4,339 research outputs found
Mutational Heterogeneity in Melanoma: An Inconvenient Truth
Identification of oncogenic BRAF mutations in primary and metastatic melanomas supports a linear model of clonal evolution in cancer. Some mutational studies, however, have failed to identify BRAF mutations in metastatic tumors from patients with BRAFmutant primary melanomas. Using a combination of methods, Riveiro-Falkenbach et al. (2015) assert that technical issues, and not clonal heterogeneity, may explain prior discordant mutational results
Prevention of cisplatin-induced hearing loss in children: Informing the design of future clinical trials.
Cisplatin is an essential chemotherapeutic agent in the treatment of many pediatric cancers. Unfortunately, cisplatin-induced hearing loss (CIHL) is a common, clinically significant side effect with life-long ramifications, particularly for young children. ACCL05C1 and ACCL0431 are two recently completed Childrens Oncology Group studies focused on the measurement and prevention of CIHL. The purpose of this paper was to gain insights from ACCL05C1 and ACCL0431, the first published cooperative group studies dedicated solely to CIHL, to inform the design of future pediatric otoprotection trials. Use of otoprotective agents is an attractive strategy for preventing CIHL, but their successful development must overcome a unique constellation of methodological challenges related to translating preclinical research into clinical trials that are feasible, evaluate practical interventions, and limit risk. Issues particularly important for children include use of appropriate methods for hearing assessment and CIHL severity grading, and use of trial designs that are well-informed by preclinical models and suitable for relatively small sample sizes. Increasing interest has made available new funding opportunities for expanding this urgently needed research
Food assistance is associated with improved body mass index, food security and attendance at clinic in an HIV program in central Haiti: a prospective observational cohort study
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Few data are available to guide programmatic solutions to the overlapping problems of undernutrition and HIV infection. We evaluated the impact of food assistance on patient outcomes in a comprehensive HIV program in central Haiti in a prospective observational cohort study.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Adults with HIV infection were eligible for monthly food rations if they had any one of: tuberculosis, body mass index (BMI) <18.5kg/m<sup>2</sup>, CD4 cell count <350/mm<sup>3 </sup>(in the prior 3 months) or severe socio-economic conditions. A total of 600 individuals (300 eligible and 300 ineligible for food assistance) were interviewed before rations were distributed, at 6 months and at 12 months. Data collected included demographics, BMI and food insecurity score (range 0 - 20).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>At 6- and 12-month time-points, 488 and 340 subjects were eligible for analysis. Multivariable analysis demonstrated that at 6 months, food security significantly improved in those who received food assistance versus who did not (-3.55 vs -0.16; P < 0.0001); BMI decreased significantly less in the food assistance group than in the non-food group (-0.20 vs -0.66; P = 0.020). At 12 months, food assistance was associated with improved food security (-3.49 vs -1.89, P = 0.011) and BMI (0.22 vs -0.67, P = 0.036). Food assistance was associated with improved adherence to monthly clinic visits at both 6 (P < 0.001) and 12 months (P = 0.033).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Food assistance was associated with improved food security, increased BMI, and improved adherence to clinic visits at 6 and 12 months among people living with HIV in Haiti and should be part of routine care where HIV and food insecurity overlap.</p
First Detection and Modeling of Spatially Resolved Ly in TW Hya
Lyman- (Ly) is the strongest emission line in UV spectra from
T-Tauri stars. Due to its resonant nature, Ly emission carries
information about the physical properties of the H I medium via the scattering
process. This work presents spatially resolved Ly emission across a
protoplanetary disk in the iconic face-on T-Tauri star TW Hya, observed with
HST-STIS at spatial offsets 0, , and . To
comprehensively interpret these Ly spectra, we utilize a 3D Monte-Carlo
radiative transfer simulation in a wind-disk geometry. Successfully reproducing
the observed spectra requires scattering contributions from both the wind and
the H I disk. We constrain the properties of the wind, the H I column density
() and the outflow velocity (). To reproduce the observed spatial distribution of Ly, we find
that the wind must cover the H I disk when viewed face-on. Furthermore, to
explore the effect of Ly radiative transfer in T-Tauri stars, we
compute the radiation field within the scattering medium and reveal that the
wind reflection causes more Ly photons to penetrate the disk. We also
show the dependence between the disk inclination angle and the spatially
resolved Ly spectra. Understanding the role of Ly emission in
T-Tauri stars is pivotal for decoding the complex interactions between the
winds, protoplanetary disks, and surrounding environments, which can
significantly impact the chemistry in the protoplanetary disk. Our observation
and modeling of spatially resolved Ly show the necessity of spatially
resolved Ly observation of a broad range of targets.Comment: 17 pages, 18 figures, Submitted to MNRA
Relating the Cosmological Constant and Supersymmetry Breaking in Warped Compactifications of IIB String Theory
It has been suggested that the observed value of the cosmological constant is
related to the supersymmetry breaking scale M_{susy} through the formula Lambda
\sim M_p^4 (M_{susy}/M_p)^8. We point out that a similar relation naturally
arises in the codimension two solutions of warped space-time varying
compactifications of string theory in which non-isotropic stringy moduli induce
a small but positive cosmological constant.Comment: 7 pages, LaTeX, references added and minor changes made, (v3) map
between deSitter and global cosmic brane solutions clarified, supersymmetry
breaking discussion improved and references adde
Locally Localized Gravity Models in Higher Dimensions
We explore the possibility of generalizing the locally localized gravity
model in five space-time dimensions to arbitrary higher dimensions. In a
space-time with negative cosmological constant, there are essentially two kinds
of higher-dimensional cousins which not only take an analytic form but also are
free from the naked curvature singularity in a whole bulk space-time. One
cousin is a trivial extension of five-dimensional model, while the other one is
in essence in higher dimensions. One interesting observation is that in the
latter model, only anti-de Sitter () brane is physically meaningful
whereas de Sitter () and Minkowski () branes are dismissed.
Moreover, for brane in the latter model, we study the property of
localization of various bulk fields on a single brane. In particular, it is
shown that the presence of the brane cosmological constant enables bulk gauge
field and massless fermions to confine to the brane only by a gravitational
interaction. We find a novel relation between mass of brane gauge field and the
brane cosmological constant.Comment: 20 pages, LaTex 2e, revised version (to appear in Phys. Rev. D
Bosonic Fields in the String-like Defect Model
We study localization of bosonic bulk fields on a string-like defect with
codimension 2 in a general space-time dimension in detail. We show that in
cases of spin 0 scalar and spin 1 vector fields there are an infinite number of
massless Kaluza-Klein (KK) states which are degenerate with respect to the
radial quantum number, but only the massless zero mode state among them is
coupled to fermion on the string-like defect. It is also commented on
interesting extensions of the model at hand to various directions such as
'little' superstring theory, conformal field theory and a supersymmetric
construction.Comment: 17 pages, LaTex 2e, revised version (to appear in Phys. Rev. D
Recommended from our members
Relaxation Response Induces Temporal Transcriptome Changes in Energy Metabolism, Insulin Secretion and Inflammatory Pathways
The relaxation response (RR) is the counterpart of the stress response. Millennia-old practices evoking the RR include meditation, yoga and repetitive prayer. Although RR elicitation is an effective therapeutic intervention that counteracts the adverse clinical effects of stress in disorders including hypertension, anxiety, insomnia and aging, the underlying molecular mechanisms that explain these clinical benefits remain undetermined. To assess rapid time-dependent (temporal) genomic changes during one session of RR practice among healthy practitioners with years of RR practice and also in novices before and after 8 weeks of RR training, we measured the transcriptome in peripheral blood prior to, immediately after, and 15 minutes after listening to an RR-eliciting or a health education CD. Both short-term and long-term practitioners evoked significant temporal gene expression changes with greater significance in the latter as compared to novices. RR practice enhanced expression of genes associated with energy metabolism, mitochondrial function, insulin secretion and telomere maintenance, and reduced expression of genes linked to inflammatory response and stress-related pathways. Interactive network analyses of RR-affected pathways identified mitochondrial ATP synthase and insulin (INS) as top upregulated critical molecules (focus hubs) and NF-ÎșB pathway genes as top downregulated focus hubs. Our results for the first time indicate that RR elicitation, particularly after long-term practice, may evoke its downstream health benefits by improving mitochondrial energy production and utilization and thus promoting mitochondrial resiliency through upregulation of ATPase and insulin function. Mitochondrial resiliency might also be promoted by RR-induced downregulation of NF-ÎșB-associated upstream and downstream targets that mitigates stress
- âŠ