248 research outputs found
Phenotypic and molecular characterization of plants regenerated from non-cryopreserved and cryopreserved wild Solanum lycopersicum Mill. seeds
No full textBACKGROUND: Before cryopreservation is routinely used, its effect on the trueness-to-type of the regenerated plant material needs to be evaluated. OBJECTIVE: In this work, we studied the effect of seed cryopreservation on the phenotypic and molecular characteristics of wild Solanum lycopersicum Mill. plants. METHODS: Thirty-five morphological traits of plants regenerated from cryopreserved seeds were compared to those measured on plants regenerated from non-cryopreserved seeds. RESULT: No statistically significant differences were observed between cryopreserved and non-cryopreserved samples, either in the first or in the second generation post-liquid nitrogen exposure. However, at the molecular level, the genetic analyses performed on the second generation plants germinated from control and cryopreserved seeds using 14 nuclear Simple Sequences Repeats (SSR) markers uncovered some changes in microsatellite length between control and cryopreserved samples. These results confirm at the botanical phenotype level the effectiveness of seed cryostorage for conservation and regeneration of true-to-type S. lycopersicum plants. CONCLUSION: Further experiments are required to clarify potential phenotypic effects of the changes observed in the DNA
Immunocytochemical espression of p21WAF1 and mdm2 in invasive cervical cancer: relationshipwith p53 expression and high risk HPVinfection
No full textImmunocytochemical espression of p21WAF1 and mdm2 in invasive cervical cancer: relationshipwith p53 expression and high risk HPVinfection
No full textIncreased Adiposity, Dysregulated Glucose Metabolism and Systemic Inflammation in Galectin-3 KO Mice
No full textPMCID: PMC3579848This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited
Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the care of cancer patients in Spain
No full textCoronavirus SARS-CoV-2; COVID-19; 2019-nCoV; Càncer; EspanyaCoronavirus SARS-CoV-2; COVID-19; 2019-nCoV; Cáncer; EspañaCoronavirus SARS-CoV-2; COVID-19; 2019-nCoV; Cancer; SpainBackground
Studies evaluating the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on public healthcare systems are limited, particularly in cancer management. As no such studies have been carried out in Spain, our objective is to describe and quantify the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cancer patients in Spanish hospitals during the first wave of the pandemic.
Materials and methods
This retrospective, multicenter, nationwide study collected information from hospital departments treating oncology patients. An electronic questionnaire comparing outcomes and management of oncohematological patients for the March-June 2019 and March-June 2020 periods was used.
Results
Information from 78 departments (36 tertiary hospitals) was analyzed. Forty-four departments implemented adapted protocols during March 2020. Most of these (n = 38/44; 86.4%) carried out COVID-19 triage, while 26 of 44 (59.1%) carried out onsite polymerase chain reaction tests for clinically suspected cases. A shift from in-person to telephone visits was observed in 43 of 44 (97.7%) departments. Comparing the March-June 2019 and March-June 2020 periods, the number of new patients decreased by 20.8% (from 160.2 to 126.4). Decreases were also seen in the mean number of total (2858.2 versus 1686.1) and cancer (465.5 versus 367.2) biopsies, as well as the mean number of bone marrow biopsies (30.5 versus 18.6). Concerning the number of patients visiting specific cancer care departments, a decrease from 2019 to 2020 was seen for mean number of chemotherapy treatments (712.7 versus 643.8) and radiation therapy (2169.9 versus 2139.9). Finally, a reduction from 2019 to 2020 of 12.9% (from 8.6 to 7.4) in the mean number of patients included in clinical trials was noted.
Conclusions
This study provides the first comprehensive data concerning the impact of COVID-19 on cancer care in Spain. The pandemic caused a 20.8% decrease in newly diagnosed patients, which may impact future outcomes. Measures must be taken to ensure cancer management receives priority in times of healthcare emergencies.This work was supported by funding from the AECC, a non-profit organization, whose medical department funded the study and the medical writing (no grant number)
Genomic epidemiology of a protracted hospital outbreak caused by multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii in Birmingham, England
No full textBackground:
Multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii commonly causes hospital outbreaks. However, within an outbreak, it can be difficult to identify the routes of cross-infection rapidly and accurately enough to inform infection control. Here, we describe a protracted hospital outbreak of multidrug-resistant A. baumannii, in which whole-genome sequencing (WGS) was used to obtain a high-resolution view of the relationships between isolates.
Methods:
To delineate and investigate the outbreak, we attempted to genome-sequence 114 isolates that had been assigned to the A. baumannii complex by the Vitek2 system and obtained informative draft genome sequences from 102 of them. Genomes were mapped against an outbreak reference sequence to identify single nucleotide variants (SNVs).
Results:
We found that the pulsotype 27 outbreak strain was distinct from all other genome-sequenced strains. Seventy-four isolates from 49 patients could be assigned to the pulsotype 27 outbreak on the basis of genomic similarity, while WGS allowed 18 isolates to be ruled out of the outbreak. Among the pulsotype 27 outbreak isolates, we identified 31 SNVs and seven major genotypic clusters. In two patients, we documented within-host diversity, including mixtures of unrelated strains and within-strain clouds of SNV diversity. By combining WGS and epidemiological data, we reconstructed potential transmission events that linked all but 10 of the patients and confirmed links between clinical and environmental isolates. Identification of a contaminated bed and a burns theatre as sources of transmission led to enhanced environmental decontamination procedures.
Conclusions:
WGS is now poised to make an impact on hospital infection prevention and control, delivering cost-effective identification of routes of infection within a clinically relevant timeframe and allowing infection control teams to track, and even prevent, the spread of drug-resistant hospital pathogens
Culture in dialogo attraverso e attorno la penisola italiana nei primi decenni del XVI secolo: il tardogotico e le altre opzioni
No full textDopo l’Unità d’Italia la storiografia si è concentrata nell’intero territorio nazionale sulla “ricerca” del Rinascimento, prescelto nel momento di costruzione di una identità nazionale come manifestazione artistica italiana per antonomasia. Tutto ciò ha originato una protratta “sfortuna critica” nei confronti di tutte quelle manifestazioni artistiche convenzionalmente riunite sotto l’etichetta di Tardogotico. In definitiva, se qualche indulgenza è stata concessa alla solida tradizione dei costruttori lombardi o agli ineludibili “esotismi” di una realtà rivolta a Oriente come quella veneziana, per il meridione peninsulare e le isole si è affermata l’idea di un ritardo culturale.
Superati pregiudizi e preconcetti, la realtà che emerge anche per il contesto italiano è ben diversa e la presenza del Tardogotico appare meno marginale e circoscritta di quanto non risultasse sulla base di tendenziose selezioni. Ma si può parlare di una architettura tardogotica italiana? Di certo non esiste un fenomeno unitario e qui più che altrove la varietà delle linee di ricerca perseguite (strutturali, tecnologiche, formali, decorative) dà luogo a una grande varietà di esiti, confrontabili principalmente all’interno di contesti regionali ma con connotazioni che variano spesso da città a città. Nel complesso l’incidenza del Tardogotico nelle sue molteplici declinazioni appare territorialmente preponderante nel corso del XV secolo, restando la cultura rinascimentale limitata a pochi centri di sperimentazione. Nei primi decenni del Cinquecento il rapporto di forze in parte muta e, sotto la spinta di mode antiquarie, l’attenzione verso le forme del linguaggio all’antica inizia a farsi strada anche nelle “roccaforti” del gotico. Non si tratta tuttavia quasi mai di una netta scelta di campo o di uno scontro, ma piuttosto di un dialogo tra culture, che si risolve non di rado in fantasiose ibridazioni.
Questo contributo analizza alcune declinazioni di questo dialogo attraverso una selezionata casistica di architetture prodotte in ambiti che ruotano intorno alla penisola italiana (Sardegna, Sicilia, Malta e Dalmazia) e nelle sue regioni meridionali, permeabili anche ad altre sollecitazioni provenienti da occidente e da oriente.Originating in historiographical trends of post-Unification Italy, the “quest” of the Renaissance and its credentials as the only manifestation of a progressive and specifically Italian culture, created in the Italian setting a prolonged period of “critical misfortune” in regard to all those artistic manifestations that were conventionally gathered together under the Late Gothic label. Indeed, if some leniency was granted to the solid tradition of the Lombard constructors or to the inescapable “exoticism” of a reality which looked East like Venice, as far as the Southern Italian mainland and islands were concerned, the idea of a cultural lag was asserted.
After overcoming prejudice and preconceptions, the reality that emerges for also the Italian setting is well different, and the presence of the Late Gothic style appears less marginal and localized than we would expect on the basis of tendentious choices. But can we talk about an Italian Late Gothic architectural style? Certainly a unitary phenomenon does not exist and here more than anywhere else the variety of lines of research that have been pursued (structural, technological, formal, decorative) give rise to a great diversity of results, that are mainly comparable within regional contexts but whose connotations vary from city to city. On the whole, the incidence of Late Gothic in its multiple declensions appears territorially predominant over the course of the fifteenth century, with Renaissance culture limited to a few centres of experimentation. However, in the first few decades of the sixteenth century, the ratio of power changes partly and, under the thrust of antiquity , interest in the old-fashioned forms of language begins to rise from the ranks, even in the Gothic “strongholds”. Nevertheless it is hardly ever a question of a clear-cut choice of battleground or battle, but rather of a dialogue between cultures, which often results in imaginative hybridizations. Through a selection of cases of architecture in settings around the Italian peninsula (Sardinia, Sicily, Malta and Dalmatia) and in its Southern regions, but which are at the same time permeated by other solicitations from the west and the east, this paper looks at forms and types of dialogue between cultures that characterise the start of the “long” sixteenth century
The effect on cardiovascular risk factors of migration from rural to urban areas in Peru
No full textDuring the 20 years of political violence in Peru starting in the late 1970’s, Ayacucho, an Andean department, was one of the most severely affected areas. Mass-migration to Lima increased largely driven by escaping from violence rather than by economic reasons. This provides a unique opportunity to study the effects of migration on health since selection biases are likely to be reduced.
This study investigates differences in cardiovascular risk factors comparing three groups: i) always lived in Ayacucho (n=289); ii) migrated from Ayacucho to Lima (n=589); and, iii) always lived in Lima (n=199). A cross sectional design was used.
A clear gradient of risk was seen for the majority of factors studied: body mass index (BMI), total and LDL-cholesterol, fasting blood glucose and insulin, CRP and fibrinogen, the rural group having the lowest risk, the urban group the highest. The migrant group had intermediate risk, although generally more similar to the urban than the rural group. Blood pressure did not show a clear gradient of difference between groups. The migrant group had similar systolic blood pressure (SBP) but lower diastolic blood pressure (DBP) than the rural group. The urban group had higher SBP but similar DBP than rural group. In the case of lipid profile, no difference was observed between groups for HDL and triglycerides. Obesity, diabetes, metabolic syndrome and estimated absolute cardiovascular risk were all higher in migrant and urban groups than in the rural sample. Within the migrant group, when classified by time since migration or age at migration, differences were observed in total cholesterol, LDL, fasting glucose and insulin resistance.
The findings of this study suggest the impact of migration on cardiovascular risk is not uniform across risk factors. The study provides new insights into the increased disease risk associated with migration and urbanisation
The Calcitonin and Glucocorticoids Combination: Mechanistic Insights into Their Class-Effect Synergy in Experimental Arthritis
No full textPMCID: PMC3564948This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited
Mortality on extreme heat days using official thresholds in Spain: a multi-city time series analysis.
No full textBACKGROUND: The 2003 heat wave had a high impact on mortality in Europe, which made necessary to develop heat health watch warning systems. In Spain this was carried-out by the Ministry of Health in 2004, being based on exceeding of city-specific simultaneous thresholds of minimum and maximum daily temperatures. The aim of this study is to assess effectiveness of the official thresholds established by the Ministry of Health for each provincial capital city, by quantifying and comparing the short-term effects of above-threshold days on total daily mortality. METHODS: Total daily mortality and minimum and maximum temperatures for the 52 capitals of province in Spain were collected during summer months (June to September) for the study period 1995-2004. Data was analysed using GEE for Poisson regression. Relative Risk (RR) of total daily mortality was quantified for the current day of official thresholds exceeded. RESULTS: The number of days in which the thresholds were exceeded show great inconsistency, with provinces with great number of exceeded days adjacent to provinces that did not exceed or rarely exceeded. The average overall excess risk of dying during an extreme heat day was about 25% (RR = 1.24; 95% confidence interval (CI) = [1.19-1.30]). Relative risks showed a significant heterogeneity between cities (I2 = 54.9%). Western situation and low mean summer temperatures were associated with higher relative risks, suggesting thresholds may have been set too high in these areas. CONCLUSIONS: This study confirmed that extreme heat days have a considerable impact on total daily mortality in Spain. Official thresholds gave consistent relative risk in the large capital cities. However, in some other cities thresholds
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