Sister Mary Joseph's Nodule at a University Teaching Hospital in Northwestern Tanzania: A Retrospective Review of 34 cases.

Sister Mary Joseph's nodule is a metastatic tumor deposit in the umbilicus and often represents advanced intra-abdominal malignancy with dismal prognosis. There is a paucity of published data on this subject in our setting. This study was conducted to describe the clinicopathological presentation and treatment outcome of this condition in our environment and highlight challenges associated with the care of these patients, and to proffer solutions for improved outcome. This was a retrospective study of histologically confirmed cases of Sister Mary Joseph's nodule seen at Bugando Medical Centre between March 2003 and February 2013. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics. A total of 34 patients were enrolled in the study. Males outnumbered females by a ratio of 1.4:1. The vast majority of patients (70.6%) presented with large umbilical nodule > 2 cm in size. The stomach (41.1%) was the most common location of the primary tumor. Adenocarcinoma (88.2%) was the most frequent histopathological type. Most of the primary tumors (52.9%) were poorly differentiated. As the disease was advanced and metastatic in all patients, only palliative therapy was offered. Out of 34 patients, 11 patients died in the hospital giving a mortality rate of 32.4%. Patients were followed up for 24 months. At the end of the follow-up period, 14(60.9%) patients were lost to follow-up and the remaining 9 (39.1%) patients died. Patients survived for a median period of 28 weeks (range, 2 to 64 weeks). The nodule recurred in 6 (26.1%) patients after complete excision. Sister Mary Joseph's nodule of the umbilicus is not rare in our environment and often represents manifestation of a variety of advanced intra-abdominal malignancies. The majority of the patients present at a late stage and many with distant metastases. The patient's survival is very short leading to a poor outcome. Early detection of primary cancer at an early stage may improve the prognosis

Upper Limit on the Prompt Muon Flux Derived from the LVD Underground Experiment

We present the analysis of the muon events with all muon multiplicities collected during 21804 hours of operation of the first LVD tower. The measured depth-angular distribution of muon intensities has been used to obtain the normalization factor, A, the power index, gamma, of the primary all-nucleon spectrum and the ratio, R_c, of prompt muon flux to that of pi-mesons - the main parameters which determine the spectrum of cosmic ray muons at the sea level. The value of gamma = 2.77 +/- 0.05 (68% C.L.) and R_c < 2.0 x 10^-3 (95% C.L.) have been obtained. The upper limit to the prompt muon flux favours the models of charm production based on QGSM and the dual parton model.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, RevTex. To appear in Phys. Rev.

Differential (2+1) Jet Event Rates and Determination of alpha_s in Deep Inelastic Scattering at HERA

Events with a (2+1) jet topology in deep-inelastic scattering at HERA are studied in the kinematic range 200 < Q^2< 10,000 GeV^2. The rate of (2+1) jet events has been determined with the modified JADE jet algorithm as a function of the jet resolution parameter and is compared with the predictions of Monte Carlo models. In addition, the event rate is corrected for both hadronization and detector effects and is compared with next-to-leading order QCD calculations. A value of the strong coupling constant of alpha_s(M_Z^2)= 0.118+- 0.002 (stat.)^(+0.007)_(-0.008) (syst.)^(+0.007)_(-0.006) (theory) is extracted. The systematic error includes uncertainties in the calorimeter energy calibration, in the description of the data by current Monte Carlo models, and in the knowledge of the parton densities. The theoretical error is dominated by the renormalization scale ambiguity.Comment: 25 pages, 6 figures, 3 tables, submitted to Eur. Phys.

Multiplicity Structure of the Hadronic Final State in Diffractive Deep-Inelastic Scattering at HERA

The multiplicity structure of the hadronic system X produced in deep-inelastic processes at HERA of the type ep -> eXY, where Y is a hadronic system with mass M_Y< 1.6 GeV and where the squared momentum transfer at the pY vertex, t, is limited to |t|<1 GeV^2, is studied as a function of the invariant mass M_X of the system X. Results are presented on multiplicity distributions and multiplicity moments, rapidity spectra and forward-backward correlations in the centre-of-mass system of X. The data are compared to results in e+e- annihilation, fixed-target lepton-nucleon collisions, hadro-produced diffractive final states and to non-diffractive hadron-hadron collisions. The comparison suggests a production mechanism of virtual photon dissociation which involves a mixture of partonic states and a significant gluon content. The data are well described by a model, based on a QCD-Regge analysis of the diffractive structure function, which assumes a large hard gluonic component of the colourless exchange at low Q^2. A model with soft colour interactions is also successful.Comment: 22 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Eur. Phys. J., error in first submission - omitted bibliograph

Formyl Peptide Receptor as a Novel Therapeutic Target for Anxiety-Related Disorders

Formyl peptide receptors (FPR) belong to a family of sensors of the immune system that detect microbe-associated molecules and inform various cellular and sensorial mechanisms to the presence of pathogens in the host. Here we demonstrate that Fpr2/3-deficient mice show a distinct profile of behaviour characterised by reduced anxiety in the marble burying and light-dark box paradigms, increased exploratory behaviour in an open-field, together with superior performance on a novel object recognition test. Pharmacological blockade with a formyl peptide receptor antagonist, Boc2, in wild type mice reproduced most of the behavioural changes observed in the Fpr2/3(-/-) mice, including a significant improvement in novel object discrimination and reduced anxiety in a light/dark shuttle test. These effects were associated with reduced FPR signalling in the gut as shown by the significant reduction in the levels of p-p38. Collectively, these findings suggest that homeostatic FPR signalling exerts a modulatory effect on anxiety-like behaviours. These findings thus suggest that therapies targeting FPRs may be a novel approach to ameliorate behavioural abnormalities present in neuropsychiatric disorders at the cognitive-emotional interface

A Search for Selectrons and Squarks at HERA

Data from electron-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 300 GeV are used for a search for selectrons and squarks within the framework of the minimal supersymmetric model. The decays of selectrons and squarks into the lightest supersymmetric particle lead to final states with an electron and hadrons accompanied by large missing energy and transverse momentum. No signal is found and new bounds on the existence of these particles are derived. At 95% confidence level the excluded region extends to 65 GeV for selectron and squark masses, and to 40 GeV for the mass of the lightest supersymmetric particle.Comment: 13 pages, latex, 6 Figure

Energy Flow in the Hadronic Final State of Diffractive and Non-Diffractive Deep-Inelastic Scattering at HERA

An investigation of the hadronic final state in diffractive and non--diffractive deep--inelastic electron--proton scattering at HERA is presented, where diffractive data are selected experimentally by demanding a large gap in pseudo --rapidity around the proton remnant direction. The transverse energy flow in the hadronic final state is evaluated using a set of estimators which quantify topological properties. Using available Monte Carlo QCD calculations, it is demonstrated that the final state in diffractive DIS exhibits the features expected if the interaction is interpreted as the scattering of an electron off a current quark with associated effects of perturbative QCD. A model in which deep--inelastic diffraction is taken to be the exchange of a pomeron with partonic structure is found to reproduce the measurements well. Models for deep--inelastic $ep$ scattering, in which a sizeable diffractive contribution is present because of non--perturbative effects in the production of the hadronic final state, reproduce the general tendencies of the data but in all give a worse description.Comment: 22 pages, latex, 6 Figures appended as uuencoded fil

Muon `Depth -- Intensity' Relation Measured by LVD Underground Experiment and Cosmic-Ray Muon Spectrum at Sea Level

We present the analysis of the muon events with all muon multiplicities collected during 21804 hours of operation of the first LVD tower. The measured angular distribution of muon intensity has been converted to the `depth -- vertical intensity' relation in the depth range from 3 to 12 km w.e.. The analysis of this relation allowed to derive the power index, $\gamma$, of the primary all-nucleon spectrum: $\gamma=2.78 \pm 0.05$. The `depth -- vertical intensity' relation has been converted to standard rock and the comparison with the data of other experiments has been done. We present also the derived vertical muon spectrum at sea level.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, to be published on Phys. Rev.

The Concise Guide to PHARMACOLOGY 2015/16:Ligand-gated ion channels

The Concise Guide to PHARMACOLOGY 2015/16 provides concise overviews of the key properties of over 1750 human drug targets with their pharmacology, plus links to an open access knowledgebase of drug targets and their ligands (www.guidetopharmacology.org), which provides more detailed views of target and ligand properties. The full contents can be found at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bph.13349/full. Ligand-gated ion channels are one of the eight major pharmacological targets into which the Guide is divided, with the others being: ligand-gated ion channels, voltage-gated ion channels, other ion channels, nuclear hormone receptors, catalytic receptors, enzymes and transporters. These are presented with nomenclature guidance and summary information on the best available pharmacological tools, alongside key references and suggestions for further reading. The Concise Guide is published in landscape format in order to facilitate comparison of related targets. It is a condensed version of material contemporary to late 2015, which is presented in greater detail and constantly updated on the website www.guidetopharmacology.org, superseding data presented in the previous Guides to Receptors & Channels and the Concise Guide to PHARMACOLOGY 2013/14. It is produced in conjunction with NC-IUPHAR and provides the official IUPHAR classification and nomenclature for human drug targets, where appropriate. It consolidates information previously curated and displayed separately in IUPHAR-DB and GRAC and provides a permanent, citable, point-in-time record that will survive database updates

The Concise Guide to PHARMACOLOGY 2015/16:Nuclear hormone receptors

The Concise Guide to PHARMACOLOGY 2015/16 provides concise overviews of the key properties of over 1750 human drug targets with their pharmacology, plus links to an open access knowledgebase of drug targets and their ligands (www.guidetopharmacology.org), which provides more detailed views of target and ligand properties. The full contents can be found at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bph.13352/full. Nuclear hormone receptors are one of the eight major pharmacological targets into which the Guide is divided, with the others being: G protein-coupled receptors, ligand-gated ion channels, voltage-gated ion channels, other ion channels, catalytic receptors, enzymes and transporters. These are presented with nomenclature guidance and summary information on the best available pharmacological tools, alongside key references and suggestions for further reading. The Concise Guide is published in landscape format in order to facilitate comparison of related targets. It is a condensed version of material contemporary to late 2015, which is presented in greater detail and constantly updated on the website www.guidetopharmacology.org, superseding data presented in the previous Guides to Receptors & Channels and the Concise Guide to PHARMACOLOGY 2013/14. It is produced in conjunction with NC-IUPHAR and provides the official IUPHAR classification and nomenclature for human drug targets, where appropriate. It consolidates information previously curated and displayed separately in IUPHAR-DB and GRAC and provides a permanent, citable, point-in-time record that will survive database updates