De novo Development of Heart Valve Calcification in Incident Peritoneal Dialysis Patients

Background and AimsCardiac valve calcification (VC) is a frequent complication in chronic kidney disease and is considered a risk factor for all-cause and cardiovascular mortality. However, little is known about the pathophysiology mechanisms that originate it and the factors associated with its development. We undertook this study to analyze the frequency and factors related to de novo development of mitral valve calcification (MVC) and aortic valve calcifications (AVC) in incident peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients.MethodsA prospective cohort of 124 incident PD patients was studied. Demographic and clinical data were recorded and blood assayed at baseline and after 1 year of follow-up for calcium, phosphorus, glucose, urea, creatinine, cholesterol, triglycerides by spectrophotometry assay; high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (CRP) by immunoturbidimetric ultrasensitive assay, intact parathormone (iPTH) and osteocalcin by electrochemiluminescence, fetuin-A and osteoprotegerin by EDI-ELISA. Valve calcification was evaluated by M-mode bidimensional echocardiogram.ResultsSixty eight percent of patients were male, ages 43 ± 13 years; 51% were diabetic with 1.4 ± 1 months on PD. After 12.3 ± 1 months, 57 patients (46%) developed VC: AVC in 33 (57.8%), MVC in 15 (26.3%) and 9 (15.8%) patients in both valves. There was no correlation between AVC and MCV. In univariate logistic regression analysis, age, diabetes and elevated concentrations of OPG, iPTH and CRP were risk factors for development MVC. In multivariate analysis, only iPTH remained an independent risk factor as was also the case in AVC.ConclusionsAge, diabetes, osteoprotegerin, parathormone and C-reactive protein are risk factors related to de novo development of MVC and iPTH for AVC in incident dialysis patients

A SNP-based consensus genetic map for synteny-based trait targeting in faba bean (Vicia faba L.)

Faba bean (Vicia faba L.) is a globally important nitrogen-fixing legume, which is widely grown in a diverse range of environments. In this work, we mine and validate a set of 845 SNPs from the aligned transcriptomes of two contrasting inbred lines. Each V. faba SNP is assigned by BLAST analysis to a single Medicago orthologue. This set of syntenically anchored polymorphisms were then validated as individual KASP assays, classified according to their informativeness and performance on a panel of 37 inbred lines, and the best performing 757 markers used to genotype six mapping populations. The six resulting linkage maps were merged into a single consensus map on which 687 SNPs were placed on six linkage groups, each presumed to correspond to one of the six V. faba chromosomes. This sequence-based consensus map was used to explore synteny with the most closely related crop species, lentil and the most closely related fully sequenced genome, Medicago. Large tracts of uninterrupted colinearity were found between faba bean and Medicago, making it relatively straightforward to predict gene content and order in mapped genetic interval. As a demonstration of this, we mapped a flower colour gene to a 2-cM interval of Vf chromosome 2 which was highly colinear with Mt3. The obvious candidate gene from 78 gene models in the collinear Medicago chromosome segment was the previously characterized MtWD40-1 gene controlling anthocyanin production in Medicago and resequencing of the Vf orthologue showed a putative causative deletion of the entire 50 end of the gene.Peer reviewe

Macrocheles species (Acari: Macrochelidae) associated with human corpses in Europe

The biology of macrochelid mites might offer new venues for the interpretation of the environmental conditions surrounding human death and decomposition. Three human corpses, one from Sweden and two from Spain, have been analysed for the occurrence of Macrochelidae species. Macrocheles muscaedomesticae females were associated with a corpse that was found in a popular beach area of southeast Spain. Their arrival coincides with the occurrence of one of their major carrier species, the filth fly Fannia scalaris, the activity of which peaks during mid-summer. M. glaber specimens were collected from a corpse in a shallow grave in a forest in Sweden at the end of summer, concurrent with the arrival of beetles attracted by odours from the corpse. M. perglaber adults were sampled from a corpse found indoors in the rural surroundings of Granada city, Spain. The phoretic behaviour of this species is similar to that of M. glaber, but being more specific to Scarabaeidae and Geotrupidae dung beetles, most of which favour human faeces. M. muscaedomesticae is known from urban and rural areas and poultry farms; M. glaber from outdoors, particularly the countryside; while M. perglaber from outdoor, rural, and remote, potentially mountainous locations. M. muscaedomesticae and M. perglaber are reported for the first time from the Iberian Peninsula. This is the first record of M. perglaber from human remains

Macrocheles species (Acari: Macrochelidae) associated with human corpses in Europe

The biology of macrochelid mites might offer new venues for the interpretation of the environmental conditions surrounding human death and decomposition. Three human corpses, one from Sweden and two from Spain, have been analysed for the occurrence of Macrochelidae species. Macrocheles muscaedomesticae females were associated with a corpse that was found in a popular beach area of southeast Spain. Their arrival coincides with the occurrence of one of their major carrier species, the filth fly Fannia scalaris, the activity of which peaks during mid-summer. M. glaber specimens were collected from a corpse in a shallow grave in a forest in Sweden at the end of summer, concurrent with the arrival of beetles attracted by odours from the corpse. M. perglaber adults were sampled from a corpse found indoors in the rural surroundings of Granada city, Spain. The phoretic behaviour of this species is similar to that of M. glaber, but being more specific to Scarabaeidae and Geotrupidae dung beetles, most of which favour human faeces. M. muscaedomesticae is known from urban and rural areas and poultry farms; M. glaber from outdoors, particularly the countryside; while M. perglaber from outdoor, rural, and remote, potentially mountainous locations. M. muscaedomesticae and M. perglaber are reported for the first time from the Iberian Peninsula. This is the first record of M. perglaber from human remains

Sustained proliferation in cancer: mechanisms and novel therapeutic targets

Proliferation is an important part of cancer development and progression. This is manifest by altered expression and/or activity of cell cycle related proteins. Constitutive activation of many signal transduction pathways also stimulates cell growth. Early steps in tumor development are associated with a fibrogenic response and the development of a hypoxic environment which favors the survival and proliferation of cancer stem cells. Part of the survival strategy of cancer stem cells may manifested by alterations in cell metabolism. Once tumors appear, growth and metastasis may be supported by overproduction of appropriate hormones (in hormonally dependent cancers), by promoting angiogenesis, by undergoing epithelial to mesenchymal transition, by triggering autophagy, and by taking cues from surrounding stromal cells. A number of natural compounds (e.g., curcumin, resveratrol, indole-3-carbinol, brassinin, sulforaphane, epigallocatechin-3-gallate, genistein, ellagitannins, lycopene and quercetin) have been found to inhibit one or more pathways that contribute to proliferation (e.g., hypoxia inducible factor 1, nuclear factor kappa B, phosphoinositide 3 kinase/Akt, insulin-like growth factor receptor 1, Wnt, cell cycle associated proteins, as well as androgen and estrogen receptor signaling). These data, in combination with bioinformatics analyses, will be very important for identifying signaling pathways and molecular targets that may provide early diagnostic markers and/or critical targets for the development of new drugs or drug combinations that block tumor formation and progression

HIV and Other Sexually Transmitted Infections among Men Who Have Sex with Men Recruited by RDS in Buenos Aires, Argentina: High HIV and HPV Infection

The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of HIV and other STIs, among MSM from Buenos Aires (2007-2009).Responding Driven Sampling was used for recruitment of MSM. Participants completed a structured web-based survey and provided biological samples.A total of 496 MSM were studied for HIV, HBV, HCV, and T. pallidum infections. Chlamydia and HPV diagnoses were only performed in 98 and 109 participants, respectively. Prevalence of HIV was 17.3%, HBV 22.9%, HCV 7.5%, T. pallidum 20.5%, HPV 83.5%, and C. trachomatis 1.7%. In the year prior to the evaluation, 71% of the participants had had sex with men and/or trans and women (MMW) while 29% had not had sex with women (MM). Comparing MM to MMW, prevalence of HIV (30.7% vs. 11.9%, p<0.001), HBV (36.4% vs. 17.8%, p<0.001), T. pallidum (32.1% vs. 15.7%, p<0.001), and HPV (88.3% vs. 70.4%, p = 0.039) were significantly higher among MM, whereas no significant differences were found for HCV and C. trachomatis. The MM group had also significantly higher HIV incidence (5.60 vs. 4.28 per 100 persons-year, p = 0.032). HPV genotypes 16, 6, and 11 were the most frequently found; 40.7% of the MSM had more than one genotype and one high risk genotype was detected in 43.6% of participants.Both MM and MMW are at high risk of infection for HIV and other STIs. Rates of HIV, HBV, T. pallidum and HPV infections are higher in the MM group

Azimuthal anisotropy of charged particles at high transverse momenta in PbPb collisions at sqrt(s[NN]) = 2.76 TeV

The azimuthal anisotropy of charged particles in PbPb collisions at nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energy of 2.76 TeV is measured with the CMS detector at the LHC over an extended transverse momentum (pt) range up to approximately 60 GeV. The data cover both the low-pt region associated with hydrodynamic flow phenomena and the high-pt region where the anisotropies may reflect the path-length dependence of parton energy loss in the created medium. The anisotropy parameter (v2) of the particles is extracted by correlating charged tracks with respect to the event-plane reconstructed by using the energy deposited in forward-angle calorimeters. For the six bins of collision centrality studied, spanning the range of 0-60% most-central events, the observed v2 values are found to first increase with pt, reaching a maximum around pt = 3 GeV, and then to gradually decrease to almost zero, with the decline persisting up to at least pt = 40 GeV over the full centrality range measured.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

Compressed representation of a partially defined integer function over multiple arguments

In OLAP (OnLine Analitical Processing) data are analysed in an n-dimensional cube. The cube may be represented as a partially defined function over n arguments. Considering that often the function is not defined everywhere, we ask: is there a known way of representing the function or the points in which it is defined, in a more compact manner than the trivial one

Search for new physics with same-sign isolated dilepton events with jets and missing transverse energy

A search for new physics is performed in events with two same-sign isolated leptons, hadronic jets, and missing transverse energy in the final state. The analysis is based on a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.98 inverse femtobarns produced in pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC. This constitutes a factor of 140 increase in integrated luminosity over previously published results. The observed yields agree with the standard model predictions and thus no evidence for new physics is found. The observations are used to set upper limits on possible new physics contributions and to constrain supersymmetric models. To facilitate the interpretation of the data in a broader range of new physics scenarios, information on the event selection, detector response, and efficiencies is provided.Comment: Published in Physical Review Letter