An in vitro comparison of the incorporation, growth, and chondrogenic potential of human bone marrow versus adipose tissue mesenchymal stem cells in clinically relevant cell scaffolds used for cartilage repair

Aim. To compare the incorporation, growth, and chondrogenic potential of bone marrow (BM) and adipose tissue (AT) mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in scaffolds used for cartilage repair. Methods. Human BM and AT MSCs were isolated, culture expanded, and characterised using standard protocols, then seeded into 2 different scaffolds, Chondro-Gide or Alpha Chondro Shield. Cell adhesion, incorporation, and viable cell growth were assessed microscopically and following calcein AM/ethidium homodimer (Live/Dead) staining. Cell-seeded scaffolds were treated with chondrogenic inducers for 28 days. Extracellular matrix deposition and soluble glycosaminoglycan (GAG) release into the culture medium was measured at day 28 by histology/immunohistochemistry and dimethylmethylene blue assay, respectively. Results. A greater number of viable MSCs from either source adhered and incorporated into Chondro-Gide than into Alpha Chondro Shield. In both cell scaffolds, this incorporation represented less than 2% of the cells that were seeded. There was a marked proliferation of BM MSCs, but not AT MSCs, in Chondro-Gide. MSCs from both sources underwent chondrogenic differentiation following induction. However, cartilaginous extracellular matrix deposition was most marked in Chondro- Gide seeded with BM MSCs. Soluble GAG secretion increased in chondrogenic versus control conditions. There was no marked difference in GAG secretion by MSCs from either cell source. Conclusion. Chondro-Gide and Alpha Chondro Shield were permissive to the incorporation and chondrogenic differentiation of human BM and AT MSCs. Chondro-Gide seeded with BM MSCs demonstrated the greatest increase in MSC number and deposition of a cartilaginous tissue.

Placing immigrant incorporation: Identity, trust, and civic engagement in Little Havana

Immigrant incorporation in the United States has been a topic of concern and debate since the founding of the nation. Scholars have studied many aspects of the phenomenon, including economic, political, social, and spatial. The most influential paradigm of immigrant incorporation in the US has been, and continues to be, assimilation, and the most important place in and scale at which incorporation occurs is the neighborhood. This dissertation captures both of these integral aspects of immigrant incorporation through its consideration of three dimensions of assimilation – identity, trust, and civic engagement – among Latin American immigrants and American-born Latinos in Little Havana, a predominantly immigrant neighborhood in Miami, Florida. Data discussed in the dissertation were gathered through surveys and interviews as part of a National Science Foundation-funded study carried out in 2005-2006. The combination of quantitative and qualitative data allows for a nuanced understanding of how immigrant incorporation is occurring locally during the first decade of the twentieth century. Findings reveal that overall Latin American immigrants and their American-born offspring appear to be becoming American with regard to their ethnic and racial identities quickly, evidenced through the salience and active employment of panethnic labels, while at the same time they are actively reshaping the identificational structure. The Latino population, however, is not monolithic and is cleaved by diversity within the group, including country of origin and socioeconomic status. These same factors impede group cohesion in terms of trust and its correlate, community. Nevertheless, the historically dominant ancestry group in Little Havana – Cubans – has been able to reach notable levels of trust and build and conserve a more solid sense of community than non-Cuban residents. With respect to civic engagement, neighborhood residents generally participate at rates lower than the overall US population and ethnic subpopulations. This is not the case for political engagement, however, where self-reported voting registration and turnout in Little Havana surpasses that of most benchmarked populations. The empirical evidence presented in this dissertation on the case of Latinos in Little Havana challenges the ways that identity, trust, and civic engagement are conceptualized and theorized, especially among immigrants to the US.

Provocative feature deletion: a syntactic model of agreement alternations in noun incorporation contexts

The relationship between noun incorporation (NI) and the agreement alternations that occur in such contexts (NI Transitivity Alternations) remains inadequately understood. Three interpretations of these alternations (Baker, Aranovich & Golluscio 2005; Mithun 1984; Rosen 1989) are shown to be undermined by foundational or mechanical issues. I propose a syntactic model, adopting Branigan's (2011) interpretation of NI as the result of “provocative” feature valuation, which triggers generation of a copy of the object that subsequently merges inside the verb. Provocation triggers a reflexive Refine operation that deletes duplicate features from chains, making them interpretable for Transfer. NI Transitivity Alternations result from variant deletion preferences exhibited during Refine. I argue that the NI contexts discussed (Generic NI, Partial NI and Double Object NI) result from different restrictions on phonetic and semantic identity in chain formation. This provides us with a consistent definition of NI Transitivity Alternations across contexts, as well as a new typology that distinguishes NI contexts, rather than incorporating languages.

Changes in [18F]Fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose incorporation induced by doxorubicin and anti-HER antibodies by breast cancer cells modulated by co-treatment with metformin and its effects on intracellular signalling

Peer reviewed

Changes in [18F]Fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose incorporation induced by doxorubicin and anti-HER antibodies by breast cancer cells modulated by co-treatment with metformin and its effects on intracellular signalling

Peer reviewed

Changes in [18F]Fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose incorporation induced by doxorubicin and anti-HER antibodies by breast cancer cells modulated by co-treatment with metformin and its effects on intracellular signalling

Peer reviewed

Investing in the Homeland: Foreign Assets and Patterns of Immigrant Economic Incorporation

This dissertation consists of three separate studies that examine patterns of immigrant incorporation in the United States. The first study tests competing hypotheses derived from conflicting theoretical frameworks−transnational perspective and cross-national framework− to determine whether transnational engagement and incorporation are concurrent processes among Chinese, Indian, and Mexican immigrants. This study measures transnational engagement and incorporation as home and home country asset ownership using multi-panel, nationally representative data from the New Immigrant Survey (NIS) collected in 2003 and 2007. Results support a cross-border framework and indicate that transnational asset ownership decreases among all immigrant groups, while U.S. asset ownership increases. Findings from this study also indicate that due to disadvantaged pre-migration SES and low human capital, Mexican immigrants are less likely than other immigrants to own home country assets during the year after receiving their green card.

The second study examines the doubly disadvantaged position of elderly immigrants in the U.S. wealth distribution by applying the life course perspective to the dominance-differentiation theory of immigrant wealth stratification. I analyze elderly immigrant wealth in respect to U.S.-born seniors and younger immigrant cohorts using two data sets: the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) and the New Immigrant Survey (NIS). The Survey of Income and Program Participation (2001 to 2005) is a nationally representative survey of U.S. households. The first series of analyses reveals a significant wealth gap between U.S.- and foreign-born seniors which is most pronounced among the wealthiest households in my sample; however, U.S. tenure explains much of this difference. The second series of analyses suggests that elderly immigrants experience greater barriers to incorporation compared to their younger counterparts.

In the third study, I apply a transnational lens to the forms-of-capital and opportunity structure models of entrepreneurship in order to analyze the role of foreign resources in immigrant business start-ups. I propose that home country property use represents financial, social, and class resources that facilitate immigrant entrepreneurship. I test my hypotheses using survey data on Latin American immigrants from the Comparative Immigrant Entrepreneurship Project. Findings from these analyses suggest that home country asset ownership provides financial and social capital that is related to an increased likelihood of immigrant entrepreneurship.

Risk Prediction for Epithelial Ovarian Cancer in 11 United States-Based Case-Control Studies: Incorporation of Epidemiologic Risk Factors and 17 Confirmed Genetic Loci.

Previously developed models for predicting absolute risk of invasive epithelial ovarian cancer have included a limited number of risk factors and have had low discriminatory power (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) < 0.60). Because of this, we developed and internally validated a relative risk prediction model that incorporates 17 established epidemiologic risk factors and 17 genome-wide significant single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) using data from 11 case-control studies in the United States (5,793 cases; 9,512 controls) from the Ovarian Cancer Association Consortium (data accrued from 1992 to 2010). We developed a hierarchical logistic regression model for predicting case-control status that included imputation of missing data. We randomly divided the data into an 80% training sample and used the remaining 20% for model evaluation. The AUC for the full model was 0.664. A reduced model without SNPs performed similarly (AUC = 0.649). Both models performed better than a baseline model that included age and study site only (AUC = 0.563). The best predictive power was obtained in the full model among women younger than 50 years of age (AUC = 0.714); however, the addition of SNPs increased the AUC the most for women older than 50 years of age (AUC = 0.638 vs. 0.616). Adapting this improved model to estimate absolute risk and evaluating it in prospective data sets is warranted.

Seawater carbonate chemistry and impacts of calcium and carbonate ion concentration on Mg and Sr incorporation in cultured benthic foraminifera (Ammonia tepida and Heterostegina depressa), 2011

Laboratory culture experiments were conducted to determine effects of seawater carbonate ion concentration ([CO32-]), and thereby calcite saturation state, on Mg and Sr incorporation into calcite of two species of shallow-water benthic foraminifera: Ammonia tepida and Heterostegina depressa. Impact on Mg and Sr incorporation by increased seawater [CO32-] and thereby higher calcite saturation state, is absent in either species. Comparison to results from a similar culturing experiment, in which calcite saturation state was varied as a function of [Ca2+], reveals that saturation state affects incorporation of Mg and Sr through calcium- rather than carbonate availability. The similarity in response by both species is surprising since the average Mg/Ca ratio is ~ 70 times higher in H. depressa than in A. tepida. Furthermore, these results suggest that the ions involved in biomineralization (i.e. Ca2+ and DIC) are processed by separate cellular transport mechanisms. The similar response of Mg and Sr incorporation in this study suggests that only differences in the Ca2+ transport mechanism affect divalent cation partitioning.

Plus-value de réévaluation, incorporation au capital et réduction de capital après l'arrêté royal du 18 décembre 2015

info:eu-repo/semantics/published

On the Incorporation of Psychologically-Driven 'Music' Preference Models for Music Recommendation

There are hundreds of millions of songs available to the public, necessitating the use of music recommendation systems to discover new music. Currently, such systems account for only the quantitative musical elements of songs, failing to consider aspects of human perception of music and alienating the listener’s individual preferences from recommendations. Our research investigated the relationships between perceptual elements of music, represented by the MUSIC model, with computational musical features generated through The Echo Nest, to determine how a psychological representation of music preference can be incorporated into recommendation systems to embody an individual’s music preferences. Our resultant model facilitates computation of MUSIC factors using The Echo Nest features, and can potentially be integrated into recommendation systems for improved performance.

Incorporation of Hysteretic Effects in Model-Order Reduction Analysis of Magnetic Devices

The ability to predict the properties of magnetic materials in a device is essential to ensuring the correct operation and optimization of the design as well as the device behavior over a wide range of input frequencies. Typically, development and simulation of wide-bandwidth models requires detailed, physics-based simulations that utilize significant computational resources. Balancing the trade-offs between model computational overhead and accuracy can be cumbersome, especially when the nonlinear effects of saturation and hysteresis are included in the model. This study focuses on the development of a system for analyzing magnetic devices in cases where model accuracy and computational intensity must be carefully and easily balanced by the engineer. A method for adjusting model complexity and corresponding level of detail while incorporating the nonlinear effects of hysteresis is presented that builds upon recent work in loss analysis and magnetic equivalent circuit (MEC) modeling. The approach utilizes MEC models in conjunction with linearization and model-order reduction techniques to process magnetic devices based on geometry and core type. The validity of steady-state permeability approximations is also discussed.

Soft tissue sarcoma: biology and therapeutic correlates

Soft tissue sarcomas (STS) comprise a heterogenenous group of greater than 50 malignancies of putative mesenchymal cell origin and as such they may arise in diverse tissue types in various anatomical locations throughout the whole body. Collectively they account for approximately 1% of all human malignancies yet have a spectrum of aggressive behaviours amongst their subtypes. They thus pose a particular challenge to manage and remain an under investigated group of cancers with no generally applicable new therapies in the past 40 years and an overall 5-year survival rate that remains stagnant at around 50%. From September 2000 to July 2006 I undertook a full time post-doctoral level research fellowship at the MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA in the department of Surgical Oncology to investigate the biology of soft tissue sarcoma and test novel anti- sarcoma adenovirus-based therapy in the preclinical nude rat model of isolated limb perfusion against human sarcoma xenografts. This work, in collaboration with colleagues as indicated herein, led to a number of publications in the scientific literature furthering our understanding of the malignant phenotype of sarcoma and reported preclinical studies with wild-type p53, in a replication deficient adenovirus vector, and oncolytic adenoviruses administered by isolated limb perfusion. Additional collaborative and pioneering preclinical studies reported the molecular imaging of sarcoma response to systemically delivered therapeutic phage RGD-4c AAVP. Doxorubicin chemotherapy is the single most active broadly applicable anti-sarcoma chemotherapeutic yet only has an approximate 30% overall response rate with additional breakthrough tumour progression and recurrence after initial chemo-responsiveness further problematic features in STS management. Doxorubicin is a substrate for the multi- drug resistance (mdr) gene product p-glycoprotein drug efflux pump and exerts its main mode of action by induction of DNA double-strand breaks during the S-phase of the cell cycle. Two papers in my thesis characterise different aspects of chemoresistance in sarcoma. The first shows that wild-type p53 suppresses Protein Kinase Calpha (PKCα) phosphorylation (and activation) of p-glycoprotein by transcriptional repression of PKCα through a Sp-1 transcription factor binding site in its -244/-234 promoter region. The second paper demonstrates that Rad51 (a central mediator of homologous recombination repair of double strand breaks) has elevated levels in sarcoma and particularly in the S- G2 phase of the cell cycle. Suppression of Rad51 with small interfering RNA in sarcoma cell culture led to doxorubicin chemosensitisation. Reintroduction of wild-type p53 into STS cell lines resulted in decreased Rad51 protein and mRNA expression via transcriptional repression of the Rad51 promoter through increased AP-2 binding. In light of poor response rates to chemotherapy, escape from local control portends a poor prognosis for patients with sarcoma. Two papers in my thesis characterise aspects of sarcoma angiogenesis, invasion and metastasis. Human sarcoma samples were found to have high levels of matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) with expression levels that correlated with p53 mutational status. MMP-9 is known to degrade extracellular collagen, contribute to the control of the angiogenic switch necessary in primary tumour progression and facilitate invasion and metastasis. Reconstitution of wild-type p53 function led to decreased levels of MMP-9 protein and mRNA as well as zymography-assessed MMP-9 proteolytic activity and decreased tumour cell invasiveness. Reintroduction of wild-type p53 into human sarcoma xenografts in-vivo decreased tumour growth and MMP-9 protein expression. Wild-type p53 was found to suppress mmp-9 transcription via decreased binding of NF-κB to its -607/-595 mmp-9 promoter element. Studies on the role of the VEGF165 in sarcoma found that sarcoma cells stably transfected with VEGF165 formed more aggressive xenografted tumours with increased vascularity, growth rate, metastasis, and resistance to chemotherapy. Use of the anti-VEGFR2 antibody DC101 enhanced doxorubicin sensitivity at sub-conventional dosing, inhibited tumour growth, decreased development of metastases, and reduced tumour micro-vessel density while increasing the vessel maturation index. These effects were explained primarily through effects on endothelial cells (e.c.s), rather than the tumour cells per se, where DC101 induced e.c. sensitivity to doxorubicin and suppressed e.c. production of MMPs. The p53 tumour suppressor pathway is the most frequently mutated pathway in sarcoma. Recapitulation of wild-type p53 function in sarcoma exerts a number of anti-cancer outcomes such as growth arrest, resensitisation to chemotherapy, suppression of invasion, and attenuation of angiogenesis. Using a modified nude rat-human sarcoma xenograft model for isolated limb perfusion (ILP) delivery of wild-type p53 in a replication deficient adenovirus vector I showed that functionally competent wild-type p53 could be delivered to and detected in human leiomyosarcoma xenografts confirming preclinical feasibility - although not efficacious due to low transgene expression. Viral fibre modification to express the RGD tripeptide motif led to greater viral uptake by sarcoma cells in vitro (transductional targeting) and changing the transgene promoter to a response element active in cells with active telomerase expression restricted the transgene expression to the tumour intracellular environment (transcriptional targeting). Delivery of the fibre-modified, selectively replication proficient oncolytic adenovirus Ad.hTC.GFP/ E1a.RGD by ILP demonstrated a more robust, and tumour-restricted, transgene expression with evidence of anti-sarcoma effect confirmed microscopically. Collaborative studies using the fibre modified phage RGD-4C AAVP confirmed that systemic delivery specifically, efficiently, and repeatedly targets human sarcoma xenografts, binds to αv integrins in tumours, and demonstrates a durable, though heterogeneous, transgene expression of 1-4 weeks. Incorporation of the Herpes Simplex Virus thymidine kinase (HSVtk) transgene into RGD-4C AAVP permitted CT-PET spatial and temporal molecular imaging in vivo of transgene expression and allowed quantification of tumour metabolic activity both before and after interval administration of a systemic cytotoxic with predictable and measurable response to treatment before becoming apparent clinically. These papers further the medical and scientific community’s understanding of the biology of soft tissue sarcoma and report preclinical studies with novel and promising anti- sarcoma therapeutics.

Swimming training repercussion on metabolic and structural bone development: benefits of the incorporation of whole body vibration or pilometric training; the RENACIMIENTO project

Introduction: Enviromental factors such as exercise participation and nutrition have often been linked to bone improvements. However, not all sports have the same effects, being non-osteogenic sports such as swimming defined as negative or neutral sports to practice regarding bone mass by some authors, similarly exercise-diet interaction in especific groups is still not clear. Objective: To present the methodology of the RENACIMENTO project that aims to evaluate body composition and more specifically bone mass by several techniques in adolescent swimmers and to observe the effects and perdurability of whole body vibration (WBV) and jumping intervention (JIN) on body composition and fitness on this population and explore posible diet interactions. Design: Randomized controlled trial. Methods: 78 swimmers (12-17 y) and 26 sex- and age-matched controls will participate in this study. Dual energy X-ray, peripheral Quantitative Computed Tomography, Quantitative Ultrasound, Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis, and anthropometry measurements will be performed in order to evaluate body composition. Physical activity, nutrition, pubertal development and socio-economical status may act as confounders of body composition and therefore will also be registered. Several fitness factors regarding strength, endurance, performance and others will also be registered to evaluate differences with controls and act as confounders. A 7-month WBV therapy will be performed by 26 swimmers consisting of a training of 15 minutes 3 times per week. An 8 month JIM will also be performed by 26 swimmers 3 times per week. The remaining 26 swimmers will continue their normal swimming training. Four evaluations will be performed, the first one in order to describe differences between swimmers and controls. The second one to describe the effects of the interventions and the third and fourth evaluations to describe the perdurability of the effects of the WBV and JIN. Conclusion: The RENACIMIENTO project will allow to answer several questions regarding body composition, fitness, bone mass and interaction with diet of adolescent swimmers, describe swimming as a positive, negative or neutral sport to practice regarding these parameters and elucidate the effects and perdurability of WBV and JIM on body composition.

Information Literacy in Costa Rican Universities. Viewing Levels of Incorporation from the Information Published on the Websites of their Libraries

Training in information competencies or information literacy is one of the current challenges of university libraries at the possibilities of access to vast information resources that facilitate digital media, which require a better understand and apply the selection and assessment criteria to retrieval the highest quality and relevance of information as needed. In this situation, Ibero-American university libraries (Latin-America, Spain and Portugal) have been slowly incorporating this training either from direct training programs, offered from the library or through collaborative work with teachers and schools in curricula of various universities as a whole or in specific disciplines. In this text, it was identified that, at present, from the information displayed on Web sites of universities-HEI in Costa Rica, a very small percentage of university libraries would find taking actions in a level 1 or 2 of incorporating information literacy, since a large most developed is still very focused programs and processes to the traditional user training, while another large majority, unfortunately, has no action-information about actions from the forming perspective that should be any library.