Atmospheric Sensors and Energy Harvesters on Overhead Power Lines.

We demonstrate the feasibility of using novel, small energy harvesters to power atmospheric sensors and radios simply attached to a single conductor of existing overhead power distribution lines. We demonstrate the ability to harvest the required power for operating multiple atmospheric and power-system sensors, together with short-range radios that could broadcast atmospheric sensor data to the cellphones of people nearby. Occasional long-range broadcasts of the data could also be made of both atmospheric and power-line conditions.

Ki67 measured in metastatic tissue and prognosis in patients with advanced breast cancer.

The purpose of this study is to determine the prognostic role of Ki67 evaluated in relapse biopsies from patients with metastatic breast cancer (MBC). Two hundred and ten patients diagnosed with MBC in Stockholm, Sweden between 1998 and 2009 and with Ki67 assessed at time of first systemic relapse (mKi67) were retrospectively identified and divided into two groups according to mKi67 fraction (low ≤20 %, high >20 %). Post-relapse survival was compared between the groups using Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression methods. Death rate as function of continuous mKi67 was also evaluated. Furthermore, the prognostic role of intra-individual change in Ki67 between primary tumor and matched metastasis was explored by Kaplan-Meier plots. One hundred and twenty-five patients had low and 85 had high mKi67. Median survival was 25 and 17 months in low- and high-mKi67 group, respectively [hazard ratio (HR) 0.69, 95 % confidence intervals (CI) 0.51-0.92, P = 0.01]. In a multivariate model adjusted for prognostic confounders, low-mKi67 showed a non-significant trend toward better survival (HR 0.85, 95 %CI 0.62-1.16, P = 0.30). Nevertheless, mKi67 independently correlated with survival when compared with primary tumor proliferation (HR 0.56, 95 %CI 0.38-0.81, P = 0.002). The 2-year death rate steeply increased as mKi67 increased. Moreover, the change from high in primary tumor to low in metastasis significantly correlated with longer survival when compared with stable Ki67 levels (HR 0.48, 95 %CI 0.31-0.76, P = 0.002). In this cohort of MBC patients, mKi67 inversely but not independently correlated with survival. However, a significant association between mKi67 and survival was shown regardless of primary tumor proliferation.

Gene Expression Signatures and Immunohistochemical Subtypes Add Prognostic Value to Each Other in Breast Cancer Cohorts.

Purpose: Gene signatures and Ki67 stratify the same breast tumor into opposing good/poor prognosis groups in approximately 20% of patients. Given this discrepancy, we hypothesized that the combination of a clinically relevant signature and IHC markers may provide more prognostic information than either classifier alone.Experimental Design: We assessed Ki67 alone or combined with ER, PR and HER2 (forming IHC subtypes), and the research versions of the Genomic Grade Index, 70-gene, cell-cycle score, recurrence score (RS), and PAM50 signatures on matching TMA/whole tumor sections and microarray data in two Swedish breast cancer cohorts of 379 and 209 patients, with median follow-up of 12.4 and 12.5 years, respectively. First, we fit Cox proportional hazards models and used the change in likelihood ratio (Δ LR) to determine the additional prognostic information provided by signatures beyond that of (i) Ki67 and (ii) IHC subtypes. Second and uniquely, we then assessed whether signatures could compete well with pathology-based IHC classifiers by calculating the additional prognostic information of Ki67/IHC subtypes beyond signatures.Results: In cohort 1, only RS and PAM50 provided additional prognostic information beyond Ki67 and IHC subtypes (Δ LR-χ2 Ki67: RS = 12.8, PAM50 = 20.7, IHC subtypes: RS = 12.9, PAM50 = 11.7). Conversely, IHC subtypes added prognostic information beyond all signatures except PAM50. Similar results were observed in cohort 2.Conclusions: RS and PAM50 provided more prognostic information than the IHC subtypes in all breast cancer patients; however, the IHC subtypes did not add any prognostic information to PAM50. Clin Cancer Res; 23(24); 7512-20. ©2017 AACR.

Hand surface area--do racial differences exist?

The patient's own palm is used as a template in assessing small patchy burns and is traditionally believed to be 1% of body surface area. This does alter with the patient's age, sex and BMI and there have been suggestions that it can also differ between ethnic groups. We undertook this study to see if there were any differences in the hand surface area between Caucasians, Orientals and Asians. It was done by tracing the hand outline and calculating the surface area. The study showed that there was no significant difference between the three ethnic groups in terms of hand surface area.

Forward and back aspiration during ST-elevation myocardial infarction: a feasibility study.

AIMS: The inability to optimise stent expansion fully whilst simultaneously preventing distal embolisation during ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) remains a clinical conundrum. We aimed to describe a newly devised angiographic strategy of "forward" and "back" aspiration that leads to more complete thrombus removal and prevention of distal embolisation, to allow high-pressure post-dilatation of the implanted stent to be performed. METHODS AND RESULTS: Forward aspiration was conducted with a conventional aspiration thrombectomy catheter, with bail-out aspiration thrombectomy for angiographically persistent thrombus utilising the larger bore 6 Fr (0.056") guide catheter extension system (GuideLiner; Vascular Solutions, Inc., Minneapolis, MN, USA). Back aspiration was undertaken with a deeply intubated GuideLiner or guide catheter with a vacuum induced within, extending to the inflated angioplasty balloon, to allow for proximal embolic protection during balloon deflation during all stages of the PCI procedure, including high-pressure post-dilatation of the stent to the visually estimated reference vessel diameter (RVD). Over a six-month period 30 consecutive cases were undertaken during working hours. Bail-out GuideLiner-assisted aspiration thrombectomy was performed in 9/30 cases because of inadequate thrombus removal with a conventional aspiration thrombectomy catheter. Back aspiration was performed in all cases. In 27/30 cases high-pressure post-dilatation of the stent was performed. The mean maximum post-dilatation balloon size and mean proximal reference vessel diameter did not significantly differ (3.60±0.41 mm vs. 3.65±0.45 mm, p=0.68). In all cases, implantation +/- post-dilatation of the stent to the visually estimated RVD was achievable without any deterioration in TIMI blood flow or myocardial blush grade. CONCLUSIONS: The strategy of forward and back aspiration to facilitate stent implantation and high-pressure post-dilatation during STEMI appears to be safe and effective. Randomised controlled trials are required to confirm the safety and efficacy of this newly devised angiographic strategy.

17ß-estradiol regulates giant vesicle formation via estrogen receptor-alpha in human breast cancer cells.

A significant proportion of the genes regulated by 17-beta-estradiol (E2) via estrogen receptor alpha (ERα) have roles in vesicle trafficking in breast cancer. Intracellular vesicle trafficking and extracellular vesicles have important roles in tumourigenesis. Here we report the discovery of giant (3-42µm) intracellular and extracellular vesicles (GVs) and the role of E2 on vesicle formation in breast cancer (BC) cell lines using three independent live cell imaging techniques. Large diameter vesicles, GVs were also identified in a patient-derived xenograft BC model, and in invasive breast carcinoma tissue. ERα-positive (MCF-7 and T47D) BC cell lines demonstrated a significant increase in GV formation after stimulation with E2 which was reversed by tamoxifen. ERα-negative (MDA-MB-231 and MDA-MB-468) BC cell lines produced GVs independently of E2 and tamoxifen. These results indicate the existence of both intracellular and extracellular vesicles with considerably larger dimensions than generally recognised with BC cells and suggest that the GVs are regulated by E2 via ERα in ERα-positive BC but by E2-independent mechanisms in ER-ve BC.

High-performance dispenser printed MA p-type Bi(0.5)Sb(1.5)Te(3) flexible thermoelectric generators for powering wireless sensor networks.

This work presents a novel method to synthesize p-type composite thermoelectric materials to print scalable thermoelectric generator (TEG) devices in a cost-effective way. A maximum ZT of 0.2 was achieved for mechanically alloyed (MA) p-type Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3 (8 wt % extra Te additive)-epoxy composite films cured at 250 °C. A 50% increase in Seebeck coefficient as a result of adding 8 wt % extra Te in stoichiometric Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3 contributed to the increase in ZT. To demonstrate cost-effective and scalable manufacturing, we fabricated a sixty element thermoelectric generator prototype with 5.0 mm × 600 µm × 120 µm printed dimensions on a custom designed polyimide substrate with thick metal contacts. The prototype TEG device produced a power output of 20.5 µW at 0.15 mA and 130 mV for a temperature difference of 20 K resulting in a device areal power density of 152 µW/cm(2). This power is sufficient for low power applications such as wireless sensor network (WSN) devices.

Enhanced performance of dispenser printed MA n-type Bi2Te3 composite thermoelectric generators.

This work presents performance advancements of dispenser printed composite thermoelectric materials and devices. Dispenser printed thick films allow for low-cost and scalable manufacturing of microscale energy harvesting devices. A maximum ZT value of 0.31 has been achieved for mechanically alloyed (MA) n-type Bi2Te3-epoxy composite films with 1 wt % Se cured at 350 °C. The enhancement of ZT is a result of increase in the electrical conductivity through the addition of Se, which ultimately lowers the sintering temperature (350 °C). A 62 single-leg thermoelectric generator (TEG) prototype with 5 mm ×700 µm × 120 µm printed element dimensions was fabricated on a custom designed polyimide substrate with thick metal contacts. The prototype device produced a power output of 25 µW at 0.23 mA current and 109 mV voltage for a temperature difference of 20 °C, which is sufficient for low power generation for autonomous microsystem applications.

Estrogen regulates vesicle trafficking gene expression in EFF-3, EFM-19 and MCF-7 breast cancer cells.

Estrogens are critical mediators of breast tumorigenesis. This occurs via the action of estrogens on the estrogen receptor (ER), which regulates the transcriptome of breast cancer cells. Despite the long history of the search for estrogen-regulated genes in breast cancer, knowledge of the E2-regulated transcriptome and its effects is incomplete. We used Affymetrix GeneChips to profile the effects of estradiol on the expression of genes in EFF-3, EFM-19 and MCF-7 cells. In addition to many well-characterized estrogen-regulated genes, this identified a novel group of genes that have roles in vesicle trafficking, including exocytosis. Recent evidence in the literature supports a role for vesicle trafficking in tumorigenesis. We focused on five genes (SYTL5, RAB27B, SNX24, GALNT4 and SLC12A2/NKCC1/BSC2) and confirmed their estrogen-regulation using quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR). qPCR also demonstrated that these five genes were expressed in invasive breast carcinoma tissue. Immunohistochemistry showed expression of SYTL5 in cells of normal breast ductal epithelium, ductal carcinoma in-situ (DCIS) and invasive breast carcinoma. The results suggest that a significant effect of estrogens is to regulate the expression of genes that affect diverse aspects of vesicle trafficking including exocytosis.

Targeting vesicle trafficking: an important approach to cancer chemotherapy.

Cancer is a common disease in Western society that can affect any organ system. It has a high morbidity and mortality despite advances in treatment over the last hundred years. There is a clear need for new approaches to cancer chemotherapy including the possibility of reducing systemic adverse effects associated with current treatments. Vesicle trafficking is an essential cellular process that is perhaps not fully recognized. There is mounting evidence that vesicle trafficking, including the release of extracellular microvesicles, is a highly important process in tumorigenesis. Diverse aspects of tumourigenesis including invasion, metastasis, cell cycle regulation, angiogenesis, tumor immune privilege, neoplastic coagulopathy and multidrug resistance can be explained by altered vesicle trafficking in cancer cells. This paper reviews the evidence in the scientific and patent literature for the role of vesicle trafficking in tumourigenesis and suggests a number of targets and strategies that may be important for cancer therapeutics.