EFSUMB Recommendations and Guidelines for Gastrointestinal Ultrasound - Part 1: Examination Techniques and Normal Findings (Long version).

Abstract ▼ In October 2014 the European Federation of Societies for Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology formed a Gastrointestinal Ultrasound (GIUS) task force group to promote the use of GIUS in a clinical setting. One of the main objectives of the task force group was to develop clinical recommendations and guidelines for the use of GIUS under the auspices of EFSUMB. The first part, gives an overview of the examination techniques for GIUS recommended by experts in the field. It also presents the current evidence for the interpretation of normal sonoanatomical and physiological features as examined with different ultrasound modalities

SKI-1 and Furin Generate Multiple RGMa Fragments that Regulate Axonal Growth

SummaryThe nervous system is enormously complex, yet the number of cues that control axonal growth is surprisingly meager. Posttranslational modifications amplify diversity, but the degree to which they are employed is unclear. Here, we show that Furin and SKI-1 combine with autocatalytic cleavage and a disulfide bridge to generate four membrane-bound and three soluble forms of the repulsive guidance molecule (RGMa). We provide in vivo evidence that these proprotein convertases are involved in axonal growth and that RGMa cleavage is essential for Neogenin-mediated outgrowth inhibition. Surprisingly, despite no sequence homology, N- and C-RGMa fragments bound the same Fibronectin-like domains in Neogenin and blocked outgrowth. This represents an example in which unrelated fragments from one molecule inhibit outgrowth through a single receptor domain. RGMa is a tethered membrane-bound molecule, and proteolytic processing amplifies RGMa diversity by creating soluble versions with long-range effects as well

EFSUMB Recommendations and Guidelines for Gastrointestinal Ultrasound - Part 1: Examination Techniques and Normal Findings (Short version)

Abstract ▼ In October 2014 the European Federation of Societies for Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology formed a Gastrointestinal Ultrasound (GIUS) task force group to promote the use of GIUS in a clinical setting. One of the main objectives of the task force group was to develop clinical recommendations and guidelines for the use of GIUS under the auspices of EFSUMB. The first part, gives an overview of the examination techniques for GIUS recommended by experts in the field. It also presents the current evidence for the interpretation of normal sonoanatomical and physiological features as examined with different ultrasound modalities

First results from the OSQAR photon regeneration experiment: No light shining through a wall

A new method to amplify the photon-axion conversions in magnetic field is proposed using a buffer gas at a specific pressure. As a first result, new bounds for mass and coupling constant for purely laboratory experiments aiming to detect any hypothetical scalars and pseudo-scalars which can couple to photons were obtained at 95% confidence level, excluding the PVLAS result newly disclaimed.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Search for weakly interacting sub-eV particles with the OSQAR laser-based experiment: results and perspectives

Recent theoretical and experimental studies highlight the possibility of new fundamental particle physics beyond the Standard Model that can be probed by sub-eV energy experiments. The OSQAR photon regeneration experiment looks for "Light Shining through a Wall" (LSW) from the quantum oscillation of optical photons into "Weakly Interacting Sub-eV Particles" (WISPs), like axion or axion-like particles (ALPs), in a 9 T transverse magnetic field over the unprecedented length of $2 \times 14.3$ m. No excess of events has been detected over the background. The di-photon couplings of possible new light scalar and pseudo-scalar particles can be constrained in the massless limit to be less than $8.0\times10^{-8}$ GeV$^{-1}$. These results are very close to the most stringent laboratory constraints obtained for the coupling of ALPs to two photons. Plans for further improving the sensitivity of the OSQAR experiment are presented.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figure

Structure and reorientational dynamics of 1-F-adamantane

The polymorphism and the dynamics of a simple rigid molecule (1-fluoro-adamantane) have been studied by means of X-ray powder diffraction and broadband dielectric spectroscopy. At temperatures below the melting point, the molecule forms an orientationally disordered Phase I with a cubic-centered structure (Phase I, Fm (3) over barm, Z = 4). This phase possesses eight equilibrium positions for the fluorine atom, with equal occupancy factors of 1/8. A solid-solid phase transition to a low-temperature tetragonal phase (Phase II, P (4) over bar2(1)c, Z = 2) reduces the statistical disorder to only four possible equivalent sites for the fluorine atom, with fractional occupancies of 1/4. The dynamics has been rationalized under the constraints imposed by the space group of the crystal structure determined by powder X-ray diffraction. The dielectric spectroscopy study reveals that the statistical disorder in Phase II is dynamic in character and is associated with reorientational jumps along the two-and three-fold axes. In the dielectric loss spectra, the cooperative (alpha) relaxation exhibits a shoulder on the high-frequency side. This remarkable finding clearly reveals the existence of two intrinsic reorientational processes associated with the exchange of the F atom along the four sites. In addition to suchPeer ReviewedPostprint (published version

A calibration method for broad-bandwidth cavity enhanced absorption spectroscopy performed with supercontinuum radiation

An efficient calibration method has been developed for broad-bandwidth cavity enhanced absorption spectroscopy. The calibration is performed using phase shift cavity ring-down spectroscopy, which is conveniently implemented through use of an acousto-optic tunable filter (AOTF). The AOTF permits a narrowband portion of the SC spectrum to be scanned over the full high-reflectivity bandwidth of the cavity mirrors. After calibration the AOTF is switched off and broad-bandwidth CEAS can be performed with the same light source without any loss of alignment to the set-up. We demonstrate the merits of the method by probing transitions of oxygen molecules O-2 and collisional pairs of oxygen molecules (O-2)(2) in the visible spectral range

Visible photodissociation spectroscopy of PAH cations and derivatives in the PIRENEA experiment

The electronic spectra of gas-phase cationic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), trapped in the Fourier Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance cell of the PIRENEA experiment, have been measured by multiphoton dissociation spectroscopy in the 430-480 nm spectral range using the radiation of a mid-band optical parametric oscillator laser. We present here the spectra recorded for different species of increasing size, namely the pyrene cation (C16H10+), the 1-methylpyrene cation (CH3-C16H9+), the coronene cation (C24H12+), and its dehydrogenated derivative C24H10+. The experimental results are interpreted with the help of time-dependent density functional theory calculations and analysed using spectral information on the same species obtained from matrix isolation spectroscopy data. A kinetic Monte Carlo code has also been used, in the case of pyrene and coronene cations, to estimate the absorption cross-sections of the measured electronic transitions. Gas-phase spectra of highly reactive species such as dehydrogenated PAH cations are reported for the first time

Expression of CXCL10 is associated with response to radiotherapy and overall survival in squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue

Five-year survival for patients with oral cancer has been disappointingly stable during the last decades, creating a demand for new biomarkers and treatment targets. Lately, much focus has been set on immunomodulation as a possible treatment or an adjuvant increasing sensitivity to conventional treatments. The objective of this study was to evaluate the prognostic importance of response to radiotherapy in tongue carcinoma patients as well as the expression of the CXC-chemokines in correlation to radiation response in the same group of tumours. Thirty-eight patients with tongue carcinoma that had received radiotherapy followed by surgery were included. The prognostic impact of pathological response to radiotherapy, N-status, T-stage, age and gender was evaluated using Cox's regression models, Kaplan-Meier survival curves and chi-square test. The expression of 23 CXC-chemokine ligands and their receptors were evaluated in all patients using microarray and qPCR and correlated with response to treatment using logistic regression. Pathological response to radiotherapy was independently associated to overall survival with a 2-year survival probability of 81 % for patients showing a complete pathological response, while patients with a non-complete response only had a probability of 42 % to survive for 2 years (p = 0.016). The expression of one CXC-chemokine, CXCL10, was significantly associated with response to radiotherapy and the group of patients with the highest CXCL10 expression responded, especially poorly (p = 0.01). CXCL10 is a potential marker for response to radiotherapy and overall survival in patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue