Cushing Syndrome Caused by Pituitary and Adrenal Hybrid Tumor: A Rare Case Report

Introduction: Cushing syndrome is a rare endocrine disorder caused by a variety of underlying etiologies. It can be due to exogenous or endogenous high cortisone levels (ACTH-dependent or ACTH-independent). We herein report a case of ACTHdependent Cushing syndrome caused by pituitary and adrenal hybrid adenoma. Case report: A 42-year-old female presented with a complaint of hematemesis. She had hirsutism, central obesity and violaceous striae on her abdomen and thigh. On detailed clinical examination and relevant investigation, we found that the cause of hematemesis was esophagitis with necrotic gastric ulcer due to Cushing syndrome caused by the pituitary and adrenal hybrid adenoma. Discussion: Cushing syndrome is a rare endocrine disorder characterized by increased exogenous or endogenous serum cortisol levels, which lead to various clinical presentations. Early identification of the disease and its cause is critical. The entire clinical presentation must be considered for correct diagnosis, which is generally delayed due to the overlapping symptoms of the disease with various specialities. Conclusion: Diagnosis and management of Cushing’s syndrome continues to present considerable challenges and necessitates referral to higher centers. Its diverse presentation warrants a complete clinical, physical, radiological and endocrine examination

The significance of nanoparticle shape in chirality transfer to a surrounding nematic liquid crystal reporter medium

This perspective reports on recent progress toward the development of an approach to a priori predict - both chirality "strength" and efficacy of chirality transfer from a chiral nanoshape solute to an achiral nematic environment

Investigation of Magnesium Silicate as an Effective Gate Dielectric for AlGaN/GaN Metal Oxide High Electron Mobility Transistors (MOSHEMT)

In this study, a 6 nm layer of Magnesium Silicate (Mg-Silicate) was deposited on AlGaN/GaN heterostructure by sputtering of multiple stacks of MgO and SiO$_{2}$, followed by rapid thermal annealing in a nitrogen (N$_{2}$) environment. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis confirmed the stoichiometric Mg-Silicate (MgSiO$_{3}$) after being annealed at a temperature of 850 $^\circ$C for 70 seconds. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) was employed to measure the root mean square (RMS) roughness (2.20 nm) of the Mg-Silicate. A significant reduction in reverse leakage current, by a factor of three orders of magnitude, was noted for the Mg-Silicate/AlGaN/GaN metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) diode in comparison to the Schottky diode. The dielectric constant of Mg-Silicate($\mathcal{E}_{Mg-Silicate}$) and the interface density of states (D$_{it}$) with AlGaN were approximated at $\sim$ 6.6 and 2.0 $\times$ 10$^{13}$ cm$^{-2}$eV$^{-1}$ respectively, utilizing capacitance-voltage (CV) characteristics

The Role of Ellis‐Van Creveld 2(EVC2) in Mice During Cranial Bone Development

EvC syndrome is a type of autosomal‐recessive chondrodysplasia. Previous case studies in patients suggest abnormal craniofacial development, in addition to dwarfism and tooth abnormalities. To investigate how craniofacial development is affected in EvC patients, surface models were generated from micro‐CT scans of control mice, Evc2 global mutant mice and Evc2 neural crest‐specific mutant mice. The anatomic landmarks were placed on the surface model to assess the morphological abnormalities in the Evc2 mutants. Through analyzing the linear and angular measurements between landmarks, we identified a smaller overall skull, shorter nasal bone, shorter frontal bone, and shorter cranial base in the Evc2 global mutants. By comparing neural crest‐specific Evc2 mutants with control mice, we demonstrated that the abnormalities within the mid‐facial regions are not accounted for by the Evc2 mutation within these regions. Additionally, we also identified disproportionate length to width ratios in the Evc2 mutants at all levels from anterior to posterior of the skull. Overall, this study demonstrates a more comprehensive analysis on the craniofacial morphological abnormalities in EvC syndrome and provides the developmental insight to appreciate the impact of Evc2 mutation within the neural crest cells on multiple aspects of skull deformities. Anat Rec, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Anat Rec, 301:46–55, 2018. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/141635/1/ar23692_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/141635/2/ar23692.pd

Metabolite signatures associated with microRNA miR-143-3p serve as drivers of poor lung function trajectories in childhood asthma

Background: Lung function trajectories (LFTs) have been shown to be an important measure of long-term health in asthma. While there is a growing body of metabolomic studies on asthma status and other phenotypes, there are no prospective studies of the relationship between metabolomics and LFTs or their genomic determinants. Methods: We utilized ordinal logistic regression to identify plasma metabolite principal components associated with four previously-published LFTs in children from the Childhood Asthma Management Program (CAMP) (n = 660). The top significant metabolite principal component (PCLF) was evaluated in an independent cross-sectional child cohort, the Genetic Epidemiology of Asthma in Costa Rica Study (GACRS) (n = 1151) and evaluated for association with spirometric measures. Using meta-analysis of CAMP and GACRS, we identified associations between PCLF and microRNA, and SNPs in their target genes. Statistical significance was determined using an false discovery rate-adjusted Q-value. Findings: The top metabolite principal component, PCLF, was significantly associated with better LFTs after multiple-testing correction (Q-value = 0.03). PCLF is composed of the urea cycle, caffeine, corticosteroid, carnitine, and potential microbial (secondary bile acid, tryptophan, linoleate, histidine metabolism) metabolites. Higher levels of PCLF were also associated with increases in lung function measures and decreased circulating neutrophil percentage in both CAMP and GACRS. PCLF was also significantly associated with microRNA miR-143-3p, and SNPs in three miR-143-3p target genes; CCZ1 (P-value = 2.6 × 10−5), SLC8A1 (P-value = 3.9 × 10−5); and TENM4 (P-value = 4.9 × 10−5). Interpretation: This study reveals associations between metabolites, miR-143-3p and LFTs in children with asthma, offering insights into asthma physiology and possible interventions to enhance lung function and long-term health. Funding: Molecular data for CAMP and GACRS via the Trans-Omics in Precision Medicine (TOPMed) program was supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)

Cosmoglobe: Towards end-to-end CMB cosmological parameter estimation without likelihood approximations

We implement support for a cosmological parameter estimation algorithm as proposed by Racine et al. (2016) in Commander, and quantify its computational efficiency and cost. For a semi-realistic simulation similar to Planck LFI 70 GHz, we find that the computational cost of producing one single sample is about 60 CPU-hours and that the typical Markov chain correlation length is $\sim$100 samples. The net effective cost per independent sample is $\sim$6 000 CPU-hours, in comparison with all low-level processing costs of 812 CPU-hours for Planck LFI and WMAP in Cosmoglobe Data Release 1. Thus, although technically possible to run already in its current state, future work should aim to reduce the effective cost per independent sample by at least one order of magnitude to avoid excessive runtimes, for instance through multi-grid preconditioners and/or derivative-based Markov chain sampling schemes. This work demonstrates the computational feasibility of true Bayesian cosmological parameter estimation with end-to-end error propagation for high-precision CMB experiments without likelihood approximations, but it also highlights the need for additional optimizations before it is ready for full production-level analysis.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures. Submitted to A&

Luminomagnetic bifunctionality of Mn2+-bonded graphene oxide/reduced graphene oxide two dimensional nanosheets

Herein, we report the luminomagnetic bifunctional properties of two-dimensional (2D) Mn2+ bonded graphene oxide (GO)/reduced graphene oxide (RGO) nanosheets synthesized using a facile route of oxidation followed by a solvothermal reduction method. Photoluminescence (PL) studies (excited by different wavelengths) revealed that the resonant energy transfer between Mn2+ and sp(3)/sp(2) clusters of GO/RGO is responsible for the enhancement of emissions. Moreover, pH-sensitive PL behaviors have also been investigated in detail. The ferromagnetic behavior is believed to arise due to defects in Mn2+ bonded GO composites. Thus, present reduction method provides a direct route to tune and enhance the optical properties of GO and RGO nanosheets bonded with Mn2+ ions, which creates an opportunity for various technological applications