Vascular endothelial growth factor is associated with neovascularization and influences progression of non-small cell lung carcinoma

Thrombospondin-1 is a glycoprotein that is released from platelet alpha-granules in response to thrombin stimulation and that is also a transient component of extracellular matrix in developing and repairing tissues. It is a 420 kDa homotrimer, each subunit of which consists of multiple structural domains. A variety of factors regulate thrombospondin-1 expression and the protein is degraded by both extracellular and intracellular routes. Thrombospondin-1 functions as a cell adhesion molecule and also modulates cell movement, cell proliferation, neurite outgrowth and angiogenesis. The molecular mechanisms underlying these activities are beginning to be examined. Medical interest in thrombospondin-1 centres on its roles in haemostasis and its effects on angiogenesis.     

Changes in CD8 cell subpopulations induced by antiretroviral therapy in human immunodeficiency virus infected patients

Although CD4+ T cells are the main target of HIV infection, CD8+ cells also play important roles in the interaction between HIV and the host immune system. The aim of this study was to analyze the effect of anti-HIV therapy on the relative proportion of some important CD8+ cell subpopulations. Five HIV-infected patients were enrolled, and blood samples were collected several times, within 90 days from the initiation of therapy. CD4+ cell count and HIV viremia were investigated, as well as the expression of CD38, HLA-DR, CD28, CD57, CD30, CD95 molecules on CD8+ cells. A complex remodeling of CD8+ cell subpopulations took place between week 2 and week 7 of treatment. This remodeling mainly consisted of: i) decrease of CD8+CD38+ and CD8+DR+ cells; ii) increase of CD8+CD28+ cells; and iii) decreased expression of the CD95/Fas molecule on CD8+ cells. Overall, these findings suggest that effective anti-HIV therapy induces changes of CD8+ subpopulations showing the reversal of the state of chronic activation that is caused by viral replication.     

Case report: isolated neurofibrosarcoma of the liver: US, CT and MR findings

Neurofibrosarcomas are rare neoplasms usually associated with von Recklinghausen's disease. In this paper we describe ultrasound (US), computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance (MR) appearances of an unusual isolated neurofibrosarcoma of the liver.     

A Worst-Case Analysis of the LZ2 Compression Algorithm

Sheinwald, Lempel, and Ziv (1995,Inform. and Comput.116, 128–133) proved that the power of off-line coding is not useful if we want on-line decodable files, as far as asymptotical results are concerned. In this paper, we are concerned with the finite case and consider the notion of on-line decodable optimal parsing based on the parsing defined by the Ziv–Lempel (LZ2) compression algorithm. De Agostino and Storer (1996,Inform. Process. Lett.59, 169–174) proved the NP-completeness of computing the optimal parsing and that a sublogarithmic factor approximation algorithm cannot be realized on-line. We show that the Ziv–Lempel algorithm and two widely used practical implementations produce an O(n^1/4) approximation of the optimal parsing, wherenis the length of the string. By working with de Bruijn sequences, we show also infinite families of binary strings on which the approximation factor isΘ(n^1/4).     

P&;P: an asynchronous and distributed protocol for mobile sensor deployment

The use of wireless mobile sensors is of great relevance for a number of strategic applications devoted to monitoring critical areas where sensors can not be deployed manually. Mobile sensors can adapt their position on the basis of a local evaluation of coverage, thus permitting an autonomous deployment. Several algorithms have been proposed to deploy mobile sensors over an area of interest. The applicability of these approaches largely depends on a proper formalization of rigorous rules to coordinate sensor movements, solve local conflicts and manage possible failures of communications and devices. In this paper we introduce P&P, a communication protocol that permits a correct and efficient coordination of sensor movements in agreement with the Push & Pull algorithm. We deeply investigate and solve the problems that may occur when coordinating asynchronous local decisions in the presence of an unreliable transmission medium and possibly faulty devices such as in the typical working scenario of mobile sensor networks. Simulation results show the performance of our protocol under a range of operative settings, including conflict situations and irregularly shaped target areas. Furthermore, a performance comparison between the P&P protocol and one of the best solutions based on the virtual force approach, shows the superiority of our proposal in terms of deployment time, message exchanges and energy consumption.     

AHP‐IFM Target: An Innovative Method to Define Reliability Target in an Aerospace Prototype Based on Analytic Hierarchy Process

Reliability target definition is a crucial aspect of any reliability analysis. In literature, there are two types of analysis. The first one, called ‘bottom‐up’, goes back to the system's target using data of units through a fault tree analysis. Reliability data of components could be only partially available, particularly in the case of innovative systems. In the second type of analysis, called ‘top‐down’, starting from similar systems, the target of each unit is defined, by applying allocation techniques. Also, in this case, reliability data of similar systems might not be available, and the choice of the most appropriate technique could be tricky. The purpose of the present research is to combine the advantages of both usual approaches. The newly developed approach is based on the integrated factors method, whose values are adjusted trough a multicriteria method, the analytic hierarchy process, depending on the importance of each factor and each unit. The innovation of the proposed model consists in its dynamism, as most of the literature methods use constant weights for the factors involved in reliability allocation. No method takes into account the assignment of a different level of significance (weight) to different units of the system, simultaneously with the considered factors. The developed approach has been applied on an aerospace prototype system. The results show the goodness of the new method and its ability to overcome the problems noted in literature. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

SIMULATION OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF INDIVIDUAL INTERACTIONAL PATTERNS

The questions of how and why individuals develop normal or abnormal interpersonal patterns have received nonconsistent answers in the behavioral sciences, perhaps because they were too much concerned with the semantics and the syntax aspects of the communication process that mediates human interaction. This paper demonstrates that a pragmatic approach is necessary and sufficient to answer the above questions. The information processing aspect of the “single bit of information exchange” model (P. De Giacomo and A. Silvestri, 1979) is developed to create a computer simulation procedure. Using both clinical data and normal population measurements of KALTEST (O. G. Pereira and C. P. Ferreira, 1984) as the basic criteria, it is found that the development of a stable normal pattern of interaction depends on the ability to share proposals with the other significant person in the environment and that the development of an abnormal pattern depends on refusal to share coupled with a tendency to escape from the ring of the interaction.     

The Minimum Range Assignment Problem on Linear Radio Networks

Given a set S of radio stations located on a line and an integer h ≥ 1 , the MIN ASSIGNMENT problem consists in finding a range assignment of minimum power consumption provided that any pair of stations can communicate in at most h hops. Previous positive results for this problem are only known when h=|S|-1 or in the uniform chain case (i.e., when the stations are equally spaced). As for the first case, Kirousis et al. [7] provided a polynomial-time algorithm while, for the second case, they derive a polynomial-time approximation algorithm. This paper presents the first polynomial-time, approximation algorithm for the MIN ASSIGNMENT problem. The algorithm guarantees a 2-approximation ratio and runs in O(hn 3 ) time. We also prove that, for fixed h and for ``well spaced'' instances (a broad generalization of the uniform chain case), the problem admits a polynomial-time approximation scheme . This result significantly improves over the approximability result given by Kirousis {et al}. Both our approximation results are obtained via new algorithms that exactly solve two natural variants of the MIN ASSIGNMENT problem: the problem in which every station must reach a fixed one in at most h hops and the problem in which the goal is to select a subset of bases such that all the other stations must reach one base in at most h-1 hops. Finally, we show that for h=2 the MIN ASSIGNMENT problem can be exactly solved in O(n 3 ) time.