Paclitaxel is one of the most important anti-cancer agents introduced during the last 20 years. However, the use of paclitaxel is limited by undesirable side effects as well as the development of drug resistance. Here, we report a synthetic strategy towards spiro-bicyclo[2.2.2]octane derivatives, which includes double Michael addition and ring-closing metathesis as key synthetic steps. This strate

When rendering effects such as motion blur and defocus blur, shading can become very expensive if done in a naive way, i.e. shading each visibility sample. To improve performance, previous work often decouple shading from visibility sampling using shader caching algorithms. We present a novel technique for reusing shading in a stochastic rasterizer. Shading is computed hierarchically and sparsely

Cholera toxin (CT) binds to GM1-ganglioside receptors present on all nucleated cells. Despite this, it is a very potent mucosal adjuvant that has a dramatic impact on immune cells, as well as nerve and epithelial cells, causing diarrhea. This fact has hampered our understanding of whether the adjuvanticity of CT is direct or indirect, as cells that bind CT may or may not be involved in its adjuvan

Ultrathin iron oxide films are useful model materials for fundamental studies of surface processes and exhibit intriguing properties as catalysts, as demonstrated recently in a number of studies utilizing platinum as a substrate. We report a study of the initial stages of iron oxide film growth on an Ag(100) surface using scanning tunneling microscopy, low energy electron diffraction, X-ray photoe

Background. The optimal chemotherapy in patients with advanced gastric carcinoma (GC) is yet to be determined. We compared sequential administration of docetaxel and irinotecan, both in combination with infused 5-fluorouracil/leucovorin (5-Fu/Lv), and randomly assigned patients to start with either of the two. Methods. Patients with previously untreated locally advanced or metastatic GC and with m

With computational resources becoming more efficient and more powerful and at the same time cheaper, computational methods have become more and more popular for studies on biochemical and biomimetic systems. Although large efforts from the scientific community have gone into exploring the possibilities of computational methods on large biochemical systems, such studies are not without pitfalls and

The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is a new observatory for very high-energy (VHE) gamma rays. CTA has ambitions science goals, for which it is necessary to achieve full-sky coverage, to improve the sensitivity by about an order of magnitude, to span about four decades of energy, from a few tens of GeV to above 100 TeV with enhanced angular and energy resolutions over existing VHE gamma-ray obser

Analysis of umbilical artery flow velocity waveforms characterized by pulsatility index (PI) is used to evaluate fetoplacental circulation in high-risk pregnancies. However, an experienced sonographer may be able to further differentiate between various timbres of Doppler audio signals. Recently, we have developed a method for objective audio signal characterization; the method has been tested in

Circadian clocks are biological timekeepers that allow living cells to time their activity in anticipation of predictable daily changes in light and other environmental factors. The complexity of the circadian clock in higher plants makes it difficult to understand the role of individual genes or molecular interactions, and mathematical modelling has been useful in guiding clock research in model

Small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), which downregulate gene expression guided by sequence complementarity, can be used therapeutically to block the synthesis of disease-causing proteins. The main obstacle to siRNA drugs - their delivery into the target cell cytosol - has been overcome to allow suppression of liver gene expression. Here, we review the results of recent clinical trials of siRNA therape

Using scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy we study the atomic scale geometry and electronic structure of GaAs nanowires exhibiting controlled axial stacking of wurtzite (Wz) and zinc blende (Zb) crystal segments. We find that the nonpolar low-index surfaces {110}, {101̅0}, and {112̅0} are unreconstructed, unpinned, and without states in the band gap region. Direct comparison between Wz

Salinomycin has found renewed interest as an agent for prevention of cancer recurrence through selectively targeting cancer stem cells. Strategies for generation of improved salinomycin analogs by individual modification of its hydroxyl groups are presented. An evaluation of the dose-response effects of the resulting library on breast cancer cell lines shows that acylation of the C20 hydroxyl can

OBJECTIVE: To compare the predictive accuracy of β-amyloid (Aβ)1-42 and total tau in CSF, hippocampal volume (HCV), and APOE genotype for Alzheimer disease (AD)-type dementia in subjects with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) and nonamnestic mild cognitive impairment (naMCI). METHODS: We selected 399 subjects with aMCI and 226 subjects with naMCI from a multicenter memory clinic-based coho

Background: Birthweight and gestational age are key indicators for perinatal health obtained through the birth certificate. Knowing the validity of birth certificate data is crucial when identifying needs and evaluating birth outcomes. In Spain, vital information is reported by parents and is not checked for consistency with any hospital document. Therefore, to perform a validation study and descr

Cell migration is a fundamental biological function, critical during development and regeneration, whereas deregulated migration underlies neurological birth defects and cancer metastasis. MARCKS-like protein 1 (MARCKSL1) is widely expressed in nervous tissue, where, like Jun N-terminal protein kinase (JNK), it is required for neural tube formation, though the mechanism is unknown. Here we show th

A search is presented for dark matter pair production in association with a W or Z boson in pp collisions representing 20.3 fb(-1) of integrated luminosity at root s = 8 TeV using data recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Events with a hadronic jet with the jet mass consistent with a W or Z boson, and with large missing transverse momentum are analyzed. The data are consi

Cigarette smoking is associated with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), but the association between alcohol consumption and ALS is not clear. Our aim was to clarify this using a national cohort study design in Sweden.

In this paper, we show that large connected slip patches (hydrophobic patches) are a necessity to induce macroscopic slip effects of water flow in microchannels. For this purpose, the 2D fluid flow between a planar stationary surface with alternating stick and slip patches and a parallel planar surface moving with a constant relative velocity has been studied by computer simulations based on Navie