Saccharomyces cerevisiae nuclear and nucleolar antigen preservation for immunoelectron microscopy.

International audienceYeast cells in general are known to be difficult to prepare for electron microscopy investigations particularly when the preservation of antigenicity is required. In this work, we compare various protocols for preparation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells for immunoelectron microscopy, ranging from classical chemical fixation to high-pressure freezing followed by freeze-substitution in different kinds of substitution media. Our aim was to establish a protocol giving optimal, routinely reproducible results for simultaneous retention of fine ultrastructural details and antigen immunoreactivity, with particular focus on the preservation of nuclear and nucleolar architecture. This was demonstrated by ultrastructural immunolocalization of various nucleolar (Nop1 and Nsr1), nuclear (Nsp1) and alpha-tubulin antigens. The protocol which we found to yield the best preserved Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells for both morphological and immunological studies included cryo-fixation by high-pressure freezing followed by freeze-substitution in acetone with 0.1% uranyl acetate and embedding in Lowicryl HM20. In addition, immunofluorescence detection of the antigens was performed and correlated with immunolabelling at the electron microscopy level

Technologiczna medycyna i ochrona godności ludzkiej umierającego pacjenta

This study would like to mention the phenomenon of technological medicine, which is a typical product of the contemporary technoscience. The situation of actual problems of human dignity of dying patient is introduced with respect to this context, as well as the ethical impulses and questions led by new techno rationality and its mentality that are closely related with medical and clinical ethics. The Recommendation, as the norm for the clinical practice at contemporary situation, will be introduced in the closure.Artykuł ten traktuje o zjawisku medycyny technologicznej, która jest typowym produktem współczesnej technonauki. Sytuacja rzeczywistych problemów ludzkiej godności umierającego pacjenta jest przedstawiona w odniesieniu do tego kontekstu, jak również impulsów etycznych i pytań kierowanych przez nowe technoracjonalności, które są ściśle związane z etyką medyczną i kliniczną. Rekomendacja, jako norma dla współczesnej praktyki klinicznej, w obecnej sytuacji zostanie przedstawiona w podsumowaniu

Low back pain in patients hospitalised with liver cirrhosis- a retrospective study

Abstract Background Lower back pain is a common issue, but little is known about the prevalence of pain in patients with liver cirrhosis during hospitalisation. Therefore, the objective of this study was to determine lower back pain in patients with liver cirrhosis. Methods The sample consisted of patients with liver cirrhosis (n = 79; men n = 55; women n = 24; mean age = 55.79 ± 12.52 years). The hospitalised patients were mobile. The presence and intensity of pain were assessed in the lumbar spine during hospitalisation. The presence of pain was assessed using the visual analogue pain scale (0–10). The range of motion of the lower spine was assessed using the Schober and Stibor tests. Frailty was measured by Liver Frailty Index (LFI). The condition of liver disease was evaluated using The Model For the End-Stage Liver Disease (MELD) and Child–Pugh score (CPS) and ascites classification. Student’s t test and Mann–Whitney test were used for analysis of the difference of group. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) with the Tukey post hoc test was used to test differences between categories of liver frailty index. The Kruskal–Wallis test was used to test pain distribution. Statistical significance was determined at the α-0.05 significance level. Result The prevalence of pain in patients with liver cirrhosis was 13.92% (n = 11), and the mean intensity of pain according to the visual analogue scale was 3.73 (± 1.90). Lower back pain was present in patients with ascites (15.91%; n = 7) and without ascites (11.43%; n = 4). The prevalence of lower back pain was not statistically significant between patients with and without ascites (p = 0,426). The base of Schober’s assessment mean score was 3.74 cm (± 1.81), and based on Stibor’s assessment mean score was 5.84 cm (± 2.23). Conclusion Lower back pain in patients with liver cirrhosis is a problem that requires attention. Restricted spinal mobility has been reported in patients with back pain, according to Stibor, compared to patients without pain. There was no difference in the incidence of pain in patients with and without ascites

Development of a reference material for analysing naturally occurring radioactive material from the steel industry

Accurate measurement of naturally occurring radionuclides in blast furnace slag, a by-product of the steel industry, is required for compliance with building regulations where it is often used as an ingredient in cement. A matrix reference blast furnace slag material has been developed to support traceability in these measurements. Raw material provided by a commercial producer underwent stability and homogeneity testing, as well as characterisation of matrix constituents, to provide a final candidate reference material. The radionuclide content was then determined during a comparison exercise that included 23 laboratories from 14 countries. Participants determined the activity per unit mass for 226Ra, 232Th and 40K using a range of techniques. The consensus values obtained from the power-moderated mean of the reported participant results were used as indicative activity per unit mass values for the three radionuclides: A0(226Ra) = 106.3 (34) Bq·kg−1, A0(232Th) = 130.0 (48) Bq·kg−1 and A0(40K) = 161 (11) Bq·kg−1 (where the number in parentheses is the numerical value of the combined standard uncertainty referred to the corresponding last digits of the quoted result). This exercise helps to address the current shortage of NORM industry reference materials, putting in place infrastructure for production of further reference materials.[Display omitted]•Current availability of reference materials for naturally occurring radioactive material has been expanded upon.•A blast furnace slag reference material has been developed to support the steel industry and regulations regarding its use in building materials.•A comparison exercise of 23 laboratories was used to determine consensus values for the activity per unit mass of selected radionuclides.•Infrastructure has been built for future development of reference materials in support of naturally occurring radioactive materials

State Of the Art Report in the fields of numerical analysis and scientific computing

This document provides an assessment of the current state-of-the-art for the DONUT work package. It is intended as a reference for the involved actors in EURAD and will be updated at the end of the project as new information becomes available. The prupose of this work package is to improve/develop methods or numerical tools in order to go a step further in development of (i) relevant, performant and cutting-edge numerical methods that can easily be implemented in existing or new tools, in order to carry out high-performance computing to facilitate the study of highly coupled processes in large systems. These methods and their implementation in tools will be mainly applied to reactive transport, 2-phase flow, and THM modelling in porous and fractured media; (ii) numerical scale transition schemes for coupled processes (meso1 to macro scale), supporting the study of specific multi-scale couplings such as chemo-mechanics; (iii) innovative numerical methods to carry out uncertainty and sensitivity analyses coupled processes.The readers have to keep in mind that this report is not reviewing all the existing codes, methods or tools that are available in the literature. It is rather written and oriented in the perspective of the research program that will be conducted by the different partners within DONUT. While some general statement are given, the research direction that will be followed by partners are outlined