Lawson Criterion for Ignition Exceeded in an Inertial Fusion Experiment

For more than half a century, researchers around the world have been engaged in attempts to achieve fusion ignition as a proof of principle of various fusion concepts. Following the Lawson criterion, an ignited plasma is one where the fusion heating power is high enough to overcome all the physical processes that cool the fusion plasma, creating a positive thermodynamic feedback loop with rapidly increasing temperature. In inertially confined fusion, ignition is a state where the fusion plasma can begin "burn propagation" into surrounding cold fuel, enabling the possibility of high energy gain. While "scientific breakeven" (i.e., unity target gain) has not yet been achieved (here target gain is 0.72, 1.37 MJ of fusion for 1.92 MJ of laser energy), this Letter reports the first controlled fusion experiment, using laser indirect drive, on the National Ignition Facility to produce capsule gain (here 5.8) and reach ignition by nine different formulations of the Lawson criterion.

Review: Implication of redox imbalance in animal health and performance at critical periods, insights from different farm species

The process of oxidative stress occurs all over the production chain of animals and food products. This review summarises insights obtained in different farm species (pigs, ruminants, poultry, and fishes) to underpin the most critical periods for the venue of oxidative stress, namely birth/hatching and weaning/start-feeding phase. Common responses between species are also unravelled in periods of high physiological demands when animals are facing dietary deficiencies in specific nutrients, suggesting that nutritional recommendations must consider the modulation of responses to oxidative stress for optimising production performance and quality of food products. These conditions concern challenges such as heat stress, social stress, and inflammation. The magnitude of the responses is partly dependent on the prior experience of the animals before the challenge, reinforcing the importance of nutrition and other management practices during early periods to promote the development of antioxidant reserves in the animal. When these practices also improved the performance and health of the animal, this further confirms the central role played by oxidative stress in physiologically and environmentally induced perturbations. Difficulties in interpreting responses to oxidative stress arise from the fact that the indicators are only partly shared between studies, and their modulations may also be challenge-specific. A consensus about the best indicators to assess pro-oxidative and antioxidant pathways is of huge demand to propose a synthetic index measurable in a non-invasive way and interpretable along the productive life of the animals.

Measurement of Compton Scattering at MAMI for the Extraction of the Electric and Magnetic Polarizabilities of the Proton

A precise measurement of the differential cross sections dσ/dΩ and the linearly polarized photon beam asymmetry Σ_{3} for Compton scattering on the proton below pion threshold has been performed with a tagged photon beam and almost 4π detector at the Mainz Microtron. The incident photons were produced by the recently upgraded Glasgow-Mainz photon tagging facility and impinged on a cryogenic liquid hydrogen target, with the scattered photons detected in the Crystal Ball/TAPS setup. Using the highest statistics Compton scattering data ever measured on the proton along with two effective field theories (both covariant baryon and heavy-baryon) and one fixed-t dispersion relation model, constraining the fits with the Baldin sum rule, we have obtained the proton electric and magnetic polarizabilities with unprecedented precision: α_{E1}=10.99±0.16±0.47±0.17±0.34, β_{M1}=3.14±0.21±0.24±0.20±0.35; in units of 10^{-4}  fm^{3} where the errors are statistical, systematic, spin polarizability dependent, and model dependent.

Predicted Global Spread of SARS-CoV-2 Alpha Variant of Concern via Air Travel

Purpose

To predict the global spread of SARS-CoV-2 Alpha Variant of Concern (VoC) from England via air travel and compare against observed importation.

Methods & Materials

Risk models were used to estimate a country's likelihood of importing at least one traveller infected with the Alpha VoC from England by January 19, 2021.

First, the prior 60-day incidence of Alpha VoC associated with each English airport was estimated using cumulative Alpha VoC cases reported by Public Health England between September 20, 2020 – January 4, 2021 proportionately allocated to each airport. Each airport's catchment population was derived from a probabilistic Huff model. Next, the prevalence of the Alpha VoC for each airport was derived from the estimated incidence to represent the probability that at least one departing traveller was infected with the Alpha VoC for each English airport. The prevalence and forecasted flight volumes were used to estimate the likelihood of each destination airport receiving at least one infected traveller from England. Forecasted flight volumes were based on historical passenger volumes data from the International Air Transport Association and prospective flight schedules from CIRIUM. All airport-level likelihoods were aggregated to the country-level.

Each country's predicted likelihood was compared against observed cases of Alpha VoC by January 25, 2021, collected by cov-lineages.org and a manual search of online sources.

Results

Among 211 countries, the median likelihood was 1.6% (interquartile range: 17.5%) and the mean was 13.9% (SD: 23.5%). In total, 28.9% (n=55) of countries had observed importation of the Alpha VoC by January 25^th. Fifteen of 16 countries with a predicted likelihood of importation greater than 50% had reported at least one case (kappa = 0.88), while 31 of 39 countries with a predicted likelihood lower than 1% did not detect a case (kappa = 0.92).

Conclusion

Risk models based on air travel to inform public health preparedness accurately identified most potential destinations at highest risk of importing the SARS-CoV-2 Alpha VoC.

Abstract ES5-3: Management of special subtypes of TNBC

Less common subtypes of triple-negative breast cancer encompass a heterogeneous group of cancers some of which are rare and others which are ultra-rare. Given the high prevalence of breast cancer, less common TNBC subtypes can be encountered with some frequency in clinical practice. These subtypes, which include, metaplastic, medullary, apocrine, mucoepidermoid, secretory, and adenoid cystic breast cancer, have diverse histologies, molecular profiles, and prognoses. This educational discussion will review the distinct features of less common triple-negative breast cancers and will address how these impact current, as well as possible future, management strategies. Possible clinical trial approaches to further understand and better treat special subtypes of TNBC will also be discussed.

Citation Format: A Thomas. Management of special subtypes of TNBC [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2021 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2021 Dec 7-10; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2022;82(4 Suppl):Abstract nr ES5-3.

First completely robot-assisted retroperitoneal nephroureterectomy with bladder cuff: a step-by-step technique

Introduction

While various surgical techniques have been reported for open and minimally invasive treatment of upper tract urothelial cancer (UTUC), the procedure of robot-assisted nephroureterectomy (NU) with bladder cuff has never been reported using only retroperitoneum without entering abdominal cavity. We developed a novel port placement and technique allowing to perform robot-assisted NU by a unique retroperitoneal approach.

Methods

Between February and June 2021 patients with history of UTUC were treated by robot-assisted NU completely restricted to retroperitoneal space using a singular trocar placement and a two-step docking without relocation of the surgical robot. Patient characteristics, perioperative outcomes and short-term follow-up were prospectively analyzed.

Results

The analysis included five patients [median age: 73 years; BMI: 27.2 kg/m²; Charlson comorbidity index 5]. All five patients had UTUC with a mean tumor size of 3.02 cm (range 0.9–6.0). UTUC was localized to distal ureter in two and to kidney in three cases. No positive surgical margins were noted for all patients with UTUC [1 low-grade and 4 high-grade]. Retroperitoneal lymphadenectomy in three patients did not reveal positive nodes. No intraoperative adverse events exceeding EAUiaiC classification ≥ 2 were observed, while median EBL was 150 ml (IQR 100–250). No patient experienced postoperative complications exceeding Clavien–Dindo classification ≥ 3a. Median hospital stay was 5.4d without any 30-d readmission.

Conclusion

We demonstrate safety and feasibility of the first entire robot-assisted retroperitoneal nephroureterectomy (RRNU) with bladder cuff. This surgical technique is easily reproducible, while surgical outcomes are similar to other established techniques.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00345-021-03920-1.

Prospective Hybrid Molecules with Dual Anti-Viral and Anti-Thrombotic Activity Against the SARS- CoV-2 Infection and Its Associated Complications Employing in Silico Studies

Covid-19, a SARS-CoV virus-based disease, was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. Initially, it was considered just an infection of the respiratory system, but due to its transmittable nature, it was declared a pandemic. A variety of treatment options were implemented, including antivirals like remdesvir, favipiravir along with vitamins and antioxidants. Further investigations revealed that the Covid-19 infection results in thrombotic cardiovascular complications, which are the major concern for the increased mortality associated with this disease. This study investigates the in Silico design of hybrid molecules with antiviral and an-tithrombotic properties. A docking study was performed using Autodock Vina software, and binding energies of the designed compounds were determined for papain-like protease (PDB: 3E9S) and 3-chymotrypsin-like cysteine protease (PDB: 6LU7). The docked poses and amino acids interactions were verified using Biovia Discovery studio 4.5. The binding energies of all designed compounds were compared with the standards, Compound RL1 (2-(5-(3-carbamoyl-1H-1,2,4-triazol-1-yl)-3,4-dihydroxytetrahydrofuran-2-yl)methoxy)-carbonyl)amino)(hydroxy)methyl)carbamoyl)phenyl acetate) and Compound FL2 (8-hydroxy-2-(3-hydroxy-4-methoxyphenyl)-4-oxochroman-6-yl(2-(6-flouro-3-oxo-3,4-dihydropyrazine-2-carboxamido)-1-hydroxy-3-phenylpropyl)carbamate) proved to be promising agents with strong binding interactions. Hybrid molecules that inhibit viral replication, possibly as transition state inhibitors, may be investigated further for use in the treatment of SARS-Co-V infection and its associated complications.

Association of a MIND Diet with Brain Structure and Dementia in a French Population

BACKGROUND

Adherence to the Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay (MIND) diet, which combines higher consumption of vegetables, berries, nuts, whole grains, olive oil, fish, beans and poultry, with lower consumption of meat, sugars and saturated fats, is a promising strategy to prevent dementia. However, evidence in populations with non-US food culture, especially from Europe, is limited.

OBJECTIVES

To evaluate the association of a French-adapted MIND diet score with gray matter volumes, white matter microstructure and incident dementia.

DESIGN AND SETTING

This longitudinal study included participants from the population-based Three-City Bordeaux cohort (≥65 years), with a follow-up from June 2001 to February 2018.

PARTICIPANTS

Dementia-free participants at dietary assessment, in 2001-2002, who underwent systematic detection of incident dementia (over up to 7 visits). A subset of the cohort was included in an ancillary MRI study in 2010-2011.

MEASUREMENTS

A French-adapted MIND diet score (range, 0-15) was computed from a 148-item Food Frequency Questionnaire and a 24-hour recall administered at home. Incident dementia and its subtypes were adjudicated by an expert committee; and gray matter volumes and white matter microstructure were assessed by 3D-T1 MRI and diffusion-MRI.

RESULTS

Among 1,412 participants (mean age, 75.8 [SD, 4.8]; 63% women), followed for a median of 9.7 years (maximum 16.3 years), 356 (25.2%) developed incident dementia. In multivariable-adjusted Cox model, a higher French MIND diet score was associated with lower risks of dementia and AD (hazard ratios for 1-point of score = 0.89 [95% confidence interval, 0.83-0.95] and 0.88 [0.81-0.96], respectively). In Tract-Based Spatial Statistics analysis of 175 participants included in the MRI sub-study, a higher MIND diet score was associated with lower diffusivity values in the splenium of the corpus callosum (P < .05 after Family-Wise Error-correction). In contrast, there was no significant association of the adapted MIND diet score with gray matter volumes in Voxel-Based Morphometry analysis.

CONCLUSION

In this cohort of French older adults, higher adherence to the French MIND diet was associated with a lower dementia risk and with preserved white matter microstructure. These results provide further evidence for a role of the MIND diet in the prevention of dementia.

First Observation of the Four-Proton Unbound Nucleus ^{18}Mg

^{18}Mg was observed, for the first time, by the invariant-mass reconstruction of ^{14}O+4p events. The ground-state decay energy and width are E_{T}=4.865(34)  MeV and Γ=115(100)  keV, respectively. The observed momentum correlations between the five particles are consistent with two sequential steps of prompt 2p decay passing through the ground state of ^{16}Ne. The invariant-mass spectrum also provides evidence for an excited state at an excitation energy of 1.84(14) MeV, which is likely the first excited 2^{+} state. As this energy exceeds that for the 2^{+} state in ^{20}Mg, this observation provides an argument for the demise of the N=8 shell closure in nuclei far from stability. However, in open systems this classical argument for shell strength is compromised by Thomas-Ehrman shifts.

HIV-infected patients display increased proatherogenic anti-apolipoprotein A1 autoantibodies, inflammatory and metabolomic markers

Background

HIV-infected patients display an increased risk of cardiovascular events. HIV and antiretroviral therapy (ART) have both been suggested to increase this risk but their specific role remains unclear. Autoantibodies against apolipoprotein A1 (anti-apoA1 IgG) are also associated with cardiovascular risk. The aim of this study was to analyse anti-apoA1 IgG levels and inflammatory markers as well as the metabolomic profile in a cohort of HIV-free, ART-experienced and naïve HIV-infected patients.

Methods

144 participants from a South African cohort were categorised into HIV-free (n=50), HIV-infected/ART-experienced (n=50) and HIV-infected/ART-naïve (n=44) groups. The levels of anti-apoA1 IgG were assessed by homemade ELISA assays. We performed targeted metabolomic analyses using standard operating procedures and measured inflammatory biomarkers using the Meso Scale Discovery® platform. Additionally, we conducted in vitro experiments on human aortic endothelial cells treated with anti-apoA1 IgG and assessed levels of adhesion molecules.

Results

Inflammatory markers (IFNg, IL-6, IL-10, TNFa, CRP all p&lt;0.05), circulating adhesion molecules (ICAM-1 and VCAM-1, p&lt;0.05), anti-apoA1 IgG levels were increased in HIV-infected patients compared to HIV-free participants.

While ART treatment significantly reduced IFNg, IL-10, TNFa, VCAM-1, anti-apoA1 IgG levels, no significant differences were observed in other biomarkers between ART-experienced and naïve participants. Treatment of human aortic endothelial cells with anti-apoA1 IgG (40μg/ml) induced a significant increase in these adhesion molecules compared to cells treated with control IgG (40μg/ml). Metabolomic analyses identified 257 endogenous circulating metabolites in plasma. Among these metabolites, we found that in HIV-free and infected patients 14 and 17 metabolites were significantly correlated with anti-apoA1 IgG levels, respectively. Among these 17 metabolites, 2 were positively correlated with the tryptophan pathway; kynurenine (r=0.292, p=0.0069) and 5-hydroxyindolacetate (r=0.316, p=0.0019). Interestingly, kynurenine was not significantly correlated with anti-apoA1 IgG levels in HIV-free patients.

Conclusion

HIV-infected patients displayed a more proatherogenic profile compared to HIV-free subjects. Anti-apoA1 IgG induced adhesion molecules expression. Metabolomics identified metabolites that were significantly associated with anti-apoA1 IgG levels and inflammatory biomarkers known to underlie atherosclerosis burden.

Funding Acknowledgement

Type of funding sources: None.

Placental expression of miR-21-5p, miR-210-3p and miR-141-3p: relation to human fetoplacental growth

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES

Dysregulation of microRNAs (miRNAs) and their target genes in placental tissue is associated with foetal growth restriction. We aimed to evaluate associations of placental miR-21-5p, miR-141-3p and miR-210-3p expression with maternal, placental and newborn parameters and with placental expression of their potential target genes PTEN, VEGF, FLT and ENG in a set of well-characterized small- (SGA) and appropriate- (AGA) for gestational age full-term singleton pregnancies.

SUBJECTS/METHODS

Placental samples (n = 80) from 26 SGA and 54 AGA were collected from full-term singleton pregnancies. Placental transcript abundances of miR-21-5p, miR-141-3p and miR-210-3p were assessed after normalization to a reference miRNA, mir-16-5p by real-time quantitative PCR. Placental transcript abundances of PTEN, VEGF, FLT and ENG were assessed after normalizing to a panel of reference genes.

RESULTS

Placental miR-21-5p transcript abundance was negatively associated with placental weight (n = 80, r = -0.222, P = 0.047) and this association was specific to the AGA births (n = 54, r = -0.292, P = 0.032). Placental transcript abundances of miR-210-3p and miR-141-3p were not associated with placental weight or birth weight in all 80 births. However, placental miR-210-3p transcript abundance was positively associated with birth weight specifically in the SGA births (n = 26, r = 0.449, P = 0.021). Placental transcript abundance of miR-21-5p was negatively associated with PTEN transcript abundance (Spearman's ρ = -0.245, P = 0.028) while that of miR-141-3p was positively associated with FLT (Spearman's ρ = 0.261, P = 0.019) and ENG (Spearman's ρ = 0.259, P = 0.020) transcript abundances in all 80 births.

CONCLUSION

We conclude that placental miR-21-5p and miR-210-3p may be involved in fetoplacental growth. However, this regulation is unlikely to be mediated through placental expression of PTEN, VEGF, FLT or ENG.

Placental expression of RNU44, RNU48 and miR-16-5p: stability and relations with fetoplacental growth

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES

The current study aimed to identify suitable reference miRNA for placental miRNA expression analysis in a set of well-characterized and fetal-sex balanced small- (SGA) and appropriate- (AGA) for gestational age full-term singleton pregnancies.

SUBJECTS/METHODS

In this retrospective study, placental samples (n = 106) from 35 SGA (19 male and 16 female) and 71 AGA (30 male and 41 female) full-term singleton pregnancies were utilized. Placental transcript abundance of three widely used reference miRNAs [miR-16-5p and Small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs) RNU44 and RNU48] were assessed by real-time quantitative PCR. Raw cycle threshold (C_t) analysis and RefFinder tool analysis were conducted for evaluating stability of expression of these miRNAs.

RESULTS

Raw C_t values of miR-16-5p were similar between SGA and AGA births (P = 0.140) and between male and female births within SGA (P = 0.159) and AGA (P = 0.060) births while that of RNU44 and RNU48 were higher in SGA births (P = 0.008 and 0.006 respectively) and in male births within the SGA group (P = 0.005) for RNU44 and in female births within the AGA group (P = 0.048) for RNU48. Across all 106 samples tested using the RefFinder tool, miR-16-5p and RNU44 were equally stable reference miRNAs.

CONCLUSION

We recommend miR-16-5p and RNU44 as suitable reference miRNAs for placental samples from settings similar to our study.

Simultaneous determination of melatonin and 6-hydroxymelatonin in human overnight urine by LC-MS/MS

For the quantification of the pineal hormone melatonin and its metabolite, 6-hydroxymelatonin, in human overnight urine, a single accurate method by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) has been developed. Urine samples were deconjugated using β-glucuronidase/arylsulfatase from Helix pomatia before solid phase extraction (SPE) purification. Chromatographic separation was performed using a reverse phase C18 column with a 7-minute gradient elution. Water was used as matrix to prepare the calibration standards, and deuterated analogues of melatonin and 6-hydroxymelatonin were used as internal standards. This newly developed method was validated in terms of linearity, accuracy, repeatability, intermediate precision, recovery, matrix effect, and stability according to the guidelines of the European Medicines Agency. The method was successfully applied to the analysis of overnight urine samples from 12 healthy volunteers, showing significant correlations of urinary melatonin and 6-hydroxymelatonin excretion rates with age. The urinary 6-hydroxymelatonin to melatonin ratio was also established and will be assessed in further studies as a potential endogenous metric of CYP1A2 activity.