This in practice paper describes the experience of seven lecturers in a hybrid and flipped version of an introductory mathematics course for higher education. In a Mexican university, lecturers ...adapted to this innovation supported by an adjusted Massive Open Online Course. The experience revealed the relevance of leaving conventional assessment processes to make way for an understanding of lecturers as a collaborative team, trying to transform their own perspective about the learning of mathematics. This experience is an example of the reconceptualisation of the teaching of STEM education that contributes towards a non-formal educational context, promoting lecturers' education and dialogic transformative learning.
Subacute or chronic meningococcaemia is an invasive infection by Neisseria meningitidis characterized by fever lasting between a few days (subacute) and a week or more (chronic), cutaneous rash and ...arthralgia, without meningitis.
A 59-year-old woman was admitted for a fever with cutaneous rash. She had a history of Crohn's disease diagnosed in 2016 and treated with adalimumab for 14 months at a dosage of 40mg/week. For 3 days, she presented fever with a temperature of up to 40°C associated with a non-itchy erythematous-papular eruption on all four limbs, especially the lower limbs. The lesions were mildly painful on palpation. The rest of the clinical examination was unremarkable. The patient did not have arthralgia or neurological symptoms, and in particular, she exhibited no meningeal syndrome. Blood cultures as well as PCR on a skin biopsy specimen confirmed the diagnosis of meningococcaemia. The patient was treated with ceftriaxone 2g/day for 4 days then amoxicillin 12g/day for 4 days. A favourable outcome was quickly achieved, and the condition subsided without sequelae.
We report the first case of subacute meningococcaemia in a patient treated with anti-TNF alpha therapy. This case concerns the role of biotherapies, and more particularly anti-TNF alpha therapy, in the occurrence of particular infections but also in changes in their clinical presentation and clinical course, as in the present case without arthralgia.
The October 2015 storm in Alexandria led to flooding of historical proportions. Although this October storm was a rare event (≈1:50 year), it could have been predicted at least 1 week in advance. If ...an appropriate warning system had been in place, measures could have been taken to alleviate its consequences. Therefore, the use of rainfall forecasting in storm water modelling can be one of the first useful and cheap mitigation measures. This forecasting system may further allow employing Anticipatory Water Management. The latter would imply that a large extra retention reservoir would be made available by pumping the water out from lakes of the city (Lake Maryot and Airport Lake) before it rains. Further research will be required to assess the technical and economic aspects of this option. The high variability and uncertainty of rainfall call for a robust and flexible strategy for Alexandria, which considers a portfolio of measures able to absorb the negative consequences of extreme events (designed for exceedance). This strategy should enable the responsible authorities to map out the future of the drainage system across the city over the next two or three decades and to identify the tipping point when upgrading of the existing drainage and irrigation system will be required. It will also provide the required evidence base on which a long-term wastewater and sewerage plan for Alexandria City should be implemented.
► Fire is not rare in tropical montane cloud forests but their emissions are unaccounted for in regional carbon balances. ► Biomass burning emissions due to deep ground fires reach mean stocks of 92
...MgC
ha
−1 in the Andes. ► Peat soils contribute the most to these values. TMCF resprouting compensates for biomass losses. ► A preliminary estimate of regional biomass burning emissions resulted in mean 1.3
TgC
yr
−1 for the 2000–2008 period. ► On-going fire management projects exist in the region which tries to link reduced fire impacts, forest conservation and poverty alleviation through the REDD+ mechanism.
Fire in tropical montane cloud forests (TMCFs) is not as rare as once believed. Andean TMCFs sit immediately below highly flammable, high-altitude grasslands (Puna/Páramo) that suffer from recurrent anthropogenic fire. This treeline is a zone of climatic tension where substantial future warming is likely to force upward tree migrations, while increased fire presence and fire impacts are likely to force it downwards. TMCFs contain large carbon stocks in their peat soils and their loss through fire is a currently unaccounted for regional source of CO
2. This study, conducted in the southern Peruvian Andes (>2800
m), documents differences in live tree biomass, fine root biomass, fallen and standing dead wood, and soil organic carbon in 4 paired-sample plots (burned versus control) following the severe ground fires that occurred during the 2005 Andean drought. Peat soils contributed the most to biomass burning emissions, with lower values corresponding to an 89% mean stock difference compared to the controls (mean
±
SE) (54.1
±
22.3 vs. 5.8
±
5.3
MgC
ha
−1). Contrastingly, carbon stocks from live standing trees differed by a non-significant 37% lower value in the burned plots compared to the controls, largely compensated by vigorous resprouting (45.5
±
17.4 vs. 69.2
±
13.4
MgC
ha
−1). Both standing dead trees and fallen dead wood were significantly higher in the burned plots with a three-fold difference from the controls: dead Trees 45.2
±
9.4 vs. 16.4
±
4.4
MgC
ha
−1, and ca. a 2 fold difference for the fallen dead wood: 11.2
±
5 vs. 6.7
±
3.2
MgC
ha
−1 for the burned plots versus their controls. A preliminary estimate of the regional contribution of biomass burning emissions from Andean TMCFs for the period 2000–2008, resulted in mean carbon emission rates of 1.3
TgC
yr
−1 (max-min: 1.8–0.8
TgC
yr
−1). This value is in the same order of magnitude than South American annual fire emissions (300
TgC
yr
−1) suggesting the need for further research on Andean forest fires. On-going projects on the region are working on the promotion of landowner participation in TMCFs conservation through REDD+ mechanism. The heart of the proposed initiative is reforestation of degraded lands with green fire breaks enriched with economically valuable Andean plant species. The cultivation of these species may contribute to reduce deforestation pressure on the Amazonian cloud forest by providing an alternative income to local communities, at the same time that they prevent the spread of fire into Manu National Park and adjacent community-held forests, protecting forest and reducing CO
2 emissions.
Infliximab is therapeutic monoclonal antibody (mAb) against TNF-α employed in the treatment of immunoinflammatory diseases. The development of biosimilar mAbs is a global strategy to increase drug ...accessibility and reduce therapy-associated costs. Herein we compared key physicochemical characteristics and biological activities produced by infliximab and infliximab-Probiomed in order to identify functionally relevant differences between the mAbs. Binding of infliximab-Probiomed to TNF-α was specific and had kinetics comparable to that of the reference product. Both mAbs had highly similar neutralizing efficacy in HUVEC cell cultures stimulated with TNF-α. In vitro induction of CDC and ADCC were also similar between the evaluated products. In vivo comparability was assessed using a transgenic mouse model of arthritis that expresses human TNF-α in a 13-week multiple-administration study. Infliximab and infliximab-Probiomed showed comparable efficacy, safety, and pharmacokinetic profiles. Our results indicate that infliximab-Probiomed has highly similar activities to infliximab in preclinical models, warranting a clinical evaluation of its biosimilarity.
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The water sensitive city is a term within urban water management in which the concept of resilience to extreme climatic events and climate change plays a key role and represents the interaction ...between different branches of water science, engineering, and other domains such as urban planning and design. In this context, resilience is the ability of a system to cope with or recover from inter alia floods and droughts and also to retain original identity in some form in the face of long‐term change. It is generally accepted that sustainable systems with respect to water management are mainly dominated by their resilience, which is intrinsic to water sensitive cities, and includes social, economic, and environmental as well as technical systems, such as built infrastructure and environments, and their interactions. Therefore, each system cannot be considered in isolation but needs to be seen as a part of wider aspects of water and urban services and utilities in resilient cities. New urban development can be better provided with flood and drought resilience because of the opportunity for the implementation of the available technical, social, and economic knowledge. This is different in the case of existing urban areas where maximization of the value and use of water requires more and in‐depth analysis. The growing movement for water‐sensitive urban design (WSUD), a concept developed in Australia, provides inspiration for maximizing the value and use of water in urban areas, with an increasing consideration of flood and drought resilience. Synergistic integration between the extant knowledge on WSUD together with resilience approaches can lead to the establishment of a new model for water sensitive cities which are also flood resilient. Similarly, dealing with urban flooding in a wise manner can simultaneously optimize the use of all kinds of available resources—also enhancing resilience for droughts.
This article is categorized under:
Engineering Water > Planning Water
Chondrogenesis of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) encapsulated in poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG)-based hydrogels was studied in the presence and absence of 5 ng/mL transforming growth factor beta ...and chondrogenic medium to better understand the role of the gel environment on this process. The lack of any cell-polymer interactions led to decreasing cell viability, as measured using adenosine triphosphate, over a 14-day period. The extent of chondrogenic differentiation was evaluated by immunostaining, and although viability dramatically decreased, cells cultured in chondrogenic differentiation medium expressed higher levels of collagen type II. Cells cultured in hMSC control medium remained undifferentiated and continued to express CD105, a MSC marker. To increase cell survival, arginine-glycine-aspartic acid-serine (RGDS) was incorporated into gels using a novel mixed-mode thiol-ene reaction by synthesizing a cysteine-cysteine-arginine-glycine-aspartic acid-serine-cysteine-cysteine-glycine, N-terminus to C-terminus peptide sequence with pendant cysteine residues. A concentration of 5 mM RGDS incorporated into the network maintained 75% viability in control cultures. Further studies demonstrated that 5-mM RGDS chondrogenic cultures had greater gene expression for aggrecan and collagen II in conjunction with producing twice as much glycosaminoglycan as 0-mM chondrogenic cultures and 7 times that of control cultures. Incorporation of this peptide sequence not only allows for sustained viability, but also contributes to initiating chondrogenesis.
A reduced proliferation to T cell mitogens is observed in vitro in murine cells isolated during the acute phase of Toxoplasma gondii infection. Foxp3+ regulatory T cells (Tregs) mediate this ...suppression, which is interleukin (IL)‐2 dependent. In this work, we analysed the mechanism of this Treg‐mediated suppression. We found that removal of antigen‐presenting cells (APC) from spleen cells from infected mice did not modify suppression but further elimination of Tregs led to a restored proliferation, demonstrating that Tregs mediate suppression in the absence of APC. Production of IL‐2 by T cells from infected animals was abolished but partially restored when Tregs were removed. However, IL‐2 levels and T cell proliferation were restored when Tregs and T cells were separated by transwells, indicating that Tregs require close proximity with T cells to induce suppression. Tregs from infected mice were able to reduce proliferation of CTLL‐2 cells in the classical IL‐2 bioassay, strongly suggesting that Tregs compete with T cells for IL‐2. We found that T cells from infected mice died after a few rounds of division in vitro, but addition of recombinant IL‐2 or removal of Tregs abolished this effect. Our results showed that suppression of T cell proliferation during acute Toxoplasma gondii infection is the result of death of proliferating T cells by Treg‐mediated IL‐2 competition. Thus, immunosuppression is due to death of proliferating T cells as a consequence of low IL‐2 availability.
Context. Grain growth in planet-forming disks is the first step toward the formation of planets. The growth of grains and their inward drift leaves a distinct imprint on the dust surface density ...distribution and the resulting surface brightness profile of the thermal continuum emission. Aims. We determine the surface brightness profile of the continuum emission using resolved observations at millimeter wavelengths of the disk around TW Hya, and infer the signature of dust evolution on the surface density and dust opacity. Methods. Archival ALMA observations at 820 μm on baselines up to 410 kλ are compared to parameterized disk models to determine the surface brightness profile. Results. Under the assumption of a constant dust opacity, a broken radial power law best describes the dust surface density with a slope of −0.53 ± 0.01 from the 4.1 au radius of the already known inner hole to a turn-over radius of 47.1 ± 0.2 au, steepening to −8.0 ± 0.1 at larger radii. The emission drops below the detection limit beyond ~60 au. Conclusions. The shape of the dust surface density is consistent with theoretical expectations for grain growth, fragmentation, and drift, but its total dust content and its turn-over radius are too large for TW Hya’s age of 8–10 Myr even when taking into account a radially varying dust opacity. Higher resolution imaging with ALMA of TW Hya and other disks is required to establish whether unseen gaps associated with, e.g., embedded planets trap grains at large radii or whether locally enhanced grain growth associated with the CO snow line explains the extent of the millimeter continuum surface brightness profile. In the latter case, population studies should reveal a correlation between the location of the CO snow line and the extent of the millimeter continuum. In the former case, and if CO freeze-out promotes planet formation, this correlation should extend to the location of gaps as well.
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