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Presently, skin burns are considered one of the main public health problems and lack therapeutic options. In recent years, silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) have been widely studied, playing an increasingly important role in wound healing due to their antibacterial activity. This work is focused on the production and characterization of AgNPs loaded in a Pluronic® F127 hydrogel, as well as assessing its antimicrobial and wound-healing potential. Pluronic® F127 has been extensively explored for therapeutic applications mainly due to its appealing properties. The developed AgNPs had an average size of 48.04 ± 14.87 nm (when prepared by method C) and a negative surface charge. Macroscopically, the AgNPs solution presented a translucent yellow coloration with a characteristic absorption peak at 407 nm. Microscopically, the AgNPs presented a multiform morphology with small sizes (~50 nm). Skin permeation studies revealed that no AgNPs permeated the skin after 24 h. AgNPs further demonstrated antimicrobial activity against different bacterial species predominant in burns. A chemical burn model was developed to perform preliminary in vivo assays and the results showed that the performance of the developed AgNPs loaded in hydrogel, with smaller silver dose, was comparable with a commercial silver cream using higher doses. In conclusion, hydrogel-loaded AgNPs is potentially an important resource in the treatment of skin burns due to their proven efficacy by topical administration.

The aggressiveness of melanoma and lack of effective therapies incite the discovery of novel strategies. Recently, a new dual acting hybrid molecule (HM), combining a triazene and a ʟ-tyrosine analogue, was synthesized. HM was designed to specifically be activated by tyrosinase, the enzyme involved in melanin biosynthesis and overexpressed in melanoma. HM displayed remarkable superior antiproliferative activity towards various cancer cell lines compared with temozolomide (TMZ), a triazene drug in clinical use, that acts through DNA alkylation. In B16-F10 cells, HM induced a cell cycle arrest at phase G0/G1 with a 2.8-fold decrease in cell proliferation index. Also, compared to control cells, HM led to a concentration-dependent reduction in tyrosinase activity and increase in caspase 3/7 activity. To maximize the therapeutic performance of HM in vivo, its incorporation in long blood circulating liposomes, containing poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) at their surface, was performed for passively targeting tumour sites. HM liposomes (LIP HM) exhibited high stability in biological fluids. Preclinical studies demonstrated its safety for systemic administration and in a subcutaneous murine melanoma model, significantly reduced tumour progression. In a metastatic murine melanoma model, a superior antitumour effect was also observed for mice receiving LIP HM, with markedly reduction of lung metastases compared to positive control group (TMZ). Biodistribution studies using

Background Intravenous drug administration is associated with potential complications, such as phlebitis. The physiochemical characteristics of the infusate play a very important role in some of these problems. Aim The aim of this study was to standardize the dilutions of intravenous drugs most commonly used in hospitalized adult patients and to characterize their pH, osmolarity and cytotoxic nature to better guide the selection of the most appropriate vascular access. Methods The project was conducted in three phases: (i) standardization of intravenous therapy, which was conducted using a modified double-round Delphi method; (ii) characterization of the dilutions agreed on in the previous phase by means of determining the osmolarity and pH of each of the agreed concentrations, and recording the vesicant nature based on the information in literature; and (iii) algorithm proposal for selecting the most appropriate vascular access, taking into account the information gathered in the previous phases. Results In total, 112 drugs were standardized and 307 different admixtures were assessed for pH, osmolarity and vesicant nature. Of these, 123 admixtures (40%), had osmolarity values >600 mOsm/L, pH < 4 or > 9, or were classified as vesicants. In these cases, selection of the most suitable route of infusion and vascular access device is crucial to minimize the risk of phlebitis-type complications. Conclusions Increasing safety of intravenous therapy should be a priority in the healthcare settings. Knowing the characteristics of drugs to assess the risk involved in their administration related to their physicochemical nature may be useful to guide decision making regarding the most appropriate vascular access and devices.

INTRODUCTION In primary or refractory cases of Raynaud's Disease (RD), with severe symptoms (pain, ulcers, and disability), minimally invasive surgical treatments such as thoracoscopic sympathectomy have recently been proposed. The objective of this study will be to evaluate the viability, feasibility and results of this therapeutic option in this type of patient. MATERIAL AND METHODS Descriptive prospective study from January 2017 to January 2019 where all patients with a diagnosis of RD, with poor clinical control and disability, and refractory to medical treatment are collected. RESULTS Seven girls (9-15 years old) were collected. All underwent bilateral thoracoscopic sympathectomy, T2-T4, with a mean surgical time of 55 min. No need for pleural drainage. All of them were discharged before 36 hours after surgery (12-36 hours) without any immediate intra or postoperative complications. All reported an immediate postoperative period without incident, without new episodes of pain or intense vasoconstriction. However, 6 months after surgery, 3 of the 7 (42.85%) presented partial reappearance of the symptoms. However, the 7 presented 100% satisfaction with the surgical results. CONCLUSIONS There are currently very few published studies regarding this surgical option. We believe that our series is the first pediatric series to be collected, although it is very limited. However, the results obtained to date, in global terms, are encouraging. We consider that thoracoscopic sympathectomy is a feasible and safe surgical technique to consider in patients with RD refractory to conservative treatment.

Globally, thyroid cancer accounts for 2 % of all cancer diagnoses, and can be classified as well-differentiated or undifferentiated. Currently, differentiated thyroid carcinomas have good prognoses, and can be treated with a combination of therapies, including surgical thyroidectomy, radioactive iodine therapy and hormone-based therapy. On the other hand, anaplastic thyroid carcinoma, a subtype of undifferentiated thyroid carcinoma characterized by the loss of thyroid-like phenotype and function, does not respond to either radioactive iodine or hormone therapies. In most cases, anaplastic thyroid carcinomas are diagnosed in later stages of the disease, deeming them inoperable, and showing poor response rates to systemic chemotherapy. Recently, treatment courses using multiple-target agents are being explored and clinical trials have shown very promising results, such as overall survival rates, progression-free survival and tumor shrinkage. This review is focused on thyroid carcinomas, with particular focus on anaplastic thyroid carcinoma, exploring its undifferentiated nature. Special interest will be given to the treatment approaches currently available and respective obstacles or drawbacks. Our purpose is to contribute to understand why this malignancy presents low responsiveness to current treatments, while overviewing novel therapies and clinical trials.

Climate change is ongoing but the magnitude, extent and duration of its impacts is far from being known and, in particular, its consequence on Earth’s life is still under study. This article presents an overview about many research lines aiming to increase the resilience of chestnut in climate changes frame. In Europe, chestnut is considered a Mediterranean crop, facing nowadays significant heat and drought stresses with important consequences on species health. So, modelling its production is fundamental to project the future production and species area redistribution according to the new expected climatic conditions. These models are being developed based on specific meteorological variables and indices well related to different aspects and stages of the vegetative cycle. For example, the best range of growing degree days (GDD) for better ‘Judia’’s chestnut production was found to be within the range 2000-2200°D (between May and October). At orchard level, it is also demonstrated the benefits of preserving a good soil herbaceous vegetation cover, complemented with smart irrigation which can prevent the reduction on nut production by about 25-50%, depending on the annual precipitation, and increase the edible mushroom production. Results also clearly demonstrated the importance of bees on pollination, where a decrease of about 70% was observed when they were absent. New hybrid rootstocks are being developed (e.g., ColUTAD) aiming to face the new climatic context, namely to maximize photosynthesis rate at high air temperature (T100 = 34°C). Also in ‘Judia’, such plasticity was observed between genotypes from cold and warm localities. Calibers ranged between 58 and 107 nuts kg-1. The tolerance against blight disease (Chryphonectria parasitica) also significantly varied. Finally, additional mineral nutrition with silicon seems to lead to a lower mortality rate and phenol’s inhibition as well as to an increased tolerance of the specie to thermal and hydric stress. The addition of silicon appears to have protective effect on trees against ink (Phytophthora cinnamomi) and blight diseases as well as to prepare and adapt trees for a future climate that is expected to be warmer and drier.

On April 20th, 2016, an explosion occurred in the “Pajaritos” petrochemical plant, in Coatzacoalcos, Mexico. The accident caused 32 deaths and almost 100 workers were seriously injured. At present, there is no official information about the cause of the accident and the existent reports are confidential. This paper proposes an explanation of what happened at the petrochemical plant facilities by considering the testimony of several witnesses and the process simulation. The strategy includes three steps: 1) the process simulation via Aspen Plus® software; 2) The hazardous process streams identification through the process stream index (PSI); and 3) The consequences description using the TNT method, ALOHA® and ANSYS FLUENT. The results agreed with the testimony of witnesses and indicated the level of environmental damage and the unavailable prioritization of process safety over the production and management systems. This indicates that these accidents are recurrent as a consequence of a low safety culture in developing countries.

Biometric person authentication has become an important area of fieldwork both for research and commercial purposes in the last few years. The development of the technology, now ready for practical applications, has encouraged the scientific community to focus on practical issues. In this sense, a key question is the decision threshold estimation. Biometric authentication is a pattern recognition problem where a final decision (identity accepted/rejected) must be taken; so, to set a correct decision threshold is essential, since the best system becomes useless if an inaccurate decision threshold is fixed. This work focuses on this subject for biometric systems based on manuscript signatures. The decision threshold can be client (signatory) dependent or the same for all (common threshold). In this paper, new approaches for both problems are shown. A new solution, based on the Multiple Linear Regression model, is proposed for client dependent decision threshold estimation or prediction. The state of the art shows that only independent variables based on the Gaussian scores distribution supposition have been used. Here, new robust parameters, not based on that supposition, have been successfully included in the model. This proposal has been evaluated by means of both a statistical validation and a performance comparison with the state of the art. When a common threshold is used, the problem is to normalize the client scores. A new proposal for this task is also shown, based on the use of the predicted client threshold. Both proposals have been multi-working point, multi-corpus and multi-classifier tested. Improvements from 12% to 57% have been achieved with respect to the state of the art in threshold prediction, while these improvements are from 15% to 40% in the score normalization task.

Os fundos de investimento são intermediários financeiros que apresentam diversas vantagens aos investidores, como, diversificação dos investimentos, gestão profissional, acesso aos mercados, liquidez, transparência, segregação que pode reduzir os conflitos de interesse, economias de escala e redução de custos. Dados da ANBIMA (2018) revelam que o patrimônio líquido administrado somava R$ 4,16 trilhões no final de dezembro de 2017. Com isso, surge a necessidade de estudar se a magnitude do patrimônio líquido dos fundos impacta sua performance. Este trabalho tem por objetivo determinar, no âmbito da indústria de fundos de renda fixa brasileira, os efeitos do patrimônio líquido em sua performance, para, então, verificar a existência de um intervalo de patrimônio líquido que a maximiza. O período de análise foi de janeiro de 2005 a dezembro de 2017, contemplando os fundos brasileiros de renda fixa ativos. Metodologicamente, o trabalho dividiu-se em quatro etapas. A primeira consiste na estimação da performance. Para isso, foram utilizados três métodos distintos: Retorno Ajustado ao Estilo, Índice Sharpe, ajustado por Israelsen (2005), e alfa, como alternativas para mensurá-la. Na segunda, realiza-se o agrupamento do PL defasado mensalmente em percentis de tamanho, identificando graficamente a relação entre a média dos grupos de PL e a performance. Na terceira, mensura-se os efeitos do PL dos fundos de investimento em sua performance. Assim, foram estimados três modelos de regressão com dados em painel, incluindo como variável explicativa o logaritmo do patrimônio líquido linear, quadrático e cúbico. Verificou-se que para o cálculo da performance com base no Retorno Ajustado ao Estilo e no índice Sharpe, os fundos apresentam economia de escala, com o aumento do volume sobre gestão. De outro lado, ao utilizar-se o alfa, apurou-se que inicialmente os fundos sofrem deseconomias de escala, porém, após o ponto de mínimo passa ganhar retornos crescentes de escala. Para a última etapa, foram utilizados dados simulados do PL para a visualização gráfica dos modelos estimados, encontrando-se que cada modelo apresentou um intervalo distinto. Assim, não se pode sumarizar o impacto. Para os resultados encontrados, constatou-se que os fundos de investimento em renda fixa apresentam influência do PL em sua performance, porém essa relação se altera conforme a métrica e a classe de fundo estudada. Em conformidade com o estudo de Yin (2016), validou-se que a performance calculada com base no Retorno Ajustado ao Estilo gerou resultados com menor ruído. Por meio dessa metodologia, tanto a amostra com todas as categorias, quanto o estudo das categorias individuais geraram um intervalo em que o logaritmo do PL estaria entre 10 e 15. Para O IS e o alfa, os resultados encontrados foram distintos e com baixa significância, o que pode ser justificado pelas limitações dessas medidas, principalmente, para o cálculo do alfa, uma vez que os fatores que impactam os fundos de renda fixa não estão consolidados Investment funds are financial intermediaries, which offer several advantages to investors, such as investments diversification, professional management, market access, liquidity, transparency, segregation that avoids conflicts of interest, economies of scale and cost reduction. According to data from ANBIMA (2018), assets under management totaled R$ 4.16 trillion at the end of December 2017. Therefore, it has become necessary to study whether the magnitude of fund assets impacts performance. This work aims to determine, within the Brazilian fixed income fund industry, the effect of total asset return on performance and then verify the existence of a range of assets that could arguably maximizes it. The period of analysis was between January 2005 and December 2017 and included active Brazilian fixed income funds. Methodologically, this work has four stages. The first one consisted of estimating performance. As such, the Style-adjusted Gross Return, Sharpe Index adjusted by Israelsen (2005) and alpha were applied. In the second stage, the lag assets were allocated into groups according to size percentiles, so, as to graphically identify the relationship between the mean asset group and performance. In the third phase, the effect of the investment fund assets on performance was estimated in three regression models with panel data, including as an explanatory variable the logarithm of linear, quadratic and cubic total assets. The result demonstrated that for the performance calculated through the Style-Adjusted Return and Sharpe Index, the funds presented an economy of scale with the increase of the volume under management. On the other hand, when using alpha, it was verified that initially the funds suffered diseconomies of scale, but they start to increase returns of scale after the minimum point had been reached. Finally, for the last step, simulated total asset data was used for the graphic visualization of the estimated models. The findings showed that each model presented a distinct range, thus the impact could not be summarized. The results in this research have demonstrated that the fixed income investment funds have a significant influence over the total assets in terms of their performance. However, this relationship changes according to the metric and the fund class studied. Yin (2016) demonstrated that the performance calculated based on the Style-Adjusted Return generated results with less noisy, which was in accord with this study. For this methodology, the sample with all categories and the study of the individual categories generated an interval in which the total assets logarithm was between 10 and 15. For IS and alpha, the results found were distinct and with low significance, which can be justified by the limitations of these measures, mainly for the alpha, because the factors that impact fixed income funds are not consolidated

To determine if experienced health care providers (HCPs) can recognise patients with fibromyalgia (FM) based on a limited set of personality items, exploring the existence of a FM personality.From the 240-item NEO-PI-R personality questionnaire, 8 HCPs from two different countries each selected 20 items they considered most discriminative of FM personality. Then, evaluating the scores on these items of 129 female patients with FM and 127 female controls, each HCP rated the probability of FM for each individual on a 0-10 scale. Personality characteristics (domains and facets) of selected items were determined. Scores of patients with FM and controls on the eight 20-item sets, and HCPs' estimates of each individual's probability of FM were analysed for their discriminative value.The eight 20-item sets discriminated for FM, with areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve ranging from 0.71-0.81. The estimated probabilities for FM showed, in general, percentages of correct classifications above 50%, with rising correct percentages for higher estimated probabilities. The most often chosen and discriminatory items were predominantly of the domain neuroticism (all with higher scores in FM), followed by some items of the facet trust (lower scores in FM).HCPs can, based on a limited set of items from a personality questionnaire, distinguish patients with FM from controls with a statistically significant probability. The HCPs' expectation that personality in FM patients is associated with higher levels for aspects of neuroticism (proneness to psychological distress) and lower scores for aspects of trust, proved to be correct.

In the present work a set of eight altarpieces of the 16th century (1532–1534), attributed to the Ferreirim Masters (Gregorio Lopes, Garcia Fernandes and Cristovao de Figueiredo), from the Santo Antonio de Ferreirim Monastery (North of Portugal), were analysed by micro-Raman spectroscopy. For this purpose some samples were taken from the paintings to characterise its artist's ‘school’. It was found that the preparation was made with chalk and gypsum and the palette composed mainly of lamp black, azurite, lead white (mixed with other pigments), lead–tin yellow type I, goethite (the main constituent of yellow ochre), red lead (as under painting), haematite (the main constituent of red ochre) and vermilion. Indigo was detected in one sample. Some derivatives and degradation products were found mainly in the panels subjected to high temperatures during a fire occurred in 1954: a degradation product from massicot or red lead, lead carbonate (dehydrated derivative of lead white), bassanite and anhydrite (hemi- and dehydrated forms of gypsum). These results are compared with those of previous total reflection X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (TXRF) analyses. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The purpose of this study was to quantify the antibiotics prescribed in the outpatient setting of all primary health care professionals in Catalonia during 1992-2007. We calculated prescribed defined daily doses per 1,000 inhabitants and day (DID) from data provided by the Catalonian Health Service. The antibiotics analysed belonged to the J01 group (ATC/DDD classification). The overall prescribing of antibacterials has decreased by 11.9% during this period (1992: 16.75 DID, 2007: 14.75 DID). During this 16-year period, an increase was observed for penicillins (from 46.1% in 1992 to 59.6% in 2007) and for quinolones (from 13.3% to 15.7%). The prescription of cephalosporins remained steady and, conversely, a decrease in macrolides was found (from 14.8% to 12.2%). The leading antibiotic prescribed in 2007 was amoxicillin plus clavulanic acid (5.15 DID), followed by amoxicillin (2.95 DID). The former has increased by 84.4% since 2002. Penicillin V prescribing reached a peak in 2007 with 0.034 DID. There has been a slight reduction in antibiotic prescription in this 16-year study, with an increase of penicillins, mainly at the expense of those of broader antibacterial spectrum. Awareness of the rational use of antibiotics is mandatory, basically aimed at reducing the overall prescribing of antibiotics and encouraging those with a narrower spectrum.

Alport syndrome (AS) is caused by pathogenic mutations in the genes encoding α3, α4 or α5 chains of collagen IV (COL4A3/COL4A4/COL4A5), resulting in hematuria, chronic renal failure (CRF), sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) and ocular abnormalities. Mutations in the X-linked COL4A5 gene have been identified in 85% of the families (XLAS). In this study, 22 of 60 probands (37%) of unrelated Portuguese families, with clinical diagnosis of AS and no evidence of autosomal inheritance, had pathogenic COL4A5 mutations detected by Sanger sequencing and/or multiplex-ligation probe amplification, of which 12 (57%) are novel. Males had more severe and earlier renal and extrarenal complications, but microscopic hematuria was a constant finding irrespective of gender. Nonsense and splice site mutations, as well as small and large deletions, were associated with younger age of onset of SNHL in males, and with higher risk of CRF and SNHL in females. Pathogenic COL4A3 or COL4A4 mutations were subsequently identified in more than half of the families without a pathogenic mutation in COL4A5. The lower than expected prevalence of XLAS in Portuguese families warrants the use of next-generation sequencing for simultaneous COL4A3/COL4A4/COL4A5 analysis, as first-tier approach to the genetic diagnosis of collagen type IV-related nephropathies. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Resumen Objetivos Determinar, en nuestro medio, el significado clinico de un resultado normal en el estudio de perfusion miocardica de estres, en pacientes con ergometria positiva para isquemia. Material y metodos Se realizo un estudio retrospectivo de los ultimos cuatro anos en nuestro Servicio. Se obtuvieron datos de 45 pacientes (41 mujeres y 4 hombres) que presentaron ergometria concluyente positiva para isquemia y SPECT de perfusion miocardica normal, durante un periodo de seguimiento medio de 13,2 meses. Se considero el diagnostico clinico final segun la evolucion clinica, la respuesta al tratamiento y el resultado de coronariografia. Resultados La presencia de ergometria positiva y SPECT normal fue predominante en el sexo femenino (93,3 %). En 35 pacientes (77,8 %), el diagnostico final fue de dolor toracico de probable origen no coronario (no secundario a enfermedad arterial coronaria): 18 pacientes diagnosticados de miocardiopatia hipertensiva, 3 de valvulopatia, 2 de angina vasoespastica, 1 de miocardiopatia hipertrofica obstructiva, 1 de angor microvascular, 1 de angor arritmogenico y en 9 pacientes dolor atipico de causa funcional o no cardiaca. En 10 pacientes (22,2 %) el diagnostico final fue de dolor toracico de probable origen coronario. No se observo ningun evento cardiaco mayor (muerte cardiaca o infarto de miocardio no mortal) durante el tiempo de seguimiento. Conclusiones Los pacientes con dolor toracico, ergometria positiva y SPECT normal, presentan un excelente pronostico a medio plazo. El 77,8 % de ellos fueron diagnosticados de dolor toracico de origen no coronario. La causa mas frecuente de dolor no coronario fue la miocardiopatia hipertensiva (51,4 %), seguida por causas funcionales o no cardiacas (28,6 %).

Coeval shell and charcoal from Santa Catarina State, Brazil, differ systematically in 14C content, indicating a reservoir effect in marine samples. For modern samples (AD 1939–2000) and archeological samples (2500–1595 BP), the mean 14C age difference between marine and atmospheric carbon is 220 ± 20 years, the marine carbon being older. For three samples dated AD 1939–1944, a distinct reservoir correction of 510 ± 10 years is also observed. The ages of archeological shell samples from Jabuticabeira may be corrected by subtracting 220 years from the apparent 14C ages.

Objetivo. Realizar um inquérito soro-epidemiológico sobre infecção pelo vírus da hepatite B em um município do médio-norte do Estado de Mato Grosso, que corresponde à região limítrofe entre o cerrado e a bacia amazônica. Métodos. A amostra incluiu famílias escolhidas aleatoriamente na sede do município, assim como toda a população de uma comunidade rural, totalizando 754 indivíduos. A idade variou de 2 a 79 anos. Os participantes foram entrevistados e tiveram amostras de sangue colhidas para pesquisa de marcadores do vírus da hepatite B por método imunoenzimático. Resultados. A infecção pelo vírus da hepatite B foi constatada em 31% da amostra, sendo 3% positivos para o HBsAg. Os 149 (20%) com história de vacinação e anti-HB positivo isoladamente foram considerados respondedores à vacina. As variáveis associadas à exposição ao vírus da hepatite B por análise multivariada foram: já ter iniciado atividade sexual, ter sido vacinado com pistola pressurizada contra febre amarela (entre aqueles com menos de 20 anos) e ser migrante oriundo do Sul do Brasil (indivíduos com mais de 20 anos). A cobertura vacinal foi baixa entre indivíduos com mais de 10 anos de idade. O maior número de suscetíveis (74%) foi encontrado na faixa dos 11 aos 20 anos. Conclusões. No Brasil, a vacinação contra a hepatite B deve ser estendida quanto antes aos adolescentes nas regiões de baixa a moderada prevalência. É provável que os dados obtidos no presente estudo possam ser extrapolados para outras regiões da América Latina com padrão epidemiológico semelhante.Objective. To carry out a survey of hepatitis B virus seroepidemiology in a municipality in central Brazil, on the border of two large ecosystems, the cerrado (savanna) and the Amazon River basin. Methods. The municipality studied, Nova Mutum, is located in the north central portion of the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso. The study sample of 754 individuals included persons from families, selected at random, who were living in the municipality's urban center as well as all the individuals living in a nearby rural village. Ages ranged from 2 to 79 years. All eligible individuals were interviewed. Blood was collected and used to assess hepatitis B virus markers by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results. Hepatitis B virus infection was found in 232 individuals, or 31% of them; 19 of them (3%) were HBsAg-positive. Of the 754 persons, 149 of them (20%) who reported having been vaccinated against hepatitis B and who presented anti-HBs positivity were classified as vaccine responders. With the multivariate analysis, the variables found to be associated with exposure to hepatitis B virus were having begun sexual relations, having been vaccinated against yellow fever with a needle-free jet injection gun (for the age group < 20 years), and being an immigrant from southern Brazil (> 20 years). Vaccine coverage was low among individuals older than 10 years. The largest share of susceptible individuals (74%) were found in the age group of 11 to 20 years. Conclusions. Our data suggest that hepatitis B virus vaccine coverage in Brazil should be extended to include teenagers in populations that have a low to moderate hepatitis B virus prevalence. It is likely that our results can be extrapolated to other areas of Latin America with a similar epidemiological pattern.

The prognostic value of preoperative serum levels of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), CA 19-9 and CA 72-4 tumor markers was investigated in patients with gastric cancer. Eighty-two patients who underwent surgical resection of gastric cancer were entered in the study. Correlation analyses showed that CA 72-4 was more frequently positive in patients with advanced tumors (p = 0.04), lymph node invasion (p = 0.02), liver metastasis (p = 0.02) and peritoneal involvement (p = 0.03). CA 19-9 was more frequently positive in patients with advanced tumors (p = 0.01) and with serosal (p = 0.04), lymph node (p = 0.008) and peritoneal involvement (p = 0.02). CEA was more frequently positive in patients with liver metastasis (p = 0.03). Low 3-year cumulative survival was significantly associated with elevated serum levels of CA 72-4 (p = 0.004), CA 19-9 (p = 0.001) and CEA (p < 0.001). Age, tumor stage and CA 72-4 provided prognostic information in the multivariate analysis. Patients with elevated serum levels of CA 72-4 showed a 4.2 times higher risk of death than patients with low levels of the marker. Our results suggest that CA 72-4 has prognostic value in gastric cancer, and patients with a high preoperative serum level of CA 72-4 have a greater risk of death due to gastric cancer.

A study was made into the effect of the age at which meat was first included in the diet on a series of haematological parameters and biochemical indicators of iron status in 94 pre-school children (aged 2–6 years) from Madrid (Spain). Those children who first took meat during their eighth month of life or earlier (Group A) showed better iron status that did those who were introduced to meat later (Group B). Significant differences were found in hemoglobin levels (P < 0.01), mean corpuscular haemoglobin (MCH) (P < 0.05), serum ferritin (P < 0.05), transferrin levels (P < 0.05) and total iron binding capacity (TIBC) (P < 0.001). Some 13.8% of all subjects showed iron deficiency and 5.3% showed ferropenic anaemia. These latter subjects were the last to have meat included in their diets (9.3 ± 1.2 months compared to 7.4 ± 2.0 months in those without ferropenic anaemia) (P < 0.05). It would appear that the age at which meat is included in the diet has an important effect on iron status in pre-school children. Delaying its inclusion beyond the age of eight months seems to be associated whith an impairment of later iron status.

The aim of the present investigation was to study the effects, in a group of 130 young women, of diets in which saturated fatty acid (SFA) content provided either 10% (high consumption-HC), on energy and nutrient intake, a range of serum lipid parameters (indicators of cardiovascular risk), and the biochemical and blood indicators of iron status. Positive and significant correlations were found between energy supplied by SFA and the intake of meat (r=0.2500) (P

Hemopoiesis, initiated in the early embryo yolk sac (YS) (7.5-8 days postcoitum (pc) in mouse), takes place thereafter in sites successively seeded by extrinsic hemopoietic stem cells (HSC). Since the existence of intraembryonic HSC has been proven experimentally in some vertebrates, it is also likely that not all HSC originate in the YS in mammals, as previously thought. Candidate intraembryonic sites that may be active in producing HSC before liver colonization are the para-aortic splanchnopleura (P-Sp) and the aorta-gonads-mesonephros region (AGM). Here we explore these sites directly for the presence of cells with hemopoietic-specific surface molecules and gene activities. The Ags c-kit, AA4.1, Mac-1, and Sca-1 begin to be expressed on some P-Sp and AGM cells, making it possible to distinguish subpopulations that evolve according to reproducible developmental patterns. On the basis of RAG-1 gene transcription, the first lymphoid precursors in the mouse embryo appear to be present 9.5 to 10 days pc in P-Sp/AGM and YS. Starting B-cell lymphopoiesis (9-12 days pc) is characterized by nonexpression of the surrogate light chain lambda 5-encoding gene and biased usage of IgH DJ4 rearrangements. In the 12.5- to 13.5-day-pc fetal liver (FL), a switch occurs, characterized by the random use of all IgH DJ and the detection of lambda 5 gene transcripts.

The generation of immune cells from BM precursors is a carefully regulated process. This is essential to limit the potential for oncogenesis and autoimmunity yet protect against infection. How infection modulates this is unclear. Salmonella can colonize systemic sites including the BM and spleen. This resolving infection has multiple IFN-γ-mediated acute and chronic effects on BM progenitors, and during the first week of infection IFN-γ is produced by myeloid, NK, NKT, CD4(+) T cells, and some lineage-negative cells. After infection, the phenotype of BM progenitors rapidly but reversibly alters, with a peak ∼ 30-fold increase in Sca-1(hi) progenitors and a corresponding loss of Sca-1(lo/int) subsets. Most strikingly, the capacity of donor Sca-1(hi) cells to reconstitute an irradiated host is reduced; the longer donor mice are exposed to infection, and Sca-1(hi) c-kit(int) cells have an increased potential to generate B1a-like cells. Thus, Salmonella can have a prolonged influence on BM progenitor functionality not directly related to bacterial persistence. These results reflect changes observed in leucopoiesis during aging and suggest that BM functionality can be modulated by life-long, periodic exposure to infection. Better understanding of this process could offer novel therapeutic opportunities to modulate BM functionality and promote healthy aging.

Score Normalization is a usual technique in pattern recognition to standardize the classifier output ranges so as to, for example, fuse these outputs. The use of score normalization in biometric recognition is a very important part of the system, specially in those based on behavioral traits, such as written signature or voice, conditioning the final system performance. Then, many works can be found that focus on the problem. A successful new approach for client threshold prediction, based on Multiple Linear Prediction, has been presented in recent works. Here, a new approach for score normalization, based on this proposal for biometric manuscript signature user verification, is shown. This proposal is compared with the state of the art methods, achieving an improvement of 19% and 16% for Equal Error Rate (EER) and 60% and 26% for Detection Cost Function (DCF) performance measures, for random and skilled forgeries, respectively.

Data for fission induced by pi meson beams from 80 to 500 MeV are presented for nuclei from Fe through Pu as measured by solid state track detectors. The general trends for binary fission withπ+ are reproduced fairly well by a calculation in the ‘high excitation’ limit with standard level density and fission barrier parameters, butπ− data are underpredicted. A universal dependence of the binary fission probabilities with the fissility (Z±1)2/A is found to be valid for both pion beam charges for all beam energies below the delta resonance. Probabilities for observing three fragments withπ+ are not reproduced by a ternary fission application of the model found to work for binary fission.