Local hypoxia is produced at sites of intratumour injection

Intratumour injection, commonly used for gene or drug delivery but also associated with needle biopsy or insertion of invasive measuring devices, may damage tumour microvessels. To examine this possibility, SCCVII tumours grown subcutaneously in C3H mice were injected with a 26 gauge needle containing 0.1 ml of the fluorescent dye Hoechst 33342 to label cells lining the track of the needle. Hoechst-labelled cells sorted from these tumours were more sensitive to killing by hypoxic cell cytotoxins (tirapazamine, RSU-1069) and less sensitive to damage by ionizing radiation. Hoechst-labelled cells also bound the hypoxia marker pimonidazole when given by i.p. injection. Intratumour injection transiently increased hypoxia from 18 to 70% in the tumour cells adjacent to the track of the needle. The half-time for return to pre-treatment oxygenation was about 30 min; oxygenation of tumour cells along the track had recovered by 20 h after intratumour injection. This effect could have significant implications for intratumour injection of drugs, cytokines or vectors that are affected by the oxygenation status of the tumour cells as well as potential effects on biodistribution via local microvasculature

The ART Advantage: Health Care Utilization for Diabetes and Hypertension in Rural South Africa

The prevalence of diabetes and hypertension has increased in HIV-positive populations, but there is limited understanding of the role that antiretroviral therapy (ART) programs play in the delivery of services for these conditions. The aim of this study is to assess the relationship between ART use and utilization of health care services for diabetes and hypertension.Health and Aging in Africa: A Longitudinal Study of an INDEPTH Community in South Africa is a cohort of 5059 adults. The baseline study collects biomarker-based data on HIV, ART, diabetes, and hypertension and self-reported data on health care utilization. We calculated differences in care utilization for diabetes and hypertension by HIV and ART status and used multivariable logistic regressions to estimate the relationship between ART use and utilization of services for these conditions, controlling for age, sex, body mass index, education, and household wealth quintile.Mean age, body mass index, hypertension, and diabetes prevalence were lower in the HIV-positive population (all P < 0.001). Multivariable logistic regression showed that ART use was significantly associated with greater odds of blood pressure measurement [adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 1.27, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.04 to 1.55] and blood sugar measurement (aOR 1.26, 95% CI: 1.05 to 1.51), counseling regarding exercise (aOR 1.57, 95% CI: 1.11 to 2.22), awareness of hypertension diagnosis (aOR 1.52, 95% CI: 1.12 to 2.05), and treatment for hypertension (aOR 1.63, 95% CI: 1.21 to 2.19).HIV-positive patients who use ART are more likely to have received health care services for diabetes and hypertension. This apparent ART advantage suggests that ART programs may be a vehicle for strengthening health systems for chronic care

mRNA localization, reaction centre biogenesis and thylakoid membrane targeting in cyanobacteria

The thylakoid membranes of cyanobacteria form a complex intracellular membrane system with a distinctive proteome. The sites of biogenesis of thylakoid proteins remain uncertain, as do the signals that direct thylakoid membrane-integral proteins to the thylakoids rather than to the plasma membrane. Here, we address these questions by using fluorescence in situ hybridization to probe the subcellular location of messenger RNA molecules encoding core subunits of the photosystems in two cyanobacterial species. These mRNAs cluster at thylakoid surfaces mainly adjacent to the central cytoplasm and the nucleoid, in contrast to mRNAs encoding proteins with other locations. Ribosome association influences the distribution of the photosynthetic mRNAs on the thylakoid surface, but thylakoid affinity is retained in the absence of ribosome association. However, thylakoid association is disrupted in a mutant lacking two mRNA-binding proteins, which probably play roles in targeting photosynthetic proteins to the thylakoid membrane

Bright spots, physical activity investments that work : sweatcoin : a steps generated virtual currency for sustained physical activity behaviour change

Sweatcoin converts the step count recorded on smartphones into a virtual currency. Using this app, users generate financial rewards through physical activity, with higher levels of activity creating a higher ‘income’. Sweatcoins can subsequently be used to purchase commercially available products from an in-app marketplace

Strong interface-induced spin-orbit coupling in graphene on WS2

Interfacial interactions allow the electronic properties of graphene to be modified, as recently demonstrated by the appearance of satellite Dirac cones in the band structure of graphene on hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) substrates. Ongoing research strives to explore interfacial interactions in a broader class of materials in order to engineer targeted electronic properties. Here we show that at an interface with a tungsten disulfide (WS2) substrate, the strength of the spin-orbit interaction (SOI) in graphene is very strongly enhanced. The induced SOI leads to a pronounced low-temperature weak anti-localization (WAL) effect, from which we determine the spin-relaxation time. We find that spin-relaxation time in graphene is two-to-three orders of magnitude smaller on WS2 than on SiO2 or hBN, and that it is comparable to the intervalley scattering time. To interpret our findings we have performed first-principle electronic structure calculations, which both confirm that carriers in graphene-on-WS2 experience a strong SOI and allow us to extract a spin-dependent low-energy effective Hamiltonian. Our analysis further shows that the use of WS2 substrates opens a possible new route to access topological states of matter in graphene-based systems.Comment: Originally submitted version in compliance with editorial guidelines. Final version with expanded discussion of the relation between theory and experiments to be published in Nature Communication

Acute appendicitis caused by endometriosis: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Endometriosis is a well-recognized gynecological condition in the reproductive age group. Surgical texts present the gynecological aspects of the disease in detail, but the published literature on unexpected manifestations, such as appendiceal disease, is inadequate. The presentation to general surgeons may be atypical and pose diagnostic difficulty. Thus, a definitive diagnosis is likely to be established only by the histological examination of a specimen.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>We report a case of endometriosis of the appendix in a 25-year-old Caucasian woman who presented with symptoms of acute appendicitis and was treated by appendectomy, which resulted in a good outcome.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We discuss special aspects of acute appendicitis caused by endometriosis to elucidate the pathologic entity of this variant of acute appendicitis.</p

Spider Movement, UV Reflectance and Size, but Not Spider Crypsis, Affect the Response of Honeybees to Australian Crab Spiders

According to the crypsis hypothesis, the ability of female crab spiders to change body colour and match the colour of flowers has been selected because flower visitors are less likely to detect spiders that match the colour of the flowers used as hunting platform. However, recent findings suggest that spider crypsis plays a minor role in predator detection and some studies even showed that pollinators can become attracted to flowers harbouring Australian crab spider when the UV contrast between spider and flower increases. Here we studied the response of Apis mellifera honeybees to the presence of white or yellow Thomisus spectabilis Australian crab spiders sitting on Bidens alba inflorescences and also the response of honeybees to crab spiders that we made easily detectable painting blue their forelimbs or abdomen. To account for the visual systems of crab spider's prey, we measured the reflectance properties of the spiders and inflorescences used for the experiments. We found that honeybees did not respond to the degree of matching between spiders and inflorescences (either chromatic or achromatic contrast): they responded similarly to white and yellow spiders, to control and painted spiders. However spider UV reflection, spider size and spider movement determined honeybee behaviour: the probability that honeybees landed on spider-harbouring inflorescences was greatest when the spiders were large and had high UV reflectance or when spiders were small and reflected little UV, and honeybees were more likely to reject inflorescences if spiders moved as the bee approached the inflorescence. Our study suggests that only the large, but not the small Australian crab spiders deceive their preys by reflecting UV light, and highlights the importance of other cues that elicited an anti-predator response in honeybees

Reanalysis of lattice QCD spectra leading to the Ds0*(2317) and Ds1*(2460)

We perform a reanalysis of the energy levels obtained in a recent lattice QCD simulation, from where the existence of bound states of KD and KD* are induced and identified with the narrow D-s0*(2317) and D-s1*(2460) resonances. The reanalysis is done in terms of an auxiliary potential, employing a single-channel basis KD(*()), and a two-channel basis KD(*()), eta D-s(()*()). By means of an extended Luscher method we determine poles of the continuum t-matrix, bound by about 40 MeV with respect to the KD and KD* thresholds, which we identify with the D-s0*(2317) and D-s1*(2460) resonances. Using a sum rule that reformulates Weinberg compositeness condition we can determine that the state D-s0*(2317) contains a KD component in an amount of about 70%, while the state D-s1*(2460) contains a similar amount of KD*. We argue that the present lattice simulation results do not still allow us to determine which are the missing channels in the bound state wave functions and we discuss the necessary information that can lead to answer this question