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This article examines career building for visual artists, whereby a successful career is defined as exhibiting work, reaching a wide audience, and making a living by selling art. Using insights from management, marketing, entrepreneurship, and sociology, the authors develop a conceptual model for constructing a successful career, the Building Blocks of Artistic Careers model (BBAC). Pursuing such a career entails entrepreneurial and marketing skills, cultivation of relationships with art world gatekeepers, brand creation strategies, and reputation management. The article contributes to the literature of visual arts entrepreneurship, has implications for art school curricula, and raises issues for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emergency operating procedures (EOPs) are fundamental for coping with emergency and accident situations in nuclear power plants. Researchers at the Halden Reactor Project have developed a design concept including computer-based EOPs and other displays to support operators during emergency situations. The computer-based procedure system includes three displays: a symptom check display intended for monitoring EOP entrance criteria, a procedure selection and overview display, and a procedure performance display. A large-screen display provides shared information viewable for all operators in the control room. This paper describes the design, implementation, and initial testing of the displays in the Halden Man-Machine Laboratory. The original paper presented at the 10th International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control and Human Machine Interface Technologies (NPIC&HMIT 2017) has been revised to include empirical results from a full-scope simulator study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection is highly prevalent in Portugal and its eradication is formally recommended. However, the indiscriminate use of antimicrobials has led to a drastic rise in antibiotic resistance, with the failure of traditional eradication schemes. A single-capsule bismuth-based quadruple therapy became recently available in Portugal. This study aims to evaluate the efficacy and safety of a bismuth-based quadruple therapy as a second-line or rescue therapy. This was a multicentric study. All consecutive patients that were treated with bismuth-based quadruple therapy, as second-line or salvage treatment between July 2017 and April 2019 were enrolled. Their medical records were reviewed and clinical and laboratorial parameters, as well as data on treatment efficacy and adverse events were retrieved. Patients were also contacted by phone after treatment to confirm compliance, adverse events, and global satisfaction with this specific therapy. A total of 151 subjects were included (female—68.9%; mean age—56 ± 13.5 years). Patients were previously submitted to 212 eradication schemes (Median-1; 1–5; IQR:4): 33.5% triple clarithromycin-based, 25% sequential, 7.5% concomitant, 5.2% others, and in 28.8% it was not possible to know the previous eradication scheme(s) followed by the patient. The PPI of choice was esomeprazole (39.7%), followed by omeprazole (27.8%). Compliance was achieved in 93.4% and the overall eradication rate was 90.1% (95% CI: 84.6–94.2). Treatment-related adverse effects were experienced by 63 patients (41.7%; 95% CI: 34–49.7), being mild in 29, moderate in 19, and severe in 15. The main drawbacks of the treatment, from the patient's perspective, were the high price (47%) and the adverse effects (16.6%). Failure to eradicate H. pylori was correlated with the following: previous rifabutin-based scheme (0 vs. 100%; p = 0.010) and a higher number of previous treatment schemes (1.5 ± 0.7 vs. 2.3 ± 1.2; p < 0.001). In this South-European country a single-capsule bismuth-based quadruple therapy is an excellent option as a second-line or rescue therapy, with acceptable compliance and side effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study describes for the first time the iron- and copper-mediated gelation of FucoPol, fucose-rich bacterial polysaccharide. The ability of FucoPol to gel in the presence of metal cations, including iron(III) and copper(II), was used for the preparation of hydrogel beads. Iron mediated the formation of stable and not cytotoxic gel beads, while copper resulted in fragile and cytotoxic ones. Copper-mediated beads coated with an iron-mediated gel layer were more stable and had reduced cytotoxicity. The resulting polymeric structures had differing morphology, physical properties and cytotoxicity, which support their use in several applications, including biomedicine, agriculture and bioremediation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A trimetallic CuII derivative, [Cu3(L)2(CF3COO)2] (1) (where H2L = N,N′-bis(salicylidene)-1,3-propanediamine), was prepared and characterized. In 1, the two terminal CuII ions are linked to the central CuII by trifluoroacetato and doubly bridging phenoxido. Both the square-pyramidal and octahedral geometries are observed among two different CuII centers in the linear arrangement of the trimetallic unit. Compound 1 is characterized by IR and UV-Vis spectra. Compound 1 has high cytotoxic activity in breast adenocarcinoma (MCF-7), colorectal carcinoma (HCT116) and particularly, in ovarian carcinoma (A2780) cell line compared to a lung adenocarcinoma cell line. The IC50 in A2780 cells is 25 times lower than the respective value for normal human primary fibroblasts demonstrating 1 has higher cytotoxicity towards cancer cells. Additionally, combination of DOX with 1 induces a higher loss of HCT116 cell viability compared with each drug alone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nearly 1.5 million people worldwide suffer from chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), characterized by the genetic translocation t(9;22)(q34;q11.2), involving the fusion of the Abelson oncogene (ABL1) with the breakpoint cluster region (BCR) gene. Early onset diagnosis coupled to current therapeutics allow for a treatment success rate of 90, which has focused research on the development of novel diagnostics approaches. In this review, we present a critical perspective on current strategies for CML diagnostics, comparing to gold standard methodologies and with an eye on the future trends on nanotheranostics. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Antisense therapy is a powerful tool for post-transcriptional gene silencing suitable for down-regulating target genes associated to disease. Gold nanoparticles have been described as effective intracellular delivery vehicles for antisense oligonucleotides providing increased protection against nucleases and targeting capability via simple surface modification. We constructed an antisense gold-nanobeacon consisting of a stem-looped oligonucleotide double-labelled with 3′-Cy3 and 5′-Thiol-C6 and tested for the effective blocking of gene expression in colorectal cancer cells. Due to the beacon conformation, gene silencing was directly detected as fluorescence increases with hybridisation to target, which can be used to assess the level of silencing. Moreover, this system was extensively evaluated for the genotoxic, cytotoxic and proteomic effects of gold-nanobeacon exposure to cancer cells. The exposure was evaluated by two-dimensional protein electrophoresis followed by mass spectrometry to perform a proteomic profile and 3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-Yl)-2,5-Diphenyltetrazolium Bromide (MTT) assay, glutathione-S-transferase assay, micronucleus test and comet assay to assess the genotoxicity. This integrated toxicology evaluation showed that the proposed nanotheranostics strategy does not exhibit significant toxicity, which is extremely relevant when translating into in vivo systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

About 20%% of patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) do not respond to treatment with imatinib either initially or because of acquired resistance. To study the development of CML drug resistance, an in vitro experimental system comprising cell lines with different resistance levels was established by exposing K562 cells to increasing concentrations of imatinib and dasatinib anticancer agents. The mRNA levels of BCR- ABL1 and of genes involved in drug transport or redistribution ( ABCB1, ABCC1, ABCC3, ABCG2, MVP, and SLC22A1) were measured and the ABL1 kinase domain sequenced. Results excluded BCR- ABL1 overexpression and mutations as relevant resistance mechanisms. Most studied transporters were overexpressed in the majority of resistant cell lines. Their expression pattern was dynamic: varying with resistance level and chronic drug exposure. Studied efflux transporters may have an important role at the initial stages of resistance, but after prolonged exposure and for higher doses of drugs other mechanisms might take place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A letter to the editor is presented on the CCAAT/enhancer binding protein α (CEBPA) gene mutation in acute myeloid leukemia patient.

A letter to the editor is presented that describes a chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) patient having an e6a2 BCR-ABL transcript.