3,002 research outputs found
Green tea catechins suppress the DNA synthesis marker MCM7 in the TRAMP model of prostate cancer.
Green tea catechins (GTCs) exert chemopreventive effects in many cancer models. Several studies implicate the DNA synthesis marker minichromosome maintenance protein 7 (MCM7) in prostate cancer progression, growth and invasion; representing a novel therapeutic target. In this study, we investigated the effect of GTCs on MCM7 expression in the transgenic adenocarcinoma mouse prostate model (TRAMP). DNA microarray, immunohistochemistry and western blot analysis showed that GTCs significantly suppressed MCM7 in the TRAMP mice treated with GTCs. Our study indicates that the cellular DNA replication factor MCM7 is involved in prostate cancer (CaP) and MCM7 gene expression was reduced by GTCs. Together, these results suggest a possible role of GTCs in CaP chemoprevention in which MCM7 plays a critical role
Bayesian hierarchical clustering for studying cancer gene expression data with unknown statistics
Clustering analysis is an important tool in studying gene expression data. The Bayesian hierarchical clustering (BHC) algorithm can automatically infer the number of clusters and uses Bayesian model selection to improve clustering quality. In this paper, we present an extension of the BHC algorithm. Our Gaussian BHC (GBHC) algorithm represents data as a mixture of Gaussian distributions. It uses normal-gamma distribution as a conjugate prior on the mean and precision of each of the Gaussian components. We tested GBHC over 11 cancer and 3 synthetic datasets. The results on cancer datasets show that in sample clustering, GBHC on average produces a clustering partition that is more concordant with the ground truth than those obtained from other commonly used algorithms. Furthermore, GBHC frequently infers the number of clusters that is often close to the ground truth. In gene clustering, GBHC also produces a clustering partition that is more biologically plausible than several other state-of-the-art methods. This suggests GBHC as an alternative tool for studying gene expression data. The implementation of GBHC is available at https://sites.
google.com/site/gaussianbhc
EPB41L5 is Associated with the Metastatic Potential of Low-grade Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumors
Background/Aim: Low-grade pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (LG-PNETs) behave unpredictably. The aim of the study was to identify biomarkers that predict PNET metastasis to improve treatment selection. Patients and Methods: Five patients with primary non-metastatic LG-PNETs, six with primary LG-PNETs with synchronous or metachronous metastases (M-PNETs), and six metastatic to liver LG-PNETs (ML-PNETs) from the group of six M-PNET patients were selected. RNA data were normalized using iterative rank-order normalization. Student’s t-test identified differentially-expressed genes in LG-PNETs versus M-PNETs. A 2-fold difference in expression was considered to be significant. Results were validated with an independent dataset of LG-PNETs and metastatic LG-PNETs. Results: Overall, 195 genes had a >2-fold change (in either direction). A total of 29 genes were differentially overexpressed in M-PNETs. Erythrocyte membrane protein band 4.1-like 5 (EPB41L5) had a 2.07-fold change increase in M-PNETs and the smallest p-value. EPB41L5 was not statistically different between M-PNETs and ML-PNETs. EPB41L5 differential expression between primary and metastatic LG-PNETs was confirmed by immunohistochemistry. Conclusion: These results support further investigation into whether EPB41L5 is a biomarker of PNETs with high risk for metastases
Baryon Charge Radii and Quadrupole Moments in the 1/N_c Expansion: The 3-Flavor Case
We develop a straightforward method to compute charge radii and quadrupole
moments for baryons both with and without strangeness, when the number of QCD
color charges is N_c. The minimal assumption of the single-photon exchange
ansatz implies that only two operators are required to describe these baryon
observables. Our results are presented so that SU(3) flavor and isospin
symmetry breaking can be introduced according to any desired specification,
although we also present results obtained from two patterns suggested by the
quark model with gluon exchange interactions. The method also permits to
extract a number of model-independent relations; a sample is r^2_Lambda / r_n^2
= 3/(N_c+3), independent of SU(3) symmetry breaking.Comment: 30 pages, no figures, REVTeX
Passive phloem loading and long-distance transport in a synthetic tree-on-a-chip
Vascular plants rely on differences of osmotic pressure to export sugars from
regions of synthesis (mature leaves) to sugar sinks (roots, fruits). In this
process, known as M\"unch pressure flow, the loading of sugars from
photosynthetic cells to the export conduit (the phloem) is crucial, as it sets
the pressure head necessary to power long-distance transport. Whereas most
herbaceous plants use active mechanisms to increase phloem concentration above
that of the photosynthetic cells, in most tree species, for which transport
distances are largest, loading seems to occur via passive symplastic diffusion
from the mesophyll to the phloem. Here, we use a synthetic microfluidic model
of a passive loader to explore the nonlinear dynamics that arise during export
and determine the ability of passive loading to drive long-distance transport.
We first demonstrate that in our device, phloem concentration is set by the
balance between the resistances to diffusive loading from the source and
convective export through the phloem. Convection-limited export corresponds to
classical models of M\"unch transport, where phloem concentration is close to
that of the source; in contrast, diffusion-limited export leads to small phloem
concentrations and weak scaling of flow rates with the hydraulic resistance. We
then show that the effective regime of convection-limited export is predominant
in plants with large transport resistances and low xylem pressures. Moreover,
hydrostatic pressures developed in our synthetic passive loader can reach
botanically relevant values as high as 10 bars. We conclude that passive
loading is sufficient to drive long-distance transport in large plants, and
that trees are well suited to take full advantage of passive phloem loading
strategies
Pion and sigma meson properties in a relativistic quark model
A variety of strong and electroweak interaction properties of the pion and
the light scalar sigma meson are computed in a relativistic quark model. Under
the assumption that the resulting coupling of these mesons to the constituent
quarks is identical, the sigma meson mass is determined as M_sigma=385.4 MeV.
We discuss in detail the gauging of the non-local meson-quark interaction and
calculate the electromagnetic form factor of the pion and the form factors of
the pi(0) -> gamma gamma and sigma -> gamma gamma processes. We obtain explicit
expressions for the relevant form factors and evaluate the leading and
next-to-leading orders for large Euclidean photon virtualities. Turning to the
decay properties of the sigma we determine the width of the electromagnetic
sigma -> gamma gamma transition and discuss the strong decay sigma -> pi pi. In
a final step we compute the nonleptonic decays D -> sigma pi and B -> sigma pi
relevant for the possible observation of the sigma meson. All our results are
compared to available experimental data and to results of other theoretical
studies.Comment: 46 page
First Measurement of pi e -> pi e gamma Pion Virtual Compton Scattering
Pion Virtual Compton Scattering (VCS) via the reaction pi e --> pi e gamma
was observed in the Fermilab E781 SELEX experiment. SELEX used a 600 GeV/c pi-
beam incident on target atomic electrons, detecting the incident pi- and the
final state pi-, electron and gamma. Theoretical predictions based on chiral
perturbation theory are incorporated into a Monte Carlo simulation of the
experiment and are compared to the data. The number of reconstructed events (9)
and their distribution with respect to the kinematic variables (for the
kinematic region studied) are in reasonable accord with the predictions. The
corresponding pi- VCS experimental cross section is sigma=38.8+-13 nb, in
agreement with the theoretical expectation sigma=34.7 nb.Comment: 10 pages, 12 figures, 4 tables, 25 references, SELEX home page is
http://fn781a.fnal.gov/, revised July 21, 2002 in response to journal referee
Comment
Sensing with ultra-short Fabry-Perot cavities written into optical micro-fibers
Abstract not availableStephen C. Warren-Smith, Ricardo M. André, Jan Dellith, Tina Eschrich, Martin Becker, Hartmut Bartel
First Observation of the Doubly Charmed Baryon Xi_cc^+
We observe a signal for the doubly charmed baryon Xi_cc^+ in the charged
decay mode Xi_cc^+ --> Lambda_c^+ K- pi+ in data from SELEX, the charm
hadro-production experiment at Fermilab. We observe an excess of 15.9 events
over an expected background of 6.1 +/- 0.5 events, a statistical significance
of 6.3sigma. The observed mass of this state is (3519 +/- 1) MeV/c^2. The
Gaussian mass width of this state is 3MeV/c^2, consistent with resolution; its
lifetime is less than 33fsec at 90% confidence.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in Physical Review
Letter
Observation of the Cabibbo-suppressed decay Xi_c+ -> p K- pi+
We report the first observation of the Cabibbo-suppressed charm baryon decay
Xi_c+ -> p K- pi+. We observe 150 +- 22 events for the signal. The data were
accumulated using the SELEX spectrometer during the 1996-1997 fixed target run
at Fermilab, chiefly from a 600 GeV/c Sigma- beam. The branching fractions of
the decay relative to the Cabibbo-favored Xi_c+ -> Sigma+ K- pi+ and Xi_c+ ->
X- pi+ pi+ are measured to be B(Xi_c+ -> p K- pi+)/B(Xi_c+ -> Sigma+ K- pi+) =
0.22 +- 0.06 +- 0.03 and B(Xi_c+ -> p K- pi+)/B(Xi_c+ -> X- pi+ pi+) = 0.20 +-
0.04 +- 0.02, respectively.Comment: 5 pages, RevTeX, 3 figures (postscript), Submitted to Phys. Rev. Let
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