Ground calcium carbonate as a low cost and biosafety excipient for solubility and dissolution improvement of praziquantel

Calcium carbonate is an abundant mineral with several advantages to be a successful carrier to improve oral bioavailability of poorly water-soluble drugs, such as praziquantel. Praziquantel is an antiparasitic drug classified in group II of the Biopharmaceutical Classification System hence characterized by high-permeability and low-solubility. Therefore, the dissolution rate is the limiting factor for the gastrointestinal absorption that contributes to the low bioavailability. Consequently, the therapeutic dose of the praziquantel must be high and big tablets and capsules are required, which are difficult to swallow, especially for pediatric and elderly patients. Mixtures of praziquantel and calcium carbonate using solid-solid physical mixtures and solid dispersions were prepared and characterized using several techniques (X-ray diffraction differential scanning calorimetry, thermogravimetric analysis, scanning electron microscopy, laser diffraction, Fourier transform infrared and Raman spectroscopies). Solubility of these formulations evidenced that the solubility of praziquantel-calcium carbonate interaction product increased in physiological media. In vitro dissolution tests showed that the interaction product increased the dissolution rate of the drug in acidic medium. Theoretical models were studied to understand this experimental behavior. Cytotoxicity and cell cycle studies were performed, showing that praziquantel-calcium carbonate physical mixture and interaction product were biocompatible with the HTC116 cells, because it did not produce a decrease in cell viability or alterations in the cell cycle

Use of materials in nest construction by Pied Flycatchers Ficedula hypoleuca reflects localised habitat and geographical location.

Capsule Pied Flycatchers use different materials to construct their nests according to localised habitat and geographical location. Aims This study tested the hypotheses that birds would use the leaves they normally encountered within their breeding territories and that nest composition varied between geographical locations. Methods In Lancashire, Pied Flycatcher nests were collected from nestboxes built in locations dominated by different tree species and were deconstructed to determine which materials were used. Results Materials found in nests generally reflected the localised habitat around the nest rather than showing evidence of active collection from distant sources of material. Nests from Lancashire were significantly different in composition when compared with published data for nests from north Wales and central Spain. The use of moss was dominated by the use of one species in all but two nests. Conclusion Pied Flycatchers exhibit plasticity in nest construction behaviour because they were opportunistic in their choice of most nesting materials although they may be selective in their choice of moss

Sigma-phase in Fe-Cr and Fe-V alloy systems and its physical properties

A review is presented on physical properties of the sigma-phase in Fe-Cr and Fe-V alloy systems as revealed both with experimental -- mostly with the Mossbauer spectroscopy -- and theoretical methods. In particular, the following questions relevant to the issue have been addressed: identification of sigma and determination of its structural properties, kinetics of alpha-to-sigma and sigma-to-alpha phase transformations, Debye temperature and Fe-partial phonon density of states, Curie temperature and magnetization, hyperfine fields, isomer shifts and electric field gradients.Comment: 26 pages, 23 figures and 83 reference

Ipsilateral irradiation for well lateralized carcinomas of the oral cavity and oropharynx: results on tumor control and xerostomia

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In head and neck cancer, bilateral neck irradiation is the standard approach for many tumor locations and stages. Increasing knowledge on the pattern of nodal invasion leads to more precise targeting and normal tissue sparing. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the morbidity and tumor control for patients with well lateralized squamous cell carcinomas of the oral cavity and oropharynx treated with ipsilateral radiotherapy.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Twenty consecutive patients with lateralized carcinomas of the oral cavity and oropharynx were treated with a prospective management approach using ipsilateral irradiation between 2000 and 2007. This included 8 radical oropharyngeal and 12 postoperative oral cavity carcinomas, with Stage T1-T2, N0-N2b disease. The actuarial freedom from contralateral nodal recurrence was determined. Late xerostomia was evaluated using the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer QLQ-H&N35 questionnaire and the National Cancer Institute Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE), version 3.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>At a median follow-up of 58 months, five-year overall survival and loco-regional control rates were 82.5% and 100%, respectively. No local or contralateral nodal recurrences were observed. Mean dose to the contralateral parotid gland was 4.72 Gy and to the contralateral submandibular gland was 15.30 Gy. Mean score for dry mouth was 28.1 on the 0-100 QLQ-H&N35 scale. According to CTCAE v3 scale, 87.5% of patients had grade 0-1 and 12.5% grade 2 subjective xerostomia. The unstimulated salivary flow was > 0.2 ml/min in 81.2% of patients and 0.1-0.2 ml/min in 19%. None of the patients showed grade 3 xerostomia.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In selected patients with early and moderate stages, well lateralized oral and oropharyngeal carcinomas, ipsilateral irradiation treatment of the primary site and ipsilateral neck spares salivary gland function without compromising loco-regional control.</p

Defectos del cierre del neuroporo anterior: anencefalias en mortinatos

El objetivo general del presente trabajo consiste en demostrar la incidencia de estas patologías en fetos que no han llegado a término pertenecientes a la Cátedra “A” de Anatomía y servicios de patología de hospitales zonales.Facultad de Ciencias Médica

Debaryomyces hansenii supplementation in low fish meal diets promotes growth, modulates microbiota and enhances intestinal condition in juvenile marine fish

Background The development of a sustainable business model with social acceptance, makes necessary to develop new strategies to guarantee the growth, health, and well-being of farmed animals. Debaryomyces hansenii is a yeast species that can be used as a probiotic in aquaculture due to its capacity to i) promote cell proliferation and differentiation, ii) have immunostimulatory effects, iii) modulate gut microbiota, and/or iv) enhance the digestive function. To provide inside into the effects of D. hansenii on juveniles of gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata) condition, we integrated the evaluation of the main key performance indicators coupled with the integrative analysis of the intestine condition, through histological and microbiota state, and its transcriptomic profiling. Results After 70 days of a nutritional trial in which a diet with low levels of fishmeal (7%) was supplemented with 1.1% of D. hansenii (17.2 × 105 CFU), an increase of ca. 12% in somatic growth was observed together with an improvement in feed conversion in fish fed a yeast-supplemented diet. In terms of intestinal condition, this probiotic modulated gut microbiota without affecting the intestine cell organization, whereas an increase in the staining intensity of mucins rich in carboxylated and weakly sulphated glycoconjugates coupled with changes in the affinity for certain lectins were noted in goblet cells. Changes in microbiota were characterized by the reduction in abundance of several groups of Proteobacteria, especially those characterized as opportunistic groups. The microarrays-based transcriptomic analysis found 232 differential expressed genes in the anterior-mid intestine of S. aurata, that were mostly related to metabolic, antioxidant, immune, and symbiotic processes. Conclusions Dietary administration of D. hansenii enhanced somatic growth and improved feed efficiency parameters, results that were coupled to an improvement of intestinal condition as histochemical and transcriptomic tools indicated. This probiotic yeast stimulated host-microbiota interactions without altering the intestinal cell organization nor generating dysbiosis, which demonstrated its safety as a feed additive. At the transcriptomic level, D. hansenii promoted metabolic pathways, mainly protein-related, sphingolipid, and thymidylate pathways, in addition to enhance antioxidant-related intestinal mechanisms, and to regulate sentinel immune processes, potentiating the defensive capacity meanwhile maintaining the homeostatic status of the intestine.This work has been financed through the DIETAplus project of JACUMAR (Junta de Cultivos Marinos, MAPAMA; Spanish government), which is co-funded with FEMP funds (EU). Furthermore, this research was funded by means of grants from the Spanish Government: PID2019-106878RB-I00 and IS was granted with a Postdoctoral fellowship (FJC2020-043933-I). EVV and FERL thank the support of Fondecyt iniciación (project number 11221308) and Fondecyt regular (project number 11221308) grants (Agencia Nacional de Investigacióny Desarrollo de Chile, Government of Chile), respectively. Collaboration between Ibero-American researchers has been done under the framework of the network LARVAplus “Strategies for the development and im-provement of fish larvae production in Ibero-America” (117RT0521) funded by the Ibero-American Program of Science and Technology for Development (CYTED, Spain).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Some doubts on the validity of the foreground Galactic contribution subtraction from microwave anisotropies

The Galactic foreground contamination in CMBR anisotropies, especially from the dust component, is not easily separable from the cosmological or extragalactic component. In this paper, some doubts will be raised concerning the validity of the methods used to date to remove Galactic dust emission in order to show that none of them achieves its goal. First, I review the recent bibliography on the topic and discuss critically the methods of foreground subtraction: the cross-correlation with templates, analysis assuming the spectral shape of the Galactic components, the "maximum entropy method", "internal linear combination", and "wavelet-based high resolution fitting of internal templates". Second, I analyse the galactic latitude dependence from WMAP data. The frequency dependence is discussed with the data in the available literature. The result is that all methods of subtracting the Galactic contamination are inaccurate. The galactic latitude dependence analysis or the frequency dependence of the anisotropies in the range 50-250 GHz put a constraint on the maximum Galactic contribution in the power spectrum to be less than a ~10% (68% C. L.) for a ~1 degree scale, and possibly higher for larger scales. The origin of most of the signal in the CMBR anisotropies is not Galactic. In any case, the subtraction of the Galaxy is not accurate enough to allow a "precision Cosmology"; other sources of contamination (extragalactic, solar system) are also present.Comment: 24 pages, 1 figure, accepted to be published in J. Astrophys. Ast

Defectos del cierre del neuroporo anterior: anencefalias en mortinatos

El objetivo general del presente trabajo consiste en demostrar la incidencia de estas patologías en fetos que no han llegado a término pertenecientes a la Cátedra “A” de Anatomía y servicios de patología de hospitales zonales.Facultad de Ciencias Médica

Mitochondrial echoes of first settlement and genetic continuity in El Salvador

Background: From Paleo-Indian times to recent historical episodes, the Mesoamerican isthmus played an important role in the distribution and patterns of variability all around the double American continent. However, the amount of genetic information currently available on Central American continental populations is very scarce. In order to shed light on the role of Mesoamerica in the peopling of the New World, the present study focuses on the analysis of the mtDNA variation in a population sample from El Salvador. Methodology/Principal Findings: We have carried out DNA sequencing of the entire control region of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) genome in 90 individuals from El Salvador. We have also compiled more than 3,985 control region profiles from the public domain and the literature in order to carry out inter-population comparisons. The results reveal a predominant Native American component in this region: by far, the most prevalent mtDNA haplogroup in this country (at ~90%) is A2, in contrast with other North, Meso- and South American populations. Haplogroup A2 shows a star-like phylogeny and is very diverse with a substantial proportion of mtDNAs (45%; sequence range 16090–16365) still unobserved in other American populations. Two different Bayesian approaches used to estimate admixture proportions in El Salvador shows that the majority of the mtDNAs observed come from North America. A preliminary founder analysis indicates that the settlement of El Salvador occurred about 13,400±5,200 Y.B.P.. The founder age of A2 in El Salvador is close to the overall age of A2 in America, which suggests that the colonization of this region occurred within a few thousand years of the initial expansion into the Americas. Conclusions/Significance: As a whole, the results are compatible with the hypothesis that today's A2 variability in El Salvador represents to a large extent the indigenous component of the region. Concordant with this hypothesis is also the observation of a very limited contribution from European and African women (~5%). This implies that the Atlantic slave trade had a very small demographic impact in El Salvador in contrast to its transformation of the gene pool in neighbouring populations from the Caribbean facade

New Insights into the Lake Chad Basin Population Structure Revealed by High-Throughput Genotyping of Mitochondrial DNA Coding SNPs

BACKGROUND: Located in the Sudan belt, the Chad Basin forms a remarkable ecosystem, where several unique agricultural and pastoral techniques have been developed. Both from an archaeological and a genetic point of view, this region has been interpreted to be the center of a bidirectional corridor connecting West and East Africa, as well as a meeting point for populations coming from North Africa through the Saharan desert. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Samples from twelve ethnic groups from the Chad Basin (n = 542) have been high-throughput genotyped for 230 coding region mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (mtSNPs) using Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization Time-Of-Flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry. This set of mtSNPs allowed for much better phylogenetic resolution than previous studies of this geographic region, enabling new insights into its population history. Notable haplogroup (hg) heterogeneity has been observed in the Chad Basin mirroring the different demographic histories of these ethnic groups. As estimated using a Bayesian framework, nomadic populations showed negative growth which was not always correlated to their estimated effective population sizes. Nomads also showed lower diversity values than sedentary groups. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Compared to sedentary population, nomads showed signals of stronger genetic drift occurring in their ancestral populations. These populations, however, retained more haplotype diversity in their hypervariable segments I (HVS-I), but not their mtSNPs, suggesting a more ancestral ethnogenesis. Whereas the nomadic population showed a higher Mediterranean influence signaled mainly by sub-lineages of M1, R0, U6, and U5, the other populations showed a more consistent sub-Saharan pattern. Although lifestyle may have an influence on diversity patterns and hg composition, analysis of molecular variance has not identified these differences. The present study indicates that analysis of mtSNPs at high resolution could be a fast and extensive approach for screening variation in population studies where labor-intensive techniques such as entire genome sequencing remain unfeasible