This paper presents an analysis of attitudes towards everyday tracking and recording technologies (e.g., credit cards, store loyalty cards, store video cameras). This work focuses on both institutional and end-user tracking and recording technologies. In particular, this paper describes (1) an empirical interview and survey study of everyday institutional tracking and recording technologies and (2) an analysis of these empirical data against a framework originally used to describe tension points for end-user tracking and recording technologies. Results from the study demonstrate that people can be highly concerned with information privacy while simultaneously reporting significantly less concern regarding the use of everyday technologies that have the capabilities to collect, process, and disseminate personal information. The empirical results and theoretical analysis identify and begin to explain this dissonance. Furthermore, we provide extensions to the analytic framework for capture and access technologies to address differences, similarities, and interplay between institutional and end-user tracking and recording technologies. The results of this paper contribute to the fields of personal and ubiquitous computing by providing significant insight relevant to the evaluation, design, deployment, and adoption of new tracking and recording technologies.

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are emerging as key regulators of diverse cell functions and processes. However, the relevance of lncRNAs in the cell and tissue response to ionizing radiation has not yet been characterized. Here we used microarray profiling to determine lncRNA and mRNA expression in mammary glands of BALB/c and SPRET/EiJ mice after low-dose ionizing radiation (LDIR) exposure. We found that unirradiated mammary tissues of these strains differed significantly in baseline expressions of 290 lncRNAs. LDIR exposure (10 cGy) induced a significant change in the expression of many lncRNAs. The vast majority of lncRNAs identified to be differentially expressed after LDIR in either BALB/c or SPRET/EiJ had a significantly correlated expression pattern with at least one LDIR responsive mRNA. Functional analysis revealed that the response to LDIR in BALB/c mice is highly dynamic with enrichment for genes involved in tissue injury, inflammatory responses, and mammary gland development at 2, 4, and 8 weeks after LDIR, respectively. Our study demonstrates that genetic background strongly influences the expression of lncRNAs and their response to radiation and that lncRNAs may coordinate the tissue response to LDIR exposure via regulation of coding mRNAs.

Age and physiologic status, such as menopause, are risk factors for breast cancer. Less clear is what factors influence the diversity of breast cancer. In this study, we investigated the effect of host age on the distribution of tumor subtypes in mouse mammary chimera consisting of wild-type hosts and Trp53 nullizygous epithelium, which undergoes a high rate of neoplastic transformation. Wild-type mammary glands cleared of endogenous epithelium at 3 weeks of age were subsequently transplanted during puberty (5 weeks) or at maturation (10 weeks) with syngeneic Trp53-null mammary tissue fragments and monitored for one year. Tumors arose sooner from adult hosts (AH) compared with juvenile hosts (JH). However, compared with AH tumors, JH tumors grew several times faster, were more perfused, exhibited a two-fold higher mitotic index, and were more highly positive for insulin-like growth factor receptor phosphorylation. Most tumors in each setting were estrogen receptor (ER)-positive (80% JH vs. 70% AH), but JH tumors were significantly more ER-immunoreactive (P = 0.0001) than AH tumors. A differential expression signature (JvA) of juvenile versus adult tumors revealed a luminal transcriptional program. Centroids of the human homologs of JvA genes showed that JH tumors were more like luminal A tumors and AH tumors were more like luminal B tumors. Hierarchical clustering with the JvA human ortholog gene list segregated luminal A and luminal B breast cancers across datasets. These data support the notion that age-associated host physiology greatly influences the intrinsic subtype of breast cancer.

Interventions to support children with autism often include the use of visual supports, which are cognitive tools to enable learning and the production of language. Although visual supports are effective in helping to diminish many of the challenges of autism, they are difficult and time-consuming to create, distribute, and use. In this paper, we present the results of a qualitative study focused on uncovering design guidelines for interactive visual supports that would address the many challenges inherent to current tools and practices. We present three prototype systems that address these design challenges with the use of large group displays, mobile personal devices, and personal recording technologies. We also describe the interventions associated with these prototypes along with the results from two focus group discussions around the interventions. We present further design guidance for visual supports and discuss tensions inherent to their design.

Purpose

Ionizing radiation is a well-established carcinogen in rodent models and a risk factor associated with human cancer. We developed a mouse model that captures radiation effects on host biology by transplanting unirradiated Trp53-null mammary tissue to sham or irradiated hosts. Gene expression profiles of tumors that arose in irradiated mice are distinct from those that arose in naïve hosts. We asked whether expression metaprofiles could discern radiation-preceded human cancer or be informative in sporadic breast cancers.

Experimental design

Affymetrix microarray gene expression data from 56 Trp53-null mammary tumors were used to define gene profiles and a centroid that discriminates tumors arising in irradiated hosts. These were applied to publicly available human cancer datasets.

Results

Host irradiation induces a metaprofile consisting of gene modules representing stem cells, cell motility, macrophages, and autophagy. Human orthologs of the host irradiation metaprofile discriminated between radiation-preceded and sporadic human thyroid cancers. An irradiated host centroid was strongly associated with estrogen receptor-negative breast cancer. When applied to sporadic human breast cancers, the irradiated host metaprofile strongly associated with basal-like and claudin-low breast cancer intrinsic subtypes. Comparing host irradiation in the context of TGF-β levels showed that inflammation was robustly associated with claudin-low tumors.

Conclusions

Detection of radiation-preceded human cancer by the irradiated host metaprofile raises possibilities of assessing human cancer etiology. Moreover, the association of the irradiated host metaprofiles with estrogen receptor-negative status and claudin-low subtype suggests that host processes similar to those induced by radiation underlie sporadic cancers.

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) remains refractory to conventional therapy. CD133+ GBM cells have been recently isolated and characterized as chemo-/radio-resistant tumor-initiating cells and are hypothesized to be responsible for post-treatment recurrence. In order to explore the molecular properties of tumorigenic CD133+ GBM cells that resist treatment, we isolated CD133+ GBM cells from tumors that are recurrent and have previously received chemo-/radio-therapy. We found that the purified CD133+ GBM cells sorted from the CD133+ GBM spheres express SOX2 and CD44 and are capable of clonal self-renewal and dividing to produce fast-growing CD133− progeny, which form the major cell population within GBM spheres. Intracranial injection of purified CD133+, not CD133− GBM daughter cells, can lead to the development of YKL-40+ infiltrating tumors that display hypervascularity and pseudopalisading necrosis-like features in mouse brain. The molecular profile of purified CD133+ GBM cells revealed characteristics of neuroectoderm-like cells, expressing both radial glial and neural crest cell developmental genes, and portraying a slow-growing, non-differentiated, polarized/migratory, astrogliogenic, and chondrogenic phenotype. These data suggest that at least a subset of treated and recurrent GBM tumors may be seeded by CD133+ GBM cells with neural and mesenchymal properties. The data also imply that CD133+ GBM cells may be clinically indolent/quiescent prior to undergoing proliferative cell division (PCD) to produce CD133− GBM effector progeny. Identifying intrinsic and extrinsic cues, which promote CD133+ GBM cell self-renewal and PCD to support ongoing tumor regeneration may highlight novel therapeutic strategies to greatly diminish the recurrence rate of GBM.