Expression of CC chemokine receptor 7 in tonsillar cancer predicts cervical nodal metastasis, systemic relapse and survival

The aim of this study was to evaluate the expression of CC chemokine receptor 7 (CCR7) in squamous cell cancer of the tonsil with respect to patterns of spread, relapse-free, overall and disease-specific survival. Eighty-four patients with squamous cell cancer of the tonsil were identified. There was a male predominance of 3 : 1 and the median age at diagnosis was 53 (range 35–86) years. The median duration of follow-up was 33 (range 2–124) months. There was a significant association between CCR7 immunopositivity and synchronous cervical nodal metastasis in patients with tonsillar cancer (Spearman's correlation coefficient 0.564; P<0.001). Relapse-free (P=0.0175), overall (P=0.0136) and disease-specific (P=0.0062) survival rates were significantly lower in patients whose tumours expressed high levels of CCR7. On multivariate analysis, high-level CCR7 staining predicted relapse-free (hazard ratio 3.0, 95% confidence intervals 1.1–8.0, P=0.026) and disease-specific (hazard ratio 10.2, 95% confidence intervals 2.1–48.6, P=0.004) survival. Fifteen percent of patients with the highest level of tumour CCR7 immunopositivity relapsed with systemic metastases. These data demonstrated that CCR7 expression was associated with cervical nodal and systemic metastases from tonsillar cancers. High levels of CCR7 expression predicted a poor prognosis

Structural characterization of room-temperature synthesized fullerene nanowhiskers

Structural properties of various kinds of room-temperature synthesized C60 fullerene nanowhiskers were investigated by TEM and XRD. The C60 nanowhiskers prepared by use of toluene lost their initial solvated hexagonal structure faster than the C60 nanowhiskers prepared by use of m-xylene. The hexagonal structure of C60 nanowhiskers prepared by use of toluene was stabilized by adding C60[C(COOC2H5)2]. These results suggest that large solute molecules in the C60 nanowhisker matrix stabilize their initially solvated hexagonal structure. Furthermore, the addition of a sufficient amount of C60(2-methoxycarbonyl-N-methylpyrrolidine) into the m-xylene solution of C60 produced the C60 nanowhiskers indicating the formation of ordered solid solution of C60 and C60(2-methoxycarbonyl-N-methylpyrrolidine)

Development of a method for classifying and transmitting high-resolution feeding behavior of fish using an acceleration pinger

Abstract Background Monitoring the feeding behavior of animals in the wild is key to understanding their energetics and the influence of the environment on their survival. Recently, a novel acceleration transmitter that processes acceleration data onboard and outputs identification results has been developed by AquaSound Inc. (Kobe, Japan) to investigate feeding biology in fish. To date, few attempts have been made to identify the feeding behavior of fish using transmitters, and none of these attempts accomplished classification of alternative feeding behaviors according to prey items. The objective of this study was to develop an algorithm that can be incorporated in the acceleration transmitter and can identify alternative feeding behaviors in fish, using red-spotted grouper (Epinephelus akaara) as a model species. Results Most of the identification algorithms describing feeding behavior in fish developed in previous studies used a combination of acceleration and angular velocity. In this study, we constructed an algorithm based on three-axis accelerometry data alone, since a gyroscope consumes much more electricity and would shorten the battery life of the transmitter. Acceleration data were obtained in tank experiments. Feeding behaviors, induced by feeding three types of live prey (Trachurus japonicus, Metapenaeus ensis and Hemigrapsus sanguineus), as well as other behaviors (routine and escape movements), were simultaneously recorded at 200 Hz by acceleration data loggers, implanted in the abdominal cavities of fish, and by a video camera. A decision tree, including a three-dimensional lookup table, was constructed to classify the behaviors into four behavior classes: shrimp-eating, fish-eating, crab-eating and other behaviors. The classification accuracy was estimated to be 0.77 (F-measure) for shrimp-eating, 0.73 for fish-eating, 0.71 for crab-eating and 0.78 for other movements, using fivefold cross-validation. Conclusions The algorithm developed in this study could be incorporated into the transmitter, which would record acceleration data at high frequency (200 Hz), process the data onboard and output classification results of behaviors. This method would reveal more aspects of fish biology, such as individual feeding strategies