Increasing mortality in the United States from cholangiocarcinoma: an analysis of the National Center for Health Statistics Database

CCA Mortality Rate by Year among Asians; raw data file with query terms. (TXT 6 kb

Responding to Climate Change: The Economy and Economics - Part of the Problem and Solution

The Climate Change Starter’s Guide provides an introduction and overview for education planners and practitioners on the wide range of issues relating to climate change and climate change education, including causes, impacts, mitigation and adaptation strategies, as well as some broad political and economic principles. The aim of this guide is to serve as a starting point for mainstreaming climate change education into school curricula. It has been created to enable education planners and practitioners to understand the issues at hand, to review and analyse their relevance to particular national and local contexts, and to facilitate the development of education policies, curricula, programmes and lesson plans. The guide covers four major thematic areas: 1. the science of climate change, which explains the causes and observed changes; 2. the social and human aspects of climate change including gender, health, migration, poverty and ethics; 3. policy responses to climate change including measures for mitigation and adaptation; and 4. education approaches including education for sustainable development, disaster reduction and sustainable lifestyles. A selection of key resources in the form of publication titles or websites for further reading is provided after each of the thematic sections

Twice Bitten, Thrice Shy: A Case of Recurrent Isolated Cardiac Sarcoidosis in the Transplanted Heart.

We present a case of recurrent isolated cardiac sarcoidosis, 3 years post-heart transplantation. The case highlights the scarcity of data on the utility of immunosuppression in cardiac sarcoidosis and, in particular, raises questions about the optimal immunosuppression regimen in transplant recipients. (Level of Difficulty: Advanced.)

Prokineticin ligands and receptors are expressed in the human fetal ovary and regulate germ cell expression of COX2

CONTEXT: Fetal ovarian development and primordial follicle formation underpin future female fertility. Prokineticin (PROK) ligands regulate cell survival, proliferation and angiogenesis in adult reproductive tissues including the ovary. However, their expression and function during fetal ovarian development remains unclear.OBJECTIVE: To investigate expression and localization of the PROK ligands, receptors and their downstream transcriptional targets in the human fetal ovary.SETTING: This study was conducted at the University of Edinburgh.PARTICIPANTS: Ovaries were collected from 37 morphologically normal human fetuses.DESIGN AND MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: mRNA and protein expression of PROK ligands and receptors was determined in human fetal ovaries using qRT-PCR, immunoblotting and immunohistochemistry. Functional studies were performed using a human germ tumour cell line (TCam-2) stably transfected with PROKR1.RESULTS: Expression of PROK1 and PROKR1 was significantly higher in mid-gestation ovaries (17-20 weeks) than at earlier gestations (8-11 and 14-16 weeks). PROK2 significantly increased across the gestations examined. PROKR2 expression remained unchanged. PROK ligand and receptor proteins were predominantly localised to germ cells (including oocytes within primordial follicles) and endothelial cells, indicating these cell types to be the targets of PROK signalling in the human fetal ovary. PROK1 treatment of a germ cell line stably-expressing PROKR1 resulted in ERK phosphorylation, and elevated COX2 expression.CONCLUSIONS: Developmental changes in expression and regulation of COX2 and pERK by PROK1 suggest that PROK ligands may be novel regulators of germ cell development in the human fetal ovary, interacting within a network of growth and survival factors prior to primordial follicle formation.</p

Arterioportal fistula following liver biopsy - Three cases occurring in liver transplant recipients

Although liver biopsy is a very useful procedure used frequently in the diagnosis and management of liver dysfunction occurring after orthotopic liver transplantation, complications can occur with its use. An unusual complication of arterioportal fistula is reported here. Based upon this small series of an unusual event and the knowledge that the posttransplant liver may be more hypervascular than prior to OLTx and that it is uniquely susceptible to hepatic infarction and abscess formation, any attempt at fistula closure should be considered carefully prior to initiating the therapy (15). Unless a serious complication occurs [such as a transient biliary obstruction due to hemobilia as occurred in case 2, portal hypertension as also occurred in case 2, or systemic sepsis or other symptoms develop related directly to the fistula], simple observation may be the best choice of action. Should therapy be required, hepatic arterial embolization should be reserved for adults with intrahepatic fistulas. Primary surgical closure of intrahepatic fistula should be reserved for cases of extrahepatic fistula. © 1995 Plenum Publishing Corporation

Efecto del nivel de la proteína bruta del pienso y del peso inicial de las pollitas sobre los parámetros productivos y la calidad del huevo en gallinas ponedoras rubias

Las aves, al igual que el resto de animales monogástricos no precisan de un nivel de proteína bruta (PB) en el pienso sino de niveles adecuados de aminoácidos (AA) indispensables (Keshavarz and Austic, 2004; Junqueira et al., 2006; Novak et al., 2006). Sin embargo, en la práctica es frecuente que los nutricionistas soliciten niveles de PB en exceso de lo recomendado por el NRC (1999) o FEDNA (2008). De hecho, muchos nutricionistas formulan piensos para inicio de puesta en gallinas rubias con más de 18.5% PB, cuando niveles de 16.5% PB podrían ser adecuados. La razón de utilizar niveles altos de PB es desconocido pero podría estar relacionado con el mayor margen de seguridad lo que evitaría que un aminoácido (AA) indispensable no contemplado afecte al tamaño del huevo y a la productividad. Por contra, un nivel alto de PB aumenta el precio del pienso cuando el coste de las fuentes proteicas es elevado. La inclusión de grasa en el pienso mejora el tamaño del mismo y puede mejorar el peso vivo de las aves (FEDNA, 2008). Un problema de la industria productora de huevos es el relacionado con el peso inicial de las pollitas y su influencia sobre las diversas variables productivas. El PV de las aves podría verse afectado por las características del pienso. El objetivo de este ensayo fue estudiar la influencia del nivel proteico de piensos isonutritivos en relación con la EMAn y los aminoácidos indispensables, sobre la productividad en gallinas rubias

Large area quantitative analysis of nanostructured thin-films

Proposed and verified method offers an unique quantitative large scale nanostructures' evaluation.This is the accepted manuscript. The final version is available at http://pubs.rsc.org/en/Content/ArticleLanding/2015/RA/c4ra16018e#!divAbstract

Ovarian leydig cell hyperplasia: an unusual case of virilization in a postmenopausal woman.

Objective. To report an unusual case of ovarian Leydig cell hyperplasia resulting in virilization in a postmenopausal woman. Methods. Patient\u27s medical history and pertinent literature were reviewed. Results. A 64-year-old woman presented with virilization with worsening hirsutism, deepening of her voice, male musculature, and male pattern alopecia. Her pertinent past medical history included type 1 diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and hypertension. Her pertinent past surgical history included hysterectomy due to fibroids. On further work-up, her serum total testosterone was 506 ng/dL (nl range: 2-45) and free testosterone was 40 pg/mL (nl range: 0.1-6.4). After ruling out adrenal causes, the patient underwent an empiric bilateral oophorectomy that showed Leydig cell hyperplasia on pathology. Six weeks postoperatively, serum testosterone was undetectable with significant clinical improvement. Conclusion. Postmenopausal hyperandrogenism can be the result of numerous etiologies ranging from normal physiologic changes to ovarian or rarely adrenal tumors. Our patient was found to have Leydig cell hyperplasia of her ovaries, a rarely reported cause of virilization

Majorization preservation of Gaussian bosonic channels

It is shown that phase-insensitive Gaussian bosonic channels are majorization-preserving over the set of passive states of the harmonic oscillator. This means that comparable passive states under majorization are transformed into equally comparable passive states by any phase-insensitive Gaussian bosonic channel. Our proof relies on a new preorder relation called Fock-majorization, which coincides with regular majorization for passive states but also induces another order relation in terms of mean boson number, thereby connecting the concepts of energy and disorder of a quantum state. The consequences of majorization preservation are discussed in the context of the broadcast communication capacity of Gaussian bosonic channels. Because most of our results are independent of the specific nature of the system under investigation, they could be generalized to other quantum systems and Hamiltonians, providing a new tool that may prove useful in quantum information theory and especially quantum thermodynamics.SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Do Multinational enterprises push up wages of domestic firms in the Italian Manufacturing sector?

This paper analyzes the effects of foreign direct investment on wages paid by domestic firms in the Italian manufacturing sector over the period 2002–2007. In particular, the authors investigate the im-pact of multinational enterprises on wages paid by local firms which operate in the same industry, known and horizontal wage spillovers, or have linkages with multinational enterprises in both downstream and upstream industries, known as vertical wage spillovers. By using a large panel dataset, consisting of 551,000 observations, the authors find evidence of wage spillovers only at inter-industry level and, more specifically, for those firms who supply their goods to multinational enterprises, described as backward wage spillovers. Moreover, findings suggest that the wage spillover effect is strongly affected by the technological gap between local and foreign firms: only workers employed in domestic firms with a low-medium technological absorptive capacity seem to benefit from the presence of multinational enterprises in terms of higher wages