Aims. We examine whether dust mass can trace the total or molecular gas mass in late-type Virgo cluster galaxies, and how the environment affects the dust-to-gas ratio and the molecular fraction. ...Methods. Using the far-infrared emission, as observed by the Herschel Virgo Cluster Survey (HeViCS), and the integrated HI 21-cm and CO J = 1-0 line brightness, we infer the dust and total gas mass for a magnitude limited sample of 35 metal rich spiral galaxies. Environmental disturbances on each galaxy are considered by means of the HI deficiency parameter. Results. The CO flux correlates tightly and linearly with far-infrared fluxes observed by Herschel, especially with the emission at 160, 250 and 350 mu m. Molecules in these galaxies are more closely related to cold dust rather than to dust heated by star formation or to optical/NIR brightness. We show that dust mass establishes a stronger correlation with the total gas mass than with the atomic or molecular component alone. The correlation is non-linear since lower mass galaxies have a lower dust-to-gas ratio. The dust-to-gas ratio increases as the HI deficiency increases, but in highly HI deficient galaxies it stays constant. Dust is in fact less affected than atomic gas by weak cluster interactions, which remove most of the HI gas from outer and high latitudes regions. Highly disturbed galaxies, in a dense cluster environment, can instead loose a considerable fraction of gas and dust from the inner regions of the disk keeping constant the dust-to-gas ratio. There is evidence that the molecular phase is also quenched. This quencing becomes evident by considering the molecular gas mass per unit stellar mass. Its amplitude, if confirmed by future studies, highlights that molecules are missing in Virgo HI deficient spirals, but to a somewhat lesser extent than dust.
Purpose
In recent years, an increasing number of specialized gender clinics have been prescribing gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) analogs to adolescents diagnosed with gender dysphoria (GD) to ...suppress puberty. This paper presents qualitative research on the hormone therapy (HT) experiences of older trans-people and their views on puberty suppression. The main aim of this research was to explore the psychological aspects of hormonal treatments for gender non-conforming adults, including the controversial use of puberty suppression treatments.
Methods
Using a semi-structured interview format, ten adult trans-women were interviewed (mean age: 37.4) to explore their personal histories regarding GD onset and development, their HT experiences, and their views on the use of GnRH analogs to suppress puberty in trans-children and adolescents. Results: the interview transcripts were analyzed using the consensual qualitative research method from which several themes emerged: the onset of GD, childhood experiences, experiences with puberty and HT, views on the puberty suspension procedure, and the effects of this suspension on gender identity and sexuality.
Conclusions
The interviews showed that overall, the participants valued the new treatment protocol due to the opportunity to prevent the severe body dysphoria and social phobia trans-people experience with puberty. It seems that the risk of social isolation and psychological suffering is increased by the general lack of acceptance and stigma toward trans-identities in the Italian society. However, during gender transitions, they highlight the need to focus more on internal and psychological aspects, rather than over-emphasize physical appearance. This study gives a voice to an under-represented group regarding the use of GnRH analogs to suppress puberty in trans-individuals, and collected firsthand insights on this controversial treatment and its recommendations in professional international guidelines.
Metronomic chemotherapy (mCHT) refers to the minimum biologically effective dose of a chemotherapy agent given as a continuous dosing regimen, with no prolonged drug-free breaks, that leads to ...antitumor activity. Aim of the present study is to describe the use of mCHT in a retrospective cohort of metastatic breast cancer (MBC) patients in order to collect data regarding the different types and regimens of drugs employed, their efficacy and safety. Between January 2011 and December 2016, data of 584 metastatic breast cancer patients treated with mCHT were collected. The use of VRL-based regimens increased during the time of observation (2011: 16.8% - 2016: 29.8%), as well as CTX-based ones (2011: 17.1% - 2016: 25.6%), whereas CAPE-based and MTX-based regimens remained stable. In the 1st-line setting, the highest ORR and DCR were observed for VRL-based regimens (single agent: 44% and 88%; combination: 36.7% and 82.4%, respectively).
Assuming VRL-single agent as the referee treatment (median PFS: 7.2 months, 95% CI: 5.3–10.3), the longest median PFS were observed in VRL-combination regimens (9.5, 95%CI 88.8–11.3, HR = 0.72) and in CAPE-single agent (10.7, 95%CI 8.3–15.8, HR = 0.70). The VICTOR-6 study provides new data coming from the real-life setting, by adding new information regarding the use of mCHT as an option of treatment for MBC patients.
•Metronomic chemotherapy refers to the minimum biologically effective dose of a chemotherapy agent given as a continuous dosing regimen with no drug-free breaks.•In 1st-line, the highest ORR was observed for VRL-based regimens, without any association between clinical or tumor characteristics and ORR.•Median TTF was 6.28 months (95% CI: 5.63 – 7.01), regardless of the drug used and median Survival-Post-Progression was 12.0 months (95% CI: 10.4 – 15.6).•The longest median PFS were observed in VRL-combination regimens (9.5, 95%CI 88.8-11.3, HR=0.72) and in CAPE-single agent (10.7, 95%CI 8.3-15.8, HR=0.70).
Purpose
We evaluated differences in Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) scores between a sample of hormone-naïve transgender and cisgender people and the impact of gender-affirming hormonal treatment ...(GAHT) on AQ scores across time. Furthermore, we assessed alexithymia and social anxiety as possible mediators of changes in AQ scores.
Methods
A cross-sectional comparison between cisgender and transgender people before GAHT and a prospective study on the effects of GAHT over time were performed. Transgender and cisgender people completed several psychometric tests. A total sample of 789 persons (
n
= 229 cismen;
n
= 172 ciswomen;
n
= 206 transmen;
n
= 182 transwomen) referring to the Florence and Rome Gender Clinics between 2018 and 2020 was enrolled. Of these, 62 participants referring to the Florence Gender Clinic were evaluated in a prospective study at baseline and 12 months after GAHT.
Results
Groups showed significant differences in terms of autistic traits: ciswomen showed lower scores of AQ, while cismen reported higher scores of AQ than all other groups. Transgender individuals showed significant higher levels of Gender Dysphoria (GD), body uneasiness, alexithymia and social anxiety, compared to cisgender ones. No significant differences in general psychopathology were found between groups. Across time, transmen and transwomen showed a significant reduction in AQ scores. The decrease in alexithymia and social anxiety after GAHT did not predict the change in AQ scores.
Conclusions
The autistic traits in our sample may represent an epiphenomenon of GD rather than being part of an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) condition, since they significantly decreased after 12 months of GAHT.
Nowadays, treatment of metastatic breast cancer (MBC) has been enriched with novel therapeutical strategies. Metronomic chemotherapy (mCHT) is a continuous and frequent administration of chemotherapy ...at a lower dose and so whit less toxicity. Thus, this strategy could be attractive for elderly MBC patients. Aim of this analysis is to provide insights into mCHT's activity in a real-life setting of elderly MBC patients. Data of patients ≥ 75 years old included in VICTOR-6 study were analyzed. VICTOR-6 is a multicentre, Italian, retrospective study, which collected data on mCHT in MBC patients treated between 2011 and 2016. A total of 112 patients were included. At the beginning of mCHT, median age was 81 years (75-98) and in 33% of the patients mCHT was the first line choice. Overall Response Rate (ORR) and Disease Control Rate (DCR) were 27.9% and 79.3%, respectively. Median PFS ranged between 7.6 and 9.1 months, OS between 14.1 and 18.5 months. The most relevant toxicity was the hematological one (24.1%); severe toxicity (grade 3-4) ranged from 0.9% for skin toxicity up to 8% for hematologic one. This is a large study about mCHT in elderly MBC patients, providing insights to be further investigated in this subgroup of frail patients.
The recently initiated Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA (ALFALFA) survey aims to map ~7000 deg2 of the high Galactic latitude sky visible from Arecibo, providing a H I line spectral database covering the ...redshift range between -1600 and 18,000 km s-1 with ~5 km s-1 resolution. Exploiting Arecibo's large collecting area and small beam size, ALFALFA is specifically designed to probe the faint end of the H I mass function in the local universe and will provide a census of H I in the surveyed sky area to faint flux limits, making it especially useful in synergy with wide-area surveys conducted at other wavelengths. ALFALFA will also provide the basis for studies of the dynamics of galaxies within the Local Supercluster and nearby superclusters, allow measurement of the H I diameter function, and enable a first wide-area blind search for local H I tidal features, H I absorbers at z < 0.06, and OH megamasers in the redshift range 0.16 < z < 0.25. Although completion of the survey will require some 5 years, public access to the ALFALFA data and data products will be provided in a timely manner, thus allowing its application for studies beyond those targeted by the ALFALFA collaboration. ALFALFA adopts a two-pass, minimum intrusion, drift scan observing technique that samples the same region of sky at two separate epochs to aid in the discrimination of cosmic signals from noise and terrestrial interference. Survey simulations, which take into account large-scale structure in the mass distribution and incorporate experience with the ALFA system gained from tests conducted during its commissioning phase, suggest that ALFALFA will detect on the order of 20,000 extragalactic H I line sources out to z ~ 0.06, including several hundred with H I masses M < 107.5 M.
Popular current methods for quantifying variation in biological shape are well‐suited to analyses of isolated parts (e.g. the same bone from the skeletons of many individuals). An analytical ...challenge exists for quantifying variation between the shapes of multiple‐part objects where each part has a different position, rotation or scale (e.g. partial or whole articulated skeletons). We investigated regularised consensus principal component analysis (RCPCA) as a multiblock method for quantifying variation in the shape of multiple‐part objects. Multiblock methods are routinely used in other big data research fields such as bioinformatics/medicine, marketing and food research, but have not been widely embraced for evolutionary biology research.
We have created the new package morphoBlocks for the r programming language to make RCPCA more accessible for shape evolution research. morphoBlocks provides a complete workflow for formatting, analysing and visualising the variation between multiple‐part objects by integrating functions from a diverse range of other packages. In particular, global components produced by RCPCA provide a consensus space that we present here as a morphospace for multiple‐part objects.
morphoBlocks is demonstrated with a case study of manually placed landmarks and automatically placed pseudolandmarks from the partial wing skeletons of 15 extant penguin species and five fossil penguin species. Our case study provides quantitative support for a historical hypothesis about the magnitude and mode of morphological change across the evolutionary history of penguins.
RCPCA can be used to analyse two‐ or three‐dimensional datasets with 10s of landmarks, or 100s to 1,000s of semilandmarks or pseudolandmarks, from 10s to 100s of specimens comprised of two or more parts. We use morphoBlocks on a small three‐bone case study and provide a framework for applying this method to much larger studies investigating the ecological or evolutionary significance of multiple‐part objects.
Riassunto
Le metodologie più comuni atte a quantificare la variazione delle forme biologiche sono ottimizzate per l'analisi di singoli elementi (ad esempio lo stesso osso misurato su più individui). Tuttavia tentare di quantificare la variazione tra le forme di oggetti composti da più parti (oggetti composti) rappresenta tuttora una sfida, poiché ogni singola unità può avere una sua posizione, rotazione e dimensione (ad esempio scheletri interi o parziali). Abbiamo testato l'Analisi delle Componenti Principali a Consenso Regolarizzato (Regularised Consensus Principal Component Analysis, RCPCA) per quantificare la variazione di oggetti composti. L'RCPCA fa parte dei cosiddetti metodi ‘multi‐blocco’ utilizzati abitualmente in vari ambiti della ricerca annessa ai big data come bioinformatica/medicina, marketing e ricerca alimentare, tuttavia tale metodologia non è stata ancora sfruttata nell'ambito della biologia evolutiva.
Abbiamo creato morphoBlocks, un pacchetto per il linguaggio di programmazione R per rendere RCPCA più accessibile nell'ambito della morfometria applicata alla ricerca evolutiva. morphoBlocks integra funzioni provenienti da diversi pacchetti per formattare, analizzare e visualizzare la variazione tra oggetti complessi. Inoltre, le componenti globali prodotte dalla RCPCA possono essere utilizzate per generare uno spazio di ‘consensus’ che può essere interpretato come un morfospazio che specifica oggetti composti.
Il caso studio su cui morphoBlocks viene testato è costituito da un dataset di landmarks posizionati manualmente e pseudo‐landmark posizionati automaticamente su un set di tre ossa dell'ala di 15 pinguini odierni e cinque pinguini estinti. Il nostro caso studio supporta quantitativamente un'ipotesi storica riguardante le modalità di evoluzione morfologica avvenute durante la storia evolutiva dei pinguini.
RCPCA può essere usato per analizzare dataset a due e a tre dimensioni, costituiti da decine di landmark, fino alle centinaia e migliaia di semilandmark e pseudolandmark, distribuiti su decine o centinaia di individui composti da due o più elementi. Abbiamo usato morphoBlocks su un dataset ridotto, caratterizzato da tre ossa ma forniamo gli strumenti per applicare questo metodo su studi di maggior larga scala atti a indagare in ambiti ecologici e/o evoluzionistici l'importanza degli oggetti composti.
Purpose
Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) represents a subtype of breast cancer which lacks the expression of oestrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR) and human epidermal growth factor ...receptor-2 (HER2): TNBC accounts for approximately 20% of newly diagnosed breast cancers and is associated with younger age at diagnosis, greater recurrence risk and shorter survival time. Therapeutic options are very scarce. Aim of the present analysis is to provide further insights into the clinical activity of metronomic chemotherapy (mCHT), in a real-life setting.
Methods
We used data included in the VICTOR-6 study for the present analysis. VICTOR-6 is an Italian multicentre retrospective cohort study, which collected data of metastatic breast cancer (MBC) patients who have received mCHT between 2011 and 2016. Amongst the 584 patients included in the study, 97 were triple negative. In 40.2% of the TNBC patients, mCHT was the first chemotherapy treatment, whereas 32.9% had received 2 or more lines of treatment for the metastatic disease. 45.4% out of 97 TNBC patients received a vinorelbine (VRL)-based regimen, which resulted in the most used type of mCHT, followed by cyclophosphamide (CTX)-based regimens (30.9%) and capecitabine (CAPE)-based combinations (22.7%).
Results
Overall response rate (ORR) and disease control rate (DCR) were 17.5% and 64.9%, respectively. Median progression free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were 6.0 months (95% CI: 4.9–7.2) and 12.1 months (95% CI: 9.6–16.7). Median PFS was 6.9 months for CAPE-based regimens (95% CI: 5.0–18.4), 6.1 months (95% CI: 4.0–8.9) for CTX-based and 5.3 months (95% CI: 4.1–9.5) for VRL-based ones. Median OS was 18.2 months (95% CI: 9.1-NE) for CAPE-based regimens and 11.8 months for VRL- (95% CI: 9.3–16.7 and CTX-based ones (95%CI: 8.7–52.8). Tumour response, PFS and OS decreased proportionally in later lines.
Conclusion
This analysis represents the largest series of TNBC patients treated with mCHT in a real-life setting and provides further insights into the advantages of using this strategy even in this poor prognosis subpopulation.
The Sàrrabus pluton is formed by multiple short-lived intrusions emplaced at about 286 Ma at shallow crustal levels within the external part of the South Variscan Orogenic Belt. A chemical and Sr and ...Nd isotopic study on the Variscan post-collisional magmatism from the Sàrrabus pluton reveals the repeated bimodal character of the intrusions, in which heterogeneous crustal sources and mantle-derived calcalkaline magmas are involved. Products of this magmatic activity occur as intrusive units and mafic/felsic dykes intruded in post-collisional regime along extensional faults during tectonic exhumation. Pluton growth started with an early stage of emplacement of broadly granodioritic magma with subordinate mafic magma batches (stage 1) followed by large intrusions of metaluminous to subaluminous and subordinately peraluminous granites (stage 2). In stage 1, the occurrence of remnants of stratified olivine-bearing gabbroic rocks indicates the intrusion of mafic magmas which experienced low-pressure crystal/liquid fractionation. Mafic magmas may represent an external heat supply for melting of different crustal materials belonging to an inferred Precambrian crystalline basement underlying the Paleozoic rocks of the Variscan nappe pile. Strong evidence for heterogeneous crustal sources is constrained by isotope data. Peraluminous granites and felsic dikes display initial 87Sr/86Sr in the range of 0.7140÷0.7215 and a roughly constant εNd286 (−7.4 to −7.5). Conversely, a peculiar less radiogenic character, in the range of 0.7030÷0.7067/−5.5÷ − 6.2, is observed for metaluminous to subaluminous varieties. Calculated Neodymium Crustal Index (NCI) confirmed a progressive increase in crustal magmas generation during the pluton growth, from stage 1, recording minor mixing processes between mantle- and crustal-derived peraluminous melts, to stage 2, where extensive crustal melting occurred, originating metaluminous to subaluminous granites. Possible crustal sources for metaluminous/subaluminous and peraluminous granites are (Pan-African) amphibolites and metasedimentary rocks, respectively. Two-stage depleted-mantle Nd model ages cluster at 1.4 and 1.6 Ga for metaluminous/subaluminous and peraluminous granites, respectively, well comparable with other segments of the European Variscan belt. Remarkably, last magmatic pulses resulted in widespread subalkaline bimodal mafic/felsic dykes that overlapped the SrNd signature recorded by major intrusions. This similar geochemical affinity between late dykes and the first intrusives may be related to decreasing temperature in the crust, which inhibited extensive mixing processes with the upwelling melts. At the same time, the presence of felsic intrusions in the shallow crust would have prevented the rise of more primitive basic magmas, which would have consolidated at depth. Finally, the high radiogenic character of Sàrrabus mafic products, compared to coeval Variscan mafic rocks of Corsica and northern Sardinia, may be indicative of previous fractionation and mixing processes, possibly related to magmatic underplating of the lower crust.
•The Sàrrabus pluton is formed by multiple short-lived intrusions at ca. 286 Ma.•Pluton growth started with an early stage of broadly granodioritic composition.•Large intrusions of metaluminous to subaluminous granites follow the granodiorites.•During the pluton growth, a progressive increase in crustal magmas generation occurred.•Last magmatics are subalkaline mafic/felsic dikes with major intrusions signature.
PDF
