Postoperative parathyroid hormone (PTH) is equivalent to perioperative PTH drop in predicting postsurgical hypoparathyroidism

Introduction Postoperative surgical hypoparathyroidism (PoSH) following thyroid surgery is an established complication. Several predictive factors have been identified including perioperative parathyroid hormone (PTH) levels. The aim of the study is to compare the drop in perioperative PTH to postoperative day 1 PTH in predicting hypocalcaemia and hypoparathyroidism. Methods Records of consecutive patients who had either total or completion thyroidectomy with or without central neck dissection in a 3-year period in a single thyroid surgery unit were accessed to retrieve data on demographics, pathology, surgery, perioperative biochemistry and management. Results Of 295 included patients, there were 227 (76.9%) females. Forty-five (15.3%) had completion thyroidectomy, and the rest had total thyroidectomy. Seventy-eight (26.4%) had concomitant central neck dissection. Sixty-four (21.7%) had hypocalcaemia on the day after surgery. Hypoparathyroidism persisted in 10.5% of patients at 6 months. Both day 1 PTH and a drop in PTH predicted day 1 hypocalcaemia (p < 0.001) and 6-month hypoparathyroidism (p < 0.001). The area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves for day 1 PTH and drop in PTH for the prediction of day 1 hypocalcaemia (0.729 vs 0.726, respectively) and for 6-month hypoparathyroidism (0.964 vs 0.958, respectively) were similar, albeit slightly better for day 1 PTH. Conclusions Day 1 PTH is equivalent to (if not better than) drop in PTH in predicting short- and long-term PoSH. Preoperative PTH measurements may not be needed in the detection and/or management of PoSH after thyroid surgery

Mitochondria-derived reactive oxygen species drive GANT61-induced mesothelioma cell apoptosis

Gli transcription factors of the Hedgehog (Hh) pathway have been reported to be drivers of malignant mesothelioma (MMe) cell survival. The Gli inhibitor GANT61 induces apoptosis in various cancer cell models, and has been associated directly with Gli inhibition. However various chemotherapeutics can induce cell death through generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) but whether ROS mediates GANT61-induced apoptosis is unknown. In this study human MMe cells were treated with GANT61 and the mechanisms regulating cell death investigated. Exposure of MMe cells to GANT61 led to G1 phase arrest and apoptosis, which involved ROS but not its purported targets, GLI1 or GLI2. GANT61 triggered ROS generation and quenching of ROS protected MMe cells from GANT61-induced apoptosis. Furthermore, we demonstrated that mitochondria are important in mediating GANT61 effects: (1) ROS production and apoptosis were blocked by mitochondrial inhibitor rotenone; (2) GANT61 promoted superoxide formation in mitochondria; and (3) mitochondrial DNA-deficient LO68 cells failed to induce superoxide, and were more resistant to apoptosis induced by GANT61 than wild-type cells. Our data demonstrate for the first time that GANT61 induces apoptosis by promoting mitochondrial superoxide generation independent of Gli inhibition, and highlights the therapeutic potential of mitochondrial ROS-mediated anticancer drugs in MMe

Mutational Analysis of Hedgehog Signaling Pathway Genes in Human Malignant Mesothelioma

Background The Hedgehog (HH) signaling pathway is critical for embryonic development and adult homeostasis. Recent studies have identified regulatory roles for this pathway in certain cancers with mutations in the HH pathway genes. The extent to which mutations of the HH pathway genes are involved in the pathogenesis of malignant mesothelioma (MMe) is unknown. Methodology/Principal Findings Real-time PCR analysis of HH pathway genes PTCH1, GLI1 and GLI2 were performed on 7 human MMe cell lines. Exon sequencing of 13 HH pathway genes was also performed in cell lines and human MMe tumors. In silico programs were used to predict the likelihood that an amino-acid substitution would have a functional effect. GLI1, GLI2 and PTCH1 were highly expressed in MMe cells, indicative of active HH signaling. PTCH1, SMO and SUFU mutations were found in 2 of 11 MMe cell lines examined. A non-synonymous missense SUFU mutation (p.T411M) was identified in LO68 cells. In silico characterization of the SUFU mutant suggested that the p.T411M mutation might alter protein function. However, we were unable to demonstrate any functional effect of this mutation on Gli activity. Deletion of exons of the PTCH1 gene was found in JU77 cells, resulting in loss of one of two extracellular loops implicated in HH ligand binding and the intracellular C-terminal domain. A 3-bp insertion (69_70insCTG) in SMO, predicting an additional leucine residue in the signal peptide segment of SMO protein was also identified in LO68 cells and a MMe tumour. Conclusions/Significance We identified the first novel mutations in PTCH1, SUFU and SMO associated with MMe. Although HH pathway mutations are relatively rare in MMe, these data suggest a possible role for dysfunctional HH pathway in the pathogenesis of a subgroup of MMe and help rationalize the exploration of HH pathway inhibitors for MMe therapy

Ophthalmic Complications of Dengue

A case series suggests that the spectrum of complications in dengue infection is widening

Effect of heating duration on the synthesis of silicon carbide nanotubes by microwave heating of MWCNTs and silica

In this article, the effect of heating duration on the synthesis of silicon carbide nanotubes (SiCNTs) was reported. SiCNTs were synthesized from blend of silicon dioxide (SiO2) and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) in the ratio of 1:3 by using the microwave heating at 1400°C and maintained at duration of 20, 40 and 60 min, respectively. SiCNTs synthesized at heating duration of 40 and 60 min showed the presence of single phase β-SiC in X-ray diffraction patterns. Meanwhile, field emission scanning electron microscope images showed that SiCNTs were formed and no residual of SiO2 and MWCNTs was observed for SiCNTs formed at heating duration of 40 and 60 min. Transmission electron microscopy images showed the SiCNTs have inter-planar spacing of 0.263 nm and tubular structure of nanotube were retained. The peak corresponded to β-SiC was observed at wavelength of 465 nm from the photoluminescence spectroscopy and associated with energy band gap of 2.67 eV. Absorption bands of Si-C bond were detected at 806.23 cm-1 from the Fourier transform infrared spectra. High purity SiCNTs was obtained at 40 and 60 min as indicated by low weight loss by thermo-gravimetric analysis. 40 min is the most suitable heating duration for the synthesis of single phase β-SiCNTs

Refphase: Multi-sample phasing reveals haplotype-specific copy number heterogeneity

Most computational methods that infer somatic copy number alterations (SCNAs) from bulk sequencing of DNA analyse tumour samples individually. However, the sequencing of multiple tumour samples from a patient's disease is an increasingly common practice. We introduce Refphase, an algorithm that leverages this multi-sampling approach to infer haplotype-specific copy numbers through multi-sample phasing. We demonstrate Refphase's ability to infer haplotype-specific SCNAs and characterise their intra-tumour heterogeneity, to uncover previously undetected allelic imbalance in low purity samples, and to identify parallel evolution in the context of whole genome doubling in a pan-cancer cohort of 336 samples from 99 tumours

The Similarity Hypothesis in General Relativity

Self-similar models are important in general relativity and other fundamental theories. In this paper we shall discuss the ``similarity hypothesis'', which asserts that under a variety of physical circumstances solutions of these theories will naturally evolve to a self-similar form. We will find there is good evidence for this in the context of both spatially homogenous and inhomogeneous cosmological models, although in some cases the self-similar model is only an intermediate attractor. There are also a wide variety of situations, including critical pheneomena, in which spherically symmetric models tend towards self-similarity. However, this does not happen in all cases and it is it is important to understand the prerequisites for the conjecture.Comment: to be submitted to Gen. Rel. Gra

Measurement of the diffractive structure function in deep inelastic scattering at HERA

This paper presents an analysis of the inclusive properties of diffractive deep inelastic scattering events produced in $ep$ interactions at HERA. The events are characterised by a rapidity gap between the outgoing proton system and the remaining hadronic system. Inclusive distributions are presented and compared with Monte Carlo models for diffractive processes. The data are consistent with models where the pomeron structure function has a hard and a soft contribution. The diffractive structure function is measured as a function of \xpom, the momentum fraction lost by the proton, of $\beta$, the momentum fraction of the struck quark with respect to \xpom, and of $Q^2$. The \xpom dependence is consistent with the form \xpoma where $a~=~1.30~\pm~0.08~(stat)~^{+~0.08}_{-~0.14}~(sys)$ in all bins of $\beta$ and $Q^2$. In the measured $Q^2$ range, the diffractive structure function approximately scales with $Q^2$ at fixed $\beta$. In an Ingelman-Schlein type model, where commonly used pomeron flux factor normalisations are assumed, it is found that the quarks within the pomeron do not saturate the momentum sum rule.Comment: 36 pages, latex, 11 figures appended as uuencoded fil

Search for displaced vertices arising from decays of new heavy particles in 7 TeV pp collisions at ATLAS

We present the results of a search for new, heavy particles that decay at a significant distance from their production point into a final state containing charged hadrons in association with a high-momentum muon. The search is conducted in a pp-collision data sample with a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV and an integrated luminosity of 33 pb^-1 collected in 2010 by the ATLAS detector operating at the Large Hadron Collider. Production of such particles is expected in various scenarios of physics beyond the standard model. We observe no signal and place limits on the production cross-section of supersymmetric particles in an R-parity-violating scenario as a function of the neutralino lifetime. Limits are presented for different squark and neutralino masses, enabling extension of the limits to a variety of other models.Comment: 8 pages plus author list (20 pages total), 8 figures, 1 table, final version to appear in Physics Letters