Virtual Library Services for a Virtual University : User-Oriented Virtual Sites in an Open Library

La llegada de las tecnologías de la información, y su uso cada vez mayor y generalizado que se está haciendo de ellas, ha permitido para que una nueva situación aparezca que, a su vez, ha originado - de hecho, que ha precipitado - una serie de cambios de gran importancia en todos los niveles, pero especialmente en los niveles sociales, económicos y culturales. Este nueva escena ha tenido una gran influencia en el entorno pedagógico. De hecho, la aparición de nuevos modelos educativos como resultado de este cambio ha estado sucediendo de una manera continuada e ininterrumpida durante la década pasada. Estos cambios recientes en los sistemas actuales de enseñanza y de aprendizaje han significado un aumento y un cambio en el tipo de demandas hechas desde las bibliotecas y los centros de documentación.

TNF-alpha blockers in inflammatory bowel diseases: practical consensus recommendations and a user's guide.

More than seventy years after their initial characterisation, the aetiology of inflammatory bowel diseases remains elusive. A recent review evaluating the incidence trends of the last 25 years concluded that an increasing incidence has been observed almost worldwide. A north-south gradient is still found in Europe. Genetic associations are variably reproduced worldwide and indicate a strong impact of environmental factors. Tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) has been shown to play a critical role in the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). TNF-alpha blockers are biological agents that specifically target this key cytokine in the inflammatory process and have become a mainstay in the therapy of inflammatory bowel diseases. This paper reviews the necessary investigations before using such agents, the use of such agents in pregnancy and lactation, the role of co-immunosuppression, how to monitor efficacy and safety, dose-adaptation, and the decision as to when to switch to another TNF-alpha blocker. Finally it gives recommendations for special situations. Currently there are three TNF-alpha blockers available for clinical use in IBD in Switzerland: infliximab (Remicade), adalimumab (Humira) and certolizumab pegol (Cimzia). Infliximab is a chimeric monoclonal antibody composed of a human IgG1 constant region and a murine variable region and is administered intravenously. Adalimumab is a humanised monoclonal antibody, with both human IgG1 constant and variable regions. Certolizumab pegol is a pegylated, humanised monoclonal anti-TNF fragment antigen binding fragment. Both adalimumab and certolizumab pegol are administered by subcutaneous injection. The efficacy and safety of TNF-alpha blockers in Crohn's disease has been reviewed. The authors conclude that the three above-mentioned agents are effective in luminal Crohn's disease. In fistulizing Crohn's disease, TNF-alpha blockers other than infliximab require additional investigation.

Small nucleolar RNA expression profiling identifies potential prognostic markers in peripheral T-cell lymphoma.

Peripheral T-cell lymphoma (PTCL) is a rare, heterogeneous type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) that, in general, is associated with a poor clinical outcome. Therefore, a current major challenge is the discovery of new prognostic tools for this disease. In the present study, a cohort of 122 patients with PTCL was collected from a multicentric T-cell lymphoma consortium (TENOMIC). We analyzed the expression of 80 small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs) using high-throughput quantitative PCR. We demonstrate that snoRNA expression analysis may be useful in both the diagnosis of some subtypes of PTCL and the prognostication of both PTCL-not otherwise specified (PTCL-NOS; n = 26) and angio-immunoblastic T-cell lymphoma (AITL; n = 46) patients treated with chemotherapy. Like miRNAs, snoRNAs are globally down-regulated in tumor cells compared with their normal counterparts. In the present study, the snoRNA signature was robust enough to differentiate anaplastic large cell lymphoma (n = 32) from other PTCLs. For PTCL-NOS and AITL, we obtained 2 distinct prognostic signatures with a reduced set of 3 genes. Of particular interest was the prognostic value of HBII-239 snoRNA, which was significantly over-expressed in cases of AITL and PTCL-NOS that had favorable outcomes. Our results suggest that snoRNA expression profiles may have a diagnostic and prognostic significance for PTCL, offering new tools for patient care and follow-up.

Overview of coded light projection techniques for automatic 3D profiling

Obtaining automatic 3D profile of objects is one of the most important issues in computer vision. With this information, a large number of applications become feasible: from visual inspection of industrial parts to 3D reconstruction of the environment for mobile robots. In order to achieve 3D data, range finders can be used. Coded structured light approach is one of the most widely used techniques to retrieve 3D information of an unknown surface. An overview of the existing techniques as well as a new classification of patterns for structured light sensors is presented. This kind of systems belong to the group of active triangulation method, which are based on projecting a light pattern and imaging the illuminated scene from one or more points of view. Since the patterns are coded, correspondences between points of the image(s) and points of the projected pattern can be easily found. Once correspondences are found, a classical triangulation strategy between camera(s) and projector device leads to the reconstruction of the surface. Advantages and constraints of the different patterns are discussed

MicroRNA expression profiling in Imatinib-resistant Chronic Myeloid Leukemia patients without clinically significant ABL1-mutations.

The development of Imatinib Mesylate (IM), the first specific inhibitor of BCR-ABL1, has had a major impact in patients with Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML), establishing IM as the standard therapy for CML. Despite the clinical success obtained with the use of IM, primary resistance to IM and molecular evidence of persistent disease has been observed in 20-25% of IM treated patients. The existence of second generation TK inhibitors, which are effective in patients with IM resistance, makes identification of predictors of resistance to IM an important goal in CML. In this study, we have identified a group of 19 miRNAs that may predict clinical resistance to IM in patients with newly diagnosed CML.

Update of the FANTOM web resource: from mammalian transcriptional landscape to its dynamic regulation.

The international Functional Annotation Of the Mammalian Genomes 4 (FANTOM4) research collaboration set out to better understand the transcriptional network that regulates macrophage differentiation and to uncover novel components of the transcriptome employing a series of high-throughput experiments. The primary and unique technique is cap analysis of gene expression (CAGE), sequencing mRNA 5'-ends with a second-generation sequencer to quantify promoter activities even in the absence of gene annotation. Additional genome-wide experiments complement the setup including short RNA sequencing, microarray gene expression profiling on large-scale perturbation experiments and ChIP-chip for epigenetic marks and transcription factors. All the experiments are performed in a differentiation time course of the THP-1 human leukemic cell line. Furthermore, we performed a large-scale mammalian two-hybrid (M2H) assay between transcription factors and monitored their expression profile across human and mouse tissues with qRT-PCR to address combinatorial effects of regulation by transcription factors. These interdependent data have been analyzed individually and in combination with each other and are published in related but distinct papers. We provide all data together with systematic annotation in an integrated view as resource for the scientific community (http://fantom.gsc.riken.jp/4/). Additionally, we assembled a rich set of derived analysis results including published predicted and validated regulatory interactions. Here we introduce the resource and its update after the initial release.

Microarray profiling of mononuclear peripheral blood cells identifies novel candidate genes related to chemoradiation response in rectal cancer.

Preoperative chemoradiation significantly improves oncological outcome in locally advanced rectal cancer. However there is no effective method of predicting tumor response to chemoradiation in these patients. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells have emerged recently as pathology markers of cancer and other diseases, making possible their use as therapy predictors. Furthermore, the importance of the immune response in radiosensivity of solid organs led us to hypothesized that microarray gene expression profiling of peripheral blood mononuclear cells could identify patients with response to chemoradiation in rectal cancer. Thirty five 35 patients with locally advanced rectal cancer were recruited initially to perform the study. Peripheral blood samples were obtained before neaodjuvant treatment. RNA was extracted and purified to obtain cDNA and cRNA for hybridization of microarrays included in Human WG CodeLink bioarrays. Quantitative real time PCR was used to validate microarray experiment data. Results were correlated with pathological response, according to Mandard´s criteria and final UICC Stage (patients with tumor regression grade 1-2 and downstaging being defined as responders and patients with grade 3-5 and no downstaging as non-responders). Twenty seven out of 35 patients were finally included in the study. We performed a multiple t-test using Significance Analysis of Microarrays, to find those genes differing significantly in expression, between responders (n = 11) and non-responders (n = 16) to CRT. The differently expressed genes were: BC 035656.1, CIR, PRDM2, CAPG, FALZ, HLA-DPB2, NUPL2, and ZFP36. The measurement of FALZ (p = 0.029) gene expression level determined by qRT-PCR, showed statistically significant differences between the two groups. Gene expression profiling reveals novel genes in peripheral blood samples of mononuclear cells that could predict responders and non-responders to chemoradiation in patients with locally advanced rectal cancer. Moreover, our investigation added further evidence to the importance of mononuclear cells' mediated response in the neoadjuvant treatment of rectal cancer.

In vivo metabolic profiling of glioma-initiating cells using proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy at 14.1 Tesla.

In the last decade, evidence has emerged indicating that the growth of a vast majority of tumors including gliomas is sustained by a subpopulation of cancer cells with stem cell properties called cancer initiating cells. These cells are able to initiate and propagate tumors and constitute only a fraction of all tumor cells. In the present study, we showed that intracerebral injection of cultured glioma-initiating cells into nude mice produced fast growing tumors showing necrosis and gadolinium enhancement in MR images, whereas gliomas produced by injecting freshly purified glioma-initiating cells grew slowly and showed no necrosis and very little gadolinium enhancement. Using proton localized spectroscopy at 14.1 Tesla, decreasing trends of N-acetylaspartate, glutamate and glucose concentrations and an increasing trend of glycine concentration were observed near the injection site after injecting cultured glioma-initiating cells. In contrast to the spectra of tumors grown from fresh cells, those from cultured cells showed intense peaks of lipids, increased absolute concentrations of glycine and choline-containing compounds, and decreased concentrations of glutamine, taurine and total creatine, when compared with a contralateral non-tumor-bearing brain tissue. A decrease in concentrations of N-acetylaspartate and γ-aminobutyrate was found in both tumor phenotypes after solid tumor formation. Further investigation is needed to determine the cause of the dissimilarities between the tumors grown from cultured glioma-initiating cells and those from freshly purified glioma-initiating cells, both derived from human glioblastomas.

Towards the integration of Metalib, SFX and PAPI: How to change your metasearcher transparently to the user

To guarantee the success of a virtual library is essential that all users can access all the library resources independently of the user's location.

Object-oriented Bayesian networks for evaluating DIP-STR profiling results from unbalanced DNA mixtures.

The genetic characterization of unbalanced mixed stains remains an important area where improvement is imperative. In fact, with current methods for DNA analysis (Polymerase Chain Reaction with the SGM Plus™ multiplex kit), it is generally not possible to obtain a conventional autosomal DNA profile of the minor contributor if the ratio between the two contributors in a mixture is smaller than 1:10. This is a consequence of the fact that the major contributor's profile 'masks' that of the minor contributor. Besides known remedies to this problem, such as Y-STR analysis, a new compound genetic marker that consists of a Deletion/Insertion Polymorphism (DIP), linked to a Short Tandem Repeat (STR) polymorphism, has recently been developed and proposed elsewhere in literature [1]. The present paper reports on the derivation of an approach for the probabilistic evaluation of DIP-STR profiling results obtained from unbalanced DNA mixtures. The procedure is based on object-oriented Bayesian networks (OOBNs) and uses the likelihood ratio as an expression of the probative value. OOBNs are retained in this paper because they allow one to provide a clear description of the genotypic configuration observed for the mixed stain as well as for the various potential contributors (e.g., victim and suspect). These models also allow one to depict the assumed relevance relationships and perform the necessary probabilistic computations.

Gene expression profiling in breast cancer: understanding the molecular basis of histologic grade to improve prognosis.

BACKGROUND: Histologic grade in breast cancer provides clinically important prognostic information. However, 30%-60% of tumors are classified as histologic grade 2. This grade is associated with an intermediate risk of recurrence and is thus not informative for clinical decision making. We examined whether histologic grade was associated with gene expression profiles of breast cancers and whether such profiles could be used to improve histologic grading. METHODS: We analyzed microarray data from 189 invasive breast carcinomas and from three published gene expression datasets from breast carcinomas. We identified differentially expressed genes in a training set of 64 estrogen receptor (ER)-positive tumor samples by comparing expression profiles between histologic grade 3 tumors and histologic grade 1 tumors and used the expression of these genes to define the gene expression grade index. Data from 597 independent tumors were used to evaluate the association between relapse-free survival and the gene expression grade index in a Kaplan-Meier analysis. All statistical tests were two-sided. RESULTS: We identified 97 genes in our training set that were associated with histologic grade; most of these genes were involved in cell cycle regulation and proliferation. In validation datasets, the gene expression grade index was strongly associated with histologic grade 1 and 3 status; however, among histologic grade 2 tumors, the index spanned the values for histologic grade 1-3 tumors. Among patients with histologic grade 2 tumors, a high gene expression grade index was associated with a higher risk of recurrence than a low gene expression grade index (hazard ratio = 3.61, 95% confidence interval = 2.25 to 5.78; P < .001, log-rank test). CONCLUSIONS: Gene expression grade index appeared to reclassify patients with histologic grade 2 tumors into two groups with high versus low risks of recurrence. This approach may improve the accuracy of tumor grading and thus its prognostic value.