BACKGROUND Skin fibrosis is involved in a variety of pathologic conditions ranging from scar formation secondary to surgery or trauma to immune-mediated processes. Skin fibrosis is a significant international health problem with an estimated incidence of greater than 100 million people affected per year worldwide with few effective treatment options available. Preliminary in vitro data generate...

We study a coarse-grained model for a water monolayer that cannot crystallize due to the presence of confining interfaces, such as protein powders or inorganic surfaces. Using both Monte Carlo simulations and mean field calculations, we calculate three response functions: the isobaric specific heat C(P), the isothermal compressibility K(T), and the isobaric thermal expansivity α(P). At low temp...

Recently it has been proposed that gluon scattering amplitudes in gauge theory can be computed from the D-instanton expansion of the topological B-model on P, although only maximally helicity violating (MHV) amplitudes have so far been obtained from a direct B-model calculation. In this note we compute the simplest non-MHV gluon amplitudes (++−−− and +−+−−) from the B-model as an integral over ...

1. Although alpha-adrenoceptor antagonists have been shown to induce core hypothermia in animals, it is unclear whether the primary mechanism is increased heat loss or decreased heat production. Furthermore, studies have not been performed in humans to determine the role of alpha-adrenoceptors in the maintenance of core temperature. 2. alpha-Adrenoceptor blockade was achieved with three doses o...

Introduction: Accelerated Partial Breast Irradiation (APBI) is an effective treatment for breast carcinomas because of its limited number of fractions. Strut-adjusted volume implant (SAVI) is a HDR brachytherapy applicator to deliver the prescription dose with good PTV coverage and acceptable dose to skin, chest wall and organ at risks. Acceptable clinical outcomes depend on a...

Neutropenia is the dose-limiting toxicity of docetaxel in children. This Phase I trial was designed to determine the maximum tolerated dose, the dose-limiting toxicities, and the incidence and severity of other toxicities of docetaxel with filgrastim (G-CSF) support in children with refractory solid tumors. Docetaxel was administered as an i.v. infusion for 1 h every 21 days with a starting dos...

Skin cancer is one of the most common types of malignancy in the world. UV radiation is known as the primary environmental carcinogen responsible for skin cancer development. However, UV radiation is a ubiquitous substance existing in the environment and the physiological effect of UV radiation is consistently ignored. Therefore, in the present study, the physiological effect of UV radiation on...

The phase I trial in the oncology treatment development paradigm is supremely challenged on the one hand by being required to identify a satisfactory dose/regimen that will be carried forward in pilot and definitive efficacy evaluations and on the other hand to minimize patient's exposure to ineffective doses. The result of this compromise is often scant data on which to base the entire subsequ...