Magneto-optical imaging of magnetic deflagration in Mn12-Acetate

For the first time, the morphology and dynamics of spin avalanches in Mn12-Acetate crystals using magneto-optical imaging has been explored. We observe an inhomogeneous relaxation of the magnetization, the spins reversing first at one edge of the crystal and a few milliseconds later at the other end. Our data fit well with the theory of magnetic deflagration, demonstrating that very slow deflagration rates can be obtained, which makes new types of experiments possible.Comment: 5 two-column pages, 3 figures, EPL styl

Candida bracarensis, an emerging yeast involved in human infections

Sir, Invasive candidiasis is an increasingly detected complication in hospitalized adult patients, due to an increase in patients at risk (patients admitted to intensive care units, post-surgical patients, neutropenic and immunosuppressed patients). Non- albicans Candida species have increased in multiple centers and new species are proposed. This is the case of Candida nivariensis and Candida bracarensis that are phylogenetically related with C. glabrata, although with sufficiently genotypically different to justify their assignment as separate species..

Unravelling the size distribution of social groups with information theory on complex networks

The minimization of Fisher's information (MFI) approach of Frieden et al. [Phys. Rev. E {\bf 60} 48 (1999)] is applied to the study of size distributions in social groups on the basis of a recently established analogy between scale invariant systems and classical gases [arXiv:0908.0504]. Going beyond the ideal gas scenario is seen to be tantamount to simulating the interactions taking place in a network's competitive cluster growth process. We find a scaling rule that allows to classify the final cluster-size distributions using only one parameter that we call the competitiveness. Empirical city-size distributions and electoral results can be thus reproduced and classified according to this competitiveness, which also allows to correctly predict well-established assessments such as the "six-degrees of separation", which is shown here to be a direct consequence of the maximum number of stable social relationships that one person can maintain, known as Dunbar's number. Finally, we show that scaled city-size distributions of large countries follow the same universal distribution

p53 and bcl-2 expression in high-grade B-cell lymphomas: correlation with survival time.

B-cell high-grade lymphomas are heterogeneous in terms of histology, clinical presentation, treatment response and prognosis. As bcl-2 and p53 gene deregulations are frequently involved in several types of lymphoid malignancies, we aimed our investigation at the study of the relation between bcl-2 and p53 expression and survival probability in a group of 119 patients with B-cell high-grade lymphoma. These were obtained from the Virgen de la Salud Hospital, Toledo, Spain (73 cases), John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, UK (31 cases), and the Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milan, Italy (15 cases). The relation between bcl-2 protein expression and survival was small, depending on the primary localisation of the tumour (in lymph node of mucosae), and lacked a significant correlation with overall survival. In contrast with this, p53 expression was related to survival probability in our series, this relation being both significant and independent of histological diagnosis. p53-positive patients showed a sudden decrease in life expectancy in the first months after diagnosis. Multivariant regression analysis confirmed that the only parameters significantly related with survival were extranodal origin, which is associated with a better prognosis, and p53 expression, which indicates a poor prognosis. Simultaneous expression of bcl-2 and p53 was associated with a poorer prognosis than p53 alone. This is particularly significant for large B-cell lymphomas presenting in lymph nodes. The cumulative poor effect of both p53 and bcl-2 in large B-cell lymphomas, which is more significant in nodal tumours, could confirm the existence of a multistep genetic deregulation in non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. This indicates that the genetic mechanisms controlling apoptosis and their disregulation are critical steps in the progression of lymphomas

Gene expression profiling reveals different pathways related to Abl and other genes that cooperate with c-Myc in a model of plasma cell neoplasia

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>To elucidate the genes involved in the neoplastic transformation of B cells, global gene expression profiles were generated using Affymetrix U74Av2 microarrays, containing 12,488 genes, for four different groups of mouse B-cell lymphomas and six subtypes of pristane-induced mouse plasma cell tumors, three of which developed much earlier than the others.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Unsupervised hierarchical cluster analysis exhibited two main sub-clusters of samples: a B-cell lymphoma cluster and a plasma cell tumor cluster with subclusters reflecting mechanism of induction. This report represents the first step in using global gene expression to investigate molecular signatures related to the role of cooperating oncogenes in a model of Myc-induced carcinogenesis. Within a single subgroup, e.g., ABPCs, plasma cell tumors that contained typical T(12;15) chromosomal translocations did not display gene expression patterns distinct from those with variant T(6;15) translocations, in which the breakpoint was in the <it>Pvt-1 </it>locus, 230 kb 3' of c-<it>Myc</it>, suggesting that c-<it>Myc </it>activation was the initiating factor in both. When integrated with previously published Affymetrix array data from human multiple myelomas, the IL-6-transgenic subset of mouse plasma cell tumors clustered more closely with MM1 subsets of human myelomas, slow-appearing plasma cell tumors clustered together with MM2, while plasma cell tumors accelerated by v-Abl clustered with the more aggressive MM3-MM4 myeloma subsets. Slow-appearing plasma cell tumors expressed <it>Socs1 </it>and <it>Socs2 </it>but v-<it>Abl</it>-accelerated plasma cell tumors expressed 4–5 times as much. Both v-<it>Abl</it>-accelerated and non-v-<it>Ab</it>l-associated tumors exhibited phosphorylated STAT 1 and 3, but only v-Abl-accelerated plasma cell tumors lost viability and STAT 1 and 3 phosphorylation when cultured in the presence of the v-Abl kinase inhibitor, STI-571. These data suggest that the Jak/Stat pathway was critical in the transformation acceleration by v-Abl and that v-Abl activity remained essential throughout the life of the tumors, not just in their acceleration. A different pathway appears to predominate in the more slowly arising plasma cell tumors.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Gene expression profiling differentiates not only B-cell lymphomas from plasma cell tumors but also distinguishes slow from accelerated plasma cell tumors. These data and those obtained from the sensitivity of v-Abl-accelerated plasma cell tumors and their phosphorylated STAT proteins indicate that these similar tumors utilize different signaling pathways but share a common initiating genetic lesion, a c-<it>Myc</it>-activating chromosome translocation.</p

Overexpression of MicroRNAs from the miR-17-92 Paralog Clusters in AIDS-Related Non-Hodgkin's Lymphomas

Individuals infected by HIV are at an increased risk for developing non-Hodgkin's lymphomas (AIDS-NHL). In the highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) era, there has been a significant decline in the incidence of AIDS-associated primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL). However, only a modest decrease in incidence has been reported for other AIDS-NHL subtypes. Thus, AIDS-NHLs remain a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in HIV infected individuals. Recently, much attention has been directed toward the role of miRNAs in cancer, including NHL. Several miRNAs, including those encoded by the miR-17-92 polycistron, have been shown to play significant roles in B cell tumorigenesis. However, the role of miRNAs in NHL in the setting of HIV infection has not been defined.We used quantitative realtime PCR to assess the expression of miRNAs from three different paralog clusters, miR-17-92, miR-106a-363, and miR-106b-25 in 24 cases of AIDS-NHLs representing four tumor types, Burkitt's lymphoma (BL, n = 6), diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL, n = 8), primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL, n = 5), and primary effusion lymphoma (PEL, n = 5). We also used microarray analysis to identify a differentiation specific miRNA signature of naïve, germinal center, and memory B cell subsets from tonsils (n = 4). miRNAs from the miR-17-92 paralog clusters were upregulated by B cells, specifically during the GC differentiation stage. We also found overexpression of these miRNA clusters in all four AIDS-NHL subtypes. Finally, we also show that select miRNAs from these clusters (miR-17, miR-106a, and miR-106b) inhibited p21 in AIDS-BL and DLBCL cases, thus providing a mechanistic role for these miRNAs in AIDS-NHL pathogenesis.Dysregulation of miR-17-92 paralog clusters is a common feature of AIDS-associated NHLs

Soil erosion modelling: A global review and statistical analysis

To gain a better understanding of the global application of soil erosion prediction models, we comprehensivelyreviewed relevant peer-reviewed research literature on soil-erosion modelling published between 1994 and2017. We aimed to identify (i) the processes and models most frequently addressed in the literature, (ii) the re-gions within which models are primarily applied, (iii) the regions which remain unaddressed and why, and (iv)how frequently studies are conducted to validate/evaluate model outcomes relative to measured data. To per-form this task, we combined the collective knowledge of 67 soil-erosion scientists from 25 countries. Theresulting database, named‘Global Applications of Soil Erosion Modelling Tracker (GASEMT)’, includes 3030 indi-vidual modelling records from 126 countries, encompassing all continents (except Antarctica). Out of the 8471articles identified as potentially relevant, we reviewed 1697 appropriate articles and systematically evaluatedand transferred 42 relevant attributes into the database. This GASEMT database provides comprehensive insightsinto the state-of-the-art of soil- erosion models and model applications worldwide. This database intends to sup-port the upcoming country-based United Nations global soil-erosion assessment in addition to helping to informsoil erosion research priorities by building a foundation for future targeted, in-depth analyses. GASEMT is anopen-source database available to the entire user-community to develop research, rectify errors, andmakefutureexpansion

Soil erosion modelling: A bibliometric analysis

Soil erosion can present a major threat to agriculture due to loss of soil, nutrients, and organic carbon. Therefore, soil erosion modelling is one of the steps used to plan suitable soil protection measures and detect erosion hotspots. A bibliometric analysis of this topic can reveal research patterns and soil erosion modelling characteristics that can help identify steps needed to enhance the research conducted in this field. Therefore, a detailed bibliometric analysis, including investigation of collaboration networks and citation patterns, should be conducted. The updated version of the Global Applications of Soil Erosion Modelling Tracker (GASEMT) database contains information about citation characteristics and publication type. Here, we investigated the impact of the number of authors, the publication type and the selected journal on the number of citations. Generalized boosted regression tree (BRT) modelling was used to evaluate the most relevant variables related to soil erosion modelling. Additionally, bibliometric networks were analysed and visualized. This study revealed that the selection of the soil erosion model has the largest impact on the number of publication citations, followed by the modelling scale and the publication\u27s CiteScore. Some of the other GASEMT database attributes such as model calibration and validation have negligible influence on the number of citations according to the BRT model. Although it is true that studies that conduct calibration, on average, received around 30% more citations, than studies where calibration was not performed. Moreover, the bibliographic coupling and citation networks show a clear continental pattern, although the co-authorship network does not show the same characteristics. Therefore, soil erosion modellers should conduct even more comprehensive review of past studies and focus not just on the research conducted in the same country or continent. Moreover, when evaluating soil erosion models, an additional focus should be given to field measurements, model calibration, performance assessment and uncertainty of modelling results. The results of this study indicate that these GASEMT database attributes had smaller impact on the number of citations, according to the BRT model, than anticipated, which could suggest that these attributes should be given additional attention by the soil erosion modelling community. This study provides a kind of bibliographic benchmark for soil erosion modelling research papers as modellers can estimate the influence of their paper

Soil erosion modelling: A bibliometric analysis

Soil erosion can present a major threat to agriculture due to loss of soil, nutrients, and organic carbon. Therefore, soil erosion modelling is one of the steps used to plan suitable soil protection measures and detect erosion hotspots. A bibliometric analysis of this topic can reveal research patterns and soil erosion modelling characteristics that can help identify steps needed to enhance the research conducted in this field. Therefore, a detailed bibliometric analysis, including investigation of collaboration networks and citation patterns, should be conducted. The updated version of the Global Applications of Soil Erosion Modelling Tracker (GASEMT) database contains information about citation characteristics and publication type. Here, we investigated the impact of the number of authors, the publication type and the selected journal on the number of citations. Generalized boosted regression tree (BRT) modelling was used to evaluate the most relevant variables related to soil erosion modelling. Additionally, bibliometric networks were analysed and visualized. This study revealed that the selection of the soil erosion model has the largest impact on the number of publication citations, followed by the modelling scale and the publication’s CiteScore. Some of the other GASEMT database attributes such as model calibration and validation have negligible influence on the number of citations according to the BRT model. Although it is true that studies that conduct calibration, on average, received around 30% more citations, than studies where calibration was not performed. Moreover, the bibliographic coupling and citation networks show a clear continental pattern, although the co-authorship network does not show the same characteristics. Therefore, soil erosion modellers should conduct even more comprehensive review of past studies and focus not just on the research conducted in the same country or continent. Moreover, when evaluating soil erosion models, an additional focus should be given to field measurements, model calibration, performance assessment and uncertainty of modelling results. The results of this study indicate that these GASEMT database attributes had smaller impact on the number of citations, according to the BRT model, than anticipated, which could suggest that these attributes should be given additional attention by the soil erosion modelling community. This study provides a kind of bibliographic benchmark for soil erosion modelling research papers as modellers can estimate the influence of their paper