Late widespread skeletal metastases from myxoid liposarcoma detected by MRI only

Background Myxoid liposarcoma is the second most commonly occurring sub-type of liposarcomas. In contrast to other soft tissue sarcomas, it is known to have a tendency to spread toward extrapulmonary sites, such as soft tissues, retroperitoneum, and the peritoneal surface. Bony spread, however, is not as common. Case presentation We report an unusual case of diffuse skeletal metastases from myxoid liposarcoma occurring 13 years after treatment of the primary tumour in the left lower limb. The skeletal spread of the disease was demonstrated on MRI only after other imaging modalities (plain radiography, CT and TC99 bone scans) had failed to detect these metastases. Conclusion MRI is an extremely sensitive and specific screening tool in the detection of skeletal involvement in these types of sarcomas, and therefore, should be a part of the staging proces

Background risk of breast cancer and the association between physical activity and mammographic density

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RNA secondary structure prediction from multi-aligned sequences

It has been well accepted that the RNA secondary structures of most functional non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) are closely related to their functions and are conserved during evolution. Hence, prediction of conserved secondary structures from evolutionarily related sequences is one important task in RNA bioinformatics; the methods are useful not only to further functional analyses of ncRNAs but also to improve the accuracy of secondary structure predictions and to find novel functional RNAs from the genome. In this review, I focus on common secondary structure prediction from a given aligned RNA sequence, in which one secondary structure whose length is equal to that of the input alignment is predicted. I systematically review and classify existing tools and algorithms for the problem, by utilizing the information employed in the tools and by adopting a unified viewpoint based on maximum expected gain (MEG) estimators. I believe that this classification will allow a deeper understanding of each tool and provide users with useful information for selecting tools for common secondary structure predictions.Comment: A preprint of an invited review manuscript that will be published in a chapter of the book `Methods in Molecular Biology'. Note that this version of the manuscript may differ from the published versio

Search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum in pp collisions at √ s = 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Results of a search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum are reported. The search uses 20.3 fb−1 of √ s = 8 TeV data collected in 2012 with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Events are required to have at least one jet with pT > 120 GeV and no leptons. Nine signal regions are considered with increasing missing transverse momentum requirements between Emiss T > 150 GeV and Emiss T > 700 GeV. Good agreement is observed between the number of events in data and Standard Model expectations. The results are translated into exclusion limits on models with either large extra spatial dimensions, pair production of weakly interacting dark matter candidates, or production of very light gravitinos in a gauge-mediated supersymmetric model. In addition, limits on the production of an invisibly decaying Higgs-like boson leading to similar topologies in the final state are presente

Search for direct pair production of the top squark in all-hadronic final states in proton-proton collisions at s√=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The results of a search for direct pair production of the scalar partner to the top quark using an integrated luminosity of 20.1fb−1 of proton–proton collision data at √s = 8 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC are reported. The top squark is assumed to decay via t˜→tχ˜01 or t˜→ bχ˜±1 →bW(∗)χ˜01 , where χ˜01 (χ˜±1 ) denotes the lightest neutralino (chargino) in supersymmetric models. The search targets a fully-hadronic final state in events with four or more jets and large missing transverse momentum. No significant excess over the Standard Model background prediction is observed, and exclusion limits are reported in terms of the top squark and neutralino masses and as a function of the branching fraction of t˜ → tχ˜01 . For a branching fraction of 100%, top squark masses in the range 270–645 GeV are excluded for χ˜01 masses below 30 GeV. For a branching fraction of 50% to either t˜ → tχ˜01 or t˜ → bχ˜±1 , and assuming the χ˜±1 mass to be twice the χ˜01 mass, top squark masses in the range 250–550 GeV are excluded for χ˜01 masses below 60 GeV

Optimization of xylanase production by filamentous fungi in solid state fermentation and scale-up to horizontal tube bioreactor

Five microorganisms, namely Aspergillus niger CECT 2700, A. niger CECT 2915, A. niger CECT 2088, Aspergillus terreus CECT 2808, and Rhizopus stolonifer CECT 2344, were grown on corncob to produce cell wall polysaccharide-degrading enzymes, mainly xylanases, by solid-state fermentation (SSF). A. niger CECT 2700 produced the highest amount of xylanases of 504±7 U/g dry corncob (dcc) after 3 days of fermentation. The optimization of the culture broth (5.0 g/L NaNO3, 1.3 g/L (NH4)2SO4, 4.5 g/L KH2PO4, and 3 g/L yeast extract) and operational conditions (5 g of bed loading, using an initial substrate to moistening medium of 1:3.6 (w/v)) allowed increasing the predicted maximal xylanase activity up to 2,452.7 U/g dcc. However, different pretreatments of materials, including destarching, autoclaving, microwave, and alkaline treatments, were detrimental. Finally, the process was successfully established in a laboratory-scale horizontal tube biore- actor, achieving the highest xylanase activity (2,926 U/g dcc) at a flow rate of 0.2 L/min. The result showed an overall 5.8-fold increase in xylanase activity after optimization of culture media, operational conditions, and scale-up.We are grateful to the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation for the financial support of this work (project CTQ2011-28967), which has partial financial support from the FEDER funds of the European Union; to the Leonardo da Vinci Programme for founding the stay of Felisbela Oliveira in Vigo University; to MAEC-AECID (Spanish Government) for the financial support for Perez-Bibbins, B. and to Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports for Perez-Rodriguez's FPU; and to Solla E. and Mendez J. (CACTI-University of Vigo) for their excellent technical assistance in microscopy

Medicinal plants used by women in Mecca: urban, Muslim and gendered knowledge

Background: This study explores medicinal plant knowledge and use among Muslim women in the city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Ethnobotanical research in the region has focused on rural populations and male herbal healers in cities, and based on these few studies, it is suggested that medicinal plant knowledge may be eroding. Here, we document lay, female knowledge of medicinal plants in an urban centre, interpreting findings in the light of the growing field of urban ethnobotany and gendered knowledge and in an Islamic context. Methods: Free-listing, structured and semi-structured interviews were used to document the extent of medicinal plant knowledge among 32 Meccan women. Vernacular names, modes of preparation and application, intended therapeutic use and emic toxicological remarks were recorded. Women were asked where they learnt about medicinal plants and if and when they preferred using medicinal plants over biomedical resources. Prior informed consent was always obtained. We compared the list of medicinal plants used by these Meccan women with medicinal plants previously documented in published literature. Results: One hundred eighteen vernacular names were collected, corresponding to approximately 110 plants, including one algae. Of these, 95 were identified at the species level and 39 (41%) had not been previously cited in Saudi Arabian medicinal plant literature. Almost one half of the plants cited are food and flavouring plants. Meccan women interviewed learn about medicinal plants from their social network, mass media and written sources, and combine biomedical and medicinal plant health care. However, younger women more often prefer biomedical resources and learn from written sources and mass media. Conclusions: The fairly small number of interviews conducted in this study was sufficient to reveal the singular body of medicinal plant knowledge held by women in Mecca and applied to treat common ailments. Plant availability in local shops and markets and inclusion in religious texts seem to shape the botanical diversity used by the Meccan women interviewed, and the use of foods and spices medicinally could be a global feature of urban ethnobotany. Ethnobotanical knowledge among women in Islamic communities may be changing due to access to mass media and biomedicine. We recognise the lack of documentation of the diversity of medicinal plant knowledge in the Arabian Peninsula and an opportunity to better understand gendered urban and rural knowledge

Complementary intestinal mucosa and microbiota responses to caloric restriction

The intestine is key for nutrient absorption and for interactions between the microbiota and its host. Therefore, the intestinal response to caloric restriction (CR) is thought to be more complex than that of any other organ. Submitting mice to 25% CR during 14 days induced a polarization of duodenum mucosa cell gene expression characterised by upregulation, and downregulation of the metabolic and immune/inflammatory pathways, respectively. The HNF, PPAR, STAT, and IRF families of transcription factors, particularly the Pparα and Isgf3 genes, were identified as potentially critical players in these processes. The impact of CR on metabolic genes in intestinal mucosa was mimicked by inhibition of the mTOR pathway. Furthermore, multiple duodenum and faecal metabolites were altered in CR mice. These changes were dependent on microbiota and their magnitude corresponded to microbial density. Further experiments using mice with depleted gut bacteria and CR-specific microbiota transfer showed that the gene expression polarization observed in the mucosa of CR mice is independent of the microbiota and its metabolites. The holistic interdisciplinary approach that we applied allowed us to characterize various regulatory aspects of the host and microbiota response to CR

Measurement of the cross-section of high transverse momentum vector bosons reconstructed as single jets and studies of jet substructure in pp collisions at √s = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper presents a measurement of the cross-section for high transverse momentum W and Z bosons produced in pp collisions and decaying to all-hadronic final states. The data used in the analysis were recorded by the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider at a centre-of-mass energy of √s = 7 TeV;{\rm Te}{\rm V}$and correspond to an integrated luminosity of$4.6\;{\rm f}{{{\rm b}}^{-1}}$. The measurement is performed by reconstructing the boosted W or Z bosons in single jets. The reconstructed jet mass is used to identify the W and Z bosons, and a jet substructure method based on energy cluster information in the jet centre-of-mass frame is used to suppress the large multi-jet background. The cross-section for events with a hadronically decaying W or Z boson, with transverse momentum${{p}_{{\rm T}}}\gt 320\;{\rm Ge}{\rm V}$and pseudorapidity$|\eta |\lt 1.9$, is measured to be${{\sigma }_{W+Z}}=8.5\pm 1.7$ pb and is compared to next-to-leading-order calculations. The selected events are further used to study jet grooming techniques

Continuous Theta Burst Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation of the Right Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex Impairs Inhibitory Control and Increases Alcohol Consumption

Previous research indicates that alcohol intoxication impairs inhibitory control and that the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (rDLPFC) is a functional brain region important for exercising control over thoughts and behaviour. At the same time, the extent to which changes in inhibitory control following initial intoxication mediate subsequent drinking behaviours has not been elucidated fully. Ascertaining the extent to which inhibitory control impairments drive alcohol consumption, we applied continuous theta burst transcranial magnetic stimulation (rDLPFC cTBS vs. control) to isolate how inhibitory control impairments (measured using the Stop-Signal task) shape ad libitum alcohol consumption in a pseudo taste test. Twenty participants (13 males) took part in a within-participants design; their age ranged between 18 and 27 years (M = 20.95, SD = 2.74). Results indicate that following rDLPFC cTBS participants’ inhibitory control was impaired, and ad libitum consumption increased. The relationship between stimulation and consumption did not appear to be mediated by inhibitory control in the present study. Overall, findings suggest that applying TMS to the rDLPFC may inhibit neural activity and increase alcohol consumption. Future research with greater power is recommended to determine the extent to which inhibitory control is the primary mechanism by which the rDLPFC exerts influence over alcohol consumption, and the degree to which other cognitive processes may play a role