The BBC: Guardian of Public Understanding

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a long-standing institution with a worldwide reputation as the maker and supplier of trustworthy news embedded in programmes aimed at serving the public not commoditising it. This chapter describes the BBC’s institutional DNA and explains how its birth characteristics informed its institutional trajectory over the decades. The chapter discusses the internal principles and the particular ‘craft’ that has made this a true British institution that has become equally revered outside Britain’s borders. It analyses how the BBC survived institutional crises to reach a moment in history where the very idea underlying this venerable but agile institution has come under fire

Chemical Pleurodesis For Hepatic Hydrothorax.

Ascites can occur after hepatic diseases causing dyspnea, coughing and pain. When associated with pleural effusion it can also increase respiratory distress. In a bibliographic survey hydrothorax has been observed in up to 20% of the patients and the kind of treatment is still being discussed. This case report shows the occurrence of a large volume of ascites and pleural effusion in a cirrhotic patient and his treatment. Report the case of a patient with hepatic cirrhosis due to chronic alcoholism and massive pleural effusion and ascites. He was submitted to several pleural paracenteses without success. Scintigraphy showed the presence of ascites and confirmed a possible pleuroperitoneal communication. The thoracic surgery group was called and after evaluation it was decided to submit the patient to a pulmonary decortication and chemical pleurodesis. These procedures were carried out with success. The pleural effusion was solved and the treatment of ascites was decided upon because the patient did not accept any surgical procedure. This treatment could be applied to patients with hydrothorax who could not be submitted to a liver transplantation.38125-

Definition of Naturally Processed Peptides Reveals Convergent Presentation of Autoantigenic Topoisomerase I Epitopes in Scleroderma.

ObjectiveAutoimmune responses to DNA topoisomerase I (topo I) are found in a subset of scleroderma patients who are at high risk for interstitial lung disease (ILD) and mortality. Anti-topo I antibodies (ATAs) are associated with specific HLA-DRB1 alleles, and the frequency of HLA-DR-restricted topo I-specific CD4+ T cells is associated with the presence, severity, and progression of ILD. Although this strongly implicates the presentation of topo I peptides by HLA-DR in scleroderma pathogenesis, the processing and presentation of topo I has not been studied.MethodsWe developed a natural antigen processing assay (NAPA) to identify putative CD4+ T cell epitopes of topo I presented by monocyte-derived dendritic cells (mo-DCs) from 6 ATA-positive patients with scleroderma. Mo-DCs were pulsed with topo I protein, HLA-DR-peptide complexes were isolated, and eluted peptides were analyzed by mass spectrometry. We then examined the ability of these naturally presented peptides to induce CD4+ T cell activation in 11 ATA-positive and 11 ATA-negative scleroderma patients.ResultsWe found that a common set of 10 topo I epitopes was presented by Mo-DCs from scleroderma patients with diverse HLA-DR variants. Sequence analysis revealed shared peptide-binding motifs within the HLA-DRβ chains of ATA-positive patients and a subset of topo I epitopes with distinct sets of anchor residues capable of binding to multiple different HLA-DR variants. The NAPA-derived epitopes elicited robust CD4+ T cell responses in 73% of ATA-positive patients (8 of 11), and the number of epitopes recognized correlated with ILD severity (P = 0.025).ConclusionThese findings mechanistically implicate the presentation of a convergent set of topo I epitopes in the development of scleroderma

Institutional Crisis and the Policy Agenda

The politics and administration of institutional chang

Portopulmonary Hypertension

Portopulmonary hypertension (PPH) is characterized by the development of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) associated with portal hypertension, with or without liver disease. It is defined as a mean pulmonary artery pressure (MPAP) greater than 25 mmHg, pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR) above 240 dynes.s.cm-5, pulmonary artery occlusion pressure (PAOP) normal when less than 15 mmHg or transpulmonary gradient (TPG) > 10 mmHg. In the pulmonary hypertension classification PPH is classified in Group I. Pulmonary arterial hypertension in association with cirrhosis and portal hypertension is underdiagnosed. Epidemiological studies estimated that about 2–6% of patients with portal hypertension develop PPH. Mortality is directly proportional to measured MPAP and PVR. Mean pulmonary artery pressure is an independent predictor of mortality, and many centers consider that values greater than 50 mmHg is an absolute contraindication to liver transplantation (LT). The aim of the review is to explore the current aspects of PPH relative to concept, diagnosis, and treatment

Degradabilidade ruminal da fibra em detergente neutro e do nitrogênio insolúvel em detergente neutro da silagem de milho e do farelo de soja, em bovinos da Raça Nelore.

Empregou-se a técnica da degradação in situ, utilizando-se quatro animais Nelores com peso vivo médio de 520k e 36 meses de idade

PTP4A1 promotes TGFβ signaling and fibrosis in systemic sclerosis.

Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is an autoimmune disease characterized by fibrosis of skin and internal organs. Protein tyrosine phosphatases have received little attention in the study of SSc or fibrosis. Here, we show that the tyrosine phosphatase PTP4A1 is highly expressed in fibroblasts from patients with SSc. PTP4A1 and its close homolog PTP4A2 are critical promoters of TGFβ signaling in primary dermal fibroblasts and of bleomycin-induced fibrosis in vivo. PTP4A1 promotes TGFβ signaling in human fibroblasts through enhancement of ERK activity, which stimulates SMAD3 expression and nuclear translocation. Upstream from ERK, we show that PTP4A1 directly interacts with SRC and inhibits SRC basal activation independently of its phosphatase activity. Unexpectedly, PTP4A2 minimally interacts with SRC and does not promote the SRC-ERK-SMAD3 pathway. Thus, in addition to defining PTP4A1 as a molecule of interest for TGFβ-dependent fibrosis, our study provides information regarding the functional specificity of different members of the PTP4A subclass of phosphatases

The changing nature of risk and risk management: the challenge of borders, uncertainty and resilience

No abstract available