Air bubbles in the rectus abdominis muscle

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Determinação das características morfológica de petúnias comuns (petunia x hybrida) cultivadas em tubetes biodegradáveis

The market for ornamental plants and flowers has been growing a lot in recent years, in the country, due to its importance in interior design. Petunias are seeded first in seedbeds and then replanted in&nbsp; plastic bags. In order to examine the potential use of biodegradable containers, an experiment was conducted at the experimental site of the Department of Natural Resources/Forestry Science, at Agronomics Sciences College of UNESP, Botucatu, S&atilde;o Paulo (Brazil), with common petunias (Petunia x hybrida) grown in greenhouses. The irrigation system used in the experiment was the spraying, without added nutrients. Four irrigations of approximately 15 minutes each were carried out every day, two in the morning&nbsp; and two in the afternoon, for irrigation. The containers used for the formation of seedlings were lack polyethylene plastic bags and biodegradable plastic tubes. The development of the seedlings was accompanied taking into account the morphological characteristics of shoot height (H), diameter of the neck (D), leaf area (AF) and length of the root system (CSR). Analysis of the substrate, analysis of water quality and loss of weight of the biodegradable plastic tubes were also carried out. The results showed that the petunia seedlings develop better in plastic bags than in biodegradable containers and that the limiting factor was the water deficit of seedlings due to high permeability of the biodegradable containers. For a better development of seedlings in biodegradable containers, it would be necessary to adjust the irrigation regime so that water is better distributed.O mercado de plantas ornamentais e&nbsp; flores no pa&iacute;s v&ecirc;m crescendo muitos nos &uacute;ltimos anos, por sua caracter&iacute;stica na decora&ccedil;&atilde;o de ambientes. A pet&uacute;nia &eacute; propagada inicialmente em sementeiras e depois replantada em saquinhos pl&aacute;sticos. Para verificar o potencial do uso de recipientes biodegrad&aacute;veis, um experimento foi conduzido na &aacute;rea experimental do Departamento de Recursos Naturais/Ci&ecirc;ncias Florestais da Faculdade de Ci&ecirc;ncias Agron&ocirc;micas da UNESP de Botucatu-SP, com pet&uacute;nias comuns (Petunia x hybrida)&nbsp; cultivadas no interior de estufas. O sistema de irriga&ccedil;&atilde;o utilizado no experimento foi o de aspers&atilde;o, sem adi&ccedil;&atilde;o de nutrientes. Foram realizadas quatro irriga&ccedil;&otilde;es por dia, sendo duas no turno da manh&atilde; e duas no per&iacute;odo vespertino. O tempo de cada irriga&ccedil;&atilde;o foi aproximadamente 15 minutos. Os recipientes usados para a forma&ccedil;&atilde;o das mudas foram sacos pl&aacute;sticos de polietileno na cor preta e tubetes biodegrad&aacute;veis. O desenvolvimento das mudas foi acompanhado pelas caracter&iacute;sticas morfol&oacute;gicas altura da parte a&eacute;rea (H), di&acirc;metro do colo (D), &aacute;rea foliar (AF) e comprimento do sistema radicular (CSR). Foram feitas tamb&eacute;m an&aacute;lise do substrato, an&aacute;lise da qualidade da &aacute;gua e a perda de massa dos tubetes biodegrad&aacute;veis. A an&aacute;lise dos dados mostrou que as mudas de pet&uacute;nia em sacos pl&aacute;sticos se desenvolveram melhor que nos recipientes biodegrad&aacute;veis e que o fator limitante foi o d&eacute;ficit h&iacute;drico das mudas em raz&atilde;o da elevada permeabilidade dos recipientes biodegrad&aacute;veis. Para melhor desenvolvimento das mudas em recipientes biodegrad&aacute;veis haveria necessidade de ajustar o regime de irriga&ccedil;&atilde;o de forma a que a &aacute;gua seja melhor distribu&iacute;da

Anti-HIV-1 Activity of CD4 Synthetic Oligopeptides Representative of the Putative gp120 Binding Site

Two CD4 oligopeptides, corresponding to residues (37–53) and (37–55) of the V1 domain of CD4, which recent structural studies propose as the most likely binding site of HIV-1 gp120, have been chemically synthesized by solid-phase techniques, modified by the addition of two side-chain protected cysteines at both termini and purified by HPLC. Their ability to inhibit the infectivity of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) (HTLV-IIIB, RF and GB8 strains) in different cell lines was monitored by the production of progeny virus, p24 and reverse transcriptase activity in the culture supernatants and by electron microscopy. The results indicated that the peptides inhibited HIV-1 infectivity in a dose-dependent fashion without any detectable cytotoxicity

Doxorubicin and congo red effectiveness on prion infectivity in golden Syrian hamster

The effect of doxorubicin and Congo Red on prion protein (PrP) infectivity in experimental scrapie was studied to better understand the effect of these compounds in prion diseases and to establish whether a dose-response correlation exists for Congo Red. This was performed in order to test the effectiveness of compounds that may easily be used in human prion diseases. Brain homogenate containing membrane bound PrPSc monomers was used as inoculum and was previously incubated with doxorubicin 10(-3) M and with increasing concentrations of Congo Red ranging from 10(-7) to 10(-2) M. This study shows for the first time that doxorubicin, and confirms that Congo Red, may interact with pathological PrP monomers modifying their infectious properties. Pre-incubation of infected brain homogenate with Congo Red resulted in prolonged incubation time and survival, independently of Congo Red concentration (p&lt;0.05). Doxorubicin and Congo Red effects do not depend upon interaction with PrP amyloid material

Olfactory and gustatory dysfunctions in SARS-CoV-2 infection

Among Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) manifestations, Olfactory (OD) and Gustatory (GD) Dysfunctions (OGD) have drawn considerable attention, becoming a sort of hallmark of the disease. Many have speculated on the pathogenesis and clinical characteristics of these disturbances; however, no definite answers have been produced on the topic. With this systematic review, we aimed to collect all the available evidence regarding the prevalence of OGD, the timing of their onset and their resolution, their rate of recovery and their role as diagnostic and prognostic tools for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection

Arginine-enriched oral nutritional supplementation in the treatment of pressure ulcers: A literature review

Abstract Purpose Pressure ulcers are a common, potentially mortal complication to disease, care and treatment for patients of all ages with mobility impairments. In addition, pressure ulcers not always heal straightforward because of multiple intrinsic factors e.g. undernutrition and extrinsic factors e.g. inadequate nutrition that may influence the healing process. The aim of this descriptive review is to investigate the treatment effect of arginine-enriched oral nutritional supplementation in pressure ulcers. Results The included studies, seven RCTs and four CTs, were published between January 2001 and October 2015, and conducted in different settings: hospital, long-term care/care homes and home care. The duration of follow-up of the studies varied from 2 weeks to complete healing and the sample size varied from 16 to 245 patients aged from 37 to 92 years and with pressure ulcer stages II, III or IV. The wound-specific oral nutritional supplementation contained 3–9 g of arginine. The main outcome measures were complete healing, time needed for complete wound closure, reduction in wound surface area, nursing time, and the number of dressings used. Ten out of eleven studies showed a beneficial effect of the arginine-enriched oral nutritional supplementation on the healing of pressure ulcers. Conclusions This review shows that there is substantial evidence supporting the positive effect of nutritional supplementation with additional protein, arginine and micronutrients to promote pressure ulcer healing. Currently, there is only one large study (N = 200) with level 1 evidence. It may be postulated that at least one extra comparable level 1 study is needed to draw firm conclusions on the importance of key nutrients in complete pressure ulcer healing

Evaluating GAIA performances on eclipsing binaries. II. Orbits and stellar parameters for V781 Tau, UV Leo and GK Dra

The orbits and physical parameters of three close, double-lined G0 eclipsing binaries have been derived combining H_P, V_T, B_T photometry from the Hipparcos/Tycho mission with 8480-8740 \AA ground-based spectroscopy. The setup is mimicking the photometric and spectroscopic observations that should be obtained by GAIA. The binaries considered here are all of G0 spectral type, but each with its own complications: V781 Tau is an overcontact system with components of unequal temperature, UV Leo shows occasional surface spots and GK Dra contains a delta-Scuti variable. Such peculiarities will be common among binaries to be discovered by GAIA. We find that the values of masses, radii and temperatures for such stars can be derived with a 1-2% accuracy using the adopted GAIA-like observing mode.Comment: accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics, contains 5 Tables and 3 Figures; correction of an important typ

The role of extracellular vesicles in the removal of aggregated TDP43 responsible for ALS/FTD diseases

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD) are two related neurodegenerative diseases. ALS is caused by the death of both upper and lower motoneurons, while FTD is characterized predominantly by circumscribed atrophy of the frontal and temporal lobes. ALS and FTD overlap each other. This is demonstrated by the presence of cognitive and behavioral dysfunction in up to 50% of ALS patients and by the presence of frontotemporal atrophy in patients with ALS. Moreover, these diseases are both characterize by the presence of TAR DNA binding protein 43 (TDP43) inclusions in affected cells. These inclusions, observed in 97% of patients with ALS and 50% of patients with FTD, are composed by TDP43 and its C-terminal fragments of 35 kDa (TDP35) and 25 kDa (TDP25). These fragments are highly aggregation-prone and probably neurotoxic. Thus, their removal is protective for cells. The mechanism responsible for the clearance of aggregates and misfolded proteins is the intracellular protein quality control (PQC) system. It consists of molecular chaperones/co- chaperones and the degradative pathways. PQC controls the folding status of proteins and prevents the aggregation of misfolded proteins by refolding them or degrading. Recent data demonstrated that also extracellular secretory pathway, represented especially by exosomes (EXOs) and microvesicles (MVs), might be involved in the removal of misfolded proteins from affected cells. Thus, we evaluated the role of EXOs and MVs in the secretion of TDP43 and its C-terminal fragments, using neuronal cell models. We used ultracentrifugation, that allowed us to separate MVs from EXOs on the basis of their dimension. Then we analyzed them through i) Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis (NanoSight) to establish their number and sizes, and ii) western blot analysis, to characterize their protein content. Our preliminary results show that TDP43, TDP35 and TDP25 are all secreted, mainly by MVs. In particular, we found that MVs are enriched of insoluble forms of TDPs and also of superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1), another ALS-related protein. Finally, both in EXOs and in MVs, we observed the presence of some important PQC-components, suggesting an interplay between the two pathways. GRANTS: Fondazione Cariplo, Italy (n. 2017_0747); Universit\ue0 degli Studi di Milano e piano di sviluppo UNIMI - linea B

Gene-specific inhibition of breast carcinoma in BALB-neuT mice by active immunization with rat Neu or human ErbB receptors

Employing the transgenic BALB-neuT mouse tumor model, we explored the in vivo biologic relevance of immunocompetent epitopes shared among the four ErbB receptors. The outcome of neu-mediated tumorigenesis was compared following vaccination with isogeneic normal rat ErbB2/Neu (LTR-Neu) or xenogeneic human ErbB receptors (LTR-EGFR, LTR-ErbB2, LTR-ErbB3 and LTR-ErbB4), each recombinantly expressed in an NIH3T3 murine cell background. Vaccination using rat LTR-Neu at the stage of atypical hyperplasia potently inhibited neu-mediated mammary tumorigenesis. Moreover, all human ErbB receptors specifically interfered with tumor development in BALB-neuT mice. Relative increase in tumor-free survival and reduction in tumor incidence corresponded to structural similarity shared with the etiologic neu oncogene, as rat orthologue LTR-Neu proved most effective followed by the human homologue LTR-ErbB2 and the other three human ErbB receptors. Vaccination resulted in high titer specific serum antibodies, whose tumor-inhibitory effect correlated with cross-reactivity to purified rat Neu extracellular domain in vitro. Furthermore, a T cell response specific for peptide epitopes of rat Neu was elicited in spleen cells of mice immunized with LTR-Neu and was remotely detectable for discrete peptides upon vaccination with LTR-ErbB2 and LTR-EGFR. The most pronounced tumor inhibition by LTR-Neu vaccination was associated with leukocyte infiltrate and tumor necrosis in vivo, while immune sera specifically induced cytotoxicity and apoptosis of BALB-neuT tumor cells in vitro. Our findings indicated that targeted inhibition of neu oncogene-mediated mammary carcinogenesis is conditional upon the immunization schedule and discrete immunogenic epitopes shared to a variable extent by different ErbB receptors