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Contains fulltext : 86966.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access) This study focuses on the differences in the perception of business ethics across two groups of management students from France and Romania (n = 220). Data was collected via the ATBEQ to measure preferences for three business philosophies: Machiavellianism, Social Darwinism, and Moral Objectivism. The results show that Romanian students present more favorable attitudes toward Machiavellianism than French students; whereas, French students valued Social Darwinism and Moral Objectivism more highly. For Machiavellianism and Moral Objectivism the results are consistent with the literature and our hypotheses. However, contrary to our expectations, we find that Social Darwinism is more important in France than Romania. The results indicate that religious practice does not influence preferences for the three business philosophies. In terms of gender differences, women have less favorable attitudes toward Machiavellianism and more favorable attitudes toward Moral Objectivism than men. 16 p.

174 Background: The primary aim of this exploratory trial was to determine the feasibility and safety of chemoradiotherapy (CRT) with combinatorial immunotherapy in LA or BR PC. Methods: 10 patients (pts) with untreated, LA (n=6) or BR (n=4) biopsy-proven PC received gemcitabine (GEM) in combination with telomerase peptide vaccine (GV1001) and sargramostim (GM-CSF) both by intradermal injection. Tadalafil was taken once daily throughout the course of therapy for myeloid derived suppressor cell inhibition. The 2nd month of treatment included external beam radiation therapy (50.4 Gy, 28 fractions) and concurrent twice-weekly GEM 50 mg/m2. Disease response was assessed at 12 weeks. Following recovery from either concurrent CRT or resection, 8 weeks of GV1001 + GM-CSF, tadalafil and GEM completed treatment. Peripheral blood was analyzed by quantitative multiparameter whole blood flow cytometry of immune cell subtypes. Samples were also cryo-preserved for future analysis of peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) populations and ELISPOT analysis of antigen-specific T cell numbers. Tumor resection specimens were sectioned for immunohistological analysis of macrophage and T cell infiltration. Results: 9 of 10 pts completed therapy to assess response. Grade (Gr) 3-4 hematologic adverse events (AE) were observed during CRT. Immune-related AE were infrequent and mild. 3 of 4 pts with BR disease and 1 with initial LA (unresectable) disease achieved R0 resection. No unanticipated surgical complications were observed. Changes in monocytes and granulocytes occurred throughout treatment and may correlate with clinical benefit. At least 50% reduction in serum CA19-9 was observed in 8 pts. Partial response (n=2) or stable disease (n=7) was achieved in 9 pts. Conclusions: Combinatorial immunotherapy concurrent with GEM-based CRT is feasible and appears safe in LA or BR PC. Initial biochemical responses as well as disease control were observed in the majority of pts. Preliminary immune correlative data suggest a relationship between hematopoietic populations and clinical response.

Puberty is characterized by increasing plasma levels of gonadotropins, which are thought to be mediated by an increase in the pulsatile secretion of gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) from the hypothalamus. Although hypothalamic content of GnRH increases with puberty, cellular levels of its precursor mRNA remain stable indicating that overall biosynthetic demand for GnRH does not change as a function of puberty. While alterations in afferent activity at the GnRH neuron have been suggested as a mechanism for modulating the release of GnRH at puberty, changes intrinsic to the GnRH neuron itself also remain as plausible governing events. Galanin is a recently described gut-brain peptide that is colocalized with GnRH in hypothalamic neurons where it is thought to play a role in the orchestration of gonadotropin release. We tested the hypothesis that the expression of the galanin gene in GnRH neurons is altered during puberty in female rats. To accomplish this, we sacrificed groups of prepubertal (25 day; n=5) and adult (70 day; n=6) female rats and utilized double in situ hybridization and image analysis to estimate and compare between groups the number of GnRH mRNA expressing neurons that coexpress galanin mRNA. While the number of GnRH neurons identified was not different between groups (prepubertal 27 ± 4 vs. adult 30 ± 3) the number of GnRH neurons coexpressing galanin mRNA was greatly increased after puberty (prepubertal 6 ± 3% vs. adult 45 ± 9%; p

Expansion mutations in the C9orf72 gene may cause amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), frontotemporal dementia (FTD), or mixtures of the two clinical phenotypes. Different imaging findings have been described for C9orf72-associated diseases in comparison with sporadic patients with the same phenotypes, but it is uncertain whether different phenotypes have a common genotype-associated imaging signature. To address this question, 27 unrelated C9orf72 expansion mutation carriers (C9 +) with varied phenotypes, 28 age-matched healthy controls and 22 patients with sporadic ALS (sALS) underwent 3T MRI scanning and clinical phenotyping. Measures of brain volumes and cortical thickness were extracted from T1 images. Compared to healthy controls and sALS patients, symptomatic C9 + subjects had greater ventricular volume loss and thalamic atrophy for age, with diffuse, patchy cortical thinning. Asymptomatic carriers did not differ from controls. C9 + ALS and ALS-FTD patients had less thinning of the motor cortex than sALS patients, but more thinning in extramotor regions, particularly in frontal and temporal lobes. C9 + ALS patients differed from sporadic ALS patients in the thickness of the superior frontal gyrus and lateral orbitofrontal cortex. Thickness of the precentral gyrus was weakly correlated with the revised ALS functional rating scale. Thickness of many cortical regions, including several frontal and temporal regions, was moderately correlated with letter fluency scores. Letter fluency scores were weakly correlated with ventricular and thalamic volume. To better understand how imaging findings are related to disease progression, nineteen C9 + subjects and 23 healthy controls were scanned approximately 6 months later. Ventricular volume increased in C9 + patients with FTD and ALS-FTD phenotypes and remained stable in asymptomatic C9 + subjects. We conclude that diffuse atrophy is a common underlying feature of disease associated with C9orf72 mutations across its clinical phenotypes. Ventricular enlargement can be measured over a 6-month time frame, and appears to be faster in patients with cognitive impairment.