Design of the Magnet System of the Neutron Decay Facility PERC

The PERC (Proton and Electron Radiation Channel) facility is currently under construction at the research reactor FRM II, Garching. It will serve as an intense and clean source of electrons and protons from neutron beta decay for precision studies. It aims to contribute to the determination of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa quark-mixing element $V_{ud}$ from neutron decay data and to search for new physics via new effective couplings. PERC's central component is a 12m long superconducting magnet system. It hosts an 8m long decay region in a uniform field. An additional high-field region selects the phase space of electrons and protons which can reach the detectors and largely improves systematic uncertainties. We discuss the design of the magnet system and the resulting properties of the magnetic field.Comment: Proceedings of the International Workshop on Particle Physics at Neutron Sources PPNS 2018, Grenoble, France, May 24-26, 201

A word of caution: do not wake sleeping dogs; micrometastases of melanoma suddenly grew after progesterone treatment

Background: Hormonal treatment might affect the immune response to tumor antigens induced in cancer patients who are being vaccinated. Case presentation: A 33 years-old woman was diagnosed with cutaneous melanoma in May 2009. Her melanoma was located in the intermammary sulcus, had a Breslow thickness of 4 mm, a Clark’s level IV, it was ulcerated and highly melanotic. The bilateral sentinel node biopsy was negative. She entered into a randomized Phase II/III clinical study comparing a vaccine composed of irradiated melanoma cells plus BCG plus GM-CSF versus IFN-alpha 2b and she was assigned to the vaccine arm. During the two years treatment she remained disease-free; the final CAT scan being performed in August 2011. Between November and December 2011, her gynecologist treated her with three cycles of 200 mg progesterone/day for ten days, every two weeks, for ovary dysfunction. In November 2011 the patient returned to the Hospital for clinical and imaging evaluation and no evidence of disease was found. At the next visit in March 2012 an ultrasound revealed multiple, large metastases in the liver. A CAT scan confirmed the presence of liver, adrenal glands and spleen metastases. A needle biopsy of a liver lesion revealed metastatic melanoma of similar characteristics to the original tumor. We suggest that progesterone treatment triggered proliferation of so far dormant micrometastases that were controlled during CSF470 vaccine treatment. Conclusion: The use of progesterone in patients with melanoma that are under immunological treatments should be carefully considered, since progesterone could modify the balance of pro-inflammatory and Th1 functions to a regulatory and anti-inflammatory profile of the immune system that could have an impact in tumor progression.Fil: Mordoh, Jose. Fundacion Cancer. Centro de Investigaciones Oncologicas; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Tapia, Ivana Jaqueline. Fundacion Cancer. Centro de Investigaciones Oncologicas; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Barrio, Maria Marcela. Fundacion Cancer. Centro de Investigaciones Oncologicas; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

Genome-wide association study identifies 30 loci associated with bipolar disorder.

Bipolar disorder is a highly heritable psychiatric disorder. We performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) including 20,352 cases and 31,358 controls of European descent, with follow-up analysis of 822 variants with P < 1 × 10-4 in an additional 9,412 cases and 137,760 controls. Eight of the 19 variants that were genome-wide significant (P < 5 × 10-8) in the discovery GWAS were not genome-wide significant in the combined analysis, consistent with small effect sizes and limited power but also with genetic heterogeneity. In the combined analysis, 30 loci were genome-wide significant, including 20 newly identified loci. The significant loci contain genes encoding ion channels, neurotransmitter transporters and synaptic components. Pathway analysis revealed nine significantly enriched gene sets, including regulation of insulin secretion and endocannabinoid signaling. Bipolar I disorder is strongly genetically correlated with schizophrenia, driven by psychosis, whereas bipolar II disorder is more strongly correlated with major depressive disorder. These findings address key clinical questions and provide potential biological mechanisms for bipolar disorder

Herbal Medicine in Uterine Fibroid

Uterine fibroids, also known as uterine leiomyoma is the most common benign tumor of the uterus found in women of reproductive age. Uterine fibroids are the cause of major quality-of-life issues for approximately 25% of all women who suffer from clinically significant symptoms of uterine fibroid. Despite the prevalence of fibroid, currently, there are no effective treatment options for fibroid. The lack of understanding of the etiology of fibroid contributes to the scarcity of medical therapies available. Sex steroid hormones, dysregulation of cell signaling pathways, miRNA expression, and cytogenetic abnormalities may all implicate in fibroid etiology. Several herbal medicines have been used as anti-inflammation and antitumor agents. All of them have a common capability to inhibit expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines, proliferative genes, and pro-angiogenetic genes. Exploring herbal medicines as remedies lighten the hope of treatment. In the current review article, we discuss signal transduction pathways activated herbal medicines. We also address the possibility of using herbal medicines for uterine fibroid treatment

The state of the Martian climate

60°N was +2.0°C, relative to the 1981–2010 average value (Fig. 5.1). This marks a new high for the record. The average annual surface air temperature (SAT) anomaly for 2016 for land stations north of starting in 1900, and is a significant increase over the previous highest value of +1.2°C, which was observed in 2007, 2011, and 2015. Average global annual temperatures also showed record values in 2015 and 2016. Currently, the Arctic is warming at more than twice the rate of lower latitudes

Chamber investigation of the formation and transformation of secondary organic aerosol in mixtures of biogenic and anthropogenic volatile organic compounds

A comprehensive chamber investigation of photochemical secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation and transformation in mixtures of anthropogenic (o-cresol) and biogenic (alpha-pinene and isoprene) volatile organic compound (VOC) precursors in the presence of NOx and inorganic seed particles was conducted. To enable direct comparison across systems, the initial concentration (hence reactivity) of the systems towards the dominant OH oxidant was adjusted. Comparing experiments conducted in single-precursor systems at various initial reactivity levels (referenced to a nominal base case VOC concentration, e.g. halving the initial concentration for a 1/2 initial reactivity experiment) as well as their binary and ternary mixtures, we show that the molecular interactions from the mixing of the precursors can be investigated and discuss challenges in their interpretation. The observed average SOA particle mass yields (the organic particle mass produced for a mass of VOC consumed) in descending order were found for the following systems: alpha-pinene (32 +/- 7 %), alpha-pinene-o-cresol (28 +/- 9 %), alpha-pinene at 1/2 initial reactivity (21 +/- 5 %), alpha-pinene-isoprene (16 +/- 1 %), alpha-pinene at 1/3 initial reactivity (15 +/- 4 %), o-cresol (13 +/- 3 %), alpha-pinene-o-cresol-isoprene (11 +/- 4 %), o-cresol at 1/2 initial reactivity (11 +/- 3 %), o-cresol-isoprene (6 +/- 2 %), and isoprene (0 +/- 0 %). We find a clear suppression of the SOA mass yield from alpha-pinene when it is mixed with isoprene, whilst no suppression or enhancement of SOA particle yield from o-cresol was found when it was similarly mixed with isoprene. The alpha-pinene-o-cresol system yield appeared to be increased compared to that calculated based on the additivity, whilst in the alpha-pinene-o-cresol-isoprene system the measured and predicted yields were comparable. However, in mixtures in which more than one precursor contributes to the SOA particle mass it is unclear whether changes in the SOA formation potential are attributable to physical or chemical interactions, since the reference basis for the comparison is complex. Online and offline chemical composition as well as SOA particle volatility, water uptake, and "phase" behaviour measurements that were used to interpret the SOA formation and behaviour are introduced and detailed elsewhere.ISSN:1680-7375ISSN:1680-736

Outcome of radiotherapy in T1 glottic carcinoma: A population-based study

We evaluated the radiation outcome and prognostic factors in a population-based study of early (T1N0M0) glottic carcinoma. Survival parameters and prognostic factors were evaluated by uni- and multivariate analysis in 316 consecutive irradiated patients with T1 glottic carcinoma in the Comprehensive Cancer Center West region of the western Netherlands. Median follow-up was 70 months (range 1-190 months). Five and ten-year local control was 86 and 84%. Disease specific survival was 97% at 5 and 10 years. In multivariate analysis, pre-existent laryngeal hypertrophic laryngitis was the only predictive factor for local control (relative risk = 3.0, P = 0.02). Comorbidity was prognostic for overall survival. No factor was predictive for disease specific survival. Pre-existent laryngeal hypertrophic laryngitis is a new risk factor associated with reduced local control in T1 glottic carcinoma treated with radiotherapy

Multiplex qPCR Discriminates Variants of Concern to Enhance Global Surveillance of SARS-CoV-2

With the emergence of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variants that may increase transmissibility and/or cause escape from immune responses, there is an urgent need for the targeted surveillance of circulating lineages. It was found that the B.1.1.7 (also 501Y.V1) variant, first detected in the United Kingdom, could be serendipitously detected by the Thermo Fisher TaqPath COVID-19 PCR assay because a key deletion in these viruses, spike Δ69-70, would cause a spike gene target failure (SGTF) result. However, a SGTF result is not definitive for B.1.1.7, and this assay cannot detect other variants of concern (VOC) that lack spike Δ69-70, such as B.1.351 (also 501Y.V2), detected in South Africa, and P.1 (also 501Y.V3), recently detected in Brazil. We identified a deletion in the ORF1a gene (ORF1a Δ3675-3677) in all 3 variants, which has not yet been widely detected in other SARS-CoV-2 lineages. Using ORF1a Δ3675-3677 as the primary target and spike Δ69-70 to differentiate, we designed and validated an open-source PCR assay to detect SARS-CoV-2 VOC. Our assay can be rapidly deployed in laboratories around the world to enhance surveillance for the local emergence and spread of B.1.1.7, B.1.351, and P.1