1,412 research outputs found
Emotions in context: examining pervasive affective sensing systems, applications, and analyses
Pervasive sensing has opened up new opportunities for measuring our feelings and understanding our behavior by monitoring our affective states while mobile. This review paper surveys pervasive affect sensing by examining and considering three major elements of affective pervasive systems, namely; âsensingâ, âanalysisâ, and âapplicationâ. Sensing investigates the different sensing modalities that are used in existing real-time affective applications, Analysis explores different approaches to emotion recognition and visualization based on different types of collected data, and Application investigates different leading areas of affective applications. For each of the three aspects, the paper includes an extensive survey of the literature and finally outlines some of challenges and future research opportunities of affective sensing in the context of pervasive computing
A filament of dark matter between two clusters of galaxies
It is a firm prediction of the concordance Cold Dark Matter (CDM)
cosmological model that galaxy clusters live at the intersection of large-scale
structure filaments. The thread-like structure of this "cosmic web" has been
traced by galaxy redshift surveys for decades. More recently the Warm-Hot
Intergalactic Medium (WHIM) residing in low redshift filaments has been
observed in emission and absorption. However, a reliable direct detection of
the underlying Dark Matter skeleton, which should contain more than half of all
matter, remained elusive, as earlier candidates for such detections were either
falsified or suffered from low signal-to-noise ratios and unphysical
misalignements of dark and luminous matter. Here we report the detection of a
dark matter filament connecting the two main components of the Abell 222/223
supercluster system from its weak gravitational lensing signal, both in a
non-parametric mass reconstruction and in parametric model fits. This filament
is coincident with an overdensity of galaxies and diffuse, soft X-ray emission
and contributes mass comparable to that of an additional galaxy cluster to the
total mass of the supercluster. Combined with X-ray observations, we place an
upper limit of 0.09 on the hot gas fraction, the mass of X-ray emitting gas
divided by the total mass, in the filament.Comment: Nature, in pres
Efficacy and safety of lurbinectedin and doxorubicin in relapsed small cell lung cancer. Results from an expansion cohort of a phase I study
Background A phase I study found remarkable activity and manageable toxicity for doxorubicin (bolus) plus lurbinectedin (1-h intravenous [i.v.] infusion) on Day 1 every three weeks (q3wk) as second-line therapy in relapsed small cell lung cancer (SCLC). An expansion cohort further evaluated this combination. Patients and methods Twenty-eight patients with relapsed SCLC after no more than one line of cytotoxic-containing chemotherapy were treated: 18 (64%) with sensitive disease (chemotherapy-free interval [CTFI] â„90 days) and ten (36%) with resistant disease (CTFI <90 days; including six with refractory disease [CTFI â€30 days]). Results Ten patients showed confirmed response (overall response rate [ORR]â=â36%); median progression-free survival (PFS)â=â3.3 months; median overall survival (OS)â=â7.9 months. ORR was 50% in sensitive disease (median PFSâ=â5.7 months; median OSâ=â11.5 months) and 10% in resistant disease (median PFSâ=â1.3 months; median OSâ=â4.6 months). The main toxicity was transient and reversible myelosuppression. Treatment-related non-hematological events (fatigue, nausea, decreased appetite, vomiting, alopecia) were mostly mild or moderate. Conclusion Doxorubicin 40 mg/m(2) and lurbinectedin 2.0 mg/m(2) on Day 1 q3wk has shown noteworthy activity in relapsed SCLC and a manageable safety profile. The combination is being evaluated as second-line therapy for SCLC in an ongoing, randomized phase III trial. Clinical trial registration www.ClinicalTrials.gov code: NCT01970540. Date of registration: 22 October, 2013
Identification and characterization of a novel non-structural protein of bluetongue virus
Bluetongue virus (BTV) is the causative agent of a major disease of livestock (bluetongue). For over two decades, it has been widely accepted that the 10 segments of the dsRNA genome of BTV encode for 7 structural and 3 non-structural proteins. The non-structural proteins (NS1, NS2, NS3/NS3a) play different key roles during the viral replication cycle. In this study we show that BTV expresses a fourth non-structural protein (that we designated NS4) encoded by an open reading frame in segment 9 overlapping the open reading frame encoding VP6. NS4 is 77â79 amino acid residues in length and highly conserved among several BTV serotypes/strains. NS4 was expressed early post-infection and localized in the nucleoli of BTV infected cells. By reverse genetics, we showed that NS4 is dispensable for BTV replication in vitro, both in mammalian and insect cells, and does not affect viral virulence in murine models of bluetongue infection. Interestingly, NS4 conferred a replication advantage to BTV-8, but not to BTV-1, in cells in an interferon (IFN)-induced antiviral state. However, the BTV-1 NS4 conferred a replication advantage both to a BTV-8 reassortant containing the entire segment 9 of BTV-1 and to a BTV-8 mutant with the NS4 identical to the homologous BTV-1 protein. Collectively, this study suggests that NS4 plays an important role in virus-host interaction and is one of the mechanisms played, at least by BTV-8, to counteract the antiviral response of the host. In addition, the distinct nucleolar localization of NS4, being expressed by a virus that replicates exclusively in the cytoplasm, offers new avenues to investigate the multiple roles played by the nucleolus in the biology of the cell
New Forearm Elements Discovered of Holotype Specimen Australovenator wintonensis from Winton, Queensland, Australia
New skeletal elements are reported of the holotype specimen Australovenator wintonensis, from the type locality, near Winton, central western Queensland. New elements include left and right humeri, right radius, right radiale, right distal carpal 1, near complete right metacarpal I, left manual phalanx II-1, left manual phalanx II-2, near complete left manual phalanx II-3 and a left manual phalanx III-3. These new elements combined with those previously described are compared against other neovenatorids
The Animal in Me: Enhancing Emotion Recognition in Adolescents with Autism Using Animal Filters
Pharmacokinetics and tissue distribution of PGGâpaclitaxel, a novel macromolecular formulation of paclitaxel, in nu/nu mice bearing NCI-460 lung cancer xenografts
PGGâPTX is a water-soluble formulation of paclitaxel (PTX), made by conjugating PTX to poly(l-Îł-glutamylglutamine) acid (PGG) via ester bonds, that spontaneously forms a nanoparticle in aqueous environments. The purpose of this study was to compare the pharmacokinetics and tissue distribution of PTX following injection of either free PTX or PGGâPTX in mice.
Both [3H]PTX and PGGâ[3H]PTX were administered as an IV bolus injection to mice bearing SC NCI-H460 lung cancer xenografts at a dose of 40-mg PTX equivalents/kg. Plasma, tumor, major organs, urine, and feces were collected at intervals out to 340Â h. Total taxanes, taxane extractable into ethyl acetate, and native PTX were quantified by liquid scintillation counting and HPLC.
Conjugation of PTX to the PGG polymer increased plasma and tumor C
max, prolonged plasma half-life and the period of accumulation in tumor, and reduced washout from tumor. In plasma injection of PGGâPTX increased total taxane AUC0â340 by 23-fold above that attained with PTX. In tumors, it increased the total taxane by a factor of 7.7, extractable taxane by 5.7, and native PTX by a factor of 3.5-fold. Conjugation delayed and reduced total urinary and fecal excretion of total taxanes.
Incorporation of PTX into the PGGâPTX polymer significantly prolonged the half-life of total taxanes, extractable taxane, and native PTX in both the plasma and tumor compartments. This resulted in a large increase in the amount of active PTX delivered to the tumor. PGGâPTX is an attractive candidate for further development
Behavioural signs of pain in cats: an expert consensus
To identify where a consensus can be reached between veterinary experts in feline medicine on the core signs sufficient for pain (sufficient to indicate pain when they occur, but not necessarily present in all painful conditions) and necessary for pain (necessary in the presence of pain, but not always indicative of pain).
Methods
A modified Delphi technique was used, consisting of four rounds of questions and evaluation using nineteen participants during the period December 2014 and May 2015. Agreement was considered to be established when 80% of the experts concurred with the same opinion.
Results
Twenty-five signs were considered sufficient to indicate pain, but no single sign was considered necessary for it.
Discussion
Further studies are needed to evaluate the validity of these 25 behavioural signs if a specific pain assessment tool is to be developed that is capable of assessing pain in cats based on observational methods alone. The signs reported here may nonetheless help both vets and owners form an initial evaluation of the pain status of cats in their care
Hyaluronidase of Bloodsucking Insects and Its Enhancing Effect on Leishmania Infection in Mice
Hyaluronidases are enzymes degrading the extracellular matrix of vertebrates. Bloodsucking insects use them to cleave the skin of the host, enlarge the feeding lesion and acquire the blood meal. In addition, resulting fragments of extracellular matrix modulate local immune response of the host, which may positively affect transmission of vector-borne diseases, including leishmaniasis. Leishmaniases are diseases with a wide spectrum of clinical forms, from a relatively mild cutaneous affection to life-threatening visceral disease. Their causative agents, protozoans of the genus Leishmania, are transmitted by phlebotomine sand flies. Sand fly saliva was described to enhance Leishmania infection, but the information about molecules responsible for this exacerbating effect is still very limited. In the present work we demonstrated hyaluronidase activity in salivary glands of various Diptera and in fleas. In addition, we showed that hyaluronidase exacerbates Leishmania lesions in mice and propose that salivary hyaluronidase may facilitate the spread of other vector-borne microorganisms
Preclinical efficacy studies of a novel nanoparticle-based formulation of paclitaxel that out-performs Abraxane
Poly-(Îł-l-glutamylglutamine)âpaclitaxel (PGGâPTX) is a novel polymer-based formulation of paclitaxel (PTX) in which the PTX is linked to the polymer via ester bonds. PGGâPTX is of interest because it spontaneously forms very small nanoparticles in plasma. In mouse models, PGGâPTX increased tumor exposure to PTX by 7.7-fold relative to that produced by PTX formulated in Cremophor. In this study, the efficacy of PGGâPTX was compared to that of Abraxane, an established nanoparticular formulation of PTX, in three different tumor models.
Efficacy was quantified by delay in tumor growth of NCI H460 human lung cancer, 2008 human ovarian cancer and B16 melanoma xenografts growing in athymic mice following administration of equitoxic doses of PGGâPTX and Abraxane administered on either a single dose or every 7Â day schedule. Toxicity was assessed by change in total body weight.
The efficacy and toxicity of PGGâPTX was shown to increase with dose in the H460 model. PGGâPTX was ~1.5-fold less potent than Abraxane. PGGâPTX produced statistically significantly greater inhibition of tumor growth than Abraxane in all three tumor models when mice were given single equitoxic doses of drug. When given every 7Â days for 3 doses, PGGâPTX produced greater inhibition of tumor growth while generating much less weight loss in mice bearing H460 tumors.
PGGâPTX has activity that is superior to that of Abraxane in multiple tumor models. PGGâPTX has the potential to out-perform Abraxane in enhancing the delivery of PTX tumors while at the same time further reducing the toxicity of both single dose and weekly treatment regimens
- âŠ