Cytogenetic studies of PCB77 on brown trout (<i>Salmo trutta fario</i>) using the micronucleus test and the alkaline comet assay

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are stable pollutants, which can be found in almost every compartment of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. They are very lipophilic and therefore have the potency of accumulating in the fat stores of animals. The mechanisms by which PCBs exert their adverse effects are still unclear. It is known that PCBs induce some important biotransformation enzymes, but their mutagenic properties are still controversial. The DNA breakage and clastogenic potency of a planar PCB77 (3,3',4,4'-tetrachlorobiphenyl) was determined in vivo in fish, using the single cell gel electrophoresis or comet assay and the micronucleus test, on erythrocytes of the brown trout exposed for 3, 9 and 14 days to initial PCB concentrations of 780 and 918 pg/ml, dissolved in the water, Blood was taken by a caudal puncture and the erythrocytes were either deposited in an agarose gel (0.6%) for the comet assay or smeared directly on slides for the micronucleus test. Five fish were studied per treatment and 50 and 2000 erythrocytes per concentration and per animal were analysed for the comet assay and the micronucleus test respectively. ethyl methanesulphonate (EMS) at a concentration of 25 mg/l water was used as a positive control. Although EMS induced a statistically significant increase of single strand breaks in the comet assay, in neither of the two tests used, were mutagenic effects due to PCB exposure observed

ESSenTIAL : EPIXfab services specifically targeting (SME) industrial takeup of advanced silicon photonics

ePIXfab brings silicon photonics within reach of European small and medium sized enterprises, thereby building on its track record and its integration into Europractice. To this end, ePIXfab offers affordable access to standardized active and passive silicon photonic IC and packaging technology, a path from design to manufacturing and hands-on training. Based on a consortium of major research institutes with silicon photonics expertise, ePIXfab reaches out to European industry and supports them to evaluate silicon photonics in the context of concrete applications and markets. In order to ensure low-cost, quick access and scalability to manufacturing, the maturity of silicon photonic IC technology is enhanced by setting up a library of generic devices, a level of process and device benchmarking and a well maintained design flow. For the first time, devices in a standard package are offered to facilitate measurements. Training programs on the IC and packaging services are also offered, including hands-on training in making designs. Maturity, standardization and sustainability are driven by a steadily growing worldwide user base

Successful radiopeptide targeting of metastatic anaplastic meningioma: Case report

A patient with anaplastic meningioma and lung metastases resistant to conventional treatment underwent radiopeptide therapy with 177Lu- DOTA-octreotate in our institute. The treatment resulted in significant improvement in patient's quality of life and inhibition of tumor progression. This case may eventually help to establish the value of radiopeptide therapy in patients with this rare condition

FDG PET and PET/CT: EANM procedure guidelines for tumour PET imaging: version 1.0

The aim of this guideline is to provide a minimum standard for the acquisition and interpretation of PET and PET/CT scans with [18F]-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG). This guideline will therefore address general information about [18F]-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET/CT) and is provided to help the physician and physicist to assist to carrying out, interpret, and document quantitative FDG PET/CT examinations, but will concentrate on the optimisation of diagnostic quality and quantitative information

An HDG Method for Dirichlet Boundary Control of Convection Dominated Diffusion PDE

We first propose a hybridizable discontinuous Galerkin (HDG) method to approximate the solution of a \emph{convection dominated} Dirichlet boundary control problem. Dirichlet boundary control problems and convection dominated problems are each very challenging numerically due to solutions with low regularity and sharp layers, respectively. Although there are some numerical analysis works in the literature on \emph{diffusion dominated} convection diffusion Dirichlet boundary control problems, we are not aware of any existing numerical analysis works for convection dominated boundary control problems. Moreover, the existing numerical analysis techniques for convection dominated PDEs are not directly applicable for the Dirichlet boundary control problem because of the low regularity solutions. In this work, we obtain an optimal a priori error estimate for the control under some conditions on the domain and the desired state. We also present some numerical experiments to illustrate the performance of the HDG method for convection dominated Dirichlet boundary control problems

Fluoro-deoxi-glucose uptake and angiogenesis are independent biological features in lung metastases

Neoangiogenesis and enhanced glucose metabolism in neoplasms are likely to be activated by the same biochemical stimulus; hypoxia. A correlation between these two parameters has been postulated. The objective of this study was to evaluate the relationship between Fluoro-desoxi-glucose uptake at positron emission tomography scan and angiogenesis in lung metastasis. Fluoro-desoxi-glucose activity, expressed as a standard uptake value, and microvessel intratumoural density, were retrospectively calculated in a series of 43 lung metastasis resected in 19 patients. Primary sites were colorectal cancer in 16 metastases, sarcoma in eight, gynaecological in four and other sites in 15. The correlation between the two parameters was tested by logistic regression and multivariate analysis. Positron emission tomography scan was positive in 17 patients (sensitivity 89%). No correlation was observed between standard uptake value and microvessel intratumoural density in this series of lung metastasis. Positron emission tomography negative and positive nodules presented comparable value of microvessel intratumoural density (12.9 vs 11.3). Standard uptake value was significantly correlated with nodules size and was higher in colon cancer metastasis than in sarcoma ones. Microvessel intratumoural density was independent from nodule size but significantly higher in sarcoma than in colon cancer metastasis. The lack of correlation was confirmed by multivariate analysis after adjustment for tumour type and nodules size. The present study demonstrated that positron emission tomography scan is positive in a high proportion of patients regardless of microvessel density. Glucose uptake and angiogenesis appear to be independent biological features in lung metastasis. This observation may have implications for future antiangiogenic therapies