Berry chemoprevention: do berries decrease the window of opportunity for tumourigenesis

In addition to smoking and UV exposure, lifestyle factors, such as diet, nutrition, and physical activity, have been shown to play a significant role for many cancers. It is estimated that up to 50% of some cancer types are preventable; many through lifestyle and dietary changes with the presence or absence of certain dietary components strongly associated with an increased or decreased risk. Here we summarize the work that has been performed with polyphenols, with a focus on those derived from black raspberries. These have been extensively studied for the prevention and treatment of a variety of conditions and diseases. Here we focus on their use for the prevention or treatment of specific cancer types and the impact they have on biological systems. The aim is to highlight the need to improve our understanding of how the environment impacts upon the normal biological processes that affect health and disease, thereby, enabling us to implement smarter prevention and treatment measures

Investigations for Ergonomic Presentation of AIS Symbols for ECDIS

Empirical investigations were carried out in a research project for the German Federal Ministry of Transport, Building, and Housing to evaluate the presentation of AIS target information on ECDIS. The investigations were performed at three international simulation centres. The features, colour and fillingjsize of AIS symbols, as well as the influence of the ECDIS display category on the detection of AIS targets were the main issues of the investigations. Results show that blue (5-52 colour token RE5BL) is the most suitable colour of the tested colours for the presentation of AIS targets under all ambient light conditions on the tested IHO S-52 colour tables

Optimal Extraction of Fibre Optic Spectroscopy

We report an optimal extraction methodology, for the reduction of multi-object fibre spectroscopy data, operating in the regime of tightly packed (and hence significantly overlapping) fibre profiles. The routine minimises crosstalk between adjacent fibres and statistically weights the extraction to reduce noise. As an example of the process we use simulations of the numerous modes of operation of the AAOmega fibre spectrograph and observational data from the SPIRAL Integral Field Unit at the Anglo-Australian Telescope.Comment: Accepted for publication in PAS

Long-term culture of intestinal cell progenitors: an overview of their development, application, and associated technologies

Purpose of Review Long-term culture of adult progenitor cells in 3D is a recently emerging technology that inhabits the space between 2D cell lines and organ slice culture. Recent Findings Adaptations to defined media components in the wake of advances in ES and iPS cell culture has led to the identification of conditions that maintained intestinal cell progenitors in culture. These conditions retain cellular heterogeneity of the normal or tumour tissue, and the cultures have been shown to be genetically stable, such that substantial biobanks are being created from patient derived material. This coupled with advances in analytical tools has generated a field, characterized by the term “organoid culture”, that has huge potential for advancing drug discovery, regenerative medicine, and furthering the understanding of fundamental intestinal biology. Summary In this review, we describe the approaches available for the long-term culture of intestinal cells from normal and diseased tissue, the current challenges, and how the technology is likely to develop further

Organoids, organs-on-chips and other systems, and microbiota

The human gut microbiome is considered an organ in its entirety and has been the subject of extensive research due to its role in physiology, metabolism, digestion, and immune regulation. Disequilibria of the normal microbiome have been associated with the development of several gastrointestinal diseases, but the exact underlying interactions are not well understood. Conventional in vivo and in vitro modelling systems fail to faithfully recapitulate the complexity of the human host–gut microbiome, emphasising the requirement for novel systems that provide a platform to study human host–gut microbiome interactions with a more holistic representation of the human in vivo microenvironment. In this review, we outline the progression and applications of new and old modelling systems with particular focus on their ability to model and to study host–microbiome cross-talk

Interactive Supercomputing with MIT Matlab

This paper describes MITMatlab, a system that enables users of supercomputers or networked PCs to work on large data sets within Matlab transparently. MITMatlab is based on the Parallel Problems Server (PPServer), a standalone 'linear algebra server' that provides a mechanism for running distributed memory algorithms on large data sets. The PPServer and MITMatlab enable high-performance interactive supercomputing. With such a tool, researchers can now use Matlab as more than a prototyping tool for experimenting with small problems. Instead, MITMatlab makes is possible to visualize and operate interactively on large data sets. This has implications not only in supercomputing, but for Artificial Intelligence applicatons such as Machine Learning, Information Retrieval and Image Processing

A New South Tyrol: The Multilingual, Multicultural Society

Identity formation is a reoccurring theme in an increasingly global world. Monolingualism and monoculturalism is no longer a possible in a global world. Like greater society, should contemporary literature not also argue for a multilingual, multicultural society? South Tyrol, a province that experienced Nazism and Fascism, control by both Mussolini and Hitler, pitted ethnic German and ethnic Italian speakers against one another. Today, since the founding of Schengen Europe eradicated border controls between Austria and Italy in 1997. South Tyrol is officially trilingual, with German, Italian, and Ladin1 being the official languages, and in recent years, has taken in a substantial number of immigrants from outside Europe, further problematizing the conundrum of what it means to be South Tyrolean. This project is the beginning of an attempt to fulfill a gap in our understanding of how South Tyrolean literature grapples with conundrums of contemporary identity. Do German-language authors express remorse for a lost Heimat? Do Italian-language authors cast all German speakers as Nazi sympathizers? I argue that none of this is the case, but instead, South Tyrolean literature in both German and Italian collectively argue for a multilingual, multicultural paradigm, criticizing xenophobia. Eva dorme (Eva sleeps)(2010) by Francesca Melandri, Stillbach oder die Sehnsucht (Roman Elegy) (2011) by Sabine Gruber, and Die Walsche (The Italian) (1982) by Joseph Zoderer are the three novels I examine. Finally, if given more attention, this minor South Tyrolean literature can reach the world literary market, educating the world reader to embrace multilingualism and multiculturalism. By appealing to conventions of the popular novel, and admittingly, with greater promotion and translation, contemporary South Tyrolean literature can act as a model for embracing multilingualism and multiculturalism

Investigations for Ergonomic Presentation of AIS Symbols on ECDIS

Empirical investigations were carried out in a research project for the German Federal Ministry of Transport, Building, and Housing to evaluate the presentation of AIS target information on ECDIS. The investigations were performed at three international simulation centres. The features, colour and fillingjsize of AIS symbols, as well as the influence of the ECDIS display category on the detection of AIS targets were the main issues of the investigations. Results show that blue (5-52 colour token RE5BL) is the most suitable colour of the tested colours for the presentation of AIS targets under all ambient light conditions on the tested IHO S-52 colour tables.Las investigaciones empfricas fueron llevadas a cabo en un proyecto de investigacion para el Ministerio Federal Aleman de Transporte, Construccion y Vivienda para evaluar la presentacion de la informacion de objetos del AIS en el ECDIS. Se emprendieron investigaciones en tres centros de simulacion intemacionales. Las caracterfsticas, color y tamaino de los simbolos del AIS, asi como la influencia de la categoria de la presentacion ECDIS en la deteccion de objetos del AIS fueron los temas principales de las investigaciones. Los resultados muestran que el azul (muestras del color RESBL de la S-52) es el color mas apropiado de entre los colores puestos a prueba, para la presentacion de los objetos del AIS bajo todas las condiciones de luz ambiente en las tablas de colores puestos a prueba de la S-52 de la OHI.Des investigations empiriques ant ete effectuees dans le cadre d'un projet de recherche du Ministere federal allemand des Transports, de la Construction et du logement, en vue d'evaluer la presentation des informations cibles des systemes AIS sur les ECDIS. Ces investigations ont ete effectuees dans trois centres de simulation intemationaux. La couleur des elements et la teinte /la taille des signes conventionnels des AIS, ainsi que l'influence de la categorie d'affichage de l'ECDIS sur la detection des cibles AIS ant constitue les principaux themes des investigations. Les resultats ant montre que le bleu (code de couleur RE5BL dans la S52) est la couleur la plus appropriee parmi celles testees pour la presentation des cibles AIS sous toutes les conditions ambiantes de lumiliere dans le cadre des tables de couleur testees de la S52 de l'OHI

Sacral chordoma: do the width of surgical margin and the use of photon/proton radiotherapy affect local disease control?

Purpose Chordoma is a rare but highly aggressive primary bone sarcoma that arises commonly from the sacrum. While en bloc resection has been the mainstay of the treatment, the role of resection margin in millimetres with/without adjuvant radiotherapy (RT) has been unknown. We investigated the prognostic impact of surgical margin width, adjuvant RT, and their combined factor for sacral chordoma. Methods Forty-eight patients who underwent surgical treatment between 1996 and 2016 were studied. Of these, 11 patients (23%) received adjuvant RT; photon RT in 7 (15%) and proton RT in 4 (8%). Margins were microscopically measured in millimetres from the resection surface to the closest tumour on histologic slides. Results The five year and ten year disease-specific survival was 88% and 58%, respectively, and the local recurrence (LR) rate was 48%. The LR rate with 0-mm, Conclusion This study identified the lowest risk of local failure in tumour resection with ≥ 1.5-mm margin or negative but < 1.5-mm margin with the use of adjuvant photon/proton radiotherapy for sacral chordoma. Early results of adjuvant proton RT demonstrated excellent local control