Monks and monasteries in Constantinople : (fourth to ninth centuries)

This dissertation investigates the changes in the legal, economic and political status as well as the topographical location of the monasteries in Constantinople between the fourth and the ninth centuries. Roughly from the late fourth up until the end of the sixth century, there was a gradual increase in the number of monasteries. This trend was counterweighted by almost complete silence in the sources throughout the seventh and the eighth centuries. The ninth century, however, constituted a return to the trend of the early centuries. Monks and monasteries "returned" to the city with a vengeance. This "return" was inevitably linked to the prevailing conditions during the previous centuries marked by, first, the final decline of the late Roman world and its institutions, and second, the Iconoclast controversy in Byzantium between the early eighth and the mid-ninth centuries. Overall, following primarily the evidence preserved in the vitae and the acts of the councils, one can conclude that, by the end of the ninth century, the integration of the monks into Byzantine society was complete. The monasteries had become an integral part of Constantinople and its Christian topography

Advice after urgent suspected cancer referral when cancer is not found in England: Survey of patients’ preferences and perceived acceptability

Objective No standardised approach exists to provide advice after urgent suspected cancer (USC) referral when cancer is not found. This study aimed to assess preferences and acceptability of receiving advice after USC referral related to: 1) managing ongoing symptoms, 2) responding to early symptoms of other cancers, 3) cancer screening, 4) reducing risks of future cancer. Methods 2,541 patients from two English NHS Trusts were mailed a survey 1–3 months after having no cancer found following urgent suspected gastrointestinal or head and neck cancer referral. Participants were asked about: willingness to receive advice; prospective acceptability; preferences related to mode, timing and who should provide advice; and previous advice receipt. Results 406 patients responded (16.0%) with 397 in the final analyses. Few participants had previously received advice, yet most were willing to. Willingness varied by type of advice: fewer were willing to receive advice about early symptoms of other cancers (88.9%) than advice related to ongoing symptoms (94.3%). Acceptability was relatively high for all advice types. Reducing the risk of future cancer advice was more acceptable. Acceptability was lower in those from ethnic minority groups, and with lower levels of education. Most participants preferred to receive advice from a doctor; with results or soon after; either face to face or via the telephone. Conclusions There is a potential unmet need for advice after USC referral when no cancer is found. Equitable intervention design should focus on increasing acceptability for people from ethnic minority groups and those with lower levels of education

Text Localization in Video Data Using Discrete Wavelet Transform

Abstract: Text provides important information about images or video sequences in a documented image, but it always remains difficult to modify the static documented image. To carry out modification in any of the text matter the text must be segmented out from the documented image, which can be used for further analysis. Taking consideration to video image sequence the isolation of text data from the isolated frame becomes more difficult due to its variable nature. Various methods were proposed for the isolation of text data from the documented image. Among which Wavelet transforms have been widely used as effective tool in text segmentation. Document images usually contain three types of texture information. various wavelet transformation have been proposed for the decomposition of these images into their fundamentals feature. Onto these wavelet families, it is one of the difficult tasks in selecting a proper wavelet transformation with proper scale level for text isolation. This paper work implements an efficient text isolation algorithm for the extraction of text data from the documented video clips. The implemented system carries out a performance analysis on various wavelet transforms for the proper selection of wavelet transform with multi level decomposition. Of the selected wavelet transform the obtained wavelet a coefficient are applied with morphological operators for text isolation and evaluates the contribution of decomposition levels and wavelet functions to the segmentation result in documented video image. The proposed task implements neural network for the recognition of text characters from the isolated text image for making it

Protein kinase A-mediated phosphorylation regulates STAT3 activation and oncogenic EZH2 activity

Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 (PRC2) member enhancer of zeste homologue 2 (EZH2) trimethylates histone H3 lysine 27 (H3K27me3), alters chromatin structure and contributes to epigenetic regulation of gene expression in normal and disease processes. Phosphorylation of EZH2 augmented EZH2 oncogenic activity in cancer but observations have been limited to serine 21 (S21) residue by protein kinase B. In addition, phosphorylation of the evolutionarily conserved T372 motif of EZH2 by p38 resulted in EZH2 interaction with Ying Yang 1 and promoted muscle stem cell differentiation. In the present study, we used epithelial ovarian cancer (OC) cells as a model to demonstrate that phosphorylation of EZH2 at T372 by protein kinase A (PKA) induced a dominant-negative EZH2 phenotype, inhibited OC cell proliferation and migration in vitro and decreased ovarian xenograft tumor growth in vivo. Phosphorylation of T372 by PKA enhanced the interaction between EZH2 and signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3), and STAT3 binding to pT372-EZH2 reduced cellular levels of pSTAT3 and downregulated interleukin 6 receptor expression in OC. Furthermore, PKA-mediated pT372-EZH2 decreased ATP levels and altered mitochondrial gene expression, resulting in mitochondrial dysfunction and reduced OC cell growth. These findings demonstrate that PKA-mediated T372 phosphorylation reduces oncogenic EZH2 activity and reveal a novel role for pT372 in regulating EZH2 in OC and possibly other cancers

MEF2 impairment underlies skeletal muscle atrophy in polyglutamine disease

Polyglutamine (polyQ) tract expansion leads to proteotoxic misfolding and drives a family of nine diseases. We study spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy (SBMA), a progressive degenerative disorder of the neuromuscular system caused by the polyQ androgen receptor (AR). Using a knock-in mouse model of SBMA, AR113Q mice, we show that E3 ubiquitin ligases which are a hallmark of the canonical muscle atrophy machinery are not induced in AR113Q muscle. Similarly, we find no evidence to suggest dysfunction of signaling pathways that trigger muscle hypertrophy or impairment of the muscle stem cell niche. Instead, we find that skeletal muscle atrophy is characterized by diminished function of the transcriptional regulator Myocyte Enhancer Factor 2 (MEF2), a regulator of myofiber homeostasis. Decreased expression of MEF2 target genes is age- and glutamine tract length-dependent, occurs due to polyQ AR proteotoxicity, and is associated with sequestration of MEF2 into intranuclear inclusions in muscle. Skeletal muscle from R6/2 mice, a model of Huntington disease which develops progressive atrophy, also sequesters MEF2 into inclusions and displays age-dependent loss of MEF2 target genes. Similarly, SBMA patient muscle shows loss of MEF2 target gene expression, and restoring MEF2 activity in AR113Q muscle rescues fiber size and MEF2-regulated gene expression. This work establishes MEF2 impairment as a novel mechanism of skeletal muscle atrophy downstream of toxic polyglutamine proteins and as a therapeutic target for muscle atrophy in these disorders

Intestinal fungi contribute to development of alcoholic liver disease

This study was supported in part by NIH grants R01 AA020703, U01 AA021856 and by Award Number I01BX002213 from the Biomedical Laboratory Research & Development Service of the VA Office of Research and Development (to B.S.). K.H. was supported by a DFG (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) fellowship (HO/ 5690/1-1). S.B. was supported by a grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation (P2SKP3_158649). G.G. received funding from the Yale Liver Center NIH P30 DK34989 and R.B. from NIAAA grant U01 AA021908. A.K. received support from NIH grants RC2 AA019405, R01 AA020216 and R01 AA023417. G.D.B. is supported by funds from the Wellcome Trust. We acknowledge the Human Tissue and Cell Research (HTCR) Foundation for making human tissue available for research and Hepacult GmbH (Munich, Germany) for providing primary human hepatocytes for in vitro analyses. We thank Dr. Chien-Yu Lin Department of Medicine, Fu-Jen Catholic University, Taiwan for statistical analysis.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Influence of climatic variables on crown condition in pine forests of Northern Spain

Producción CientíficaThe aim of this study was to find relationships between crown condition and some climatic parameters to identify which are those having a main influence on crown condition, and how this influence is shown in the tree (crown transparency), and to contribute to the understanding of how these parameters will affect under future climate change scenarios

Oblique Parameters and Extra Generations via OPUCEM

Recent improvements to OPUCEM, the tool for calculation of the contributions of various models to oblique parameters, are presented. OPUCEM is used to calculate the available parameter space for the four family Standard Model given the current electroweak precision data. It is shown that even with the restrictions on Higgs boson and new quark masses presented in the 2011 autumn conferences, there is still enough space to allow a fourth generation with Dirac type neutrinos. For Majorana type neutrinos, the allowed region is even larger. The electroweak precision data also favors non-zero mixing between light and fourth generations, thus effectively reducing current experimental limits. Additionally, calculations with OPUCEM show that even 5th and 6th generations are compatible with the existing electroweak precision data, with a probability comparable to or higher than the Standard Model with 3 generations.Comment: 11 pages, 21 figures, 5 tables - Version accepted by EPJ-

No relation between EFHC2 gene polymorphism and Idiopathic generalized epilepsy.

Background: Idiopathic generalized epilepsy (IGE) is an epilepsy form without an underlying brain lesion or neurological indication or symptom. Recent investigations on the genetic origins of IGE and its subtypes report that certain mutations of various ion and non-ion channels genes in the central nervous system may be associated with IGE. Purpose: In this study we evaluated the relation between IGE and S430Y polymorphism in EFHC2 gene in a Turkish population. Material/Methods: The study enrolled 96 healthy volunteers (47 male, 49 female), served as controls, and 96 IGE patients (41 male, 55 female), IGE diagnosis was confirmed in the neurology department. DNA extractions were performed. The presence of S430Y polymorphism in the exon 9 of EFHC2 gene were analyzed by Real-Time PCR. The findings obtained from the control and patient groups were compared. Results: In the patient group there was one heterozygous male with 685 T>C mutation. In the control group, there were two objects with 685 T>C mutation; one heterozygous male, one heterozygous female. 662 G>A mutation was determined in neither controls nor patients. Conclusion: In our series of 96 IGE patients and 96 healthy controls, there was no relation between S430Y polymorphism in EFHC2 gene and IGE presence

Macular sensitivity and fixation patterns in normal eyes and eyes with uveitis with and without macular edema

PURPOSE: This study aims to investigate the relationship between macular sensitivity and thickness in eyes with uveitic macular edema (UME). DESIGN: This study is a prospective observational case series. METHODS: The setting for this study was clinical practice. The study included 59 (28 with UME, 31 without UME) eyes of 26 patients with uveitis and 19 eyes of 10 normal subjects. The procedure followed was fundus-related perimetry and retinal thickness map with an automated fundus perimetry/tomography system. Main outcome measures included quantification of macular sensitivity, fixation pattern, and relationship between macular sensitivity and thickness. RESULTS: Fixation stability revealed that 56 eyes (93.44%) had stable fixation (\u3e75% within the central 2° of point of fixation); three eyes (6.56%) were relatively unstable (75% located within 4°); and no eye had unstable fixation (50% of fixation point within 0.5 mm of foveal center); seven eyes (11.86%) had peri-central fixation location (25% \u3c 50% within 0.5 mm); and seven eyes (11.86%) had eccentric (280 μm. CONCLUSIONS: Perimetry quantification of macular sensitivity and retinal thickness, in association with other factors, may offer novel information regarding the impact of UME on retinal function