Radium ion: A possible candidate for measuring atomic parity violation

Single trapped and laser cooled Radium ion as a possible candidate for measuring the parity violation induced frequency shift has been discussed here. Even though the technique to be used is similar to that proposed by Fortson [1], Radium has its own advantages and disadvantages. The most attractive part of Radium ion as compared to that of Barium ion is its mass which comes along with added complexity of instability as well as other issues which are discussed hereComment: Conference proceedin

Fungal iron availability during deep seated candidiasis is defined by a complex interplay involving systemic and local events

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

B-cell lymphoma in retrieved femoral heads: a long term follow up

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>A relatively high incidence of pathological conditions in retrieved femoral heads, including a group of patients having low grade B-cell lymphoma, has been described before. At short term follow up none of these patients with low-grade B-cell lymphoma showed evidence of systemic disease. However, the long term follow up of these patients is not known.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>From November 1994 up to and including December 2005 we screened all femoral heads removed at the time of primary total hip replacement histopathologically and included them in the bone banking protocol according to the guidelines of the American Associations of Tissue Banks (AATB) and the European Association of Musculo-Skeletal Transplantation (EAMST). We determined the percentage of B-cell lymphoma in all femoral heads and in the group that fulfilled all criteria of the bone banking protocol and report on the long-term follow-up.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Of 852 femoral heads fourteen (1.6%) were highly suspicious for low-grade B-cell lymphoma. Of these 852 femoral heads, 504 were eligible for bone transplantation according to the guidelines of the AATB and the EAMST. Six femoral heads of this group of 504 were highly suspicious for low-grade B-cell lymphoma (1.2%). At long term follow up two (0.2%) of all patients developed systemic malignant disease and one of them needed medical treatment for her condition.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In routine histopathological screening we found variable numbers of low-grade B-cell lymphoma throughout the years, even in a group of femoral heads that were eligible for bone transplantation. Allogenic transmission of malignancy has not yet been reported on, but surviving viruses are proven to be transmissible. Therefore, we recommend the routine histopathological evaluation of all femoral heads removed at primary total hip arthroplasty as a tool for quality control, whether the femoral head is used for bone banking or not.</p

Infected erythrocyte-derived extracellular vesicles alter vascular function via regulatory Ago2-miRNA complexes in malaria

Malaria remains one of the greatest public health challenges worldwide, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. The clinical outcome of individuals infected with Plasmodium falciparum parasites depends on many factors including host systemic inflammatory responses, parasite sequestration in tissues and vascular dysfunction. Production of pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines promotes endothelial activation as well as recruitment and infiltration of inflammatory cells, which in turn triggers further endothelial cell activation and parasite sequestration. Inflammatory responses are triggered in part by bioactive parasite products such as hemozoin and infected red blood cell-derived extracellular vesicles (iRBC-derived EVs). Here we demonstrate that such EVs contain functional miRNA-Argonaute 2 complexes that are derived from the host RBC. Moreover, we show that EVs are efficiently internalized by endothelial cells, where the miRNA-Argonaute 2 complexes modulate target gene expression and barrier properties. Altogether, these findings provide a mechanistic link between EVs and vascular dysfunction during malaria infection

Texture analysis-and support vector machine-assisted diffusional kurtosis imaging may allow in vivo gliomas grading and IDH-mutation status prediction:a preliminary study

We sought to investigate, whether texture analysis of diffusional kurtosis imaging (DKI) enhanced by support vector machine (SVM) analysis may provide biomarkers for gliomas staging and detection of the IDH mutation. First-order statistics and texture feature extraction were performed in 37 patients on both conventional (FLAIR) and mean diffusional kurtosis (MDK) images and recursive feature elimination (RFE) methodology based on SVM was employed to select the most discriminative diagnostic biomarkers. The first-order statistics demonstrated significantly lower MDK values in the IDH-mutant tumors. This resulted in 81.1% accuracy (sensitivity = 0.96, specificity = 0.45, AUC 0.59) for IDH mutation diagnosis. There were non-significant differences in average MDK and skewness among the different tumour grades. When texture analysis and SVM were utilized, the grading accuracy achieved by DKI biomarkers was 78.1% (sensitivity 0.77, specificity 0.79, AUC 0.79); the prediction accuracy for IDH mutation reached 83.8% (sensitivity 0.96, specificity 0.55, AUC 0.87). For the IDH mutation task, DKI outperformed significantly the FLAIR imaging. When using selected biomarkers after RFE, the prediction accuracy achieved 83.8% (sensitivity 0.92, specificity 0.64, AUC 0.88). These findings demonstrate the superiority of DKI enhanced by texture analysis and SVM, compared to conventional imaging, for gliomas staging and prediction of IDH mutational status

HisAK70: Progress towards a vaccine against different forms of leishmaniosis

Background: Leishmania major and Leishmania infantum are among the main species that are responsible for cutaneous leishmaniosis (CL) and visceral leishmaniosis (VL), respectively. The leishmanioses represent the second-largest parasitic killer in the world after malaria. Recently, we succeeded in generating a plasmid DNA (pCMV-HISA70m2A) and demonstrated that immunized mice were protected against L. major challenge. The efficacy of the DNA-vaccine was further enhanced by the inclusion of KMP-11 antigen into the antibiotic-free plasmid pVAX1-asd. Methods: Here, we describe the use of a HisAK70 DNA-vaccine encoding seven Leishmania genes (H2A, H2B, H3, H4, A2, KMP11 and HSP70) for vaccination of mice to assess the induction of a resistant phenotype against VL and CL. Results: HisAK70 was successful in vaccinated mice, resulting in a high amount of efficient sterile hepatic granulomas associated with a hepatic parasite burden fully resolved in the VL model; and resulting in 100 % inhibition of parasite visceralization in the CL model. Conclusions: The results suggest that immunization with the HisAK70 DNA-vaccine may provide a rapid, suitable, and efficient vaccination strategy to confer cross-protective immunity against VL and CL.This work was partially supported by grants from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (AGL2010-17394 and AGL2013-44100R) and PLATESA (P2013/ABI-2906) from the Comunidad de Madrid (Spain).Peer Reviewe

Multi-messenger observations of a binary neutron star merger

On 2017 August 17 a binary neutron star coalescence candidate (later designated GW170817) with merger time 12:41:04 UTC was observed through gravitational waves by the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors. The Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor independently detected a gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) with a time delay of ~1.7 s with respect to the merger time. From the gravitational-wave signal, the source was initially localized to a sky region of 31 deg2 at a luminosity distance of 40+8-8 Mpc and with component masses consistent with neutron stars. The component masses were later measured to be in the range 0.86 to 2.26 Mo. An extensive observing campaign was launched across the electromagnetic spectrum leading to the discovery of a bright optical transient (SSS17a, now with the IAU identification of AT 2017gfo) in NGC 4993 (at ~40 Mpc) less than 11 hours after the merger by the One- Meter, Two Hemisphere (1M2H) team using the 1 m Swope Telescope. The optical transient was independently detected by multiple teams within an hour. Subsequent observations targeted the object and its environment. Early ultraviolet observations revealed a blue transient that faded within 48 hours. Optical and infrared observations showed a redward evolution over ~10 days. Following early non-detections, X-ray and radio emission were discovered at the transient’s position ~9 and ~16 days, respectively, after the merger. Both the X-ray and radio emission likely arise from a physical process that is distinct from the one that generates the UV/optical/near-infrared emission. No ultra-high-energy gamma-rays and no neutrino candidates consistent with the source were found in follow-up searches. These observations support the hypothesis that GW170817 was produced by the merger of two neutron stars in NGC4993 followed by a short gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) and a kilonova/macronova powered by the radioactive decay of r-process nuclei synthesized in the ejecta

Development and preliminary evaluation of the VPS ReplaySuite: a virtual double-headed microscope for pathology

BACKGROUND: Advances in computing and telecommunications have resulted in the availability of a range of online tools for use in pathology training and quality assurance. The majority focus on either enabling pathologists to examine and diagnose cases, or providing image archives that serve as reference material. Limited emphasis has been placed on analysing the diagnostic process used by pathologists to reach a diagnosis and using this as a resource for improving diagnostic performance. METHODS: The ReplaySuite is an online pathology software tool that presents archived virtual slide examinations to pathologists in an accessible video-like format, similar to observing examinations with a double-headed microscope. Delivered through a customised web browser, it utilises PHP (Hypertext PreProcessor) to interact with a remote database and retrieve data describing virtual slide examinations, performed using the Virtual Pathology Slide (VPS). To demonstrate the technology and conduct a preliminary evaluation of pathologists opinions on its potential application in pathology training and quality assurance, 70 pathologists were invited to use the application to review their own and other pathologists examinations of 10 needle-core breast biopsies and complete an electronic survey. 9 pathologists participated, and all subsequently completed an exit survey. RESULTS: Of those who replayed an examination by another pathologist, 83.3% (5/6) agreed that replays provided an insight into the examining pathologists diagnosis and 33.3% (2/6) reconsidered their own diagnosis for at least one case. Of those who reconsidered their original diagnosis, all re-classified either concordant with group consensus or original glass slide diagnosis. 77.7% (7/9) of all participants, and all 3 participants who replayed more than 10 examinations stated the ReplaySuite to be of some or great benefit in pathology training and quality assurance. CONCLUSION: Participants conclude the ReplaySuite to be of some or of great potential benefit to pathology training and quality assurance and consider the ReplaySuite to be beneficial in evaluating the diagnostic trace of an examination. The ReplaySuite removes temporal and spatial issues that surround the use of double-headed microscopes by allowing examinations to be reviewed at different times and in different locations to the original examination. While the evaluation set was limited and potentially subject to bias, the response of participants was favourable. Further work is planned to determine whether use of the ReplaySuite can result in improved diagnostic ability

Knowledge of general practitioners about nasopharyngeal cancer at the Puskesmas in Yogyakarta, Indonesia

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is one of the leading causes of cancer death in Indonesia. At initial diagnosis, 80% of the patients present with advanced stage disease. In Indonesia, primary medical care is generally provided by the health care centres; named Puskesmas. The lack of knowledge of various aspects of NPC of the General practitioners (GPs) working in these centers might contribute to the diagnostic delay. The aim of this study was to assess the knowledge of these GPs on different aspects of NPC including symptoms, risk factors and incidence.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>One hundred six GPs in the Puskesmas in the Yogyakarta province were subjected to a questionnaire on different aspects of NPC based on literature and interviews with Head and Neck Surgeons.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>All GPs approached participated and in total 106 questionnaires were filled in. All participants were aware of NPC as a disease and 89% confirmed that it is a serious problem in Indonesia. However, 50% of the participants believed NPC has a low incidence in their region. The question on early symptoms gave a mean 4.2 answers of which 50% were incorrect.</p> <p>The GPs provided a total of 318 answers when asked for the risk factors of NPC, 75% of which were incorrect. Fifty seven GPs (54%) stated that they did not receive sufficient education on NPC at the university and insufficient knowledge was gained during daily practice. Ninety-two percent of the GPs were interested in additional education, preferably in form of lectures, meetings or folders.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This study revealed that GPs in the Puskesmas in Yogyakarta lack knowledge on all aspects of NPC. This is an important finding as NPC is endemic in Indonesia and the Puskesmas are the institutions which provide primary medical health care in the country. Further education of the GPs in these endemic areas could be a first step to increase the rate of early detection. Therefore, we suggest 1) to conduct a medical awareness campaign for GPs on the most important subjects concerning NPC, and 2) as soon as NPC awareness among GPs has risen, provide further education on the risk factors, the early symptoms and the incidence, education to the community. We propose to extend this study to other areas in Indonesia (i.e. Jakarta, Surabaya, Central Java), using models that have been developed in Yogyakarta.</p

Duke Surgery Patient Safety: an open-source application for anonymous reporting of adverse and near-miss surgical events

BACKGROUND: Studies have shown that 4% of hospitalized patients suffer from an adverse event caused by the medical treatment administered. Some institutions have created systems to encourage medical workers to report these adverse events. However, these systems often prove to be inadequate and/or ineffective for reviewing the data collected and improving the outcomes in patient safety. OBJECTIVE: To describe the Web-application Duke Surgery Patient Safety, designed for the anonymous reporting of adverse and near-miss events as well as scheduled reporting to surgeons and hospital administration. SOFTWARE ARCHITECTURE: DSPS was developed primarily using Java language running on a Tomcat server and with MySQL database as its backend. RESULTS: Formal and field usability tests were used to aid in development of DSPS. Extensive experience with DSPS at our institution indicate that DSPS is easy to learn and use, has good speed, provides needed functionality, and is well received by both adverse-event reporters and administrators. DISCUSSION: This is the first description of an open-source application for reporting patient safety, which allows the distribution of the application to other institutions in addition for its ability to adapt to the needs of different departments. DSPS provides a mechanism for anonymous reporting of adverse events and helps to administer Patient Safety initiatives. CONCLUSION: The modifiable framework of DSPS allows adherence to evolving national data standards. The open-source design of DSPS permits surgical departments with existing reporting mechanisms to integrate them with DSPS. The DSPS application is distributed under the GNU General Public License