Brain arteriovenous malformations (bAVM) are tangles of abnormal, dilated vessels that directly shunt blood between the arteries and veins. The pathogenesis of bAVM is currently unknown. Patients with hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT) have a higher prevalence of bAVM than the general population. Animal models are important tools for dissecting the disease etiopathogenesis and for testing new therapies. Here, we introduce a method that induces the bAVM phenotype through regional deletion of activin-like kinase 1 (Alk1, the causal gene for HHT2) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) stimulation. © 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York.

The ornithine decarboxylase-1 ( ODC1 ) polymorphism at position +316 affects binding by transcriptional activators and repressors and modulates the risk of metachronous colorectal adenomas, particularly in association with aspirin use. We investigated the effects of ODC1 after treatment with difluoromethylornithine (eflornithine)/sulindac or placebo. Two hundred twenty-eight colorectal adenoma patients in a randomized phase III trial were genotyped for ODC1 . We used Wilcoxon rank sums tests on non-normally distributed continuous variables across two genotype groups, χ 2 or Fisher exact test to assess the association between baseline categorical variables and genotype group, and log binomial regression for the primary (adenoma recurrence) and secondary outcomes (tissue polyamine response, cardiovascular toxicity, gastrointestinal toxicity, and ototoxicity). All statistical tests were two-sided. In binomial regression models with variables age, sex, race, aspirin use, treatment, and ODC1 genotype, treatment was the only statistically significant factor associated with differences in adenoma recurrence or tissue polyamine response. A statistically significant interaction was detected between ODC1 genotype and treatment with respect to adenoma recurrence (placebo group: GG, 50%, AA/GA: 34%; treatment group: GG, 11%, AA/GA, 21%; Pinteraction = .038). Excess ototoxicity was observed among ODC1 AA patients receiving treatment, but the interaction of genotype and treatment on ototoxicity was not statistically significant ( P = .45).

The cDNA encoding p43, a DNA binding protein from pea chloroplasts (ct) that binds to cognate DNA polymerase and stimulates the polymerase activity, has been cloned and characterised. The characteristic sequence motifs of hydroxyproline-rich glyco-proteins (HRGP) are present in the cDNA corres-ponding to the N-terminal domain of the mature p43. The protein was found to be highly O-arabinosylated. Chemically deglycosylated p43 (i.e. p29) retains its binding to both DNA and pea ct-DNA polymerase but fails to stimulate the DNA polymerase activity. The mature p43 is synthesised as a pre-p43 protein containing a 59 amino acid long transit peptide which undergoes stromal cleavage as evidenced from the post-translational in vitro import of the precursor protein into the isolated intact pea chloroplasts. Surprisingly, p43 is found only in pea chloroplasts. The unique features present in the cloned cDNA indicate that p43 is a novel member of the HRGP family of proteins. Besides p43, no other DNA-polymerase accessory protein with O-glycosylation has been reported yet.

©2015. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved. We have carried out an archaeomagnetic study on a late Neolithic locality (Liujiazhai) in Sichuan, southwestern China. We pull together various dating techniques, including radiocarbon analysis, optically stimulated luminescence dating, stratigraphic information as well as archaeological and archaeomagnetic estimations, to constrain the age of the studied samples. Rock magnetic results indicate thermally stable fine-grained magnetite or titanomagnetite as the dominant magnetic carriers. More than half of the specimens (141/246) in the paleointensity experiment pass the selection criteria and are considered to record robust intensity values. The virtual axial dipole moments range from approximately (2.8 to 7.8) × 10 < sup > 22 < /sup > Am < sup > 2 < /sup > with an average of 5.9 × 10 < sup > 22 < /sup > Am < sup > 2 < /sup > , indicating that the geomagnetic intensity around 3000 before the Common Era (B.C.E.) is overall lower than the present field intensity (9.8 × 10 < sup > 22 < /sup > Am < sup > 2 < /sup > ) of this area. The new results from Liujiazhai are generally consistent with the published data of similar age but deviate from the only available model of CALS10k.1b at certain time periods, making them important for future improvements of the model. Those data are significant for constraining the variation of geomagnetic field intensity between ∼3100 and 2600 B.C.E. and improving the regional model of eastern Asia.

© 2015. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved. We have carried out an archaeomagnetic study on a late Neolithic locality (Liujiazhai) in Sichuan, southwestern China. We pull together various dating techniques, including radiocarbon analysis, optically stimulated luminescence dating, stratigraphic information as well as archaeological and archaeomagnetic estimations, to constrain the age of the studied samples. Rock magnetic results indicate thermally stable fine-grained magnetite or titanomagnetite as the dominant magnetic carriers. More than half of the specimens (141/246) in the paleointensity experiment pass the selection criteria and are considered to record robust intensity values. The virtual axial dipole moments range from approximately (2.8 to 7.8)×10 < sup > 22 < /sup > Am < sup > 2 < /sup > with an average of 5.9×10 < sup > 22 < /sup > Am < sup > 2 < /sup > , indicating that the geomagnetic intensity around 3000 before the Common Era (B.C.E.) is overall lower than the present field intensity (9.8×10 < sup > 22 < /sup > Am < sup > 2 < /sup > ) of this area. The new results from Liujiazhai are generally consistent with the published data of similar age but deviate from the only available model of CALS10k.1b at certain time periods, making them important for future improvements of the model. Those data are significant for constraining the variation of geomagnetic field intensity between ~3100 and 2600 B.C.E. and improving the regional model of eastern Asia.

The observed inclusive jet suppression in heavy-ion collisions at LHC has a very weak pT dependence over a large range of pT=50–1000GeV and is almost independent of the colliding energy, though the initial energy density of the bulk medium has increased from s=2.76 to 5.02TeV by about 20%. This interesting phenomenon is investigated in the linear Boltzmann transport (LBT) model for jet propagation in an event-by-event 3+1D hydro background. We show that the pT dependence of jet RAA is determined by the initial spectrum in p+p collisions and pT dependence of jet energy loss. Furthermore, jet energy loss distributions for inclusive jet and γ-jet at both LHC energies are extracted directly from experimental data through the state-of-art Bayesian analysis. The averaged jet energy loss has a weak pT dependence and the scaled jet energy loss distributions have a large width, both of which are consistent with the LBT simulations and indicate that jet quenching is caused by only a few out-of-cone jet medium scatterings.

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a devastating event with a limited hope for recovery and represents an enormous public health issue. It is crucial to understand the disturbances in the metabolic network after SCI to identify injury mechanisms and opportunities

Background and purpose

Cerebral edema associated with brain tumors is an important source of morbidity. Its type depends largely on the capillary ultra-structures of the histopathologic subtype of underlying brain tumor. The purpose of our study was to differentiate vasogenic edema associated with brain metastases and infiltrative edema related to diffuse gliomas using quantitative 3D T1 rho (T1ρ) imaging.

Materials and methods

Preoperative MR examination including whole brain 3D T1ρ imaging was performed in 23 patients with newly diagnosed brain tumors (9 with metastasis, 8 with lower grade glioma, LGG, 6 with glioblastoma, GBM). Mean T1ρ values were measured in regions of peritumoral non-enhancing T2 signal hyperintensity, excluding both enhancing and necrotic or cystic component, and normal-appearing white matter.

Results

Mean T1ρ values were significantly elevated in the vasogenic edema surrounding intracranial metastases when compared to the infiltrative edema associated with either LGG or GBM (p=0.02 and <0.01, respectively). No significant difference was noted between T1ρ values of infiltrative edema between LGG and GBM (p=0.84 and 0.96, respectively).

Conclusion

Our study demonstrates the feasibility and potential diagnostic role of T1ρ in the quantitative differentiation between edema related to intracranial metastases and gliomas and as a potentially complementary tool to standard MR techniques in further characterizing pathophysiology of vasogenic and infiltrative edema.