Role of clusterin in cell adhesion during early phases of programmed cell death in P19 embryonic carcinoma cells

AbstractThis study explored the role of clusterin in mechanisms of cell adhesion and apoptosis in P19 embryonic carcinoma cells. We found that serum deprivation induced transient but dramatic elevation in cell adhesion strength to the culture substrate and eventually led to apoptotic cell death. The time course of cell-adhesion increase overlapped temporally with the elevation of clusterin mRNA (peak 8 h after serum deprivation). The coincidental elevation of clusterin expression and cell adhesion strength preceded the schedule of apoptotic cell death. Clusterin antiserum partially antagonized cell adhesion, but did not modify the course of apoptosis. These data suggest that clusterin expression may partially control cell adhesion with no influence on apoptosis in P19 cells, under defined conditions

Vibrations of cable-suspended rehabilitation robots

Rehabilitation robots help the treatment of diseases by performing cyclic exercises for a long period of time. These exercises must perform movements of the patient's limbs; thus, the robots are required to be flexible and safe. Among rehabilitation robots, cable robots are widely used due to their unique properties, such as being lightweight and the possibility of being equipped with magnetic hooks to improve both safety and ease of use. However, the elasticity and flexibility of cables result in vibrations of the payload and hooks. In this paper, the forced vibrations due to rehabilitation exercises are studied. Since the previous studies of the authors showed a weak coupling between longitudinal and transverse vibrations, a two-cable planar model for the study of transverse vibrations is developed. The model makes it possible to study the forced transverse vibrations due to both cable motion and robot motion. Stiffness and damping of the patient's arm are considered. Results show that the cable system exhibits a simple linear behavior when excited by robot motion and a non-linear behavior when excited by cable motion

Enterprise and entrepreneurship in the Caribbean region: introduction to the special issue

Entrepreneurship as a pseudo-discipline has matured to the point where it has begun to question the myths which have developed around it. As a panacea for the development ills of capitalism, studies have spanned various ideological and methodological viewpoints. Spatially, entrepreneurship studies have grown to include countries of the Global South and emerging economies, particularly those of Eastern Europe. This special issue extends this reach to the small developing states of the Caribbean and particularly those with a British colonial legacy rooted in the remnants of the plantation economy. The commencement of political independence in the 1960s has not resulted in any significant economic independence for the region as it remains dependent on foreign investment, whilst its key sectors remain subject to the volatility of the economies of the global north. The papers in this special issue identify domestic and enterprise level constraints to the development of entrepreneurship in the region. This Introduction places these, mostly micro-level studies, in a wider context, concluding that policy-makers need to better understand the concept of entrepreneurship and its role in achieving developmental goals. Our challenging recommendation is that those formulating and delivering these policies and practices should do so with an entrepreneurial mind-set

Patients' inability to perform a preoperative cardiopulmonary exercise test or demonstrate an anaerobic threshold is associated with inferior outcomes after major colorectal surgery.

BACKGROUND: Surgical patients with poor functional capacity, determined by oxygen consumption at anaerobic threshold (AT) during cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET), experience longer hospital stays and worse short- and medium-term survival. However, previous studies excluded patients who were unable to perform a CPET or who failed to demonstrate an AT. We hypothesized that such patients are at risk of inferior outcomes after elective surgery. METHODS: All patients undergoing major colorectal surgery attempted CPET to assist in the planning of care. Patients were stratified by their test results into Fit (AT ≥ 11.0 ml O2 kg(-1) min(-1)), Unfit (AT < 11.0 ml O2 kg(-1) min(-1)), or Unable to CPET groups (failed to pedal or demonstrate an AT). For each group, we determined hospital stay and mortality. RESULTS: Between March 2009 and April 2010, 269 consecutive patients were screened, and proceeded to bowel resection. Median hospital stay was 8 days (IQR 5.1-13.4) and there were 44 deaths (16%) at 2 yr; 26 (9.7%) patients were categorized as Unable to CPET, 69 (25.7%) Unfit and 174 (64.7%) Fit. There were statistically significant differences between the three groups in hospital stay [median (IQR) 14.0 (10.5-23.8) vs 9.9 (5.5-15) vs 7.1 (4.9-10.8) days, P < 0.01] and mortality at 2 yr [11/26 (42%) vs 14/69 (20%) vs 19/174 (11%), respectively (P < 0.01)] although the differences between Unable and Unfit were not statistically different. CONCLUSIONS: Patients' inability to perform CPET is associated with inferior outcomes after major colorectal surgery. Future studies evaluating CPET in risk assessment for major surgery should report outcomes for this subgroup

Sistema de criptografia simétrica via porta lógica quântica.

Atualmente, a teoria relacionada à criptologia é fortemente baseada na hipótese de unidirecionalidade de caminhos computacionais. Esta conjectura matemática sustenta que deve haver uma função bijetora para a qual o cálculo em uma direção é fácil, enquanto reconstruir o estado de entrada a partir do estado de saída é difícil - ?fácil? e ?difícil? devem ser entendidas no sentido de complexidade computacional.bitstream/item/138134/1/ComTec119-criptografia.pd

Sympathetic autonomic dysfunction and impaired cardiovascular performance in higher risk surgical patients: implications for perioperative sympatholysis

OBJECTIVE: Recent perioperative trials have highlighted the urgent need for a better understanding of why sympatholytic drugs intended to reduce myocardial injury are paradoxically associated with harm (stroke, myocardial infarction). We hypothesised that following a standardised autonomic challenge, a subset of patients may demonstrate excessive sympathetic activation which is associated with exercise-induced ischaemia and impaired cardiac output. METHODS: Heart rate rise during unloaded pedalling (zero workload) prior to the onset of cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) was measured in 2 observation cohorts of elective surgical patients. The primary outcome was exercise-evoked, ECG-defined ischaemia (>1 mm depression; lead II) associated with an exaggerated increase in heart rate (EHRR ≥12 bpm based on prognostic data for all-cause cardiac death in preceding epidemiological studies). Secondary outcomes included cardiopulmonary performance (oxygen pulse (surrogate for left ventricular stroke volume), peak oxygen consumption (VO2peak), anaerobic threshold (AT)) and perioperative heart rate. RESULTS: EHRR was present in 40.4-42.7% in both centres (n=232, n=586 patients). Patients with EHRR had higher heart rates perioperatively (p<0.05). Significant ST segment depression during CPET was more common in EHRR patients (relative risk 1.7 (95% CI 1.3 to 2.1); p<0.001). EHRR was associated with 11% (95%CI 7% to 15%) lower predicted oxygen pulse (p<0.0001), consistent with impaired left ventricular function. CONCLUSIONS: EHRR is common and associated with ECG-defined ischaemia and impaired cardiac performance. Perioperative sympatholysis may further detrimentally affect cardiac output in patients with this phenotype

Antibodies against 9-O-acetylated sialoglycans: a potent marker to monitor clinical status in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Background: Although childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is highly responsive to chemotherapy, reliable techniques are needed to determine treatment outcome and predict impending relapse. In ALL, the cell surface over expression of 9-O-acetylated sialoglycans (9-OAcSGs) on lymphoblasts and concomitant high antibody titers in patients' sera was reported. Objectives: The present study was aimed to evaluate whether anti-9-OAcSG titers can be harnessed to monitor the clinical outcome of ALL. Design and methods: Anti-9-OAcSGs were analyzed by ELISA in children receiving either UK ALL X (n = 69, Group I) in India or UK ALL 97 (n = 47, Group II) in UK along with age-matched normal healthy controls at different time points over a period of &gt; 2 years. An attempt was also made to investigate subclass distribution of disease-specific IgG. Moreover, 17 patients having a higher sample size were longitudinally monitored. Results: Antibody levels were raised at disease presentation, decreased with remission induction, and importantly, reappeared with clinical relapse. Sera from patients with other hematological disorders and normal controls showed negligible levels of circulating anti-9-OAcSGs. In patients of both Groups I and II, the assay showed high sensitivity (98.92% and 96.77%) and specificity (92.1% and 95.91%), respectively. IgG subclass analyses during different phases of treatment revealed that 9-OAcSG-specific IgG1 could serve as a better prognostic marker in ALL. Conclusions: This study demonstrated the potential of this disease-specific antibody as an alternate marker in diagnosis and long-term assessment of ALL patients, suggesting its application in detection and prediction of impending relapse. Therefore, the expression of anti-9-OAcSGs, irrespective of their treatment protocol, may serve as an economical yet effective index for monitoring of childhood ALL

Protótipo de sistema de segurança criptográfica via porta lógica quântica.

O cifrador XOR não é considerado completamente seguro, pois não há chaves de criptografia verdadeiramente aleatórias, dado que as chaves são geradas em geradores de números pseudorrandômicos a partir de sementes que não podem ser negligenciadas. No entanto, uma chave que destrói a própria semente que a gerou, pode ser considerada verdadeiramente aleatória, pois o seu estado inicial é definitivamente ignorado. Neste trabalho, nós apresentamos um modelo de chaves verdadeiramente aleatórias que podem ser obtidas a partir da porta quântica denominada controlled-NOT (CNOT) usada para emaranhar estados EPR

Uso do R na implementação de um modelo baseado no indivíduo para simular a dinâmica de propagação do HLB do citros.

RESUMO - A citricultura mundial tem sido afetada pela doença conhecida como Huanglongbing (HLB), considerada a mais séria por trazer grandes prejuízos aos citricultores e não possuir cura até o momento. No Brasil, o inseto-vetor responsável por transmitir a doença é o psilídeo Diaphorina citri. Estudos sobre a dinâmica de propagação da doença vem sendo desenvolvidos no âmbito do projeto HLB-BioMath2. Este trabalho apresenta uma implementação em R e Shiny de um modelo baseado no indivíduo (MBI) para estudar a dinâmica espaço-temporal do HLB no Recôncavo baiano. As simulações têm permitido observar o rápido espalhamento da doença pelos pomares, devido à grande capacidade de migração do inseto e ao grande período de incubação da doença nas plantas de citros. O simulador encontra-se em desenvolvimento e tem sido observada a necessidade de otimização do código-fonte pois, devido às características do MBI, o tempo de execução no R é um fator importante a ser observado.CIIC 2017. Nº 17604

Randomized controlled trial of intraoperative goal-directed fluid therapy in aerobically fit and unfit patients having major colorectal surgery.

BACKGROUND: Intraoperative fluid therapy regimens using oesophageal Doppler monitoring (ODM) to optimize stroke volume (SV) (goal-directed fluid therapy, GDT) have been associated with a reduction in length of stay (LOS) and complication rates after major surgery. We hypothesized that intraoperative GDT would reduce the time to surgical readiness for discharge (RfD) of patients having major elective colorectal surgery but that this effect might be less marked in aerobically fit patients. METHODS: In this double-blinded controlled trial, 179 patients undergoing major open or laparoscopic colorectal surgery were characterized as aerobically 'fit' (n=123) or 'unfit' (n=56) on the basis of their performance during a cardiopulmonary exercise test. Within these fitness strata, patients were randomized to receive a standard fluid regimen with or without ODM-guided intraoperative GDT. RESULTS: GDT patients received an average of 1360 ml of additional intraoperative colloid. The mean cardiac index and SV at skin closure were significantly higher in the GDT group than in controls. Times to RfD and LOS were longer in GDT than control patients but did not reach statistical significance (median 6.8 vs 4.9 days, P=0.09, and median 8.8 vs 6.7 days, P=0.09, respectively). Fit GDT patients had an increased RfD (median 7.0 vs 4.7 days; P=0.01) and LOS (median 8.8 vs 6.0 days; P=0.01) compared with controls. CONCLUSIONS: Intraoperative SV optimization conferred no additional benefit over standard fluid therapy. In an aerobically fit subgroup of patients, GDT was associated with detrimental effects on the primary outcome. TRIAL REGISTRY: UK NIHR CRN 7285, ISRCTN 14680495. http://public.ukcrn.org.uk/Search/StudyDetail.aspx?StudyID=7285