Bilateral Breast Inflammatory Pseudotumor: A Clinical Report and Literature Review

Inflammatory pseudotumor (IP) is a benign lesion that can affect nearly any tissue in the body and which may be confused clinically and in imaging for malignancy. Despite the widespread performance of breast biopsy, the finding of inflammatory pseudotumor of the breast is exceedingly rare. Excision of the tumor is the treatment of choice, but there is a relatively high rate of recurrence. The aim of this report is to describe the clinical, imaging, and pathologic features in a case of bilateral breast IP

Determining farmers' willingness to pay for irrigation water in the Alentejo region (Southern Portugal) by residual value method

This paper aims to determine farmers’ willingness to pay for irrigation water, using the residual value method, for the most representative crops at six Irrigation Communities from the Alentejo region, southern Portugal. The main objective of this assessment was to determine the value that farmers would be able to pay for the water to irrigate different crops at different locations, and to show that this approach can be used to provide information about farming economic sustainability and provide support on if crop prices need to be revised or if a national policy should be conceived to cover for farming costs. The results show that vegetables and fruit trees have the highest Residual Value ofWater (RVW), while Wheat, Sunflower, Fodder crops, Semi-intensive Olive Orchards and Rice tend to have an RVW lower than the current variable irrigation water price. The results also show that, while, for Melon, Tomato, Onion, Super-high-density Olive Orchards, Peach and Almonds, both yields and price may decrease significantly, allowing one to save for faming inputs, Sunflower and Rice would require an increase in yields or prices to cover for the irrigation water priceinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Changing Scales: Greenways From Region To Place – The Case Of The Algarve, Portugal.

This article aims to reflect and debate around the operational value of the greenway concept, while paramount instrument for landscape planning and management, divided in two parts. The first one focuses on the definition and evolution of the greenway concept and its relations with other fundamental concepts, such as continuum naturale, ecological structure and green infrastructure. In this conceptual approach, the main scope is the importance of accurate criteria definition for greenway design, considering the transposition between different scales. In the latter part of the article, the case study of the Algarve, southern Portugal, is presented, where greenway design occurs at a regional scale, integrated in a system designated as Estrutura Regional de Protecção e Valorização Ambiental (ERPVA, Regional Environmental Protection and Valorization Structure), within the Plano Regional de Ordenamento do Território do Algarve (PROT-Algarve, Territorial Management Plan of the Algarve), setting guidelines for the transposition for the municipal level landscape management instruments. The goal is to assess the challenges, opportunities and constraints enclosed in the scale adaptation process, namely through the analysis of the revision processes of the Planos Directores Municipais (PDM, municipal master plans) of Lagoa and Silves

Modelling economic impacts of deficit irrigated maize in Brazil with consideration of different rainfall regimes

Deficit irrigation is often required to cope with droughts and limited water availability. However, to select an appropriate irrigation management, it is necessary to assess when economic impacts of deficit irrigation are acceptable. Thus, the main goal of this study was to evaluate economic water productivity for maize submitted to various levels of water deficits and different irrigation systems. The study was based on two different experiments conducted in Southern Brazil, one using sprinkler irrigation to supplement rainfall and the other using drip irrigation with precipitation excluded by a rainfall shelter to simulate cultivation under dry conditions. Water productivity indicators were calculated referring to: a) actual field collected data, including yields, commodity prices and production costs; and b) a sensitivity analysis to commodity prices and production costs. Alternative centrepivot irrigation scenarios were also developed to assess their feasibility in terms of water use and productivity when irrigation is used to supplement rainfall or when rainfall is scarce. Results show that the feasibility of deficit irrigation is highly influenced by commodity prices and by the irrigation (and water) costs when the irrigation costs are a large part of the production costs. Results also show that deficit irrigation applied when rainfall is abundant is easier to implement than deficit irrigation where rainfall is very scarce, when only a mild stress is economically viable. For well-designed and managed centrepivot systems, results confirm that adopting deficit irrigation when rainfall is scarce is less attractive than under conditions of irrigation to supplement rainfall. It could be concluded that farmers are unlikely to choose a deficit irrigation strategy unless they are facing reduced water availability for irrigatio

Procedures of user-centered usability assessment for digital solutions: scoping review of reviews reporting on digital solutions relevant for older adults

The assessment of usability is a complex process that involves several steps and procedures. It is important to standardize the evaluation and reporting of usability procedures across studies to guide researchers, facilitate comparisons across studies, and promote high-quality usability studies. The first step to standardizing is to have an overview of how usability study procedures are reported across the literature.publishe

Experts evaluation of usability for digital solutions directed at older adults: a scoping review of reviews

Background: it is important to standardize the evaluation and reporting procedures across usability studies to guide researchers, facilitate comparisons, and promote high-quality studies. A first step to standardizing is to have an overview of how experts-based usability evaluation studies are reported across the literature. Objectives: to describe and synthesize the procedures of usability evaluation by experts that are being reported to conduct inspection usability assessments of digital solutions relevant for older adults. Methods: a scoping review of reviews was performed using a five-stage methodology to identify and describe relevant literature published between 2009 and 2020 as follows: i) identification of the research question; ii) identification of relevant studies; iii) select studies for review; iv) charting of data from selected literature; and v) collation, summary, and report of results. The research was conducted on five electronic databases: PubMed, ACM Digital Library, IEEE, Scopus, and Web of Science. The articles that met the inclusion criteria were identified, and data extracted for further analysis, including evaluators, current usability inspection methods, and instruments to support usability inspection methods. Results: a total of 3958 articles were identified. After a detailed screening, 12 reviews matched the eligibility criteria. Conclusion: overall, we found a variety of unstandardized procedures and a lack of detail on some important aspects of the assessment, including a thorough description of the evaluators and of the instruments used to facilitate the inspection evaluation such as heuristics checklists. These findings suggest the need for a consensus framework on the experts’ assessment of usability that informs researchers and allows standardization of procedures.in publicatio

A spontaneous increase in intracellular Ca2+ in metaphase II human oocytes in vitro can be prevented by drugs targeting ATP-sensitive K+ channels

STUDY QUESTION: Could drugs targeting ATP-sensitive K+ (KATP) channels prevent any spontaneous increase in intracellular Ca2+ that may occur in human metaphase II (MII) oocytes under in vitro conditions? SUMMARY ANSWER: Pinacidil, a KATP channel opener, and glibenclamide, a KATP channel blocker, prevent a spontaneous increase in intracellular Ca2+ in human MII oocytes. WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY: The quality of the oocyte and maintenance of this quality during in vitro processing in the assisted reproductive technology (ART) laboratory is of critical importance to successful embryo development and a healthy live birth. Maintenance of Ca2+ homeostasis is crucial for cell wellbeing and increased intracellular Ca2+ levels is a well-established indicator of cell stress. STUDY DESIGN, SIZE, DURATION: Supernumerary human oocytes (n = 102) collected during IVF/ICSI treatment that failed to fertilize were used from October 2013 to July 2015. All experiments were performed on mature (MII) oocytes. Dynamics of intracellular Ca2+ levels were monitored in oocytes in the following experimental groups: (i) Control, (ii) Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO; used to dissolve pinacidil, glibenclamide and 2,4-Dinitrophenol (DNP)), (iii) Pinacidil, (iv) Glibenclamide, (v) DNP: an inhibitor of oxidative phosphorylation, (vi) Pinacidil and DNP and (vii) Glibenclamide and DNP. PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS/SETTINGS/METHODS: Oocytes were collected under sedation as part of routine treatment at an assisted conception unit from healthy women (mean ± SD) age 34.1 ± 0.6 years, n = 41. Those surplus to clinical use were donated for research. Oocytes were loaded with Fluo-3 Ca2+-sensitive dye, and monitored by laser confocal microscopy for 2 h at 10 min intervals. Time between oocyte collection and start of Ca2+ monitoring was 80.4 ± 2.1 h. MAIN RESULTS AND THE ROLE OF CHANCE: Intracellular levels of Ca2+ increased under in vitro conditions with no deliberate challenge, as shown by Fluo-3 fluorescence increasing from 61.0 ± 11.8 AU (AU = arbitrary units; n = 23) to 91.8 ± 14.0 AU (n = 19; P <0.001) after 2 h of monitoring. Pinacidil (100 µM) inhibited this increase in Ca2+ (85.3 ± 12.3 AU at the beginning of the experiment, 81.7 ± 11.0 AU at the end of the experiment; n = 13; P = 0.616). Glibenclamide (100 µM) also inhibited the increase in Ca2+ (74.7 ± 10.6 AU at the beginning and 71.8 ± 10.9 AU at the end of the experiment; n = 13; P = 0.851. DNP (100 mM) induced an increase in intracellular Ca2+ that was inhibited by glibenclamide (100 µM; n = 9) but not by pinacidil (100 µM; n = 5). LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTION: Owing to clinical and ethical considerations, it was not possible to monitor Ca2+ in MII oocytes immediately after retrieval. MII oocytes were available for our experimentation only after unsuccessful IVF or ICSI, which was, on average, 80.4 ± 2.1 h (n = 102 oocytes) after the moment of retrieval. As the MII oocytes used here were those that were not successfully fertilized, it is possible that they may have been abnormal with impaired Ca2+ homeostasis and, furthermore, the altered Ca2+ homeostasis might have been associated solely with the protracted incubation. WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS: These results show that maintenance of oocytes under in vitro conditions is associated with intracellular increase in Ca2+, which can be counteracted by drugs targeting KATP channels. As Ca2+ homeostasis is crucial for contributing to a successful outcome of ART, these results suggest that KATP channel openers and blockers should be tested as drugs for improving success rates of ART

A dual-function SNF2 protein drives chromatid resolution and nascent transcripts removal in mitosis

Mitotic chromatin is largely assumed incompatible with transcription due to changes in the transcription machinery and chromosome architecture. However, the mechanisms of mitotic transcriptional inactivation and their interplay with chromosome assembly remain largely unknown. By monitoring ongoing transcription in Drosophila early embryos, we reveal that eviction of nascent mRNAs from mitotic chromatin occurs after substantial chromosome compaction and is not promoted by condensin I. Instead, we show that the timely removal of transcripts from mitotic chromatin is driven by the SNF2 helicase-like protein Lodestar (Lds), identified here as a modulator of sister chromatid cohesion defects. In addition to the eviction of nascent transcripts, we uncover that Lds cooperates with Topoisomerase 2 to ensure efficient sister chromatid resolution and mitotic fidelity. We conclude that the removal of nascent transcripts upon mitotic entry is not a passive consequence of cell cycle progression and/or chromosome compaction but occurs via dedicated mechanisms with functional parallelisms to sister chromatid resolution.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Perfluoropolyethers: Development of an All-Atom Force Field for Molecular Simulations and Validation with New Experimental Vapor Pressures and Liquid Densities

A force field for perfluoropolyethers (PFPEs) based on the general optimized potentials for liquid simulations all-atom (OPLS-AA) force field has been derived in conjunction with experiments and ab initio quantum mechanical calculations. Vapor pressures and densities of two liquid PFPEs, perfluorodiglyme (CF3−O−(CF2−CF2−O)2−CF3) and perfluorotriglyme (CF3−O−(CF2−CF2−O)3−CF3), have been measured experimentally to validate the force field and increase our understanding of the physical properties of PFPEs. Force field parameters build upon those for related molecules (e.g., ethers and perfluoroalkanes) in the OPLS-AA force field, with new parameters introduced for interactions specific to PFPEs. Molecular dynamics simulations using the new force field demonstrate excellent agreement with ab initio calculations at the RHF/6-31G* level for gas-phase torsional energies (<0.5 kcal mol−1 error) and molecular structures for several PFPEs, and also accurately reproduce experimentally determined densities (<0.02 g cm−3 error) and enthalpies of vaporization derived from experimental vapor pressures (<0.3 kcal mol−1). Additional comparisons between experiment and simulation show that polyethers demonstrate a significant decrease in enthalpy of vaporization upon fluorination unlike related molecules (e.g., alkanes and alcohols). Simulation suggests this phenomenon is a result of reduced cohesion in liquid PFPEs due to a reduction in localized associations between backbone oxygen atoms and neighboring molecules

Vapor pressure and liquid density of fluorinated alcohols:Experimental, simulation and GC-SAFT-VR predictions

The vapor pressure of four liquid 1H,1H-perfluoroalcohols (CF3(CF2)n(CH2)OH, n ¼ 1, 2, 3, 4), often called odd-fluorotelomer alcohols, was measured as a function of temperature between 278 K and 328 K. Liquid densities were also measured for a temperature range between 278 K and 353 K. Molar enthalpies of vaporization were calculated from the experimental data. The results are compared with data from the literature for other perfluoroalcohols as well as with the equivalent hydrogenated alcohols. The results were modeled and interpreted using molecular dynamics simulations and the GC-SAFT-VR equation of state