Background
Recent advances in technology have enabled the development of various non‐invasive skin imaging tools to aid real‐time diagnosis of both benign and malignant skin tumours, minimizing the ...need for invasive skin biopsy. Multispectral optoacoustic tomography (MSOT) is a recently developed non‐invasive imaging tool, which offers the unique capacity for high resolution three dimensional (3D) optical mapping of tissue by further delivering highly specific optical contrast from a depth of several millimetres to centimetres in living tissues. MSOT enables volumetric, spectroscopic differentiation of tissue, both in vivo and in real time, with and without the application of biomarker‐specific probes, and is further able of providing spatial maps of skin chromophores, as well as underlying blood vasculature.
Methods
Three patients with suspicious skin tumours consented to have their lesions imaged with MSOT prior to excision. The histological findings and measurements were compared.
Results
We demonstrated the first in vivo clinical use of MSOT for 3D reconstruction of skin tumours in three patients with good histological correlation.
Conclusion
Our findings confirm the potential benefit of the new imaging method in guiding surgical intervention to achieve a more precise excision with better clearance and lower relapse rates. It can also potentially help to shorten the duration of Mohs’ micrographic surgery. Further large‐scale studies are necessary to ensure correlation between MSOT and histology.
We confirm the planetary nature of TOI-1728b using a combination of ground-based photometry, near-infrared Doppler velocimetry and spectroscopy with the Habitable-zone Planet Finder. TOI-1728 is an ...old, inactive M0 star with Teff = K, which hosts a transiting super-Neptune at an orbital period of ∼3.49 days. Joint fitting of the radial velocities and TESS and ground-based transits yields a planetary radius of R⊕, mass M⊕, and eccentricity . We estimate the stellar properties, and perform a search for He 10830 absorption during the transit of this planet and claim a null detection with an upper limit of 1.1% with 90% confidence. A deeper level of He 10830 absorption has been detected in the planet atmosphere of GJ 3470b, a comparable gaseous planet. TOI-1728b is the largest super-Neptune-the intermediate subclass of planets between Neptune and the more massive gas-giant planets-discovered around an M dwarf. With its relatively large mass and radius, TOI-1728 represents a valuable data point in the M-dwarf exoplanet mass-radius diagram, bridging the gap between the lighter Neptune-sized planets and the heavier Jovian planets known to orbit M dwarfs. With a low bulk density of g cm−3, and orbiting a bright host star (J ∼ 9.6, V ∼ 12.4), TOI-1728b is also a promising candidate for transmission spectroscopy both from the ground and from space, which can be used to constrain planet formation and evolutionary models.
Please cite this paper as: Vivian‐Taylor J, Roberts C, Chen J, Ford J. Motor vehicle accidents during pregnancy: a population‐based study. BJOG 2012;119:499–503.
This population‐based cohort study of ...more than 600 000 Australian women describes the incidence of motor vehicle accidents (MVA) during pregnancy and the immediate and subsequent pregnancy outcomes. In this study, 3.5 women per 1000 maternities were admitted to hospital following an MVA. Immediate delivery was uncommon: 0.4% at <20 weeks of gestation and 3.5% at ≥20 weeks of gestation. Outcomes for those giving birth immediately were poor, with increased risk of antepartum haemorrhage, preterm birth, caesarean section and perinatal death. In contrast, women who remained undelivered following an MVA (96%) had similar pregnancy outcomes to women not involved in MVAs, and can be reassured.
PdI 2(μ-PPh2)(μ2-OAc)(PPh3)2 is the reduction product of PdII(OAc)2(PPh3)2, generated by reaction of ‘Pd(OAc)2’ with two equivalents of PPh3. Here, we report that the reaction of PdI ...2(μ-PPh2)(μ2-OAc)(PPh3)2 with PPh3 results in a nuanced disproportionation reaction, forming Pd0(PPh3)3 and a phosphinito-bridged PdI-dinuclear complex, namely PdI 2(μ-PPh2){κ2-P,O-μ-P(O)Ph2}(κ-PPh3)2. The latter complex is proposed to form by abstraction of an oxygen atom from an acetate ligand at Pd. A mechanism for the formal reduction of a putative PdII disproportionation species to the observed PdI complex is postulated. Upon reaction of the mixture of Pd0(PPh)3 and PdI 2(μ-PPh2){κ2-P,O-μ-P(O)Ph2}(κ-PPh3)2 with 2-bromopyridine, the former Pd0 complex undergoes a fast oxidative addition reaction, while the latter dinuclear PdI complex converts slowly to a tripalladium cluster, of the type Pd3(μ-X)(μ-PPh2)2(PPh3)3X, with an overall 4/3 oxidation state per Pd. Our findings reveal complexity associated with the precatalyst activation step for the ubiquitous ‘Pd(OAc)2’/nPPh3 catalyst system, with implications for cross-coupling catalysis.
Patients with schizophrenia (SZ) characteristically exhibit supranormal levels of cortical activity to self-induced sensory stimuli, ostensibly because of abnormalities in the neural signals ...(corollary discharges, CDs) normatively involved in suppressing the sensory consequences of self-generated actions. The nature of these abnormalities is unknown. This study investigated whether SZ patients experience CDs that are abnormally delayed in their arrival at the sensory cortex.
Twenty-one patients with SZ and 25 matched control participants underwent electroencephalography (EEG). Participants' level of cortical suppression was calculated as the amplitude of the N1 component evoked by a button press-elicited auditory stimulus, subtracted from the N1 amplitude evoked by the same stimulus presented passively. In the three experimental conditions, the auditory stimulus was delivered 0, 50 or 100 ms subsequent to the button-press. Fifteen SZ patients and 17 healthy controls (HCs) also underwent diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), and the fractional anisotropy (FA) of participants' arcuate fasciculus was used to predict their level of cortical suppression in the three conditions.
While the SZ patients exhibited subnormal N1 suppression to undelayed, self-generated auditory stimuli, these deficits were eliminated by imposing a 50-ms, but not a 100-ms, delay between the button-press and the evoked stimulus. Furthermore, the extent to which the 50-ms delay normalized a patient's level of N1 suppression was linearly related to the FA of their arcuate fasciculus.
These data suggest that SZ patients experience temporally delayed CDs to self-generated auditory stimuli, putatively because of structural damage to the white-matter (WM) fasciculus connecting the sites of discharge initiation and destination.
Background
This multicentre cohort study sought to define a robust pathological indicator of clinically meaningful response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in oesophageal adenocarcinoma.
Methods
A ...questionnaire was distributed to 11 UK upper gastrointestinal cancer centres to determine the use of assessment of response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Records of consecutive patients undergoing oesophagogastric resection at seven centres between January 2000 and December 2013 were reviewed. Pathological response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy was assessed using the Mandard Tumour Regression Grade (TRG) and lymph node downstaging.
Results
TRG (8 of 11 centres) was the most widely used system to assess response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy, but there was discordance on how it was used in practice. Of 1392 patients, 1293 had TRG assessment; data were available for clinical and pathological nodal status (cN and pN) in 981 patients, and TRG, cN and pN in 885. There was a significant difference in survival between responders (TRG 1–2; median overall survival (OS) not reached) and non‐responders (TRG 3–5; median OS 2·22 (95 per cent c.i. 1·94 to 2·51) years; P < 0·001); the hazard ratio was 2·46 (95 per cent c.i. 1·22 to 4·95; P = 0·012). Among local non‐responders, the presence of lymph node downstaging was associated with significantly improved OS compared with that of patients without lymph node downstaging (median OS not reached versus 1·92 (1·68 to 2·16) years; P < 0·001).
Conclusion
A clinically meaningful local response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy was restricted to the small minority of patients (14·8 per cent) with TRG 1–2. Among local non‐responders, a subset of patients (21·3 per cent) derived benefit from neoadjuvant chemotherapy by lymph node downstaging and their survival mirrored that of local responders.
Response associated with survival
Background
Historically, pregnancies among women with prosthetic heart valves have been associated with an increased incidence of adverse outcomes.
Objectives
Systematic review to assess risk of ...adverse pregnancy outcomes among women with a prosthetic heart valve(s) over the last 20 years.
Search strategy
Electronic literature search of Medline, The Cochrane Library, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature and Embase to find recent studies.
Selection criteria
Studies of pregnant women with heart valve prostheses including trials, cohort studies and unselected case series.
Data collection and analysis
Primary analysis calculated absolute risks and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for pregnancy outcomes using a random effects model. The Freeman–Tukey transformation was utilised in secondary analysis due to the large number of individual study outcomes with zero events.
Main results
Eleven studies capturing 499 pregnancies among women with heart valve prostheses, including 256 mechanical and 59 bioprosthetic, were eligible for inclusion. Pooled estimate of maternal mortality was 1.2/100 pregnancies (95% CI 0.5–2.2), for mechanical valves subgroup 1.8/100 (95% CI 0.5–3.7) and bioprosthetic subgroup 0.7/100 (95% CI 0.1–4.5), overall pregnancy loss 20.8/100 pregnancies (95% CI 9.5–35.1), perinatal mortality 5.0/100 births (95%CI 1.8–9.8) and thromboembolism 9.3/100 pregnancies (95% CI 4.0–16.5).
Conclusions
Women with heart valve prostheses experienced higher rates of adverse outcomes than expected in a general obstetric population; however, lower than previously reported. Women with bioprostheses had significantly fewer thromboembolic events compared to women with mechanical valves. Women should be counselled pre‐pregnancy about risk of maternal death and pregnancy loss. Vigilant surveillance by a multidisciplinary team throughout the perinatal period remains warranted for these women and their infants.
Tweetable
Metaanalysis suggests improvement in #pregnancy outcomes among women with #heartvalveprostheses.
The MiniBooNE Collaboration observes unexplained electronlike events in the reconstructed neutrino energy range from 200 to 475 MeV. With 6.46x10;{20} protons on target, 544 electronlike events are ...observed in this energy range, compared to an expectation of 415.2+/-43.4 events, corresponding to an excess of 128.8+/-20.4+/-38.3 events. The shape of the excess in several kinematic variables is consistent with being due to either nu_{e} and nuover _{e} charged-current scattering or nu_{mu} neutral-current scattering with a photon in the final state. No significant excess of events is observed in the reconstructed neutrino energy range from 475 to 1250 MeV, where 408 events are observed compared to an expectation of 385.9+/-35.7 events.
Recent evidence suggests that strain variation in the serum IgG response to Porphyromonas gingivalis occurs in periodontal disease and cardiovascular disease (CVD). This study aimed to test the ...hypothesis that different P. gingivalis strains would elicit different levels of IgG, depending on a patient’s cardiovascular (CV) and periodontal health. For CVD patients, serum antibody levels increased significantly with increasing numbers of deep pockets for all strains of P. gingivalis, except W50 (p < 0.001). We used a two-way analysis of variance to examine differences in antibody responses across several CV and periodontal groups simultaneously. There was a significant interaction effect (p < 0.05) between periodontal status and CV status for antibody levels to ATCC33277, UQD605, and Su63. This study shows variation in strain type with respect to serum IgG response in several CV and periodontal categories, providing further support for the role of the immune response to P. gingivalis in the relationship between periodontal disease and CVD.
Abstract Recent discoveries of transiting giant exoplanets around M-dwarf stars (GEMS), aided by the all-sky coverage of TESS, are starting to stretch theories of planet formation through the ...core-accretion scenario. Recent upper limits on their occurrence suggest that they decrease with lower stellar masses, with fewer GEMS around lower-mass stars compared to solar-type. In this paper, we discuss existing GEMS both through confirmed planets, as well as protoplanetary disk observations, and a combination of tests to reconcile these with theoretical predictions. We then introduce the Searching for GEMS survey, where we utilize multidimensional nonparameteric statistics to simulate hypothetical survey scenarios to predict the required sample size of transiting GEMS with mass measurements to robustly compare their bulk-density with canonical hot Jupiters orbiting FGK stars. Our Monte Carlo simulations predict that a robust comparison requires about 40 transiting GEMS (compared to the existing sample of ∼15) with 5 σ mass measurements. Furthermore, we discuss the limitations of existing occurrence estimates for GEMS and provide a brief description of our planned systematic search to improve the occurrence rate estimates for GEMS.
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