A reply to Sahle and Braun's reply to ‘The pattern of emergence of a Middle Stone Age tradition at Gademotta and Kulkuletti (Ethiopia) through convergent tool and point technologies’ [J. Hum. Evol. 91 (2016) 93–121]

Publication date: Available online 28 May 2018
Source:Journal of Human Evolution
Author(s): Katja Douze, Anne Delagnes, Veerle Rots, Brad Gravina
Sahle and Braun's (in press) recent comments on our identification (Douze and Delagnes, 2016) of diachronic trends in Middle Stone Age point traditions in several lithic assemblages from the sites of Gademotta and Kulkuletti (Ethiopia) focuses on pointed tool function rather than the gradual technological shifts we observed between sites. Here we address several of what we consider to be inaccuracies and misinterpretations concerning our work with the Gademotta and Kulkuletti lithic assemblages (Douze, 2012, 2014), more specifically, Sahle and Braun's (in press) interpretation of the tranchet blow technique. This discussion is inseparable from a critical review of the evidence advanced by Sahle and Braun to support projectile technology being present in the Gademotta Formation as early as >279 ka.



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Establishment of adoptive cell therapy with tumor infiltrating lymphocytes for non-small cell lung cancer patients

Abstract

Adoptive cell therapy (ACT) of tumor infiltration lymphocytes (TIL) yields promising clinical results in metastatic melanoma patients, who failed standard treatments. Due to the fact that metastatic lung cancer has proven to be susceptible to immunotherapy and possesses a high mutation burden, which makes it responsive to T cell attack, we explored the feasibility of TIL ACT in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. Multiple TIL cultures were isolated from tumor specimens of five NSCLC patients undergoing thoracic surgery. We were able to successfully establish TIL cultures by various methods from all patients within an average of 14 days. Fifteen lung TIL cultures were further expanded to treatment levels under good manufacturing practice conditions and functionally and phenotypically characterized. Lung TIL expanded equally well as 103 melanoma TIL obtained from melanoma patients previously treated at our center, and had a similar phenotype regarding PD1, CD28, and 4-1BB expressions, but contained a higher percent of CD4 T cells. Lung carcinoma cell lines were established from three patients of which two possessed TIL cultures with specific in vitro anti-tumor reactivity. Here, we report the successful pre-clinical production of TIL for immunotherapy in the lung cancer setting, which may provide a new treatment modality for patients with metastatic NSCLC. The initiation of a clinical trial is planned for the near future.

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Caged nanoparticles boost catalytic power

Publication date: June 2018
Source:Nano Today, Volume 20





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Editorial Board

Publication date: June 2018
Source:Nano Today, Volume 20





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Impact of a static magnetic field on biodegradation of wastewater compounds and bacteria recombination

Abstract

The current study presents results concerning the effect of a static magnetic field (SMF) on synthetic wastewater biodegradation by activated sludge and on dehydrogenase activity of microorganisms of activated sludge. The highest process efficiency was obtained for a SMF of 0.0075 T among the tested magnetic flux density values of 0.005–0.14 T. Decrease in COD was 25% higher for the bioreactor exposed to SMF compared with control experiments. The positive effect of SMF 0.0075–0.0080 T was confirmed in experiments on the dehydrogenase activity of activated sludge. It was also shown that a SMF of 0.007 T increased p-nitroaniline removal from wastewater and influenced the recombination frequency in a streptomycin-resistant bacteria strain of Eschercihia coli.

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Comparison of Duke Activity Status Index with cardiopulmonary exercise testing in cancer patients

Abstract

Purpose

The Duke Activity Status Index (DASI), a patient-administered questionnaire, is used to quantify functional capacity in patients undergoing cancer surgery.

Methods

This retrospective cohort study assessed whether the DASI was accurate in predicting peak oxygen consumption (pVO₂) that was objectively measured using cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) in 43 consecutive patients scheduled for elective major cancer surgery at a tertiary cancer centre. The primary outcome measured the limits of agreement between DASI-predicted pVO₂ and actual measured pVO₂.

Results

The study population was elderly (median 63 years, interquartile range 18), 58% were male, with the majority having intraabdominal cancer surgery. Although the DASI scores were statistically related to the measured pVO₂ (N = 43, adjusted R² = 0.20, p = 0.002), both the bias (8 ml kg^− 1 min^− 1) and 95% limits of agreement (19.5 to − 3.4 ml kg^− 1 min^− 1) between the predicted and measured pVO₂ were large. Using some of the individual components, recalibrating the intercept and regression coefficient of the total DASI score did not substantially improve its ability to predict the measured pVO₂.

Conclusion

In summary, both the limits of agreement and bias between the measured and DASI-predicted pVO₂ were substantial. The DASI-predicted pVO₂ based on patient's assessment of their functional status could not be considered a reliable surrogate of measured pVO₂ during CPET for the population of patients pending major cancer surgery and cannot, therefore, be used as a triage tool for referral to CPET centres for objective risk assessment.

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Neural Correlates of Personalized Spiritual Experiences

Abstract

Across cultures and throughout history, human beings have reported a variety of spiritual experiences and the concomitant perceived sense of union that transcends one's ordinary sense of self. Nevertheless, little is known about the underlying neural mechanisms of spiritual experiences, particularly when examined across different traditions and practices. By adapting an individualized guided-imagery task, we investigated neural correlates of personally meaningful spiritual experiences as compared with stressful and neutral-relaxing experiences. We observed in the spiritual condition, as compared with the neutral-relaxing condition, reduced activity in the left inferior parietal lobule (IPL), a result that suggests the IPL may contribute importantly to perceptual processing and self-other representations during spiritual experiences. Compared with stress cues, responses to spiritual cues showed reduced activity in the medial thalamus and caudate, regions associated with sensory and emotional processing. Overall, the study introduces a novel method for investigating brain correlates of personally meaningful spiritual experiences and suggests neural mechanisms associated with broadly defined and personally experienced spirituality.

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