Neuroinflammation and Neurotransmission Mechanisms Involved in Neuropsychiatric Disorders

Some classical psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia, autism, major depression, bipolar and obsessive‐compulsive disorders, have been related to neuroinflammatory process, immunological abnormalities, and neurotransmission impairment beyond genetic mutations. Neuroinflammation is mostly regulated by glial cells, which respond to physiological and pathological stimuli by anti‐ and pro‐inflammatory cytokine and chemokine signaling; moreover, recent studies have indicated that glial cells also respond to the neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters regulate many biological processes, such as cell proliferation and synaptogenesis, which contribute to the formation of functional circuits. Alterations in the neurotransmission can lead to many pathological changes that occur in brain disorders. For example, studies have shown that neuroinflammation can alter the metabolism of glutamate as well as the function of its transporters, resulting in cognitive, behavioral, and psychiatric impairments. Cytokines as IL‐1β and IL‐6 appear to have an important influence in the dopaminergic and serotoninergic neurons. These data together suggest that glial cells via cytokines and abnormal regulation of neurotransmitters can influence psychiatric disorders. The present knowledge about this issue does not allow answering whether neuroinflammation is the cause or the consequence of neurotransmission imbalance and emphasizes the importance to improve in vivo imaging methods and models to elucidate this enigma

Insulin and Autophagy in Neurodegeneration

Crosstalk in the pathophysiological processes underpinning metabolic diseases and neurodegenerative disorders have been the subject of extensive investigation, in which insulin signaling and autophagy impairment demonstrate to be a common factor in both conditions. Although it is still somewhat conflicting, pharmacological and genetic strategies that regulate these pathways may be a promising approach for aggregate protein clearancing and consequently the delaying of onset or progression of the disease. However, as the response due to this modulation seems to be time-dependent, finding the right regulation of autophagy may be a potential target for drug development for neurodegenerative diseases. In this way, this review focuses on the role of insulin signaling/resistance and autophagy in some neurodegenerative diseases, discussing pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions in these diseases

Colistin and rifampicin compared with colistin alone for the treatment of serious infections due to extensively drug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii: A multicenter, randomized clinical trial

Background. Extensively drug-resistant (XDR) Acinetobacter baumannii may cause serious infections in critically ill patients. Colistin often remains the only therapeutic option. Addition of rifampicin to colistin may be synergistic in vitro. In this study, we assessed whether the combination of colistin and rifampicin reduced the mortality of XDR A. baumannii infections compared to colistin alone. Methods. This multicenter, parallel, randomized, open-label clinical trial enrolled 210 patients with life-threatening infections due to XDR A. baumannii from intensive care units of 5 tertiary care hospitals. Patients were randomly allocated (1:1) to either colistin alone, 2 MU every 8 hours intravenously, or colistin (as above), plus rifampicin 600 mg every 12 hours intravenously. The primary end point was overall 30-day mortality. Secondary end points were infection-related death, microbiologic eradication, and hospitalization length. Results. Death within 30 days from randomization occurred in 90 (43%) subjects, without difference between treatment arms (P = .95). This was confirmed by multivariable analysis (odds ratio, 0.88 [95% confidence interval, .46-1.69], P = .71). A significant increase of microbiologic eradication rate was observed in the colistin plus rifampicin arm (P = .034). No difference was observed for infection-related death and length of hospitalization. Conclusions. In serious XDR A. baumannii infections, 30-day mortality is not reduced by addition of rifampicin to colistin. These results indicate that, at present, rifampicin should not be routinely combined with colistin in clinical practice. The increased rate of A. baumannii eradication with combination treatment could still imply a clinical benefi

Flexible Physical Unclonable Functions based on non-deterministically distributed Dye-Doped Fibers and Droplets

The development of new anti-counterfeiting solutions is a constant challenge and involves several research fields. Much interest is devoted to systems that are impossible to clone, based on the Physical Unclonable Function (PUF) paradigm. In this work, new strategies based on electrospinning and electrospraying of dye-doped polymeric materials are presented for the manufacturing of flexible free-standing films that embed different PUF keys. Films can be used to fabricate anticounterfeiting labels having three encryption levels: i) a map of fluorescent polymer droplets, with non deterministic positions on a dense yarn of polymer nanofibers; ii) a characteristic fluorescence spectrum for each label; iii) a challenge-response pairs (CRPs) identification protocol based on the strong nature of the physical unclonable function. The intrinsic uniqueness introduced by the deposition techniques encodes enough complexity into the optical anti-counterfeiting tag to generate thousands of cryptographic keys. The simple and cheap fabrication process as well as the multilevel authentication makes such colored polymeric unclonable tags a practical solution in the secure protection of merchandise in our daily life

Proof of concept of an imaging system demonstrator for PET applications with SiPM

A PET imaging system demonstrator based on LYSO crystal arrays coupled to SiPM matrices is under construction at the University and INFN of Pisa. Two SiPM matrices, composed of 8×8 SiPM pixels, and 1,5 mm pitch, have been coupled one to one to a LYSO crystals array and read out by a custom electronics system. front-end ASICs were used to read 8 channels of each matrix. Data from each front-end were multiplexed and sent to a DAQ board for the digital conversion; a motherboard collects the data and communicates with a host computer through a USB port for the storage and off-line data processing. In this paper we show the first preliminary tomographic image of a point-like radioactive source acquired with part of the two detection heads in time coincidence

PAINEL AGLOMERADO HÍBRIDO DE CASCA DE AMENDOIM REFORÇADO COM PARTÍCULAS DE MADEIRA ITAÚBA

http://dx.doi.org/10.5902/1980509815726In this paper, it was considered the study of the potential use of peanut hulls and wood particles of itaúba (Mezilaurus itauba) species in order to add value to these materials through the manufacture of hybrid particle board in order to compare the physical and mechanical performances as well as durability. For these procedures, it was used the bi-component polyurethane resin based on castor beans (mammon) oil and urea-formaldehyde. The product quality was evaluated based on the requirements of the standards NBR 14.810:2006 APA PRP and 108, through physico-mechanical and microstructural durability. The results indicate that the incorporation of wood particles warrants an increase in physical-mechanical properties of the particleboard manufactured with peanut hulls, the polyurethane resin based on castor oil was effective as a particle adhesive binder and the durability assay indicated that the material should be used under conditions of low exposure to moisture.http://dx.doi.org/10.5902/1980509815726No presente trabalho, considerou-se o estudo do potencial de utilização de casca de amendoim e partículas de madeira da espécie itaúba (Mezilaurus itauba) com o intuito de agregar valor a estes materiais, por meio da fabricação de painéis de partículas híbridos, a fim de comparar os desempenhos físicos, mecânicos e durabilidade. Para esses procedimentos foram utilizadas a resina poliuretana bicomponente à base de óleo de mamona e a ureia-formaldeído. A qualidade dos produtos foi avaliada com base nas prescrições do documento normativo NBR 14.810:2006 e APA PRP 108, por meio de ensaios físico-mecânicos, microestruturais e de durabilidade. Com os resultados obtidos foi possível verificar que a incorporação de partículas de madeira proporcionou aumento nas propriedades físico-mecânicas do painel de partículas com casca de amendoim, a resina poliuretana à base de óleo de mamona mostrou-se eficiente como adesivo aglomerante das partículas e o ensaio de durabilidade indicou que o material deve ser utilizado em condições de exposição de baixo contato com umidade

CROWDED HYBRID PANEL MANUFACTURED WITH PEANUT HULLS REINFORCED WITH ITA aBA WOOD PARTICLES

In this paper, it was considered the study of the potential use of peanut hulls and wood particles of ita\ufaba ( Mezilaurus itauba ) species in order to add value to these materials through the manufacture of hybrid particle board in order to compare the physical and mechanical performances as well as durability. For these procedures, it was used the bi-component polyurethane resin based on castor beans (mammon) oil and urea-formaldehyde. The product quality was evaluated based on the requirements of the standards NBR 14.810:2006 APA PRP and 108, through physico-mechanical and microstructural durability. The results indicate that the incorporation of wood particles warrants an increase in physical-mechanical properties of the particleboard manufactured with peanut hulls, the polyurethane resin based on castor oil was effective as a particle adhesive binder and the durability assay indicated that the material should be used under conditions of low exposure to moisture.No presente trabalho, considerou-se o estudo do potencial de utiliza\ue7\ue3o de casca de amendoim e part\uedculas de madeira da esp\ue9cie ita\ufaba ( Mezilaurus itauba ) com o intuito de agregar valor a estes materiais, por meio da fabrica\ue7\ue3o de pain\ue9is de part\uedculas h\uedbridos, a fim de comparar os desempenhos f\uedsicos, mec\ue2nicos e durabilidade. Para esses procedimentos foram utilizadas a resina poliuretana bicomponente \ue0 base de \uf3leo de mamona e a ureia-formalde\ueddo. A qualidade dos produtos foi avaliada com base nas prescri\ue7\uf5es do documento normativo NBR 14.810:2006 e APA PRP 108, por meio de ensaios f\uedsico-mec\ue2nicos, microestruturais e de durabilidade. Com os resultados obtidos foi poss\uedvel verificar que a incorpora\ue7\ue3o de part\uedculas de madeira proporcionou aumento nas propriedades f\uedsico-mec\ue2nicas do painel de part\uedculas com casca de amendoim, a resina poliuretana \ue0 base de \uf3leo de mamona mostrou-se eficiente como adesivo aglomerante das part\uedculas e o ensaio de durabilidade indicou que o material deve ser utilizado em condi\ue7\uf5es de exposi\ue7\ue3o de baixo contato com umidade