Claudins in renal physiology and disease

The tight junction forms the paracellular permeability barrier in all epithelia, including the renal tubule. Claudins are a family of tight junction membrane proteins with four transmembrane domains that form the paracellular pore and barrier. Their first extracellular domain appears to be important for determining selectivity. A number of claudin isoforms have been found to be important in renal tubule function, both in adults and in neonates. Familial hypomagnesemic hypercalciuria with nephrocalcinosis is an autosomal recessive syndrome characterized by impaired reabsorption of Mg and Ca in the thick ascending limb of Henle's loop. Mutations in claudin-16 and 19 can both cause this syndrome, but the pathophysiological mechanism remains controversial

Near-miss events are really missed! Reflections on incident reporting in a department of pediatric surgery.

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the frequency of surgical and organizational events that occurred in the whole Department of Paediatric Surgery at Gaslini Children's Hospital through an incident-reporting system in order to identify the vulnerabilities of this system and improve it. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is a 6-month prospective observational study (1st January-1st July 2010) of all events (including surgical and organizational events, and near misses) that occurred in our department of surgery (pediatric surgery, orthopedics and neurosurgery units). RESULTS: Over a 6-month study period, 3,635 children were admitted: 1,904 out of 3,635 (52.4\%) children underwent a surgical procedure. A total number of 111 adverse events and 4 near misses were recorded in 100 patients. A total of 108 (97.3\%) adverse events occurred following a surgical procedure. Of 111 adverse events, 34 (30.6\%) required re-intervention. Eighteen of 100 patients (18\%) required a re-admission, and 18 of 111 adverse events (16.2\%) were classified as organizational. Infection represented the most common event. CONCLUSIONS: An electronic physician-reported event tracking system should be incorporated into all surgery departments to report more accurately adverse events and near misses. In this system, all definitions must be standardized and near misses should be considered as important as the other events, being a rich source of learning

Diversity and ecology of edible mushrooms from Patagonia native forests, Argentina

Forests from the Patagonian Andes of Argentina offer a very interesting although little known and exploited variety of edible wild mushrooms so far. In this work, 12 selected species of wild mushrooms from these forests, which have been reported as edible (Hydropus dusenii, Cyttaria hariotii, Fistulina antarctica, F. endoxantha, Grifola gargal, Cortinarius magellanicus complex, C. xiphidipus, Lepista nuda, Lycoperdon perlatum, Macrolepiota procera, Ramaria patagonica, and Aleurodiscus vitellinus), were investigated. Registers of effective consumption and bibliography on their traditional knowledge were used as a reference, leaving aside some much studied taxa, such as Morchella spp. (Pildain et al., Fungal Biol 118: 755–763, 2014), and some others that were very infrequently detected. We went deep in the study on the ecological and organoleptic characteristics of each species. A brief morphological description, substrates, way of life, and fruiting habits, is presented along with organoleptic characteristics. The ecological analysis included the evaluation of the environmental variables associated with their fructification, phenology, availability, and finding frequency. Species with the longest fruiting period were F. antarctica, R. patagonica, and C. magellanicus complex, from mid-March to mid-May, being also the most frequent, along with C. hariotii. Detection of narrow value ranges for certain environmental variables associated with the fruiting of humic and mycorrhizal species, such as the presence of wood debris, organic matter percentage, mulch distribution, and tree cover, suggests that fruiting of these species would be affected by not necessarily drastic changes of these parameters. Information generated in this work seeks to favor local development by promoting the sustainable use of wild edible mushrooms through innovative activities, such as mycogastronomy and mycotourism, linked with the important tourist profile of Patagonia.Fil: Barroetaveña, Carolina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia "San Juan Bosco". Facultad de Ingeniería - Sede Esquel. Departamento de Ingeniería Forestal; Argentina. Centro de Investigación y Extensión Forestal Andino Patagónico; ArgentinaFil: Toledo, Carolina Veronica. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Centro de Investigación y Extensión Forestal Andino Patagónico; Argentin