Peeled volume models of a whole body to enhance comprehension of anthropological bone landmarks

Background: In physical anthropology, bone landmarks are palpated in living humans for the identification of corresponding skin landmarks and exact biometry. The purpose of this study is to help comprehend the locations and depths of representative bone landmarks all over the body. Materials and methods: The sectioned images of a male cadaver’s whole body were used to build a volume model, which was continuously peeled at 1 mm thicknesses to disclose 27 selected landmarks in the anterior, lateral, or posterior views. Results: The captured views of peeled volume models along with the labels of the bone landmarks were loaded to browsing software that was distributed for free. The browsing software containing the peeled volume models will enhance convenient studying of the bone landmarks. Conclusions: With the knowledge of bone landmarks, investigators would be able to attain more accurate measurements between skin landmarks

Proton strangeness form factors in (4,1) clustering configurations

We reexamine a recent result within a nonrelativistic constituent quark model (NRCQM) which maintains that the uuds\bar s component in the proton has its uuds subsystem in P state, with its \bar s in S state (configuration I). When the result are corrected, contrary to the previous result, we find that all the empirical signs of the form factors data can be described by the lowest-lying uuds\bar s configuration with \bar s in P state that has its uuds subsystem in $S$ state (configuration II). Further, it is also found that the removal of the center-of-mass (CM) motion of the clusters will enhance the contributions of the transition current considerably. We also show that a reasonable description of the existing form factors data can be obtained with a very small probability P_{s\bar s}=0.025% for the uuds\bar s component. We further see that the agreement of our prediction with the data for G_A^s at low-q^2 region can be markedly improved by a small admixture of configuration I. It is also found that by not removing CM motion, P_{s\bar s} would be overestimated by about a factor of four in the case when transition dominates over direct currents. Then, we also study the consequence of a recent estimate reached from analyzing the existing data on quark distributions that P_{s\bar s} lies between 2.4-2.9% which would lead to a large size for the five-quark (5q) system, as well as a small bump in both G^s_E+\eta G^s_M and G^s_E in the region of q^2 =< 0.1 GeV^2.Comment: Prepared for The Fifth Asia-Pacific Conference on Few-Body Problems in Physics 2011 in Seoul, South Korea, 22-26 August 201

Structural and dynamic elucidation of a non-acid PPARγ partial agonist: SR1988

Targeting peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ) by synthetic compounds has been shown to elicit insulin sensitising properties in type 2 diabetics. Treatment with a class of these compounds, the thiazolidinediones (TZDs), has shown adverse side effects such as weight gain, fluid retention, and congestive heart failure. This is due to their full agonist properties on the receptor, where a number of genes are upregulated beyond normal physiological levels. Lessened transactivation of PPARγ by partial agonists has proved beneficial in terms of reducing side effects, while still maintaining insulin sensitising properties. However, some partial agonists have been associated with unfavourable pharmacokinetic profiles due to their acidic moieties, often causing partitioning to the liver. Here we present SR1988, a new partial agonist with favourable non-acid chemical properties. We used a combination of X-ray crystallography and hydrogen/deuterium exchange (HDX) to elucidate the structural basis for reduced activation of PPARγ by SR1988. This structural analysis reveals a mechanism that decreases stabilisation of the AF2 coactivator binding surface by the ligand.Rebecca L. Frkic, Benjamin S. Chua, Youseung Shin, Bruce D. Pasca, Scott J. Novick, Theodore M. Kamenecka, Patrick R. Griffin, and John B. Brunin

An Integrated TCGA Pan-Cancer Clinical Data Resource to Drive High-Quality Survival Outcome Analytics

For a decade, The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) program collected clinicopathologic annotation data along with multi-platform molecular profiles of more than 11,000 human tumors across 33 different cancer types. TCGA clinical data contain key features representing the democratized nature of the data collection process. To ensure proper use of this large clinical dataset associated with genomic features, we developed a standardized dataset named the TCGA Pan-Cancer Clinical Data Resource (TCGA-CDR), which includes four major clinical outcome endpoints. In addition to detailing major challenges and statistical limitations encountered during the effort of integrating the acquired clinical data, we present a summary that includes endpoint usage recommendations for each cancer type. These TCGA-CDR findings appear to be consistent with cancer genomics studies independent of the TCGA effort and provide opportunities for investigating cancer biology using clinical correlates at an unprecedented scale. Analysis of clinicopathologic annotations for over 11,000 cancer patients in the TCGA program leads to the generation of TCGA Clinical Data Resource, which provides recommendations of clinical outcome endpoint usage for 33 cancer types