Presence of an in situ component is associated with reduced biological aggressiveness of size-matched invasive breast cancer

Background:The metastatic propensity of invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) of the breast correlates with axillary node involvement and with expression of the proliferation antigen Ki-67, whereas ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) is non-metastasising. To clarify whether concomitant DCIS affects IDC prognosis, we compared Ki-67 expression and node status of size-matched IDC subgroups either with DCIS (IDC-DCIS) or without DCIS (pure IDC).Methods:We analysed data from 1355 breast cancer patients. End points were defined by the association of IDC (with or without DCIS) with grade, nodal status, Ki-67, and ER/HER2.Results: Size-matched IDC-DCIS was more likely than pure IDC to be screen detected (P0.03), to occur in pre-menopausal women (P0.002), and to be either ER-positive (P0.002) or HER2-positive (P0.0005), but less likely to be treated with breast-conserving surgery (P0.004). Grade and Ki-67 were lower in IDC-DCIS than in pure IDC (P0.02), and declined as the DCIS enlarged (P0.01). Node involvement and lymphovascular invasion in IDC-DCIS increased with the size ratio of IDC to DCIS (P0.01). A 60-month cancer-specific survival favoured IDC-DCIS over size-matched pure IDC (97.4 vs 96.0%).Conclusion:IDC co-existing with DCIS is characterised by lower proliferation and metastatic potential than size-matched pure IDC, especially if the ratio of DCIS to IDC size is high. We submit that IDC-DCIS is biologically distinct from pure IDC, and propose an incremental molecular pathogenesis of IDC-DCIS evolution involving an intermediate DCIS precursor that remains dependent for replication on upstream mitogens. © 2010 Cancer Research UK All rights reserved.published_or_final_versio

Castor oil-based biopolyurethane reinforced with wood microfibers derived from mechanical pulp

AbstractWood fibers with high lignin content show promise to function in numerous applications with advantageous properties if the fiber features are appropriately exploited. The present study introduces a new approach to disintegrate and disperse wood fibers from groundwood pulp (GWP) directly to polyol without additional solvent exchanges or chemical modifications. In comparison bleached chemical pulp with low lignin content was ground in the polyol, but only low consistency (1 wt%) operation was possible, whereas up to 5 wt% consistency with GWP was carried out with ease. The micron sized fibers in polyol were reacted with polymeric diphenylmethane diisocyanate to produce fiber reinforced biopolyurethane (bioPU) composites. The mechanical properties of the composites improved compared to reference bioPU showing 14.6% increase in Young’s modulus, 54.5% in tensile strength and 26.1% in strain at break. The tan δ peaks shifted to higher temperature from 5.5 to 10.4 °C when fibers up to 5.1 wt% were incorporated to bioPU. Overall, the bulk microfibers from GWP with low degree of processing were cost-effective reinforcements for bioPUs, which improved the qualities of the fabricated composites and showed good compatibility with polyurethane.Abstract Wood fibers with high lignin content show promise to function in numerous applications with advantageous properties if the fiber features are appropriately exploited. The present study introduces a new approach to disintegrate and disperse wood fibers from groundwood pulp (GWP) directly to polyol without additional solvent exchanges or chemical modifications. In comparison bleached chemical pulp with low lignin content was ground in the polyol, but only low consistency (1 wt%) operation was possible, whereas up to 5 wt% consistency with GWP was carried out with ease. The micron sized fibers in polyol were reacted with polymeric diphenylmethane diisocyanate to produce fiber reinforced biopolyurethane (bioPU) composites. The mechanical properties of the composites improved compared to reference bioPU showing 14.6% increase in Young’s modulus, 54.5% in tensile strength and 26.1% in strain at break. The tan δ peaks shifted to higher temperature from 5.5 to 10.4 °C when fibers up to 5.1 wt% were incorporated to bioPU. Overall, the bulk microfibers from GWP with low degree of processing were cost-effective reinforcements for bioPUs, which improved the qualities of the fabricated composites and showed good compatibility with polyurethane

Open Data from the Third Observing Run of LIGO, Virgo, KAGRA, and GEO

Abstract The global network of gravitational-wave observatories now includes five detectors, namely LIGO Hanford, LIGO Livingston, Virgo, KAGRA, and GEO 600. These detectors collected data during their third observing run, O3, composed of three phases: O3a starting in 2019 April and lasting six months, O3b starting in 2019 November and lasting five months, and O3GK starting in 2020 April and lasting two weeks. In this paper we describe these data and various other science products that can be freely accessed through the Gravitational Wave Open Science Center at https://gwosc.org. The main data set, consisting of the gravitational-wave strain time series that contains the astrophysical signals, is released together with supporting data useful for their analysis and documentation, tutorials, as well as analysis software packages.</jats:p

Search for Eccentric Black Hole Coalescences during the Third Observing Run of LIGO and Virgo

Abstract Despite the growing number of binary black hole coalescences confidently observed through gravitational waves so far, the astrophysical origin of these binaries remains uncertain. Orbital eccentricity is one of the clearest tracers of binary formation channels. Identifying binary eccentricity, however, remains challenging due to the limited availability of gravitational waveforms that include the effects of eccentricity. Here, we present observational results for a waveform-independent search sensitive to eccentric black hole coalescences, covering the third observing run (O3) of the LIGO and Virgo detectors. We identified no new high-significance candidates beyond those that have already been identified with searches focusing on quasi-circular binaries. We determine the sensitivity of our search to high-mass (total source-frame mass M &gt; 70 M ⊙) binaries covering eccentricities up to 0.3 at 15 Hz emitted gravitational-wave frequency, and use this to compare model predictions to search results. Assuming all detections are indeed quasi-circular, for our fiducial population model, we place a conservative upper limit for the merger rate density of high-mass binaries with eccentricities 0 &lt; e ≤ 0.3 at 16.9 Gpc−3 yr−1 at the 90% confidence level.</jats:p

Search for Eccentric Black Hole Coalescences during the Third Observing Run of LIGO and Virgo

Abstract Despite the growing number of binary black hole coalescences confidently observed through gravitational waves so far, the astrophysical origin of these binaries remains uncertain. Orbital eccentricity is one of the clearest tracers of binary formation channels. Identifying binary eccentricity, however, remains challenging due to the limited availability of gravitational waveforms that include the effects of eccentricity. Here, we present observational results for a waveform-independent search sensitive to eccentric black hole coalescences, covering the third observing run (O3) of the LIGO and Virgo detectors. We identified no new high-significance candidates beyond those that have already been identified with searches focusing on quasi-circular binaries. We determine the sensitivity of our search to high-mass (total source-frame mass M &gt; 70 M ⊙) binaries covering eccentricities up to 0.3 at 15 Hz emitted gravitational-wave frequency, and use this to compare model predictions to search results. Assuming all detections are indeed quasi-circular, for our fiducial population model, we place a conservative upper limit for the merger rate density of high-mass binaries with eccentricities 0 &lt; e ≤ 0.3 at 16.9 Gpc−3 yr−1 at the 90% confidence level.</jats:p