Ozonation of Human Blood Induces a Remarkable Upregulation of Heme Oxygenase-1 and Heat Stress Protein-70

Heme oxygenase-I (HO-1) has emerged as one of the most protective enzymes and its pleiotropic activities have been demonstrated in a variety of human pathologies. Unpublished observations have shown that HO-1 is induced after the infusion of ozonated blood into the respective donors, and many other experimental observations have demonstrated the efficacy of oxidizing agents. It appeared worthwhile to evaluate whether we could better define the activity of potential inducers such as hydrogen peroxide and ozonated human plasma. Human vascular endothelial cells at confluence were challenged with different concentrations of these inducers and the simultaneous production of nitric oxide (NO); and HO-1 was measured by either measuring nitrite, or bilirubin formation, or/and the immune reactivity of the protein by Western blot using a rabbit antihuman HO-1 and Hsp-70. The results show that production of both NO and HO-1 is fairly dose dependent but is particularly elevated using human plasma after transient exposure to a medium ozone concentration. At this concentration, there is also induction of Hsp-70. The results clarify another positive effect achievable by the use of ozone therapy

doi:10.1155/2007/26785 Research Article Ozonation of Human Blood Induces a Remarkable Upregulation of Heme Oxygenase-1 and Heat Stress Protein-70

Heme oxygenase-I (HO-1) has emerged as one of the most protective enzymes and its pleiotropic activities have been demonstrated in a variety of human pathologies. Unpublished observations have shown that HO-1 is induced after the infusion of ozonated blood into the respective donors, and many other experimental observations have demonstrated the efficacy of oxidizing agents. It appeared worthwhile to evaluate whether we could better define the activity of potential inducers such as hydrogen peroxide and ozonated human plasma. Human vascular endothelial cells at confluence were challenged with different concentrations of these inducers and the simultaneous production of nitric oxide (NO); and HO-1 was measured by either measuring nitrite, or bilirubin formation, or/and the immune reactivity of the protein by Western blot using a rabbit antihuman HO-1 and Hsp-70. The results show that production of both NO and HO-1 is fairly dose dependent but is particularly elevated using human plasma after transient exposure to a medium ozone concentration. At this concentration, there is also induction of Hsp-70. The results clarify another positive effect achievable by the use of ozone therapy. Copyright © 2007 Velio Bocci et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. 1

Feature selection for high dimensional data

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Validation of the PEDiatric Behçet's Disease classification criteria: an evidence-based approach

OBJECTIVES: to validate the PEDiatric Behçet's Disease classification criteria (PEDBD) with an evidence-based approach. METHODS: 210 pediatric patients (70 Behçet's disease (BD), 40 Periodic Fever, Aphthous stomatitis, Pharyngitis, Adenitis, 35 familial Mediterranean fever, 26 hyper-IgD syndrome, 22 TNF-Receptor associated Periodic fever Syndrome, 17 undefined recurrent fevers) were randomly selected from the Eurofever Registry. A set of 11 experienced clinicians/researchers blinded to the original diagnosis evaluated the patients. Using the table consensus as gold standard (agreement ≥ 80%), the PEDBD, ISG and ICBD criteria were applied to BD patients and to confounding diseases with other autoinflammatory conditions in order to define their sensitivity, specificity and accuracy. RESULTS: At the end of the third round, a consensus was reached in 139/210 patients (66.2%). The patients with a consensus ≥80% were classified as confirmed-BD (n = 24), and those with an agreement of 60-79% as probable-BD (n = 10). When comparing these patients with the confounding diseases group, an older age at disease onset, the presence of oral and genital ulcers, skin papulo-pustular lesions, a positive pathergy test and posterior uveitis were BD distinctive elements. The ISG, ICBD and PEDBD criteria were applied to confirmed-BD and to the confounding disease group, showing a sensitivity of 0.50, 0.79 and 0.58, a specificity of 1.00, 0.97, 0.99, and an accuracy of 0.91, 0.94 and 0.92, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: the PEDBD criteria were very specific, while the ICBD resulted to be more sensitive. The complexity of childhood BD suggests larger prospective international cohorts to further evaluate the performance of the criteria

Valutazione della soddisfazione per l’organizzazione basata sulla valorizzazione di posizioni funzionali, tra gli infermieri del Policlinico S. Orsola-Malpighi

Per valutare l’efficacia di un nuovo modello organizzativo di sviluppo professionale che ha creato 12 posizioni funzionali orizzontali con responsabilità specifiche (ad esempio responsabile dell’EBN, esperto in lesioni da decubito, responsabile dei nuovi assunti), è stata valutata la soddisfazione del personale. Metodo. Da novembre a dicembre 2003 è stato distribuito il questionario di Soddisfazione di MC Closey e Muller, a tutti gli infermieri in servizio, ed è stato confrontato il livello di soddisfazione degli infermieri con e senza posizioni funzionali. A ciascuna affermazione viene assegnato un valore da 1 a 5. Risultati. Il questionario è stato somministrato a 1.167 infermieri, il 58.9% degli infermieri, di cui 602 ricoprono posizioni funzionali. Complessivamente, gli infermieri con posizioni funzionali sono più soddisfatti (punteggio di 2.76 vs 2.61, p 0.01) e le differenze sono risultate statisticamente significative per 14/31 voci e 5/8 sottoscale. Conclusioni. I risultati ottenuti, anche se il livello di soddisfazione è più basso rispetto a quello di altri studi, confermano la strategia di sviluppo professionale adottata. L’analisi delle risposte per singola posizione funzionale ha consentito di fare alcune riflessioni ed identificare strategie per migliorare il sostegno organizzativo per alcune posizioni

Feature selection for high-dimensional data

Feature selection, Regularized methods, L 1 –L 2 penalties, Iterative solutions, Computational biology, Computer vision,