Mutual Role Research Articles

Association of CCND1 overexpression with KRAS and PTEN alterations in specific subtypes of non-small cell lung carcinoma and its influence on patients' outcome.

Cyclin D1 is one of the major cellular oncogenes, overexpressed in number of human cancers, including non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC). However, it does not exert tumorigenic activity by itself, but rather cooperates with other altered oncogenes and tumor suppressors. Therefore, in the present study, we have examined mutual role of cyclin D1, KRAS, and PTEN alterations in the pathogenesis of NSCLC and their potential to serve as multiple molecular markers for this disease. CCND1 gene amplification and gene expression were analyzed in relation to mutational status of KRAS gene as well as to PTEN alterations (loss of heterozygosity and promoter hypermethylation) in NSCLC patient samples. Moreover, the effect of these co-alterations on patient survival was examined. Amplified CCND1 gene was exclusively associated with increased gene expression. Statistical analyses also revealed significant association between CCND1 overexpression and KRAS mutations in the whole group and in the groups of patients with adenocarcinoma, grade 1/2, and stage I/II. In addition, CCND1 overexpression was significantly related to PTEN promoter hypermethylation in the whole group and in the group of patients with squamous cell carcinoma and lymph node invasion. These joint alterations also significantly shortened patients' survival and were shown to be an independent factor for adverse prognosis. Overall results point that cyclin D1 expression cooperates with KRAS and PTEN alterations in pathogenesis of NSCLC, and they could serve as potential multiple molecular markers for specific subgroups of NSCLC patients as well as prognostic markers for this type of cancer.

The synergic effect of glycyrrhizic acid and low frequency electromagnetic field on angiogenesis in chick chorioallantoic membrane.

Much attention is paid to angiogenesis due to its mutual role in health and disease. Therefore, the effect of various chemical and physical agents on inhibition of this process has been recently studied. This study was conducted to investigate the synergic effect of glycyrrhizic acid and electromagnetic field on angiogenesis. In this experimental study, 44 Ross fertilized chicken eggs were randomly divided into four groups, one control and three experimental. Control group was kept with dimethyl sulfoxide on the eighth day, experimental group 1 treated with 200 gauss, 50 Hz electromagnetic field on the 10th day, experimental group 2 treated with 1 mg/ml glycyrrhizic acid on the eighth day, and experimental group 3 simultaneously treated with glycyrrhizic acid on the eighth day and electromagnetic field on the 10th day. On the 12th day, the images of chorioallantoic membrane samples were prepared using photostreomicroscope and the number and length of vessels were measured. The mean number of vessels in the experimental groups 1 and 3 (29.31±3.60 and 27.43±4.61, respectively) was not significantly different from that in the control group (29.11±4.76) (p>0.05). The length of vessels in the experimental groups 1 and 3 (52.35±3.25 mm and 54.94±4.70 mm, respectively) decreased significantly (p<0.05) compared with the control group (61.79±6.46 mm). In experimental group 2, both length and number of vessels (54.53±5.85 mm and 23.96±3.94) decreased significantly compared with the control group (p<0.05). Electromagnetic field and glycyrrhizic acid separately led to inhibition of angiogenesis. However, use of electromagnetic field accompanied with glycyrrhizic acid not only did not increase but also decreased the inhibitory effect.

Towards Sustaining Levels of Reflective Learning: How Do Transformational Leadership, Task Interdependence, and Self-Efficacy Shape Teacher Learning in Schools?

Whereas cross-sectional research has shown that transformational leadership, task interdependence, and self-efficacy are positively related to teachers’ engagement in reflective learning activities, the causal direction of these relations needs further inquiry. At the same time, individual teacher learning might play a mutual role in strengthening school-level capacity for sustained improvement. Building on previous research, this longitudinal study therefore examines how transformational leadership, task interdependence, self-efficacy, and teachers’ engagement in self-reflection mutually affect each other over time. Questionnaire data gathered on three measurement occasions from 655 Dutch Vocational Education and Training teachers was analyzed using a multivariate Latent Difference Score model. Results indicate that self-reflection and task interdependence reciprocally influence each other’s change. A considerate and stimulating transformational leader was found to contribute to this process. Change in self-efficacy was influenced by self-reflection, indicating that learning leads to competency beliefs. Together, the findings point to the important role transformational leadership practices play in facilitating teamwork, and sustaining teachers’ levels of learning in schools.

Geração de valor no contexto da estratégia de manufatura: uma análise em manufaturas calçadistas

A função manufatura tem como propósito oferecer produtos que gerem valor para os clientes. Todavia, esta não é uma tarefa exclusiva desta função, para esse fim ela deve atuar de forma conjunta com as funções marketing e vendas (M&amp;V) e pesquisa e desenvolvimento (P&amp;D). Este artigo denomina estas três funções de geradoras de valor e discute o seu papel mútuo no processo de geração de valor dos produtos de uma empresa. A validação deste modelo é realizada por meio de três estudos de caso comparativos, realizados em manufaturas calçadistas (MCs) com diferentes estratégias de geração de valor. O estudo empírico permitiu comprovar o papel mútuo das funções estudadas de geração de valor do produto, bem como verificar que a configuração e o papel relativo de cada função muda conforme a estratégia adotada pela empresa.

The Influence of Language Labels and Self-Reference on New Object Categorical Perception

Categorical perception is one of the most basic cognitive processes of human beings. When humans process incoming information, categorization help them further clarify and simplify the sophisticated inputs. The categorical perception effect refers to the phenomenon that individuals will respond faster or more accurately when discriminating two stimuli that cross a category boundary than when discriminating two stimuli from the same category, despite between- and within-category stimuli being equated in distance(Bornstein Korda,1984). However, inconsistent evidence has been obtained from previous studies on how language would influence categorical perception. The language label theory suggested that the language label is a cue that helps individuals to categorize information unconsciously and automatically; whereas perceptual feature theory suggested that categorical perception is based on a pure perceptual process, which arises from life experiences that eventually changes the mappings of perceptual neurons.The current study systematically investigates how language labels would interact with self-reference factor to play a mutual role on new object categorical perception. The hypothesis of this study is that language labels are not the only important factors that would influence categorical perception, other social or personality factors may also play a role, but it is not sure whether language labels would play a more important role. In this study,three experiments were conducted. In Experiment 1, a 2(language label learning times: more vs. less) ? 2(object category: between vs. within) ? 2(visual field: left vs. right) mixed experiment was designed, and it is found that only the participants who have learned the labels for more times showed a significant right visual field advantage effect. In Experiment 2, a 2(object self-reference connection: tight vs. loose) × 2(object category: between vs. within) × 2(visual field: left vs. right) mixed experiment was designed. This time, all the participants learned the language labels for only twice. As a result, it is found that only the participants who had built a tight self-reference connection with the new object revealed a significant categorical perception effect,however, on both left- and right-visual fields. Furthermore, higher level of self-reference made the participants show a better discriminating ability for between-category objects, but not for within-category objects. In Experiment 3, a 2(object self-reference connection: tight vs. loose) × 2(object category: between vs. within) ×2(visual field: left vs. right) mixed experiment was designed. This time all the participants learned the language labels for seven times. As a result, it is found that under higher level representation of language labels, both language label and the self-reference play a role on categorical perception. In summary, this study revealed an important and complicated role of language labels on categorical perception, and a nonetheless very important influence of self-reference as well.

China's Quest for Grand Strategy: Power, National Interest, or Relational Security?

As China’s power steadily rises, mutual role expectations between China and the United States become increasingly unstable. To ensure a mutually agreeable role for China, Chinese grand strategy has the double mission of presenting China as an accepted and respected matching power and of assuring the incumbent hegemonic power that China is a role-player. We apply the notion of national role style to analyse China’s grand strategy. We argue that China adopts the sociological role conception and examines the grand strategy of the rising power accordingly. Through examining China’s policy towards US arms sales to Taiwan, we show how a role-playing China has tried to execute a grand strategy to coach the incumbent hegemonic power into acknowledging China’s rise to the status of a matching power. We argue that the importance of maintaining a stable relationship with the United States has trumped China’s core national interest of unification, pertaining to US arms sales to Taiwan. In practice, China treats arms sales as a bilateral issue, and would rather appeal to sociological role expectations through a bilateral convention than through any general value. The United States, on the other hand, despite its willingness to cope with China in an exclusively bilateral format, has always tried to push China to accept universal rules at the expense of the alleged national differences between the two countries, thereby defeating the sociological role expectation.

Enlightenment of Japanese Garbage Disposal on Jilin Province Developing Low Carbon Economy

In the background of climate issues of much worldwide attention, developing low carbon economy has become the mutual choice of all countries in the world. China is now currently facing serious international emission reduction pressure and economy development energy environment restriction. Japan, as an island country with extremely poor energy, is the most active advocator and promoter of low carbon economy, and through many years of low carbon development, it has accumulated rich experience. This paper discusses Japanese environment protection and low carbon path from the mutual interaction role of Japanese garbage classification recycling and low carbon economy, so as to combine Jilin Province garbage disposal feature to analyze our province to refer to the garbage processing mode.

Interaction Study of Carbide Precipitation and Impurity Segregation under Temper Embrittlement Conditions in a Coarse-Grained Heat-Affected Zone in Q690 Steel

This work studied the interaction between carbide precipitation and impurity segregation under temper embrittlement (TE) conditions in a coarse-grained heat-affected zone (CGHAZ) in Q690 steel, a low-alloy high-strength structural steel used in the hydraulic support in the fully-mechanized mining face. From the perspective of carbide precipitation, through thermodynamics calculation and analysis, it was found that the existence of cementite at the grain boundaries was preceded by impurities segregation (primarily phosphorus). The precedent phosphorus segregation thus enhances the nucleation rate of cementite at the grain boundaries by lowering the ferrite/cementite interfacial energy. Both carbide precipitation and impurity segregation at the grain boundaries reached a maximum as a result of their mutual role in the temperature range of TE.

Effects of post-heat treatment on microstructure and properties of laser cladded composite coatings on titanium alloy substrate

The composite coatings were produced on the Ti6Al4V alloy substrate by laser cladding. Subsequently, the coatings were heated at 500 °C for 1 h and 2 h and then cooled in air. Effects of post-heat treatment on microstructure, microhardness and fracture toughness of the coatings were investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), optical microscopy (OM). Wear resistance of the coatings was evaluated under the dry sliding reciprocating friction condition at room temperature. The results indicated that the coatings mainly consist of a certain amount of coarse white equiaxed WC particles surrounded by the white-bright W2C, a great deal of fine dark spherical TiC particles and the matrix composed of the α(Ti), Ti2Ni and TiNi phases. Effects of the post-heat treatment on phase constituents and microstructure of the coatings were almost negligible due to the low temperature. However, the post-heat treatment could decrease the residual stress and increase fracture toughness of the coatings, and fracture toughness of the coatings was improved from 2.77 MPa m1/2 to 3.80 MPa m1/2 and 4.43 MPa m1/2 with the heat treatment for 1 h and 2 h, respectively. The mutual role would contribute to the reduction in cracking susceptibility. Accompanied with the increase in fracture toughness, microhardness of the coatings was reduced slightly. The dominant wear mechanism for all the coatings was abrasive wear, characterized by micro-cutting or micro-plowing. The heat treatment could significantly decrease the average friction coefficient and reduce the fluctuation of the friction coefficient with the change in sliding time. The appropriate heat treatment time (approximately 1 h) had a minimal effect on wear mass loss and volume loss. Moreover, the improvement in fracture toughness will also be beneficial to wear resistance of the coatings under the long service.

Abstract 278: Enhanced Cystathionine ß-Synthase Nitration in Diet-Induced Hyperhomocysteinemic Rats Accelerates the Progression of Hyperhomocysteinemia

Hyperhomocysteinemia is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular diseases,which may be caused by genetic deficiencies in enzymes responsible for remethylation or transsulfuration of homocysteine, nutritional deficiencies in vitamins, or excessive intakes of methionine. Since transsulfuration pathway is the only irreversible pathway in homocysteine metabolism, its key enzyme cystathionine β-synthase is vital in terminal removement of homocysteine. In addition, Studies have observed that enhanced nitrative stress in hyperhomocysteinemic rats could induce cardiovascular injuries, and peroxynitrite stimulation in vitro resulting in decreased bioactivity of cystathionine β-synthase. Therefore, to determine the contribution of nitrative stress to progression of hyperhomocysteinemia, and how it is related to cystathionine β-synthase, we used three groups of rats (Con with normal diet, HHcy with 2.5% methionine diet, HHcy+FeTMPyP with 2.5% methionine diet +FeTMPyP) to observe the effects of nitrative stress on cystathionine β-synthase. Results showed that in diet-induced hyperhomocysteinemic rats, tHcy levels and nitrative stress increased, surprisingly, pretreatment with peroxynitrite scavenger FeTMPyP ameliorated the level of tHcy as well as nitrative stress. Further experiments showed cystathionine β-synthase bioactivity in HHcy rats was less potent than other groups yet described, and the level of cystathionine β-synthase nitration was the most significant,while the entire trends reversed after FeTMPyP pretreatment. In conclusion, these results highlight for the first time that in diet-induced hyperhomocysteinemic rats, cystathionine β-synthase bioactivity reduction is not just a traditional etiologic factor, but rather an outcome of hyperhomocysteinemia, and resulting from the high level of nitrative stress caused by hyperhomocysteinemia, the cystathionine β-synthase nitration plays a mutual role in hyperhomocysteinemia development via causing the metabolic disorder of homocysteine. These findings may shed a novel light on the homocystine-lowering target of hyperhomocysteinemia.

Negotiating a Shared Psychological Contract with Students

This article explicates how a shared psychological contract was negotiated with senior undergraduate students at the beginning of a new academic year. The guiding idea behind the investigation is that students’ voice should be heard when mutual role expectations associated with the lecturer-student relationship are clarified and agreed upon. This provides lecturers with an excellent opportunity to reflect on how to adapt their behaviour to optimize the lecturer-student relationship. The Nominal Group Technique was adapted to collect data from individual students and to reach group consensus about the content of the agreement. General themes representative of individual students’ shared expectations about the role of the lecturer and their own roles were identified. The entitlement beliefs and obligations of students and their professor were rated and incorporated into a psychological contract that was subsequently adopted by both parties. The findings show that senior undergraduate students (individually and as a group) have realistic ideological, transactional and relational expectations at the commencement of a new teaching year, and that the negotiation of a collective agreement is a viable option. Such agreements should be renegotiated at critical junctures during the academic year to regulate and manage mutual role expectations in the lecturer-student relationship. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n7p25

Взаимоотношения спортсмена и тренера как фактор успешности спортивной деятельности

We present the results of a theoretical analysis of the psychological bases of success of athletes. We provide an overview of studies of the factors influencing the success of the activities in the sport. Sports activities are considered as a joint activity of athlete and coach, the success of which is affected by the personal qualities and characteristics of the relationship of its members. We summarize the main approaches to the study of personality and social psychological aspects of successful athletes and coaches. As the main factors in the success of sports activities, we considered individual psychological characteristics of athletes (motives, attitudes, modes of behavior and response), and socio-psychological characteristics of the interaction of coach and athlete (leadership style, the nature of interpersonal relationships and role expectations). We emphasize the importance of mutual role expectations of athlete and coach to achieve high results of sports activity.

Two Color Free-Electron Laser and Frequency Beating

We review the theory of two color high gain free-electron laser emission, derive the integral equation characterizing the evolution of the optical intensities, and provide a description of the relevant dynamics. The characteristic feature of this regime is the existence of a mutual bunching, whose origin and role are discussed.

Personality Development by means of Investment in L2 and its impact on EFL Proficiency: A survey of Iranian MA EFL students

Norton’s (1995) Investment Hypothesis in L2 learning, that L2 learners who cherish and foresee a richer personality for themselves in their L2 context would thrive more diligently and consequently would both enrich their personality and achieve a higher proficiency in their new language, was investigated in this study in the community of Iranian EFL students. The integration and mutual role between language and culture and their subsequent influence on the personality and EFL proficiency of 72 Iranian MA EFL students at Allameh Tabataba’i University were investigated. Personality features, confined to Multicultural Personality Traits (cultural empathy, open-mindedness, social initiative, emotional stability, and flexibility), were measured by using Multicultural Personality Questionnaire (MPQ) and an actual TOEFL was used to measure the participants’ EFL proficiency. Then the relationships between their MPTs and EFL proficiency were analyzed. It was found that when all participants were taken as EFL students, the correlation between their MPTs and EFL proficiency was not a high correlation, but when they were relatively classified into high, mid and low-proficiency groups, strong positive correlation between high-proficiency EFL students’ MPTs and their EFL proficiency was witnessed (r = .62), whereas the lowproficiency EFL students’ data indicated a very low correlation. The findings of this study confirmed the hypothesis that EFL students with a greater investment in their L2 as a means to develop an enriched personality had also achieved higher EFL proficiency.

The complementary roles of dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI and 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose PET/CT for imaging of carotid atherosclerosis

Inflammation and neovascularization in vulnerable atherosclerotic plaques are key features for severe clinical events. Dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) MRI and FDG PET are two noninvasive imaging techniques capable of quantifying plaque neovascularization and inflammatory infiltrate, respectively. However, their mutual role in defining plaque vulnerability and their possible overlap has not been thoroughly investigated. We studied the relationship between DCE-MRI and (18)F-FDG PET data from the carotid arteries of 40 subjects with coronary heart disease (CHD) or CHD risk equivalent, as a substudy of the dal-PLAQUE trial (NCT00655473). The dal-PLAQUE trial was a multicenter study that evaluated dalcetrapib, a cholesteryl ester transfer protein modulator. Subjects underwent anatomical MRI, DCE-MRI and (18)F-FDG PET. Only baseline imaging and biomarker data (before randomization) from dal-PLAQUE were used as part of this substudy. Our primary goal was to evaluate the relationship between DCE-MRI and (18)F-FDG PET data. As secondary endpoints, we evaluated the relationship between (a) PET data and whole-vessel anatomical MRI data, and (b) DCE-MRI and matching anatomical MRI data. All correlations were estimated using a mixed linear model. We found a significant inverse relationship between several perfusion indices by DCE-MRI and (18)F-FDG uptake by PET. Regarding our secondary endpoints, there was a significant relationship between plaque burden measured by anatomical MRI with several perfusion indices by DCE-MRI and (18)F-FDG uptake by PET. No relationship was found between plaque composition by anatomical MRI and DCE-MRI or (18)F-FDG PET metrics. In this study we observed a significant, weak inverse relationship between inflammation measured as (18)F-FDG uptake by PET and plaque perfusion by DCE-MRI. Our findings suggest that there may be a complex relationship between plaque inflammation and microvascularization during the different stages of plaque development. (18)F-FDG PET and DCE-MRI may have complementary roles in future clinical practice in identifying subjects at high risk of cardiovascular events.

Additive effects of inflammation and stress reaction on Toll-like receptor 4-mediated growth of endometriotic stromal cells

Is there any combined effect between inflammation and stress reaction on Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4)-mediated growth of endometriotic cells? A combined effect of local inflammation and stress reaction in the pelvic environment may be involved in TLR4-mediated growth of endometriotic stromal cells. In endometriosis, higher endotoxin levels in the menstrual fluid (MF) and peritoneal fluid (PF) and higher tissue concentrations of human heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) in the eutopic and ectopic endometria promote TLR4-mediated growth of endometriotic cells. This is a case-controlled research study with prospective collection and retrospective evaluation of sera, MF, PF and endometrial tissues from 43 women with and 20 women without endometriosis. PF was collected from 43 women with endometriosis and 20 control women during laparoscopy. Sera and endometrial biopsy specimens were collected from a proportion of these women. MF was collected from a separate population of 20 women with endometriosis and 15 control women. HSP70 concentrations in sera, MF, PF and in culture media were measured by ELISA. Gene expression of HSP70 by endometrial cells in response to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) was examined by qRT-PCR. The individual and combined effects of LPS and HSP70 on the secretion of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα) by PF-derived macrophages (M[Symbol: see text]) were examined by ELISA, while their effects on endometrial cell proliferation were examined by bromodeoxyuridine and [(3)H]-thymidine incorporation assay. Concentrations of HSP70 were maximal in MF, intermediate in PF and the lowest in sera. In MF and PF, HSP70 levels were higher in women with endometriosis than in controls. LPS stimulated gene expression and secretion of HSP70 by eutopic endometrial stromal cells (ESCs) and this effect was abrogated after pretreatment of cells with an anti-TLR4 antibody. This effect was significantly higher for ESCs derived from women with endometriosis than for ESCs from control women. Exogenous treatment with either HSP70 or LPS significantly stimulated the production of IL-6 and TNFα by M[Symbol: see text] and promoted the proliferation of ESCs, and a significant additive effect between LPS and HSP70 was observed. While individual treatment with either polymyxin B, an LPS antagonist, or anti-HSP70 antibody was unable to suppress the combined effects of LPS and HSP70 on cytokine secretion or ESC proliferation, pretreatment of cells with the anti-TLR4 antibody was able to significantly suppress their combined effects. Further studies are needed to examine the mutual role between other secondary inflammatory mediators and endogenous stress proteins in promoting pelvic inflammation and growth of endometriotic stromal cells. Our findings suggest that endotoxin and HSP70 are mutually involved in a stress reaction and in inflammation. A combined effect between local inflammation and a stress reaction in pelvic environment may be involved in TLR4-mediated growth of endometriotic cells. Since endometriosis is a multi-factorial disease, it is difficult to explain uniformly its growth regulation by a single factor. Our findings may provide some new insights in understanding the physiopathology or pathogenesis of endometriosis and may hold new therapeutic potential. This work was supported by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (grant no. 16591671 and 18591837) from the Ministry of Education, Sports, Culture, Science and Technology of Japan (to K.N.K.). There is no conflict of interest related to this study. Not applicable.

The causal relationship between Theory of Mind and Language

Neurological studies reveal that theory of mind is a part of social intelligence in human beings and a requirement for language acquisition. Appropriate use of language is one important aspect of social life. Theory of mind is defined as understanding mental representations, and effective language use relies on monitoring the probable mental states of the listener, and making inferences about the mental states of the speaker. As the ability to understand our own minds and those of others is central to what it means to be a human, considering theory of mind and language as separate abilities in human mind may make little sense. The aim of this article is to illustrate the possible cause-effect relationship between language and theory of mind and the mutual role they play in human social life, by adopting the Relevance Theoretic Pragmatics framework based on a definition of relevance and two general cognitive and communicative principles. As a remarkable part of assessing the theory of mind and its intimate relation with language lie in developmental psychology, a great deal is taken from research on child psychology.

Mutually exclusive permissions in RBAC

Role-based access control (RBAC) always provides tight security of information and ease of management to security policy. There are certain constraints which make the information security tight. Separation of duty (SOD) in terms of mutual exclusion and role inheritance (RI) are some of those constraints which provide security of information and make the management of security policy easier. On one side after implementing separation of duty, we may able to get tight security but on the other side it can create complexity for the security administrator and the end users who use the system. Implementing mutual exclusion on the basis of roles reduces the authority of the RBAC user for which the user is authorised. In this paper, we describe the complexities and complications which can be faced after implementing separation of duty in terms of mutually exclusive roles (MER). We also describe the problems which can be faced if either the role inheritance is not implemented or implemented in an incomplete manner. We also propose a model to counter the problems.

Mutational analysis of p53 and PTEN in soft tissue sarcoma

p53 and PTEN are the two most frequently mutated tumor suppressors in human cancer. However, literature on the effect of the joint inactivation of tumor-suppressor genes in soft tissue sarcoma (STS) is lacking. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether p53 and PTEN mutations play a role in the carcinogenesis of STS, as well as to evaluate their mutual role in STS pathogenesis. We screened mutations of p53 and PTEN in 86 human STSs using polymerase chain reaction-single strand conformation polymorphism (PCR-SSCP) and DNA sequencing, respectively. p53 mutations were detected in 25.6% (22 out of 86) of STSs: 6 cases of p53 mutations were detected in 46 cases of specific reciprocal translocations in STSs (13.0%), 16 cases were detected in 40 cases of nonspecific reciprocal translocations in STSs (40.0%); the majority of the mutations were point mutations in exon 6-7. Furthermore, PTEN mutations were observed in 2 out of 86 STSs (2.3%). Two out of 86 cases revealed a 130th codon G>A missense mutation in exon 8 of PTEN which resulted in an Arg change to Gln in the PTEN protein structure; and a 334th codon A>T missense mutation in exon 8 of PTEN, which resulted in an Asn change to Lys in the PTEN protein structure. All subjects were examined for p53 exon 5-9 mutations and for PTEN exon 5-9 mutations. However, no tumors contained an alteration of the two genes. The findings indicate that p53 mutations may be involved in the oncogenesis of STS and also suggest that p53 may function as a potential molecular marker for distinguishing between STSs with specific reciprocal translocations and nonspecific reciprocal translocations. Although the existence of PTEN mutations in STS was detected, the PTEN mutation frequency was quite low. We conclude that PTEN may have played a less prognostic role than p53 in the development and malignant transformation of STS in the patients examined.

Bis(2-pyridylmethyl)alkyl(thioalkyl)diamines as promising scaffolds for the construction of fluorescent and redox chemosensors for transition and post-transition metal ions

N,N′-Bis(2-pyridylmethyl)propylendiamine (1) and N,N′-bis(2-pyridylmethyl)-1,5-diamino-3-thiapentane (2) have been functionalised at the secondary nitrogen atoms with dansylamidoethyl (L1, L3), 2-quinolinylmethyl (L2, L4) and ferrocenylmethyl (L6, L7) pendant arms with the intention to study their potentiality as receptor units in molecular sensors. The optical response of L1–L4 to the presence of the metal ions Cu2+, Zn2+, Cd2+, Hg2+ and Pb2+ has been investigated in MeCN/H2O (4:1 v/v) solution. The electrochemical response of L6 and L7 to the presence of the same metal ions has been investigated in anhydrous MeCN/CH2Cl2 10:1 (v/v) solution. Results are compared and discussed with the aim to clarify the mutual role played by the bis(2-methylpyridyl)alkyl(thioalkyl)diamines and the signalling units attached to them in reaching the selectivity of the responses observed.