Abstract Blazars are active galactic nuclei whose ultra-relativistic jets are co-aligned with the observer direction. They emit throughout the whole e.m. spectrum, from radio waves to VHE gamma rays. ...Not all blazars are discovered. In this work, we propose a catalog of new highly probable candidates based on the association of HE gamma ray emission and radio, X-ray an optical signatures. The relevance of this work is also that it was performed by four high school students from the Liceo Ugo Morin in Venice, Italy using the open-source platform Open Universe in collaboration with the University of Padova. The framework of the activity is the Italian MIUR PCTO programme. The success of this citizen-science experience and results are hereafter reported and discussed.
Nevirapine is widely used to treat HIV-1 infection to prevent mother-to-child transmission; unfortunately adverse drug reactions have been reported. Our aim was to identify genes/variants involved in ...nevirapine-induced hepatotoxicity.
Patients from Mozambique, 78 with nevirapine-induced hepatotoxicity and 78 without adverse events, were genotyped for ABCB1, CYP2B6, CYP3A4 and CYP3A5 gene variants. We conducted a case-control association study and a genotype/phenotype correlation analysis.
The ABCB1 c.3435C>T SNP was associated with hepatotoxicity (p = 0.038), with the variant T allele showing a protective effect (odds ratio: 0.42). Moreover, four SNPs in the CYP2B6 and CYP3A5 genes resulted significantly correlated with transaminase values. In particular, for the CYP2B6 c.983T>C SNP, the difference in the alanine aminotransferase mean values were highly significant between TT and TC genotypes (p < 0.001).
Our preliminary results confirm the contribution of the ABCB1 c.3435C>T SNP in nevirapine-induced hepatotoxicity risk and, at the same time, suggest the necessity for further studies.
The Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO), currently under construction, is the next-generation very-high-energy gamma-ray observatory, providing the coverage for photons in the energy range ...20GeV to 300TeV. CTAO will increase detection sensitivity in the 100 GeV to 10TeV range by a factor of 5 — 10 with respect to present experiments. CTAO retrieves the properties of very-high-energy gamma-rays by measuring Cherenkov light emitted by atmospheric showers of secondary particles that incident gamma rays produce in upper layers of the atmosphere. The key for reaching the required energy measurement accuracy is a precise knowledge of the atmospheric transmittance for Cherenkov light, which can be obtained using a dedicated Raman LIDAR. The device should operate at 355nm (near the maximum of Cherenkov light spectrum) and have the capability of taking data at specific azimuth and zenith angles up to distances of 30 km, so that atmospheric transmission along all possible air-shower directions can be determined. The Barcelona Raman LIDAR (BRL) is the official CTAO Pathfinder prototype, developed for atmospheric characterization of the Northern CTAO Site at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos (ORM) on the Canary island of La Palma. BRL was deployed at ORM for extensive on-field tests between February 2021 and May 2022. We report on the commissioning results, including the remote operation capabilities of the system and its contribution to the understanding of atmospheric phenomena during its deployment period. In particular, we report on the properties of the volcanic plume from the eruption of the Cumbre Vieja volcano on 22 September 2021.
Humans share with a variety of animal species the spontaneous ability to detect the numerical correspondence between limited quantities of visual objects and discrete auditory events. Here, we ...explored how such mental representation is generated in the visual modality by monitoring a parieto‐occipital ERP component, N2pc, whose amplitude covaries with the number of visual targets in explicit enumeration. Participants listened to an auditory sequence of one to three tones followed by a visual search display containing one to three targets. In Experiment 1, participants were asked to respond based on the numerical correspondence between tones and visual targets. In Experiment 2, participants were asked to ignore the tones and detect a target presence in the search display. The results of Experiment 1 showed an N2pc amplitude increase determined by the number of visual targets followed by a centroparietal ERP component modulated by the numerical correspondence between tones and visual targets. The results of Experiment 2 did not show an N2pc amplitude increase as a function of the number of visual targets. However, the numerical correspondence between tones and visual targets influenced N2pc amplitude. By comparing a subset of amplitude/latency parameters between Experiment 1 and 2, the present results suggest N2pc reflects two modes for representing the number of visual targets. One mode, susceptible to subjective control, relies on visual target segregation for exact target individuation, whereas a different mode, likely enabling spontaneous cross‐modal matching, relies on the extraction of rough information about number of targets from visual input.
To evaluate the effect of extended antenatal triple antiretroviral therapy (ART) on infant outcomes.
Retrospective cohort study using pooled data from health clinics in Malawi and Mozambique from ...July 2005 to December 2009.
Computerized records of 3273 HIV-infected pregnant women accessing Drug Resource Enhancement Against AIDS and Malnutrition centers were reviewed. ART regimens consisted of nevirapine-based HAART as of 14-25 weeks gestation until 6 months postpartum. Infant infection was determined at 1, 6 and 12 months of age by branched DNA.
A total of 3071 pregnancies resulted in 3148 live births. Lost to follow-up, infant deaths and HIV-1 infection rates at 1 and 12 months were 1.3 and 11.5, 0.8 and 6.7 and 0.8 and 2.0, respectively. Infant HIV-1-free survival at 12 months was 92.5%. Mother-to-child transmission and/or infant deaths correlated with length of maternal antenatal ART by multivariate analysis at 1, 6 and 12 months: 14% in women with more than 30 days of triple antenatal ART and 6.9% in mothers receiving at least 90 days of antenatal ART, P = 0.001. Fifty percent of 54 episodes of transmission occurred in women with higher CD4 cell counts (>350 cells/μl). Infant mortality was 67/1000, lower than background rates (78-100/1000). Growth failure (weight-for-age Z score <-2) was present in 8% of infants around birth, 6% at 6 months, 23% at 12 months (lower than country-specific rates).
Extended antenatal ART is protective against adverse infant outcomes up to 12 months of age even in children born to mothers with higher CD4 cell counts.
During late gestation, the lungs of rats contain retinyl esters, but their concentration decreases considerably at the time of birth. The regulation of the acquisition and utilization of these stored ...retinoids remains poorly understood, although it has been hypothesized that they are involved in surfactant production and alveolar septal formation. Previous investigations demonstrated that exogenous retinoic acid increases elastin production in cultured neonatal lung fibroblasts and increases the number of alveoli when it is administered to neonatal rats. It has been hypothesized that these pulmonary stores of retinyl esters may regulate the perinatal expression of various genes in the lung, including elastin. To test this hypothesis, inhibitors of retinoid metabolism were used to reduce the flux of retinyl esters to retinoic acid, and the effects of this maneuver on elastin gene expression were analyzed. Inhibitors of alcohol and aldehyde dehydrogenases and of retinyl ester hydrolases decreased the steady-state level of tropoelastin mRNA without reducing alpha 1(I) procollagen mRNA. The magnitude of the effects of the inhibitors was retinol dependent and was significantly reduced in lung tissue that was obtained from vitamin A-deficient fetuses. These findings suggest that the late gestational pulmonary stores of retinoids may increase elastin gene expression during the fetal and early postnatal life in the rat.
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