A Friedel–Crafts reaction was used to obtain covalent aromatic networks with high surface area and microporosity suited for CO2 and CH4 adsorption, even at low pressures. Starting from ...tetraphenylmethane and formaldehyde dimethyl acetal in different concentrations, the reaction yields porous polymers which were characterized with a wealth of experimental and computational methods. Thermogravimetry, infrared spectroscopy, and solid-state NMR were used to study the material structure. The pore distributions were measured by applying nonlocal density functional theory analysis to the adsorption isotherms of N2 at 77 K and Ar at 87 K (the latter being more suited for pore widths less than 10 Å). Carbon dioxide and methane were adsorbed at 273 and 298 K to evaluate the performance of these systems in gas capture, separation, and storage. A theoretical model of the porous network was defined to describe the ordered fraction of the material, with particular attention to ultramicropores. Ar, CO2, and CH4 adsorption in this model material was simulated by Monte Carlo techniques with a purposely optimized force field.
Background, aim: Halitosis, mainly caused by bacteria located on the posterior dorsum of the tongue and in periodontal pockets, is due to formation of volatile sulfur compounds (VSC). The hypothesis ...to be tested was that the affinity of a metal for sulfur determines its anti‐VSC activity.
Method: Clinical tests were carried out on 12 subjects who rinsed with cysteine to induce halitosis (baseline) before rinsing with 7.34 mM ZnCl2, SnF2 and CuCl2. Mouth air VSC analyses were repeated following cysteine rinses at 1 h, 2 h and 3 h using a gas chromatograph. In vitro experiments tested toxic metals Hg2+, Pb2+ and Cd2+. 10‐μl aliquots of metal salts were added to 1‐ml aliquots of human whole saliva from 30 subjects. Samples were incubated overnight at 37oC and saliva headspace was analyzed for VSC in a gas chromatograph.
Clinical results:
Cu2+>Sn2+>Zn2+ (supports hypothesis). Zn2+ had significantly less anti‐VSC effect compared with Cu2+ and Sn2+ at 1, 2 and 3 h. In vitro results indicated that Hg2+, Cu2+ and Cd2+ had close to 100% anti‐VSC effect, and that Pb2+ was less effective and Cd2+ more effective than expected in inhibiting VSC.
Conclusions: Apart from Hg2+ and Cu2+, the metals had a significantly greater effect on H2S than on CH3SH. Cu2+ and Hg2+ have well‐known antibacterial activity and may presumably also operate by this mechanism.
Zusammenfassung
Halitosis, hauptsächlich verursacht durch Bakterien, die auf dem posterioren Zungenrücken und in den parodontalen Taschen lokalisiert sind, ist die Folge der Produktion von flüchtigen Schwefelzusammensetzungen (VSC). Die zu testende Hypothese war, daß die Affinität eines Metalls für Schwefelbestandteile eine anti‐VSC Aktivität hat. Die klinischen Teste wurden an 12 Personen ausgeführt, die mit Cystein spülten, um Halitosis zu induzieren (Basis), bevor sie mit 7.34 mM ZnCl2, SnF2 und CuCl2 spülten. Die Mundluft VSC Analyse wurde nach einer Cysteinspülung zur Stunde 1, 2 und 3 unter Nutzung eines Gaschromatographen wiederholt. In vitro Experimente testeten die toxischen Metalle Hg2+, Pb2+, und Cd2+. 10 μl gleiche Teile der Metallsalze wurden zu 1 ml Aliquot menschlichen Gesamtspeichel von 30 Personen zugefügt. Die Proben wurden über Nacht bei 37°C inkubiert, und der Speichel wurde für VSC in einem Gaschromatographen analysiert. Klinische Ergebnisse: Cu2+>Sn2+>Zn2+ (Unterstützung der Hypothese). Zn2+ hatte eine signifkant geringeren anti‐VSC Effekt verglichen mit Cu2+ und Sn2+ zur Stunde 1, 2 und 3. Die in vitro Ergebnisse zeigten daß Hg2+, Cu2+ und Cd2+ einen annähernd 100%igen anti‐VSC Effekt hatten und daß Pb2+ weniger effektiv war und Cd2+ effektiver als erwartet in der Inhibition von VSC war. Unabhängig von Hg2+ und Cu2+ hatten die Metalle einen signifikant größeren Effekt auf H2S als auf CH3SH. Cu2+ und Hg2+ haben eine gut bekannte antibakterielle Aktivität und können wahrscheinlich auch durch diesen Mechanismus wirken.
Résumé
L’halitose, principalement causée par des bactéries situées sur la partie dorsale postérieure de la langue et dans les poches parodontales, est due à la formation de composés volatiles sulfurés (VSC). L’hypothèse que nous avons testée était que l’affinité d’un métal pour le sulfure determine son activité anti‐VSC. Des tests cliniques furent réalisés sur 12 sujets qui prirent des bains de bouches à la cysteine pour induire l’halitose (étape initiale), avant de prendre des bains de bouche avec 7.34 mM de ZnCl2, SnF2 et CuCl2. Des analyses de VSC aérien de la bouche furent renouvellées après les rinçages à la cysteine à 1 h, 2 h et 3 h par chromatographie gazeuse. L’experimentation in vitro testait des métaux toxiques comme Hg2+, Pb2+, Cd2+. Des aliquots de 10 μl de sels métalliques étaient ajoutés à des aliquots de 1 ml de salive complète humaine de 30 sujets. Les échantillons étaient incubés toute la nuit à 37°C et l’espace au dessus de la salive était analysé pour le VSC par chromatographie gazeuse. Les résultats cliniques étaient les suivants: Cu2+>Sn2+>Zn2+ ce qui était en accord avec l’hypothèse. Zn2+ avait significativement moins d’effet anti‐VSC par rapport à Cu2+ et Sn2+à 1 h, 2 h et 3 h. Les résultats in vitro indiquaient que Hg2+, Cu2+ et Cd2+ avaient près de 100% d’effet anti VSC et que Pb2+était moins efficace et Cd2+ plus efficace que ce que l’on attendait pour inhiber les VSC. En dehors de Hg2+ et Cu2+, les métaux avaient un effet significativement plus important sur H2S que sur CH3SH. Cu2+ et Hg2+ ont une activité antibactérienne bien connue et peuvent sans doute aussi fonctionner de cette manière.
Asthma is a chronic and heterogeneous disease, which is defined as severe disease whenever it requires treatment with a high dose of inhaled corticosteroids plus a second controller and/or systemic ...corticosteroids to prevent it from becoming ‘‘uncontrolled’’ or if it remains ‘‘uncontrolled’’ despite this therapy. Severe asthma is a heterogeneous condition consisting of phenotypes such as eosinophilic asthma, which is characterized by sputum eosinophilia, associated with mild to moderate increase in blood eosinophil count, frequently adult-onset, and associated with chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps in half of the cases. Eosinophilic asthma is driven by T2 inflammation, characterized, among the others, by interleukin-5 production. IL-5 plays a key role in the differentiation, survival, migration, and activation of eosinophils, and it has become an appealing therapeutic target for eosinophilic asthma. In recent years two monoclonal antibodies (mepolizumab and reslizumab) directed against IL-5 and one monoclonal antibody directed against the alpha-subunit of the IL-5 receptor (benralizumab) have been developed. All these IL-5 target drugs have been shown to reduce the number of exacerbation in patients with severe asthma selected on the basis of peripheral blood eosinophil count. There are still a number of unresolved issues related to the anti-IL5 strategy in eosinophilic asthma, which are here reviewed. These issues include the effects of such therapy on airway obstruction and asthmatic symptoms, the level of baseline eosinophils that predicts a response to treatment, the relationship between blood and airway eosinophilia, and, perhaps most importantly, how to elucidate the pathogenetic role played by eosinophils in the individual patient with severe eosinophilic asthma.
Severe asthma (SA) is associated with neutrophil recruitment and T helper (TH)17 chemokine overexpression in bronchial biopsies. We aimed to evaluate IL‐17A and IL‐17F expression in nasal/bronchial ...lamina propria of atopic mild‐to‐severe asthmatics and controls in relation to neutrophilia and asthma exacerbations. Cryostat sections of nasal/bronchial biopsies obtained from 14 SA and 14 mild asthma (MA) stable atopic patients with rhinitis, and seven healthy controls were analyzed by immunohistochemistry for neutrophils, IL‐17A and IL‐17F expression. Atopic SA showed an increase in asthma exacerbations number, IL‐17F and IL‐17A expression in nasal/bronchial lamina propria compared to MA and controls, and a higher expression of bronchial neutrophils in SA compared to MA and controls. In all asthmatics, significant relationships were found between bronchial IL‐17F and neutrophils/FEV1, nasal IL‐17F and bronchial neutrophil/IL‐17 markers and between the latter and exacerbations, suggesting that nasal IL‐17F might be informative on bronchial IL17‐driven neutrophilia in atopic SA.
This paper presents a credit-based incentive mechanism for delay tolerant networks which enables device-to-device data exchange without the support of traditional Internet service providers. The ...solution uses a utility function that represents the monetary value of a given data message during its journey in the network, and a buffer management optimization algorithm to prevent selfish behaviour among nodes. Virtual banking relies on an off-line central trusted authority. The paper introduces the concept of isotropic deliveries in delay tolerant networks which uses binary spray and wait forwarding strategy. Simulations with the IEEE 802.15.4 standard show the proposed incentive mechanism preventing selfish behaviour and guaranteeing more extra credits to the end-user.
To cite this article: Heffler E, Nebiolo F, Asero R, Guida G, Badiu I, Pizzimenti S, Marchese C, Amato S, Mistrello G, Canaletti F, Rolla G. Clinical manifestations, co-sensitizations, and ...immunoblotting profiles of buckwheat-allergic patients. Allergy 2011; 66: 264-270. ABSTRACT: Background: Buckwheat allergy is a rare food allergy in Europe and North America, whereas it is often described and studied in Asia. The aim of this study was to describe a series of patients with proven buckwheat allergy evaluated in an Italian allergy clinic. Co-sensitization to other food and inhalant allergens and immunoblotting profiles of buckwheat-allergic patients were studied. Methods: Patients with suspected buckwheat allergy who attended the allergy clinic between January 1, 2006, and September 30, 2008, were evaluated. All patients underwent skin prick tests for a standard panel of inhalant and food allergens, prick-by-prick with buckwheat flour, buckwheat-specific IgE determinations, and double-blind placebo-controlled food challenge (DBPCFC) with buckwheat flour. Immunoblotting with buckwheat flour extract was performed on sera from buckwheat-allergic patients. Results: Among 72 patients with suspected buckwheat allergy, 30 (41.7%) were sensitized to buckwheat and 24 had a positive DBPCFC. The mean buckwheat IgE level was 6.23 kUA/l (range, 0.16 to >100 kUA/l). Several IgE-binding proteins were identified and grouped into three patterns: a 16-kDa band in patients with predominantly gastrointestinal symptoms with grass and wheat flour co-sensitization, a 25-kDa band in patients with predominantly cutaneous symptoms and a low frequency of co-sensitization, and a 40-kDa band in patients with anaphylaxis and a low frequency of co-sensitization. Conclusions: Buckwheat allergy is an emerging food allergy in Italy. We identified three distinct patterns of clinical and laboratory characteristics, suggesting that specific allergens could be more frequently associated with clinical manifestations of different severity.
Anaphylaxis is a serious systemic allergic reaction with rapid onset and potentially life‐threatening. We report in detail a case of severe nocturnal anaphylaxis due to pigeon tick bite showing the ...diagnostic value of the extract and the recombinant allergen in the diagnostic procedures (basophil activation test, IgE immunoblot, and experimental ImmunoCAP). Apart from the presented case, we describe that during the last 10 years, we have collected 28 cases of allergy to Argas reflexus from several European countries. We suspect that this allergy is underdiagnosed because of the lack of diagnostic reagents. Because of the growing number of pigeons in Middle and Southern Europe cities, some cases of idiopathic anaphylaxis could potentially be caused by A. reflexus in those countries. The identification of pigeon ticks as a trigger of anaphylaxis would greatly improve medical care and advice for these patients as the parasite can be exterminated by eradication measures to avoid further incidents.
Delay Tolerant Reinforcement-Based (DTRB) is a delay tolerant routing solution for IEEE 802.11 wireless networks which enables device to device data exchange without the support of any pre-existing ...network infrastructure. The solution utilizes Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning techniques to learn about routes in the network and forward/replicate the messages that produce the best reward. The rewarding process is executed by a learning algorithm based on the distances between the nodes, which are calculated as a function of time from the last meetings. DTRB is a flooding-based delay tolerant routing solution. The simulation results show that DTRB can deliver more messages than a traditional delay tolerant routing solution does in densely populated areas, with similar end-to-end delay and lower network overhead.
Abstract Background This retrospective study aimed at evaluating long-term effects of Omalizumab in elderly asthmatics in a real-life setting. Methods 105 consecutive severe asthmatics (GINA step ...4–5; mean FEV1 % predicted:66 ± 15.7) treated with Omalizumab for at least 1 year (treatment mean duration 35.1 ± 21.7 months) were divided into 3 groups according to their age at Omalizumab treatment onset: 18–39, 40–64 and ≥ 65 years. Results Comorbidities, number of overweight/obese subjects and patients with late-onset asthma were more frequent among older people. A similar reduction of inhaled corticosteroids dosage and SABA on-demand therapy was observed in all groups during Omalizumab treatment; a similar FEV1 increased was also observed. Asthma Control Test (ACT) improved significantly (p < 0.001) in the three groups, increasing from 15 IQR:12-18 to 24 IQR:22-25 in younger subjects, from 14 IQR:10-16 to 21 IQR:20-23 in the 40-64-year-group and from 15 IQR:12-16 to 20 IQR:18-22 in elderly patients where improvement was lower (p = 0.039) compared to younger people. Asthma exacerbation decreased significantly after Omalizumab but the percentage of exacerbation-free patients was higher in younger people (76.9%) compared to middle aged patients (49.2%) and the elderly (29%) (p = 0.049). After Omalizumab treatment, the risk for exacerbations was lower in subjects aged 40–64 (OR = 0.284 CI95% = 0.098–0.826, p = 0.021) and 18–39 (OR = 0.133 CI95% = 0.026–0.678, p = 0.015), compared to elderly asthmatics. Also, a significantly reduced ACT improvement (β = −1.070; p = 0.046) passing from each age class was observed. Conclusion Omalizumab improves all asthma outcomes independently of age, although the magnitude of the effects observed in the elderly seems to be lower than in the other age groups.
PDF
