Editorial: Natural animal models of diseases.

In this Research Topic of Frontiers in Veterinary Science/Comparative and Clinical Medicine, four manuscripts were published: Two Review and two Original Research Articles, whose main contributions and results are briefly presented below

Qualitative results for a mixture of Green-Lindsay thermoelastic solids

We study qualitative properties of the solutions of the system of partial differential equations modeling thermomechanical deformations for mixtures of thermoelastic solids when the theory of Green and Lindsay for the heat conduction is considered. Three dissipation mechanisms are proposed in the system: thermal dissipation, viscosity e ects on one constituent of the mixture and damping in the relative velocity of the two displacements of both constituents. First, we prove the existence and uniqueness of the solutions. Later we prove the exponential stability of the solutions over the time. We use the semigroup arguments to establish our resultsPeer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

PMN J1838-3427: A new gravitationally lensed quasar

We report the discovery of a new double-image quasar that was found during a search for gravitational lenses in the southern sky. Radio source PMN J1838-3427 is composed of two flat-spectrum components with separation 1", flux density ratio 14:1 and matching spectral indices, in VLA and VLBA images. Ground-based BRI images show the optical counterpart (total I=18.6) is also double with the same separation and position angle as the radio components. An HST/WFPC2 image reveals the lens galaxy. The optical flux ratio (27:1) is higher than the radio value probably due to differential extinction of the components by the lens galaxy. An optical spectrum of the bright component contains quasar emission lines at z=2.78 and several absorption features, including prominent Ly-alpha absorption. The lens galaxy redshift could not be measured but is estimated to be z=0.36 +/- 0.08. The image configuration is consistent with the simplest plausible models for the lens potential. The flat radio spectrum and observed variability of PMN J1838-3427 suggest the time delay between flux variations of the components is measurable, and could thus provide an independent measurement of H_0.Comment: 23 pages, incl. 6 figures, to appear in A.J.; replaced with accepted version; minor changes to text, improved figure

Cysteine-proteases and cystatins from barley: molecular and functional characterization in housekeeping and defense processes

Plant cysteine-proteases (CysProt) represent a well-characterized type of proteolytic enzymes that fulfill tightly regulated physiological functions (senescence and seed germination among others) and defense roles. This article is focused on the group of papain-proteases C1A (family C1, clan CA) and their inhibitors, phytocystatins (PhyCys). In particular, the protease–inhibitor interaction and their mutual participation in specific pathways throughout the plant's life are reviewed. C1A CysProt and PhyCys have been molecularly characterized, and comparative sequence analyses have identified consensus functional motifs. A correlation can be established between the number of identified CysProt and PhyCys in angiosperms. Thus, evolutionary forces may have determined a control role of cystatins on both endogenous and pest-exogenous proteases in these species. Tagging the proteases and inhibitors with fluorescence proteins revealed common patterns of subcellular localization in the endoplasmic reticulum–Golgi network in transiently transformed onion epidermal cells. Further in vivo interactions were demonstrated by bimolecular fluorescent complementation, suggesting their participation in the same physiological processes

Improving quality of care and clinical outcomes for rectal cancer through clinical audits in a multicentre cancer care organisation

Introduction: Colorectal cancer treatment requires a complex, multidisciplinary approach. Because of the potential variability, monitoring through clinical audits is advisable. This study assesses the effects of a quality improvement action plan in patients with locally advanced rectal cancer and treated with radiotherapy. Methods: Comparative, multicentre study in two cohorts of 120 patients each, selected randomly from patients diagnosed with rectal cancer who had initiated radiotherapy with a curative intent. Based on the results from a baseline clinical audit in 2013, a quality improvement action plan was designed and implemented; a second audit in 2017 evaluated its impact. Results: Standardised information was present on 77.5% of the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) staging reports. Treatment strategies were similar in all three study centres. Of the patients whose treatment was interrupted, just 9.7% received a compensation dose. There was an increase in MRI re-staging from 32.5 to 61.5%, and a significant decrease in unreported circumferential resection margins following neoadjuvant therapy (ypCRM), from 34.5 to 5.6% (p < 0.001). Conclusions: The comparison between two clinical audits showed improvements in neoadjuvant radiotherapy in rectal cancer patients. Some indicators reveal areas in need of additional efforts, for example to reduce the overall treatment time

Red Light-Emitting Electrochemical Cells Employing Pyridazine-Bridged Cationic Diiridium Complexes

A rigid dinuclear Ir(III) complex showing high photoluminescence quantum yield in pure films was successfully used to fabricate light-emitting electrochemical cells with and without ionic liquid additives. The devices showed nearly instantaneous electroluminescence after biasing and maximum quantum yield approaching 1%. The lifetime of the devices was found to be limited to approximately 20 hours, which we correlated with the irreversible oxidation of the complex as seen from electrochemical measurements. This work validates the use of highly luminescent dinuclear iridium complexes in light-emitting electrochemical cells. Future studies will pursue materials with more efficient photoluminescence as well as improved electrochemical stability

Human fertilization: epididymal hCRISP1 mediates sperm zona pellucida binding through its interaction with ZP3

Human epididymal CRISP1 (hCRISP1) associates with sperm during maturation and participates in gamete fusion through egg complementary sites. Its homology with both rodent epididymal CRISP1 and CRISP4 reported to participate in the previous stage of sperm binding to the zona pellucida (ZP), led us to further investigate the functional role of hCRISP1 by studying its involvement in human sperm-ZP interaction. Human hemizona (HZ) were inseminated with human capacitated sperm in the presence of either anti-hCRISP1 polyclonal antibody to inhibit sperm hCRISP1, or bacterially-expressed hCRISP1 (rec-hCRISP1) to block putative hCRISP1 binding sites in the ZP. Results revealed that both anti-hCRISP1 and rec-hCRISP1 produced a significant inhibition in the number of sperm bound per HZ compared with the corresponding controls. The finding that neither anti-hCRISP1 nor rec-hCRISP1 affected capacitation-associated events (i.e. sperm motility, protein tyrosine phosphorylation or acrosome reaction) supports a specific inhibition at the sperm?egg interaction level. Moreover, immunofluorescence experiments using human ZP-intact eggs revealed the presence of complementary sites for hCRISP1 in the ZP. To identify the ligand of hCRISP1 in the ZP, human recombinant proteins ZP2, ZP3 and ZP4 expressed in insect cells were co-incubated with hCRISP1 and protein?protein interaction was analyzed by ELISA. Results revealed that rec-hCRISP1 mainly interacted with ZP3 in a dose-dependent and saturable manner, supporting the specificity of this interaction. Altogether, these results indicate that hCRISP1 is a multifunctional protein involved notonly in sperm?egg fusion but also in the previous stage of sperm?ZP binding through its specific interaction with human ZP3.Fil: Maldera, Julieta Antonella. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental (i); Argentina. Heidelberg University. Center for Molecular Biology; AlemaniaFil: Weigel Muñoz, Mariana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental (i); ArgentinaFil: Chirinos, M.. Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Médicas y Nutrición Salvador Zubiran; MéxicoFil: Busso, Dolores. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile; Chile. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental (i); ArgentinaFil: Raffo, F. G. E.. Centro Médico Fertilab; ArgentinaFil: Battistone, Maria Agustina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental (i); ArgentinaFil: Blaquier, J. A.. Centro Médico Fertilab; ArgentinaFil: Larrea, F.. Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Médicas y Nutrición Salvador Zubiran; MéxicoFil: Cuasnicu, Patricia Sara. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental (i); Argentin

Serum tryptase monitoring in indolent systemic mastocytosis: association with disease features and patient outcome

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.-- et al.[Background]: Serum baseline tryptase (sBT) is a minor diagnostic criterion for systemic mastocytosis (SM) of undetermined prognostic impact. We monitored sBT levels in indolent SM (ISM) patients and investigated its utility for predicting disease behaviour and outcome. [Methods]: In total 74 adult ISM patients who were followed for ≥48 months and received no cytoreductive therapy were retrospectively studied. Patients were classified according to the pattern of evolution of sBT observed. [Results]: Overall 16/74 (22%) cases had decreasing sBT levels, 48 (65%) patients showed increasing sBT levels and 10 (13%) patients showed a fluctuating pattern. Patients with significantly increasing sBT (sBT slope ≥0.15) after 48 months of follow-up showed a slightly greater rate of development of diffuse bone sclerosis (13% vs. 2%) and hepatomegaly plus splenomegaly (16% vs. 5%), as well as a significantly greater frequency of multilineage vs. mast cells (MC)-restricted KIT mutation (p = 0.01) together with a greater frequency of cases with progression of ISM to smouldering and aggressive SM (p = 0.03), and a shorter progression-free survival (p = 0.03). [Conclusions]: Monitoring of sBT in ISM patients is closely associated with poor prognosis disease features as well as with disease progression, pointing out the need for a closer follow-up in ISM patients with progressively increasing sBT values.This work was supported by grants from the Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias (FIS) of the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación of Spain (RETICS RD06/0020/0035-FEDER and PS09/00032); Fundación Sociosanitaria de Castilla-La Mancha (FISCAM 2007/36, FISCAM 2010/008 and G-2010/C-002); Instituto de Salud Carlos III of the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad of Spain (PI11/02399); Junta de Castilla y León (SAN/103/2011); Fundación Ramón Areces; Fundación Española de Mastocitosis (FEM 2010); Hospital Virgen de la Salud Biobank (BioB-HVS) supported by grant of RETICS RD09/0076/00074, (Toledo, Spain).Peer Reviewe

A beam-beam monitoring detector for the MPD experiment at NICA

The Multi-Purpose Detector (MPD) is to be installed at the Nuclotron Ion Collider fAcility (NICA) of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR). Its main goal is to study the phase diagram of the strongly interacting matter produced in heavy-ion collisions. These studies, while providing insight into the physics of heavy-ion collisions, are relevant for improving our understanding of the evolution of the early Universe and the formation of neutron stars. In order to extend the MPD trigger capabilities, we propose to include a high granularity beam-beam monitoring detector (BE-BE) to provide a level-0 trigger signal with an expected time resolution of 30 ps. This new detector will improve the determination of the reaction plane by the MPD experiment, a key measurement for flow studies that provides physics insight into the early stages of the reaction. In this work, we use simulated Au+Au collisions at NICA energies to show the potential of such a detector to determine the event plane resolution, providing further redundancy to the detectors originally considered for this purpose namely, the Fast Forward Detector (FFD) and the Hadron Calorimeter (HCAL). We also show our results for the time resolution studies of two prototype cells carried out at the T10 beam line at the CERN PS complex.Comment: 16 pages, 12 figures. Updated to published version with added comments and correction