Human pancreatic cancer cell lines do not express receptors for somatostatin.

The in vivo administration of somatostatin (SS) or its analogues is capable of suppressing the growth of pancreatic cancer in experimental animals. We examined the effects of SS-14 and its analogue RC-160 on the in vitro growth of two human pancreatic cancer cell lines MiaPaCa-2 and Panc-1 stimulated with epidermal growth factor (EGF) or insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1). Neither SS-14 nor RC-160 inhibited the growth of either cell line. In contrast RC-160 did inhibit the EGF-stimulated growth of a rat pancreatic cancer cell line AR42J. Binding studies with 125I-Tyr11 somatostatin revealed the presence of a single class of high affinity binding sites with a Kd of 0.20 +/- 0.05 nM and a Bmax of 2.1 +/- 0.26 pmoles mg-1 protein on AR42J but not displaceable binding was observed on MiaPaCa-2 or Panc-1. We conclude that lack of receptors accounts for the failure of SS-14 and RC-160 to influence the growth of human pancreatic cancer in vitro. These results, taken together with other findings, lead us to question the therapeutic efficacy of somatostatin and its analogues as mono-therapy in the treatment of human pancreatic cancer

Inhibition of pancreatic cancer cell growth in vitro by the tyrphostin group of tyrosine kinase inhibitors.

Tyrphostins are a group of low molecular weight synthetic inhibitors of protein tyrosine kinases (PTK). The intracellular domains of the receptors for epidermal growth factor (EGF), transforming growth factor-alpha (TGF-alpha), insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) possess PTK activity. Since EGF, TGF-alpha and IGF-1 are considered to play an important role in the proliferation of pancreatic cancer cells, we studied the effects of tyrphostins on the growth of three human pancreatic cancer cell lines (MiaPaCa-2, Panc-1 and CAV). The tyrphostins AG17, T23 and T47 all inhibited EGF and serum-stimulated DNA synthesis. AG17 was found to be the most potent of these agents and caused a dose-dependent but reversible inhibition of cell growth. Furthermore using an immunoblotting procedure we also found AG17 to inhibit EGF-induced tyrosine phosphorylation in the MiaPaCa-2 cell line. Tyrosine kinase inhibitors may prove to be useful agents for the treatment of pancreatic cancer

Stochastic quantum trajectories demonstrate the Quantum Zeno Effect in an open spin system

We investigate the Quantum Zeno Effect in spin 1/2, spin 1 and spin 3/2 open quantum systems undergoing Rabi oscillations. The systems interact with an environment designed to perform continuous measurements of an observable, driving the systems stochastically towards one of the eigenstates of the corresponding operator. The system-environment coupling constant represents the strength of the measurement. Stochastic quantum trajectories are generated by unravelling a Markovian Lindblad master equation using the quantum state diffusion formalism. This is regarded as a better representation of system behaviour than consideration of the averaged evolution since the latter can mask the effect of measurement. Complete positivity is maintained and thus the trajectories can be considered as physically meaningful. Increasing the measurement strength leads to greater dwell by the system in the vicinity of the eigenstates of the measured observable and lengthens the time taken by the system to return to that eigenstate, thus demonstrating the Quantum Zeno Effect. For very strong measurement, the Rabi oscillations develop into randomly occurring near-instantaneous jumps between eigenstates. The stochastic measurement dynamics compete with the intrinsic, deterministic quantum dynamics of the system, each attempting to drive the system in the Hilbert space in different ways. As such, the trajectories followed by the quantum system are heavily dependent on the measurement strength which other than slowing down and adding noise to the Rabi oscillations, changes the paths taken in spin phase space from a circular precession into elaborate figures-of-eight

Going beyond defining: Preschool educators\u27 use of knowledge in their pedagogical reasoning about vocabulary instruction

Previous research investigating both the knowledge of early childhood educators and the support for vocabulary development present in early childhood settings has indicated that both educator knowledge and enacted practice are less than optimal, which has grave implications for children\u27s early vocabulary learning and later reading achievement. Further, the nature of the relationship between educators\u27 knowledge and practice is unclear, making it difficult to discern the best path towards improved knowledge, practice, and children\u27s vocabulary outcomes. The purpose of the present study was to add to the existing literature by using stimulated recall interviews and a grounded approach to examine how 10 preschool educators used their knowledge to made decisions about their moment-to-moment instruction in support of children\u27s vocabulary development. Results indicate that educators were thinking in highly context-specific ways about their goals and strategies for supporting vocabulary learning, taking into account important knowledge of their instructional history with children and of the children themselves to inform their decision making in the moment. In addition, they reported thinking about research-based goals and strategies for supporting vocabulary learning that went beyond simply defining words for children. Implications for research and professional development are discussed

Bridging the Gap between Data and Instruction to Promote School Readiness

States are increasingly endorsing collecting data in the early childhood classroom to measure instructional quality, as well as to enhance classroom- and school-based improvement efforts (Meisels, 2006; National Association for the Education of Young Children, 2009). While an increase in available data has the potential to inform decisions in the classroom, many educators report a need for clearer guidance in analyzing, interpreting, and using the data they collect (Sandall, Schwartz, & Lacroix, 2004; U.S. Department of Education, 2009). Thus, efforts must be made to improve resources and training to provide early childhood educators the opportunity to build their capacity for data proficiency and decision-making within schools. As professionals build their capacity for data-informed decision-making (DIDM), children will benefit from instruction that is responsive to real-time information, and interventions that are tailored to their individual needs

Cómo motivar a los estudiantes de secundaria mediante actividades de ciencias atractivas y divertidas

Se presenta una propuesta de formación del profesorado llevada a cabo durante dos cursos académicos (2006/08) con la finalidad de mejorar la motivación e interés de los estudiantes hacia el aprendizaje de las ciencias. Se diseñó e implementó un curso desde la perspectiva de una ciencia comprometida, pero también amena, creativa y divertida, incluyendo actividades interactivas realizadas en colaboración con el Museo de Ciencias Príncipe Felipe, experimentos de laboratorio, textos divulgativos con enfoques CTSA (Ciencia-Tecnología-Sociedad-Ambiente), juguetes científicos, así como el aporte de experiencias provenientes de otros países europeos (Alemania, Francia y Reino Unido). Esta iniciativa, en la que han participado 80 profesores ha sido un instrumento eficaz tanto para la mejora de la motivación como para promover la formación de comunidades de práctica

Multi-transmission-line-beam interactive system

We construct here a Lagrangian field formulation for a system consisting of an electron beam interacting with a slow-wave structure modeled by a possibly non-uniform multiple transmission line (MTL). In the case of a single line we recover the linear model of a traveling wave tube (TWT) due to J.R. Pierce. Since a properly chosen MTL can approximate a real waveguide structure with any desired accuracy, the proposed model can be used in particular for design optimization. Furthermore, the Lagrangian formulation provides for: (i) a clear identification of the mathematical source of amplification, (ii) exact expressions for the conserved energy and its flux distributions obtained from the Noether theorem. In the case of uniform MTLs we carry out an exhaustive analysis of eigenmodes and find sharp conditions on the parameters of the system to provide for amplifying regimes

Transport Phenomena in Alcator C-Mod H-Modes

Abstract. Several interesting new results have come from studies of ICRF-heated, H-mode plasmas in Alcator C-Mod. Dimensionless scaling studies have found gyro-Bohm-like transport similar to that reported on other devices; however, the dependence on collisionality was surprisingly strong, with BE −1. Despite high edge temperatures and strong edge pressure gradients, type I edge-localized modes (ELMs) are not observed in C-Mod. Instead we obtain a regime that we have dubbed enhanced D (EDA) which is accompanied by high-frequency density fluctuations. For all H-modes, core gradients were found to increase linearly with edge temperature, suggesting the importance of critical gradient/marginal stability behaviour. Comparisons with the IFS-PPPL model have begun, showing quantitative agreement in some cases. Impurity particle transport was studied via the laser blow-off technique with impurity confinement found to be effectively infinite for ELM-free discharges but reduced into the range 0.1–0.2 s for the EDA plasmas. 1