Successful Surgical Resection of Advanced Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumor Post Neoadjuvent Therapy

We report a case of a 48-year-old Indian male who presented with swelling and firmness in his left upper part of the abdomen of one month duration with anorexia and weight loss. Initial examination revealed an intra abdominal mass of around 16.8x11.0x24.5cm with minimal left sided pleural effusion. A biopsy from the mass confirmed the diagnosis of gastrointestinal stromal tumour (GISTs) as supported by immmunohistochemistry results which showed strong positivity for c-kit while stains for smooth muscle actin, desmin, myoglobin, S100 Protein and cytokerstin remained negative. The patient was not suitable for surgical intervention in view of advanced tumor, and Imatinib Mesylate 400mg daily was started with the aim of making the tumor operable. Such therapy lasted for twenty months and was tolerated well by the patient. It then resulted in gradual tumor regression, following which the patient underwent successful tumor resection. Post surgical resection patient had no radiological evidence of intra abdominal tumor but mild left sided pleural effusion with left lower lobe atelectasis. The patient had uneventful post operative recovery and he is currently on Imatinib mesylate and tolerating treatment well with mild skin rash. The experience with preoperative imatinib on surgical resection rates and post operative outcomes is limited especially with primary locally advanced GISTs. In our case successful surgical resection was possible for a huge locally advanced GIST with unusually prolonged treatment of twenty months with imatinib preoperatively

A Type-Theoretic Account of Neg-Raising Predicates in Tree Adjoining Grammars

International audienceNeg-Raising (NR) verbs form a class of verbs with a clausal complement that show the following behavior: when a negation syntactically attaches to the matrix predicate, it can semantically attach to the embedded predicate. This paper presents an account of NR predicates within Tree Adjoining Grammar (TAG). We propose a lexical semantic interpretation that heavily relies on a Montague-like semantics for TAG and on higher-order types

Potential use of Microwave Technology in Dermatology

Background Microwaves are used in medicine for diagnostics, and treatment of cancer. Recently, novel microwave devices (Swift®, Emblation Ltd, UK and miraDry®, Miramar Labs Inc., CA) have been cleared by the FDA and Health Canada for various dermatological conditions. Objective and methods To review the dermatological use of microwave-based treatments (plantar warts, corns, actinic keratosis, dermatophytosis, axillary hyperhidrosis, osmidrosis, and hidradenitis suppurativa). Clinical trials, case reports, or in vitro studies for each condition are summarized. Results and conclusion Microwaves are a promising alternative therapy for cutaneous warts, actinic keratosis, axillary hyperhidrosis, and osmidrosis, with favorable safety profiles. However, patients with hidradenitis suppurativa have had negative clinical outcomes. Limited treatment of corns showed good pain reduction but did not resolve hyperkeratosis. A preliminary in vitro study indicated that microwave treatment inhibits the growth of T. rubrum. We present the first case of toenail onychomycosis successfully treated with microwaves. Despite the advancements in the use of microwaves, the mechanism of action in non-ablative treatment is not well understood; further research is needed. More high-quality randomized clinical trials with larger groups and long follow-up periods are also required to evaluate the clinical benefits and possible adverse effects of microwaves in treating dermatological conditions

Models of in vitro spermatogenesis

Understanding the mechanisms that lead to the differentiation of male germ cells from their spermatogonial stem cells through meiosis to give rise to mature haploid spermatozoa has been a major quest for many decades. Unlike most other cell types this differentiation process is more or less completely dependent upon the cells being located within the strongly structured niche provided by mature Sertoli cells within an intact seminiferous epithelium. While much new information is currently being obtained through the application and description of relevant gene mutations, there is still a considerable need for in vitro models with which to explore the mechanisms involved. Not only are systems of in vitro spermatogenesis important for understanding the basic science, they have marked pragmatic value in offering ex vivo systems for the artificial maturation of immature germ cells from male infertility patients, as well as providing opportunities for the transgenic manipulation of male germ cells. In this review, we have summarized literature relating to simplistic culturing of germ cells, co-cultures of germ cells with other cell types, especially with Sertoli cells, cultures of seminiferous tubule fragments, and briefly mention the opportunities of xenografting larger testicular pieces. The majority of methods are successful in allowing the differentiation of small steps in the progress of spermatogonia to spermatozoa; few tolerate the chromosomal reduction division through meiosis, and even fewer seem able to complete the complex morphogenesis which results in freely swimming spermatozoa. However, recent progress with complex culture environments, such as 3-d matrices, suggest that possibly success is now not too far away

sameAs.cc: The Closure of 500M owl: sameAs Statements

The owl:sameAs predicate is an essential ingredient of the Semantic Web architecture. It allows parties to independently mint names, while at the same time ensuring that these parties are able to understand each other’s data. An online resource that collects all owl:sameAs statements on the Linked Open Data Cloud has therefore both practical impact (it helps data users and providers to find different names for the same entity) as well as analytical value (it reveals important aspects of the connectivity of the LOD Cloud). This paper presents sameAs.cc: the largest dataset of identity statements that has been gathered from the LOD Cloud to date. We describe an efficient approach for calculating and storing the full equivalence closure over this dataset. The dataset is published online, as well as a web service from which the data and its equivalence closure can be queried

Non-resonant microwave absorption studies of superconducting MgB_2

Non-resonant microwave absorption(NRMA) studies of superconducting MgB_2 at a frequency of 9.43 GHz in the field range -50 Gauss to 5000 Gauss are reported. The NRMA results indicate near absence of intergranular weak links. A linear temperature dependence of the lower critical field H_c1 is observed indicating a non s-wave superconductivity. However, the phase reversal of the NRMA signal which could suggest d-wave symmetry is also not observed.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figure

COMPARISON OF RP-HPLC AND UV SPECTROPHOTOMETRIC METHODS FOR ESTIMATION OF HALOPERIDOL IN PURE AND PHARMACEUTICAL FORMULATION

An accurate, precise, sensitive and reproducible High-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) and UV spectrophotometric methods were developed and validated for the quantitative determination of haloperidol (HPD) in bulk drug and pharmaceutical formulation. Different analytical performance parameters such as linearity, precision, accuracy, specificity, limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) were determined according to International Conference on Harmonization ICH Q2B guidelines. The RP-HPLC method was developed by the isocratic technique on a reversed-phase Thermo C18 (250 × 4.6 mm, 5µm) column with mobile phase consisting of Methanol: Acetonitrile (50:50v/v) at flow rate of 1.0 ml/min. The retention time for HPD was 2.238±0.3min. The UV spectrophotometric determinations were performed at 244 nm using 80% methanol as a solvent. The linearity range for HPD was 5-25 μg/ml for both HPLC and UV method. The linearity of the calibration curves for each analyte in the desired concentration range was good (r2 >0.999) by both the HPLC and UV methods. The method showed good reproducibility and recovery with percent relative standard deviation less than 2%. Moreover, the accuracy and precision obtained with HPLC co-related well with the UV method which implied that UV spectroscopy can be a cheap, reliable and less time consuming alternative for chromatographic analysis. The proposed methods are highly sensitive, precise and accurate and hence successfully applied for determining the assay and in vitro dissolution of a marketed formulation. Keywords: HPLC, UV Spectrophotometry, Haloperidol, Pharmaceutical formulation, Method validation, Quantitative analysi

Mapping spot blotch resistance genes in four barley populations

Bipolaris sorokiniana (teleomorph: Cochliobolus sativus) is the fungal pathogen responsible for spot blotch in barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) and occurs worldwide in warmer, humid growing conditions. Current Australian barley varieties are largely susceptible to this disease and attempts are being made to introduce sources of resistance from North America. In this study we have compared chromosomal locations of spot blotch resistance reactions in four North American two-rowed barley lines; the North Dakota lines ND11231-12 and ND11231-11 and the Canadian lines TR251 and WPG8412-9-2-1. Diversity Arrays Technology (DArT)-based PCR, expressed sequence tag (EST) and SSR markers have been mapped across four populations derived from crosses between susceptible parental lines and these four resistant parents to determine the location of resistance loci. Quantitative trait loci (QTL) conferring resistance to spot blotch in adult plants (APR) were detected on chromosomes 3HS and 7HS. In contrast, seedling resistance (SLR) was controlled solely by a locus on chromosome 7HS. The phenotypic variance explained by the APR QTL on 3HS was between 16 and 25% and the phenotypic variance explained by the 7HS APR QTL was between 8 and 42% across the four populations. The SLR QTL on 7HS explained between 52 to 64% of the phenotypic variance. An examination of the pedigrees of these resistance sources supports the common identity of resistance in these lines and indicates that only a limited number of major resistance loci are available in current two-rowed germplasm