Infrared and upconversion spectroscopic studies of high Er3+content transparent YAG ceramic

In this article, we report the detailed spectroscopic studies of high Er3+content (50%) transparent YAG ceramic co-doped with nominal Cr3+ content (0.1 mol %). Various radiative and non-radiative spectroscopic properties such as radiative decay time, fluorescence branching ratio, emission/absorption cross sections, internal radiative quantum yields of the infrared and the upconverted emission bands are explored using standard experimental and theoretical methods and compared with YAG single crystal. Results show that although the non-radiative losses are high for 50% Er doped ceramic; several radiative spectral properties are almost in agreement with those for the single crystal YAG. Furthermore, because of the low dopant concentration of Cr3+, the sensitizing effect of Cr3+ was not observed. © 2011 Optical Society of America

Arabidopsis IRE1 catalyses unconventional splicing of bZIP60 mRNA to produce the active transcription factor

IRE1 plays an essential role in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress response in yeast and mammals. We found that a double mutant of Arabidopsis IRE1A and IRE1B (ire1a/ire1b) is more sensitive to the ER stress inducer tunicamycin than the wild-type. Transcriptome analysis revealed that genes whose induction was reduced in ire1a/ire1b largely overlapped those in the bzip60 mutant. We observed that the active form of bZIP60 protein detected in the wild-type was missing in ire1a/ire1b. We further demonstrated that bZIP60 mRNA is spliced by ER stress, removing 23 ribonucleotides and therefore causing a frameshift that replaces the C-terminal region of bZIP60 including the transmembrane domain (TMD) with a shorter region without a TMD. This splicing was detected in ire1a and ire1b single mutants, but not in the ire1a/ire1b double mutant. We conclude that IRE1A and IRE1B catalyse unconventional splicing of bZIP60 mRNA to produce the active transcription factor

New nonlinear-laser effects in crystalline fine-grained ceramics based on cubic Sc2O3 and Lu2O3 oxides: second and third harmonic generation, and cascaded self-sum-frequency mixing in UV spectral region

We report on the first observation of the nonlinear cascading chi((3)) chi((3)) effects in UV spectral range and second harmonic generation stipulated by the "defect" nonlinearity under one-micron pumping in crystalline ceramics based on cubic oxides Sc2O3 and Lu2O3. Broadband their multi-wavelength Stokes and anti-Stokes combs with the extension of 10475 cm(-1) (for Sc2O3) and 8232 cm(-1) (for Lu2O3) were recorded as well

Mechanical and optical properties of Lu2O3 host-ceramics for Ln(3+) lasants

Micro-hardness and fracture toughness, as well as linear optical properties (full transmission spectrum and refractive index dispersion) of fine-grained Lu2O3 ceramics fabricated by VSN method are presented

Prognostic significance of L-type amino acid transporter 1 expression in resectable stage I–III nonsmall cell lung cancer

The clinical significance of L-type amino acid transporter 1 (LAT1) expression remains unclear, whereas many experimental studies have demonstrated that LAT1 is associated with the proliferation of cancer cells. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the prognostic value of LAT1 in patients with nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC). A total of 321 consecutive patients with completely resected pathologic stage I–III NSCLC were retrospectively reviewed. Expression of LAT1 and proliferative activity, as determined by the Ki-67 labelling index, was also evaluated immunohistochemically and correlated with the prognosis of patients who underwent complete resection of the tumour. Expression of LAT1 was positive in 163 patients (51%) (29% of adenocaricnoma (58 of 200 patients), 91% of squamous cell carcinoma (91 of 100 patients), and 67% of large cell carcinoma (14 of 21 patients)). The 5-year survival rate of LAT1-positive patients (51.8%) was significantly worse than that of LAT1-negative patients (87.8%; P<0.001). L-type amino acid transporter 1 expression was significantly associated with lymph node metastasis and disease stage. Multivariate analysis confirmed that positive expression of LAT1 was an independent factor for predicting a poor prognosis. There was a significant correlation between LAT1 expression and Ki-67 labelling index. LAT1 expression is a promising pathological factor to predict the prognosis in patients with resectable stage I–III NSCLC

Arsenic-related DNA copy-number alterations in lung squamous cell carcinomas

BACKGROUND: Lung squamous cell carcinomas (SqCCs) occur at higher rates following arsenic exposure. Somatic DNA copy-number alterations (CNAs) are understood to be critical drivers in several tumour types. We have assembled a rare panel of lung tumours from a population with chronic arsenic exposure, including SqCC tumours from patients with no smoking history. METHODS: Fifty-two lung SqCCs were analysed by whole-genome tiling-set array comparative genomic hybridisation. Twenty-two were derived from arsenic-exposed patients from Northern Chile (10 never smokers and 12 smokers). Thirty additional cases were obtained for comparison from North American smokers without arsenic exposure. Twenty-two blood samples from healthy individuals from Northern Chile were examined to identify germline DNA copy-number variations (CNVs) that could be excluded from analysis. RESULTS: We identified multiple CNAs associated with arsenic exposure. These alterations were not attributable to either smoking status or CNVs. DNA losses at chromosomes 1q21.1, 7p22.3, 9q12, and 19q13.31 represented the most recurrent events. An arsenic-associated gain at 19q13.33 contains genes previously identified as oncogene candidates. CONCLUSIONS: Our results provide a comprehensive approach to molecular characteristics of the arsenic-exposed lung cancer genome and the non-smoking lung SqCC genome. The distinct and recurrent arsenic-related alterations suggest that this group of tumours may be considered as a separate disease subclass