Serum heparan sulfate levels are elevated in endotoxemia

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Increased vascular permeability is a characteristic feature of sepsis which, in the past, has been ascribed exclusively to a malfunction of endothelial cells. However, recently it has become evident that the endothelial glycocalyx is of considerable importance concerning various aspects of vascular physiology, e.g. the vascular barrier and inflammation. Heparan sulfate, one of its essential components is characteristically traceable in blood, in case the endothelial glycocalyx is damaged or destroyed.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In 15 pigs we investigated whether the administration of endotoxin from gram-negative bacteria (Escherichia coli) results in increased serum levels of heparan sulfate, signalizing a shedding of the glycocalyx. In addition, markers of inflammation (white blood cell count, platelet count, tumour necrosis factor-α and interleukin-6) were evaluated over an observation period of 6 hours.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Serum heparan sulfate concentrations significantly increased over time in the endotoxin group and were significantly elevated in comparison to the control group 6 hours after administration of endotoxin (p < 0.001). In the endotoxin group all markers of inflammation significantly changed during the time course.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The administration of bacterial endotoxin induced a significant rise in degradation products of the endothelial glycocalyx.</p

Strengthening the morphological study of informal settlements

Methods of articulating the morphological structure of slums can have considerable potential in better planning for site-specific design or policy responses for these areas in the contemporary city. Although urban morphology traditionally studies landscapes as stratified residues with distinct divisions between lot and boundary, built and unbuilt, the authors find these definitions insufficient to address the complexity of slum morphology. Through this article, the authors’ identify that morphological analysis of informal settlements needs to be sensitive to the dynamics and the absence (or blurring) of physical boundaries. By analyzing the spatial impact of social, economic, and political factors, situational and site factors, building typologies, and configurations of circulation space, an attempt to articulate the morphological structure of slums is made. Aiming to overcome the current polarization in the literature between the formal and informal city, this article adds to the ongoing research on the study of challenges within contemporary cities, by providing new methodologies for studying the morphology of slum urbanization and shaping planning practice

Identifying Trends in Masterplanning: A Typological Classification System

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of the following article: Robert Adam, and Claire Jamieson, ‘Identifying trends in masterplanning: A typological classification system’, URBAN DESIGN International, Vol. 19 (4): 274-290, December 2014. The final publication is available at Springer via https://doi.org/10.1057/udi.2013.24.This article reports research carried out to develop a new typological method for the analysis of masterplans. This quantitative method of analysis can be used to produce comparative data that will help in the comparison of urban design typologies and their development over time. This article sets out the research to date, describing how the initial aims have developed from simple analysis to the creation of an analytical tool with wide applications. Comprising a detailed taxonomy of urban design features gathered from a wide database of recent and emerging masterplans, the system provides opportunities for further study such as trends, qualitative comparison against quantitative measurement, and comparison of aims and outcomes. This article will describe the methodology and process of research, while elaborating on the potential of the tool.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

The recent intellectual structure of geography

An active learning project in an introductory graduate course used multidimensional scaling of the name index in Geography in America at the Dawn of the 21st Century, by Gary Gaile and Cort Willmott, to reveal some features of the discipline\u27s recent intellectual structure relevant to the relationship between human and physical geography. Previous analyses, dating to the 1980s, used citation indices or Association of American Geographers spe- cialty-group rosters to conclude that either the regional or the methods and environmental subdisciplines bridge human and physical geography. The name index has advantages over those databases, and its analysis reveals that the minimal connectivity that occurs between human and physical geography has recently operated more through environmental than through either methods or regional subdisciplines

Towards analytical typologies of plot systems: quantitative profile of five European cities

The importance of the plot (also referred to as ‘property’) as one of the fundamental elements of urban form is well recognized within the field of urban morphology. Despite the fact that it is often described as the basic element in the pattern of land divisions, which are essential as organizational frameworks for urban form, studies offering comprehensive descriptions and classifications of plot systems are quite scant. The aim of the paper is to introduce a classification of plot systems into typologies based on five European cities, in order to distinguish particular spatial differences and similarities in terms of their plot structure. The proposed typologies are developed using unsupervised k-means cluster analysis based on numeric attributes derived from central theories in urban morphology. The introduced typologies are essentially configurational, allowing collective systematic properties of plot systems to be captured. Numeric attributes include plot differentiation (or plot size), plot frontage and compactness ratio, corresponding to essential qualities of plot systems such as the capacity to carry differences in space, the ability to operate as interface between street and building and providing a framework for evolution of built form over time. All three attributes are translated into configurational measures in order to capture the context of the plot system, rather than the parameters of individual plots. The combination of these deductively defined variables with algorithmically defined classification methods results in seven plot types that can be used to scale up traditional urban morphological analysis to whole city regions and conduct substantial comparison of patterns within, but also between these regions. Further, it also makes it possible to describe commonly recognized plot patterns and discover new ones

On the origin of spaces: morphometric foundations of urban form evolution

The modern discipline of urban morphology gives us a ground for the comparative analysis of cities, which increasingly includes specific quantitative elements. In this paper, we make a further step forward towards the definition of a general method for the classification of urban form. We draw from morphometrics and taxonomy in life sciences to propose such method, which we name ‘urban morphometrics’. We then test it on a unit of the urban landscape named ‘Sanctuary Area’ (SA), explored in 45 cities whose origins span four historic time periods: Historic (medieval), Industrial (19th century), New Towns (post-WWII, high-rise) and Sprawl (post-WWII, low-rise). We describe each SA through 207 physical dimensions and then use these to discover features that discriminate them among the four temporal groups. Nine dimensions emerge as sufficient to correctly classify 90% of the urban settings by their historic origins. These nine attributes largely identify an area's ‘visible identity’ as reflected by three characteristics: (1) block perimeterness, or the way buildings define the street-edge; (2) building coverage, or the way buildings cover the land and (3) regular plot coverage, or the extent to which blocks are made of plots that have main access from a street. Hierarchical cluster analysis utilising only the nine key variables nearly perfectly clusters each SA according to its historic origin; moreover, the resulting dendrogram shows, just after WWII, the first ‘bifurcation’ of urban history, with the emergence of the modern city as a new ‘species’ of urban form. With ‘urban morphometrics’ we hope to extend urban morphological research and contribute to understanding the way cities evolve

Utjecaj desflurana i sevoflurana na razine oksidativnog stresa u tkivima štakora

General anaesthetics are often used in patients who are under oxidative stress due to a critical illness or surgical trauma. Some anaesthetics may worsen oxidative stress and some may act as antioxidants. The aim of this study was to evaluate liver, brain, kidney, and lung tissue oxidative stress in rats exposed to desflurane and sevoflurane and in unexposed rats. The animals were divided in three groups: control (received only air); sevoflurane (8 %), and desflurane (4 %). After four hours of exposure, we evaluated the levels of malondialdehyde (MDA), superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), Cu, and Zn. Exposure to either of the anaesthetics significantly increased lung MDA levels compared to control (Mann-Whitney U test; P<0.05), probably because it is the tissue directly exposed to anaesthetic gases. Oxidative stress and antioxidant activity in other tissues varied between the desflurane and sevoflurane groups. Our results suggest that anaesthesiologist should not only be aware of the oxidative or antioxidative potential of anaesthetics they use, but should also base their choices on organs which are the most affected by their oxidative actionkisikovih radikala tako i zbog smanjene aktivnosti obrambenih sustava koji se mogu oduprijeti njihovu djelovanju. Stoga su saznanja o antioksidativnom kapacitetu anestetika koji se primjenjuju prije nekoga kirurškog zahvata vrlo važna i od velikog su kliničkog značenja. Sevofl uran i desfl uran su inhalacijski anestetici koji se učestalo rabe u svrhu uvođenja bolesnika u anesteziju. Cilj ovog istraživanja bio je utvrditi razine oksidativnog stresa u različitim tkivima štakora i usporediti razlike u odgovoru tkiva na izlaganje navedenim anesteticima. U tu svrhu razine oksidativnog stresa izmjerili smo u jetri, mozgu, bubrezima i plućima štakora podijeljenih u tri eksperimentalne skupine. Kontrolna skupina udisala je samo zrak, dok su druge dvije skupine izložene 8 %-tnomu sevofl uranu te 4 %-tnomu desfl uranu tijekom 4 h. Nakon završetka obrade životinje su žrtvovane i uzimani su im uzorci tkiva za biokemijske analize. Mjerena je razina malondialdehida (MDA), aktivnst enzima superoksid dismutaze (SOD) i glutation peroksidaze (GSH-Px) te razine bakra i cinka. Izloženost anesteticima izazvala je oksidativni stres u plućima, na što upućuje značajno povišena razina MDA (Mann-Whitney U-test P<0.05) izmjerena u plućnom tkivu štakora obiju izloženih skupina u odnosu na kontrolu. Plućno je tkivo u odnosu na ostala tkiva podložnije štetnim utjecajima reaktivnih kisikovih radikala vjerojatno stoga što je ono prvo izloženo plinovitim anesteticima nakon njihova ulaska u organizam. Razine oksidativnog stresa i antioksidativne aktivnosti koje smo izmjerili u ostalim tkivima bile su različite te su ovisile o primijenjenom anestetiku. Na osnovi dobivenih rezultata možemo zaključiti da bi se zbog različitog odgovora tkiva izbor anestetika trebao provoditi na individualnoj osnovi

Defining public open spaces: an investigation framework to inform planning and design decision-making processes

Typomorphological analysis has been used to study building types, but it is seldom applied to open spaces. This paper argues that the same systematic and rigorous approach can be applied to define public open spaces. It explores the potential of the application of a systematic analysis of types and forms to define urban landscapes. Drawing on existing literature, this paper identifies specific attributes related to urban landscape elements including formal and spatial aspects. This paper highlights the potential of open space networks to respond to the contemporary challenges facing urban designers working to create better places to live in. This paper contributes to the field of design research through the development of a method of survey and analysis to inform design decision-making processes. Its significance lies in proposing a comprehensive framework to contribute to a more detailed definition of urban landscape character and inform the development of sustainable urban strategies