Long-Term Survival of a Patient with Giant Cell Glioblastoma: Case Report and Review of the Literature

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most common glial tumor of the central nervous system. Overall survival is less than a year in most of the cases in spite of multimodal treatment approaches. A 45-year-old female with histologically confirmed giant cell GBM was treated at our institution. Subtotal excision of the lesion situated in the right precentral area was performed during the initial stay in August 2005. The patient improved after the procedure with no hypertension and additional neurological deficit. Radiotherapy plus concomitant and adjuvant temozolomide was performed. The patient was symptom-free for 35 months after initial surgery. From July 2008 the patient developed partial motor seizures in the left side of the body and progressive hemiparesis. Local tumor progression was demonstrated on the neuroimaging studies. In December 2008, a second operative intervention was performed with subtotal excision of the tumor. Forty-five months after the initial diagnosis the patient is still alive with moderate neurological deficit. Microarray analysis of the tumor found the following numeric chromosomal aberrations: monosomy 8, 10, 13, 22, and trisomy 21, as well as amplifications in 4q34.1, 4q28.2, 6q16.3, 7q36.1, 7p21.3, and deletions in 1q42.12, 1q32.2, 1q25.2, 1p33, 2q37.2, 18q22.3, 19p13.2, Xq28, and Xq27.3. GBMs seem to be a heterogeneous group of glial tumors with different clinical course and therapeutic response. Microarray analysis is a useful method to establish a number of possible molecular predictors

Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus as an Unusual Presentation of Supratentorial Extraventricular Space-Occupying Processes: Report on Two Cases

Normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH) is a clinical and radiographic syndrome characterized by ventriculomegaly, abnormal gait, urinary incontinence, and dementia. The condition may occur due to a variety of secondary causes but may be idiopathic in approximately 50% of patients. Secondary causes may include head injury, subarachnoid hemorrhage, meningitis, and central nervous system tumor. Here, we describe two extremely rare cases of supratentorial extraventricular space-occupying processes: meningioma and glioblastoma multiforme, which initially presented with NPH

Understanding the evolution of native pinewoods in Scotland will benefit their future management and conservation

Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) is a foundation species in Scottish highland forests and a national icon. Due to heavy exploitation, the current native pinewood coverage represents a small fraction of the postglacial maximum. To reverse this decline, various schemes have been initiated to promote planting of new and expansion of old pinewoods. This includes the designation of seed zones for control of the remaining genetic resources. The zoning was based mainly on biochemical similarity among pinewoods but, by definition, neutral molecular markers do not reflect local phenotypic adaptation. Environmental variation within Scotland is substantial and it is not yet clear to what extent this has shaped patterns of adaptive differentiation among Scottish populations. Systematic, rangewide common-environment trials can provide insights into the evolution of the native pinewoods, indicating how environment has influenced phenotypic variation and how variation is maintained. Careful design of such experiments can also provide data on the history and connectivity among populations, by molecular marker analysis. Together, phenotypic and molecular datasets from such trials can provide a robust basis for refining seed transfer guidelines for Scots pine in Scotland and should form the scientific basis for conservation action on this nationally important habitat

Rapid-scan electron paramagnetic resonance using an EPR-on-a-Chip sensor

Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy is the method of choice to investigate and quantify paramagnetic species in many scientific fields, including materials science and the life sciences. Common EPR spectrometers use electromagnets and microwave (MW) resonators, limiting their application to dedicated lab environments. Here, we present an improved design of a miniaturized EPR spectrometer implemented on a silicon microchip (EPR-on-a-chip, EPRoC). In place of a microwave resonator, EPRoC uses an array of injection-locked voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs), each incorporating a 200 μm diameter coil, as a combined microwave source and detector. The individual miniaturized VCO elements provide an excellent spin sensitivity reported to be about 4 × 109spins/√Hz, which is extended by the array over a larger area for improved concentration sensitivity. A striking advantage of this design is the possibility to sweep the MW frequency instead of the magnetic field, which allows the use of smaller, permanent magnets instead of the bulky and powerhungry electromagnets required for field-swept EPR. Here, we report rapid scan EPR (RS-EPRoC) experiments performed by sweeping the frequency of the EPRoC VCO array. RS-EPRoC spectra demonstrate an improved SNR by approximately two orders of magnitude for similar signal acquisition times compared to continuous wave (CW-EPRoC) methods, which may improve the absolute spin and concentration sensitivity of EPR-on-a-Chip at 14 GHz to about 6 × 107 spins/√Hz and 3.6 nM⁄√Hz, respectively

Interdependence of photon upconversion performance and antisolvent processing in thin film halide perovskite sensitized triplet triplet annihilators

We prepared triplet triplet annihilation photon upconverters combining thin film methylammonium lead iodide MAPI perovskite with a rubrene annihilator in a bilayer structure. Excitation of the perovskite film leads to delayed, upconverted photoluminescence emitted from the annihilator layer, with triplet excitation of the rubrene being driven by carriers excited in the perovskite layer. To better understand the connections between the semiconductor properties of the perovskite film and the upconversion efficiency, we deliberately varied the perovskite film properties by modifying two spin coating conditions, namely, the choice of antisolvent and the antisolvent dripping time, and then studied the resulting photon upconversion performance with a standard annihilator layer. A stronger upconversion effect was exhibited when the perovskite films displayed brighter and more uniform photoluminescence. Both properties were sensitive to the antisolvent dripping time and were maximized for a dripping time of 20 s measured relative to the end of the spin coating program . Surprisingly, the choice of antisolvent had a significant effect on the upconversion performance, with anisole treated films yielding on average a tenfold increase in upconversion intensity compared to the chlorobenzene treated equivalent. This performance difference was correlated with the carrier lifetime in the perovskite film, which was 52 ns and 306 ns in the brightest chlorobenzene and anisole treated films, respectively. Since the bulk properties of the anisole and chlorobenzene treated films were virtually identical, we concluded that differences in the defect density at the MAPI rubrene interface, linked to the choice of antisolvent, must be responsible for the differing upconversion performanc

Materials on the Lepidoptera fauna of the Dagestan Republic (Northeastern Caucasus, Russia): autumn aspect (Insecta: Lepidoptera)

The article provides the list of Lepidoptera (the families: Cossidae, Coleophoridae, Choreutidae, Ethmiidae, Pterophoridae, Pyralidae, Crambidae, Lemoniidae, Lasiocampidae, Drepanidae, Geometridae, Sphingidae, Erebidae, Noctuidae, Lycaenidae, Nymphalidae, Pieridae), collected in four localities in the Republic of Dagestan in September 2020. In total, 207 species have been recorded. Five species are reported for the fauna of Russia for the first time: Casignetella texanella (Chambers, 1878) (Coleophoridae), Agriphila cyrenaicellus (Ragonot, 1887), Thyridiphora furia (Swinhoe, 1884), Haritalodes derogata (Fabricius, 1775) (Crambidae), and Scopula minorata (Boisduval, 1833) (Geometridae); 23 species - for the fauna of Eastern Caucasus: Perygra glaucicolella (Wood, 1892), Ecebalia halophilella (Zimmermann, 1926), E. linosyris (E. Hering, 1937), Ionescumia clypeiferella (O. Hofmann, 1871), Carpochena trientella (Christpoh, 1872) (Coleophoridae), Tebenna micalis (Mann, 1857) (Choreutidae), Ethmia candidella (Alpheraky, 1908) (Ethmiidae), Stenoptilia zophodactyla (Duponchel, 1838), Stenoptilodes taprobanes (Felder & Rogenhofer, 1875), Crombrugghia laetus (Zeller, 1847) (Pterophoridae), Glyptoteles leucacrinella Zeller, 1848, Cadra calidella (Guenée, 1845), (Pyralidae), Agriphila selasella (Hübner, 1813), Agriphila tolli (Bleszynski, 1952), Agriphila poliellus (Treitschke, 1832), Pediasia contaminella (Hübner, 1796), Pediasia fascelinella (Hübner, [1813]), Uresiphita gilvata (Fabricius, 1794), Antigastra catalaunalis (Duponchel, 1833) (Crambidae), Watsonalla binaria (Hufnagel, 1767) (Drepanidae), Idaea degeneraria erschoffi (Christoph, 1872), Scopula nigropunctata (Hufnagel, 1767), and Rhodometra sacraria (Linnaeus, 1767) (Geometridae)

Sensing electric fields using single diamond spins

The ability to sensitively detect charges under ambient conditions would be a fascinating new tool benefitting a wide range of researchers across disciplines. However, most current techniques are limited to low-temperature methods like single-electron transistors (SET), single-electron electrostatic force microscopy and scanning tunnelling microscopy. Here we open up a new quantum metrology technique demonstrating precision electric field measurement using a single nitrogen-vacancy defect centre(NV) spin in diamond. An AC electric field sensitivity reaching ~ 140V/cm/\surd Hz has been achieved. This corresponds to the electric field produced by a single elementary charge located at a distance of ~ 150 nm from our spin sensor with averaging for one second. By careful analysis of the electronic structure of the defect centre, we show how an applied magnetic field influences the electric field sensing properties. By this we demonstrate that diamond defect centre spins can be switched between electric and magnetic field sensing modes and identify suitable parameter ranges for both detector schemes. By combining magnetic and electric field sensitivity, nanoscale detection and ambient operation our study opens up new frontiers in imaging and sensing applications ranging from material science to bioimaging