Emulating the volume of pulminary nodules: A Quantitative approach

Doubling time for small pulmonary nodules is an important indicator used to diagnose lung cancer, a leading cause of death in the United States. The volume of the nodules is measured using computed tomography (CT) scans. Each volume measurement comes with a degree of uncertainty, which in turn increases the uncertainty for the doubling time measurement. Decisions regarding risky and expensive patient treatment depend on doubling time, so accuracy is important. The volume of nodules is estimated by taking a series of points marked on CT scans by radiologists and connecting these points to make a boundary. This boundary includes whole and partial pixels. By including and excluding partially filled pixels, the estimation errors can be quantified to ensure that a more accurate error estimation is made, allowing clinicians to make a better informed treatment decision. Since this process requires a radiologist to manually mark CT scans, there is a possibility for variation between radiologists, and it is time-consuming. A semi-automated method would be useful for measuring volume because it would reduce variation from radiologists\u27 opinions and time. We can use Gaussian weighted integration to eliminate the need for radiologists to mark points on a scan. Instead, Gaussian weighted integration requires only a square boundary centered at the nodule. A Gaussian mask is applied and volume estimations are made. By simulating two scans per patient, the accuracy of each method is measured by statistical comparison with the original volume calculations, or the ground truth

Biochar amendment of grassland soil may promote woody encroachment by Eastern Red Cedar

Although carbon (C) additions to soil have been used in restoration to combat invasive species through changes in soil nitrogen (N) availability, carbon amendments to soil derived from plant material can impact soil N availability in a species-specific manner. As such, amendment-driven feedbacks on N may impact invasive species success and woody encroachment. Soil amendments like biochar, which is often added to soil to increase C storage in grassland systems, may unintentionally encourage woody encroachment into these grasslands by changing soil N dynamics. Few studies have examined biochar impacts on non-agricultural species, particularly invasive species. Woody encroachment of Eastern Red Cedar (Juniperus virginiana) into grasslands provides an ideal context for examining the impact of biochar in grasslands. In the greenhouse, we examined the effect of biochar or leaf litter derived from native and exotic grasses on J. virginiana seedling growth. Juniperus virginiana seedlings grew 40% bigger in biochar amended soil as compared to seedlings grown in litter amended soil. Additionally, we found a more than 2 order of magnitude increase in available NH4+ in the biochar treatments compared to the litter amended soils. Furthermore we found that biochar feedstock type did not have an impact on the effect of biochar, as both native and exotic grass biochar had similar impacts on soil N levels and J. virginiana growth. Our work suggests that once grassland litter is converted to biochar, species impacts on soil N may disappear. In conclusion, our data suggests soil amendments of biochar may encourage woody encroachment into grasslands

Molecular analysis of two novel missense mutations in the GDF5 proregion that reduce protein activity and are associated with brachydactyly type C

Growth and differentiation factor 5 (GDF5) plays a central role in bone and cartilage development by regulating the proliferation and differentiation of chondrogenic tissue. GDF5 is synthesized as a preproprotein. The biological function of the proregion comprising 354 residues is undefined. We identified two families with a heterozygosity for the novel missense mutations p.T201P or p.L263P located in the proregion of GDF5. The patients presented with dominant brachydactyly type C characterized by the shortening of skeletal elements in the distal extremities. Both mutations gave rise to decreased biological activity in in vitro analyses. The variants reduced the GDF5-induced activation of SMAD signaling by the GDF5 receptors BMPR1A and BMPR1B. Ectopic expression in micromass cultures yielded relatively low protein levels of the variants and showed diminished chondrogenic activity as compared to wild-type GDF5. Interestingly, stimulation of micromass cells with recombinant human proGDF5(T201P) and proGDF5(L263P) revealed their reduced chondrogenic potential compared to the wild-type protein. Limited proteolysis of the mutant recombinant proproteins resulted in a fragment pattern profoundly different from wild-type proGDF5. Modeling of a part of the GDF5 proregion into the known three-dimensional structure of TGFbeta1 latency-associated peptide revealed that the homologous positions of both mutations are conserved regions that may be important for the folding of the mature protein or the assembly of dimeric protein complexes. We hypothesize that the missense mutations p.T201P and p.L263P interfere with the protein structure and thereby reduce the amount of fully processed, biologically active GDF5, finally causing the clinical loss of function phenotype

Zur Behandlung der Gleichungen, insbesondere der gebrochenen und der irrationalen

von Heinrich KuhfahlIn FrakturProgr.-Nr. 8

Die alten Steinkreuze in Sachsen : ein Beitr. zur Erforschung des Steinkreuzproblems mit 128 Bildern u. 1 Übersichtskt.

[Gustav Adolf] Kuhfah