Tumors of the Neurohypophysis: One Unit's Experience and Literature Review

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate and understand the clinical behavior and radiologic correlates of tumors originating from the posterior pituitary gland. To review the management strategy for these rare tumors and add to the limited existing literature. METHODS: Retrospective review of 8 cases (5 pituicytomas, 2 spindle cell oncocytomas, and 1 granular cell tumor) managed at our institution between 2004 and 2019. The patients' clinical course, histologic features, and radiologic findings were reviewed. Their management and long-term follow-up is presented and compared with the literature. RESULTS: Long-term follow-up ranged from 1 to 9 years. There was 1 recurrence in a patient with spindle cell oncocytoma, and this was treated with radiotherapy. The endoscopically managed cases resulted in complete tumor excision with no recurrence. CONCLUSIONS: Epidemiologic data on primary tumors of the neurohypophysis is limited because of the rarity of these tumors. This study adds to the literature that these tumors behave as World Health Organization grade I tumors, although close follow-up is recommended as a few cases have shown recurrence. The endoscopic approach resulted in better gross total tumor resection rate in this series

Mean first passage time analysis reveals rate-limiting steps, parallel pathways and dead ends in a simple model of protein folding

We have analyzed dynamics on the complex free energy landscape of protein folding in the FOLD-X model, by calculating for each state of the system the mean first passage time to the folded state. The resulting kinetic map of the folding process shows that it proceeds in jumps between well-defined, local free energy minima. Closer analysis of the different local minima allows us to reveal secondary, parallel pathways as well as dead ends.Comment: 7 page

Re-weighting of somatosensory inputs from the foot and the ankle for controlling posture during quiet standing following trunk extensor muscles fatigue

The present study focused on the effects of trunk extensor muscles fatigue on postural control during quiet standing under different somatosensory conditions from the foot and the ankle. With this aim, 20 young healthy adults were asked to stand as immobile as possible in two conditions of No fatigue and Fatigue of trunk extensor muscles. In Experiment 1 (n = 10), somatosensation from the foot and the ankle was degraded by standing on a foam surface. In Experiment 2 (n = 10), somatosensation from the foot and ankle was facilitated through the increased cutaneous feedback at the foot and ankle provided by strips of athletic tape applied across both ankle joints. The centre of foot pressure displacements (CoP) were recorded using a force platform. The results showed that (1) trunk extensor muscles fatigue increased CoP displacements under normal somatosensatory conditions (Experiment 1 and Experiment 2), (2) this destabilizing effect was exacerbated when somatosensation from the foot and the ankle was degraded (Experiment 1), and (3) this destabilizing effect was mitigated when somatosensation from the foot and the ankle was facilitated (Experiment 2). Altogether, the present findings evidenced re-weighting of sensory cues for controlling posture during quiet standing following trunk extensor muscles fatigue by increasing the reliance on the somatosensory inputs from the foot and the ankle. This could have implications in clinical and rehabilitative areas

Rotational Grazing Increases Wool and Lamb Production from Phalaris-Subterranean Clover Pastures in South Eastern Australia

Wool and lamb production from different grazing systems was compared in a Mediterranean environment near Hamilton in southeastern Australia. The grazing systems were based on combinations of fertiliser inputs and grazing methods that could promote the growth and persistence of phalaris (Phalaris aquatica) and increase animal production compared to ‘typical’ unimproved pastures. In the first 2 years of this experiment, the most productive systems more than doubled ewe stocking rate and wool production, and more than trebled lamb production per hectare, compared to ‘typical’ unimproved pasture, low fertility, set-stocked systems. The change to a well fertilised phalaris/subterranean clover (Trifolium subterraneum) pasture system accounted for 50-80% of these gains in productivity per hectare, with additional benefits from applying extra phosphorus (P) fertiliser and rotational grazing. These results show the potential for producers to adopt simple changes in management practices that can significantly increase wool and lamb production in southeastern Australia

E-heritage : the future for integrated applications in cultural heritage

A number of factors are combining to change the structure and contents of documentation of cultural heritage: 1) the exponential growth in data generated by imaging techniques makes it possible for a site or an artifact to be recorded at a resolution of over 16 megapixels and at a density of several hundred million cloud points; 2) high-resolution imaging is becoming more affordable and/or available; 3) the economics and legal constraints of conservation practice are gradually pushing towards more stringent documentation standards; 4) improved communications infrastructure and mobile computing facilities are changing the way that data is recorded, processed, stored and – inevitably - used; 5) increasingly available computerized expert systems will be integrated into the very systems that conservators and documentation specialists carry around with them or access on a daily basis; 6) the advent of web-based systems will afford super-computer processing power and large-system database handling to the documentation specialist and the conservator in the field and permit greater flexibility for teleworking; 7) Computerised Project-based Management techniques will gradually spread from the realm of large institutions to SME’s and individual practitioners making digital image processing in architecture and archaeology more akin to the exchange of engineering drawings in automobile design industry. 8) The availability of cheap local or distributed processing power means that most of the above advantages will be present in both developed and developing countries. This paper explores. e-heritage as an integrated project which aims at providing a seamless yet structurally and inherently up-gradeable technological platform for all activities within cultural heritage conservation and management.peer-reviewe

Inverse Spectral-Scattering Problem with Two Sets of Discrete Spectra for the Radial Schroedinger Equation

The Schroedinger equation on the half line is considered with a real-valued, integrable potential having a finite first moment. It is shown that the potential and the boundary conditions are uniquely determined by the data containing the discrete eigenvalues for a boundary condition at the origin, the continuous part of the spectral measure for that boundary condition, and a subset of the discrete eigenvalues for a different boundary condition. This result extends the celebrated two-spectrum uniqueness theorem of Borg and Marchenko to the case where there is also a continuous spectru

Competition between Diffusion and Fragmentation: An Important Evolutionary Process of Nature

We investigate systems of nature where the common physical processes diffusion and fragmentation compete. We derive a rate equation for the size distribution of fragments. The equation leads to a third order differential equation which we solve exactly in terms of Bessel functions. The stationary state is a universal Bessel distribution described by one parameter, which fits perfectly experimental data from two very different system of nature, namely, the distribution of ice crystal sizes from the Greenland ice sheet and the length distribution of alpha-helices in proteins.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, (minor changes

A molecular mechanism for the water-hydroxyl balance during wetting of TiO2

We show that the formation of the wetting layer and the experimentally observed continuous shift of the H2O-OH balance towards molecular water at increasing coverage on a TiO2(110) surface can be rationalized on a molecular level. The mechanism is based on the initial formation of stable hydroxyl pairs, a repulsive interaction between these pairs and an attractive interaction with respect to water molecules. The experimental data are obtained by synchrotron radiation photoelectron spectroscopy and interpreted with the aid of density functional theory calculations and Monte Carlo simulations

SEM-EDS analyses of small craters in stardust aluminium foils: implications for the Wild-2 dust distribution

Implications for the Wild-2 dust distribution of the statistical results obtained by SEM-EDS from nearly 300 impact craters on aluminium foils of the Stardust sample tray assembly

Multidimensional Borg-Levinson Theorem

We consider the inverse problem of the reconstruction of a Schr\"odinger operator on a unknown Riemannian manifold or a domain of Euclidean space. The data used is a part of the boundary $\Gamma$ and the eigenvalues corresponding to a set of impedances in the Robin boundary condition which vary on $\Gamma$. The proof is based on the analysis of the behaviour of the eigenfunctions on the boundary as well as in perturbation theory of eigenvalues. This reduces the problem to an inverse boundary spectral problem solved by the boundary control method