Sarcoma immunotherapy.

Much of our knowledge regarding cancer immunotherapy has been derived from sarcoma models. However, translation of preclinical findings to bedside success has been limited in this disease, though several intriguing clinical studies hint at the potential efficacy of this treatment modality. The rarity and heterogeneity of tumors of mesenchymal origin continues to be a challenge from a therapeutic standpoint. Nonetheless, sarcomas remain attractive targets for immunotherapy, as they can be characterized by specific epitopes, either from their mesenchymal origins or specific alterations in gene products. To date, standard vaccine trials have proven disappointing, likely due to mechanisms by which tumors equilibrate with and ultimately escape immune surveillance. More sophisticated approaches will likely require multimodal techniques, both by enhancing immunity, but also geared towards overcoming innate mechanisms of immunosuppression that favor tumorigenesis

Neonatal growth of Steller sea lion (Eumetopias jubatus) pups in Alaska

The growth rate of Steller sea lion (Eumetopias jubatus) pups was studied in southeast Alaska, the Gulf of Alaska, and the Aleutian Islands during the first six weeks after birth. The Steller sea lion population is currently stable in southeast Alaska but is declining in the Aleutian Islands and parts of the Gulf of Alaska. Male pups (22.6 kg [±2.21 SD]) were significantly heavier than female pups (19.6 kg [±1.80 SD]) at 1−5 days of age, but there were no significant differences among rookeries. Male and female pups grew (in mass, standard length, and axillary girth) at the same rate. Body mass and standard length increased at a faster rate for pups in the Aleutian Islands and the western Gulf of Alaska (0.45−0.48 kg/day and 0.47−0.53 cm/day, respectively) than in southeast Alaska (0.23 kg/day and 0.20 cm/day). Additionally, axillary girth increased at a faster rate for pups in the Aleutian Islands (0.59 cm/ day) than for pups in southeast Alaska v(0.25 cm/day). Our results indicate a greater maternal investment in male pups during gestation, but not during early lactation. Although differences in pup growth rate occurred among rookeries, there was no evidence that female sea lions and their pups were nutritionally stressed in the area of population declin

Simulated Gas Turbine Casing Response to Rotor Blade Pressure Excitation

Non-intrusive measurement of blade condition within gas turbines is of major interest within all areas of their use. It is proposed that the measurement of the casing vibration, due to the aerodynamic-structural interaction within the turbine, could provide a means of blade condition monitoring and modal parameter estimation. In order to understand the complex relationship between blade vibrations and casing response, an analytical model of the casing and simulated pressure signal associated with the rotor blades is presented. A mathematical formulation is undertaken of the internal pressure signal due to both the rotating bladed disk as well as individual blade vibrations and the solution of the casing response is formulated. Excitation by the stator blades and their contribution to the casing response is also investigated. Some verification of the presented analytical model is provided by comparison with Finite Element Analysis results for various rotor rotational speeds

The Inclusive Semileptonic Decay Lepton Spectrum from B→Xeν‾B \to X e \overline{\nu}

In this talk, we review the QCD calculation of the lepton spectrum from inclusive semileptonic $B$ decay. We compare this prediction to that of the ACCMM model. This latter work was done in collaboration with Csaba Csaki.Comment: MIT-CTP-2333, uses LATEX. Invited Talk, Presented at WHEPP-3 Workshop in Madras,India, January, 199

Entropy-Area Relations in Field Theory

We consider the contribution to the entropy from fields in the background of a curved time-independent metric. To account for the curvature of space, we postulate a position-dependent UV cutoff. We argue that a UV cutoff on energy naturally implies an IR cutoff on distance. With this procedure, we calculate the scalar contribution in a background anti-de Sitter space, the exterior of a black hole, and de Sitter space. In all cases, we find results that can be simply interpreted in terms of local energy and proper volume, yielding insight into the apparent reduced dimensionality of systems with gravity.Comment: 20 pages, 1 figur

Characterizing Osteosarcoma Through PTEN and PI3K: What p53 and Rb1 Can’t Tell Us

Attention has been given to the fact that overall survival of osteosarcoma has plateaued over the last 30 years despite the addition of chemotherapy regimens. Elucidating the involvement of p53 and Rb1 in osteosarcoma has not yielded many novel treatments, but recent studies have started to characterize how the PTEN and the PI3K pathway can contribute to osteosarcoma. PTEN is a tumor suppressor that regulates a variety of signal transduction pathways and cellular processes, mainly by antagonizing PI3K activity and shutting down the PI3K/Akt pathway. Loss of PTEN function with concurrent PI3K activation has been detected frequently in a multitude of cancers, including osteosarcoma. This chapter aims to characterize PTEN and the PI3K/Akt pathway in osteosarcoma, their effects on primary bone tumor behavior, and potential therapeutic targets

Anti-pheromone as a tool for better exploration of search space

Many animals use chemical substances known as pheromones to induce behavioural changes in other members of the same species. The use of pheromones by ants in particular has lead to the development of a number of computational analogues of ant colony behaviour including Ant Colony Optimisation. Although many animals use a range of pheromones in their communication, ant algorithms have typically focused on the use of just one, a substance that encourages succeeding generations of (artificial) ants to follow the same path as previous generations. Ant algorithms for multi-objective optimisation and those employing multiple colonies have made use of more than one pheromone, but the interactions between these different pheromones are largely simple extensions of single criterion, single colony ant algorithms. This paper investigates an alternative form of interaction between normal pheromone and anti-pheromone. Three variations of Ant Colony System that apply the anti-pheromone concept in different ways are described and tested against benchmark travelling salesman problems. The results indicate that the use of anti-pheromone can lead to improved performance. However, if anti-pheromone is allowed too great an influence on ants' decisions, poorer performance may result

Wave function of the radion in a brane world

We calculate the linearized metric perturbation corresponding to a massless four-dimensional scalar field, the radion, in a five-dimensional two-brane model of Randall and Sundrum. In this way we obtain relative strengths of the radion couplings to matter residing on each of the branes. The results are in agreement with the analysis of Garriga and Tanaka of gravitational and Brans--Dicke forces between matter on the branes. We also introduce a model with infinite fifth dimension and ``almost'' confined graviton, and calculate the radion properties in that model.Comment: 5 pages revtex, no figures, equation correcte

A universe in a global monopole

We investigate brane physics in a universe with an extra dimensional global monopole and negative bulk cosmological constant. The graviton zero mode is naturally divergent; we thus invoke a physical cut-off to induce four dimensional gravity on a brane at the monopole core. Independently, the massive Kaluza-Klein modes have naturally compactified extra dimensions, inducing a discrete spectrum. This spectrum remains consistent with four dimensional gravity on the brane, even for small mass gap. Extra dimensional matter fields also induce four dimensional matter fields on the brane, with the same Kaluza-Klein spectrum of excited states. We choose parameters to solve the hierarchy problem; that is, to induce the observed hierarchy between particle and Planck scales in the effective four dimensional universe.Comment: 22 pages, 2 eps figures, revte