This article reviews published and original findings from two clinical trials of adoptive CD8+ T-cell immunotherapy of patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) and Kaposi's sarcoma ...(KS). In the first trial, AIDS patients with either KS or oral hairy leukoplakia (OHL) received five rounds of reinfusions of 10(8)-10(10) ex vivo expanded and activated autologous CD8+ T cells. Recombinant interleukin-2 (rIL-2) was coadministered only with the fifth and final infusion. Improvement, and in some cases, resolution of OHL, KS, and candidiasis was observed with no side effects. The observation that clinical improvement of KS was more pronounced when reinfusion of CD8+ T cells was followed by rIL-2 infusion led to a second clinical trial designed to examine the effect of repeated infusions of autologous CD8+ T cells with concomitant rIL-2 administration in the treatment of AIDS-related KS. Improvement of KS status was observed in four out of the eight patients studied (three partial and one complete response). The CD8+ T-cell immunotherapy protocol also provided the opportunity to comparatively study CD8+ T-cell-associated genetic programs. Baseline expression patterns of soluble and surface immune markers by CD8+ T cells from AIDS patients and uninfected controls were predominantly of the type 1 type and differed mainly at a quantitative or kinetic level. Deficiencies in immune mediator expression by CD8+ T cells from AIDS patients tended to dissipate with progression through the protocol. Findings are discussed in the context of current knowledge and therapeutic implications of CD8+ T-cell function in AIDS and neoplasia.
Since in recent years for certain age groups, the main cause of anemia is not iron deficiency, we intended to study the effect of iron, folic acid and vitamin B12 deficiencies on anemia prevalence in ...adolescents from Venezuela. One hundred adolescents aged between 12 and 19 years participated in the study. Each subject was interviewed about antecedents and habits and a physical examination and a 24-hour food recall questionnaire were performed. From a blood sample, hemoglobin and hematocrit concentrations were determined and serum was separated for quantification of ferritin, folic acid and vitamin B12 concentrations. Prevalence of anemia was 78% and for iron, folic acid and vitamin B12 deficiencies were 34.66, 90.9 and 18.18%, respectively. From anemic cases, 35.89% presented iron deficiency, while 91.02% presented folic acid deficiency. Only 19.23% of adolescents with anemia presented also vitamin B12 deficiency, but all the cases with vitamin B12 deficiency, were anemic. Simultaneous iron and folic acid deficiencies affected 30.76% of anemic cases. The high prevalence of deficiencies found in this work could be explained by insufficient intake and inadequate food habits. The prevalence of anemia was associated to folic acid deficiency rather than to iron deficiency, due to the high prevalence of folic acid deficiency. The high prevalence of nutritional deficiencies found in this work, especially regarding folic acid deficiency, require immediate interventions.
Many human activities rely on accurate knowledge of the sea surface dynamics. This is especially true during storm events, when wave-current interactions might represent a leading order process of ...the upper ocean. In this study, we assess and analyse the impact of including three wave-dependent processes in the ocean momentum equation of the Met Office North West European Shelf (NWS) ocean-wave forecasting system on the accuracy of the simulated surface circulation. The analysis is conducted using ocean currents and Stokes drift data produced by different implementations of the coupled forecasting systems to simulate the trajectories of surface (iSphere) and 15 m drogued (SVP) drifters affected by four storms selected from winter 2016. Ocean and wave simulations differ only in the degree of coupling and the skills of the Lagrangian simulations are evaluated by comparing model results against the observed drifter tracks. Results show that, during extreme events, ocean-wave coupling improves the accuracy of the surface dynamics by 4%. Improvements are larger for ocean currents on the shelf (8%) than in the open ocean (4%): this is thought to be due to the synergy between strong tidal currents and more mature decaying waves. We found that the Coriolis-Stokes forcing is the dominant wave-current interaction for both type of drifters; for iSpheres the secondary wave effect is the wave-modulated water-side stress while for SVPs the wave-dependent sea surface roughness is more important. Our results indicate that coupled ocean-wave systems may play a key role for improving the accuracy of particle transport simulations.
This article approaches the four university models designed by Spanish legislation in the period comprehensed from 1943 to 1991: state university of Franco's time; catholic private university of the ...same period; state university and private university after the Constitution of 1978. Here are established the characteristics of what could be the ideal model of university, and this is compared with the models studied above. Finally, there is a reflection about future development of Spanish actual university.
Introducción: desde 2010, las universidades iberoamericanas tienen un evaluador externo de calidad que es el SCImago Institution Rankings. Objetivo: analizar la permanencia y variación de los ...indicadores que hicieron posible que la Universidad de Ciencias Médicas de La Habana se situara en el Ranking Iberoamericano entre los años 2010 a 2012 en cuatro indicadores: producción científica, cooperación internacional, calidad científica promedio y porcentaje de artículos publicados en revistas del primer cuartil y su variación en cada aspecto en comparación con los anteriores. Material y Métodos: se analizaron los indicadores de los rankings Iberoamericanos SIR de los años 2010 a 2012 para la UCMH. Los datos relativos a la producción, correspondieron a aquellos artículos que incluyeron alguna dirección perteneciente a la universidad y a cada una de las facultades que aparecieron independientes. Para los datos basados en citación se analizaron todas las publicaciones que se registraron en el período establecido. Resultados: nuestra universidad se encuentra ubicada en el tercer lugar entre las instituciones cubanas y, la primera, entre las universidades médicas cubanas. Se ha observado un incremento de 17,3% de los trabajos publicados, pero esto no resulta suficiente. La Universidad cayó 15 escaños en el ranking iberoamericano y 14 en el latinoamericano. La cooperación internacional se incrementó en 13 % y la calidad promedio disminuyó en comparación con las versiones anteriores, así como el indicador de la calidad de las revistas donde se publica. Hay 10 facultades de nuestra facultad que presentan su producción de forma independiente. Entre ellas, la Facultad "Calixto García" incrementa la cooperación internacional y la Facultad "Miguel Enríquez" incrementó notablemente la calidad de las revistas donde ha publicado. Conclusiones: se considera que este ranking es un reto a los mecanismos de medición del conocimiento.
The effect of a pH change from 2 to 6 was tested on the solubility of ferrous sulfate, ferrous fumarate, iron bis-glycine chelate (Ferrochel) and sodium-iron ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid ...(NaFeEDTA). It was found that at pH 2 ferrous sulfate, Ferrochel and NaFeEDTA were completely soluble and only 75% of iron from ferrous fumarate was soluble. When pH was raised to 6, iron from amino acid chelate and NaFeEDTA remained completely soluble while solubility from ferrous sulfate and ferrous fumarate decreased 64 and 74%, respectively compared to the amount of iron initially soluble at pH 2. These results suggest that iron solubility from iron bis-glycine chelate and NaFeEDTA is not affected by pH changes within the ranges tested, probably because iron remained associated to the respective compounds.
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