Less invasive methods of advanced hemodynamic monitoring: principles, devices, and their role in the perioperative hemodynamic optimization.

The monitoring of the cardiac output (CO) and other hemodynamic parameters, traditionally performed with the thermodilution method via a pulmonary artery catheter (PAC), is now increasingly done with the aid of less invasive and much easier to use devices. When used within the context of a hemodynamic optimization protocol, they can positively influence the outcome in both surgical and non-surgical patient populations. While these monitoring tools have simplified the hemodynamic calculations, they are subject to limitations and can lead to erroneous results if not used properly. In this article we will review the commercially available minimally invasive CO monitoring devices, explore their technical characteristics and describe the limitations that should be taken into consideration when clinical decisions are made

Women in South Africa: Striving for full equality post-apartheid

Life for South African women post-apartheid reflects both legislative advances and lingering challenges. Despite progress in the post-apartheid world, South Africa is still characterized by a high level of economic disparity, meaning that daily life for individual women can be quite different depending on one’s race, socioeconomic status, and age. Thus, the concept of intersectionality is critical to understand what it means to be a woman in South Africa today. Despite advances in girls’ access to education at both the primary and secondary levels, women still face significant challenges when they enter the workforce by way of occupational segregation and stratification. As is the case internationally, South African women are also more likely to engage in unpaid work and to be employed in the informal sector. Taken together, these make it more likely that South African women live in poverty and become victims of interpersonal violence. With respect to health, the risk of HIV infection and the transmission of HIV from mother to baby are paramount concerns for South African women’s health

Expression of myeloperoxidase and gene mutations in AML patients with normal karyotype: double CEBPA mutations are associated with high percentage of MPO positivity in leukemic blasts.

The percentage of myeloperoxidase (MPO)-positive blast cells is a simple and highly significant prognostic factor in AML patients. It has been reported that the high MPO group (MPO-H), in which >50% of blasts are MPO activity positive, is associated with favorable karyotypes, while the low MPO group (≤50% of blasts are MPO activity positive, MPO-L) is associated with adverse karyotypes. The MPO-H group shows better survival even when restricted to patients belonging to the intermediate chromosomal risk group or those with a normal karyotype. It has recently been shown that genotypes defined by the mutational status of NPM1, FLT3, and CEBPA are associated with treatment outcome in patients with cytogenetically normal AML. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the relationship between MPO positivity and gene mutations found in normal karyotypes. Sixty AML patients with normal karyotypes were included in this study. Blast cell MPO positivity was assessed in bone marrow smears stained for MPO. Associated genetic lesions (the NPM1, FLT3-ITD, and CEBPA mutations) were studied using nucleotide sequencing. Thirty-two patients were in the MPO-L group, and 28 patients in the MPO-H group. FLT3-ITD was found in 11 patients (18.3%), NPM1 mutations were found in 19 patients (31.7%), and CEBPA mutations were found in 11 patients (18.3%). In patients with CEBPA mutations, the carrying two simultaneous mutations (CEBPA (double-mut)) was associated with high MPO expression, while the mutant NPM1 without FLT3-ITD genotype was not associated with MPO activity. Both higher MPO expression and the CEBPA (double-mut) genotype appeared to be associated with improved overall survival after intensive chemotherapy. Further studies are required to determine the importance of blast MPO activity as a prognostic factor, especially in CEBPA wild-type patients with a normal karyotype

Multi-messenger observations of a binary neutron star merger

On 2017 August 17 a binary neutron star coalescence candidate (later designated GW170817) with merger time 12:41:04 UTC was observed through gravitational waves by the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors. The Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor independently detected a gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) with a time delay of ~1.7 s with respect to the merger time. From the gravitational-wave signal, the source was initially localized to a sky region of 31 deg2 at a luminosity distance of 40+8-8 Mpc and with component masses consistent with neutron stars. The component masses were later measured to be in the range 0.86 to 2.26 Mo. An extensive observing campaign was launched across the electromagnetic spectrum leading to the discovery of a bright optical transient (SSS17a, now with the IAU identification of AT 2017gfo) in NGC 4993 (at ~40 Mpc) less than 11 hours after the merger by the One- Meter, Two Hemisphere (1M2H) team using the 1 m Swope Telescope. The optical transient was independently detected by multiple teams within an hour. Subsequent observations targeted the object and its environment. Early ultraviolet observations revealed a blue transient that faded within 48 hours. Optical and infrared observations showed a redward evolution over ~10 days. Following early non-detections, X-ray and radio emission were discovered at the transient’s position ~9 and ~16 days, respectively, after the merger. Both the X-ray and radio emission likely arise from a physical process that is distinct from the one that generates the UV/optical/near-infrared emission. No ultra-high-energy gamma-rays and no neutrino candidates consistent with the source were found in follow-up searches. These observations support the hypothesis that GW170817 was produced by the merger of two neutron stars in NGC4993 followed by a short gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) and a kilonova/macronova powered by the radioactive decay of r-process nuclei synthesized in the ejecta

Pan-cancer analysis of whole genomes

Cancer is driven by genetic change, and the advent of massively parallel sequencing has enabled systematic documentation of this variation at the whole-genome scale(1-3). Here we report the integrative analysis of 2,658 whole-cancer genomes and their matching normal tissues across 38 tumour types from the Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium of the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). We describe the generation of the PCAWG resource, facilitated by international data sharing using compute clouds. On average, cancer genomes contained 4-5 driver mutations when combining coding and non-coding genomic elements; however, in around 5% of cases no drivers were identified, suggesting that cancer driver discovery is not yet complete. Chromothripsis, in which many clustered structural variants arise in a single catastrophic event, is frequently an early event in tumour evolution; in acral melanoma, for example, these events precede most somatic point mutations and affect several cancer-associated genes simultaneously. Cancers with abnormal telomere maintenance often originate from tissues with low replicative activity and show several mechanisms of preventing telomere attrition to critical levels. Common and rare germline variants affect patterns of somatic mutation, including point mutations, structural variants and somatic retrotransposition. A collection of papers from the PCAWG Consortium describes non-coding mutations that drive cancer beyond those in the TERT promoter(4); identifies new signatures of mutational processes that cause base substitutions, small insertions and deletions and structural variation(5,6); analyses timings and patterns of tumour evolution(7); describes the diverse transcriptional consequences of somatic mutation on splicing, expression levels, fusion genes and promoter activity(8,9); and evaluates a range of more-specialized features of cancer genomes(8,10-18).Peer reviewe

Introduction to the special issue on the statistical mechanics of climate

We introduce the special issue on the Statistical Mechanics of Climate by presenting an informal discussion of some theoretical aspects of climate dynamics that make it a topic of great interest for mathematicians and theoretical physicists. In particular, we briefly discuss its nonequilibrium and multiscale properties, the relationship between natural climate variability and climate change, the different regimes of climate response to perturbations, and critical transitions