Emerging radiopharmaceuticals for PET-imaging gliomas. A multi-: radiopharmaceutical, camera, modality, model, and modelling assessment

Gliomas, which are a type of brain tumour derived from the non-neuronal and nutrient-supplying glial cells of the brain, are particularly devastating disease due to the importance and delicate nature of cerebral matter. Surgical removal, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy often have unwanted consequences depending on a variety of physiological and probability factors. With the human life expectancy averaging 12-15 months after clinical diagnosis (with treatment) for aggressive brain tumours, accurately detecting and characterizing these tumours non-invasively is important for treatment planning. Currently, the highest anatomical resolution imaging modality available for brain imaging is magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), but this lacks biochemical information. Positron emission tomography paired with computed tomography for anatomical reference (PET-CT) divulges quantifiable biochemical information. By selecting imaging radiopharmaceuticals for PET imaging that have relevance to tumour surface proteins or other cellular metabolic processes it is possible to not only aid in detecting or delineating gliomas, but also gain specific biochemical-property insight into these lesions. The aim of these studies was to evaluate the two emerging radiopharmaceuticals (2S, 4R)-4-[18F]fluoroglutamine ([18F]FGln) and Al[18F]F-NOTA-Folate ([18F]FOL) and to directly compare them with routinely clinically-used radiopharmaceuticals 2-deoxy-2-[18F]fluoro-ᴅ-glucose ([18F]FDG) and ʟ-[11C]methionine ([11C]Met) for the PET imaging of gliomas in animal models. Other parameters, such as the in vivo stability, ex vivo biodistribution, in vitro binding and blocking, and the presence of relevant receptors on human tissue samples were investigated in to divulge additional information. The results demonstrated that both [18F]FGln and [18F]FOL provided an enhanced level of contrast between tumour and adjacent non-tumour brain tissue versus that of the clinically used radiopharmaceuticals [18F]FDG and [11C]Met in animal models.Uudet radiolääkeaineet glioomien PET-kuvantamiseen. Tutkimuksia radiolääkeaineista, modaliteeteista, kameroista, kokeellisista malleista ja mallintamisesta Glioomat ovat aivokasvaimia, jotka syntyvät ravinteiden kuljetusta hoitavista glia- eli hermotukisoluista. Ne ovat erityisen tuhoisia sairauksia aivokudoksen tärkeyden ja herkkyyden vuoksi. Kirurgisella leikkauksella, kemoterapialla, ja sädehoidolla on usein ei-toivottuja seurauksia riippuen fysiologisista ja todennäköisyystekijöistä. Koska elinajanodote aggressiivisen aivokasvaimen diagnoosin jälkeen on keskimäärin 12–15 kuukautta (hoidon kanssa), ei-invasiivinen tarkka havaitseminen ja karakterisointi on tärkeää hoidon suunnittelussa. Tällä hetkellä parhaat työkalut aivojen kuvantamiseen ovat magneettikuvaus (MRI), joka mahdollistaa parhaimman anatomisen tarkkuuden, ja positroniemissiotomografia (PET), joka paljastaa biokemiallisen informaation. Valitsemalle PET-kuvantamiseen radiolääkeaine, joka kiinnittyy syöpäsolun pintaproteiineihin tai liittyy solun aineenvaihduntaprosessiin on mahdollista paitsi havaita tai rajata glioomia, myös saada erityistä biokemiallista tietoa näistä leesioista. Tämän tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli arvioida kahta uutta radiolääkeainetta; (2S, 4R)-4-[18F]fluoriglutamiinia ([18F]FGln) ja Al[18F]F-NOTA-folaattia ([18F]FOL) ja verrata niitä kliinisessä käytössä oleviin 2-deoxy-2-[18F]fluori-ᴅ-glukoosiin ([18F]FDG) ja ʟ-[11C]metioniiniin ([11C]Met) glioomien PET-kuvantamisessa. Stabiilisuutta, biologista jakautumista, sitoutumista ja sitoutumisen salpautumista, sekä farmakokineettista mallintamista tutkittiin in vivo, ex vivo ja in vitro olosuhteissa eläinmalleissa ja kudosnäytteillä. Tulokset osoittivat, että eläinmalleissa sekä [18F]FGln että [18F]FOL mahdollistavat paremman kontrastin tuumorin ja viereisen tuumorittoman aivokudoksen välillä verrattuna kliinisessä käytössä oleviin [18F]FDG ja [11C]Met radiolääkeaineisiin

Exploiting Glutamine Consumption in Atherosclerotic Lesions by Positron Emission Tomography Tracer (2S,4R)-4-F-18-Fluoroglutamine

Increased glutamine metabolism by macrophages is associated with development of atherosclerotic lesions. Positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) with a glutamine analog (2S,4R)-4-F-18-fluoroglutamine (F-18-FGln) allows quantification of glutamine consumption in vivo. Here, we investigated uptake of F-18-FGln by atherosclerotic lesions in mice and compared the results with those obtained using the glucose analog 2-deoxy-2-F-18-fluoro-D-glucose (F-18-FDG). Uptake of F-18-FGln and F-18-FDG by healthy control mice (C57BL/6JRj) and atherosclerotic low-density lipoprotein receptor-deficient mice expressing only apolipoprotein B100 (LDLR(-/-)ApoB(100/100)) was investigated. The mice were injected intravenously with F-18-FGln or F-18-FDG for in vivo PET/CT imaging. After sacrifice at 70 minutes post-injection, tracer uptake was analyzed by gamma counting of excised tissues and by autoradiography of aorta cryosections, together with histological and immunohistochemical analyses. We found that myocardial uptake of F-18-FGln was low. PET/CT detected lesions in the aortic arch, with a target-to-background ratio (SUVmax, aortic arch/SUVmean, blood) of 1.95 +/- 0.42 (mean +/- standard deviation). Gamma counting revealed that aortic uptake of F-18-FGln by LDLR(-/-)ApoB(100/100) mice (standardized uptake value [SUV], 0.35 +/- 0.06) was significantly higher than that by healthy controls (0.20 +/- 0.08, P = 0.03). More detailed analysis by autoradiography revealed that the plaque-to-healthy vessel wall ratio of F-18-FGln (2.90 +/- 0.42) was significantly higher than that of F-18-FDG (1.93 +/- 0.22, P = 0.004). Immunohistochemical staining confirmed that F-18-FGln uptake in plaques co-localized with glutamine transporter SLC7A7-positive macrophages. Collectively these data show that the F-18-FGln PET tracer detects inflamed atherosclerotic lesions. Thus, exploiting glutamine consumption using F-18-FGln PET may have translational relevance for studying atherosclerotic inflammation

Differential cross section measurements for the production of a W boson in association with jets in proton–proton collisions at √s = 7 TeV

Measurements are reported of differential cross sections for the production of a W boson, which decays into a muon and a neutrino, in association with jets, as a function of several variables, including the transverse momenta (pT) and pseudorapidities of the four leading jets, the scalar sum of jet transverse momenta (HT), and the difference in azimuthal angle between the directions of each jet and the muon. The data sample of pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV was collected with the CMS detector at the LHC and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 5.0 fb[superscript −1]. The measured cross sections are compared to predictions from Monte Carlo generators, MadGraph + pythia and sherpa, and to next-to-leading-order calculations from BlackHat + sherpa. The differential cross sections are found to be in agreement with the predictions, apart from the pT distributions of the leading jets at high pT values, the distributions of the HT at high-HT and low jet multiplicity, and the distribution of the difference in azimuthal angle between the leading jet and the muon at low values.United States. Dept. of EnergyNational Science Foundation (U.S.)Alfred P. Sloan Foundatio

Juxtaposing BTE and ATE – on the role of the European insurance industry in funding civil litigation

One of the ways in which legal services are financed, and indeed shaped, is through private insurance arrangement. Two contrasting types of legal expenses insurance contracts (LEI) seem to dominate in Europe: before the event (BTE) and after the event (ATE) legal expenses insurance. Notwithstanding institutional differences between different legal systems, BTE and ATE insurance arrangements may be instrumental if government policy is geared towards strengthening a market-oriented system of financing access to justice for individuals and business. At the same time, emphasizing the role of a private industry as a keeper of the gates to justice raises issues of accountability and transparency, not readily reconcilable with demands of competition. Moreover, multiple actors (clients, lawyers, courts, insurers) are involved, causing behavioural dynamics which are not easily predicted or influenced. Against this background, this paper looks into BTE and ATE arrangements by analysing the particularities of BTE and ATE arrangements currently available in some European jurisdictions and by painting a picture of their respective markets and legal contexts. This allows for some reflection on the performance of BTE and ATE providers as both financiers and keepers. Two issues emerge from the analysis that are worthy of some further reflection. Firstly, there is the problematic long-term sustainability of some ATE products. Secondly, the challenges faced by policymakers that would like to nudge consumers into voluntarily taking out BTE LEI

Penilaian Kinerja Keuangan Koperasi di Kabupaten Pelalawan

This paper describe development and financial performance of cooperative in District Pelalawan among 2007 - 2008. Studies on primary and secondary cooperative in 12 sub-districts. Method in this stady use performance measuring of productivity, efficiency, growth, liquidity, and solvability of cooperative. Productivity of cooperative in Pelalawan was highly but efficiency still low. Profit and income were highly, even liquidity of cooperative very high, and solvability was good

Search for stop and higgsino production using diphoton Higgs boson decays

Results are presented of a search for a "natural" supersymmetry scenario with gauge mediated symmetry breaking. It is assumed that only the supersymmetric partners of the top-quark (stop) and the Higgs boson (higgsino) are accessible. Events are examined in which there are two photons forming a Higgs boson candidate, and at least two b-quark jets. In 19.7 inverse femtobarns of proton-proton collision data at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV, recorded in the CMS experiment, no evidence of a signal is found and lower limits at the 95% confidence level are set, excluding the stop mass below 360 to 410 GeV, depending on the higgsino mass

Severe early onset preeclampsia: short and long term clinical, psychosocial and biochemical aspects

Preeclampsia is a pregnancy specific disorder commonly defined as de novo hypertension and proteinuria after 20 weeks gestational age. It occurs in approximately 3-5% of pregnancies and it is still a major cause of both foetal and maternal morbidity and mortality worldwide1. As extensive research has not yet elucidated the aetiology of preeclampsia, there are no rational preventive or therapeutic interventions available. The only rational treatment is delivery, which benefits the mother but is not in the interest of the foetus, if remote from term. Early onset preeclampsia (<32 weeks’ gestational age) occurs in less than 1% of pregnancies. It is, however often associated with maternal morbidity as the risk of progression to severe maternal disease is inversely related with gestational age at onset2. Resulting prematurity is therefore the main cause of neonatal mortality and morbidity in patients with severe preeclampsia3. Although the discussion is ongoing, perinatal survival is suggested to be increased in patients with preterm preeclampsia by expectant, non-interventional management. This temporising treatment option to lengthen pregnancy includes the use of antihypertensive medication to control hypertension, magnesium sulphate to prevent eclampsia and corticosteroids to enhance foetal lung maturity4. With optimal maternal haemodynamic status and reassuring foetal condition this results on average in an extension of 2 weeks. Prolongation of these pregnancies is a great challenge for clinicians to balance between potential maternal risks on one the eve hand and possible foetal benefits on the other. Clinical controversies regarding prolongation of preterm preeclamptic pregnancies still exist – also taking into account that preeclampsia is the leading cause of maternal mortality in the Netherlands5 - a debate which is even more pronounced in very preterm pregnancies with questionable foetal viability6-9. Do maternal risks of prolongation of these very early pregnancies outweigh the chances of neonatal survival? Counselling of women with very early onset preeclampsia not only comprises of knowledge of the outcome of those particular pregnancies, but also knowledge of outcomes of future pregnancies of these women is of major clinical importance. This thesis opens with a review of the literature on identifiable risk factors of preeclampsia

Search for anomalous production of events with three or more leptons in pp collisions at √s = 8TeV

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published articles title, journal citation, and DOI.A search for physics beyond the standard model in events with at least three leptons is presented. The data sample, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 19.5fb-1 of proton-proton collisions with center-of-mass energy s=8TeV, was collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC during 2012. The data are divided into exclusive categories based on the number of leptons and their flavor, the presence or absence of an opposite-sign, same-flavor lepton pair (OSSF), the invariant mass of the OSSF pair, the presence or absence of a tagged bottom-quark jet, the number of identified hadronically decaying τ leptons, and the magnitude of the missing transverse energy and of the scalar sum of jet transverse momenta. The numbers of observed events are found to be consistent with the expected numbers from standard model processes, and limits are placed on new-physics scenarios that yield multilepton final states. In particular, scenarios that predict Higgs boson production in the context of supersymmetric decay chains are examined. We also place a 95% confidence level upper limit of 1.3% on the branching fraction for the decay of a top quark to a charm quark and a Higgs boson (t→cH), which translates to a bound on the left- and right-handed top-charm flavor-violating Higgs Yukawa couplings, λtcH and λctH, respectively, of |λtcH|2+|λctH|2<0.21

Measurement of associated W plus charm production in pp collisions at √s=7 TeV

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