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 Elizabeth’s 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. Grindal’s friends on the queen’s Privy Council, “forward” Calvinists (or ultra-Protestants), were powerless to save him from the consequences of his indiscretion, which damaged the ultras’ other initiatives’ chances of success. This paper concerns one of those initiatives. From the late 1560s, they urged their queen “actively” 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. Grindal’s setback undermined the English Calvinists’ 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 queen’s and regime’s Dutch diplomacy. The general consensus is that she was indecisive and inconsistent. Paul Hammer characterizes Elizabeth’s responses to the crises in the Low Countries as a “zigzag of different” (“even contradictory”) maneuvers. Wallace McCaffrey and R. B. Wernham agree that England’s “hesitations and gyrations” do not pass as coherent, creditable policy. Charles Wilson scolds Elizabeth for being timid and tepid--incapable of enthusiasm for “a great cause.” But David J.B. Trim’s striking counterthrust depicts the queen’s overtures to Netherlanders as part of her courageous – and “confessionally driven” – foreign policy; Trim replaces “hesitation” and “zigzag” with a coherent “Protestant programme of action prioritized by the Elizabethan government” with the aim of improving prospects for “Calvinist internationalism.” What follows is an alternative to all these characterizations, one that, as noted, finds evidence for greater consistency and coherence in Elizabeth’s leadership and less confessional “drive.” That she would have been uneasy around religious extremists ought not to astonish us; her father’s, step-brother’s, and step-sister’s reigns as well as the start of her own were disturbed by zealous subjects, who were bent on shoring up or dismantling the realm’s 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 “Terror Bird” 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 (∼40 kg) patagornithine phorusrhacid Andalgalornis steulleti (upper Miocene–lower Pliocene, Andalgalá 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 “pullback” 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)