716 research outputs found
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
Micromechanical modeling of tension stiffening in FRP-strengthened concrete elements
This article presents a micromodeling computational framework for simulating the tensile response and tension-stiffening behavior of fiber reinforced polymer–strengthened reinforced concrete elements. The total response of strengthened elements is computed based on the local stress transfer mechanisms at the crack plane including concrete bridging stress, reinforcing bars stress, FRP stress, and the bond stresses at the bars-to-concrete and fiber reinforced polymer-to-concrete interfaces. The developed model provides the possibility of calculating the average response of fiber reinforced polymer, reinforcing bars, and concrete as well as the crack spacing and crack widths. The model, after validation with experimental results, is used for a systematic parameter study and development of micromechanics-based relations for calculating the crack spacing, fiber reinforced polymer critical ratio, debonding strength, and effective bond length. Constitutive models are also proposed for concrete tension stiffening and average response of steel reinforcing bars in fiber reinforced polymer–strengthened members as the main inputs of smeared crack modeling approaches
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
Seroprevalence of hepatitis C in type 2 diabetes: evidence for a positive association
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>There is a growing body of literature on the relationship of Hepatitis C virus infection (HCV) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). However, there are certain gaps in literature and the data is inconclusive. This study was, therefore, carried out to determine the prevalence of HCV infection in diabetic patients and to elucidate the presence of any possible relationship between HCV and T2DM in this region.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Serologic testing for anti-HCV antibody was done on a sample of 3000 individuals with T2DM visiting Diabetes Clinic of Nishtar Medical College Hospital, Multan and 10,000 volunteer blood donors visiting blood bank of the same hospital during the study period using Accurate rapid immunochromatographic kits which was later confirmed by using Chemelex S.A third generation ELISA kit for positive cases. Data about various variables was collected from diabetic patients using a structured questionnaire after taking informed consent.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Prevalence rate of 13.7% for HCV infection was recorded among subjects having T2DM with seropositivity rate of 4.9% among the control group of volunteer blood donors without diabetes. The patients with T2DM were more likely to have HCV infection as compared to the control group (OR = 3.03, 95%CI = 2.64-3.48, p = 0.001). Diabetic patients with age above 55 years had higher prevalence rate as compared to younger individuals. Male patients had significantly high seropositivity as compared to female patients (15.3% vs. 12.4%, p = 0.02). Those with duration of diabetes 11 years and above and the ones with good glycemic control had higher seroprevalence rates of 18.2% and 18.7% respectively. There was no statistically significant difference among subjects when the distribution of HCV was studied on the basis of marital status, locality, or family history of diabetes.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The results show that there is a strong association between HCV and T2DM in the region as evident from significantly higher prevalence of HCV infection in diabetics as compared to the control group in the present study.</p
Coordinated Regulation of ATF2 by miR-26b in γ-Irradiated Lung Cancer Cells
MicroRNA regulates cellular responses to ionizing radiation (IR) through translational control of target genes. We analyzed time-series changes in microRNA expression following γ-irradiation in H1299 lung cancer cells using microarray analysis. Significantly changed IR-responsive microRNAs were selected based on analysis of variance analysis, and predicted target mRNAs were enriched in mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling. Concurrent analysis of time-series mRNA and microRNA profiles uncovered that expression of miR-26b was down regulated, and its target activating transcription factor 2 (ATF2) mRNA was up regulated in γ-irradiated H1299 cells. IR in miR-26b overexpressed H1299 cells could not induce expression of ATF2. When c-Jun N-terminal kinase activity was inhibited using SP600125, expression of miR-26b was induced following γ-irradiation in H1299 cells. From these results, we concluded that IR-induced up-regulation of ATF2 was coordinately enhanced by suppression of miR-26b in lung cancer cells, which may enhance the effect of IR in the MAPK signaling pathway
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Association between egg consumption and cardiovascular disease events, diabetes and all-cause mortality
Purpose The association between egg consumption and
cardiovascular disease (CVD) or type 2 diabetes (T2D)
remains controversial. We investigated the association
between egg consumption and risk of CVD (primary outcome),
T2D and mortality in the Caerphilly prospective
cohort study (CAPS) and National Diet and Nutritional
Survey (NDNS).
Methods CAPS included 2512 men aged 45–59 years
(1979–1983). Dietary intake, disease incidence and mortality
were updated at 5-year intervals. NDNS included 754
adults aged 19–64 years from 2008 to 2012.
Results Men free of CVD (n = 1781) were followed up for
a mean of 22.8 years, egg consumption was not associated
with new incidence of CVD (n = 715), mortality (n = 1028)
or T2D (n = 120). When stroke (n = 248), MI (n = 477),heart failure (n = 201) were investigated separately, no
associations between egg consumption and stroke and MI
were identified, however, increased risk of stroke in subjects
with T2D and/or impaired glucose tolerance (IGT, fasting
plasma glucose ≥ 6.1 mmol/L), adjusted hazard ratios (95%
CI) were 1.0 (reference), 1.09 (0.41, 2.88), 0.96 (0.37, 2.50),
1.39 (0.54, 3.56) and 2.87 (1.13, 7.27) for egg intake (n) of
0 ≤ n ≤ 1, 1 < n ≤ 2, 2 < n ≤ 3, 3 < n < 5, and n ≥ 5 eggs/wk,
respectively (P = 0.01). In addition, cross-sectional analyses
revealed that higher egg consumption was significantly
associated with elevated fasting glucose in those with T2D
and/or IGT (CAPS: baseline P = 0.02 and 5-year P = 0.04;
NDNS: P = 0.05).
Conclusions Higher egg consumption was associated with
higher blood glucose in subjects with T2D and/or IGT. The
increased incidence of stroke with higher egg consumption
among T2D and/or IGT sub-group warrants further
investigation
History of Spinal Neurosurgery and Spine Societies
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
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