The Shear Viscosity in Anisotropic Phases

We construct anisotropic black brane solutions and analyse the behaviour of some of their metric perturbations. These solutions correspond to field theory duals in which rotational symmetry is broken due an externally applied, spatially constant, force. We find, in several examples, that when the anisotropy is sufficiently big compared to the temperature, some components of the viscosity tensor can become very small in units of the entropy density, parametrically violating the KSS bound. We obtain an expression relating these components of the viscosity, in units of the entropy density, to a ratio of metric components at the horizon of the black brane. This relation is generally valid, as long as the forcing function is translationally invariant, and it directly connects the parametric violation of the bound to the anisotropy in the metric at the horizon. Our results suggest the possibility that such small components of the viscosity tensor might also arise in anisotropic strongly coupled fluids found in nature.Comment: 30 pages + 4 page appendix, 3 figures, added reference

Utilization of cotton plant ash and char for removal of 2, 4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid

Cotton is a common Indian crop grown on a considerable portion of farmland across the country. After separating the useful product (cotton fibers), the other parts of the plant (stalks, leaves, etc.) are discarded as wastes. In most cases, these plant materials are used as fuel in boilers or households. Cotton wastes when ignited in the presence and absence of air produce cotton plant ash (CPA) and cotton plant char (CPC), respectively. However, CPA and CPC produced pose environmental problems such as safe disposal. Thus, there is an urgent need to characterize the physical and chemical properties of these derivatives and to identify their potential uses. This study highlights the potential utilization of CPA and CPC as adsorbents of 2,4-D. The main components in CPA, namely, CaO and K2O, provide micronutrients to the soil and are thus useful as a biofertilizers. Moreover, low manufacturing cost and higher availability favor the use of CPA as an efficient, low-cost adsorbent as well as a potential source of vital micronutrients. The adsorption capacity of CPA and CPC was tested using 2,4 dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) as the representative herbicide. Experimental data were analyzed by Freundlich and Langmuir adsorption isotherms, and these fitted well with the Langmuir model. The adsorption capacity q0 was found to be 0.64 mg/g for CPA and 3.93 mg/g for CPC. Pseudo-first-order pseudo-second-order and intraparticle diffusion kinetic models were applied to experimental data, and the pseudo second order kinetics model showed best fit for the adsorption of 2,4-D on CPA and CPC. Both CPA and CPC were characterized using proximate analysis, SEM images, BET surface area, XRF, FTIR, and CHNS. The BET surface area was found to be 2 and 109 m2 /g, respectively, for CPA and CPC. Adsorption study results indicated that both CPA and CPC are very effective cheap adsorbent for 2,4-D removal

Klinické použití neopterinu, laboratorního biomarkeru imunitní aktivace, v odhadu prognózy, monitorování odpovědi na léčbu a komplikací u pacientů s nádorovým onemocněním

Clinical use of neopterin, a laboratory biomarker of immune activation, in prognosis, monitoring response to therapy and complications in cancer patients Introduction Neopterin is a biomarker of immune activation and is synthesized from GTP in a reaction catalyzed by enzyme GCH-1. Neopterin levels reflect the body's response to inflammatory conditions such as infections, injuries, chronic diseases, and cancer. Its levels also fluctuate with anticancer therapies that demonstrate immune activity. Remarkably neopterin has also been found to be a marker of poor prognosis in cancer. Aim To investigate clinical use of neopterin, a biomarker of immune response, in the assessment of prognosis, monitoring response to therapy, and complications in cancer patients. Methodology In a two-part study, serial urinary neopterin were measured in two different cohorts of patients who underwent anticancer therapy. In part one, samples from 45 patients with diagnosis of metastatic colorectal cancer who were being treated with chemotherapy + cetuximab were analyzed. In part two, samples from 10 patients with diagnosis of gynecological malignancy, mostly cervical cancer undergoing chemoradiotherapy were analyzed. Results In patients with metastatic colorectal carcinoma, higher neopterin levels were associated with poor prognosis....Klinické použití neopterinu, laboratorního biomarkeru imunitní aktivace, v určení prognózy, monitorování odpovědi na léčbu a komplikací u pacientů s nádorovým onemocněním Úvod Neopterin je biomarker imunitní aktivace, syntetizovaný z GTP v reakci katalyzované enzymem GCH-1. Hladiny neopterinu odrážejí reakci organismu na zánětlivé stavy, jako jsou infekce, poranění, chronických onemocnění a rakovina. Hladina kolísá i v průběhu všech modalit protinádorové terapie, která ovlivňuje činnost imunitního systému. Vysoká hladina neopterinu je spojena se špatnou prognózou u nádorových onemocnění. Cíl Ověření klinického použití neopterinu, ve stanovení prognózy, monitorování odpovědi na léčbu a komplikací u pacientů s rakovinou. Metodologie Ve dvou částech studie, sériové neopterinu v moči byly měřeny ve dvou různých kohortách pacientů, kteří podstoupili protinádorovou terapii. V první části, byly analyzovány vzorky od 45 pacientů s diagnózou metastazujícího kolorektálního karcinomu, kteří byli léčeni chemoterapií v kombinaci s cetuximabem. Ve druhé části byly analyzovány vzorky 10 pacientek B s diagnózou gynekologické malignity, většinou karcinomu děložního hrdla, podstupujích chemoradioterapii. Výsledky U nemocných s metastatickým kolorektálním karcinomem byly vyšší hladiny neopterinu spojeny se špatnou prognózou....4th Department of Internal Medicine - HaematologyIV. interní hematologická klinikaLékařská fakulta v Hradci KrálovéFaculty of Medicine in Hradec Králov

A low-cost adsorbent (wheat plant ash) prepared from agricultural waste for removal of paraquat from aqueous solutions

26-34A low-cost adsorbent (wheat plant ash) has been prepared using a common agricultural waste (wheat straw) and its physicochemical characteristics, including chemical, physical, mineralogical, and morphological, and adsorption efficacy are investigated. WPA is characterized by SEM (scanning electron microscopy), CHNS(ultimate analysis) analysis, Brunauer–Emmett–Tellersurface area technique, and Fourier transform infrared method. The BET surface area of wheat plant ash was found to be 37 m2/g. To evaluate its adsorption capacity, paraquat is chosen as the adsorbate. Batch adsorption is performed by varying adsorbent dosage, initial concentration, and contact time. Experimental data are fitted to both kinetic and isotherm models. Pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order kinetic models are applied to experimental data, which indicated that the latter model had the best fit. Langmuir, Freundlich, Temkin, and Dubinin–Radushkevich isotherm models are then applied to the equilibrium data. The adsorption capacity of WPA for paraquat removal, determined using the Langmuir isotherm, is found to be approximately 241.3 mg/m2 at 303 K

Supersymmetric Chern-Simons Theories with Vector Matter

In this paper we discuss SU(N) Chern-Simons theories at level k with both fermionic and bosonic vector matter. In particular we present an exact calculation of the free energy of the N=2 supersymmetric model (with one chiral field) for all values of the 't Hooft coupling in the large N limit. This is done by using a generalization of the standard Hubbard-Stratanovich method because the SUSY model contains higher order polynomial interactions.Comment: 46 pages, 24 figures, v2: comments and references added, v3: a footnote in Section 3.5 adde

Werner Syndrome Protein Expression in Breast Cancer

IntroductionWerner protein (WRN) plays an important role in DNA repair, replication, transcription, and consequently genomic stability via its DNA-helicase and exonuclease activity. Loss of function of WRN is associated with Werner syndrome (WS), which is characterized by premature aging and cancer predisposition. Malignancies that are commonly linked to WS are thyroid carcinoma, melanoma, breast cancer, meningioma, and soft tissue and bone sarcomas. Currently, the clinicopathologic significance of WRN in breast cancer is largely unknown.Patients and MethodsWe investigated the clinicopathologic and prognostic significance of WRN protein expression in a cohort of clinically annotated series of sporadic (n = 1650) and BRCA-mutated (n = 75) invasive breast cancers. We correlated WRN protein expression to clinicopathologic characteristics, DNA repair protein expression, and survival outcomes.ResultsThere is strong evidence of association between low nuclear and cytoplasmic WRN co-expression and low levels of KU70/KU80, DNA-PK, DNA Pol-B, CKD18, cytoplasmic RECQL4, and nuclear BLM protein expression (adjusted P-values < .05). Tumors with low nuclear or cytoplasmic WRN expression have worse overall breast cancer-specific survival (BCSS) (adjusted P-values < .05). In topoisomerase I overexpressed tumors, low WRN nuclear expression was associated with poor BCSS (P-value < .05). In BRCA-mutated tumors, low WRN cytoplasmic expression conferred shortest BCSS (P < .05).ConclusionsLow WRN protein expression is associated with poor BCSS in patients with breast cancer. This can be used to optimize the risk stratification for personalized treatment

31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC 2016) : part two

Background The immunological escape of tumors represents one of the main ob- stacles to the treatment of malignancies. The blockade of PD-1 or CTLA-4 receptors represented a milestone in the history of immunotherapy. However, immune checkpoint inhibitors seem to be effective in specific cohorts of patients. It has been proposed that their efficacy relies on the presence of an immunological response. Thus, we hypothesized that disruption of the PD-L1/PD-1 axis would synergize with our oncolytic vaccine platform PeptiCRAd. Methods We used murine B16OVA in vivo tumor models and flow cytometry analysis to investigate the immunological background. Results First, we found that high-burden B16OVA tumors were refractory to combination immunotherapy. However, with a more aggressive schedule, tumors with a lower burden were more susceptible to the combination of PeptiCRAd and PD-L1 blockade. The therapy signifi- cantly increased the median survival of mice (Fig. 7). Interestingly, the reduced growth of contralaterally injected B16F10 cells sug- gested the presence of a long lasting immunological memory also against non-targeted antigens. Concerning the functional state of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), we found that all the immune therapies would enhance the percentage of activated (PD-1pos TIM- 3neg) T lymphocytes and reduce the amount of exhausted (PD-1pos TIM-3pos) cells compared to placebo. As expected, we found that PeptiCRAd monotherapy could increase the number of antigen spe- cific CD8+ T cells compared to other treatments. However, only the combination with PD-L1 blockade could significantly increase the ra- tio between activated and exhausted pentamer positive cells (p= 0.0058), suggesting that by disrupting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis we could decrease the amount of dysfunctional antigen specific T cells. We ob- served that the anatomical location deeply influenced the state of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In fact, TIM-3 expression was in- creased by 2 fold on TILs compared to splenic and lymphoid T cells. In the CD8+ compartment, the expression of PD-1 on the surface seemed to be restricted to the tumor micro-environment, while CD4 + T cells had a high expression of PD-1 also in lymphoid organs. Interestingly, we found that the levels of PD-1 were significantly higher on CD8+ T cells than on CD4+ T cells into the tumor micro- environment (p < 0.0001). Conclusions In conclusion, we demonstrated that the efficacy of immune check- point inhibitors might be strongly enhanced by their combination with cancer vaccines. PeptiCRAd was able to increase the number of antigen-specific T cells and PD-L1 blockade prevented their exhaus- tion, resulting in long-lasting immunological memory and increased median survival

Physician perspectives on resuscitation status and DNR order in elderly cancer patients

AimTo evaluate the process of placing DNR order in elderly cancer patients in practice and analysis of physician perspectives on the issue.BackgroundDecision not to resuscitate (DNR/DNAR) is part of practice in elderly cancer care. Physicians issue such orders when a patient is suffering from irreversible disease and the patient's life is coming to an end. Modern practice emphasises the need of communication with the patients and their relatives while issuing a DNR. The decision making process of placing DNR can be quite daunting. The moral and ethical dimensions surrounding such a decision make it a contentious topic.Materials and methodsWe searched the literature to find relevant works that would help physicians and especially the junior health care staff in dealing with the complexities. In this article, we discuss the issues that physicians encounter whilst dealing with a DNR order in elderly cancer patients.ResultsThere are no objective adjuncts or guidelines directed towards the approach of placing a DNR in elderly cancer patients. Better communication with the patients and relatives when making such decision remains a very important aspect of a DNR decision. Most health care staff find themselves ill equipped to deal with such situation. Active training and briefing of junior staff would help them deal better with the stresses involved in this process.ConclusionThere are complex psychosocial, medical, ethical and emotive aspects associated with placing a DNR order. Patients and their loved ones and the junior staff involved in the care of patient need early communication and briefing for better acceptance of DNR. Studies that could devise or identify tools or recommendations would be welcome

Routing People Traffic.

Use of statistical theory, graphing theory, and algorithm analysis to route people traffic within London Underground