On-Line Process Fiber Optic Refractometer for Measuring Edible Oil Hydrogenation

The process of edible oil partial hydrogenation has improved steadily over the past decades, but few on-line process instruments exist capable of measuring the extent of hydrogenation. This work describes the design of a prototype, on-line fiber optic refractometer for controlling and monitoring of oils. It uses an established correlation between the degree of hydrogenation of an edible oil and its refractive index (Rl). The refractometer cell uses a bare optical fiber in direct contact with processing oil. Equations are given describing the power transmission characteristics of an optical fiber as a function of its cladding Rl. Comparisons between calculated and experimental data are shown using test liquids flowing through the refractometer

Reviews

A Sword between the Sexes?: C.S. Lewis and the Gender Debates. Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen. Reviewed by Joe R. Christopher. The Cambridge Companion to C.S. Lewis. Edited by Robert MacSwain and Michael Ward. Reviewed by Gregory Bassham. The Law and Harry Potter. Jeffrey E. Thomas and Franklin G. Snyder, eds. Reviewed by Douglas C. Kane. Merlin: Knowledge and Power through the Ages. Stephen Knight. Reviewed by Harley J. Sims. Tolkien\u27s The Lord of the Rings: Sources of Inspiration. Ed. by Stratford Caldecott and Thomas Honegger. Reviewed by Charles A. Huttar. One Earth, One People: The Mythopoeic Fantasy Series of Ursula K. Le Guin, Lloyd Alexander, Madeleine L\u27Engle and Orson Scott Card. By Marek Oziewicz. Reviewed by Donna R. White. War of the Fantasy Worlds: C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien on Art and Imagination. Martha C. Sammons. Reviewed by David Bratman

Fulvestrant treatment of precocious puberty in girls with McCune-Albright syndrome

BACKGROUND: McCune-Albright Syndrome (MAS) is usually characterized by the triad of precocious puberty (PP), fibrous dysplasia, and café au lait spots. Previous treatments investigated for PP have included aromatase inhibitors and the estrogen receptor modulator, tamoxifen. Although some agents have been partially effective, the optimal pharmacologic treatment of PP in girls with MAS has not been identified. The objective of this study was to evaluate the safety and efficacy of fulvestrant (Faslodex(TM)), a pure estrogen receptor antagonist, in girls with progressive precocious puberty (PP) associated with McCune-Albright Syndrome (MAS). METHODS: In this prospective international multicenter trial, thirty girls ≤ 10 years old with MAS and progressive PP received fulvestrant 4 mg/kg via monthly intramuscular injections for 12 months. Changes in vaginal bleeding, rates of bone age advancement, growth velocity, Tanner staging, predicted adult heights, and uterine and ovarian volumes were measured. RESULTS: Median vaginal bleeding days decreased from 12.0 days per year to 1.0 day per year, with a median change in frequency of -3.6 days, (95% confidence interval (CI) -10.10, 0.00; p = 0.0146). Of patients with baseline bleeding, 74% experienced a ≥50% reduction in bleeding, and 35% experienced complete cessation during the study period (95% CI 51.6%, 89.8%; 16.4%, 57.3%, respectively). Average rates of bone age advancement (ΔBA/ΔCA) decreased from 1.99 pre-treatment to 1.06 on treatment (mean change -0.93, 95% CI -1.43, -0.43; p = 0.0007). No significant changes in uterine volumes or other endpoints or serious adverse events occurred. CONCLUSIONS: Fulvestrant was well tolerated and moderately effective in decreasing vaginal bleeding and rates of skeletal maturation in girls with MAS. Longer-term studies aimed at further defining potential benefits and risks of this novel therapeutic approach in girls with MAS are needed. TRIAL REGISTRATION: NCT0027891

Rosa hybrid gene GAPC is mutated in the presence of the Rose Rosette Virus

Rose Rosette Disease (RRD) harms the global rose supply by modification of the growth and development in rose cultivar. RRD spreads via a negative-sense RNA plant virus transmitted by eriophyid mites. Importantly, there is no pre-existing knowledge about the biochemistry by which this virus debilitates roses. Here we implicate glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH), one of the major metabolic enzymes in plants, as a possible target of the virus. Genomic DNA of the cytosolic form of the protein encoded by GAPC was extracted from both virally-infected and non-infected samples of the Rosa hybrid cultivar Rosa Tropicana. The sequence results provided several distinct differences in the GAPC gene of the non-infected rose compared to the virally-infected rose. Importantly, these modified nucleotide bases resulted in a putative protein sequence containing four unique non-conserved amino acid substitutions in the GAPDH enzyme. This study provides the first evidence of a gene impacted in virally-infected rose plants

Environmental DNA captures elasmobranch diversity in a temperate marine ecosystem

Abstract: Many sharks, skates, and rays (elasmobranchs) are highly threatened by the activities of commercial fisheries, and a clear understanding of their distributions, diversity, and abundance can guide protective measures. However, surveying and monitoring elasmobranch species can be highly invasive or resource‐intensive, and utilization of non‐invasive environmental DNA‐based methods may overcome these problems. Here, we studied spatial and seasonal variation in the elasmobranch community of the Western English Channel using environmental DNA (eDNA) collected from surface and bottom waters periodically over an annual cycle (2017–2018). In total we recovered 13 elasmobranch species within eDNA samples, and the number of transformed eDNA reads was positively associated with species (hourly) catch data resolved from 105‐year time series trawl data (1914–2018). These results demonstrate the ability of eDNA to detect and semi‐quantitatively reflect the prevalence of historically dominant and rare elasmobranch species in this region. Notably, eDNA recorded a greater number of species per sampling event than a conventional trawl survey in the same area over the same sampling years (2017–2018). Several threatened species were recovered within the eDNA, including undulate ray, porbeagle shark, and thresher shark. Using eDNA, we found differences in elasmobranch communities among sampling stations and between seasons, but not between sampling depths. Collectively, our results suggest that non‐invasive eDNA‐based methods can be used to study the spatial and seasonal changes in the diversity and abundance of whole elasmobranch communities within temperate shelf habitats. Given the threatened status of many elasmobranchs in human‐impacted marine environments, eDNA analysis is poised to provide key information on their diversity and distributions to inform conservation‐focused monitoring and management

A simple group of order 44,352,000

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/46258/1/209_2005_Article_BF01110435.pd

Integrated DNA and RNA Sequencing Reveals Drivers of Endocrine Resistance in Estrogen Receptor Positive Breast Cancer

PURPOSE: Endocrine therapy resistance (ETR) remains the greatest challenge in treating patients with hormone receptor–positive breast cancer. We set out to identify molecular mechanisms underlying ETR through in-depth genomic analysis of breast tumors. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: We collected pre-treatment and sequential on-treatment tumor samples from 35 patients with estrogen receptor–positive breast cancer treated with neoadjuvant then adjuvant endocrine therapy; 3 had intrinsic resistance, 19 acquired resistance, and 13 remained sensitive. Response was determined by changes in tumor volume neoadjuvantly and by monitoring for adjuvant recurrence. Twelve patients received two or more lines of endocrine therapy, with subsequent treatment lines being initiated at the time of development of resistance to the previous endocrine therapy. DNA whole-exome sequencing and RNA sequencing were performed on all samples, totalling 169 unique specimens. DNA mutations, copy-number alterations, and gene expression data were analyzed through unsupervised and supervised analyses to identify molecular features related to ETR. RESULTS: Mutations enriched in ETR included ESR1 and GATA3. The known ESR1 D538G variant conferring ETR was identified, as was a rarer E380Q variant that confers endocrine hypersensitivity. Resistant tumors which acquired resistance had distinct gene expression profiles compared with paired sensitive tumors, showing elevated pathways including ER, HER2, GATA3, AKT, RAS, and p63 signaling. Integrated analysis in individual patients highlighted the diversity of ETR mechanisms. CONCLUSIONS: The mechanisms underlying ETR are multiple and characterized by diverse changes in both somatic genetic and transcriptomic profiles; to overcome resistance will require an individualized approach utilizing genomic and genetic biomarkers and drugs tailored to each patient

Relationship of Sedentary Behavior and Physical Activity to Incident Cardiovascular Disease Results From the Women's Health Initiative

ObjectivesThe aim of this study was to examine the independent and joint associations of sitting time and physical activity with risk of incident cardiovascular disease (CVD).BackgroundSedentary behavior is recognized as a distinct construct beyond lack of leisure-time physical activity, but limited data exist on the interrelationship between these 2 components of energy balance.MethodsParticipants in the prospective Women’s Health Initiative Observational Study (n = 71,018), 50 to 79 years of age and free of CVD at baseline (1993 to 1998), provided information on sedentary behavior, defined as hours of sitting/day, and usual physical activity at baseline and during follow-up through September 2010. First CVD (coronary heart disease or stroke) events were centrally adjudicated.ResultsSitting ≥10 h/day compared with ≤5 h/day was associated with increased CVD risk (hazard ratio: 1.18, 95% confidence interval: 1.09 to 1.29) in multivariable models including physical activity. Low physical activity was also associated with higher CVD risk (p for trend < 0.001). When women were cross-classified by sitting time and physical activity (p for interaction = 0.94), CVD risk was highest in inactive women (≤1.7 metabolic equivalent task-h/week) who also reported ≥10 h/day of sitting. Results were similar for coronary heart disease and stroke when examined separately. Associations between prolonged sitting and risk of CVD were stronger in overweight versus normal weight women and women 70 years of age and older compared with younger women.ConclusionsProlonged sitting time was associated with increased CVD risk, independent of leisure-time physical activity, in postmenopausal women without a history of CVD. A combination of low physical activity and prolonged sitting augments CVD risk

SITC cancer immunotherapy resource document: a compass in the land of biomarker discovery.

Since the publication of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer\u27s (SITC) original cancer immunotherapy biomarkers resource document, there have been remarkable breakthroughs in cancer immunotherapy, in particular the development and approval of immune checkpoint inhibitors, engineered cellular therapies, and tumor vaccines to unleash antitumor immune activity. The most notable feature of these breakthroughs is the achievement of durable clinical responses in some patients, enabling long-term survival. These durable responses have been noted in tumor types that were not previously considered immunotherapy-sensitive, suggesting that all patients with cancer may have the potential to benefit from immunotherapy. However, a persistent challenge in the field is the fact that only a minority of patients respond to immunotherapy, especially those therapies that rely on endogenous immune activation such as checkpoint inhibitors and vaccination due to the complex and heterogeneous immune escape mechanisms which can develop in each patient. Therefore, the development of robust biomarkers for each immunotherapy strategy, enabling rational patient selection and the design of precise combination therapies, is key for the continued success and improvement of immunotherapy. In this document, we summarize and update established biomarkers, guidelines, and regulatory considerations for clinical immune biomarker development, discuss well-known and novel technologies for biomarker discovery and validation, and provide tools and resources that can be used by the biomarker research community to facilitate the continued development of immuno-oncology and aid in the goal of durable responses in all patients