Drug-target interactions: only the first step in the commitment to a programmed cell death?

The search for novel antitumour drugs has reached a plateau phase. The carcinomas remain almost as intractable as they did 40 years ago and the need for effective therapy is pressing. There is an argument that the current pharmacopoeia is sufficient but, to be effective, the biochemical mechanisms of drug resistance must be circumvented. In tackling the question of why certain cancer cells are resistant, the converse question of why others are sensitive still remains to be answered fully. Asking the fundamental question of why and how a cell dies may provide clues as to what avenues lie open for improved chemotherapy. In this review we survey the recent literature on cell death and we argue that it is possible that the outcome of chemotherapy may be determined by the response of the cell to the formation of the drug-target complex, and/or its sequellae, rather than to the biochemical changes brought about by the drug alone. One of these responses, determined by the phenotype of the cell, may be activation of a genetic programme for cell death

Solar electric propulsion for Mars transport vehicles

Solar electric propulsion (SEP) is an alternative to chemical and nuclear powered propulsion systems for both piloted and unpiloted Mars transport vehicles. Photovoltaic solar cell and array technologies were evaluated as components of SEP power systems. Of the systems considered, the SEP power system composed of multijunction solar cells in an ENTECH domed fresnel concentrator array had the least array mass and area. Trip times to Mars optimized for minimum propellant mass were calculated. Additionally, a preliminary vehicle concept was designed

A feasibility study for a remote laser water turbidity meter

A technique to remotely determine the attenuation coefficient (alpha) of the water was investigated. The backscatter energy (theta = 180 deg) of a pulse laser (lambda = 440 - 660 nm) was found directly related to the water turbidity. The greatest sensitivity was found to exist at 440 nm. For waters whose turbidity was adjusted using Chesapeake Bay sediment, the sensitivity in determining alpha at 440 nm was found to be approximately 5 - 10%. A correlation was also found to exist between the water depth (time) at which the peak backscatter occurs and alpha

A Decade Of Starspot Activity On The Eclipsing Short-Period RS Canum Venaticorum Star WY Cancri: 1988-1997

We present optical photometry of the short-period eclipsing RS CVn system WY Cancri for the years 1988–1997. For each light curve, we model the distortion waves in order to study the behavior of starspots in this system. After removing the spot effects f

Cyclic Perimenstrual Pain and Discomfort and Australian Women's Associated Use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine: A Longitudinal Study

© Copyright 2018, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. 2018. Objective: To examine the longitudinal change in Australian women's prevalence of cyclic perimenstrual pain and discomfort and the association between their symptoms and use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). Method: Data on endometriosis, premenstrual syndrome (PMS), irregular periods, heavy periods, and severe period pain were collected over a 7-year period from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health, for women aged 28 to 33 years in 2006, and at 3-year follow-ups. Changes in symptoms and patterns of CAM practitioner and therapy/product use associated with these symptoms were analyzed using longitudinal regression modeling. Results: Over the 7-year period, prevalence rates of PMS and heavy periods increased, while prevalence rates of endometriosis, irregular periods, and severe period pain remained stable. The most common use of CAM longitudinally associated with the perimenstrual symptoms was use of vitamins/minerals, yoga/meditation, massage therapy, herbal medicine, and aromatherapy. Excluding consultation with a naturopath/herbalist, over the 7-year survey women's use of all other CAM practitioners increased as did their use of vitamin/minerals, yoga/meditation, and Chinese medicines, while aromatherapy use declined. Conclusion: Only the prevalence of PMS and heavy periods increased with aging in this sample of women. While overall use of CAM practitioner and self-prescribed products/therapies increased over time, CAM was chosen by women mainly to treat endometriosis and PMS. The extent to which this use reflects treatment efficacy is uncertain

Protocol for a national monthly survey of alcohol use in England with 6-month follow-up: 'The Alcohol Toolkit Study'.

Timely tracking of national patterns of alcohol consumption is needed to inform and evaluate strategies and policies aimed at reducing alcohol-related harm. Between 2014 until at least 2017, the Alcohol Toolkit Study (ATS) will provide such tracking data and link these with policy changes and campaigns. By virtue of its connection with the 'Smoking Toolkit Study' (STS), links will also be examined between alcohol and smoking-related behaviour

Semantic Video Segmentation for Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection Procedures

We present the first deep learning model for the analysis of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) procedures. Using a dataset of ICSI procedure videos, we train a deep neural network to segment key objects in the videos achieving a mean IoU of 0.962, and to localize the needle tip achieving a mean pixel error of 3.793 pixels at 14 FPS on a single GPU. We further analyze the variation between the dataset's human annotators and find the model's performance to be comparable to human experts