There is no correlation between c-Myc mRNA expression and telomerase activity in human breast cancer

Background Telomerase is a ribonucleoprotein enzyme that synthesises telomeres after cell division and maintains chromosomal length and stability thus leading to cellular immortalisation. The hTERT (human telomerase reverse transcriptase) subunit seems to be the rate-limiting determinant of telomerase and knowledge of factors controlling hTERT transcription may be useful in therapeutic strategies. The hTERT promoter contains binding sites for c-Myc and there is experimental and in vitro evidence that c-Myc may increase hTERT expression. Materials and methods RNA was extracted from 18 breast carcinomas and c-Myc mRNA expression was estimated by quantitative reverse transcriptase-PCR (RT-PCR) with Taqman methodology. These tumours had already been analysed for ER and PgR status using ligand-binding assays and had had their DNA ploidy and S-phase fractions measured by flow cytometry. Telomerase activity had already been determined by using a modified telomeric repeat and amplification protocol (TRAP) assay. Results Telomerase activity ranged from 0 to 246 units of Total Protein Generated (TPG), where one unit of TPG was equal to 600 molecules of telomerase substrate primers extended by at least three telomeric repeats. Median levels of TPG were 60 and mean levels 81. There was no significant correlation between levels of c-Myc mRNA expression, telomerase activity, S phase fraction or PgR. There was a significant negative correlation with ER status. Conclusion Although the hTERT promoter contains potential binding sites for c-Myc oncoprotein, we have found no correlation between c-Myc mRNA levels and telomerase activity

The mRNA expression of hTERT in human breast carcinomas correlates with VEGF expression

Background Telomerase is a ribonucleoprotein enzyme that synthesises telomeres after cell division and maintains chromosomal stability leading to cellular immortalisation. hTERT (human telomerase reverse transcriptase) is the rate-limiting determinant of telomerase reactivation. Telomerase has been associated with negative prognostic indicators in some studies. The present study aims to detect any correlation between hTERT and the negative prognostic indicators VEGF and PCNA by quantitatively measuring the mRNA expression of these genes in human breast cancer and in adjacent non-cancerous tissue (ANCT). Materials and methods RNA was extracted from 38 breast carcinomas and 40 ANCT. hTERT and VEGF165, VEGF189 and PCNA mRNA expressions were estimated by reverse transcriptase-PCR (RT-PCR) and Taqman methodology. Results The level of expression of VEGF-165 and PCNA was significantly higher in carcinoma tissue than ANCT (p = 0.02). The ratio of VEGF165/189 expression was significantly higher in breast carcinoma than ANCT (p = 0.025). hTERT mRNA expression correlated with VEGF-189 mRNA (p = 0.008) and VEGF165 (p = 0.07). Conclusions hTERT mRNA expression is associated with the expression of the VEGF189 and 165 isoforms. This could explain the poorer prognosis reported in breast tumours expressing high levels of hTERT. The relative expression of the VEGF isoforms is significantly different in breast tumour to ANCT, and this may be important in breast carcinogenesis

Handwriting Recognition of Historical Documents with few labeled data

Historical documents present many challenges for offline handwriting recognition systems, among them, the segmentation and labeling steps. Carefully annotated textlines are needed to train an HTR system. In some scenarios, transcripts are only available at the paragraph level with no text-line information. In this work, we demonstrate how to train an HTR system with few labeled data. Specifically, we train a deep convolutional recurrent neural network (CRNN) system on only 10% of manually labeled text-line data from a dataset and propose an incremental training procedure that covers the rest of the data. Performance is further increased by augmenting the training set with specially crafted multiscale data. We also propose a model-based normalization scheme which considers the variability in the writing scale at the recognition phase. We apply this approach to the publicly available READ dataset. Our system achieved the second best result during the ICDAR2017 competition

Is telomerase reactivation associated with the down-regulatoin of TGFβ receptor-II expression in human breast cancer?

Background Telomerase is a ribonucleoprotein that synthesizes telomeres and plays an important role in chromosomal stability and cellular immortalisation. Telomerase activity is detectable in most human cancers but not in normal somatic cells. TGF beta (transforming growth factor beta) is a member of a family of cytokines that are essential for cell survival and seems to be down-regulated in human cancer. Recent in vitro work using human breast cancer cell lines has suggested that TGF beta down-regulates the expression of hTERT (human telomerase reverse transcriptase) : the catalytic subunit of telomerase. We have therefore hypothesised that telomerase reactivation is associated with reduced immunohisto-chemical expression of TGF beta type II receptor (RII) in human breast cancer. Methods TGF beta RII immunohistochemical expression was determined in 24 infiltrating breast carcinomas with known telomerase activity (17 telomerase-positive and 7 telomerase-negative). Immunohistochemical expression of TGF beta RII was determined by a breast pathologist who was blinded to telomerase data. Results TGF beta RII was detected in all lesions. The percentage of stained cells ranged from 1–100%. The difference in TGF beta RII expression between telomerase positive and negative tumours was not statistically significant (p = 1.0). Conclusion The results of this pilot study suggest that there is no significant association between telomerase reactivation and TGF-beta RII down-regulation in human breast cancer

Profanity\u27s relation to personality and impulsivity

The relationship of swearing in respect to personality, religiosity, and social influences was analyzed in this study. Many assumptions are made about the effects of swear words and the act of swearing can have on an individual. The present study hypothesizes that the use of swears words is dependent on an individual\u27s personality characteristics and that exposure first happens from an external source (mass media outlets) rather than a familiar source (family member). More specifically, extroverted personality types will be more likely to engage in the use of profanity, due to their more impulsive nature. Online surveys such as the Big Five Inventory (BFI) and The Urgency, Premeditation, Perseverance, & Sensation Impulsive Behavior Scale (UPPS-P) were used to collect data from 763 participants. The results indicated impulsivity was positively correlated with personality characteristics of neuroticism and swearing acceptance. Swearing acceptance was negatively correlated with how often participants\u27 families took part in religious activities growing up and was positively correlated with how important religion is the participant, their family, and religious affiliation. In conclusion, familial exposure (i.e., mother) was dominant over any media source for exposure to swearing, which goes against the previous assumptions about swearing

Confronting Occupation with Cultural Stability in Lameece and Jacob’s Food and Fadwa

The following paper demonstrates the life in Palestine and the daily conflicts that take place due to Israeli occupation of the land. Its purpose is to shed the light on the significance of confronting occupation with cultural stability. Through the play Food and Fadwa, we are introduced to a Palestinian family suffering from the ache of occupation. However, Fadwa’s Palestinian cuisines act as means of resistance against the Israeli attempts of cleansing the Palestinian culture and heritage

Assessing the Parametric Building Model Capabilities in Minimizing Change Orders

Design changes during construction, which are typical in most projects, lead to increased cost, loss of productivity and delays. These changes are usually due to approved scope changes or due to design errors and omissions (E&Os) found in the construction documents. Errors and omissions are typically manifested in terms of incorrect or inconsistent dimensions and layouts in the construction documents, or by the lack of timely and correct information that it is needed to build the project or to meet the code requirements. Among others, E&Os are usually caused by poor coordination and communication among the many parties involved in the design process. The objective of this research is to explore the extent to which change orders resulting from errors and omissions in the design documents are caused by poor coordination and communications, and to determine the extent to which the use of the concept of the 3D parametric building model can be used to minimize or eliminate E&Os, hence minimizes total change orders. The concept of the 3D parametric building model has been implemented in commercial software using object-oriented technology. It creates a centralized database storing all the information about the design components as well as their interrelationships. Thus, whatever change is made is consistently propagated to the entire design object. The research was conducted through reviewing of the literature, a case study and a web-based survey among design professionals. The study revealed that 35% of E&Os are primarily due to poor coordination and that the use of 3D parametric building model has a significant impact on productivity and on improving the coordination of the design process. This model shows promising results in helping to minimize errors and omissions in the design documents