Spaces of solitude: people and places in deadened cities

According to the systematic approach, solitude corresponds to a lack of communication between a singular system (a human being) and its surroundings (be they another human being, society, or space). Taking this definition axiomatically, the following hypotheses and the main thesis may be formed: solitude can be studied through our relation with space and built environment; solitude is a condition capable of disconnecting us with our surroundings; solitude can either depreciate or give value to the way we experience and interact with our surroundings; solitude can either be enforced and depreciated, or mitigated by our interaction with space, and therefore appreciated. The aim of this research was to investigate if, why, and how this ontological and existential concern may become part of architectural design. The paper investigates spaces of solitude in the deadened cities of the present - cities where the space is temporarily suspended by the ongoing, reciprocal impact of how they are designed and how modern solitude weakens our relation with our surroundings. As a result, a different point of view on the relationship between the individual and space applicable for public space design, risk mitigation strategies, and strategies for urban development. It can be considered a tool for minimising the vulnerability and improving the resilience of built environments, and empowering people who live between buildings in order to become the real users and owners of their urban territory

O MERCADO INTERNACIONAL DO ETANOL

O mercado internacional do etanol vem crescendo a cada dia, inevitavelmente. A procura constante pela substituição da utilização dos combustíveis fósseis, em especial do petróleo, somada à busca pela redução das emissões de poluentes e gases de efeito estufa, provoca uma busca para o desenvolvimento de alternativas para os combustíveis renováveis, em especial o etanol. O presente trabalho tem por objetivo analisar o mercado internacional para o etanol e seus principais destinos no mundo. Baseando-se nos dados dos principais importadores de etanol brasileiro, daremos atenção especial para os mercados norte-americano, da União Europeia, e da Ásia. Procuraremos identificar os pontos principais que caracterizam o mercado internacional do etanol, os incentivos e os obstáculos para o seu desenvolvimento

Biochemistry Characterization of the Leaf of Morinda Lucida: Prospects for Environmentally-Friendly Steel-Rebar Corrosion-Protection in Aggressive Medium

This paper employs atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and phytochemical screening methods for biochemical characterisation of the inorganic and organic constituents of the leaf of Morinda lucida. AAS results showed that this well-known medicinal

Low Expression of Bax Predicts Poor Prognosis in Resected Non-small Cell Lung Cancer Patients with Non-squamous Histology†

doi:10.1093/jjco/hyn089 Objective: The present study evaluated the prognostic significance of apoptosis-related proteins p53, Bax and galectin-3 in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated with surgical resection. Methods: We investigated the expression of these proteins and their association with clinicopathologic characteristics including disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) i

Prognostic significance of HER3 and HER4 protein expression in colorectal adenocarcinomas

BACKGROUND: Colorectal cancer remains a major cause of cancer mortality in the Western world. A limited number of studies has been conducted in respect of Her-3 and Her-4 expression and their correlation with clinical parameters and prognosis in colorectal carcinomas . In this study we sought to determine the pattern and the prognostic significance of HER-3 and HER-4 in colorectal adenocarcinoma. METHODS: We studied HER-3 and HER-4 protein expression in106 paraffin embedded specimens of primary colorectal tumors using immunohistochemistry. The pattern and protein expression levels of HER-3 and HER-4 were correlated with several clinical and pathological parameters. RESULTS: HER-3 staining displayed membranous and cytoplasmic expression pattern in 18 (17%) and 30 samples (28,3%), respectively. HER-4 membranous and cytoplasmic expression was found in 20 (18,9%) and 32 samples (30,2%), respectively. Specimens regarded as positive for HER-3 cytoplasmic expression were associated with moderate tumor grade (p = 0,032) and older median age (p = 0,010). Specimens regarded as positive for HER-4 membranous protein expression were associated with involved lymphnodes (p = 0,0003). Similar results were obtained when considering Her-3 and Her-4 protein expression irrespective of their cellular localization. There was no correlation between the expression of HER-3 and HER-4 and patients outcome. CONCLUSION: HER-4 membranous protein expression was found to predict for lymph nodes positivity in this cohort of patients with colorectal cancer.HER-4 expression status may identify tumors with aggressive biological behavior and increased metastatic potential

Cetuximab potentiates oxaliplatin cytotoxic effect through a defect in NER and DNA replication initiation

Preclinical studies have demonstrated that the chemotherapeutic action of oxaliplatin, a third generation platinum derivative, is improved when combined with cetuximab, a monoclonal antibody inhibitor of epidermal growth factor receptors. To explore the mechanism of this synergistic benefit, we used HCT-8 and HCT-116, two human colon cancer cell lines, respectively, responsive and non-responsive to the oxaliplatin/cetuximab combination. We examined the effect of drug exposure on glutathione-S-transferase-mediated oxaliplatin detoxification, DNA–platinum adducts formation, cell cycle distribution, apoptosis, and the expression of multiple targets involved in DNA replication, recombination, and repair. The major changes we found in HCT-8 were a stimulation of oxaliplatin–DNA adduct formation associated with reduced expression of the key enzyme (excision repair cross complementation group1: ERCC1) in the key repair process of oxaliplatin–DNA platinum adduct, the nucleotide excision repair (NER), both at the mRNA and protein levels. We also observed a reduced expression of factors involved in DNA replication initiation, which correlates with an enrichment of cells in the G1 phase of the cell cycle as well as an acceleration of apoptosis. None of these changes occurred in the non-responsive HCT-116 cell that we used as a negative control. These findings support the fact that cetuximab potentiates the oxaliplatin-mediated cytotoxic effect as the result of inhibition of NER and also DNA replication initiation

Phase II study of erlotinib (OSI-774) in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer

Erlotinib (Tarceva™, OSI-774), a potent epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor (EGFR), was evaluated in a phase II study to assess its activity in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer. In all, 38 patients with metastatic colorectal cancer were treated with erlotinib at a continuous daily oral dose of 150 mg. Radiological evaluation was carried out every 8 weeks and tumour biopsies were performed before treatment and on day 8. Of 31 evaluable patients, 19 (61%) had progressive disease and 12 (39%) had stable disease (s.d.). The median time to progression for those patients having s.d. was 123 days (range 108–329 days). The most common adverse events were rash in 34 patients and diarrhoea in 23 patients. Correlative studies were conducted to investigate the effect of erlotinib on downstream signalling. Tumour tissue correlations were based on usable tissue from eight match paired tumour samples pre- and on therapy, and showed a statistically significant decrease in the median intensity of both pEGFR (P=0.008) and phospho-extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) (P=0.008) a week after commencement of treatment. No other statistically significant change in tumour markers was observed. Erlotinib was well tolerated with the most common toxicities being rash and diarrhoea. More than one-third of evaluable patients had s.d. for a minimum of 8 weeks. Correlative studies showed a reduction in phosphorylated EGFR and ERK in tumour tissue post-treatment