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We have tested a new kind of Fabry-Perot long-baseline optical resonator proposed to reduce the thermal noise sensitivity of gravitational wave interferometric detectors--the 'mesa beam' cavity--whose flat top beam shape is achieved by means of an aspherical end mirror. We present the fundamental mode intensity pattern for this cavity and its distortion due to surface imperfections and tilt misalignments, and contrast the higher order mode patterns to the Gauss-Laguerre modes of a spherical mirror cavity. We discuss the effects of mirror tilts on cavity alignment and locking and present measurements of the mesa beam tilt sensitivity. OCIS codes: 140.4780, 120.2230, 230.0040.

ABSTRACT Introduction: recurrence rates for primary hernia repair range from 0.5 to 15 percent depending upon the hernia site, type of repair, and clinical circumstances. Many risk factors are known and they must be considered before the procedure. In developing countries, follow up and maintenance of databases are critical to understand the real numbers. Methods: a retrospective cohort study analyzed adult patients who have undergone inguinal hernia repair at Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, a tertiary care government public hospital, between 2013 and 2015. Medical records, telephone, and letter contact have been reviewed in order to complete the minimum period of 5 years of follow-up. The analyzed data focused on the surgeon’s experience and the recurrence rate in 5 years of follow-up. Results: a total of 1094 medical records were selected and a complete five years follow-up were possible in 454 patients - 538 inguinal hernia repairs due to bilateral approach in 84 patients. These 454 patients answered, in a validated questionnaire about symptoms of recurrence. The total recurrence rate was 9.29%. For the patients who had Nyhus IV, recurrence rate was 24.1% against 9.9% after primary hernia repair, with a 2.4 higher risk. There was no difference in recurrence between surgeons and training surgeons. Conclusion: our data reveal an acceptable recurrence rate in a tertiary care hospital with residents, and to our knowledge is the first Brazilian report with long term follow up. An increased re-recurrent hernia was found when compared with primary hernia repair.

Abstract The Hedgehog (Hh)/Gli signaling pathway controls cell proliferation and differentiation, is critical for the development of nearly every tissue and organ in vertebrates and is also involved in tumorigenesis. In this study, we characterize the oncoprotein SET/I2PP2A as a novel regulator of Hh signaling. Our previous work has shown that the zebrafish homologs of SET are expressed during early development and localized in the ciliated organs. In the present work, we show that CRISPR/Cas9-mediated knockdown of setb gene in zebrafish embryos resulted in cyclopia, a characteristic patterning defect previously reported in Hh mutants. Consistent with these findings, targeting setb gene using CRISPR/Cas9 or a setb morpholino, reduced Gli1-dependent mCherry expression in the Hedgehog reporter zebrafish line Tg(12xGliBS:mCherry-NLS). Likewise, SET loss of function by means of pharmacological inhibition and gene knockdown prevented the increase of Gli1 expression in mammalian cells in vitro. Conversely, overexpression of SET resulted in an increase of the expression of a Gli-dependent luciferase reporter, an effect likely attributable to the relief of the Sufu-mediated inhibition of Gli1. Collectively, our data support the involvement of SET in Gli1-mediated transcription and suggest the oncoprotein SET/I2PP2A as a new modulator of Hedgehog signaling.

Health services are managed hierarchically in three levels of technological complexity: primary, secondary and tertiary, and the population should use them according to the specificity of their complaints, aiming at more efficiency and universal access. In practice, the population prefers to go to tertiary level hospitals for simple problems, which could easily be solved by Basic Health Service Units (BHUs). The objective of this survey was to find out the reasons why parents or children caretakers look for high complexity hospitals, and how frequently they make use of basic health services. This research interviewed 222 parents and caretakers of children who were undergoing medical treatment at the Pediatrics Emergency Room from a School Hospital located in the city of Londrina, in March and April of 2006. Data analysis showed that , although 80,6% of the population interviewed used the BHUs , 56,7% of the children seen at the Pediatrics Emergency Room came with no referrals, and 33,3% chose the ER for its quality services. The most frequent complaint was fever ( 21,6%) and other external causes took the last position with only 1, 4% of the cases . Results from the study showed that the Londrina State University School Hospital Pediatrics Emergency Room sees a great number of children with simple complaints which could be easily solved by basic level health care. However, in general, most hospitals have been legitimized by the population, used to always look for hospitals, rather than BHUs , whenever they need any kind of health care. Os serviços de saúde são organizados, hierarquicamente, em três níveis de complexidade tecnológica: primário, secundário e terciário, e a população deveriam acessá-los conforme a especificidade de suas queixas, visando, dessa forma, maior eficiência na utilização dos recursos e universalização do acesso. Na prática, percebe-se que a população prefere recorrer a hospitais de nível terciário para situações corriqueiras, as quais poderiam ser solucionadas nas Unidas Básicas de Saúde (UBSs). De acordo com o problema acima descrito, esse levantamento teve como objetivo avaliar os motivos que levaram os pais ou responsáveis a procurarem um hospital de alta complexidade para atendimento das crianças, investigando a freqüência e finalidade que essa população utiliza os serviços básicos de saúde. A presente pesquisa foi realizada com os pais ou responsáveis pelas crianças atendidas em um Pronto Socorro Pediátrico de um Hospital Universitário, localizado na cidade de Londrina, sendo aplicado entrevista a 222 usuários durante os meses de março a abril de 2006. Após análise dos dados, observouse que, apesar de 80,6% da população estudada referirem freqüentar as UBSs, 56,7% dos atendimentos no Pronto Socorro Pediátrico ocorreram mediante procura direta e 33,3% dos entrevistados elegeram a qualidade no atendimento como motivo para justificar essa procura. A queixa mais freqüente foi à febre com 21,6% e as causas externas apareceram em último lugar com apenas 1,4%. Por meio desse estudo, pôde-se concluir que o Pronto Socorro Pediátrico do Hospital Universitário de Londrina recebe grande contingente de crianças com queixas, muitas vezes, passíveis de resolverem-se em nível básico de atendimento à saúde, porém, os hospitais, de um modo geral, possuem maior legitimidade do que as UBSs diante da população habituada ao longo dos anos a recorrer aos serviços hospitalares.

Diastolic heart failure (HF) i.e., "HF with preserved ejection fraction" (HF-preserved EF) accounts for up to 50% of all HF presentations; however there have been no therapeutic advances. This stems in part from an incomplete understanding about HF-preserved EF. Hypertension is the major cause of HF-preserved EF whilst HF-preserved EF is also highly associated with obesity. Similarly, excessive reactive oxygen species (ROS), i.e., oxidative stress occurs in hypertension and obesity, sensitizing the heart to the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system, inducing autophagic type-II programmed cell death and accelerating the propensity to adverse cardiac remodeling, diastolic dysfunction and HF. Adiponectin (APN), an adipokine, mediates cardioprotective actions but it is unknown if APN modulates cardiomyocyte autophagy. We tested the hypothesis that APN ameliorates oxidative stress-induced autophagy in cardiomyocytes. Isolated adult rat ventricular myocytes were pretreated with recombinant APN (30 µg/mL) followed by 1mM hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) exposure. Wild type (WT) and APN-deficient (APN-KO) mice were infused with angiotensin (Ang)-II (3.2 mg/kg/d) for 14 days to induced oxidative stress. Autophagy-related proteins, mTOR, AMPK and ERK expression were measured. H2O2 induced LC3I to LC3II conversion by a factor of 3.4±1.0 which was abrogated by pre-treatment with APN by 44.5±10%. However, neither H2O2 nor APN affected ATG5, ATG7, or Beclin-1 expression. H2O2 increased phospho-AMPK by 49±6.0%, whilst pretreatment with APN decreased phospho-AMPK by 26±4%. H2O2 decreased phospho-mTOR by 36±13%, which was restored by APN. ERK inhibition demonstrated that the ERK-mTOR pathway is involved in H2O2-induced autophagy. Chronic Ang-II infusion significantly increased myocardial LC3II/I protein expression ratio in APN-KO vs. WT mice. These data suggest that excessive ROS caused cardiomyocyte autophagy which was ameliorated by APN by inhibiting an H2O2-induced AMPK/mTOR/ERK-dependent mechanism. These findings demonstrate the anti-oxidant potential of APN in oxidative stress-associated cardiovascular diseases, such as hypertension-induced HF-preserved EF.

Transition metal thiophosphates (MPS 3 ) are of great interest due to their layered structure and magnetic properties. Although HgPS 3 may not exhibit magnetic properties, its uniqueness lies in its triclinic crystal structure and in the substantial mass of mercury, rendering it a compelling subject for exploration in terms of fundamental properties. In this work, we present comprehensive experimental and theoretical studies of the electronic band structure and optical properties for the HgPS 3 crystal and mechanically exfoliated layers from a solid crystal. Based on absorption, reflectance and photoluminescence measurements supported by theoretical calculations, it is shown that the HgPS 3 crystal has an indirect gap of 2.68 eV at room temperature. The direct gap is identified at the Γ point of the Brillouin zone (BZ) ≈ 50 meV above the indirect gap. The optical transition at the Γ point is forbidden due to selection rules, but the oscillator strength near the Γ point increases rapidly and therefore the direct optical transitions are visible in the reflectance spectra approximately at 60-120 meV above the absorption edge, across the temperature range of 40 to 300 K. The indirect nature of the bandgap and the selection rules for Γ point contribute to the absence of near-bandgap emission in HgPS 3 . Consequently, the photoluminescence spectrum is primarily governed by defect-related emission. The electronic band structure of HgPS 3 undergoes significant changes when the crystal thickness is reduced to tri- and bilayers, resulting in a direct bandgap. Interestingly, in the monolayer regime, the fundamental transition is again indirect. The layered structure of the HgPS 3 crystal was confirmed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and by mechanical exfoliation., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing financial interest., (© 2024 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society.)

In this paper, an industrially-oriented two-scale approach is provided to model the drop-induced brittle failure of polysilicon MEMS sensors. The two length-scales here investigated are the package (macroscopic) and the sensor (mesoscopic) ones. Issues related to the polysilicon morphology at the micro-scale are disregarded; an upscaled homogenized constitutive law, able to describe the brittle cracking of silicon, is instead adopted at the meso-scale. The two-scale approach is validated against full three-scale Monte-Carlo simulations, which allow for stochastic effects linked to the microstructural properties of polysilicon. Focusing on inertial MEMS sensors exposed to drops, it is shown that the offered approach matches well the experimentally observed failure mechanisms.