Lifestyle factors and ovarian cancer outcomes

Purpose: Few studies have reported on the lifestyle characteristics of ovarian cancer survivors. The objectives of this study were to characterize the associations between physical activity (PA) and body size (BS) with health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and ovarian cancer recurrence in a sample of regional and distal stage ovarian cancer survivors. Methods: Epithelial ovarian cancer survivors in their first clinical remission, with no evidence of recurrent disease were identified from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center tumor registry. A total of 51 survivors consented to participate in a battery of self-reported questionnaires. Trained staff collected data on anthropometric and recurrence data were collected from the tumor registry. Generalized linear models were used to assess the relationship between PA, BS, and HRQOL. Cox proportional hazard models were used to assess the associations between PA, BS, and recurrence-free survival. Results: Most (59%) women were overweight or obese (BMI \u3c 25 kg/m2) , 49% met current guidelines for PA (150 minutes of moderate to vigorous PA/week), and 29% displayed characteristics of abdominal obesity (\u3e88 centimeters). Women who were not obese reported significantly higher (better) overall HRQOL (point difference = 10.8, P \u3c 0.05) and mental health (point difference = 12.4, P \u3c 0.05) scores than women who were obese. Elevated waist circumference and physical activity were not significantly associated with HRQOL outcomes and we did not find any associations between lifestyle behaviors and recurrence free survival (all P \u3e 0.05). Conclusions: Ovarian cancer survivors with characteristics of overall and abdominal obesity may be at risk for deficits in HRQOL and could benefit from interventions designed to reduce weight. More research is needed to determine whether meeting guidelines for physical activity is associated with improvements in health outcomes this population

Evidence for Presence and Functional Effects of Kv1.1 Channels in β-Cells: General Survey and Results from mceph/mceph Mice

BACKGROUND:Voltage-dependent K(+) channels (Kv) mediate repolarisation of β-cell action potentials, and thereby abrogate insulin secretion. The role of the Kv1.1 K(+) channel in this process is however unclear. We tested for presence of Kv1.1 in different species and tested for a functional role of Kv1.1 by assessing pancreatic islet function in BALB/cByJ (wild-type) and megencephaly (mceph/mceph) mice, the latter having a deletion in the Kv1.1 gene. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS:Kv1.1 expression was detected in islets from wild-type mice, SD rats and humans, and expression of truncated Kv1.1 was detected in mceph/mceph islets. Full-length Kv1.1 protein was present in islets from wild-type mice, but, as expected, not in those from mceph/mceph mice. Kv1.1 expression was localized to the β-cell population and also to α- and δ-cells, with evidence of over-expression of truncated Kv1.1 in mceph/mceph islets. Blood glucose, insulin content, and islet morphology were normal in mceph/mceph mice, but glucose-induced insulin release from batch-incubated islets was (moderately) higher than that from wild-type islets. Reciprocal blocking of Kv1.1 by dendrotoxin-K increased insulin secretion from wild-type but not mceph/mceph islets. Glucose-induced action potential duration, as well as firing frequency, was increased in mceph/mceph mouse β-cells. This duration effect on action potential in β-cells from mceph/mceph mice was mimicked by dendrotoxin-K in β-cells from wild-type mice. Observations concerning the effects of both the mceph mutation, and of dendrotoxin-K, on glucose-induced insulin release were confirmed in pancreatic islets from Kv1.1 null mice. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE:Kv1.1 channels are expressed in the β-cells of several species, and these channels can influence glucose-stimulated insulin release

Selective high frequency mechanical actuation driven by the VO2 electronic instability

Micro- and nano-electromechanical resonators are a fundamental building block of modern technology, used in environmental monitoring, robotics, medical tools as well as fundamental science. These devices rely on dedicated electronics to generate their driving signal, resulting in an increased complexity and size. Here, we present a new paradigm to achieve high-frequency mechanical actuation based on the metal-insulator transition of VO$\mathrm{_2}$, where the steep variation of its electronic properties enables to realize high-frequency electrical oscillations. The dual nature of this phase change, which is both electronic and structural, turns the electrical oscillations into an intrinsic actuation mechanism, powered by a small DC voltage and capable to selectively excite the different mechanical modes of a microstructure. Our results pave the way towards the realization of micro- and nano-electro-mechanical systems with autonomous actuation from integrated DC power sources such as solar cells or micro-batteries.Comment: Main text: 6 pages, 4 figures Supplemental Material: 16 pages, 7 section

The Nuts and Bolts of Einstein-Maxwell Solutions

We find new non-supersymmetric solutions of five-dimensional ungauged supergravity coupled to two vector multiplets. The solutions are regular, horizonless and have the same asymptotic charges as non-extremal charged black holes. An essential ingredient in our construction is a four-dimensional Euclidean base which is a solution to Einstein-Maxwell equations. We construct stationary solutions based on the Euclidean dyonic Reissner-Nordstrom black hole as well as a six-parameter family with a dyonic Kerr-Newman-NUT base. These solutions can be viewed as compactifications of eleven-dimensional supergravity on a six-torus and we discuss their brane interpretation.Comment: 29 pages, 3 figure

Escherichia coli mar and acrAB Mutants Display No Tolerance to Simple Alcohols

The inducible Mar phenotype of Escherichia coli is associated with increased tolerance to multiple hydrophobic antibiotics as well as some highly hydrophobic organic solvents such as cyclohexane, mediated mainly through the AcrAB/TolC efflux system. The influence of water miscible alcohols ethanol and 1-propanol on a Mar constitutive mutant and a mar deletion mutant of E. coli K-12, as well as the corresponding strains carrying the additional acrAB deletion, was investigated. In contrast to hydrophobic solvents, all strains were killed in exponential phase by 1-propanol and ethanol at rates comparable to the parent strain. Thus, the Mar phenotype does not protect E. coli from killing by these more polar solvents. Surprisingly, AcrAB does not contribute to an increased alcohol tolerance. In addition, sodium salicylate, at concentrations known to induce the mar operon, was unable to increase 1-propanol or ethanol tolerance. Rather, the toxicity of both solvents was increased in the presence of sodium salicylate. Collectively, the results imply that the resilience of E. coli to water miscible alcohols, in contrast to more hydrophobic solvents, does not depend upon the AcrAB/TolC efflux system, and suggests a lower limit for substrate molecular size and functionality. Implications for the application of microbiological systems in environments containing high contents of water miscible organic solvents, e.g., phage display screening, are discussed

Vitamin D receptor ChIP-seq in primary CD4+ cells: relationship to serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels and autoimmune disease

PMCID: PMC3710212This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

Antibiotic Resistance of E. coli Isolated From a Constructed Wetland Dominated by a Crow Roost, With Emphasis on ESBL and AmpC Containing E. coli

Information on the dissemination of antibiotic resistance mechanisms in the environment as well as wild life is needed in North America. A constructed wetland (where ∼15,000 American crows roost) was sampled on the University of Washington Bothell Campus for the presence of antibiotic resistant E. coli (ARE). Crow droppings from individual birds and grab samples of water were collected in 2014–2015. E. coli were isolated by selective agar plating. The most frequent antibiotic resistance (AR) of the fecal isolates was to ampicillin (AMP) (53%), followed by amoxicillin-clavulanic acid (AMC) (45%), streptomycin (S) (40%), and nalidixic acid (NA) (33%). Water isolates had similar AR pattern and ∼40% were multidrug resistant. Isolates from water samples collected during storm events showed higher resistance than isolates from no rain days to tetracycline, AMP, AMC, NA, and gentamycin. Extended spectrum beta lactamase (ESBL) containing E. coli with the blactx-M was found in three water and nine fecal isolates while blacmy-2 in 19 water and 16 fecal isolates. Multilocus Sequence Typing analysis (MLST) yielded 13 and 12 different sequence types (STs) amongst fecal and water isolates, many of which could be correlated to livestock, bird, and humans. MLST identified ESBL E. coli belonging to the clinically relevant ST131 clone in six fecal and one water isolate. Three STs found in feces could be found in water on the same dates of collection but not subsequently. Thus, the strains do not appear to survive for long in the wetland. Phylogenetic analysis revealed similar distribution of the water and fecal isolates among the different phylo-groups, with the majority belonging to the commensal B1 phylo-group, followed by the pathogenic B2 phylo-group. This study demonstrates that corvids can be reservoirs and vectors of ARE and pathogenic E. coli, posing a significant environmental threat

Optical Magnetometry

Some of the most sensitive methods of measuring magnetic fields utilize interactions of resonant light with atomic vapor. Recent developments in this vibrant field are improving magnetometers in many traditional areas such as measurement of geomagnetic anomalies and magnetic fields in space, and are opening the door to new ones, including, dynamical measurements of bio-magnetic fields, detection of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), magnetic-resonance imaging (MRI), inertial-rotation sensing, magnetic microscopy with cold atoms, and tests of fundamental symmetries of Nature.Comment: 11 pages; 4 figures; submitted to Nature Physic

ARPES: A probe of electronic correlations

Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) is one of the most direct methods of studying the electronic structure of solids. By measuring the kinetic energy and angular distribution of the electrons photoemitted from a sample illuminated with sufficiently high-energy radiation, one can gain information on both the energy and momentum of the electrons propagating inside a material. This is of vital importance in elucidating the connection between electronic, magnetic, and chemical structure of solids, in particular for those complex systems which cannot be appropriately described within the independent-particle picture. Among the various classes of complex systems, of great interest are the transition metal oxides, which have been at the center stage in condensed matter physics for the last four decades. Following a general introduction to the topic, we will lay the theoretical basis needed to understand the pivotal role of ARPES in the study of such systems. After a brief overview on the state-of-the-art capabilities of the technique, we will review some of the most interesting and relevant case studies of the novel physics revealed by ARPES in 3d-, 4d- and 5d-based oxides.Comment: Chapter to appear in "Strongly Correlated Systems: Experimental Techniques", edited by A. Avella and F. Mancini, Springer Series in Solid-State Sciences (2013). A high-resolution version can be found at: http://www.phas.ubc.ca/~quantmat/ARPES/PUBLICATIONS/Reviews/ARPES_Springer.pdf. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:cond-mat/0307085, arXiv:cond-mat/020850