Re-irradiation of a second localization of idiopathic midline destructive disease in the head and neck area

Idiopathic midline destructive disease is a rare disease, characterized by a progressive ulceration and destruction of midline facial structures. We report a case with localization on the palate for which she received radiotherapy. Later she developed a second localization on the posterior pharyngeal wall for which she was re-irradiated, without severe sequels. Twice a complete regression was observed

Where Did They Come From, Where Did They Go: Grazing Fireballs

For centuries extremely long grazing fireball displays have fascinated observers and inspired people to ponder about their origins. The Desert Fireball Network is the largest single fireball network in the world, covering about one third of Australian skies. This expansive size has enabled us to capture a majority of the atmospheric trajectory of a spectacular grazing event that lasted over 90 s, penetrated as deep as ∼58.5 km, and traveled over 1300 km through the atmosphere before exiting back into interplanetary space. Based on our triangulation and dynamic analyses of the event, we have estimated the initial mass to be at least 60 kg, which would correspond to a 30 cm object given a chondritic density (3500 kg m-3). However, this initial mass estimate is likely a lower bound, considering the minimal deceleration observed in the luminous phase. The most intriguing quality of this close encounter is that the meteoroid originated from an Apollo-type orbit and was inserted into a Jupiter-family comet (JFC) orbit due to the net energy gained during the close encounter with Earth. Based on numerical simulations, the meteoroid will likely spend ∼200 kyr on a JFC orbit and have numerous encounters with Jupiter, the first of which will occur in 2025 January-March. Eventually the meteoroid will likely be ejected from the solar system or be flung into a trans-Neptunian orbit

MorphoCol: an ontology-based knowledgebase for the characterisation of clinically significant bacterial colony morphologies

Background One of the major concerns of the biomedical community is the increasing prevalence of antimicrobial resistant microorganisms. Recent findings show that the diversification of colony morphology may be indicative of the expression of virulence factors and increased resistance to antibiotic therapeutics. To transform these findings, and upcoming results, into a valuable clinical decision making tool, colony morphology characterisation should be standardised. Notably, it is important to establish the minimum experimental information necessary to contextualise the environment that originated the colony morphology, and describe the main morphological features associated unambiguously. Results This paper presents MorphoCol, a new ontology-based tool for the standardised, consistent and machine-interpretable description of the morphology of colonies formed by human pathogenic bacteria. The Colony Morphology Ontology (CMO) is the first controlled vocabulary addressing the specificities of the morphology of clinically significant bacteria, whereas the MorphoCol publicly Web-accessible knowledgebase is an end-user means to search and compare CMO annotated colony morphotypes. Its ultimate aim is to help correlate the morphological alterations manifested by colony-forming bacteria during infection with their response to the antimicrobial treatments administered. Conclusions MorphoCol is the first tool to address bacterial colony morphotyping systematically and deliver a free of charge resource to the community. Hopefully, it may introduce interesting features of analysis on pathogenic behaviour and play a significant role in clinical decision making.The authors thank the project PTDC/SAU-ESA/646091/2006/FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-007480FCT, the Strategic Project PEst-OE/EQB/LA0023/2013, the Project "BioHealth - Biotechnology and Bioengineering approaches to improve health quality", Ref. NORTE-07-0124-FEDER-000027, co-funded by the Programa Operacional Regional do Norte (ON.2 - O Novo Norte), QREN, FEDER, the project "RECI/BBB-EBI/0179/2012 - Consolidating Research Expertise and Resources on Cellular and Molecular Biotechnology at CEB/IBB", Ref. FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-027462, FEDER, and the Agrupamento INBIOMED from DXPCTSUG-FEDER unha maneira de facer Europa (2012/273). The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme FP7/REGPOT-2012-2013.1 under grant agreement no 316265, BIOCAPS. This document reflects only the author's views and the European Union is not liable for any use that may be made of the information contained herein. The authors also acknowledge PhD Grant of Ana Margarida Sousa SFRH/BD/72551/2010

Operons

Operons (clusters of co-regulated genes with related functions) are common features of bacterial genomes. More recently, functional gene clustering has been reported in eukaryotes, from yeasts to filamentous fungi, plants, and animals. Gene clusters can consist of paralogous genes that have most likely arisen by gene duplication. However, there are now many examples of eukaryotic gene clusters that contain functionally related but non-homologous genes and that represent functional gene organizations with operon-like features (physical clustering and co-regulation). These include gene clusters for use of different carbon and nitrogen sources in yeasts, for production of antibiotics, toxins, and virulence determinants in filamentous fungi, for production of defense compounds in plants, and for innate and adaptive immunity in animals (the major histocompatibility locus). The aim of this article is to review features of functional gene clusters in prokaryotes and eukaryotes and the significance of clustering for effective function

Coulomb dissociation of O-16 into He-4 and C-12

We measured the Coulomb dissociation of O-16 into He-4 and C-12 within the FAIR Phase-0 program at GSI Helmholtzzentrum fur Schwerionenforschung Darmstadt, Germany. From this we will extract the photon dissociation cross section O-16(alpha,gamma)C-12, which is the time reversed reaction to C-12(alpha,gamma)O-16. With this indirect method, we aim to improve on the accuracy of the experimental data at lower energies than measured so far. The expected low cross section for the Coulomb dissociation reaction and close magnetic rigidity of beam and fragments demand a high precision measurement. Hence, new detector systems were built and radical changes to the (RB)-B-3 setup were necessary to cope with the high-intensity O-16 beam. All tracking detectors were designed to let the unreacted O-16 ions pass, while detecting the C-12 and He-4

The Science Performance of JWST as Characterized in Commissioning

This paper characterizes the actual science performance of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), as determined from the six month commissioning period. We summarize the performance of the spacecraft, telescope, science instruments, and ground system, with an emphasis on differences from pre-launch expectations. Commissioning has made clear that JWST is fully capable of achieving the discoveries for which it was built. Moreover, almost across the board, the science performance of JWST is better than expected; in most cases, JWST will go deeper faster than expected. The telescope and instrument suite have demonstrated the sensitivity, stability, image quality, and spectral range that are necessary to transform our understanding of the cosmos through observations spanning from near-earth asteroids to the most distant galaxies.Comment: 5th version as accepted to PASP; 31 pages, 18 figures; https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1538-3873/acb29