Multimodal ultrasonography findings of extramammary granular cell tumors: Two case reports

Extramammary masses are infrequently encountered in breast examinations. They may occur in the chest wall and axilla as neighbors of the breast. It is important to determine the nature of the lesion. However, some benign tumors, such as granular cell tumors (GCTs), also show malignant characteristics, which leads to misdiagnosis. To the best of our knowledge, multimodal ultrasound features of GCT have not been elucidated. We report two cases of women with GCTs encountered upon breast cancer screening; the tumor was not located in breast tissue. The first patient was a 37-year-old woman who presented with a slow-growing mass in the right breast and the GCT was located in the pectoralis major muscle. The second patient was a 52-year-old woman who presented with a palpable left axillary mass and the GCT was located in the axilla. Mammography failed to detect the masses in the two patients upon breast cancer screening. However, two-dimensional ultrasonography revealed a solid heterogeneous hypoechoic mass. Shear wave elastography showed that the masses had an increased hardness compared with the surrounding tissue. Further contrast-enhanced ultrasonography showed that the contrast patterns of the two masses were different. In case one, contrast-enhanced ultrasonography showed an inhomogeneous annular high enhancement, and the dynamic curve showed rapid enhancement and regression. In case two, contrast enhanced ultrasound showed slight enhancement around the lesion but no enhancement inside. Postoperative pathology confirmed that the GCT was benign in both cases. The patients showed no signs of recurrence at the 2-year follow-up. Here, we report two cases and present the multimodal ultrasonography findings of this tumor for the first time. Radiologists and surgeons should be aware of these imaging manifestations and include them in their differential diagnoses

GeoTransformer: Fast and Robust Point Cloud Registration with Geometric Transformer

We study the problem of extracting accurate correspondences for point cloud registration. Recent keypoint-free methods have shown great potential through bypassing the detection of repeatable keypoints which is difficult to do especially in low-overlap scenarios. They seek correspondences over downsampled superpoints, which are then propagated to dense points. Superpoints are matched based on whether their neighboring patches overlap. Such sparse and loose matching requires contextual features capturing the geometric structure of the point clouds. We propose Geometric Transformer, or GeoTransformer for short, to learn geometric feature for robust superpoint matching. It encodes pair-wise distances and triplet-wise angles, making it invariant to rigid transformation and robust in low-overlap cases. The simplistic design attains surprisingly high matching accuracy such that no RANSAC is required in the estimation of alignment transformation, leading to $100$ times acceleration. Extensive experiments on rich benchmarks encompassing indoor, outdoor, synthetic, multiway and non-rigid demonstrate the efficacy of GeoTransformer. Notably, our method improves the inlier ratio by $18{\sim}31$ percentage points and the registration recall by over $7$ points on the challenging 3DLoMatch benchmark. Our code and models are available at \url{https://github.com/qinzheng93/GeoTransformer}.Comment: Accepted by TPAMI. Extended version of our CVPR 2022 paper [arXiv:2202.06688

Antibacterial effects of platelet-rich fibrin produced by horizontal centrifugation.

Platelet-rich fibrin (PRF) has been widely used owing to its ability to stimulate tissue regeneration. To date, few studies have described the antibacterial properties of PRF. Previously, PRF prepared by horizontal centrifugation (H-PRF) was shown to contain more immune cells than leukocyte- and platelet-rich fibrin (L-PRF). This study aimed to compare the antimicrobial effects of PRFs against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli in vitro and to determine whether the antibacterial effects correlated with the number of immune cells. Blood samples were obtained from eight healthy donors to prepare L-PRF and H-PRF. The sizes and weights of L-PRF and H-PRF were first evaluated, and their antibacterial effects against S. aureus and E. coli were then tested in vitro using the inhibition ring and plate-counting test methods. Flow-cytometric analysis of the cell components of L-PRF and H-PRF was also performed. No significant differences in size or weight were observed between the L-PRF and H-PRF groups. The H-PRF group contained more leukocytes than the L-PRF group. While both PRFs had notable antimicrobial activity against S. aureus and E. coli, H-PRF demonstrated a significantly better antibacterial effect than L-PRF. Furthermore, the antimicrobial ability of the PRF solid was less efficient than that of wet PRF. In conclusion, H-PRF exhibited better antibacterial activity than L-PRF, which might have been attributed to having more immune cells

An Excitatory Circuit in the Perioculomotor Midbrain for Non-REM Sleep Control.

The perioculomotor (pIII) region of the midbrain was postulated as a sleep-regulating center in the 1890s but largely neglected in subsequent studies. Using activity-dependent labeling and gene expression profiling, we identified pIII neurons that promote non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep. Optrode recording showed that pIII glutamatergic neurons expressing calcitonin gene-related peptide alpha (CALCA) are NREM-sleep active; optogenetic and chemogenetic activation/inactivation showed that they strongly promote NREM sleep. Within the pIII region, CALCA neurons form reciprocal connections with another population of glutamatergic neurons that express the peptide cholecystokinin (CCK). Activation of CCK neurons also promoted NREM sleep. Both CALCA and CCK neurons project rostrally to the preoptic hypothalamus, whereas CALCA neurons also project caudally to the posterior ventromedial medulla. Activation of each projection increased NREM sleep. Together, these findings point to the pIII region as an excitatory sleep center where different subsets of glutamatergic neurons promote NREM sleep through both local reciprocal connections and long-range projections

Synchronous post-acceleration of laser-driven protons in helical coil targets by controlling the current dispersion

Post-acceleration of protons in helical coil targets driven by intense, ultrashort laser pulses can enhance ion energy by utilizing the transient current from the targets’ self-discharge. The acceleration length of protons can exceed a few millimeters, and the acceleration gradient is of the order of GeV/m. How to ensure the synchronization between the accelerating electric field and the protons is a crucial problem for efficient post-acceleration. In this paper, we study how the electric field mismatch induced by current dispersion affects the synchronous acceleration of protons. We propose a scheme using a two-stage helical coil to control the current dispersion. With optimized parameters, the energy gain of protons is increased by four times. Proton energy is expected to reach 45 MeV using a hundreds-of-terawatts laser, or more than 100 MeV using a petawatt laser, by controlling the current dispersion

A heterozygous moth genome provides insights into herbivory and detoxification

How an insect evolves to become a successful herbivore is of profound biological and practical importance. Herbivores are often adapted to feed on a specific group of evolutionarily and biochemically related host plants1, but the genetic and molecular bases for adaptation to plant defense compounds remain poorly understood2. We report the first whole-genome sequence of a basal lepidopteran species, Plutella xylostella, which contains 18,071 protein-coding and 1,412 unique genes with an expansion of gene families associated with perception and the detoxification of plant defense compounds. A recent expansion of retrotransposons near detoxification-related genes and a wider system used in the metabolism of plant defense compounds are shown to also be involved in the development of insecticide resistance. This work shows the genetic and molecular bases for the evolutionary success of this worldwide herbivore and offers wider insights into insect adaptation to plant feeding, as well as opening avenues for more sustainable pest management.Minsheng You … Simon W Baxter … et al

Réduction photocatalytique du CO2 dans le liquide ionique

Le sujet de la thèse porte sur l’étude des paramètres de photoréduction du CO2 en présence de Liquide Ionique (à base de cation imidazolium, Im), de co-solvants polaires et protiques tels que l’eau ou l’isopropanol et de photocatalyseurs hétérogènes de morphologie 2D (TiO2 ou g-C3N4) sur lesquels ont été déposés des co-catalyseurs de types nanoparticules métalliques (Cu2O, Pd). Pour des rapports volumiques Liquide Ionique / co-solvant importants, les résultats ont montré que seul le Liquide Ionique contenant l’anion acétate permettait de pré-activer le CO2, par production d’une espèce carboxylate Im-CO2. Cette espèce est ensuite photo-réduite par illumination UV-visible du Pd/g-C3N4 et le co-solvant, source de proton, pour conduire à d’excellents rendements en CO. Dans les mêmes conditions mais en présence de Pd/TiO2 et malgré la préactivation, la production du CO est stoppée car le TiO2 réagit avec l’acide acétique, co-produit de la formation de l’espèce Im-CO2. Cette première partie de l’étude a donc permis de lister les paramètres clefs pour une capture et une valorisation du CO2 en milieu Liquide Ionique concentré. La deuxième partie de l’étude porte sur l’association des mêmes constituants mais cette fois-ci avec un Liquide Ionique fortement dilué dans le co-solvant. Dans ce cas, en milieu aqueux ou alcool, la production de CO est engendrée par un mécanisme totalement différent. Les résultats montrent que la pré-activation du CO2 passe par la production d’espèces hydrogéno- ou alkyl-carbonates. Ces dernières sont réduites par illumination UV-Visible de l’entité imidazolium qui sert de photocatalyseur. Cette pré-activation, en milieu alcool, est favorisée par le caractère accepteur de proton de l’anion nous permettant d’établir une relation entre activité et le paramètre β de Kamlet-Taft de l’anion. L’acétate d’imidazolium s’est encore imposé comme le meilleur choix mais la présence de photocatalyseurs hétérogènes plutôt néfaste car conduisant à la production de CO et CH4 par réaction de Kolbé.The subject of this thesis is the study of the photoreduction parameters of CO2 in the presence of Ionic Liquid (based on imidazolium cation, Im), polar and protic co-solvents such as water or isopropanol and heterogeneous photocatalysts of 2D morphology (TiO2 or g-C3N4) on which have been deposited co-catalysts of metal nanoparticles (Cu2O, Pd). For high volume ratios Ionic Liquid / co-solvent, the results showed that only the Ionic Liquid containing the acetate anion allowed the pre-activation of CO2, by producing a carboxylate species Im-CO2. This species is then photoreduced by UV-visible illumination of Pd/g-C3N4 and the co-solvent, a proton source, to lead to excellent CO yields. Under the same conditions but in the presence of Pd/TiO2 and despite the preactivation, the CO production is stopped because TiO2 reacts with acetic acid, co-product of the formation of the Im-CO2 species. This first part of the study has therefore allowed to list the key parameters for a capture and recovery of CO2 in concentrated Ionic Liquid medium. The second part of the study deals with the association of the same constituents but this time with an Ionic Liquid strongly diluted in the co-solvent. In this case, in aqueous or alcoholic medium, the production of CO is generated by a totally different mechanism. The results show that the pre-activation of CO2 occurs through the production of hydrogen or alkyl carbonate species, which are reduced by UV-Visible illumination of the imidazolium entity which acts as a photocatalyst. This pre-activation, in alcohol medium, is favored by the proton acceptor character of the anion allowing us to establish a relation between activity and the Kamlet-Taft β parameter of the anion. Imidazolium acetate was still the best choice but the presence of heterogeneous photocatalysts rather harmful because leading to the production of CO and CH4 by Kolbé reaction

Blumea htamanthii (Asteraceae), a new species from Myanmar

A new species, Blumea htamanthii Y.L. Peng, C.X. Yang & Y. Luo from Myanmar is described. The new species is distinguished from B. bifoliata by its leaves with short petioles, abaxially purple, leaf blade with papillary hair and sparse multicellular villous, capitula with 1–4 heads, glabrous florets and usually unbranched stems. A key to Blumea species in Myanmar is provided