102 research outputs found
Invasive nasal histiocytic sarcoma as a cause of temporal lobe epilepsy in a cat
Case summary A 10-year-old neutered female domestic shorthair cat was presented with an acute onset of neurological signs suggestive of a right-sided forebrain lesion, temporal lobe epilepsy and generalised seizure activity. MRI of the head revealed an expansile soft tissue mass in the caudal nasal passages (both sides but predominantly right-sided) involving the ethmoid bone and extending through the cribriform plate into the cranial vault affecting predominantly the right frontal lobe and temporal lobe. Histopathological examination of the tumour revealed a histiocytic sarcoma. Relevance and novel information This is the first report of a cat with clinical signs of temporal lobe epilepsy due to an invasive, histiocytic sarcoma. Histiocytic sarcoma, although rare, should be included in the list of differential diagnoses for soft tissue masses extending through the cribriform plate. Other differential diagnoses are primary nasal neoplasia (eg, adenocarcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, chondrosarcoma and other types of sarcomas), lymphoma and olfactory neuroblastoma. Temporal lobe epilepsy in cats can be the consequence of primary pathology of temporal lobe structures, or it can be a consequence of pathology with an effect on these structures (eg, mass effect or disruption of interconnecting neuronal pathways)
Queen Elizabethâs Leadership Abroad: The Netherlands in the 1570s
In 1576, after Edmund Grindal, archbishop of Canterbury, presumed to lecture Queen Elizabeth on the importance of preaching and on her duty to listen to such lectures, his influence diminished precipitously, and leadership of the established English church fell to Bishop Aylmer. Grindalâs friends on the queenâs Privy Council, âforwardâ Calvinists (or ultra-Protestants), were powerless to save him from the consequences of his indiscretion, which damaged the ultrasâ other initiativesâ chances of success. This paper concerns one of those initiatives. From the late 1560s, they urged their queen âactivelyâ to intervene in the Dutch wars. They collaborated with Calvinists on the Continent who befriended Prince William of Orange and who hoped to help him hold together a coalition of religiously reformed and Roman Catholic insurgents in the seventeen provinces of the Low Countries. The English ultra-Protestants would have their government send money, munitions, and men in arms to the Netherlands, to tip the balance against viceroys sent by King Philip II of Spain. Grindalâs setback undermined the English Calvinistsâ efforts to form an Anglo-Dutch alliance which, they assumed, would boost the prospects for an international Protestant league. Yet Elizabeth did assist the Dutch as they wrestled with decisions forced on them by developments in the Netherlands during the 1570s, and she did so more consistently and more cleverly than many historians of Tudor diplomacy have thought.
Two competing assessments determine the way questions are formulated in the study of the queenâs and regimeâs Dutch diplomacy. The general consensus is that she was indecisive and inconsistent. Paul Hammer characterizes Elizabethâs responses to the crises in the Low Countries as a âzigzag of differentâ (âeven contradictoryâ) maneuvers. Wallace McCaffrey and R. B. Wernham agree that Englandâs âhesitations and gyrationsâ do not pass as coherent, creditable policy. Charles Wilson scolds Elizabeth for being timid and tepid--incapable of enthusiasm for âa great cause.â But David J.B. Trimâs striking counterthrust depicts the queenâs overtures to Netherlanders as part of her courageous â and âconfessionally drivenâ â foreign policy; Trim replaces âhesitationâ and âzigzagâ with a coherent âProtestant programme of action prioritized by the Elizabethan governmentâ with the aim of improving prospects for âCalvinist internationalism.â
What follows is an alternative to all these characterizations, one that, as noted, finds evidence for greater consistency and coherence in Elizabethâs leadership and less confessional âdrive.â That she would have been uneasy around religious extremists ought not to astonish us; her fatherâs, step-brotherâs, and step-sisterâs reigns as well as the start of her own were disturbed by zealous subjects, who were bent on shoring up or dismantling the realmâs religious settlements
Selection for Genetic Variation Inducing Pro-Inflammatory Responses under Adverse Environmental Conditions in a Ghanaian Population
BACKGROUND:Chronic inflammation is involved in the pathogenesis of chronic age-associated, degenerative diseases. Pro-inflammatory host responses that are deleterious later in life may originate from evolutionary selection for genetic variation mediating resistance to infectious diseases under adverse environmental conditions. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS:In the Upper-East region of Ghana where infection has remained the leading cause of death, we studied the effect on survival of genetic variations at the IL10 gene locus that have been associated with chronic diseases. Here we show that an IL10 haplotype that associated with a pro-inflammatory innate immune response, characterised by low IL-10 (p = 0.028) and high TNF-alpha levels (p = 1.39 x 10(-3)), was enriched among Ghanaian elders (p = 2.46 x 10(-6)). Furthermore, in an environment where the source of drinking water (wells/rivers vs. boreholes) influences mortality risks (HR 1.28, 95% CI [1.09-1.50]), we observed that carriers of the pro-inflammatory haplotype have a survival advantage when drinking from wells/rivers but a disadvantage when drinking from boreholes (p(interaction) = 0.013). Resequencing the IL10 gene region did not uncover any additional common variants in the pro-inflammatory haplotype to those SNPs that were initially genotyped. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE:Altogether, these data lend strong arguments for the selection of pro-inflammatory host responses to overcome fatal infection and promote survival in adverse environments
Mechanical Analysis of Feeding Behavior in the Extinct âTerror Birdâ Andalgalornis steulleti (Gruiformes: Phorusrhacidae)
The South American phorusrhacid bird radiation comprised at least 18 species of small to gigantic terrestrial predators for which there are no close modern analogs. Here we perform functional analyses of the skull of the medium-sized (âź40 kg) patagornithine phorusrhacid Andalgalornis steulleti (upper Mioceneâlower Pliocene, AndalgalĂĄ Formation, Catamarca, Argentina) to assess its mechanical performance in a comparative context. Based on computed tomographic (CT) scanning and morphological analysis, the skull of Andalgalornis steulleti is interpreted as showing features reflecting loss of intracranial immobility. Discrete anatomical attributes permitting such cranial kinesis are widespread phorusrhacids outgroups, but this is the first clear evidence of loss of cranial kinesis in a gruiform bird and may be among the best documented cases among all birds. This apomorphic loss is interpreted as an adaptation for enhanced craniofacial rigidity, particularly with regard to sagittal loading. We apply a Finite Element approach to a three-dimensional (3D) model of the skull. Based on regression analysis we estimate the bite force of Andalgalornis at the bill tip to be 133 N. Relative to results obtained from Finite Element Analysis of one of its closest living relatives (seriema) and a large predatory bird (eagle), the phorusrhacid's skull shows relatively high stress under lateral loadings, but low stress where force is applied dorsoventrally (sagittally) and in âpullbackâ simulations. Given the relative weakness of the skull mediolaterally, it seems unlikely that Andalgalornis engaged in potentially risky behaviors that involved subduing large, struggling prey with its beak. We suggest that it either consumed smaller prey that could be killed and consumed more safely (e.g., swallowed whole) or that it used multiple well-targeted sagittal strikes with the beak in a repetitive attack-and-retreat strategy
Invasive nasal histiocytic sarcoma as a cause of epilepsy
Case summary: A 10-year-old neutered female domestic shorthair cat was presented with an acute onset of neurological signs suggestive of a right-sided forebrain lesion, temporal lobe epilepsy and generalised seizure activity. MRI of the head revealed an expansile soft tissue mass in the caudal nasal passages (both sides but predominantly right-sided) involving the ethmoid bone and extending through the cribriform plate into the cranial vault affecting predominantly the right frontal lobe and temporal lobe. Histopathological examination of the tumour revealed a histiocytic sarcoma. Relevance and novel information: This is the first report of a cat with clinical signs of temporal lobe epilepsy due to an invasive, histiocytic sarcoma. Histiocytic sarcoma, although rare, should be included in the list of differential diagnoses for soft tissue masses extending through the cribriform plate. Other differential diagnoses are primary nasal neoplasia (eg, adenocarcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, chondrosarcoma and other types of sarcomas), lymphoma and olfactory neuroblastoma. Temporal lobe epilepsy in cats can be the consequence of primary pathology of temporal lobe structures, or it can be a consequence of pathology with an effect on these structures (eg, mass effect or disruption of interconnecting neuronal pathways)
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