3,399 research outputs found
Vascular endothelial growth factor restores delayed tumor progression in tumors depleted of macrophages
No full textGenetic depletion of macrophages in Polyoma Middle T oncoprotein (PyMT)-induced mammary tumors in mice delayed the angiogenic switch and the progression to malignancy. To determine whether vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGF-A) produced by tumor-associated macrophages regulated the onset of the angiogenic switch, a genetic approach was used to restore expression of VEGF-A into tumors at the benign stages. This stimulated formation of a high-density vessel network and in macrophage-depleted mice, was followed by accelerated tumor progression. The expression of VEGF-A led to a massive infiltration into the tumor of leukocytes that were mostly macrophages. This study suggests that macrophage-produced VEGF regulates malignant progression through stimulating tumor angiogenesis, leukocytic infiltration and tumor cell invasion
Does Downloading PowerPoint Slides Before the Lecture Lead to Better Student Achievement?: Reply
No full textThis reply responds to a comment by Cannon (2011) that opens the debate on consistency of the effect of downloading PowerPoint slides before lectures on students’ exam performance. Cannon (2011) points out potential endogeneity problems in Chen and Lin (2008) and attempts to explore the unconditional mean effect of downloading PowerPoint slides for the full sample. In this reply, we firstly argue that the estimates in our original article are consistent since the effect of interest is the “conditional†treatment effect but not the unconditional mean effect. We provide explanations for our rationale of estimating the “conditional†treatment effect. Secondly, we propose a modified downloading variable to replicate Cannon’s analysis. Our results suggest that downloading PowerPoint slides before the exam does not produce a significant effect on absent students’ exam performance which is different from the results in Cannon (2011). Our analysis does support Cannon’s argument that students fixed effects are different across different attendance status.
[[alternative]]A Study on the Relation of the Citizen’s SubjectiveI Impression on the Spouses from Mainland China and Vietnam and Community Educational Policies in Shu Lin City in Taipei ounty.
No full text[[abstract]]A Study on the Relation of the Citizen’s SubjectiveI Impression on the Spouses from Mainland China and Vietnam and Community Educational Policies in Shu Lin City in Taipei ounty.
Abstract
By：Chou chen- tsung Advisor：Lin en-chung
The purpose of this research is to understand the current situation of the citizen’s subjective impressions on the spouses from Mainland China and Vietnam in Shu Lin City. The survey is carried out by self-designed questionnaires. The parents of the students in 10 ele mentary schools of Shu Lin City were taken as samples, 1000 que stionnaires were released, in which 825 effective copies were responded and returned (reaching a 93.0% share of all return questionnaires). The methods for analyzing the data are adopted from SPSS Statistic Software, which includes avera
ges, standard deviation,t-test,ANOVA…etc to analyze.The main findings are as below:
1. The subjective impression of Shu Lin citizens on the
Mainland spouses tends to be “ordinary” to “slightly
good.”
2. Regarding the subjective impression of Shu Lin citizens
on the Mainland spouses, there is a significant
difference on the four out of six different variants,
which are gender, occupations, marital status, and their
experience of contacting Mainland China spouses.
3. The subjective impression of Shu Lin citizens on the
Vietnamese spouses tends to be “ordinary”to “slightly
good.”
4. Regarding the subjective impression of Shu Lin citizens
on the Vietnamese spouses, there is a significant
difference on the three out of six different variants,
which are occupations, marital status, and educational
background.
5. There is a significant difference on the citizens’
subjective impres sion between the spouses from Mainland
China and those from Vietnam.
“Focus Group Interview” was also practiced to enrich the study. Based on the research result, some suggestions regarding the effective community educational policies are proposed.
1.Publicize the positive impressions of Shu Lin citizens
toward the spouses from Mainland China and Vietnam.
2.More researches and studies should be done by th
government and the academic institutes in order to
facilitate the positive understanding.
3.Encourage the positive reports from the media which
should be carefully regulated by the government and the
non-gover nmental organizations.
4.For schools, enhance multicultural teaching
environment;for the government, host more multicultural
exhibitions about the spouses from Mainland and Vietnam.
5.Make good use of the resources from schools and
communities to popularize the idea of “multicultural
community educati on” as well as to facilitate the
integration of different races.
6.The spouses from Mainland and Vietnam should learn
actively and positively to adapt themselves to the
lifestyles of the ir family and the community; therefore,
they are able to gain more positive interaction and
feedback from the peoplein the community.
Key words: Mainland China spouses, Vietnamese spouses,
Transnational marriage, Subjective impression
Abstract 4964: Structure, in vitro biology and in vivo pharmacodynamic characterization of a novel clinical IDO1 inhibitor
No full textAbstract
The enzyme indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase 1 (IDO1) catalyzes the degradation of tryptophan along the kynurenine pathway, and is frequently expressed in human malignancies. The activity of IDO1 induces an immunosuppressive microenvironment in tissues by inhibiting T-cell function through local depletion of tryptophan and through generation of kynurenine pathway metabolites. Inhibition of IDO1 is expected to diminish the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment and improve cancer patient outcomes, particularly when used in combination with cancer immunotherapy agents such as nivolumab and ipilimumab. In this presentation, we will disclose the chemical structure, enzyme inhibitory mechanism, in vitro potency and in vivo pharmacodynamic (PD) activity of BMS’ IDO1 inhibitor currently in Phase I clinical trials. The compound is a potent and selective IDO1 inhibitor with no activity against another tryptophan degrading enzyme, tryptophan 2,3-dioxygenase (TDO). It exhibited potent cellular activity, suppressing kynurenine production in HEK293 cells overexpressing human IDO1 (IC50 = 1.1 nM) and in HeLa cells stimulated with IFNγ (IC50 = 1.7 nM). The compound also potently restored T-cell proliferation in a co-culture of T cells and human cancer cells and in a mixed lymphocyte reaction where T cells were co-cultured with allogeneic IDO1-expressing dendritic cells (EC50 = 1.2 nM). In vivo, when given once a day orally, the compound exhibited significant PD activity in mouse tumors grown subcutaneously in syngeneic hosts and in human tumors grown as xenografts in nude mice.
Citation Format: John T. Hunt, Aaron Balog, Christine Huang, Tai-An Lin, Tai-An Lin, Derrick Maley, Johnni Gullo-Brown, Jesse Swanson, Jennifer Brown. Structure, in vitro biology and in vivo pharmacodynamic characterization of a novel clinical IDO1 inhibitor [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 4964. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-4964</jats:p
T Cell responses to whole SARS Coronavirus in humans
No full textEffective vaccines should confer long-term protection against future outbreaks of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) caused by a novel zoonotic coronavirus (SARS-CoV) with unknown animal reservoirs. We conducted a cohort study examining multiple parameters of immune responses to SARS-CoV infection, aiming to identify the immune correlates of protection. We used a matrix of overlapping peptides spanning whole SARS-CoV proteome to determine T cell responses from 128 SARS convalescent samples by ex vivo IFN-γ ELISPOT assays. Approximately 50% of convalescent SARS patients were positive for T cell responses, and 90% possessed strongly neutralizing Abs. Fifty-five novel T cell epitopes were identified, with spike protein dominating total T cell responses. CD8+ T cell responses were more frequent and of a greater magnitude than CD4+ T cell responses (p < 0.001).
Polychromatic cytometry analysis indicated that the virus-specific T cells from the severe group tended to be a central memory phenotype (CD27+/CD45RO+) with a significantly higher frequency of polyfunctional CD4+ T cells producing IFN-γ, TNF-α, and IL-2, and CD8+ T cells producing IFN-γ, TNF-α, and CD107a (degranulation), as compared with the mild-moderate group. Strong T cell responses correlated significantly (p < 0.05) with higher neutralizing Ab. The serum cytokine profile during acute infection indicated a significant elevation of innate immune responses. Increased Th2 cytokines were observed in patients with fatal infection. Our study provides a roadmap for the immunogenicity of SARS-CoV and types of immune responses that may be responsible for the virus clearance, and should serve as a benchmark for SARS-CoV vaccine design and evaluation
氣相層析質譜法對亞甲雙氧甲基安非他命類毒品之旋光性與2,5-二甲氧基-4-乙硫基苯乙胺(2C-T-2)之分析研究
No full text[[abstract]]Abstract
For 3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine (3,4-MDA)、3,4-methylenedi-
oxymethamphetamine (3,4-MDMA), different stereoisomers cause different neurotoxicity. In this study, we describe a simple method for R- and S-isomer by reaction of S-(－)-N-(trifluoroacetyl)prolyl chloride (S-TPC). Using gas chromatography / mass spectrometry separated derivatives of 3,4-MDA and 3,4-MDMA successfully. Furthermore, we could separate and hydrolyze the derivatives, then we could gain the single form of 3,4-MDA and 3,4-MDMA.
A simple and specific method based on gas-chromatography-selected
ion monitoring mass spectrometry (GC-SIM-MS) for the analysis of in vivo metabolism of 2,5-dimethoxy-4-ethylthiophenethylamine (2C-T-2) in rats is described. Three male rats were administered 20 mg/kg of 2C-T-2 by intra-peritoneal injection, and 24h urine fractions were collected before and after administration for analysis. After hydrolysis of the urine samples, the metabolites were extracted by liquid-liquid extraction and analyzed by a quadruple mass spectrometer in the selected ion monitoring mode. The findings show that three metabolites of 2-(4-ethylsulfanyl-2,5-dimethoxyphenyl)-ethanol (MW: 242), 1-acetoamino-2-(2-hydroxy-4-ethylsulfanyl-5-methoxyphenyl)-ethane (MW: 269) and 1-acetoamino-2-(2-methoxy-4-ethylsulfanyl-5-
hydroxyphenyl)-ethane (MW: 269) are present and the metabolic pathway for 2C-T-2 in the rat is proposed.
Comment on Chen and Lin “Does downloading Powerpoint slides before the lecture lead to better student achievement?â€
No full textChen and Lin (2008) is an interesting attempt to measure the effect of students having access to PowerPoint slides before a lecture. They argue that such access leads to better learning outcomes as measured by higher exam marks. While their empirical results shed some light on students’ use of PowerPoint slides, I argue that they have not succeeded in isolating the treatment effect and the correlations cannot be interpreted as causal.
Diagonal Forms, Linear Algebraic Methods and Ramsey-Type Problems
No full textThis thesis focuses mainly on linear algebraic aspects of combinatorics. Let N_t(H) be an incidence matrix with edges versus all subhypergraphs of a complete hypergraph that are isomorphic to H. Richard M. Wilson and the author find the general formula for the Smith normal form or diagonal form of N_t(H) for all simple graphs H and for a very general class of t-uniform hypergraphs H.
As a continuation, the author determines the formula for diagonal forms of integer matrices obtained from other combinatorial structures, including incidence matrices for subgraphs of a complete bipartite graph and inclusion matrices for multisets.
One major application of diagonal forms is in zero-sum Ramsey theory. For instance, Caro's results in zero-sum Ramsey numbers for graphs and Caro and Yuster's results in zero-sum bipartite Ramsey numbers can be reproduced. These results are further generalized to t-uniform hypergraphs. Other applications include signed bipartite graph designs.
Research results on some other problems are also included in this thesis, such as a Ramsey-type problem on equipartitions, Hartman's conjecture on large sets of designs and a matroid theory problem proposed by Welsh.</p
Author Co-Citation Analysis (ACA): a powerful tool for representing implicit knowledge of scholar knowledge workers
No full textIn the last decade, knowledge has emerged as one of the most important and valuable organizational assets. Gradually this importance caused to emergence of new discipline entitled ―knowledge management‖. However one of the major challenges of knowledge management is conversion implicit or tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge. Thus Making knowledge visible so that it can be better accessed, discussed, valued or generally managed is a long-standing objective in knowledge management. Accordingly in this paper author co- citation analysis (ACA) will be proposed as an efficient technique of knowledge visualization in academia (Scholar knowledge workers)
Tagging of Biomedical Articles on CiteULike: A Comparison of User, Author and Professional Indexing
No full textThis paper examines the context of online indexing from the viewpoint of three different groups: users, authors, and professional indexers. User tags, author keywords and descriptors were collected from academic journal articles, which were both indexed in Pubmed and tagged on CiteULike, and analysed. Descriptive statistics, informetric measures, and thesaural term comparison shows that there are important differences in the use of keywords between the three groups in addition to similarities which can be used to enhance support for search and browse. While tags and author keywords were found that matched descriptors exactly, other terms which did not match but provided important expansion to the indexing lexicon were found. These additional terms could be used to enhance support for searching and browsing in article databases as well as to provide invaluable data for entry vocabulary and emergent terminology for regular updates to indexing systems. Additionally, the study suggests that tags support organisation by association to task, projects and subject while making important connections to traditional systems which classify into subject categories
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