PURPOSE Germinal gene polymorphisms can explain a part of the interpatient pharmacodynamic variability of anticancer drugs, particularly fluoropyrimidines. Genes for which polymorphisms may potentially influence pharmacodynamics of fluoropyrimidines, including capecitabine, are thymidylate synthase (TS), methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR), and dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase (DPD). E...

Submitted: Apr 9, 2004; Revised: Jul 19, 2004; Accepted: Jul 19, 2004 Address for correspondence: Robert Diasio, MD, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology and UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center, 1824 6th Ave S, Wallace Tumor Institute, Room 620, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35294-3300 Fax: 205-975-5650; e-mail: [email protected]...

Dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) is a mesoscopic simulation method for studying hydrodynamic behavior of complex fluids. Ideally, a mesoscopic model should correctly represent the thermodynamic and hydrodynamic properties of a real system beyond certain length and time scales. Traditionally defined DPD quite successfully mimics hydrodynamics but is not flexible enough to accurately describe ...

Hand-foot syndrome (HFS) is a cutaneous adverse event that occurs in some patients treated with fluoropyrimidines. Although it is not life threatening, HFS can severely disrupt the daily lives of patients. HFS appears more frequently with 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) delivered by continuous infusion or with the 5-FU oral derivative capecitabine than with bolus 5-FU therapy. HFS is a leading cause of t...

The Mori-Zwanzig formalism for coarse-graining a complex dynamical system typically introduces memory effects. The Markovian assumption of delta-correlated fluctuating forces is often employed to simplify the formulation of coarse-grained (CG) models and numerical implementations. However, when the time scales of a system are not clearly separated, the memory effects become strong and the Marko...

To compare the advantages and disadvantages of a Natural User Interface [1] a field study was carried out. During five days of the largest computer fair in Switzerland four different computer stations with (1) a command language, (2) a mouse, (3) a touch screen, and (4) a Digital Playing Desk (DPD) interface was presented for public use. In this version of the DPD the user has to play a board g...

BACKGROUND Few studies have compared the related diagnostic constructs of depressive personality disorder (DPD) and dysthymic disorder (DD). The authors attempted to replicate findings of Klein and Shih in longitudinally followed patients with personality disorder or major depressive disorder (MDD) in the Collaborative Longitudinal Personality Disorders Study. METHODS Subjects (N = 665) were ...

This paper presents a hybrid algorithm of two popular heuristics namely Differential Evolution (DE) and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) on a tri-population environment. Initially, the whole population (in increasing order of fitness) is divided into three groups – Inferior Group, Mid Group and Superior Group. DE is employed in the inferior and superior groups, whereas PSO is used in the mid-g...

Patients with decreased dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase (DPD) activity are at increased risk for experiencing serious adverse reactions following 5-fluorouracil (5-FU)-based chemotherapy. Symptoms include severe and potentially life-threatening gastrointestinal toxicity, myelosuppression, and neurological toxicity. In the present study, we describe a 50-year-old Caucasian man who developed seve...

We have investigated the validity of the application of the dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) method to ferromagnetic colloidal dispersions by conducting DPD simulations for a two-dimensional system. Firstly, the interaction between dissipative and magnetic particles has been idealized as some model potentials, and DPD simulations have been carried out using such model potentials for a two ma...