Sebaceous gland tumors and internal malignancy in the context of Muir-Torre syndrome. A case report and review of the literature

BACKGROUND: The Muir-Torre syndrome is a rare autosomal dominant condition and is currently considered a subtype of the more common hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer syndrome, in which multiple primary malignancies occur together with sebaceous gland tumors. CASE PRESENTATION: We describe a case of a 62-year-old woman with three primary colorectal tumors, genital tumor, and sebaceous adenomas and present her family history of three generations. Our case represents the first case reported from Greece in the international literature. CONCLUSION: Recognition of the syndrome in patients with sebaceous gland tumors should facilitate early detection of subsequent malignancies if the patient is entered into appropriate screening programs

The Atmospheric Chemistry Suite (ACS) of Three Spectrometers for the ExoMars 2016 Trace Gas Orbiter

The Atmospheric Chemistry Suite (ACS) package is an element of the Russian contribution to the ESA-Roscosmos ExoMars 2016 Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) mission. ACS consists of three separate infrared spectrometers, sharing common mechanical, electrical, and thermal interfaces. This ensemble of spectrometers has been designed and developed in response to the Trace Gas Orbiter mission objectives that specifically address the requirement of high sensitivity instruments to enable the unambiguous detection of trace gases of potential geophysical or biological interest. For this reason, ACS embarks a set of instruments achieving simultaneously very high accuracy (ppt level), very high resolving power (>10,000) and large spectral coverage (0.7 to 17 μm—the visible to thermal infrared range). The near-infrared (NIR) channel is a versatile spectrometer covering the 0.7–1.6 μm spectral range with a resolving power of ∼20,000. NIR employs the combination of an echelle grating with an AOTF (Acousto-Optical Tunable Filter) as diffraction order selector. This channel will be mainly operated in solar occultation and nadir, and can also perform limb observations. The scientific goals of NIR are the measurements of water vapor, aerosols, and dayside or night side airglows. The mid-infrared (MIR) channel is a cross-dispersion echelle instrument dedicated to solar occultation measurements in the 2.2–4.4 μm range. MIR achieves a resolving power of >50,000. It has been designed to accomplish the most sensitive measurements ever of the trace gases present in the Martian atmosphere. The thermal-infrared channel (TIRVIM) is a 2-inch double pendulum Fourier-transform spectrometer encompassing the spectral range of 1.7–17 μm with apodized resolution varying from 0.2 to 1.3 cm−1. TIRVIM is primarily dedicated to profiling temperature from the surface up to ∼60 km and to monitor aerosol abundance in nadir. TIRVIM also has a limb and solar occultation capability. The technical concept of the instrument, its accommodation on the spacecraft, the optical designs as well as some of the calibrations, and the expected performances for its three channels are described

Endovascular Stent-graft Repair for Infrarenal Aortic Pseudoaneurysm Caused by Penetrating Atherosclerotic Ulcer: Report of Two Cases

AbstractPenetrating atherosclerotic ulcer (PAU) of the infrarenal aorta is rare and occurs when an atherosclerotic plaque ulcerates through the intima. PAU can be complicated by the development of intramural hematoma, adventitial pseudoaneurysm, and rupture. We report two cases that were treated by endovascular stent-graft placement and discuss the literature

Water vapour in the middle atmosphere of Mars by SPICAM/MEX

International audienceWhile the H 2 O column density in the Martianatmosphere is well known now and has beenmonitored by different missions for last decades thebehavior of water in the middle atmosphere, itsinterannual and seasonal variability, is still openedquestion due to an absent of observational material.We present here long-term observations of the H 2Overtical distribution in the Martian atmosphere bySPICAM on Mars-Express for a period of severalMartian years and study the seasonal and spatialvariations of the H 2O density and mixing ratio atdifferent altitudes as well as interannual variationsconnected to such special event as the 2007 globaldust storm

Water vapour in the middle atmosphere of Mars by SPICAM/MEX

International audienceWhile the H 2 O column density in the Martianatmosphere is well known now and has beenmonitored by different missions for last decades thebehavior of water in the middle atmosphere, itsinterannual and seasonal variability, is still openedquestion due to an absent of observational material.We present here long-term observations of the H 2Overtical distribution in the Martian atmosphere bySPICAM on Mars-Express for a period of severalMartian years and study the seasonal and spatialvariations of the H 2O density and mixing ratio atdifferent altitudes as well as interannual variationsconnected to such special event as the 2007 globaldust storm

Bilateral True Isolated Superficial Femoral Artery Aneurysm: Report of a Case and Literature Review

AbstractWe report a case of an 85-year-old man with true isolated bilateral superficial femoral artery aneurysms. The aneurysm size was 6.2cm on the right and 4.8cm on the left. They were repaired with transfemoral endovascular placement of three excluder stent grafts on the right and two excluder stent grafts on the left. Both procedures were done under local anaesthesia

Adaptive fine-tuning for large-scale complex nonlinear systems

Practical large-scale nonlinear control systems (PLSNCS) require an intensive and time-consuming fine-tuning process in order to achieve a satisfactory - or, even, acceptable - performance. In the majority of PLSNCS the fine-tuning process is performed by experienced personnel based on field observations and by experimenting with different combinations of controller parameters, without the use of a systematic approach. Adaptive Optimization (AO) methods such as the SPSA or AFT1 provide probably the most promising approach for the development of a systematic methodology for automatic and efficient fine-tuning of PLSNCS. However, despite the success of AO methodologies in particular fine-tuning control applications, these methods suffer from the serious problem of not guaranteeing efficient transient behaviour due to the use of random perturbations. A new algorithm (AFT2) has been developed and analyzed for alleviating this problem. This paper presents a comparative evaluation of AFT2 (versus SPSA and AFT1) when applied to three different traffic control applications: urban traffic control, network-wide motorway ramp metering and motorway variable speed control. It is demonstrated by means of simulation investigations that AFT2 not only overcomes the aforementioned problem of poor transient performance but also achieves significantly faster convergence than SPSA and AFT1