Regeneration of Damaged Tendon-Bone Junctions (Entheses)—TAK1 as a Potential Node Factor

Musculoskeletal dysfunctions are highly prevalent due to increasing life expectancy. Consequently, novel solutions to optimize treatment of patients are required. The current major research focus is to develop innovative concepts for single tissues. However, interest is also emerging to generate applications for tissue transitions where highly divergent properties need to work together, as in bone-cartilage or bone-tendon transitions. Finding medical solutions for dysfunctions of such tissue transitions presents an added challenge, both in research and in clinics. This review aims to provide an overview of the anatomical structure of healthy adult entheses and their development during embryogenesis. Subsequently, important scientific progress in restoration of damaged entheses is presented. With respect to enthesis dysfunction, the review further focuses on inflammation. Although molecular, cellular and tissue mechanisms during inflammation are well understood, tissue regeneration in context of inflammation still presents an unmet clinical need and goes along with unresolved biological questions. Furthermore, this review gives particular attention to the potential role of a signaling mediator protein, transforming growth factor beta-activated kinase-1 (TAK1), which is at the node of regenerative and inflammatory signaling and is one example for a less regarded aspect and potential important link between tissue regeneration and inflammation.

Prognostic Importance of the Lymph Node Factor in Surgically Resected Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Background Patients with N1 non-small cell lung cancer represent a heterogeneous population. The aim of this study is to determine the difference of survival rate between subtypes of N1 disease in surgically resected non-small cell lung cancer patients and to compare the survival in these patients with multi-N1 and single N2 (skip metastasis) disease. Methods Patients who underwent anatomical pulmonary resection in our institution between 2007 and 2014 with a pathological diagnosis of N1 and single N2 positive non-small cell lung cancer were included in the study. N1 positive patients were divided into three groups as single hilar; single interlobar, lobar, or segmental; and multiple N1 positive patients. These groups were compared among themselves as well as with incidentally found single N2 patients. Results A total of 1,742 patients who had non-small cell lung cancer underwent anatomical lung resection. The survival was better in single hilar lymph nodes than other subtypes of N1 disease (p = 0.015). There was no statistically significant difference in terms of survival between the other subtypes of N1 disease (p = 0.332). The difference in survival for single N2 disease compared with multi-N1 was not statistically significant (p = 0.054). Also, when we divided the groups as single and multi-N1, there was a significant difference in survival (p = 0.025). Conclusion Single hilar lymph nodes with direct invasion have better survival rate than other subtypes of N1. Also, patients with multiple N1 positive lymph nodes have similar survival results compared with single N2 patients. Our results should be confirmed with larger series to better explain N1 disease.

NEARLY OPTIMAL NODE-TO-SET PARALLEL ROUTING IN OTIS NETWORKS

The node-to-set parallel routing problem for a k-connected network Γ is as follows: given a node s and k other nodes {t1, t2, … , tk} in Γ, find k node-disjoint paths connecting s and ti, for 1 ≤ i ≤ k. From the viewpoint of applications in synthesizing fast and resilient collective communication operations, it is desirable to make the parallel paths as short as possible. Building such paths is a nontrivial problem for a general network. Optical transpose interconnection system (OTIS, also known as swapped) networks, a class of hierarchical structures built of n identical n-node factor networks, are known to be maximally fault-tolerant for any connected factor network, implying that they have maximal connectivity. We propose a general algorithm for the node-to-set parallel routing problem in OTIS/swapped networks that yields paths of length no greater than D + 4 in O(Δ2 + Δf(n)) time, where D and Δ represent the diameter and degree of the OTIS network and O(f(n)) is the time complexity of a shortest-path routing algorithm for the n-node factor network. Our node-to-set routing algorithm is shown to have optimal time complexity for certain OTIS networks of practical interest, including OTIS-Mesh and OTIS-Hypercube.

Photoperiod, Temperature, and Interaction Effects on Days and Nodes Required for Flowering of Bean

Number of days to flower (DTF) of 78 bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) genotypes was measured in tropical fields at various elevations. The associated 18 mean temperatures varied between 12 and 28C. Daylength was natural 12 or 13 hours of sunlight with or without incandescent light for a total of 18 hours. A statistical analysis with additive main effects and multiplicative interaction effects (AMMI) quantified the effects on the deviation from the DTF grand mean caused by each genotype, plus those caused by each daylength and by each temperature. The more photoperiod-sensitive the genotype (factor 1), the more a longer daylength (factor 2) increased DTF and the more a higher temperature (factor 3) synergistically increased DTF. These three factors interacted to delay the node to flower. An additional control over DTF occurred as the same higher temperature (factor 3) reduced the days required to develop a node (factor 4). Thus, a higher temperature tended to decrease DTF by enhancing the rate of vegetative development, at the same time that it tended to increase DTF by enhancing the photoperiod gene activity. This four-factor interaction resulted in a U-shaped curve of DTF in response to temperature. The smallest DTF on the U-shaped response was interpreted as occurring when the simultaneous effects of temperature toward earlier and later DTF exactly cancelled. At all temperatures below this optimum for flowering, a change of temperature changed DTF predominantly by altering the days required to develop a node. At all temperatures above the optimum, a change of temperature changed DTF predominantly by altering the photoperiod-gene-caused delay of the node to flower. The optimum temperature for flowering was lowered by higher sensitivity of the genotype to photoperiod and also by longer daylength.