Patologie dell'apparato urinario nel coniglio da compagnia: valutazione della funzionalità renale nell'animale sano.

In Italia ormai è in forte aumento il numero di animali esotici tenuti come pet, che entrano nelle famiglie spesso come sostituti di cani e gatti. Tra gli animali più visitati si possono ricordare conigli, furetti, roditori, rettili e uccelli. La medicina degli animali da compagnia non convenzionali è un equilibrio tra le conoscenze che si possono estrapolare dalla medicina del cane e del gatto e quelle richieste dalle loro particolarità fisiologiche e patologiche; senza queste conoscenze specifiche si rischia non solo di non essere di alcuno aiuto per questi pazienti, ma anzi di causare loro un danno. Tempo, dedizione, studio e pazienza sono necessari per acquisire competenza nel trattare queste specie. Il coniglio, è uno degli animali non convenzionali più diffuso nel nostro Paese, passando da pietanza a pet. La moda del coniglio come animale da compagnia, in Italia, è iniziata una decina di anni fa e si è affermata negli ultimi quattro o cinque. Ma ancora oggi questi animali entrano nelle case come cibo. C'è chi li tiene come amici e chi li mangia; qualcuno, poco sensibile, fa entrambe le cose. Negli Usa, il passaggio da “carne bianca” ad animale d’affezione è avvenuto prima, ma non in tempi antichi, risale agli anni ’80 del secolo scorso e solo nel 1988, in California, venne fondata la House Rabbit Society, che poi divenne la “casa madre” e l’associazione modello per tutti gli appassionati. Purtroppo i motivi per i quali la maggior parte delle persone prende un coniglio sono sbagliati. Spesso è una scelta di ripiego; scartato il cane, perché troppo impegnativo, e il gatto, perché fa danni, si passa al coniglio, considerato facile da tenere e senza esigenze mediche ed esistenziali. Invece è un animale sensibile, intelligente, vivace, affettuoso e con una sua personalità, diversa da individuo a individuo. Un altro motivo della “preferenza” per questo animale, poco esplicitato dalle madri che lo comprano per far contento il loro bambino, è la speranza che viva poco. E in effetti molti vivono davvero poco, tre o quattro anni. Ma perché sono trattati e soprattutto nutriti male. Nelle giuste condizioni, arrivano anche a dieci anni. Lo scopo di questa tesi è descrivere e fornire le basi fondamentali, fisiologia e gestione delle patologie renali e delle basse vie urinarie e della GFR (glomerular filtration rate), metodo per determinare la velocità di formazione del filtrato glomerulare attraverso i glomeruli renali che diversamente dai parametri comunemente utilizzati (creatinina, peso specifico ecc..) nella pratica clinica, permette una diagnosi precoce di insufficienza renale

Chikungunya encephalitis: report of a fatal case in Northeastern Brazil

Chikungunya, a viral infection that presents with fever, rash and polyarthritis, is usually an acute febrile illness. Uncommon neurological manifestations include meningoencephalitis, encephalitis, myelitis, Guillain-Barre syndrome, myelopathy and neuropathy. During an outbreak of the disease in La Reunion Island, abnormalities were observed in the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of patients with encephalitis and acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, showing bilateral, frontoparietal, white matter lesions with restricted diffusion, similar to our case. We report a 57-year-old male patient with comorbidities, admitted with high fever, arthralgia, asthenia, vomiting, psychomotor agitation, behavioral changes and seizures. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) values revealed pleocytosis (98 cells/mm3 with 68% lymphocytes and 12% monocytes) and high levels of protein (161 mg%). Brain MRI showed hyperintense lesions in the temporal and frontal lobes and bilaterally in the posterior thalamus. CSF serology was positive for IgM antibodies to Chikungunya virus. Encephalitis due to an acute viral infection by Chikungunya was diagnosed. The patient’s clinical condition worsened and he died on the twenty-fourth day of admission to our hospital

Enfermería en cuanto disciplina: qué campo del conocimiento la identifica como profesión?

Propõe-se uma reflexão crítica acerca do conhecimento que vem sendo produzido pela enfermagem, que a identifica como uma disciplina e a suficiência ou não deste conhecimento, pautado nas ciências positivas e, portanto, com arcabouço de ciência e disciplina científica para constituir os fundamentos do Cuidado, o objeto de trabalho da prática de enfermagem. Numa perspectiva histórica aborda como a enfermagem brasileira, principalmente, a partir da década de 90 do último século, vem se dedicando a problematização teórico-prática e em experiências concretas sobre o Cuidado ancorado nas diversas vertentes do conhecimento, sinalizando a necessidade da continuidade dessa produção de conhecimento que se articule às experiências práticas/cotidianas da enfermagem, incluindo para tal outras correntes do conhecimento voltadas para a dimensão ontológica, existencial, dialógica e outras, pois o processo saúde-doença é sempre complexo carregado de valores éticos que expressa a singularidade do homem.A critical reflection is proposed on the knowledge that has been produced by Nursing, that identifies it as a discipline, and on whether that knowledge is enough, based on the positive sciences and therefore with a framework of science and scientific discipline in order to build the fundamentals of Care, which is the object with which Nursing works. Under a historical perspective, this paper analyzes how Brazilian Nursing, especially since the 1990s, has been dedicating itself to theoretical and practical problems and to concrete experiences on Care anchored to various knowledge dimensions, signalizing the need for continuity of knowledge production that is linked to practical and routine experiences of Nursing, including other knowledge approaches that are focused on ontological, existential, dialogical and other dimensions, because the health-disease process is always complex and filled with ethical values which express the singularity of men.Se propone una reflexión crítica sobre el conocimiento que ha sido producido por la enfermería, que la identifica como una disciplina, y sobre la suficiencia o no de ese conocimiento, basado en las ciencias positivas y, por lo tanto, con base de ciencia y disciplina científica para construir los fundamentos del Cuidado, que es el objeto de trabajo de la práctica de enfermería. Desde una perspectiva histórica, se aborda cómo la enfermería brasileña, principalmente a partir de la década de 1990, viene dedicándose a la problematización teórico-práctica y a experiencias concretas sobre el Cuidado ancorado en las diversas vertientes del conocimiento, indicando la necesidad de continuidad de esa producción de conocimiento que se articule con las experiencias prácticas/cotidianas de la enfermería, incluyendo, para tal, otras corrientes del conocimiento vuelto hacia la dimensión ontológica, existencial, dialógica y otras, pues el proceso salud-enfermedad es siempre complejo y cargado de valores éticos, lo que expresa la singularidad del hombre

Forecasting the potential of weak lensing magnification to enhance LSST large-scale structure analyses

Recent works have shown that weak lensing magnification must be included in upcoming large-scale structure analyses, such as for the Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), to avoid biasing the cosmological results. In this work we investigate whether including magnification has a positive impact on the precision of the cosmological constraints, as well as being necessary to avoid bias. We forecast this using an LSST mock catalog and a halo model to calculate the galaxy power spectra. We find that including magnification has little effect on the precision of the cosmological parameter constraints for an LSST galaxy clustering analysis, where the halo model parameters are additionally constrained by the galaxy luminosity function. In particular, we find that for the LSST gold sample ($i < 25.3$) including weak lensing magnification only improves the galaxy clustering constraint on $\Omega_{\rm{m}}$ by a factor of 1.03, and when using a very deep LSST mock sample ($i<26.5$) by a factor of 1.3. Since magnification predominantly contributes to the clustering measurement and provides similar information to that of cosmic shear, this improvement would be reduced for a combined galaxy clustering and shear analysis. We also confirm that not modelling weak lensing magnification will catastrophically bias the cosmological results from LSST. Magnification must therefore be included in LSST large-scale structure analyses even though it does not significantly enhance the precision of the cosmological constraints.Comment: v2: Version accepted in MNRAS. Minor clarifications, conclusions unchange

Gli studenti portano la scienza nello Spazio

Il progetto XenoGRISS ha vinto il bando dell’Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI) YiSS - Youth ISS Science 2019 ed è stato condotto sulla Stazione Spaziale Internazionale (ISS) dall’astronauta Luca Parmitano nel dicembre 2019 durante la missione "Beyond". XenoGRISS, che ha scopi sia scientifici che educativi, è stato progettato e presentato congiuntamente da ricercatori delle Università degli Studi di Milano e Firenze, da un gruppo di 9 studenti dell’ITIS A. Meucci di Firenze e da tre insegnanti dello stesso Istituto. Gli studenti sono stati coinvolti nello studio della crescita e della rigenerazione dei girini di Xenopus laevis in assenza di gravità e hanno affrontato sia gli aspetti scientifico-biologici dell'esperimento sia quelli tecnologici relativi all’hardware necessario al mantenimento dei girini per 30 giorni nello Spazio e alle rilevazioni scientifiche

Fluorochrome Selection for Imaging Intraoperative Ovarian Cancer Probes

The identification and removal of all gross and microscopic tumor to render the patient disease free represents a huge challenge in ovarian cancer treatment. The presence of residual disease is an independent negative prognostic factor. Herein, we describe the synthesis and the “in vitro” evaluation of compounds as cyclooxygenase (COX)-1 inhibitors, the COX-1 isoform being an ovarian cancer biomarker, each bearing fluorochromes with different fluorescence features. Two of these compounds N-[4-(9-dimethylimino-9H-benzo[a]phenoxazin-5-ylamino) butyl]-2-(3,4-bis(4-methoxyphenyl)isoxazol-5-yl)acetamide chloride (RR11) and 3-(6-(4-(2-(3,4-bis(4-methoxyphenyl)isoxazole-5-yl)acetamido)butyl)amino-6-oxohexyl)-2-[7-(1,3-dihydro-1,1-dimethyl-3-ethyl 2H-benz[e]indolin-2-yl-idene)-1,3,5-heptatrienyl]-1,1-dimethyl-3-(6-carboxilato-hexyl)-1H-benz[e]indolium chloride, 23 (MSA14) were found to be potent and selective inhibitors of cyclooxygenase (COX)-1 “in vitro”, and thus were further investigated “in vivo”. The IC50 values were 0.032 and 0.087 µM for RR11 and 23 (MSA 14), respectively, whereas the COX-2 IC50 for RR11 is 2.4 µM while 23 (MSA14) did not inhibit COX-2 even at a 50 µM concentration. Together, this represented selectivity index = 75 and 874, respectively. Structure-based virtual screening (SBVS) performed with the Fingerprints for Ligands and Proteins (FLAP) software allowed both to differentiate highly active compounds from less active and inactive structures and to define their interactions inside the substrate-binding cavity of hCOX1. Fluorescent probes RR11 and 23 (MSA14), were used for preliminary near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent imaging (FLI) in human ovarian cancer (OVCAR-3 and SKOV-3) xenograft models. Surprisingly, a tumor-specific signal was observed for both tested fluorescent probes, even though this signal is not linked to the presence of COX-1.publishedVersio

Synergistic antimicrobial interaction of honey and bacteriophage in Escherichia coli biofilms

I Simpósio de Bioquímica AplicadaWound colonization by biofilms-forming bacteria is one of the main obstacles to the treatment of chronic wounds, causing a number of biological and financial problems. Biofilms are structured communities of bacterial cells enclosed in a self-produced polymeric matrix, adhered to inert or living surfaces, blocking antibiotics and patients immune cells from reaching bacteria. Bacterio(phages), viruses infecting exclusively bacteria, and honey are being considered as valuable alternatives to treat a variety of infections (Table 1). Phages are harmless to mammalian cells, specific for target bacteria therefore not affecting commensal microflora, have the ability to selfreplicate as long as the host is present, and are effective against antibiotic resistant bacteria. Honey is a complex substance with broad spectrum antimicrobial activity, essentially attributed to the high sugar content, low pH, the presence of hydrogen peroxide and methylglyoxal that reacts with important biological molecules (RNA, DNA and proteins). Honey had yet the potential to promote tissue regeneration, cicatrization, decrease inflammation, improving wound healing. In this work the combination of those two antimicrobial agents was considered in the control E. coli biofilms.Hospital Escala Braga (Braga,Portugal) for providing the clinical isolate. This study was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the scope off the strategic funding of the UID/BIO/04469/2013 unit and COMPETE 2020(POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006684) and BioTecNorte operation (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000004) funded by the European Regional Development Fund under the scope of Norte 2020-Programa Operacional Regional do Norte and the Project RECI/BBB-EBI/0179/2012(FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-027462) and the project PTDC/CVT-EPI/4008/2014(POCI-01-0145-FEDER-016598). Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) through the SFRH/BPD/69356/2010 and SFRH/BD/93078/2013. FCT (IF/01413/2013)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A relação universidade e serviços de saúde: construindo possibilidades de trabalho

The present study aims at reporting the experience of construction of an interinstitutional relationship: University and Health Services, pointing out the possibilities and difficulties of this process.Este ensayo visa relatar la experiencia de la construcción de una relación interinstitucional Universidad y Servicios de Salud, apuntando las posibilidades y dificultades de este caminar.Este ensaio visa relatar a experiência compartilhada de construção de uma relação interinstitucional Universidade e serviço de saúde, apontando as possibilidades e dificuldades deste caminho

A randomized controlled trial: branched‐chain amino acid levels and glucose metabolism in patients with obesity and sleep apnea

There is evidence that changes in branched‐chain amino acid (BCAA) levels may correlate with the efficacy of therapeutic interventions for affecting improvement in metabolic control. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether serum concentrations of BCAAs (leucine, isoleucine, valine) could mediate in insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance after continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) treatment in patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). A prospective randomized controlled trial of OSA patients with morbid obesity was conducted. Eighty patients were randomized into two groups: 38 received conservative treatment and 42 received CPAP treatment for 12 weeks. Plasma levels of BCAA, glucose tolerance and insulin resistance were evaluated at baseline and after treatment. After treatment, significant decreases of leucine levels were observed in both groups when compared with baseline levels (P < 0.005). With respect to patients with normal glucose tolerance (NGT), patients with impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) had higher baseline levels of isoleucine (78 ± 16 versus 70 ± 13 μmol L−1, P = 0.014) and valine (286 ± 36 versus 268 ± 41 μmol L−1, P = 0.049), respectively. Changes in levels of leucine and isoleucine after treatment were related negatively to changes in fasting plasma glucose and glycosylated haemoglobin values only in the conservative group (P < 0.05). In summary, we found that the treatment with CPAP for 12 weeks caused similar changes in circulating BCAAs concentrations to conservative treatment and a differential metabolic response of CPAP and conservative treatment was observed between the relationship of BCAAs and glucose homeostasis. Additional studies are needed to determine the interplay between branched‐chain amino acids and glucose metabolism in patients with sleep apnea

KiDS+GAMA:Intrinsic alignment model constraints for current and future weak lensing cosmology

We directly constrain the non-linear alignment (NLA) model of intrinsic galaxy alignments, analysing the most representative and complete flux-limited sample of spectroscopic galaxies available for cosmic shear surveys. We measure the projected galaxy position-intrinsic shear correlations and the projected galaxy clustering signal using high-resolution imaging from the Kilo Degree Survey (KiDS) overlapping with the GAMA spectroscopic survey, and data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Separating samples by colour, we make no significant detection of blue galaxy alignments, constraining the blue galaxy NLA amplitude $A_{\textrm{IA}}^{\textrm{B}}=0.21^{+0.37}_{-0.36}$ to be consistent with zero. We make robust detections ($\sim9\sigma$) for red galaxies, with $A_{\textrm{IA}}^{\textrm{R}}=3.18^{+0.47}_{-0.46}$, corresponding to a net radial alignment with the galaxy density field, and we find no evidence for any scaling of alignments with galaxy luminosity. We provide informative priors for current and future weak lensing surveys, an improvement over de facto wide priors that allow for unrealistic levels of intrinsic alignment contamination. For a colour-split cosmic shear analysis of the final KiDS survey area, we forecast that our priors will improve the constraining power on $S_{8}$ and the dark energy equation of state $w_{0}$, by up to $62\%$ and $51\%$, respectively. Our results indicate, however, that the modelling of red/blue-split galaxy alignments may be insufficient to describe samples with variable central/satellite galaxy fractions.Comment: 27 pages (incl. 7 appendix pages), 10 figures, accepted by A&