Search results for: solitary%20waves

Authors: Katarzyna Zięba, Hajnalka Szentgyörgyi, Paweł Miśkowiec, Agnieszka Moos-Matysik

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Bees are effective pollinators of plants using by humans. However, there is a concern about the fate different species due to their recently decline. Pollution of the environment is described in the literature as one of the causes of this phenomenon. Due to human activities, heavy metals and aromatic hydrocarbons can occur in bee organisms in high concentrations. The presented study aims to provide information on how pollution affects bee quality, taking into account, also the biological differences between various groups of bees. Understanding the consequences of environmental pollution on bees can help to create and promote bee friendly habitats and actions. The analyses were carried out using two contamination gradients with 5 sites on each. The first, mainly heavy metal polluted gradient is stretching approx. 30km from the Bukowno Zinc smelter near Olkusz in the Lesser Poland Voivodship, to the north. The second cuts through the agglomeration of Kraków up to the southern borders of the Ojców National Park. The gradient near Olkusz is a well-described pollution gradient contaminated mainly by zinc, lead, and cadmium. The second gradient cut through the agglomeration of Kraków and end below the Ojców National Park. On each gradient, two bee species were installed: red mason bees (Osmia bicornis) and honey bees (Apis mellifera). Red mason bee is a polylectic, solitary bee species, widely distributed in Poland. Honey bees are a highly social species of bees, with clearly defined casts and roles in the colony. Before installing the bees in the field, samples of imagos of red mason bees and samples of pollen and imagos from each honey bee colony were analysed for zinc, lead cadmium, polycyclic and monocyclic hydrocarbons levels. After collecting the bees from the field, samples of bees and pollen samples for each site were prepared for heavy metal, monocyclic hydrocarbon, and polycyclic hydrocarbon analysis. Analyses of aromatic hydrocarbons were performed with gas chromatography coupled with a headspace sampler (HP 7694E) and mass spectrometer (MS) as detector. Monocyclic compounds were injected into column with headspace sampler while polycyclic ones with manual injector (after solid-liquid extraction with hexane). The heavy metal content (zinc, lead and cadmium) was assessed with flame atomic absorption spectroscopy (FAAS AAnalyst 300 Perkin Elmer spectrometer) according to the methods for honey and bee products described in the literature. Pollution levels found in bee bodies and imago body masses in both species, and proportion of sex in case of red mason bees were correlated with pollution levels found in pollen for each site and colony or trap nest. An attempt to pinpoint the most important form of contamination regarding bee health was also be undertaken based on the achieved results.

Keywords: heavy metals, aromatic hydrocarbons, bees, pollution

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Authors: Volodymyr Rombakh

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This article was written to substantiate the possibility of detecting the precursors of catastrophic destruction of a structure or device and stopping operation before it. Damage to solids results from breaking the bond between atoms, which requires energy. Modern theories of strength and fracture assume that such energy is due to stress. However, in a letter to W. Thomson (Lord Kelvin) dated December 18, 1856, J.C. Maxwell provided evidence that elastic energy cannot destroy solids. He proposed an equation for estimating a deformable body's energy, equal to the sum of two energies. Due to symmetrical compression, the first term does not change, but the second term is distortion without compression. Both types of energy are represented in the equation as a quadratic function of strain, but Maxwell repeatedly wrote that it is not stress but strain. Furthermore, he notes that the nature of the energy causing the distortion is unknown to him. An article devoted to theories of elasticity was published in 1850. Maxwell tried to express mechanical properties with the help of optics, which became possible only after the creation of quantum mechanics. However, Maxwell's work on elasticity is not cited in the theories of strength and fracture. The authors of these theories and their associates are still trying to describe the phenomena they observe based on classical mechanics. The study of Faraday's experiments, Maxwell's and Rutherford's ideas, made it possible to discover a previously unknown area of electromagnetic radiation. The properties of photons emitted in this reaction are fundamentally different from those of photons emitted in nuclear reactions and are caused by the transition of electrons in an atom. The photons released during all processes in the universe, including from plants and organs in natural conditions; their penetrating power in metal is millions of times greater than that of one of the gamma rays. However, they are not non-invasive. This apparent contradiction is because the chaotic motion of protons is accompanied by the chaotic radiation of photons in time and space. Such photons are not coherent. The energy of a solitary photon is insufficient to break the bond between atoms, one of the stages of which is ionization. The photographs registered the rail deformation by 113 cars, while the Gaiger Counter did not. The author's studies show that the cause of damage to a solid is the breakage of bonds between a finite number of atoms due to the stimulated emission of metastable atoms. The guarantee of the reliability of the structure is the ratio of the energy dissipation rate to the energy accumulation rate, but not the strength, which is not a physical parameter since it cannot be measured or calculated. The possibility of continuous control of this ratio is due to the spontaneous emission of photons by metastable atoms. The article presents calculation examples of the destruction of energy and photographs due to the action of photons emitted during the atomic-proton reaction.

Keywords: atomic-proton reaction, precursors of man-made disasters, strain, stress

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Authors: Laura Gleason, Sahithi Talasila, Lauren Banner, Ladan Afifi, Neda Nikbakht

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Primary cutaneous anaplastic large cell lymphoma (pcALCL) accounts for 9% of all cutaneous T-cell lymphomas. pcALCL is classically characterized as a solitary papulonodule that often enlarges, ulcerates, and can be locally destructive, but overall exhibits an indolent course with overall 5-year survival estimated to be 90%. Distinguishing pcALCL from systemic ALCL (sALCL) is essential as sALCL confers a poorer prognosis with average 5-year survival being 40-50%. Although extremely rare, there have been several cases of ALK-positive ALCL diagnosed on skin biopsy without evidence of systemic involvement, which poses several challenges in the classification, prognostication, treatment, and follow-up of these patients. Objectives: We present a case of cutaneous ALK-positive ALCL without evidence of systemic involvement, and a narrative review of the literature to further characterize that ALK-positive ALCL limited to the skin is a distinct variant with a unique presentation, history, and prognosis. A 30-year-old woman presented for evaluation of an erythematous-violaceous papule present on her right chest for two months. With the development of multifocal disease and persistent lymphadenopathy, a bone marrow biopsy and lymph node excisional biopsy were performed to assess for systemic disease. Both biopsies were unrevealing. The patient was counseled on pursuing systemic therapy consisting of Brentuximab, Cyclophosphamide, Doxorubicin, and Prednisone given the concern for sALCL. Apropos of the patient we searched for clinically evident, cutaneous ALK-positive ALCL cases, with and without systemic involvement, in the English literature. Risk factors, such as tumor location, number, size, ALK localization, ALK translocations, and recurrence, were evaluated in cases of cutaneous ALK-positive ALCL. The majority of patients with cutaneous ALK-positive ALCL did not progress to systemic disease. The majority of cases that progressed to systemic disease in adults had recurring skin lesions and cytoplasmic localization of ALK. ALK translocations did not influence disease progression. Mean time to disease progression was 16.7 months, and significant mortality (50%) was observed in those cases that progressed to systemic disease. Pediatric cases did not exhibit a trend similar to adult cases. In both the adult and pediatric cases, a subset of cutaneous-limited ALK-positive ALCL were treated with chemotherapy. All cases treated with chemotherapy did not progress to systemic disease. Apropos of an ALK-positive ALCL patient with clinical cutaneous limited disease in the histologic presence of systemic markers, we discussed the literature data, highlighting the crucial issues related to developing a clinical strategy to approach this rare subtype of ALCL. Physicians need to be aware of the overall spectrum of ALCL, including cutaneous limited disease, systemic disease, disease with NPM-ALK translocation, disease with ALK and EMA positivity, and disease with skin recurrence.

Keywords: anaplastic large cell lymphoma, systemic, cutaneous, anaplastic lymphoma kinase, ALK, ALCL, sALCL, pcALCL, cALCL

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Authors: Catia Correia Caeiro, Kun Guo, Daniel Mills

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Despite its growing interest, emotions are still an understudied cognitive process and their origins are currently the focus of much debate among the scientific community. The use of facial expressions as traditional hallmarks of discrete and holistic emotions created a circular reasoning due to a priori assumptions of meaning and its associated appearance-biases. Ekman and colleagues solved this problem and laid the foundations for the quantitative and systematic study of facial expressions in humans by developing an anatomically-based system (independent from meaning) to measure facial behaviour, the Facial Action Coding System (FACS). One way of investigating emotion cognition processes is by applying comparative psychology methodologies and looking at either closely-related species (e.g. chimpanzees) or phylogenetically distant species sharing similar present adaptation problems (analogy). In this study, the domestic dog was used as a comparative animal model to look at facial expressions in social interactions in parallel with human facial expressions. The orofacial musculature seems to be relatively well conserved across mammal species and the same holds true for the domestic dog. Furthermore, the dog is unique in having shared the same social environment as humans for more than 10,000 years, facing similar challenges and acquiring a unique set of socio-cognitive skills in the process. In this study, the spontaneous facial movements of humans and dogs were compared when interacting with hetero- and conspecifics as well as in solitary contexts. In total, 200 participants were examined with FACS and DogFACS (The Dog Facial Action Coding System): coding tools across four different emotionally-driven contexts: a) Happiness (play and reunion), b) anticipation (of positive reward), c) fear (object or situation triggered), and d) frustration (negation of a resource). A neutral control was added for both species. All four contexts are commonly encountered by humans and dogs, are comparable between species and seem to give rise to emotions from homologous brain systems. The videos used in the study were extracted from public databases (e.g. Youtube) or published scientific databases (e.g. AM-FED). The results obtained allowed us to delineate clear similarities and differences on the flexibility of the facial musculature in the two species. More importantly, they shed light on what common facial movements are a product of the emotion linked contexts (the ones appearing in both species) and which are characteristic of the species, revealing an important clue for the debate on the origin of emotions. Additionally, we were able to examine movements that might have emerged for interspecific communication. Finally, our results are discussed from an evolutionary perspective adding to the recent line of work that supports an ancient shared origin of emotions in a mammal ancestor and defining emotions as mechanisms with a clear adaptive purpose essential on numerous situations, ranging from maintenance of social bonds to fitness and survival modulators.

Keywords: comparative and evolutionary psychology, emotion, facial expressions, FACS

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Authors: Shazi Farooqui, Anupam Sharma

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The Mahi River (~600km long) is an important west flowing the river of Central India. It originates in Madhya Pradesh and starts flowing in NW direction and enters into the state of Rajasthan. It flows across southern Rajasthan and then enters into Gujarat and finally debouches in the Gulf of Cambay. In Gujarat state, it flows through all four geomorphic zones i.e. eastern upland zone, shallow buried piedmont zone, alluvial zone and coastal zone. In lower reaches and particularly when it is flowing under the coastal regime, it provides an opportunity to study – 1. Land–Sea interaction and role of relative sea level changes, 2. Coastal/estuarine geological process, 3. Landscape evolution in marginal areas and so on. The Late Quaternary deposits of Mainland Gujarat is appreciably studied by Chamyal and his group of MS University of Baroda, and they have established that the 30-35m thick sediment package of the Mainland Gujarat is comprised of marine, fluvial and aeolian sediments. It is also established that in the estuarine zone, the upper few meter thick sediments package is of marine nature. However, its thickness, characters and the depositional environment including the role of climate and tectonics is still not clearly defined. To understand few aspects of the above mentioned, in the present study, a 17m subsurface sediment core has been retrieved from the estuarine zone of Mahi river basin. The Multiproxy studies which include the textural analysis (grain size), Loss on ignition (LOI), Bulk and clay mineralogy and geochemical studies have been carried out. In the entire sedimentary sequence, the grain size largely varies from coarse sand to clay; however, a solitary gravel bed is also noticed. The lower part (depth 9-17m), is mainly comprised of sub equal proportion of sand and silt. The sediments mainly have bimodal and leptokurtic distribution and deposited in alternate sand-silt package, probably indicating flood deposits. Relatively low moisture (1.8%) and organic carbon (2.4%) with increased carbonate values (12%) indicate that conditions must have to remain oxidizing. The middle part (depth 9–6m) has a 1m thick gravel bed at the bottom and overlain by coarse sand to very fine sand showing fining upward sequence. The presence of gravel bed suggests some kind of tectonic activity resulting into change in base level or enhanced precipitation in the catchment region. The upper part (depth 6–0m; top part of sequence) mainly comprised of fine sand to silt size grains (with appreciable clay content). The sediment of this part is Unimodal and very leptokurtic in nature suggesting wave and winnowing process and deposited in low energy suspension environment. This part has relatively high moisture (2.1%) and organic carbon (2.7%) with decreased carbonate content (4.2%) indicating change in the depositional environment probably under estuarine conditions. The presence of chlorite along with smectite clay mineral further supports the significant marine contribution in the formation of upper part of the sequence.

Keywords: grain size, statistical analysis, clay minerals, late quaternary, LOI

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Authors: Wellemans Isabelle, Remmelink Myriam, Foucart Annick, Rusu Stefan, Compère Christophe

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Primary pulmonary meningioma (PPM) is a very rare tumor, and its occurrence has been reported only sporadically. Multiple PPMs are even more exceptional, and herein, we report, to the best of our knowledge, the fourth case, focusing on the clinicopathological features of the tumor. Moreover, the possible relationship between the use of progesterone–only contraceptives and the development of these neoplasms will be discussed. Case Report: We report a case of a 51-year-old female presenting three solid pulmonary nodules, with the following localizations: right upper lobe, middle lobe, and left lower lobe, described as incidental findings on computed tomography (CT) during a pre-bariatric surgery check-up. The patient revealed no drinking or smoking history. The physical exam was unremarkable except for the obesity. The lesions ranged in size between 6 and 24 mm and presented as solid nodules with lobulated contours. The largest lesion situated in the middle lobe had mild fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) uptake on F-18 FDG positron emission tomography (PET)/CT, highly suggestive of primary lung neoplasm. For pathological assessment, video-assisted thoracoscopic middle lobectomy and wedge resection of the right upper nodule was performed. Histological examination revealed relatively well-circumscribed solid proliferation of bland meningothelial cells growing in whorls and lobular nests, presenting intranuclear pseudo-inclusions and psammoma bodies. No signs of anaplasia were observed. The meningothelial cells expressed diffusely Vimentin, focally Progesterone receptors and were negative for epithelial (cytokeratin (CK) AE1/AE3, CK7, CK20, Epithelial Membrane Antigen (EMA)), neuroendocrine markers (Synaptophysin, Chromogranin, CD56) and Estrogenic receptors. The proliferation labelling index Ki-67 was low (<5%). Metastatic meningioma was ruled out by brain and spine magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. The third lesion localized in the left lower lobe was followed-up and resected three years later because of its slow but significant growth (14 mm to 16 mm), alongside two new infra centimetric lesions. Those three lesions showed a morphological and immunohistochemical profile similar to previously resected lesions. The patient was disease-free one year post-last surgery. Discussion: Although PPMs are mostly benign and slow-growing tumors with an excellent prognosis, they do not present specific radiological characteristics, and it is difficult to differentiate it from other lung tumors, histopathologic examination being essential. Aggressive behavior is associated with atypical or anaplastic features (WHO grades II–III) The etiology is still uncertain and different mechanisms have been proposed. A causal connection between sexual hormones and meningothelial proliferation has long been suspected and few studies examining progesterone only contraception and meningioma risk have all suggested an association. In line with this, our patient was treated with Levonorgestrel, a progesterone agonist, intra-uterine device (IUD). Conclusions: PPM, defined by the typical histological and immunohistochemical features of meningioma in the lungs and the absence of central nervous system lesions, is an extremely rare neoplasm, mainly solitary and associating, and indolent growth. Because of the unspecific radiologic findings, it should always be considered in the differential diagnosis of lung neoplasms. Regarding multiple PPM, only three cases are reported in the literature, and this is the first described in a woman treated by a progesterone-only IUD to the best of our knowledge.

Keywords: pulmonary meningioma, multiple meningioma, meningioma, pulmonary nodules

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