650 research outputs found
Classification of fibroglandular tissue distribution in the breast based on radiotherapy planning CT
Accurate segmentation of breast tissues is required for a number of applications such as model based deformable registration in breast radiotherapy. The accuracy of breast tissue segmentation is affected by the spatial distribution (or pattern) of fibroglandular tissue (FT). The goal of this study was to develop and evaluate texture features, determined from planning computed tomography (CT) data, to classify the spatial distribution of FT in the breas
Effective repair of articular cartilage using human pluripotent stem cell-derived tissue
In an effort to develop an effective source of clinically relevant cells and tissues for cartilage repair a directed
differentiation method was used to generate articular chondrocytes and cartilage tissues from human
embryonic stem cells (hESCs). It has previously been demonstrated that chondrocytes derived from hESCs
retain a stable cartilage-forming phenotype following subcutaneous implantation in mice. In this report, the
potential of hESC-derived articular-like cartilage to repair osteochondral defects created in the rat trochlea
was evaluated. Articular cartilage-like tissues were generated from hESCs and implanted into the defects.
After 6 and 12 weeks, the defects were evaluated histologically and immunohistochemically, and the quality
of repair was assessed using a modified ICRS II scoring system. Following 6 and 12 weeks after implantation,
hESC-derived cartilage tissues maintained their proteoglycan and type II collagen-rich matrix and scored
significantly higher than control defects, which had been filled with fibrin glue alone. Implants were found
to be well integrated with native host tissue at the basal and lateral surfaces, although implanted human
cells and host cells remained regionally separated. A subset of implants underwent a process of remodeling
similar to endochondral ossification, suggesting the potential for a single cartilaginous implant to promote
the generation of new subchondral bone in addition to repair of the articular cartilage. The ability to create
cartilage tissues with integrative and reparative properties from an unlimited and robust cell source represents
a significant advance for cartilage repair that can be further developed in large animal models before clinicalsetting application
Turbulence Fluctuations and New Universal Realizability Conditions in Modelling
General turbulent mean statistics are shown to be characterized by a
variational principle. The variational functionals, or ``effective actions'',
have experimental consequences for turbulence fluctuations and are subject to
realizability conditions of positivity and convexity. An efficient
Rayleigh-Ritz algorithm is available to calculate approximate effective actions
within PDF closures. Examples are given for Navier-Stokes and for a 3-mode
system of Lorenz. The new realizability conditions succeed at detecting {\em a
priori} the poor predictions of PDF closures even when the classical 2nd-order
moment realizability conditions are satisfied.Comment: 4 pages, LaTeX (Version 2.09), 3 figures, Postscript, Submitted to
Phys. Rev. Let
Structural analysis of cross α-helical nanotubes provides insight into the designability of filamentous peptide nanomaterials
The exquisite structure-function correlations observed in filamentous protein assemblies provide a paradigm for the design of synthetic peptide-based nanomaterials. However, the plasticity of quaternary structure in sequence-space and the lability of helical symmetry present significant challenges to the de novo design and structural analysis of such filaments. Here, we describe a rational approach to design self-assembling peptide nanotubes based on controlling lateral interactions between protofilaments having an unusual cross-α supramolecular architecture. Near-atomic resolution cryo-EM structural analysis of seven designed nanotubes provides insight into the designability of interfaces within these synthetic peptide assemblies and identifies a non-native structural interaction based on a pair of arginine residues. This arginine clasp motif can robustly mediate cohesive interactions between protofilaments within the cross-α nanotubes. The structure of the resultant assemblies can be controlled through the sequence and length of the peptide subunits, which generates synthetic peptide filaments of similar dimensions to flagella and pili
Fluctuations in the Irreversible Decay of Turbulent Energy
A fluctuation law of the energy in freely-decaying, homogeneous and isotropic
turbulence is derived within standard closure hypotheses for 3D incompressible
flow. In particular, a fluctuation-dissipation relation is derived which
relates the strength of a stochastic backscatter term in the energy decay
equation to the mean of the energy dissipation rate. The theory is based on the
so-called ``effective action'' of the energy history and illustrates a
Rayleigh-Ritz method recently developed to evaluate the effective action
approximately within probability density-function (PDF) closures. These
effective actions generalize the Onsager-Machlup action of nonequilibrium
statistical mechanics to turbulent flow. They yield detailed, concrete
predictions for fluctuations, such as multi-time correlation functions of
arbitrary order, which cannot be obtained by direct PDF methods. They also
characterize the mean histories by a variational principle.Comment: 26 pages, Latex Version 2.09, plus seceq.sty, a stylefile for
sequential numbering of equations by section. This version includes new
discussion of the physical interpretation of the formal Rayleigh-Ritz
approximation. The title is also change
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BRAF inhibition is associated with increased clonality in tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes
There have been significant advances with regard to BRAF-targeted therapies against metastatic melanoma. However, the majority of patients receiving BRAF inhibitors (BRAFi) manifest disease progression within a year. We have recently shown that melanoma patients treated with BRAFi exhibit an increase in melanoma-associated antigens and in CD8+ tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes in response to therapy. To characterize such a T-cell infiltrate, we analyzed the complementarity-determining region 3 (CDR3) of rearranged T-cell receptor (TCR) β chain-coding genes in tumor biopsies obtained before the initiation of BRAFi and 10–14 d later. We observed an increase in the clonality of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes in 7 of 8 patients receiving BRAFi, with a statistically significant 21% aggregate increase in clonality. Over 80% of individual T-cell clones detected after initiation of BRAFi treatment were new clones. Interestingly, the comparison of tumor infiltrates with clinical responses revealed that patients who had a high proportion of pre-existing dominant clones after the administration of BRAFi responded better to therapy than patients who had a low proportion of such pre-existing dominant clones following BRAFi. These data suggest that although the inhibition of BRAF in melanoma patients results in tumor infiltration by new lymphocytes, the response to treatment appears to be related to the presence of a pre-existing population of tumor-infiltrating T-cell clones
Certain subclasses of multivalent functions defined by new multiplier transformations
In the present paper the new multiplier transformations
\mathrm{{\mathcal{J}% }}_{p}^{\delta }(\lambda ,\mu ,l) (\delta ,l\geq
0,\;\lambda \geq \mu \geq 0;\;p\in \mathrm{% }%\mathbb{N} )} of multivalent
functions is defined. Making use of the operator two new subclasses and \textbf{\ }of multivalent analytic
functions are introduced and investigated in the open unit disk. Some
interesting relations and characteristics such as inclusion relationships,
neighborhoods, partial sums, some applications of fractional calculus and
quasi-convolution properties of functions belonging to each of these subclasses
and
are
investigated. Relevant connections of the definitions and results presented in
this paper with those obtained in several earlier works on the subject are also
pointed out
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