23 research outputs found
Comparison of microvessel density with tumor associated macrophages in invasive breast carcinoma.
No full textANTICANCER RESEARCH (ATHENS
CCL2 recruits inflammatory monocytes to facilitate breast-tumour metastasis
No full textMacrophages, which are abundant in the tumour microenvironment, enhance malignancy. At metastatic sites, a distinct population of metastasis-associated macrophages promotes the extravasation, seeding and persistent growth of tumour cells. Here we define the origin of these macrophages by showing that Gr1-positive inflammatory monocytes are preferentially recruited to pulmonary metastases but not to primary mammary tumours in mice. This process also occurs for human inflammatory monocytes in pulmonary metastases of human breast cancer cells. The recruitment of these inflammatory monocytes, which express CCR2 (the receptor for chemokine CCL2), as well as the subsequent recruitment of metastasis-associated macrophages and their interaction with metastasizing tumour cells, is dependent on CCL2 synthesized by both the tumour and the stroma. Inhibition of CCL2-CCR2 signalling blocks the recruitment of inflammatory monocytes, inhibits metastasis in vivo and prolongs the survival of tumour-bearing mice. Depletion of tumour-cell-derived CCL2 also inhibits metastatic seeding. Inflammatory monocytes promote the extravasation of tumour cells in a process that requires monocyte-derived vascular endothelial growth factor. CCL2 expression and macrophage infiltration are correlated with poor prognosis and metastatic disease in human breast cancer. Our data provide the mechanistic link between these two clinical associations and indicate new therapeutic targets for treating metastatic breast cancer
Ethnic identity, political identity and ethnic conflict: simulating the effect of congruence between the two identities on ethnic violence and conflict
No full textThis thesis outlines and presents an alternative hypothetical process to the emergence of ethnic conflict. Ethnic conflicts, rather than being dependent upon pre-existing 'ancient hatreds', are instead the result of a congruence between ethnic and political identity which grants individuals the ability to use ethnicity to identify and eliminate political threats. This hypothesis is formed by the examination of three case studies of ethnic conflict: Lebanon, Northern Ireland and Croatia. This hypothesis is then formalised and tested using an agent based simulation in which agent interactions are dependent upon ethnic and political identity and the congruence between the two. As predicted there was a strong positive correlation between how accurately ethnic identity reflected political identity and the level of ethnically motivated violence in the simulation, although the relationship was not linear. Furthermore the effect of a shift in congruence was found to be roughly comparable to the effect of initialising agents with a moderate level of pre-existing ethnic antagonism
Environment and self-regulation in galaxy formation
No full textThe environment is known to affect the formation and evolution of galaxies considerably best visible through the well-known morphology–density relationship. It is less clear, though, whether the environment is equally important at a given galaxy morphology. In this paper, we study the effect of environment on the evolution of early-type galaxies as imprinted in the fossil record by analysing the stellar population properties of 3360 galaxies morphologically selected by visual inspection from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey in a narrow redshift range ( 0.05 ≤z≤ 0.06 ). The morphological selection algorithm is critical, as it does not bias against recent star formation. We find that the distribution of ages is bimodal with a strong peak at old ages and a secondary peak at young ages around ∼2.5 Gyr containing about 10 per cent of the objects. This is an analogue to 'red sequence' and 'blue cloud' identified in galaxy populations usually containing both early- and late-type galaxies. The fraction of the young, rejuvenated galaxies increases with both decreasing galaxy mass and decreasing environmental density up to about 45 per cent, which implies that the impact of environment increases with decreasing galaxy mass. The rejuvenated galaxies have lower α/Fe ratios than the average and most of them show signs of ongoing star formation through their emission line spectra. All objects that host active galactic nuclei in their centres without star formation are part of the red sequence population. We confirm and statistically strengthen earlier results that luminosity weighted ages, metallicities and α/Fe element ratios of the red sequence population correlate well with velocity dispersion and galaxy mass. Most interestingly, however, these scaling relations are not sensitive to environmental densities and are only driven by galaxy mass. We infer that early-type galaxy formation has undergone a phase transition a few billion years ago around z∼ 0.2 . A self-regulated formation phase without environmental dependence has recently been superseded by a rejuvenation phase, in which the environment plays a decisive role possibly through galaxy mergers and interactions
BULLYING AND STRATEGIES FOR CONTRASTING THE PHENOMENON IN ITALIAN SCHOOL
No full textAfter about twenty years, Italy can be considered one of the European Nations that has more invested in terms of support for inclusion and prevention for confronting the problem of bullying in the school.
This article aims to set the problem of bullying in the framework of Italian school restructuring process. Starting from a literature review about bullying since 1970s to date, on the bases of the outcomes of some studies previously conducted, the author aims to explain because the phenomenon of bullying it is accompanied by raising the mandatory school. Through the research of eminent scholars, she argues that the crisis of values and the loss of the perspective for the future of teenagers increases the possibility of violent relationships among peers in school, where they spend much of their time.
An interpretative model on bullying is therefore highlighted using the “dramaturgic metaphor” of Goffman and focusing the role of viewer/witness (often the same classmates) for breaking of the violent triangle where perpetrator and victim are similarly victims of the same cruel play.
Finally it describes the strategies devised by the Ministry of Education which are currently applied in the schools of the Italian peninsula in a perspective of preventive and rehabilitative education both on potential protagonists ‒ victim and bully ‒ both on the viewers ‒ all those adolescents just look at the “violent drama” for fun or for weakness, without interrupting it and prevent the recurrence.
In the light of empirical evidences, it is suggested that such programs accompained from informal practices should be encouraged
Geopolitics and the \u27New\u27 State Capitalism
No full text\ua9 2021 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. We may be witnessing the emergence of a new ‘state capitalist’ normal, a term this Forum proposes to problematise in its geopolitical dimensions. The growing prevalence of state-sponsored entities (encompassing state enterprises, policy banks, and sovereign wealth funds) as leading vehicles of economic activity is a defining feature of our times. This reassertion of state authority is altering configurations of state and corporate power across the world economy while generating a multiplicity of geopolitical tensions. This Forum reflects upon what it means, theoretically, methodologically, and politically, to articulate a geopolitics of contemporary state capitalism. It brings together interventions which draw on various theoretical approaches, including critical political geography, historical materialism, geographical political economy, and power structure research, in order to probe into the multiple spatialities at the core of contemporary state capitalism. The contributions aim to destabilise the assumptions and taken-for-granted ideas which have largely framed the debate thus far, including problematic binaries such as liberal/illiberal, state/market, commercial/geopolitical logics, and realist narratives of interstate power-maximising behaviour. Studying the (geo)political re-organisation of global capitalism requires moving beyond the castigation of a ‘rogue’ state capitalism as well as narratives of a clash between rival political-economic models, and disassembling the category state capitalism
Fusion of augmented reality imaging with the endoscopic view for endonasal skull base surgery: a novel application for surgical navigation based on intraoperative cone beam computed tomography and optical tracking
No full textOBJECTIVE: Surgical navigation is a well-established tool in endoscopic skull base surgery. However, navigational and endoscopic views are usually displayed on separate monitors, forcing the surgeon to focus on one or the other. Aiming to provide real-time integration of endoscopic and diagnostic imaging information, we present a new navigation technique based on augmented reality with fusion of intraoperative cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) on the endoscopic view. The aim of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of the method. MATERIAL AND METHODS: An augmented reality surgical navigation system (ARSN) with 3D CBCT capability was used. The navigation system incorporates an optical tracking system (OTS) with four video cameras embedded in the flat detector of the motorized C-arm. Intra-operative CBCT images were fused with the view of the surgical field obtained by the endoscope's camera. Accuracy of CBCT image co-registration was tested using a custom-made grid with incorporated 3D spheres. RESULTS: Co-registration of the CBCT image on the endoscopic view was performed. Accuracy of the overlay, measured as mean target registration error (TRE), was 0.55 mm with a standard deviation of 0.24 mm and with a median value of 0.51mm and interquartile range of 0.39--0.68 mm. CONCLUSION: We present a novel augmented reality surgical navigation system, with fusion of intraoperative CBCT on the endoscopic view. The system shows sub-millimeter accuracy.Correction: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0229454Medical Instruments & Bio-Inspired Technolog
The unexplained nature of reading.
No full textThe effects of properties of words on their reading aloud response times (RTs) are 1 major source of evidence about the reading process. The precision with which such RTs could potentially be predicted by word properties is critical to evaluate our understanding of reading but is often underestimated due to contamination from individual differences. We estimated this precision without such contamination individually for 4 people who each read 2,820 words 50 times each. These estimates were compared to the precision achieved by a 31-variable regression model that outperforms current cognitive models on variance-explained criteria. Most (around 2/3) of the meaningful (non-first-phoneme, non-noise) word-level variance remained unexplained by this model. Considerable empirical and theoretical-computational effort has been expended on this area of psychology, but the high level of systematic variance remaining unexplained suggests doubts regarding contemporary accounts of the details of the mechanisms of reading at the level of the word. Future assessment of models can take advantage of the availability of our precise participant-level database
Development and validation of circulating CA125 prediction models in postmenopausal women
No full textBackground: Cancer Antigen 125 (CA125) is currently the best available ovarian cancer screening biomarker. However, CA125 has been limited by low sensitivity and specificity in part due to normal variation between individuals. Personal characteristics that influence CA125 could be used to improve its performance as screening biomarker. Methods: We developed and validated linear and dichotomous (≥35 U/mL) circulating CA125 prediction models in postmenopausal women without ovarian cancer who participated in one of five large population-based studies: Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial (PLCO, n = 26,981), European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC, n = 861), the Nurses' Health Studies (NHS/NHSII, n = 81), and the New England Case Control Study (NEC, n = 923). The prediction models were developed using stepwise regression in PLCO and validated in EPIC, NHS/NHSII and NEC. Result: The linear CA125 prediction model, which included age, race, body mass index (BMI), smoking status and duration, parity, hysterectomy, age at menopause, and duration of hormone therapy (HT), explained 5% of the total variance of CA125. The correlation between measured and predicted CA125 was comparable in PLCO testing dataset (r = 0.18) and external validation datasets (r = 0.14). The dichotomous CA125 prediction model included age, race, BMI, smoking status and duration, hysterectomy, time since menopause, and duration of HT with AUC of 0.64 in PLCO and 0.80 in validation dataset. Conclusions: The linear prediction model explained a small portion of the total variability of CA125, suggesting the need to identify novel predictors of CA125. The dichotomous prediction model showed moderate discriminatory performance which validated well in independent dataset. Our dichotomous model could be valuable in identifying healthy women who may have elevated CA125 levels, which may contribute to reducing false positive tests using CA125 as screening biomarker. © 2019 The Author(s)
