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An analysis of Marjane Satrapi's film PERSEPOLIS written for the Cinema of Exile course at Salisbury University.

Background Patients who have pleural effusions typically undergo thoracentesis with examination of pleural fluid in their initial assessment. However, limited data are available on the diagnostic yield of pleural fluid bacterial cultures, fungal and acid-fast bacilli (AFB) smear and cultures in cancer patients. Methods We performed a retrospective cohort study of consecutive patients who had new onset pleural effusions and underwent an initial thoracentesis. The primary outcome was diagnostic yield of pleural fluid bacterial cultures, fungal and acid-fast bacilli smear and cultures. Results Of 1637 patients, 1547 (94%) had evidence of active malignancy and 1359 (83%) had evidence of metastatic disease. Of the 1637 patients, 542 (33%) had high clinical suspicion of pneumonia within 14 days prior to thoracentesis. Only 14 patients (1.1%) had positive pleural fluid bacterial cultures, and only 6 of these positive cultures met the criteria for true pleural space infection. Conclusions The incidence of positive results from pleural fluid bacterial, fungal and acid-fast bacilli in cancer populations is very low. Unless there is a suspicion for infection, microbiological analysis should be ordered selectively.

Aims Well-differentiated leiomyosarcomas show morphologically recognizable smooth muscle differentiation, whereas poorly differentiated tumours may form a spectrum with a subset of undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcomas. The expression of certain muscle markers has been reported to have prognostic impact. We investigated the correlation between the morphological spectrum and the muscle marker expression profile of leiomyosarcoma, and the impact of these factors on patient outcomes. Methods and results Tissue microarrays including 202 non-uterine and 181 uterine leiomyosarcomas with a spectrum of tumour morphologies were evaluated for expression of immunohistochemical markers of muscle differentiation. Poorly differentiated tumours frequently lost one or more conventional smooth muscle markers [smooth muscle actin, desmin, h-caldesmon, and smooth muscle myosin (P

Peanut is a major agronomic crop within the legume family and an important source of plant oil, proteins, vitamins, and minerals for human consumption, as well as animal feed, bioenergy, and health products. Peanut genomic research effort lags that of other legumes of economic importance, mainly due to the shortage of essential genomic infrastructure, tools, resources, and the complexity of the peanut genome. This is a pioneering study that explored the peanut Spanish Group whole plant transcriptome and culminated in developing unigenes database. The study applied modern technologies, such as, normalization and next-generation sequencing. It overall sequenced 8,308,655,800 nucleotides and generated 26,048 unigenes amongst which 12,302 were annotated and 8,817 were characterized. The remainder, 13,746 (52.77 %) unigenes, had unknown functions. These results will be applied as the reference transcriptome sequences for expanded transcriptome sequencing of the remaining three peanut botanical types (Valencia, Runner, and Virginia), which is currently in progress, RNA-seq, exome identification, and genomic markers development. It will also provide important tools and resources for other legumes and plant species genomic research.

1. Soaking seeds of dwarf bean in distilled water with aeration resulted in a considerable decrease in the rate of germination (appearance of the seedlings at the surface of the soil) for periods of soaking as short as 8 hours. Practically a complete failure of germination resulted from soaking periods of 7 to 9 days. 2. The soaking treatment resulted in a still further reduction in the number of mature plants produced, as some of the seedlings from the treated seeds were unable to reach maturity. 3. The soaking treatment resulted in a progressive decrease in growth and weight of the plants produced and an increase in the time required for the plants to reach maturity. 4. The seed treatment resulted in general in a modification of the leaf structure, the leaf blades of plants from treated seeds generally being thinner and more compact in structure than those of plants from untreated seeds. 5. The greater average thickness of the phloem and higher ratio of the phloem to the xylem in the stems of the plants...