Immediate Risk for Cardiovascular Events and Suicide Following a Prostate Cancer Diagnosis: Prospective Cohort Study

Katja Fall and Fang Fang and colleagues find that men newly diagnosed with prostate cancer are at increased risk of cardiovascular events and suicide

Observation and electric current control of a local spin in a single-molecule magnet

In molecular spintronics, the spin state of a molecule may be switched on and off by changing the molecular structure. Here, we switch on and off the molecular spin of a double-decker bis(phthalocyaninato)terbium(III) complex (TbPc2) adsorbed on an Au(111) surface by applying an electric current via a scanning tunnelling microscope. The dI/dV curve of the tunnelling current recorded onto a TbPc2 molecule shows a Kondo peak, the origin of which is an unpaired spin of a π-orbital of a phthalocyaninato (Pc) ligand. By applying controlled current pulses, we could rotate the upper Pc ligand in TbPc2, leading to the disappearance and reappearance of the Kondo resonance. The rotation shifts the molecular frontier-orbital energies, quenching the π-electron spin. Reversible switching between two stable ligand orientations by applying a current pulse should make it possible to code information at the single-molecule level

Proteomic Analysis of Aortae from Human Lipoprotein(a) Transgenic Mice Shows an Early Metabolic Response Independent of Atherosclerosis

Background: Elevated low density lipoprotein (LDL) and lipoprotein(a) are independent risk factors for the development of atherosclerosis. Using a proteomic approach we aimed to determine early changes in arterial protein expression in transgenic mice containing both human LDL and lipoprotein(a) in circulation. Methods and Results: Plasma lipid analyses showed the lipoprotein(a) transgenic mice had significantly higher lipid levels than wildtype, including a much increased LDL and high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol. Analysis of aortae from lipoprotein(a) mice showed lipoprotein(a) accumulation but no lipid accumulation or foam cells, leaving the arteries essentially atherosclerosis free. Using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis and mass spectrometry, we identified 34 arterial proteins with significantly altered abundance (P,0.05) in lipoprotein(a) transgenic mice compared to wildtype including 17 that showed a $2 fold difference. Some proteins of interest showed a similarly altered abundance at the transcript level. These changes collectively indicated an initial metabolic response that included a down regulation in energy, redox and lipid metabolism proteins and changes in structural proteins at a stage when atherosclerosis had not yet developed. Conclusions: Our study shows that human LDL and lipoprotein(a) promote changes in the expression of a unique set o

Longitudinal Molecular Trajectories of Diffuse Glioma in Adults

The evolutionary processes that drive universal therapeutic resistance in adult patients with diffuse glioma remain unclear ¹² . Here we analysed temporally separated DNA-sequencing data and matched clinical annotation from 222 adult patients with glioma. By analysing mutations and copy numbers across the three major subtypes of difuse glioma, we found that driver genes detected at the initial stage of disease were retained at recurrence, whereas there was little evidence of recurrence-specifc gene alterations. Treatment with alkylating agents resulted in a hypermutator phenotype at diferent rates across the glioma subtypes, and hypermutation was not associated with diferences in overall survival. Acquired aneuploidy was frequently detected in recurrent gliomas and was characterized by IDH mutation but without co-deletion of chromosome arms 1p/19q, and further converged with acquired alterations in the cell cycle and poor outcomes. The clonal architecture of each tumour remained similar over time, but the presence of subclonal selection was associated with decreased survival. Finally, there were no differences in the levels of immunoediting between initial and recurrent gliomas. Collectively, our results suggest that the strongest selective pressures occur during early glioma development and that current therapies shape this evolution in a largely stochastic manner

Basin-wide variation in tree hydraulic safety margins predicts the carbon balance of Amazon forests

Tropical forests face increasing climate risk1,2, yet our ability to predict their response to climate change is limited by poor understanding of their resistance to water stress. Although xylem embolism resistance thresholds (for example, Ψ50) and hydraulic safety margins (for example, HSM50) are important predictors of drought-induced mortality risk3–5, little is known about how these vary across Earth’s largest tropical forest. Here, we present a pan-Amazon, fully standardized hydraulic traits dataset and use it to assess regional variation in drought sensitivity and hydraulic trait ability to predict species distributions and long-term forest biomass accumulation. Parameters Ψ50 and HSM50 vary markedly across the Amazon and are related to average long-term rainfall characteristics. Both Ψ50 and HSM50 influence the biogeographical distribution of Amazon tree species. However, HSM50 was the only significant predictor of observed decadal-scale changes in forest biomass. Old-growth forests with wide HSM50 are gaining more biomass than are low HSM50 forests. We propose that this may be associated with a growth–mortality trade-off whereby trees in forests consisting of fast-growing species take greater hydraulic risks and face greater mortality risk. Moreover, in regions of more pronounced climatic change, we find evidence that forests are losing biomass, suggesting that species in these regions may be operating beyond their hydraulic limits. Continued climate change is likely to further reduce HSM50 in the Amazon6,7, with strong implications for the Amazon carbon sink

Comparison of Marine Spatial Planning Methods in Madagascar Demonstrates Value of Alternative Approaches

The Government of Madagascar plans to increase marine protected area coverage by over one million hectares. To assist this process, we compare four methods for marine spatial planning of Madagascar's west coast. Input data for each method was drawn from the same variables: fishing pressure, exposure to climate change, and biodiversity (habitats, species distributions, biological richness, and biodiversity value). The first method compares visual color classifications of primary variables, the second uses binary combinations of these variables to produce a categorical classification of management actions, the third is a target-based optimization using Marxan, and the fourth is conservation ranking with Zonation. We present results from each method, and compare the latter three approaches for spatial coverage, biodiversity representation, fishing cost and persistence probability. All results included large areas in the north, central, and southern parts of western Madagascar. Achieving 30% representation targets with Marxan required twice the fish catch loss than the categorical method. The categorical classification and Zonation do not consider targets for conservation features. However, when we reduced Marxan targets to 16.3%, matching the representation level of the “strict protection” class of the categorical result, the methods show similar catch losses. The management category portfolio has complete coverage, and presents several management recommendations including strict protection. Zonation produces rapid conservation rankings across large, diverse datasets. Marxan is useful for identifying strict protected areas that meet representation targets, and minimize exposure probabilities for conservation features at low economic cost. We show that methods based on Zonation and a simple combination of variables can produce results comparable to Marxan for species representation and catch losses, demonstrating the value of comparing alternative approaches during initial stages of the planning process. Choosing an appropriate approach ultimately depends on scientific and political factors including representation targets, likelihood of adoption, and persistence goals

Extra-Intestinal Manifestations of Familial Adenomatous Polyposis

Familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) is an autosomal dominantly inherited disorder, which results from a germ line mutation in the APC (adenomatous polyposis coli) gene. FAP is characterized by the formation of hundreds to thousands of colorectal adenomatous polyps. Although the development of colorectal cancer stands out as the most prevalent complication, FAP is a multisystem disorder of growth. This means, it is comparable to other diseases such as the MEN syndromes, Von Hippel-Lindau disease and neurofibromatosis. However, the incidence of many of its clinical features is much lower. Therefore, a specialized multidisciplinary approach to optimize health care—common for other disorders—is not usually taken for FAP patients. Thus, clinicians that care for and counsel members of high-risk families should have familiarity with all the extra-intestinal manifestations of this syndrome. FAP-related complications, for which medical attention is essential, are not rare and their estimated lifetime risk presumably exceeds 30%. Affected individuals can develop thyroid and pancreatic cancer, hepatoblastomas, CNS tumors (especially medulloblastomas), and various benign tumors such as adrenal adenomas, osteomas, desmoid tumors and dental abnormalities. Due to improved longevity, as a result of better prevention of colorectal cancer, the risk of these clinical problems will further increase

On the fixed point theory of soft metric spaces

[EN] The aim of this paper is to show that a soft metric induces a compatible metric on the collection of all soft points of the absolute soft set, when the set of parameters is a finite set. We then show that soft metric extensions of several important fixed point theorems for metric spaces can be directly deduced from comparable existing results. We also present some examples to validate and illustrate our approach.Salvador Romaguera thanks the support of Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of Spain, Grant MTM2012-37894-C02-01.Abbas, M.; Murtaza, G.; Romaguera Bonilla, S. (2016). On the fixed point theory of soft metric spaces. Fixed Point Theory and Applications. 2016(17):1-11. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13663-016-0502-yS111201617Zadeh, LA: Fuzzy sets. Inf. Control 8, 103-112 (1965)Molodtsov, D: Soft set theory - first results. Comput. Math. Appl. 37, 19-31 (1999)Aktaş, H, Çağman, N: Soft sets and soft groups. Inf. Sci. 177, 2726-2735 (2007)Ali, MI, Feng, F, Liu, X, Min, WK, Shabir, M: On some new operations in soft set theory. Comput. Math. Appl. 57, 1547-1553 (2009)Feng, F, Liu, X, Leoreanu-Fotea, V, Jun, YB: Soft sets and soft rough sets. Inf. Sci. 181, 1125-1137 (2011)Jiang, Y, Tang, Y, Chen, Q, Wang, J, Tang, S: Extending soft sets with description logics. Comput. Math. Appl. 59, 2087-2096 (2009)Jun, YB: Soft BCK/BCI-algebras. Comput. Math. Appl. 56, 1408-1413 (2008)Jun, YB, Lee, KJ, Khan, A: Soft ordered semigroups. Math. Log. Q. 56, 42-50 (2010)Jun, YB, Lee, KJ, Park, CH: Soft set theory applied to ideals in d-algebras. Comput. Math. Appl. 57, 367-378 (2009)Jun, YB, Park, CH: Applications of soft sets in ideal theory of BCK/BCI-algebras. Inf. Sci. 178, 2466-2475 (2008)Kong, Z, Gao, L, Wang, L, Li, S: The normal parameter reduction of soft sets and its algorithm. Comput. Math. Appl. 56, 3029-3037 (2008)Majumdar, P, Samanta, SK: Generalized fuzzy soft sets. Comput. Math. Appl. 59, 1425-1432 (2010)Li, F: Notes on the soft operations. ARPN J. Syst. Softw. 1, 205-208 (2011)Maji, PK, Roy, AR, Biswas, R: An application of soft sets in a decision making problem. Comput. Math. Appl. 44, 1077-1083 (2002)Qin, K, Hong, Z: On soft equality. J. Comput. Appl. Math. 234, 1347-1355 (2010)Xiao, Z, Gong, K, Xia, S, Zou, Y: Exclusive disjunctive soft sets. Comput. Math. Appl. 59, 2128-2137 (2009)Xiao, Z, Gong, K, Zou, Y: A combined forecasting approach based on fuzzy soft sets. J. Comput. Appl. Math. 228, 326-333 (2009)Xu, W, Ma, J, Wang, S, Hao, G: Vague soft sets and their properties. Comput. Math. Appl. 59, 787-794 (2010)Yang, CF: A note on soft set theory. Comput. Math. Appl. 56, 1899-1900 (2008)Yang, X, Lin, TY, Yang, J, Li, Y, Yu, D: Combination of interval-valued fuzzy set and soft set. Comput. Math. Appl. 58, 521-527 (2009)Zhu, P, Wen, Q: Operations on soft sets revisited (2012). arXiv:1205.2857v1Feng, F, Jun, YB, Liu, XY, Li, LF: An adjustable approach to fuzzy soft set based decision making. J. Comput. Appl. Math. 234, 10-20 (2009)Feng, F, Jun, YB, Zhao, X: Soft semirings. Comput. Math. Appl. 56, 2621-2628 (2008)Feng, F, Liu, X: Soft rough sets with applications to demand analysis. In: Int. Workshop Intell. Syst. Appl. (ISA 2009), pp. 1-4. (2009)Herawan, T, Deris, MM: On multi-soft sets construction in information systems. In: Emerging Intelligent Computing Technology and Applications with Aspects of Artificial Intelligence, pp. 101-110. Springer, Berlin (2009)Herawan, T, Rose, ANM, Deris, MM: Soft set theoretic approach for dimensionality reduction. In: Database Theory and Application, pp. 171-178. Springer, Berlin (2009)Kim, YK, Min, WK: Full soft sets and full soft decision systems. J. Intell. Fuzzy Syst. 26, 925-933 (2014). doi: 10.3233/IFS-130783Mushrif, MM, Sengupta, S, Ray, AK: Texture classification using a novel, soft-set theory based classification algorithm. Lect. Notes Comput. Sci. 3851, 246-254 (2006)Roy, AR, Maji, PK: A fuzzy soft set theoretic approach to decision making problems. J. Comput. Appl. Math. 203, 412-418 (2007)Zhu, P, Wen, Q: Probabilistic soft sets. In: IEEE Conference on Granular Computing (GrC 2010), pp. 635-638 (2010)Zou, Y, Xiao, Z: Data analysis approaches of soft sets under incomplete information. Knowl.-Based Syst. 21, 941-945 (2008)Cagman, N, Karatas, S, Enginoglu, S: Soft topology. Comput. Math. Appl. 62, 351-358 (2011)Das, S, Samanta, SK: Soft real sets, soft real numbers and their properties. J. Fuzzy Math. 20, 551-576 (2012)Das, S, Samanta, SK: Soft metric. Ann. Fuzzy Math. Inform. 6, 77-94 (2013)Abbas, M, Murtaza, G, Romaguera, S: Soft contraction theorem. J. Nonlinear Convex Anal. 16, 423-435 (2015)Chen, CM, Lin, IJ: Fixed point theory of the soft Meir-Keeler type contractive mappings on a complete soft metric space. Fixed Point Theory Appl. 2015, 184 (2015)Feng, F, Li, CX, Davvaz, B, Ali, MI: Soft sets combined with fuzzy sets and rough sets: a tentative approach. Soft Comput. 14, 8999-9911 (2010)Maji, PK, Biswas, R, Roy, AR: Soft set theory. Comput. Math. Appl. 45, 555-562 (2003)Wardowski, D: On a soft mapping and its fixed points. Fixed Point Theory Appl. 2013, 182 (2013)Kannan, R: Some results on fixed points II. Am. Math. Mon. 76, 405-408 (1969)Meir, A, Keeler, E: A theorem on contraction mappings. J. Math. Anal. Appl. 28, 326-329 (1969)Caristi, J: Fixed point theorems for mappings satisfying inwardness conditions. Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 215, 241-251 (1976)Kirk, WA: Caristi’s fixed-point theorem and metric convexity. Colloq. Math. 36, 81-86 (1976