Dirbtinės odos Integra™ naudojimas gydant didelius melanocitinius apgamus

Melanocytic nevi are congenital, benign, pigmented proliferations. They have high risk of malignancy, most frequently transform to malignant skin melanoma and 70% it occurs in the first life decade. The risk of malignant transformation increases proportionately to their size. The best way to avoid those risks is early and radical excision. In 1996 on the market appeared the Integra™ artificial skin, has made it possible to improve the methods for the elimination of large congenital nevi and significantly reduce the risk of malignant melanoma, at an early age. 2011–2019, in Children’s Hospital, Affiliate of Vilnius University Hospital Santaros Clinics, the Integra™ was used to treat congenital melanocytic nevi in four children. Implantation of the skin substitute Integra™ has been successful for all the patients, the prognosis was good. The treatment of congenital melanocytic nevi is a necessity to avoid the risk of developing malignant melanoma. The rarity of this condition has led to the fact that so far there is no universal approach for all the cases. Integra™ artificial skin is an excellent choice for the treatment of congenital melanocytic nevi, especially for paediatric patients.Melanocitiniai apgamai – įgimti gerybiniai pigmentiniai dariniai, turintys didelę piktybinio naviko išsivystymo riziką. Šie dariniai dažniausiai transformuojasi į piktybinę odos melanomą. 70 proc. atvejų tai įvyksta per pirmąjį gyvenimo dešimtmetį. Apgamų piktybiškumo rizika didėja proporcingai jų dydžiui. Norint transformacijos išvengti, būtinas ankstyvas ir radikalus šių darinių pašalinimas. 1996 m. rinkoje pasirodžiusi dirbtinė oda Integra™ suteikė galimybę patobulinti didelių įgimtų apgamų pašalinimo metodus ir jau ankstyvoje vaikystėje smarkiai sumažinti piktybinės melanomos riziką. 2011–2019 m. Vaikų ligoninėje, Vilniaus universiteto ligoninės Santaros klinikos filiale, Integra™ panaudota gydant įgimtus melanocitinius apgamus keturiems vaikams. Odos pakaitalo Integra™ implantacija visiems pacientams buvo sėkminga, prognozė gera. Įgimtų melanocitinių apgamų gydymas reikšmingai sumažina piktybinės melanomos išsivystymo riziką. Būklė gana reta, todėl iki šiol nėra nė vieno visiems tinkamo metodo. Integra™ dirbtinė oda yra puikus pasirinkimas gydant įgimtus melanocitinius apgamus, ypač pediatriniams pacientams

The optical microscopy with virtual image breaks a record: 50-nm resolution imaging is demonstrated

We demonstrate a new 'microsphere nanoscope' that uses ordinary SiO2 microspheres as superlenses to create a virtual image of the object in near field. The magnified virtual image greatly overcomes the diffraction limit. We are able to resolve clearly 50-nm objects under a standard white light source in both transmission and reflection modes. The resolution achieved for white light opens a new opportunity to image viruses, DNA and molecules in real time

Optical Coherence Tomography of Laryngeal Cancer

Objectives: Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a high-resolution optical imaging technique that produces cross-sectional images of living tissues using light in a manner similar to ultrasound. This prospective study evaluated the ability of OCT to identify the characteristics of laryngeal cancer and measure changes in the basement membrane, tissue microstructure, and the transition zone at the edge of tumors. Materials and Methods: One hundred thirtythree patients underwent OCT examination during surgical endoscopy of the head and neck. Twenty-two patients with laryngeal cancer or a history of laryngeal cancer were imaged with a fiberoptic OCT system. Tumor and adjacent transition zones were imaged along with uninvolved subsites. OCT images were correlated with histopathology. Results: Twenty-six OCT examinations were performed in 22 patients. Basement membrane disruption was seen in 18 subjects, all of whom had histology showing classic features of cancer. A transition zone to uninvolved epithelium at the tumor periphery was also often observed. In six studies, benign or premalignant processes were histologically confirmed. In three thin, superficial lesions, an intact basement membrane was observed. The basement membrane could not be identified in three other bulky exophytic, premalignant lesions, primarily because of increased superficial signal backscattering observed in pathologic tissues. Conclusions: OCT clearly identifies basement membrane violation from laryngeal cancer and can identify transition zones at the cancer margin. In bulky exophytic lesions, OCT signal may not penetrate deeply enough to show the basement membrane, but for many suspicious lesions that require exclusion of cancer, OCT shows potential for assisting in diagnostic assessment

Valorization of Napier grass via intermediate pyrolysis: Optimization using response surface methodology and pyrolysis products characterization

This study presents first optimization report on pyrolysis oil derived from Napier grass. Effects of temperature, heating rate and nitrogen flow rate on the intermediate pyrolysis of Napier grass biomass in a vertical fixed-bed tubular reactor were investigated collectively. Response surface methodology with central composite design was used for modelling the process and optimization of the process variables. Individual second order polynomial model was found to be adequate in predicting bio-oil, bio-char and non-condensable gas yield. The optimum bio-oil yield of 50.57 wt% was recorded at 600 �C, 50 �C/min and 5 L/min nitrogen flow. The bio-oil obtained throughout this study was two-phase liquid, organic and aqueous phase. The bio-oil, bio-char and non-condensable gas were characterized using standard analytical techniques. The results revealed that the organic phase consists of hydrocarbons and various benzene derivatives, which can be further processed into fuels and valuable chemicals. The aqueous phase was predominantly water, acids, ketones, aldehydes and some phenolics and other water-soluble organics. The non-condensable gas was made up high hydrogen/carbon monoxide ratio suitable for liquid fuel synthesis via Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis. The bio-char was a porous carbonaceous material with high energy content, which can be applied as a solid fuel, adsorbent or source of biofertilizer. This study demonstrated that Napier grass biomass is a viable feedstock for production of high-value bioenergy precursors

The US stock market leads the Federal funds rate and Treasury bond yields

Using a recently introduced method to quantify the time varying lead-lag dependencies between pairs of economic time series (the thermal optimal path method), we test two fundamental tenets of the theory of fixed income: (i) the stock market variations and the yield changes should be anti-correlated; (ii) the change in central bank rates, as a proxy of the monetary policy of the central bank, should be a predictor of the future stock market direction. Using both monthly and weekly data, we found very similar lead-lag dependence between the S&P500 stock market index and the yields of bonds inside two groups: bond yields of short-term maturities (Federal funds rate (FFR), 3M, 6M, 1Y, 2Y, and 3Y) and bond yields of long-term maturities (5Y, 7Y, 10Y, and 20Y). In all cases, we observe the opposite of (i) and (ii). First, the stock market and yields move in the same direction. Second, the stock market leads the yields, including and especially the FFR. Moreover, we find that the short-term yields in the first group lead the long-term yields in the second group before the financial crisis that started mid-2007 and the inverse relationship holds afterwards. These results suggest that the Federal Reserve is increasingly mindful of the stock market behavior, seen at key to the recovery and health of the economy. Long-term investors seem also to have been more reactive and mindful of the signals provided by the financial stock markets than the Federal Reserve itself after the start of the financial crisis. The lead of the S&P500 stock market index over the bond yields of all maturities is confirmed by the traditional lagged cross-correlation analysis.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures, 1 tabl

Improved power by collapsing rare and common variants based on a data-adaptive forward selection strategy

Genome-wide association studies have been used successfully to detect associations between common genetic variants and complex diseases, but common single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) detected by these studies explain only 5–10% of disease heritability. Alternatively, the common disease/rare variants hypothesis suggests that complex diseases are often caused by multiple rare variants with moderate to high effects. Under this hypothesis, the analysis of the cumulative effect of rare variants may thus help us discover the missing genetic variations. Collapsing all rare variants across a functional region is currently a popular method to find rare variants that may have a causal effect on certain diseases. However, the power of tests based on collapsing methods is often impaired by misclassification of functional variants. We develop a data-adaptive forward selection procedure that selectively chooses only variants that improve the association signal between functional regions and the disease risk. We apply our strategy to the Genetic Analysis Workshop 17 unrelated individuals data with quantitative traits. The type I error rate and the power of different collapsing functions are evaluated. The substantially higher power of the proposed strategy was demonstrated. The new method provides a useful strategy for the association study of sequencing data by taking advantage of the selection of rare variants

The underpotential deposition that should not be : Cu(1x1) on Au(111)

Peer reviewedPostprin

Identification and validation of oncologic miRNA biomarkers for Luminal A-like breast cancer

Introduction: Breast cancer is a common disease with distinct tumor subtypes phenotypically characterized by ER and HER2/neu receptor status. MiRNAs play regulatory roles in tumor initiation and progression, and altered miRNA expression has been demonstrated in a variety of cancer states presenting the potential for exploitation as cancer biomarkers. Blood provides an excellent medium for biomarker discovery. This study investigated systemic miRNAs differentially expressed in Luminal A-like (ER+PR+HER2/neu-) breast cancer and their effectiveness as oncologic biomarkers in the clinical setting. Methods: Blood samples were prospectively collected from patients with Luminal A-like breast cancer (n=54) and controls (n=56). RNA was extracted, reverse transcribed and subjected to microarray analysis (n=10 Luminal A-like; n=10 Control). Differentially expressed miRNAs were identified by artificial neural network (ANN) data-mining algorithms. Expression of specific miRNAs was validated by RQ-PCR (n=44 Luminal A; n=46 Control) and potential relationships between circulating miRNA levels and clinicopathological features of breast cancer were investigated. Results: Microarray analysis identified 76 differentially expressed miRNAs. ANN revealed 10 miRNAs for further analysis ( miR-19b, miR-29a, miR-93, miR-181a, miR-182, miR-223, miR-301a, miR-423-5p, miR-486-5 and miR-652 ). The biomarker potential of 4 miRNAs ( miR-29a, miR-181a , miR-223 and miR-652 ) was confirmed by RQ-PCR, with significantly reduced expression in blood of women with Luminal A-like breast tumors compared to healthy controls (p=0.001, 0.004, 0.009 and 0.004 respectively). Binary logistic regression confirmed that combination of 3 of these miRNAs ( miR-29a, miR-181a and miR-652 ) could reliably differentiate between cancers and controls with an AUC of 0.80. Conclusion: This study provides insight into the underlying molecular portrait of Luminal A-like breast cancer subtype. From an initial 76 miRNAs, 4 were validated with altered expression in the blood of women with Luminal A-like breast cancer. The expression profiles of these 3 miRNAs, in combination with mammography, has potential to facilitate accurate subtype- specific breast tumor detection

Simultaneous disruption of two DNA polymerases, Polη and Polζ, in Avian DT40 cells unmasks the role of Polη in cellular response to various DNA lesions

Replicative DNA polymerases are frequently stalled by DNA lesions. The resulting replication blockage is released by homologous recombination (HR) and translesion DNA synthesis (TLS). TLS employs specialized TLS polymerases to bypass DNA lesions. We provide striking in vivo evidence of the cooperation between DNA polymerase η, which is mutated in the variant form of the cancer predisposition disorder xeroderma pigmentosum (XP-V), and DNA polymerase ζ by generating POLη−/−/POLζ−/− cells from the chicken DT40 cell line. POLζ−/− cells are hypersensitive to a very wide range of DNA damaging agents, whereas XP-V cells exhibit moderate sensitivity to ultraviolet light (UV) only in the presence of caffeine treatment and exhibit no significant sensitivity to any other damaging agents. It is therefore widely believed that Polη plays a very specific role in cellular tolerance to UV-induced DNA damage. The evidence we present challenges this assumption. The phenotypic analysis of POLη−/−/POLζ−/− cells shows that, unexpectedly, the loss of Polη significantly rescued all mutant phenotypes of POLζ−/− cells and results in the restoration of the DNA damage tolerance by a backup pathway including HR. Taken together, Polη contributes to a much wide range of TLS events than had been predicted by the phenotype of XP-V cells

Study of B -> \rho \pi decays at Belle

This paper describes a study of B meson decays to the pseudoscalar-vector final state \rho\pi using 31.9\times 10^6 B\bar{B} events collected with the Belle detector at KEKB. The branching fractions B(B^+ \to \rho^0\pi^+) = (8.0^{+2.3+0.7}_{-2.0-0.7}) \times 10^{-6} and B(B^0 -> \rho^{+-} \pi^{-+}) = (20.8^{+6.0+2.8}_{-6.3-3.1}) \times 10^{-6} are obtained. In addition, a 90% confidence level upper limit of B(B^0 \to \rho^0\pi^0) < 5.3 \times 10^{-6}is reported.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures, to be submitted to Phys. Lett.