Morphological and cellular basis for airflow limitation in smokers

Airflow limitation has two well-defined components, increased resistance, which is found predominantly in the small airways, and loss of elastic recoil. Small airways contribute to the increased resistance to flow by the narrowing of the airway lumen. Morphometric studies have shown that smokers have increased epithelial abnormalities, cellular inflammatory infiltrates in the airway wall, increased muscle and fibrosis, when compared with nonsmokers. Along with these anatomical changes, an increased percentage of airway

Assessment of table olives' organoleptic defect intensities based on the potentiometric fingerprint recorded by an electronic tongue

Table olives are prone to the appearance of sensory defects that decrease their quality and in some cases result in olives unsuitable for consumption. The evaluation of the type and intensity of the sensory negative attributes of table olives is recommended by the International Olive Council, although not being legally required for commercialization. However, the accomplishment of this task requires the training and implementation of sensory panels according to strict directives, turning out in a time-consuming and expensive procedure that involves a degree of subjectivity. In this work, an electronic tongue is proposed as a taste sensor device for evaluating the intensity of sensory defects of table olives. The potentiometric signal profiles gathered allowed establishing multiple linear regression models, based on the most informative subsets of signals (from 24 to 29 recorded during the analysis of olive aqueous pastes and brine solutions) selected using a simulated annealing meta-heuristic algorithm. The models enabled the prediction of the median intensities (R2 ≥ 0.942 and RMSE ≤ 0.356, for leave-one-out or repeated K-fold cross-validation procedures) of butyric, musty, putrid, winey-vinegary, and zapateria negative sensations being, in general, the predicted intensities within the range of intensities perceived by the sensory panel. Indeed, based on the predicted mean intensities of the sensory defects, the electrochemical-chemometric approach developed could correctly classify 86.4% of the table olive samples according to their trade category based on a sensory panel evaluation and following the International Olive Council regulations (i.e., extra, 1st choice, 2nd choice, and olives that may not be sold as table olives). So, the satisfactory overall predictions achieved demonstrate that the electronic tongue could be a complementary tool for assessing table olive defects, reducing the effort of trained panelists and minimizing the risk of subjective evaluations.This work was financially supported by Project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006984—Associate Laboratory LSRE-LCM, by Project UID/QUI/00616/2013 —CQ-VR, and UID/AGR/00690/ 2013—CIMO, all funded by Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional (FEDER) through COMPETE2020—Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização (POCI) and by national funds through Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), Portugal. Strategic funding of UID/BIO/04469/2013 unit is also acknowledged. Nuno Rodrigues thanks FCT, POPH-QREN, and FSE for the Ph.D. Grant (SFRH/BD/104038/2014).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

RICORS2040 : The need for collaborative research in chronic kidney disease

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a silent and poorly known killer. The current concept of CKD is relatively young and uptake by the public, physicians and health authorities is not widespread. Physicians still confuse CKD with chronic kidney insufficiency or failure. For the wider public and health authorities, CKD evokes kidney replacement therapy (KRT). In Spain, the prevalence of KRT is 0.13%. Thus health authorities may consider CKD a non-issue: very few persons eventually need KRT and, for those in whom kidneys fail, the problem is 'solved' by dialysis or kidney transplantation. However, KRT is the tip of the iceberg in the burden of CKD. The main burden of CKD is accelerated ageing and premature death. The cut-off points for kidney function and kidney damage indexes that define CKD also mark an increased risk for all-cause premature death. CKD is the most prevalent risk factor for lethal coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and the factor that most increases the risk of death in COVID-19, after old age. Men and women undergoing KRT still have an annual mortality that is 10- to 100-fold higher than similar-age peers, and life expectancy is shortened by ~40 years for young persons on dialysis and by 15 years for young persons with a functioning kidney graft. CKD is expected to become the fifth greatest global cause of death by 2040 and the second greatest cause of death in Spain before the end of the century, a time when one in four Spaniards will have CKD. However, by 2022, CKD will become the only top-15 global predicted cause of death that is not supported by a dedicated well-funded Centres for Biomedical Research (CIBER) network structure in Spain. Realizing the underestimation of the CKD burden of disease by health authorities, the Decade of the Kidney initiative for 2020-2030 was launched by the American Association of Kidney Patients and the European Kidney Health Alliance. Leading Spanish kidney researchers grouped in the kidney collaborative research network Red de Investigación Renal have now applied for the Redes de Investigación Cooperativa Orientadas a Resultados en Salud (RICORS) call for collaborative research in Spain with the support of the Spanish Society of Nephrology, Federación Nacional de Asociaciones para la Lucha Contra las Enfermedades del Riñón and ONT: RICORS2040 aims to prevent the dire predictions for the global 2040 burden of CKD from becoming true

Lung transplantation: Beyond palliation

SCOPUS: ed.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe