Correlation of ink viscosity and printability in offset lithography process on paperboard used in packaging

In the recent years, the demands for offset inks with better flow ability and viscosity have risen higher with the improvements of printing techniques. To ensure uniformity in printability sheet after sheet it is very important to maintain certain print conditions for that print job as approved by customers and use this data for future reference of printing. The quality of offset printing process depends on many chemical and physical specifi¬cations of the materials and components involved in the process. Most important being printing inks and its rheology. In this work, three process color cyan inks have been formulated with varying levels of viscosity with use of certain rheology modifiers. Trials on the printing machine were conducted using a systematic layout of test elements on a fully automatic offset lithography printing machine using a Solid Bleached Sulphite Board (SBS) and the print results were correlated to rheological parameters such as viscosity and thixotropy. The tone value increase (TVI) was measured and was correlated to viscosity and index of thixotropy. Higher viscosity yields lower dot gain and better color reproducibility. A mathematical relation has been established between ink viscosity, dot area and tone value increase. As the demands for packaging increases, the study about the ink rheology and its effect on print performance can help printers and ink manufacturers with better ink formula¬tions to achieve precise print results

Aurora kinase A drives the evolution of resistance to third-generation EGFR inhibitors in lung cancer.

Although targeted therapies often elicit profound initial patient responses, these effects are transient due to residual disease leading to acquired resistance. How tumors transition between drug responsiveness, tolerance and resistance, especially in the absence of preexisting subclones, remains unclear. In epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-mutant lung adenocarcinoma cells, we demonstrate that residual disease and acquired resistance in response to EGFR inhibitors requires Aurora kinase A (AURKA) activity. Nongenetic resistance through the activation of AURKA by its coactivator TPX2 emerges in response to chronic EGFR inhibition where it mitigates drug-induced apoptosis. Aurora kinase inhibitors suppress this adaptive survival program, increasing the magnitude and duration of EGFR inhibitor response in preclinical models. Treatment-induced activation of AURKA is associated with resistance to EGFR inhibitors in vitro, in vivo and in most individuals with EGFR-mutant lung adenocarcinoma. These findings delineate a molecular path whereby drug resistance emerges from drug-tolerant cells and unveils a synthetic lethal strategy for enhancing responses to EGFR inhibitors by suppressing AURKA-driven residual disease and acquired resistance

Anti-Transforming Growth Factor ß Antibody Treatment Rescues Bone Loss and Prevents Breast Cancer Metastasis to Bone

Breast cancer often metastasizes to bone causing osteolytic bone resorption which releases active TGFβ. Because TGFβ favors progression of breast cancer metastasis to bone, we hypothesized that treatment using anti-TGFβ antibody may reduce tumor burden and rescue tumor-associated bone loss in metastatic breast cancer. In this study we have tested the efficacy of an anti-TGFβ antibody 1D11 preventing breast cancer bone metastasis. We have used two preclinical breast cancer bone metastasis models, in which either human breast cancer cells or murine mammary tumor cells were injected in host mice via left cardiac ventricle. Using several in vivo, in vitro and ex vivo assays, we have demonstrated that anti-TGFβ antibody treatment have significantly reduced tumor burden in the bone along with a statistically significant threefold reduction in osteolytic lesion number and tenfold reduction in osteolytic lesion area. A decrease in osteoclast numbers (p = 0.027) in vivo and osteoclastogenesis ex vivo were also observed. Most importantly, in tumor-bearing mice, anti-TGFβ treatment resulted in a twofold increase in bone volume (p<0.01). In addition, treatment with anti-TGFβ antibody increased the mineral-to-collagen ratio in vivo, a reflection of improved tissue level properties. Moreover, anti-TGFβ antibody directly increased mineralized matrix formation in calverial osteoblast (p = 0.005), suggesting a direct beneficial role of anti-TGFβ antibody treatment on osteoblasts. Data presented here demonstrate that anti-TGFβ treatment may offer a novel therapeutic option for tumor-induced bone disease and has the dual potential for simultaneously decreasing tumor burden and rescue bone loss in breast cancer to bone metastases. This approach of intervention has the potential to reduce skeletal related events (SREs) in breast cancer survivors

Evaluation of Voids on Shrink PVC Film

Gravure is one of the most widely used processes for printing on shrink films, the reason being its consistency for longer runs. However, such printing is accompanied by new challenges. The presence of gels, black specks and other contaminations in these films does not allow the surrounding area to print, thus resulting in print void. The occurrence of this defect in a considerable amount or size on the area of interest leads to the rejection of printed stock that involves wastage of inks, solvents and time. The research involves the investigation of the effect of gravure process variables on the minimization of print voids in Shrink PVC film. The gravure process variables viz. viscosity, pressure, speed and hardness were identified for the indirect laser cylinder. It was established that hardness had a significant impact on minimizing the voids, while viscosity-hardness interaction played another important role. The results showed the reduction in void area with lower viscosity, higher pressure, lower speed and higher hardness

Analysis of Spectral differences between Printers to detect the Counterfeit Medicine Packaging

International audienc

Characterization of Prints Based on Microscale Image Analysis of Dot Patterns

International audienceIdentifying a print document (original) from a reprint document (copy or fake) can be a challenge. The analyse at microscopic scale of print documents shows random dot shapes which depend on the printing parameters as well as the printing device used. We can, therefore, draw the assumption that the dot shapes can be used as a fingerprint to differentiate a print from a reprint. In this paper, we explore several shape indexes that were not investigated until now to analyse at microscopic scale documents printed on aluminium foils using rotogravure printing process. This paper presents a statistical analysis which is based on a pattern recognition process defined by three steps. First, a new image processing pipeline is used to segment automatically disconnected dots. Next, new dot pattern features are used to characterize automatically dot patterns. Six types of dot patterns (including four types of doughnut patterns) are introduced. Lastly, a new statistical analysis method is used to characterize a printed sample from the set of dots printed on it. The experiments done demonstrate the relevance of the analytical method proposed. Results shows the potential of this method to identify a reprint from a print

Study on Color Gamut to Authenticate the Gravure Printers Output

International audienc

Activation of Proinflammatory Response in Human Intestinal Epithelial Cells Following Vibrio Cholerae Infection Through PI3K/Akt Pathway

Vibrio cholerae activates proinflammatory response in cultured intestinal epithelial cells. In this study, we demonstrate that V. cholerae O395 infection of intestinal epithelial cells results in the activation of Akt. Inhibition of Akt significantly decreases IL-1a, IL-6, and TNF-a production in V. cholerae infected Int407 cells. Analysis of the mechanisms of Akt influences on cytokine response demonstrates that Akt promotes NF-kB activation. We have extended these findings to show that Akt activation may be regulated by bacterial genes associated with virulence, adherence, or motility. Insertion mutants in the virulence genes coding for CtxA, ToxT, and OmpU of V. cholerae modulate the activation of PI3K/ Akt signaling pathway, whereas an aflagellate non-motile mutant (O395FLAN) and a adherent and less motile mutant (O395Y3N/O395Y4N) of V. cholerae both show very significant down-regulation of Akt activity in Int407 cells. Together, these observations indicate that Akt promotes proinflammatory cytokine production by V. cholerae infected human intestinal epithelial cells through its influences on NF-kB

Authentication of a Gravure Printer from Color Values using an Artificial Neural Network

International audienceCounterfeited packaging products (Pharmaceuticals) can create severe health hazard. While counterfeiting the pharmaceutical product, printing and packaging takes very crucial role as the customer buy the product by the attraction and information provided by the package. So the counterfeiters emphasize more on packages and associated printing. This work is focused on pharmaceutical package printing not only for its social implication but also for its technological variation. Since most of the medicines are packed in metal foil, the printing technology associated is gravure printing. Little work has been done on this technology and its security aspects. The common ways to counterfeit the packages are to copy the text and images of the package and to reproduce it. However, the variation of color while reprinting it may be assessed to check whether the printing is done by the original manufacturer or their authenticated printer house. Scanning or taking photographs of the package and re-printing is one of the methods to counterfeit the original package sample. Different digital camera, mobile camera, scanner etc have been used to scanned the original sample and then to reprint it. When the image of the original print is taken through different mobiles, camera or scanners, the color values are not the same as the original print even if it is printed on the same printer. However, when the scanned samples are reprinted with different printers, the differences are much higher in comparison to the original print. In this study, blister foil has been taken as substrate and a reference color chart (IT8.7/3) printed with 4-color gravure printing machine. The reference image has been printed with three different gravure printers (P1, P2 ,P3). Then the images of print samples are taken by different input devices. The images are then printed in those three printers again. Study the difference in Lightness and color differences are analyzed to assess the difference of print and reprint samples among different gravure printing press. Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model is used to predict the CIELAB color values of a print sample printed from a printer. In this study, 70% of color patches (total 928) have been used to train the network, 15% of the data used as cross-validation and 15% of the data is used to verify the accuracy of the network. Then the predicted color values of one printer are compared with other print and scanned reprint sample to assess the differences. It has been observed that the difference of predicted color values with the print samples are much less. The difference becomes much higher for scanned reprint samples. Hence it will be possible to identify the fake sample (if someone tries to reprint it after scanning or taking images of original multicolor artwork and reprints it). Hence the predicted difference could be used to protect medicine packaging from counterfeiting

Integration of Tumor Genomic Data with Cell Lines Using Multi-dimensional Network Modules Improves Cancer Pharmacogenomics

Leveraging insights from genomic studies of patient tumors is limited by the discordance between these tumors and the cell line models used for functional studies. We integrate omics datasets using functional networks to identify gene modules reflecting variation between tumors and show that the structure of these modules can be evaluated in cell lines to discover clinically relevant biomarkers of therapeutic responses. Applied to breast cancer, we identify 219 gene modules that capture recurrent alterations and subtype patients and quantitate various cell types within the tumor microenvironment. Comparison of modules between tumors and cell lines reveals that many modules composed primarily of gene expression and methylation are poorly preserved. In contrast, preserved modules are highly predictive of drug responses in a manner that is robust and clinically relevant. This work addresses a fundamental challenge in pharmacogenomics that can only be overcome by the joint analysis of patient and cell line data