Novel LTCC-potentiometric microfluidic device for biparametric analysis of organic compounds carrying plastic antibodies as ionophores: Application to sulfamethoxazole and trimethoprim

Monitoring organic environmental contaminants is of crucial importance to ensure public health. This requires simple, portable and robust devices to carry out on-site analysis. For this purpose, a low-temperature co-fired ceramics (LTCC) microfluidic potentiometric device (LTCC/μPOT) was developed for the first time for an organic compound: sulfamethoxazole (SMX). Sensory materials relied on newly designed plastic antibodies. Sol–gel, self-assembling monolayer and molecular-imprinting techniques were merged for this purpose. Silica beads were amine-modified and linked to SMX via glutaraldehyde modification. Condensation polymerization was conducted around SMX to fill the vacant spaces. SMX was removed after, leaving behind imprinted sites of complementary shape. The obtained particles were used as ionophores in plasticized PVC membranes. The most suitable membrane composition was selected in steady-state assays. Its suitability to flow analysis was verified in flow-injection studies with regular tubular electrodes. The LTCC/μPOT device integrated a bidimensional mixer, an embedded reference electrode based on Ag/AgCl and an Ag-based contact screen-printed under a micromachined cavity of 600 μm depth. The sensing membranes were deposited over this contact and acted as indicating electrodes. Under optimum conditions, the SMX sensor displayed slopes of about −58.7 mV/decade in a range from 12.7 to 250 μg/mL, providing a detection limit of 3.85 μg/mL and a sampling throughput of 36 samples/h with a reagent consumption of 3.3 mL per sample. The system was adjusted later to multiple analyte detection by including a second potentiometric cell on the LTCC/μPOT device. No additional reference electrode was required. This concept was applied to Trimethoprim (TMP), always administered concomitantly with sulphonamide drugs, and tested in fish-farming waters. The biparametric microanalyzer displayed Nernstian behaviour, with average slopes −54.7 (SMX) and +57.8 (TMP) mV/decade. To demonstrate the microanalyzer capabilities for real applications, it was successfully applied to single and simultaneous determination of SMX and TMP in aquaculture waters

Are Comorbidities Associated With Overall Survival in Patients With Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma?

Purpose: Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is a highly prevalent type of immunogenic cancer with a low survival rate in patients with comorbidities owing to toxic habits. Materials and Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted of patients with resectable OSCC at a tertiary Spanish hospital from 2011 to 2014. The primary predictor variables were comorbidity and immune biomarkers. Comorbidity was assessed using the Adult Comorbidity Evaluation–27 (ACE-27) and scored from 1 to 3 (mild to severe decompensation, respectively). The immune biomarkers were neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), derived NLR (dNLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), and lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio (LMR). The primary outcome variable was 5-year overall survival (OS). Other study variables were stage, margin, and neck management. Receiver operating characteristic curves were built for each ratio. For the survey of immune biomarkers, area under the curve was computed to determine cutoff points and investigate their association with OS. Kaplan-Meier estimates of survival and Cox proportional hazards models were used for longitudinal analysis. Results: Overall 215 patients were identified (median age, 67 yr; range, 32 to 96 yr; median follow-up, 31 months; range, 7 to 78 months); 159 patients had at least 1 comorbid condition. Results showed that a severe comorbidity (according to the ACE-27) increased the risk of death by 4 times in patients with OSCC regardless of stage. NLR, dNLR, LMR, and PLR were associated with OS in the univariate study. Cutoff points to predict increased mortality were 3, 1.9, 2.6, and 66 for NLR, dNLR, LMR, and PLR, respectively. Age, comorbidity, stage, margins, and management of the neck were important independent predictors of decreased OS in OSCC. PLR was marginally associated with OS in the multivariate model. Conclusion: These results suggest that comorbidity and NLR, dNLR, LMR, and PLR are associated with 5-year OS in patients with resectable OSCC

Are congenital malformations more frequent in fetuses with intrahepatic persistent right umbilical vein? A comparative study

Objective Persistent right umbilical vein (PRUV) is a vascular anomaly where the right umbilical vein remains as the only conduit that returns oxygenated blood to the fetus. It has classically been described as associated with numerous defects. We distinguish the intrahepatic variant (better prognosis) and the extrahepatic variant (associated with worse prognosis). The objective of this study was to compare rates of congenital malformations in fetuses with intrahepatic PRUV (I-PRUV) versus singleton pregnancies without risk factors. Materials and Methods A multicenter, crossover design, comparative study was performed between 2003 and 2013 on fetuses diagnosed with I-PRUV (n = 56), and singleton pregnancies without congenital malformation risk factors (n = 4050). Results Fifty-six cases of I-PRUV were diagnosed (incidence 1:770). A statistically significant association between I-PRUV and the presence of congenital malformations (odds ratio 4.321; 95% confidence interval 2.15–8.69) was found. This positive association was only observed with genitourinary malformations (odds ratio 3.038; 95% confidence interval 1.08–8.56). Conclusion Our rate of malformations associated with I-PRUV (17.9%) is similar to previously published rates. I-PRUV has shown a significant increase in the rate of associated malformations, although this association has only been found to be statistically significant in the genitourinary system. Noteworthy is the fact that this comparative study has not pointed to a significant increase in the congenital heart malformation rate. Diagnosis of isolated I-PRUV does not carry a worse prognosis

Síntesis de ectomicorrizas entre Cistus sp. y las especies del complejo Boletus edulis

En los jarales resultantes de la reiteración de incendios forestales en el oeste de Castilla y León (León, Salamanca y Zamora) es habitual la presencia de fructificaciones de Boletus edulis Bull. La recolección de estos hongos micorrícicos comestibles en los jarales dominados exclusivamente por Cistus ladanifer, supone una oportunidad económica alternativa a los usos tradicionales para zonas con bajos ingresos procedentes del monte. El objetivo de éste trabajo es la obtención de ectomicorrizas de las especies del complejo B. edulis con Cistus sp. bajo condiciones controladas, y las descripciones anatómicas detalladas de las mismas. La identificación de los aislados fúngicos de Boletus aereus Bull., B. edulis, B. reticulatus Schaeff. y B. pinophilus Pilát & Dermek fue confirmada por métodos moleculares. Se han obtenido ectomicorrizas de Boletus aereus, B. edulis y B. reticulatus con Cistus albidus L. y C. ladanifer en condiciones de síntesis en cultivo puro, en un substrato de turbavermiculita estéril y solución nutritiva. Las ectomicorrizas formadas se describieron siguiendo los caracteres anatómicos y morfológicos habituales. Las tres ectomicorrizas son muy similares, de color blanco, con ramificación monopodial-pinnada, manto formado por tres capas plectenquimatosas y con rizomorfos de tipo boletoide

A Proposed Approach to Chronic Airway Disease (CAD) Using Therapeutic Goals and Treatable Traits: A Look to the Future

© 2020 Pérez de Llano et al.Chronic airflow obstruction affects a wide range of airway diseases, the most frequent of which are asthma, COPD, and bronchiectasis; they are clearly identifiable in their extremes, but quite frequently overlap in some of their pathophysiological and clinical characteristics. This has generated the description of new mixed or overlapping disease phenotypes with no clear biological grounds. In this special article, a group of experts provides their perspective and proposes approaching the treatment of chronic airway disease (CAD) through the identification of a series of therapeutic goals (TG) linked to treatable traits (TT) – understood as clinical, physiological, or biological characteristics that are quantifiable using biomarkers. This therapeutic approach needs validating in a clinical trial with the strategy of identification of TG and treatment according to TT for each patient independently of their prior diagnosis

Isothermal anisotropic magnetoresistance in antiferromagnetic metallic IrMn

Antiferromagnetic spintronics is an emerging field; antiferromagnets can improve the functionalities of ferromagnets with higher response times, and having the information shielded against external magnetic field. Moreover, a large list of aniferromagnetic semiconductors and metals with Néeltemperatures above room temperature exists. In the present manuscript, we persevere in the quest for the limits of how large can anisotropic magnetoresistance be in antiferromagnetic materials with very large spin-orbit coupling. We selected IrMn as a prime example of first-class moment (Mn) and spin-orbit(Ir) combination. Isothermal magnetotransport measurements in an antiferromagnetic-metal(IrMn)/ferromagnetic-insulator thin film bilayer have been performed. The metal/insulator structure with magnetic coupling between both layers allows the measurement of the modulation of the transportproperties exclusively in the antiferromagnetic layer. Anisotropic magnetoresistance as large as 0.15% has been found, which is much larger than that for a bare IrMn layer. Interestingly, it has been observed that anisotropic magnetoresistance is strongly influenced by the field cooling conditions, signaling the dependence of the found response on the formation of domains at the magnetic ordering temperature

Dynamics-dependent density distribution in active suspensions

Self-propelled colloids constitute an important class of intrinsically non-equilibrium matter. Typically, such a particle moves ballistically at short times, but eventually changes its orientation, and displays random-walk behavior in the long-time limit. Theory predicts that if the velocity of non-interacting swimmers varies spatially in 1D, $v(x)$, then their density $\rho(x)$ satisfies $\rho(x) = \rho(0)v(0)/v(x)$, where $x = 0$ is an arbitrary reference point. Such a dependence of steady-state $\rho(x)$ on the particle dynamics, which was the qualitative basis of recent work demonstrating how to `paint' with bacteria, is forbidden in thermal equilibrium. We verify this prediction quantitatively by constructing bacteria that swim with an intensity-dependent speed when illuminated. A spatial light pattern therefore creates a speed profile, along which we find that, indeed, $\rho(x)v(x) = \mathrm{constant}$, provided that steady state is reached