The expression "rare disease" describes a group of diseases whose individual prevalence is low (between 3.9 and 6.6 in 10,000 subjects depending on the country) but which in total affect up to the ...3-6% of the worldwide population ....
The conversion of thermal energy to electricity and vice versa by means of solid state thermoelectric devices is extremely appealing. However, its cost-effectiveness is seriously hampered by the ...relatively high production cost and low efficiency of current thermoelectric materials and devices. To overcome present challenges and enable a successful deployment of thermoelectric systems in their wide application range, materials with significantly improved performance need to be developed. Nanostructuration can help in several ways to reach the very particular group of properties required to achieve high thermoelectric performances. Nanodomains inserted within a crystalline matrix can provide large charge carrier concentrations without strongly influencing their mobility, thus allowing to reach very high electrical conductivities. Nanostructured materials contain numerous grain boundaries that efficiently scatter mid- and long-wavelength phonons thus reducing the thermal conductivity. Furthermore, nanocrystalline domains can enhance the Seebeck coefficient by modifying the density of states and/or providing type- and energy-dependent charge carrier scattering. All these advantages can only be reached when engineering a complex type of material, nanocomposites, with exquisite control over structural and chemical parameters at multiple length scales. Since current conventional nanomaterial production technologies lack such level of control, alternative strategies need to be developed and adjusted to the specifics of the field. A particularly suitable approach to produce nanocomposites with unique level of control over their structural and compositional parameters is their bottom-up engineering from solution-processed nanoparticles. In this work, we review the state-of-the-art of this technology applied to the thermoelectric field, including the synthesis of nanoparticles of suitable materials with precisely engineered composition and surface chemistry, their combination and consolidation into nanostructured materials, the strategies to electronically dope such materials and the attempts to fabricate thermoelectric devices using nanoparticle-based nanopowders and inks.
The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has caused a worldwide health and social crisis directly impacting the healthcare system. Hospitals had to rearrange its structure to meet clinical needs. ...Spain has been experiencing a shortage of working nurses. Student nurses in their last year at university were employed to help the National Health System respond to the COVID-19 crisis.
The aim of this study was to explore and understand the experience of nursing students' roles as healthcare aid in responding to the COVID-19 crisis.
A qualitative phenomenology design was used to explore undergraduate nursing students' perceptions of their experiences as HAs during the COVID-19 outbreak. Open face-to-face interviews were conducted to nursing students (n = 10) in May 2020. Data was analyzed using the hermeneutic interpretative approach.
All participants were women aged between 21 and 25 years. Seven main themes emerged: learning, ambivalent emotions and adaptation were classified at a personal level; teamwork, patient communication, and unclear care processes were categorized under hospital structure; and coping mechanisms were part of external factors.
Orientation, follow-up, and emotional support in crisis situations are key to unexperienced healthcare workers overcoming stressful emotions. Previous academic education and training may help novice future nurses feel more confident about their tasks and responsibilities as well as improve patient outcomes, resource management, and staff safety.
•Nurses are key in response to COVID-19 healthcare crisis.•Spain needs to invest in nursing, to reach the average OCDE nurse-population rate.•Nursing students working as healthcare aids need continuous support and follow-up.•Nursing students were very proud to actively contribute to the COVID-19 crisis.
Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome (HGPS), or progeria, is an extremely rare disorder that belongs to the class of laminopathies, diseases characterized by alterations in the genes that encode for ...the lamin proteins or for their associated interacting proteins. In particular, progeria is caused by a point mutation in the gene that codifies for the lamin A gene. This mutation ultimately leads to the biosynthesis of a mutated version of lamin A called progerin, which accumulates abnormally in the nuclear lamina. This accumulation elicits several alterations at the nuclear, cellular, and tissue levels that are phenotypically reflected in a systemic disorder with important alterations, mainly in the cardiovascular system, bones, skin, and overall growth, which results in premature death at an average age of 14.5 years. In 2020, lonafarnib became the first (and only) FDA approved drug for treating progeria. In this context, the present review focuses on the different therapeutic strategies currently under development, with special attention to the new small molecules described in recent years, which may represent the upcoming first-in-class drugs with new mechanisms of action endowed with effectiveness not only to treat but also to cure progeria.
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Monoacylglycerol lipase (MAGL) has been characterized as the main enzyme responsible for the inactivation of the most abundant brain endocannabinoid, 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG). ...Besides this role, MAGL has progressively acquired a growing importance as an integrative metabolic hub that controls not only the in vivo levels of 2-AG but also of other monoacylglycerides and, indirectly, the levels of free fatty acids derived from their hydrolysis as well as other lipids with pro-inflammatory or pro-tumorigenic effects, coming from the further metabolism of fatty acids. All these functions have only started to be elucidated in the last years due to the progress made in the knowledge of the structure of MAGL and in the development of genetic and chemical tools. In this review we report the advances made in the field with a special focus on the last decade and how MAGL has become a promising therapeutic target for the treatment of several diseases that currently lack appropriate therapies.
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in many hospitalized patients and deaths worldwide. Coronavirus patients were isolated from their relatives and visits were banned to prevent contagion. This has ...brought about a significant change in deeply rooted care habits in Mediterranean and Latin American countries where the family normally accompanies vulnerable hospitalized patients. The aim of this qualitative study was to examine the hospitalization experience of COVID-19 patients and their family members. A phenomenological qualitative approach was used. Data collection included inductive, in-depth interviews with 11 COVID-19 hospitalized patients. The mean age of patients was 55.4 years and 45% were female. Nearly 50% required Intensive Care Unit (ICU) admission. Ten meaningful statements were identified and grouped in three themes: Positive and negative aspects of the care provided, the patient’s perspective, and perception of the experience of the disease. In conclusion, COVID-19 patients, aware of the severity of the pandemic, were very adaptable to the situation and had full confidence in health professionals. Patient isolation was perceived as necessary. Technology has helped to maintain communication between patients and relatives.
Monoacylglycerol lipase (MAGL) is the enzyme responsible for the inactivation of the endocannabinoid 2‐arachidonoylglycerol (2‐AG). MAGL inhibitors show analgesic and tissue‐protecting effects in ...several disease models. However, the few efficient and selective MAGL inhibitors described to date block the enzyme irreversibly, and this can lead to pharmacological tolerance. Hence, additional classes of MAGL inhibitors are needed to validate this enzyme as a therapeutic target. Here we report a potent, selective, and reversible MAGL inhibitor (IC50=0.18 μM) which is active in vivo and ameliorates the clinical progression of a multiple sclerosis (MS) mouse model without inducing undesirable CB1‐mediated side effects. These results support the interest in MAGL as a target for the treatment of MS.
Reversibility is the key: The development of a potent, reversible, selective and in vivo active inhibitor of monoacylglycerol lipase (MAGL), the enzyme responsible for the inactivation of the endocannabinoid 2‐arachidonoylglycerol (2‐AG), validates, for the first time, the therapeutic potential of MAGL for the treatment of multiple sclerosis.
The increasing availability of chemical probes for specific applications in chemical biology and medicinal chemistry is extensively facilitating our knowledge of biological systems. This ...understanding has fundamental implications in the development of new efficacious therapeutic strategies. Nowadays, successful drug discovery programs consider identification, engagement, and endogenous levels of the intended therapeutic target from the earliest preclinical stages. All these aspects are addressed with the use of chemical probes, compounds that rely on the use of a particular chemical reaction to give an answer to a specific biological question. In this review we will describe the underlying chemistry and the most recent advances experienced in the field together with their most important biomedical applications.
The earliest preclinical stages of drug discovery must generate information about the identity, the in vivo engagement, and the endogenous levels of the targeted protein(s). In this review, we outline the main strategies by which chemical probes, compounds that rely on chemical reactions to give an answer to specific biological questions, are contributing to currently challenging biomedical applications.
The efficient conversion between thermal and electrical energy by means of durable, silent and scalable solid-state thermoelectric devices has been a long standing goal. While nanocrystalline ...materials have already led to substantially higher thermoelectric efficiencies, further improvements are expected to arise from precise chemical engineering of nanoscale building blocks and interfaces. Here we present a simple and versatile bottom-up strategy based on the assembly of colloidal nanocrystals to produce consolidated yet nanostructured thermoelectric materials. In the case study on the PbS-Ag system, Ag nanodomains not only contribute to block phonon propagation, but also provide electrons to the PbS host semiconductor and reduce the PbS intergrain energy barriers for charge transport. Thus, PbS-Ag nanocomposites exhibit reduced thermal conductivities and higher charge carrier concentrations and mobilities than PbS nanomaterial. Such improvements of the material transport properties provide thermoelectric figures of merit up to 1.7 at 850 K.
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