Nodal involvement evaluation in advanced cervical cancer: a single institutional experience

Purpose: To assess the usefulness of different imaging techniques in the detection of nodal involvement in patients with advanced cervical carcinoma. Moreover, to analyze the correlation between the presurgical (FIGO) and postsurgical (pTNM) staging classifications. Materials and Methods: All patients diagnosed with advanced cervical cancer (FIGO Stages IIB-IV) from 2005 to 2012 were selected. The medical charts of 51 patients that underwent presurgical assessment with posterior surgical staging by means of paraaortic lymphadenectomy, were reviewed. Nodal status assessment by computed tomography scan (CT scan), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), positron emission tomography (PET), and sonography was compared, as well as the size given in imaging techniques compared to the final pathologic report information. Results: Presurgical analysis by CT scan, MRI, PET, and sonography showed pelvic nodal involvement in 51.3% of patients, and para-aortic involvement in 30.8% of cases. CT scan showed positive pelvic nodes in 35% of cases, but pathologic confirmation was observed in just 17.6% of cases. However, MRI resulted in higher rates of up to 48.8% of cases. Concerning para-aortic nodal involvement, CT scan showed positive nodes in 25% of cases, MRI in 3.2% of cases, and the pathologic report in 15.6% of cases. The authors found significant differences between staging groups among both classifications (FIGO vs. pTNM; p < 0.001). Eight cases (15.7%) were understaged by FIGO classification. Conclusions: Despite all imaging techniques available, none has demonstrated to be efficient enough to avoid the systematic study of para-aortic nodal status by means of surgical evaluatio

Caracterización espectral de aguacate Persea americana Mill cv. Hass empleando espectrometría e imágenes en el rango visible a infrarrojo cercano

Remote sensing technologies, such as spectral imaging, have great potential for crop monitoring. Spectral systems measure the energy reflected and emitted by a surface, typically between the visible and near-infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. This paper presents a spectral characterization of avocado (Persea americana Mill. cv. Hass) using spectrophotometry and spectral imaging. The study uses data from four avocado farms, which were collected in situ using spectrometers and GreenSeeker sensors and remotely using satellites such as Landsat 8 and Sentinel 2. The spectral signatures captured by the in situ and remote sensors were compared and subsequently related to vegetation indices. Spectrometry revealed differences between young and mature leaves, particularly in the 480 nm to 650 nm region of the spectrum, which showed color changes in young avocado leaves. The analysis of satellite data highlighted significant differences between Sentinel 2 and Landsat 8 spectral signatures. These differences are likely due to several factors, including collection date, preprocessing, and spatial resolution of the data. Finally, the vegetation indices derived from in situ and satellite measurements displayed different scales. For in situ data, the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) values were around 0.9 for the spectrometers and 0.7 for the GreenSeeker sensors. However, the NDVI values derived from satellite data were around 0.4 for Sentinel 2 and 0.3 for Landsat 8.Las tecnologías de la percepción remota, como las imágenes espectrales, tienen un gran potencial para el monitoreo de los cultivos. Los sistemas espectrales miden la energía reflejada y emitida de una superficie, usualmente entre los rangos visible e infrarrojo cercano del espectro electromagnético. Este artículo tuvo como objetivo presentar una caracterización espectral del aguacate Persea americana Mill cv. Hass utilizando espectrofotometría e imágenes espectrales. El estudio usó datos in situ capturados con espectrómetros y GreenSeeker, y datos remotos capturados por sensores en satélites como Landsat 8 y Sentinel 2. Lo anterior se hizo sobre cuatro unidades productivas de aguacate. En primer lugar, se compararon la forma de las firmas espectrales captadas por los sensores in situ y remotos, y después se relacionaron con los índices de vegetación. A partir de la espectrometría, se establecieron diferencias entre las hojas jóvenes y las hojas desarrolladas o maduras, principalmente entre 480 nm y 650 nm. Esta región del espectro muestra los cambios de color presentes en las hojas jóvenes del aguacate. A partir de los datos de satélite, la firma espectral presenta diferencias significativas entre Sentinel 2 y Landsat 8. Los resultados mostraron que estas diferencias se derivan de varios factores, como la fecha de adquisición, el preprocesamiento y la resolución espacial. Por último, los índices de vegetación procedentes de mediciones in situ y por satélite evidenciaron escalas diferentes. El índice de vegetación de diferencia normalizada (NDVI, por sus siglas en inglés) para los datos in situ tiene valores alrededor de 0.9 y 0.7 para el espectrómetro y el GreenSeeker, respectivamente. Sin embargo, el NDVI derivado de los datos satelitales está alrededor de 0.4 para Sentinel 2 y 0.3 para Landsat 8

Resting state connectivity and cognitive performance in adults with cerebral autosomal-dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy

Cognitive impairment is an inevitable feature of cerebral autosomal-dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy (CADASIL), affecting executive function, attention and processing speed from an early stage. Impairment is associated with structural markers such as lacunes, but associations with functional connectivity have not yet been reported. Twenty-two adults with genetically-confirmed CADASIL (11 male; aged 49.8 ± 11.2 years) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging at rest. Intrinsic attentional/executive networks were identified using group independent components analysis. A linear regression model tested voxel-wise associations between cognitive measures and component spatial maps, and Pearson correlations were performed with mean intra-component connectivity z-scores. Two frontoparietal components were associated with cognitive performance. Voxel-wise analyses showed an association between one component cluster and processing speed (left middle temporal gyrus; peak −48, −18, −14; ZE = 5.65, pFWEcorr = 0.001). Mean connectivity in both components correlated with processing speed (r = 0.45, p = 0.043; r = 0.56, p = 0.008). Mean connectivity in one component correlated with faster Trailmaking B minus A time (r = −0.77, p &lt; 0.001) and better executive performance (r = 0.56, p = 0.011). This preliminary study provides evidence for associations between cognitive performance and attentional network connectivity in CADASIL. Functional connectivity may be a useful biomarker of cognitive performance in this population

Remote Photonic THz Generation Using an Optical Frequency Comb and Multicore Fiber

[EN] This paper proposes and demonstrates a photonic THz generation technique based on an optical frequency comb and multicore fiber (MCF) transmission, with the advantage of remote generation with great reconfigurability and reduced digital signal processing (DSP). The feasibility of the proposed technique is evaluated experimentally comparing the performance when transmitting a data wavelength and a local oscillator for optical heterodyning over a single core or over different cores in a 1-km MCF link. The proposed remote photonic THz generation technique is demonstrated employing a 16QAM 12.5 GBd signal. A short wireless transmission at 183 GHz center frequency with 0.25 m antenna-separation is achieved after 1 km MCF, meeting the soft-decision decision forward error correction (SD-FEC) bit error rate (BER) recommendation of 2 center dot 10(-2). The analysis includes the received photocurrent range for which the BER meets the standard hard-decision forward error correction (HD-FEC) recommendation of 3.8 center dot 10(-3) BER. The BER performance is analyzed considering different DSP configurations, with and without frequency offset estimation (FOE) and decision-driven least mean squares (DD LMS) equalization. The performance of the remote photonic THz generation technique is evaluated comparatively against traditional free-running laser transmission over MCF, confirming the advantage of using comb generation to reduce the frequency offset fluctuation and simplify the DSP.This work was supported by Spanish State Research Agency under Grants PID2019-106163RJ-I00/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 MULTICORE+ and MINECO/FEDER UE RTI2018-101296-B-I00 MULTI-BEAM5G projects, in part by the European Union'sHorizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme underGrant H2020-EU.2.1.1.-762119 ULTRAWAVE, and in part by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council under Grant EPSRC EP/P003990/1 COALESCE. The work of Maria Morant supported by Generalitat Valenciana under Grant BEST/2019/047.Morant, M.; González-Guerrero, L.; Renaud, CC.; Llorente, R. (2021). Remote Photonic THz Generation Using an Optical Frequency Comb and Multicore Fiber. Journal of Lightwave Technology. 39(24):7621-7627. https://doi.org/10.1109/JLT.2021.311508476217627392

Study of the Cys-His bridge electron transfer pathway in a copper-containing nitrite reductase by site-directed mutagenesis, spectroscopic, and computational methods

The Cys-His bridge as electron transfer conduit in the enzymatic catalysis of nitrite to nitric oxide by nitrite reductase from Sinorhizobium meliloti 2011 (SmNir) was evaluated by site-directed mutagenesis, steady state kinetic studies, UV-vis and EPR spectroscopic measurements as well as computational calculations. The kinetic, structural and spectroscopic properties of the His171Asp (H171D) and Cys172Asp (C172D) SmNir variants were compared with the wild type enzyme. Molecular properties of H171D and C172D indicate that these point mutations have not visible effects on the quaternary structure of SmNir. Both variants are catalytically incompetent using the physiological electron donor pseudoazurin, though C172D presents catalytic activity with the artificial electron donor methyl viologen (kcat =3.9(4) s-1) lower than that of wt SmNir (kcat =240(50) s-1). QM/MM calculations indicate that the lack of activity of H171D may be ascribed to the Nδ1H...OC hydrogen bond that partially shortcuts the T1-T2 bridging Cys-His covalent pathway. The role of the Nδ1H...OC hydrogen bond in the pH-dependent catalytic activity of wt SmNir is also analyzed by monitoring the T1 and T2 oxidation states at the end of the catalytic reaction of wt SmNir at pH6 and 10 by UV-vis and EPR spectroscopies. These data provide insight into how changes in Cys-His bridge interrupts the electron transfer between T1 and T2 and how the pH-dependent catalytic activity of the enzyme are related to pH-dependent structural modifications of the T1-T2 bridging chemical pathway.Fil: Cristaldi, Julio César. Universidad Nacional del Litoral. Facultad de Bioquímica y Ciencias Biológicas. Departamento de Física; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Santa Fe; ArgentinaFil: Gómez, María C.. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Santa Fe; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Litoral. Facultad de Bioquímica y Ciencias Biológicas. Departamento de Física; ArgentinaFil: González, Pablo Javier. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Santa Fe; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Litoral. Facultad de Bioquímica y Ciencias Biológicas. Departamento de Física; ArgentinaFil: Ferroni, Felix Martín. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Santa Fe; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Litoral. Facultad de Bioquímica y Ciencias Biológicas. Departamento de Física; ArgentinaFil: Dalosto, Sergio Daniel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Santa Fe. Instituto de Física del Litoral. Universidad Nacional del Litoral. Instituto de Física del Litoral; ArgentinaFil: Rizzi, Alberto Claudio. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Santa Fe; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Litoral. Facultad de Bioquímica y Ciencias Biológicas. Departamento de Física; ArgentinaFil: Rivas, Maria Gabriela. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Santa Fe; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Litoral. Facultad de Bioquímica y Ciencias Biológicas. Departamento de Física; ArgentinaFil: Brondino, Carlos Dante. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Santa Fe; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Litoral. Facultad de Bioquímica y Ciencias Biológicas. Departamento de Física; Argentin

Osteomalacia tumoral

La osteomalacia tumoral (OT) es un síndrome paraneoplásico en el cual el paciente presenta dolor óseo, fracturas y debilidad muscular. Es producido principalmente por una elevación de los niveles en sangre del factor de crecimiento fibroblástico 23 (FGF-23). En la OT, el FGF-23 es secretado por tumores mesenquimales, los cuales se caracterizan por ser de tamaño pequeño y de lento crecimiento. El FGF-23 actúa a nivel de los túbulos renales afectando la reabsorción de fósforo, lo cual conduce a hipofosfatemia y a bajos niveles de 1,25-dihidroxivitamina D [1,25(OH)2 D]. El tratamiento de la OT es la resección del tumor. Debido a las características de estos tumores muchas veces no pueden ser localizados o son quirúrgicamente irresecables y requieren tratamiento médico a largo plazo, consistente en sales de fósforo y calcitriol. La adherencia al tratamiento muchas veces resulta difícil debido a las reacciones secundarias, así como también a las complicaciones asociadas.Tumor-induced osteomalacia (TIO) is a paraneoplastic syndrome in which patients present with bone pain, fractures and muscle weakness. The cause is excess production of fibroblast growth factor 23 (FGF-23). In TIO, FGF- 23 is secreted by mesenchymal tumors, which are small and grow slowly. FGF-23 acts at the renal tubule and impairs phosphate reabsorption, leading to hypophosphatemia and low levels of 1,25-dihidroxivitamin D [1,25(OH)2 D]. The treatment of TIO is surgical resection of the causative tumor. For tumors that cannot be located or surgically resected, medical treatment with oral phosphate supplements and calcitriol is usually successful. However, adherence in some cases is difficult due to secondary reactions or treatment complications.Fil: Mastaglia, Silvina Rosana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Inmunología, Genética y Metabolismo. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Inmunología, Genética y Metabolismo; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Hospital de Clínicas General San Martín; ArgentinaFil: Somoza, Julia Isabel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Inmunología, Genética y Metabolismo. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Inmunología, Genética y Metabolismo; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Hospital de Clínicas General San Martín; ArgentinaFil: González, Diana C.. Centro de Osteopatías Médicas; ArgentinaFil: Oliveri, Maria Beatriz. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Inmunología, Genética y Metabolismo. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Inmunología, Genética y Metabolismo; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Hospital de Clínicas General San Martín; Argentin

Can facilitation influence the spatial genetics of the beneficiary plant population?

1. Plant facilitation is a positive interaction where a nurse or nurse plant community alters the local conditions, improving the life-time fitness of other beneficiary plants. In stressful environments, a common consequence is the formation of discrete vegetation patches under nurse plants, surrounded by open space. The consequences of such spatial patterns have been studied mostly at the community level. 2. At the population level, facilitation causes a distribution of beneficiary individuals that could have intra-specific genetic consequences. The spatial patchiness and the increase in local aggregation can potentially affect the population fine-scale genetic structure. In addition, marked microenvironmental differences under nurses versus outside could lead to plastic phenotypic variation between facilitated and non-facilitated individuals, as for example reproductive asynchrony, potentially producing assortative mating. 3. This study tests the hypothesis that plant facilitation can have genetic consequences for the population of a beneficiary plant (Euphorbia nicaeensis) by affecting its spatial genetic structure and mating patterns between subpopulations of facilitated and non-facilitated individuals. 4. Facilitation in this system creates an aggregated distribution of beneficiary individuals compared to a minority of non-facilitated individuals that grow on the open ground. Facilitation also leads to slight phenological differences mediated by strong microenvironmental differences created by nurses compared to the open ground. Yet a molecular analysis showed that, although there is fine scale spatial genetic structure in this system, there is no evidence that it is caused by facilitation. Numerical simulations further showed that spatial genetic patterns in the population are little influenced by the phenological mismatch observed in the field. 5. Synthesis. Facilitation leads to the strong spatial aggregation of beneficiary plants and desynchronizes their flowering phenology, but the magnitude of these effects is not enough to have local genetic consequences in our study system. Facilitation seems thus to have a homogenizing role by allowing the persistence of a diverse gene pool in populations in harsh environments, rather than fomenting genetic differentiation. Further information on other systems where facilitation produces stronger spatial or phenological effects on facilitated plants is needed to fill the large knowledge gap we have on the genetic effects of facilitation

New Quasi-Exactly Solvable Sextic Polynomial Potentials

A Hamiltonian is said to be quasi-exactly solvable (QES) if some of the energy levels and the corresponding eigenfunctions can be calculated exactly and in closed form. An entirely new class of QES Hamiltonians having sextic polynomial potentials is constructed. These new Hamiltonians are different from the sextic QES Hamiltonians in the literature because their eigenfunctions obey PT-symmetric rather than Hermitian boundary conditions. These new Hamiltonians present a novel problem that is not encountered when the Hamiltonian is Hermitian: It is necessary to distinguish between the parametric region of unbroken PT symmetry, in which all of the eigenvalues are real, and the region of broken PT symmetry, in which some of the eigenvalues are complex. The precise location of the boundary between these two regions is determined numerically using extrapolation techniques and analytically using WKB analysis

Gender Assignment to Spanish Pseudowords by Monolingual and Basque-Spanish Bilingual Children

This study examines gender marking in the Spanish of Basque-Spanish bilingual children. We analyze data collected via a production task designed to elicit 48 DPs, controlling for gender of referents and for number and types of morphological cues to grammatical gender. The goals were to determine the extent to which participants rely on biological cues (female referent =\u3eFEM gender, male referent =\u3eMASC gender) and morpho-phonological cues (-a ending =\u3eFEM, -o ending =\u3eMASC, others =\u3eMASC or FEM) to assign gender to pseudowords/novel words; and whether bilinguals’ language dominance (Spanish strong/weak) has an effect. Data were collected from 49 5- to 6-year-old Spanish-speaking children—28 monolingual L1 Spanish (L1Sp) and 21 Basque-dominant (L1 Basque-L2 Spanish) bilinguals (BDB). Results reveal a general preference for MASC gender across conditions, especially in BDB children, who produced masculine modifiers for 83% of items, while the L1Sp children did so for only 63% of items. Regression analyses show that for both groups, morphological cues have more weight than the nature of the referent in participants’ assignment of gender to novel words, and that the L1Sp group is more attentive to FEM morphological markers than the BDB group, pointing towards the existence of differences in the strength of cue-patterns for gender marking

Carbon dioxide enrichment: a technique to mitigate the negative effects of salinity on the productivity of high value tomatoes

The present study was conducted to determine the mitigating influence of greenhouse CO2 enrichment on the negative effects of salinity in Mediterranean conditions. Hybrid Raf (cv. Delizia) tomato plants were exposed to two salinity levels of the nutrient solution (5 and 7 dS/m) obtained by adding NaCl, and two CO2 concentrations (350 and 800 μmol/mol) in which CO2 enrichment was applied during the daytime according to a strategy linked to ventilation. Increasing water salinity negatively affected the leaf area index (LAI), the specific leaf area (SLA), the water use efficiency (WUE), the radiation use efficiency (RUE) and dry weight (DW) accumulation resulting in lower marketable yield. The high salinity treatment (7 dS/m) increased fruit firmness (N), total soluble solids content (SSC) and titratable acidity (TA), whereas pH was reduced in the three ripening stages: mature green/breaker (G), turning (T), and pink/light red (P). Also, the increase in electrical conductivity of the nutrient solution led to a general change in intensity of the sensory characteristics of tomato fruits. On the other hand, CO2 enrichment did not affect LAI although SLA was reduced. RUE and DW accumulation were increased resulting in higher marketable yield, through positive effects on fruit number and their average weight. WUE was enhanced by CO2 supply mainly through increased growth and yield. Physical-chemical quality parameters such as fruit firmness, TA and pH were not affected by CO2 enrichment whereas SSC was enhanced. Greenhouse CO2 enrichment did mitigate the negative effect of saline conditions on productivity without compromising organoleptic and sensory fruit quality