Search results for "State."

2017

AbstractInterleukin-4 plays a critical role in the regulation of immune responses and has been detected at high levels in the tumour microenvironment of cancer patients, where concentrations correlate with the grade of malignancy. In prostate cancer, interleukin-4 has been associated with activation of the androgen receptor, increased proliferation and activation of survival pathways such as Akt and NF-κB. However, its role in therapy resistance has not yet been determined. Here we investigate the influence of interleukin-4 on primary epithelial cells from prostate cancer patients. Our data demonstrate an increase in the clonogenic potential of these cells when cultured in the presence of i…

Dosimetric Impact of Interfractional Variations in Prostate Cancer Radiotherapy—Implications for Imaging Frequency and Treatment Adaptation

2019

Background and purpose: To analyze deviations of the applied from the planned doses on a voxel-by-voxel basis for definitive prostate cancer radiotherapy depending on anatomic variations and imaging frequency. Materials and methods: Daily in-room CT imaging was performed in treatment position for 10 patients with prostate cancer undergoing intensity-modulated radiotherapy (340 fraction CTs). Applied fraction doses were recalculated on daily images, and voxel-wise dose accumulation was performed using a deformable registration algorithm. For weekly imaging, weekly position correction vectors were derived and used to rigidly register daily scans of that week to the planning CT scan prior to d…

Few layer 2D pnictogens catalyze the alkylation of soft nucleophiles with esters

2019

Group 15 elements in zero oxidation state (P, As, Sb and Bi), also called pnictogens, are rarely used in catalysis due to the difficulties associated in preparing well–structured and stable materials. Here, we report on the synthesis of highly exfoliated, few layer 2D phosphorene and antimonene in zero oxidation state, suspended in an ionic liquid, with the native atoms ready to interact with external reagents while avoiding aerobic or aqueous decomposition pathways, and on their use as efficient catalysts for the alkylation of nucleophiles with esters. The few layer pnictogen material circumvents the extremely harsh reaction conditions associated to previous superacid–catalyzed alkylations…

Progressive derivation of serially homologous neuroblast lineages in the gnathal CNS of Drosophila

2018

Along the anterior-posterior axis the central nervous system is subdivided into segmental units (neuromeres) the composition of which is adapted to their region-specific functional requirements. In Drosophila melanogaster each neuromere is formed by a specific set of identified neural stem cells (neuroblasts, NBs). In the thoracic and anterior abdominal region of the embryonic ventral nerve cord segmental sets of NBs resemble the ground state (2nd thoracic segment, which does not require input of homeotic genes), and serial (segmental) homologs generate similar types of lineages. The three gnathal head segments form a transitional zone between the brain and the ventral nerve cord. It has be…

The Importance of Cerebellar Connectivity on Simulated Brain Dynamics

2020

The brain shows a complex multiscale organization that prevents a direct understanding of how structure, function and dynamics are correlated. To date, advances in neural modeling offer a unique opportunity for simulating global brain dynamics by embedding empirical data on different scales in a mathematical framework. The Virtual Brain (TVB) is an advanced data-driven model allowing to simulate brain dynamics starting from individual subjects' structural and functional connectivity obtained, for example, from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The use of TVB has been limited so far to cerebral connectivity but here, for the first time, we have introduced cerebellar nodes and interconnecting…

Local field potential activity dynamics in response to deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus in Parkinson's disease

2020

Abstract Local field potentials (LFPs) may afford insight into the mechanisms of action of deep brain stimulation (DBS) and potential feedback signals for adaptive DBS. In Parkinson's disease (PD) DBS of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) suppresses spontaneous activity in the beta band and drives evoked resonant neural activity (ERNA). Here, we investigate how STN LFP activities change over time following the onset and offset of DBS. To this end we recorded LFPs from the STN in 14 PD patients during long (mean: 181.2 s) and short (14.2 s) blocks of continuous stimulation at 130 Hz. LFP activities were evaluated in the temporal and spectral domains. During long stimulation blocks, the frequency …

Mechanism of the OH Radical Addition to Adenine from Quantum-Chemistry Determinations of Reaction Paths and Spectroscopic Tracking of the Intermediat…

2016

The OH radical is a well-known mediator in the oxidation of biological structures like DNA. Over the past decades, the precise events taking place after reaction of DNA nucleobases with OH radical have been widely investigated by the scientific community. Thirty years after the proposal of the main routes for the reaction of •OH with adenine (Vieira, A.; Steenken, S. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1990, 112, 6986−6994), the present work demonstrates that the OH radical addition to C4 position is a minor pathway. Instead, the dehydration process is mediated by the A5OH adduct. Conclusions are based on density functional theory calculations for the ground-state reactivity and highly accurate multiconfigur…

2019

Urothelial cancer (UC) is one of the most common cancers in Europe and is also one of the costliest to treat. When first line therapies show initial success, around 50% of cancers relapse and proceed to metastasis. In this study we assessed the Protein inhibitor of activated signal transducers and activators of transcription (PIAS)1 as a potential therapeutic target in urothelial cancer. PIAS1 is a key regulator of STAT1 signalling and may be implicated in carcinogenesis. In contrast to other cancer types PIAS1 protein expression is not significantly different in malignant areas of UC specimens compared to non-malignant tissue. In addition, we found that down-regulation and overexpression o…

NOTCH signalling in ovarian cancer angiogenesis

2020

The Notch signalling pathway is involved in the new vessel formation process by regulating tip and stalk cells, which are key cells in the sprout formation. This process is essential in both normal ovary and cancer angiogenesis and is regulated by Notch-VEGF crosstalk. Furthermore, Notch has been linked in ovary with stem cell maintenance and epithelial mesenchymal transition processes. Dysregulation of the Notch pathway is frequent in ovarian cancer (OC) and it has been associated with impaired survival and advanced stages or lymph node involvement. Notch also plays a role in chemoresistance to platinum. In this context, this pathway has emerged as an attractive target for precision medici…

Generation and Coherent Control of Pulsed Quantum Frequency Combs

2018

We present a method for the generation and coherent manipulation of pulsed quantum frequency combs. Until now, methods of preparing high-dimensional states on-chip in a practical way have remained elusive due to the increasing complexity of the quantum circuitry needed to prepare and process such states. Here, we outline how high-dimensional, frequency-bin entangled, two-photon states can be generated at a stable, high generation rate by using a nested-cavity, actively mode-locked excitation of a nonlinear micro-cavity. This technique is used to produce pulsed quantum frequency combs. Moreover, we present how the quantum states can be coherently manipulated using standard telecommunications…