Signalling pathways and gene expression profiles in prostate cancer

In general, cancer, encompassing prostate cancer (PCa), is a disease that utilises signalling pathways to progress through the uncontrolled proliferation of cancerous cells. Although the mechanisms of how the cells evade intrinsic or extrinsic signals of death and keep on dividing is not completely understood, there is a plethora of evidence that point to certain signalling molecules that are crucial conveyors of the fine tuning that slightly differs in cancer in comparison to control states. The present chapter provides a detailed description of the key regulators of PCa cell life and unveils their closely communicating proteins that aid in the fine tuning of the cancerous state

Beyond Concurrent Chemoradiation: The Emerging Role of PD-1/PD-L1 Inhibitors in Stage III Lung Cancer.

Concurrent chemoradiation (cCRT) with platinum-based chemotherapy is standard-of-care therapy for patients with stage III unresectable non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Although cCRT is potentially curative, 5-year overall survival has hovered around 20%, despite extensive efforts to improve outcomes with increasing doses of conformal radiation and intensification of systemic therapy with either induction or consolidation chemotherapy. PD-1/PD-L1 immune checkpoint inhibitors have demonstrated unprecedented efficacy in patients with stage IV NSCLC. In addition, preclinical and early clinical evidence suggests that chemotherapy and radiation may work synergistically with anti-PD-1/PD-L1 therapy to promote antitumor immunity, which has led to the initiation of clinical trials testing these drugs in patients with stage III NSCLC. A preliminary report of a randomized phase III trial, the PACIFIC trial, demonstrated an impressive increase in median progression-free survival with consolidative durvalumab, a PD-L1 inhibitor, compared with observation after cCRT. Here, we discuss the clinical and translational implications of integrating PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors in the management of patients with unresectable stage III NSCLC

Vector Area Theorem mapping in crystals and polarization stability of SIT-solitons

The stability of polarization, areas, and number of self-induced transparency (SIT)-solitons at the output from the LaF_3:Pr^{3+} crystal is theoretically studied versus the polarization direction and the area of the input linearly polarized laser pulse. For this purpose the Vector Area Theorem is rederived and two-dimensional Vector Area Theorem map is obtained. The map is governed by the crystal symmetry and takes into account directions of the dipole matrix element vectors of the different site subgroups of optically excited ions. The Vector Area Theorem mapping of the time evolution of the laser pulse allows one to highlight soliton polarization properties.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figures; v2: minor corrected labels in Fig. 3 and its cuptur

Reverse circular Bragg phenomenon

he problem of axial propagation of circularly polarized light in a circularly birefringent structurally chiral medium is exactly solved via full electromagnetic analysis. Underlying symmetries of the system's characteristic matrix reveal interesting insights, which are confirmed by coupled wave theory. For extreme values of chirality, a reverse circular Bragg resonance arises in the negative refraction regime where handedness reversal of counterpart modes occurs. A condition is identified under which circular birefringence precisely offsets structural chirality, rendering the medium simply linearly birefringent. Manufacturing such a medium is feasible via current metamedia and inorganic materials technology and has applications in optics, optoelectronics, and sensing

Stress relaxation in F-actin solutions by severing

Networks of filamentous actin (F-actin) are important for the mechanics of most animal cells. These cytoskeletal networks are highly dynamic, with a variety of actin-associated proteins that control cross-linking, polymerization and force generation in the cytoskeleton. Inspired by recent rheological experiments on reconstituted solutions of dynamic actin filaments, we report a theoretical model that describes stress relaxation behavior of these solutions in the presence of severing proteins. We show that depending on the kinetic rates of assembly, disassembly, and severing, one can observe both length-dependent and length-independent relaxation behavior

The impact of in-season national team soccer play on injury and player availability in a professional club

This study investigated the impact of in-season national team duty on injury rates and player availability in a professional soccer club. Time-loss injuries and exposure time during club and national team duties were recorded prospectively over 5 seasons (2009–2014). A time-loss injury was sustained by 37.7% of squad members participating in national duty, all injuries occurring in match-play. The incidence (per 1000 h exposure) for national team player match-play injuries did not differ (P = 0.608) to that for all players in club competitions: 48.0 (95% CI 20.9–75.5) vs. 41.9 (95% CI 36.5–47.4), incidence rate ratio = 1.2 (CI: 0.8–2.4). The majority (58%) of national team injuries resulted in a layoff ≤1 week. Of all working days lost to injury generally, 5.2% were lost through injury on national duty. Injury incidence in the week following national duty was comparable (P = 0.818) in players participating or not: 7.8 (95% CI 3.6–12.0) vs. 7.1 (95% CI: 4.6–9.6), incidence rate ratio = 1.1 (CI: 0.7–2.7). While approximately 40% of participating players incurred a time-loss injury on national duty, no training injuries were sustained and injuries made up a negligible part of overall club working days lost to injury. Following duty, players had a similar injury risk to peers without national obligations

The negative index of refraction demystified

We study electromagnetic wave propagation in mediums in which the effective relative permittivity and the effective relative permeability are allowed to take any value in the upper half of the complex plane. A general condition is derived for the phase velocity to be oppositely directed to the power flow. That extends the recently studied case of propagation in mediums for which the relative permittivity and relative permeability are both simultaneously negative, to include dissipation as well. An illustrative case study demonstrates that in general the spectrum divides into five distinct regions.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure