Oncogenic variants guiding treatment in thoracic malignancies

The aim of this research project was to improve diagnostic methods, explore resistance mechanisms to targeted therapy and establish prognostic value of molecular biomarkers in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). We set up and validated the performance of an RNA-based assay allowing simultaneous testing of multiple therapeutic targets. This effort was successful and can be applied on biopsies in clinical practice. However, tumor-educated platelets of patients with known driver variants and NSCLC showed no tumor-derived mRNA molecules, so this cannot be implemented in clinical practice. Circulating tumor DNA levels in low disease-stage ESCC patients were associated with tumor load in real-time and may be used to monitor disease load. Personalized medicine facilitated by routine molecular diagnostics has markedly improved clinical management of cancer patients. We showed that high EGFR copy numbers as determined by amplicon-based NGS data predicts a worse overall survival in EGFR mutated patients treated with first-line EGFR-TKI, especially in those who developed a T790M mutation. To explore resistance mechanisms in BRAF p.(V600E) mutated patients treated with BRAF/MEK inhibitors we analyzed the presence of concurrent mutations of genes in the PI3K or MAPK pathways. This study revealed a comparable survival of patients with or without concurrent mutations. Finally, we described treatment response of two EGFR mutant patients who developed a BRAF V600E resistance mutation. Combined treatment with BRAF/MEK inhibitors and the EGFR-TKI osimertinib showed promising results, also in additional cases reported in the literature

The politics and practice of trans-culturation: importing and translating Chinese autobiographical writings into the British Literary Field

This study examines the social, cultural and institutional factors and circumstances surrounding the process of importing and translating six Chinese autobiographical writings in the British context. In parallel, it conducts a critical reading of the press reviews of these six books to map out and discuss the representations of Chinese culture and society as outcomes of the translation process (with the translation process understood in the broad sense to include the selection of the source text for translation as well as the actual translating activities). The investment in Chinese autobiographies set in 'Red China' and their uptake by the UK readership have become a prominent phenomenon over the last two decades or so. This phenomenon poses several questions around the criteria on the basis of which this specific genre has been selected and imported into the British literary market and the way it is translated. In this study I use a sociologically-orientated methodological and theoretical framework that takes into account the socio-cultural contexts of translation which then features as an instance of social reproduction. In addition to the press reviews, this study uses as primary data the accounts, views and experiences of the people who have been involved in the translation process, including the literary agent and the publishers who have not received enough attention in the recent sociologically-orientated approach despite their decisive role with regard to many aspects of the translation process. My research thus examines translation from the perspectives of social agents and their interactive relationships within institutional contexts that shape the agents' activities. Based on semi-structured interviews with the participants who were involved in the translation process of the six autobiographies, this study focuses, firstly, on the selection and importing of six Chinese auto/biographical writings for translation and the role of the social agents involved, with particular attention given to the literary agent. Selecting and importing the originals are seen as a formative stage in translation, involving the actions of a range of social agents situated within different yet overlapping institutional contexts: namely, literary agents, publishers, translators and authors. Secondly, this study focuses on the actual translating process, considered in the light of its interplay with the evaluation of the 'good' translation and the editing process, to examine the extent to which the social and professional interactions and negotiations between translators and other social agents - writers, literary agents and editors - affect the way translators translate. Then, based on a critical textual analysis of the press reviews of the six translated Chinese auto/biographical wrings that appeared in the UK daily newspapers, this study examines how the reviewers represent and frame the truth-value and witness voices through the translated self-writings, and how these reviews anticipate and mediate the readers' perceptions of Communist Chinese history and society. My findings suggest that the power relations underpinning the struggles, competitions, negotiations and collaborations within the publishing and literary fields shape the translation process where literary agents, publishers/editors, translators and authors interact and negotiate to yield the final product for the British book market. The selection process is shown to be a decisive step in the process of translation, which to a great extent shapes the way the Chinese autobiographies have been translated and received. Translation, thus, plays a significant role in anticipating, (re)constructing and reshaping the (existing) representations of Contemporary Chinese culture and society

Characterization of Molybdenum-Vanadium Oxide Catalyst Prepared By Homogeneous Precipitation Method Using Urea Hydrolysis

Molybdenum-vanadium oxide (Mo-V-O) has been constantly reported as an active and selective catalyst for the direct propane transformation to acrylic acid. In this study, crystalline molybdenum-vanadium oxide catalysts have been successfully synthesized by homogeneous precipitation method using urea hydrolysis. A new approach was taken whereby the solid obtained were further refluxed in the presence of additives which are adipic acid (AA), maleic acid (MA) and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA). The precursors which upon drying were subjected to various calcination temperatures. The effect of additives and calcination temperatures on the formation and properties of Mo-V-O characteristics were monitored by Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA), Powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), Photon Cross Correlation Spectroscopy (PCCS), Inductively Couple Plasma-Atomic Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-AES), BET Surface Area Measurements (SBET), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Hydrogen-Temperature Programmed Reduction (H2-TPR). It was found that without the presence of additives, the precursor was in a semicrystalline form of ammonium molybdate anorthic phase. However, in the presence of additives, the precursors were highly crystalline with the presence of desirable orthorhombic, monoclinic and tetragonal MoVOx species. Heat treatment that imposed on the materials has successfully transformed the precursor into a more stable phase. The desirable orthorhombic phase was found to be achieved when sample was calcined at 873 K in nitrogen atmosphere. SEM analysis showed a rather randomly distributed particle with defined size and shape. Total surface area, SBET for sample prepared by complexing MoV salts with PVA (MoVPVA873) was found to be the highest, i.e. 20.5 m2 g-1. This property consequently contributed to the highest total amount of oxygen species removed from the oxide, hence an indication of the highly active and selective characteristics borne by the oxide. This is further confirmed by catalytic test of propane oxidation to acrylic acid which done on the sample. The test showed that samples treated with organic species (AA, MA, PVA) give better acrylic acid selectivity and yield

The Legal Saga of Exclusion Clauses in Malaysia

One of the issues that could affect the success or the sustainability of a business organisation is its ability to manage the legal risk of liability that it faces in running its business. One common tool utilised by businesses is to insert an exclusion or limitation clause in their contracts. This would allow them to predict and apportion the possible amount of liability that could arise from breach of contract or negligence. The courts usually exercise caution in allowing such clauses to be enforced in order to prevent unfairness especially to the weaker party. Malaysia is of no exception. The Malaysian courts have display willingness to strike down the validity of an exclusion clause to ensure that a business organisation does not escape liability arising from its own fault. The Federal Court and the Court of Appeal decision in Bourke v CIMB Bank Bhd (2018) are good examples of such an approach. However, the legal reasoning adopted by the courts in this case has led to numerous confusions on the legal principles of contract law in Malaysia. It is therefore necessary to examine the legal position of exclusion clauses in Malaysia today and to determine what is the most appropriate way forward. This research found that there are difficulties with the legal coherency and application of Bourke in future cases

Understanding Overseas Tourist Shoppers: Market Segments and Characteristics

The current study employed a TwoStep cluster analysis to segment overseas tourist shoppers into three clusters. The three clusters significantly differ in terms of overseas travel and shopping experience, shopping expenditure, length of stay. Specifically, the study examined the three clusters based on tourist shopping impulsivity. Chi-square tests and MNOVA revealed significant differences among the three clusters on overseas shopping plan, impulsive shopping expenditure, and consumer impulsive traits. Furthermore, conspicuous consumption, overall shopping satisfaction, and future overseas intention also significantly varied among the clusters. The study provides a detailed and in-depth understanding of overseas tourist shoppers by segmenting them into three distinct and meaningful groups. Theoretical and practical implications are provided

Why It Takes So Long to Connect to a WiFi Access Point

Today's WiFi networks deliver a large fraction of traffic. However, the performance and quality of WiFi networks are still far from satisfactory. Among many popular quality metrics (throughput, latency), the probability of successfully connecting to WiFi APs and the time cost of the WiFi connection set-up process are the two of the most critical metrics that affect WiFi users' experience. To understand the WiFi connection set-up process in real-world settings, we carry out measurement studies on $5$ million mobile users from $4$ representative cities associating with $7$ million APs in $0.4$ billion WiFi sessions, collected from a mobile "WiFi Manager" App that tops the Android/iOS App market. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to do such large scale study on: how large the WiFi connection set-up time cost is, what factors affect the WiFi connection set-up process, and what can be done to reduce the WiFi connection set-up time cost. Based on the measurement analysis, we develop a machine learning based AP selection strategy that can significantly improve WiFi connection set-up performance, against the conventional strategy purely based on signal strength, by reducing the connection set-up failures from $33\%$ to $3.6\%$ and reducing $80\%$ time costs of the connection set-up processes by more than $10$ times.Comment: 11pages, conferenc