Extraosseous Osteosarcoma of the Esophagus: A Case Report

Extraosseous osteosarcoma (EOO) is a malignant mesenchymal neoplasm that is located in the soft tissues without direct attachment to the skeletal system and that produces osteoid, bone, or chondroid material. EOO is an extremely rare disease, accounting for only 1% of soft tissue sarcomas, and typically presents in either an extremity or the retroperitoneum. This paper presents the case of a 45-year-old Caucasian male with extraosseous osteosarcoma of the esophagus

Photometric Observations of Three High Mass X-Ray Binaries and a Search for Variations Induced by Orbital Motion

We searched for long period variation in V-band, Ic-band and RXTE X-ray light curves of the High Mass X-ray Binaries (HMXBs) LS 1698 / RX J1037.5-5647, HD 110432 / 1H 1249-637 and HD 161103 / RX J1744.7-2713 in an attempt to discover orbitally induced variation. Data were obtained primarily from the ASAS database and were supplemented by shorter term observations made with the 24- and 40-inch ANU telescopes and one of the robotic PROMPT telescopes. Fourier periodograms suggested the existence of long period variation in the V-band light curves of all three HMXBs, however folding the data at those periods did not reveal convincing periodic variation. At this point we cannot rule out the existence of long term V-band variation for these three sources and hints of longer term variation may be seen in the higher precision PROMPT data. Long term V-band observations, on the order of several years, taken at a frequency of at least once per week and with a precision of 0.01 mag, therefore still have a chance of revealing long term variation in these three HMXBs.Comment: Accepted, RAA, May, 201

Occupational Risks during a Monkeypox Outbreak, Wisconsin, 2003

Veterinary staff were at high risk; standard veterinary infection-control guidelines should be followed

Spectrum of Infection and Risk Factors for Human Monkeypox, United States, 2003

Infection is associated with proximity to virus-infected animals and their excretions and secretions

Disgust Sensitivity and the Neurophysiology of Left- Right Political Orientations

Disgust has been described as the most primitive and central of emotions. Thus, it is not surprising that it shapes behaviors in a variety of organisms and in a variety of contexts—including homo sapien politics. People who believe they would be bothered by a range of hypothetical disgusting situations display an increased likelihood of displaying right-of-center rather than left-of-center political orientations. Given its primal nature and essential value in avoiding pathogens disgust likely has an effect even without registering in conscious beliefs. In this article, we demonstrate that individuals with marked involuntary physiological responses to disgusting images, such as of a man eating a large mouthful of writhing worms, are more likely to self-identify as conservative and, especially, to oppose gay marriage than are individuals with more muted physiological responses to the same images. This relationship holds even when controlling for the degree to which respondents believe themselves to be disgust sensitive and suggests that people’s physiological predispositions help to shape their political orientations

Low-power broadband NMR of paramagnetic materials at 111 kHz-MAS

International audienceFor the first time we report better performance of a low-power single-sideband-selective (S3AP) pulse than a high-power (ω1 > ωR) broadband pulse under ultrafast MAS conditions, and that these pulses are easily implemented. We show that the inefficiency of the high-power pulse comes from the inability of ultrafast MAS probes to deliver sufficiently large RF fields. For spins with large anisotropies (Ω > ωR), we extend the S3AP pulse to irradiate multiple sidebands simultaneously and show that this can improve both the pulse efficiency and the accuracy of the observed spinning sideband pattern

Broadband MAS NMR spectroscopy in the low-power limit

International audienceWe investigate the performance of broadband adiabatic inversion pulses in the high-power (short high-powered adi-abatic pulse, SHAP) and low-power (single-sideband-selective adiabatic pulse, S 3 AP) RF regimes on a spin system subjected to large anisotropic interactions. We show by combined experimental results and spin dynamics simulations that when the magic-angle spinning rate exceeds 100 kHz S 3 APs begin outperforming SHAPs. This is especially true for low-gamma nuclei, such as 6 Li in paramagnetic Li-ion battery materials. Finally, we show how S 3 APs can be improved by combining multiple waveforms sweeping over multiple sidebands simultaneously, in order to produce inverted sideband profiles free from intensity biasing

Low-power broadband solid-state MAS NMR of 14 N

We acknowledge Dr. Dominique Massiot and Dr. Michael Deschamps (Université d’Orléans), and Professor Philip J. Grandinetti (Ohio State University) for many useful discussions about various aspects of broadband NMR sequences, adiabaticity, and the jolting frame. A.J.P. also thanks Professor Malcolm H. Levitt (University of Southampton) for his invaluable support with SpinDynamica and an interesting discussion regarding some subtle properties of the dynamics of spin-one nuclear spins.International audienceWe propose two broadband pulse schemes for 14N solid-state magic-angle-spinning (MAS) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) that achieves (i) complete population inversion and (ii) efficient excitation of the double-quantum spectrum using low-power single-sideband-selective pulses. We give a comprehensive theoretical description of both schemes using a common framework that is based on the jolting-frame formalism of Caravatti et al. [J. Magn. Reson. 55, 88 (1983)]. This formalism is used to determine for the first time that we can obtain complete population inversion of 14N under low-power conditions, which we do here using single-sideband-selective adiabatic pulses. It is then used to predict that double-quantum coherences can be excited using low-power single-sideband-selective pulses. We then proceed to design a new experimental scheme for double-quantum excitation. The final double-quantum excitation pulse scheme is easily incorporated into other NMR experiments, as demonstrated here for double quantum–single quantum 14N correlation spectroscopy, and 1H–14N dipolar heteronuclear multiple-quantum correlation experiments. These pulses and irradiation schemes are evaluated numerically using simulations on single crystals and full powders, as well as experimentally on ammonium oxalate ((NH4)2C2O4) at moderate MAS and glycine at ultra-fast MAS. The performance of these new NMR methods is found to be very high, with population inversion efficiencies of 100% and double-quantum excitation efficiencies of 30%–50%, which are hitherto unprecedented for the low radiofrequency field amplitudes, up to the spinning frequency, that are used here

Characterizing deepwater oxygen variability and seafloor community responses using a novel autonomous lander

Abstract. Studies on the impacts of climate change typically focus on changes to mean conditions. However, animals live in temporally variable environments that give rise to different exposure histories that can potentially affect their sensitivities to climate change. Ocean deoxygenation has been observed in nearshore, upper-slope depths in the Southern California Bight, but how these changes compare to the magnitude of natural O2 variability experienced by seafloor communities at short timescales is largely unknown. We developed a low-cost and spatially flexible approach for studying nearshore, deep-sea ecosystems and monitoring deepwater oxygen variability and benthic community responses. Using a novel, autonomous, hand-deployable Nanolander® with an SBE MicroCAT and camera system, high-frequency environmental (O2, T, estimated pH) and seafloor community data were collected at depths between 100 and 400 m off San Diego, CA, to characterize timescales of natural environmental variability, changes in O2 variability with depth, and community responses to O2 variability. Oxygen variability was strongly linked to tidal processes, and contrary to expectation, oxygen variability did not decline linearly with depth. Depths of 200 and 400 m showed especially high O2 variability; these conditions may give rise to greater community resilience to deoxygenation stress by exposing animals to periods of reprieve during higher O2 conditions and invoking physiological acclimation during low O2 conditions at daily and weekly timescales. Despite experiencing high O2 variability, seafloor communities showed limited responses to changing conditions at these shorter timescales. Over 5-month timescales, some differences in seafloor communities may have been related to seasonal changes in the O2 regime. Overall, we found lower-oxygen conditions to be associated with a transition from fish-dominated to invertebrate-dominated communities, suggesting this taxonomic shift may be a useful ecological indicator of hypoxia. Due to their small size and ease of use with small boats, hand-deployable Nanolanders can serve as a powerful capacity-building tool in data-poor regions for characterizing environmental variability and examining seafloor community sensitivity to climate-driven changes

Characterizing deepwater oxygen variability and seafloor community responses using a novel autonomous lander

Abstract. Studies on the impacts of climate change typically focus on changes to mean conditions. However, animals live in temporally variable environments that give rise to different exposure histories that can potentially affect their sensitivities to climate change. Ocean deoxygenation has been observed in nearshore, upper-slope depths in the Southern California Bight, but how these changes compare to the magnitude of natural O2 variability experienced by seafloor communities at short timescales is largely unknown. We developed a low-cost and spatially flexible approach for studying nearshore, deep-sea ecosystems and monitoring deepwater oxygen variability and benthic community responses. Using a novel, autonomous, hand-deployable Nanolander® with an SBE MicroCAT and camera system, high-frequency environmental (O2, T, estimated pH) and seafloor community data were collected at depths between 100 and 400 m off San Diego, CA, to characterize timescales of natural environmental variability, changes in O2 variability with depth, and community responses to O2 variability. Oxygen variability was strongly linked to tidal processes, and contrary to expectation, oxygen variability did not decline linearly with depth. Depths of 200 and 400 m showed especially high O2 variability; these conditions may give rise to greater community resilience to deoxygenation stress by exposing animals to periods of reprieve during higher O2 conditions and invoking physiological acclimation during low O2 conditions at daily and weekly timescales. Despite experiencing high O2 variability, seafloor communities showed limited responses to changing conditions at these shorter timescales. Over 5-month timescales, some differences in seafloor communities may have been related to seasonal changes in the O2 regime. Overall, we found lower-oxygen conditions to be associated with a transition from fish-dominated to invertebrate-dominated communities, suggesting this taxonomic shift may be a useful ecological indicator of hypoxia. Due to their small size and ease of use with small boats, hand-deployable Nanolanders can serve as a powerful capacity-building tool in data-poor regions for characterizing environmental variability and examining seafloor community sensitivity to climate-driven changes