Cellular Senescence and Their Role in Liver Metabolism in Health and Disease: Overview and Future Directions

Chronic liver disease has globally risen mainly due to a prevalent hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection rate and an epidemic of obesity. It is estimated by the year 2030, 2.2 billion people around the world will be overweight and 1.1 billion people will be obese. Diabetes and obesity are the main risk factors for the development of the metabolic syndrome and in the liver of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) which could progress to non-alcoholic fatty steatohepatitis (NASH) related cirrhosis and liver malignancy. At present there is not effective therapy for NASH besides loss of weight and exercise. Furthermore, optimal management of HCC with curative intent includes resection or liver transplantation. Nevertheless, these therapies are limited because the degree of liver dysfunction or the medical conditions at the time of diagnosis and the scarcity of available liver grafts. The role of cellular lipid management and metabolism in human health and disease is taking a center stage. The present overview articulates the current pathophysiology of fatty liver disease under the aging processes, potential biological markers of liver disease diagnosis and progression and future therapies

The Effects of Obesity on Outcomes in Trauma Injury: Overview of the Current Literature

Obesity has reached epidemic proportions and is now considered a chronic disease by the National Institute of Health (NIH) in the West. Its impact on trauma outcomes is of particular interest with several studies presenting conflicting information. The present overview suggests a strong association between obesity and injury severity, hospital length of stay (LOS), intensive care unit (ICU) admission, pattern of injury, rate of complications and mortality. The nature of the observations may relate to an underlying physiological state of the obese patient and its associated comorbidities with a constant heightened inflammatory state aggravated by the second hit on an injury

The Effects of Obesity on Outcomes in Trauma Injury: Overview of the Current Literature

Obesity has reached epidemic proportions and is now considered a chronic disease by the National Institute of Health (NIH) in the West. Its impact on trauma outcomes is of particular interest with several studies presenting conflicting information. The present overview suggests a strong association between obesity and injury severity, hospital length of stay (LOS), intensive care unit (ICU) admission, pattern of injury, rate of complications and mortality. The nature of the observations may relate to an underlying physiological state of the obese patient and its associated comorbidities with a constant heightened inflammatory state aggravated by the second hit on an injury

The First Post-Kepler Brightness Dips of KIC 8462852

We present a photometric detection of the first brightness dips of the unique variable star KIC 8462852 since the end of the Kepler space mission in 2013 May. Our regular photometric surveillance started in October 2015, and a sequence of dipping began in 2017 May continuing on through the end of 2017, when the star was no longer visible from Earth. We distinguish four main 1-2.5% dips, named "Elsie," "Celeste," "Skara Brae," and "Angkor", which persist on timescales from several days to weeks. Our main results so far are: (i) there are no apparent changes of the stellar spectrum or polarization during the dips; (ii) the multiband photometry of the dips shows differential reddening favoring non-grey extinction. Therefore, our data are inconsistent with dip models that invoke optically thick material, but rather they are in-line with predictions for an occulter consisting primarily of ordinary dust, where much of the material must be optically thin with a size scale <<1um, and may also be consistent with models invoking variations intrinsic to the stellar photosphere. Notably, our data do not place constraints on the color of the longer-term "secular" dimming, which may be caused by independent processes, or probe different regimes of a single process

Planetary Migration in Protoplanetary Disks

The known exoplanet population displays a great diversity of orbital architectures, and explaining the origin of this is a major challenge for planet formation theories. The gravitational interaction between young planets and their protoplanetary disks provides one way in which planetary orbits can be shaped during the formation epoch. Disk-planet interactions are strongly influenced by the structure and physical processes that drive the evolution of the protoplanetary disk. In this review we focus on how disk-planet interactions drive the migration of planets when different assumptions are made about the physics of angular momentum transport, and how it drives accretion flows in protoplanetary disk models. In particular, we consider migration in discs where: (i) accretion flows arise because turbulence diffusively transports angular momentum; (ii) laminar accretion flows are confined to thin, ionised layers near disk surfaces and are driven by the launching of magneto-centrifugal winds, with the midplane being completely inert; (iii) laminar accretion flows pervade the full column density of the disc, and are driven by a combination of large scale horizontal and vertical magnetic fields