721 research outputs found

    Metastatic Uterine Leiomyosarcoma in the Upper Buccal Gingiva Misdiagnosed as an Epulis

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    Uterine leiomyosarcoma (LMS) is a rare tumor constituting 1% of all uterine malignancies. This sarcoma demonstrates an aggressive growth pattern with an high rate of recurrence with hematologic dissemination; the most common sites are lung, liver, and peritoneal cavity, head and neck district being rarely interested. Only other four cases of metastasis in the oral cavity have been previously described. The treatment of choice is surgery and the use of adjuvant chemotherapy and radiation has limited impact on clinical outcome. In case of metastases, surgical excision can be performed considering extent of disease, number and type of distant lesions, disease free interval from the initial diagnosis to the time of metastases, and expected life span. We illustrate a case of uterine LMS metastasis in the upper buccal gingiva that occurred during chemotherapy in a 63-year-old woman that underwent a total abdominal hysterectomy with bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy for a diagnosis of LMS staged as pT2bN0 and that developed lung metastases eight months after primary treatment. Surgical excision of the oral mass (previously misdiagnosed as epulis at a dental center) and contemporary reconstruction with pedicled temporalis muscle flap was performed in order to improve quality of life. Even if resection was achieved in free margins, "local" relapse was observed 5 months after surgery

    Grotta Romanelli (Southern Italy, Apulia). Legacies and issues in excavating a key site for the Pleistocene of the Mediterranean

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    Grotta Romanelli, located on the Adriatic coast of southern Apulia (Italy), is considered a key site for the Mediterranean Pleistocene for its archaeological and palaeontological contents. The site, discovered in 1874, was re-evaluated only in 1900, when P. E. Stasi realised that it contained the first evidence of the Palaeolithic in Italy. Starting in 1914, G. A. Blanc led a pioneering excavation campaign, for the first-time using scientific methods applied to systematic palaeontological and stratigraphical studies. Blanc proposed a stratigraphic framework for the cave. Different dating methods (C-14 and U/Th) were used to temporally constrain the deposits. The extensive studies of the cave and its contents were mostly published in journals with limited distribution and access, until the end of the 1970s, when the site became forgotten. In 2015, with the permission of the authorities, a new excavation campaign began, led by a team from Sapienza University of Rome in collaboration with IGAG CNR and other research institutions. The research team had to deal with the consequences of more than 40 years of inactivity in the field and the combined effect of erosion and legal, as well as illegal, excavations. In this paper, we provide a database of all the information published during the first 70 years of excavations and highlight the outstanding problems and contradictions between the chronological and geomorphological evidence, the features of the faunal assemblages and the limestone artefacts

    Where Rabies Is Not a Disease. Bridging Healthworlds to Improve Mutual Understanding and Prevention of Rabies

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    Deeply embedded in local social, cultural, and religious settings, traditional healing is part of dog bite and rabies management in many rabies endemic countries. Faith healing, which usually encompasses a more holistic approach to health including physical, mental and social dimensions, is rare in the context of rabies. In Gujarat, Western India, the Hindu goddess Hadkai Mata is worshiped by low-caste communities as the Mother of Rabies in the event of a dog bite to a person or their livestock. This belief might influence people's attitudes and behaviors toward rabies prevention but has never been investigated. Through 31 in-depth interviews with healers and staff of Hadkai Mata temples, this paper explores the system of knowledge around dog and human rabies that is built and shared in these places of worship and healing. Qualitative and quantitative data were analyzed looking for convergences and divergences with the recently launched National Action Plan for dog-mediated Rabies Elimination. Results suggest that while the etiology of human rabies as a social illness is usually explained as the goddess's wish to correct misbehaving people and restore positive interpersonal relations, there is some appreciation for the biological processes of infection that lead to rabies as a physical disease. Hadkai Mata is believed to cure rabies if her patients undergo the necessary process of moral growth. Although conventional post-exposure prophylaxis is not opposed per se, it is often delayed by patients who seek traditional treatment first. Some reluctance was expressed toward mass dog vaccination because it is seen as an interference in how the goddess controls dogs, by enraging them—hence infecting them with rabies—and sending them to bite wrongdoers. Addressing these cultural perceptions is likely to be critical in achieving effective control of dog rabies in this region. The study highlights the value of multidisciplinary approaches in the control and elimination of rabies, as well as other zoonoses. This includes the importance of understanding different culturally- and religiously- mediated ways in which humans relate to animals; and looking for points of convergence and mutual understanding, upon which context-tailored, linguistically-accurate, locally acceptable, feasible and effective strategies can be designed

    Celiac vagus nerve stimulation recapitulates angiotensin II-induced splenic noradrenergic activation, driving egress of CD8 effector cells

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    Angiotensin II (AngII) is a peptide hormone that affects the cardiovascular system, not only through typical effects on the vasculature, kidneys, and heart, but also through less understood roles mediated by the brain and the immune system. Here, we address the hard-wired neural connections within the autonomic nervous system that modulate splenic immunity. Chronic AngII infusion triggers burst firing of the vagus nerve celiac efferent, an effect correlated with noradrenergic activation in the spleen and T cell egress. Bioelectronic stimulation of the celiac vagus nerve, in the absence of other challenges and independently from afferent signals to the brain, evokes the noradrenergic splenic pathway to promote release of a growth factor mediating neuroimmune crosstalk, placental growth factor (PlGF), and egress of CD8 effector T cells. Our findings also indicate that the neuroimmune interface mediated by PlGF and necessary for transducing the neural signal into an effective immune response is dependent on α-adrenergic receptor signaling

    Phosphodiester Silybin Dimers Powerful Radical Scavengers: A Antiproliferative Activity on Different Cancer Cell Lines

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    Silibinin is the main biologically active component of silymarin extract and consists of a mixture 1:1 of two diastereoisomeric flavonolignans, namely silybin A (1a) and silybin B (1b), which we call here silybins. Despite the high interest in the activity of this flavonolignan, there are still few studies that give due attention to the role of its stereochemistry and, there is still today a strong need to investigate in this area. In this regard, here we report a study concerning the radical scavenger ability and the antiproliferative activity on different cell lines, both of silybins and phosphodiester-linked silybin dimers. An efficient synthetic strategy to obtain silybin dimers in an optical pure form (6aa, 6ab and 6bb) starting from a suitable building block of silybin A and silybin B, obtained by us from natural extract silibinin, was proposed. New dimers show strong antioxidant properties, determined through hydroxyl radical (HO°) scavenging ability, comparable to the value reported for known potent antioxidants such as quercetin. A preliminary screening was performed by treating cells with 10 and 50 ”M concentrations for 48 h to identify the most sensitive cell lines. The results show that silibinin compounds were active on Jurkat, A375, WM266, and HeLa, but at the tested concentrations, they did not interfere with the growth of PANC, MCF-7, HDF or U87. In particular, both monomers (1a and 1b) and dimers (6aa, 6ab and 6bb) present selective anti-proliferative activity towards leukemia cells in the mid-micromolar range and are poorly active on normal cells. They exhibit different mechanisms of action in fact all the cells treated with the 1a and 1b go completely into apoptosis, whereas only part of the cells treated with 6aa and 6ab were found to be in apoptosis

    Introducing Preference-Based Argumentation to Inconsistent Ontological Knowledge Bases

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    International audienceHandling inconsistency is an inherent part of decision making in traditional agri-food chains – due to the various concerns involved. In order to explain the source of inconsistency and represent the existing conflicts in the ontological knowledge base, argumentation theory can be used. However, the current state of art methodology does not allow to take into account the level of significance of the knowledge expressed by the various ontological knowledge sources. We propose to use preferences in order to model those differences between formulas and evaluate our proposal practically by implementing it within the INRA platform and showing a use case using this formalism in a bread making decision support system

    Direct detection and characterization of foot-and-mouth disease virus in East Africa using a field-ready real-time PCR platform

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    Effective control and monitoring of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) relies upon rapid and accurate disease confirmation. Currently, clinical samples are usually tested in reference laboratories using standardized assays recommended by The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE). However, the requirements for prompt and serotype-specific diagnosis during FMD outbreaks, and the need to establish robust laboratory testing capacity in FMD-endemic countries have motivated the development of simple diagnostic platforms to support local decision-making. Using a portable thermocycler, the T-CORℱ 8, this study describes the laboratory and field evaluation of a commercially available, lyophilized pan-serotype-specific real-time RT-PCR (rRT-PCR) assay and a newly available FMD virus (FMDV) typing assay (East Africa-specific for serotypes: O, A, Southern African Territories [SAT] 1 and 2). Analytical sensitivity, diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of the pan-serotype-specific lyophilized assay were comparable to that of an OIE-recommended laboratory-based rRT-PCR (determined using a panel of 57 FMDV-positive samples and six non-FMDV vesicular disease samples for differential diagnosis). The FMDV-typing assay was able to correctly identify the serotype of 33/36 FMDV-positive samples (no cross-reactivity between serotypes was evident). Furthermore, the assays were able to accurately detect and type FMDV RNA in multiple sample types, including epithelial tissue suspensions, serum, oesophageal–pharyngeal (OP) fluid and oral swabs, both with and without the use of nucleic acid extraction. When deployed in laboratory and field settings in Tanzania, Kenya and Ethiopia, both assays reliably detected and serotyped FMDV RNA in samples (n = 144) collected from pre-clinical, clinical and clinically recovered cattle. These data support the use of field-ready rRT-PCR platforms in endemic settings for simple, highly sensitive and rapid detection and/or characterization of FMDV

    Effects of the vibrating capsule on colonic circadian rhythm and bowel symptoms in chronic idiopathic constipation

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    BackgroundConstipated patients remain dissatisfied with current treatments suggesting a need for alternative therapies.AimEvaluate the mechanistic effects of oral vibrating capsule in chronic idiopathic constipation (CIC) by examining the temporal relationships between the onset of vibrations, complete spontaneous bowel movements (CSBM), and circadian rhythm.MethodsIn post hoc analyses of two double‐blind studies, CIC patients (Rome III) were randomized to receive 5 active or sham capsules/week for 8 weeks. The capsules were programmed for single vibration (study 1) or two vibration sessions with two modes, 8 hours apart (study 2). Daily electronic diaries assessed stool habit and percentage of CSBMs associated with vibrations. Responders were patients with ≄ 1 CSBM per week over baseline.Results250 patients were enrolled (active = 133, sham = 117). During and within 3 hours of vibration, there were significantly more % CSBMs in the active vs. sham group (50% vs. 42%; P = .0018). In study 2, there were two CSBM peaks associated with vibration sessions. Significantly more % CSBMs occurred in active mode 1 (21.5%) vs. sham (11.5%); (P = .0357). Responder rates did not differ in study 1 (active vs. sham: 26.9% vs. 35.9%, P = .19) or study 2 (mode 1 vs. sham: 50% vs. 31.8%, P = .24; mode 2 vs. sham: 38.1% vs. 31.8%, P = .75). Device was well‐tolerated barring mild vibration sensation.ConclusionsVibrating capsule may increase CSBMs possibly by enhancing the physiologic effects of waking and meals, and augmenting circadian rhythm, although responder rate was not different from sham. Two vibration sessions were associated with more CSBMs.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/163488/2/nmo13890.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/163488/1/nmo13890_am.pd

    2/3D imaging based on photonics-enabled multi-band MIMO radar system

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    Photonics-enabled coherent MIMO radars have been numerically investigated to evaluate the benefits of coherence and multi-band operation in 2/3D imaging
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