Angiogenesis: the Yin and Yang in intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma

The tumor microenvironment (TME) constitutes a complex structure comprising different cell types and soluble factors that surround the tumor and promote its progression. Primarily for its pivotal role in malignant growth, TME has become a potential therapeutic objective for developing new targeted therapy and a marker for assessing therapeutic response. In intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (iCCA), the second most common primary liver malignancy, TME has also gained a central role in understanding the mechanisms underlying tumor progression. In this review, we focused on the role of angiogenic factors and their pathway in iCCA and analyzed possible therapeutic and prognostic implications

Taurine\u27s effect on cocaine reward and neurogenesis in the adolescent male rat brain.

Adolescence is a developmentally critical transition from childhood to adulthood including both maturation of the body and the brain. Neuroplastic changes result in dynamic organization of the brain during adolescence, leaving them vulnerable to development of mental illness and drug-seeking behavior. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the psychostimulant cocaine is the second most popular illicit drug in the world. Cocaine, amongst having many detrimental effects, has shown to also decrease hippocampal neurogenesis, resulting in decreased neuroplasticity and cognitive dysfunction. Previous students in our laboratory have shown that treatment of adult male rats with the essential β-amino acid taurine (2-aminoethanesulfonic acid) has been effective in attenuating the reward value of cocaine in a conditioned place preference paradigm, independent of hormonal status. Taurine has also been shown to be a neuroprotectant and neurogenic. In these studies, taurine was tested as a protectant against cocaine reward by increasing neurogenesis in the brain in adolescent males. Using a conditioned place preference (CPP) cocaine reward paradigm, taurine was found to be ineffective in attenuating cocaine preference in adolescent males and was found to possess rewarding properties itself. Bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) was then used to determine if taurine affected neurogenesis in the hippocampus after cocaine treatment. This study determined that taurine was neither protective against cocaine’s rewarding properties or have a significant impact on neurogenesis in the hippocampus of adolescent male rats. Further studies should be performed to determine which mechanisms of plasticity taurine may be affecting to support the rewarding properties of cocaine. Since sex differences exist in taurine therapeutic value, the effects of taurine on the adolescent female brain should be evaluated as well

Extraordinary transverse magneto-optical Kerr effect in a superlens

It has been shown that a slab of a negative index material can behave as a superlens enhancing the imaging resolution beyond the wavelength limit. We show here that if such a slab possesses in addition some magneto-optical activity, it could act as an ideal optical filter and exhibit an extraordinary transverse magneto-optical Kerr effect. Moreover, we show that losses, which spoil the imaging resolution of these lenses, are a necessary ingredient to observe this effect.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figure

Methodology of Construction of an Algorithm for the Systemic Learning of First Semester Students of the TICs Subject

Algorithms have become the primary source to start programming. Particularly, making an algorithm from a given problem and converting it into a program is of great importance for analysts, technologists, and computer engineers, that is why this article aims to give a clear idea of how to develop an algorithm for any given problem. The objective of this work was to develop a methodology that is not so complex and that allows our students to perform the algorithm, pseudo-code, flow diagram and finally be able to carry out the program. The tests carried out show that the methodology used gives good results, achieving a significant improvement in the learning of students in the first semester of industrial engineering.   Keywords: algorithms, flow diagrams, program, programming, software engineerin