ANCA-associated vasculitis.

The anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitides (AAVs) are a group of disorders involving severe, systemic, small-vessel vasculitis and are characterized by the development of autoantibodies to the neutrophil proteins leukocyte proteinase 3 (PR3-ANCA) or myeloperoxidase (MPO-ANCA). The three AAV subgroups, namely granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA), microscopic polyangiitis and eosinophilic GPA (EGPA), are defined according to clinical features. However, genetic and other clinical findings suggest that these clinical syndromes may be better classified as PR3-positive AAV (PR3-AAV), MPO-positive AAV (MPO-AAV) and, for EGPA, by the presence or absence of ANCA (ANCA+ or ANCA-, respectively). Although any tissue can be involved in AAV, the upper and lower respiratory tract and kidneys are most commonly and severely affected. AAVs have a complex and unique pathogenesis, with evidence for a loss of tolerance to neutrophil proteins, which leads to ANCA-mediated neutrophil activation, recruitment and injury, with effector T cells also involved. Without therapy, prognosis is poor but treatments, typically immunosuppressants, have improved survival, albeit with considerable morbidity from glucocorticoids and other immunosuppressive medications. Current challenges include improving the measures of disease activity and risk of relapse, uncertainty about optimal therapy duration and a need for targeted therapies with fewer adverse effects. Meeting these challenges requires a more detailed knowledge of the fundamental biology of AAV as well as cooperative international research and clinical trials with meaningful input from patients

Características del liderazgo pedagógico del directivo docente de la I.E. de Jesús del municipio de Concordia

Esta investigación abordó el liderazgo pedagógico, específicamente el liderazgo directivo, su papel dentro del proceso pedagógico de la institución educativa está justificado por la relevancia que tiene en la gestión curricular, entre otras funciones, pues permite que las instituciones educativas - I.E marchen adecuadamente y alcancen mayores logros para todos los estudiantes. El objetivo consistió en identificar las características del liderazgo pedagógico del directivo docente de la I.E de Jesús del municipio de Concordia. Para esto se consideró una investigación enmarcada dentro del enfoque cualitativo de tipo descriptivo, el método fue estudio de caso. Los instrumentos que se utilizaron fueron, la entrevista, el diario de campo y el grupo focal. Con base en los resultados obtenidos en las entrevistas se destacan aspectos importantes de la comunicación y el liderazgo, vinculados a la gestión administrativa de la I.E. La investigación muestra la importancia que tiene el liderazgo pedagógico del directivo docente como elemento clave en el desarrollo y funcionamiento pedagógico-curricular de la I.E.This research addressed pedagogical leadership, such as one that focuses on the directive role, specifically on his role in the educational process on the educative institution; the relevance it's justified for this process for function properly on the institutions to and achieve greater achievements for all students. The objective was to identify the pedagogical leadership from the educative director of the Educative Institution of Jesus from the Concordia municipality. For this, was considered an investigation framed within the qualitative approach of descriptive type, the method was a study case. The instruments used were interview, field diaries and focus group. Based on the interview results obtained, important aspects of communication and leadership were highlighted, linked to the development processes on the educative institution. The research shows the importance on a pedagogical leadership of the teaching director as a key element within the institution.Magíster en EducaciónMaestrí

Testing enterprising tendency in occupational groups

The administration of a test of enterprising tendency showed that business owner- managers were significantly more enterprising than other occupational groups, namely teachers, nurses, civil servants, clerical trainees and lecturers and trainers

Regulation of cardiomyocyte adhesion and mechanosignalling through distinct nanoscale behaviour of integrin ligands mimicking healthy or fibrotic extracellular matrix.

The stiffness of the cardiovascular environment changes during ageing and in disease and contributes to disease incidence and progression. Changing collagen expression and cross-linking regulate the rigidity of the cardiac extracellular matrix (ECM). Additionally, basal lamina glycoproteins, especially laminin and fibronectin regulate cardiomyocyte adhesion formation, mechanics and mechanosignalling. Laminin is abundant in the healthy heart, but fibronectin is increasingly expressed in the fibrotic heart. ECM receptors are co-regulated with the changing ECM. Owing to differences in integrin dynamics, clustering and downstream adhesion formation this is expected to ultimately influence cardiomyocyte mechanosignalling; however, details remain elusive. Here, we sought to investigate how different cardiomyocyte integrin/ligand combinations affect adhesion formation, traction forces and mechanosignalling, using a combination of uniformly coated surfaces with defined stiffness, polydimethylsiloxane nanopillars, micropatterning and specifically designed bionanoarrays for precise ligand presentation. Thereby we found that the adhesion nanoscale organization, signalling and traction force generation of neonatal rat cardiomyocytes (which express both laminin and fibronectin binding integrins) are strongly dependent on the integrin/ligand combination. Together our data indicate that the presence of fibronectin in combination with the enhanced stiffness in fibrotic areas will strongly impact on the cardiomyocyte behaviour and influence disease progression. This article is part of the theme issue 'The cardiomyocyte: new revelations on the interplay between architecture and function in growth, health, and disease'