Pharmacogenetics in Neuroblastoma: What Can Already Be Clinically Implemented and What Is Coming Next?

Pharmacogenetics is one of the cornerstones of Personalized Precision Medicine that needs to be implemented in the routine of our patients’ clinical management in order to tailor their therapies as much as possible, with the aim of maximizing efficacy and minimizing toxicity. This is of great importance, especially in pediatric cancer and even more in complex malignancies such as neuroblastoma, where the rates of therapeutic success are still below those of many other types of tumors. The studies are mainly focused on germline genetic variants and in the present review, state of the art is presented: which are the variants that have a level of evidence high enough to be implemented in the clinic, and how to distinguish them from the ones that still need validation to confirm their utility. Further aspects as relevant characteristics regarding ontogeny and future directions in the research will also be discussed.     

Chromatic compensation of broadband light diffraction: ABCD-matrix approach

Compensation of chromatic dispersion for the optical implementation of mathematical transformations has proved to be an important tool in the design of new optical methods for full-color signal processing. A novel approach for designing dispersion-compensated, broadband optical transformers, both Fourier and Fresnel, based on the collimated Fresnel number is introduced. In a second stage, the above framework is fully exploited to achieve the optical implementation of the fractional Fourier transform (FRT) of any diffracting screen with broadband illumination. Moreover, we demonstrate that the amount of shift variance of the dispersion-compensated FRT can be tuned continuously from the spatial domain, which is totally space variant, to the spectral domain, which is totally space invariant, with the chromatic correction remaining unaltered.     

Autoignition of surrogate biodiesel fuel (B30) at high pressures: Experimental and modeling kinetic study

Ignition delay times of surrogate biodiesel fuels were measured in a high-pressure shock tube over a wide range of experimental conditions (pressures of 20 and 40 bar, equivalence ratios in the range 0.5–1.5, and temperatures ranging from 700 to 1200 K). A detailed chemical kinetic mechanism developed for the oxidation of a biodiesel fuel and a B30 biodiesel surrogate (49% n-decane, 21% 1-methylnaphthalene, and 30% methyloctanoate in mol%) was used to simulate the present experiments. Cross reactions between radicals from the three fuel components and reactions of methylnaphthalene oxidation recently proposed in the literature were introduced into the model in order to improve ignition delay time predictions at low temperatures. The new scheme (7865 reversible reactions and 1975 species) yields improved model predictions of concentration profiles measured earlier in a jet-stirred reactor, and also represents fairly well the present experimental data over the entire range of conditions of this study. Sensitivity analyses and reaction path analyses were used to rationalize the results.     

Toxicological Analysis of Acid Mine Drainage by Water Quality and Land Use Bioassays

Mine Water and the Environment - AMD toxicity was evaluated using water quality and land use bioassays. In particular, we determined concentrations for lethal and sublethal effects as part of the...     

In vitro starch digestion in sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L.) flours

The kinetics of starch digestion in cryo‐ and hammer‐milled sweet potato flours were investigated to reveal monophasic digestograms that were independent on particle size (80–390 μm), and suitably described (r² > 0.98; P < 0.05) by a modified first‐order model. Milling conditions significantly affected (P < 0.05) the particle size, salivary–gastric‐digested starch and rate of starch digestion as the effective surface areas changed. The reciprocal of the rate of starch digestion (1/K, s) was significantly related to the square of the average particle size (size², cm²), with the reciprocal of the slope (0.9–3.8 × 10^?7 cm² s^?1) revealing diffusion‐controlled digestion. The hammer‐milled flours gave different digestion and functional parameters as frictional heat and glass transition phenomena played different roles in the overall structural changes in the flours. These parameters are discussed with starch digestion parameters in cereals and legumes to understand starch digestion in sweet potato.     

Taking advantage of injectivity decline for improved recovery during waterflood with horizontal wells

Injectivity formation damage with waterflooding using sea/produced water has been widely reported in the North Sea, the Gulf of Mexico and the Campos Basin in Brazil. The damage is due to the capture of solid and/or liquid particles by reservoir rock that consequently leads to the permeability decline. Another reason for the permeability decline is the formation of a low permeable external filter cake.However, moderate injectivity decline is not too damaging for a waterflood project with long horizontal injectors, where the initial injectivity index is high. In this case, the injection of raw or poorly treated water may significantly reduce the cost of water treatment, which is a cumbersome and expensive procedure in offshore projects.In this paper we investigate the effects of injected water quality on waterflooding using horizontal wells. An analytical model for injectivity decline, which accounts for particle capture and a low permeable external filter cake formation, has been implemented into black oil reservoir simulator. It was found that induced injectivity damage results in a noticeable reduction of water cut and in increased (although delayed) sweep efficiency.     

CoBase: A scalable and extensible cooperative information system

A new generation of information systems that integrates knowledge base technology with database systems is presented for providing cooperative (approximate, conceptual, and associative) query answering. Based on the database schema and application characteristics, data are organized into Type Abstraction Hierarchies (TAHs). The higher levels of the hierarchy provide a more abstract data representation than the lower levels. Generalization (moving up in the hierarchy), specialization (moving down the hierarchy), and association (moving between hierarchies) are the three key operations in deriving cooperative query answers for the user. Based on the context, the TAHs can be constructed automatically from databases. An intelligent dictionary/directory in the system lists the location and characteristics (e.g., context and user type) of the TAHs. CoBase also has a relaxation manager to provide control for query relaxations. In addition, an explanation system is included to describe the relaxation and association processes and to provide the quality of the relaxed answers. CoBase uses a mediator architecture to provide scalability and extensibility. Each cooperative module, such as relaxation, association, explanation, and TAH management, is implemented as a mediator. Further, an intelligent directory mediator is provided to direct mediator requests to the appropriate service mediators. Mediators communicate with each other via KQML. The GUI includes a map server which allows users to specify queries graphically and incrementally on the map, greatly improving querying capabilities. CoBase has been demonstrated to answer imprecise queries for transportation and logistic planning applications. Currently, we are applying the CoBase methodology to match medical image (X-ray, MRI) features and approximate matching of emitter signals in electronic warfare applications.This work supported by ARPA contract F30602-94-C-0207.     

Innovative Built-In Self-Test Schemes for On-Chip Diagnosis, Compliant with the IEEE 1149.4 Mixed-Signal Test Bus Standard

This paper presents a testing scheme for analog and mixed-signal circuitry compatible with the IEEE 1149.4 mixed-signal test bus standard. A high-speed dynamic current sensor is described, as well as an innovative self-diagnostic method called VDDQ. The former is used to measure signature supply currents and to compare them with the footprint of a defect-free circuit. The latter senses the quiescent nodal voltages on several nodes of the circuit under test and compares them to their nominal values. A flag is raised if significant deviations are found. Simulation results are provided for the high-speed dynamic current sensor. Through simulations the VDDQ method has performed at one node test every half millisecond and has potential for much higher speed. It is faster than currently used methods in industry, which average to 5000 nodes per minute. This will potentially allow a defect-free IC to enter the market in significantly less time than with conventional testing methods.     

Hall Effect in Quasi One-Dimensional Organic Conductors

We study the Hall effect in a system of weakly coupled Luttinger Liquid chains, using a Memory function approach to compute the Hall constant in the presence of umklapp scattering along the chains. In this approximation, the Hall constant decomposes into two terms: a high-frequency term and a Memory function term. For the case of zero umklapp scattering, where the Memory function vanishes, the Hall constant is simply the band value, in agreement with former results in a similar model with no dissipation along the chains. With umklapp scattering along the chains, we find a power-law temperature dependance of the Hall constant. We discuss the applications to quasi 1D organic conductors at high temperatures.