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Purpose: The objective of this study was to describe the use of retrograde gentamicin-coated tibial intramedullary nail (ETN PROtect™) in patients with tibial defects who required a tibiotalocalcaneal arthrodesis (TTC). Methods: Consecutive series case review of seven men treated with TTC using retrograde PROtect™ between January 2018 and December 2023. The main outcomes evaluated were fracture union, complications, and the health-related quality of life using the EuroQol five-dimension three-level questionnaire (EQ-5D-3L). Results: The mean age was 45.3 ± 8.0 years. Six patients had a clinical history of chronic osteomyelitis, and one case underwent TTC for congenital pseudoarthrosis. Fracture union was achieved in 5 of 7 patients between 4 and 11 months after surgery. Three patients developed complications; two patients had fistulas, and one had persistent pain. At the end of the follow-up, a median of 70 points (interquartile range: 60 to 90) on the EQ-5D-3L was reported. No complications directly attributed to the use of the PROtect™ were reported. Conclusion: TTC with retrograde PROtect™ is a prophylactic treatment option in patients with tibial defects treated with external fixation requiring a tibiotalar and subtalar arthrodesis. This novel use of PROtect™ allows simultaneous fixation of the tibiotalocalcaneal joint and protection of the regenerated bone, facilitating earlier rehabilitation in patients at high risk for postoperative infections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To explore the existing literature on the effect of Interprofessional Education (IPE) on the work environment of health professionals. The research question was systematized according to the PCC (Population, Concept, and Context) format. A scoping review was performed. A search of multiple bibliographic databases identified 407 papers, of which 21 met the inclusion criteria. The populations of the 21 studies reviewed were composed of professionals in the fields of medicine, nursing, psychology, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, and social work, among others. The study contexts were both academic and nonacademic hospitals, mental health institutions, and community settings, and the topics examined were organizational climate, organizational culture, organizational attachment and job satisfaction. The findings from the reviewed studies showed positive effects of IPE interventions on organizational climate and culture, but the results on job satisfaction and organizational attachment were mixed (i.e., positive and no effects following IPE interventions). Research on IPE is worth more attention as IPE could be an effective alternative for the fulfillment of the Quadruple Aim and achieving the third of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, aimed at improving health and well-being. It seems critical for IPE to be positioned as a trend in global health, aiming at boosting human health resources as one of its building blocks and calling the attention of health decision-makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid climatic warming of the Antarctic Peninsula is driving regional population declines and distribution shifts of predators and prey. Affected species include Antarctic ice seals and the southern elephant seal, all of which rely on the peninsula region for critical stages of their life cycle. However, data collection is difficult in this remote region, and therefore long-term time series with which to identify and investigate population trends in these species are rare. We present the Cape Shirreff Phocid Census (CS-PHOC) dataset: weekly counts of phocids (crabeater, leopard, southern elephant, and Weddell seals) hauled out at Cape Shirreff, Livingston Island, during most austral summers since 1997. Data from these censuses were cleaned and aggregated, resulting in robust and comparable count data from 284 censuses across 23 field seasons. The CS-PHOC dataset, which is publicly available through the SCAR Biodiversity Portal, will be updated yearly to provide important information about Southern Ocean phocids in the Antarctic Peninsula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electrochemical nucleation and growth (EN&G) is an inherently dynamic process governed by atomic-level interactions. Understanding the electrochemical phase formation on foreign substrates presents a formidable challenge at the fundamental level. One of the main challenges lies in uncovering both the energetic state of the substrate and the complex interaction between the substrate and the newly formed phase at the "electrode–electrolyte" interface. Furthermore, obtaining direct, unconvoluted, information is not straightforward due to the intricate nature of the phase boundary and phase formation process. In this work, we explore the EN&G from a local perspective by independently probing hundreds of different surface regions with scanning electrochemical cell microscopy (SECCM), providing a novel perspective and insights into the activity distribution and role of the substrate state in the nucleation process. We highlight the significance of acknowledging the diversity at the microscopic scale by summarizing the electrochemical profiles with statistical measures and observing their temporal- or potential-dependent evolution. Our results show that the energy required for the formation of stable nuclei on active sites varies due to surface heterogeneities, significantly impacting the overpotential required on low-energy and high-energy substrates. Upon a cross-system examination, trends emerge thanks to our high-throughput approach. Although nucleation is driven by the most active sites, we observe that it is possible to probe less active sites. Interestingly, these can significantly change their activity after being subjected to polarization. Non-uniform distributions of nucleation activity are disclosed and can be best fitted with two expressions: lognormal and Weibull. The understanding of these distributions is the bridge connecting the microscopic information to macroscopic outcomes, shedding light on how surface heterogeneities influence nucleation rates and deposition behaviors. Characterizing the distribution provides valuable insights into the underlying mechanism, offering a deeper understanding of the nature of active sites and highlighting the capabilities of our local approach for leveraging data-driven analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A hybrid rule-based/ML approach using linear regression and artificial neural networks (ANNs) determined pitting corrosion descriptors from high-throughput data obtained with Scanning Electrochemical Cell Microscopy (SECCM) on 316 L stainless steel. Non-parametric density estimation determined the central tendencies of the Epit/log(jpit) and Epass/log(jpass) distributions. Descriptors estimated using conditional mean or median curves were compared to their central tendency values, with the conditional medians providing more accurate results. Due to their lower sensitivity to high outliers, the conditional medians were more robust representations of the log(j) vs. E distributions. An observed trend of passive range shortening with increasing testing aggressiveness was attributed to delayed stabilisation of the passive film, rather than early passivity breakdown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil moisture plays a vital role in slope stability. As water infiltrates into the soil, shear strength decreases eventually leading to failure. However, most of the existing regional-scale landslide early warning systems (LEWS) rely solely on rainfall information and use rainfall thresholds to determine if the landslide triggering conditions are met. The original version of the Catalonia region LEWS combines real-time rainfall observations and susceptibility to compute warnings. The LEWS applies a set of rainfall intensity-duration thresholds to determine if the rainfall conditions have the potential to trigger a landslide. This work explores the potential of using modelled soil moisture data in the Catalonia region LEWS. Volumetric water content (VWC) from the LISFLOOD hydrological simulations of the European Flood Awareness System and rainfall estimates have been analysed at the location of recent landslide events. Based on this data, a set of empirical hydrometeorological thresholds combining rainfall and soil moisture information has been obtained for their application into the Catalonia region LEWS. The LEWS has been run for nine months (April–December 2020) using two approaches: (i) combining susceptibility and rainfall intensity-duration (I-D) thresholds and (ii) combining susceptibility and the new hydrometeorological thresholds including soil moisture information. Generally, both LEWS approaches issued moderate or high warnings in the areas where significant rainfall accumulations were recorded. The outputs have been compared at specific locations where landslides were reported during the analysed period. Results show that at the analysed locations false positives are generally reduced when employing the hydrometeorological thresholds in the LEWS. Therefore, this approach is promising and could help improve regional scale LEWS in Catalonia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Within advances in minimally invasive spine surgery, the implementation of lateral single position (LSP) increases efficiency while limiting complications, avoiding intraoperative repositioning and diminishing surgical time. Most literature describes one-level instrumentation of the lumbar spine; this study includes the use of LSP for multilevel degenerative disease. Objective: The objective of the article is to analyze initial clinical results and complications in the use of LSP for multiple level instrumentation in adults with lumbar degenerative disease. Methods: A retrospective early clinical series was performed for patients who had multiple level instrumentation in LSP between August 2019 and September 2022 at the Hospital Universitario San Ignacio in Bogota, Colombia. Inclusion criteria were patients older than 18 years with symptomatic lumbar degenerative disease, undergoing any combination of multilevel anterior lumbar interbody fusion, lateral lumbar interbody fusion (LLIF) and pedicle screw fixation. Results: Forty patients with an average age of 61.3 years were included, with diagnosis of multilevel degenerative spondylotic changes. Four-, three- and two-level interventions were performed in 52.5, 35 and 12.5%, respectively. Average time per level was 68.9 min, and length of hospital stay had an average of 2.4 days, with all patients starting ambulation within the first postoperative day. Conclusion: Procedural time and blood loss were similar to those reported in literature. No severe lesions, postoperative infections or reinterventions took place. Although it was a small number of patients and further clinical trials are needed, LSP for multiple levels is apparently safe with adequate outcomes which may improve efficiency in the operating room. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies of primary visual cortex have furthered our understanding of amblyopia, long-lasting visual impairment caused by imbalanced input from the two eyes during childhood, which is commonly treated by patching the dominant eye. However, the relative impacts of monocular vs. binocular visual experiences on recovery from amblyopia are unclear. Moreover, while sleep promotes visual cortex plasticity following loss of input from one eye, its role in recovering binocular visual function is unknown. Using monocular deprivation in juvenile male mice to model amblyopia, we compared recovery of cortical neurons' visual responses after identical-duration, identical-quality binocular or monocular visual experiences. We demonstrate that binocular experience is quantitatively superior in restoring binocular responses in visual cortex neurons. However, this recovery was seen only in freely-sleeping mice; post-experience sleep deprivation prevented functional recovery. Thus, both binocular visual experience and subsequent sleep help to optimally renormalize bV1 responses in a mouse model of amblyopia. In a mouse model of amblyopia, binocular sight conditions (including time for sleep) lead to a better recovery of visual function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Methamphetamine (MA) abuse remains a public health issue. Prenatal MA exposure (PME) poses a significant health problem, as we know very little about the drug's long-term physiological impact on the developing human brain. We investigated the long-term consequences of early MA exposure using a mouse model that targets the brain growth spurt, which occurs during human third-trimester. Adult mice previously subjected to acute MA during post-natal days 4–9 exhibited hyperactivity during the Open-Field Test, while exhibiting no motor coordination changes during the Rotarod Test. Neonatal MA exposure reduced basal dopamine (DA) uptake rates in adult nucleus accumbens slices compared with saline-injected controls. Although slices from neonatal MA-exposed mice showed no change in evoked DA signals in the presence of MA, they exhibited potentiated non-evoked DA release through DA efflux in response to MA. These data suggest that developmental MA exposure alters brain development to produce long-lasting physiological changes to the adult mesolimbic DA system, as well as altering responses to acute MA exposure in adulthood. This study provides new insights into an important, under-investigated area in drugs of abuse research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Assess long-term outcomes of prostatic artery embolization (PAE) for patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). Materials and Methods: Single centre retrospective study from 2009–2019 including 1072 patients who received PAE and had available follow-up. Patients were evaluated yearly at 1–10 years post PAE using the International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS) and quality of life (QoL), prostate volume (PV), prostate-specific antigen (PSA), peak urinary flow rate (Qmax) and postvoid residual (PVR) volume. The need for prostatic medication, re-intervention rates, repeat PAE and prostatectomy rates were assessed with Kaplan–Meier survival analysis and compared between different embolic agents using Cox regression analysis. Results: Mean follow-up time was 4.39 ± 2.37 years. At last follow-up visit, mean IPSS and QoL improvements were − 10.14 ± 8.34 (p <.0001) and − 1.87 ± 1.48 (p <.0001) points, mean PV reduction was − 6.82 ± 41.11 cm3 (p = 0.7779), mean PSA reduction was − 1.12 ± 4.60 ng/mL (p = 0.9713), mean Qmax increase was 2.72 ± 6.38 mL/s (p = 0.0005), mean PVR reduction was − 8.35 ± 135.75 mL (p = 0.6786). There were 335 patients (31.3%) needing prostatic medication after PAE. Re-intervention rates were 3.4% at 1 year, 21.1% at 5 years and 58.1% at 10 years. Repeat-PAE rates were 2.3% at 1 year, 9.5% at 5 years and 23.1% at 10 years. Prostatectomy rates were 1.1% at 1 year, 11.6% at 5 years and 35.0% at 10 years. No significant differences were found between polyvinyl alcohol particles, Bead Block, Embospheres and Embozenes. Conclusion: PAE induces durable long-term LUTS relief, with re-intervention rates of 20% in the first 5 years and 30%–60% > 5 years post-PAE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Gloria storm rainfalls affected Catalonia from 20 to 23 January 2020 and triggered multiple landslides, some of which affected buildings and infrastructures (such as roads and railways). This paper presents the rainfall and landslide datasets collected during the event, and evaluates the performance of a regional landslide early warning system (LEWS) during the Gloria storm applying a fuzzy verification method. The majority of the inventoried landslides can be classified as slides, involving a limited volume of sediment (up to 10 m3), and were triggered in cut slopes along linear infrastructures. Rainfall accumulations were significant in the whole region, especially in the Montseny area, where over 450 mm were registered in 96 h. Generally, the LEWS computed moderate and high warnings in the areas where large rainfall amounts were recorded, and showed good correspondence with the locations where landslides were reported. The fuzzy verification method has been applied using neighbouring windows of different sizes to obtain scale-dependant information on the LEWS performance. The skill of the LEWS considerably improves when enlarging the neighbouring window size from 500 m to 1 km. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children with severe motor impairment due to cerebral palsy have difficulties engaging in play, although they want to play games that typically developing children play. The barriers imposed by motor impairments against engaging in play can be addressed through the use of robots. We aim to identify how children, who have extensive experience of play, imagine what a robot is and what features would make a robot good to play with. Using a qualitative description design, 19 children from urban and rural settings participated in focus groups to draw and talk about the robots they would like to exist. The data were coded and analyzed using a summative approach to content analysis. The findings revealed that the children imagined that a good robot to play with is one that has an anthropomorphic appearance, is tough and strong, has controls, and that is able to move, grab, speak, and play popular children's games. In particular, the girls imagined that robots should be able to express positive emotions towards children. Age, gender, culture, and the physical environment in which the children lived influenced what they expected to find in a robot for playing with and how they imagined child–robot interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cocoa pulping currently is a process that is developed manually in several regions of Colombia, due to many farms do not have enough technology to develop the cutting and pulping of the cocoa pod, which generates delays, low performance, low quality of the cocoa derives products and economic losses. The Quality Function Deployment (QFD) method and Bibliometric analysis (BA) were applied to designing a machine for cocoa pulping for a farm in Cesar, Colombia. Firstly, a Bibliometric analysis was developed to visualize trends and hot keywords, countries, and clusters related to the Cocoa and Quality of this essential agricultural branch worldwide of scientific obtaining publication details from the Scopus database. Secondly, the QFD method was applied to translate the customer requirements into detailed requirements to perform a low-cost machine, eco-friendly, versatile, and easy to use. Finally, the design results validation was carried out through the finite analysis method using Ansys and Solidworks CAD software. The BA results show that cocoa processing is an important topic worldwide, with a fast-growing of 2.59% in the last 76 years, where around 5800 authors have been published articles related to cocoa and quality subject in different ways. From QFD results and simulations obtained on the structure of the machine of AISI 304 steel, this material supports the stresses and deformations generated in the regular use of the machine (4700 pods per hour), guarantying the satisfaction of the customers, and above all the cocoa quality and the economy of the farm producers of cocoa beans in Colombia. Finally, the results obtained demonstrate that the QFD method is a valuable tool to knowing the needs and requirements of the customers and translate thus to engineering specifications where the design group develops different proposals taking into account costs, safety, and performance of the machine through modern computational CAD software and design theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Alcoholic hepatitis (AH) is a severe condition characterized by a marked inflammatory response and high short-term mortality. Endothelial dysfunction (ED) is an early event in vascular and inflammatory disorders. The aim of this study is to evaluate ED in AH patients. Methods: Prognostic value of ED biomarkers was evaluated in patients with severe AH (n = 67), compensated alcoholic cirrhosis (n = 15), heavy drinkers without liver disease (n = 15) and controls (n = 9), and in a validation cohort of 50 patients with AH. Gene expression of ED markers was analyzed in liver tissue. Results: Plasma levels of ED markers such as vascular cell adhesion molecule 1 (VCAM-1), intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM-1), E-selectin and von Willebrand factor (vWF) increased along alcohol-related liver disease (ALD) progression. Intergroup analysis showed a significant increase of these markers in AH patients. In addition, VCAM-1 showed a positive correlation with Maddrey, MELD and ABIC scores and inflammation parameters (i.e. C-reactive protein and LPS levels). Importantly, levels of VCAM-1 were higher in patients with increased mortality and were independently associated with short-term survival (90-day) when adjusted by ABIC score. These results were confirmed in an independent cohort of AH patients. In addition, severe AH patients showed altered hepatic expression of ED markers. Conclusions: In this study we show that advanced ALD and particularly severe AH is associated with an increase of ED biomarkers, which correlate with patient outcomes. These results suggest that ED may be a pathogenic event in AH and highlight endothelial factors as potential biomarkers in AH. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aedesaegypti L. is the most important vector of arboviruses such as dengue, Zika, chikungunya, Mayaro, and yellow fever, which impact millions of people's health per year. MicroRNA profile has been described in some mosquito species as being important for biological processes such as digestion of blood, oviposition, sexual differentiation, insecticide resistance, and pathogens dissemination. We identified the miRNAs of Ae.aegypti females, males and eggs of a reference insecticide susceptible strain New Orleans and compared them with those other insects to determine miRNA fingerprint by new-generation sequencing. The sequences were analyzed using data mining tools and categorization, followed by differential expression analysis and conservation with other insects. A total of 55 conserved miRNAs were identified, of which 34 were of holometabolous insects and 21 shared with hemimetabolous insects. Of these miRNAs, 32 had differential expression within the stages analyzed. Three predominant functions of miRNA were related to embryonic development regulation, metamorphosis, and basal functions. The findings of this research describe new information on Ae.aegypti physiology which could be useful for the development of new control strategies, particularly in mosquito development and metamorphosis processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Automatic interpolation of precipitation maps combining rain gauge and radar data has been done in the past but considering only the data collected at a given time interval. Since radar and rain gauge data are collected at short intervals, a natural extension of previous works is to account for temporal correlations and to include time into the interpolation process. In this work, rainfall is interpolated using data from the current time interval and the previous one. Interpolation is carried out using kriging with external drift, in which the radar rainfall estimate is the drift, and the mean precipitation is set to zero at the locations where the radar estimate is zero. The rainfall covariance is modeled as non-stationary in time, and the space system of reference moves with the storm. This movement serves to maximize the collocated correlation between consecutive time intervals. The proposed approach is analyzed for four episodes that took place in Catalonia (Spain). It is compared with three other approaches: (i) radar estimation, (ii) kriging with external drift using only the data from the same time interval, and (iii) kriging with external drift using data from two consecutive time intervals but not accounting for the displacement of the storm. The comparisons are performed using cross-validation. In all four episodes, the proposed approach outperforms the other three approaches. It is important to account for temporal correlation and use a Lagrangian system of coordinates that tracks the rainfall movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work presents a prototype landslide early warning system (LEWS) adapted to real-time performance over the region of Catalonia (NE Spain). The system uses high-resolution rainfall information obtained from weather radar observations and susceptibility maps to issue a qualitative warning level at a regional scale. To study the influence of the mapping unit on the LEWS outputs, susceptibility maps obtained for Catalonia based on (i) pixels of different sizes and (ii) hydrological subbasins have been compared. The susceptibility has been derived using a simple fuzzy logic approach combining slope angle and land cover data. The susceptibility maps for the different mapping units have then been employed to run the LEWS for a period of 7 months (warm season of 2010). For each configuration, the performance, interpretability of the warnings, and computational requirements have been compared to assess the suitability of each mapping unit for their use in the LEWS in real time. The configuration using pixels of 30-m resolution as mapping units seems to be the best as a compromise between resolution, performance, and computational cost. However, from an end-user's real-time perspective, the interpretation of the warnings can be difficult. Therefore, summarizing and visualizing the warnings, which are computed over the high-resolution grid, by subbasins is proposed as the best option. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Minimal hepatic encephalopathy is a syndrome caused by cirrhosis, with a broad spectrum of clinical manifestations. Its diagnosis is based on abnormal results of cognitive and neurophysiological tests, but there are no universally available criteria, especially in Brazil, where local testing standards are required. The objective of the present study was to compare the performance of the mini-mental state examination (MMSE), Rey's auditory-verbal learning test (RAVLT), psychometric score of hepatic encephalopathy (PHES), topographic mapping of brain electrical activity (TMBEA) and long-latency auditory evoked potential (P300) in the detection of minimal hepatic encephalopathy in Brazil. From 224 patients with cirrhosis included in the global sample, 82.5% were excluded due to secondary causes responsible for cognitive or neurophysiological dysfunction. The final sample consisted of 29 cirrhotics, with predominance of A5 Child-Pugh classification, and 29 controls paired in critical variables such as age, educational level, gender, professional category, scores suggestive of mild depression, association with compensated type 2 diabetes mellitus and sociodemographic characteristics. Overall, performance on cognitive tests and TMBEA did not show a statistically significant difference. There was a marked difference in P300 latency adjusted for age, with patients with cirrhosis showing a mean of 385 ± 78 ms (median of 366.6 ms) and healthy volunteers exhibiting a mean of 346.2 ± 42.8 ms (median of 348.2 ms) (p < 0.01). These findings suggest that, in the earliest stages of cirrhosis, age-adjusted P300 latency was superior to cognitive assessment and TMBEA for detection of minimal hepatic encephalopathy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Drake Passage (DP) is a dynamic oceanographic region influenced by the main frontal systems of the Southern Ocean, with little information about cetacean distribution and their relationship with environmental parameters. This study explored the use of generalized additive models (GAMs) to model the relationships of some cetacean species according to sea surface temperature (SST) and a suite of physiographic variables adjacent to the Antarctic Peninsula and DP during the austral summer. The results suggest that SST and distances from oceanographic boundaries, mainly the Southern Antarctic Circumpolar Current Front (SACCF) and Polar Front (PF), were the most significant parameters related to the presence/absence of cetaceans. SST showed an effect on humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) presence around lower temperatures and sei whale (Balaenoptera borealis) and hourglass dolphin (Lagenorhynchus cruciger) at warmer waters. Four species of baleen whales prefer areas near SACCF and Elephant Island and two odontocetes in waters near the PF. Clustering analysis reflected three major groupings based on distances from oceanic fronts and coast: cetaceans that occurred in the northern sector of the DP but with the PF as the southernmost range; a second group with species occurring along the DP and not preferring Antarctic waters further south of the SACCF; and the third group, mainly baleen whales, mostly occupying Antarctic waters southern of the SACCF. We encourage further dedicated cetacean surveys in this particular dynamic region, based on in situ oceanographic data and krill acoustic sampling, and either taking into consideration cetacean species density or abundance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aerial tissues of Tilia americana var. mexicana produce compounds with anxiolytic activity, such as quercetin 3-O-β-d-glucoside and tiliroside, in addition to ones with anti-inflammatory properties, such as scopoletin. These three compounds were initially identified in callus cultures of apical buds. In the present study, suspension cultures from leaf explant callus were established; the accumulation of scopoletin and quercetin 3-O-β-d-glucoside in these cultures were found to be cell-growth-associated using cell growth and active compound-production kinetics assays. The effects of varying the nitrate and copper concentrations in Murashige and Skoog (MS, 27.4 mM total nitrates and 0.01 µM copper) medium on the growth of a suspension culture of T. americana cells and on the production of active compounds were tested by means of central composite design (CCD) generally used in the response surface methodology (RSM). Cell growth, measured as maximal biomass, improved when the total nitrate concentration decreased in the MS medium to 13.7 mM (p < 0.01) regardless of the copper concentration. As a phytoalexin, scopoletin accumulated rapidly in plants after pathogen infection, in the suspension cultures scopoletin yield was stimulated by increased copper concentration to 1.2 μM (p < 0.01). According to the C:N hypothesis, the carbon excess generated by nitrates reduced to 8.03 mM (p < 0.01) stimulated the production of quercetin 3-O-β-d-glucoside. Cell suspension of T. americana represents a potential biotechnological alternative for industrial exploitation in a stirred-tank bioreactor using a two-phase process: (1) the first step will be to grow the cell suspension, (2) the second stage will consist in handle the suspension culture towards the production of anxiolytic compounds or towards the production of anti-inflammatory compounds. As well as to evaluate another elicitors to stimulate tiliroside production in the T. americana suspension cultures. Key message: Tilia americana cells grown in a two-phases suspension culture system produce more scopoletin and quercetin 3-O-β-d-glucoside when exposed to increased concentrations of copper and decreased concentrations of total nitrates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study aimed to verify if important biological data are being lost in a well-sampled region due to areas neglected by most biodiversity surveys. We performed a floristic and structural survey of an Atlantic Forest located at the bottom of an escarpment, in the southern region of the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. A total of 19 plots of 400 m2 were allocated, totaling 0.76 ha of sampled area. All arboreal individuals with a diameter at breast height equal to or greater than 5 cm were sampled. We also collected surface soil samples for analysis. In order to evaluate the influence of edaphic factors and scarp on the tree community, a canonical correspondence analysis was performed. In order to analyze whether the studied forest is similar to or distinct from the rest of the region, a detrended correspondence analysis was carried out with 15 Atlantic Forest surveys located in the surroundings of the study area. The high floristic diversity and the structural variations found in the studied forest were attributed to the environmental heterogeneity due to the influences of the escarpment and the variations in the soil conditions, resulting in a forest with its own floristic composition and structure. The study suggested that important biological data are being lost in biodiversity surveys, even in well-sampled areas, due to neglected areas of difficult access. Thus, it is important the inclusion of these neglected sites in biodiversity inventories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-offspring maternal care should be common in phocids, but their occurrence would be uncommon among otariids due to the high costs of raising offspring, particularly lactation, and an efficient recognition system that allow for accurate recognition during the frequent mother-pup re-associations. However, non-offspring maternal care has been documented in some otariid species. While the phenomenon in general is not novel among the colonially breeding seals, the exclusive care to a single pup by two lactating females for an extended time is a behavior scarcely documented in natural population. In an extension of this allonursing care, we document the first case of the kidnapping of a pup with subsequent shared nursing in Antarctic fur seal including data on the effect of this interaction on the pup's growth. While all other lactating females nursed exclusively their own pups, the shared nursing was advantageous for the pup because he grew noticeably larger (in weight and axillary girth) than other of his cohort, particularly after 50 days. This advantage would have been influenced by the asynchrony of the foraging cycle of the biological and foster mother, which resulted in a higher attendance on shore than any other male pups. Although several explanations have been hypothesized for allolactation in mammals, our observations suggest a misguided parental care, associated with recognition errors by the foster mother whose pup was stillborn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The diet of Weddell seals ( Leptonychotes weddellii) varies regionally, and fish and cephalopods are thought to be the most important food source. However, there is limited information on the cephalopod component of the Weddell seal's diet in the South Shetland Islands. We investigated cephalopod remains in the diet of Weddell seals by analysing 21 scats collected on three beaches at Cape Shirreff, Livingston Island, Antarctica, from 1 to 20 February 1999. Although the number of scats is small and collected from only 1 month a long time ago, fish and cephalopods were present in 21 and 16 of the scats, respectively. Only cephalopods of the order Octopoda were represented. Thaumeledone sp. was the most abundant prey species in terms of numbers, followed by Pareledone charcoti and P. turqueti. The latter two species showed the highest frequency of occurrence in scats (10 and 9, respectively). Graneledone macrotyla, Opistoteuthis sp., Argonauta sp., Haliphron sp. and Thaumeledone sp. are new species identified in the diet of Weddell seals in the present study, but all made a negligible contribution to their diet at Cape Shirreff. Our findings agree with previous dietary studies of Weddell seals at other localities in the South Shetland Islands and the Antarctic Peninsula, which showed a relatively greater contribution of octopods to the diet compared with squid in summer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interferons play a key role in fish resistance to viral infections by inducing the expression of antiviral proteins, such as Mx. The aim of the present study was to test the antiviral activity of the Senegalese sole Mx protein (SsMx) against RNA and DNA viruses pathogenic to fish, i.e. the infectious pancreatic necrosis virus (IPNV, dsRNA), the viral haemorrhagic septicaemia virus (VHSV, ssRNA), and the European sheatfish virus (ESV, dsDNA), using a CHSE-214 cell clone expressing this antiviral protein. A strong inhibition of IPNV and VHSV replication was recorded in SsMx-expressing cells, as has been shown by the virus yield reduction and the decrease in the synthesis of the viral RNA encoding the polyprotein (for IPNV) and the nucleoprotein (for VHSV). The titres of these viruses replicating on SsMx-expressing cells were 100 times lower than those recorded on non-transfected cells. In contrast, SsMx did not inhibit ESV replication since no significant differences were observed regarding the virus yield or the major capsid protein gene transcription in transfected and non-transfected cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reduced NiMgO solid solutions are promising catalytic materials for the dry reforming of methane with carbon dioxide, a reaction of tremendous importance that converts two green-house gases into syn-gas. Conventional nickel-based catalysts have been found to encounter carbon deposition (i.e., coking), one of the major resources that cause the catalyst deactivation. Previous studies suggested that MgO-supported Ni nanoparticles produced from the reduction of NiMgO can inhibit the accumulation of carbon. The efficiency and durability of the catalyst strongly depends on the morphology. Here we employed density functional theory to investigate the structural changes of the NiMgO(100) solid solution under different conditions. Our results show that Ni ions preferentially anti-segregate to the subsurface layers of the MgO matrix during the NiO-MgO intermixing. Under reducing conditions, Ni ions facilitates the generation of oxygen vacancies, which prefer to couple together with Ni ions inside the MgO matrix to form a Ni ion-oxygen vacancy pair. In addition, the segregation of a Ni ion-oxygen vacancy pair can be controlled by changing the concentrations of Ni ions. This is driven by the strong interaction between oxygen vacancies and Ni ions. It is well known that oxygen vacancies play an important role during a catalytic reaction on an oxide, providing active sites to help the adsorption and dissociation of reaction intermediates. Our results show that in mixed oxides oxygen vacancies could also drive the segregation of the catalytically active components and provide new opportunities to tune the catalytic activity of oxides. Graphical Abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mesopelagic zone of the Red Sea represents an extreme environment due to low food concentrations, high temperatures and low oxygen waters. Nevertheless, a 38 kHz echosounder identified at least four distinct scattering layers during the daytime, of which the 2 deepest layers resided entirely within the mesopelagic zone. Two of the acoustic layers were found above a mesopelagic oxygen minimum zone (OMZ), one layer overlapped with the OMZ, and one layer was found below the OMZ. Almost all organisms in the deep layers migrated to the near-surface waters during the night. Backscatter from a 300 kHz lowered Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler indicated a layer of zooplankton within the OMZ. They carried out DVM, yet a portion remained at mesopelagic depths during the night. Our acoustic measurements showed that the bulk of the acoustic backscatter was restricted to waters shallower than 800 m, suggesting that most of the biomass in the Red Sea resides above this depth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A vagrant adult male Subantarctic fur seal Arctocephalus tropicalis was observed among Antarctic fur seals A. gazella at Cape Shirreff, Livingston Island, Antarctica, which is located to ~4,190 and ~5,939 km from the nearest breeding colonies of Subantarctic fur seals. Although the colony of origin of this animal and the reason for its movement outside its distribution range are unknown, this sighting shows the high dispersal capacity of this species and provides an insight into possible changes in its distribution. Although this vagrant was not observed with females Antarctic fur seal, news sightings in the future could result in viable hybrid, and introgressive hybridization could represent a threat for Cape Shirreff population recovery, if still the population way to go to recover to presailing levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Antarctic fur seal, Arctocephalus gazella, in the eastern South Pacific Ocean, first reported on Hoste Island, Cape Horn in 1973, and then on the Juan Fernandez Archipelago in 1982 and 1983, was recorded again in October and December 2009 on the southern coast of Chile. Three different individuals were seen simultaneously on a single day at Punta Dungenes, Magellan Strait, and a fourth individual was sighted at the northeastern coast of Almirantazgo Sound, Tierra del Fuego. These records represent the first sightings of live Arctocephalus gazella in southern Chile. Although it is difficult to establish both their origin and rationale for dispersion outside of their distribution range, the substantial breeding population recovery in South Georgia and food shortages during the breeding and post-breeding season are suggested as possible explanations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To our knowledge, this paper is the first record/report of a juvenile light-coloured Weddell seal ( Leptonychotes weddellii) at Cape Shirreff, Livingston Island in January 1998, determining that it was an albino individual. Based on available literature, three cases of albino seals have been reported exclusively for Harbour seal pups, and no albino has been reported for Antarctic pagophilic true seals. Therefore, this is the first confirmed case of albinism in Antarctic pagophilic true seals species, indicating that this phenomenon is indeed of a rare occurrence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated the variation of Antarctic fur seal ( Arctocephalus gazella) pup growth rates in response to sex, breeding season and duration of both maternal foraging trip and attendance bouts. Data were collected during five consecutive rearing seasons at Cape Shirreff, the most important breeding colony in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica. Our results showed significant interannual and sexual variations in pup growth rates. Male pups grew significantly faster than female pups during 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2004 seasons, whilst during 2003 no difference was found. The interannual variation in pup growth rates was correlated with the interannual fluctuation in maternal foraging trip and attendance bouts. There was a significant effect of pup sex and maternal foraging trip duration on pup growth rates, which varied between years having foraging trip duration a major effect during 2003, when females spent more time at sea and interestingly on that year there were no sexual differences in pup growth rates. The effect of attendance bout on pup growth rates was not significant. Diet analysis showed that Antarctic krill ( Euphausia superba) was the most frequent prey item during the study period. Analysis of krill size distribution showed a significant difference in krill length, during 2003, when A. gazella preyed upon the smallest sizes of krill. In this study, sex was the most important factor on pup growth rates, but when prey availability seemed more limited, there are longer foraging trips and shorter attendance bouts the sex factor became less significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We document five cases of unusual colouration in Antarctic fur seals, Arctocephalus gazella, at Cape Shirreff, Livingston Island, from 1991–1992 to 2005–2006 austral summer seasons. This is the first time that these colour patterns have been reported for this species. These included four rare light coloured animals and one piebald individual. The incidence of this atypical colouring was low and the lack of resightings in previous and subsequent seasons suggests that these morphs are not common in Antarctic fur seals. Although the causes of these atypical light colour patterns are uncertain the subject is interesting for study and more observations on these atypical colourations are required for a proper assessment of the ecological and physiological implications of this condition in otariids can be conducted in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gadd45α is a predominantly nuclear protein encoded by a DNA-damage-inducible gene which is transcriptionally regulated by the tumor suppressor p53. The interactions of Gadd45α with several other proteins play a central role in DNA repair, cell cycle control and apoptosis. The NMR assignments of human Gadd45α protein reported here provide the basis for further characterization of these interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We document the influence of fetus orientation in the time invested in the birthing process of Antarctic fur seals at Cape Shirreff, Antarctica. Our results show that breeching was significantly higher than cephalic orientation on the order of 1.5:1. The average duration of the birthing process was 37.26 min, and the average duration considering the fetus orientation was 27.22 and 49.39 min for the cephalic and breech, respectively. The average time was significantly different only in the phase from the appearance of the amniotic-allantoids sac to the complete expulsion of the pup. Possible explanations for this difference are: the friction between the opposite hair direction with the uterus-vaginal wall after the rupture of amnio-allantoid sac during the transit of the fetus in breech position, and/or the fact one or both front flippers would increase the scapular diameter and make the final step of fetus delivery more difficult. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PCNA is an essential factor for DNA replication, repair, chromatin metabolism, and effector of cell-cycle regulatory signals. The assignment of backbone 1HN, 13Cα, 13CO, and 15N, and sidechain 13Cβ resonances of the human PCNA homotrimeric ring (∼90 kDa, 261 residues) is reported here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rectal swabs were collected from Antarctic fur seal pups Arctocephalus gazella at Cape Shirreff, South Shetland Islands, and analyzed for the presence of anthropogenic pathogens. Two of the 33 pups tested positive for enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC). These samples are the first records of EPEC in Antarctic wildlife and suggest that more needs to be done to protect the Antarctic fauna from exotic anthropogenic pathogens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Offshore oil spills are a critical form of marine pollution, requiring researchers to mitigate their impacts. In this sense, this paper contributes to a better understanding of oil behavior after spillage and the improvement of contingency measures. Using Bacia de Campos as the study area, which accounts for approximately 32% of daily oil and gas production in Brazil, information regarding the properties of light, medium, and heavy oils, seawater, wind and wave weather conditions, and oil spill characteristics was used to perform simulations to identify the percentage of oil remaining after the offshore spill and the effectiveness of the chemical dispersant in dispersing this oil. The results show that after the weathering simulation, on average, 55% of the spilled oil remains at sea in dispersed and remaining form and that the use of chemical dispersant under the conditions defined in this study did not result in significant oil removal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Compare the safety and efficacy of polyvinyl alcohol particles (PVA) versus trisacryl gelatin microspheres (Embospheres) versus hydrogel microspheres coated with polyzene-F (Embozenes) for prostatic artery embolization (PAE) to treat patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH).A single-center prospective cohort study from 2019 to 2023, including patients with international prostate symptom score (IPSS) ≥ 15 and/or quality of life score (QoL) ≥ 4. Allocation to embolic agents was performed chronologically: 100–300 µm PVA (n = 53), followed by 300–500 µm Embospheres (n = 50), and finally, 400 µm Embozenes (n = 50). All patients were evaluated at baseline and at 1 and 6 months after PAE with IPSS/QoL; peak urinary flow rate, post-void residual volume, and prostate volume with ultrasound and prostate-specific antigen. Adverse events and the need for prostatic re-interventions were assessed.There were no significant baseline differences between the three groups except for patient age (62.5 years PVA; 66.1 years Embospheres and 66.6 years Embozenes; p = 0.019). There were no major adverse events and no differences between groups regarding minor adverse events. All outcome measures improved significantly from baseline, with no significant differences between groups. Mean ± standard deviation IPSS/QoL improvement at 6 months: −10.7 ± 7.9/−2.2 ± 1.7 PVA; −10.4 ± 7.3/−2.0 ± 1.5 Embospheres; −10.4 ± 7.0/−2.2 ± 1.6 Embozenes (p = 0.987). Re-intervention rates after 6 months: 9% (n = 5/53) PVA; 14% (n = 7/50) Embospheres; 8% (n = 4/50) Embozenes (p = 0.591).PAE with PVA particles, Embospheres, and Embozenes is equally safe and effective in treating BPH-related lower urinary tract symptoms.This is the first prospective study showing equivalence between the most frequently used embolic agents for prostatic artery embolization.Different particles can be used interchangeably for prostatic artery embolization.The improvements in measured metrics were the same between groups, with no differences in adverse events.The need for prostatic medication and re-intervention rates were the same at 1 and 6 months after embolization.Different particles can be used interchangeably for prostatic artery embolization.The improvements in measured metrics were the same between groups, with no differences in adverse events.The need for prostatic medication and re-intervention rates were the same at 1 and 6 months after embolization.Materials and methods: Compare the safety and efficacy of polyvinyl alcohol particles (PVA) versus trisacryl gelatin microspheres (Embospheres) versus hydrogel microspheres coated with polyzene-F (Embozenes) for prostatic artery embolization (PAE) to treat patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH).A single-center prospective cohort study from 2019 to 2023, including patients with international prostate symptom score (IPSS) ≥ 15 and/or quality of life score (QoL) ≥ 4. Allocation to embolic agents was performed chronologically: 100–300 µm PVA (n = 53), followed by 300–500 µm Embospheres (n = 50), and finally, 400 µm Embozenes (n = 50). All patients were evaluated at baseline and at 1 and 6 months after PAE with IPSS/QoL; peak urinary flow rate, post-void residual volume, and prostate volume with ultrasound and prostate-specific antigen. Adverse events and the need for prostatic re-interventions were assessed.There were no significant baseline differences between the three groups except for patient age (62.5 years PVA; 66.1 years Embospheres and 66.6 years Embozenes; p = 0.019). There were no major adverse events and no differences between groups regarding minor adverse events. All outcome measures improved significantly from baseline, with no significant differences between groups. Mean ± standard deviation IPSS/QoL improvement at 6 months: −10.7 ± 7.9/−2.2 ± 1.7 PVA; −10.4 ± 7.3/−2.0 ± 1.5 Embospheres; −10.4 ± 7.0/−2.2 ± 1.6 Embozenes (p = 0.987). Re-intervention rates after 6 months: 9% (n = 5/53) PVA; 14% (n = 7/50) Embospheres; 8% (n = 4/50) Embozenes (p = 0.591).PAE with PVA particles, Embospheres, and Embozenes is equally safe and effective in treating BPH-related lower urinary tract symptoms.This is the first prospective study showing equivalence between the most frequently used embolic agents for prostatic artery embolization.Different particles can be used interchangeably for prostatic artery embolization.The improvements in measured metrics were the same between groups, with no differences in adverse events.The need for prostatic medication and re-intervention rates were the same at 1 and 6 months after embolization.Different particles can be used interchangeably for prostatic artery embolization.The improvements in measured metrics were the same between groups, with no differences in adverse events.The need for prostatic medication and re-intervention rates were the same at 1 and 6 months after embolization.Results: Compare the safety and efficacy of polyvinyl alcohol particles (PVA) versus trisacryl gelatin microspheres (Embospheres) versus hydrogel microspheres coated with polyzene-F (Embozenes) for prostatic artery embolization (PAE) to treat patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH).A single-center prospective cohort study from 2019 to 2023, including patients with international prostate symptom score (IPSS) ≥ 15 and/or quality of life score (QoL) ≥ 4. Allocation to embolic agents was performed chronologically: 100–300 µm PVA (n = 53), followed by 300–500 µm Embospheres (n = 50), and finally, 400 µm Embozenes (n = 50). All patients were evaluated at baseline and at 1 and 6 months after PAE with IPSS/QoL; peak urinary flow rate, post-void residual volume, and prostate volume with ultrasound and prostate-specific antigen. Adverse events and the need for prostatic re-interventions were assessed.There were no significant baseline differences between the three groups except for patient age (62.5 years PVA; 66.1 years Embospheres and 66.6 years Embozenes; p = 0.019). There were no major adverse events and no differences between groups regarding minor adverse events. All outcome measures improved significantly from baseline, with no significant differences between groups. Mean ± standard deviation IPSS/QoL improvement at 6 months: −10.7 ± 7.9/−2.2 ± 1.7 PVA; −10.4 ± 7.3/−2.0 ± 1.5 Embospheres; −10.4 ± 7.0/−2.2 ± 1.6 Embozenes (p = 0.987). Re-intervention rates after 6 months: 9% (n = 5/53) PVA; 14% (n = 7/50) Embospheres; 8% (n = 4/50) Embozenes (p = 0.591).PAE with PVA particles, Embospheres, and Embozenes is equally safe and effective in treating BPH-related lower urinary tract symptoms.This is the first prospective study showing equivalence between the most frequently used embolic agents for prostatic artery embolization.Different particles can be used interchangeably for prostatic artery embolization.The improvements in measured metrics were the same between groups, with no differences in adverse events.The need for prostatic medication and re-intervention rates were the same at 1 and 6 months after embolization.Different particles can be used interchangeably for prostatic artery embolization.The improvements in measured metrics were the same between groups, with no differences in adverse events.The need for prostatic medication and re-intervention rates were the same at 1 and 6 months after embolization.Conclusions: Compare the safety and efficacy of polyvinyl alcohol particles (PVA) versus trisacryl gelatin microspheres (Embospheres) versus hydrogel microspheres coated with polyzene-F (Embozenes) for prostatic artery embolization (PAE) to treat patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH).A single-center prospective cohort study from 2019 to 2023, including patients with international prostate symptom score (IPSS) ≥ 15 and/or quality of life score (QoL) ≥ 4. Allocation to embolic agents was performed chronologically: 100–300 µm PVA (n = 53), followed by 300–500 µm Embospheres (n = 50), and finally, 400 µm Embozenes (n = 50). All patients were evaluated at baseline and at 1 and 6 months after PAE with IPSS/QoL; peak urinary flow rate, post-void residual volume, and prostate volume with ultrasound and prostate-specific antigen. Adverse events and the need for prostatic re-interventions were assessed.There were no significant baseline differences between the three groups except for patient age (62.5 years PVA; 66.1 years Embospheres and 66.6 years Embozenes; p = 0.019). There were no major adverse events and no differences between groups regarding minor adverse events. All outcome measures improved significantly from baseline, with no significant differences between groups. Mean ± standard deviation IPSS/QoL improvement at 6 months: −10.7 ± 7.9/−2.2 ± 1.7 PVA; −10.4 ± 7.3/−2.0 ± 1.5 Embospheres; −10.4 ± 7.0/−2.2 ± 1.6 Embozenes (p = 0.987). Re-intervention rates after 6 months: 9% (n = 5/53) PVA; 14% (n = 7/50) Embospheres; 8% (n = 4/50) Embozenes (p = 0.591).PAE with PVA particles, Embospheres, and Embozenes is equally safe and effective in treating BPH-related lower urinary tract symptoms.This is the first prospective study showing equivalence between the most frequently used embolic agents for prostatic artery embolization.Different particles can be used interchangeably for prostatic artery embolization.The improvements in measured metrics were the same between groups, with no differences in adverse events.The need for prostatic medication and re-intervention rates were the same at 1 and 6 months after embolization.Different particles can be used interchangeably for prostatic artery embolization.The improvements in measured metrics were the same between groups, with no differences in adverse events.The need for prostatic medication and re-intervention rates were the same at 1 and 6 months after embolization.Clinical relevance statement: Compare the safety and efficacy of polyvinyl alcohol particles (PVA) versus trisacryl gelatin microspheres (Embospheres) versus hydrogel microspheres coated with polyzene-F (Embozenes) for prostatic artery embolization (PAE) to treat patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH).A single-center prospective cohort study from 2019 to 2023, including patients with international prostate symptom score (IPSS) ≥ 15 and/or quality of life score (QoL) ≥ 4. Allocation to embolic agents was performed chronologically: 100–300 µm PVA (n = 53), followed by 300–500 µm Embospheres (n = 50), and finally, 400 µm Embozenes (n = 50). All patients were evaluated at baseline and at 1 and 6 months after PAE with IPSS/QoL; peak urinary flow rate, post-void residual volume, and prostate volume with ultrasound and prostate-specific antigen. Adverse events and the need for prostatic re-interventions were assessed.There were no significant baseline differences between the three groups except for patient age (62.5 years PVA; 66.1 years Embospheres and 66.6 years Embozenes; p = 0.019). There were no major adverse events and no differences between groups regarding minor adverse events. All outcome measures improved significantly from baseline, with no significant differences between groups. Mean ± standard deviation IPSS/QoL improvement at 6 months: −10.7 ± 7.9/−2.2 ± 1.7 PVA; −10.4 ± 7.3/−2.0 ± 1.5 Embospheres; −10.4 ± 7.0/−2.2 ± 1.6 Embozenes (p = 0.987). Re-intervention rates after 6 months: 9% (n = 5/53) PVA; 14% (n = 7/50) Embospheres; 8% (n = 4/50) Embozenes (p = 0.591).PAE with PVA particles, Embospheres, and Embozenes is equally safe and effective in treating BPH-related lower urinary tract symptoms.This is the first prospective study showing equivalence between the most frequently used embolic agents for prostatic artery embolization.Different particles can be used interchangeably for prostatic artery embolization.The improvements in measured metrics were the same between groups, with no differences in adverse events.The need for prostatic medication and re-intervention rates were the same at 1 and 6 months after embolization.Different particles can be used interchangeably for prostatic artery embolization.The improvements in measured metrics were the same between groups, with no differences in adverse events.The need for prostatic medication and re-intervention rates were the same at 1 and 6 months after embolization.Key Points: Compare the safety and efficacy of polyvinyl alcohol particles (PVA) versus trisacryl gelatin microspheres (Embospheres) versus hydrogel microspheres coated with polyzene-F (Embozenes) for prostatic artery embolization (PAE) to treat patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH).A single-center prospective cohort study from 2019 to 2023, including patients with international prostate symptom score (IPSS) ≥ 15 and/or quality of life score (QoL) ≥ 4. Allocation to embolic agents was performed chronologically: 100–300 µm PVA (n = 53), followed by 300–500 µm Embospheres (n = 50), and finally, 400 µm Embozenes (n = 50). All patients were evaluated at baseline and at 1 and 6 months after PAE with IPSS/QoL; peak urinary flow rate, post-void residual volume, and prostate volume with ultrasound and prostate-specific antigen. Adverse events and the need for prostatic re-interventions were assessed.There were no significant baseline differences between the three groups except for patient age (62.5 years PVA; 66.1 years Embospheres and 66.6 years Embozenes; p = 0.019). There were no major adverse events and no differences between groups regarding minor adverse events. All outcome measures improved significantly from baseline, with no significant differences between groups. Mean ± standard deviation IPSS/QoL improvement at 6 months: −10.7 ± 7.9/−2.2 ± 1.7 PVA; −10.4 ± 7.3/−2.0 ± 1.5 Embospheres; −10.4 ± 7.0/−2.2 ± 1.6 Embozenes (p = 0.987). Re-intervention rates after 6 months: 9% (n = 5/53) PVA; 14% (n = 7/50) Embospheres; 8% (n = 4/50) Embozenes (p = 0.591).PAE with PVA particles, Embospheres, and Embozenes is equally safe and effective in treating BPH-related lower urinary tract symptoms.This is the first prospective study showing equivalence between the most frequently used embolic agents for prostatic artery embolization.Different particles can be used interchangeably for prostatic artery embolization.The improvements in measured metrics were the same between groups, with no differences in adverse events.The need for prostatic medication and re-intervention rates were the same at 1 and 6 months after embolization.Different particles can be used interchangeably for prostatic artery embolization.The improvements in measured metrics were the same between groups, with no differences in adverse events.The need for prostatic medication and re-intervention rates were the same at 1 and 6 months after embolization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solid-solid phase transitions are processes ripe for the discovery of correlated atomic motion in crystals. Here, we monitor an order-disorder transition in real-time in nanoparticles of the super-ionic solid, Cu2−xSe. The use of in-situ high-resolution transmission electron microscopy allows the spatiotemporal evolution of the phase transition within a single nanoparticle to be monitored at the atomic level. The high spatial resolution reveals that cation disorder is nucleated at low co-ordination, high energy sites of the nanoparticle where cationic vacancy layers intersect with surface facets. Time-dependent evolution of the reciprocal lattice of individual nanoparticles shows that the initiation of cation disorder is accompanied by a ~3% compression of the anionic lattice, establishing a correlation between these two structural features of the lattice. The spatiotemporal insights gained here advance understanding of order-disorder transitions, ionic structure and transport, and the role of nanoparticle surfaces in phase transitions. Solid-solid phase transitions are processes ripe for the discovery of correlated atomic motion in crystals. Here, the authors monitor an order-disorder transition in real-time in a single nanoparticle of the super-ionic solid, cuprous selenide, using in-situ high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unveiling the regulatory pathways maintaining hepatic stellate cells (HSC) in a quiescent (q) phenotype is essential to develop new therapeutic strategies to treat fibrogenic diseases. To uncover the miRNA-mRNA regulatory interactions in qHSCs, HSCs were FACS-sorted from healthy livers and activated HSCs (aHSCs) were generated in vitro. MiRNA Taqman array analysis showed HSCs expressed a low number of miRNAs (n = 259), from which 47 were down-regulated and 212 up-regulated upon activation. Computational integration of miRNA and gene expression profiles revealed that 66% of qHSC-associated miRNAs correlated with more than 6 altered target mRNAs (17,28 ± 10,7 targets/miRNA) whereas aHSC-associated miRNAs had an average of 1,49 targeted genes. Interestingly, interaction networks generated by miRNA-targeted genes in qHSCs were associated with key HSC activation processes. Next, selected miRNAs were validated in healthy and cirrhotic human livers and miR-192 was chosen for functional analysis. Down-regulation of miR-192 in HSCs was found to be an early event during fibrosis progression in mouse models of liver injury. Moreover, mimic assays for miR-192 in HSCs revealed its role in HSC activation, proliferation and migration. Together, these results uncover the importance of miRNAs in the maintenance of the qHSC phenotype and form the basis for understanding the regulatory networks in HSCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A letter to the editor is presented in response to the article "Consensus on Circulatory Shock and Hemodynamic Monitoring," by Cecconi et al., published on December 5, 2014.