The prognostic value of Foxp3+ tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes in patients with glioblastoma

Forkhead box protein 3 (Foxp3) is known as a specific marker for regulatory T cells which contribute to immunosuppression in tumor microenvironment. However, existing studies regarding clinical significance of Foxp3+ tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) in glioblastoma (GBM) remained discrepant. In this study, we aimed to explore whether this subtype of TILs correlated with prognosis in patients with GBM. Foxp3+ TILs as well as CD8+ ones were detected by immunohistochemistry on paraffin-embedded tumor samples from 62 patients. Staining for p53, MGMT and Ki-67 were also performed. The correlation of TIL subtypes with clinicopathologic features were analyzed. Progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were estimated by Kaplan–Meier method and compared using log-rank test. Independent prognostic factors for PFS and OS were determined through univariate and multivariate analysis. Significant correlation was found between Foxp3 and CD8 expression (P = 0.003), but not between TIL subtypes and clinicopathologic characteristics. Patients with higher density of Foxp3+ TILs showed relatively shorter PFS (P < 0.001) and OS (P = 0.003) whereas patients with higher density of CD8+ TILs obtained no significant differences in survival. Survival analysis based on molecular classifications further clarified these predictive values. Univariate and multivariate analysis revealed that frequency of Foxp3+ TILs was probably associated with both PFS (P = 0.002) and OS (P = 0.003). In conclusion, the results suggest that Foxp3 positive infiltrates could provide an independent predictive factor in GBM. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s11060-013-1314-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Музично-етнографічні польові дослідження (на прикладі обстеження історичної Хотинщини)

The author of the article researches the approaches of musical-ethnographic work, its methods and goals, as well as the choice of the specific territory and its exploration defined by them. The author comments on his intention to examine the area of Khotyn, which now is a part of Chernivtsy region; explains the methods of examining the territory. Pluses and minuses of the existing song collections dedicated to the given district are under consideration in this article. In conclusion short information about Northern Bessarabia and its population is given

ORCHIDEE-MICT (revision 4126), a land surface model for the high-latitudes: model description and validation

Abstract. The high-latitude regions of the northern hemisphere are a nexus for the interaction between land surface physical properties and their exchange of carbon and energy with the atmosphere. At these latitudes, two carbon pools of planetary significance – those of the permanently frozen soils (permafrost), and of the great expanse of boreal forest – are vulnerable to destabilization in the face of currently observed climatic warming, the speed and intensity of which are expected to increase with time. Improved projections of future Arctic and boreal ecosystem transformation require improved land surface models that integrate processes specific to these cold biomes. To this end, this study lays out relevant new parameterizations in the ORCHIDEE-MICT land surface model. These describe the interactions between soil carbon, soil temperature and hydrology, and their resulting feedbacks on water and CO2 fluxes, in addition to a recently-developed fire module. Outputs from ORCHIDEE-MICT, when forced by two climate input data sets, are extensively evaluated against: (i) temperature gradients between the atmosphere and deep soils; (ii) the hydrological components comprising the water balance of the largest high-latitude basins, and (iii) CO2 flux and carbon stock observations. The model performance is good with respect to empirical data, despite a simulated excessive plant water stress and a positive land surface temperature bias. In addition, acute model sensitivity to the choice of input forcing data suggests that the calibration of model parameters is strongly forcing-dependent. Overall, we suggest that this new model design is at the forefront of current efforts to reliably estimate future perturbations to the high-latitude terrestrial environment. </jats:p

Vegetation–climate interactions in arid and semi–arid regions

Vegetation–climate interactions play an important role in earth system dynamics. It includes the effects of climate on vegetation and feedbacks from vegetation to climate. Such complex and nonlinear processes can enhance climate variation and lead to alternative stable states under given climate regimes. In this thesis, both model and statistical approaches are applied to demonstrate specific mechanisms of vegetation–climate interactions and related consequences. Research area includes arid and semi–arid regions in West Africa, where vegetation and climate are found to be strongly coupled. The thesis starts from a Balanced Optimality Structure Vegetation Model (BOSVM) considering water, energy and carbon balances. The BOSVM is used to demonstrate: 1) How vegetation adjusts to local climate by optimizing its spatial structure to maximize equilibrium biomass? 2) How the optimal structure shifts with climate regimes? Results show that vegetation with a low shoot–total biomass ratio and a vertical canopy can reach the maximal biomass under water–limited conditions. However the optimal structure shifts to high shoot–total biomass ratio and horizontal canopy with an increase of mean annual precipitation. A positive and a negative feedback are found in the water competition between vegetation and bare soil, which makes vegetation grow into patches to maximize water use efficiency, or to extend vegetation cover to stop water loss from bare soil. One important consequence of vegetation–climate interactions is the formation of alternative stable states under a given climate regime. It implies that vegetation can abruptly shift from one stable state to another with a change of climate. The point where the critical transition occurs, is called the tipping point. A complex network approach is applied to monitor the stability of vegetation state and provide early warning signals of upcoming tipping point in a coupled land–atmosphere model. Comparing with two classical indicators, network indicators show higher sensitivity to potential critical transitions and yielded early warning signals can be easier distinguished from local variability. One evidence of alternative stable states is the observed bimodal distribution of woody cover under the same rainfall band in tropical regions. Simulated biomass dynamics affected by fire is compared with observations to understand the observed bimodality. Results suggest that growth rate of woody cover varies with the age of woody plants, which also can lead to the observed bimodality of woody cover. The shift of vegetation structure is the necessary component for the formation of bimodality. Finally, the spatial distribution of land cover types in West Africa is illustrated. Six climatic indicators are analyzed to demonstrate their ability to distinguish land cover types. The mean annual precipitation has large uncertainty to predict specific land cover type. Simultaneously, prediction accuracies of other climatic indicators vary significantly with the change of land cover types. Several indicators are chosen and combined to improve land cover prediction. Patterns of potential land cover change in West Africa are illustrated, where forest is under stress while savanna and grassland show a tendency to extend to the north

Intelligent agent based automatic operating model

In this thesis, the first discussion is about a general automatic model for intelligent agent based operations. Since applications under test and applications released as products are operated for different purposes, two elaborated model are derived from the general model: intelligent agent based operating Model for Product Applications (MPA) and intelligent agent based operating Models for Regression Testing (MRT).MASTER OF ENGINEERING (EEE

De los encuentros feministas a las campañas transnacionales: surgimiento y desarrollo de los movimientos trasnacionales de mujeres en Ámerica Latina

Con el debate sobre la globalización cobran cada vez mayor importancia los movimientos sociales. Dentro de las discusiones sobre la gobernabilidad global se consideran a los movimientos sociales como actores importantes de la sociedad civil. En los medios masivos de comunicación pasan noticias sobre acciones de los movimientos sociales en contra de las políticas económicas internacionales. En este nuevo contexto internacional los movimientos sociales han creado redes que reúnen a los grupos y protagonistas para ha- cer frente a los procesos globales.

Validation of a new global irrigation scheme in the land surface model ORCHIDEE v2.2

International audienceAbstract. Irrigation activities are important for sustaining food production and account for 70 % of total global water withdrawals. In addition, due to increased evapotranspiration (ET) and changes in the leaf area index (LAI), these activities have an impact on hydrology and climate. In this paper, we present a new irrigation scheme within the land surface model ORCHIDEE (ORganising Carbon and Hydrology in Dynamic EcosystEms)). It restrains actual irrigation according to available freshwater by including a simple environmental limit and using allocation rules that depend on local infrastructure. We perform a simple sensitivity analysis and parameter tuning to set the parameter values and match the observed irrigation amounts against reported values, assuming uniform parameter values over land. Our scheme matches irrigation withdrawals amounts at global scale, but we identify some areas in India, China, and the USA (some of the most intensively irrigated regions worldwide), where irrigation is underestimated. In all irrigated areas, the scheme reduces the negative bias of ET. It also exacerbates the positive bias of the leaf area index (LAI), except for the very intensively irrigated areas, where irrigation reduces a negative LAI bias. The increase in the ET decreases river discharge values, in some cases significantly, although this does not necessarily lead to a better representation of discharge dynamics. Irrigation, however, does not have a large impact on the simulated total water storage anomalies (TWSAs) and its trends. This may be partly explained by the absence of nonrenewable groundwater use, and its inclusion could increase irrigation estimates in arid and semiarid regions by increasing the supply. Correlation of irrigation biases with landscape descriptors suggests that the inclusion of irrigated rice and dam management could improve the irrigation estimates as well. Regardless of this complexity, our results show that the new irrigation scheme helps simulate acceptable land surface conditions and fluxes in irrigated areas, which is important to explore the joint evolution of climate, water resources, and irrigation activities