Microenvironment of Tumor-Draining Lymph Nodes: Opportunities for Liposome-Based Targeted Therapy

The World Health Organization (WHO) recently reported that the total number of global cancer cases in 2013 reached 14 million, a 10% rise since 2008, while the total number of cancer deaths reached 8.2 million, a 5.2% increase since 2008. Metastasis is the major cause of death from cancer, accounting for 90% of all cancer related deaths. Tumor-draining lymph nodes (TDLN), the sentinel nodes, are the first organs of metastasis in several types of cancers. The extent of metastasis in the TDLN is often used in disease staging and prognosis evaluation in cancer patients. Here, we describe the microenvironment of the TDLN and review the recent literature on liposome-based therapies directed to immune cells within the TDLN with the intent to target cancer cells.     

Long-Term Spinal Ventral Root Reimplantation,but not Bone Marrow Mononuclear Cell Treatment,Positively Influences Ultrastructural Synapse Recovery and Motor Axonal Regrowth

We recently proposed a new surgical approach to treat ventral root avulsion, resulting in motoneuron protection. The present work combined such a surgical approach with bone marrow mononuclear cells (MC) therapy. Therefore, MC were added to the site of reimplantation. Female Lewis rats (seven weeks old) were subjected to unilateral ventral root avulsion (VRA) at L4, L5 and L6 levels and divided into the following groups (n = 5 for each group): Avulsion, sealant reimplanted roots and sealant reimplanted roots plus MC. After four weeks and 12 weeks post-surgery, the lumbar intumescences were processed by transmission electron microscopy, to analyze synaptic inputs to the repaired α motoneurons. Also, the ipsi and contralateral sciatic nerves were processed for axon counting and morphometry. The ultrastructural results indicated a significant preservation of inhibitory pre-synaptic boutons in the groups repaired with sealant alone and associated with MC therapy. Moreover, the average number of axons was higher in treated groups when compared to avulsion only. Complementary to the fiber counting, the morphometric analysis of axonal diameter and “g” ratio demonstrated that root reimplantation improved the motor component recovery. In conclusion, the data herein demonstrate that root reimplantation at the lesion site may be considered a therapeutic approach, following proximal lesions in the interface of central nervous system (CNS) and peripheral nervous system (PNS), and that MC therapy does not further improve the regenerative recovery, up to 12 weeks post lesion.     

Today's Public Outreach for New Projects Must Be Well-Planned,Stay Current

In the not-too-distant past, the standard outreach plan for many entities consisted of little more than advertisements in print media, donations to nonprofits or public fundraisers, a phone number for “customer service” questions, and maybe a monthly newsletter in a customer's energy statement. For projects where outreach was coupled with an “ask” from stakeholders, there would be public meetings, face-to-face before regulatory filings, and interviews with local (or national) media if the need arose. It took a lot of work to get a company message out and many messengers to handle stakeholder communications. Although there has always been opposition to companies and projects, other than a neighborhood phone tree or public meeting, cohesion was a rarity. For some companies, that may seem like nirvana, but that isn't positive or realistic.     

Active Monitoring of Thermal Insulation Protection Status of Pipelines

Refractories and Industrial Ceramics - The article discusses the temperature regimes of transit pipelines for steam and hot water movement. A new device for thermal insulation of high-temperature...     

Experimental Investigations on Microstructure,Mechanical Behavior and Tribological analysis of AA5154/SiC Composites by Stir Casting

Silicon - Aluminum metal matrix composites (MMCs) exhibit promising mechanical properties that are potential materials for the aeronautical and automotive industries. In this study,...     

An Effective Approach on Attaining Enhanced Silicon Solar Cell Performance Through Sputter Deposited Perovskite Thin Films

Silicon - Antireflection coatings (ARCs) have become one of the key techniques for mass production of Si solar cells. They are generally performed by vacuum processes such as thermal evaporation,...     

Recent Advances in CNT-based FET Transistor Biosensors to Detect Biomarkers of Clinical Significance

Silicon - The development of advanced materials has attracted interest for promising novel applications in biosensing and realm of nanophotonics. This interest in nanoelectronics, and...     

Untangling decision tree and real options analyses: a public infrastructure case study dealing with political decisions,structural integrity and price uncertainty

Managerial flexibility in infrastructure investment and replacement decisions adds value. Real options analysis (ROA) captures this value under uncertain market prices. The concept of ROA is that future unfavourable payoffs can be deferred as soon as more information about market prices becomes available. The popularity of ROA is seen in a growing number of case studies on real assets. Despite its increasing popularity, ROA has not gained a foothold in public infrastructure decision making. One of the difficulties in the application of ROA is the required estimation of market variables. To avoid this, a simplified but not correct version of ROA is easily applied, referred to as a Decision Tree Approach (DTA) to ROA. Another difficulty is that infrastructure assets are subject to other types of uncertainties, defined here as asset uncertainties. This study investigates the value of managerial flexibility in a public infrastructure replacement decision. The uncertainty drivers are the strength of a bridge, political decisions regarding traffic flow and the price development of construction costs. Three valuation approaches are compared: DTA, ROA and the DT approach to ROA. Although it is complex, ROA certainly adds value in public infrastructure decision making when market price uncertainty is prevalent. However, in the absence of reasonable estimates of market variables, the DT approach to ROA is the best alternative. In the absence of market price uncertainties, ROA should be avoided DTA is to be preferred.     

Experimental investigation of lift enhancement by suction-assisted delayed separation of the boundary layer on NACA 0012 airfoil

In the aerodynamic industry, one of the major problems of interest is the lift enhancement without any increase in the drag. In this paper, an attempt is made to increase the lift coefficient by delayed boundary layer separation using suction at various points, also the study is carried out to identify the optimum location for suction which provides maximum lift augmentation. The experiment is conducted with selected suction pressures of 60, 70, 80, 90?kN/m² at different locations in the range of 40–75% of the chord length of the airfoil. Among the selected pressures, the lowest one at the 70% length provides maximum performance. The critical Reynolds number occurs at around 95% of the length instead of 45% of the length when the same experiment is conducted without suction. The suction also assists in the heat transfer enhancement over the airfoil surface.     

Influence of Quenching and Partitioning Temperature on Mechanical Properties of Steel 37MnSi5

Metal Science and Heat Treatment - The influence of the temperature of heating for quenching and subsequent heating for redistribution of carbon between martensite and retained austenite...