Body mass index in HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer treated with first-line paclitaxel and bevacizumab

The evidence emerged from the TOURANDOT trial encourages evaluating the role of anthropometric determinants on treatment outcomes in HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer patients treated with bevacizumab-including regimens. We thus analyzed data from a subgroup of these patients from a larger cohort previously assessed for treatment outcomes. Patients were included in the present analysis if body mass index values had been recorded at baseline. Clinical benefit rates, progression free survival and overall survival were assessed for the overall study population and subgroups defined upon molecular subtype. One hundred ninety six patients were included (N:196). Body mass index showed no impact on clinical benefit rates in the overall study sample and in the luminal cancer subset (p = 0.12 and p = 0.79, respectively), but did so in the triple negative subgroup, with higher rates in patients with body mass index ≥25 (p = 0.03). In the overall study sample, body mass index did no impact progression free or overall survival (p = 0.33 and p = 0.67, respectively). Conversely, in triple negative patients, progression free survival was significantly longer with body mass index ≥25 (6 vs 14 months, p = 0.04). In this subset, overall survival was more favorable (25 vs 19 months, p = 0.02). The impact of the molecular subtype was confirmed in multivariate models including the length of progression free survival, and number of metastatic sites (p < 0.0001). Further studies are warranted to confirm our findings in more adequately sized, ad hoc, prospective studies

Effect of annealing on structure and superconducting properties in Fe(Se,Te)

Abstract In this paper, the effect of post synthesis annealing treatments on a Fe(Se,Te) polycrystalline material is evaluated and discussed. The samples have been obtained via melting route. The material has been subjected to a high-temperature annealing treatment, carried out for 45 h at 680 °C. The role of the cooling step was investigated comparing samples obtained after a controlled cooling or after quenching in liquid nitrogen. From a morpho-structural point of view, the annealing treatment improves homogeneity, with respect to pristine samples, and influences secondary phase precipitate morphology. Regarding superconducting properties, a key role of the cooling procedure is assessed: controlled cooling leads in fact to a significant improvement of high field behaviour with respect to the melted material, while quenched samples are characterized by a worsening of the superconducting properties. Despite the overall worsening, however, the quenched samples show evidence of the presence of superconducting phases characterized by a remarkably high critical temperature (Tc > 18 K), observed for these materials only in films or under pressure

Effect of oxygen contamination on densification of Fe(Se,Te)

Abstract The optimization of sintering behaviour of iron chalcogenides superconducting materials is mandatory to enhance their critical current density, in order to pursuit their application in the production of superconducting wires. In this context it has been investigated here the effect of oxygen contamination on the material densification, considering the issues related to industrial oxygen-free isolated production lines. Our results show that the densification process is negatively affected by oxygen contamination. However, despite the difference in density, all sintered samples are characterized by similar structural and morphological features, and show comparable electrical and magnetic properties, with low critical current densities (Jc<103 A/cm2). These results suggest that densification is not the key limiting factor in these conditions, and that grain boundary or misorientation factors may play a greater role in limiting the performance of sintered iron chalcogenides superconductors

MicroRNA-135b promotes cancer progression by acting as a downstream effector of oncogenic pathways in colon cancer

MicroRNA deregulation is frequent in human colorectal cancers (CRCs), but little is known as to whether it represents a bystander event or actually drives tumor progression in vivo. We show that miR-135b overexpression is triggered in mice and humans by APC loss, PTEN/PI3K pathway deregulation, and SRC overexpression and promotes tumor transformation and progression. We show that miR-135b upregulation is common in sporadic and inflammatory bowel disease-associated human CRCs and correlates with tumor stage and poor clinical outcome. Inhibition of miR-135b in CRC mouse models reduces tumor growth by controlling genes involved in proliferation, invasion, and apoptosis. We identify miR-135b as a key downsteam effector of oncogenic pathways and a potential target for CRC treatment

Bodily Expression of Social Initiation Behaviors in ASC and non-ASC children: Mixed Reality vs. LEGO Game Play

This study is part of a larger project that showed the potential of our mixed reality (MR) system in fostering social initiation behaviors in children with Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC). We compared it to a typical social intervention strategy based on construction tools, where both mediated a face-to-face dyadic play session between an ASC child and a non-ASC child. In this study, our first goal is to show that an MR platform can be utilized to alter the nonverbal body behavior between ASC and non-ASC during social interaction as much as a traditional therapy setting (LEGO). A second goal is to show how these body cues differ between ASC and non-ASC children during social initiation in these two platforms. We present our first analysis of the body cues generated under two conditions in a repeated-measures design. Body cue measurements were obtained through skeleton information and characterized in the form of spatio-temporal features from both subjects individually (e.g. distances between joints and velocities of joints), and interpersonally (e.g. proximity and visual focus of attention). We used machine learning techniques to analyze the visual data of eighteen trials of ASC and non-ASC dyads. Our experiments showed that: (i) there were differences between ASC and non-ASC bodily expressions, both at individual and interpersonal level, in LEGO and in the MR system during social initiation; (ii) the number of features indicating differences between ASC and non-ASC in terms of nonverbal behavior during initiation were higher in the MR system as compared to LEGO; and (iii) computational models evaluated with combination of these different features enabled the recognition of social initiation type (ASC or non-ASC) from body features in LEGO and in MR settings. We did not observe significant differences between the evaluated models in terms of performance for LEGO and MR environments. This might be interpreted as the MR system encouraging similar nonverbal behaviors in children, perhaps more similar than the LEGO environment, as the performance scores in the MR setting are lower as compared to the LEGO setting. These results demonstrate the potential benefits of full body interaction and MR settings for children with ASC.EPSR

A Novel Method for Y Photons Depth of Interaction Discrimination on Monolithic LYSO Crystals for Brain PET/MRI

The MindView European Project pursues the development of a high efficiency and high resolution brain dedicated PET detector, simultaneously working with a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) system. Since the PET scanner is based on a small diameter ring and on thick monolithic scintillation crystals to assess high efficiency, the parallax error related to off-center positron annihilation is a critical issue. The Depth of Interaction (DoI) discrimination can reduce the blurring due to this phenomenon. In this work, we propose a novel DoI estimator, based on the ratio of the integral of scintillation light distribution to its maximum (named N/I). In a preliminary way, by means of Monte Carlo simulation, we have validated the correlation between this parameter and the DoI. Furthermore, we have experimentally tested the capability of such DoI estimator on a monolithic 20mm-thick LYSO crystal optically coupled to a 12x12 silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) array. Thanks to the proposed method, it is possible to select interaction events coming from different depths of the crystal. The DoI discrimination capability has been confirmed by using a collimated slanted pencil-beam: the proposed estimator allows to produce different images coming from events belonging to different depths of the crystal. From the experimental results a DoI discrimination resolution ranging from 4mm to 6mm has been obtained. The proposed method is expected to reduce the parallax error and, consequently, the width of lines of response coming from off- center positron annihilation of about 70% respect to the method without DoI discrimination

Circulating levels of adipokines and IGF-1 are associated with skeletal muscle strength of young and old healthy subjects

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Ultrafast, Zero-Bias, Graphene Photodetectors with Polymeric Gate Dielectric on Passive Photonic Waveguides.

We report compact, scalable, high-performance, waveguide integrated graphene-based photodetectors (GPDs) for telecom and datacom applications, not affected by dark current. To exploit the photothermoelectric (PTE) effect, our devices rely on a graphene/polymer/graphene stack with static top split gates. The polymeric dielectric, poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA), allows us to preserve graphene quality and to generate a controllable p-n junction. Both graphene layers are fabricated using aligned single-crystal graphene arrays grown by chemical vapor deposition. The use of PVA yields a low charge inhomogeneity ∼8 × 1010 cm-2 at the charge neutrality point, and a large Seebeck coefficient ∼140 μV K-1, enhancing the PTE effect. Our devices are the fastest GPDs operating with zero dark current, showing a flat frequency response up to 67 GHz without roll-off. This performance is achieved on a passive, low-cost, photonic platform, and does not rely on nanoscale plasmonic structures. This, combined with scalability and ease of integration, makes our GPDs a promising building block for next-generation optical communication devices

Search for the standard model Higgs boson in the H to ZZ to 2l 2nu channel in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

A search for the standard model Higgs boson in the H to ZZ to 2l 2nu decay channel, where l = e or mu, in pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV is presented. The data were collected at the LHC, with the CMS detector, and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 4.6 inverse femtobarns. No significant excess is observed above the background expectation, and upper limits are set on the Higgs boson production cross section. The presence of the standard model Higgs boson with a mass in the 270-440 GeV range is excluded at 95% confidence level.Comment: Submitted to JHE

Combined search for the quarks of a sequential fourth generation

Results are presented from a search for a fourth generation of quarks produced singly or in pairs in a data set corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5 inverse femtobarns recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC in 2011. A novel strategy has been developed for a combined search for quarks of the up and down type in decay channels with at least one isolated muon or electron. Limits on the mass of the fourth-generation quarks and the relevant Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix elements are derived in the context of a simple extension of the standard model with a sequential fourth generation of fermions. The existence of mass-degenerate fourth-generation quarks with masses below 685 GeV is excluded at 95% confidence level for minimal off-diagonal mixing between the third- and the fourth-generation quarks. With a mass difference of 25 GeV between the quark masses, the obtained limit on the masses of the fourth-generation quarks shifts by about +/- 20 GeV. These results significantly reduce the allowed parameter space for a fourth generation of fermions.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO