Familial angiosarcoma of the heart

Primary cardiac tumors are rare and about 75% are benign, of which 75% are atrial myxomas. Angiosarcomas are the most common malignant primary cardiac tumors, with 90% arising in the left atrium and 10% in the right atrium. This is the first report of a primary cardiac tumor, an angiosarcoma, with a familial incidence.peer-reviewe

Evaluating the impact of design affordances in preschool children's toy preferences

The role of toys in early childhood intervention is crucial for children to acquire and improve their skills. A study with preschool children has been carried out in order to establish, from a product design perspective, how toys' innate characteristics trigger toy preferences. It was found that children's preference is presided by the play value that is perceived. By exploiting hedonic and pragmatic qualities, designers can embed persuasive qualities in toys. A framework for toy design is proposed as a model for a computer-aided support tool that helps toy designers reach their design goal

Fatigue testing of three peristernal median sternotomy closure techniques

Failure of a sternotomy closure because of closure system fatigue is a complication that may result in dehiscence and put the individual at risk for serious complications. The purpose of this study was to assess the fatigue performance of three peristernal median sternotomy closure techniques (figure-of-eight stainless-steel wires, figure-of-eight stainless-steel cables, or Pectofix Dynamic Sternal Fixation [DSF] stainless-steel plates) in order to quantify the potential risk of fatigue failure of these devices when subject to cyclic loads in physiologically relevant loading directions

A 4.3 GHz BiCMOS VCO with multiple 360° variable phase outputs using the vector sum method

A 4.3 GHz voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) with multiple independently tunable phase outputs is presented. The VCO is realized by coupling two LC oscillators together in order to obtain quadrature signals and is tunable between 4.12 and 4.74 GHz. The variable phase outputs are achieved by varying the amplitudes of the in-phase and quadrature signals independently and then combining these signals together. By using multiple Gilbert cells as variable gain amplifiers (VGAs), multiple tunable phase outputs are achieved with the use of only one quadrature VCO. The VGAs are controlled using a custom non-linear digital-toanalog converter. The entire circuit is designed using a 3.3 V SiGe BiCMOS process. A maximum phase noise of -108.17 dBc/Hz was measured over the entire tuning range at a 1 MHz offset. The outputs of the VCO can be used as local oscillators that achieve phase shifting during radio frequency up or down conversion.Armscor S. A. Ltd and the Business Unit: Defence, Peace, Safety and Security (DPSS), Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), South Africa.http://www.springerlink.com/content/0925-1030ai201

Fas/FasL-mediated apoptosis and inflammation are key features of acute human spinal cord injury: implications for translational, clinical application

The Fas/FasL system plays an important role in apoptosis, the inflammatory response and gliosis in a variety of neurologic disorders. A better understanding of these mechanisms could lead to effective therapeutic strategies following spinal cord injury (SCI). We explored these mechanisms by examining molecular changes in postmortem human spinal cord tissue from cases with acute and chronic SCI. Complementary studies were conducted using the in vivo Fejota™ clip compression model of SCI in Fas-deficient B6.MRL-Fas-lpr (lpr) and wild-type (Wt) mice to test Fas-mediated apoptosis, inflammation, gliosis and axonal degeneration by immunohistochemistry, Western blotting, gelatin zymography and ELISA with Mouse 32-plex cytokine/chemokine panel bead immunoassay. We report novel evidence that shows that Fas-mediated apoptosis of neurons and oligodendrocytes occurred in the injury epicenter in all cases of acute and subacute SCI and not in chronic SCI or in control cases. We also found significantly reduced apoptosis, expression of GFAP, NF-κB, p-IKappaB and iba1, increased number of CD4 positive T cells and MMP2 expression and reduced neurological dysfunction in lpr mice when compared with Wt mice after SCI. We found dramatically reduced inflammation and cytokines and chemokine expression in B6.MRL-Fas-lpr mice compared to Wt mice after SCI. In conclusion, we report multiple lines of evidence that Fas/FasL activation plays a pivotal role in mediating apoptosis, the inflammatory response and neurodegeneration after SCI, providing a compelling rationale for therapeutically targeting Fas in human SCI

Measurement of the cross-section and charge asymmetry of WW bosons produced in proton-proton collisions at s=8\sqrt{s}=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper presents measurements of the $W^+ \rightarrow \mu^+\nu$ and $W^- \rightarrow \mu^-\nu$ cross-sections and the associated charge asymmetry as a function of the absolute pseudorapidity of the decay muon. The data were collected in proton--proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC and correspond to a total integrated luminosity of 20.2~\mbox{fb^{-1}}. The precision of the cross-section measurements varies between 0.8% to 1.5% as a function of the pseudorapidity, excluding the 1.9% uncertainty on the integrated luminosity. The charge asymmetry is measured with an uncertainty between 0.002 and 0.003. The results are compared with predictions based on next-to-next-to-leading-order calculations with various parton distribution functions and have the sensitivity to discriminate between them.Comment: 38 pages in total, author list starting page 22, 5 figures, 4 tables, submitted to EPJC. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at https://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/STDM-2017-13

Search for chargino-neutralino production with mass splittings near the electroweak scale in three-lepton final states in √s=13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for supersymmetry through the pair production of electroweakinos with mass splittings near the electroweak scale and decaying via on-shell W and Z bosons is presented for a three-lepton final state. The analyzed proton-proton collision data taken at a center-of-mass energy of √s=13  TeV were collected between 2015 and 2018 by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139  fb−1. A search, emulating the recursive jigsaw reconstruction technique with easily reproducible laboratory-frame variables, is performed. The two excesses observed in the 2015–2016 data recursive jigsaw analysis in the low-mass three-lepton phase space are reproduced. Results with the full data set are in agreement with the Standard Model expectations. They are interpreted to set exclusion limits at the 95% confidence level on simplified models of chargino-neutralino pair production for masses up to 345 GeV

Search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum in pp collisions at √ s = 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Results of a search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum are reported. The search uses 20.3 fb−1 of √ s = 8 TeV data collected in 2012 with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Events are required to have at least one jet with pT > 120 GeV and no leptons. Nine signal regions are considered with increasing missing transverse momentum requirements between Emiss T > 150 GeV and Emiss T > 700 GeV. Good agreement is observed between the number of events in data and Standard Model expectations. The results are translated into exclusion limits on models with either large extra spatial dimensions, pair production of weakly interacting dark matter candidates, or production of very light gravitinos in a gauge-mediated supersymmetric model. In addition, limits on the production of an invisibly decaying Higgs-like boson leading to similar topologies in the final state are presente

Milied it-tajjeb!

Ġabra ta’ poeżiji u proża li tinkludi: Epigrammi ta’ John Sciberras – L-Assedju l-Kbir ta’ Godfrey Zarb Adami – Epithalamion ta’ Ġużè Abela – L-hena biss fil-poeżija ta’ Ġużè Cardona – Lil San Ġużepp ta’ Joe Mejlak – L-għasfur tal-bejt ta’ Bro. Henry – Mill-ktieb tal-ħajja ta’ G. Ż. A. – Tagħniqa vojta ta’ Ġ. Cassar Pullicino – Meta l-mara tibqa’ tmieri ta’ A. Cremona – Iż-żgħożija ta’ Charles Casha – Il-Milied it-tajjeb! ta’ Ġ. Borg Pantalleresco.peer-reviewe

Guanosine reduces apoptosis and inflammation associated with restoration of function in rats with acute spinal cord injury

Spinal cord injury results in progressive waves of secondary injuries, cascades of noxious pathological mechanisms that substantially exacerbate the primary injury and the resultant permanent functional deficits. Secondary injuries are associated with inflammation, excessive cytokine release, and cell apoptosis. The purine nucleoside guanosine has significant trophic effects and is neuroprotective, antiapoptotic in vitro, and stimulates nerve regeneration. Therefore, we determined whether systemic administration of guanosine could protect rats from some of the secondary effects of spinal cord injury, thereby reducing neurological deficits. Systemic administration of guanosine (8 mg/kg per day, i.p.) for 14 consecutive days, starting 4 h after moderate spinal cord injury in rats, significantly improved not only motor and sensory functions, but also recovery of bladder function. These improvements were associated with reduction in the inflammatory response to injury, reduction of apoptotic cell death, increased sparing of axons, and preservation of myelin. Our data indicate that the therapeutic action of guanosine probably results from reducing inflammation resulting in the protection of axons, oligodendrocytes, and neurons and from inhibiting apoptotic cell death. These data raise the intriguing possibility that guanosine may also be able to reduce secondary pathological events and thus improve functional outcome after traumatic spinal cord injury in humans