Pelvic floor disorders in gynecological malignancies. An overlooked problem?

Cervical, endometrial, ovarian, vulvar, and vaginal cancers affect women of a broad age spectrum. Many of these women are still sexually active when their cancer is diagnosed. Treatment options for gynecological malignancies, such as gynecological surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy, are proven risk factors for pelvic floor dysfunction. The prevalence of urinary incontinence, fecal incontinence, and sexual dysfunction before cancer treatment is still unclear. Hypotheses have been raised in the literature that these manifestations could represent early symptoms of pelvic cancers, but most remain overlooked even in cancer surviving patients. The primary focus of therapy is always cancer eradication, but as oncological and surgical treatment options become more successful, the number of cancer survivors increases. The quality of life of patients with gynecological cancers often remains an underrated subject. Pelvic floor disorders are not consistently reported by patients and are frequently overlooked by many clinicians. In this brief review we discuss the importance of pelvic floor dysfunction in patients with gynecological malignant tumors

First-Class Approaches to Massive 2-Forms

Massive 2-forms are analyzed from the point of view of the Hamiltonian quantization using the gauge-unfixing approach and respectively the Batalin--Fradkin method. Both methods finally output the manifestly Lorentz covariant path integral for 1- and 2-forms with Stueckelberg coupling.Comment: 14 page

The role of tension-compression asymmetry of the plastic flow on ductility and damage accumulation of porous polycrystals

The influence of the tension-compression asymmetry of the plastic flow, due to intrinsic single-crystal deformation mechanisms, on porosity evolution and the overall ductility of voided metallic polycrystals is assessed. To this end, detailed micromechanical finite-element analyses of three-dimensional unit cells containing a single initially spherical cavity are carried out. The plastic flow of the matrix (fully-dense material) is described by a criterion that accounts for strength-differential effects induced by deformation twinning of the constituent grains of the metallic polycrystalline materials. The dilatational response of porous polycrystals are calculated for macroscopic axisymmetric tensile loadings corresponding to a fixed value of the stress triaxiality and the two possible values of the Lode parameter. It is shown that damage accumulation, and ultimately ductility of the porous polycrystals are markedly different as compared to the case when the matrix is governed by von Mises criterion. Most importantly, a direct correlation is established between the macroscopic material parameter k that is intimately related to the particularities of the plastic flow of the matrix and the rate of damage accumulation. (C) 2017 Portuguese Society of Materials (SPM). Published by Elsevier Espana, S.L.U.. All rights reserved.The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) via the project PTDC/EMETEC/1805/2012.This work has been supported by FCT (Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia) in the scope of the project UID/EEA/04436/2013.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Particle multiplicities and particle ratios in excluded volume model

One of the most surprising results is to find that a consistent description of all the experimental results on particle multiplicities and particle ratios obtained from the lowest AGS to the highest RHIC energies is possible within the framework of a thermal statistical model. We propose here a thermodynamically consistent excluded-volume model involving an interacting multi-component hadron gas. We find that the energy dependence of the total multiplicities of strange and non-strange hadrons obtained in this model agrees closely with the experimental results. It indicates that the freeze out volume of the fireball is uniformly the same for all the particles. We have also compared the variation of the particle ratios such as $/, < K^{-}>/, K^{-}/K^{+}, \bar{p}/p, \bar{\Lambda}/\Lambda, \bar{\Xi}/\Xi, \bar{\Omega}/\Omega, /, /, /$ and $/$ with respect to the center-of-mass energy as predicted by our model with the recent experimental data.Comment: 15 pages, 12 figure

Determination of pyrrolizidine alkaloids in dietary sources using a spectrophotometric method

Pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs) are a class of toxic compounds found in the composition of more than 6000 plants. People can be exposed to PAs by consuming phytotherapeutic products, food from crops contaminated with seeds of some species with high content of PAs, and/ or contaminated animal products like bee products. For this reason we developed and validated a method for quantitative determination of PAs, from the most frequently contaminated food sources, honey and flour. Colorimetric Ehrlich reagent method was used with standard addition (1mg/kg senecionine). The extraction solvent was methanol 50% acidified with citric acid to pH 2-3, as this solvent can be used for alkaloids and N-oxides. We found that, in extracting the alkaloid only once from the dietary sources, the percent of recovery is low (52.5% for honey, and 45.75% for flour). Using successive extractions, three times with the same solvent, the senecionine retrieval percentage increased to 86.0% for honey and 76.0% for flour. The method was validated using the following parameters: selectivity, linearity (0,25- 20 mg/ mL senecionine), accuracy (average recovery 93.5 - 107.93%) and precision (RSD 3,26-4.55%.). The calculated limit of quantification (0.174 mg/ mL) makes this method applicable for determining Pas occurring at toxic levels for consumers

Catalysis by electrons and holes: formal potential scales and preparative organic electrochemistry

The present review surveys current chemical understanding of catalysis by addition and removal of an electron. As an overarching theme of this type of catalysis, we introduce the role of redox scales in oxidation and reduction reactions as a direct analogue of pK_a scales in acid/base catalysis. Each scale is helpful in determining the type of reactivity to be expected. In addition, we describe several means of generating electrons and holes via chemical reactions, plasmonic resonance, radiolytic, photochemical and electrochemical methods. We specifically draw parallels between the now well-established fields of photoredox catalysis and chemical opportunities made available by electrochemical methods. We highlight accessible potential ranges for a series of electrochemical solvents and provide a discussion on experimental design, pitfalls and some remaining challenges in preparative organic electrochemistry

Loss of spermatogonia and wide-spread DNA methylation defects in newborn male mice deficient in DNMT3L

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Formation of haploid spermatozoa capable of fertilization requires proper programming of epigenetic information. Exactly how DNMT3L (DNA methyltransferase 3-Like), a postulated regulator of DNA methyltransferase activity, contributes to DNA methylation pattern acquisition during gametogenesis remains unclear. Here we report on the role of DNMT3L in male germ cell development.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A developmental study covering the first 12 days following birth was conducted on a <it>Dnmt3L </it>mutant mouse model; lower germ cell numbers and delayed entry into meiosis were observed in <it>Dnmt3L</it>^-/-males, pointing to a mitotic defect. A temporal expression study showed that expression of <it>Dnmt3L </it>is highest in prenatal gonocytes but is also detected and developmentally regulated during spermatogenesis. Using a restriction enzyme qPCR assay (qAMP), DNA methylation analyses were conducted on postnatal primitive type A spermatogonia lacking DNMT3L. Methylation levels along 61 sites across chromosomes 4 and X decreased significantly by approximately 50% compared to the levels observed in <it>Dnmt3L</it>^+/+germ cells, suggesting that many loci throughout the genome are marked for methylation by DNMT3L. More so, hypomethylation was more pronounced in regions of lower GC content than in regions of higher GC content.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Taken together, these data suggest that DNMT3L plays a more global role in genomic methylation patterning than previously believed.</p