BACKGROUND Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma (ESCC) is a major subtype of esophageal cancer causing significant morbility and mortality in Asia. Mechanism of initiation and progression of this disease is unclear. Tumor initiating cells (TICs) are the subpopulation of cells which have the ability to self-renew, as well as, to drive initiation and progression of cancer. Increasing evidence has s...

Octamer-binding transcription factor 4 (Oct4), a homeodomain transcription factor, is well established as a master factor controlling the self-renewal and pluripotency of pluripotent stem cells. Also, a large body of research has documented the detection of Oct4 in tumor cells and tissues and has indicated its enrichment in a subpopulation of undifferentiated tumor-initiating cells (TICs) that ...

Tourette's syndrome is a childhood-onset neuropsychiatric disorder characterized by multiple motor and vocal tics, frequently accompanied by symptoms of obsessiveness and/or compulsiveness, anxiety, and behavioral impulsivity. Treatment of Tourette's syndrome symptoms should be considered when symptoms cause significant functional or social impairment or pain, as occurs with self-injurious tics...

occurrence of characteristic effects of genes on viability8 and on shape of the spermatheca9 in Drosophila seem to suggest that this is the case. Summary.-The tryptophane content of aa Ephestia larvae is higher than that of a+a+ Ephestia larvae in the non-protein fraction and probably also in the protein fraction. In homogenates of isogenic a+a+ and aa homogenates, autolysis proceeds at a faste...

for some N. The only difficulty in the proof of these statements, beyond the methods already used in §§1-4, is the possibility that surfaces in $3 may have boundary values which are constant on some arcs of the circumference. Statement (1) yields a modified Morse theory; the usual requirement is that every k-cap contain a minimal surface g for which D [g] = a. But by assigning type numbers to b...

OBJECTIVE In this pilot study we sought to develop and test a modified form of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR-tics) for the treatment of Tourette Syndrome (TS) and Chronic Tic Disorder (CTD). Our specific aims were: 1) To determine the feasibility and acceptability of an 8-week trial of MBSR-tics in individuals 16 and older with TS or CTD and 2) To determine the efficacy of an 8-week ...

BACKGROUND The prevalence of tic disorders in children varies from 1% to 29% depending on the characteristics of the study population, the diagnostic criteria, and the study design and methods. AIMS To calculate the prevalence of tic disorders among primary school children in Italy. METHODS The study population comprised 2347 primary school children from the city of Pavia (pop. 80 073), Nor...

BACKGROUND Demands placed on individuals in occupational and social settings, as well as imbalances in personal traits and resources, can lead to chronic stress. The Trier Inventory for Chronic Stress (TICS) measures chronic stress while incorporating domain-specific aspects, and has been found to be a highly reliable and valid research tool. The aims of the present study were to confirm the Ge...

Motor tics are sudden, brief, repetitive movements that constitute the main symptom of Tourette syndrome (TS). Multiple lines of evidence suggest the involvement of the cortico-basal ganglia system, and in particular the basal ganglia input structure-the striatum in tic formation. The striatum receives somatotopically organized cortical projections and contains an internal GABAergic network of ...

Gilles de la Tourette syndrome is a childhood-onset neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by tics that are often associated with psychiatric co-morbidities. The clinical heterogeneity of Gilles de la Tourette syndrome has been attributed to the disturbance of functionally distinct cortico-striato-thalamo-cortical circuits, but this remains to be demonstrated. The aim of this study was to de...