Molecular Subtyping of Invasive Breast Cancer Using a PAM50-Based Multigene Expression Test-Comparison with Molecular-Like Subtyping by Tumor Grade/Immunohistochemistry and Influence on Oncologist’s Decision on Systemic Therapy in a Real-World Setting

In intermediate risk hormone receptor (HR) positive, HER2 negative breast cancer (BC), the decision regarding adjuvant chemotherapy might be facilitated by multigene expression tests. In all, 142 intermediate risk BCs were investigated using the PAM50-based multigene expression test Prosigna® in a prospective multicentric study. In 119/142 cases, Prosigna® molecular subtyping was compared with local and two central (C1 and C6) molecular-like subtypes relying on both immunohistochemistry (IHC; HRs, HER2, Ki-67) and IHC + tumor grade (IHC+G) subtyping. According to local IHC, 35.4% were Luminal A-like and 64.6% Luminal B-like subtypes (local IHC+G subtype: 31.9% Luminal A-like; 68.1% Luminal B-like). In contrast to local and C1 subtyping, C6 classified >2/3 of cases as Luminal A-like. Pairwise agreement between Prosigna® subtyping and molecular-like subtypes was fair to moderate depending on molecular-like subtyping method and center. The best agreement was observed between Prosigna® (53.8% Luminal A; 44.5% Luminal B) and C1 surrogate subtyping (Cohen’s kappa = 0.455). Adjuvant chemotherapy was suggested to 44.2% and 88.6% of Prosigna® Luminal A and Luminal B cases, respectively. Out of all Luminal A-like cases (locally IHC/IHC+G subtyping), adjuvant chemotherapy was recommended if Prosigna® testing classified as Prosigna® Luminal A at high / intermediate risk or upgraded to Prosigna® Luminal B.     

Serum Tocopherol Levels in Healthy Workers

The serum tocopherol levels were determined on 923 workers (18–62 years of age) from the textile, chemical and metallurgical industries. Tocopherol levels varied between 0,20 and 1,86 mg per 100 ml serum, the mean value being 0,77 ± 0,01 mg per 100 ml, but in 148 subjects (16%) concentrations under 0,5 mg per 100 ml were found. For women the average was significantly (p < 0,05) lower than that for men (0,75 ± 0,02 compared to 0,79 ± 0,01) and the prevalence of levels below 0,5 mg per 100 ml greater (18,4% compared to 12,6%). Independent of sex the serum tocopherol level increased with age (from 0,59 ± 0,02 under 26 years, to 0,87 ± 0,05 mg per 100 ml for the group over 55 years, p < 0,001). By grouping the persons according to the tocopherol levels (A = up to 0,5 mg per 100 ml; B = 0,51–1,0 and C = over 1,0 mg per 100 ml) and by calculating for each group the average values of the daily fat intake (supplied especially by sunflower oil) a relationship was found between the two series of values, but overall this did not reach statistical significance.     

Influence of air drying temperature on kinetics,physicochemical properties,total phenolic content and ascorbic acid of pears

This study was conducted to evaluate quality and structural changes in parallelepipedic pieces of pears during convective drying at different air temperatures (30–70 °C).Submitted to atmospheric O₂ conditions, ascorbic acid deterioration demonstrated first-order kinetic behaviour and was found to depend on air temperature and pear moisture content. Loss of ascorbic acid content increased with increasing air temperature. Possible explanation could be the irreversible oxidative reaction occurring during drying. Phenol content degradation fitted a pseudo first-order reaction and was significantly influenced by air temperature.Variations in bulk density, shrinkage and porosity essentially depended on changes in moisture content. Porosity exhibited a nonlinear variation with respect to moisture content. Volume change showed, as expected, a linear variation with moisture content. Drying temperature significantly induced the increase of a* and b* colorimetric parameters due to non-enzymatic browning reaction, which turned the samples more reddish and yellow when the temperature rose.     

Nano-Porous Composites of Activated Carbon–Metal Organic Frameworks (Fe-BDC@AC) for Rapid Removal of Cr (VI): Synthesis,Adsorption, Mechanism,and Kinetics Studies

Journal of Inorganic and Organometallic Polymers and Materials - Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) are a group of porous materials that display potential in the elimination of toxic industrial...     

A survey of dynamic bandwidth allocation algorithms for Ethernet Passive Optical Networks

Ethernet Passive Optical Network (EPON) has been widely considered as a promising technology for implementing the FTTx solutions to the “last mile” bandwidth bottleneck problem. Bandwidth allocation is one of the critical issues in the design of EPON systems. In an EPON system, multiple optical network units (ONUs) share a common upstream channel for data transmission. To efficiently utilize the limited bandwidth of the upstream channel, an EPON system must dynamically allocate the upstream bandwidth among multiple ONUs based on the instantaneous bandwidth demands and quality of service requirements of end users. This paper introduces the fundamental concepts on EPONs, discusses the major issues related to bandwidth allocation in EPON systems, and presents a survey of the state-of-the-art dynamic bandwidth allocation (DBA) algorithms for EPONs.     

Distribution of polychlorinated biphenyls in the Newark Bay Estuary

As part of the NJ Toxics Reduction Workplan for NY/NJ Harbor, ambient water samples were collected at 15 locations along the tidal portions of the Hackensack, Passaic, Raritan, Rahway and Elizabeth Rivers, and in Newark Bay, the Arthur Kill, and Kill van Kull. A Trace Organics Platform Sampler was used to collect a total of 73 dissolved phase and 73 suspended sediment phase samples between June 2000 and May 2002. These samples were analyzed for spatial and wet versus dry weather trends in the 114 polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs; modified USEPA Method 1668A). Mean total PCB concentrations at the sampling locations ranged between 3.45 and 56 ng/L. PCB homolog groups distribution patterns at the sampling locations are presented.     

Application of Different Frequency Domain Detectors in Radar Moving Target Detection

Moving target detection (MTD) technique is designed to filtering out the clutters. The basis of the MTD digital signal processor is a bank of Doppler filters designed using FFT algorithm. For high pulse repetition frequency (HPRF), it leads to a long time calculations and great complexity in hardware implementation. Frequency domain detector is represented by Welch method Realized Doppler filters bank which will reduce the time calculation. The proposed method enhances the target detection capabilities by p...     

Composite Nanoarchitectonics with Polythiophene,MWCNTs-G,CuO and Chitosan as a Voltammetric Sensor for Detection of Cd(II) Ions

Journal of Inorganic and Organometallic Polymers and Materials - In this study, we describe an electrochemical method for detecting Cd(II) ions, utilizing a glassy carbon electrode (GCE) modified...     

Design of PH-based accelerated life testing plans under multiple-stress-type

Accelerated life testing (ALT) is used to obtain failure time data quickly under high stress levels in order to predict product life performance under design stress conditions. Most of the previous work on designing ALT plans is focused on the application of a single stress. However, as components or products become more reliable due to technological advances, it becomes more difficult to obtain significant amount of failure data within reasonable amount of time using single stress only. Multiple-stress-type ALTs have been employed as a means of overcoming such difficulties. In this paper, we design optimum multiple-stress-type ALT plans based on the proportional hazards model. The optimum combinations of stresses and their levels are determined such that the variance of the reliability estimate of the product over a specified period of time is minimized. The use of the model is illustrated using numerical example, and sensitivity analysis shows that the resultant optimum ALT plan is robust to the deviation in model parameters.