Combinatorial Treatment of Tinzaparin and Chemotherapy Can Induce a Significant Antitumor Effect in Pancreatic Cancer

Pancreatic Cancer (PC) is recognized as a highly thrombogenic tumor; thus, low-molecular-weight heparin (LMWH) such as tinzaparin is routinely used for PC patients. On the basis of combinatorial therapy approaches to treat highly malignant and refractory cancers such as PC, we hypothesized that tinzaparin can augment the effectiveness of traditional chemotherapeutic drugs and induce efficient antitumor activity. PANC-1 and MIAPaCa-2 were incubated alone or in combination with tinzaparin, nab-paclitaxel and gemcitabine. In vivo evaluation of these compounds was performed in a NOD/SCID mouse using a model injected with PANC-1. Tinzaparin enhances the anti-tumor effects of nab-paclitaxel and gemcitabine in mtKRAS PC cell lines via apoptosis in in vitro experiments. The triple combination power acts through the induction of apoptosis, reduction of the proliferative potential and angiogenesis; hence, contributing to a decrease in tumor volume observed in vivo. The triple regimen provided an extra 24.3% tumor reduction compared to the double combination (gemcitabine plus nab-paclitaxel). Combinatorial strategies can create novel therapeutic approaches for the treatment of patients with PC, achieving a better clinical outcome and prolonged survival. Further prospective randomized research is needed and the investigation of various concentrations of tinzaparin above 150 UI/Kg, would potentially provide a valuable synergistic effect to the conventional therapeutic compounds.     

Retracted and replaced: Enabling technologies for the ‘always best connected’ concept

The following article from Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing ‘Enabling technologies for the “always best connected” concept’ by N. Passas, S. Paskalis, A. Kaloxylos, F. Bader, R. Narcisi, E. Tsontsis, A. S. Jahan and H. Aghvami published online on 23 August 2004 in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ) and in print on 2 March 2005 in Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing Volume 5 Issue 2 pp 175–191 has been retracted and replaced by agreement between the authors, the journal editors and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. The article has been retracted due to the omission of the following contributing authors: M. O'Droma and I. Ganchev who are included as contributing authors in the replacement article. (DOI: 10.1002/wcm.392 )     

The Impact of Angiogenesis in the Most Common Salivary Gland Malignant Tumors

Salivary gland carcinomas (SGCs) represent a group of rare tumors, with complete surgical resection being the main treatment option. Therapeutic armory for cases of locally aggressive, recurrent, and/or metastatic SGCs, though, remains poor since they exhibit high rates of resistance to systematic therapy. Angiogenesis is considered one of the contemporary hallmarks of cancer and anti-angiogenic factors have already been approved for the treatment of several cancer types. This review aims to summarize, in a histotype-specific manner, the most current available data on the angiogenic factors implicated in SGC angiogenesis, in order to highlight the differences between the most common SGC histotypes and the factors that may have a potential role as therapeutic targets.     

An Efficient RSVP–Mobile IP Interworking Scheme

During the past years, several attempts have been made to develop functionality for mobility management support and QoS provision in the realm of the IP networks. Since IP was not designed to support such functionality, new protocols have been specified and implemented to tackle these issues. Mobile IP is currently the dominant protocol that allows users to retain connectivity while roaming in IP networks. RSVP (Resource reSerVation Protocol) is a well established protocol for reserving network resources to support QoS requirements. These protocols, when deployed separately, can work quite efficiently. However, if their functionality is combined, several inefficiencies arise in terms of QoS deterioration and misuse of the network resources. To minimize these inefficiencies, we propose a new approach that limits mobility and QoS related network modifications inside the domain, in which a user moves. The deployment of our scheme enhances the network resource usage efficiency, while minimizing the duration of the QoS deterioration experienced after a terminal movement. To quantify the advantages of our proposal, we have developed an analytical and a simulation model that we also present in this paper.     

The demand for energy in Greece: assessing the effects of the Community Support Framework 1994–1999

The paper estimates the demand for energy in Greece in the tradable and non-tradable sectors and for the three main types of energy, namely oil, electricity and solid fuel. Using the estimated demand functions, forecasts of the demand for energy until the year 2010 are derived by incorporating the system of demand and energy price equations into a fully-fledged annual macroeconometric model. The model is subsequently used to forecast the demand for energy and the shares of various forms under alternative assumptions about the effects of the Community Support Framework (CSF). It is found that the demand for energy will be significantly affected by the presence of externalities in the implementation of CSF that give rise to positive supply-side effects and boost growth. In the absence of supply-side externalities, total energy demand rises by 1.4% above the benchmark non-CSF scenario. With growth-inducing externalities, total demand will increase at year 2010 by 6.0% above baseline.     

Green route synthesis of nanoporous copper oxide for efficient supercapacitor and capacitive deionization performances

We demonstrate a simple template-free green method to prepare copper oxide (CuO) nanoporous material using copper acetate as a single precursor with Piper nigrum (Indian black pepper) dried fruit extract as a reducing medium under microwave irradiation. The surface properties and morphology of the obtained CuO material were assessed using powder X-ray diffractometer, X-ray photoelectron spectrometer, field-emission scanning electron microscope with elemental mapping analysis, focused ion beam high-resolution transmission electron microscope, and N₂ adsorption-isotherm techniques. The characterization results reveal that the prepared CuO is a single monoclinic crystalline phase, and nanoporous in morphology with a specific surface area of 81.23 m² g⁻¹ and containing pore sizes between 3–8 nm. Nanoporous CuO showed excellent electrochemical energy storage performance with the specific capacitance of 238 Fg⁻¹ at 5 mVs⁻¹ when compared with commercially available CuO (75 Fg⁻¹). Also, nanoporous CuO showed efficient desalting performance in the capacitive deionization system. This eco-friendly synthesis derived nanoporous CuO can be applied as high-performance supercapacitor material for high-energy storage devices and desalination processes.     

Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors (GISTs): Novel Therapeutic Strategies with Immunotherapy and Small Molecules

Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) are the most common types of malignant mesenchymal tumors in the gastrointestinal tract, with an estimated incidence of 1.5/100.000 per year and 1–2% of gastrointestinal neoplasms. About 75–80% of patients have mutations in the KIT gene in exons 9, 11, 13, 14, 17, and 5–10% of patients have mutations in the platelet-derived growth factor receptor a (PDGFRA) gene in exons 12, 14, 18. Moreover, 10–15% of patients have no mutations and are classified as wild type GIST. The treatment for metastatic or unresectable GISTs includes imatinib, sunitinib, and regorafenib. So far, GIST therapies have raised great expectations and offered patients a better quality of life, but increased pharmacological resistance to tyrosine kinase inhibitors is often observed. New treatment options have emerged, with ripretinib, avapritinib, and cabozantinib getting approvals for these tumors. Nowadays, immune checkpoint inhibitors form a new landscape in cancer therapeutics and have already shown remarkable responses in various tumors. Studies in melanoma, non-small-cell lung cancer, and renal cell carcinoma are very encouraging as these inhibitors have increased survival rates. The purpose of this review is to present alternative approaches for the treatment of the GIST patients, such as combinations of immunotherapy and novel inhibitors with traditional therapies (tyrosine kinase inhibitors).     

Quality-of-service oriented medium access control for wireless ATMnetworks

The medium access control (MAC) protocol and the underlying traffic scheduling algorithm developed within project Magic WAND (Wireless ATM Network Demonstrator) are presented. Magic WAND is investigating wireless ATM technology for customer premises networks in the framework of the Advanced Communications Technologies and Services (ACTS) program funded by the European Union. The MAC protocol, known as MASCARA, is a hub-based, adaptive TDMA scheme which combines reservation- and contention-based access methods to provide multiple access efficiency and quality-of-service guarantees to wireless ATM terminal connections sharing a common radio channel. The traffic scheduling algorithm is delay-oriented to meet the requirements of the various traffic classes defined by the ATM architecture. The results of the simulation of a number of scenarios are presented to assess the performance of the proposed algorithm     

A bootstrap panel unit root test under cross-sectional dependence, with an application to PPP

A bootstrap methodology for dealing with cross-sectional dependence in panel unit root tests of real exchange rates is suggested. Monte Carlo simulations are employed to investigate the size distortion and the power of the bootstrap test-statistic. It is shown that the statistic has good power and no size distortions for moderate and large samples. The panel unit root test procedure is then applied to the long-run purchasing power parity (PPP) hypothesis, using a panel of 20 OECD countries over the recent float period, and the results are compared to those obtained by other tests.     

Factor estimation using MCMC-based Kalman filter methods

An exact MCMC-based solution for the Kalman filter with Markov switching and GARCH components is proposed. To motivate the solution, an international equity market model incorporating common Markovian regimes and GARCH residuals in a persistent factor environment is considered. Given the intractable and approximate nature of the model’s likelihood function, a Metropolis-in-Gibbs sampler with Bayesian features is constructed for estimation purposes. To accelerate the drawing procedure, approximations to the conditional density of the common component are also considered. The model is applied to equity data for 18 developed markets to derive global, European, and country-specific equity market factors.