Jet quenching in shock waves

We study the propagation of an ultrarelativistic light quark jet inside a shock wave using the holographic principle. The maximum stopping distance and its dependency on the energy of the jet is obtained

Current and prospective pharmacotherapies for the treatment of pleural mesothelioma

Introduction: Mesothelioma is a rare asbestos-linked cancer with an expected incidence peak between 2015–2030. Therapies remain ineffective, thus developing and testing novel treatments is important for both oncologists and researchers. Areas covered: After describing mesothelioma and the shortcomings of current therapies, the article discusses numerous therapies in turn such as immunotherapy (passive and active), gene therapy (such as suicide gene therapy) and targeted therapy such as tyrosine kinase inhibitors. The bases for different therapies and clinical trials at different phases are also described. The article concludes by detailing possible reasons for therapy failure. Expert opinion: Despite the many attempts to uncover new therapeutic options, mesothelioma is still an orphan disease, complicated by factors such as the inflammatory microenvironment and low mutational load. Our opinion is that uncovering the biological mechanisms behind mesothelioma development will assist therapy development. The lack of efficacy of tyrosine kinase inhibitors and modest anti-angiogenic activity indicates a less relevant role for tumor cell proliferation and neoangiogenesis, thus the shortcut of treating mesothelioma with therapies from other cancers may be unsound. Conversely, many lines of evidence indicate that focussing on the survival mechanisms that tumor cells exploit may yield better therapeutics, particularly nutrition and cellular machinery

Streptomyces noboritoensis isolated from rhizosphere soil and its use in controlling banana-tissue culture contaminants

In this study, the role of Streptomyces noboritoensis (14) isolated from the rhizosphere of banana plant and having antagonistic activity against the bacterial- and fungal-tissue culture contaminants was determined in vitro. Results show that the filtrate was more effective against the fungal-tissue culture contaminants than the bacterial-tissue culture contaminants. This was indicated when jars were fungifree and bacteria-free after one month and 21 days from incubation, respectively. Results of in vitro application show that the filtrate of S. noboritoensis (14) as a bio-control agent could be used for controlling the contaminants in banana. Data showed that treatment F (sterilized shoots treated with Streptomyces filtrate and cultivated on Streptomyces-inoculated medium) was the most effective followed by treatment E (sterilized shoots untreated with Streptomyces filtrate and cultivated on Streptomyces-inoculated medium). Therefore, the study suggests conducting further studies towards the use of streptomycetes in the biological control in a large scale production.Keywords: Streptomyces, tissue culture contaminants, antagonistic activities, bio-controlAfrican Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(20), pp. 2908-291

Demographics Characteristics and Analysis of Malocclusions of Orthodontic Patients Seen at IIUM Dental Specialist Clinic, Kuantan, Pahang

Introduction: Malocclusion is one of the most common dental problems observed. Limited data is currently available regarding the demographics of malocclusion observed locally. Materials And Methods: This is a retrospective study where 770 patients were recruited from May 2009 till December 2014. 560 orthodontic study models that met the inclusion criteria were examined and the malocclusions were classified according to the British Standard Institute (BSI) incisor classification.  Demographic pattern and their relationship were analysed by structural equation modelling using SPSS (version 23.0). Results: From 560 study models analysed, 72% were female. The age of the patients ranges from 7-12 years old (17.1%), 13-17 years old (55.9%) and >18 years old (27.0%). Majority of the patients were Malay followed by Chinese (5.7%), Indian (1.8%) and other races (1.8%) Treatments received were fixed appliances (FA) (60.0%), removable appliances (RA) (12.5%), functional appliances (FnA) (1.1%), combination of RA and FA (16.1%), combination of FnA and FA (2.1%) and consultation (8.2%). Types of malocclusions observed were Class I (25.7%), Class II/1(32.7%), Class II/2 (7.5%) and Class III (34.1%). There was significant association (p<0.05) between age and gender towards the types of malocclusions and treatments received were observed. Conclusion: Age and gender play significant role in determining the types of treatment received by patients with malocclusion. Data obtained will be beneficial for departmental future management and clinical planning.&nbsp

Immunohistochemical studies on the expression of cea, c-erbb-2 and cathepsin din tissue sections and fine needle aspirates of benign breast lesions

The diagnosis of breast lesions in histopathology relies heavily on the morphology of the epithelial cells. This study aim at looking on the immunohistological expression of well-known prognostic markers ofbreast carcinoma i.e. CEA, c-erbB-2 and Cathepsin D on the epithelial cells of benign breast lesions in tissue sections and fine needle aspiration smears. Being strongly positive in malignant breast lesions, it is expected that the markers will be less positive or totally negative in beni~ epithelial cells. 91 cases of benign breast leSions composed of 46 cases of fibroadenoma, 18 cases of fibrocystic change, 10 ~ of sclerosing adenosis, 9 cases of epithelial hyperplasia, 7 cases of papilloma and 1 case of lactating adenoma were identified in tissue sections. CEA was positive in 11 of the cases (12%) and Cathepsin D was positive in 20 cases (22%). Complete ring of epimembranous cytoplasmic C-erb-B2 expression was absent in all the cases, therefore it is considered that all cases were negative for c .. erb-B2 expression. 13 cases (14%) comprising of9 fibroadenoma, 2 fibrocystic change and 2 epithelial hyperplasia showed incomplete ring of epimembranous staining by c-erb-B2. It appeare4 that CEA and c-erbB-2 expression is low in benign breast lesion and the expression is specific in the epithelial cells. However, CEA at the same time also showed strong positivity to the adjacent myoepithelial cells and this may give a higher result of positivity in such cases. For Cathepsin D expression, on top of showing strong positivity for myoepithelial cells and epithelial cells, it showed a non-specific positivity in the surrounding stromal cells. These findings indicate that c-erbB .. 2 and CEA rather than Cathepsin D are more likely to give a better distinguishing expression when comparing benign and malignant breast lesion in tissue sections. In 46 cases of fibroadenoma studied, CEA was positive in 10 cases (21. 7%) and Cathepsin Din 9 cases (19.6%). In 18 cases offibrocystic change studied, none showed expression for CEA and cerbB- 2 ; and 3 cases were positive for Cathepsin D. The same pattern is observed in sclerosing adenosis and papilloma cases studied. CEA and c .. erbB-2 were not expressed in 10 cases of sclerosing adenosis and 7 cases of papilloma. Cathepsin D was positive in 3 cases of sclerosing adenosis and 2 cases of papilloma Sl.cases of fine needle aspirates of benign breast lesion were also studied. 28·c~ compnsitig of 21 fibroadenoma, 4 benign proliferative lesion, 2 fibrocystic change and 1 non-specific · inflammatory lesion were subjected to CEA staining while another 23 cases ·comprising .of 18 . fibroadenoma, 3 beriign proliferative lesion, 1 :fibrocystic change and 1 non-specific inflammatory lesion were subjected to c-erbB-2 staining. For the CEA staining, 6· cases (21%) comprising of 5 fibroadenoma and 1 :fibrocystic change were positive. C-erbB-2 expression is only seen in one case ( 4%) out of 23 cases subjected to the staining and that single case was a fibroadenoma In the study of the fine needle aspirate, c-erbB-2 appears to be less expressed compare to CEA. · In conclusion, it can be seen that c-erbB-2 marker is significantly less expressed or not expressed at all compare to CEA in both tissue sections as well as in fine needle aspiration smears. Therefore c-erbB-2 marker is a potential tool that can be used to differentiate benign from malignant breast lesions. Cathepsin D due to its non-specific staining and increased background staining m.ake it unsuitable for usage to distinguish benign :from malignant breast lesions

Micropropagation and production of eurycomanone, 9- methoxycanthin-6-one and canthin-6-one in roots of Eurycoma longifolia plantlets

Eurycoma longifolia or Tongkat Ali is a well known medicinal plant in Malaysia. The plants are used as main portion in herbal preparation, and have been extensively harvested. Generally, most of the raw materials required by the industries are heavily collected from the natural forests, thereby resulting in the uncontrolled exploitation of the plant in the wild. Hence, there is a need to ensure adequate supply of quality E. longifolia for the use of the related industries and for conservation purposes. Micropropagation has proved to be an alternative for the multiplication of medicinal and aromatic plants and it can allow the future commercial use of E. longifolia in the herbal industries. In this study, E. longifolia plantlets were successfully mass-produced using axillary shoot multiplication techniques, and the production of eurycomanone, 9-methoxycanthin-6-one and canthin-6-one compounds of E. longifolia were detected in roots of tissue culture plantlets.Key words: E. longifolia, Tongkat Ali, micropropagation, eurycomanone, 9-methoxycanthin-6-one, canthin-6- one

Relationship between blood lead concentration and nutritional status among Malay primary school children in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

A cross-sectional study was conducted to identify the relationship between blood lead concentration and nutritional status among primary school children in Kuala Lumpur. A total of 225 Malay students, 113 male and 112 female, aged 6.3 to 9.8 were selected through a stratified random sampling method. The random blood samples were collected and blood lead concentration was measured by a Graphite Furnace Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer. The nutrient intake was determined by the 24-hour Dietary Recall method and Food Frequency Questionnaire. An anthropometric assessment was reported according to growth indices (z-scores of weight-for-age, height-for-age, and weight-for-height). The mean blood lead concentration was low (3.4 ± 1.91 ug/dL) and was significantly different between gender. Only 14.7% of the respondents fulfilled the daily energy requirement. The protein and iron intakes were adequate for a majority of the children. However, 34.7% of the total children showed inadequate intake of calcium. The energy, protein, fat and carbohydrate intakes were significantly different by gender, that is, males had better intake than females. Majority of respondents had normal mean z-score of growth indices. Ten percent of the respondents were underweight, 2.8% wasted and 5.4% stunted. Multiple linear regression showed inverse significant relationships between blood lead concentration with children's age (β= -0.647, p<0.001) and per capita income (β=-0.001, p=0.018). There were inverse significant relationships between blood lead concentration with children's age (β=-0.877, p=0.001) and calcium intake (β= -0.011,p=0.014) and positive significant relationship with weight-for-height (β=0.326, p=0.041) among those with inadequate calcium intake. Among children with inadequate energy intake, children's age (β= -0.621, p< 0.001), per capita income (β= -0.001,p=0.025) and protein intake (β= -0.019, p=0.027) were inversely and significantly related with blood lead concentration. In conclusion, nutritional status might affect the children's absorption of lead and further investigation is required for confirmation

NUDT2 Disruption Elevates Diadenosine Tetraphosphate (Ap4A) and Down-Regulates Immune Response and Cancer Promotion Genes.

Regulation of gene expression is one of several roles proposed for the stress-induced nucleotide diadenosine tetraphosphate (Ap4A). We have examined this directly by a comparative RNA-Seq analysis of KBM-7 chronic myelogenous leukemia cells and KBM-7 cells in which the NUDT2 Ap4A hydrolase gene had been disrupted (NuKO cells), causing a 175-fold increase in intracellular Ap4A. 6,288 differentially expressed genes were identified with P < 0.05. Of these, 980 were up-regulated and 705 down-regulated in NuKO cells with a fold-change ≥ 2. Ingenuity® Pathway Analysis (IPA®) was used to assign these genes to known canonical pathways and functional networks. Pathways associated with interferon responses, pattern recognition receptors and inflammation scored highly in the down-regulated set of genes while functions associated with MHC class II antigens were prominent among the up-regulated genes, which otherwise showed little organization into major functional gene sets. Tryptophan catabolism was also strongly down-regulated as were numerous genes known to be involved in tumor promotion in other systems, with roles in the epithelial-mesenchymal transition, proliferation, invasion and metastasis. Conversely, some pro-apoptotic genes were up-regulated. Major upstream factors predicted by IPA® for gene down-regulation included NFκB, STAT1/2, IRF3/4 and SP1 but no major factors controlling gene up-regulation were identified. Potential mechanisms for gene regulation mediated by Ap4A and/or NUDT2 disruption include binding of Ap4A to the HINT1 co-repressor, autocrine activation of purinoceptors by Ap4A, chromatin remodeling, effects of NUDT2 loss on transcript stability, and inhibition of ATP-dependent regulatory factors such as protein kinases by Ap4A. Existing evidence favors the last of these as the most probable mechanism. Regardless, our results suggest that the NUDT2 protein could be a novel cancer chemotherapeutic target, with its inhibition potentially exerting strong anti-tumor effects via multiple pathways involving metastasis, invasion, immunosuppression and apoptosis

Systematic review of methods used in meta-analyses where a primary outcome is an adverse or unintended event

addresses: Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry, St Luke's Campus, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK. [email protected]: PMCID: PMC3528446types: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't© 2012 Warren et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Adverse consequences of medical interventions are a source of concern, but clinical trials may lack power to detect elevated rates of such events, while observational studies have inherent limitations. Meta-analysis allows the combination of individual studies, which can increase power and provide stronger evidence relating to adverse events. However, meta-analysis of adverse events has associated methodological challenges. The aim of this study was to systematically identify and review the methodology used in meta-analyses where a primary outcome is an adverse or unintended event, following a therapeutic intervention