Masson’s Tumour: A Rare Cause of Cervical Mass

Masson's tumour, also known as intravascular papillary endothelial hyperplasia, is a rare non-neoplastic lesion of vascular origin, caused by an excessive reactive proliferation of endothelial cells in normal blood vessels or vascular malformations. It can affect any part of the body, presenting most frequently in the vessels of the head, neck and upper extremities. The authors describe the case of a 76-year-old female patient presenting an anterior cervical mass, measuring 2×2 cm, which was mobile, tender and slightly painful with no alteration of the overlying skin. Complementary study with ultrasound and computed tomography was inconclusive. Total excision of the lesion was performed with histology compatible with intravascular papillary endothelial hyperplasia.

Chemistry analytical, fish micronuclei and onion chromosome damage for assessing treatment effect SBR in the Domžale–Kamnik central WWTP and quality of river Kamniška Bistrica

The aim of this study was to evaluate the cytotoxic and genotoxic potential of the wastewater (WW), the effectiveness of the treatment used by the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) with sequential batch reactors (SBR) technology, and whether its final treated effluent (FTE) can compromise the water quality of the river at the location where it is discharged. We focused our research on six examples. For analytical chemistry and Allium metaphase (M) test all six samples were collected. Of these, three are so-called biotechnological patterns (WW, WW after mechanical step treatment and FTE), and three are natural riverine environmental patterns. For the micronucleus (MN) test, fish specimens were collected from three sites in the river Kamniška Bistrica. The first two sites locations are up and down the FTE outlet. Results from these areas were compared to the third site (not polluted) reference site, the so-called natural control group. Complementary study with analytical chemistry and biological tests shows that the treatment effect SBR in the Domžale–Kamnik central WWTP carried effectively proved to be efficient for the removal of the cytogenotoxic substances in treated effluent and consequently in aquatic environment.

NCMP-07. IDH MUTANT GLIOMAS PROMOTE EPILEPTOGENESIS VIA D-2-HYDROXYGLUTARATE DEPENDENT MTOR HYPER-ACTIVATION

Uncontrolled seizures in patients with low grade gliomas have a significant impact on quality of life and morbidity, yet the mechanisms through which these tumors cause seizures remain unknown. Albeit there are multiple features that contribute to tumor related epileptogenesis, IDH mutations are determined to be an independent factor, although the pathogenesis remains poorly understood. Here, we hypothesize that the active metabolite D-2-hydroxyglutarate (D-2-HG) produced by the IDH-mutant enzyme leads to metabolic disruptions in surrounding cortical neurons that consequently promote seizures. We use a complementary study of in vitro cortical cultures and electrographically sorted human cortical tissue from patients (n=5) with IDH-mutant gliomas to test this hypothesis. We demonstrate that D-2-HG leads to increased neuronal spiking activity (p< 0.0001) and promotes a distinct metabolic profile in surrounding neurons and upregulation of mTOR signaling (p< 0.0001), which is consistent in human epileptic cortex compared to peritumoral nonepileptic cortex. Furthermore, increases in neuronal activity are induced by mTOR activation and reversed with mTOR inhibition. Together, our data suggest that metabolic disruptions and mTOR signaling upregulation in the surrounding cortex due to D-2-HG may be a driving event for epileptogenesis in patients with IDH-mutant low grade gliomas.

City and nation in cultural perspective: Introduction

This Special Issue explores how cultural production and practice understand and articulate the changing relationship between city and nation, in the light of globalization and the increasing freedom of cities to build, brand and promote themselves independent of the nation state. The Introduction maps the scholarship pertaining to cultural engagements with city and nation, highlighting their separation into two distinct spheres. It reviews the existing scholarship on city‐nation relations in the field of urban studies (where discussion has centred on the emergence of ‘world cities’ and their implications for nation states) and in urban history. It locates in Vivian Bickford-Smith’s work on cities and nationalism in South Africa a rich source of inspiration for the volume’s complementary study of the role played by cultural production and practice in articulating, shaping and negotiating understandings of city and nation in contemporary Europe. It closes with an overview of the contributing articles.

The readability of online health information for L1 and L2 Australians: text-based and user-focused research

The readability of online health information involves several factors in communication, including textual factors in verbal messaging and demographics relating to the readership, both of which impact on access to health information for first language (L1) and second language (L2) individuals in the Australian community. This research aims to identify the issues inherent in health texts as well as different readers’ comprehension of the information in them. The paper focuses first on the readability of sample health texts, and the extent to which difficult elements can be identified by the standard readability measures (Flesch-Kincaid, SMOG), as well as psycholinguistically informed measures of reading ease developed by Co-Matrix for general (L1) and L2 readers: TERA and Coh-Metrix L2. Coh-Metrix L2 points to linguistic factors that particularly challenge L2 readers of health information. A complementary study using eye-tracking was carried out to investigate the reading behaviours of 30 L1 and L2 participants seeking information from a health website. Statistically significant differences were found between L1 and L2 participants in their reading patterns, with L2 readers working more slowly and less reliably through online information. The findings highlight the need for health communicators to embrace the greater reading challenges for L2 users of the Internet.

Revisiting the reaction of dicarbonyls in aerosol proxy solutions containing ammonia: the case of butenedial

Reactions in aqueous solutions containing dicarbonyls (especially the α-dicarbonyls methylglyoxal, glyoxal, and biacetyl) and reduced nitrogen (NHx) have been studied extensively. It has been proposed that accretion reactions from dicarbonyls and NHx could be a source of particulate matter and brown carbon in the atmosphere and therefore have direct implications for human health and climate. Other dicarbonyls, such as the 1,4-unsaturated dialdehyde butenedial, are also produced from the atmospheric oxidation of volatile organic compounds, especially aromatics and furans, but their aqueous-phase reactions with NHx have not been characterized. In this work, we determine a pH-dependent mechanism of butenedial reactions in aqueous solutions with NHx that is compared to α-dicarbonyls, in particular the dialdehyde glyoxal. Similar to glyoxal, butenedial is strongly hydrated in aqueous solutions. Butenedial reaction with NHx also produces nitrogen-containing rings and leads to accretion reactions that form brown carbon. Despite glyoxal and butenedial both being dialdehydes, butenedial is observed to have three significant differences in its chemical behavior: (1) as previously shown, butenedial does not substantially form acetal oligomers, (2) the butenedial/OH− reaction leads to light-absorbing compounds, and (3) the butenedial/NHx reaction is fast and first order in the dialdehyde. Building off of a complementary study on butenedial gas-particle partitioning, we suggest that the behavior of other reactive dialdehydes and dicarbonyls may not always be adequately predicted by α-dicarbonyls, even though their dominant functionalities are closely related. The carbon skeleton (e.g., its hydrophobicity, length, and bond structure) also governs the fate and climate-relevant properties of dicarbonyls in the atmosphere. If other dicarbonyls behave like butenedial, their reaction with NHx could constitute a regional source of brown carbon to the atmosphere.

Complementary Study Based on DFT of Optical and Electronic Properties of New Copolymer PVK-F8T2

This article is mainly a complementary study of a novel part of π-conjugated copolymers based on the poly (N-vinylcarbazole) (PVK) and poly (9,9-dioctylfluorene-co-bithiophene) (F8T2) unit based on the Density Functional Theory (DFT) and Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory (TD-DFT). This study is carried out to explore the structural and optoelectronic characteristics of a new organic material named PVK-F8T2. First, the structural, optical (absorption, photoluminescence, optical transition), electronic (molecular orbital (MO), energy-level diagram) and vibratory parameters of infrared (IR) were computed and compared with experimental studies. In addition, we calculated the level energy of the excited states and their corresponding transitions. Obviously, electronic parameters such as highest occupied and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (HOMO and LUMO), ionization potential (IP), electronic affinity (EA) and the energy band gap (Eg) were computed in order to elucidate the intramolecular charge transport and to establish the energetic diagrams of the PVK-F8T2 copolymer for different states. The results obtained looked with precision at future optoelectronic applications. From these results, we have shown that the PVK-F8T2 has significant optoelectronic properties and seems usable as an active layer in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs).