Characterization and Potential Applications of Dog Natural Killer Cells in Cancer Immunotherapy.

Natural killer (NK) cells of the innate immune system are a key focus of research within the field of immuno-oncology based on their ability to recognize and eliminate malignant cells without prior sensitization or priming. However, barriers have arisen in the effective translation of NK cells to the clinic, in part because of critical species differences between mice and humans. Companion animals, especially dogs, are valuable species for overcoming many of these barriers, as dogs develop spontaneous tumors in the setting of an intact immune system, and the genetic and epigenetic factors that underlie oncogenesis appear to be similar between dogs and humans. Here, we summarize the current state of knowledge for dog NK cells, including cell surface marker phenotype, key NK genes and genetic regulation, similarities and differences of dog NK cells to other mammals, especially human and mouse, expression of canonical inhibitory and activating receptors, ex vivo expansion techniques, and current and future clinical applications. While dog NK cells are not as well described as those in humans and mice, the knowledge of the field is increasing and clinical applications in dogs can potentially advance the field of human NK biology and therapy. Better characterization is needed to truly understand the similarities and differences of dog NK cells with mouse and human. This will allow for the canine model to speed clinical translation of NK immunotherapy studies and overcome key barriers in the optimization of NK cancer immunotherapy, including trafficking, longevity, and maximal in vivo support

Universal thermodynamic bounds on nonequilibrium response with biochemical applications

Diverse physical systems are characterized by their response to small perturbations. Near thermodynamic equilibrium, the fluctuation-dissipation theorem provides a powerful theoretical and experimental tool to determine the nature of response by observing spontaneous equilibrium fluctuations. In this spirit, we derive here a collection of equalities and inequalities valid arbitrarily far from equilibrium that constrain the response of nonequilibrium steady states in terms of the strength of nonequilibrium driving. Our work opens new avenues for characterizing nonequilibrium response. As illustrations, we show how our results rationalize the energetic requirements of two common biochemical motifs.Comment: 21 pages, 15 figure

Negative Refraction Gives Rise to the Klein Paradox

Electromagnetic negative refraction in metamaterials has attracted increasingly great interest, since its first experimental verification in 2001. It potentially leads to the applications superior to conventional devices including compact antennas for mobile stations, imaging beyond the diffraction limit, and high-resolution radars, not to mention the anamolous wave propagation in fundamental optics. Here, we report how metamaterials could be used to simulate the "negative refraction of spin-zero particles interacting with a strong potential barrier", which gives rise to the Klein paradox--a counterintuitive relativistic process. We address the underlying physics of analogous wave propagation behaviours in those two entirely different domains of quantum and classical.Comment: 4 journal pages, 2 figure

Locally Advanced Spiroadenocarcinoma in the Regional Axilla of a Breast Cancer Patient: Hallmarks of Definitive Diagnosis and Management.

Eccrine spiroadenocarcinoma is an extremely rare malignant eccrine gland tumor which may masquerade as other more common malignancies such as poorly differentiated squamous carcinoma or metastatic breast cancer. We report a case of an ulcerated axillary skin lesion with bulky adenopathy in a 77 year-old female with a prior history of ipsilateral triple negative breast carcinoma. The clear transition of benign spiradenoma to malignant carcinoma was essential to establishing a definitive diagnosis and treatment plan

Missing energy in black hole production and decay at the Large Hadron Collider

Black holes could be produced at the Large Hadron Collider in TeV-scale gravity scenarios. We discuss missing energy mechanisms in black hole production and decay in large extra-dimensional models. In particular, we examine how graviton emission into the bulk could give the black hole enough recoil to leave the brane. Such a perturbation would cause an abrupt termination in Hawking emission and result in large missing-energy signatures.Comment: addressed reviewer comments and updated reference

Combinatorial synthesis and high-throughput photopotential and photocurrent screening of mixed-metal oxides for photoelectrochemical water splitting

A high-throughput method has been developed using a commercial piezoelectric inkjet printer for synthesis and characterization of mixed-metal oxide photoelectrode materials for water splitting. The printer was used to deposit metal nitrate solutions onto a conductive glass substrate. The deposited metal nitrate solutions were then pyrolyzed to yield mixed-metal oxides that contained up to eight distinct metals. The stoichiometry of the metal oxides was controlled quantitatively, allowing for the creation of vast libraries of novel materials. Automated methods were developed to measure the open-circuit potentials (Eoc), short-circuit photocurrent densities (Jsc), and current density vs. applied potential (J–E) behavior under visible light irradiation. The high-throughput measurement of Eoc is particularly significant because open-circuit potential measurements allow the interfacial energetics to be probed regardless of whether the band edges of the materials of concern are above, close to, or below the values needed to sustain water electrolysis under standard conditions. The Eoc measurements allow high-throughput compilation of a suite of data that can be associated with the composition of the various materials in the library, to thereby aid in the development of additional screens and to form a basis for development of theoretical guidance in the prediction of additional potentially promising photoelectrode compositions

Noncommutative geometry inspired black holes in higher dimensions at the LHC

When embedding models of noncommutative geometry inspired black holes into the peridium of large extra dimensions, it is natural to relate the noncommutativity scale to the higher-dimensional Planck scale. If the Planck scale is of the order of a TeV, noncommutative geometry inspired black holes could become accessible to experiments. In this paper, we present a detailed phenomenological study of the production and decay of these black holes at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Noncommutative inspired black holes are relatively cold and can be well described by the microcanonical ensemble during their entire decay. One of the main consequences of the model is the existence of a black hole remnant. The mass of the black hole remnant increases with decreasing mass scale associated with noncommutative and decreasing number of dimensions. The experimental signatures could be quite different from previous studies of black holes and remnants at the LHC since the mass of the remnant could be well above the Planck scale. Although the black hole remnant can be very heavy, and perhaps even charged, it could result in very little activity in the central detectors of the LHC experiments, when compared to the usual anticipated black hole signatures. If this type of noncommutative inspired black hole can be produced and detected, it would result in an additional mass threshold above the Planck scale at which new physics occurs.Comment: 21 pages, 7 figure

Entangled Light in Moving Frames

We calculate the entanglement between a pair of polarization-entangled photon beams as a function of the reference frame, in a fully relativistic framework. We find the transformation law for helicity basis states and show that, while it is frequency independent, a Lorentz transformation on a momentum-helicity eigenstate produces a momentum-dependent phase. This phase leads to changes in the reduced polarization density matrix, such that entanglement is either decreased or increased, depending on the boost direction, the rapidity, and the spread of the beam.Comment: 4 pages and 3 figures. Minor corrections, footnote on optimal basis state

Photon polarization and Wigner's little group

To discuss one-photon polarization states we find an explicit form of the Wigner's little group element in the massless case for arbitrary Lorentz transformation. As is well known, when analyzing the transformation properties of the physical states, only the value of the phase factor is relevant. We show that this phase factor depends only on the direction of the momentum $\vec{k}/|\vec{k}|$ and does not depend on the frequency $k^0$. Finally, we use this observation to discuss the transformation properties of the linearly polarized photons and the corresponding reduced density matrix. We find that they transform properly under Lorentz group.Comment: Version published in Phys. Rev. A, few typos correcte