ComcuteJS: A Web Browser Based Platform for Large-scale Computations

The paper presents a new, cost effective, volunteer computing based platform.It utilizes volunteers’ web browsers as computational nodes. The computationaltasks are delegated to the browsers and executed in the background (indepen-dently of any user interface scripts) making use of the HTML5 web workerstechnology. The capabilities of the platform have been proved by experimentsperformed in a wide range of numbers of computational nodes (1–400)

Myenteric plexuses atrophy in the vicinity of colorectal cancer tissue is not caused by apoptosis or necrosis

Introduction. The previously performed studies showed that the presence of colorectal cancer (CRC) tumor is associated with the atrophy of myenteric plexuses in the vicinity of cancer invasion; however, the possible mechanisms of this phenomenon are not known. The aim of the present study was to determine whether the atrophic changes of the enteric nervous system (ENS) within an intestine wall of the CRC patients were caused by apoptosis or necrosis and whether they were associated with changes in the number of galanin-immunore­active (GAL-Ir) neurons. Material and methods. Samples of the large intestine wall located close to the CRC invasion and control, distally-located part of the colon, were collected from 9 CRC patients. The size of ENS plexuses and the number of neurons were compared. Triple immunofluorescent staining was used to visualize the co-expression of caspase 3 (CASP3) or caspase 8 (CASP8) with GAL and protein gene-product 9.5 (PGP 9.5, panneuronal marker) in the submucosal and myenteric ENS plexuses. The cells expressing myeloperoxidase (MPO, marker of neutrophils) and CD68 (marker of macrophages) were detected by immunohistochemistry around/in myenteric plexuses (MPs) and in the muscularis externa of the colon wall in the vicinity of tumor invasion. Results. Myenteric plexuses in the vicinity of the CRC tissue were significantly smaller and had lower number of neurons per plexus than distantly located plexuses. The number of CASP8- and CASP3-Ir neurons in the ENS plexuses was similar in the colon wall both close to and distally from tumor invasion. The number of CASP8-Ir neurons within MPs located close to CRC invasion was higher than of CASP3-Ir neurons. The percentage of neurons co-expressing CASP8 and GAL in myenteric plexuses close and distantly from tumor was three-fold lower than of those co-expressing CASP3 and GAL. The mean number of neutrophils and macrophages inside and around myenteric plexuses located close to tumor invasion was higher or similar, respectively, as compared with adjacent muscularis externa. Conclusions. The atrophy of myenteric plexuses in the vicinity of CRC invasion is not caused by apoptosis or necrosis. The differences in the proportions of neurons expressing galanin and the studied caspases suggest as yet unknown role of this neuropeptide in the mechanisms of neuron’s atrophy in MPs located close to CRC tumor

Anti-TNF antibodies do not induce the apoptosis of lamina propria mononuclear cells in uninflamed intestinal tissue in patients with Crohn’s disease

It is not known if anti-tumor necrosis factor (anti-TNF) agents provoke only apoptosis of lamina propria mononuclear cells (LPMC) engaged in inflammatory processes or whether it’s a general phenomenon concerning all LPMC. In this study we carried out an immunohistochemical analysis of the expression of several apoptosis-related proteins (active caspase-3, Bax, Bcl-2, Fas, TNFR1, CD4, and CD8) in uninflamed mucosa in Crohn’s disease (CD) patients treated with anti-TNF agents. 16 CD patients (mean age 34 ± 11, mean disease duration 7 ± 5 years) were included in the study. 10 patients were treated with infliximab and 6 — with adalimumab. The expression of active caspase 3, Bax, Bcl-2, Fas, TNFR1 and CD8 in LPMC did not change significantly after the therapy. We concluded that anti-TNF antibodies did not promote LPMC apoptosis in uninflamed tissues. This is in contrast to the phenomena observed in inflamed tissues. These data show that anti-TNF antibodies rather restore the susceptibility to apoptosis of LPMC in inflamed areas of the gut in CD, than directly induce LPMC apoptosis; otherwise the anti-TNF antibodies should have also induced apoptosis in the uninflamed mucosa

Volunteer Computing Simulation Using Repast And Mason

Volunteer environments usually consist of a large number of computing nodes,with highly dynamic characteristics, therefore reliable models for a planning ofthe whole computing are highly desired. An easy to implement approach to mo-delling and simulation of such environments may employ agent-based universalsimulation frameworks, such as RePast or MASON. In the course of the paperthe above-mentioned simulation frameworks are adapted to support simulationof volunteer computing. After giving implementation details, selected resultsconcerning computing time and speedup are given and are compared with theones obtained from an actual volunteer environment

The role of immunohistochemical examination in diagnosis of papillary thyroid cancer in struma ovarii

Introduction. Struma ovarii (SO) is a monodermal teratoma in which thyroid tissue comprises more than 50% of the tumour. Papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) in SO is a rare finding, as only 5% of SO cases undergo malignant transformation. Malignant SO is usually asymptomatic and infrequently diagnosed preoperatively. Because of its rarity, there is no consensus about diagnosis and management, while treatment and follow-up procedures are not clearly established. Material and methods. Herewith, we report two cases of PTC in SO. The first patient was a 25-year-old woman diagnosed with bilateral ovarian tumours. The second patient, 19-year-old woman, presented with unilateral ovarian mass. Both patients were qualified for surgical excision of the tumours. Histopathological specimens underwent both conventional histopathological assessment and immunohistochemical staining. Results. In the first patient histopathology revealed SO with two foci of PTC. Immunohistochemically a positive expression of CK7, CK19, p63 and thyroglobulin (Tg) confirmed the diagnosis. She underwent total thyroidectomy in 2016 in order to enable ablative radioiodine therapy and facilitate further thyroglobulin monitoring. Unfortunately, the patient was lost from follow-up. In the second patient, histopathological diagnosis was follicular variant of PTC in SO. Postoperatively, a pelvic CT revealed osteolytic lesion 6 cm in size, being a metastatic change. The patient underwent unilateral ovariectomy, total thyroidectomy and multiple cycles of radioiodine therapy. Currently, 9 years following the diagnosis, the patient achieved disease remission. Conclusions. PTC in SO still remains a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge. Immunostaining for CK7, CK19, p63 and Tg might be helpful in histopathological diagnosis. The decision on the need of total thyroidectomy and radioiodine therapy should be made individually. However, thyroid remnant ablation increases the sensitivity and specificity of follow-up testing using serum Tg level as a tumour marker

The influence of anti-TNF therapy on CD31 and VEGF expression in colonic mucosa of Crohn’s disease patients in relation to mucosal healing

Introduction. Immune-mediated angiogenesis may play an important role in the pathogenesis of inflammatory lesions in Crohn’s disease (CD). The study aimed to assess the influence of anti-tumour necrosis factor (anti-TNF) therapy on the angiogenesis in relation to microscopic and endoscopic healing in CD patients. Material and methods. Colonic tissue samples from 17 CD patients were taken during colonoscopy before and after anti-TNF therapy. Endoscopic and microscopic severities were estimated using validated scores. Immunohistochemical expression of CD31 and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) were assessed in parallel. Results. The expression of CD31 and VEGF decreased significantly after the anti-TNF therapy in parallel to endoscopic improvement; however, the microscopic activity did not change significantly. There was a correlation between the change in CD31 and VEGF expression (p = 0.01; r = 0.6), as well as endoscopic healing (p = 0.04; r = 0.4). CD31 immunoexpression correlated with the number of poly- and mononuclear cells in the infiltrates in the mucosal lamina propria before the therapy (p = 0.02; r = 0.5). Conclusions. We suggest that modulation of vascular proliferation can be a novel option to increase the efficacy of biological therapy in CD.

Multi-stage treatment for malunion and avascular necrosis of the femoral head following reverse oblique pertrochanteric fracture : A case report and literature review

Femoral reverse oblique intertrochanteric fractures are successfully treated using intramedullary devices. Poor fracture reduction and the use of the inaproppriate implant can lead to implant failure and subsequent malunion or non-union. We present the case of a 21-year-old polytrauma female who, among other injuries, sustained a reverse oblique intertrochanteric fracture that was primarily operated on with the dynamic hip screw. After implant failure the patient developed malunion with bone defect and avascular necrosis of the femoral head. Successful salvage of the bone stock in the inter- and subtrochanteric region was achieved using the two-stage induced membrane technique. The uncemented total hip arthroplasty was performed to address the osteonecrosis of the femoral head

Pathway-Dependent Grain Coarsening of Block Copolymer Patterns under Controlled Solvent Evaporation

Solvent evaporation annealing (SEA) is a straightforward, single-step casting and annealing method of block copolymers (BCP) processing yielding large-grained morphologies in a very short time. Here, we present a quantitative analysis of BCP grain-coarsening in thin films under controlled evaporation of the solvent. Our study is aimed at understanding time and BCP concentration influence on the rate of the lateral growth of BCP grains. By systematically investigating the coarsening kinetics at various BCP concentrations, we observed a steeply decreasing exponential dependence of the kinetics power-law time exponent on polymer concentration. We used this dependence to formulate a mathematical model of BCP ordering under nonstationary conditions and a 2D, time- and concentration-dependent coarsening rate diagram, which can be used as an aid in engineering the BCP processing pathway in SEA and also in other directed self-assembly methods that utilize BCP-solvent interactions such as solvent vapor annealing.ISSN:2161-165

Development of a novel, high-affinity ssDNA trypsin inhibitor

Inhibitors of serine proteases are not only extremely useful in the basic research but are also applied extensively in clinical settings. Using Systematic Evolution of Ligands by Exponential Enrichment (SELEX) approach we developed a family of novel, single-stranded DNA aptamers capable of specific trypsin inhibition. Our most potent candidate (T24) and its short version (T59) were thoroughly characterised in terms of efficacy. T24 and T59 efficiently inhibited bovine trypsin with Ki of 176 nM and 475 nM, respectively. Interestingly, in contrast to the majority of known trypsin inhibitors, the selected aptamers have superior specificity and did not interact with porcine trypsin or any human proteases tested. These included plasmin and thrombin characterised by trypsin-like substrate specificity. Our results demonstrate that SELEX may be successfully employed in the development of potent and specific DNA based protease inhibitors