sections, an application involving graph algebras is adde