Insects transmit the causative agents for such debilitating diseases as malaria, lymphatic filariases, sleeping sickness, Chagas’ disease, leishmaniasis, river blindness, Dengue, and yellow fever. ...The persistence of these diseases provides testimony to the genetic capacity of parasites to evolve strategies that ensure their successful development in two genetically diverse host species: insects and mammals. Current efforts to address the problems posed by insect-borne diseases benefit from a growing understanding of insect and mammalian immunity. Of considerable interest are recent genomic investigations that show several similarities in the innate immune effector responses and associated regulatory mechanisms manifested by insects and mammals. One notable exception, however, is the nearly universal presence of a brown-black pigment accompanying cellular innate immunity in insects. This response, which is unique to arthropods and certain other invertebrates, has focused attention on the elements involved in pigment synthesis as causing or contributing to the death of the parasite, and has even prompted speculation that the enzyme cascade mediating melanogenesis constitutes an ill-defined recognition mechanism. Experimental evidence defining the role of melanin and its precursors in insect innate immunity is severely lacking. A great deal of what is known about melanogenesis comes from studies of the process occurring in mammalian systems, where the pigment is synthesized by such diverse cells as those comprising portions of the skin, hair, inner ear, brain, and retinal epithelium. Fortunately, many of the components in the metabolic pathways leading to the formation of melanin have been found to be common to both insects and mammals. This review examines some of the factors that influence enzyme-mediated melanogenic responses, and how these responses likely contribute to blood cell-mediated, target-specific cytotoxicity in immune challenged insects.
In larvae of Drosophila paramelanica, eggs and larvae of the endoparasitic wasp Leptopilina heterotoma succumb to an effective host reaction that does not involve blood cell–mediated melanotic ...encapsulation, a response that characterizes cellular immunity in various species of Drosophila and in many insects and other arthropods. A significant increase occurs, however, in the number of lamellocytes, a type of blood cell that functions in encapsulation reactions. The appearance of activated lamellocytes in D. paramelanica is viewed as an early response to infection, one most likely initiated by non–self-recognition processes that similarly function in other wasp-infected Drosophila. However, ensuing cytotoxic responses, about which little is presently known, are not accompanied by melanotic encapsulation in D. paramelanica. Concurrent analyses of the cell-signaling molecule nitric oxide (.NO) revealed significant alterations in the levels of this free radical during the early stages of infection, most notably a dramatic increase immediately upon infection, and precipitous decreases occurring at times when parasites were killed. Injections of a specific inhibitor of nitric oxide synthase (NOS) into the host's body cavity prior to infection significantly increased parasite survival. These observations suggest some involvement of .NO in the host immune response, either in recruiting hemocytes to sites of infection or as a component of the insect's cytotoxic arsenal, given the capacity of the radical to generate toxic molecules through interactions with various intermediates of oxygen and nitrogen.
Abstract
This work aims at investigating the possible advantages of substituting the mixer in traditional SCR systems with an Electrically Heated Catalytic structure (EHC). First of all, EHC ...technology is being widely investigated in literature because it offers a concrete solution for catalyst thermal activation and film formation reduction in engine cold start conditions; however, its adoption as a mixer can also guarantee other important improvements in reducing pollutant emissions. In this work, a low-pressure injection of Ad-Blue impacts an electrically heated structure and a complete analysis of liquid droplets and film evaporation is carried out. A hybrid Eulerian-Lagrangian model has been adopted on a multi-region configuration, accounting for fluid-solid conjugate heat transfer (CHT), which plays a key role in the conversion strategy: it has been demonstrated that the heated structure can be exploited to significantly increase the exhaust gas enthalpy in the cold start, which represents an important improvement for pollutant conversion. Different heating strategies are analysed, with the objective of maximising the spray evaporation and the uniformity of the ammonia distribution downstream of the mixer. The objectives of this work are emphasizing the improvements that an electrically heated mixing catalyst can bring to the traditional SCR configuration, laying the foundation for other following studies.
Patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) comply with an advanced disease and are not eligible for radical therapy. In this distressed scenario new treatment options hold great promise; among them ...transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) and transarterial metabolic radiotherapy (TAMR) have shown efficacy in terms of both tumor shrinking and survival. External radiation therapy (RTx) by using novel three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy has also been used for HCC patients with encouraging results while its role had been limited in the past for the low tolerance of surrounding healthy liver. The rationale of TAMR derives from the idea of delivering exceptional radiation dose locally to the tumor, with cell killing intent, while preserving normal liver from undue exposition and minimizing systemic irradiation. Since the therapeutic efficacy of TACE is being continuously disputed, the TAMR with 131I Lipiodol or 90Y microspheres has gained consideration providing adequate therapeutic responses regardless of few toxicities. The implementation of novel radioisotopes and technological innovations in the field of RTx constitutes an intriguing field of research with important translational aspects. Moreover, the combination of different therapeutic approaches including chemotherapy offers captivating perspectives. We present the role of the radiation-based therapies in hepatocellular carcinoma patients who are not entitled for radical treatment.
Purpose
To assess the presence and pattern of incidental interstitial lung alterations suspicious of COVID-19 on fluorine-18-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography ...(CT) (
18
FFDG PET/CT) in asymptomatic oncological patients during the period of active COVID-19 in a country with high prevalence of the virus.
Methods
This is a multi-center retrospective observational study involving 59 Italian centers. We retrospectively reviewed the prevalence of interstitial pneumonia detected during the COVID period (between March 16 and 27, 2020) and compared to a pre-COVID period (January–February 2020) and a control time (in 2019). The diagnosis of interstitial pneumonia was done considering lung alterations of CT of PET.
Results
Overall,
18
FFDG PET/CT was performed on 4008 patients in the COVID period, 19,267 in the pre-COVID period, and 5513 in the control period. The rate of interstitial pneumonia suspicious for COVID-19 was significantly higher during the COVID period (7.1%) compared with that found in the pre-COVID (5.35%) and control periods (5.15%) (
p
< 0.001). Instead, no significant difference among pre-COVID and control periods was present. The prevalence of interstitial pneumonia detected at PET/CT was directly associated with geographic virus diffusion, with the higher rate in Northern Italy. Among 284 interstitial pneumonia detected during COVID period, 169 (59%) were FDG-avid (average SUVmax of 4.1).
Conclusions
A significant increase of interstitial pneumonia incidentally detected with
18
FFDG PET/CT has been demonstrated during the COVID-19 pandemic. A majority of interstitial pneumonia were FDG-avid. Our results underlined the importance of paying attention to incidental CT findings of pneumonia detected at PET/CT, and these reports might help to recognize early COVID-19 cases guiding the subsequent management.
•We use data from the 2004–2010 evaluation of Italian research in Economics, Business and Statistics.•We compare bibliometric evaluation of a sample of 590 journal articles with informed peer ...review.•We find fair to good agreement between informed peer review and bibliometric analysis.•We discuss the nature, implications, and limitations of this agreement.
A relevant question for the organization of large-scale research assessments is whether bibliometric evaluation and informed peer review yield similar results. In this paper, we draw on the experience of the panel that evaluated Italian research in Economics, Management and Statistics during the national assessment exercise (VQR) relative to the period 2004–2010. We exploit the unique opportunity of studying a sample of 590 journal articles randomly drawn from a population of 5681 journal articles (out of nearly 12,000 journal and non-journal publications), which the panel evaluated both by bibliometric analysis and by informed peer review. In the total sample we find fair to good agreement between informed peer review and bibliometric analysis and absence of statistical bias between the two. We then discuss the nature, implications, and limitations of this correlation.
Genetics of anti-parasite resistance in invertebrates Carton, Y.; Nappi, A.J.; Poirie, M.
Developmental and Comparative Immunology,
2005, 2005-00-00, 2005-1-00, 20050101, Volume:
29, Issue:
1
Book Review, Journal Article
Peer reviewed
This review summarizes and compares available data on genetic and molecular aspects of resistance in four well-described invertebrate host–parasite systems: snail–schistosome, mosquito–malaria, ...mosquito–filarial worm, and
Drosophila-wasp associations. It underlies that the major components of the immune reaction, such as hemocyte proliferation and/or activation, and production of cytotoxic radicals are common to invertebrate hosts. Identifying genes responsible for naturally occurring resistance will then be helpful to understand the mechanisms of invertebrate immune defenses and to determine how virulence factors are used by parasites to overcome host resistance.
Based on these four well-studied models, invertebrate resistance appears as generally determined by one major locus or a few loci, displaying at least partial dominance. Interestingly, specificity of resistance is highly variable and would involve processes other than simple recognition mechanisms. Finally, resistance was shown to be generally costly but is nevertheless observed at high frequencies in many natural populations, suggesting a high potential for host parasite coevolution.
The production and deposition of melanin pigments on invading pathogens and parasites represents a unique, innate immune response in the phylum Arthropoda. This immune response has started to receive ...considerable attention because of the potential to exploit this mechanism to control mosquito-borne diseases. In this article, we summarize knowledge about this complex biochemistry, the use of melanin biosynthesis in diverse physiological processes and the gaps in knowledge that must be addressed if this immune process is to be manipulated in genetic-based control strategies.
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