The Role of the Inflammatory Response in Burn Injury

Burns are characterised by significant local swelling and redness around the site of injury, indicative of acute inflammation. Whilst the inflammatory response is fundamental to the healing process, triggering a cascade of cytokines and growth factors to protect against the risk of infection, it is clear that prolonged inflammation can be detrimental and lead to scarring and fibrosis. Severe burns may display chronic, persistent inflammation long after the initial burn injury and may even result in multiple organ failure (MOF) due to systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS). Excessive inflammation in the early stages of healing has been identified as a causative factor in the formation of scars which can be disfiguring, functionally restrictive and may require revisionary surgeries. Therefore, it is imperative that inflammation is effectively managed following burn injuries in order to optimise the benefits it provides whilst actively preventing the complications of inflammation including SIRS, multiple organ failure (MOF) and the development of scarring and fibrosis. Reviewing the current knowledge about the role of the inflammatory response in burns and the treatments available for the management of inflammation during wound healing, highlights the importance of continued research into understanding and developing new approaches to regulate inflammatory responses post-burn injuries

Performance evaluation of novel square-bordered position-sensitive silicon detectors with four-corner readout

We report on a recently developed novel type of large area (62 mm x 62 mm) position sensitive silicon detector with four-corner readout. It consists of a square-shaped ion-implanted resistive anode framed by additional low-resistivity strips with resistances smaller than the anode surface resistance by a factor of 2. The detector position linearity, position resolution, and energy resolution were measured with alpha-particles and heavy ions. In-beam experimental results reveal a position resolution below 1 mm (FWHM) and a very good non-linearity of less than 1% (rms). The energy resolution determined from 228Th alpha source measurements is around 2% (FWHM).Comment: 13 pages, 10 figures, submitted to Nucl. Instr. and Meth.

Multiscale Bone Remodelling with Spatial P Systems

Many biological phenomena are inherently multiscale, i.e. they are characterized by interactions involving different spatial and temporal scales simultaneously. Though several approaches have been proposed to provide "multilayer" models, only Complex Automata, derived from Cellular Automata, naturally embed spatial information and realize multiscaling with well-established inter-scale integration schemas. Spatial P systems, a variant of P systems in which a more geometric concept of space has been added, have several characteristics in common with Cellular Automata. We propose such a formalism as a basis to rephrase the Complex Automata multiscaling approach and, in this perspective, provide a 2-scale Spatial P system describing bone remodelling. The proposed model not only results to be highly faithful and expressive in a multiscale scenario, but also highlights the need of a deep and formal expressiveness study involving Complex Automata, Spatial P systems and other promising multiscale approaches, such as our shape-based one already resulted to be highly faithful.Comment: In Proceedings MeCBIC 2010, arXiv:1011.005

Inferring copy number and genotype in tumour exome data

Background: Using whole exome sequencing to predict aberrations in tumours is a cost effective alternative to whole genome sequencing, however is predominantly used for variant detection and infrequently utilised for detection of somatic copy number variation. Results: We propose a new method to infer copy number and genotypes using whole exome data from paired tumour/normal samples. Our algorithm uses two Hidden Markov Models to predict copy number and genotypes and computationally resolves polyploidy/aneuploidy, normal cell contamination and signal baseline shift. Our method makes explicit detection on chromosome arm level events, which are commonly found in tumour samples. The methods are combined into a package named ADTEx (Aberration Detection in Tumour Exome). We applied our algorithm to a cohort of 17 in-house generated and 18 TCGA paired ovarian cancer/normal exomes and evaluated the performance by comparing against the copy number variations and genotypes predicted using Affymetrix SNP 6.0 data of the same samples. Further, we carried out a comparison study to show that ADTEx outperformed its competitors in terms of precision and F-measure. Conclusions: Our proposed method, ADTEx, uses both depth of coverage ratios and B allele frequencies calculated from whole exome sequencing data, to predict copy number variations along with their genotypes. ADTEx is implemented as a user friendly software package using Python and R statistical language. Source code and sample data are freely available under GNU license (GPLv3) at http://adtex.sourceforge.net/

Conductivity and redox stability of new double perovskite oxide Sr 1.6 K 0.4 Fe 1+ x Mo 1− x O 6− δ (x= 0.2, 0.4, 0.6)

A series of new perovskite oxides Sr1.6K0.4Fe1+xMo1−xO6−δ (x = 0.2, 0.4, 0.6) were synthesised by solid state reaction method. Synthesis of Sr1.6K0.4Fe1+xMo1−xO6−δ (x = 0.2, 0.4, 0.6) was achieved above 700 °C in 5 % H2/Ar, albeit with the formation of impurity phases. Phase stability upon redox cycling was only observed for sample Sr1.6K0.4Fe1.4Mo0.6O6−δ. Redox cycling of Sr1.6K0.4Fe1+xMo1−xO6−δ (x = 0.2, 0.4, 0.6) demonstrates a strong dependence on high temperature reduction to achieve high conductivities. After the initial reduction at 1200 °C in 5 %H2/Ar, then re-oxidation in air at 700 °C and further reduction at 700 °C in 5 %H2/Ar, the attained conductivities were between 0.1 and 58.4 % of the initial conductivity after reduction 1200 °C in 5 %H2/Ar depending on the composition. In the investigated new oxides, sample Sr1.6K0.4Fe1.4Mo0.6O6−δ is most redox stable also retains reasonably high electrical conductivity, ~70 S/cm after reduction at 1200 °C and 2–3 S/cm after redox cycling at 700 °C, indicating it is a potential anode for SOFCs

Processing of soot in an urban environment: case study from the Mexico City Metropolitan Area

Chemical composition, size, and mixing state of atmospheric particles are critical in determining their effects on the environment. There is growing evidence that soot aerosols play a particularly important role in both climate and human health, but still relatively little is known of their physical and chemical nature. In addition, the atmospheric residence times and removal mechanisms for soot are neither well understood nor adequately represented in regional and global climate models. To investigate the effect of locality and residence time on properties of soot and mixing state in a polluted urban environment, particles of diameter 0.2–2.0 μm were collected in the Mexico City Metropolitan Area (MCMA) during the MCMA-2003 Field Campaign from various sites within the city. Individual particle analysis by different electron microscopy methods coupled with energy dispersed x-ray spectroscopy, and secondary ionization mass spectrometry show that freshly-emitted soot particles become rapidly processed in the MCMA. Whereas fresh particulate emissions from mixed-traffic are almost entirely carbonaceous, consisting of soot aggregates with liquid coatings suggestive of unburned lubricating oil and water, ambient soot particles which have been processed for less than a few hours are heavily internally mixed, primarily with ammonium sulfate. Single particle analysis suggests that this mixing occurs through several mechanisms that require further investigation. In light of previously published results, the internally-mixed nature of processed soot particles is expected to affect heterogeneous chemistry on the soot surface, including interaction with water during wet-removal

Morphogenesis of growing soft tissues

Recently, much attention has been given to a noteworthy property of some soft tissues: their ability to grow. Many attempts have been made to model this behaviour in biology, chemistry and physics. Using the theory of finite elasticity, Rodriguez has postulated a multiplicative decomposition of the geometric deformation gradient into a growth-induced part and an elastic one needed to ensure compatibility of the body. In order to fully explore the consequences of this hypothesis, the equations describing thin elastic objects under finite growth are derived. Under appropriate scaling assumptions for the growth rates, the proposed model is of the Foppl-von Karman type. As an illustration, the circumferential growth of a free hyperelastic disk is studied.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

A metatranscriptomic approach to explore longitudinal tissue specimens from non-healing diabetes related foot ulcers

Cellular mechanisms and/or microbiological interactions which contribute to chronic diabetes related foot ulcers (DRFUs) were explored using serially collected tissue specimens from chronic DRFUs and control healthy foot skin. Total RNA was isolated for next-generation sequencing. We found differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and enriched hallmark gene ontology biological processes upregulated in chronic DRFUs which primarily functioned in the host immune response including: (i) Inflammatory response; (ii) TNF signalling via NFKB; (iii) IL6 JAK-STAT3 signalling; (iv) IL2 STAT5 signalling and (v) Reactive oxygen species. A temporal analysis identified RN7SL1 signal recognition protein and IGHG4 immunoglobulin protein coding genes as being the most upregulated genes after the onset of treatment. Testing relative temporal changes between healing and non-healing DRFUs identified progressive upregulation in healed wounds of CXCR5 and MS4A1 (CD20), both canonical markers of lymphocytes (follicular B cells/follicular T helper cells and B cells, respectively). Collectively, our RNA-seq data provides insights into chronic DRFU pathogenesis