Due to rain events historical monuments exposed to the atmosphere are frequently submitted to wet and dry cycles. During drying periods wetness is maintained in some confined regions and the ...corrosion product layer, generally denominated patinas, builds up and gets thicker. The aim of this study is to use electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) to investigate the electrochemical behaviour of pure copper coated with two artificial patina layers and submitted either to continuous or to intermittent immersion tests, this latter aiming to simulate wet and dry cycles. The experiments were performed in 0.1moldm−3 NaCl solution and in artificial rainwater containing the most significant pollutants of the city of São Paulo. The results of the continuous immersion tests in the NaCl solution have shown that the coated samples behave like a porous electrode with finite pore length. On the other hand, in the intermittent tests a porous electrode response with semi-infinite pore length can be developed. The results were interpreted based on the model of de Levie and a critical comparison with previous interpretations reported in the literature for similar systems is presented.
Cervical cancer screening might contribute to the prevention of anal cancer in women. We aimed to investigate if routine cervical cancer screening results—namely high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) ...infection and cytohistopathology—predict anal HPV16 infection, anal high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HSIL) and, hence, anal cancer.
We did a systematic review of MEDLINE, Embase, and the Cochrane library for studies of cervical determinants of anal HPV and HSIL published up to Aug 31, 2018. We centrally reanalysed individual-level data from 13 427 women with paired cervical and anal samples from 36 studies. We compared anal high-risk HPV prevalence by HIV status, cervical high-risk HPV, cervical cytohistopathology, age, and their combinations, using prevalence ratios (PR) and 95% CIs. Among 3255 women with anal cytohistopathology results, PRs were similarly calculated for all anal HSIL and HPV16-positive anal HSIL.
Cervical and anal HPV infections were highly correlated. In HIV-negative women, anal HPV16 prevalence was 41% (447/1097) in cervical HPV16-positive versus 2% (214/8663) in cervical HPV16-negative women (PR 16·5, 95% CI 14·2–19·2, p<0·0001); these values were 46% (125/273) versus 11% (272/2588) in HIV-positive women (4·4, 3·7–5·3, p<0·0001). Anal HPV16 was also associated with cervical cytohistopathology, with a prevalence of 44% 101/228 for cervical cancer in HIV-negative women (PR vs normal cytology 14·1, 11·1–17·9, p<0·0001). Anal HSIL was associated with cervical high-risk HPV, both in HIV-negative women (from 2% 11/527 in cervical high-risk HPV-negative women up to 24% 33/138 in cervical HPV16-positive women; PR 12·9, 95% CI 6·7–24·8, p<0·0001) and HIV-positive women (from 8% 84/1094 to 17% 31/186; 2·3, 1·6–3·4, p<0·0001). Anal HSIL was also associated with cervical cytohistopathology, both in HIV-negative women (from 1% 5/498 in normal cytology up to 22% 59/273 in cervical HSIL; PR 23·1, 9·4–57·0, p<0·0001) and HIV-positive women (from 7% 105/1421 to 25% 25/101; 3·6, 2·5–5·3, p<0·0001). Prevalence of HPV16-positive anal HSIL was 23–25% in cervical HPV16-positive women older than 45 years (5/20 in HIV-negative women, 12/52 in HIV-positive women).
HPV-based cervical cancer screening programmes might help to stratify anal cancer risk, irrespective of HIV status. For targeted secondary anal cancer prevention in high-risk groups, HIV-negative women with cervical HPV16, especially those older than 45 years, have a similar anal cancer risk profile to that of HIV-positive women.
International Agency for Research on Cancer.
Latin-American experts in the use of opioids in patients with chronic nononcologic pain (CNOP) have updated existing recommendations to current Latin-American reality.
Several key opinion leaders ...from Latin America participated in a face-to-face meeting in Guatemala (April 2015) to discuss the use of opioids in CNOP. Subgroups of experts worked on specific topics, reviewed the literature and shaped the final manuscript.
The expert panel developed guidelines taking into consideration the utility of both opioid and nonopioid analgesics and factors pertaining to their efficacy, safety, adherence, administration and risks for abuse/addiction.
Latin-American guidelines for the use of opioids in CNOP should improve pain relief and patients' quality of life by increasing access to these effective agents.
Introduction
Molecular testing of Inherited bleeding coagulation disorders (IBCDs) not only offers confirmation of diagnosis but also aids in genetic counselling, prenatal diagnosis and in certain ...cases genotype–phenotype correlations are important for predicting the clinical course of the disease and to allow tailor‐made follow‐up of individuals. Until recently, genotyping has been mainly performed by Sanger sequencing, a technique known to be time consuming and expensive. Currently, next‐generation sequencing (NGS) offers a new potential approach that enables the simultaneous investigation of multiple genes at manageable cost.
Aim
The aim of this study was to design and to analyse the applicability of a 23‐gene NGS panel in the molecular diagnosis of patients with IBCDs.
Methods
A custom target enrichment library was designed to capture 31 genes known to be associated with IBCDs. Probes were generated for 296 targets to cover 86.3 kb regions (all exons and flanking regions) of these genes. Twenty patients with an IBCDs phenotype were studied using NGS technology.
Results
In all patients, our NGS approach detected causative mutations. Twenty‐one pathogenic variants were found; while most of them were missense (18), three deletions were also identified. Six novel mutations affecting F8, FGA, F11, F10 and VWF genes, and 15 previously reported variants were detected. NGS and Sanger sequencing were 100% concordant.
Conclusion
Our results demonstrate that this approach could be an accurate, reproducible and reliable tool in the rapid genetic diagnosis of IBCDs.
Plasma etching of electrospun polymeric nanofibres Verdonck, Patrick; Calíope, Priscila Braga; Hernandez, Emílio Del Moral ...
Thin solid films,
10/2006, Letnik:
515, Številka:
2
Journal Article, Conference Proceeding
Recenzirano
Electrospun polymeric nanofibres have several applications because of their high surface area to volume and high length to diameter ratios. This paper investigates the influence of plasma etching on ...these fibres and the etching mechanisms. For the characterization, SEM analysis was performed to determine the forms and shapes of the fibres and SEM photos were analysed by the technique of mathematical morphology, in order to determine the area on the sample occupied by the fibres and the frequency distribution of the nanofibre diameters. The results showed that the oxygen plasma etches the nanofibres much faster when ion bombardment is present. The form of the fibres is not altered by the etching, indicating the possibility of transport of oxygen atoms over the fibre surface. The most frequent diameter, somewhat surprisingly, is not significantly dependent on the etching process, and remains of the order of 80 nm, indicating that fibres with smaller diameters are etched at high rates.
To date, only twenty-one cases diagnosed postnatally with mosaic trisomy 12 have been reported. The most frequent phenotypic manifestations are developmental delay, dysmorphic facial features, ...congenital heart defects, digital alterations, and pigmentary disorders. In the present report, detailed clinical and genetic profiles of three unrelated new patients with mosaic trisomy 12 are described and compared with previously reported cases. The detailed clinical, cytogenetic, and molecular description of these three new patients, contributes with relevant information to delineate more accurately a group of patients that show a heterogeneous phenotype, although sharing the same chromosomal alteration. The possibility of detecting mosaic trisomy 12 is directly associated with the sensitivity of the methodology applied to reveal the low-level chromosomal mosaicism, as well as with the possibility to perform the analysis in a suitable tissue.
Hospital admissions due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exacerbations have a major impact on the disease evolution and costs. The current authors postulated that a simple and ...well-standardised, low-intensity integrated care intervention can be effective to prevent such hospitalisations. Therefore, 155 exacerbated COPD patients (17% females) were recruited after hospital discharge from centres in Barcelona (Spain) and Leuven (Belgium). They were randomly assigned to either integrated care (IC; n = 65; age mean+/-sd 70+/-9 yrs; forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV(1)) 1.1+/-0.5 L, 43% predicted) or usual care (UC; n = 90; age 72+/-9 yrs; FEV(1) 1.1+/-0.05 L, 41% pred). The IC intervention consisted of an individually tailored care plan upon discharge shared with the primary care team, as well as accessibility to a specialised nurse case manager through a web-based call centre. After 12 months' follow-up, IC showed a lower hospitalisation rate (1.5+/-2.6 versus 2.1+/-3.1) and a higher percentage of patients without re-admissions (49 versus 31%) than UC without differences in mortality (19 versus 16%, respectively). In conclusion, this trial demonstrates that a standardised integrated care intervention, based on shared care arrangements among different levels of the system with support of information technologies, effectively prevents hospitalisations for exacerbations in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients.
In the USA, genetically admixed populations have the highest asthma prevalence and severe asthma exacerbations rates. This could be explained not only by environmental factors but also by genetic ...variants that exert ethnic-specific effects. However, no admixture mapping has been performed for severe asthma exacerbations.
We sought to identify genetic variants associated with severe asthma exacerbations in Hispanic/Latino subgroups by means of admixture mapping analyses and fine mapping, and to assess their transferability to other populations and potential functional roles.
We performed an admixture mapping in 1124 Puerto Rican and 625 Mexican American children with asthma. Fine-mapping of the significant peaks was performed via allelic testing of common and rare variants. We performed replication across Hispanic/Latino subgroups, and the transferability to non-Hispanic/Latino populations was assessed in 1001 African Americans, 1250 Singaporeans and 941 Europeans with asthma. The effects of the variants on gene expression and DNA methylation from whole blood were also evaluated in participants with asthma and in silico with data obtained through public databases.
Genomewide significant associations of Indigenous American ancestry with severe asthma exacerbations were found at 5q32 in Mexican Americans as well as at 13q13-q13.2 and 3p13 in Puerto Ricans. The single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs1144986 (
) showed consistent effects for severe asthma exacerbations across Hispanic/Latino subgroups, but it was not validated in non-Hispanics/Latinos. This SNP was associated with
DNA methylation and
gene expression levels.
Admixture mapping study of asthma exacerbations revealed a novel locus that exhibited Hispanic/Latino-specific effects and regulated
and
.
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