16 research outputs found
Recommended from our members
Understanding the Iranian Nuclear Equation.
Since mid-2005, the Iranian regime has embarked on a course
of aggressive and public brinksmanship regarding its domestic
nuclear program. This article explores this new Iranian behavior
by first elucidating the range of strategic variables comprising
the Iranian nuclear equation and then evaluating how recent
evolutions in the international and domestic environments have
altered the influence of the equation’s different variables. The
analysis demonstrates that Iran’s recent brinksmanship gambit
was driven largely by the regime’s desire to use the nuclear issue
to garner domestic public support, and was enabled by the growing perceived inability of the international community to enact
effective coercive measures against Iran. The article culminates
with a recommendation that U.S. and EU policymakers seriously evaluate the hitherto dismissed alternative of accepting
nuclear fuel cycle facilities on Iranian soil under the control of a
multinational or international consortium. Emphasis is placed
on the importance of considering such alternatives before Iran
achieves nuclear technological independence
Recommended from our members
Scanning Tunneling Microscopy of Template-Stripped Au Surfaces and Highly Ordered Self-Assembled Monolayers
Template stripping of Au films in ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) produces atomically flat and pristine surfaces that serve as substrates for highly ordered self-assembled monolayer (SAM) formation. Atomic resolution scanning tunneling microscopy of template-stripped (TS) Au stripped in UHV confirms that the stripping process produces a flat, predominantly 111 textured, atomically clean surface. Octanethiol SAMs vapor deposited in situ onto UHV TS Au show a c(4 x 2) superlattice with (square root 3 x square root 3) R30 degrees basic molecular structure having an ordered domain size up to 100 nm wide. These UHV results validate the TS Au surface as a simple, clean and high-quality surface preparation method for SAMs deposited from both vapor phase and solution phase
Clusterin silencing in human lung adenocarcinoma cells induces a mesenchymal-to-epithelial transition through modulating the ERK/Slug pathway
[[abstract]]The ubiquitously expressed glycoprotein Clusterin (CLU) is implicated in diverse cellular processes, yet its genuine molecular function remains undefined. CLU expression has been associated with various human malignancies, yet the mechanisms by which CLU promotes cancer progression and metastasis are not elucidated. In this study, using human lung adenocarcinoma cell lines as a model, we explored the involvement of CLU in modulating invasiveness of cancer cells. We discovered that CLU levels positively correlated with the degree of invasiveness in human lung adenocarcinoma cell lines. The observation that CLU-rich cells displayed a spindle-shape morphology while those with low CLU levels were cuboidal in shape prompted us to investigate if CLU modulates epithelial-to-mesenchymal transitions (EMT). CLU silencing by siRNA in a highly invasive, CLU-rich lung adenocarcinoma cell line induced a mesenchymal-to-epithelial transition (MET) evidenced by the spindle-to-cuboidal morphological change, increased E-cadherin expression, and decreased fibronectin expression. Compared with the vector-transfected cells, CLU-knocked-down (CLUi) cells showed reduced migration and invasion in vitro, as well as decreased metastatic potential in experimental metastasis. Re-expression of CLU in CLUi cells reversed the MET and restored the mesenchymal and invasive phenotypes. We found that Slug, a zinc-finger-containing transcriptional repressor of E-cadherin, was downregulated in CLUi cells. We also discovered that levels of activated ERK correlated with those of CLU and Slug. Taken together, our data suggest that CLU may regulate EMT and aggressive behaviour of human lung adenocarcinoma cells through modulating ERK signalling and Slug expression. 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved
Recommended from our members
Classification for long-term survival in oligometastatic patients treated with ablative radiotherapy: A multi-institutional pooled analysis
Background: Radiotherapy is increasingly used to treat oligometastatic patients. We sought to identify prognostic criteria in oligometastatic patients undergoing definitive hypofractionated image-guided radiotherapy (HIGRT). Methods: Exclusively extracranial oligometastatic patients treated with HIGRT were pooled. Characteristics including age, sex, primary tumor type, interval to metastatic diagnosis, number of treated metastases and organs, metastatic site, prior systemic therapy for primary tumor treatment, prior definitive metastasis-directed therapy, and systemic therapy for metastasis associated with overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), and treated metastasis control (TMC) were assessed by the Cox proportional hazards method. Recursive partitioning analysis (RPA) identified prognostic risk strata for OS and PFS based on pretreatment factors. Results: 361 patients were included. Primary tumors included non-small cell lung (17%), colorectal (19%), and breast cancer (16%). Three-year OS was 56%, PFS was 24%, and TMC was 72%. On multivariate analysis, primary tumor, interval to metastases, treated metastases number, and mediastinal/hilar lymph node, liver, or adrenal metastases were associated with OS. Primary tumor site, involved organ number, liver metastasis, and prior primary disease chemotherapy were associated with PFS. OS RPA identified five classes: class 1: all breast, kidney, or prostate cancer patients (BKP) (3-year OS 75%, 95% CI 66–85%); class 2: patients without BKP with disease-free interval of 75+ months (3-year OS 85%, 95% CI 67–100%); class 3: patients without BKP, shorter disease-free interval, ≤ two metastases, and age Conclusions: We identified clinical factors defining oligometastatic patients with favorable outcomes, who we hypothesize are most likely to benefit from metastasis-directed therapy.</p
Univariate and multivariate analysis of per patient treated metastasis control (TMC).
<p>Univariate and multivariate analysis of per patient treated metastasis control (TMC).</p
Univariate and multivariate analysis of overall survival (OS).
<p>Univariate and multivariate analysis of overall survival (OS).</p