PURPOSE OF REVIEWWe performed a literature review of the latest studies on the interactions between the host immune system and microbes in chronic intestinal inflammatory conditions.
RECENT ...FINDINGSThe mechanisms leading to celiac disease (CeD) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), the most common chronic inflammatory gastrointestinal conditions, are complex. The intestinal homeostasis depends on the interactions between the microbiota, the intestinal mucosa and the host immune system. Failure to achieve or maintain equilibrium between a host and its microbiota has the potential to induce chronic conditions with an underlying inflammatory component. Mechanisms by which intestinal microbes trigger inflammation include the alteration of intestinal permeability, activation of the host immune system and digestion of dietary antigens with a consequent repercussion on tolerance to food. Therefore, therapies modulating gut microbiota, including diet, antibiotics, probiotics and faecal transplantation have a potential in CeD and IBD. Probiotics are effective to treat pouchitis and faecal transplant for ulcerative colitis, but the evidence is less clear in Crohnʼs disease or CeD.
SUMMARYDiverse regulatory mechanisms cooperate to maintain intestinal homeostasis, and a breakdown in these pathways may precipitate inflammation. The role of microbiota inducing immune dysfunction and inflammation supports the therapeutic rationale of manipulating microbiota to treat chronic inflammatory conditions.
GW170817 is the very first observation of gravitational waves originating from the coalescence of two compact objects in the mass range of neutron stars, accompanied by electromagnetic counterparts, ...and offers an opportunity to directly probe the internal structure of neutron stars. We perform Bayesian model selection on a wide range of theoretical predictions for the neutron star equation of state. For the binary neutron star hypothesis, we find that we cannot rule out the majority of theoretical models considered. In addition, the gravitational-wave data alone does not rule out the possibility that one or both objects were low-mass black holes. We discuss the possible outcomes in the case of a binary neutron star merger, finding that all scenarios from prompt collapse to long-lived or even stable remnants are possible. For long-lived remnants, we place an upper limit of 1.9 kHz on the rotation rate. If a black hole was formed any time after merger and the coalescing stars were slowly rotating, then the maximum baryonic mass of non-rotating neutron stars is at most , and three equations of state considered here can be ruled out. We obtain a tighter limit of for the case that the merger results in a hypermassive neutron star.
This review summarizes the legislation applied to pesticides and highlights the physicochemical properties of the past and recently listed PPs under Water Framework Directive (WFD). It reports ...important information regarding the analysis, occurrence and long-term screening of PPs in sediments of European coastal lagoons. Among the entire list of PPs, those analyzed have been the organochloride insecticides, such as lindane, hexachlorobenzene and DDT. Although flood events pointed to the possible redistribution of pesticides, which may increase under climate change conditions, few studies are available concerning PPs screening in sediments of European coastal lagoons. Data is scarce not only in terms of the number of listed PPs that have been analyzed but also in terms of their long-term screening. This lack of data on PP concentrations is probably a consequence of the fact that less importance is given to the sediments contamination/quality.
•Among the entire list of PPs the most analyzed were the organochloride insecticides.•PP distribution in coastal lagoons is likely to increase after heavy rains.•Sediment contamination assessment by PPs allows to predict remobilization under GCC.
On 14 September 2015, a gravitational wave signal from a coalescing black hole binary system was observed by the Advanced LIGO detectors. This paper describes the transient noise backgrounds used to ...determine the significance of the event (designated GW150914) and presents the results of investigations into potential correlated or uncorrelated sources of transient noise in the detectors around the time of the event. The detectors were operating nominally at the time of GW150914. We have ruled out environmental influences and non-Gaussian instrument noise at either LIGO detector as the cause of the observed gravitational wave signal.
We carry out a comprehensive survey of electromagnetic form factors of all light, heavy and heavy-light ground-state pseudoscalar and scalar mesons. Our analysis is based upon a Schwinger-Dyson ...equations treatment of a vector $\times$ vector contact interaction. It incorporates confinement and ensures axial vector and vector Ward-Takahashi identities are satisfied along with the corresponding corollaries such as the Goldberger-Treiman relations. The algebraic simplicity of the model allows us to compute the form factors at arbitrarily large virtualities of the probing photon momentum squared with relative ease. Wherever possible and insightful, we compare our results for the electromagnetic form factors and the charge radii with those obtained earlier through Schwinger-Dyson equations, lattice and with experimental observations available. We also comment on the scope and shortcomings of the model.
On May 21, 2019 at 03:02:29 UTC Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo observed a short duration gravitational-wave signal, GW190521, with a three-detector network signal-to-noise ratio of 14.7, and an ...estimated false-alarm rate of 1 in 4900 yr using a search sensitive to generic transients. If GW190521 is from a quasicircular binary inspiral, then the detected signal is consistent with the merger of two black holes with masses of 85_{-14}^{+21} M_{⊙} and 66_{-18}^{+17} M_{⊙} (90% credible intervals). We infer that the primary black hole mass lies within the gap produced by (pulsational) pair-instability supernova processes, with only a 0.32% probability of being below 65 M_{⊙}. We calculate the mass of the remnant to be 142_{-16}^{+28} M_{⊙}, which can be considered an intermediate mass black hole (IMBH). The luminosity distance of the source is 5.3_{-2.6}^{+2.4} Gpc, corresponding to a redshift of 0.82_{-0.34}^{+0.28}. The inferred rate of mergers similar to GW190521 is 0.13_{-0.11}^{+0.30} Gpc^{-3} yr^{-1}.
We report on the population of 47 compact binary mergers detected with a false-alarm rate of <1yr^(−1) in the second LIGO–Virgo Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog. We observe several ...characteristics of the merging binary black hole (BBH) population not discernible until now. First, the primary mass spectrum contains structure beyond a power law with a sharp high-mass cutoff; it is more consistent with a broken power law with a break at 39.7^(+20.3)(-9.1)M or a power law with a Gaussian feature peaking at 33.1^(+4.0)(-5.6)M (90% credible interval). While the primary mass distribution must extend to ~65M or beyond, only 2.9^(+3.5)(-1.7)M% of systems have primary masses greater than 45M. Second, we find that a fraction of BBH systems have component spins misaligned with the orbital angular momentum, giving rise to precession of the orbital plane. Moreover, 12% to 44% of BBH systems have spins tilted by more than 90°, giving rise to a negative effective inspiral spin parameter, χeff. Under the assumption that such systems can only be formed by dynamical interactions, we infer that between 25% and 93% of BBHs with nonvanishing |χeff| > 0.01 are dynamically assembled. Third, we estimate merger rates, finding RBBH = 23.9^(+14.3)(-8.6) Gpc^(-3) yr^(-1) for BBHs and RBNS = 320^(+490)(-240) Gpc^(-3) yr^(-1) for binary neutron stars. We find that the BBH rate likely increases with redshift (85% credibility) but not faster than the star formation rate (86% credibility). Additionally, we examine recent exceptional events in the context of our population models, finding that the asymmetric masses of GW190412 and the high component masses of GW190521 are consistent with our models, but the low secondary mass of GW190814 makes it an outlier.
The first observing run of Advanced LIGO spanned 4 months, from 12 September 2015 to 19 January 2016, during which gravitational waves were directly detected from two binary black hole systems, ...namely GW150914 and GW151226. Confident detection of gravitational waves requires an understanding of instrumental transients and artifacts that can reduce the sensitivity of a search. Studies of the quality of the detector data yield insights into the cause of instrumental artifacts and data quality vetoes specific to a search are produced to mitigate the effects of problematic data. In this paper, the systematic removal of noisy data from analysis time is shown to improve the sensitivity of searches for compact binary coalescences. The output of the PyCBC pipeline, which is a python-based code package used to search for gravitational wave signals from compact binary coalescences, is used as a metric for improvement. GW150914 was a loud enough signal that removing noisy data did not improve its significance. However, the removal of data with excess noise decreased the false alarm rate of GW151226 by more than two orders of magnitude, from 1 in 770 yr to less than 1 in 186 000 yr.
Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed and leading cause of cancer death among women worldwide. Mitogen-activated protein kinase-interacting kinases (MNKs) promote the expression of several ...oncogenic proteins and are overexpressed in several types of cancer. In human cells, there are four isoforms of MNKs. The truncated isoform MNK1b, first described in our laboratory, has a higher basal activity and is constitutively active. Aptamers are emerging in recent years as potential therapeutic agents that show significant advantages over drugs of other nature. We have previously obtained and characterized a highly specific aptamer against MNK1b, named apMNK2F, with a dissociation constant in the nanomolar range, which produces significant inhibition of proliferation, migration, and colony formation in breast cancer cells. Furthermore, its sequence analysis predicted two G-quadruplex structures. In this work, we show the optimization process of the aptamer to reduce its size, improving its stability. The obtained aptamer, named apMNKQ2, is able to inhibit proliferation, colony formation, migration, and invasion in breast cancer cells. In murine models of breast cancer, apMNKQ2 has demonstrated its efficacy in reducing tumor volume and the number of metastases. In conclusion, apMNKQ2 could be used as an anti-tumor drug in the future.
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Pinto-Díez et al. have optimized the aptamer apMNKQ2, the first specific MNK1 inhibitor. The authors have demonstrated its anti-tumor and anti-metastatic effect on breast cancer cells, also in vivo, suggesting the potential therapeutic use of apMNKQ2 in breast cancer and possibly other tumors in which MNK1 plays a relevant role.
This report includes the reanalysis of data from a clinical trial showing a lower rate of cardiovascular events among persons assigned to a Mediterranean diet supplemented with extra-virgin olive oil ...or nuts than among those assigned to a low-fat diet.
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