Tumour prothymosin alpha content, a potential prognostic marker for primary breast cancer

In a previous report we suggested that the estimation of prothymosin α (PTA) levels in primary breast tumours might be used to identify breast cancer patients at high risk for distant metastasis (Dominguez F et al (1993) Eur J Cancer29A: 893–897). Here the role of tumour PTA levels as predictor was investigated with respect to both disease-free survival (DFS) and survival. Tumours were obtained from a series of 210 consecutive female patients with ductal carcinoma who underwent surgery at the Hospital Xeral de Galicia (Santiago de Compostela, Spain). Characteristics including PTA tumour levels, number of positive axillary nodes, patient's age at surgery and tumour histological grade were significantly associated with DFS and survival, as determined by univariate analysis. Patients with tumours with low or moderate PTA levels demonstrated a statistically decreased rate of tumour recurrence and a statistically significant increased overall survival in comparison with those whose tumours had high PTA levels. Patient's relative risk of dying was 2.1 times greater for tumours with high PTA levels than for those tumours with low or moderate PTA levels. In conclusion, these data support the hypothesis that tumour high PTA levels is associated with a worse outcome. © 2000 Cancer Research Campaig

Presence of markers of activation pathways of macrophages in chronic periodontitis

Indexación: Web of Science; ScieloLa periodontitis crónica es una patología infecciosa, causada por un complejo de especies bacterianas, que afecta principalmente los tejidos de inserción de los dientes. La respuesta inmune-inflamatoria producida se caracteriza por la presencia de un infiltrado inflamatorio, en el cual los macrófagos representan entre 5 al 30%. Es sabido que los macrófagos se activan mediante dos vías: Clásica y Alterna, caracterizadas por la presencia de marcadores indirectos: IFN-γ e IL-6 para la vía clásica e IL-4 para la vía alterna, ampliamente abordados. Recientemente, se ha descrito a la subunidad A del factor XIII de la coagulación (FXIII-A) como un buen marcador de la vía alterna. El objetivo de este estudio consiste en determinar la presencia de IFN-γ, IL-6, FXIII-A e IL-4 como marcadores de las vías de activación de los macrófagos, en pacientes con periodontitis crónica. Para tal efecto, se realizó inmunohistoquímica y Western-Blot para los cuatro marcadores junto a CD-68, marcador de macrófagos, en 18 biopsias de tejido periodontal sano y 18 con periodontitis crónica. Se detectó la presencia de IFN-γ, IL-6, IL-4 y FXIII-A junto a CD68+, en todas las muestras de pacientes sanos y con periodontitis. Los resultados obtenidos sugieren que al estar presente IFN-γ, IL-6, IL-4 y FXIII-A, los macrófagos se activarían a través de ambas vías, lo cual, produciría una respuesta tanto proinflamatoria (Th1) como antinflamatoria (Th2). Son necesarios más estudios para determinar si existe una vía preferencial de activación.Periodontitis is a chronic infectious disease caused by a bacterial species complex, which affects mainly the insertion tissues of the teeth. The immune-inflammatory response produced is characterized by an inflammatory infiltrate in which macrophages represent between 5 to 30%. It is known and has been widely discussed that macrophages are activated in two ways: Classical and Alterna, characterized by the presence of indirect markers: IFN-γ and IL-6 for the classical pathway and IL-4 for the alternative pathway. Recently the subunit A of the clotting factor XIII (FXIII-A) has been described as a good marker of the alternative pathway. The objective of this study is to determine the presence of IFN-γ, IL-6, IL-4 and FXIII-A as markers of the macrophage activation pathways in patients with chronic periodontitis. To this end, we performed immunohistochemistry and Western blot for the four markers with CD68 macrophage marker, in 18 healthy periodontal tissue biopsies and 18 with chronic periodontitis. We detected the presence of IFN-γ, IL-6, IL-4 and FXIII-A with CD68 +, in all samples of healthy patients and periodontitis. The results suggest that when present, IFN-γ, IL-6, IL-4 and FXIII-A, activate macrophages through both routes, which would produce a proinflammatory response (Th1) as antiinflammatory (Th2). Further studies are necessary to determine whether there is a preferential pathway activation.http://www.scielo.cl/pdf/piro/v5n3/art06.pd

Neutron scattering at high temperature and levitation techniques

Studies of the liquid state present an obvious fundamental interest and are also important for technological applications since the molten state is an essential stage in various industrial processes (e.g. glass making, single crystal growing, iron and steel making). Most of the physical properties of a high-temperature liquid are related to its atomic structure. Thus it is important to develop devices to probe the local environment of the atoms in the sample. At very high temperature, it is difficult to use conventional furnaces, which present several problems. In particular, physical contact with the container can contaminate the sample and/or modify its structural properties. Such problems encouraged the development of containerless techniques, which are powerful tools to study high-temperature melts. By eliminating completely any contact between sample and container, it is possible to study the sample with a very high degree of control and to access very high temperatures. An additional advantage of levitation methods is that it is possible to supercool hot liquids down to several hundred of degrees below their equilibrium freezing point, since heterogeneous nucleation processes are suppressed

Cultural determinants of status: Implications for workplace evaluations and behaviors

Status is a valued workplace resource that facilitates career success, yet little is known regarding whether and how cultural orientation affects status attainment. We integrate status characteristics theory with the literature on individualism and collectivism and propose a cultural patterning in the determinants of status. Four studies (N = 379) demonstrate that cultural orientation influences the tendency to view high status individuals as competent versus warm (Study 1), uncover cultural differences in both individuals’ tendency to engage in competence and warmth behaviors to attain workplace status (Study 2) and evaluators’ tendency to ascribe status to individuals who demonstrate competence versus warmth (Study 3), and verify that cultural differences in the effects of competence and warmth on status perceptions, and in turn performance evaluations, generalize to real world interdependent groups (Study 4). Our findings advance theory on the cultural contingencies of status attainment and have implications for managing diversity at work

Modelling and Analysis Mobile Systems Using �pi-calculus (EFCP)

Reference passing systems, like mobile and recon�gurable systems are common nowadays. The common feature of such systems is the possibility to form dynamic logical connections between the individual modules. However, such systems are very di�cult to verify, as their logical structure is dynamic. Traditionally, decidable fragments of pi-calculus, e.g. the well-known Finite Control Processes (FCP), are used for formal modelling of reference passing systems. Unfortunately, FCPs allow only `global' concurrency between processes, and thus cannot naturally express scenarios involving `local' concurrency inside a process, such as multicast. In this paper we propose Extended Finite Control Processes (EFCP), which are more convenient for practical modelling. Moreover, an almost linear translation of EFCPs to FCPs is developed, which enables e�cient model checking of EFCPs

Tratamiento de la columna vertebral en la educación secundaria obligatoria: parte I - prevención y ejercicios poco recomendables

El dolor de espalda es uno de los motivos más frecuentes por los cuales se acude a la consulta médica y es preocupante la cada vez más temprana edad en la cual se presentan estos problemas. Ello impone la necesidad de dar a conocer a los alumnos de Educación Secundaria Obligatoria unos mínimos conocimientos acerca de la anatomía de la columna vertebral y ciertos recursos ergonómicos para adoptar actitudes posturales correctas. Por otro lado, el profesor de Educación Física ha de conocer cuáles son los ejercicios, de forma general, menos recomendables en la prevención de determinados problemas de espalda

Tratamiento de la columna vertebral en la educación secundaria obligatoria: parte II - ejercicios recomendables

El dolor de espalda en personas adultas es producido, en numerosas ocasiones, por una inadecuada educación postural y una deficiente condición física. Esta situación provoca un desequilibrio muscular en aquellos grupos musculares responsables de mantener la postura. En la E.S.O, también se producen tales desequilibrios por lo que, como actitud preventiva y educadora, es recomendable tener en cuenta el tratamiento corporal que sufren los alumnos a lo largo del día y durante las clases de Educación Física. Entre los ejercicios que favorecen la reeducación postural así como su desarrollo y mantenimiento, se ha realizado una selección de los que se consideran no debería faltar en una programación de E.F para la ESO

Electronic spin precession in semiconductor quantum dots with spin-orbit coupling

The electronic spin precession in semiconductor dots is strongly affected by the spin-orbit coupling. We present a theory of the electronic spin resonance at low magnetic fields that predicts a strong dependence on the dot occupation, the magnetic field and the spin-orbit coupling strength. Coulomb interaction effects are also taken into account in a numerical approach.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Remanent magnetization in CoO antiferromagnetic nanoparticles

We report a study on the remanent magnetization Mr induced by field cooling across the ordering temperature TN in antiferromagnetic CoO nanoparticles with different sizes. The nanoparticles are composed by a structurally and magnetically ordered core and a structurally ordered and magnetically disordered shell with a thickness of about 2 nm. The ordered core has cell parameters, moments direction, and modulus similar to those of bulk CoO. Mr is shown to be proportional to the cooling field Hcool. The low-temperature saturation values of Mr Mr 0 in the CoO nanoparticles are about two orders of magnitude higher than those found for bulk CoO. Mr /Mr 0 of CoO nanoparticles scales with temperature in a single curve, independently on the magnitude of Hcool and on nanoparticles size, except for temperatures near to TN since TN is size dependent