Ultrasonic pilot-scale reactor for enzymatic bleaching of cotton fabrics

The potential of ultrasound-assisted technology has been demonstrated by several laboratory scale studies. However, their successful industrial scaling-up is still a challenge due to the limited pilot and commercial sonochemical reactors. In this work, a pilot reactor for laccase-hydrogen peroxide cotton bleaching assisted by ultrasound was scaled-up. For this purpose, an existing dyeing machine was transformed and adapted by including piezoelectric ultrasonic devices. Laboratory experiments demonstrated that both low frequency, high power (22 kHz, 2100 W) and high frequency, low power ultrasounds (850 kHz, 400 W) were required to achieve satisfactory results. Standard half (4 g/L H2O2 at 90 ºC for 60 min.) and optical (8 g/L H2O2 at 103 ºC for 40 min.) cotton bleaching processes were used as references. Two sequential stages were established for cotton bleaching: (1) laccase pretreatment assisted by high frequency ultrasound (850 kHz, 400 W) and (2) bleaching using high power ultrasound (22 kHz, 2100 W). When compared with conventional methods, combined laccase-hydrogen peroxide cotton bleaching with ultrasound energy improved the whitening effectiveness. Subsequently, less energy (temperature) and chemicals (hydrogen peroxide) were needed for cotton bleaching thus resulting in costs reduction. This technology allowed the combination of enzyme and hydrogen peroxide treatment in a continuous process. The developed pilot-scale reactor offers an enhancement of the cotton bleaching process with lower environmental impact as well as a better performance of further finishing operations.The author Idalina Goncalves would like to acknowledge the Cottonbleach Project (FP7-SME-2008-2; 243529-2-cottonbleach) for the funding. This work was partly supported by FEDER through POFC-COMPETE and by Portuguese funds from FCT- Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia through the project PEst-OE/BIA/ Ul4050/2014. The author Carla Silva would like to acknowledge FCT - Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia for the Grant SFRH/ BPD/46515/2008

Factores de riesgo de enteroparasitosis en escolares de la Institución Educativa N° 82629 del Caserío Totorillas, distrito de Guzmango, provincia Contumazá, 2014

El presente estudio se desarrolló con el objetivo de determinar cuáles son los factores de riesgo de las enteroparasitosis en escolares del Centro educativo 82629 del Caserío Totorillas, distrito de Guzmango, provincia Contumazá durante el 2014. Se recolectaron muestras de heces y raspados perianales, se trasladaron al laboratorio de Microbiología de la Facultad de Medicina de la UNT donde se procesaron mediante los métodos Directo, Baermann y Tellemann. La prevalencia de parasitosis intestinal fue de 79%. Entre los protozoarios Blastocystis hominis, fue el más frecuente con el 57.14%,  seguido por Entamoeba coli con el 32.14%, Giardia lamblia con el 5.95% y Yodamoeba butschlii con el 4.76%, Enterobius vermicularis 37.3%.  Existió predominio de enterparasitosis en el sexo femenino 49.25%, en masculino 29.85%, en los escolares de 6 a 9 años 31.31%.  Los factores de riesgo de parasitosis intestinal fueron el nivel de instrucción de los padres: sin instrucción 62.68% y con primaria el 16.42%. El piso de tierra 79.10%, el consumo de agua no potable 56.71%, la crianza de animales y el contacto con perros y gatos el 44.7%.  Palabras clave: Enteroparasitosis, factores de riesgo en escolares

Experiencia de uso de hierro intravenoso para el tratamiento de la anemia en niños y adolescentes. Respuesta terapéutica y evolución

Introducción: El hierro de administración intravenosa (iv) está indicado en los casos en que el tratamiento oral no es posible. El objetivo de este trabajo fue describir el perfil de uso, respuesta terapéutica y seguridad de la administración de hierro iv en el tratamiento de la anemia ferropénica en niños, niñas y adolescentes (NNA) asistidos en un centro de referencia de Uruguay entre 2018 y 2023. Métodos: Estudio retrospectivo mediante revisión de historias. Incluyó todos los NNA que recibieron hierro iv. Se registraron variables sociodemográficas, comorbilidades, clínica y severidad de la anemia. Se evaluó: motivos de la indicación y tipo de hierro iv, dosis, tiempo de infusión, respuesta terapéutica y efectos adversos. Resultados: Se incluyeron 35 pacientes, mediana de edad 4 años; 51,4% de sexo masculino, con comorbilidades 37,1%. Todos los menores de 3 años presentaban factores de riesgo para anemia ferropénica, la falta de adherencia al hierro oral se asoció con mayor severidad de la anemia (p<0,05). Motivo principal de indicación de hierro iv fue: severidad de la anemia e inadecuada respuesta al hierro oral concomitante en 37,1%. Todos recibieron hierro sacarato; mediana de dosis: 2 mg/kg y de tiempo de infusión: 1 hora. Se registró un caso de edema y exantema de cara vinculado a la rápida infusión. La evolución fue satisfactoria. Conclusiones: La administración de hierro iv fue segura. Es necesario establecer consensos respecto a la posología y monitorización. Se requieren nuevos estudios para continuar evaluando la eficacia y seguridad del hierro iv en sus diversas formulaciones

A Teacher’s Perspective on the CERN Beamline for Schools Competition

We are a group of teachers who have independently participated in the CERN Beamline for Schools (BL4S) competition with teams of high school students from our schools between 2014 and 2021. All of our teams won the competition, and therefore our students had the opportunity to perform their proposed experiments at a particle accelerator. The experience of mentoring a team has been extremely beneficial to our professional development. In this paper, we will describe the effects that the participation in BL4S had on us, on our students and how it has impacted our approach to teaching STEM subjects

A survey of the European Reference Network EpiCARE on clinical practice for selected rare epilepsies

Objective: Clinical care of rare and complex epilepsies is challenging, because evidence-based treatment guidelines are scarce, the experience of many physicians is limited, and interdisciplinary treatment of comorbidities is required. The pathomechanisms of rare epilepsies are, however, increasingly understood, which potentially fosters novel targeted therapies. The objectives of our survey were to obtain an overview of the clinical practice in European tertiary epilepsy centers treating patients with 5 arbitrarily selected rare epilepsies and to get an estimate of potentially available patients for future studies. Methods: Members of the European Reference Network for rare and complex epilepsies (EpiCARE) were invited to participate in a web-based survey on clinical practice of patients with Dravet syndrome, tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC), autoimmune encephalitis, and progressive myoclonic epilepsies including Unverricht Lundborg and Unverricht-like diseases. A consensus-based questionnaire was generated for each disease. Results: Twenty-six of 30 invited epilepsy centers participated. Cohorts were present in most responding centers for TSC (87%), Dravet syndrome (85%), and autoimmune encephalitis (71%). Patients with TSC and Dravet syndrome represented the largest cohorts in these centers. The antiseizure drug treatments were rather consistent across the centers especially with regard to Dravet syndrome, infantile spasms in TSC, and Unverricht Lundborg / Unverricht-like disease. Available, widely used targeted therapies included everolimus in TSC and immunosuppressive therapies in autoimmune encephalitis. Screening for comorbidities was routinely done, but specific treatment protocols were lacking in most centers. Significance: The survey summarizes the current clinical practice for selected rare epilepsies in tertiary European epilepsy centers and demonstrates consistency as well as heterogeneity in the treatment, underscoring the need for controlled trials and recommendations. The survey also provides estimates for potential participants of clinical trials recruited via EpiCARE, emphasizing the great potential of Reference Networks for future studies to evaluate new targeted therapies and to identify novel biomarkers.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Shared Oncogenic Pathways Implicated in Both Virus-Positive and UV-Induced Merkel Cell Carcinomas

Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is a highly malignant neuroendocrine tumor of the skin whose molecular pathogenesis is not completely understood, despite the role that Merkel cell polyomavirus can play in 55e90% of cases. To study potential mechanisms driving this disease in clinically characterized cases, we searched for somatic mutations using whole-exome sequencing, and extrapolated our findings to study functional biomarkers reporting on the activity of the mutated pathways. Confirming previous results, Merkel cell polyomavirus-negative tumors had higher mutational loads with UV signatures and more frequent mutations in TP53 and RB compared with their Merkel cell polyomavirus-positive counterparts. Despite important genetic differences, the two Merkel cell carcinoma etiologies both exhibited nuclear accumulation of oncogenic transcription factors such as NFAT or nuclear factor of activated T cells (NFAT), P-CREB, and P-STAT3, indicating commonly deregulated pathogenic mechanisms with the potential to serve as targets for therapy. A multivariable analysis identified phosphorylated CRE-binding protein as an independent survival factor with respect to clinical variables and Merkel cell polyomavirus status in our cohort of Merkel cell carcinoma patients.This work was supported by grants from Instituto de Salud-Carlos III (ISCIII); cofinanced by the European Union; (FEDER) (PI12/00357), and a Ramón and Cajal research program (MINECO; RYC-2013-14097) to JPV, Asociación Española Contra el Cáncer and ISCIII grants (RD06/0020/0107, RD012/0036/0060) to MAP, and Coordinated Project of Excellence inter-Institutos de investigación acreditados institutes (ISCIII; PIE15/00081) to MAP. The Ramón and Cajal research program also supports IV. SD was supported by the Torres Quevedo subprogram (MICINN; PTQ-12-05391)

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements

Genomic Ancestry, CYP2D6, CYP2C9, and CYP2C19 Among Latin Americans

We present the distribution of CYP2D6, CYP2C9, and CYP2C19 variants and predicted phenotypes in 33 native and admixed populations from Ibero-America (n > 6,000) in the context of genetic ancestry (n = 3,387). Continental ancestries are the major determinants of frequencies of the increased-activity allele CYP2C19*17 and CYP2C19 gUMs (negatively associated with Native American ancestry), decreased-activity alleles CYP2D6*41 and CYP2C9*2 (positively associated with European ancestry), and decreased-activity alleles CYP2D6*17 and CYP2D6*29 (positively associated with African ancestry). For the rare alleles, CYP2C9*2 and CYPC19*17, European admixture accounts for their presence in Native American populations, but rare alleles CYP2D6*5 (null-activity), CYP2D6-multiplication alleles (increased activity), and CYP2C9*3 (decreased-activity) were present in the pre-Columbian Americas. The study of a broad spectrum of Native American populations from different ethno-linguistic groups show how autochthonous diversity shaped the distribution of pharmaco-alleles and give insights on the prevalence of clinically relevant phenotypes associated with drugs, such as paroxetine, tamoxifen, warfarin, and clopidogrel