Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Does Not Have a Negative Impact on Bone Signaling Pathways in Humans

Introduction: Oxygen is emerging as an important factor in the local regulation of bone remodeling. Some preclinical data suggest that hyperoxia may have deleterious effects on bone cells. However, its clinical relevance is unclear. Hence, we studied the effect of hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) on serum biomarkers reflecting the status of the Wnt and receptor activator of NF-?B ligand (RANKL) pathways, two core pathways for bone homeostasis. Materials and methods: This was a prospective study of 20 patients undergoing HBOT (mean age 58 yrs., range 35?82 yrs.) because of complications of radiotherapy or chronic anal fissure. Patients were subjected to HBOT (100% oxygen; 2.4 atmospheres absolute for 90 min). The average number of HBOT sessions was 20 ± 5 (range 8?31). Serum hypoxia-inducible factor 1-? (HIF1-?), osteoprotegerin (OPG), RANKL, and the Wnt inhibitors sclerostin and dickkopf-1 (DKK1) were measured at baseline and after HBOT by using specific immunoassays. Results: HIF-1? in eight patients with measurable serum levels increased from 0.084 (0.098) ng/mL at baseline to 0.146 (0.130) ng/mL after HBOT (p = 0.028). However, HBOT did not induce any significant changes in the serum levels of OPG, RANKL, sclerostin or DKK1. This was independent of the patients? diagnosis, either neoplasia or benign. Conclusion: Despite the potential concerns about hyperoxia, we found no evidence that HBOT has any detrimental effect on bone homeostasis

Epidemiología molecular de Bartonella henselae en gatos callejeros y de albergue en Zaragoza, España

Fundamentos: Bartonella henselae produce la enfermedad del araña- zo del gato en las personas y se considera infradiagnosticada. El objetivo fue detectar y cuantificar la carga de ácido desoxiribonucleico (ADN) de B. henselae en muestras de sangre y orales de gatos callejeros y de albergue de Zaragoza, España y analizar su relación con factores epidemiológicos y clínicos. Métodos: Se estudiaron 47 gatos. El ADN de B. henselae,se detectó mediante reacción en cadena de la polimerasa en tiempo real (qPCR) en sangre y muestras orales. Se usó el paquete estadístico SPSS para analizar la positividad de las muestras pareadas y su relación con factores epidemioló- gicos (edad, sexo, origen, mes de muestreo, presencia de pulgas/garrapatas) y clínicos (estado de salud y presencia de lesiones orales). Se realizó un análisis de regresión logística para conocer la asociación entre la presencia en sangre y cavidad oral y el resto de las variables. Resultados: el 23,40% de las muestras de sangre y el 27,65% de las orales portaba el ADN de B. henselae. Se observó débil correlación de la positividad de las muestras pareadas (kappa= 0,33; p 0,05) entre la presencia de ADN de B. henselae en las muestras y los factores epidemiológicos y clínicos. Los gatos con lesiones orales portaban una carga más elevada de ADN (3,12/1x106 células) en la boca que los que no tenían lesiones (2,58 /1por106 células), (p=0,032). Conclusiones: La detección de ADN de B. henselae en sangre no pare- ce estar relacionada con su presencia en cavidad oral y viceversa. Los gatos positivos con lesiones orales pueden significar mayor riesgo de infección por B. henselae para las personas que los manejan

Why the Mexican Oyster Fishery in the Gulf of Mexico Is Underdeveloped?

The Mexican Oyster fishery in the Gulf of Mexico annually produces only 50,000 MT, 95% of Mexico oyster production. Oyster production has fallen drastically in most coastal lagoons, this decline has been attributed to factors as overfishing, mismanagement of natural oyster beds, environmental degradation and lagoons pollution. This work proposes strategies for oyster fishery management on Gulf of Mexico littoral. In order to achieve this goal oyster fishery diagnose for Tamaulipas, Veracruz, Tabasco and Campeche states were made for evaluation of ecological, economics, legal and social aspects trough information sources as statistical yearbooks, databases, and published information relative to regional oyster fishery, simultaneously visits to landing places where made and inquiries to production units, directives, fishermen and decision makers were done. Collected information was grouped and analyzed with SWOT analysis. Oyster fishery is carried on in 20 coastal ecosystems where works 51 production units with 2,955 active oyster fishermen. In every visited site were observed water pollution, coastal deforestation and or overfishing. National and international oysters markets cannot grow for several reasons including sanitary quality; there are no efficient models for oyster beds administration, no infrastructure for give oyster products additional value. Some of the strategies for solve these difficulties are, to make local diagnosis and promote social organization for control of water quality, market research for oyster products and laboratory seed production, register efficiently and responsibly catch statistics, to make official norms on size catch, fishing gear, fishing, reception, packing, commercialization, culture techniques, and cultured oyster sizes, these strategies and other programs may permit sustainable and biotechnological development in oyster fishery.Keywords: Fisheries Economics, Fish and Aquaculture Sectors Development, Fisheries Dynamic

Diverging results of areal and volumetric bone mineral density in Down syndrome

Population with Down syndrome (DS) has lower areal BMD, in association with their smaller skeletal size. However, volumetric BMD and other indices of bone microarchitecture, such as trabecular bone score (TBS) and calcaneal ultrasound (QUS), were normal. INTRODUCTION: Patients with DS have a number of risk factors that could predispose them to osteoporosis. Several studies reported that people with DS also have lower areal bone mineral density, but differences in the skeletal size could bias the analysis. METHODS: Seventy-five patients with DS and 76 controls without intellectual disability were recruited. Controls were matched for age and sex. Bone mineral density (BMD) was measure by Dual-energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DXA), and volumetric bone mineral density (vBMD) was calculated by published formulas. Body composition was also measured by DXA. Microarchitecture was measured by TBS and QUS. Serum 25-hidroxyvitamin D (25OHD), parathyroid hormone (PTH), aminoterminal propeptide of type collagen (P1NP), and C-terminal telopeptide of type I collagen (CTX) were also determined. Physical activity was assessed by the International Physical Activity Questionnaires (IPAQ-short form). To evaluate nutritional intake, we recorded three consecutive days of food. RESULTS: DS individuals had lower height (151 ± 11 vs. 169 ± 9 cm). BMD was higher in the controls (lumbar spine (LS) 0.903 ± 0.124 g/cm2 in patients and 0.997 ± 0.115 g/cm2 in the controls; femoral neck (FN) 0.761 ± .126 g/cm2 and 0.838 ± 0.115 g/cm2, respectively). vBMD was similar in the DS group (LS 0.244 ± 0.124 g/cm3; FN 0.325 ± .0.073 g/cm3) and the controls (LS 0.255 ± 0.033 g/cm3; FN 0.309 ± 0.043 g/cm3). Microarchitecture measured by QUS was slightly better in DS, and TBS measures were similar in both groups. 25OHD, PTH, and CTX were similar in both groups. P1NP was higher in the DS group. Time spent on exercise was similar in both groups, but intensity was higher in the control group. Population with DS has correct nutrition. CONCLUSIONS: Areal BMD is reduced in DS, but it seems to be related to the smaller body and skeletal size. In fact, the estimated volumetric BMD is similar in patients with DS and in control individuals. Furthermore, people with DS have normal bone microarchitecture

Comparison of two protective lung ventilatory regimes on oxygenation during one-lung ventilation: a randomized controlled trial

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The efficacy of protective ventilation in acute lung injury has validated its use in the operating room for patients undergoing thoracic surgery with one-lung ventilation (OLV). The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of two different modes of ventilation using low tidal volumes: pressure controlled ventilation (PCV) vs. volume controlled ventilation (VCV) on oxygenation and airway pressures during OLV.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We studied 41 patients scheduled for thoracoscopy surgery. After initial two-lung ventilation with VCV patients were randomly assigned to one of two groups. In one group OLV was started with VCV (tidal volume 6 mL/kg, PEEP 5) and after 30 minutes ventilation was switched to PCV (inspiratory pressure to provide a tidal volume of 6 mL/kg, PEEP 5) for the same time period. In the second group, ventilation modes were performed in reverse order. Airway pressures and blood gases were obtained at the end of each ventilatory mode.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>PaO₂, PaCO₂and alveolar-arterial oxygen difference did not differ between PCV and VCV. Peak airway pressure was significantly lower in PCV compared with VCV (19.9 ± 3.8 cmH₂O vs 23.1 ± 4.3 cmH₂O; p < 0.001) without any significant differences in mean and plateau pressures.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>In patients with good preoperative pulmonary function undergoing thoracoscopy surgery, the use of a protective lung ventilation strategy with VCV or PCV does not affect the oxygenation. PCV was associated with lower peak airway pressures.</p

Extendibility of bilinear forms on banach sequence spaces

[EN] We study Hahn-Banach extensions of multilinear forms defined on Banach sequence spaces. We characterize c(0) in terms of extension of bilinear forms, and describe the Banach sequence spaces in which every bilinear form admits extensions to any superspace.The second author was supported by MICINN Project MTM2011-22417.DANIEL CARANDO; Sevilla Peris, P. (2014). Extendibility of bilinear forms on banach sequence spaces. Israel Journal of Mathematics. 199(2):941-954. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11856-014-0003-9S9419541992F. Albiac and N. J. Kalton, Topics in Banach Space Theory, Graduate Texts in Mathematics, Vol. 233, Springer, New York, 2006.R. Arens, The adjoint of a bilinear operation, Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society 2 (1951), 839–848.R. Arens, Operations induced in function classes, Monatshefte für Mathematik 55 (1951), 1–19.R. M. Aron and P. D. Berner, A Hahn-Banach extension theorem for analytic mappings, Bulletin de la Société Mathématique de France 106 (1978), 3–24.S. Banach, Sur les fonctionelles linéaires, Studia Mathematica 1 (1929), 211–216.S. Banach, Théorie des opérations linéaires, (Monogr. Mat. 1) Warszawa: Subwncji Funduszu Narodowej. VII, 254 S., Warsaw, 1932.D. Carando, Extendible polynomials on Banach spaces, Journal of Mathematical Analysis and Applications 233 (1999), 359–372.D. Carando, Extendibility of polynomials and analytic functions on l p, Studia Mathematica 145 (2001), 63–73.D. Carando, V. Dimant and P. Sevilla-Peris, Limit orders and multilinear forms on lp spaces, Publications of the Research Institute for Mathematical Sciences 42 (2006), 507–522.J. M. F. Castillo, R. García, A. Defant, D. Pérez-García and J. Suárez, Local complementation and the extension of bilinear mappings, Mathematical Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society 152 (2012), 153–166.J. M. F. Castillo, R. García and J. A. Jaramillo, Extension of bilinear forms on Banach spaces, Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society 129 (2001), 3647–3656.P. Cembranos and J. Mendoza, The Banach spaces ℓ ∞(c 0) and c 0(ℓ ∞) are not isomorphic, Journal of Mathematical Analysis and Applications 367 (2010), 461–463.A. Defant and K. Floret, Tensor Norms and Operator Ideals, North-Holland Mathematics Studies, Vol. 176, North-Holland Publishing Co., Amsterdam, 1993.A. Defant and C. Michels, Norms of tensor product identities, Note di Matematica 25 (2005/06), 129–166.J. Diestel, H. Jarchow and A. Tonge, Absolutely Summing Operators, Cambridge Studies in Advanced Mathematics, Vol. 43, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1995.D. J. H. Garling, On symmetric sequence spaces, Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society (3) 16 (1966), 85–106.A. Grothendieck, Résumé de la théorie métrique des produits tensoriels topologiques, Bol. Soc. Mat. São Paulo 8 (1953), 1–79.H. Hahn, Über lineare Gleichungssysteme in linearen Räumen, Journal für die Reine und Angewandte Mathematik 157 (1927), 214–229.R. C. James, Bases and reflexivity of Banach spaces, Annals of Mathematics (2) 52 (1950), 518–527.H. Jarchow, C. Palazuelos, D. Pérez-García and I. Villanueva, Hahn-Banach extension of multilinear forms and summability, Journal of Mathematical Analysis and Applications 336 (2007), 1161–1177.W. B. Johnson and L. Tzafriri, On the local structure of subspaces of Banach lattices, Israel Journal of Mathematics 20 (1975), 292–299.P. Kirwan and R. A. Ryan, Extendibility of homogeneous polynomials on Banach spaces, Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society 126 (1998), 1023–1029.J. Lindenstrauss and A. Pełczyński, Absolutely summing operators in Lp-spaces and their applications, Studia Mathematica 29 (1968), 275–326.J. Lindenstrauss and L. Tzafriri, Classical Banach Spaces. II, Ergebnisse der Mathematik und ihrer Grenzgebiete [Results in Mathematics and Related Areas], Vol. 97, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1979. Function spaces.G. Pisier, Factorization of Linear Operators and Geometry of Banach Spaces, CBMS Regional Conference Series in Mathematics, Vol. 60, Published for the Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences, Washington, DC, 1986.M. Fernndez-Unzueta and A. Prieto, Extension of polynomials defined on subspaces, Mathematical Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society 148 (2010), 505–518.W. L. C. Sargent, Some sequence spaces related to the lp spaces, Journal of the London Mathematical Society 35 (1960), 161–171.N. Tomczak-Jaegermann, Banach-Mazur Distances and Finite-Dimensional Operator Ideals, Pitman Monographs and Surveys in Pure and Applied Mathematics, Vol. 38, Longman Scientific & Technical, Harlow, 1989

Tribological behaviour of microalloyed and conventional C–Mn rail steels in a pure sliding condition

This paper compares the tribological behaviour of microalloyed rail steel with conventional C–Mn rail steel under different test conditions (load, temperature and humidity). Pin-on-disc tribological tests were performed inside a climate chamber under different loads (20, 30 and 40 N), relative humidity (15, 55 and 70%) and temperatures (20 and 40 ℃). After the friction and wear tests, the worn surfaces were analysed using both confocal and scanning electron microscopies. The results obtained show that the use of microalloyed steel in railway applications under severe conditions (high loads and humidity) could lead to increased service life of the rails and could extend the time between maintenance operations

Genetic polymorphisms are associated with serum levels of sex hormone binding globulin in postmenopausal women

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Estrogen activity plays a critical role in bone homeostasis. The serum levels of sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) influence free estrogen levels and activity on target tissues. The objective of this study was to analyze the influence of common polymorphisms of the <it>SHBG </it>gene on serum SHBG, bone mineral density (BMD), and osteoporotic fractures.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Four biallelic polymorphisms of the <it>SHBG </it>gene were studied by means of Taqman assays in 753 postmenopausal women. BMD was measured by DXA and serum SHBG was measured by ELISA.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Age, body weight, and two polymorphisms of the <it>SHBG </it>gene (rs6257 and rs1799941 [A/G]) were significantly associated with serum SHBG in unadjusted and age- and weight-adjusted models. Alleles at the rs1799941 locus showed the strongest association with serum SHBG (p = 0.0004). The difference in SHBG levels between women with AA and GG genotypes at the rs1799941 locus was 39%. There were no significant differences in BMD across SHBG genotypes. The genotypes showed similar frequency distributions in control women and women with vertebral or hip fractures.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Some common genetic variants of the <it>SHBG </it>gene, and particularly an A/G polymorphism situated in the 5' region, influence serum SHBG levels. However, a significant association with BMD or osteoporotic fractures has not been demonstrated.</p