The development and production of relevant products in the microelectronics industry in Russia have been crucially dependent on foreign technologies for several decades. In the current scenario, the ...need to find a way to gain sanction-free access to cutting-edge electronic components from modern technological processes required for the experiments in the NICA complex seems obvious. The MPD-ITS project aims to achieve this goal by organizing a consortium of interested institutes in Russia and China coordinated by the VBLHEP JINR (Dubna) in Russia and the CCNU (Wuhan) in the People’s Republic of China representing several Chinese institutions for the joint development and production of state-of-the-art Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors (MAPS) for fundamental and applied science experiments, including ASICs-based front-end electronics from the GBTx family which is the standard in modern High Energy Physics experiments for its fast duplex data flow between the high radiation level experimental area and the remote on-line servers, thus making these technologies freely accessible to China and Russia. These chips will be the focus of collaborative research and development for the construction of the NICA setups to be used in fundamental and applied science projects i.e. the MPD Inner Tracking System, and a prototype of a clinical tomograph for the particle Computer Tomography (pCT) for the ARIADNA project. Here we present our current achievements and future developments.
The Fontan procedure is considered one of the most remarkable achievements in paediatric cardiology and cardiac surgery. Its final anatomical objective is a venous return through the superior and ...inferior vena cava. The complications inherent to this procedure and subsequent failure are its limitations.
To describe the clinical and haemodynamic characteristics of patients with Fontan failure and define the risk factors associated with it, with its short- and long-term outcomes during a 21-year observation period.
This is a retrospective follow-up study in which 15 patients diagnosed with Fontan failure in the single-ventricle programme of a high-complexity hospital in Medellín, Colombia, between 2001 and 2022 were included.
One hundred and eight patients were identified in whom the Fontan procedure was performed, and 17 met the failure criteria. 82.4% were men, with a median age of 4.3 years. Ebstein's anomaly was the most common diagnosis, 29.4%. All patients underwent Fontan with an extracardiac tube following the procedure. According to the type of failure, 58.8% of patients presented protein-losing enteropathy and 17.6% plastic bronchitis. During follow-up, 5.9% of patients died.
Fontan surgery in our centre is an option for patients with univentricular physiology. The correct selection of the patient is essential to mitigate failure risks.
Abstract
Background
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic multi-factorial disease characterized by inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract. Currently, the mechanisms underlying the disease ...are far from being elucidated. Thus, the study of proteins involved in its pathogenesis would allow further insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying IBD.
Methods
The serum and intestinal mucosa (ileum and left colon) proteomic profiles of patients with Crohn´s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) and healthy controls (HC) were analyzed using a label-free quantitative proteomics approach (Table 1). Data mining and pattern recognition techniques were performed to identify hidden relationships that are not detectable using classical linear classifiers, and thus identify potential markers able to discriminate between the different study groups. Six candidate biomarkers were selected for further validation using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and immunohistochemistry (IHC) in serum and intestinal tissue samples, respectively (Table 2).
Results
Comparison of serum proteins between UC patients and HC revealed statistically lower levels of protein 1 and 2 and higher levels of protein 3. The comparison of potential biomarkers between CD and HC group showed lower levels of protein 1 and higher levels of protein 3. In addition, protein 4 was differentially upregulated in CD patients compared to UC (Figure 1A). Regarding the intestinal biopsies, protein 5 showed higher intensity in the IHC staining of ileum from CD patients compared to HC, whereas protein 6 was significantly decreased in left colon and ileum from CD and UC patients compared to HC (Figure 1B). These proteins are involved in thyroxine transport, regulation of chemotactic chemokine activity, inflammatory processes, triglyceride homeostasis, oxidative stress and regulation of NF-kappa-B activation in the cytosol.
Conclusion
In this study, we have identified a panel of six potential biomarkers that could help to elucidate mechanisms involved in IBD pathogenesis. Their roles in the pathophysiology need to be clarified in further experiments.
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease in which the formation of extracellular aggregates of amyloid beta (Aβ) peptide, fibrillary tangles of intraneuronal tau and ...microglial activation are major pathological hallmarks. One of the key molecules involved in microglial activation is galectin-3 (gal3), and we demonstrate here for the first time a key role of gal3 in AD pathology. Gal3 was highly upregulated in the brains of AD patients and 5xFAD (familial Alzheimer’s disease) mice and found specifically expressed in microglia associated with Aβ plaques. Single-nucleotide polymorphisms in the
LGALS3
gene, which encodes gal3, were associated with an increased risk of AD. Gal3 deletion in 5xFAD mice attenuated microglia-associated immune responses, particularly those associated with TLR and TREM2/DAP12 signaling. In vitro data revealed that gal3 was required to fully activate microglia in response to fibrillar Aβ. Gal3 deletion decreased the Aβ burden in 5xFAD mice and improved cognitive behavior. Interestingly, a single intrahippocampal injection of gal3 along with Aβ monomers in WT mice was sufficient to induce the formation of long-lasting (2 months) insoluble Aβ aggregates, which were absent when gal3 was lacking. High-resolution microscopy (stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy) demonstrated close colocalization of gal3 and TREM2 in microglial processes, and a direct interaction was shown by a fluorescence anisotropy assay involving the gal3 carbohydrate recognition domain. Furthermore, gal3 was shown to stimulate TREM2–DAP12 signaling in a reporter cell line. Overall, our data support the view that gal3 inhibition may be a potential pharmacological approach to counteract AD.
An accelerator-driven thermal neutron facility for boron neutron capture therapy of skin melanoma is currently under construction at the Legnaro National Laboratories, Italy. The installation relies ...on the production of neutrons from a thick beryllium target bombarded with 5
MeV protons. A complete set of double differential data, i.e. angle- and energy-differential neutron spectra produced by the beryllium target, is necessary for the Monte Carlo-based design of the installation. For this purpose, double differential fluence measurements are currently performed with the “BINS” neutron spectrometer using 5
MeV protons at the “CN” Van de Graaf accelerator. This spectrometer uses a superheated emulsion of dichlorotetrafluoroethane which is sequentially operated at 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50 and 55
°C and thus provides a series of seven sharp thresholds covering the 0.1–10
MeV neutron energy interval. Deconvolution of the data is performed with the code “MAXED”, which is based on the maximum entropy principle. The analysis of our first neutron spectrometry measurements at angles of 0°, 40°, 80° and 120° supports the viability of the BINS spectrometry method for the generation of the required double differential data.
At 07:39 on 11 March 2004, 10 terrorist bomb explosions occurred almost simultaneously in four commuter trains in Madrid, Spain, killing 177 people instantly and injuring more than 2000. There were ...14 subsequent in-hospital deaths, bringing the ultimate death toll to 191. This report describes the organization of clinical management and patterns of injuries in casualties who were taken to the closest hospital, with an emphasis on the critically ill. A total of 312 patients were taken to the hospital and 91 patients were hospitalized, of whom 89 (28.5%) remained in hospital for longer than 24 hours. Sixty-two patients had only superficial bruises or emotional shock, but the remaining 250 patients had more severe injuries. Data on 243 of these 250 patients form the basis of this report. Tympanic perforation occurred in 41% of 243 victims with moderate-to-severe trauma, chest injuries in 40%, shrapnel wounds in 36%, fractures in 18%, first-degree or second-degree burns in 18%, eye lesions in 18%, head trauma in 12% and abdominal injuries in 5%. Between 08:00 and 17:00, 34 surgical interventions were performed in 32 patients. Twenty-nine casualties (12% of the total, or 32.5% of those hospitalized) were deemed to be in a critical condition, and two of these died within minutes of arrival. The other 27 survived to admission to intensive care units, and three of them died, bringing the critical mortality rate to 17.2% (5/29). The mean Injury Severity Score and Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II scores for critically ill patients were 34 and 23, respectively. Among these critically ill patients, soft tissue and musculoskeletal injuries predominated in 85% of cases, ear blast injury was identified in 67% and blast lung injury was present in 63%. Fifty-two per cent suffered head trauma. Over-triage to the closest hospital probably occurred, and the time of the blasts proved to be crucial to the the adequacy of the medical and surgical response. The number of blast lung injuries seen is probably the largest reported by a single institution, and the critical mortality rate was reasonably low.
One of the objectives of the cassava-breeding project at CIAT is the identification of clones with special root quality characteristics. A large number of self-pollinations have been made in search ...of useful recessive traits. During 2006 harvests an S1 plant produced roots that stained brownish-red when treated with an iodine solution, suggesting that it had lower-than-normal levels of amylose in its starch. Colorimetric and DSC measurements indicated low levels (3.4%) and an absence of amylose in the starch, respectively. SDS-PAGE demonstrated the absence of GBSS enzyme in the starch from these roots. Pasting behavior was analyzed with a rapid visco-analyzer and resulted in larger values for peak viscosity, gel breakdown, and setback in the mutant compared with normal cassava starch. Solubility was considerably reduced, while the swelling index and volume fraction of the dispersed phase were higher in the mutant. No change in starch granule size or shape was observed. This is the first report of a natural mutation in cassava that drastically reduces amylose content in root starch. Keywords: Amylose; genetic variation; germplasm collections; inbreeding; recessive traits
N-doped TiO2 nanoparticles (NPs) were synthesized using a facile synthesis route by coprecipitation method. The effect of the HNO3 volume and calcination temperature on the structural, morphological, ...optical and surface properties of the N-doped TiO2 NPs was studied. X-ray diffraction analysis showed particles of nanometric size (< 16nm), which are consistent with HR-TEM micrographs. A slight shift of the absorption edge to higher wavelengths is observed as the HNO3 volume and calcination temperature increases. Both X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) show the presence and stability of nitrogen in the N-doped TiO2 structure. The photocatalytic activity of the N-doped TiO2 NPs was assessed by testing the degradation of rhodamine B (RhB) under ultraviolet (UV) and visible light.
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