A new effective method on critical point detection of planar curves

2001-2002 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalVersion of RecordPublishe

Effect of dietary omega-3 fatty acids on castrate-resistant prostate cancer and tumor-associated macrophages.

BackgroundM2-like macrophages are associated with the pathogenesis of castrate-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). We sought to determine if dietary omega-3 fatty acids (ω-3 FAs) delay the development and progression of CRPC and inhibit tumor-associated M2-like macrophages.MethodsMycCap cells were grown subcutaneously in immunocompetent FVB mice. Mice were castrated when tumors reached 300 mm2. To study effects of dietary ω-3 FAs on development of CRPC, ω-3 or ω-6 diets were started 2 days after castration and mice sacrificed after early regrowth of tumors. To study ω-3 FA effects on progression of CRPC, tumors were allowed to regrow after castration before starting the diets. M2 (CD206+) macrophages were isolated from allografts to examine ω-3 FA effects on macrophage function. Omega-3 fatty acid effects on androgen-deprived RAW264.7 M2 macrophages were studied by RT-qPCR and a migration/ invasion assay.ResultsThe ω-3 diet combined with castration lead to greater MycCap tumor regression (tumor volume reduction: 182.2 ± 33.6 mm3) than the ω-6 diet (tumor volume reduction: 148.3 ± 35.2; p = 0.003) and significantly delayed the time to CRPC (p = 0.006). Likewise, the ω-3 diet significantly delayed progression of established castrate-resistant MycCaP tumors (p = 0.003). The ω-3 diet (as compared to the ω-6 diet) significantly reduced tumor-associated M2-like macrophage expression of CSF-1R in the CRPC development model, and matrix metallopeptidase-9 (MMP-9) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in the CRPC progression model. Migration of androgen-depleted RAW264.7 M2 macrophages towards MycCaP cells was reversed by addition of docosahexaenoic acid (ω-3).ConclusionsDietary omega-3 FAs (as compared to omega-6 FAs) decreased the development and progression of CRPC in an immunocompetent mouse model, and had inhibitory effects on M2-like macrophage function. Clinical trials are warranted evaluating if a fish oil-based diet can delay the time to castration resistance in men on androgen deprivation therapy, whereas further preclinical studies are warranted evaluating fish oil for more advanced CRPC

Poly-ε-Caprolactone/Fibrin-Alginate Scaffold: A New Pro-Angiogenic Composite Biomaterial for the Treatment of Bone Defects

We hypothesized that a composite of 3D porous melt-electrowritten poly-ɛ-caprolactone (PCL) coated throughout with a porous and slowly biodegradable fibrin/alginate (FA) matrix would accelerate bone repair due to its angiogenic potential. Scanning electron microscopy showed that the open pore structure of the FA matrix was maintained in the PCL/FA composites. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and differential scanning calorimetry showed complete coverage of the PCL fibres by FA, and the PCL/FA crystallinity was decreased compared with PCL. In vitro cell work with osteoprogenitor cells showed that they preferentially bound to the FA component and proliferated on all scaffolds over 28 days. A chorioallantoic membrane assay showed more blood vessel infiltration into FA and PCL/FA compared with PCL, and a significantly higher number of bifurcation points for PCL/FA compared with both FA and PCL. Implantation into a rat cranial defect model followed by microcomputed tomography, histology, and immunohistochemistry after 4- and 12-weeks post operation showed fast early bone formation at week 4, with significantly higher bone formation for FA and PCL/FA compared with PCL. However, this phenomenon was not extrapolated to week 12. Therefore, for long-term bone regeneration, tuning of FA degradation to ensure syncing with new bone formation is likely necessary

Nitride Single Photon Sources

Single photon sources are a key enabling technology for quantum communications, and in the future more advanced quantum light sources may underpin other quantum information processing paradigms such as linear optical quantum computation. In considering possible practical implementations of future quantum technologies, the nitride materials system is attractive since nitride quantum dots (QDs) achieve single photon emission at easily accessible temperatures [1], potentially enabling the implementation of quantum key distribution paradigms in contexts where cryogenic cooling is impracticable

Thermal Assisted Oxygen Annealing for High Efficiency Planar CH3NH3PbI3 Perovskite Solar Cells

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Random attractors for degenerate stochastic partial differential equations

We prove the existence of random attractors for a large class of degenerate stochastic partial differential equations (SPDE) perturbed by joint additive Wiener noise and real, linear multiplicative Brownian noise, assuming only the standard assumptions of the variational approach to SPDE with compact embeddings in the associated Gelfand triple. This allows spatially much rougher noise than in known results. The approach is based on a construction of strictly stationary solutions to related strongly monotone SPDE. Applications include stochastic generalized porous media equations, stochastic generalized degenerate p-Laplace equations and stochastic reaction diffusion equations. For perturbed, degenerate p-Laplace equations we prove that the deterministic, infinite dimensional attractor collapses to a single random point if enough noise is added.Comment: 34 pages; The final publication is available at http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10884-013-9294-

Phage Displayed Peptides to Avian H5N1 Virus Distinguished the Virus from Other Viruses

The purpose of the current study was to identify potential ligands and develop a novel diagnostic test to highly pathogenic avian influenza A virus (HPAI), subtype H5N1 viruses using phage display technology. The H5N1 viruses were used as an immobilized target in a biopanning process using a 12-mer phage display random peptide library. After five rounds of panning, three phages expressing peptides HAWDPIPARDPF, AAWHLIVALAPN or ATSHLHVRLPSK had a specific binding activity to H5N1 viruses were isolated. Putative binding motifs to H5N1 viruses were identified by DNA sequencing. In terms of the minimum quantity of viruses, the phage-based ELISA was better than antiserum-based ELISA and a manual, semi-quantitative endpoint RT-PCR for detecting H5N1 viruses. More importantly, the selected phages bearing the specific peptides to H5N1 viruses were capable of differentiating this virus from other avian viruses in enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays

Scleral Thickness in Human Eyes

Purpose: To obtain information about scleral thickness in different ocular regions and its associations. Methods: The histomorphometric study included 238 human globes which had been enucleated because of choroidal melanomas or due to secondary angle-closure glaucoma. Using light microscopy, anterior-posterior pupil-optic nerve sections were measured. Results: In the non-axially elongated group (axial length #26 mm), scleral thickness decreased from the limbus (0.5060.11 mm) to the ora serrata (0.4360.14 mm) and the equator (0.4260.15 mm), and then increased to the midpoint between posterior pole and equator (0.6560.15 mm) and to the posterior pole (0.9460.18 mm), from where it decreased to the peri-optic nerve region (0.8660.21 mm) and finally the peripapillary scleral flange (0.3960.09 mm). Scleral thickness was significantly lower in the axially elongated group (axial length.26 mm) than in the non-axially elongated group for measurements taken at and posterior to the equator. Scleral thickness measurements of the posterior pole and of the peripapillary scleral flange were correlated with lamina cribrosa thickness measurements. Scleral thickness measurements at any location of examination were not significantly (all P.0.10) correlated with corneal thickness measurements. Scleral thickness was statistically independent of age, gender and presence of glaucoma. Conclusions: In non-axially elongated eyes, the sclera was thickest at the posterior pole, followed by the peri-optic nerv