The proximity to the patient during dental care, high generation of aerosols, and the identification of SARS-CoV-2 in saliva have suggested the oral cavity as a potential reservoir for COVID-19 ...transmission. Mouthwashes are widely-used solutions due to their ability to reduce the number of microorganisms in the oral cavity. Although there is still no clinical evidence that they can prevent the transmission of SARS-CoV-2, preoperative antimicrobial mouth rinses with chlorhexidine gluconate (CHX), cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC), povidone-iodine (PVP-I), and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) have been recommended to reduce the number of microorganisms in aerosols and drops during oral procedures. This paper therefore aims to provide a comprehensive review of the current recommendations on the use of mouthwashes against the COVID-19 pandemic and to analyse the advantages and disadvantages of most conventional antiseptic mouthwashes used in dentistry.
In this study, the effect of abiotic stress on the acidophilic eukaryotic microalga, Coccomyxa onubensis, was analyzed for the production of lutein and PUFAs (polyunsaturated fatty acids). It grows ...autotrophically at a pH of 2.5. It showed a growth rate of 0.30 d−1, and produced approximately 122.50 mg·L−1·d−1 biomass, containing lipids (300.39 mg g−1dw), lutein (5.30 mg g−1dw), and β-carotene (1.20 mg g−1dw). The fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) fraction was 89.70 mg g−1dw with abundant palmitic acid (28.70%) and linoleic acid (37.80%). The addition of 100 mM NaCl improved the growth rate (0.54 d−1), biomass productivity (243.75 mg·L−1·d−1), and lipids accumulation (416.16 mg g−1dw). The microalga showed a lutein content of 6.70 mg g−1dw and FAME fraction of 118.90 mg g−1dw; 68% of the FAMEs were PUFAs. However, when 200–500 mM salt was added, its growth was inhibited but there was a significant induction of lutein (up to 7.80 mg g−1dw). Under continuous illumination with PAR (photosynthetically active radiations) +UVA (ultraviolet A, 8.7 W m−2), C. onubensis showed a growth rate of 0.40 d−1, and produced 226.3 mg·L−1·d−1 biomass, containing lipids, (487.26 mg g−1dw), lutein (7.07 mg g−1dw), and FAMEs (232.9 mg g−1dw); 48.4% of the FAME were PUFAs. The illumination with PAR + UVB (ultraviolet B, 0.16 W m−2) was toxic for cells. These results indicate that C. onubensis biomass is suitable as a supplement for functional foods and/or source of high added value products.
The use of donation after circulatory death (DCD) has increased significantly during the past decade. However, warm ischemia results in a greater risk for transplantation. Indeed, controlled DCD ...(cDCD) was associated with inferior outcomes compared with donation after brain death. The use of abdominal normothermic regional perfusion (nRP) to restore blood flow before organ recovery in cDCD has been proposed as better than rapid recovery to reverse the effect of ischemia and improve recipients’ outcome. Here, the first Spanish series using abdominal nRP as an in situ conditioning method is reported. A specific methodology to avoid restoring circulation to the brain after death determination is described. Twenty‐seven cDCD donors underwent abdominal nRP during at least 60 min. Thirty‐seven kidneys, 11 livers, six bilateral lungs, and one pancreas were transplanted. The 1‐year death‐censored kidney survival was 91%, and delayed graft function rate was 27%. The 1‐year liver survival rate was 90.1% with no cases of ischemic cholangiopathy. Transplanted lungs and pancreas exhibited primary function. The use of nRP may represent an advance to increase the number and quality of grafts in cDCD. Poor results in cDCD livers could be reversed with nRP. Concerns about restoring brain circulation after death are easily solved.
Abdominal normothermic regional perfusion with premortem interventions represents an advance to increase the number and quality of grafts recovered in controlled donation after circulatory death.
Access to healthcare is a requirement for human well-being that is constrained, in part, by the allocation of healthcare resources relative to the geographically dispersed human population
. ...Quantifying access to care globally is challenging due to the absence of a comprehensive database of healthcare facilities. We harness major data collection efforts underway by OpenStreetMap, Google Maps and academic researchers to compile the most complete collection of facility locations to date. Leveraging the geographically variable strengths of our facility datasets, we use an established methodology
to characterize travel time to healthcare facilities in unprecedented detail. We produce maps of travel time with and without access to motorized transport, thus characterizing travel time to healthcare for populations distributed across the wealth spectrum. We find that just 8.9% of the global population (646 million people) cannot reach healthcare within one hour if they have access to motorized transport, and that 43.3% (3.16 billion people) cannot reach a healthcare facility by foot within one hour. Our maps highlight an additional vulnerability faced by poorer individuals in remote areas and can help to estimate whether individuals will seek healthcare when it is needed, as well as providing an evidence base for efficiently distributing limited healthcare and transportation resources to underserved populations both now and in the future.
Growth differentiation factor 11 (GDF11) has been characterized as a key regulator of differentiation in cells that retain stemness features. Recently, it has been reported that GDF11 exerts ...tumor‐suppressive properties in hepatocellular carcinoma cells, decreasing clonogenicity, proliferation, spheroid formation, and cellular function, all associated with a decrement in stemness features, resulting in mesenchymal to epithelial transition and loss of aggressiveness. The aim of the present work was to investigate the mechanism associated with the tumor‐suppressive properties displayed by GDF11 in liver cancer cells. Hepatocellular carcinoma‐derived cell lines were exposed to GDF11 (50 ng/ml), RNA‐seq analysis in Huh7 cell line revealed that GDF11 exerted profound transcriptomic impact, which involved regulation of cholesterol metabolic process, steroid metabolic process as well as key signaling pathways, resembling endoplasmic reticulum‐related functions. Cholesterol and triglycerides determination in Huh7 and Hep3B cells treated with GDF11 exhibited a significant decrement in the content of these lipids. The mTOR signaling pathway was downregulated, and this was associated with a reduction in key proteins involved in the mevalonate pathway. In addition, real‐time metabolism assessed by Seahorse technology showed abridged glycolysis as well as glycolytic capacity, closely related to an impaired oxygen consumption rate and decrement in adenosine triphosphate production. Finally, transmission electron microscopy revealed mitochondrial abnormalities, such as cristae disarrangement, consistent with metabolic changes. Results provide evidence that GDF11 impairs cancer cell metabolism targeting lipid homeostasis, glycolysis, and mitochondria function and morphology.
• GDF11 constrains aberrant lipid metabolism • GDF11 induces mitochondrial structural changes and function • Mitochondrial changes were related to a decrease in oxygen consumption rate.
Path integral (PI) control problems are a restricted class of non-linear control problems that can be solved formally as a Feynman–Kac PI and can be estimated using Monte Carlo sampling. In this ...contribution we review PI control theory in the finite horizon case. We subsequently focus on the problem how to compute and represent control solutions. We review the most commonly used methods in robotics and control. Within the PI theory, the question of how to compute becomes the question of importance sampling. Efficient importance samplers are state feedback controllers and the use of these requires an efficient representation. Learning and representing effective state-feedback controllers for non-linear stochastic control problems is a very challenging, and largely unsolved, problem. We show how to learn and represent such controllers using ideas from the cross entropy method. We derive a gradient descent method that allows to learn feed-back controllers using an arbitrary parametrisation. We refer to this method as the path integral cross entropy method or PICE. We illustrate this method for some simple examples. The PI control methods can be used to estimate the posterior distribution in latent state models. In neuroscience these problems arise when estimating connectivity from neural recording data using EM. We demonstrate the PI control method as an accurate alternative to particle filtering.
This paper considers a strategic power producer that trades electric energy in an electricity pool. It provides a procedure to derive the optimal offering strategy of this producer. A multiperiod ...network-constrained market-clearing algorithm is considered. Uncertainty on demand bids and offering strategies of rival producers is also modeled. The proposed procedure to derive strategic offers relies on a bilevel programming model whose upper-level problem represents the profit maximization of the strategic producer while the lower-level one represents the market clearing and the corresponding price formation. This bilevel model is reduced to a mixed-integer linear programming problem using the duality theory and the Karush-Kuhn-Tucker optimality conditions. Results from an illustrative example and a case study are reported and discussed. Finally, some relevant conclusions are duly drawn.
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