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ObjectivesThe aim of this retrospective multicenter study was to investigate the extent, feasibility, and outcomes of minimally invasive surgery at the time of interval debulking surgery in different gynecological cancer centers.Methods/MaterialsIn December 2016, 20 gynecological cancer centers were contacted by e-mail, to participate in the INTERNATIONAL MISSION study. Seven centers confirmed and five were included, with a total of 127 patients diagnosed with advanced epithelial ovarian cancer after neoadjuvant chemotherapy and minimally invasive interval surgery. Only women with a minimum follow-up time of 6 months from interval surgery or any cancer-related event before 6 months were included in the survival analysis. Baseline characteristics, chemotherapy, and operative data were evaluated. Survival analysis was evaluated using the Kaplan–Meier method.Results All patients had optimal cytoreduction at the time of interval surgery: among them, 122 (96.1%) patients had no residual tumor. Median operative time was 225 min (range 60 – 600) and median estimated blood loss was 100 mL (range 70 – 1320). Median time to discharge was 2 days (1–33) and estimated median time to start chemotherapy was 20 days (range 15 – 60). Six (4.7%) patients experienced intraoperative complications, with one patient experiencing two serious complications (bowel and bladder injury at the same time). There were six (4.7%) patients with postoperative short-term complications: among them, three patients had severe complications. The conversion rate to laparotomy was 3.9 %. Median follow-up time was 37 months (range 7 – 86): 74 of 127 patients recurred (58.3%) and 31 (24.4%) patients died from disease. Median progression-free survival was 23 months and survival at 5 years was 52 % (95% CI: 35 to 67).ConclusionsMinimally invasive surgery may be considered for the management of patients with advanced ovarian cancer who have undergone neoadjuvant chemotherapy, when surgery is limited to low-complexity standard cytoreductive procedures.

This article presents a quantitative analysis of charged Soft Matter system using Anomalous Small-Angle X-Ray Scattering (ASAXS). Specific experimental requirements and data reduction are described. The simultaneous analysis of data sets recorded below and above the absorption edge provides valuable constraints in data modelling. The merit of the method is illustrated by an example involving cationic surfactant micelles. The counterion profile around the micelle is deduced in a self-consistent manner and the results reveal the strong condensation of counterions on to the micellar surface.

Systems featuring large magnetoresistance (MR) at room temperature and in small magnetic fields are attractive owing to their potential for applications in magnetic field sensing and data storage. Usually, the magnetic properties of materials are exploited to achieve large MR effects. Here, we report on an exceptionally large (>2000%), room-temperature, small-field (a few millitesla) MR effect in one-dimensional, nonmagnetic systems formed by molecular wires embedded in a zeolite host crystal. This ultrahigh MR effect is ascribed to spin blockade in one-dimensional electron transport. Its generic nature offers very good perspectives to exploit the effect in a wide range of low-dimensional systems.

Cleruchoides noackae Lin & Huber (Hymenoptera: Mymaridae) was imported to Brazil in 2012, to manage the exotic pest Thaumastocoris peregrinus Carpintero & Dellapé (Hemiptera: Thaumastocoridae), which has been damaging eucalyptus plantations. Knowledge of the thermal requirements and the fertility life table of C. noackae is important to improve mass rearing methods for this parasitoid and the effectiveness of its release to manage T. peregrinus . The objective was to evaluate the development period, thermal requirements and the fertility life table of C. noackae at different temperatures. The egg-adult period of this parasitoid varied from 43 to 14 days at 15 °C and 30 °C, respectively. The emergence of C. noackae adults was higher at 15 °C, 18 °C, 21 °C and 24 °C than at 30 °C. Female and male C. noackae need 226.75 and 230.41 degree-days and temperatures higher than 10.06 °C and 9.90 °C, respectively, to complete egg-adult development. The number of parasitized eggs per C. noackae female was higher at 21 °C, 24 °C and 27 °C, with 5.82, 7.73 and 5.50 eggs, respectively, than at 30 °C (0.45). Cleruchoides noackae longevity was greater at 15 °C, 21 °C and 24 °C. The net reproductive rate of the parasitoid was higher at 21 °C and 24 °C than at 30 °C, 3.05, 4.70 and 0.16, respectively. The finite rate of increase of C. noackae was greater at 21 °C, 24 °C and 27 °C, than at 30 °C and the intrinsic rate of increase was negative at 30 °C, −0.100. The temperatures 21 °C and 24 °C and from 18 °C to 27 °C are the most adequate for the reproduction and population increase of C. noackae parasitizing eggs of T. peregrinus , respectively.

The paper presents the one year results obtained by a small wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) located in a decentralized area. The plant was organized, reusing current structures, introducing an equalization tank, an anoxic selector and the alternate cycles (AC) as technology in the biological process. The experimentation data processed show the excellent quality of the effluent with high removal efficencies for all the macropollutants. Also, the anoxic selector effect allows, in the critical winter period, the decrease in the filamentous bacteria total number, a net improvement of the settling behaviour with an average solid maximum flux value of 3.8 kgMLSSm−2 h−1 and a good mixed liquor settleability. The alternate cycles process flexibility consents to well manage the high fluctuations of the influent loadings. The costs comparison of AC process and extended aeration confirms the sustainability of the upgrading.

The persistence length of titin from rabbit skeletal muscles was measured using a combination of static and dynamic light scattering, and neutron small angle scattering. Values of persistence length in the range 9–16 nm were found for titin-II, which corresponds to mainly physiologically inelastic A-band part of the protein, and for a proteolytic fragment with 100-nm contour length from the physiologically elastic I-band part. The ratio of the hydrodynamic radius to the static radius of gyration indicates that the proteins obey Gaussian statistics typical of a flexible polymer in a θ-solvent. Furthermore, measurements of the flexibility as a function of temperature demonstrate that titin-II and the I-band titin fragment experience a similar denaturation process; unfolding begins at 318 K and proceeds in two stages: an initial gradual 50% change in persistence length is followed by a sharp unwinding transition at 338 K. Complementary microrheology (video particle tracking) measurements indicate that the viscoelasticity in dilute solution behaves according to the Flory/Fox model, providing a value of the radius of gyration for titin-II (63 ± 1 nm) in agreement with static light scattering and small angle neutron scattering results.

Brown v. Board of Education, the 1954 Supreme Court case which declared the “separate but equal” doctrine of Plessy v. Ferguson unconstitutional, represents a watershed moment in the United States. Because of its sacrosanct place within Civil Rights canon, much of the research regarding Brown has been limited to the 50s, situated in the South, and analyzed through the Black/White lens of race. In an attempt to generate a more inclusive and intersectional narrative of the school desegregation movement in the United States, the author examines three significant cases, filed before Brown, that represent racial communities whose contributions have been overlooked, omitted, or understudied within law, history, and sociology. Through archival research, interviews, and field visits, the author shares the stories of Tape v. Hurley, an 1885 case involving Chinese American children, Piper v. Big Pine, a 1924 case involving Native American children, and Mendez v. Westminster, a 1947 case involving Mexican American children to compare how race, gender, and class were constructed similarly and separately across the cases. Using a comparative historical, case study approach that relies on Critical Race Theory, Controlling Images, and the Politics of Respectability, the author finds that the road to Brown is not only raced but also gendered, classed, and aged in complicated, connected, and expected ways.

Knowledge of the thermal requirements of Trichospilus diatraeae (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) is important if it is to be used successfully in to control Diatraea saccharalis (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) in sugarcane plantations. In the current study, the development of T. diatraeae was investigated in the pupae of D. saccharalis incubated at different temperatures. Seven T. diatraeae females were placed with host pupae for 24 h in tubes within chambers at 16, 19, 22, 25, 28 and 31 °C with 70 ± 10% RH and 14:10 h L:D. The life cycle duration of T. diatraeae decreased as the temperature increased, although no development was recorded at 31 °C. The number of T. diatraeae progeny per female ranged from 264.8 ± 40.7 (at 16 °C) to 385.1 ± 36.3 (at 25 °C), but no significant difference were recorded among temperature treatments (P > 0.05). The base temperature (Tb) and thermal constant (K) of T. diatraeae were 9.37 °C and 257.60 degree-days, respectively. The estimated average numbers of generations per year of T. diatraeae in pupae of D. saccharalis were 18.5, 19.93 and 17.73 for Dourados, Ivinhema and Ponta Porã municipalities of Mato Grosso do Sul State, Brasil, respectively.

Cleruchoides noackae (Hymenoptera: Mymaridae), native to Australia, is the most promising biological control agent for Thaumastocoris peregrinus (Hemiptera: Thaumastocoridae), an exotic Eucalyptus spp. pest in Brazil. The aim of this study was to determine the courtship behaviour, mating and oviposition of unmated or mated C. noackae females parasitizing T. peregrinus eggs utilizing the same rearing system used in biological control programmes in Brazil. The mating behaviour of eleven C. noackae unmated couples was observed and the time taken for males and females to find each other in polystyrene vials and the duration and number of copulations were recorded. Ten unmated or mated females were placed individually in vials with 10 T. peregrinus eggs each, and oviposition behaviour, percentage of eggs inserted and parasitized, viability and sex ratio of emerged C. noackae were recorded. This species lacked defined courtship behaviour and mated in less than an hour after adults' emergence. The time spent finding the first host, evaluating and inserting the ovipositor was similar for mated and unmated C. noackae females, as well as the frequency of inserted and parasitized eggs and their viability. Mated females took less time to find other host eggs and the sex ratio is female-biased. Occurrence of arrhenotokous parthenogenesis was confirmed. The ability of C. noackae to mate and lay eggs in less than one hour and parasitism of T. peregrinus eggs by females can improve the parasitoid mass rearing and biological control of T. peregrinus.