Patients With Kidney Cancer

To develop a preoperative prognostic model in order to predict recurrence-free survival in patients with nonmetastatic kidney cancer.A multi-institutional data base of 1889 patients who underwent surgical resection between 1987 and 2007 for kidney cancer was retrospectively analyzed. Preoperative variables were defined as age, gender, presentation, size, presence of radiological lymph nodes and clinical stage. Univariate and multivariate analyses of the variables were performed using the Cox proportional hazards regression model. A model was developed with preoperative variables as predictors of recurrence after nephrectomy. Internal validation was performed by Harrells concordance index.The median follow-up was 23.6 months (1222 months). During the follow-up, 258 patients (13.7) developed cancer recurrence. The median follow-up for patients who did not develop recurrence was 25 months. The median time from surgery to recurrence was 13 months. The 5-year freedom from recurrence probability was 78.6. All variables except age were associated with freedom from recurrence in multivariate analyses (P 0.05). Age was marginally significant in the univariate analysis. All variables were included in the predictive model. The calculated c-index was 0.747.This preoperative model utilizes easy to obtain clinical variables and predicts the likelihood of development of recurrent disease in patients with kidney tumors

The Early Bronze Age figurine from Hasanoglan, central Turkey: New archaeometrical insights

The following article discusses the archaeometrical dimension of a well-known Early Bronze Age metal figurine from Hasanolan, Turkey, on permanent display in the Anatolian Civilisations Museum in Ankara. The transfer of the object to a new display case allowed for an examination with a portable X-ray fluorescence (P-XRF) device in order to reveal the chemical composition of the statuette and its attached ornaments. The figurine was confirmed to be made of silver. However, it is alloyed with a small but still substantial amount of copper. The applications are basically made of gold, but with a suspected substantial (up to 23% ) amount of silver involved. The final section of the article is dedicated to a critical comparison with recently published figurines from Alaca Hoÿük, together with an archaeological and chronological reappraisal of this unique piece of art. © 2016 The British Institute at Ankara

Carbonic anhydrase inhibitors. Inhibition of red blood cell ostrich (Struthio camelus) carbonic anhydrase with a series of aromatic and heterocyclic sulfonamides.

The purification of red blood cell carbonic anhydrase (CA, EC 4.2. 1. 1) from ostrich (scCA) blood is reported, as well as an inhibition study of this enzyme with a series of aromatic and heterocylic sulfonamides. The ostrich enzyme showed a high activity, comparable to that of the human isozyme II, with k(cat) of 1. 2 center dot 10(6) s(-1) and k(cat)/K-M of 1. 8 center dot 10(7)M(-1) s(-1), and an inhibition profile quite different from that of the human red blood cell cytosolic isozymes hCA I and II. scCA has generally a lower affinity for sulfonamide inhibitors as compared to hCA I and II. The only sulfonamide which behaved as a very potent inhibitor of this enzyme was ethoxzolamide (K-1 = 3.9 nM) whereas acetazolamide and sulfanilamide behaved as weaker inhibitors (inhibition constants in the range 303-570 nM). Several other aromatic and heterocyclic sulfonamides, mostly derivatives of sulfanilamide, homosulfanilamide, 4-aminoethylbenzenesulfonamide or 5-amino-1,3,4-thiadiazole-2-sulfonamide, showed good affinities for the ostrich enzyme, with K-1 values in the range 25 - 72 nM

Cor triatriatum sinister: two cases diagnosed in adulthood and a review of literature

Cor triatriatum sinister is a rare condition caused by a membrane within left atrium that separates pulmonary veins from mitral valve (10). While the condition is usually diagnosed at childhood, rare presentation during adulthood is observed when the membrane is incomplete. We report two cases of incomplete cor triatriatum sinister diagnosed during adulthood and review literature for this rare anomaly

A Simple Supramolecular Approach to Recycling Rare Earth Elements

The rapid increase in demand for rare-earth elements reflects their crucial roles in climate critical technologies. However, the lack of simple solutions for the separation of these metals from waste materials and ores represents a significant barrier to sustainable and environmentally benign rare-earth production. We report the application of a supramolecular approach to this challenge, using a triamido-arene receptor to selectively precipitate f-elements through their encapsulation as hexanitratometalates. Single-step, near quantitative recovery of Nd/Pr directly from magnet scrap was observed without the need for pH adjustment or pretreatment of the acidic leach solution. The rare-earth nitrate was rapidly stripped from the host−guest precipitate with water and the receptor recycled for further use. Near quantitative and highly selective uptake of La−Nd and Th from lateritic rare-earth ores was also achieved with no uptake of any non-f-element. These results show that targeting f-element metalates in separations chemistry can deliver exceptional and unique selectivity that may have significant consequences in the sustainable production of the rare-earth elements

Non-equilibrium Condensation Process in a Holographic Superconductor

We study the non-equilibrium condensation process in a holographic superconductor. When the temperature T is smaller than a critical temperature T_c, there are two black hole solutions, the Reissner-Nordstrom-AdS black hole and a black hole with a scalar hair. In the boundary theory, they can be regarded as the supercooled normal phase and the superconducting phase, respectively. We consider perturbations on supercooled Reissner-Nordstrom-AdS black holes and study their non-linear time evolution to know about physical phenomena associated with rapidly-cooled superconductors. We find that, for T<T_c, the initial perturbations grow exponentially and, eventually, spacetimes approach the hairy black holes. We also clarify how the relaxation process from a far-from-equilibrium state proceeds in the boundary theory by observing the time dependence of the superconducting order parameter. Finally, we study the time evolution of event and apparent horizons and discuss their correspondence with the entropy of the boundary theory. Our result gives a first step toward the holographic understanding of the non-equilibrium process in superconductors.Comment: 20 pages, 7 figure

The efficacy of anakinra in an adolescent with colchicine-resistant familial Mediterranean fever

Colchicine is the treatment of choice in familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) for the prevention of both attacks and secondary amyloidosis. The overall nonresponder rate is about 5–10%. Anakinra is known to have good effectiveness in a severe autoinflammatory syndrome [chronic infantile neurological cutaneous and articular (CINCA) syndrome] and other recurrent hereditary periodic fevers. Pyrin—the protein involved in FMF—has a role in activating the proinflammatory cytokine interleukin (IL)-1β. We report the effectiveness of the addition of an IL-1-receptor inhibitor (anakinra) to colchicine in controlling the febrile attacks and acute phase response in an adolescent with FMF resistant to colchicine

Carbonic anhydrase inhibitors. Phenols incorporating 2- or 3-pyridyl-ethenylcarbonyl and tertiary amine moieties strongly inhibit Saccharomyces cerevisiae β-carbonic anhydrase

A series of phenols incorporating tertiary amine and trans-pyridylethenyl-carbonyl moieties were assayed as inhibitors of the beta-carbonic anhydrase (CA, EC 4.2.1.1) from Saccharomyces cerevisiae, ScCA. One of these compounds was a low nanomolar ScCA inhibitor, whereas the remaining ones inhibited the enzyme with K(I)s in the range of 23.5-95.4 nM. The off-target human (h) isoforms hCA I and hCA II were much less inhibited by these phenols, with K(I)s in the range of 0.78-23.5 mu M (hCA I) and 10.8-52.4 mu M (hCA II). The model organism S. cerevisiae and this particular enzyme may be useful for detecting antifungals with a novel mechanism of action compared to the classical azole drugs to which significant drug resistance emerged