Exploiting oxidative phosphorylation to promote the stem and immunoevasive properties of pancreatic cancer stem cells

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), the fourth leading cause of cancer death, has a 5-year survival rate of approximately 7–9%. The ineffectiveness of anti-PDAC therapies is believed to be due to the existence of a subpopulation of tumor cells known as cancer stem cells (CSCs), which are functionally plastic, and have exclusive tumorigenic, chemoresistant and metastatic capacities. Herein, we describe a 2D in vitro system for long-term enrichment of pancreatic CSCs that is amenable to biological and CSC-specific studies. By changing the carbon source from glucose to galactose in vitro, we force PDAC cells to utilize OXPHOS, resulting in enrichment of CSCs defined by increased CSC biomarker and pluripotency gene expression, greater tumorigenic potential, induced but reversible quiescence, increased OXPHOS activity, enhanced invasiveness, and upregulated immune evasion properties. This CSC enrichment method can facilitate the discovery of new CSC-specific hallmarks for future development into targets for PDAC-based therapies

NEUTRONIC MODELING STRATEGIES FOR A LIQUID FUEL TRANSIENT CALCULATION

Framework • A detailed and highly flexible numerical tool to study criticality accidents has been developed • The tool implements a Multi-Physics coupling using neutronics, thermal-hydraulics and thermal-mechanics models based on Open FOAM and SERPENT codes • Two neutronics models: Quasi-Static Monte Carlo and SPN Objective: In this work a system composed by a 2D square liquid fuel cavity filled with a fuel molten salt has been used to: • Investigate the performance of the tool’s thermal-hydraulics and neutronics solvers coupling numerical scheme • Evaluate possible strategies for the implementation of the Quasi-Static (QS) method with the Monte Carlo (MC) neutronics code • Compare the QS-MC approach precision and computational cost against the Simplified P3 (SP3) metho

Quasi-static methods performance comparison for neutronics transient calculations

International audienc

NEUTRONIC MODELING STRATEGIES FOR A LIQUID FUEL TRANSIENT CALCULATION

Framework • A detailed and highly flexible numerical tool to study criticality accidents has been developed • The tool implements a Multi-Physics coupling using neutronics, thermal-hydraulics and thermal-mechanics models based on Open FOAM and SERPENT codes • Two neutronics models: Quasi-Static Monte Carlo and SPN Objective: In this work a system composed by a 2D square liquid fuel cavity filled with a fuel molten salt has been used to: • Investigate the performance of the tool’s thermal-hydraulics and neutronics solvers coupling numerical scheme • Evaluate possible strategies for the implementation of the Quasi-Static (QS) method with the Monte Carlo (MC) neutronics code • Compare the QS-MC approach precision and computational cost against the Simplified P3 (SP3) metho

Intermolecular interactions on amine-cured epoxy matrices with different crosslink densities. influence on the hole and specific volumes and the mechanical behavior

The architecture of an epoxy matrix was modified by curing the resin with mono-/diamine mixtures having identical chemical structures. Both hole volume and specific volume variations were studied by positron annihilation lifetime spec-troscopy and pressure-volume-temperature/density measurements, respectively. The average hole volume of the networks at room temperature slightly increased when the monoaminic chain extender content increased. The increment in the intermolecu-lar interactions between functional groups of the networks chains, ([0-9]{4})ue to the less hindered nitrogen introduced by the monoamine, appears to be the responsible for the observed behavior. Besides, only small variations on the specific volume were observed on increasing the monoamine content, which points out that for a cured epoxy system, the chemical structure of the curing agent is mainly responsible for chain packing in the networks. On the other hand, intermolecular interactions between chains were considered as the key factor for fixing stiffness and strength. Thus, it was observed that the increase of the intermolecular interactions with the monoamine content produced a decrease in the sub-Tgsmall-range cooperative motions, which increased the low-deformation mechanical properties at temperatures between b and a relaxations. This conclusion could be applied to previous investigations with epoxy matrices not fully crosslinked (nonstoichiometric or noncompletely cured formulations). Finally, it was found that fracture properties do not significantly depend either on the hole volume or on the intermolecular interactions. Fracture properties are more dependent on the crosslink density and the glass transition temperature. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.Fil: Blanco, M.. Universidad del País Vasco; EspañaFil: Ramos, J.A.. Universidad del País Vasco; EspañaFil: Goyanes, Silvia Nair. Universidad de Buenos Aires; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Física de Buenos Aires. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Física de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Rubiolo, Gerardo Hector. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Física de Buenos Aires. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Física de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Salgueiro, Walter Alberto. Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Somoza, Alberto Horacio. Provincia de Buenos Aires. Gobernación. Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Física de Buenos Aires. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Física de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Mondragon, I.. Universidad del País Vasco; Españ