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The parens patriae doctrine provides an alternative route for a state to establish standing when it seeks to protect its quasi-sovereign interests. Parens patriae suits are particularly appropriate for environmental cases where the injury is inflicted on the general population and individuals bringing separate suits cannot obtain the proper relief. This doctrine inherently recognizes a state's entitlement to "special solicitude," a concept articulated by the Supreme Court in Massachusetts v. EPA. This Note argues that tribal governments should also be entitled to special solicitude when seeking to protect their quasi-sovereign interests. This need is particularly pressing in environmental cases, because Native Americans are uniquely vulnerable to environmental issues such as climate change. Like states, tribal governments should also be permitted to bring parens patriae suits against the federal government, because they are often preempted by federal regulation and the only recourse is to sue the relevant federal agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Account describes a new strategy for the preparation of label-free sensor systems based on the fluorogenic properties of the conjugated polymer, polydiacetylene (PDA). PDA has been extensively investigated as a sensor matrix, owing to a brilliant blue-to-red color transition that takes place in response to environmental perturbations. It has been known for some time that “blue-phase” PDAs are nonfluorescent while their “red-phase” counterparts fluoresce. For the most part, however, the significance of the different fluorogenic properties of PDAs has been ignored in the context of sensor applications. In the course of developing PDA-based sensors, we discovered that PDA vesicles can be readily immobilized on solid substrates. This is an attractive property of PDAs since it leads to the combined advantages of the vesicle sensors (which have three-dimensional interactions between sensor and target molecules) and film sensors (which are applicable to a two-dimensional array or chip format). Stable blue-phase immobilized PDAs can be prepared by employing one of three strategies involving the formation of covalent adducts, biotin–avidin complexes, or complexes formed through nonspecific physical adsorption. A procedure for generating well-patterned fluorescence images is necessary for the immobilized PDAs to function in chip-based sensor systems. Patterned fluorescence images are readily constructed by employing (1) the photolithographic technique, (2) the micromolding in capillaries (MIMIC) method, or (3) an array spotting system. Heat treatment of the patterned “blue-phase” PDA vesicles transforms the nonfluorescent images into their fluorescent red forms. The observation that finely resolved fluorescence patterns can be generated by heat treatment of microarrayed PDAs is highly significant in that it indicates that fluorescence signals might be produced by specific molecular recognition events. Indeed, red fluorescence emission is observed when immobilized PDAs are subjected to specific molecular recognition events, such as ligand−cyclodextrin or protein–protein interactions. The facile immobilization of PDA vesicles on solid substrates and the affinity-induced fluorescence emission combine to make this system applicable to the fabrication of label-free PDA sensors. Since in theory any molecular recognition event that promotes the blue-to-red color transition of PDAs should result in the generation of fluorescence, it should be possible to reformat a variety of previously described colorimetric PDA sensors into fluorescence-based sensor systems. The fluorescence properties of PDAs, when combined with modern methods for the fabrication of microarrays, should stimulate the development of a number of new label-free chemosensor systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although endovascular stenting has been used as an interventional therapy to treat cardio- and cerebro-vascular diseases, it is associated with recurrent vascular diseases following stent thrombosis and in-stent restenosis. In this study, a metallic stent was coated with dopamine-conjugated hyaluronic acid with different ratios of catechol group to improve hemocompatibility and re-endothelialization. Especially, we were interested in how much amount of catechol group is appropriate for the above-mentioned purposes. Therefore, a series of dopamine-conjugated hyaluronic acid conjugates with different ratios of catechol group were synthesized via a carbodiimide coupling reaction. Dopamine-conjugated hyaluronic acid conjugates were characterized with 1H-nuclear magnetic resonance and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and the amount of catechol group in dopamine-conjugated hyaluronic acid was measured by ultraviolet spectrometer. Co-Cr substrates were polished and coated with various dopamine-conjugated hyaluronic acid conjugates under pH8.5. Dopamine-conjugated hyaluronic acid amounts on the substrate were quantified by micro-bicinchoninic acid assay. Surface characteristics of dopamine-conjugated hyaluronic-acid-coated Co-Cr were evaluated by water contact angle, scanning electron microscopy, and atomic force microscopy. The hemocompatibility of the surface-modified substrates was assessed by protein adsorption and platelet adhesion tests. Adhesion and activation of platelets were confirmed with scanning electron microscopy and lactate dehydrogenase assay. Human umbilical vein endothelial cells were cultured on the substrates, and the viability, adhesion, and proliferation were investigated through cell counting kit-8 assay and fluorescent images. Obtained results demonstrated that optimal amounts of catechol group (100 µmol) in the dopamine-conjugated hyaluronic acid existed in terms of various properties such as hemocompatibility and cellular responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Assessment of tumor cell proliferation based on Ki-67 expression yielded conflicting prognostic predictions of patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). The introduction of rituximab to the DLBCL treatment regime has led to alterations in the significance of previous prognostic factors. Methods: We analyzed Ki-67 expression and its correlation with prognosis in 144 patients with DLBCL treated with rituximab plus CHOP (R-CHOP) between July 2003 and January 2008. Results: The complete response (CR) rates following R-CHOP administration were not significantly different, based on Ki-67 expression status ( P = 0.104). However, higher rates of relapse were observed in the high Ki-67 expression group (Ki-67 ≥ 85%, n = 46) with 25.0%, compared to 10.0% in the low Ki-67 expression group (Ki-67 < 85%, n = 88) ( P = 0.040). The 2-yr event-free survival (EFS) rates were 44.3% and 74.1% in the high and low Ki-67 expression groups, respectively ( P = 0.011). The 2-yr overall survival (OS) rate was 66.4% in the high Ki-67 expression group and 82.2% in the low Ki-67 expression group ( P = 0.016). In multivariate analysis, Ki-67 expression was a significant prognostic factor for EFS [hazard ratio (HR) = 2.909; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.261–6.708; P = 0.012]. Ki-67 was associated with OS but with borderline significance (HR = 2.876; 95% CI, 0.972–8.508; P = 0.056). Conclusion: Elevated Ki-67 expression seems to be associated with higher relapse after CR and inferior EFS in patients with DLBCL treated with R-CHOP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to several reports, the 10 year incidence of secondary acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) or myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) after systemic chemotherapy is approximately 1.5%. The cumulative risk increases by 0.25 – 1% for the first 8 years after treatment. We have reported only 6 cases of hematological malignancies (0.3%) after breast cancer chemotherapy in our institute. We detected 2 cases of secondary AML and 1 case of MDS, 19, 52 and 12 months, respectively, after systemic chemotherapy for breast cancer. Published data on the occurrence of secondary hematological malignancies other than AML or MDS in this setting are scarce. We encountered diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, angioimmunoblastic lymphoma and mantle cell lymphoma as secondary hematological malignancies after systemic chemotherapy for breast cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Revealing the nature of chain packing in conjugated polymer nanoparticles (CPNs) is one of the important issues to polymer physics research. Surfactant-stabilized CPNs in water show significantly enhanced luminescence intensity in comparison to small molecular organic dyes and single polymer chains dissolved in solvents. The importance of the conjugated polymer structure in nanomaterials is undoubted. However, details of the relationship between alignment of conjugated polymer backbone in CPNs and its luminescent property have not been established. Furthermore, there are yet no methods that can predict the atom-resolved structure of conjugated polymer in the CPNs. Herein, we employ coarse-grained (CG) molecular dynamic simulations to investigate the structure of phase-separated film and the film shattering process for a mixture of poly[2,6-(4,4-bis(2-ethylhexyl)-4H-cyclopenta[2,1-b;3,4-b']-dithiophene)-alt-4,7-(2,1,3-benzothiadiazole)] (PCPDTBT) and 1,2-dioctanoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (D8PC). The p-p stacked structure of PCPDTBT is significantly enhanced when the ratio of D8PC increases in both dried and water exposed film. We also show that the amount of D8PC is at least 2.5 times larger than that of PCPDTBT to wrap the conjugated polymer chain, and the direct retrieval of atomistic details is achieved through back-mapping from the morphology of CG. Finally, we confirmed that conjugated backbones inside the nanoparticles were completely shielded from the aqueous solution by the dense layers of alkyl chains, resulting in remarkably enhanced chain packing. These simulated results are correlated with experimentally observed structure through UV-vis-near-infrared (UV-vis-NIR) spectrometry, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), particle size analyzer (PSA), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and grazing-incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXD). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diacetylene (DA) is an amphiphilic structure and has been studied as a variety of PDA-based chemosensors. However, the prospect of using diacetylene (DA) as dopant of polyaniline (PANI) is yet to be reported. In this study, new amphiphilic PCDA-taurine and PCDA-pBzS dopants were synthesized by changing the primary functional group to a sulfonic group. These polymerizable dopants are photopolymerized by UV irradiation in PANI solution. Thereby we expect to enhance the thermal stability and sustain the conductivity of PANI. The polymerizable dopants were characterized by FT-IR, NMR, and GC-MS. PANI with polymerizable dopants was analyzed by resonance Raman spectroscopy (RRS). The thermal stability and conductivity of PANI were characterized by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Comparing the TGA results of PANI doped with general dopants with PANI doped with polymerizable dopants, we found that PANI with polymerizable dopants showed enhanced thermal stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a study on twinning boundary-elongated hierarchical platinum (Pt) dendrites with electrocatalytic activity using an axially twinned nanorod core. Topics explored include the result of a high catalytic activity of the hierarchical nanostructure, a description of the transmission electron microscopy and high resolution images of the nanostructures, and the cyclic voltammograms of the Pt nanostructure.

Gastric cancer patients with acute disseminated intravascular coagulation experiences a rare but severe complication resulting in a dismal prognosis. We report a case of advanced gastric cancer complicated with disseminated intravascular coagulation with intractable tumor bleeding which was successfully treated with chemotherapy consisting of 5-fluorouracil and oxaliplatin. The patient was a 63-year-old man who complained of abdominal pain, melena, and dyspnea on 24 November 2010. We diagnosed stage IV gastric cancer complicated by disseminated intravascular coagulation. Gastric tumor bleeding was not controlled after procedures were repeated three times using gastrofiberscopy. With the patient's consent, we selected the 5-fluorouracil and oxaliplatin combination chemotherapy for treatment. After one cycle of 5-fluorouracil and oxaliplatin therapy, symptoms of bleeding improved and the disseminated intravascular coagulation process was successfully controlled. The primary tumor and multiple metastatic bone lesions were remarkably shrunken and metabolically remitted after eight cycles of chemotherapy. In spite of progression, systemic chemotherapy is effective in disease control; further, the patient gained the longest survival time among cases of gastric cancer with disseminated intravascular coagulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Even though the inkjet technology has been recognized as one of the most promising technologies for electronic and bio industries, the full understanding of the dynamics of an inkjet droplet at its operating conditions is still lacking. In this study, the normal impact of water droplets on solid substrates was investigated experimentally. The size of water droplets studied here was 46 m and was much smaller than the most of the previous studies on drop impact. The Weber number (We) and Reynolds number (Re) were 0.05−2 and 10−100, respectively, and the Ohnesorge number was fixed at 0.017. The wettability of the solid substrate was varied by adsorbing a self-assembled monolayer of octadecyltrichlorosilane followed by the exposure to UV−ozone plasma. The impact scenarios for low We impacts were found to be qualitatively different from the high to moderate We impacts. Neither the development of a thin film and lamella under the traveling sphere nor the entrapment of small bubbles was observed. The dynamics of droplet impact at the conditions studied here is found to proceed under the combined influences of inertia, surface tension, and viscosity without being dominated by one specific mechanism. The maximum spreading factor (), the ratio of the diameter of the wetted surface and the drop diameter before impact, was correlated well with the relationship ln 0.090 ln We/(fs− cos ) 0.151 for three decades of We/(fs− cos ), where is the equilibrium contact angle, and fsis the ratio between the surface areas contacting the air and the solid substrate. The result implies that the final shape of the droplet is determined by the surface phenomenon rather than fluid mechanical effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports that since the first report of the colon metric detection of the influenza virus by using a polydiacetylene (PDA) film the development of efficient sensory systems based on PDAs continues to be of great interest. The unique applicability of PDAs as chemosensors derives from the fact that these supramolecules undergo a blue to red visible color change in response to a variety of environmental disturbances, such as temperature, pH, and ligand receptor interactions. As a result, sensing by almost all of the polydiacetylene-based chemosensors reported thus far has been monitored by visible spectroscopy.