The Distances of the Magellanic Clouds

The present status of our knowledge of the distances to the Magellanic Clouds is evaluated from a post-Hipparcos perspective. After a brief summary of the effects of structure, reddening, age and metallicity, the primary distance indicators for the Large Magellanic Cloud are reviewed: The SN 1987A ring, Cepheids, RR Lyraes, Mira variables, and Eclipsing Binaries. Distances derived via these methods are weighted and combined to produce final "best" estimates for the Magellanic Clouds distance moduli.Comment: Invited review article to appear in ``Post Hipparcos Cosmic Candles'', F. Caputo & A. Heck (Eds.), Kluwer Academic Publ., Dordrecht, in pres

HER-2/neu diagnostics in breast cancer

HER-2/neu status of the primary breast cancer (PBC) is determined by immunohistochemistry and fluorescent in situ hybridization. Because of a variety of technical factors, however, the PBC may not accurately reflect the metastatic tumor in terms of HER-2/neu status. Recently published guidelines recommend that tumors be defined as HER-2/neu positive if 30% or more of the cells are 3+. Circulating levels of the HER-2 extracellular domain can be measured in serum using a test cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration, and increased serum HER-2/neu levels to above 15 ng/ml can reflect tumor progression. Studies comparing tissue HER-2/neu status of the PBC and HER-2/neu levels above 15 ng/ml in metastatic breast cancer patients are also reviewed

The contribution of microlensing surveys to the distance scale

In the early nineties several teams started large scale systematic surveys of the Magellanic Clouds and the Galactic Bulge to search for microlensing effects. As a by product, these groups have created enormous time-series databases of photometric measurements of stars with a temporal sampling duration and accuracy which are unprecedented. They provide the opportunity to test the accuracy of primary distance indicators, such as Cepheids, RRLyrae stars, the detached eclipsing binaries, or the luminosity of the red clump. We will review the contribution of the microlensing surveys to the understanding of the physics of the primary distance indicators, recent differential studies and direct distance determinations to the Magellanic Clouds and the Galactic Bulge.Comment: Invited review article to appear in: `Post-Hipparcos Cosmic Candles', A. Heck & F. Caputo (Eds), Kluwer Academic Publ., Dordrecht, in press. 21 pages; uses Kluwer's crckapb.sty LaTeX style file, enclose

Variability in chemotherapy delivery for elderly women with advanced stage ovarian cancer and its impact on survival

Given the survival benefits of adjuvant chemotherapy for advanced ovarian cancer (OC), we examined the associations of survival with the time interval from debulking surgery to initiation of chemotherapy and with the duration of chemotherapy. Among patients ⩾65 years with stages III/IV OC diagnosed between 1991 and 2002 in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results-Medicare database, we developed regression models of predictors of the time interval from surgery to initiation of chemotherapy and of the total duration of chemotherapy. Survival was examined with Cox proportional hazards models. Among 2558 patients, 1712 (67%) initiated chemotherapy within 6 weeks of debulking surgery, while 846 (33%) began treatment >6 weeks. Older age, black race, being unmarried, and increased comorbidities were associated with delayed initiation of chemotherapy. Delay of chemotherapy was associated with an increase in mortality (hazard ratio (HR)=1.11; 95% CI, 1.0–1.2). Among 1932 patients in the duration of treatment analysis, the 1218 (63%) treated for 3–7 months had better survival than the 714 (37%) treated for ⩽3 months (HR=0.84; 95% CI, 0.75–0.94). This analysis represents one of the few studies describing treatment delivery and outcome in women with advanced OC. Delayed initiation and early discontinuation of chemotherapy were common and associated with increased mortality

Detection of codon 12 K- ras mutations in non-neoplastic mucosa from bronchial carina in patients with lung adenocarcinomas

K- ras activation by point mutation in codon 12 has been reported in lung adenocarcinomas in various models of experimental lung tumours induced by chemical carcinogens. The hypothesis of the presence of cells containing K- ras mutation in non neoplastic bronchial carina, the main site of impaction of airborne contaminants, was investigated by evaluating concurrent lung tumour and non-neoplastic proximal bronchial carinae from 19 patients with lung adenocarcinomas. The restriction fragment length polymorphism enriched PCR method used can detect one mutant allele among 103normal alleles. A mutation was detected in 42% of lung adenocarcinoma samples. No mutation was detected in either tumour or bronchial carinae in nine patients (47%). K- ras mutation was detected in the lung tumour but not in bronchial carinae in four patients (21%), in both the lung tumour and bronchial carinae in four other patients (21%). In two patients (11%), K- ras mutation was detected in at least one bronchial carina, but not in the lung tumour. Mutations of codon 12, confirmed by sequencing analysis of ten samples, were G to T transversion, mostly TGT and GTT in bronchial carinae and lung tumours. Our data show that activated K- ras by point mutation can be present in non-neoplastic bronchial carina mucosa even when no mutation is detected in tumour samples. © 2000 Cancer Research Campaig

Serum HER2 Level Measured by Dot Blot: A Valid and Inexpensive Assay for Monitoring Breast Cancer Progression

Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) is one of the most important prognostic and predictive factors for breast cancer patients. Recently, serum HER2 ECD level of patients detected by enzyme-linked immunoabsorbent assay (ELISA) has been shown to predict tumor HER2 status and reveal its association with tumor progression, recurrence and poor prognosis. In this study, we established a new method, dot blot assay, to measure the serum HER2 level in breast cancer patients and further to evaluate the clinical value for monitoring breast cancer progression. We found that the serum HER2 level measured by dot blot assay was significantly correlated with tissue HER2 status in breast cancer patients (P = 0.001), and also significantly correlated with HER2 level measured by ELISA (P = 1.06×10−11). Compared with ELISA method, the specificity and sensitivity of dot blot assay were 95.3% and 65.0%, respectively. The serum HER2 levels of patients with grade III or ER-negative were higher than those with grade I–II (P = 0.004) and ER-positive (P = 0.033), respectively. Therefore, the novel dot blot method to detect serum HER2 level is a valid and inexpensive assay with potential application in monitoring breast cancer progression in clinical situations

A Parasitoid Wasp Induces Overwintering Behaviour in Its Spider Host

Parasites and parasitoids control behaviors of their hosts. However, the origin of the behavior evoked by the parasitic organism has been rarely identified. It is also not known whether the manipulation is universal or host-specific. Polysphinctine wasps, koinobiont ectoparasitoids of several spider species that manipulate host web-spinning activity for their own protection during pupation, provide an ideal system to reveal the origin of the evoked behavior. Larva of Zatypota percontatoria performed species-specific manipulation of theridiid spiders, Neottiura bimaculata and Theridion varians, shortly before pupation. Parasitized N. bimaculata produced a dense web, whereas parasitized T. varians built a cupola-like structure. The larva pupated inside of either the dense web or the cupola-like structure. We discovered that unparasitized N. bimaculata produce an analogous dense web around their eggsacs and for themselves during winter, while T. varians construct an analogous ‘cupola’ only for overwintering. We induced analogous manipulation in unparasitized hosts by altering ambient conditions. We discovered that the behavior evoked by larvae in two hosts was functionally similar. The larva evoked protective behaviors that occur in unparasitized hosts only during specific life-history periods

Search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum in pp collisions at √ s = 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Results of a search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum are reported. The search uses 20.3 fb−1 of √ s = 8 TeV data collected in 2012 with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Events are required to have at least one jet with pT > 120 GeV and no leptons. Nine signal regions are considered with increasing missing transverse momentum requirements between Emiss T > 150 GeV and Emiss T > 700 GeV. Good agreement is observed between the number of events in data and Standard Model expectations. The results are translated into exclusion limits on models with either large extra spatial dimensions, pair production of weakly interacting dark matter candidates, or production of very light gravitinos in a gauge-mediated supersymmetric model. In addition, limits on the production of an invisibly decaying Higgs-like boson leading to similar topologies in the final state are presente