Renal cell carcinoma associated with peritumoral sarcoid-like reaction without intratumoral granuloma

Non-necrotizing epithelioid granulomas have been described in association with many primary tumors. In such cases, they are designated as sarcoid-like reaction. Although it is more seen in carcinomas than in sarcomas, it is very rarely reported in renal carcinoma. Here, we describe a rare association of prominent peritumoral sarcoid-like reaction without intratumoral granulomas and conventional clear cell renal carcinoma in a 62-year-old-male, without clinical or laboratory finding of sarcoidosis. At 30 months follow-up, he had no recurrence

Relation entre le contact et la distance sociale à l’égard des personnes avec une maladie mentale.

Cet article présente les résultats d'une étude s'intéressant à la relation entre l'expérience de contact avec dès personnes ayant une maladie mentale et la distance sociale exprimée à leur égard. L'échantillon est composé de 275 citoyens adultes de la région de Québec, qui se disent favorables à l'implantation d'une ressource résidentielle, dans leur voisinage immédiat, pour un groupe de deux à six personnes avec une maladie mentale. Les résultats révèlent une relation inversée entre le contact et la distance sociale. Cette relation est significative chez les deux sexes, chez les célibataires de 35 à 44 ans, les personnes mariées ou en union de fait de 45 à 54 ans et celles de 65 ans et plus. Ces sous-groupes présentent des expériences de contact plus fréquentes et plus diversifiées ainsi qu'une distance sociale exprimée plus faible. L'identification de segments cibles favorables dans la population permettra aux décideurs et responsables de la réinsertion sociale de mieux formuler et planifier des stratégies d'intervention différenciées plus efficaces pour le maintien d'une attitude de tolérance à l'égard de voisins avec une différence

Ethnic nationalism was the real winner in the French presidential election

Emmanuel Macron’s reelection as French President has been presented by some observers as a victory for liberalism against the populism of Marine Le Pen. Eric Taylor Woods, Marcus Closen, Alex Fortier-Chouinard, Catherine Ouellet and Robert Schertzer write that while Macron may have retained the presidency, the real story of the election was the prominent role played by ethnic nationalism

Continuous reactive-roll-to-roll growth of carbon nanotubes for fog water harvesting applications

ABSTRACT: A simple method is presented for the continuous generation of carbon nanotube forests stably anchored on stainless-steel surfaces using a reactive-roll-to-roll (RR2R) configuration. No addition of catalyst nanoparticles is required for the CNT-forest generation; the stainless-steel substrate itself is tuned to generate the catalytic growth sites. The process enables very large surfaces covered with CNT forests to have individual CNT roots anchored to the metallic ground through primary bonds. Fog water harvesting is demonstrated and tested as one potential application using long CNT-covered wires. The RR2R is performed in the gas phase; no solution processing of CNT suspensions is used, contrary to usual R2R CNT-based technologies. Full or partial CNT-forest coverage provides tuning of the ratio and shape of hydrophobic and hydrophilic zones on the surface. This enables the optimization of fog water harvesters for droplet capture through the hydrophobic CNT forest and water removal from the hydrophilic SS surface. Water recovery tests using small harp-type harvesters with CNT-forest generate water capture of up to 2.2 g/cm2·h under ultrasound-generated fog flow. The strong CNT root anchoring on the stainless-steel surfaces provides opportunities for (i) robustness and easy transport of the composite structure and (ii) chemical functionalization and/or nanoparticle decoration of the structures, and it opens the road for a series of applications on large-scale surfaces, including fog harvesting

Machine-learning-based calving prediction from activity, lying, and ruminating behaviors in dairy cattle

The objective of this study was to use automated activity, lying, and rumination monitors to characterize prepartum behavior and predict calving in dairy cattle. Data were collected from 20 primiparous and 33 multiparous Holstein dairy cattle from September 2011 to May 2013 at the University of Kentucky Coldstream Dairy. The HR Tag (SCR Engineers Ltd., Netanya, Israel) automatically collected neck activity and rumination data in 2-h increments. The IceQube (IceRobotics Ltd., South Queensferry, United Kingdom) automatically collected number of steps, lying time, standing time, number of transitions from standing to lying (ly-. ing bouts), and total motion, summed in 15-min increments. IceQube data were summed in 2-h increments to match HR Tag data. All behavioral data were collected for 14 d before the predicted calving date. Retrospective data analysis was performed using mixed linear models to examine behavioral changes by day in the 14 d before calving. Bihourly behavioral differences from baseline values over the 14 d before calving were also evaluated using mixed linear models. Changes in daily rumination time, total motion, lying time, and lying bouts occurred in the 14 d before calving. In the bihourly analysis, extreme values for all behaviors occurred in the final 24 h, indicating that the monitored behaviors may be useful in calving prediction. To determine whether technologies were useful at predicting calving, random forest, linear discriminant analysis, and neural network machine -learning techniques were constructed and implemented using R version 3.1.0 (R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria). These methods were used on variables from each technology and all combined variables from both technologies. A neural network analysis that combined variables from both technologies at the daily level yielded 100.0% sen-sitivity and 86.8% specificity. A neural network analysis that combined variables from both technologies in bihourly increments was used to identify 2-h periods in the 8 h before calving with 82.8% sensitivity and 80.4% specificity. Changes in behavior and machine-learning alerts indicate that commercially marketed behavioral monitors may have calving prediction potential

BCAA catabolism in brown fat controls energy homeostasis through SLC25A44.

Branched-chain amino acid (BCAA; valine, leucine and isoleucine) supplementation is often beneficial to energy expenditure; however, increased circulating levels of BCAA are linked to obesity and diabetes. The mechanisms of this paradox remain unclear. Here we report that, on cold exposure, brown adipose tissue (BAT) actively utilizes BCAA in the mitochondria for thermogenesis and promotes systemic BCAA clearance in mice and humans. In turn, a BAT-specific defect in BCAA catabolism attenuates systemic BCAA clearance, BAT fuel oxidation and thermogenesis, leading to diet-induced obesity and glucose intolerance. Mechanistically, active BCAA catabolism in BAT is mediated by SLC25A44, which transports BCAAs into mitochondria. Our results suggest that BAT serves as a key metabolic filter that controls BCAA clearance via SLC25A44, thereby contributing to the improvement of metabolic health

A new ultrafast and high-throughput mass spectrometric approach for the therapeutic drug monitoring of the multi-targeted anti-folate pemetrexed in plasma from lung cancer patients

An analytical assay has been developed and validated for ultrafast and high-throughput mass spectrometric determination of pemetrexed concentrations in plasma using matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization–triple quadrupole–tandem mass spectrometry. Patient plasma samples spiked with the internal standard methotrexate were measured by multiple reaction monitoring. The detection limit was 0.4 fmol/μL, lower limit of quantification was 0.9 fmol/μL, and upper limit of quantification was 60 fmol/μL, respectively. Overall observed pemetrexed concentrations in patient samples ranged between 8.7 (1.4) and 142.7 (20.3) pmol/μL (SD). The newly developed mass spectrometric assay is applicable for (routine) therapeutic drug monitoring of pemetrexed concentrations in plasma from non-small cell lung cancer patients