Monica Garcia

We describe a rare hepatic collision tumor composed of a hepatocellular carcinoma and a high-grade neuroendocrine carcinoma. The patient, a 50-year-old man, underwent a partial hepatectomy because of a 5.0-cm mass. The tumor had two distinctive patterns. The majority of the tumor was a high-grade neuroendocrine carcinoma with features of a small cell carcinoma that was positive for chromogranin, synaptophysin, and cytokeratin 19 and negative for hepatocellular antigen and alpha-fetoprotein (AFP). The second component was a moderately differentiated hepatocellular carcinoma that was positive for hepatocellular antigen and AFP and negative for neuroendocrine markers. The two tumors were separated by fibrous bands. In areas where they collided, there was no transition or intermingling of cells between the two components, thus, it is different from the combined type of tumors. After removal of the tumor, the patient had intrahepatic and mesenteric recurrences within a follow-up period of 16 months.

In response to the detection of the X-ray source Swift J0732.5-1331 (ATEL #697, #735, #757, #760), we observed its optical counterpart with the Mt. Hopkins 1.5m telescope equipped with the FAST spectrograph. A total of 22 spectra covering 3480-7410 A were acquired between Jan 22 and Mar 1. A 3" slit provided 6 A FWHM resolution. In addition, on March

... París: Imprimerie des Écoles, 1889. Esguerra Ortiz, Domingo. Memoria sobre las fiebres del Magdalena. ... "Transforming Plague. The Laboratory and the Identity of Infectious Disease". En The Laboratory Revolution in Medicine, editado por Andrew Cunningham y Perry Williams. ...

ABSTRACT Regional estimates of daily evapotranspiration and surface fluxes in water-scarce and climatic vulnerable regions are critical for improving agricultural and hydrological information as well as our understanding of land surface-atmosphere interactions. The final aim of this study is to evaluate two global operational evapotranspiration algorithms in the Sahelian grasslands of Africa, where in-situ data are scarce, relying on satellite products at 1 km spatial resolution with no field calibration or in-situ variables. Two process-based models were applied to estimate surface fluxes including evapotranspiration (ET): the global MODIS evapotranspiration algorithm (MOD16), based on a three source Penman-Monteith approach; and a version of the PT-JPL model, based on a three source Priestley-Taylor model with an apparent thermal inertia module to estimate soil moisture. Both models were forced using climatic reanalyses data from two sources: MERRA GMAO (NASA reanalysis GEOS-5) and NCEP/NCAR (National Centers for Environmental Prediction/National Center for Atmospheric Research). Additionally, to assess if errors were due to algorithm assumptions or with the quality of input data in-situ climatic tower data were used to compare with results from reanalyses. All model results were compared with eddy covariance data from two field sites in Mali and Sudan spanning a total period of 5 years. Preliminary results showed a better performance of both algorithms using in-situ climatic data, with a superior performance of the PT-JPL model despite a low bias relative to the measured ET. Climatic forcing with MERRA provided better results than using NCEP data. Aggregation of results from daily to 8-day time scale decreased errors significantly. The PT-JPL model version with a thermal inertia approach to estimate soil moisture offers great potential for regionalization in regions where the main limitation to evapotranspiration is soil moisture, such as the Sahel as no field-calibrations are required the only input variables required are air temperature and incoming solar radiation, apart from routinely available satellite products.

Gestational trophoblastic disease occurs in less than 1 per 1200 pregnancies in the United States. The spectrum of this disease ranges from benign hydatidiform mole to trophoblastic malignancy (placental-site trophoblastic tumor and choriocarcinoma). Benign gestational ...

ABSTRACT Increasing our understanding of how ecosystems differ in their vulnerability to extreme climatic events such as drought is critical. Resilient ecosystems are capable to cope with climatic perturbations retaining the same essential function, structure and feedbacks. However, if the effect of a perturbation is amplified, abrupt shifts can occur such as in desertification processes. Empirical indicators of robustness and resilience to drought events could be developed from time series of Earth Observation (EO) data. So far, the information content of EO time series for monitoring ecosystem resilience has been underutilized, being mostly limited to detection of greening or rainfall use efficiency (RUE) trends at interannual time-scales. Detection of thresholds, shifts, extremes, and hysteresis processes is still in its infancy using EO data. Only recently some studies are starting to utilize this avenue of research using vegetation indices with some controversy due to the substitution of time by space. In drylands, where ecosystem functioning is largely controlled by rainfall, a key variable for monitoring is evapotranspiration as it connects the energy, water and carbon cycles. It can be estimated using EO data using a surface energy balance approach. In this work we propose the use of new empirical indicators of resilience to drought derived from EO time series. They are extracted from analyses of lagged cross-correlations between rainfall and evapotranspiration anomalies at several time-steps. This allows elucidating as well if an observed extreme ecological response can be attributed to a climate extreme. Additionally, increases in autocorrelation have been proposed to detect losses of resilience or changes in recovery capacity from a perturbation. Our objective was to compare rates of recovery from drought of different ecosystems in the natural park of Doñana (Spain) composed of wetlands, pine forest, shrublands with and without access to groundwater. The recovery was characterized by (i) the duration of -effects (ii) resistance to change and (iii) autocorrelation of the time-series. Time series of 2000-2008 from the satellite MODIS and meteorological stations were used. Evapotranspiration was estimated using a surface energy balance contextual or triangle approach using EO data. Analyses were performed at time-steps from 1 month up to 1 year. Among the four ecosystems, wetlands were the most resilient with a faster rate of recovery from drought but at the same time greater transient responses. Perennial vegetation types showed more resistance to drought but higher persistence of effects into the following year, especially shrublands without access to groundwater. Drought effects in pine forests were minimum as they access groundwater during dry periods. Our results suggest that in a future context of higher rainfall extremes, the long-term success in the case of vegetation types with access to the water table might depend on their capability to balance groundwater extractions and rainfall recharge. In the vegetation types without access to the water table their success will depend on their recovery potential after a drought sequence of several years.

We report the discovery of the optical counterpart to the X-ray transient XTE J1748-361 using the 6.5m Magellan-Clay telescope at Las Campanas Observatory. Several 5-minute images in the V and R bands were obtained using the MagIC camera on May 31 as well as November 9 2003 when the object was reported in outburst (ATEL #204). Seeing conditions were 0.8-1.0

We report preliminary optical/infrared photometry and spectroscopy of the SWIFT J1753.3-0127 transient (ATEL #546, #549) obtained at Fred Whipple Observatory (FLWO), Mt. Hopkins, AZ. Nightly R-band photometry was acquired with the FLWO 1.2m telescope between July 2-11 2005 UT achieving a PSF FWHM of 1.8-2.8 arcsec and typically using 60s exposure times. The images were calibrated using Landolt standard stars.

Several theoretical models of child development have posited the spread of conflict within families; however, few researchers have studied this process in association with relationships children have with teachers and peers at school. The present study examined the direct, additive, and interactive contributions of interparental, parent-child, and sibling conflict in relation to teacher-child and child-peer conflict in a sample of 117 low-income boys from ages 3.5 to 6 years. Overall, the results suggest that while conflict in any one dyadic family relationship is only modestly associated with later conflictual relationships at school, risk for conflict in relationships with teachers and peers increases when multiple forms of early family conflict are experienced. Results are discussed in terms of the development of conflict across early relationships.

The Leyte-Luzon HVDC power transmission system has achieved a converter availability of 98% during its first 15 months of commercial operation. Despite AC network constraints the commissioning tests were able to optimise the controls and demonstrate the effectiveness of the special frequency and emergency power controls in stabilising both the Leyte and Luzon networks. The performance measurements confirmed that the

We will present analysis of the diffuse emission from the nucleus of M31 using a 40 ks Chandra ACIS-S observation. The observation was taken by Chandra on 5 October, 2001. This is a continuation of our work performed on a 5 ks observation with the Chandra ACIS-I detector, presented as a poster paper at the 2001 ASP conference. With this

To examine the effects of glia-derived and brain-derived neurotrophic factors on survival and morphology of cultured retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) from adult porcine retina. Adult porcine retinas were dissociated and cultured in different conditions: (1) on laminin- and poly-D-lysine-coated coverslips in chemically defined medium (CDM); (2) on laminin- and poly-D-lysine-coated coverslips in CDM supplemented with brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF); (3) in confluent monolayer cultures of retinal Müller glia (RMG) in CDM; (4) in 1-day cultures of RMG in CDM; (5) in fixed RMG cultures in CDM; and (6) in laminin-poly-D-lysine substrate in conditioned medium obtained from RMG. RGCs were classified on the basis of the size, number of neurites, and length of the neurites, and the survival of the RGCs was assayed after each treatment. Confluent RMG substrates and RMG-conditioned medium significantly increased the survival of cultured porcine RGCs. Moreover, these two conditions increased the size of the RGCs and enhanced growth and elongation of the neurite. Addition of BDNF to the culture medium or use of 1-day cultured RMG as a substrate did not modify survival but increased the size, neurite number, and neurite length in the RCGs. These findings demonstrate that factor(s) secreted by RMG exert beneficial effects on survival of adult RGCs and neurite regeneration in vitro and may constitute effective agent(s) for neuroprotection of RGC.

We present the results of a series of Chandra observations of globular cluster (GC) X-ray sources in M31. Among some 20 GC X-ray sources detected in our M31 observations, 2-3 of them show super-Eddington luminosity (> 1038 erg s-1). It is an interesting fact that the highest X-ray luminosities achieved by Galactic GCs are only several times 1037 erg s-1,

We present a new 40ks XMM observation of the black hole X-ray nova V404 Cyg in quiescence. Its quiescent spectra can be best fitted by a power-law with slope Gamma 2 as found previously. V404 Cyg was roughly equal in luminosity compared to the previous observation of Chandra with variability of a factor of 4 during the observation. We find

Liposarcoma is one of the most common neoplasms of adulthood. However, it is exceedingly rare in the gastrointestinal tract. To our knowledge, only 12 cases occurring in the esophagus have been reported in the world literature to date. We report the case of a 42-year-old man with a pleomorphic liposarcoma arising in the esophageal wall. The morphologic, immunophenotypic, and ultrastructural characteristics are presented, as well as the results of literature review.

Gestational trophoblastic disease occurs in less than 1 per 1200 pregnancies in the United States. The spectrum of this disease ranges from benign hydatidiform mole to trophoblastic malignancy (placental-site trophoblastic tumor and choriocarcinoma). Benign gestational trophoblastic disease generally occurs in women of reproductive age and is extremely rare in postmenopausal women. To our knowledge, our case represents only the third description in the world literature of a benign complete hydatidiform mole in a woman with a history of amenorrhea greater than 1 year. We describe the case of a 61-year-old postmenopausal woman who underwent an emergent total abdominal hysterectomy due to uncontrollable vaginal bleeding associated with an increased serum beta-human chorionic gonadotropin level. The resected uterus contained an endometrial, cystic, grapelike tumor. Microscopic examination demonstrated hydropic degenerated villi with a circumferential trophoblastic cell proliferation and...

The cardiovascular system is the first functional organ system to develop within the mammalian embryo. During the early stages of cardiovascular development, the heart and blood vessels undergo rapid growth and remodeling required for embryo viability, proper morphogenesis, and the function of all organ systems. Live imaging of these dynamic events in early mouse embryos is critical to understanding when and how these morphological changes occur during normal development and how mutations and pharmacological agents affect cardiovascular structure and function in vivo. The use of optical coherence tomography (OCT) allows for rapid, three-dimensional structural and functional imaging of mouse embryos at cellular resolution without the aid of contrast agents. In this chapter, we will describe how OCT can be used to assess the morphology of vessels and the heart, dynamic analysis of cardiac function, and hemodynamics within extraembryonic and embryonic blood vessels.

The ability to conduct highly localized delivery of contrast agents, viral vectors, therapeutic or pharmacological agents, and signaling molecules or dyes to live mammalian embryos is greatly desired to enable a variety of studies in the field of developmental biology, such as investigating the molecular regulation of cardiovascular morphogenesis. To meet such a demand, we introduce, for the first time, the concept of employing optical coherence tomography (OCT)-guide microinjections in live mouse embryos, which provides precisely targeted manipulation with spatial resolution at the micrometer scale. The feasibility demonstration is performed with experimental studies on cultured live mouse embryos at E8.5 and E9.5. Additionally, we investigate the OCT-guided microinjection of gold–silica nanoshells to the yolk sac vasculature of live cultured mouse embryos at the stage when the heart just starts to beat, as a potential approach for dynamic assessment of cardiovascular form and func...

Robust reconstructions of the three-dimensional network of blood vessels in developing embryos imaged by optical coherence tomography (OCT) are needed for quantifying the longitudinal development of vascular networks in live mammalian embryos, in support of developmental cardiovascular research. Past computational methods [such as speckle variance (SV)] have demonstrated the feasibility of vascular reconstruction, but multiple challenges remain including: the presence of vessel structures at multiple spatial scales, thin blood vessels with weak flow, and artifacts resulting from bulk tissue motion (BTM). In order to overcome these challenges, this paper introduces a robust and scalable reconstruction algorithm based on a combination of anomaly detection algorithms and a parametric dictionary based sparse representation of blood vessels from structural OCT data. Validation results using confocal data as the baseline demonstrate that the proposed method enables the detection of vessel...

This work focuses on studying the early events associated with pancreatic damage after retrograde infusion through the pancreatic duct in rats. We have analyzed changes in calcium homeostasis and secretory response in pancreatic acini from rats with taurocholate-induced acute pancreatitis. Moreover, in order to test whether pancreatic duct manipulation can trigger damage inside pancreatic acinar cells, we have studied both parameters in acini from animals infused with saline. Our study demonstrates that taurocholate causes evident damage to acinar cells, impairing both calcium homeostasis and secretory response to CCK. In saline, a significant decrease in calcium cytosolic response to CCK was observed. Calcium disturbances similar to those observed in acute pancreatitis appear before secretion blockade and inflammation processes in saline treated rats. These results could be interesting since pancreatitis is associated to clinical procedures that require duct manipulation such as endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography.

Its combination of good spatial resolution and soft X-ray sensitivity make Chandra an ideal instrument for the detection of luminous supersoft X-ray sources (SSSs)in external galaxies. M31 may provide the best opportunity to study a galactic population of SSSs. We have recently completed a survey of ~ 2560 square arcmin ( ~ 131 kpc^2) of M31, observing roughly half of

ABSTRACT Increasing our understanding of how ecosystems differ in their vulnerability to extreme climatic events such as drought is critical. Resilient ecosystems are capable to cope with climatic perturbations retaining the same essential function, structure and feedbacks. However, if the effect of a perturbation is amplified, abrupt shifts can occur such as in desertification processes. Empirical indicators of robustness and resilience to drought events could be developed from time series of Earth Observation (EO) data. So far, the information content of EO time series for monitoring ecosystem resilience has been underutilized, being mostly limited to detection of greening or rainfall use efficiency (RUE) trends at interannual time-scales. Detection of thresholds, shifts, extremes, and hysteresis processes is still in its infancy using EO data. Only recently some studies are starting to utilize this avenue of research using vegetation indices with some controversy due to the substitution of time by space. In drylands, where ecosystem functioning is largely controlled by rainfall, a key variable for monitoring is evapotranspiration as it connects the energy, water and carbon cycles. It can be estimated using EO data using a surface energy balance approach. In this work we propose the use of new empirical indicators of resilience to drought derived from EO time series. They are extracted from analyses of lagged cross-correlations between rainfall and evapotranspiration anomalies at several time-steps. This allows elucidating as well if an observed extreme ecological response can be attributed to a climate extreme. Additionally, increases in autocorrelation have been proposed to detect losses of resilience or changes in recovery capacity from a perturbation. Our objective was to compare rates of recovery from drought of different ecosystems in the natural park of Doñana (Spain) composed of wetlands, pine forest, shrublands with and without access to groundwater. The recovery was characterized by (i) the duration of -effects (ii) resistance to change and (iii) autocorrelation of the time-series. Time series of 2000-2008 from the satellite MODIS and meteorological stations were used. Evapotranspiration was estimated using a surface energy balance contextual or triangle approach using EO data. Analyses were performed at time-steps from 1 month up to 1 year. Among the four ecosystems, wetlands were the most resilient with a faster rate of recovery from drought but at the same time greater transient responses. Perennial vegetation types showed more resistance to drought but higher persistence of effects into the following year, especially shrublands without access to groundwater. Drought effects in pine forests were minimum as they access groundwater during dry periods. Our results suggest that in a future context of higher rainfall extremes, the long-term success in the case of vegetation types with access to the water table might depend on their capability to balance groundwater extractions and rainfall recharge. In the vegetation types without access to the water table their success will depend on their recovery potential after a drought sequence of several years.

ABSTRACT Regional estimates of daily evapotranspiration and surface fluxes in water-scarce and climatic vulnerable regions are critical for improving agricultural and hydrological information as well as our understanding of land surface-atmosphere interactions. The final aim of this study is to evaluate two global operational evapotranspiration algorithms in the Sahelian grasslands of Africa, where in-situ data are scarce, relying on satellite products at 1 km spatial resolution with no field calibration or in-situ variables. Two process-based models were applied to estimate surface fluxes including evapotranspiration (ET): the global MODIS evapotranspiration algorithm (MOD16), based on a three source Penman-Monteith approach; and a version of the PT-JPL model, based on a three source Priestley-Taylor model with an apparent thermal inertia module to estimate soil moisture. Both models were forced using climatic reanalyses data from two sources: MERRA GMAO (NASA reanalysis GEOS-5) and NCEP/NCAR (National Centers for Environmental Prediction/National Center for Atmospheric Research). Additionally, to assess if errors were due to algorithm assumptions or with the quality of input data in-situ climatic tower data were used to compare with results from reanalyses. All model results were compared with eddy covariance data from two field sites in Mali and Sudan spanning a total period of 5 years. Preliminary results showed a better performance of both algorithms using in-situ climatic data, with a superior performance of the PT-JPL model despite a low bias relative to the measured ET. Climatic forcing with MERRA provided better results than using NCEP data. Aggregation of results from daily to 8-day time scale decreased errors significantly. The PT-JPL model version with a thermal inertia approach to estimate soil moisture offers great potential for regionalization in regions where the main limitation to evapotranspiration is soil moisture, such as the Sahel as no field-calibrations are required the only input variables required are air temperature and incoming solar radiation, apart from routinely available satellite products.

Genetic manipulation methods allow fluorescent labeling of virtually any cell type or protein of interest in developing embryos, providing powerful insights into morphogenetic events at cellular and subcellular resolutions. The development of ex vivo embryo culture methods ...

... 7. Once the rat has been fully exsanguinated, place the collected blood on ice. One rat should yield 7–10 mL of blood. ... REFERENCES. ↵: Garcia MD,; Udan RS,; Hadjantonakis AK,; Dickinson ME. Garcia MD, Udan RS, Hadjantonakis AK, Dickinson ME. 2011a. ...

We report on new R-band photometry of the outbursting black hole candidate XTE J1118+480 (ATEL #383, #384) obtained with the 4.2m WHT at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos (La Palma) and with the FLWO 1.2m telescope on Mt. Hopkins. We measure the following average magnitudes: Feb 20.19 (UT), R=16.94 +/- 0.06; Feb 21.18, R=17.41 +/- 0.06; Feb 21.49,

Following our optical monitoring of the halo black-hole candidate XTE J1118+480 (ATELs #383, #402, #424), we have obtained time-resolved R-band photometry with the ESA 1-m OGS telescope at the Spanish Observatorio del Teide and with the FLWO 1.2m telescope on Mt. Hopkins. Our observations show that the source has settled into a near-quiescence level, about 0.6-mag brighter than in true

Although serotonin has been shown to inhibit peripheral sympathetic outflow, serotonin regulation on renal sympathetic outflow has not yet been elucidated. This study investigated which 5-HT receptor subtypes are involved. Wistar rats were anesthetized (sodium pentobarbital; 60mg/kg, i.p.), and prepared for in situ autoperfused rat kidney, which allows continuous measurement of systemic blood pressure (SBP), heart rate (HR) and renal perfusion pressure (PP). Electrical stimulation of renal sympathetic nerves resulted in frequency-dependent increases in PP (18.3±1.0, 43.7±2.7 and 66.7±4.0 for 2, 4 and 6Hz, respectively), without altering SBP or HR. 5-HT, 5-carboxamidotryptamine (5-HT1/7 agonist) (0.00000125-0.1μg/kg each) or l-694,247 (5-HT1D agonist; 0.0125μg/kg) i.a. bolus inhibited vasopressor responses by renal nerve electrical stimulation, unlike i.a. bolus of agonists α-methyl-5-HT (5-HT2), 1-PBG (5-HT3), cisapride (5-HT4), AS-19 (5-HT7), CGS-12066B (5-HT1B) or 8-OH-DPAT (5-HT1A) (0.0125μg/kg each). The effect of l-694,247 did not affect the exogenous norepinephrine-induced vasoconstrictions, whereas was abolished by antagonist LY310762 (5-HT1D; 1mg/kg) or l-NAME (nitric oxide; 10mg/kg), but not by indomethacin (COX1/2; 2mg/kg) or glibenclamide (ATP-dependent K(+) channel; 20mg/kg). These results suggest that 5-HT mechanism-induced inhibition of rat vasopressor renal sympathetic outflow is mainly mediated by prejunctional 5-HT1D receptors via nitric oxide release.