Emending the Teacher : From Marcus the "Magician" to Valentinus and Back

akzeptierte Manuskriptversio

Overview of the radiographers’ practice in 65 healthcare centers using digital mammography systems in Portugal

Purpose: To assess current practices in digital mammography (DM) in Portuguese healthcare providers using digital systems. To investigate compliance with European standards regarding mean glandular dose and quality control practice and to identify optimisation needs. Methods: Two questionnaires, targeted at breast radiographers and chief radiographers, were designed and applied in 65 imaging departments offering DM. Questions fielded were focused on the staff profile and technical/ clinical practice. Results: Prior to starting their activity in DM, 70% (82 out of 118) of the respondents received training in DM. The practice in 29 out of 59 providers was established by the manufacturers’ recommendations for image acquisition. Variations were observed between radiographers who belong to the same provider namely the selection of exposure parameters such as the target-filter combination and automatic mode. The use of the manual exposure mode was reported for imaging breast implants (44%) and surgical specimens (22%). The main causes of repeat examinations were skin folding (21%) and absence of pectoral muscle (PM) (20%). Conclusions: The study revealed opportunities to optimise radiographers’ practice in DM regarding the selection of exposure parameters. A robust and consistent training programme in DM and established local protocols can help to reduce the variations observed and improve clinical practice

Comparison of gene expression profiles altered by comfrey and riddelliine in rat liver

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Comfrey (<it>Symphytum officinale</it>) is a perennial plant and has been consumed by humans as a vegetable, a tea and an herbal medicine for more than 2000 years. It, however, is hepatotoxic and carcinogenic in experimental animals and hepatotoxic in humans. Pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs) exist in many plants and many of them cause liver toxicity and/or cancer in humans and experimental animals. In our previous study, we found that the mutagenicity of comfrey was associated with the PAs contained in the plant. Therefore, we suggest that carcinogenicity of comfrey result from those PAs. To confirm our hypothesis, we compared the expression of genes and processes of biological functions that were altered by comfrey (mixture of the plant with PAs) and riddelliine (a prototype of carcinogenic PA) in rat liver for carcinogenesis in this study.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Groups of 6 Big Blue Fisher 344 rats were treated with riddelliine at 1 mg/kg body weight by gavage five times a week for 12 weeks or fed a diet containing 8% comfrey root for 12 weeks. Animals were sacrificed one day after the last treatment and the livers were isolated for gene expression analysis. The gene expressions were investigated using Applied Biosystems Rat Whole Genome Survey Microarrays and the biological functions were analyzed with Ingenuity Analysis Pathway software. Although there were large differences between the significant genes and between the biological processes that were altered by comfrey and riddelliine, there were a number of common genes and function processes that were related to carcinogenesis. There was a strong correlation between the two treatments for fold-change alterations in expression of drug metabolizing and cancer-related genes.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our results suggest that the carcinogenesis-related gene expression patterns resulting from the treatments of comfrey and riddelliine are very similar, and PAs contained in comfrey are the main active components responsible for carcinogenicity of the plant.</p

Chemical silicon surface modification and bioreceptor attachment to develop competitive integrated photonic biosensors

[EN] Methodology for the functionalization of siliconbased materials employed for the development of photonic label-free nanobiosensors is reported. The studied functionalization based on organosilane chemistry allowed the direct attachment of biomolecules in a single step, maintaining their bioavailability. Using this immobilization approach in probe microarrays, successful specific detection of bacterial DNA is achieved, reaching hybridization sensitivities of 10 pM. The utility of the immobilization approach for the functionalization of label-free nanobiosensors based on photonic crystals and ring resonators was demonstrated using bovine serum albumin (BSA)/anti-BSA as a model system.The authors thank European Union (INTOPSENS FP7-ICT-223932), Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion (project no. FEDER CTQ2010-15943) and Generalitat Valenciana (project no. PROMETEO/2010/008 and GV-2010-031) for financial support.Escorihuela Fuentes, J.; Bañuls Polo, MJ.; García Castelló, J.; Toccafondo, V.; García-Rupérez, J.; Puchades Pla, R.; Maquieira Catala, Á. (2012). Chemical silicon surface modification and bioreceptor attachment to develop competitive integrated photonic biosensors. Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry. 404:2831-2840. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-012-6280-4S28312840404Wallace RW (1997) Mol Med Today 3:384–389Lockhart DJ, Winzeler EA (2000) Nature 405:827–836Wang Y, Vaidya B, Farquar HD, Stryjewski W, Hammer RP, McCarley RL, Sope SA (2003) Anal Chem 75:1130–1140Hopwood AJ, Hurth C, Yang J, Cai Z, Moran N, Lee-Edghill JG, Nordquist A, Lenigk R, Estes MD, Haley JP, McAlister CR, Chen X, Brooks C, Smith S, Elliott K, Koumi P, Zenhausern F, Tully G (2010) Anal Chem 82:6991–6999Lettieri T (2006) Environ Health Perspect 114:4–9Villeneuve DJ, Parissenti AM (2004) Curr Top Med Chem 4:1329–1345Debouck C, Goodfellow PN (1999) Nat Genet 21:48–50Sendroiu IE, Gifford LK, Lupták A, Corn RM (2011) J Am Chem Soc 133:4271–4273Palchetti I, Mascini M (2008) Analyst 133:846–854Fan XD, White IM, Shopova SI, Zhu H, Suter JD, Sun Y (2008) Anal Chim Acta 620:8–26Luchansky MS, Bailey RC (2012) Anal Chem 84:793–821Zourob M, Lakhtakia A (2010) Optical guided-wave chemical and biosensors II, chap 1. Springer-Verlag, HeidelbergHunta HK, Armani AM (2010) Nanoscale 2:1544–1559Mandal S, Goddard JM, Erickson D (2009) Lab Chip 9:2924–2932Washburn AL, Gunn LC, Bailey RC (2009) Anal Chem 81:9499–9506De Vos K, Bartolozzi I, Schacht E, Bienstman P, Baets R (2007) Opt Express 15:7610–7615Ramachandran A, Wang S, Clarke J, Ja SJ, Goad D, Wald L, Flood EM, Knobbe E, Hryniewicz JV, Chu ST, Gill D, Chen W, King O, Little BE (2008) Biosens. Bioelectron 23:939–944Claes T, Molera JG, De Vos K, Schacht E, Baets R, Bienstman P (2009) IEEE Photon J 1:197–204Sagiv J (1980) J Am Chem Soc 102:92–98George S, Block ID, Jones SI, Mathias PC, Chaudhery V, Vuttipittayamongkol P, Wu HY, Vodkin LO, Cunningham BT (2010) Anal Chem 82:8551–8557Huang CS, George S, Lu M, Chaudhery V, Tan R, Zangar RC, Cunningham BT (2011) Anal Chem 83:1425–1430Hermanson GT (2008) Bioconjugate techniques, chap 13. Academic, New YorkZhu HY, White IM, Suter JD, Fan XD (2008) Biosens Bioelectron 24:461–466Zhu H, Dale PS, Caldwell CW, Fan X (2009) Anal Chem 81:9858–9865Qavi AJ, Bailey RC (2010) Angew Chem Int Ed 49:4608–4611Byeon JY, Limpoco FT, Bailey RC (2010) Langmuir 26:15430–15435White IM, Zhu H, Suter JD, Fan X, Zourob M (2009) In: Rasooly A, Herold KE (eds) Methods in molecular biology: biosensors and biodetection, vol 503. Humana, New York, pp 139–165Mira D, Llorente R, Morais S, Puchades R, Maquieira A, Marti J (2004) Proc SPIE 5617:364–373Cross GH, Reeves A, Brand S, Swann MJ, Peel LL, Freeman NJ, Lu JRJ (2004) Phys D Appl Phys 37:74–80Chrisey LA, Lee GU, O’Ferrall EC (1996) Nucleic Acids Res 24:3031–3039Viganò M, Suriano R, Levi M, Turri S, Chiari M, Damin F (2007) Surf Sci 601:1365–1367JrT P (1985) Adv Protein Chem 37:231–237Stobiecka M, Hepel M, Radecki J (2005) Electrochim Acta 50:4873–4887Liao W, Wei F, Qian MX, Zhao XS (2004) Sens Actuators B 101:361–367Ham HO, Liu Z, Aaron Lau KH, Lee, Messersmith PB (2011) Angew Chem Int Ed 50:732–736Graf N, Gross T, Wirth T, Weigel W, Unger W (2009) Anal Bioanal Chem 393:1907–1912Bras M, Dugas V, Bessueille F, Cloarec JP, Martin JR, Cabrera M, Chauvet JP, Souteyrand E, Garrigues M (2004) Biosens Bioelectron 20:797–806Danos L, Greef R, Markvart T (2008) Thin Solid Films 516:7251–7255Marks RS, Lowe CR, Cullen DC, Weetall HH, Karube I (2007) Handbook of biosensors and biochips, vol 1, chap 32. Wiley, New YorkTinland B, Pluen A, Sturm J, Weill G (1997) Macromolecules 30:5763–5765García-Rupérez J, Toccafondo Bañuls MJ, Castelló JG, Griol A, Peransi-Llopis S, Maquieira A (2010) Opt Express 18:24276–24286Armani AM, Kulkarni RP, Fraser SE, Flagan RC, Vahala KJ (2007) Science 317:783–787Bohren CF, Huffman DR (1998) Absorption and scattering of light by small particles. Wiley, New Yor