Genetic and epigenetic alterations in melanoma

Malignant melanoma is a disease that may arise in several different parts of the body, preferentially the skin, rarely in the mucosal membranes or the choroidal tissues of the eye. The incidence of cutaneous melanoma (CMM) is steadily increasing in the Caucasian populations, unlike uveal melanoma (UM) that shows a stable incidence. The increase is likely to be related to t UV-irradiation leading to genetic aberrations that allow skin melanocytes to develop unlimited growth and immortality and ultimately lead to metastases. Paper I presents a genomic and epigenomic screening of 77 metastatic cutaneous melanoma metastases for the protein expression of p16INK4A in relation to 3 well-known causes of expression loss: truncating and non-synonymous mutations in CDKN2A, the gene for p16INK4A, transcriptional silencing of p16INK4A gene promoter and previously studied deletions in the CDKN2A loci encompassing p16INK4A. These aberrations were compared to p16INK4A expression in tumours and presence of mutations in BRAF and NRAS genes. Unexpectedly, a significant association between tumours carrying NRAS mutations and transcriptional silencing of p16INK4A promoter was observed. Paper II was a case study of a family with multiple cases of uveal melanoma. Family members with were found to be negative for germ-line CDKN2A aberrations, why next generation sequencing was employed. The proband, the proband’s sister and both parents were analyzed. The final mapped and filtered variants were filtered against variants found in the DNA of the non-carrier mother. A germ-line, frame-shift, insertion in BAP1 (exon 3 c.75insG) was identified and validated by Sanger sequencing. The insertion leads to a truncation at codon 43 and was found to segregate with the disease. Paper III is a retrospective study to evaluate the naturally occurring transcriptional silencing of DNA repair protein O6-methylguanine DNA methyltransferase, MGMT. MGMT activity counteracts the efficacy of alkylating chemotherapy. Two cohorts of patients mainly derived from Sweden (n=74) and Belgium (n=79) were included, in total encompassing 191 tumours. The hypermethylation of MGMT gene promoter was found in 21.5% of tumours successfully analyzed (28 positive, 130 total) and to be associated with a significantly longer progression free survival (PFS) and to be an independent variable in a multivariate analysis for PFS. Paper IV is an in vitro melanoma study for combination therapy efficacy. The BRAFV600E- melanoma cell line A375 and a mutant BRAF inhibitor (BRAFi)-resistant subline were subjected to sequential and simultaneous exposures for BRAFi PLX4720 and temozolomide (TMZ). Administration order was found to influence the treatment outcome: administration of BRAFi followed by TMZ displayed a poorer efficacy compared to exposure simultaneously or administration in the reverse order. This effect was related to BRAFi induction of MGMT mRNA and protein, but also induction of the DNA damage marker H2AX by BRAFi and TMZ

Targeting CDK2 overcomes melanoma resistance against BRAF and Hsp90 inhibitors

Novel therapies are undergoing clinical trials, for example, the Hsp90 inhibitor, XL888, in combination with BRAF inhibitors for the treatment of therapy-resistant melanomas. Unfortunately, our data show that this combination elicits a heterogeneous response in a panel of melanoma cell lines including PDX-derived models. We sought to understand the mechanisms underlying the differential responses and suggest a patient stratification strategy. Thermal proteome profiling (TPP) identified the protein targets of XL888 in a pair of sensitive and unresponsive cell lines. Unbiased proteomics and phosphoproteomics analyses identified CDK2 as a driver of resistance to both BRAF and Hsp90 inhibitors and its expression is regulated by the transcription factor MITF upon XL888 treatment. The CDK2 inhibitor, dinaciclib, attenuated resistance to both classes of inhibitors and combinations thereof. Notably, we found that MITF expression correlates with CDK2 upregulation in patients; thus, dinaciclib would warrant consideration for treatment of patients unresponsive to BRAF-MEK and/or Hsp90 inhibitors and/or harboring MITF amplification/overexpression

Differential cross section measurements for the production of a W boson in association with jets in proton–proton collisions at √s = 7 TeV

Measurements are reported of differential cross sections for the production of a W boson, which decays into a muon and a neutrino, in association with jets, as a function of several variables, including the transverse momenta (pT) and pseudorapidities of the four leading jets, the scalar sum of jet transverse momenta (HT), and the difference in azimuthal angle between the directions of each jet and the muon. The data sample of pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV was collected with the CMS detector at the LHC and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 5.0 fb[superscript −1]. The measured cross sections are compared to predictions from Monte Carlo generators, MadGraph + pythia and sherpa, and to next-to-leading-order calculations from BlackHat + sherpa. The differential cross sections are found to be in agreement with the predictions, apart from the pT distributions of the leading jets at high pT values, the distributions of the HT at high-HT and low jet multiplicity, and the distribution of the difference in azimuthal angle between the leading jet and the muon at low values.United States. Dept. of EnergyNational Science Foundation (U.S.)Alfred P. Sloan Foundatio

Juxtaposing BTE and ATE – on the role of the European insurance industry in funding civil litigation

One of the ways in which legal services are financed, and indeed shaped, is through private insurance arrangement. Two contrasting types of legal expenses insurance contracts (LEI) seem to dominate in Europe: before the event (BTE) and after the event (ATE) legal expenses insurance. Notwithstanding institutional differences between different legal systems, BTE and ATE insurance arrangements may be instrumental if government policy is geared towards strengthening a market-oriented system of financing access to justice for individuals and business. At the same time, emphasizing the role of a private industry as a keeper of the gates to justice raises issues of accountability and transparency, not readily reconcilable with demands of competition. Moreover, multiple actors (clients, lawyers, courts, insurers) are involved, causing behavioural dynamics which are not easily predicted or influenced. Against this background, this paper looks into BTE and ATE arrangements by analysing the particularities of BTE and ATE arrangements currently available in some European jurisdictions and by painting a picture of their respective markets and legal contexts. This allows for some reflection on the performance of BTE and ATE providers as both financiers and keepers. Two issues emerge from the analysis that are worthy of some further reflection. Firstly, there is the problematic long-term sustainability of some ATE products. Secondly, the challenges faced by policymakers that would like to nudge consumers into voluntarily taking out BTE LEI

Penilaian Kinerja Keuangan Koperasi di Kabupaten Pelalawan

This paper describe development and financial performance of cooperative in District Pelalawan among 2007 - 2008. Studies on primary and secondary cooperative in 12 sub-districts. Method in this stady use performance measuring of productivity, efficiency, growth, liquidity, and solvability of cooperative. Productivity of cooperative in Pelalawan was highly but efficiency still low. Profit and income were highly, even liquidity of cooperative very high, and solvability was good

Search for stop and higgsino production using diphoton Higgs boson decays

Results are presented of a search for a "natural" supersymmetry scenario with gauge mediated symmetry breaking. It is assumed that only the supersymmetric partners of the top-quark (stop) and the Higgs boson (higgsino) are accessible. Events are examined in which there are two photons forming a Higgs boson candidate, and at least two b-quark jets. In 19.7 inverse femtobarns of proton-proton collision data at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV, recorded in the CMS experiment, no evidence of a signal is found and lower limits at the 95% confidence level are set, excluding the stop mass below 360 to 410 GeV, depending on the higgsino mass

Impacts of the Tropical Pacific/Indian Oceans on the Seasonal Cycle of the West African Monsoon

The current consensus is that drought has developed in the Sahel during the second half of the twentieth century as a result of remote effects of oceanic anomalies amplified by local land–atmosphere interactions. This paper focuses on the impacts of oceanic anomalies upon West African climate and specifically aims to identify those from SST anomalies in the Pacific/Indian Oceans during spring and summer seasons, when they were significant. Idealized sensitivity experiments are performed with four atmospheric general circulation models (AGCMs). The prescribed SST patterns used in the AGCMs are based on the leading mode of covariability between SST anomalies over the Pacific/Indian Oceans and summer rainfall over West Africa. The results show that such oceanic anomalies in the Pacific/Indian Ocean lead to a northward shift of an anomalous dry belt from the Gulf of Guinea to the Sahel as the season advances. In the Sahel, the magnitude of rainfall anomalies is comparable to that obtained by other authors using SST anomalies confined to the proximity of the Atlantic Ocean. The mechanism connecting the Pacific/Indian SST anomalies with West African rainfall has a strong seasonal cycle. In spring (May and June), anomalous subsidence develops over both the Maritime Continent and the equatorial Atlantic in response to the enhanced equatorial heating. Precipitation increases over continental West Africa in association with stronger zonal convergence of moisture. In addition, precipitation decreases over the Gulf of Guinea. During the monsoon peak (July and August), the SST anomalies move westward over the equatorial Pacific and the two regions where subsidence occurred earlier in the seasons merge over West Africa. The monsoon weakens and rainfall decreases over the Sahel, especially in August.Peer reviewe

Severe early onset preeclampsia: short and long term clinical, psychosocial and biochemical aspects

Preeclampsia is a pregnancy specific disorder commonly defined as de novo hypertension and proteinuria after 20 weeks gestational age. It occurs in approximately 3-5% of pregnancies and it is still a major cause of both foetal and maternal morbidity and mortality worldwide1. As extensive research has not yet elucidated the aetiology of preeclampsia, there are no rational preventive or therapeutic interventions available. The only rational treatment is delivery, which benefits the mother but is not in the interest of the foetus, if remote from term. Early onset preeclampsia (<32 weeks’ gestational age) occurs in less than 1% of pregnancies. It is, however often associated with maternal morbidity as the risk of progression to severe maternal disease is inversely related with gestational age at onset2. Resulting prematurity is therefore the main cause of neonatal mortality and morbidity in patients with severe preeclampsia3. Although the discussion is ongoing, perinatal survival is suggested to be increased in patients with preterm preeclampsia by expectant, non-interventional management. This temporising treatment option to lengthen pregnancy includes the use of antihypertensive medication to control hypertension, magnesium sulphate to prevent eclampsia and corticosteroids to enhance foetal lung maturity4. With optimal maternal haemodynamic status and reassuring foetal condition this results on average in an extension of 2 weeks. Prolongation of these pregnancies is a great challenge for clinicians to balance between potential maternal risks on one the eve hand and possible foetal benefits on the other. Clinical controversies regarding prolongation of preterm preeclamptic pregnancies still exist – also taking into account that preeclampsia is the leading cause of maternal mortality in the Netherlands5 - a debate which is even more pronounced in very preterm pregnancies with questionable foetal viability6-9. Do maternal risks of prolongation of these very early pregnancies outweigh the chances of neonatal survival? Counselling of women with very early onset preeclampsia not only comprises of knowledge of the outcome of those particular pregnancies, but also knowledge of outcomes of future pregnancies of these women is of major clinical importance. This thesis opens with a review of the literature on identifiable risk factors of preeclampsia

Measurement of the top quark forward-backward production asymmetry and the anomalous chromoelectric and chromomagnetic moments in pp collisions at √s = 13 TeV

Abstract The parton-level top quark (t) forward-backward asymmetry and the anomalous chromoelectric (d̂ t) and chromomagnetic (μ̂ t) moments have been measured using LHC pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, collected in the CMS detector in a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb−1. The linearized variable AFB(1) is used to approximate the asymmetry. Candidate t t ¯ events decaying to a muon or electron and jets in final states with low and high Lorentz boosts are selected and reconstructed using a fit of the kinematic distributions of the decay products to those expected for t t ¯ final states. The values found for the parameters are AFB(1)=0.048−0.087+0.095(stat)−0.029+0.020(syst),μ̂t=−0.024−0.009+0.013(stat)−0.011+0.016(syst), and a limit is placed on the magnitude of | d̂ t| &lt; 0.03 at 95% confidence level. [Figure not available: see fulltext.

Measurement of t(t)over-bar normalised multi-differential cross sections in pp collisions at root s=13 TeV, and simultaneous determination of the strong coupling strength, top quark pole mass, and parton distribution functions

Peer reviewe