Emisión molecular de 12CO en una estrella Be clásica

Fil: Cochetti, Yanina Roxana. Departamento de Espectroscopía, Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas, Universidad Nacional de La Plata Paseo del Bosque S/N, La Plata, B1900FWA, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Instituto de Astrofısica de La Plata, CONICET–UNLP, ArgentinaFil: Arias, Maria Laura. Departamento de Espectroscopía, Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas, Universidad Nacional de La Plata Paseo del Bosque S/N, La Plata, B1900FWA, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Instituto de Astrofısica de La Plata, CONICET–UNLP, ArgentinaFil: Kraus, Michaela. Astronomický ústav, Akademie věd České Republiky Fričova 298, 251 65 Ondřejov, Czech RepublicFil: Cidale, Lyidia Sonia. Departamento de Espectroscopía, Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas, Universidad Nacional de La Plata Paseo del Bosque S/N, La Plata, B1900FWA, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Instituto de Astrofısica de La Plata, CONICET–UNLP, ArgentinaFil: Torres, Andrea Fabiana. Departamento de Espectroscopía, Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas, Universidad Nacional de La Plata Paseo del Bosque S/N, La Plata, B1900FWA, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Instituto de Astrofısica de La Plata, CONICET–UNLP, ArgentinaFil: Granada, Anahi. Universidad Nacional de Rio Negro, Laboratorio de Procesamiento de Senales Aplicadas y Computacion de Alto Rendimiento. Río Negro; Argentina.Be stars present as their principal characteristic emission lines of hydrogen and singly ionized metals, which can be temporary or permanent. The origin of these lines is attributed to the presence of a gaseous disk-like envelope surrounding the star. Throughout the last decade, we have carried out temporal monitoring of a sample of Be stars to study the evolution of the disk through the variability of their physical properties and dynamical structure. We focused our studies on the near-infrared spectral range, which presents plenty of emission lines of hydrogen, helium and neutral or singly ionized metals. Surprisingly, in one of our observations, the Be star 12 Vul presented emission of 12CO. The presence of 12CO molecular band emission in Be stars had not been previously reported. We present here the near-infrared spectra in the K-band and the results on the modeling of the 12CO molecular emission. We discuss the implications of this detection in the study of Be stars and other groups of objects with similar characteristics.Las estrellas Be se caracterizan por presentar ĺıneas en emision de hidrogeno y de metales una vez ionizados, de manera transitoria o permanente. La formación de estas líneas es atribuida a la presencia de una envoltura gaseosa en forma de disco rodeando a la estrella central. A lo largo de la última década, hemos realizado un seguimiento de una muestra de estrellas Be, con el objetivo de estudiar la evolución de sus envolturas a través de la variabilidad de sus propiedades físicas y cinemáticas. Una de las regiones espectrales que más estudiamos fue la del infrarrojo cercano, que presenta numerosas líneas en emisión de hidrógeno, helio y de algunos metales neutros o una vez ionizados. Sorpresivamente, en una de las observaciones realizadas, la estrella Be 12 Vul presentó emisión de 12CO. La presencia de emisión molecular en las envolturas de las estrellas Be no había sido observada hasta el momento. Presentaremos aquí los espectros obtenidos en la banda espectral K y los parámetros determinados para la región emisora de 12CO. Discutimos, además, las implicancias de esta detección en el estudio de las estrellas Be y otros grupos de objetos con características similares

Protocol of the Italian Radical Cystectomy Registry (RIC): a non-randomized, 24-month, multicenter study comparing robotic-assisted, laparoscopic, and open surgery for radical cystectomy in bladder cancer

Bladder cancer is the ninth most common type of cancer worldwide. In the past, radical cystectomy via open surgery has been considered the gold-standard treatment for muscle invasive bladder cancer. However, in recent years there has been a progressive increase in the use of robot-assisted laparoscopic radical cystectomy. The aim of the current project is to investigate the surgical, oncological, and functional outcomes of patients with bladder cancer who undergo radical cystectomy comparing three different surgical techniques (robotic-assisted, laparoscopic, and open surgery). Pre-, peri- and post-operative factors will be examined, and participants will be followed for a period of up to 24\u2009months to identify risks of mortality, oncological outcomes, hospital readmission, sexual performance, and continence

Protocol of the Italian Radical Cystectomy Registry (RIC): a non-randomized, 24-month, multicenter study comparing robotic-assisted, laparoscopic, and open surgery for radical cystectomy in bladder cancer

Background: Bladder cancer is the ninth most common type of cancer worldwide. In the past, radical cystectomy via open surgery has been considered the gold-standard treatment for muscle invasive bladder cancer. However, in recent years there has been a progressive increase in the use of robot-assisted laparoscopic radical cystectomy. The aim of the current project is to investigate the surgical, oncological, and functional outcomes of patients with bladder cancer who undergo radical cystectomy comparing three different surgical techniques (robotic-assisted, laparoscopic, and open surgery). Pre-, peri- and post-operative factors will be examined, and participants will be followed for a period of up to 24 months to identify risks of mortality, oncological outcomes, hospital readmission, sexual performance, and continence. Methods: We describe a protocol for an observational, prospective, multicenter, cohort study to assess patients affected by bladder neoplasms undergoing radical cystectomy and urinary diversion. The Italian Radical Cystectomy Registry is an electronic registry to prospectively collect the data of patients undergoing radical cystectomy conducted with any technique (open, laparoscopic, robotic-assisted). Twenty-eight urology departments across Italy will provide data for the study, with the recruitment phase between 1st January 2017-31st October 2020. Information is collected from the patients at the moment of surgical intervention and during follow-up (3, 6, 12, and 24 months after radical cystectomy). Peri-operative variables include surgery time, type of urinary diversion, conversion to open surgery, bleeding, nerve sparing and lymphadenectomy. Follow-up data collection includes histological information (e.g., post-op staging, grading, and tumor histology), short- and long-term outcomes (e.g., mortality, post-op complications, hospital readmission, sexual potency, continence etc). Discussion: The current protocol aims to contribute additional data to the field concerning the short- and long-term outcomes of three different radical cystectomy surgical techniques for patients with bladder cancer, including open, laparoscopic, and robot-assisted. This is a comparative-effectiveness trial that takes into account a complex range of factors and decision making by both physicians and patients that affect their choice of surgical technique. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov , NCT04228198 . Registered 14th January 2020- Retrospectively registered

Phenotypes and Genotypes of Erythromycin-Resistant Pneumococci in Italy

Of 120 erythromycin-resistant pneumococci isolated in Italian hospitals, 39 (32.5%) were M-type isolates, carrying the mef gene alone. The mef gene was also detected, together with erm(AM), in one constitutively resistant isolate and in five isolates of the partially inducible phenotype. Among the 45 mef-positive isolates, 25 (55.6%) carried mef(A) and 20 (44.4%) carried mef(E) as observed from PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis of a 1,743-bp amplicon. The same result was obtained by a similar method applied to a more common 348-bp amplicon

Phenotypic and Molecular Characterization of Tetracycline- and Erythromycin-Resistant Strains of Streptococcus pneumoniae

Sixty-five clinical isolates of Streptococcus pneumoniae, all collected in Italy between 1999 and 2002 and resistant to both tetracycline (MIC, ≥8 μg/ml) and erythromycin (MIC, ≥1 μg/ml), were investigated. Of these strains, 11% were penicillin resistant and 23% were penicillin intermediate. With the use of the erythromycin-clindamycin-rokitamycin triple-disk test, 14 strains were assigned to the constitutive (cMLS) phenotype of macrolide resistance, 44 were assigned to the partially inducible (iMcLS) phenotype, 1 was assigned to the inducible (iMLS) phenotype, and 6 were assigned to the efflux-mediated (M) phenotype. In PCR assays, 64 of the 65 strains were positive for the tetracycline resistance gene tet(M), the exception being the one M isolate susceptible to kanamycin, whereas tet(K), tet(L), and tet(O) were never found. All cMLS, iMcLS, and iMLS isolates had the erythromycin resistance gene erm(B), and all M phenotype isolates had the mef(A) or mef(E) gene. No isolate had the erm(A) gene. The int-Tn gene, encoding the integrase of the Tn916-Tn1545 family of conjugative transposons, was detected in 62 of the 65 test strains. Typing assays showed the strains to be to a great extent unrelated. Of 16 different serotypes detected, the most numerous were 23F (n = 13), 19A (n = 10), 19F (n = 9), 6B (n = 8), and 14 (n = 6). Of 49 different pulsed-field gel electrophoresis types identified, the majority (n = 39) were represented by a single isolate, while the most numerous type included five isolates. By high-resolution restriction analysis of PCR amplicons with four endonucleases, the tet(M) loci from the 64 tet(M)-positive pneumococci were classified into seven distinct restriction types. Overall, a Tn1545-like transposon could reasonably account for tetracycline and erythromycin resistance in the vast majority of the pneumococci of cMLS, iMcLS, and iMLS phenotypes, whereas a Tn916-like transposon could account for tetracycline resistance in most M phenotype strains

Circulating microRNAs and Kallikreins before and after Radical Prostatectomy: Are They Really Prostate Cancer Markers?

The aim of our study was to monitor serum levels of two miRNAs (miR-21 and miR-141) and three KLKs (hK3/PSA, hK11, and hK13) before and 1, 5, and 30 days after radical prostatectomy, in order to characterize their fluctuations after surgery. 38 patients with prostate cancer were included. miR-21 and miR-141 were quantified through real-time PCR, while ELISA assays were used to quantify hK3 (PSA), hK11, and hK13. Both miR-21 and miR-141 showed a significant increase at the 5th postoperative day, after which a gradual return to the preoperative levels was recorded. These findings suggest that miR-21 and miR-141 could be involved in postsurgical inflammatory processes and that radical prostatectomy does not seem to alter their circulating levels. Postoperative serum kallikreins showed a significant decrease, highlighting the potential usefulness of kallikreins apart from PSA as potential prostate cancer markers

Stability Assessment of Candidate Reference Genes in Urine Sediment of Prostate Cancer Patients for miRNA Applications

We aimed at assessing the stability of candidate reference genes in urine sediments of men subjected to digital rectal examination for suspected prostate cancer (PCa). Two microRNAs (miR-191 and miR-25) and 1 small nucleolar RNA (SNORD48) were assayed in 35 post-DRE urine sediments of men with PCa and in 26 subjects with histologically confirmed benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). The stability of candidate reference genes was assessed through BestKeeper algorithm and equivalence test. miR-200b and miR-452 were used to test for the effect of normalization on target genes. Our results proved miR-191 to be the most stable gene, showing the lowest degree of variation and the highest stability value. miR-25 and SNORD48 values fell beyond the cutoff of acceptability. In conclusion, we recommend the use of miR-191 for normalization purposes in post-DRE urine sediments

Molecular Characterization of Pneumococci with Efflux-Mediated Erythromycin Resistance and Identification of a Novel mef Gene Subclass, mef(I)

The molecular genetics of macrolide resistance were analyzed in 49 clinical pneumococci (including an “atypical” bile-insoluble strain currently assigned to the new species Streptococcus pseudopneumoniae) with efflux-mediated erythromycin resistance (M phenotype). All test strains had the mef gene, identified as mef(A) in 30 isolates and mef(E) in 19 isolates (including the S. pseudopneumoniae strain) on the basis of PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis. Twenty-eight of the 30 mef(A) isolates shared a pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) type corresponding to the England(14)-9 clone. Of those isolates, 27 (20 belonging to serotype 14) yielded multilocus sequence type ST9, and one isolate yielded a new sequence type. The remaining two mef(A) isolates had different PFGE types and yielded an ST9 type and a new sequence type. Far greater heterogeneity was displayed by the 19 mef(E) isolates, which fell into 11 PFGE types, 12 serotypes (though not serotype 14), and 12 sequence types (including two new ones and an undetermined type for the S. pseudopneumoniae strain). In all mef(A) pneumococci, the mef element was a regular Tn1207.1 transposon, whereas of the mef(E) isolates, 17 carried the mega element and 2 exhibited a previously unreported organization, with no PCR evidence of the other open reading frames of mega. The mef gene of these two isolates, which did not match with the mef(E) gene of the mega element (93.6% homology) and which exhibited comparable homology (91.4%) to the mef(A) gene of the Tn1207.1 transposon, was identified as a novel mef gene variant and was designated mef(I). While penicillin-nonsusceptible isolates (three resistant isolates and one intermediate isolate) were all mef(E) strains, tetracycline resistance was also detected in three mef(A) isolates, due to the tet(M) gene carried by a Tn916-like transposon. A similar mechanism accounted for resistance in four of the five tetracycline-resistant isolates carrying mef(E), in three of which mega was inserted in the Tn916-like transposon, giving rise to the composite element Tn2009. In the fifth mef(E)-positive tetracycline-resistant isolate (the S. pseudopneumoniae strain), tetracycline resistance was due to the presence of the tet(O) gene, apparently unlinked to mef(E)