Primary Adrenal Leiomyosarcoma: a Case Report and Literature Review

The case presented here illustrates a 75 year old female patient who underwent surgical resection of a right adrenal mass of uncertain nature. The final histological diagnosis was consistent with leiomyosarcoma arising from the adrenal anatomic site

Deformations of Multiparameter Quantum gl(N)

Multiparameter quantum gl(N) is not a rigid structure. This paper defines an essential deformation as one that cannot be interpreted in terms of a similarity transformation, nor as a perturbation of the parameters. All the equivalence classes of first order essential deformations are found, as well as a class of exact deformations. This work provides quantization of all the classical Lie bialgebra structures (constant r-matrices) found by Belavin and Drinfeld for sl(n). A special case, that requires the Hecke parameter to be a cubic root of unity, stands out.Comment: 15 pages. Plain Te

Endocytoscopic imaging and tattooing: a caveat

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Trigeminal sensory pathway function in patients with SUNCT

[IF 2.64] Objective: Short-lasting unilateral neuralgiform headache with conjunctival injection and tearing (SUNCT) is a rare primary headache whose origins are unclear. To seek information on its pathophysiology, we studied the trigeminal Ab and Ad pathways by recording trigeminal reflexes and laser evoked potentials (LEPs) in patients with SUNCT. Methods: Trigeminal reflexes and LEPs were recorded in 11 consecutive patients. Ten patients had neuroimaging evidence documenting idiopathic SUNCT and one had a posterior fossa tumour that compressed the trigeminal nerve thus causing symptomatic SUNCT. Results: Whereas the patients with idiopathic SUNCT had normal trigeminal reflex and LEP responses, the patient with symptomatic SUNCT had abnormal responses. Conclusions: Our neurophysiological findings show that idiopathic SUNCT spares the trigeminal sensory pathways whereas symptomatic SUNCT does not. Significance: Neurophysiological testing can easily differentiate the idiopathic and symptomatic forms of SUNCT. It also suggests that the two forms are pathophysiologically distinct entities

On the stability of quantum holonomic gates

We provide a unified geometrical description for analyzing the stability of holonomic quantum gates in the presence of imprecise driving controls (parametric noise). We consider the situation in which these fluctuations do not affect the adiabatic evolution but can reduce the logical gate performance. Using the intrinsic geometric properties of the holonomic gates, we show under which conditions on noise's correlation time and strength, the fluctuations in the driving field cancel out. In this way, we provide theoretical support to previous numerical simulations. We also briefly comment on the error due to the mismatch between real and nominal time of the period of the driving fields and show that it can be reduced by suitably increasing the adiabatic time.Comment: 7 page

TLR3 expression induces apoptosis in human non‐small‐cell lung cancer

The prognostic value of Toll\u2010like receptor 3 (TLR3) is debated in cancer, differing between tumor types, methods, and cell types. We recently showed for the first time that TLR3 expression on early stage non\u2010small\u2010cell lung cancer (NSCLC) results associated with a good prognosis. Here, we provide experimental evidences explaining the molecular reason behind TLR3\u2019s favorable prognostic role. We demonstrated that TLR3 activation in vitro induces apoptosis in lung cancer cell lines and, accordingly, that TLR3 expression is associated with caspase\u20103 activation in adenocarcinoma NSCLC specimens, both evaluated by immunohistochemistry. Moreover, we showed that TLR3 expression on cancer cells contributes to activate the CD103+ lung dendritic cell subset, that is specifically associated with processing of antigens derived from apoptotic cells and their presentation to CD8+ T lymphocytes. These findings point to the relevant role of TLR3 expression on lung cancer cells and support the use of TLR3 agonists in NSCLC patients to re\u2010activate local innate immune response

Effects of miRNA-15 and miRNA-16 expression replacement in chronic lymphocytic leukemia : implication for therapy

This work was supported by: Associazione Italiana Ricerca sul Cancro (AIRC) Grant 5 x mille n.9980, (to M.F., F.M. A. N., P.T. and M.N.) ; AIRC I.G. n. 14326 (to M.F.), n.10136 and 16722 (A.N.), n.15426 (to F.F.). AIRC and Fondazione CaRiCal co-financed Multi Unit Regional Grant 2014 n.16695 (to F.M.). Italian Ministry of Health 5x1000 funds (to S.Z. and F.F). A.G R. was supported by Associazione Italiana contro le Leucemie-Linfomi-Mielomi (AIL) Cosenza - Fondazione Amelia Scorza (FAS). S.M. C.M., M.C., L.E., S.B. were supported by AIRC.Peer reviewedPostprin

Painful stimulation increases spontaneous blink rate in healthy subjects

Spontaneous blink rate is considered a biomarker of central dopaminergic activity. Recent evidence suggests that the central dopaminergic system plays a role in nociception. In the present study, we aimed to investigate whether pain modulates spontaneous blink rate in healthy subjects. We enrolled 15 participants. Spontaneous blink rate was quantified with an optoelectronic system before and after: (1) a painful laser stimulation, and (2) an acoustic startling stimulation. In control experiments, we investigated whether laser stimulation effects depended on stimulation intensity and whether laser stimulation induced any changes in the blink reflex recovery cycle. Finally, we investigated any relationship between spontaneous blink rate modification and pain modulation effect during the cold pressor test. Laser, but not acoustic, stimulation increased spontaneous blink rate. This effect was independent of stimulation intensity and negatively correlated with pain perception. No changes in trigeminal-facial reflex circuit excitability were elicited by laser stimulation. The cold pressor test also induced an increased spontaneous blink rate. Our study provides evidence on the role of dopamine in nociception and suggests that dopaminergic activity may be involved in pain modulation. These findings lay the groundwork for further investigations in patients with pathological conditions characterized by dopaminergic deficit and pain

Cooling the skin for assessing small-fibre function

In this clinical and neurophysiological study using a novel cold stimulator we aim at investigating whether cold evoked potentials may prove to be a reliable diagnostic tool to assess trigeminal small-fibre function.Using a novel device consisting of micro-Peltier elements, we recorded cold evoked potentials after stimulating the supraorbital and perioral regions and the hand dorsum in 15 healthy participants and in two patients with exemplary facial neuropathic pain conditions. We measured peripheral conduction velocity at the upper arm and studied the brain generators using source analysis. In healthy participants and patients, we also compared cold evoked potentials with laser evoked potentials.In the healthy participants, cold stimulation evoked reproducible scalp potentials, similar to those elicited by laser pulses, though with a latency of about 30 ms longer. The mean peripheral conduction velocity, estimated at the upper arm, was 12.7 m/s. The main waves of the scalp potentials originated from the anterior cingulate gyrus and were preceded by activity in the bilateral opercular regions and bilateral dorso-lateral frontal regions. Unlike laser stimulation, cold stimulation evoked scalp potential of similar amplitude across perioral, supraorbital and hand dorsum stimulation. In patients with facial neuropathic pain, cold evoked potential recording showed the selective damage of cold pathways providing complementary information to laser evoked potential recording.Our clinical and neurophysiological study shows that this new device provides reliable information on trigeminal small-fibres mediating cold sensation, and might be useful for investigating patients with facial neuropathic pain associated with a distinct damage of cold-mediating fibres

Jordan Pairs, E6 and U-Duality in Five Dimensions

By exploiting the Jordan pair structure of U-duality Lie algebras in D = 3 and the relation to the super-Ehlers symmetry in D = 5, we elucidate the massless multiplet structure of the spectrum of a broad class of D = 5 supergravity theories. Both simple and semi-simple, Euclidean rank-3 Jordan algebras are considered. Theories sharing the same bosonic sector but with different supersymmetrizations are also analyzed.Comment: 1+41 pages, 1 Table; v2 : a Ref. and some comments adde