36 research outputs found
Novel Fat Depot–Specific Mechanisms Underlie Resistance to Visceral Obesity and Inflammation in 11β-Hydroxysteroid Dehydrogenase Type 1–Deficient Mice
Mammography-based screening program: preliminary results from a first 2-year round in a Brazilian region using mobile and fixed units
RLH, TBS and ALF made substantial contributions to the conception and
design of the article, the acquisition, analysis and interpretation of the data,
and drafting of the article. ECM, JSCM and NB made substantial
contributions to the conception and design of the study.Background: Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer and the leading cause of cancer deaths
among women worldwide. The use of mobile mammography units to offer screening to women living in remote
areas is a rational strategy to increase the number of women examined. This study aimed to evaluate results from
the first 2 years of a government-organized mammography screening program implemented with a mobile unit
(MU) and a fixed unit (FU) in a rural county in Brazil. The program offered breast cancer screening to women living
in Barretos and the surrounding area.
Methods: Based on epidemiologic data, 54 238 women, aged 40 to 69 years, were eligible for breast cancer
screening. The study included women examined from April 1, 2003 to March 31, 2005. The chi-square test and
Bonferroni correction analyses were used to evaluate the frequencies of tumors and the importance of clinical
parameters and tumor characteristics. Significance was set at p < 0.05.
Results: Overall, 17 964 women underwent mammography. This represented 33.1% of eligible women in the area.
A mean of 18.6 and 26.3 women per day were examined in the FU and MU, respectively. Seventy six patients were
diagnosed with breast cancer (41 (54%) in the MU). This represented 4.2 cases of breast cancer per 1000
examinations. The number of cancers detected was significantly higher in women aged 60 to 69 years than in
those aged 50 to 59 years (p < 0.001) or 40 to 49 years (p < 0.001). No difference was observed between women
aged 40 to 49 years and those aged 50 to 59 years (p = 0.164). The proportion of tumors in the early (EC 0 and EC
I) and advanced (CS III and CS IV) stages of development were 43.4% and 15.8%, respectively.
Conclusions: Preliminary results indicate that this mammography screening program is feasible for implementation
in a rural Brazilian territory and favor program continuation
Slump strain in the Tertiary of Cyprus and the Spanish Pyrenees. Definition of palaeoslopes and models of soft-sediment deformation
Disentangling taxonomic issues and reproductive isolation patterns in complexes of cryptic species in the genus Trichogramma
International audienc
Evidence for a conserved queen-worker genetic toolkit across slave-making ants and their ant hosts
The ecological success of social Hymenoptera (ants, bees, wasps) depends on the division of labour between the queen and workers. Each caste exhibits highly specialized morphology, behaviour, and life-history traits, such as lifespan and fecundity. Despite strong defences against alien intruders, insect societies are vulnerable to social parasites, such as workerless inquilines or slave-making ants. Here, we investigate whether gene expression varies in parallel ways between lifestyles (slave-making versus host ants) across five independent origins of ant slavery in the “Formicoxenus-group” of the ant tribe Crematogastrini. As caste differences are often less pronounced in slave-making ants than in nonparasitic ants, we also compare caste-specific gene expression patterns between lifestyles. We demonstrate a substantial overlap in expression differences between queens and workers across taxa, irrespective of lifestyle. Caste affects the transcriptomes much more profoundly than lifestyle, as indicated by 37 times more genes being linked to caste than to lifestyle and by multiple caste-associated modules of coexpressed genes with strong connectivity. However, several genes and one gene module are linked to slave-making across the independent origins of this parasitic lifestyle, pointing to some evolutionary convergence. Finally, we do not find evidence for an interaction between caste and lifestyle, indicating that caste differences in gene expression remain consistent even when species switch to a parasitic lifestyle. Our findings strongly support the existence of a core set of genes whose expression is linked to the queen and worker caste in this ant taxon, as proposed by the “genetic toolkit” hypothesis
Constraints on the age of movement of the Montsech and Cotiella Thrusts, south central Pyrenees, Spain
Iron solubility in crustal and anthropogenic aerosols: The Eastern Mediterranean as a case study
We report seawater dissolution experiments for aerosol samples simultaneously collected (October 2007) across the Levantine Basin (LB, Eastern Mediterranean Sea), a marine system influenced by seasonal atmospheric inputs. Two distinct populations exhibited contrasting kinetic profiles; those representative of strong Saharan dust events which had variable iron release profiles with a maximum solubility of 0.94 +/- 1.48% (1 s.d.) whereas those which had a relatively greater anthropogenic influence had consistent profiles (fast release, <= 2 h, of dissolved iron in seawater followed by removal) with a maximum solubility of 11.5 +/- 9.3% (1 s.d.). First estimates of atmospheric fluxes of soluble iron are presented, ranging from 8.64 +/- 10.76 mg m(-2) y(-1) for the Northern LB to 6.48 +/- 7.78 mg m(-2) y(-1) for the Southern LB. Estimates of Fe fluxes to oceanic basins are important for constraining the global iron budget, and dust dissolution kinetic profiles provide information on the mechanisms involved during the release of aerosol Fe in seawater post atmospheric deposition. Published by Elsevier B.V
A proposed architecture for lecithin cholesterol acyl transferase (LCAT): Identification of the catalytic triad and molecular modeling.
A versatile high-throughput assay based on 3D ring-shaped cardiac tissues generated from human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes
We developed a 96-well plate assay which allows fast, reproducible, and high-throughput generation of 3D cardiac rings around a deformable optically transparent hydrogel (polyethylene glycol [PEG]) pillar of known stiffness. Human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes, mixed with normal human adult dermal fibroblasts in an optimized 3:1 ratio, self-organized to form ring-shaped cardiac constructs. Immunostaining showed that the fibroblasts form a basal layer in contact with the glass, stabilizing the muscular fiber above. Tissues started contracting around the pillar at D1 and their fractional shortening increased until D7, reaching a plateau at 25±1%, that was maintained up to 14 days. The average stress, calculated from the compaction of the central pillar during contractions, was 1.4±0.4 mN/mm2. The cardiac constructs recapitulated expected inotropic responses to calcium and various drugs (isoproterenol, verapamil) as well as the arrhythmogenic effects of dofetilide. This versatile high-throughput assay allows multiple in situ mechanical and structural readouts