Upregulated Apelin Signaling in Pancreatic Cancer Activates Oncogenic Signaling Pathways to Promote Tumor Development

Despite decades of effort in understanding pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), there is still a lack of innovative targeted therapies for this devastating disease. Herein, we report the expression of apelin and its receptor, APJ, in human pancreatic adenocarcinoma and its protumoral function. Apelin and APJ protein expression in tumor tissues from patients with PDAC and their spatiotemporal pattern of expression in engineered mouse models of PDAC were investigated by immunohistochemistry. Apelin signaling function in tumor cells was characterized in pancreatic tumor cell lines by Western blot as well as proliferation, migration assays and in murine orthotopic xenograft experiments. In premalignant lesions, apelin was expressed in epithelial lesions whereas APJ was found in isolated cells tightly attached to premalignant lesions. However, in the invasive stage, apelin and APJ were co-expressed by tumor cells. In human tumor cells, apelin induced a long-lasting activation of PI3K/Akt, upregulated β-catenin and the oncogenes c-myc and cyclin D1 and promoted proliferation, migration and glucose uptake. Apelin receptor blockades reduced cancer cell proliferation along with a reduction in pancreatic tumor burden. These findings identify the apelin signaling pathway as a new actor for PDAC development and a novel therapeutic target for this incurable disease.     

Highly cited retracted papers

Scientometrics - We examine the number of citations in 10 highly cited retracted papers, and compare their current pre- and post-citation values. We offer some possible explanations for the...     

Two time-dependent responses of chicks to imprinting stimuli.

Analyzed in detail the conditions eliciting approach behavior to the imprinting stimulus in White Leghorn, New Hampshire, and hybrid White Leghorn-New Hampshire chicks. It was found that the approach response to a relatively weak imprinting stimulus could arise by 2 different mechanisms. Some Ss approached the stimulus object within a few min.; others needed a considerably longer stimulation, essentially a conditioning, to elicit the approach response. The 2 mechanisms, which were termed "prompt approach" and "conditioned approach," were distinguished on the basis of the different conditions required for eliciting them. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Use of Facebook,Tuenti, Twitter and Myspace among young Spanish people

This research describes and analyses the use made by young Spanish people of Tuenti, Facebook, Twitter and Myspace, exploring several variables: level of functional knowledge; frequency of use; place of use; reason for use; purpose and main activity; recipients of communication; degree of difficulty, satisfaction and preference; and intentions regarding future use. We designed and administered an online questionnaire to 757 students enrolled in secondary education (7th–11th levels and Vocational Education and Training) at seven educational centres. The results show that young Spanish people know about and use social networks on a daily basis. Tuenti was the one used with most frequency, followed by Facebook and Twitter. Myspace was the least known and used. Female subjects had a greater functional knowledge of these networks and reported a higher regular use of them. Participants used the social networks in their homes and preferred Tuenti because it is easy to use, allows them to communicate with friends and classmates and provides them with acceptable satisfaction as regards their need for prestige, acceptance and approval through the creation and maintenance of groups of friends and the publication of their achievements and self-realisations. The implications of the results obtained for psychological and social development are discussed.     

Which h-index? — A comparison of WoS,Scopus and Google Scholar

This paper compares the h-indices of a list of highly-cited Israeli researchers based on citations counts retrieved from the Web of Science, Scopus and Google Scholar respectively. In several case the results obtained through Google Scholar are considerably different from the results based on the Web of Science and Scopus. Data cleansing is discussed extensively.     

Chemically Diverse Multifunctional Peptide Platforms with Antimicrobial and Cell Adhesive Properties

Bacterial infections and incomplete biomaterial integration are major problems that can lead to the failure of medical implants. However, simultaneously addressing these two issues remains a challenge. Here, we present a chemical peptide library based on a multifunctional platform containing the antimicrobial peptide LF1-11 and the cell-adhesive motif RGD. The scaffolds were customized with catechol groups to ensure straightforward functionalization of the implant surface, and linkers of different length to assess the effect of peptide accessibility on the biological response. The peptidic platforms significantly improved the adhesion of mesenchymal stem cells and showed antimicrobial effects against Staphylococcus aureus. Of note is that peptides bearing spacers that were too long displayed the lowest efficiency. Subsequently, we designed a platform replacing linear RGD by cyclic RGD; this further enhanced eukaryotic cell adhesion while retaining excellent antimicrobial properties, thus being a suitable candidate for tissue engineering applications.     

Archival Practices and the Making of “Memories”

Following Derrida (1995), our article explores the relationship between archival practices and archival documents on the assumption that “archivization produces as much as it records the event” (Derrida 1995, 17). On this approach, archival practices are understood as non-innocent practices that, in the act of “preservation,” help make specific “memories” at the expense of others (Barad 2007; Derrida 1995; Foucault 1972). We take up this issue in relation to the curation of social science quantitative research data and argue that the ontological identity of data is constituted through historically- and culturally-specific data curation practices including data cleaning, data anonymization, and metadata preparation.     

Comparison of the performance of vulcanized rubbers and elastomer/TPE/iron composites for less lethal ammunition applications

One of the exciting novel potential applications of thermoplastic elastomers (TPEs) is less‐lethal ammunition (LLA). The importance of LLA in crowd control and law enforcement has been acknowledged, and became evident for air marshals after the September 11, 2001 crisis. This article will compare the dynamic mechanical behavior of various elastomer/TPE/iron composites and commercially available LLA based on conventional cured rubbers (ethylene‐propylene‐diene rubber [EPDM], styrene‐butadiene rubber [SBR], and natural rubber [NR]). Optimum combination of properties for LLA application was shown by the poly(styrene‐b‐isobutylene‐b‐styrene) (SIBS)/butyl elastomer (IIR)/iron 50/50/233 composite. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 45:966–975, 2005. © 2005 Society of Plastics Engineers     

A numerical performance study of a fixed-bed reactor for methanol synthesis by CO2 hydrogenation

Synthetic fuels are needed to replace their fossil counterparts for clean transport. Presently, their production is still inefficient and costly. To enhance the process of methanol production from CO₂ and H₂ and reduce its cost, a particle-resolved numerical simulation tool is presented. A global surface reaction model based on the Langmuir-Hinshelwood-Hougen-Watson kinetics is utilized. The approach is first validated against standard benchmark problems for non-reacting and reacting cases. Next, the method is applied to study the performance of methanol production in a 2D fixed-bed reactor under a range of parameters. It is found that methanol yield enhances with pressure, catalyst loading, reactant ratio, and packing density. The yield diminishes with temperature at adiabatic conditions, while it shows non-monotonic change for the studied isothermal cases. Overall, the staggered and the random catalyst configurations are found to outperform the in-line system.