The Blood Ontology: An ontology in the domain of hematology

Despite the importance of human blood to clinical practice and research, hematology and blood transfusion data remain scattered throughout a range of disparate sources. This lack of systematization concerning the use and definition of terms poses problems for physicians and biomedical professionals. We are introducing here the Blood Ontology, an ongoing initiative designed to serve as a controlled vocabulary for use in organizing information about blood. The paper describes the scope of the Blood Ontology, its stage of development and some of its anticipated uses

Gliosarcoma with neuroaxis metastases.

Gliosarcomas are rare tumours of the central nervous system, with a well-known capacity for metastasis. When they metastasise, the dissemination occurs more frequently via the haematogenous route to extraneural sites. Metastasis-spread through the cerebrospinal fluid is extremely rare. We present the case of a 58-year-old man who underwent a gross total resection of a lesion in the left temporal lobe. The histological findings revealed a gliosarcoma and the patient received radiotherapy followed by chemotherapy. Seven months after surgery, while the patient remained neurologically intact, brain and spinal cord MRI revealed tumour recurrence and neuroaxis metastases through the traffic routes of the cerebrospinal fluid. The patient died 8 months after the diagnosis. A PubMed search regarding metastatic gliosarcoma up to June 2015 was also carried out. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case report of gliosarcoma metastases to the brain and spinal cord leptomeninges

Observações sobre a estrutura linguística da Cena: a língua de sinais emergente da Várzea Queimada (Piauí, Brasil)

Este texto apresenta uma descrição preliminar da estrutura linguística da Cena, uma língua de sinais emergente do interior do Piauí, falada/sinalizada por aproximadamente 30 pessoas. É classificada como uma língua de sinais compartilhada porque também é utilizada por pessoas ouvintes. A Cena é uma das línguas minoritárias do Brasil e é uma língua compartilhada por surdos e ouvintes da localidade Várzea Queimada. Descrevemos aspectos do léxico, fonologia, morfologia, sintaxe, e algumas questões de variação encontradas nessa língua, apontando para várias direções em pesquisas futuras. O texto é útil para aqueles interessados na temática de língua de sinais emergentes e a questão da evolução e tipologia das línguas

Comparing the cost-effectiveness of two screening strategies for latent tuberculosis infection in Portugal

Introduction and objectives: Screening for latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) in close contacts of infectious TB cases might include Tuberculin Skin Test (TST) and Interferon-Gamma Release Assays (IGRA), in combination or as single-tests. In Portugal, the screening strategy changed from TST followed by IGRA to IGRA-only testing in 2016. Our objective was to compare the cost-effectiveness of two-step TST/IGRA with the current IGRA-only screening strategy in immunocompetent individuals exposed to individuals with respiratory TB. Materials and methods: We reviewed clinical records of individuals exposed to infectious TB cases diagnosed in 2015 and 2016, in two TB outpatient centers in the district of Porto. We estimated medical, non-medical and indirect costs for each screening strategy, taking into account costs of tests and health care personnel, travel distance from place of residence to screening site and employment status. We calculated the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) as the cost difference between the two screening strategies with the difference number of LTBI diagnosis as a measure of cost-effectiveness, assuming that treating LTBI is a cost-effective intervention. We also calculated adjusted odds-ratios to test the association between diagnosis of LTBI and screening strategy and estimated the total cost for averting a potential TB case. Results: We compared 499 contacts TST/IGRA screened with 547 IGRA-only. IGRA-only strategy yielded a higher screening effectiveness for diagnosing latent tuberculosis infection (aOR 2.12, 95%CI: 1.53 - 2.94). ICER was €106 per LTBI diagnosis, representing increased effectiveness with a slightly increased cost of IGRA-only screening strategy. Conclusions: Our data suggests that in Portugal LTBI screening with IGRA-only is more cost-effective than the two-step TST/IGRA testing strategy, preventing a higher number of cases of TB cases

Effect of Polarimetric Noise on the Estimation of Twist and Magnetic Energy of Force-Free Fields

The force-free parameter $\alpha$, also known as helicity parameter or twist parameter, bears the same sign as the magnetic helicity under some restrictive conditions. The single global value of $\alpha$ for a whole active region gives the degree of twist per unit axial length. We investigate the effect of polarimetric noise on the calculation of global $\alpha$ value and magnetic energy of an analytical bipole. The analytical bipole has been generated using the force-free field approximation with a known value of constant $\alpha$ and magnetic energy. The magnetic parameters obtained from the analytical bipole are used to generate Stokes profiles from the Unno-Rachkovsky solutions for polarized radiative transfer equations. Then we add random noise of the order of 10$^{-3}$ of the continuum intensity (I$_{c}$) in these profiles to simulate the real profiles obtained by modern spectropolarimeters like Hinode (SOT/SP), SVM (USO), ASP, DLSP, POLIS, SOLIS etc. These noisy profiles are then inverted using a Milne-Eddington inversion code to retrieve the magnetic parameters. Hundred realizations of this process of adding random noise and polarimetric inversion is repeated to study the distribution of error in global $\alpha$ and magnetic energy values. The results show that : (1). the sign of $\alpha$ is not influenced by polarimetric noise and very accurate values of global twist can be calculated, and (2). accurate estimation of magnetic energy with uncertainty as low as 0.5% is possible under the force-free condition.Comment: 33 pages, 6 figures, 1 table; Accepted for publication in the Ap

Ecology and Geography of Plague Transmission Areas in Northeastern Brazil

Plague in Brazil is poorly known and now rarely seen, so studies of its ecology are difficult. We used ecological niche models of historical (1966-present) records of human plague cases across northeastern Brazil to assess hypotheses regarding environmental correlates of plague occurrences across the region. Results indicate that the apparently focal distribution of plague in northeastern Brazil is indeed discontinuous, and that the causes of the discontinuity are not necessarily only related to elevation—rather, a diversity of environmental dimensions correlate to presence of plague foci in the region. Perhaps most interesting is that suitable areas for plague show marked seasonal variation in photosynthetic mass, with peaks in April and May, suggesting links to particular land cover types. Next steps in this line of research will require more detailed and specific examination of reservoir ecology and natural history

Astrocyte-derived TNF and glutamate critically modulate microglia activation by methamphetamine

Methamphetamine (Meth) is a powerful illicit psychostimulant, widely used for recreational purposes. Besides disrupting the monoaminergic system and promoting oxidative brain damage, Meth also causes neuroinflammation, contributing to synaptic dysfunction and behavioral deficits. Aberrant activation of microglia, the largest myeloid cell population in the brain, is a common feature in neurological disorders triggered by neuroinflammation. In this study, we investigated the mechanisms underlying the aberrant activation of microglia elicited by Meth in the adult mouse brain. We found that binge Meth exposure caused microgliosis and disrupted risk assessment behavior (a feature that usually occurs in individuals who abuse Meth), both of which required astrocyte-to-microglia crosstalk. Mechanistically, Meth triggered a detrimental increase of glutamate exocytosis from astrocytes (in a process dependent on TNF production and calcium mobilization), promoting microglial expansion and reactivity. Ablating TNF production, or suppressing astrocytic calcium mobilization, prevented Meth-elicited microglia reactivity and re-established risk assessment behavior as tested by elevated plus maze (EPM). Overall, our data indicate that glial crosstalk is critical to relay alterations caused by acute Meth exposure.This work was financed by FEDER—Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional funds through the COMPETE 2020 - Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalisation (POCI), Portugal 2020, and by Portuguese funds through FCT— Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia/Ministério da Ciência (FCT), Tecnologia e Ensino Superior in the framework of the project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-030647 (PTDC/ SAU-TOX/30647/2017) in TS lab. FEDER Portugal (Norte-01-0145-FEDER000008000008—Porto Neurosciences and Neurologic Disease Research Initiative at I3S, supported by Norte Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF); FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-021333). CCP and RS hold employment contracts financed by national funds through FCT –in the context of the program-contract described in paragraphs 4, 5, and 6 of art. 23 of Law no. 57/ 2016, of August 29, as amended by Law no. 57/2017 of July 2019. TC, TOA, AFT, JB, AIS and AM were supported by FCT (SFRH/BD/117148/2016, SFRH/BD/147981/2019, 2020.07188.BD, PD/BD/135450/2017, SFRH/BD/144324/2019, and IF/00753/2014). Work in JBR lab was supported by the FCT project PTDC/ MED-NEU/31318/2017. JFO was also supported by FCT projects PTDC/MED-NEU/31417/2017 and POCI-01- 0145-FEDER-016818; Bial Foundation Grants 207/14 and 037/18, by National funds, through FCT - project UIDB/50026/2020; and by the projects NORTE-01-0145-FEDER000013 and NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000023, supported by Norte Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). Funding of i3S Scientific Platforms: Advanced Light Microscopy (ALM), a member of the national infrastructure PPBI-Portuguese Platform of BioImaging (POCI-01–0145-FEDER022122); and Genomics through GenomePT project (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-022184), supported by COMPETE 2020—Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalization (POCI), Lisboa Portugal Regional Operational Programme (Lisboa2020), Algarve Portugal Regional Operational Programme (CRESC Algarve2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), and by FCT

Characterization of Shewanella oneidensis MtrC: a cell-surface decaheme cytochrome involved in respiratory electron transport to extracellular electron acceptors

MtrC is a decaheme c-type cytochrome associated with the outer cell membrane of Fe(III)-respiring species of the Shewanella genus. It is proposed to play a role in anaerobic respiration by mediating electron transfer to extracellular mineral oxides that can serve as terminal electron acceptors. The present work presents the first spectropotentiometric and voltammetric characterization of MtrC, using protein purified from Shewanella oneidensis MR-1. Potentiometric titrations, monitored by UV–vis absorption and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy, reveal that the hemes within MtrC titrate over a broad potential range spanning between approximately +100 and approximately -500 mV (vs. the standard hydrogen electrode). Across this potential window the UV–vis absorption spectra are characteristic of low-spin c-type hemes and the EPR spectra reveal broad, complex features that suggest the presence of magnetically spin-coupled low-spin c-hemes. Non-catalytic protein film voltammetry of MtrC demonstrates reversible electrochemistry over a potential window similar to that disclosed spectroscopically. The voltammetry also allows definition of kinetic properties of MtrC in direct electron exchange with a solid electrode surface and during reduction of a model Fe(III) substrate. Taken together, the data provide quantitative information on the potential domain in which MtrC can operate