Artificial Partners to Understand Joint Action: Representing Others to Develop Effective Coordination.

In the last years, artificial partners have been proposed as tools to study joint action, as they would allow to address joint behaviors in more controlled experimental conditions. Here we present an artificial partner architecture which is capable of integrating all the available information about its human counterpart and to develop efficient and natural forms of coordination. The model uses an extended state observer which combines prior information, motor commands and sensory observations to infer the partner's ongoing actions (partner model).

Rapid PCR real-time genotyping of M-Malton alpha1-antitrypsin deficiency alleles by molecular beacons.

Alpha1-Antitrypsin deficiency is an autosomal codominant inherited disorder, with increased risk of developing lung and liver disease. The large majority of subjects affected by alpha1-antitrypsin deficiency carry the PIZZ or PISZ genotypes, which can be easily detected using several molecular methods. Another pathologic allele, the M-Malton variant (also known as Mnichinan and Mcagliari), can mimic the Pi Z clinical phenotype, but this alpha1-antitrypsin deficiency variant is not easily recognizable and, therefore, seems to be more under-recognized than the Z or S alleles.

Cisplatin, gemcitabine, and paclitaxel in locally advanced or metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer: a phase I-II study. Southern Italy Cooperative Oncology Group.

Purpose: Because both cisplatin-paclitaxel and cisplatin-gemcitabine combinations are generally considered to be among the most active regimens in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients, this study aimed to determine the maximum-tolerated dose (MTD) of paclitaxel when combined with fixed doses of cisplatin and gemcitabine in advanced NSCLC patients and aimed to define the therapeutic activity of this new regimen.

Patients And Methods: From October 1996 to September 1998, 75 patients with stage IIIB-IV NSCLC, who were either chemotherapy-naive (65 patients) or who had been pretreated (10 patients), received fixed doses of cisplatin (50 mg/m(2)) and gemcitabine (1,000 mg/m(2)) and escalating doses of paclitaxel in a 1-hour infusion, all on days 1 and 8, every 3 weeks.

Results: Five different paclitaxel doses were tested, for a total of 275 cycles delivered.

Relationships betxween Fas expression, activation molecule CD25, and functional activity of tumor-associated lymphomonocytes from neoplastic effusions.

Fas ligand (FasL), a cell surface molecule belonging to the tumor necrosis factor family, binds to its receptor Fas, thus inducing apoptosis of Fas bearing cells. In the present study we assessed the expression of Fas, activation molecule interleukin (IL)-2 receptor alpha chain (CD25) and an index of functional activity such as thymidine uptake under mitogen stimulation of tumor associated lymphomonocytes (TALM) from 7 neoplastic effusions of advanced cancer patients. The same parameters were studied in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of 7 patients with cancer of different sites and in 7 normal subjects.

Membrane-bound and soluble IL-2 receptors (p55 and p75 chains) on peripheral blood mononuclear cells from patients with solid malignancies.

The aim of the investigation was to study directly the IL-2 receptor (IL-2R) and its subunits, p55 and p75 chains, either membrane-bound or soluble, on PBMC of patients with solid malignancies and, indirectly, the same patients' PBMC ability to produce IL-2. Fifty-eight cancer patients, 29 men and 29 women, were studied: their mean age was 57.3 yr, range 35-79.