Differential Ganciclovir-Mediated Cytotoxicity and Bystander Killing in Human Colon Carcinoma Cell Lines Expressing Herpes Simplex Virus Thymidine Kinase

Overview summary The transfer of HSV-TK into tumor cells and the subsequent sensitization to GCV have resulted in successful antitumor effects both in vitro and in vivo for a variety of cancers. This study focuses on evaluating and comparing two colon carcinoma cell lines for their ability to metabolize GCV and transfer phosphorylated metabolites to neighboring non-HSV-TK-expressing cells (bystander effect). Here we demonstrate differences in HSV-TK expression, GCV triphosphate accumulation, and incorporation into DNA and their effect on cytotoxicity. We also provide evidence of the transfer of phosphorylated GCV to bystander cells in a cell line deficient in gap junctional intercellular communication.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/63405/1/hum.1998.9.6-801.pd

Fundamental limitations for quantum and nano thermodynamics

The relationship between thermodynamics and statistical physics is valid in the thermodynamic limit - when the number of particles becomes very large. Here, we study thermodynamics in the opposite regime - at both the nano scale, and when quantum effects become important. Applying results from quantum information theory we construct a theory of thermodynamics in these limits. We derive general criteria for thermodynamical state transformations, and as special cases, find two free energies: one that quantifies the deterministically extractable work from a small system in contact with a heat bath, and the other that quantifies the reverse process. We find that there are fundamental limitations on work extraction from nonequilibrium states, owing to finite size effects and quantum coherences. This implies that thermodynamical transitions are generically irreversible at this scale. As one application of these methods, we analyse the efficiency of small heat engines and find that they are irreversible during the adiabatic stages of the cycle.Comment: Final, published versio

Improved Analysis Methods for Retrofit Savings and Energy Accounting (ERAP #227)

A grocery store, two nursing homes, an institutional building, and a high school have been selected as preliminary case study buildings. All of the buildings except the nursing homes have been instrumented to provide sub-metered and total energy use data. Additional buildings in the Texas LoanSTAR program are also instrumented and are being analyzed.This report summarizes progress through November, 1990 for ERAP project No. 227, "Improved Analysis Methods for Retrofit Savings and Energy Accounting." The major objectives of this project are to: (1) determine the energy and dollar savings from energy conservation retrofits; (2) reduce energy costs by identifying and correcting operational and maintenance problems at retrofitted facilities; (3) identify savings from individual retrofits to help improve future retrofit selection; and (4) initiate an end-use data base for commercial and institutional buildings to facilitate the comparison and exchange of building energy use information

Automatic medical encoding with SNOMED categories

BACKGROUND: In this paper, we describe the design and preliminary evaluation of a new type of tools to speed up the encoding of episodes of care using the SNOMED CT terminology. METHODS: The proposed system can be used either as a search tool to browse the terminology or as a categorization tool to support automatic annotation of textual contents with SNOMED concepts. The general strategy is similar for both tools and is based on the fusion of two complementary retrieval strategies with thesaural resources. The first classification module uses a traditional vector-space retrieval engine which has been fine-tuned for the task, while the second classifier is based on regular variations of the term list. For evaluating the system, we use a sample of MEDLINE. SNOMED CT categories have been restricted to Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) using the SNOMED-MeSH mapping provided by the UMLS (version 2006). RESULTS: Consistent with previous investigations applied on biomedical terminologies, our results show that performances of the hybrid system are significantly improved as compared to each single module. For top returned concepts, a precision at high ranks (P0) of more than 80% is observed. In addition, a manual and qualitative evaluation on a dozen of MEDLINE abstracts suggests that SNOMED CT could represent an improvement compared to existing medical terminologies such as MeSH. CONCLUSION: Although the precision of the SNOMED categorizer seems sufficient to help professional encoders, it is concluded that clinical benchmarks as well as usability studies are needed to assess the impact of our SNOMED encoding method in real settings. AVAILABILITIES : The system is available for research purposes on: http://eagl.unige.ch/SNOCat

Study of molecular spin-crossover complex Fe(phen)2(NCS)2 thin films

We report on the growth by evaporation under high vacuum of high-quality thin films of Fe(phen)2(NCS)2 (phen=1,10-phenanthroline) that maintain the expected electronic structure down to a thickness of 10 nm and that exhibit a temperature-driven spin transition. We have investigated the current-voltage characteristics of a device based on such films. From the space charge-limited current regime, we deduce a mobility of 6.5x10-6 cm2/V?s that is similar to the low-range mobility measured on the widely studied tris(8-hydroxyquinoline)aluminium organic semiconductor. This work paves the way for multifunctional molecular devices based on spin-crossover complexes

Alterations in energy balance from an exercise intervention with ad libitum food intake.

Better understanding is needed regarding the effects of exercise alone, without any imposed dietary regimens, as a single tool for body-weight regulation. Thus, we evaluated the effects of an 8-week increase in activity energy expenditure (AEE) on ad libitum energy intake (EI), body mass and composition in healthy participants with baseline physical activity levels (PAL) in line with international recommendations. Forty-six male adults (BMI = 19·7-29·3 kg/m(2)) participated in an intervention group, and ten (BMI = 21·0-28·4 kg/m(2)) in a control group. Anthropometric measures, cardiorespiratory fitness, EI, AEE and exercise intensity were recorded at baseline and during the 1st, 5th and 8th intervention weeks, and movement was recorded throughout. Body composition was measured at the beginning and at the end of the study, and resting energy expenditure was measured after the study. The intervention group increased PAL from 1·74 (se 0·03) to 1·93 (se 0·03) (P < 0·0001) and cardiorespiratory fitness from 41·4 (se 0·9) to 45·7 (se 1·1) ml O2/kg per min (P = 0·001) while decreasing body mass (-1·36 (se 0·2) kg; P = 0·001) through adipose tissue mass loss (ATM) (-1·61 (se 0·2) kg; P = 0·0001) compared with baseline. The control group did not show any significant changes in activity, body mass or ATM. EI was unchanged in both groups. The results indicate that in normal-weight and overweight men, increasing PAL from 1·7 to 1·9 while keeping EI ad libitum over an 8-week period produces a prolonged negative energy balance. Replication using a longer period (and/or more intense increase in PAL) is needed to investigate if and at what body composition the increase in AEE is met by an equivalent increase in EI

An Overview of Measured Energy Retrofit Savings Methodologies Developed in the Texas LoanSTAR Program

The objective of this report is to present the various analysis techniques in a logical fashion, briefly discussing and illustrating the strengths and weaknesses of each technique with monitored data from several of the LoanSTAR buildings, and providing the reader with complete references of work previously published. As of December 1993, we are reporting retrofit savings on a monthly basis in 34 sites consisting of 50 buildings. Some of the issues addressed relate to determining conditions when statistical regression techniques are preferable to engineering models, to the different forms of single variable and multiple variable regression models and their advantages or disadvantages, to when a specific regression model is to be used and to why inspection of model residuals is important. Other issues such as the uncertainty associated with the savings estimates and the effect of building operating schedules have also been addressed in this report. The framework laid out in this report should be useful for both the practicing professional and the researcher involved or interested in energy conservation as a whole.Development of methodologies to determine energy retrofit savings in commercial buildings (institutional buildings, schools, hospitals, offices, county and state buildings,...) has been the object of active research during the last 5 years in the framework of the Texas LoanSTAR program. We have been able to formulate a global perspective to this problem and identify/develop analysis techniques specific to different sets of conditions. These conditions involve different combinations of: (a) level of monitoring data available (utility bill, whole-building hourly, disaggregated hourly,...); (b) type of energy use (weather or schedule dependent or independent); and (c) amount of data available (length of preand post-retrofit periods)

SOFIA/FORCAST and Spitzer/IRAC Imaging of the Ultra Compact H II Region W3(OH) and Associated Protostars in W3

We present infrared observations of the ultra-compact H II region W3(OH) made by the FORCAST instrument aboard SOFIA and by Spitzer/IRAC. We contribute new wavelength data to the spectral energy distribution, which constrains the optical depth, grain size distribution, and temperature gradient of the dusty shell surrounding the H II region. We model the dust component as a spherical shell containing an inner cavity with radius ~ 600 AU, irradiated by a central star of type O9 and temperature ~ 31,000 K. The total luminosity of this system is 71,000 L_solar. An observed excess of 2.2 - 4.5 microns emission in the SED can be explained by our viewing a cavity opening or clumpiness in the shell structure whereby radiation from the warm interior of the shell can escape. We claim to detect the nearby water maser source W3 (H2O) at 31.4 and 37.1 microns using beam deconvolution of the FORCAST images. We constrain the flux densities of this object at 19.7 - 37.1 microns. Additionally, we present in situ observations of four young stellar and protostellar objects in the SOFIA field, presumably associated with the W3 molecular cloud. Results from the model SED fitting tool of Robitaille et al. (2006, 2007} suggest that two objects (2MASS J02270352+6152357 and 2MASS J02270824+6152281) are intermediate-luminosity (~ 236 - 432 L_solar) protostars; one object (2MASS J02270887+6152344) is either a high-mass protostar with luminosity 3000 L_solar or a less massive young star with a substantial circumstellar disk but depleted envelope; and one object (2MASS J02270743+6152281) is an intermediate-luminosity (~ 768 L_solar) protostar nearing the end of its envelope accretion phase or a young star surrounded by a circumstellar disk with no appreciable circumstellar envelope.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, 2 tables, accepted by Ap

Improved Analysis Methods for Retrofit Savings and Energy Accounting (ERAP #227)

A grocery store, two nursing homes, an institutional building, and a high school have been selected as preliminary case study buildings. All of the buildings except the nursing homes have been instrumented to provide sub-metered and total energy use data. Additional buildings in the Texas LoanSTAR program are also instrumented and are being analyzed.This report summarizes progress through November, 1990 for ERAP project No. 227, "Improved Analysis Methods for Retrofit Savings and Energy Accounting." The major objectives of this project are to: (1) determine the energy and dollar savings from energy conservation retrofits; (2) reduce energy costs by identifying and correcting operational and maintenance problems at retrofitted facilities; (3) identify savings from individual retrofits to help improve future retrofit selection; and (4) initiate an end-use data base for commercial and institutional buildings to facilitate the comparison and exchange of building energy use information

Analysis of Texas LoanSTAR Data

The analysis effort during the first year of the Texas LoanSTAR Monitoring and Analysis Program has emphasized selection and development of baseline analysis techniques to cover the range of buildings expected in the program. PRISM has been adopted as the baseline technique for buildings which are appropriate for treatment with one-, three- and five- parameter segmented linear, change-point models. In addition to PRISM, two- and four- parameter linear, segmented change-point models are expected to be suitable for at least preliminary analysis of monthly and daily data for all buildings in the program. Regression analysis with hourly scheduling profiles will be used for baseline analysis of hourly data. Substantial effort has been devoted to exploratory analysis intended to refine the analysis performed with the baseline techniques. Work to date has centered on investigation of Principal Component Analysis, an improved goodness-of-fit indicator for n-parameter change-point models, and calibrated simulation modeling. Data from five buildings is used to explain and illustrate the baseline analysis techniques and the exploratory work conducted