Primary non-Hodgkin's breast lymphoma: Surgical approach

We report the case of a 38-year old woman affected by primary lymphoma of the right breast, with disease progression after chemotherapy and subsequent radiotherapy, successfully treated with a modified radical mastectomy. The literature of primary breast lymphomas has been reviewed and discussed in relation to our case. Our experience stresses the importance of a radical surgical approach in a locally advanced non-Hodgkin's lymphoma of the breast unresponsive to radio and chemotherapy

Galactic and Extragalactic Samples of Supernova Remnants: How They Are Identified and What They Tell Us

Supernova remnants (SNRs) arise from the interaction between the ejecta of a supernova (SN) explosion and the surrounding circumstellar and interstellar medium. Some SNRs, mostly nearby SNRs, can be studied in great detail. However, to understand SNRs as a whole, large samples of SNRs must be assembled and studied. Here, we describe the radio, optical, and X-ray techniques which have been used to identify and characterize almost 300 Galactic SNRs and more than 1200 extragalactic SNRs. We then discuss which types of SNRs are being found and which are not. We examine the degree to which the luminosity functions, surface-brightness distributions and multi-wavelength comparisons of the samples can be interpreted to determine the class properties of SNRs and describe efforts to establish the type of SN explosion associated with a SNR. We conclude that in order to better understand the class properties of SNRs, it is more important to study (and obtain additional data on) the SNRs in galaxies with extant samples at multiple wavelength bands than it is to obtain samples of SNRs in other galaxiesComment: Final 2016 draft of a chapter in "Handbook of Supernovae" edited by Athem W. Alsabti and Paul Murdin. Final version available at https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20794-0_90-

Liquid-gas phase transition in nuclear multifragmentation

The equation of state of nuclear matter suggests that at suitable beam energies the disassembling hot system formed in heavy ion collisions will pass through a liquid-gas coexistence region. Searching for the signatures of the phase transition has been a very important focal point of experimental endeavours in heavy ion collisions, in the last fifteen years. Simultaneously theoretical models have been developed to provide information about the equation of state and reaction mechanisms consistent with the experimental observables. This article is a review of this endeavour.Comment: 63 pages, 27 figures, submitted to Adv. Nucl. Phys. Some typos corrected, minor text change

The present-day number of tectonic plates

The number of tectonic plates on Earth described in the literature has expanded greatly since the start of the plate tectonic era, when only about a dozen plates were considered in global models of present-day plate motions. With new techniques of more accurate earthquake epicenter locations, modern ways of measuring ocean bathymetry using swath mapping, and the use of space based geodetic techniques, there has been a huge growth in the number of plates thought to exist. The study by Bird (2003) proposed 52 plates, many of which were delineated on the basis of earthquake locations. Because of the pattern of areas of these plates, he suggested that there should be more small plates than he could identify. In this paper, I gather together publications that have proposed a total of 107 new plates, giving 159 plates in all. The largest plate (Pacific) is about 20 % of the Earth's area or 104 Mm (super 2) , and the smallest of which (Plate number 5 from Hammond et al. 2011) is only 273 km (super 2) in area. Sorting the plates by size allows us to investigate how size varies as a function of order. There are several changes of slope in the plots of plate number organized by size against plate size order which are discussed. The sizes of the largest seven plates is constrained by the area of the Earth. A middle set of 73 plates down to an area of 97,563 km (super 2) (the Danakil plate at number 80, is the plate of median size) follows a fairly regular pattern of plate size as a function of plate number. For smaller plates, there is a break in the slope of the plate size/plate number plot and the next 32 plates follow a pattern of plate size proposed by the models of Koehn et al. (2008) down to an area of 11,638 km (super 2) (West Mojave plate # 112). Smaller plates do not follow any regular pattern of area as a function of plate number, probably because we have not sampled enough of these very small plates to reveal any clear pattern. Copyright 2016 The Author(s) and Harrison

Analysis of a Panel of 48 Cytokines in BAL Fluids Specifically Identifies IL-8 Levels as the Only Cytokine that Distinguishes Controlled Asthma from Uncontrolled Asthma, and Correlates Inversely with FEV1

We sought to identify cells and cytokines in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluids that distinguish asthma from healthy control subjects and those that distinguish controlled asthma from uncontrolled asthma. Following informed consent, 36 human subjects were recruited for this study. These included 11 healthy control subjects, 15 subjects with controlled asthma with FEV1≥80% predicted and 10 subjects with uncontrolled asthma with FEV1 2.4%) were a higher BAL fluid IL-8 levels, and a lower FEV1 in the latter group. By contrast, compared to eosinophil-normal asthma (eosinophils≤0.3%), eosinophil-high asthma (eosinophils>0.3%) had higher levels of IL-5, IL-13, IL-16, and PDGF-bb, but same neutrophil percentage, IL-8, and FEV1. Our results identify neutrophils and IL-8 are the only inflammatory components in BAL fluids that distinguish controlled asthma from uncontrolled asthma, and both correlate inversely with FEV1

Folding Circular Permutants of IL-1β: Route Selection Driven by Functional Frustration

Interleukin-1β (IL-1β) is the cytokine crucial to inflammatory and immune response. Two dominant routes are populated in the folding to native structure. These distinct routes are a result of the competition between early packing of the functional loops versus closure of the β-barrel to achieve efficient folding and have been observed both experimentally and computationally. Kinetic experiments on the WT protein established that the dominant route is characterized by early packing of geometrically frustrated functional loops. However, deletion of one of the functional loops, the β-bulge, switches the dominant route to an alternative, yet, as accessible, route, where the termini necessary for barrel closure form first. Here, we explore the effect of circular permutation of the WT sequence on the observed folding landscape with a combination of kinetic and thermodynamic experiments. Our experiments show that while the rate of formation of permutant protein is always slower than that observed for the WT sequence, the region of initial nucleation for all permutants is similar to that observed for the WT protein and occurs within a similar timescale. That is, even permutants with significant sequence rearrangement in which the functional-nucleus is placed at opposing ends of the polypeptide chain, fold by the dominant WT “functional loop-packing route”, despite the entropic cost of having to fold the N- and C- termini early. Taken together, our results indicate that the early packing of the functional loops dominates the folding landscape in active proteins, and, despite the entropic penalty of coalescing the termini early, these proteins will populate an entropically unfavorable route in order to conserve function. More generally, circular permutation can elucidate the influence of local energetic stabilization of functional regions within a protein, where topological complexity creates a mismatch between energetics and topology in active proteins

Simulated Microgravity Compromises Mouse Oocyte Maturation by Disrupting Meiotic Spindle Organization and Inducing Cytoplasmic Blebbing

In the present study, we discovered that mouse oocyte maturation was inhibited by simulated microgravity via disturbing spindle organization. We cultured mouse oocytes under microgravity condition simulated by NASA's rotary cell culture system, examined the maturation rate and observed the spindle morphology (organization of cytoskeleton) during the mouse oocytes meiotic maturation. While the rate of germinal vesicle breakdown did not differ between 1 g gravity and simulated microgravity, rate of oocyte maturation decreased significantly in simulated microgravity. The rate of maturation was 8.94% in simulated microgravity and was 73.0% in 1 g gravity. The results show that the maturation of mouse oocytes in vitro was inhibited by the simulated microgravity. The spindle morphology observation shows that the microtubules and chromosomes can not form a complete spindle during oocyte meiotic maturation under simulated microgravity. And the disorder of γ-tubulin may partially result in disorganization of microtubules under simulated microgravity. These observations suggest that the meiotic spindle organization is gravity dependent. Although the spindle organization was disrupted by simulated microgravity, the function and organization of microfilaments were not pronouncedly affected by simulated microgravity. And we found that simulated microgravity induced oocytes cytoplasmic blebbing via an unknown mechanism. Transmission electron microscope detection showed that the components of the blebs were identified with the cytoplasm. Collectively, these results indicated that the simulated microgravity inhibits mouse oocyte maturation via disturbing spindle organization and inducing cytoplasmic blebbing

Clinical outcomes and prognostic factors in patients with breast diffuse large B cell lymphoma; Consortium for Improving Survival of Lymphoma (CISL) study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The breast is a rare extranodal site of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and primary breast lymphoma (PBL) has been arbitrarily defined as disease localized to one or both breasts with or without regional lymph nodes involvement. The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical outcomes in patients with diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) and breast involvement, and to find the criteria of PBL reflecting the outcome and prognosis.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We retrospectively analyzed data from 68 patients, newly diagnosed with DLBCL and breast involvement at 16 Korean institutions between January 1994 and June 2009.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Median age at diagnosis was 48 years (range, 20-83 years). Forty-three (63.2%) patients were PBL according to previous arbitrary criteria, sixteen (23.5%) patients were high-intermediate to high risk of international prognostic index. The patients with one extranodal disease in the breast (OED) with or without nodal disease were 49 (72.1%), and those with multiple extranodal disease (MED) were 19 (27.9%). During median follow-up of 41.5 months (range, 2.4-186.0 months), estimated 5-year progression-free survival (PFS) was 53.7 ± 7.6%, and overall survival (OS) was 60.3 ± 7.2%. The 5-year PFS and OS was significantly higher for patients with the OED group than those with the MED group (5-year PFS, 64.9 ± 8.9% vs. 27.5 ± 11.4%, p = 0.001; 5-year OS, 74.3 ± 7.6% vs. 24.5 ± 13.0%, p < 0.001). In multivariate analysis, MED (hazard ratio [HR], 3.61; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.07-12.2) and fewer than four cycles of systemic chemotherapy with or without local treatments (HR, 4.47; 95% CI, 1.54-12.96) were independent prognostic factors for worse OS. Twenty-five (36.8%) patients experienced progression, and the cumulative incidence of progression in multiple extranodal sites or other than breasts and central nervous system was significantly different between the OED group and the MED group (5-year cumulative incidence, 9.7 ± 5.4% vs. 49.0 ± 15.1%, p = 0.001).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our results show that the patients included in OED group, reflecting different treatment outcome, prognosis and pattern of progression, should be considered as PBL in the future trial. Further studies are warranted to validate our suggested criteria.</p