Changes at the sternal extremity of the fourth rib have already been established as reliable indicators of age at death. Still now, the Iscan "phase method," based on the morphologic changes at the sternal extremity of the fourth rib, is one of the best effective for age estimation at death. The present study was carried out to develop an alternative method considering the morphologic characteristics of articular surface (A), anterior/posterior walls (B), and superior/inferior edges (C) of the sternal extremity of the fourth rib. For each parameter a numerical score was assigned and some regression formulae was elaborated. The best correlation between morphologic characteristics and age was obtained through the formula Age = 10.43 (AB)(0.53). The sample consisted of sternal extremities of the fourth rib obtained at autopsy from 49 white males of known age.

YC translocations, a hallmark of Burkitt lymphoma, occur in 5-15% of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, and have a negative prognostic impact. Numerical aberrations of MYC have also been detected in these patients, but their incidence and prognostic role are still controversial. We analyzed the clinical impact of MYC increased copy number on 385 patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma screened at diagnosis for MYC, BCL2, and BCL6 rearrangements. We enumerated the number of MYC copies, defining as amplified those cases with an uncountable number of extra-copies. The prevalence of MYC translocation, increased copy number and amplification was 8.8%, 15%, and 1%, respectively. Patients with 3 or 4 gene copies, accounting for more than 60% of patients with MYC copy number changes, had a more favorable outcome compared to patients with >4 copies or translocation of MYC, and were not influenced by the type of treatment received as first-line. Stratification according to the number of MYC extra-copies showed a negative correlation between an increasing number of copies and survival. Patients with >7 copies or the amplification of MYC had the poorest prognosis. Patients with >4 copies of MYC showed a similar, trending towards worse prognosis compared to patients with MYC translocation. The survival of patients with >4 copies, translocation or amplification of MYC seemed to be superior if intensive treatments were used. Our study underlines the importance of fluorescence in situ hybridization testing at diagnosis of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma to detect the rather frequent and clinically significant numerical aberrations of MYC.

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Objective The intensity of barbell bench press exercise is generally prescribed as the load to be lifted for a specific number of repetitions; however, other factors (e.g., execution velocity) can affect bench press exercise intensity. Moreover, no study assessed whether load distribution (i.e., the distance between the disc stacks on the two sides of the barbell) affects exercise intensity. The present study aims to assess how different combinations of load, velocity, and barbell load distribution affect the number of repetitions to failure (REPfailure), and rating of perceived exertion (RPEfatigue) and number of repetitions (REPfatigue) at fatigue onset. Methods Ten males (age 23.3±1.8 years) performed bench press exercises to exhaustion using random combinations of three loads (50%, 65%, and 80% of 1 repetition maximum), three execution velocities (50%, 70%, and 90% of maximal concentric velocity), and two load distributions (narrow and wide). Three separate three-way repeated-measures ANOVAs were performed to assess the effect of load, velocity, and load distribution on REPfailure, RPEfatigue, and REPfatigue expressed as a percentage of REPfailure. Results REPfailure was affected by load (p<0.001), velocity (p<0.001), and distribution (p = 0.005). The interactions between load and velocity (p<0.001) and load and distribution (p = 0.004) showed a significant effect on REPfailure, whereas the interaction between velocity and distribution was not significant (p = 0.360). Overall, more REPfailure were performed using lower loads, higher velocities, and a wider distribution. RPEfatigue and REPfatigue were affected by load (p<0.001 and p = 0.007, respectively) and velocity (p<0.001 and p<0.001, respectively), and not by distribution (p = 0.510 and p = 0.571, respectively) or the two-way interaction effects. Overall, using higher loads yielded higher RPEfatigue but lower REPfatigue, while RPEfatigue and REPfatigue were higher when slower velocities were used. Conclusion The current investigation shows that not only load but also velocity and barbell load distribution may influence bench press training volume and perceived exertion.

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