The significance of macrophage phenotype in cancer and biomaterials

Macrophages have long been known to exhibit heterogeneous and plastic phenotypes. They show functional diversity with roles in homeostasis, tissue repair, immunity and disease. There exists a spectrum of macrophage phenotypes with varied effector functions, molecular determinants, cytokine and chemokine profiles, as well as receptor expression. In tumor microenvironments, the subset of macrophages known as tumor-associated macrophages generates byproducts that enhance tumor growth and angiogenesis, making them attractive targets for anti-cancer therapeutics. With respect to wound healing and the foreign body response, there is a necessity for balance between pro-inflammatory, wound healing, and regulatory macrophages in order to achieve successful implantation of a scaffold for tissue engineering. In this review, we discuss the multitude of ways macrophages are known to be important in cancer therapies and implanted biomaterials

Doppler findings in a rare Coronary Artery Fistula

One of the primary forms of congenital anomalies of the coronary arteries is coronary artery fistula (CAF). It is defined as a direct communication between the coronary artery and any surrounding cardiac chamber or vascular structure, which bypasses the myocardial capillary bed. We present a newborn baby with a large coronary artery fistula connecting the left anterior descending (LAD) artery to the left ventricular (LV) apex. Associated cardiac abnormalities were found: a ventricular septal defect (diameter 4 mm), a patent foramen ovale as well as trivial tricuspid and mitral regurgitation. Here we demonstrate the echocardiograms of an extremely rare form of CAF diagnosed within the first days of postnatal life

Formalizing enrichment mechanisms for bibliographic ontologies in the Semantic Web

This paper presents an analysis of current limitations to the reuse of bibliographic data in the Semantic Web and a research proposal towards solutions to overcome them. The limitations identified derive from the insufficient convergence between existing bibliographic ontologies and the principles and techniques of linked open data (LOD); lack of a common conceptual framework for a diversity of standards often used together; reduced use of links to external vocabularies and absence of Semantic Web mechanisms to formalize relationships between vocabularies, as well as limitations of Semantic Web languages for the requirements of bibliographic data interoperability. A proposal is advanced to investigate the hypothesis of creating a reference model and specifying a superontology to overcome the misalignments found, as well as the use of SHACL (Shapes Constraint Language) to solve current limitations of RDF languages.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio