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Oligohydramnios (decreased amniotic fluid volume for gestational age) is a severe condition associated with high morbidity and mortality mainly due to fetal pulmonary hypoplasia. Currently, there are limited treatment options to promote fetal lung development. Administration of stem cells and their derivates have shown promising regenerative properties for several fetal and neonatal diseases related to arrested lung development. Herein, we first characterized pulmonary hypoplasia secondary to oligohydramnios in a surgical rat model. Experimental induction of oligohydramnios led to impaired lung growth, branching morphogenesis (fewer airspaces with decreased Fgf10, Nrp1, Ctnnb1 expression), proximal/distal progenitor cell patterning (decreased Sox2 and Sox9 expression), and TGF-β signaling. We then tested antenatal administration of extracellular vesicles derived from amniotic fluid stem cells (AFSC-EVs). In oligohydramnios lungs, AFSC-EV administration improved lung branching morphogenesis and airway progenitor cell patterning at least in part through the release of miR-93-5p. Our experiments suggest that AFSC-EV miR-93-5p blocked SMAD 7, resulting in upregulation of pSMAD2/3 and restoration of TGF-β signaling. Conversely, oligohydramnios lungs treated with antagomir 93-5p transfected AFSC-EVs had decreased branching morphogenesis and TGF-β signaling. This is the first study reporting that antenatal administration of stem cell derivatives could be a potential therapy to rescue lung development in fetuses with oligohydramnios., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Objective: Collaborate, Analyse, Research and Audit (CARA) project set out to provide an infrastructure to enable Irish general practitioners (GPs) to use their routinely collected patient management software (PMS) data to better understand their patient population, disease management and prescribing through data dashboards. This paper explains the design and development of the CARA infrastructure., Methods: The first exemplar dashboard was developed with GPs and focused on antibiotic prescribing to develop and showcase the proposed infrastructure. The data integration process involved extracting, loading and transforming de-identified patient data into data models which connect to the interactive dashboards for GPs to visualise, compare and audit their data., Results: The architecture of the CARA infrastructure includes two main sections: extract, load and transform process (ELT, de-identified patient data into data models) and a Representational State Transfer Application Programming Interface (REST API) (which provides the security barrier between the data models and their visualisation on the CARA dashboard). CARAconnect was created to facilitate the extraction and de-identification of patient data from the practice database., Discussion: The CARA infrastructure allows seamless connectivity with and compatibility with the main PMS in Irish general practice and provides a reproducible template to access and visualise patient data. CARA includes two dashboards, a practice overview and a topic-specific dashboard (example focused on antibiotic prescribing), which includes an audit tool, filters (within practice) and between-practice comparisons., Conclusion: CARA supports evidence-based decision-making by providing GPs with valuable insights through interactive data dashboards to optimise patient care, identify potential areas for improvement and benchmark their performance against other practices.Supplementary file 1. Graphical abstract., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2024. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

The aim of this study was to determine the suitability of HP-treated caprine milk for yoghurt production and to evaluate the effect of HP treatment on yoghurt properties. Reconstituted caprine milk was subjected to HP treatment (350 MPa/10 min/20 °C); a lactic acid starter culture (YC-X16, Chr. Hansen) was added. Milk was fermented at a temperature of 43 °C until pH 4.60. Bacterial counts, pH, color, rheological characteristics, texture, microstructure, and the sensory attributes of the yoghurt were determined after production and after seven days of storage at a temperature of 4 °C. HP treatment increased color saturation and whiteness index and induced a minor increase in milk pH. Minor differences in the acidification curve were noted. During storage, Streptococcus thermophilus counts were significantly higher in yoghurt from HP-treated than from untreated milk, whereas Lactobacillus delbruecki ssp. bulgaricus counts remained stable. A color analysis did not reveal differences between the experimental and control yoghurts. After storage, yoghurt made from HP-treated milk was characterized by thicker consistency and lower rheological stability than the control yoghurt. The micrographs of the yoghurts confirmed the differences in rheological parameters. Yoghurt produced from HP-treated caprine milk and stored for seven days received the highest scores in the sensory evaluation.

Background: Water shortage during wheat vegetation causes changes in the composition of gliadins in grains, which can lead to changes in their immunoreactive properties., Results: The investigated wheat cultivars exposed to water stress accumulated significantly lower amounts (P < 0.05) of gliadins and glutenins in grains. The composition of proteins accumulated in grains was also modified. Water shortage results in a decreased share of αβ and γ fractions in total gliadins. Grains of wheat cultivated under water stress contain significantly higher (P < 0.05) levels of ω-gliadins by 4.5% and 43.3% for Nawra and Tonacja cultivars, respectively. Water stress promotes an increase in the share of P and Q/E residues in gliadins. In protein samples R5 antibodies recognized increased amounts of gliadins matching the QQPFP sequence. Wheat proteins also reacted with IgE antibodies isolated from subjects allergic to gluten., Conclusion: Cultivation of wheat under conditions of water stress results in the qualitative and quantitative changes of gliadins by increasing their immunoreactivity. © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry., (© 2016 Society of Chemical Industry.)

Solar photospheric convection drives myriads of dissipative Alfvén solitons (hereinafter called alfvenons) capable of accelerating electrons and ions to energies of hundreds of keV and producing the x-ray corona. Alfvenons are exact solutions of two-fluid equations for a collisionless plasma and represent natural accelerators for conversion of the electromagnetic energy flux driven by convective flows into kinetic energy of charged particles in space and astrophysical plasmas. Their properties have been experimentally verified in the magnetosphere, where they accelerate auroral electrons to tens of keV.

Cluster measurements at the bow shock, the magnetosheath, and the magnetospheric boundary layer are used to derive ion-pressure equations for hot anisotropic plasmas. It is demonstrated that both perpendicular and parallel ion pressures are well approximated by polybaric expressions is proportional to N(gamma)B(kappa), where N is the plasma density, B is the magnetic field, gamma is in the range 0.5 to 2, and kappa is between -2 and 0. The parameters derived from observations are distinctively different from those predicted by double-adiabatic theory and are shown to hold for pressure variations over 4 orders of magnitude and for a range of plasma beta (ratio of kinetic/magnetic pressures) between 10(-4) and 10. The results are relevant for simulations and theories of astrophysical, solar, interplanetary, and magnetospheric processes based on MHD equations.

A generalized model for one-dimensional magnetosonic structures of large amplitude in space plasmas is presented. The model is verified with multipoint measurements on Cluster satellites in the magnetosheath and the boundary layer under conditions of plasma beta (plasma/magnetic pressure) between 0.1-10. We demonstrate good agreement between the model and observations of large amplitude structures and wave trains, which represent increases of magnetic field and plasma density 2-5 times the ambient values, or local decreases (holes) by approximately (50-80)%. Theoretically derived polarization and propagation properties of slow-mode nonlinear structures are also in agreement with in situ measurements in space.

Experimental evidence is provided for the existence of slow-mode magnetosonic solitons in the col-lisionless plasma at the magnetopause boundary layer. The solitons were detected by the fleet of Cluster spacecraft at the dusk flank of the magnetosphere as magnetic field depressions (up to 85%) accom-panied with enhancement of the plasma density and temperature by a factor of 2. The solitons propagate 250 km/s with respect to the satellites and have perpendicular size of 1000-2000 km, which is a few ion inertial scale lengths. The comparison with numerical solutions of a theoretical model shows quantitative agreement between the model and observations.