Papillary renal cell carcinoma with metastatic laparoscopic port site and vaginal involvement: a case report

10.1186/1752-1947-5-131Journal of Medical Case Reports513

Analysis of factors influencing the ultrasonic fetal weight estimation

Objective: The aim of our study was the evaluation of sonographic fetal weight estimation taking into consideration 9 of the most important factors of influence on the precision of the estimation. Methods: We analyzed 820 singleton pregnancies from 22 to 42 weeks of gestational age. We evaluated 9 different factors that potentially influence the precision of sonographic weight estimation ( time interval between estimation and delivery, experts vs. less experienced investigator, fetal gender, gestational age, fetal weight, maternal BMI, amniotic fluid index, presentation of the fetus, location of the placenta). Finally, we compared the results of the fetal weight estimation of the fetuses with poor scanning conditions to those presenting good scanning conditions. Results: Of the 9 evaluated factors that may influence accuracy of fetal weight estimation, only a short interval between sonographic weight estimation and delivery (0-7 vs. 8-14 days) had a statistically significant impact. Conclusion: Of all known factors of influence, only a time interval of more than 7 days between estimation and delivery had a negative impact on the estimation

The Expression and Localization of N-Myc Downstream-Regulated Gene 1 in Human Trophoblasts

The protein N-Myc downstream-regulated gene 1 (NDRG1) is implicated in the regulation of cell proliferation, differentiation, and cellular stress response. NDRG1 is expressed in primary human trophoblasts, where it promotes cell viability and resistance to hypoxic injury. The mechanism of action of NDRG1 remains unknown. To gain further insight into the intracellular action of NDRG1, we analyzed the expression pattern and cellular localization of endogenous NDRG1 and transfected Myc-tagged NDRG1 in human trophoblasts exposed to diverse injuries. In standard conditions, NDRG1 was diffusely expressed in the cytoplasm at a low level. Hypoxia or the hypoxia mimetic cobalt chloride, but not serum deprivation, ultraviolet (UV) light, or ionizing radiation, induced the expression of NDRG1 in human trophoblasts and the redistribution of NDRG1 into the nucleus and cytoplasmic membranes associated with the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and microtubules. Mutation of the phosphopantetheine attachment site (PPAS) within NDRG1 abrogated this pattern of redistribution. Our results shed new light on the impact of cell injury on NDRG1 expression patterns, and suggest that the PPAS domain plays a key role in NDRG1's subcellular distribution. © 2013 Shi et al

The Antioxidant Potential of the Mediterranean Diet in Patients at High Cardiovascular Risk: An In-Depth Review of the PREDIMED

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading global cause of death. Diet is known to be important in the prevention of CVD. The PREDIMED trial tested a relatively low-fat diet versus a high-fat Mediterranean diet (MedDiet) for the primary prevention of CVD. The resulting reduction of the CV composite outcome resulted in a paradigm shift in CV nutrition. Though many dietary factors likely contributed to this effect, this review focuses on the influence of the MedDiet on endogenous antioxidant systems and the effect of dietary polyphenols. Subgroup analysis of the PREDIMED trial revealed increased endogenous antioxidant and decreased pro-oxidant activity in the MedDiet groups. Moreover, higher polyphenol intake was associated with lower incidence of the primary outcome, overall mortality, blood pressure, inflammatory biomarkers, onset of new-onset type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), and obesity. This suggests that polyphenols likely contributed to the lower incidence of the primary event in the MedDiet groups. In this article, we summarize the potential benefits of polyphenols found in the MedDiet, specifically the PREDIMED cohort. We also discuss the need for further research to confirm and expand the findings of the PREDIMED in a non-Mediterranean population and to determine the exact mechanisms of action of polyphenols

Primary malignant mixed Müllerian tumor arising from the mesorectum with a synchronous ovarian cancer: a case report and review of the literature

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Extragenital malignant mixed Müllerian tumor is an extremely rare presentation of malignant mixed Müllerian tumor, especially when combined with a synchronous ovarian cancer.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>We report the clinical course and pathologic findings of a case of mesorectal malignant mixed Müllerian tumor with synchronous ovarian cancer, in a 50-year-old, gravida 0, para 0, Han Chinese woman with regular menstruation. This is the sixteenth case in the English literature of extragenital malignant mixed Müllerian tumor combined with synchronous or metachronous malignancy reported.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Although extragenital malignant mixed Müllerian tumor is very rare and has a poor prognososis, a longer survival time might be achieved with treatment by cytoreductive surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy.</p

DECK: Distance and environment-dependent, coarse-grained, knowledge-based potentials for protein-protein docking

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Computational approaches to protein-protein docking typically include scoring aimed at improving the rank of the near-native structure relative to the false-positive matches. Knowledge-based potentials improve modeling of protein complexes by taking advantage of the rapidly increasing amount of experimentally derived information on protein-protein association. An essential element of knowledge-based potentials is defining the reference state for an optimal description of the residue-residue (or atom-atom) pairs in the non-interaction state.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The study presents a new Distance- and Environment-dependent, Coarse-grained, Knowledge-based (DECK) potential for scoring of protein-protein docking predictions. Training sets of protein-protein matches were generated based on bound and unbound forms of proteins taken from the D<smcaps>OCKGROUND</smcaps> resource. Each residue was represented by a pseudo-atom in the geometric center of the side chain. To capture the long-range and the multi-body interactions, residues in different secondary structure elements at protein-protein interfaces were considered as different residue types. Five reference states for the potentials were defined and tested. The optimal reference state was selected and the cutoff effect on the distance-dependent potentials investigated. The potentials were validated on the docking decoys sets, showing better performance than the existing potentials used in scoring of protein-protein docking results.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>A novel residue-based statistical potential for protein-protein docking was developed and validated on docking decoy sets. The results show that the scoring function DECK can successfully identify near-native protein-protein matches and thus is useful in protein docking. In addition to the practical application of the potentials, the study provides insights into the relative utility of the reference states, the scope of the distance dependence, and the coarse-graining of the potentials.</p

Correlation of Serotype-Specific Dengue Virus Infection with Clinical Manifestations

Dengue virus (DENV) causes disease in millions of people annually and disproportionately affects those in the developing world. DENVs may be divided into four serotypes (DENV-1, DENV-2, DENV-3, and DENV-4) and a geographical region may be affected by one or more DENV serotypes simultaneously. Infection with DENV may cause life-threatening disease such as dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) or dengue shock syndrome (DSS), but more often causes less severe manifestations affecting a wide range of organs. Although many previous reports have explored the role of the different DENV serotypes in the development of severe manifestations, little attention has focused on the relative role of each DENV serotype in the development of cutaneous, respiratory, gastrointestinal, musculoskeletal, and neurological manifestations. We recruited a large group of participants from four countries in South America to compare the prevalence of more than 30 manifestations among the four different DENV serotypes. We found that certain DENV serotypes were often associated with a higher prevalence of a certain manifestation (e.g., DENV-3 and diarrhea) or manifestation group (e.g., DENV-4 and cutaneous manifestations)

Measurement of B(t->Wb)/B(t->Wq) at the Collider Detector at Fermilab

We present a measurement of the ratio of top-quark branching fractions R= B(t -> Wb)/B(t -> Wq), where q can be a b, s or a d quark, using lepton-plus-jets and dilepton data sets with integrated luminosity of ~162 pb^{-1} collected with the Collider Detector at Fermilab during Run II of the Tevatron. The measurement is derived from the relative numbers of t-tbar events with different multiplicity of identified secondary vertices. We set a lower limit of R > 0.61 at 95% confidence level.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, published in Physical Review Letters; changes made to be consistent with published versio