Planning as 'market maker': how planning is used to stimulate development in Germany, France and the Netherlands

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Proposal for optical parity state re-encoder

We propose a re-encoder to generate a refreshed parity encoded state from an existing parity encoded state. This is the simplest case of the scheme by Gilchrist et al. (Phys. Rev. A 75, 052328). We show that it is possible to demonstrate with existing technology parity encoded quantum gates and teleportation.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure

Polymer colour converter with very high modulation bandwidth for visible light communications

We thank EPSRC for financial support from the UP-VLC Project Grant (EP/K00042X/1). I.D.W.S. and P.J.S. are Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award holders.For white light data communications, broad-band light emitting materials are required, whose emission can be rapidly modulated in intensity. We report the synthesis, photophysics and application of a novel semiconducting polymer for use as a high bandwidth colour converter, to replace commercial phosphors in white LEDs. The high modulation bandwidth (470 MHz) is 140 times higher than that measured using a conventional LED phosphor.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Suspension culture combined with chemotherapeutic agents for sorting of breast cancer stem cells

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Cancer stem cell (CSC) hypothesis has not been well demonstrated by the lack of the most convincing evidence concerning a single cell capable of giving rise to a tumor. The scarcity in quantity and improper approaches for isolation and purification of CSCs have become the major obstacles for great development in CSCs. Here we adopted suspension culture combined with anticancer regimens as a strategy for screening breast cancer stem cells (BrCSCs). BrCSCs could survive and be highly enriched in non-adherent suspension culture while chemotherapeutic agents could destroy most rapidly dividing cancer cells and spare relatively quiescent BrCSCs.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>TM40D murine breast cancer cells were cultured in serum-free medium. The expression of CD44⁺CD24^-was measured by flow cytometry. Cells of passage 10 were treated in combination with anticancer agents pacilitaxel and epirubicin at different peak plasma concentrations for 24 hours, and then maintained under suspension culture. The rate of apoptosis was examined by flow cytometry with Annexin-V fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)/propidium iodide (PI) double staining method. Selected cells in different amounts were injected subcutaneously into BALB/C mice to observe tumor formation.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Cells of passage 10 in suspension culture had the highest percentage of CD44⁺CD24^-(about 77 percent). A single tumor cell in 0.35 PPC could generate tumors in 3 of 20 BALB/C mice.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Suspension culture combined with anticancer regimens provides an effective means of isolating, culturing and purifying BrCSCs.</p

Expression analysis of mammaglobin A (SCGB2A2) and lipophilin B (SCGB1D2) in more than 300 human tumors and matching normal tissues reveals their co-expression in gynecologic malignancies

BACKGROUND: Mammaglobin A (SCGB2A2) and lipophilin B (SCGB1D2), two members of the secretoglobin superfamily, are known to be co-expressed in breast cancer, where their proteins form a covalent complex. Based on the relatively high tissue-specific expression pattern, it has been proposed that the mammaglobin A protein and/or its complex with lipophilin B could be used in breast cancer diagnosis and treatment. In view of these clinical implications, the aim of the present study was to analyze the expression of both genes in a large panel of human solid tumors (n = 309), corresponding normal tissues (n = 309) and cell lines (n = 11), in order to evaluate their tissue specific expression and co-expression pattern. METHODS: For gene and protein expression analyses, northern blot, dot blot hybridization of matched tumor/normal arrays (cancer profiling arrays), quantitative RT-PCR, non-radioisotopic RNA in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry were used. RESULTS: Cancer profiling array data demonstrated that mammaglobin A and lipophilin B expression is not restricted to normal and malignant breast tissue. Both genes were abundantly expressed in tumors of the female genital tract, i.e. endometrial, ovarian and cervical cancer. In these four tissues the expression pattern of mammaglobin A and lipophilin B was highly concordant, with both genes being down-, up- or not regulated in the same tissue samples. In breast tissue, mammaglobin A expression was down-regulated in 49% and up-regulated in 12% of breast tumor specimens compared with matching normal tissues, while lipophilin B was down-regulated in 59% and up-regulated in 3% of cases. In endometrial tissue, expression of mammaglobin A and lipophilin B was clearly up-regulated in tumors (47% and 49% respectively). Both genes exhibited down-regulation in 22% of endometrial tumors. The only exceptions to this concordance of mammaglobin A/lipophilin B expression were normal and malignant tissues of prostate and kidney, where only lipophilin B was abundantly expressed and mammaglobin A was entirely absent. RNA in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry confirmed expression of mammaglobin A on a cellular level in endometrial and cervical cancer and their corresponding normal tissues. CONCLUSION: Altogether, these data suggest that expression of mammaglobin A and lipophilin B might be controlled in different tissues by the same regulatory transcriptional mechanisms. Diagnostic assays based on mammaglobin A expression and/or the mammaglobin A/lipophilin B complex appear to be less specific for breast cancer, but with a broader spectrum of potential applications, which includes gynecologic malignancies

Mitochondrial Dysfunction Links Ceramide Activated HRK Expression and Cell Death

Cell death is an essential process in normal development and homeostasis. In eyes, corneal epithelial injury leads to the death of cells in underlying stroma, an event believed to initiate corneal wound healing. The molecular basis of wound induced corneal stromal cell death is not understood in detail. Studies of others have indicated that ceramide may play significant role in stromal cell death following LASIK surgery. We have undertaken the present study to investigate the mechanism of death induced by C6 ceramide in cultures of human corneal stromal (HCSF) fibroblasts.Cultures of HCSF were established from freshly excised corneas. Cell death was induced in low passage (p<4) cultures of HCSF by treating the cells with C6 ceramide or C6 dihydroceramide as a control. Cell death was assessed by Live/Dead cell staining with calcein AM and ethidium homodimer-1 as well as Annexin V staining, caspase activation and TUNEL staining Mitochondrial dysfunction was assessed by Mito Sox Red, JC-1 and cytochrome C release Gene expression was examined by qPCR and western blotting.Our data demonstrate ceramide caused mitochondrial dysfunction as evident from reduced MTT staining, cyto c release from mitochondria, enhanced generation of ROS, and loss in mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔΨm). Cell death was evident from Live -Dead Cell staining and the inability to reestablish cultures from detached cells. Ceramide induced the expression of the harikari gene(HRK) and up-regulated JNK phosphorylation. In ceramide treated cells HRK was translocated to mitochondria, where it was found to interact with mitochondrial protein p32. The data also demonstrated HRK, p32 and BAD interaction. Ceramide-induced expression of HRK, mitochondrial dysfunction and cell death were reduced by HRK knockdown with HRK siRNA.Our data document that ceramide is capable of inducing death of corneal stromal fibroblasts through the induction of HRK mediated mitochondria dysfunction

Individualized Cost-Effectiveness Analysis

John Ioannidis and Alan Garber discuss how to use incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICER) and related metrics so they can be useful for decision-making at the individual level, whether used by clinicians or individual patients

Jet energy measurement with the ATLAS detector in proton-proton collisions at root s=7 TeV

The jet energy scale and its systematic uncertainty are determined for jets measured with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in proton-proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of √s = 7TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 38 pb-1. Jets are reconstructed with the anti-kt algorithm with distance parameters R=0. 4 or R=0. 6. Jet energy and angle corrections are determined from Monte Carlo simulations to calibrate jets with transverse momenta pT≥20 GeV and pseudorapidities {pipe}η{pipe}<4. 5. The jet energy systematic uncertainty is estimated using the single isolated hadron response measured in situ and in test-beams, exploiting the transverse momentum balance between central and forward jets in events with dijet topologies and studying systematic variations in Monte Carlo simulations. The jet energy uncertainty is less than 2. 5 % in the central calorimeter region ({pipe}η{pipe}<0. 8) for jets with 60≤pT<800 GeV, and is maximally 14 % for pT<30 GeV in the most forward region 3. 2≤{pipe}η{pipe}<4. 5. The jet energy is validated for jet transverse momenta up to 1 TeV to the level of a few percent using several in situ techniques by comparing a well-known reference such as the recoiling photon pT, the sum of the transverse momenta of tracks associated to the jet, or a system of low-pT jets recoiling against a high-pT jet. More sophisticated jet calibration schemes are presented based on calorimeter cell energy density weighting or hadronic properties of jets, aiming for an improved jet energy resolution and a reduced flavour dependence of the jet response. The systematic uncertainty of the jet energy determined from a combination of in situ techniques is consistent with the one derived from single hadron response measurements over a wide kinematic range. The nominal corrections and uncertainties are derived for isolated jets in an inclusive sample of high-pT jets. Special cases such as event topologies with close-by jets, or selections of samples with an enhanced content of jets originating from light quarks, heavy quarks or gluons are also discussed and the corresponding uncertainties are determined. © 2013 CERN for the benefit of the ATLAS collaboration

Measurement of the inclusive and dijet cross-sections of b-jets in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The inclusive and dijet production cross-sections have been measured for jets containing b-hadrons (b-jets) in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of sqrt(s) = 7 TeV, using the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The measurements use data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 34 pb^-1. The b-jets are identified using either a lifetime-based method, where secondary decay vertices of b-hadrons in jets are reconstructed using information from the tracking detectors, or a muon-based method where the presence of a muon is used to identify semileptonic decays of b-hadrons inside jets. The inclusive b-jet cross-section is measured as a function of transverse momentum in the range 20 < pT < 400 GeV and rapidity in the range |y| < 2.1. The bbbar-dijet cross-section is measured as a function of the dijet invariant mass in the range 110 < m_jj < 760 GeV, the azimuthal angle difference between the two jets and the angular variable chi in two dijet mass regions. The results are compared with next-to-leading-order QCD predictions. Good agreement is observed between the measured cross-sections and the predictions obtained using POWHEG + Pythia. MC@NLO + Herwig shows good agreement with the measured bbbar-dijet cross-section. However, it does not reproduce the measured inclusive cross-section well, particularly for central b-jets with large transverse momenta.Comment: 10 pages plus author list (21 pages total), 8 figures, 1 table, final version published in European Physical Journal