Visual primitives have long been proposed, under the name of geons or generalized cylinders, as components for object models in the brain and in the computer. Geons constitute a structural level intermediate between features and whole objects, and can form a basis for powerful generalization between different view points. We here present a system for the extraction of geon models from images of...

The nature of the obscuring material in active galactic nuclei is still uncertain. Although some sources, such as Cygnus A, show evidence for a geometrically thick “torus” as originally suggested, recent work on the radiation-driven warping instability discovered by Pringle suggests that obscuration by thin, warped disks may play a crucial role in AGN.

One of the common monuments in the Sassanid era was the square dome. Interestingly, corners and parts of the square dome were always geometrically proportionate to each other. Square domes have been mainly studied in terms of their historical background as well as the materials used. The present research, however, aimed to examine the geometric proportions governing the formation of square dome...

Esophageal cancer is a common tumor for which morbidity and mortality are high worldwide. We aimed to study alterations in miR-486 expression in esophageal cancers, and the effect miR-486 on esophageal cancer cell function and behavior. We collected esophageal cancer tissues/corresponding normal tissues from 20 patients and utilized three esophageal cancer cell lines and normal esophageal epith...

A careful analysis of the gravitational geon solution found by Brill and Hartle is made. The gravitational wave expansion they used is shown to be consistent and to result in a gauge invariant wave equation. It also results in a gauge invariant effective stress-energy tensor for the gravitational waves provided that a generalized definition of a gauge transformation is used. To leading order th...

To identify microRNAs (miRNAs, miRs) with potential roles in lung fibrogenesis, we performed genome-wide profiling of miRNA expression in lung tissues from a silica-induced mouse model of pulmonary fibrosis using microarrays. Seventeen miRNAs were selected for validation via qRT-PCR based on the fold changes between the silica and the control group. The dysregulation of five miRNAs, including m...

The most common cause of death from prostate cancer (PCa) is metastases. There is an increasing body of evidence that microRNAs play an important role in the development of PCa by regulating target genes involved in tumor metastasis. Here, we identified that expression of miR-486-5p was decreased in metastatic C4-2 cells compared to non-metastatic LNCaP cells. Further validation in clinical sam...

The insulin-like growth factor I receptor is known to play a major role in transformation and apoptosis. The dominant negative mutant of the insulin-like growth factor I receptor, designated 486/STOP, causes massive apoptosis of tumor cells and inhibition of tumor growth and metastases. We now show that: (a) the stable expression of 486/STOP inhibits transformation (colony formation in soft aga...

During in vitro decidualization of human endometrial stromal cells (HESCs), medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA) inhibits expression of the potent extracellular matrix (ECM)-degrading protease stromelysin-1 (MMP-3), but enhances PRL expression. Consistent with its priming role in vivo, estradiol (E2) augments these effects. In the current study, immunoblot analysis revealed that coincubation with ...