Pancreatic Head Mass from Metastatic Meningeal Hemangiopericytoma

Purpose. To illustrate the propensity of meningeal hemangiopericytoma to spread extraneurally, as a distinction to the ordinary meningioma

Sharper and Simpler Nonlinear Interpolants for Program Verification

Interpolation of jointly infeasible predicates plays important roles in various program verification techniques such as invariant synthesis and CEGAR. Intrigued by the recent result by Dai et al.\ that combines real algebraic geometry and SDP optimization in synthesis of polynomial interpolants, the current paper contributes its enhancement that yields sharper and simpler interpolants. The enhancement is made possible by: theoretical observations in real algebraic geometry; and our continued fraction-based algorithm that rounds off (potentially erroneous) numerical solutions of SDP solvers. Experiment results support our tool's effectiveness; we also demonstrate the benefit of sharp and simple interpolants in program verification examples

Karakterizacija gena ICP4 patogenoga virusa Marekove bolesti dokazanoga u peradi u Gujaratu u Indiji lančanom reakcijom polimerazom i sekvenciranjem

A total of 34 clinical samples were collected for detection of Marek’s disease virus (MDV) by polymerase chain reaction assays using primers M1.1/M1.8 to amplify a region of the ICP4 gene in layer birds of poultry. Primer set M1.1/M1.8 amplified a 318 bp product as against the expected 247 bp product in 30 samples out of 34 samples tested. To confirm the result, this primer was subjected to NCBI BLAST, and it was found that the primer specific segment of 318 bp does exist in the published sequence of Md5 and Md11BAC. The PCR product was sequenced and resulted in 273bp by direct sequencing. The sequence was analysed using NCBI blast and Clustal W with the published sequence of Gallid herpes virus-2 giving a matching score of 97, 96 and 90% indicating a highly conserved region. This shows that the MDV is prevalent in Gujarat.Prikupljena su 34 uzorka kliničkoga materijala nesilica za dokaz virusa Marekove bolesti lančanom reakcijom polimerazom uporabom početnica M1.1/M1.8 za umnažanje područja gena ICP4. Uporabom seta početnica M1.1/M1.8 umnožen je proizvod od 318 bp u odnosu na očekivani od 247 bp u 30 od 34 pretražena uzorka. Za potvrdu rezultata početnica je bila analizirana pomoću programa NCBI BLAST, te je ustanovljeno da početnica za specifičan odsječak od 318 bp postoji u objavljenoj sekvenci Md5 i Md11BAC. Proizvod PCR-a bio je izravno sekvenciran te je ustanovljeno da sadrži 273 bp. Slijed je bio analiziran uporabom programa NCBI BLAST i Clustal W i uspoređen s objavljenim slijedom za kokošji herpesvirus 2 te je ustanovljena podudarnost od 97, 96 i 90% što upućuje na genski jako očuvano područje. To pokazuje da je virus Marekove bolesti proširen u Gujaratu

Tumor-Derived Granulocyte-Macrophage Colony-Stimulating Factor Regulates Myeloid Inflammation and T Cell Immunity in Pancreatic Cancer

SummaryCancer-associated inflammation is thought to be a barrier to immune surveillance, particularly in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA). Gr-1+ CD11b+ cells are a key feature of cancer inflammation in PDA, but remain poorly understood. Using a genetically engineered mouse model of PDA, we show that tumor-derived granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) is necessary and sufficient to drive the development of Gr-1+ CD11b+ cells that suppressed antigen-specific T cells. In vivo, abrogation of tumor-derived GM-CSF inhibited the recruitment of Gr-1+ CD11b+ cells to the tumor microenvironment and blocked tumor development—a finding that was dependent on CD8+ T cells. In humans, PDA tumor cells prominently expressed GM-CSF in vivo. Thus, tumor-derived GM-CSF is an important regulator of inflammation and immune suppression within the tumor microenvironment

A simple abstraction of arrays and maps by program translation

We present an approach for the static analysis of programs handling arrays, with a Galois connection between the semantics of the array program and semantics of purely scalar operations. The simplest way to implement it is by automatic, syntactic transformation of the array program into a scalar program followed analysis of the scalar program with any static analysis technique (abstract interpretation, acceleration, predicate abstraction,.. .). The scalars invariants thus obtained are translated back onto the original program as universally quantified array invariants. We illustrate our approach on a variety of examples, leading to the " Dutch flag " algorithm

Prevalence and Diversity of Avian Hematozoan Parasites in Asia: A Regional Study

Tissue samples from 699 birds from three regions of Asia (Myanmar, India, and South Korea) were screened for evidence of infection by avian parasites in the genera Plasmodium and Haemoproteus. Samples were collected from November 1994 to October 2004. We identified 241 infected birds (34.0%). Base-on-sequence data for the cytochrome b gene from 221 positive samples, 34 distinct lineages of Plasmodium, and 41 of Haemoproteus were detected. Parasite diversity was highest in Myanmar followed by India and South Korea. Parasite prevalence differed among regions but not among host families. There were four lineages of Plasmodium and one of Haemoproteus shared between Myanmar and India and only one lineage of Plasmodium shared between Myanmar and South Korea. No lineages were shared between India and South Korea, although an equal number of distinct lineages were recovered from each region. Migratory birds in South Korea and India originate from two different migratory flyways; therefore cross-transmission of parasite lineages may be less likely. India and Myanmar shared more host species and habitat types compared to South Korea. Comparison between low-elevation habitat in India and Myanmar showed a difference in prevalence of haematozoans

Karakterizacija gena ICP4 patogenoga virusa Marekove bolesti dokazanoga u peradi u Gujaratu u Indiji lančanom reakcijom polimerazom i sekvenciranjem

A total of 34 clinical samples were collected for detection of Marek’s disease virus (MDV) by polymerase chain reaction assays using primers M1.1/M1.8 to amplify a region of the ICP4 gene in layer birds of poultry. Primer set M1.1/M1.8 amplified a 318 bp product as against the expected 247 bp product in 30 samples out of 34 samples tested. To confirm the result, this primer was subjected to NCBI BLAST, and it was found that the primer specific segment of 318 bp does exist in the published sequence of Md5 and Md11BAC. The PCR product was sequenced and resulted in 273bp by direct sequencing. The sequence was analysed using NCBI blast and Clustal W with the published sequence of Gallid herpes virus-2 giving a matching score of 97, 96 and 90% indicating a highly conserved region. This shows that the MDV is prevalent in Gujarat.Prikupljena su 34 uzorka kliničkoga materijala nesilica za dokaz virusa Marekove bolesti lančanom reakcijom polimerazom uporabom početnica M1.1/M1.8 za umnažanje područja gena ICP4. Uporabom seta početnica M1.1/M1.8 umnožen je proizvod od 318 bp u odnosu na očekivani od 247 bp u 30 od 34 pretražena uzorka. Za potvrdu rezultata početnica je bila analizirana pomoću programa NCBI BLAST, te je ustanovljeno da početnica za specifičan odsječak od 318 bp postoji u objavljenoj sekvenci Md5 i Md11BAC. Proizvod PCR-a bio je izravno sekvenciran te je ustanovljeno da sadrži 273 bp. Slijed je bio analiziran uporabom programa NCBI BLAST i Clustal W i uspoređen s objavljenim slijedom za kokošji herpesvirus 2 te je ustanovljena podudarnost od 97, 96 i 90% što upućuje na genski jako očuvano područje. To pokazuje da je virus Marekove bolesti proširen u Gujaratu

Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 Protects β-Cells Against Apoptosis by Increasing the Activity of an Igf-2/Igf-1 Receptor Autocrine Loop

OBJECTIVE: The gluco-incretin hormones glucagon-like peptide (GLP)-1 and gastric inhibitory peptide (GIP) protect beta-cells against cytokine-induced apoptosis. Their action is initiated by binding to specific receptors that activate the cAMP signaling pathway, but the downstream events are not fully elucidated. Here we searched for mechanisms that may underlie this protective effect. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: We performed comparative transcriptomic analysis of islets from control and GipR(-/-);Glp-1-R(-/-) mice, which have increased sensitivity to cytokine-induced apoptosis. We found that IGF-1 receptor expression was markedly reduced in the mutant islets. Because the IGF-1 receptor signaling pathway is known for its antiapoptotic effect, we explored the relationship between gluco-incretin action, IGF-1 receptor expression and signaling, and apoptosis. RESULTS: We found that GLP-1 robustly stimulated IGF-1 receptor expression and Akt phosphorylation and that increased Akt phosphorylation was dependent on IGF-1 but not insulin receptor expression. We demonstrated that GLP-1-induced Akt phosphorylation required active secretion, indicating the presence of an autocrine activation mechanism; we showed that activation of IGF-1 receptor signaling was dependent on the secretion of IGF-2. We demonstrated, both in MIN6 cell line and primary beta-cells, that reducing IGF-1 receptor or IGF-2 expression or neutralizing secreted IGF-2 suppressed GLP-1-induced protection against apoptosis. CONCLUSIONS: An IGF-2/IGF-1 receptor autocrine loop operates in beta-cells. GLP-1 increases its activity by augmenting IGF-1 receptor expression and by stimulating secretion; this mechanism is required for GLP-1-induced protection against apoptosis. These findings may lead to novel ways of preventing beta-cell loss in the pathogenesis of diabetes