Using resonant x-ray spectroscopies combined with density functional calculations, we find an asymmetric biaxial strain-induced d-orbital response in ultrathin films of the correlated metal LaNiO3 ...which are not accessible in the bulk. The sign of the misfit strain governs the stability of an octahedral "breathing" distortion, which, in turn, produces an emergent charge-ordered ground state with an altered ligand-hole density and bond covalency. Control of this new mechanism opens a pathway to rational orbital engineering, providing a platform for artificially designed Mott materials.
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► Lactic acid, biosurfactants, xylitol or ethanol may be obtained from wine residues. ► By-products valorization turns wine wastes into products with industrial applications. ► The ...costs of waste disposal enhances the search of economically viable solutions for valorizing residues.
Wine production generates huge amounts of waste. Before the 1990s, the most economical option for waste removal was the payment of a disposal fee usually being of around 3000 Euros. However, in recent years the disposal fee and fines for unauthorized discharges have increased considerably, often reaching 30,000–40,000 Euros, and a prison sentence is sometimes also imposed. Some environmental friendly technologies have been proposed for the valorization of winery waste products. Fermentation of grape marc, trimming vine shoot or vinification lees has been reported to produce lactic acid, biosurfactants, xylitol, ethanol and other compounds. Furthermore, grape marc and seeds are rich in phenolic compounds, which have antioxidants properties, and vinasse contains tartaric acid that can be extracted and commercialized. Companies must therefore invest in new technologies to decrease the impact of agro-industrial residues on the environment and to establish new processes that will provide additional sources of income.
The liquid-phase exfoliation of graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) to afford colloidal dispersions of two-dimensional flakes constitutes an attractive route to facilitate the processing and ...implementation of this novel material toward different technological applications, but quantitative knowledge about its dispersibility in solvents is lacking. Here, we investigate the dispersion behavior of exfoliated g-C3N4 in a wide range of solvents and evaluate the obtained results on the basis of solvent surface energy and Hildebrand/Hansen solubility parameters. Estimates of the three Hansen parameters for exfoliated g-C3N4 from the experimentally derived data yielded δD ≈ 17.8 MPa1/2, δP ≈ 10.8 MPa1/2, and δH ≈ 15.4 MPa1/2. The relatively high δH value suggested that, contrary to the case of other two-dimensional materials (e.g., graphene or transition metal dichalcogenides), hydrogen-bonding plays a substantial role in the efficient interaction, and thus dispersibility, of exfoliated g-C3N4 with solvents. Such an outcome was attributed to a high density of primary and/or secondary amines in the material, the presence of which was associated with incomplete condensation of the structure. Furthermore, cell proliferation tests carried out on thin films of exfoliated g-C3N4 using murine fibroblasts suggested that this material is highly biocompatible and noncytotoxic. Finally, the exfoliated g-C3N4 flakes were used as supports in the synthesis of Pd nanoparticles, and the resulting hybrids exhibited an exceptional catalytic activity in the reduction of nitroarenes.
HDL and endothelial protection Tran‐Dinh, A; Diallo, D; Delbosc, S ...
British journal of pharmacology,
June 2013, Volume:
169, Issue:
3
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
High‐density lipoproteins (HDLs) represent a family of particles characterized by the presence of apolipoprotein A‐I (apoA‐I) and by their ability to transport cholesterol from peripheral tissues ...back to the liver. In addition to this function, HDLs display pleiotropic effects including antioxidant, anti‐apoptotic, anti‐inflammatory, anti‐thrombotic or anti‐proteolytic properties that account for their protective action on endothelial cells. Vasodilatation via production of nitric oxide is also a hallmark of HDL action on endothelial cells. Endothelial cells express receptors for apoA‐I and HDLs that mediate intracellular signalling and potentially participate in the internalization of these particles. In this review, we will detail the different effects of HDLs on the endothelium in normal and pathological conditions with a particular focus on the potential use of HDL therapy to restore endothelial function and integrity.
Myelodysplastic syndromes are a diverse and common group of chronic hematologic cancers. The identification of new genetic lesions could facilitate new diagnostic and therapeutic strategies.
We used ...massively parallel sequencing technology to identify somatically acquired point mutations across all protein-coding exons in the genome in 9 patients with low-grade myelodysplasia. Targeted resequencing of the gene encoding RNA splicing factor 3B, subunit 1 (SF3B1), was also performed in a cohort of 2087 patients with myeloid or other cancers.
We identified 64 point mutations in the 9 patients. Recurrent somatically acquired mutations were identified in SF3B1. Follow-up revealed SF3B1 mutations in 72 of 354 patients (20%) with myelodysplastic syndromes, with particularly high frequency among patients whose disease was characterized by ring sideroblasts (53 of 82 65%). The gene was also mutated in 1 to 5% of patients with a variety of other tumor types. The observed mutations were less deleterious than was expected on the basis of chance, suggesting that the mutated protein retains structural integrity with altered function. SF3B1 mutations were associated with down-regulation of key gene networks, including core mitochondrial pathways. Clinically, patients with SF3B1 mutations had fewer cytopenias and longer event-free survival than patients without SF3B1 mutations.
Mutations in SF3B1 implicate abnormalities of messenger RNA splicing in the pathogenesis of myelodysplastic syndromes. (Funded by the Wellcome Trust and others.).
Background: Severe neurological involvement in systemic lupus erythematosus (NPSLE) is one of the most dreadful complications of the disease. Objective: To identify the best drug, dose, and ...treatment. Patients and methods: The study was a controlled clinical trial at two tertiary care centres of patients with SLE according to the ACR criteria, with incident (no more than 15 days) onset of severe NP manifestations such as seizures, optic neuritis, peripheral or cranial neuropathy, coma, brainstem disease, or transverse myelitis. Induction treatment with 3 g of IV methylprednisolone (MP) followed by either IV monthly cyclophosphamide (Cy) versus IV MP bimonthly every 4 months for 1 year and then IV Cy or IV MP every 3 months for another year. The primary end point was response to treatment: at least 20% improvement from basal conditions on clinical, laboratory, or specific neurological testing variables. Results: Overall, a response rate of 75% was observed. Of the 32 patients studied, 18/19 receiving Cy and 7/13 receiving MP responded to treatment (p<0.03). Conclusions: Cy seems to be more effective than MP in the treatment of acute, severe NPSLE.
Summary
Galicia (NW Spain) has 1490 km of coastline, and its particular topography, characterized by the presence of fiord‐like inlets, called rías, with an important primary production, makes this ...region very favourable for shellfish growth and culture. In fact, Galicia is one of the most important mussel producers in the world. Due to its proximity to cities and villages and the anthropogenic activities in these estuaries, and despite the routine official controls on the bivalve harvesting areas, contamination with material of faecal origin is sometimes possible but, current regulation based on Escherichia coli as an indicator micro‐organism has been revealed as useful for bacterial contaminants, this is not the case for enteric viruses. The aim of this review is to offer a picture on the situation of different harvesting areas in Galicia, from a virological standpoint. A recompilation of results obtained in the last 20 years is presented, including not only the data for the well‐known agents norovirus (NoV) and hepatitis A virus (HAV) but also data on emerging viral hazards, including sapovirus (SaV), hepatitis E virus (HEV) and aichivirus (AiV). Epidemiological differences related to diverse characteristics of the harvesting areas, viral genotype distribution or epidemiological links between environmental and clinical strains will also be presented and discussed. The presentation of these historical data all together could be useful for future decisions by competent authorities for a better management of shellfish growing areas.
The objective of this study was to test the effectiveness of ivermectin for the treatment of mouse hepatitis virus (MHV), a type 2 family RNA coronavirus similar to SARS-CoV-2. Female BALB/cJ mice ...were infected with 6,000 PFU of MHV-A59 (group infected, n = 20) or infected and then immediately treated with a single dose of 500 µg/kg ivermectin (group infected + IVM, n = 20) or were not infected and treated with PBS (control group, n = 16). Five days after infection/treatment, the mice were euthanized and the tissues were sampled to assess their general health status and infection levels. Overall, the results demonstrated that viral infection induced typical MHV-caused disease, with the livers showing severe hepatocellular necrosis surrounded by a severe lymphoplasmacytic inflammatory infiltration associated with a high hepatic viral load (52,158 AU), while mice treated with ivermectin showed a better health status with a lower viral load (23,192 AU; p < 0.05), with only a few having histopathological liver damage (p < 0.05). No significant differences were found between the group infected + IVM and control group mice (P = NS). Furthermore, serum transaminase levels (aspartate aminotransferase and alanine aminotransferase) were significantly lower in the treated mice than in the infected animals. In conclusion, ivermectin diminished the MHV viral load and disease in the mice, being a useful model for further understanding this therapy against coronavirus diseases.
Gaia Data Release 3 Arenou, F.; Lammers, U. L.; Mignard, F. ...
Astronomy and astrophysics (Berlin),
06/2023, Volume:
674, Issue:
A1
Journal Article, Web Resource
Peer reviewed
Open access
Context.
We present the third data release of the European Space Agency’s
Gaia
mission,
Gaia
DR3. This release includes a large variety of new data products, notably a much expanded radial velocity ...survey and a very extensive astrophysical characterisation of
Gaia
sources.
Aims.
We outline the content and the properties of
Gaia
DR3, providing an overview of the main improvements in the data processing in comparison with previous data releases (where applicable) and a brief discussion of the limitations of the data in this release.
Methods.
The
Gaia
DR3 catalogue is the outcome of the processing of raw data collected with the
Gaia
instruments during the first 34 months of the mission by the
Gaia
Data Processing and Analysis Consortium.
Results.
The
Gaia
DR3 catalogue contains the same source list, celestial positions, proper motions, parallaxes, and broad band photometry in the
G
,
G
BP
, and
G
RP
pass-bands already present in the Early Third Data Release,
Gaia
EDR3.
Gaia
DR3 introduces an impressive wealth of new data products. More than 33 million objects in the ranges
G
RVS
< 14 and 3100 <
T
eff
< 14 500, have new determinations of their mean radial velocities based on data collected by
Gaia
. We provide
G
RVS
magnitudes for most sources with radial velocities, and a line broadening parameter is listed for a subset of these. Mean
Gaia
spectra are made available to the community. The
Gaia
DR3 catalogue includes about 1 million mean spectra from the radial velocity spectrometer, and about 220 million low-resolution blue and red prism photometer BP/RP mean spectra. The results of the analysis of epoch photometry are provided for some 10 million sources across 24 variability types.
Gaia
DR3 includes astrophysical parameters and source class probabilities for about 470 million and 1500 million sources, respectively, including stars, galaxies, and quasars. Orbital elements and trend parameters are provided for some 800 000 astrometric, spectroscopic and eclipsing binaries. More than 150 000 Solar System objects, including new discoveries, with preliminary orbital solutions and individual epoch observations are part of this release. Reflectance spectra derived from the epoch BP/RP spectral data are published for about 60 000 asteroids. Finally, an additional data set is provided, namely the
Gaia
Andromeda Photometric Survey, consisting of the photometric time series for all sources located in a 5.5 degree radius field centred on the Andromeda galaxy.
Conclusions.
This data release represents a major advance with respect to
Gaia
DR2 and
Gaia
EDR3 because of the unprecedented quantity, quality, and variety of source astrophysical data. To date this is the largest collection of all-sky spectrophotometry, radial velocities, variables, and astrophysical parameters derived from both low- and high-resolution spectra and includes a spectrophotometric and dynamical survey of SSOs of the highest accuracy. The non-single star content surpasses the existing data by orders of magnitude. The quasar host and galaxy light profile collection is the first such survey that is all sky and space based. The astrophysical information provided in
Gaia
DR3 will unleash the full potential of
Gaia
’s exquisite astrometric, photometric, and radial velocity surveys.
Anodic exfoliation of graphite has emerged as an attractive method to access graphene nanosheets in large quantities, but oxidation reactions associated to this process compromise the structural ...quality of the resulting materials. Here, we demonstrate that the type of starting graphite material impacts the oxygen and defect content of anodically exfoliated graphenes obtained thereof. We investigated highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) as well as graphite foil, flakes and powder as electrode in the anodic process. Importantly, materials with low levels of oxidation and disorder (similar to those typically achieved with cathodic exfoliation approaches) could be attained through proper choice of the graphite electrode. Specifically, using graphite foil afforded nanosheets of higher quality than that of HOPG-derived nanosheets. This discrepancy was interpreted to arise from the structural peculiarities of the former, where the presence of folds, voids and wrinkles would make its exfoliation process to be less reliant on oxidation reactions. Furthermore, cell viability tests carried out with murine fibroblasts on thin graphene films suggested that the anodically exfoliated graphenes investigated here (possessing low or high oxidation levels) are highly biocompatible. Overall, control upon the extent of oxidation and disorder should expand the scope of anodically exfoliated graphenes in prospective applications.
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