Results of the Anaconda endovascular graft in abdominal aortic aneurysm with a severe angulated infrarenal neck

Objective: Proximal neck anatomy of an abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA), especially a severe angulated neck of more than 60 degrees, predicts adverse outcome in endovascular aneurysm repair. In the present study, we evaluate the feasibility of the use of the Anaconda endovascular graft (Vascutec, Terumo, Inchinnan, Scotland) for treating infrarenal AAA with a severe angulated neck (>60 degrees) and report the midterm outcomes. Methods: In total, nine Dutch hospitals participated in this prospective cohort study. From December 2005 to January 2011, a total of 36 AAA patients, 30 men and six women, were included. Mean and median follow-up were both 40 months. Results: Mean infrarenal neck angulation was 82 degrees. Successful deployment was reached in 34 of 36 patients. Primary technical success was achieved in 30 of 36 patients (83%). There was no aneurysm-related death. Four-year primary clinical success was 69%. In the first year, eight clinical failures were reported including four leg occlusions which could be solved using standard procedures. After the first year, three patients with additional failures occurred; two of them were leg occlusions. Four patients needed conversion to open AAA exclusion. In six of 36 patients, one or more reinterventions were necessary. Three of them were performed for occlusion of one Anaconda leg and two were for occlusion of the body. Conclusions: The use of the Anaconda endovascular graft in AAA with a severe angulated infrarenal neck is feasible but has its side effects. Most clinical failures occur in the first year. Thereafter, few problems occur, and midterm results are acceptable. Summarizing the present experiences, we conclude that open AAA repair is still a preferable option in patients with challenging aortic neck anatomy and fit for open surgery

Human cancers over express genes that are specific to a variety of normal human tissues

We have analyzed gene expression data from 3 different kinds of samples: normal human tissues, human cancer cell lines and leukemic cells from lymphoid and myeloid leukemia pediatric patients. We have searched for genes that are over expressed in human cancer and also show specific patterns of tissue-dependent expression in normal tissues. Using the expression data of the normal tissues we identified 4346 genes with a high variability of expression, and clustered these genes according to their relative expression level. Of 91 stable clusters obtained, 24 clusters included genes preferentially expressed either only in hematopoietic tissues or in hematopoietic and 1-2 other tissues; 28 clusters included genes preferentially expressed in various non-hematopoietic tissues such as neuronal, testis, liver, kidney, muscle, lung, pancreas and placenta. Analysis of the expression levels of these 2 groups of genes in the human cancer cell lines and leukemias, identified genes that were highly expressed in cancer cells but not in their normal counterparts, and were thus over expressed in the cancers. The different cancer cell lines and leukemias varied in the number and identity of these over expressed genes. The results indicate that many genes that are over expressed in human cancer cells are specific to a variety of normal tissues, including normal tissues other than those from which the cancer originated. It is suggested that this general property of cancer cells plays a major role in determining the behavior of the cancers, including their metastatic potential.Comment: To appear in PNA

Marketing Benefits Derived from Clustering: the Case of Vegetable Clusters in Mindanao

One of the most limiting constraints for improving the profitability of smallholder vegetable farmers is poor marketing. With the lack of knowledge and inability to negotiate with downstream buyers, farmers have little option other than to sell their products to the traditional market. To facilitate access to technical information, credit and institutional markets, smallholder farmers are forming collaborative marketing groups. Clustering is one form of collaborative marketing in which smallholder farmers are organized into small groups within a defined territory or geographic area. Using the CRS Eight Step Plan for Agro-enterprise Development, 29 clusters were formed in three provinces in the Southern Philippines. This study explores the various marketing benefits smallholder farmers have achieved after joining the cluster. After interviewing 61 vegetable farmers from 10 clusters using a structured questionnaire, results show that upon joining the cluster, farmers became more aware of their buyer’s preference for product quality and gained knowledge on how to properly handle and package their produce. Cluster farmers increased their income from vegetable farming by selling a greater product variety, a larger volume and gaining access to high value markets

Towards a sustainable approach to clustering small-scale farmers to market their agricultural produce

The University of the Philippines Mindanao and Curtin University have been organising small-scale vegetable farmers in Mindanao into cluster marketing groups to improve their access to markets and returns from the sale of their vegetable products using the 8-Step Clustering Approach for Agroenterprise Development developed by the Catholic Relief Services (Philippines). This paper reports on an action research investigation with around 30 marketing clusters. Cluster marketing has led to: better and wider market access, improved prices, reduced costs, improved human capital and social capital, and higher incomes. However, the current process may not lead to sustainable cluster marketing without support and may lead to dependency. This paper discusses strategies to overcome key challenges identified and deficiencies in the current process and suggests changes to the 8-step process so that it may improve the chances of cluster success and sustainability

The TESS-SPOC FFI target sample explored with gaia

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission has provided the community with high-precision times-series photometry for ∼2.8 million stars across the entire sky via the full frame image (FFI) light curves produced by the TESS Science Processing Operations Center (SPOC). This set of light curves is an extremely valuable resource for the discovery of transiting exoplanets and other stellar science. However, due to the sample selection, this set of light curves does not constitute a magnitude-limited sample. In order to understand the effects of this sample selection, we use Gaia Data Release 2 (DR2) and Data Release 3 (DR3) to study the properties of the stars in the TESS-SPOC FFI light-curve set, with the aim of providing vital context for further research using the sample. We report on the properties of the TESS-SPOC FFI targets in Sectors 1–55 (covering Cycles 1–4). We cross-match the TESS-SPOC FFI targets with the Gaia DR2 and DR3 catalogues of all targets brighter than Gaia magnitude 14 to understand the effects of sample selection on the overall stellar properties. This includes Gaia magnitude, parallax, radius, temperature, non-single star flags, luminosity, radial velocity, and stellar surface gravity. In total, there are ∼16.7 million Gaia targets brighter than G = 14, which when cross-matched with the TESS-SPOC FFI targets leaves ∼2.75 million. We investigate the binarity of each TESS-SPOC FFI target and calculate the radius detection limit from two detected TESS transits that could be detected around each target. Finally, we create a comprehensive main-sequence TESS-SPOC FFI target sample that can be utilized in future studies

Timing to achieve the highest rate of pCR after preoperative radiochemotherapy in rectal cancer: a pooled analysis of 3085 patients from 7 randomized trials

Purpose: Optimal timing of surgery after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (Nad-CRT) is still controversial in locally advanced rectal cancer (LARC). The primary goal of this study was to determine the best surgical interval (SI) to achieve the highest rate of pathological complete response (pCR) and secondly to evaluate the effect on survival outcomes according to the SI.Patients and methods: Patients data were extracted from the international randomized trials: Accord12/0405, EORTC22921, FFCD9203, CAO/ARO/AIO-94, CAO-ARO-AIO-04, INTERACT and TROG01.04. Inclusion criteria were: age &gt;= 18, cT3-T4 and cN0-2, no clinical evidence of distant metastasis at diagnosis, Nad-CRT followed by surgery.Pearson's Chi-squared test with Yates' continuity correction for categorical variables, the MannWhitney test for continuous variables, Mann-Kendall test, Kaplan-Meier curves with log-rank test, univariate and multivariate logistic regression model was used for data analysis. Results: 3085 patients met the inclusion criteria. Overall, the pCR rate was 14% at a median SI of 6 weeks (range 1-31). The cumulative pCR rate increased significantly when SI lengthened, with 95% of pCR events within 10 weeks from Nad-CRT.At univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis, lengthening of SI (p&lt; 0.01), radiotherapy dose (p&lt; 0.01), and the addition of oxaliplatin to Nad-CRT (p&lt; 0.01) had a favorable impact on pCR. Furthermore, lengthening of SI was not impact on local recurrences, distance metastases, and overall survival.Conclusion: This pooled analysis suggests that the best time to achieve pCR in LARC is at 10 weeks, considering that the lengthening of SI is not detrimental concerning survival outcomes. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.</p

An amphitropic cAMP-binding protein in yeast mitochondria

ABSTRACT: We describe the first example of a mitochondrial protein with a covalently attached phos-phatidylinositol moiety acting as a membrane anchor. The protein can be metabolically labeled with both stearic acid and inositol. The stearic acid label is removed by phospholipase D whereupon the protein with the retained inositol label is released from the membrane. This protein is a cAMP receptor of the yeast Saccharomyces cereuisiae and tightly associated with the inner mitochondrial membrane. However, it is converted into a soluble form during incubation of isolated mitochondria with Ca2+ and phospholipid (or lipid derivatives). This transition requires the action of a proteinaceous, N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive component of the intermembrane space and is accompanied by a decrease in the lipophilicity of the cAMP receptor. We propose that the component of the intermembrane space triggers the amphitropic behavior of the mitochondrial lipid-modified CAMP-binding protein through a phospholipase activity. Only in recent years specific fatty acids have been recog-nized to play important roles in the association of proteins with membranes. Both noncovalent and covalent interactions be-tween fatty acids and proteins have been reported. Among the latter are GTP-binding proteins (Molenaar et al., 1988)