Ovarian cancer initially presenting with isolated ipsilateral superficial inguinal lymph node metastasis: a case study and review of the literature

Isolated superficial inguinal metastases without any extended intra-abdominal spread is a rare event in patients with ovarian carcinoma. Here we report an isolated superficial inguinal metastasis in a patient with primary ovarian cancer. A 54-year-old Chinese patient with primary ovarian cancer, had an isolated painless enlarged right groin swelling (3×2cm) as the only manifestation, preoperative pathology confirmed metastatic adenocarcinoma. Gynecologic examination, transvaginal ultrasonography of the abdominopelvic cavity revealed a 5-cm mixed, right adnexal mass. At exploratory laparotomy, there was little intra-abdominal tumor dissemination but 100 ml of faint yellow peritoneal fluid and a 5-cm right ovarian tumor with intact capsule. Staging operation was performed and postoperative pathology confirmed adenocarcinoma located within right ovarian, with no evidence of involvement of other sites. Then the patient received adjuvant chemotherapy for Stage IVB. Five years later, the patient is currently still alive without evidence of recurrent disease. This case indicate that ovarian carcinoma isn’t a disease localized only within the intra-peritoneal cavity, isolated superficial inguinal lymph node metastasis might occur in rare cases via potential lymphatic and (or) hematogenous route under special conditions. We propose the need to investigate the possible mechanisms, risk factors, metastatic patterns, the biology and natural history of such patients in a large-scale and multicenter analysis. Furthermore, efforts should be made for earlier and differential diagnosis and finally prolong survival time for such patients

Hybrid multi-objective evolutionary algorithms based on decomposition for wireless sensor network coverage optimization

In Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN), maintaining a high coverage and extending the network lifetime are two conflicting crucial issues considered by real world service providers. In this paper, we consider the coverage optimization problem in WSN with three objectives to strike the balance between network life-time and coverage. These include minimizing the energy consumption, maximizing the coverage rate and maximizing the equilibrium of energy consumption. Two improved hybrid multi-objective evolutionary algorithms, namely Hybrid-MOEA/D-I and Hybrid-MOEA/D-II, have been proposed. Based on the well-known multi-objective evolutionary algorithm based on decomposition (MOEA/D), Hybrid-MOEA/D-Ihybrids a genetic algorithm and a differential evolutionary algorithm to effectively optimize sub-problems of the multi-objective optimization problem in WSN. By integrating a discrete particle swarm algorithm, we further enhance solutions generated by Hybrid-MOEA/D-I in a new Hybrid-MOEA/D-II algorithm. Simulation results show that the proposed Hybrid-MOEA/D-I and Hybrid-MOEA/D-II algorithms have a significant better performance compared with existing algorithms in the literature in terms of all the objectives concerned

Robust in vitro assay for analyzing the neutralization activity of serum specimens against hepatitis B virus.

Anti-HBs is a well-known marker of protective capability against HBV. However, little is known about the association between the qAnti-HBs determined by immunoassays and the neutralization activity (NAT) derived from functional assays. We developed an in vitro assay for direct measurement of the NAT of human sera. The new assay was highly sensitive, with an analytical sensitivity of 9.6 ± 1.3 mIU/mL for the HBIG standard. For serum detection, the maximum fold dilution required to produce ≥50% inhibition (MDF50) of HBV infection was used as the quantitative index. In vitro NAT evaluations were conducted for a cohort of 164 HBV-free healthy individuals. The results demonstrated that the NAT positively correlated with the qAnti-HBs ( R 2 = 0.473, p < 0.001). ROC analysis indicated that the optimal cutoff value of the qAnti-HBs to discriminate significant NAT (MDF50 ≥ 8) was 62.9 mIU/mL, with an AUROC of 0.920. Additionally, we found that the qAnti-HBc was another independent parameter positively associated with the NAT ( R 2 = 0.300, p < 0.001), which suggested that antibodies against other HBV proteins generated by previous HBV exposure possibly also contribute to the NAT. In summary, the new cell-based assay provides a robust tool to analyse the anti-HBV NAT. Abbreviations: HBV: Hepatitis B virus; HBsAg: Hepatitis B surface antigen; Anti-HBs: Hepatitis B surface antibody; HBeAg: Hepatitis B e antigen; Anti-HBc: Hepatitis B core antibody; qAnti-HBs: quantitative hepatitis B surface antibody; qAnti-HBc: quantitative hepatitis B core antibody; qHBeAg: quantitative hepatitis B e antigen; NAT: neutralization activity; HBIG: hepatitis B immune globulin; NTCP: Na+-taurocholate cotransporting polypeptide; IRES: internal ribosome entry site; ccHBV: cell culture derived hepatitis B virus; GE/cell: genome equivalent per cell; MOI: multiplicity of infection; Dpi: day post infection; HepG2-TetOn: a HepG2-derived cell line that expresses the doxycycline-regulated transactivator; ROC: receiver operating characteristic curve; AUROC: area under receiver operating characteristic curve; LLOQ: the lower limits of quantification; MDF50: the maximum fold dilution required to produce ≥50% inhibition; IC50: half maximal inhibitory concentration

An Overview of Regional Experiments on Biomass Burning Aerosols and Related Pollutants in Southeast Asia: From BASE-ASIA and the Dongsha Experiment to 7-SEAS

By modulating the Earth-atmosphere energy, hydrological and biogeochemical cycles, and affecting regional-to-global weather and climate, biomass burning is recognized as one of the major factors affecting the global carbon cycle. However, few comprehensive and wide-ranging experiments have been conducted to characterize biomass-burning pollutants in Southeast Asia (SEA) or assess their regional impact on meteorology, the hydrological cycle, the radiative budget, or climate change. Recently, BASEASIA (Biomass-burning Aerosols in South-East Asia: Smoke Impact Assessment) and the 7-SEAS (7- South-East Asian Studies) Dongsha Experiment were conducted during the spring seasons of 2006 and 2010 in northern SEA, respectively, to characterize the chemical, physical, and radiative properties of biomass-burning emissions near the source regions, and assess their effects. This paper provides an overview of results from these two campaigns and related studies collected in this special issue, entitled Observation, modeling and impact studies of biomass burning and pollution in the SE Asian Environment. This volume includes 28 papers, which provide a synopsis of the experiments, regional weatherclimate, chemical characterization of biomass-burning aerosols and related pollutants in source and sink regions, the spatial distribution of air toxics (atmospheric mercury and dioxins) in source and remote areas, a characterization of aerosol physical, optical, and radiative properties, as well as modeling and impact studies. These studies, taken together, provide the first relatively complete dataset of aerosol chemistry and physical observations conducted in the sourcesink region in the northern SEA, with particular emphasis on the marine boundary layer and lower free troposphere (LFT). The data, analysis and modeling included in these papers advance our present knowledge of source characterization of biomass-burning pollutants near the source regions as well as the physical and chemical processes along transport pathways. In addition, we raise key questions to be addressed by a coming deployment during springtime 2013 in northern SEA, named 7-SEASBASELInE (Biomass-burning Aerosols Stratocumulus Environment: Lifecycles and Interactions Experiment). This campaign will include a synergistic approach for further exploring many key atmospheric processes (e.g., complex aerosol-cloud interactions) and impacts of biomass burning on the surface-atmosphere energy budgets during the lifecycles of biomass burning emissions

Association analyses of East Asian individuals and trans-ancestry analyses with European individuals reveal new loci associated with cholesterol and triglyceride levels

Large-scale meta-analyses of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified >175 loci associated with fasting cholesterol levels, including total cholesterol (TC), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and triglycerides (TG). With differences in linkage disequilibrium (LD) structure and allele frequencies between ancestry groups, studies in additional large samples may detect new associations. We conducted staged GWAS meta-analyses in up to 69,414 East Asian individuals from 24 studies with participants from Japan, the Philippines, Korea, China, Singapore, and Taiwan. These meta-analyses identified (P < 5 × 10-8) three novel loci associated with HDL-C near CD163-APOBEC1 (P = 7.4 × 10-9), NCOA2 (P = 1.6 × 10-8), and NID2-PTGDR (P = 4.2 × 10-8), and one novel locus associated with TG near WDR11-FGFR2 (P = 2.7 × 10-10). Conditional analyses identified a second signal near CD163-APOBEC1. We then combined results from the East Asian meta-analysis with association results from up to 187,365 European individuals from the Global Lipids Genetics Consortium in a trans-ancestry meta-analysis. This analysis identified (log10Bayes Factor ≥6.1) eight additional novel lipid loci. Among the twelve total loci identified, the index variants at eight loci have demonstrated at least nominal significance with other metabolic traits in prior studies, and two loci exhibited coincident eQTLs (P < 1 × 10-5) in subcutaneous adipose tissue for BPTF and PDGFC. Taken together, these analyses identified multiple novel lipid loci, providing new potential therapeutic targets

Meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies identifies eight new loci for type 2 diabetes in east Asians

We conducted a three-stage genetic study to identify susceptibility loci for type 2 diabetes (T2D) in east Asian populations. We followed our stage 1 meta-analysis of eight T2D genome-wide association studies (6,952 cases with T2D and 11,865 controls) with a stage 2 in silico replication analysis (5,843 cases and 4,574 controls) and a stage 3 de novo replication analysis (12,284 cases and 13,172 controls). The combined analysis identified eight new T2D loci reaching genome-wide significance, which mapped in or near GLIS3, PEPD, FITM2-R3HDML-HNF4A, KCNK16, MAEA, GCC1-PAX4, PSMD6 and ZFAND3. GLIS3, which is involved in pancreatic beta cell development and insulin gene expression1,2, is known for its association with fasting glucose levels3,4. The evidence of an association with T2D for PEPD5 and HNF4A6,7 has been shown in previous studies. KCNK16 may regulate glucose-dependent insulin secretion in the pancreas. These findings, derived from an east Asian population, provide new perspectives on the etiology of T2D

Molecular mechanisms of cell death: recommendations of the Nomenclature Committee on Cell Death 2018.

Over the past decade, the Nomenclature Committee on Cell Death (NCCD) has formulated guidelines for the definition and interpretation of cell death from morphological, biochemical, and functional perspectives. Since the field continues to expand and novel mechanisms that orchestrate multiple cell death pathways are unveiled, we propose an updated classification of cell death subroutines focusing on mechanistic and essential (as opposed to correlative and dispensable) aspects of the process. As we provide molecularly oriented definitions of terms including intrinsic apoptosis, extrinsic apoptosis, mitochondrial permeability transition (MPT)-driven necrosis, necroptosis, ferroptosis, pyroptosis, parthanatos, entotic cell death, NETotic cell death, lysosome-dependent cell death, autophagy-dependent cell death, immunogenic cell death, cellular senescence, and mitotic catastrophe, we discuss the utility of neologisms that refer to highly specialized instances of these processes. The mission of the NCCD is to provide a widely accepted nomenclature on cell death in support of the continued development of the field