Tumor cell-derived Timp-1 is necessary for maintaining metastasis-promoting Met-signaling via inhibition of Adam-10.

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Full-Length L1CAM and Not Its Δ2Δ27 Splice Variant Promotes Metastasis through Induction of Gelatinase Expression

Tumour-specific splicing is known to contribute to cancer progression. In the case of the L1 cell adhesion molecule (L1CAM), which is expressed in many human tumours and often linked to bad prognosis, alternative splicing results in a full-length form (FL-L1CAM) and a splice variant lacking exons 2 and 27 (SV-L1CAM). It has not been elucidated so far whether SV-L1CAM, classically considered as tumour-associated, or whether FL-L1CAM is the metastasis-promoting isoform. Here, we show that both variants were expressed in human ovarian carcinoma and that exposure of tumour cells to pro-metastatic factors led to an exclusive increase of FL-L1CAM expression. Selective overexpression of one isoform in different tumour cells revealed that only FL-L1CAM promoted experimental lung and/or liver metastasis in mice. In addition, metastasis formation upon up-regulation of FL-L1CAM correlated with increased invasive potential and elevated Matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2 and -9 expression and activity in vitro as well as enhanced gelatinolytic activity in vivo. In conclusion, we identified FL-L1CAM as the metastasis-promoting isoform, thereby exemplifying that high expression of a so-called tumour-associated variant, here SV-L1CAM, is not per se equivalent to a decisive role of this isoform in tumour progression

Runaway electron dynamics and transport anisotropy due to resonant magnetic perturbations in ITER

In this paper the effect of resonant magnetic perturbations (RMP) on the net radial transport of runaway electrons (RE) is calculated by simulating the RE drift orbits in magnetostatic perturbed fields. Through the transport, RMP influences the time dynamics andpreferred loss directions of the REs. The distribution of the field mesh exit points of therunaway electrons become more localised compared to the unperturbed case, since the losspattern depends on the geometric properties of the RMP configuration such as periodicityor helicity. On the other hand, the loss patterns do not depend on the particle energiesand starting positions. The particle radial steps are correlated to the local radial magneticperturbation component, which makes the transport chaotic, but deterministic

Mobile input device type, texting style and screen size influence upper extremity and trapezius muscle activity, and cervical posture while texting

This study aimed to determine the effects of input device type, texting style, and screen size on upper extremity and trapezius muscle activity and cervical posture during a short texting task in college students. Users of a physical keypad produced greater thumb, finger flexor, and wrist extensor muscle activity than when texting with a touch screen device of similar dimensions. Texting on either device produced greater wrist extensor muscle activity when texting with 1 hand/thumb compared with both hands/thumbs. As touch screen size increased, more participants held the device on their lap, and chose to use both thumbs less. There was also a trend for greater finger flexor, wrist extensor, and trapezius muscle activity as touch screen size increased, and for greater cervical flexion, although mean differences for cervical flexion were small. Future research can help inform whether the ergonomic stressors observed during texting are associated with musculoskeletal disorder risk. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd and The Ergonomics Society. All rights reserved

Gulf of Mexico Offshore Operations Monitoring Experiment, Phase 1: Sublethal Responses to Contaminant Exposure, Interim Report. Year 1

Summary describing the work completed at Geochemical and Environmental Research Group (GERG), Texas A&M University (TAMU) for 'Gulf of Mexico Offshore Monitoring Experiment (GOOMEX), Phase 1: Sublethal Response to Contaminant Exposure'. It includes background information on the project funding and sponsorship, goals, methodology, and findings

Runaway electron losses enhanced by resonant magnetic perturbations

Disruptions in large tokamaks can lead to the generation of a relativistic runaway electronbeam that may cause serious damage to the first wall. To suppress the runaway beam the applicationof resonant magnetic perturbations (RMP) has been suggested. In this work we investigate the effect ofresonant magnetic perturbations on the confinement of runaway electrons by simulating their drift orbitsin magnetostatic perturbed fields and calculating the transport and orbit losses for various initial energiesand different magnetic perturbation configurations. In the simulations we use model configurations withexisting (TEXTOR) and planned (ITER) RMP systems, and solve the relativistic, gyro-averaged driftequations for the runaway electrons including the electric field, radiation losses and collisions. The resultsindicate that runaway electrons are well confined in the core of the device, but the onset time of runawaylosses closer to the edge is dependent on the magnetic perturbation level, which can thereby affectthe maximum runaway current. Runaway electrons are rapidly lost from regions where the normalisedperturbation amplitude \delta B/B is larger than 0.1% in a properly chosen perturbation geometry. Thisapplies to the region outside the radius corresponding to the normalised flux \psi = 0.5 in ITER, when theELM mitigation coils are used at maximum current in their most favourable configuration

The effect of magnetic perturbations on runaway dynamics

Disruptions in large tokamaks can lead to the generation of a relativistic runaway (RE) electron beam that may cause serious damage to the first wall. To suppress the RE beamthe application of resonant magnetic perturbations (RMP) has been suggested. We investigate the effect of resonant magnetic perturbations by simulating the RE drift orbits inmagnetostatic perturbed fields and calculating the transport and orbit losses for various particle energies and different magnetic perturbation configurations. In the simulations we use model configurations with the planned ITER RMP system and solve the relativistic, gyro-averaged drift equations for the runaway electrons including radiation losses and collisions. The results indicate that runaway electrons are rapidly lost from regions where thenormalised perturbation amplitude δB/B is larger than ∼0.1% in a properly chosen perturbation geometry. This corresponds to the outer half of the confinement volume in ITER. We show that despite the chaotic magnetic topology the ensemble behaviour can only be approximated by a diffusion process