Meson multiplicity in nucleus-nucleus collisions above 4 GeV/amu

Dependence of meson multiplicity on energy for 1486 cosmic ray nucleus-emulsion nucleus interactions is examined. Comparison is made to predictions of the Multi-Chain Model

Rigorous biochemical criteria for the diagnosis of pheochromocytoma

Based on urinary studies of patients with pheochromocytoma as compared to hypertensives considered to be without this tumor, rigorous biochemical criteria for diagnosis are proposed. Free catecholamines in 90% and metanephrine metabolites in 100% of the pheochromocytoma patients' urine samples exceeded the normal (hypertensive) values by more than 5 SD. No patient without pheochromocytoma has falsely positive values in both free catecholamine and metanephrine metabolite determinations. No patient with a pheochromocytoma had a urine sample negative for metanephrine metabolites. The combination of these studies has given excellent accuracy for definitive diagnosis.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/33926/1/0000193.pd

Tubulization with chitosan guides for the repair of long gap peripheral nerve injury in the rat

Biosynthetic guides can be an alternative to nerve grafts for reconstructing severely injured peripheral nerves. The aim of this study was to evaluate the regenerative capability of chitosan tubes to bridge critical nerve gaps (15 mm long) in the rat sciatic nerve compared with silicone (SIL) tubes and nerve autografts (AGs). A total of 28 Wistar Hannover rats were randomly distributed into four groups (n = 7 each), in which the nerve was repaired by SIL tube, chitosan guides of low (∼2%, DAI) and medium (∼5%, DAII) degree of acetylation, and AG. Electrophysiological and algesimetry tests were performed serially along 4 months follow-up, and histomorphometric analysis was performed at the end of the study. Both groups with chitosan tubes showed similar degree of functional recovery, and similar number of myelinated nerve fibers at mid tube after 4 months of implantation. The results with chitosan tubes were significantly better compared to SIL tubes (P < 0.01), but lower than with AG (P < 0.01). In contrast to AG, in which all the rats had effective regeneration and target reinnervation, chitosan tubes from DAI and DAII achieved 43 and 57% success, respectively, whereas regeneration failed in all the animals repaired with SIL tubes. This study suggests that chitosan guides are promising conduits to construct artificial nerve grafts

Intraperitoneal bevacizumab for control of malignant ascites due to advanced-stage gastrointestinal cancers: A multicentre double-blind, placebo-controlled phase II study - AIO SUP-0108

PURPOSE: Malignant ascites is debilitating for patients with advanced cancer. As shown previously, tumour cell production of vascular endothelial growth factor might be a major cause of the formation of malignant ascites. Intraperitoneal bevacizumab could therefore be an option for symptom control in refractory ascites. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Patients with advanced gastrointestinal cancer and malignant ascites who had undergone paracentesis at least twice within the past 4 weeks were randomly assigned in a 2:1 ratio to intraperitoneal bevacizumab (400 mg absolute) or placebo after paracentesis. During the 8-week treatment period, a minimum interval of 14 d was kept between the applications of the study drug. Primary end-point was paracentesis-free survival (ParFS). RESULTS: Fifty-three patients (median age 63 years) were randomised. Forty-nine patients received at least one study drug application and qualified for the main analysis. The proportion of patients with at least one common toxicity criteria grade III-V event was similar with 20/33 (61%) on bevacizumab and 11/16 (69%) on placebo. Median ParFS was 14 d (95% confidence interval [CI]: 11-17) in the bevacizumab arm and 10.5 d (95% CI: 7-21) on placebo (hazard ratio 0.74, 95% CI: 0.40-1.37; P = 0.16). The longest paracentesis-free period was 19 d on bevacizumab (range 6-66 d) and 17.5 d in the placebo arm (range 4-42) (P = 0.85). Median overall survival was 64 d (95% CI: 45-103) on bevacizumab compared to 31.5 d (95% CI: 20-117) on placebo (P = 0.31). CONCLUSION: Intraperitoneal bevacizumab was well tolerated. Overall, treatment did not result in a significantly better symptom control of malignant ascites. However, patients defined by specific immune characteristics may benefit

Do Absolute Majorities Spend Less? Evidence from Germany

The number of parties in government is usually considered to increase spending. We show that this is not necessarily the case. Using a new method to detect close election outcomes in multi-party systems, we isolate truly exogenous variation in the type of government. With data from municipalities in the German state of Bavaria, we show in regression discontinuity-type estimations that absolute majorities spend more, not less, and increase the property tax rate. We also find weakly significant results for increases in debt. Politically, our results show that the mayor that heads an absolute majority of his own party gains the most, but the party itself does not

Statistical mechanics of secondary structures formed by random RNA sequences

The formation of secondary structures by a random RNA sequence is studied as a model system for the sequence-structure problem omnipresent in biopolymers. Several toy energy models are introduced to allow detailed analytical and numerical studies. First, a two-replica calculation is performed. By mapping the two-replica problem to the denaturation of a single homogeneous RNA in 6-dimensional embedding space, we show that sequence disorder is perturbatively irrelevant, i.e., an RNA molecule with weak sequence disorder is in a molten phase where many secondary structures with comparable total energy coexist. A numerical study of various models at high temperature reproduces behaviors characteristic of the molten phase. On the other hand, a scaling argument based on the extremal statistics of rare regions can be constructed to show that the low temperature phase is unstable to sequence disorder. We performed a detailed numerical study of the low temperature phase using the droplet theory as a guide, and characterized the statistics of large-scale, low-energy excitations of the secondary structures from the ground state structure. We find the excitation energy to grow very slowly (i.e., logarithmically) with the length scale of the excitation, suggesting the existence of a marginal glass phase. The transition between the low temperature glass phase and the high temperature molten phase is also characterized numerically. It is revealed by a change in the coefficient of the logarithmic excitation energy, from being disorder dominated to entropy dominated.Comment: 24 pages, 16 figure

BIOHYBRID – Biohybrid templates for peripheral nerve regeneration

[Excerpt] Peripheral nerve injuries represent a major cause for morbidity and disability in affected patients and cause substantial costs for society in a global perspective. It has been estimated that peripheral nerve injuries affect 2.8% of trauma patients,many of whom acquire life-long disability (Noble et al., 1998). With respect to an incidence of nerve injuries of 13.9/100,000 inhabitants per year (Asplund et al., 2009) and the number of inhabitants in the EU (495,000,000 inhabitants in 2007), the number of peripheral nerve injuries requiring repair and reconstruction, excluding nerve injuries by amputations, may be 70,000 annually only in EU countries. Related to peripheral nerve injuries, the costs for society are substantial and consist of direct (costs for surgery, outpatient visits and rehabilitation) and indirect (lost production) costs. Individual median and ulnar nerve injuries in the forearm have total costs of EUR 51,000 and 31,000, respectively, where around 85% of the costs consist of loss of production (Rosberg et al., 2005), still excluding costs for adjusted quality of life ( Eriksson et al., 2011) . Thus, one may estimate that the annual costs only in the EU may be as high as EUR 2.2 billion, indicating that improved treatment strategies for peripheral nerve injuries may not only improve the situation for patients, but may also significantly reduce costs for society. [...](undefined

In vitro evaluation of cell-seeded chitosan films for peripheral nerve tissue engineering

Natural biomaterials have attracted an increasing interest in the field of tissue-engineered nerve grafts, representing a possible alternative to autologous nerve transplantation. With the prospect of developing a novel entubulation strategy for transected nerves with cell-seeded chitosan films, we examined the biocompatibility of such films in vitro. Different types of rat Schwann cells (SCs)-immortalized, neonatal, and adult-as well as rat bone-marrow-derived mesenchymal stromal cells (BMSCs) were analyzed with regard to their cell metabolic activity, proliferation profiles, and cell morphology after different time points of mono-and cocultures on the chitosan films. Overall the results demonstrate a good cytocompatibility of the chitosan substrate. Both cell types were viable on the biomaterial and showed different metabolic activities and proliferation behavior, indicating cell-type-specific cell-biomaterial interaction. Moreover, the cell types also displayed their typical morphology. In cocultures adult SCs used the BMSCs as a feeder layer and no negative interactions between both cell types were detected. Further, the chitosan films allow neurite outgrowth from dissociated sensory neurons, which is additionally supported on film preseeded with SC-BMSC cocultures. The presented chitosan films therefore demonstrate high potential for their use in tissue-engineered nerve grafts.This work was supported by the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7-HEALTH-2011) under grant agreement No. 278612. This work was also co-funded by Programa Operacional Regional do Norte (ON.2-O Novo Norte), ao abrigo do Quadro de Referencia Estrategico Nacional (QREN), and atraves do Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional (FEDER). The authors gratefully acknowledge the delivery of the chitosan raw material by Altakitin S.A., Portugal, and the fabrication of chitosan films by Medovent GmbH, Germany

Investigation of cell adhesion in chitosan membranes for peripheral nerve regeneration

Peripheral nerve injuries have produced major concerns in regenerative medicine for several years, as the recovery of normal nerve function continues to be a significant clinical challenge. Chitosan (CHT), because of its good biocompatibility, biodegradability and physicochemical properties, has been widely used as a biomaterial in tissue engineering scaffolding. In this study, CHT membranes were produced with three different Degrees of Acetylation (DA), envisioning its application in peripheral nerve regeneration. The three CHT membranes (DA I: 1%, DA II: 2%, DA III: 5%) were extensively characterized and were found to have a smooth and flat surface, with DA III membrane having slightly higher roughness and surface energy. All the membranes presented suitable mechanical properties and did not show any signs of calcification after SBF test. Biodegradability was similar for all samples, and adequate to physically support neurite outgrowth. The in vitro cell culture results indicate selective cell adhesion. The CHT membranes favoured Schwann cells invasion and proliferation, with a display of appropriate cytoskeletal morphology. At the same time they presented low fibroblast infiltration. This fact may be greatly beneficial for the prevention of fibrotic tissue formation, a common phenomenon impairing peripheral nerve regeneration. The great deal of results obtained during this work permitted to select the formulation with the greatest potential for further biological tests.This work has received funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7-HEALTH-2011) under grant agreement no 278612 (BIOHYBRID). This study was also funded by European Union's FP7 Programme under grant agreement no REGPOT-CT2012-316331-POLARIS.The authors thank the chitosan raw material provided by Altakitin S.A., (Lisboa, Portugal). We are further thankful to Silke Fischer, Natascha Heidrich, Kerstin Kuhlemann, Jennifer Metzen, Hildegard Streich and Maike Wesemann (all from the Institute of Neuroanatomy, Hannover Medical School) for their technical support