801 research outputs found
FDGâPET. A possible prognostic factor in head and neck cancer
Previous studies have shown that high uptake of 18F-fluoro-2-deoxy-glucose in head and neck cancer, as determined by the standardized uptake value on positron emission tomography scan, was associated with poor survival. The aim of this study was to confirm the association and to establish whether a high standardized uptake value had prognostic significance. Seventy-three consecutive patients with newly diagnosed squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck underwent a positron emission tomography study before treatment. Age, gender, performance status tumour grade, stage, maximal tumour diameter and standardized uptake value were analyzed for their possible association with survival. The median standardized uptake value for all primary tumours was 7.16 (90% range 2.30 to 18.60). In univariate survival analysis the cumulative survival was decreased as the stage, tumour diameter and standardized uptake value increased. An standardized uptake value of 10 was taken as a cut-off for high and low uptake tumours. When these two groups were compared, an standardized uptake value >10 predicted for significantly worse outcome (P=0.003). Multivariate analysis demonstrated that an standardized uptake value >10 provided prognostic information independent of the tumour stage and diameter (P=0.002). We conclude that high FDG uptake (standardized uptake value>10) on positron emission tomography is an important marker for poor outcome in primary squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck. Standardized uptake value may be useful in distinguishing those tumours with a more aggressive biological nature and hence identifying patients that require intensive treatment protocols including hyperfractionated radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy
HI Narrow Self-Absorption in Dark Clouds: Correlations with Molecular Gas and Implications for Cloud Evolution and Star Formation
We present the results of a comparative study of HI narrow self-absorption
(HINSA), OH, 13CO, and C18O in five dark clouds. The HINSA follows the
distribution of the emission of the carbon monoxide isotopologues, and has a
characteristic size close to that of 13CO. This confirms that the HINSA is
produced by cold HI which is well mixed with molecular gas in well-shielded
regions. The ratio of the atomic hydrogen density to total proton density for
these sources is 5 to 27 x 10^{-4}. Using cloud temperatures and the density of
HI, we set an upper limit to the cosmic ray ionization rate of 10^{-16} s^{-1}.
Comparison of observed and modeled fractional HI abundances indicates ages for
these clouds to be 10^{6.5} to 10^{7} yr. The low values of the HI density we
have determined make it certain that the time scale for evolution from an
atomic to an almost entirely molecular phase, must be a minimum of several
million years. This clearly sets a lower limit to the overall time scale for
star formation and the lifetime of molecular clouds
A time-domain control signal detection technique for OFDM
Transmission of system-critical control information plays a key role in efficient management of limited wireless network resources and successful reception of payload data information. This paper uses an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) architecture to investigate the detection performance of a time-domain approach used to detect deterministic control signalling information. It considers a type of control information chosen from a finite set of information, which is known at both transmitting and receiving wireless terminals. Unlike the maximum likelihood (ML) estimation method, which is often used, the time-domain detection technique requires no channel estimation and no pilots as it uses a form of time-domain correlation as the means of detection. Results show that when compared with the ML method, the time-domain approach improves detection performance even in the presence of synchronisation error caused by carrier frequency offset
Standard Model Anomalies in Curved Space-Time with Torsion
Using the Fujikawa and the heat-kernel methods we make a complete and
detailed computation of the global, gauge and gravitational anomalies present
in the Standard Model defined on a curved space time with torsion. We find new
contributions coming from curvature and torsion terms to the leptonic number
anomaly (so that is not conserved any more), to the gauge and to
the mixed -gravitational anomalies, but the gauge anomaly cancellation
conditions on the hypercharges remain the same. We also find that the
condition, usually related to the cancellation of the mixed
-gravitational anomaly, can be reobtained in the context of the
Standard Model in flat space-time by requiring the cancellation of the global
Lorentz anomaly without any reference to gravitation.Comment: 44 pages, latex, no figure
Cancer cells exploit an orphan RNA to drive metastatic progression.
Here we performed a systematic search to identify breast-cancer-specific small noncoding RNAs, which we have collectively termed orphan noncoding RNAs (oncRNAs). We subsequently discovered that one of these oncRNAs, which originates from the 3' end of TERC, acts as a regulator of gene expression and is a robust promoter of breast cancer metastasis. This oncRNA, which we have named T3p, exerts its prometastatic effects by acting as an inhibitor of RISC complex activity and increasing the expression of the prometastatic genes NUPR1 and PANX2. Furthermore, we have shown that oncRNAs are present in cancer-cell-derived extracellular vesicles, raising the possibility that these circulating oncRNAs may also have a role in non-cell autonomous disease pathogenesis. Additionally, these circulating oncRNAs present a novel avenue for cancer fingerprinting using liquid biopsies
A Self-Absorption Census of Cold HI Clouds in the Canadian Galactic Plane Survey
We present a 21cm line HI self-absorption (HISA) survey of cold atomic gas
within Galactic longitudes 75 to 146 degrees and latitudes -3 to +5 degrees. We
identify HISA as spatially and spectrally confined dark HI features and extract
it from the surrounding HI emission in the arcminute-resolution Canadian
Galactic Plane Survey (CGPS). We compile a catalog of the most significant
features in our survey and compare our detections against those in the
literature. Within the parameters of our search, we find nearly all previously
detected features and identify many new ones. The CGPS shows HISA in much
greater detail than any prior survey and allows both new and
previously-discovered features to be placed into the larger context of Galactic
structure. In space and radial velocity, faint HISA is detected virtually
everywhere that the HI emission background is sufficiently bright. This ambient
HISA population may arise from small turbulent fluctuations of temperature and
velocity in the neutral interstellar medium. By contrast, stronger HISA is
organized into discrete complexes, many of which follow a longitude-velocity
distribution that suggests they have been made visible by the velocity reversal
of the Perseus arm's spiral density wave. The cold HI revealed in this way may
have recently passed through the spiral shock and be on its way to forming
molecules and, eventually, new stars. This paper is the second in a series
examining HISA at high angular resolution. A companion paper (Paper III)
describes our HISA search and extraction algorithms in detail.Comment: 44 pages, including 13 figure pages; to appear in June 10 ApJ, volume
626; figure quality significantly reduced for astro-ph; for full resolution,
please see http://www.ras.ucalgary.ca/~gibson/hisa/cgps1_survey
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