Amyloids are highly organized cross-β-sheet-rich protein or peptide aggregates that are associated with pathological conditions including Alzheimer's disease and type II diabetes. However, amyloids ...may also have a normal biological function, as demonstrated by fungal prions, which are involved in prion replication, and the amyloid protein Pmel17, which is involved in mammalian skin pigmentation. We found that peptide and protein hormones in secretory granules of the endocrine system are stored in an amyloid-like cross-β-sheet-rich conformation. Thus, functional amyloids in the pituitary and other organs can contribute to normal cell and tissue physiology.
Summary Background Cancer is a major cause of death in children worldwide, and the recorded incidence tends to increase with time. Internationally comparable data on childhood cancer incidence in the ...past two decades are scarce. This study aimed to provide internationally comparable local data on the incidence of childhood cancer to promote research of causes and implementation of childhood cancer control. Methods This population-based registry study, devised by the International Agency for Research on Cancer in collaboration with the International Association of Cancer Registries, collected data on all malignancies and non-malignant neoplasms of the CNS diagnosed before age 20 years in populations covered by high-quality cancer registries with complete data for 2001–10. Incidence rates per million person-years for the 0–14 years and 0–19 years age groups were age-adjusted using the world standard population to provide age-standardised incidence rates (WSRs), using the age-specific incidence rates (ASR) for individual age groups (0–4 years, 5–9 years, 10–14 years, and 15–19 years). All rates were reported for 19 geographical areas or ethnicities by sex, age group, and cancer type. The regional WSRs for children aged 0–14 years were compared with comparable data obtained in the 1980s. Findings Of 532 invited cancer registries, 153 registries from 62 countries, departments, and territories met quality standards, and contributed data for the entire decade of 2001–10. 385 509 incident cases in children aged 0–19 years occurring in 2·64 billion person-years were included. The overall WSR was 140·6 per million person-years in children aged 0–14 years (based on 284 649 cases), and the most common cancers were leukaemia (WSR 46·4), followed by CNS tumours (WSR 28·2), and lymphomas (WSR 15·2). In children aged 15–19 years (based on 100 860 cases), the ASR was 185·3 per million person-years, the most common being lymphomas (ASR 41·8) and the group of epithelial tumours and melanoma (ASR 39·5). Incidence varied considerably between and within the described regions, and by cancer type, sex, age, and racial and ethnic group. Since the 1980s, the global WSR of registered cancers in children aged 0–14 years has increased from 124·0 (95% CI 123·3–124·7) to 140·6 (140·1–141·1) per million person-years. Interpretation This unique global source of childhood cancer incidence will be used for aetiological research and to inform public health policy, potentially contributing towards attaining several targets of the Sustainable Development Goals. The observed geographical, racial and ethnic, age, sex, and temporal variations require constant monitoring and research. Funding International Agency for Research on Cancer and the Union for International Cancer Control.
Hurricane eyewalls are often observed to be nearly circular structures, but they are occasionally observed to take on distinctly polygonal shapes. The shapes range from triangles to hexagons and, ...while they are often incomplete, straight line segments can be identified.
BACKGROUND: Levetiracetam is used to manage status epilepticus (SE) and cluster seizures (CS) in humans. The drug might be absorbed after rectal administration and could offer a practical adjunct to ...rectal administration of diazepam in managing SE and CS. HYPOTHESIS: Levetiracetam is rapidly absorbed after rectal administration in dogs and maintains target serum concentrations for at least 9 hours. ANIMALS: Six healthy privately owned dogs between 2 and 6 years of age and weighing 10–20 kg. METHODS: Levetiracetam (40 mg/kg) was administered rectally and blood samples were obtained immediately before (time zero) and at 10, 20, 40, 60, 90, 180, 360, and 540 minutes after drug administration. Dogs were observed for signs of adverse effects over a 24‐hour period after drug administration. RESULTS: CLEVat 10 minutes was 15.3 ± 5.5 μg/mL (mean, SD) with concentrations in the target range (5–40 μg/mL) for all dogs throughout the sampling period. Cₘₐₓ(36.0 ± 10.7 μg/mL) and Tₘₐₓ(103 ± 31 minutes) values were calculated and 2 disparate groups were appreciated. Dogs with feces in the rectum at the time of drug administration had lower mean Cₘₐₓvalues (26.7 ± 3.4 μg/mL) compared with those without (45.2 ± 4.4 μg/mL). Mild sedation was observed between 60 and 90 minutes without other adverse effects noted. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE: This study supports the use of rectally administered levetiracetam in future studies of clinical effectiveness in the management of epileptic dogs.
With the objective of introducing antifouling characteristics into interpolymer types of cation and anion exchange membranes, the surface of these membranes was coated with a 12-μm-thick urethane ...acrylate layer and was cured by UV radiation of wavelengths 308 and 172 nm under a complete inert atmosphere. Different urethane acrylate composite ion exchange membranes developed were characterized in NaCl solution by measuring their ion-exchange capacity, volume fraction of water, contact angle with water, membrane conductance, and membrane potential. It was found that the electrochemical transport properties of urethane acrylate composite cation-exchange membranes were increased due to resonance stabilization of the urethane group, which acts as a weak acid and dissociates as a negatively charged urethane ion and a positively charged proton. This contributes toward the net charge density of the membrane matrix responsible for enhanced selectivity and conductivity, while for urethane acrylate composite anion-exchange membranes reduction in net charge density was responsible for reduction in electrochemical transport properties. Counterion transport number, permselectivity, and counterion diffusion coefficient values for these membranes were also estimated. Experiments were also carried out in higher homologs of sodium carboxylate solutions in order to observe the fouling tendencies of these membranes. It was concluded that it is possible to obtain antifouling characteristics of ion-exchange membranes by coating and curing thin hydrophilic layers of urethane acrylate on their surfaces without sacrificing their electrochemical transport properties.
The review covers transitions M0↔M¯0 in all neutral-meson systems that can show these weak-interaction transitions, M0=K0,D0,B0 and Bs. The four systems are ideal laboratories for studying the ...discrete symmetries T and CPT. The properties of time reversal T are discussed in classical and quantum mechanics. T violation in K0K¯0 transitions has been observed 1970 independent of assuming CPT symmetry by using the Bell–Steinberger unitarity relation. Improvements of this observation are reviewed including the latest results from 2013. They show with high significance that CP violation in K0K¯0 transitions is only T violation without any CPT violation. Transitions in the other three systems do not show CP violation so far and, therefore, neither T nor CPT violation. The large observed CP violation in B0→J/ψK0 decays is presented to be compatible with only T and no CPT violation, the same for the significant but very small CP violation in decays K0→ππ, I=2.
This study evaluates the tropical intraseasonal variability, especially the fidelity of Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO)simulations, in 14 coupled general circulation models (GCMs) participating in ...the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report (AR4). Eight years of daily precipitation from each model’s twentieth-century climate simulation are analyzed and compared with daily satellite-retrieved precipitation. Space–time spectral analysis is used to obtain the variance and phase speed of dominant convectively coupled equatorial waves, including the MJO, Kelvin, equatorial Rossby (ER), mixed Rossby–gravity (MRG), and eastward inertio–gravity (EIG) and westward inertio–gravity (WIG) waves. The variance and propagation of the MJO, defined as the eastward wavenumbers 1–6, 30–70-day mode, are examined in detail.
The results show that current state-of-the-art GCMs still have significant problems and display a wide range of skill in simulating the tropical intraseasonal variability. The total intraseasonal (2–128 day) variance of precipitation is too weak in most of the models. About half of the models have signals of convectively coupled equatorial waves, with Kelvin and MRG–EIG waves especially prominent. However, the variances are generally too weak for all wave modes except the EIG wave, and the phase speeds are generally too fast, being scaled to excessively deep equivalent depths. An interesting result isthat this scaling is consistent within a given model across modes, in that both the symmetric and antisymmetric modes scale similarly to a certain equivalent depth. Excessively deep equivalent depths suggest that these models may not have a large enough reduction in their “effective static stability” by diabatic heating.
The MJO variance approaches the observed value in only 2 of the 14 models, but is less than half of the observed value in the other 12 models. The ratio between the eastward MJO variance and the variance of its westward counterpart is too small in most of the models, which is consistent with the lack of highly coherent eastward propagation of the MJO in many models. Moreover, the MJO variance in 13 of the 14 models does not come from a pronounced spectral peak, but usually comes from part of an overreddened spectrum, which in turn is associated with too strong persistence of equatorial precipitation.The two models that arguably do best at simulating the MJO are the only ones having convective closures/triggers linked insome way to moisture convergence.
Recent evidence suggests that traffic noise may negatively impact mental health. However, existing systematic reviews provide an incomplete overview of the effects of all traffic noise sources on ...mental health. We conducted a systematic literature search and summarized the evidence for road, railway, or aircraft noise-related risks of depression, anxiety, cognitive decline, and dementia among adults. We included 31 studies (26 on depression and/or anxiety disorders, 5 on dementia). The meta-analysis of five aircraft noise studies found that depression risk increased significantly by 12% per 10 dB LDEN (Effect Size = 1.12, 95% CI 1.02–1.23). The meta-analyses of road (11 studies) and railway traffic noise (3 studies) indicated 2–3% (not statistically significant) increases in depression risk per 10 dB LDEN. Results for road traffic noise related anxiety were similar. We did not find enough studies to meta-analyze anxiety and railway or aircraft noise, and dementia/ cognitive impairment and any traffic noise. In conclusion, aircraft noise exposure increases the risk for depression. Otherwise, we did not detect statistically significant risk increases due to road and railway traffic noise or for anxiety. More research on the association of cognitive disorders and traffic noise is required. Public policies to reduce environmental traffic noise might not only increase wellness (by reducing noise-induced annoyance), but might contribute to the prevention of depression and anxiety disorders.
Abstract Background To test the hypothesis that perioperative blood transfusion (PBT)impacts oncologic outcomes of patients treated with radical nephroureterectomy (RNU) for upper tract urothelial ...carcinoma (UTUC). Methods Retrospective analysis of 2492 patients with UTUC treated at 23 institutions with RNU between 1987 and 2007.Cox regression models addressed the association of PBT with disease recurrence, cancer-specific mortality and any-cause mortality. Results A total of 510 patients (20.5%) patients received PBT. Within a median follow-up of 36 months (Interquartile range: 55 months), 663 (26.6%) patients experienced disease recurrence, 545 patients (21.9%) died of UTUC and 884 (35.5%) patients died from any cause. Patients who received PBT were at significantly higher risk of disease recurrence, cancer-specific mortality and overall mortality than patients not receiving PBT in univariable Cox regression analyses. In multivariable Cox regression analyses that adjusted for the effects of standard clinicopathologic features, PBT did not remain associated with disease recurrence (HR: 1.11; 95% CI 0.92–1.33, p = 0.25), cancer-specific mortality (HR: 1.09; 95% CI 0.89–1.33, p = 0.41) or overall mortality (HR: 1.09; 95% CI 0.93–1.28, p = 0.29). Conclusions In patients undergoing RNU for UTUC, PBT is associated with disease recurrence, cancer-specific survival or overall survival in univariable, but not in multivariable Cox regression analyses.
First light for GRAVITY Wide Abuter, R.; Allouche, F.; Amorim, A. ...
Astronomy and astrophysics (Berlin),
09/2022, Letnik:
665
Journal Article
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GRAVITY+ is the upgrade for GRAVITY and the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) with wide-separation fringe tracking, new adaptive optics, and laser guide stars on all four 8 m Unit Telescopes ...(UTs) to enable ever-fainter, all-sky, high-contrast, milliarcsecond interferometry. Here we present the design and first results of the first phase of GRAVITY+, known as GRAVITY Wide. GRAVITY Wide combines the dual-beam capabilities of the VLTI and the GRAVITY instrument to increase the maximum separation between the science target and the reference star from 2 arcseconds with the 8 m UTs up to several 10 arcseconds, limited only by the Earth’s turbulent atmosphere. This increases the sky-coverage of GRAVITY by two orders of magnitude, opening up milliarcsecond resolution observations of faint objects and, in particular, the extragalactic sky. The first observations in 2019–2022 include the first infrared interferometry of two redshift
z
~ 2 quasars, interferometric imaging of the binary system HD 105913A, and repeat observations of multiple star systems in the Orion Trapezium Cluster. We find the coherence loss between the science object and fringe-tracking reference star well described by the turbulence of the Earth’s atmosphere. We confirm that the larger apertures of the UTs result in higher visibilities for a given separation due to the broader overlap of the projected pupils on the sky and provide predictions for visibility loss as a function of separation to be used for future planning.
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