Angiogenesis-related gene expression profile with independent prognostic value in advanced ovarian carcinoma.

BACKGROUND Ovarian carcinoma is the most important cause of gynecological cancer-related mortality in Western societies. Despite the improved median overall survival in patients receiving chemotherapy regimens such as paclitaxel and carboplatin combination, relapse still occurs in most advanced diseased patients. Increased angiogenesis is associated with rapid recurrence and decreased survival in ovarian cancer. This study was planned to identify an angiogenesis-related gene expression profile with prognostic value in advanced ovarian carcinoma patients. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS RNAs were collected from formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded samples of 61 patients with III/IV FIGO stage ovarian cancer who underwent surgical cytoreduction and received a carboplatin plus paclitaxel regimen. Expression levels of 82 angiogenesis related genes were measured by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction using TaqMan low-density arrays. A 34-gene-profile which was able to predict the overall survival of ovarian carcinoma patients was identified. After a leave-one-out cross validation, the profile distinguished two groups of patients with different outcomes. Median overall survival and progression-free survival for the high risk group was 28.3 and 15.0 months, respectively, and was not reached by patients in the low risk group at the end of follow-up. Moreover, the profile maintained an independent prognostic value in the multivariate analysis. The hazard ratio for death was 2.3 (95% CI, 1.5 to 3.2; p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE It is possible to generate a prognostic model for advanced ovarian carcinoma based on angiogenesis-related genes using formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded samples. The present results are consistent with the increasing weight of angiogenesis genes in the prognosis of ovarian carcinoma.

Mientras los hombres maduran, las mujeres envejecen

El tratamiento diferencial y discriminatorio que existe en cuanto al devenir evolutivo de la mujer con respecto al del hombre es el tema principal de esta investigación.

Estados Unidos y Europa en la posguerra fría. Tres lecturas diferentes de un mismo período histórico

Este texto analiza el trato que se ha dado a la evolución de las relaciones transatlánticas en la literatura especializada en relaciones internacionales a nivel europeo y americano en el período comprendido entre enero de 1990 a diciembre de 2004

Hotusa hotels

Hotusa nace en 1977 fruto de la iniciativa de un grupo de hoteleros de Barcelona (España) que, ante la pujanza de las nuevas cadenas hoteleras, deciden unir sus fuerzas creando una organización que les preste servicios de comercialización de forma conjunta. Hoy en día Hotusa cuenta con más de 2.500 hoteles en 48 países de cuatro continentes y se configura como uno de los principales consorcios hoteleros a nivel mundial y el primero a nivel europeo. La organización está formada, entre otras, por las cadenas de hoteles independientes Hotusa Hotels y Elysées West Hotels; el representante hotelero Keytel; el tour operador Restel; la website de gestión y reserva on-line Hotelius.com, la compañía tecnológica IGM Web; la cadena Eurostars Hotels. El objetivo de Hotusa es el de dotar a hoteles independientes y pequeños grupos, de todas aquellas herramientas que puedan ayudarles a competir en igualdad de condiciones con las grandes cadenas hoteleras a nivel internacional. Comercialización, distribución, representación, tecnología, sistemas de calidad y aprovisionamientos son los puntos fuertes de la compañía, sobre los que gira la actividad tradicional. La segmentación en diferentes marcas y, en consecuencia, la adaptación a ellas de los servicios, constituye el gran reto de futuro de la organización. La sede central se encuentra en Barcelona (España), si bien cuentan con oficinas en Roma, Paris, Londres, Viena, Lisboa y Buenos Aires. En 2008 recibió el Premio Príncipe Felipe a la Excelencia Turística, otorgado por el Ministerio de Industria, Turismo y Comercio de España como reconocimiento a su contribución al incremento de la competitividad de la industria turística española así como a la consolidación de su posición en el mercado turístico internacional.

Quality assurance mechanisms in agrifood: The case of the Spanish fresh meat sector

The largest fresh meat brand names in Spain are analyzed here to studyhow quality is signaled in agribusiness and how the underlying quality-assurance organizations work. Results show, first, that organizationalform varies according to the specialization of the brand name.Publicly-controlled brand names are grounded on market contracting withindividual producers, providing stronger incentives. In contrast,private brands rely more on hierarchy, taking advantage of itssuperiority in solving specific coordination problems. Second, theseemingly redundant coexistence of several quality indicators for agiven product is explained in efficiency terms. Multiple brands areshown to be complementary, given their specialization in guaranteeingdifferent attributes of the product.

Preservació digital al núvol

Ara que ja ningú qüestiona les publicacions digitals, l'accés obert o els repositoris de tipus institucional o temàtic, cal co-mençar a treballar en els temes de preservació. Som responsables d'assegurar l'accés i l'ús futurs dels documents digitals, hagin nascut en format digital o siguin fruit dels projectes de digitalització. En aquest article es parla sobre la preservació digital i els tipus de continguts, així com els conceptes, tipologies, costos i usos de l'anomenat «núvol». També es mostra un exemple de núvol privat, la preservació de tesis doctorals del TDX i es comenta una experiència de núvol públic, el DuraCloud.

Constraints on additional Z' gauge bosons from a precise measurement of the Z mass

We analyze the constraints on the mass and mixing of a superstring-inspired E6 Z' neutral gauge boson that follow from the recent precise Z mass measurements and show that they depend very sensitively on the assumed value of the W mass and also, to a lesser extent, on the top-quark mass.

Threshold effects on heavy quark production in gamma gamma interactions

The exchange of gluons between heavy quarks produced in e+e- interactions results in an enhancement of their production near threshold. We study QCD threshold effects in collisions. The results are relevant to heavy quark production by beamstrahlung and laser backscattering in future linear collider experiments. Detailed predictions for top-, bottom-, and charm-quark production are presented.

Empirical determination of the very high energy heavy quark cross section from nonaccelerator data

To cosmic rays incident near the horizon the Earth's atmosphere represents a beam dump with a slant depth reaching 36 000 g cm-2 at 90. The prompt decay of a heavy quark produced by very high energy cosmic ray showers will leave an unmistakable signature in this dump. We translate the failure of experiments to detect such a signal into an upper limit on the heavy quark hadroproduction cross section in the energy region beyond existing accelerators. Our results disfavor any rapid growth of the cross section or the gluon structure function beyond conservative estimates based on perturbative QCD.

Signatures of CP violation in the presence of multiple b-pair production at hadron colliders

We calculate the production of two b-quark pairs in hadron collisions. Sources of multiple pairs are multiple interactions and higher order perturbative QCD mechanisms. We subsequently investigate the competing effects of multiple b-pair production on measurements of CP violation: (i) the increase in event rate with multiple b-pair cross sections which may reach values of the order of 1 b in the presence of multiple interactions and (ii) the dilution of b versus b tagging efficiency because of the presence of events with four B mesons. The impact of multiple B-meson production is small unless the cross section for producing a single pair exceeds 1 mb. We show that even for larger values of the cross section the competing effects (i) and (ii) roughly compensate so that there is no loss in the precision with which CP-violating CKM angles can be determined.