Hyper-Fractionated Radiotherapy for Soft Tissue Sarcoma: Results of the Second Study of Hyper-Fractionated Radiotherapy

Purpose and Method. Hyper-fractionated radiotherapy for treatment of soft tissue sarcomas is designed to deliver a higher total dose of radiation without an increase in late normal tissue damage. In a previous study at the Royal Marsden Hospital, a total dose of 75 Gy using twice daily 1.25 Gy fractions resulted in a higher incidence of late damage than conventional radiotherapy using 2 Gy daily fractions treating to a total of 60 Gy. The current trial therefore used a lower dose per fraction of 1.2 Gy and lower total dose of 72 Gy, with 60 fractions given over a period of 6 weeks

Health-Related Fitness and Energy Expenditure in Recreational Youth Rock Climbers 8-16 Years of Age

International Journal of Exercise Science 8(2): 174-183, 2015. Information on the characteristics of youth rock climbers is minimal. The purpose was to 1) Determine the influence of a three-month program of bouldering and vertical rock climbing on the anthropometry and health-related physical fitness of relatively novice youth climbers, and 2) determine whether rock climbing and bouldering in novice youth climbers can provide adequate levels of moderate to vigourous physical activity (US DHHS, 2008). Fifteen participants (11 males and 4 females; mean age = 11.5 ± 2.3 years) from a newly established youth climbing team were assessed twice weekly during their normal two-hour training sessions at a local rock gym. Body composition, flexibility, grip strength, and anthropometric estimates of somatotype were measured in August and November. Heart rate (HR) monitors recorded average activity heart rate (AHR), peak heart rate (HRpeak), and estimated energy expended (EE-kcals) during each climbing session. Basic descriptive statistics were run; repeat measure ANOVAs were used to assess changes between times. Estimated percent body fat did not change, but individual skinfolds (biceps and supraspinale) decreased significantly (

Hyper-fractionated radiotherapy for soft tissue sarcoma: results of the second study of hyper-fractionated radiotherapy.

Purpose and Method. Hyper-fractionated radiotherapy for treatment of soft tissue sarcomas is designed to deliver a higher total dose of radiation without an increase in late normal tissue damage. In a previous study at the Royal Marsden Hospital, a total dose of 75 Gy using twice daily 1.25 Gy fractions resulted in a higher incidence of late damage than conventional radiotherapy using 2 Gy daily fractions treating to a total of 60 Gy. The current trial therefore used a lower dose per fraction of 1.2 Gy and lower total dose of 72 Gy, with 60 fractions given over a period of 6 weeks.Subjects. A total of 37 patients (22 males and 15 females) with a median age of 56 years (range 19-88 years) were treated.Results. Of eight patients treated pre-operatively, six showed a partial response and in two the tumour was static. The maximum acute toxicities were grade 1 in eight, grade 2 in 14 and grade 3 in 15 patients. Late toxicities of the skin were graded 1 in 10 and grade 2 in nine patients. Five patients complained of pain in the irradiated bone and soft tissues, which was of moderate severity (grade 2). Stiffness was graded 2 in three patients and severe (grade 3) in one.Three patients had moderate and one patient had severe lymphoedema following treatment. The 5-year recurrence-free survival probability of patients treated radically was 76%. Following excision of local recurrences the study group had a disease-free survival probability of 86% at 5 years.Discussion. The regime is well tolerated with comparable local control and late complication rates to standard daily fractionated therapy.The potential benefit of this regime needs to be defined in a prospective randomized trial.Peer Reviewe

Population Dynamics and Non-Hermitian Localization

We review localization with non-Hermitian time evolution as applied to simple models of population biology with spatially varying growth profiles and convection. Convection leads to a constant imaginary vector potential in the Schroedinger-like operator which appears in linearized growth models. We illustrate the basic ideas by reviewing how convection affects the evolution of a population influenced by a simple square well growth profile. Results from discrete lattice growth models in both one and two dimensions are presented. A set of similarity transformations which lead to exact results for the spectrum and winding numbers of eigenfunctions for random growth rates in one dimension is described in detail. We discuss the influence of boundary conditions, and argue that periodic boundary conditions lead to results which are in fact typical of a broad class of growth problems with convection.Comment: 19 pages, 11 figure

On the multi-agent stochastic simulation of occupants in buildings

This paper introduces a new general platform for the simulation of occupants' presence and behaviours. Called No-MASS (Nottingham Multi-Agent Stochastic Simulation), this generates a synthetic population of agents, predicts their presence and, in the case of residences also their activities and inferred locations, as well as their use of windows, lights and blinds. Using the Functional Mockup Interface, No-MASS is coupled with EnergyPlus: EnergyPlus parses environmental parameters to No-MASS which in turn parses back the energetic consequences of agents' behaviours. After describing the architecture of No-MASS and the form of the integrated models, we demonstrate its utility through two use cases: a house and an office. We close by outlining how No-MASS has been extended to more comprehensively simulate the behaviours of agents occupying multiple buildings, including behaviours for which data is scarce, social interactions between agents, and a generalization of No-MASS to simulate electrical devices and their interactions

Synchronization of Energy Consumption By Human Societies Throughout the Holocene

We conduct a global comparison of the consumption of energy by human populations throughout the Holocene and statistically quantify coincident changes in the consumption of energy over space and time—an ecological phenomenon known as synchrony. When populations synchronize, adverse changes in ecosystems and social systems may cascade from society to society. Thus, to develop policies that favor the sustained use of resources, we must understand the processes that cause the synchrony of human populations. To date, it is not clear whether human societies display long-term synchrony or, if they do, the potential causes. Our analysis begins to fill this knowledge gap by quantifying the long-term synchrony of human societies, and we hypothesize that the synchrony of human populations results from (i) the creation of social ties that couple populations over smaller scales and (ii) much larger scale, globally convergent trajectories of cultural evolution toward more energy-consuming political economies with higher carrying capacities. Our results suggest that the process of globalization is a natural consequence of evolutionary trajectories that increase the carrying capacities of human societies

Synchronization of Energy Consumption By Human Societies Throughout the Holocene

We conduct a global comparison of the consumption of energy by human populations throughout the Holocene and statistically quantify coincident changes in the consumption of energy over space and time—an ecological phenomenon known as synchrony. When populations synchronize, adverse changes in ecosystems and social systems may cascade from society to society. Thus, to develop policies that favor the sustained use of resources, we must understand the processes that cause the synchrony of human populations. To date, it is not clear whether human societies display long-term synchrony or, if they do, the potential causes. Our analysis begins to fill this knowledge gap by quantifying the long-term synchrony of human societies, and we hypothesize that the synchrony of human populations results from (i) the creation of social ties that couple populations over smaller scales and (ii) much larger scale, globally convergent trajectories of cultural evolution toward more energy-consuming political economies with higher carrying capacities. Our results suggest that the process of globalization is a natural consequence of evolutionary trajectories that increase the carrying capacities of human societies

Molecular machines open cell membranes

Beyond the more common chemical delivery strategies, several physical techniques are used to open the lipid bilayers of cellular membranes. These include using electric and magnetic fields, temperature, ultrasound or light to introduce compounds into cells, to release molecular species from cells or to selectively induce programmed cell death (apoptosis) or uncontrolled cell death (necrosis). More recently, molecular motors and switches that can change their conformation in a controlled manner in response to external stimuli have been used to produce mechanical actions on tissue for biomedical applications. Here we show that molecular machines can drill through cellular bilayers using their molecular-scale actuation, specifically nanomechanical action. Upon physical adsorption of the molecular motors onto lipid bilayers and subsequent activation of the motors using ultraviolet light, holes are drilled in the cell membranes. We designed molecular motors and complementary experimental protocols that use nanomechanical action to induce the diffusion of chemical species out of synthetic vesicles, to enhance the diffusion of traceable molecular machines into and within live cells, to induce necrosis and to introduce chemical species into live cells. We also show that, by using molecular machines that bear short peptide addends, nanomechanical action can selectively target specific cell-surface recognition sites. Beyond the in vitroapplications demonstrated here, we expect that molecular machines could also be used in vivo, especially as their design progresses to allow two-photon, near-infrared and radio-frequency activation

Single-molecule visualization of fast polymerase turnover in the bacterial replisome

The Escherichia coli DNA replication machinery has been used as a road map to uncover design rules that enable DNA duplication with high efficiency and fidelity. Although the enzymatic activities of the replicative DNA Pol III are well understood, its dynamics within the replisome are not. Here, we test the accepted view that the Pol III holoenzyme remains stably associated within the replisome. We use in vitro single-molecule assays with fluorescently labeled polymerases to demonstrate that the Pol III* complex (holoenzyme lacking the β2 sliding clamp), is rapidly exchanged during processive DNA replication. Nevertheless, the replisome is highly resistant to dilution in the absence of Pol III* in solution. We further show similar exchange in live cells containing labeled clamp loader and polymerase. These observations suggest a concentration-dependent exchange mechanism providing a balance between stability and plasticity, facilitating replacement of replisomal components dependent on their availability in the environment