HE4 – not only an ovarian cancer biomarker – a brief review

Human epididymis protein 4 (HE4) was firstly identified in epididymal epithelial cells and described as a protease inhibitor playing a role in spermatogenesis. Regarding numerous studies proving its diverse potential as a prognostic and predictive factor in ovarian cancer, it was incorporated into ROMA algorithm. Nevertheless, recent studies have shown that serum level of HE4 is not exclusive to ovarian cancer. As a result, doctors using ROMA algorithm for stratifying patients with ovarian cancer must be aware of other conditions that may affect serum level of HE4. This review comprises different conditions connected with high level of HE4 that might impact ovarian cancer diagnosing process. Moreover, discovering increased HE4 level in various conditions should open discussion about its applicability in diseases other than ovarian cancer

Collaborative semantic web browsing with Magpie

Web browsing is often a collaborative activity. Users involved in a joint information gathering exercise will wish to share knowledge about the web pages visited and the contents found. Magpie is a suite of tools supporting the interpretation of web pages and semantically enriched web browsing. By automatically associating an ontology-based semantic layer to web resources, Magpie allows relevant services to be invoked as well as remotely triggered within a standard web browser. In this paper we describe how Magpie trigger services can provide semantic support to collaborative browsing activities

Tumour markers in the routine diagnosis of renal cell carcinoma

Rak nerki to szczególnie złośliwy nowotwór, który występuje częściej u mężczyzn niż u kobiet i stanowi blisko 90% wszystkich guzów nerek. Najczęściej występującym rakiem nerki jest rak jasnokomórkowy, stanowiący około 80% wszystkich przypadków raka nerki.Wśród markerów diagnostycznych raka nerki, o których mowa w niniejszym artykule, wymienia się najczęściej kwaśne białko immunosupresyjne IAP, którego podwyższony poziom we krwi wskazuje na obecność u chorych przerzutów do węzłów chłonnych lub innych odległych przerzutów. Istotnym markerem w diagnostyce raka nerki jest również glikoproteina P, której zwiększona ekspresja związana jest ze złym rokowaniem. Jako markery zaawansowanego raka nerki badane są także cząsteczki adhezyjne, metaloproteinazy oraz cyklooksygenaza 2. W ostatnim czasie PAX2 okazał się być przydatnym markerem w diagnostyce raka nerki.Mimo iż w diagnostyce raka nerki stosowanych jest wiele markerów, to żaden z nich nie jest w pełni diagnostyczny, dlatego też diagnostyka oparta na biomerkerach nie może pełnić podstawowego kryterium rozpoznania raka nerki. Może służyć jedynie uzupełnieniu prowadzonej diagnostyki oraz monitorowaniu leczenia i wykryciu ewentualnego nawrotu procesu chorobowego.Istotne jest dalsze poszukiwanie nowych prognostycznych biomarkerów, które by były odpowiednie w rutynowej diagnostyce tego nowotworu i mogły podnieść efektywność leczenia.Kidney cancer is a particularly malignant cancer that occurs more often in men than in women and accounts for nearly 90% of all renal tumours. The most common kidney cancer is clear cell carcinoma, making up approximately 80% of all cases.Among the diagnostic markers of kidney cancer, is the most common immunosuppressive acidic protein IAP, whose elevated levels in the blood indicate the presence of lymph node metastases or other distant metastases. Another important marker in the diagnosis of kidney cancer is P-glycoprotein: the increased expression is associated with poor prognosis. Other markers of advanced kidney cancer are also examined: adhesion molecules, matrix metalloproteinases, and cyclooxygenase. It is also noted that 2 PAX2 has recently proved to be a useful marker in the diagnosis of renal cancer.No markers used are fully diagnostic, therefore such markers cannot act as the primary criterion for the diagnosis of renal cancer. They can be used only as a supplement to other diagnostics used to monitor the treatment and detection of a possible recurrence of the disease. It is important to continue to search for new prognostic biomarkers that can be appropriate for routine diagnosis of this tumour and may increase the eff ectiveness of treatment

Association of Specific Comorbidities with Monosodium Urate Crystal Deposition in Urate-Lowering Therapy-Naive Gout Patients: A Cross-Sectional Dual-Energy Computed Tomography Study.

(1) Background: To determine which factors are associated with the volume of monosodium urate (MSU) crystal deposition quantified by dual-energy computed tomography (DECT) in urate-lowering therapy (ULT)-naive gout patients. (2) Methods: In this multicenter cross-sectional study, DECT scans of knees and feet/ankles were prospectively obtained from ULT-naive gout patients. Demographic, clinical (including gout history and comorbidities), and biological data were collected, and their association with DECT MSU crystal volume was analyzed using bivariate and multivariate analyses. A second bivariate analysis was performed by splitting the dataset depending on an arbitrary threshold of DECT MSU volume (1 cm <sup>3</sup> ). (3) Results: A total of 91 patients were included. In the bivariate analysis, age (p = 0.03), gout duration (p = 0.003), subcutaneous tophi (p = 0.004), hypertension (p = 0.02), diabetes mellitus (p = 0.05), and chronic heart failure (p = 0.03) were associated with the total DECT volume of MSU crystal deposition. In the multivariate analysis, factors associated with DECT MSU volumes ≥1 cm <sup>3</sup> were gout duration (odds ratio (OR) for each 10-year increase 3.15 (1.60; 7.63)), diabetes mellitus (OR 4.75 (1.58; 15.63)), and chronic heart failure (OR 7.82 (2.29; 31.38)). (4) Conclusion: Specific comorbidities, particularly chronic heart failure and diabetes mellitus, are more strongly associated with increased MSU crystal deposition in knees and feet/ankles than gout duration, regardless of serum urate level

Towards Activity Context using Software Sensors

Service-Oriented Computing delivers the promise of configuring and reconfiguring software systems to address user's needs in a dynamic way. Context-aware computing promises to capture the user's needs and hence the requirements they have on systems. The marriage of both can deliver ad-hoc software solutions relevant to the user in the most current fashion. However, here it is a key to gather information on the users' activity (that is what they are doing). Traditionally any context sensing was conducted with hardware sensors. However, software can also play the same role and in some situations will be more useful to sense the activity of the user. Furthermore they can make use of the fact that Service-oriented systems exchange information through standard protocols. In this paper we discuss our proposed approach to sense the activity of the user making use of software

Testing mechanical performance of adhesively bonded composite joints in engineering applications: an overview

The development of new adhesives has allowed to expand the application of bonding into the most diverse industrial fields. This review article presents the commonly used experimental methods for the investigation of mechanical performance of adhesively bonded joints in the aerospace, wind energy, automotive and civil engineering sectors. In these sectors, due to their excellent intrinsic properties, composite materials are often used along with conventional materials such as steel, concrete and aluminium. In this context, and due to the limitations that the traditional joining techniques present, adhesive joints are an excellent alternative. However, standardized experimental procedures are not always applicable for testing representative adhesive joints in these industries. Lack of relevant regulations across the different fields is often overcome by the academia and companies’ own regulations and standards. Additional costs are thus mitigated to the industrial sectors in relation with the certification process which effectively can deprive even the biggest companies from promoting adhesive bonding. To ensure continuous growth of the adhesive bonding field the new international standards, focusing on actual adhesive joints’ performance rather than on specific application of adhesive joints are necessary.This work was supported by the European Cooperation in Science and Technology [CA 18120]

Structure of the Full-Length Major Pilin from Streptococcus pneumoniae: Implications for Isopeptide Bond Formation in Gram-Positive Bacterial Pili

The surface of the pneumococcal cell is adorned with virulence factors including pili. The major pilin RrgB, which forms the pilus shaft on pathogenic Streptococcus pneumoniae, comprises four immunoglobulin (Ig)-like domains, each with a common CnaB topology. The three C-terminal domains are each stabilized by internal Lys-Asn isopeptide bonds, formed autocatalytically with the aid of an essential Glu residue. The structure and orientation of the crucial N-terminal domain, which provides the covalent linkage to the next pilin subunit in the shaft, however, remain incompletely characterised. We report the crystal structure of full length RrgB, solved by X-ray crystallography at 2.8 Å resolution. The N-terminal (D1) domain makes few contacts with the rest of the RrgB structure, and has higher B-factors. This may explain why D1 is readily lost by proteolysis, as are the N-terminal domains of many major pilins. D1 is also found to have a triad of Lys, Asn and Glu residues in the same topological positions as in the other domains, yet mass spectrometry and the crystal structure show that no internal isopeptide bond is formed. We show that this is because β-strand G of D1, which carries the Asn residue, diverges from β-strand A, carrying the Lys residue, such that these residues are too far apart for bond formation. Strand G also carries the YPKN motif that provides the essential Lys residue for the sortase-mediated intermolecular linkages along the pilus shaft. Interaction with the sortase and formation of the intermolecular linkage could result in a change in the orientation of this strand, explaining why isopeptide bond formation in the N-terminal domains of some major pilins appears to take place only upon assembly of the pili