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The natural circulation phenomena occurring in fully integrated nuclear reactors are associated with a unique formation mechanism. The phenomenon results from a structural feature of these reactors involving upward flow from the core, located in the central-bottom region of a single vessel, and downward flow to the steam generator in the annulus region. In this study, to understand the natural circulation in a single vessel involving a multi-layered flow path, single-phase and two-phase natural circulation tests were performed using the SMART-ITL facility, and validation analysis of the TASS/SMR-S code was performed by comparing the corresponding test results. Three single-phase natural circulation tests were sequentially conducted at 15%, 10%, and 5% of full-scaled core-power without RCP operation, following which a two-phase natural circulation test was successively conducted with an artificial discharge of coolant inventory. The simulation capability of the TASS/SMR-S code with respect to the natural circulation phenomena was validated against the test results, and somewhat conservative but reasonably comparative results in terms of overall thermalhydraulic behavior were shown.

Background: Exosomes have emerged as important mediators of tumor progression, and a prognostic role for serum exosomal miRNAs has been suggested in multiple myeloma (MM). Given the association of hypoxia with tumor aggressiveness, including cancer stem cell-like phenotypes, we explored exosomal miRNAs from MM cells under hypoxic conditions and analyzed their diverse roles both in promoting oncogenic activity and in predicting prognosis. Methods: The human MM cell line, RPMI 8226, was cultured under hypoxic conditions and their exosome production and exosomal miRNA profiles were compared with those of normoxic parental cells. The survival outcome of myeloma patients was compared using serum levels of exosomal miRNAs, and the effects of exosomal miRNAs on the target genes of MM cells and adjacent immune cells were analyzed. Results: Increased expression of stem cell markers and exosome production were observed in hypoxic MM cells. Exosome miRNA analysis identified a higher expression of miR-1305 in exosomes isolated from hypoxic MM cells than in those of normoxic parental cells. The overall survival of patients with high exosomal miR-1305 was poorer than it was in patients with low exosomal miR-1305. In hypoxic MM cells, an increase of exosomal miR-1305 led to a decrease of cellular miR-1305 and increased expression of the miR-1305 target genes, MDM2, IGF1 and FGF2 resulted in the promotion of oncogenic activity of MM. Exosomal miR-1305 was also transferred from MM cells to macrophages, and miR-1305-transferred macrophages showed tumor-promoting, M2-macrophage phenotypes. Conclusions: Exosome-mediated secretion of miR-1305 in MM cells promoted oncogenic activity of hypoxic MM cells and high serum levels of exosomal miR-1305.

We report a precision medicine platform that evaluates the probability of chemotherapy drug efficacy for canine lymphoma by combining ex vivo chemosensitivity and immunophenotyping assays with computational modelling. We isolated live cancer cells from fresh fine needle aspirates of affected lymph nodes and collected post‐treatment clinical responses in 261 canine lymphoma patients scheduled to receive at least 1 of 5 common chemotherapy agents (doxorubicin, vincristine, cyclophosphamide, lomustine and rabacfosadine). We used flow cytometry analysis for immunophenotyping and ex vivo chemosensitivity testing. For each drug, 70% of treated patients were randomly selected to train a random forest model to predict the probability of positive Veterinary Cooperative Oncology Group (VCOG) clinical response based on input variables including antigen expression profiles and treatment sensitivity readouts for each patient's cancer cells. The remaining 30% of patients were used to test model performance. Most models showed a test set ROC‐AUC > 0.65, and all models had overall ROC‐AUC > 0.95. Predicted response scores significantly distinguished (P 50% showed a statistically significant reduction (log‐rank P

Purpose Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) exon 20 insertion mutations account for approximately 4% of all EGFR mutations. Given the rarity of this mutation, its clinical outcomes are not fully established. Materials and methods Between 2009 and 2017, non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients who showed an exon 20 insertion were retrospectively reviewed for clinical characteristics and outcomes, including responses to chemotherapy (CTx) or targeted therapy. Results Of 3,539 NSCLC patients who harbored an activating EGFR mutation, 56 (1.6%) had an exon 20 insertion. Of the advanced NSCLC patients, 27 of 1,479 (1.8%) had an exon 20 insertion. The median overall survival was 29.4 months (95% confidence interval 9.3 to 49.6) for 27 advancedNSCLC patients. The 22 patientswho received systemic CTx achieved a 50.0% response rate and a 77.2% disease control rate, with 4.2 months of progressionfree survival. Six patients received EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs). Three of the four patients that had only an exon 20 insertion showed progressive disease, while one showed stable disease. The othertwo patients had an exon 20 insertion and another EGFR mutation and achieved a partial response. Conclusion The incidence of an exon 20 insertion mutation is rare in Korea and occasionally accompanied by other common EGFR mutations. Although the response to systemic CTx. in these patients is comparable to that of patients with other mutations, the response rate to firstor second-generation EGFR TKIs is quite low. Therefore, the development of a more efficient agent is urgently needed.

Background In this study, we observe the patterns initial palliative treatment for premenopausal patients with HR-positive/HER2-negative MBC and determine if nonadherence to clinical guidelines are associated with worse clinical outcomes in terms of progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) in the South Korean population. Methods A retrospective review was performed for premenopausal patients diagnosed with HR-positive/HER2-negative MBC between October 1997 and May 2016 who received palliative systemic treatments at a large tertiary medical center. Survival outcomes were analyzed according to the palliative treatment received prior to disease progression. Results The review identified a total of 272 premenopausal patients meeting study criteria, whose median age was 39 years. Endocrine therapy was the initial treatment in 137 patients (Group 1) with chemotherapy as initial treatment in 135 patients. In the latter group, chemotherapy was continued in 78 patients (Group 2), whereas chemotherapy was switched to endocrine treatment in 57 patients prior to any disease progression (Group 3). Both PFS and OS were significantly longer for chemotherapy-endocrine therapy (median PFS 18.2 months and OS 85.2 months) than for chemotherapy-alone (median PFS 12.6 months and OS 45.5 months) or endocrine therapy-alone (median PFS 7.0 months and OS 57.3 months) (all p values

Objectives Several studies have demonstrated the promise of continuation of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) beyond progression in patients with EGFR-mutant non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The aim of the present study is to clarify the efficacy of continuation of gefitinib in patients with NSCLC beyond progression. Materials and methods A total of 50 patients with EGFR-mutant NSCLC who progressed based on Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST) 1.1 criteria during gefitinib treatment were eligible. The primary endpoint was progression-free survival-2 (PFS2; time from first gefitinib dose to off-gefitinib progression). Secondary endpoints were PFS1 (time from first gefitinib dose to RECIST 1.1 progression); the difference between PFS2 and PFS1 (PFS2-PFS1); overall survival (OS); and safety. Patients received gefitinib 250 mg/d orally until symptomatic progression or at the investigator’s discretion. Results Between January 2016 and March 2017, 50 patients were enrolled in this study. One patient withdrew consent, leaving a total of 49 patients to be evaluated. The median PFS2-PFS1 was 5.1 months (95% CI, 2.5–7.8), and the median PFS2 was 27.7 months (95% CI, 21.6–33.9). Twelve patients (24.4%) continued gefitinib therapy for 14 months (median value, range 7.2–20.3 months) after RECIST 1.1 progression. The median OS was not reached. Patients were classified by the characteristics of progression at the time of enrollment. PFS2-PFS1 was significantly shorter in patients with pleural metastasis or pleural effusion compared with the other types of progression (1.8 months vs. 7.1 months, p-value = 0.005). Conclusion In patients with EGFR-mutant NSCLC who experience progression, it is beneficial to maintain gefitinib treatment with local treatment such as radiotherapy until symptomatic progression. However, in patients with pleural metastasis or effusion, continuation of gefitinib beyond progression should be carefully determined on a case by case basis.

Introduction ROS1-rearranged NSCLC is classified as a distinct molecular subset of NSCLC with a therapeutic target. ROS1 rearrangement is most often identified in never-smokers with adenocarcinoma and EGFR and ALK receptor tyrosine kinase gene (ALK) wild type. Treatment with tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), which target the ROS1 kinase domain, is considered the standard of care. TKIs have been shown to have a robust and durable response. However, information regarding the clinical outcomes of TKI treatment, including brain metastasis, remains limited. Methods We identified 103 consecutive cases of ROS1-positive NSCLC by using break-apart fluorescence in situ hybridization (n = 84), next-generation sequencing (n = 23), or both (n = 3). Information regarding fusion breakpoints was available for eight patients. Clinical data, including patient characteristics, incidence of brain metastasis, response to chemotherapy, or to TKIs, were retrospectively analyzed. Results The median patient age was 56 years, and 58.9% of the patients were female. Most of the patients (75.7%) were never-smokers. Adenocarcinoma was predominant (98.1%), and two cases with pleomorphic carcinoma were identified. Sixty percent of patients had an extrathoracic metastatic lesion, and 22% had an intracranial lesion at the initial presentation or at the time of recurrence. The median time to development of brain metastases was 12.0 months (range 2.1–84.1). The most common fusion partner was CD74 molecule gene (CD74), followed by syndecan 4 gene (SDC4), ezrin gene (EZR), tropomyosin 3 gene (TPM3), TRK-fused gene (TFG), zinc finger CCHC-type containing 8 gene (ZCCHC8), sacrolemma associated protein gene (SLMAP), and myosin VC gene (MYO5C). All of these fusion partners preserved the tyrosine kinase domain of ROS1. The median overall survival time was 52.1 months (95% confidence interval [CI]: 23.6–not reached). In the 90 patients who were treated with pemetrexed-based chemotherapy, the overall response rate and progression-free survival time were 53.3% and 8.0 months (95% CI: 6.4–11.7), respectively. The overall response rate and progression-free survival time were 70.7% and 12.7 months (95% CI: 8.1–21.8), respectively, for the 50 patients treated with TKIs. Brain metastasis was more often observed during TKI treatment (15.5%) than during pemetrexed-based chemotherapy (6.7%). Conclusions ROS1-positive NSCLC has distinct clinical characteristics, with an effective and durable response to both TKIs and pemetrexed-based chemotherapies. Regardless, given its novel characteristics and distinct clinical responses to conventional chemotherapies and TKIs, the treatment strategy for ROS1-positive NSCLC remains to be further developed.

Lung cancer remains a leading cause of cancer mortality worldwide, including in Korea. Systemic therapy including platinum-based chemotherapy and targeted therapy should be provided to patients with stage IV non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Applications of targeted therapy, such as an epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) and anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) inhibitors, in patients with NSCLC and an EGFR mutation or ALK gene rearrangement has enabled dramatic improvements in efficacy and tolerability. Despite advances in research and a better understanding of the molecular pathways of NSCLC, few effective therapeutic options are available for most patients with NSCLC without druggable targets, especially for patients with squamous cell NSCLC. Immune checkpoint inhibitors such as anti-cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen-4 or anti-programmed death-1 (PD-1) or programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) have demonstrated durable response rates across a broad range of solid tumors, including NSCLC, which has revolutionized the treatment of solid tumors. Here, we review the current status and future approaches of immune checkpoint inhibitors that are being investigated for NSCLC with a focus on pembrolizumab, nivolumab, atezolizumab, durvalumab, and ipilimumab.

Background: We designed a single-arm, open-label phase II study to determine the efficacy and toxicity of pemetrexed monotherapy with vitamin supplementation in patients with refractory colorectal cancer (CRC) that failed to respond to standard treatments including 5-fluorouracil, oxaliplatin, and irinotecan with or without biologic agents. Methods: Patients were treated with pemetrexed 500 mg/m2 on day 1 every 3 weeks, with folic acid and vitamin B12 supplementation. Treatment was continued until disease progression or intolerable toxicity. Between June 2016 and October 2016, 24 patients were enrolled in this study. Results: One patient withdrew consent, leaving a total of 23 patients for evaluation. The median age of the patients was 54.0 years (range, 23.0 to 67.0), and the median ECOG performance status was 1 (1-2). The median number of previous systemic chemotherapies was 3 (range, 2 to 5). There was no patient with complete response (CR) or partial response (PR). However, stable disease was observed in 10 patients (43.4%) and maintained more than 6 months in 7 of 10 patients. The median progression-free survival was 1.6 months (95% CI, 1.1-2.0) and the median overall survival was 9.8 months (95% CI, 5.9-13.6). Grade 3 treatment-related adverse events occurred in one patient with elevated liver enzymes and hematologic adverse event of grade 2 anemia was observed in one patient. There were no cases of dose reduction or treatment-related deaths and all toxicities were manageable. Conclusions: Pemetrexed monotherapy showed moderate disease control and acceptable toxicity profile as salvage therapy for refractory CRC.

OBJECTIVES For patients with locally advanced oesophageal cancer, improved complete pathological response after neoadjuvant chemoradiation (nCRT) and the detrimental effects on the quality of life related to oesophagectomy have led to the need for a reliable method to select patients who have achieved complete pathological response and do not need surgery. The reliability of 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission–computed tomography (PET-CT) for predicting the pathological response after nCRT was evaluated. METHODS Patients with locally advanced oesophageal cancer who were treated with nCRT and oesophagectomy from July 2010 to February 2017 were analysed. On the post-nCRT PET-CT, a complete metabolic response was defined as all tumourous lesions demonstrating maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) ≤2.5. To minimize the effect of radiation-induced oesophagitis, complete metabolic response was also defined as no viable lesion distinguishable from the background with diffuse uptake. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value were analysed for SUVmax, [X]ΔSUVmax and %ΔSUVmax. RESULTS A total of 158 patients with oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma were analysed. The rate of complete pathological response was 27.8%, and that of complete metabolic response was 7.6%. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value based on SUVmax ≤2.5 and visual normalization were 95%, 14%, 74% and 50%, respectively. Analysis for [X]ΔSUVmax and %ΔSUVmax using the optimal cut-off values determined by the receiver operating characteristic curves did not show an improved predictive efficacy. CONCLUSIONS PET-CT is not a reliable tool for predicting pathological response. Patients diagnosed with resectable oesophageal cancer who underwent neoadjuvant therapy should not be exempt from surgery based on PET-CT results.

SMART100 is a small sized integral type pressurized water reactor (PWR) with a rated thermal power of (Chung et al., 2015) 365 MW, which adopts various inherent and passive design features to enhance safety. Most of the primary circuit components, such as the core, reactor coolant pumps, steam generators, and a steam pressurizer are contained in a single leak-tight reactor pressure vessel. Due to the integral reactor design, the large pipes connecting the major components are removed. Thus, the possibility of a large break loss of coolant accident (LBLOCA) is inherently eliminated and the natural circulation capability is improved during the transient. Also, SMART100 has inherent design characteristics of the large primary coolant inventory per unit thermal power, low core power density, and increased secondary system design pressure. Due to these design characteristics, SMART100 can enhance the mitigation capability to a wide range of initiating events. In addition to these inherent safety design features, the safety goals of SMART100 are enhanced by the passive safety systems such as the passive residual heat removal system (PRHRS) (Bae et al., 2001) and passive safety injection system (PSIS). To confirm the enhanced safety of SMART100, deterministic safety analyses were performed for the safety related design basis events (SRDBEs). The results of the analyses using an evaluation model of the TASS/SMR-S code and conservative initial/boundary conditions and assumptions show that the acceptance criteria for the fuel integrity, system integrity, and radiation doses specified in the safety review guidelines are well met. Therefore, the passive safety systems of SMART100 adequately mitigate the consequences of all SRDBEs and maintain the plant in a safe shutdown condition without any AC power or operator action for at least 72 h.

Myeloid sarcoma (MS) is an extramedullary involvement of immature myeloid proliferation. An isolated MS is defined as a myeloblastic tumor when it arises without any concomitant circulating disease. A diagnosis of MS is established using pathologic features including infiltration of myeloblasts and strong myeloperoxidase expression with negative cytokeratin immunohistochemical staining. We report a rare case of colonic MS without any peripheral blood abnormality. If the affected patient were left untreated, the MS could evolve into acute myeloid leukemia (AML) within one year. Several studies recommend the same regimens of chemotherapy as used for circulating AML to treat isolated MS. We focused on the diagnosis of MS in this study. The correct diagnosis of MS is important for adequate treatment. In conclusion, MS should be considered in the differential diagnosis of intestinal tumor. (Korean J Gastroenterol 2016;68:148-151)

Succinic acid (SA) is one of the fermentative products of anaerobic metabolism, and an important industrial chemical that has been much studied for its bio-based production. The key to the economically viable bio-based SA production is to develop an SA producer capable of producing SA with high yield and productivity without byproducts. Mannheimia succiniciproducens is a capnophilic rumen bacterium capable of efficiently producing SA. In this study, in silico genome-scale metabolic simulations were performed to identify gene targets to be engineered, and the PALK strain (ΔldhA and Δpta-ackA) was constructed. Fed-batch culture of PALK on glucose and glycerol as carbon sources resulted in the production of 66.14 g/L of SA with the yield and overall productivity of 1.34 mol/mol glucose equivalent and 3.39 g/L/h, respectively. SA production could be further increased to 90.68 g/L with the yield and overall productivity of 1.15 mol/mol glucose equivalent and 3.49 g/L/h, respectively, by utilizing a mixture of magnesium hydroxide and ammonia solution as a pH controlling solution. Furthermore, formation of byproducts was drastically reduced, resulting in almost homo-fermentative SA production. This allowed the recovery and purification of SA to a high purity (99.997%) with a high recovery yield (74.65%) through simple downstream processes composed of decolorization, vacuum distillation, and crystallization. The SA producer and processes developed in this study will allow economical production of SA in an industrial-scale. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2016;113: 2168-2177. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Extranodal natural killer/T-cell lymphoma (ENKTL) is associated with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection, a common cause of hemophagocytosis. As interleukin-18 (IL18) is related with hemophagocytosis, we measured serum IL18 and IL18-related cytokines of newly diagnosed patients with ENKTL (N = 114) to investigate the role as a biomarker for hemophagocytosis and determine the prognosis of ENKTL. The median value of serum IL18 was 20.5 pg/mL (1.23-2021.81 pg/mL). The high IL18 group (≥20.5 pg/mL) was associated with stage III/IV, the presence of hemophagocytosis and poor treatment outcome. Serum IL18 showed significant positive correlations with TNFα, IFNγ, and IP10. Overall survival was significantly different between the high and low IL18 groups (p < .001), and high serum IL18 was independently prognostic for survival in the multivariate analysis. In conclusion, serum IL18 levels may be associated with the hemophagocytosis and poor survival outcomes in patients with ENKTL.

PURPOSE We aimed to analyze the discordance between immunohistochemistry (IHC)-based surrogate subtyping and PAM50 intrinsic subtypes and to assess overall survival (OS) according to discordance. Materials and Methods A total of 607 patients were analyzed. Hormone receptor (HR) expression was evaluated by IHC, and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) expression was analyzed by IHC and/or fluorescence in situ hybridization. PAM50 intrinsic subtypes were determined according to 50 cancer genes using the NanoString nCounter Analysis System. We matched concordant tumor as luminal A and HR+/HER2-, luminal B and HR+/HER2+, HR-/HER2+ and HER2-enriched, and triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) and normal- or basal-like. We used Ion Ampliseq Cancer Panel v2 was used to identify the genomic alteration related with discordance. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to estimate OS. RESULTS In total, 233 patients (38.4%) were discordant between IHC-based subtype and PAM50 intrinsic subtype. Using targeted sequencing, we detected somatic mutation-related discordant breast cancer including the VHL gene in the HR+/HER2- group (31% in concordant group, 0% in discordant group, p=0.03) and the IDH and RET genes (7% vs. 12%, p=0.02 and 0% vs. 25%, p=0.02, respectively) in the TNBC group. Among the luminal A/B patients with a discordant result had significantly worse OS (median OS, 73.6 months vs. not reached; p < 0.001), and among the patients with HR positivity, the basal-like group as determined by PAM50 showed significantly inferior OS compared to other intrinsic subtypes (5-year OS rate, 92.2% vs. 75.6%; p=0.01). CONCLUSION A substantial portion of patients showed discrepancy between IHC subtype and PAM50 intrinsic subtype in our study. The survival analysis demonstrated that current IHC-based classification could mislead the treatment and result in poor outcome. Current guidelines for IHC might be updated accordingly.

We describe a multi-purpose technology platform, termed μSCALE (Microcapillary Single Cell Analysis and Laser Extraction), that enables massively parallel, quantitative biochemical and biophysical measurements on millions of protein variants expressed from yeast or bacteria. μSCALE spatially segregates single cells within a microcapillary array, enabling repeated imaging, cell growth, and protein expression. We performed high-throughput analysis of cells and their protein products using a range of fluorescent assays, including binding affinity measurements and dynamic enzymatic assays. A precise laser-based extraction method allows rapid recovery of live clones and their genetic material from microcapillaries for further study. With μSCALE, we discovered a new antibody against a clinical cancer target, evolved an orange fluorescent protein biosensor, and engineered an enzyme with reduced sensitivity to its inhibitor. These three distinct protein analysis and engineering applications, each with unique assay requirements and different host organisms, highlight the flexibility and technical capabilities of our platform.

Small reactors are a suitable option for nuclear system deployment in developing countries or non-electrical applications for various facilities. SMART is one of the small integral type reactors to apply flexibly local power demands or sea water desalination. A thermal hydraulic analysis code, TASS/SMR, having SMART specific models, was developed to simulate thermal hydraulic phenomena of the SMART plant. The improved TASS/SMR code predicts well the system behaviors under two-phase conditions compared with the OSU-MASLWR experimental results. A small break LOCA simulation of the SMART plant is improved a void distribution, a break flow, and a collapsed water level in the core.

The FCM fueled cores proposed as an accident tolerant concept is assessed against the design-basis-accident (DBA) and the beyond-DBA (BDBA) scenarios using MARS code. A thermal conductivity model of FCM fuel is incorporated in the MARS code to take into account the effects of irradiation and temperature that was recently measured by ORNL. Preliminary analyses regarding the initial stored energy and accident tolerant performance were carried out for the scoping of various cladding material candidates. A 16 × 16 FA with SiC-coated Zircalloy cladding was selected as the feasible conceptual design through a preliminary scoping analysis. For a selected design, safety analyses for DBA and BDBA scenarios were performed to demonstrate the accident tolerance of the FCM fueled core. A loss of flow accident (LOFA) scenario was selected for a departure-from-nucleate-boiling (DNB) evaluation, and large-break loss of coolant accident (LBLOCA) scenario for peak cladding temperature (PCT) margin evaluation. A control element assembly (CEA) ejection accident scenario was selected for peak fuel enthalpy and temperature. Moreover, a station blackout (SBO) and LBLOCA without a safety injection (SI) scenario were selected as a BDBA. It was demonstrated that the DBA safety margin of the FCM core is satisfied and the time for operator actions for BDBA s is evaluated.

Purpose This study was conducted to evaluate the relationship between epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation and clinical outcomes in patients with stage III non-squamous cell lung cancer treated with definitive concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT). Materials and methods From January 2008 to December 2013, the medical records of 197 patients with stage III non- squamous non-small cell lung cancer treated with definitive CCRT were analyzed to determine progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) according to EGFR mutation status. Results Among 197 eligible patients, 81 patients were EGFR wild type, 36 patients had an EGFR mutation (exon 19 Del, n=18; L858R, n=9, uncommon [G719X, L868, T790M], n=9), and 80 patients had unknown EGFR status. The median age was 59 years (range, 28 to 80 years) and 136 patients (69.0%) were male. The median follow-up duration was 66.5 months (range, 1.9 to 114.5 months). One hundred sixty-four patients (83.2%) experienced disease progression. Median PFS was 8.9 months for the EGFR mutation group, 11.8 months for EGFR wild type, and 10.5 months for the unknown EGFR group (p=0.013 and p=0.042, respectively). The most common site of metastasis in the EGFR mutant group was the brain. However, there was no significant difference in OS among the three groups (34.6 months for EGFR mutant group vs. 31.9 months for EGFR wild type vs. 22.6 months for EGFR unknown group; p=0.792 and p=0.284). A total of 29 patients (80.6%) with EGFR mutation were treated with EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor (gefitinib, n=24; erlotinib, n=3; afatinib, n=2) upon progression. Conclusion EGFR mutation is associatedwith short PFS and the brain is the most common site of distant metastasis in patients with stage III non- squamous cell lung cancer treated with CCRT.

Affinity maturation of protein-protein interactions requires iterative rounds of protein library generation and high-throughput screening to identify variants that bind with increased affinity to a target of interest. We recently developed a multipurpose protein engineering platform, termed μSCALE (Microcapillary Single Cell Analysis and Laser Extraction). This technology enables high-throughput screening of libraries of millions of cell-expressing protein variants based on their binding properties or functional activity. Here, we demonstrate the first use of the μSCALE platform for affinity maturation of a protein-protein binding interaction. In this proof-of-concept study, we engineered an extracellular domain of the Axl receptor tyrosine kinase to bind tighter to its ligand Gas6. Within 2 weeks, two iterative rounds of library generation and screening resulted in engineered Axl variants with a 50-fold decrease in kinetic dissociation rate, highlighting the use of μSCALE as a new tool for directed evolution.

Yeast surface display, a well-established technology for protein analysis and engineering, involves expressing a protein of interest as a genetic fusion to either the N- or C-terminus of the yeast Aga2p mating protein. Historically, yeast-displayed protein variants are flanked by peptide epitope tags that enable flow cytometric measurement of construct expression using fluorescent primary or secondary antibodies. Here, we built upon this technology to develop a new yeast display strategy that comprises fusion of two different proteins to Aga2p, one to the N-terminus and one to the C-terminus. This approach allows an antibody fragment, ligand, or receptor to be directly coupled to expression of a fluorescent protein readout, eliminating the need for antibody-staining of epitope tags to quantify yeast protein expression levels. We show that this system simplifies quantification of protein-protein binding interactions measured on the yeast cell surface. Moreover, we show that this system facilitates co-expression of a bioconjugation enzyme and its corresponding peptide substrate on the same Aga2p construct, enabling enzyme expression and catalytic activity to be measured on the surface of yeast.

In this papar, we propose a new motion estimation and coding technique using adaptive motion vector resolution. Currently, HEVC encodes a video using 1/4 motion vector resolution. If there are high texture regions in a picture, HEVC can't get a performance enough. So, we insert additional 1-bit flag meaning whether motion vector resolution is 1/4 or 1/8 in PU syntax. Therefore, decoder can recognize the transmitted motion vector resolution. Experimental results show that maximum coding efficiency gain of the proposed method is up to 5.3% in luminance and 7.9% in chrominance. Average computional time complexity is increased about 33% in encoder and up to 5% in decoder.

e17000Background: The results from randomized phase III trials showed that 3-weekly docetaxel added to androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) has a significant impact on survival of patients with mCNPC...

10113Background: Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) are common complications in cancer patients. Evidence on intravenous (IV) iron for treatment of chemotherapy-induced anemia (CIA) is emerging. Herein, ...

Succinic acid (SA) is one of the fermentative products of anaerobic metabolism, and an important industrial chemical that has been much studied for its bio-based production. The key to the economically viable bio-based SA production is to develop an SA producer capable of producing SA with high yield and productivity without byproducts. Mannheimia succiniciproducens is a capnophilic rumen bacterium capable of efficiently producing SA. In this study, in silico genome-scale metabolic simulations were performed to identify gene targets to be engineered, and the PALK strain (ΔldhA and Δpta-ackA) was constructed. Fed-batch culture of PALK on glucose and glycerol as carbon sources resulted in the production of 66.14 g/L of SA with the yield and overall productivity of 1.34 mol/mol glucose equivalent and 3.39 g/L/h, respectively. SA production could be further increased to 90.68 g/L with the yield and overall productivity of 1.15 mol/mol glucose equivalent and 3.49 g/L/h, respectively, by utilizing a mixture of magnesium hydroxide and ammonia solution as a pH controlling solution. Furthermore, formation of byproducts was drastically reduced, resulting in almost homo-fermentative SA production. This allowed the recovery and purification of SA to a high purity (99.997%) with a high recovery yield (74.65%) through simple downstream processes composed of decolorization, vacuum distillation, and crystallization. The SA producer and processes developed in this study will allow economical production of SA in an industrial-scale. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2016;113: 2168-2177. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

In this paper, an adaptive weighted prediction is proposed to improve the coding efficiency. Conventional weighted prediction methods are optimized for specific sequences with global brightness variations (GBVs) such as fade-in and fade-out. However, if there is uncovered background by motion between current picture and reference picture, weighted prediction parameter (WPP) could not be derived accurately. And if there are local brightness variations (LBVs) between the pictures, it is not efficient to derive WPP over the entire picture. In order to solve above-mentioned problems, two kinds of technologies are added on conventional weighted prediction. First, moving area extraction (MAE) technology is devised to classify a picture into moving area and background area, and then two sets of WPP are derived for each area. Secondly, local brightness variation detection (LBVD) technology is added to detect the area including LBVs, and then the third set of WPP is derived for the detected LBV area. The proposed scheme is implemented on the HEVC Reference Software HM 10.0, and shows that maximum coding efficiency gain is up to 11.0% in luminance.

Thermal decomposition and desorption of dimethylaminoethanol [dmaeH, ( CH 3)2 NC 2 H 4 OH ] on Si(100) was studied using temperature-programmed desorption (TPD) and Auger electron spectroscopy (AES). During heating of the sample up to 1100 K, methyliminoacetaldehyde, ethylene, carbon monoxide and hydrogen molecule were desorbed as the main desorption products from dmaeH on Si(100). After TPD experiments, carbon and nitrogen were detected by AES, indicating that complete decomposition of dmaeH also proceeded on Si(100).

The thermal decomposition pathway and desorption of diethylamido of tetrakis(diethylamido)zirconium [TDEAZr, Zr(N(C2H5)2)4] on Si(100) were studied using temperature-programmed desorption (TPD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). During TPD experiments, ethylethyleneimine (C2H5N=CHCH3), diethylamine [NH(C2H5)2], acetonitrile (CH3CN), ethylene (C2H4) and hydrogen (H2) desorbed as the main decomposition products of diethylamido, which was chemisorbed on Si(100) through the scission of the zirconium–diethylamido bond in TDEAZr. After TPD runs, the formation of silicon carbide and silicon nitride was observed on the surface by XPS, indicating that a complete decomposition of diethylamido proceeded. This could be a reaction pathway of C, N incorporation in the thin film growth using TDEAZr as a Zr precursor.

840 Background: We designed a single-arm, open label phase II study to determine the efficacy and toxicity of pemetrexed monotherapy with vitamin supplement in refractory colorectal (CRC) patients who failed standard treatments, including 5-FU, oxaliplatin, and irinotecan with or without biologic agents. Methods: Patients were treated with pemetrexed 500 mg/m2 on day 1, every 3 weeks, with folic acid and vitamin B12 supplementation. Patients began vitamin supplementation with B12 intramuscular injection (1000 mcg) every 9 weeks starting 1 week before the first pemetrexed dose, and patients received daily oral folic acid (1 mg) starting at least 5 days before the first pemetrexed dose. Treatment was continued until disease progression or intolerable toxicity was observed. Results: Between June 2016 and October 2016, 24 patients were enrolled in this study. One patient withdrew content, leaving a total of 23 patients to be evaluated. The median age of the patients was 54.0 years (range, 23.0 to 67.0), and the median ECOG performance status was 1 (1-2). The median number of previous systemic chemotherapies was 3 (range, 2 to 5). No complete response and no partial response were observed among the patients. Stable disease was observed in 10 patients (43.4%), and 7 patients had a response duration of 2 months or more. The median PFS was 1.6 months (95% CI, 1.1 to 2.0) and the median OS was 9.8 months (95% CI, 5.9 to 13.6). Only one patient experienced treatment-related toxicity of grade 3 or more. Neither hematologic toxicities nor dose reduction due to treatment-related toxicities were observed. There was no treatment-related death. Conclusions: Pemetrexed monotherapy showed moderate disease control and an acceptable toxicity profile as salvage therapy for refractory CRC. Clinical trial information: NCT02588781.

80 Background: Alterations in claudin expression can impair tight junction functioning, influence signaling pathways, and act as a tumor promoting event in some epithelial cancers. Recently, IMAB362, a highly potent and tumor cell-selective therapeutic antibody to claudin 18.2, has been developed and investigated in clinical trials. Methods: We prospectively conducted claudin 18.2 immunohistochemistry on 430 consecutive patients with advanced gastrointestinal, genitourinary, or rare cancers between June 2012 and March 2016. Results: Most patients (414/430, 96.2%) were evaluable for claudin 18.2 expression by immunohistochemistry. In total, 4.1% (17/414) were deemed claudin 18.2+, including patients with pancreatic (16.7%, 1 of 6), gastric (14.1%, 12 of 85), biliary tract (6.3%, 1 of 16), genitourinary/miscellaneous (2.2%, 1 of 46), and colorectal (0.9%, 2 of 203) cancers. Twelve of 17 patients positive for claudin 18.2 had gastric cancers; this subgroup showed no statistical difference by gender, age, disease extent, primary tumor site, pathologic differentiation, HER2 status, or EBV status with or without claudin 18.2 expression. However, claudin 18.2 was more frequently positive in intestinal-type compared to diffuse-type by Lauren classification (p = 0.026). There was no significant difference in overall survival between patients with and without claudin 18.2 expression (p = 0.101). Conclusions: Our results add to the emerging literature on claudin 18.2 expression in various cancer types and support the need for extended clinical exploration of IMAB362.

Oxidative stress is a pathogenesis for a typical inflammatory intestinal disease known as ulcerative colitis (UC) characterized by erosion and mucosal ulceration. For the treatment of UC, many kinds of traditional Asian medical plants have been used. Schisandra chinensis fruits (SC) are known to possess anti-ulcer, anti-hepatotoxic and anti-neurotoxic activity. However, its mechanism is still unknown. In the present study, we investigated the cytoprotective effect of deoxyschisandrin, a lignan compound comprised of SC fruits, on H2O2-induced apoptotic cell death in human intestinal epithelial cells (HCT116). In flow cytometry assay using Annexin V and propidium iodide, deoxyschisandrin inhibited H2O2-induced apoptotic cell death. To further evaluate the apoptotic signaling by H2O2, we detected caspase-3 activation using cleavage of pro-caspase-3. Deoxyschisandrin inhibited H2O2-induced caspase-3 activation by blocking cleavage of pro-caspase-3. Furthermore, it has been reported that oxidative stress by H2O2 induces an activation of nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB). In our results, H2O2 stimulated the degradation of IkappaBalpha, inhibitor of NF-kappaB, in a concentration-dependent manner. On the contrary, deoxyschisandrin inhibited H2O2-stimulated degradation of IkappaBalpha and activation of NF-kappaB by blocking translocation of NF-kappaB to the nucleus. Therefore, we suggest that deoxyschisandrin inhibits H2O2-induced apoptotic cell death.

Oxidative stress is a pathogenesis for a typical inflammatory intestinal disease known as ulcerative colitis (UC) characterized by erosion and mucosal ulceration. For the treatment of UC, many kinds of traditional Asian medical plants have been used. Schisandra chinensis fruits (SC) are known to possess anti-ulcer, anti-hepatotoxic and anti-neurotoxic activity. However, its mechanism is still unknown. In the present study, we investigated the cytoprotective effect of deoxyschisandrin, a lignan compound comprised of SC fruits, on H2O2-induced apoptotic cell death in human intestinal epithelial cells (HCT116). In flow cytometry assay using Annexin V and propidium iodide, deoxyschisandrin inhibited H2O2-induced apoptotic cell death. To further evaluate the apoptotic signaling by H2O2, we detected caspase-3 activation using cleavage of pro-caspase-3. Deoxyschisandrin inhibited H2O2-induced caspase-3 activation by blocking cleavage of pro-caspase-3. Furthermore, it has been reported that oxidative stress by H2O2 induces an activation of nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB). In our results, H2O2 stimulated the degradation of IkappaBalpha, inhibitor of NF-kappaB, in a concentration-dependent manner. On the contrary, deoxyschisandrin inhibited H2O2-stimulated degradation of IkappaBalpha and activation of NF-kappaB by blocking translocation of NF-kappaB to the nucleus. Therefore, we suggest that deoxyschisandrin inhibits H2O2-induced apoptotic cell death.

Al-plug process using chemical vapor deposited (CVD) Al seed layer prepared with trimethylaminealane borane (TMAAB) as a precursor lias been developed for sub-60 mn design-rule dynamic random access memory (DRAM). In terms of the precursor stability and the particle generation performance, the TMAAB is better as compared to methylpyrrolidine alane (MPA) due to the depression of (AIH3)x polymer formation which generates particle. Integration challenges of Al-plug process related to via-filling were successfully overcome and the device speed was improved compared to W-plug process. The yield and interconnect reliability comparable to W-pfug have been achieved in multi-level-metallization.