Quality of Life After Bilateral Adrenalectomy in MEN 2

Pheochromocytoma is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in the multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2 (MEN 2) syndrome. For the physician, surgical treatment seems well justified even though bilateral adrenalectomy will induce iatrogenically complete loss of adrenocortical function. For the patient this treatment may be a cause of medical problems as well as worry. We have evaluated quality of life after bilateral adrenalectomy in 27 MEN 2 patients through a combined oral and written approach. Mortality was low (one of 27), as was serious morbidity. Most patients had adapted well to the postadrenalectomy state. However, fatigue, worry, and noncompliance with daily medication often caused problems

AFM pulling and the folding of donor-acceptor oligorotaxanes: phenomenology and interpretation

The thermodynamic driving force in the self-assembly of the secondary structure of a class of donor-acceptor oligorotaxanes is elucidated by means of molecular dynamics simulations of equilibrium isometric single-molecule force spectroscopy AFM experiments. The oligorotaxanes consist of cyclobis(paraquat-\emph{p}-phenylene) rings threaded onto an oligomer of 1,5-dioxynaphthalenes linked by polyethers. The simulations are performed in a high dielectric medium using MM3 as the force field. The resulting force vs. extension isotherms show a mechanically unstable region in which the molecule unfolds and, for selected extensions, blinks in the force measurements between a high-force and a low-force regime. From the force vs. extension data the molecular potential of mean force is reconstructed using the weighted histogram analysis method and decomposed into energetic and entropic contributions. The simulations indicate that the folding of the oligorotaxanes is energetically favored but entropically penalized, with the energetic contributions overcoming the entropy penalty and effectively driving the self-assembly. In addition, an analogy between the single-molecule folding/unfolding events driven by the AFM tip and the thermodynamic theory of first-order phase transitions is discussed and general conditions, on the molecule and the cantilever, for the emergence of mechanical instabilities and blinks in the force measurements in equilibrium isometric pulling experiments are presented. In particular, it is shown that the mechanical stability properties observed during the extension are intimately related to the fluctuations in the force measurements.Comment: 42 pages, 17 figures, accepted to the Journal of Chemical Physic

The Distance to the M31 Globular Cluster System

The distance to the centroid of the M31 globular cluster system is determined by fitting theoretical isochrones to the observed red-giant branches of fourteen globular clusters in M31. The mean true distance modulus of the M31 globular clusters is found to be 24.47 +/- 0.07 mag. This is consistent with distance modulii for M31 that have been obtained using other distance indicators.Comment: 11 pages, 2 postscript figures, uses aaspp4.sty, to be published in the May 1998 Astronomical Journa

An evaluation of the implementation of Georgia's Pre-k program: Report of the findings from the Georgia Early Childhood Study (2002-03)

After ten years, Georgia continues to lead the nation in providing full day, publicly subsidized Pre-K to four-year-olds whose parents choose to enroll them. In this report, we assess the extent to which differences in the way Pre-K is implemented affect children's development. Do teachers with higher levels of education have more positive impacts on children's development? Do teaching styles make a difference in terms of children's outcomes by the end of kindergarten? Do children taught using certain curricula fare better than those taught using others? Answers to questions such as these can assist Pre-K administrators in refining Georgia's program and inform those in other states who are developing or expanding their prekindergarten programs

A microfluidic chip based model for the study of full thickness human intestinal tissue using dual flow

© 2016 Author(s). The study of inflammatory bowel disease, including Ulcerative Colitis and Crohn's Disease, has relied largely upon the use of animal or cell culture models; neither of which can represent all aspects of the human pathophysiology. Presented herein is a dual flow microfluidic device which holds full thickness human intestinal tissue in a known orientation. The luminal and serosal sides are independently perfused ex vivo with nutrients with simultaneous waste removal for up to 72 h. The microfluidic device maintains the viability and integrity of the tissue as demonstrated through Haematoxylin & Eosin staining, immunohistochemistry and release of lactate dehydrogenase. In addition, the inflammatory state remains in the tissue after perfusion on the device as determined by measuring calprotectin levels. It is anticipated that this human model will be extremely useful for studying the biology and tes ting novel interventions in diseased tissue

TOX3 mutations in breast cancer

TOX3 maps to 16q12, a region commonly lost in breast cancers and recently implicated in the risk of developing breast cancer. However, not much is known of the role of TOX3 itself in breast cancer biology. This is the first study to determine the importance of TOX3 mutations in breast cancers. We screened TOX3 for mutations in 133 breast tumours and identified four mutations (three missense, one in-frame deletion of 30 base pairs) in six primary tumours, corresponding to an overall mutation frequency of 4.5%. One potentially deleterious missense mutation in exon 3 (Leu129Phe) was identified in one tumour (genomic DNA and cDNA). Whilst copy number changes of 16q12 are common in breast cancer, our data show that mutations of TOX3 are present at low frequency in tumours. Our results support that TOX3 should be further investigated to elucidate its role in breast cancer biology.Breast Cancer Research Foundation grant; University of Cambridge; Cancer Research UK; Hutchison Whampoa Limited; NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre; Marie Curie Career Integration Grant; Cancer Research UK [16942]; National Institute for Health Research [NF-SI-0611-10154

Book Reviews

Book reviews by Roger Paul Peters, David Bidney, Lester M. Ponder, Edward J. Murphy, Thomas M. Clusserath, and Thomas L. Shaffer