Early detection of breast, cervical, ovarian and endometrial cancers in low resource countries: an integrated approach

The incidence of breast and gynecological cancers continues to increase in low and middle resource countries [LRC'S and MRC's] with a disproportionately higher mortality rate compared to that in high resource countries. This has been attributed to factors such as an increased life span due to better control of communicable diseases and improved nutrition, as well as lifestyle and reproductive changes. A lack of public awareness and understanding of these cancers, absence of an organized screening program and a lack of accessible and effective treatment options, is responsible for the higher mortality rate. A practical approach of a combined program of integrating a well woman examination with screening for breast and cervical cancer and diagnostic evaluation for Ovarian and Endometrial cancer in symptomatic women is proposed in this article which can serve as a model to be studied for efficacy in low resource countries

Electrophysiological Properties of Embryonic Stem Cell-Derived Neurons

In vitro generation of functional neurons from embryonic stem (ES) cells and induced pluripotent stem cells offers exciting opportunities for dissecting gene function, disease modelling, and therapeutic drug screening. To realize the potential of stem cells in these biomedical applications, a complete understanding of the cell models of interest is required. While rapid advances have been made in developing the technologies for directed induction of defined neuronal subtypes, most published works focus on the molecular characterization of the derived neural cultures. To characterize the functional properties of these neural cultures, we utilized an ES cell model that gave rise to neurons expressing the green fluorescent protein (GFP) and conducted targeted whole-cell electrophysiological recordings from ES cell-derived neurons. Current-clamp recordings revealed that most neurons could fire single overshooting action potentials; in some cases multiple action potentials could be evoked by depolarization, or occurred spontaneously. Voltage-clamp recordings revealed that neurons exhibited neuronal-like currents, including an outward current typical of a delayed rectifier potassium conductance and a fast-activating, fast-inactivating inward current, typical of a sodium conductance. Taken together, these results indicate that ES cell-derived GFP+ neurons in culture display functional neuronal properties even at early stages of differentiation

Seed Regeneration Potential of Canopy Gaps at Early Formation Stage in Temperate Secondary Forests, Northeast China

Promoting the seed regeneration potential of secondary forests undergoing gap disturbances is an important approach for achieving forest restoration and sustainable management. Seedling recruitment from seed banks strongly determines the seed regeneration potential, but the process is poorly understood in the gaps of secondary forests. The objectives of the present study were to evaluate the effects of gap size, seed availability, and environmental conditions on the seed regeneration potential in temperate secondary forests. It was found that gap formation could favor the invasion of more varieties of species in seed banks, but it also could speed up the turnover rate of seed banks leading to lower seed densities. Seeds of the dominant species, Fraxinus rhynchophylla, were transient in soil and there was a minor and discontinuous contribution of the seed bank to its seedling emergence. For Quercus mongolica, emerging seedling number was positively correlated with seed density in gaps (R = 0.32, P<0.01), especially in medium and small gaps (<500 m2). Furthermore, under canopies, there was a positive correlation between seedling number and seed density of Acer mono (R = 0.43, P<0.01). Gap formation could promote seedling emergence of two gap-dependent species (i.e., Q. mongolica and A. mono), but the contribution of seed banks to seedlings was below 10% after gap creation. Soil moisture and temperature were the restrictive factors controlling the seedling emergence from seeds in gaps and under canopies, respectively. Thus, the regeneration potential from seed banks is limited after gap formation

A functional variant in the Stearoyl-CoA desaturase gene promoter enhances fatty acid desaturation in pork

There is growing public concern about reducing saturated fat intake. Stearoyl-CoA desaturase (SCD) is the lipogenic enzyme responsible for the biosynthesis of oleic acid (18:1) by desaturating stearic acid (18:0). Here we describe a total of 18 mutations in the promoter and 3′ non-coding region of the pig SCD gene and provide evidence that allele T at AY487830:g.2228T>C in the promoter region enhances fat desaturation (the ratio 18:1/18:0 in muscle increases from 3.78 to 4.43 in opposite homozygotes) without affecting fat content (18:0+18:1, intramuscular fat content, and backfat thickness). No mutations that could affect the functionality of the protein were found in the coding region. First, we proved in a purebred Duroc line that the C-T-A haplotype of the 3 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) (g.2108C>T; g.2228T>C; g.2281A>G) of the promoter region was additively associated to enhanced 18:1/18:0 both in muscle and subcutaneous fat, but not in liver. We show that this association was consistent over a 10-year period of overlapping generations and, in line with these results, that the C-T-A haplotype displayed greater SCD mRNA expression in muscle. The effect of this haplotype was validated both internally, by comparing opposite homozygote siblings, and externally, by using experimental Duroc-based crossbreds. Second, the g.2281A>G and the g.2108C>T SNPs were excluded as causative mutations using new and previously published data, restricting the causality to g.2228T>C SNP, the last source of genetic variation within the haplotype. This mutation is positioned in the core sequence of several putative transcription factor binding sites, so that there are several plausible mechanisms by which allele T enhances 18:1/18:0 and, consequently, the proportion of monounsaturated to saturated fat.This research was supported by grants from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (AGL2009-09779 and AGL2012-33529). RRF is recipient of a PhD scholarship from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (BES-2010-034607). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of manuscript

Higher-order multipole amplitude measurement in ψ ′→γχ c2

Using 106×106 ψ ′ events collected with the BESIII detector at the BEPCII storage ring, the higher-order multipole amplitudes in the radiative transition ψ ′→γχ c2→γπ +π -/γK +K - are measured. A fit to the χ c2 production and decay angular distributions yields M2=0.046±0. 010±0.013 and E3=0.015±0.008±0.018, where the first errors are statistical and the second systematic. Here M2 denotes the normalized magnetic quadrupole amplitude and E3 the normalized electric octupole amplitude. This measurement shows evidence for the existence of the M2 signal with 4.4σ statistical significance and is consistent with the charm quark having no anomalous magnetic moment. © 2011 American Physical Society.published_or_final_versio

Determination of the number of J/ψ events with J/ψ → inclusive decays

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