Effects of the Anti-Tumorigenic Agent AT101 on Human Glioblastoma Cells in the Microenvironmental Glioma Stem Cell Niche

Glioblastoma (GBM) is a barely treatable disease due to its profound chemoresistance. A distinct inter- and intratumoral heterogeneity reflected by specialized microenvironmental niches and different tumor cell subpopulations allows GBMs to evade therapy regimens. Thus, there is an urgent need to develop alternative treatment strategies. A promising candidate for the treatment of GBMs is AT101, the R(-) enantiomer of gossypol. The present study evaluates the effects of AT101, alone or in combination with temozolomide (TMZ), in a microenvironmental glioma stem cell niche model of two GBM cell lines (U251MG and U87MG). AT101 was found to induce strong cytotoxic effects on U251MG and U87MG stem-like cells in comparison to the respective native cells. Moreover, a higher sensitivity against treatment with AT101 was observed upon incubation of native cells with a stem-like cell-conditioned medium. This higher sensitivity was reflected by a specific inhibitory influence on the p-p42/44 signaling pathway. Further, the expression of CXCR7 and the interleukin-6 receptor was significantly regulated upon these stimulatory conditions. Since tumor stem-like cells are known to mediate the development of tumor recurrences and were observed to strongly respond to the AT101 treatment, this might represent a promising approach to prevent the development of GBM recurrences.     

Concurrent Cholesky factorization of positive definite banded Hermitian-matrices

First the Cholesky factorization is extended to cover uniformly partitioned banded positive definite matrices of rank n which may be real symmetric or Hermitian. Then two stratagems are given for the use of the algorithm in concurrent machines where the number of processing elements is less than required to factor the matrix in as few serial steps as possible, and where uniformly high efficiency is expected from all processing elements. Expressions are given for the efficiency factor e appearing in the speed-up expression g = eN, and these are specialized for the N node hypercube machine as a function of partition size s, the number N of processing elements of the hypercube machine, and the cost μ of interelement transmission relative to computation. It is shown that efficiency factor e is inversely proportional to μ/s, and that e is almost independent of N when N is large and μ/s = 0. The task is completed in n/s serial steps with no limit on n. The half bandwidth b of the matrix is 2Ns.     

Accurate and simple synthesis formulas for coplanar waveguides

Simple and accurate closed‐form formulas obtained by using a differential evolution algorithm are presented for the synthesis of coplanar waveguides (CPW). The results of the synthesis formulas proposed in this article are compared with those of the quasi‐static analysis, the synthesis formulas reported by the other researchers and also the experimental works available in the literature. The accuracy of the proposed synthesis formulas is found to be better than 0.75% for 9256 CPWs samples. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE, 2008.     

Comprehensive meta-analysis of integrity test validities: Findings and implications for personnel selection and theories of job performance.

Conducted a comprehensive meta-analysis based on 665 validity coefficients across 576,460 data points to investigate whether integrity test validities are generalizable and to estimate differences in validity due to potential moderating influences. Results indicate that integrity test validities are substantial for predicting job performance and counterproductive behaviors on the job, such as theft, disciplinary problems, and absenteeism. The estimated mean operational predictive validity of integrity test for predicting supervisory ratings of job performance is .41. Results from predictive validity studies conducted on applicants and using external criterion measures (i.e., excluding self-reports) indicate that integrity tests predict the broad criterion of organizationally disruptive behaviors better than they predict employee theft alone. Despite the influence of moderators, integrity test validities are positive across situations and settings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Information cut for clustering using a gradient descent approach

We introduce a new graph cut for clustering which we call the Information Cut. It is derived using Parzen windowing to estimate an information theoretic distance measure between probability density functions. We propose to optimize the Information Cut using a gradient descent-based approach. Our algorithm has several advantages compared to many other graph-based methods in terms of determining an appropriate affinity measure, computational complexity, memory requirements and coping with different data scales. We show that our method may produce clustering and image segmentation results comparable or better than the state-of-the art graph-based methods.     

Language learners' digital literacies: Focus on students' information literacy and reading practices online

The widespread use of technology and the Internet have changed many of language learners' everyday practices, including literacies. While there have been many studies with the focus on language learners' digital literacies, few, however, have explored language learners' digital information literacy and online reading practices with the use of social bookmarking tools, especially in a community college setting. We address this gap by investigating community-college language learners' digital literacies when social bookmarking with the focus on digital information and online reading practices from an ecological perspective. In this qualitative multiple-case study, the focal participants were five English learners, students in an English as a Second Language writing course in a community college in the northeastern United States. Data collection included interviews, observations, and researchers' e-journals. Thorough within- and cross-case analysis of data shows that language learners searched for digital texts and evaluated them based on relevance, reliability, interest, language, and importance for them and their learning community in the social bookmarking tool. The participants struggled with the number of results in search engines, keywords, and evaluation of digital texts for relevance and reliability. We show the need for more instruction, support, and guidance of language learners' digital information literacy practices as well as the benefits of providing students with opportunities to read digital texts. Our suggestions for future research include investigating the role of multimodality and other factors that influence language learners' evaluation practices when they look for and read information online.     

A combo technology of autotrophic and heterotrophic denitrification processes for groundwater treatment

In this study,a sequential process (heterotrophic up-flow column and completely mixed membrane bioreactors) was proposed combining advantages of the both processes.The system was operated for 249 days with simulated and real groundwater for nitrate removal at concentrations varying from 25 to 145 mg·L-1 NO3-N.The contribution of heterotrophic process to total nitrate removal in the system was controlled by dozing the ethanol considering the nitrate concentration.By this way,sulfur based autotrophic denitrification rate was decreased and the effluent sulfate concentrations were controlled.The alkalinity requirement in the autotrophic process was produced in the heterotrophic reactor,and the system was operated without alkalinity supplementation.Throughout the study,the chemical oxygen demand in the heterotrophic reactor effluent was (23.7 ± 22) mg·L-1 and it was further decreased to(7.5 ± 7.2) mg·L-1 in the system effluent,corresponding to a 70％ reduction.In the last period of the study,the real groundwater containing 145 mg·L-1 NO3-N was completely removed.Membrane was operated without chemical washing in the first 114 days.Between days 115-249 weekly chemical washing was required.     

A comprehensive survey: artificial bee colony (ABC) algorithm and applications

Swarm intelligence (SI) is briefly defined as the collective behaviour of decentralized and self-organized swarms. The well known examples for these swarms are bird flocks, fish schools and the colony of social insects such as termites, ants and bees. In 1990s, especially two approaches based on ant colony and on fish schooling/bird flocking introduced have highly attracted the interest of researchers. Although the self-organization features are required by SI are strongly and clearly seen in honey bee colonies, unfortunately the researchers have recently started to be interested in the behaviour of these swarm systems to describe new intelligent approaches, especially from the beginning of 2000s. During a decade, several algorithms have been developed depending on different intelligent behaviours of honey bee swarms. Among those, artificial bee colony (ABC) is the one which has been most widely studied on and applied to solve the real world problems, so far. Day by day the number of researchers being interested in ABC algorithm increases rapidly. This work presents a comprehensive survey of the advances with ABC and its applications. It is hoped that this survey would be very beneficial for the researchers studying on SI, particularly ABC algorithm.