Photostrictive Actuators Based on Freestanding Ferroelectric Membranes.

Complex oxides offer a wide range of functional properties, and recent advances in the fabrication of freestanding membranes of these oxides are adding new mechanical degrees of freedom to this already rich functional ecosystem. Here, photoactuation is demonstrated in freestanding thin film resonators of ferroelectric Barium Titanate (BaTiO3) and paraelectric Strontium Titanate (SrTiO3). The free-standing films, transferred onto perforated supports, act as nano-drums, oscillating at their natural resonance frequency when illuminated by a frequency-modulated laser. The light-induced deflections in the ferroelectric BaTiO3 membranes are two orders of magnitude larger than in the paraelectric SrTiO3 ones. Time-resolved X-ray micro-diffraction under illumination and temperature-dependent holographic interferometry provide combined evidence for the photostrictive strain in BaTiO3 originating from a partial screening of ferroelectric polarization by photo-excited carriers, which decreases the tetragonality of the unit cell. These findings showcase the potential of photostrictive freestanding ferroelectric films as wireless actuators operated by light.

Proliferation, Migration and Invasion of Breast Cancer Cell Lines Are Inhibited by 1,5-Disubstituted Tetrazol-1,2,3-triazole Hybrids through Interaction with p53.

The anticarcinogenic potential of a series of 1,5-disubstituted tetrazole-1,2,3-triazole hybrids (T-THs) was evaluated in the breast cancer (BC)-derived cell lines MCF-7 (ER+, PR+, and HER2-), CAMA-1 (ER+, PR+/-, and HER2-), SKBR-3 (ER+, PR+, and HER2+), and HCC1954 (ER+, PR+, and HER2+). The T-THs 7f, 7l, and 7g inhibited the proliferation of MCF-7 and CAMA-1, HCC1954, and SKBR-3 cells, respectively. The compounds with stronger effect in terms of migration and invasion inhibition were 7o, 7b, 7n, and 7k for the CAMA-1, MCF-7, HCC1954, and SKBR-3 cells respectively. Interestingly, these T-THs were the compounds with a fluorine present in their structures. To discover a possible target protein, a molecular docking analysis was performed for p53, p38, p58, and JNK1. The T-THs presented a higher affinity for p53, followed by JNK1, p58, and lastly p38. The best-predicted affinity for p53 showed interactions between the T-THs and both the DNA fragment and the protein. These results provide an opportunity for these compounds to be studied as potential drug candidates for breast cancer treatment.

Glycemic Challenge Is Associated with the Rapid Cellular Activation of the Locus Ceruleus and Nucleus of Solitary Tract: Circumscribed Spatial Analysis of Phosphorylated MAP Kinase Immunoreactivity.

Rodent studies indicate that impaired glucose utilization or hypoglycemia is associated with the cellular activation of neurons in the medulla (Winslow, 1733) (MY), believed to control feeding behavior and glucose counterregulation. However, such activation has been tracked primarily within hours of the challenge, rather than sooner, and has been poorly mapped within standardized brain atlases. Here, we report that, within 15 min of receiving 2-deoxy-d-glucose (2-DG; 250 mg/kg, i.v.), which can trigger glucoprivic feeding behavior, marked elevations were observed in the numbers of rhombic brain (His, 1893) (RB) neuronal cell profiles immunoreactive for the cellular activation marker(s), phosphorylated p44/42 MAP kinases (phospho-ERK1/2), and that some of these profiles were also catecholaminergic. We mapped their distributions within an open-access rat brain atlas and found that 2-DG-treated rats (compared to their saline-treated controls) displayed greater numbers of phospho-ERK1/2+ neurons in the locus ceruleus (Wenzel and Wenzel, 1812) (LC) and the nucleus of solitary tract (>1840) (NTS). Thus, the 2-DG-activation of certain RB neurons is more rapid than perhaps previously realized, engaging neurons that serve multiple functional systems and which are of varying cellular phenotypes. Mapping these populations within standardized brain atlas maps streamlines their targeting and/or comparable mapping in preclinical rodent models of disease.

Developing Quality Programs for Cell-Free DNA (cfDNA) Extraction from Peripheral Blood.

BACKGROUND: Cell-free DNA (cfDNA) analysis using peripheral blood represents an exciting, minimally invasive technology for cancer diagnosis and monitoring. The reliability of testing is dependent on the accuracy and sensitivity of specific molecular analyses to detect tumor-associated genomic variants and on the quantity and quality of cfDNA available for testing. Specific guidelines for standardization and design of appropriate quality programs focused specifically on cfDNA isolation are lacking, as are standardized quality control reagents. CONTENT: This report describes and illustrates quality control and quality assurance processes, supported by generation of in-house quality control material, to ensure the reliability of the preanalytical phase of cfDNA analysis. SUMMARY: We have developed a robust quality program to support high-volume automated cfDNA extraction from peripheral blood by implementing processes and procedures designed to monitor the adequacy of specimen collection, specimen stability, efficiency of cfDNA extraction, and cfDNA quality.

Who is the Teacher and Who is the Student? The Dual Service- and Engaged-Learning Pedagogical Model of Anatomy Academy.

Anatomy Academy is a simultaneous service-learning experience for preprofessional school undergraduate students and preclinical professional students acting as classroom paraprofessional teachers (Mentors), and engaged-learning experience for fourth to sixth grade elementary school children (Students). Using didactic and kinesthetic active learning teaching strategies in small-group classroom environments, Mentors taught anatomy, physiology, and nutrition concepts to Students. In this study of the program's early years (2012-2014), overall objectives of improving Mentors' pedagogical confidence; and Students' science interest, science knowledge, and exercise self-efficacy were assessed. Mentors showed (89% response of 595 surveyed) improvement in content delivery (P < .001), student engagement (P < .001), classroom management (P < .001), and professionalism (P = .0001). Postprogram Mentor reflections were categorized into 7 major themes that demonstrated personal growth through the service-learning opportunity: (1) realization of an ability to make a difference in the world now; (2) acknowledgment of the importance of listening in teaching; (3) recognition that lives can and will change with "a little love"; (4) insight into the effectiveness of guiding Students through material rather than lecturing; (5) awareness of the value of respect in the learning environment; (6) cognizance of the power of individualized attention to motivate Students; and (7) reflection of one's own personal growth through the open influence of Students. Students showed (88% response of 1259 surveyed) improvement in science knowledge (P = .014) and exercise self-efficacy (P = .038), but not science interest (P = .371). Thus, while Students are learning more science and becoming more aware of their health, we need to be more overt in our presence as scientists in the educational arena.

Whole-Exome Sequencing of Metastatic Cancer and Biomarkers of Treatment Response.

IMPORTANCE: Understanding molecular mechanisms of response and resistance to anticancer therapies requires prospective patient follow-up and clinical and functional validation of both common and low-frequency mutations. We describe a whole-exome sequencing (WES) precision medicine trial focused on patients with advanced cancer. OBJECTIVE: To understand how WES data affect therapeutic decision making in patients with advanced cancer and to identify novel biomarkers of response. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PATIENTS: Patients with metastatic and treatment-resistant cancer were prospectively enrolled at a single academic center for paired metastatic tumor and normal tissue WES during a 19-month period (February 2013 through September 2014). A comprehensive computational pipeline was used to detect point mutations, indels, and copy number alterations. Mutations were categorized as category 1, 2, or 3 on the basis of actionability; clinical reports were generated and discussed in precision tumor board. Patients were observed for 7 to 25 months for correlation of molecular information with clinical response. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Feasibility, use of WES for decision making, and identification of novel biomarkers. RESULTS: A total of 154 tumor-normal pairs from 97 patients with a range of metastatic cancers were sequenced, with a mean coverage of 95X and 16 somatic alterations detected per patient. In total, 16 mutations were category 1 (targeted therapy available), 98 were category 2 (biologically relevant), and 1474 were category 3 (unknown significance). Overall, WES provided informative results in 91 cases (94%), including alterations for which there is an approved drug, there are therapies in clinical or preclinical development, or they are considered drivers and potentially actionable (category 1-2); however, treatment was guided in only 5 patients (5%) on the basis of these recommendations because of access to clinical trials and/or off-label use of drugs. Among unexpected findings, a patient with prostate cancer with exceptional response to treatment was identified who harbored a somatic hemizygous deletion of the DNA repair gene FANCA and putative partial loss of function of the second allele through germline missense variant. Follow-up experiments established that loss of FANCA function was associated with platinum hypersensitivity both in vitro and in patient-derived xenografts, thus providing biologic rationale and functional evidence for his extreme clinical response. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: The majority of advanced, treatment-resistant tumors across tumor types harbor biologically informative alterations. The establishment of a clinical trial for WES of metastatic tumors with prospective follow-up of patients can help identify candidate predictive biomarkers of response.

Increased service use following Medicaid expansion is mostly temporary: evidence from California's low income health program.

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has already resulted in expanded eligibility for Medicaid in 27 states, including California, as of 2014. One major concern about the Medicaid expansion is that a high level of need among the newly eligible may lead to runaway costs, which could overwhelm state budgets when federal subsidies no longer cover 100 percent of the expansion population's costs in 2017. Although cost increases as a result of the newly eligible are likely, an even more important question is whether these increases will be temporary or permanent. Evidence from California's Low Income Health Program (LIHP) suggests that cost and utilization increases among newly eligible Medicaid beneficiaries will be mostly temporary. This policy brief presents data showing a significant decline in the use of hospital inpatient care and in emergency room visits after one year of enrollment in LIHP, and a stable, not increasing, rate of outpatient service use. Because LIHP provided health care coverage from 2011 to 2013 in advance of the full Medicaid expansion, our findings suggest that early and significant investments in infrastructure and in improving the process of care delivery can effectively address the pent-up demand for health care services of previously uninsured populations.

MYB-NFIB gene fusion in adenoid cystic carcinoma of the breast with special focus paid to the solid variant with basaloid features.

Adenoid cystic carcinomas (ACCs) from various anatomical sites harbor a translocation t(6;9)(q22-23;p23-24), resulting in MYB-NFIB gene fusion. This gene fusion is not well studied in mammary ACCs, and there are no studies examining this abnormality in solid variant of ACC with basaloid features (SBACC), a high-grade variant thought to behave more aggressively than ACCs with conventional histologic growth. Our aim was to investigate the frequency of MYB-NFIB gene fusion in mammary ACCs with a focus paid to SBACC. MYB rearrangement and MYB-NFIB fusion were assessed by fluorescence in situ hybridization and reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction, respectively. Histologic features and the presence of MYB rearrangement were correlated with clinical outcome. MYB rearrangement was present in 7 (22.6%) of 31 mammary ACCs (5/15 [33.3%] ACCs with conventional growth; 2/16 [12.5%] SBACCs). One patient with conventional ACC developed distant metastasis, and no patients had axillary lymph node involvement by ACC (mean follow-up, 34 months; range, 12-84 months). Two patients with SBACC had axillary lymph node involvement at initial surgery, and 2 additional patients experienced disease recurrence (1 local, 1 distant; mean follow-up, 50 months; range, 9-192 months). MYB-NFIB fusion status did not correlate with clinical outcome in studied patients. We confirm that MYB-NFIB gene fusion is observed in mammary ACCs and that a subset lacks this abnormality. This study is the first to confirm the presence of MYB rearrangement in SBACC. Additional validation with long-term follow-up is needed to determine the relationship, if any, between MYB-NFIB gene fusion and clinical outcome.

Biobanking after robotic-assisted radical prostatectomy: a quality assessment of providing prostate tissue for RNA studies.

BACKGROUND: RNA quality is believed to decrease with ischaemia time, and therefore open radical prostatectomy has been advantageous in allowing the retrieval of the prostate immediately after its devascularization. In contrast, robotic-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomies (RALP) require the completion of several operative steps before the devascularized prostate can be extirpated, casting doubt on the validity of this technique as a source for obtaining prostatic tissue. We seek to establish the integrity of our biobanking process by measuring the RNA quality of specimens derived from robotic-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy. METHODS: We describe our biobanking process and report the RNA quality of prostate specimens using advanced electrophoretic techniques (RNA Integrity Numbers, RIN). Using multivariate regression analysis we consider the impact of various clinicopathological correlates on RNA integrity. RESULTS: Our biobanking process has been used to acquire 1709 prostates, and allows us to retain approximately 40% of the prostate specimen, without compromising the histopathological evaluation of patients. We collected 186 samples from 142 biobanked prostates, and demonstrated a mean RIN of 7.25 (standard deviation 1.64) in 139 non-stromal samples, 73% of which had a RIN ≥ 7. Multivariate regression analysis revealed cell type--stromal/epithelial and benign/malignant--and prostate volume to be significant predictors of RIN, with unstandardized coefficients of 0.867(p = 0.001), 1.738(p < 0.001) and -0.690(p = 0.009) respectively. A mean warm ischaemia time of 120 min (standard deviation 30 min) was recorded, but multivariate regression analysis did not demonstrate a relationship with RIN within the timeframe of the RALP procedure. CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrate the robustness of our protocol--representing the concerted efforts of dedicated urology and pathology departments--in generating RNA of sufficient concentration and quality, without compromising the histopathological evaluation and diagnosis of patients. The ischaemia time associated with our prostatectomy technique using a robotic platform does not negatively impact on biobanking for RNA studies.

Conocimiento y uso de métodos anticonceptivos y su relación con determinadas características personales de las mujeres en edad fértil en el AAHH: Montenegro y la Urb. Amakella. Lima, 1997 / Knowledge and use of contraceptive methods and its relation with determined characteristic personal of the women in fertile age in AAHH: Montenegro and urb. Amakella Lima, 1997

El presente trabajo se realizó en el AA.HH. Montenegro y la Urb. Amakella ubicados en el distrito de San Juan de Lurigancho y San Martín de Porres, Lima Perú, respectivamente, durante los meses de setiembre y octubre de 1997, se estudiaron 255 mujeres en edad fértil, utilizando el método descriptivo-prospectivo-observacional y de corte transversal. El objetivo del presente, es determinar el conocimiento y uso de métodos anticonceptivos y su relación con determinadas características personales de las mujeres en edad fértil, utilizando como instrumento una encuesta de tipo estructurada. El instrumento fue validado mediante la prueba r de Pearson, considerando significativo > 0.01. De la población estudiada resultó que las mujeres en edad fértil que tenían vida marital, menor grado de instrucción y menor número de embarazos tienen mayor conocimiento sobre métodos anticonceptivos, en cuanto al conocimiento sobre métodos anticonceptivos no existía relación con el uso de esos asimismo, las mujeres de mayor edad usaban más métodos anticocneptivos que las mujeres jóvenes y el mayor uso de estos está asociada al mayor número de embarazos.