2,457 research outputs found
Supracervical hysterectomy versus total abdominal hysterectomy: perceived effects on sexual function
BACKGROUND: Our investigation sought to compare changes in sexual function following supracervical hysterectomy (SCH) and total abdominal hysterectomy (TAH). METHODS: A retrospective chart review was performed to identify all patients who underwent supracervical hysterectomy or total abdominal hysterectomy at a tertiary care center. Patients who met criteria for participation were sent a one page confidential, anonymous questionnaire to assess sexual function experienced both pre- and postoperatively. A total of 69 patients in each group were eligible for participation. A multiple logistic regression model was used to analyze measured variables. RESULTS: Forty-eight percent (n = 33) of women undergoing a SCH returned the questionnaire, while 39% (n = 27) of those undergoing a TAH chose to participate. There were no significant demographic differences between the two groups. Patients who underwent TAH reported worse postoperative sexual outcome than SCH patients with respect to intercourse frequency, orgasm frequency and overall sexual satisfaction (P = 0.01, 0.03, and 0.03, respectively). Irrespective of type of hysterectomy, 35% of patients who underwent bilateral salpingoophorectomy (BSO) with hysterectomy experienced worse overall sexual satisfaction compared to 3% of patients who underwent hysterectomy alone (P = 0.02). CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggest that TAH patients experienced worse postoperative sexual function than SCH patients with respect to intercourse frequency and overall sexual satisfaction. Irrespective of type of hysterectomy, patients who underwent bilateral salpingoophorectomy experienced worse overall sexual satisfaction
Exclusive electroproduction on the proton at CLAS
The reaction has been measured, using the 5.754
GeV electron beam of Jefferson Lab and the CLAS detector. This represents the
largest ever set of data for this reaction in the valence region. Integrated
and differential cross sections are presented. The , and
dependences of the cross section are compared to theoretical calculations based
on -channel meson-exchange Regge theory on the one hand and on quark handbag
diagrams related to Generalized Parton Distributions (GPDs) on the other hand.
The Regge approach can describe at the 30% level most of the features
of the present data while the two GPD calculations that are presented in this
article which succesfully reproduce the high energy data strongly underestimate
the present data. The question is then raised whether this discrepancy
originates from an incomplete or inexact way of modelling the GPDs or the
associated hard scattering amplitude or whether the GPD formalism is simply
inapplicable in this region due to higher-twists contributions, incalculable at
present.Comment: 29 pages, 29 figure
Differential cross sections and spin density matrix elements for the reaction gamma p -> p omega
High-statistics differential cross sections and spin density matrix elements
for the reaction gamma p -> p omega have been measured using the CLAS at
Jefferson Lab for center-of-mass (CM) energies from threshold up to 2.84 GeV.
Results are reported in 112 10-MeV wide CM energy bins, each subdivided into
cos(theta_CM) bins of width 0.1. These are the most precise and extensive omega
photoproduction measurements to date. A number of prominent structures are
clearly present in the data. Many of these have not previously been observed
due to limited statistics in earlier measurements
Meta-analysis of tumor- and T cell-intrinsic mechanisms of sensitization to checkpoint inhibition
Checkpoint inhibitors (CPIs) augment adaptive immunity. Systematic pan-tumor analyses may reveal the relative importance of tumor-cell-intrinsic and microenvironmental features underpinning CPI sensitization. Here, we collated whole-exome and transcriptomic data for >1,000 CPI-treated patients across seven tumor types, utilizing standardized bioinformatics workflows and clinical outcome criteria to validate multivariable predictors of CPI sensitization. Clonal tumor mutation burden (TMB) was the strongest predictor of CPI response, followed by total TMB and CXCL9 expression. Subclonal TMB, somatic copy alteration burden, and histocompatibility leukocyte antigen (HLA) evolutionary divergence failed to attain pan-cancer significance. Dinucleotide variants were identified as a source of immunogenic epitopes associated with radical amino acid substitutions and enhanced peptide hydrophobicity/immunogenicity. Copy-number analysis revealed two additional determinants of CPI outcome supported by prior functional evidence: 9q34 (TRAF2) loss associated with response and CCND1 amplification associated with resistance. Finally, single-cell RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) of clonal neoantigen-reactive CD8 tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), combined with bulk RNA-seq analysis of CPI-responding tumors, identified CCR5 and CXCL13 as T-cell-intrinsic markers of CPI sensitivity
The Cosmological Constant
This is a review of the physics and cosmology of the cosmological constant.
Focusing on recent developments, I present a pedagogical overview of cosmology
in the presence of a cosmological constant, observational constraints on its
magnitude, and the physics of a small (and potentially nonzero) vacuum energy.Comment: 50 pages. Submitted to Living Reviews in Relativity
(http://www.livingreviews.org/), December 199
New MR sequences in daily practice: susceptibility weighted imaging. A pictorial essay
Background Susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI) is a
relatively new magnetic resonance (MR) technique that
exploits the magnetic susceptibility differences of various
tissues, such as blood, iron and calcification, as a new
source of contrast enhancement. This pictorial review is
aimed at illustrating and discussing its main clinical
applications.
Methods SWI is based on high-resolution, threedimensional
(3D), fully velocity-compensated gradientecho
sequences using both magnitude and phase images.
A phase mask obtained from the MR phase images is
multiplied with magnitude images in order to increase the
visualisation of the smaller veins and other sources of
susceptibility effects, which are displayed at best after postprocessing
of the 3D dataset with the minimal intensity
projection (minIP) algorithm.
Results SWI is very useful in detecting cerebral microbleeds
in ageing and occult low-flow vascular malformations,
in characterising brain tumours and degenerative diseases of the brain, and in recognizing calcifications in
various pathological conditions. The phase images are
especially useful in differentiating between paramagnetic
susceptibility effects of blood and diamagnetic effects of
calcium. SWI can also be used to evaluate changes in iron
content in different neurodegenerative disorders.
Conclusion SWI is useful in differentiating and characterising
diverse brain disorders
Consolidated bioprocessing of corn cob-derived hemicellulose: engineered industrial Saccharomyces cerevisiae as efficient whole cell biocatalysts
Background
Consolidated bioprocessing, which combines saccharolytic and fermentative abilities in a single microorganism, is receiving increased attention to decrease environmental and economic costs in lignocellulosic biorefineries. Nevertheless, the economic viability of lignocellulosic ethanol is also dependent of an efficient utilization of the hemicellulosic fraction, which contains xylose as a major component in concentrations that can reach up to 40% of the total biomass in hardwoods and agricultural residues. This major bottleneck is mainly due to the necessity of chemical/enzymatic treatments to hydrolyze hemicellulose into fermentable sugars and to the fact that xylose is not readily consumed by Saccharomyces cerevisiaethe most used organism for large-scale ethanol production. In this work, industrial S. cerevisiae strains, presenting robust traits such as thermotolerance and improved resistance to inhibitors, were evaluated as hosts for the cell-surface display of hemicellulolytic enzymes and optimized xylose assimilation, aiming at the development of whole-cell biocatalysts for consolidated bioprocessing of corn cob-derived hemicellulose.
Results
These modifications allowed the direct production of ethanol from non-detoxified hemicellulosic liquor obtained by hydrothermal pretreatment of corn cob, reaching an ethanol titer of 11.1 g/L corresponding to a yield of 0.328 g/g of potential xylose and glucose, without the need for external hydrolytic catalysts. Also, consolidated bioprocessing of pretreated corn cob was found to be more efficient for hemicellulosic ethanol production than simultaneous saccharification and fermentation with addition of commercial hemicellulases.
Conclusions
These results show the potential of industrial S. cerevisiae strains for the design of whole-cell biocatalysts and paves the way for the development of more efficient consolidated bioprocesses for lignocellulosic biomass valorization, further decreasing environmental and economic costs.This work has been carried out at the Biomass and Bioenergy Research Infrastructure (BBRI)-LISBOA-01-0145-FEDER-022059, supported by Operational
Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalization (PORTUGAL2020),
by Lisbon Portugal Regional Operational Programme (Lisboa 2020) and
by North Portugal Regional Operational Programme (Norte 2020) under the Portugal 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional
Development Fund (ERDF) and has been supported by the Portuguese
Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the scope of the strategic
funding of UIDB/04469/2020, the “Contrato-Programa” UIDB/04050/2020, the
MIT-Portugal Program (Ph.D. Grant PD/BD/128247/2016 to Joana T. Cunha)
and through Project FatVal (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-032506) and BioTecNorte
operation (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000004) funded by the European Regional
Development Fund under the scope of Norte2020 - Programa Operacional
Regional do Norte.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
The role of resveratrol on skeletal muscle cell differentiation and myotube hypertrophy during glucose restriction
Glucose restriction (GR) impairs muscle cell differentiation and evokes myotube atrophy. Resveratrol treatment in skeletal
muscle cells improves inflammatory-induced reductions in skeletal muscle cell differentiation. We therefore hypothesised
that resveratrol treatment would improve muscle cell differentiation and myotube hypertrophy in differentiating C2C12
myoblasts and mature myotubes during GR. Glucose restriction at 0.6 g/L (3.3 mM) blocked differentiation and myotube
hypertrophy versus high-glucose (4.5 g/L or 25 mM) differentiation media (DM) conditions universally used for myoblast
culture. Resveratrol (10 μM) treatment increased SIRT1 phosphorylation in DM conditions, yet did not improve differentiation
when administered to differentiating myoblasts in GR conditions. Resveratrol did evoke increases in hypertrophy of mature
myotubes under DM conditions with corresponding elevated Igf-I and Myhc7 gene expression, coding for the ‘slow’ type I
MYHC protein isoform. Inhibition of SIRT1 via EX-527 administration (100 nM) also reduced myotube diameter and area
in DM conditions and resulted in lower gene expression of Myhc 1, 2 and 4 coding for ‘intermediate’ and ‘faster’ IIx, IIa
and IIb protein isoforms, respectively. Resveratrol treatment did not appear to modulate phosphorylation of energy-sensing
protein AMPK or protein translation initiator P70S6K. Importantly, in mature myotubes, resveratrol treatment was able to
ameliorate reduced myotube growth in GR conditions over an acute 24-h period, but not over 48–72 h. Overall, resveratrol
evoked myotube hypertrophy in DM conditions while favouring ‘slower’ Myhc gene expression and acutely ameliorated
impaired myotube growth observed during glucose restriction
Effective Rheology of Bubbles Moving in a Capillary Tube
We calculate the average volumetric flux versus pressure drop of bubbles
moving in a single capillary tube with varying diameter, finding a square-root
relation from mapping the flow equations onto that of a driven overdamped
pendulum. The calculation is based on a derivation of the equation of motion of
a bubble train from considering the capillary forces and the entropy production
associated with the viscous flow. We also calculate the configurational
probability of the positions of the bubbles.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur
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