Ring Vibrations to Sense Anionic Ibuprofen in Aqueous Solution as Revealed by Resonance Raman

We unravel the potentialities of resonance Raman spectroscopy to detect ibuprofen in diluted aqueous solutions. In particular, we exploit a fully polarizable quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) methodology based on fluctuating charges coupled to molecular dynamics (MD) in order to take into account the dynamical aspects of the solvation phenomenon. Our findings, which are discussed in light of a natural bond orbital (NBO) analysis, reveal that a selective enhancement of the Raman signal due to the normal mode associated with the C–C stretching in the ring, νC=C, can be achieved by properly tuning the incident wavelength, thus facilitating the recognition of ibuprofen in water samples

Establishing comprehensive oral assessments for children with safeguarding concerns.

The dental profession is well placed to contribute important information in child protection cases but no previous research has been reported that assesses the volume or impact of this information. Comprehensive oral assessment clinics were introduced and established as an integral part of comprehensive medical assessments for children with welfare concerns in Greater Glasgow and Clyde. An assessment protocol and standardised paperwork for comprehensive oral assessments were developed to enhance information sharing and patient access to appropriate care. Two cases are presented and discussed to demonstrate the value of dental input

Propuesta regulatoria para la sustituci?n del mecanismo de declaraci?n de precios de gas natural

El esquema de la Ley de Concesiones El?ctricas (LCE) consiste en un pool obligatorio bajo costos auditados. Este simula competencia, en tanto el precio spot es igual al costo variable de la ?ltima central que despacha. El DS N? 016-2000-EM estableci? una excepci?n, permitiendo las declaraciones no auditables a las Generadoras que usan GN bajo el Mecanismo de Declaraci?n de Precios (MDP). Inflexibilidades contractuales en el Suministro, Transporte y Distribuci?n de GN hacen que los costos asociados se comporten como fijos. Despachar o no despachar se convierte en una decisi?n cr?tica para la Generadora, puesto que si no despacha, sus costos comprenden la remuneraci?n a precio spot de los retiros y el pago de los insumos no consumidos. Las conclusiones principales de la tesis son: - El MDP afecta la eficiencia asignativa del Mercado de Corto Plazo (MCP). Esto incentiva, entre otros, que el CMCP sea menor y el aumento del Cargo Prima RER. - La Opci?n Regulatoria escogida es aquella donde se hace variable el costo de los insumos, y se crea una bolsa con caracteres fiduciarios que contiene los compromisos contractuales. La nominaci?n se realiza por el COES optimizando y minimizando el costo de operaci?n. Las cantidades no utilizadas (minimizadas a trav?s de declaraciones del COES) son remuneradas a trav?s de un cargo

Beyond property: Rural politics and land-use change in the Colombian sugarcane landscape

Analysing the sugarcane landscape in the flat valley of the Cauca River (Colombia) reveals that agricultural industrialization in the region required the concentration of land use by regional industrialists and the corresponding exclusion of landowners and poor peasants from territorial decision-making processes. The analytical lens used in this article, based on the use and control over land and land-based natural commons, allows for the characterization of three periods in a non-linear process of articulation and dispute between poor peasant and capitalist agents in the expansion of the sugarcane monoculture during the 20th century. The different constellations of social agents, governmental nexus, and capital enclosures have enacted through mechanisms that, beyond concentrating land property, have managed to deprive rural ethnic communities from their cultural and environmental heritage, traditional economies, and possible futures.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/151270/1/joac12332_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/151270/2/joac12332.pd

A new primary dental care service compared with standard care for child and family to reduce the re-occurrence of childhood dental caries (Dental RECUR): study protocol for a randomised controlled trial

Background: In England and Scotland, dental extraction is the single highest cause of planned admission to the hospital for children under 11 years. Traditional dental services have had limited success in reducing this disease burden. Interventions based on motivational interviewing have been shown to impact positively dental health behaviours and could facilitate the prevention of re-occurrence of dental caries in this high-risk population. The objective of the study is to evaluate whether a new, dental nurse-led service, delivered using a brief negotiated interview based on motivational interviewing, is a more cost-effective service than treatment as usual, in reducing the re-occurrence of dental decay in young children with previous dental extractions. Methods/Design: This 2-year, two-arm, multicentre, randomised controlled trial will include 224 child participants, initially aged 5 to 7 years, who are scheduled to have one or more primary teeth extracted for dental caries under general anaesthesia (GA), relative analgesia (RA: inhalation sedation) or local anaesthesia (LA). The trial will be conducted in University Dental Hospitals, Secondary Care Centres or other providers of dental extraction services across the United Kingdom. The intervention will include a brief negotiated interview (based on the principles of motivational interviewing) delivered between enrolment and 6 weeks post-extraction, followed by directed prevention in primary dental care. Participants will be followed up for 2 years. The main outcome measure will be the dental caries experienced by 2 years post-enrolment at the level of dentine involvement on any tooth in either dentition, which had been caries-free at the baseline assessment. Discussion: The participants are a hard-to-reach group in which secondary prevention is a challenge. Lack of engagement with dental care makes the children and their families scheduled for extraction particularly difficult to recruit to an RCT. Variations in service delivery between sites have also added to the challenges in implementing the Dental RECUR protocol during the recruitment phase. Trial registration: ISRCTN24958829 (date of registration: 27 September 2013), Current protocol version: 5.0

ACRATA: a novel electron transfer domain associated to apoptosis and cancer

BACKGROUND: Recently, several members of a vertebrate protein family containing a six trans-membrane (6TM) domain and involved in apoptosis and cancer (e.g. STEAP, STAMP1, TSAP6), have been identified in Golgi and cytoplasmic membranes. The exact function of these proteins remains unknown. METHODS: We related this 6TM domain to distant protein families using intermediate sequences and methods of iterative profile sequence similarity search. RESULTS: Here we show for the first time that this 6TM domain is homolog to the 6TM heme binding domain of both the NADPH oxidase (Nox) family and the YedZ family of bacterial oxidoreductases. CONCLUSIONS: This finding gives novel insights about the existence of a previously undetected electron transfer system involved in apoptosis and cancer, and suggests further steps in the experimental characterization of these evolutionarily related families

A narrative review of the potential pharmacological influence and safety of ibuprofen on coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19), ACE2, and the immune system: a dichotomy of expectation and reality

The coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) pandemic is currently the most acute healthcare challenge in the world. Despite growing knowledge of the nature of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), treatment options are still poorly defined. The safety of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), specifically ibuprofen, has been openly questioned without any supporting evidence or clarity over dose, duration, or temporality of administration. This has been further conflicted by the initiation of studies to assess the efficacy of ibuprofen in improving outcomes in severe COVID-19 patients. To clarify the scientific reality, a literature search was conducted alongside considerations of the pharmacological properties of ibuprofen in order to construct this narrative review. The literature suggests that double-blind, placebo-controlled study results must be reported and carefully analysed for safety and efficacy in patients with COVID-19 before any recommendations can be made regarding the use of ibuprofen in such patients. Limited studies have suggested: (i) no direct interactions between ibuprofen and SARS-CoV-2 and (ii) there is no evidence to suggest ibuprofen affects the regulation of angiotensin-converting-enzyme 2 (ACE2), the receptor for COVID-19, in human studies. Furthermore, in vitro studies suggest ibuprofen may facilitate cleavage of ACE2 from the membrane, preventing membrane-dependent viral entry into the cell, the clinical significance of which is uncertain. Additionally, in vitro evidence suggests that inhibition of the transcription factor nuclear factor-κB (NF-kB) by ibuprofen may have a role in reducing excess inflammation or cytokine release in COVID-19 patients. Finally, there is no evidence that ibuprofen will aggravate or increase the chance of infection of COVID-19

METODOLOGÍA DE SELECCIÓN DE POZOS CANDIDATOS PARA TRATAMIENTOS DE CONFORMANCE QUÍMICO

La canalización generalmente es consecuencia de la heterogeneidad del yacimiento, especialmente por grandes variaciones de permeabilidad, ocasionando reducción en la eficiencia volumétrica como producto de la recirculación del fluido inyectado en procesos de recobro secundario y/o mejorado (EOR). Con el objetivo de mejorar el perfil vertical de inyección y reducir la recirculación de agua inyectada, en Colombia se han implementado, desde el año 2008 a 2020, 33 tratamientos de control de canalización y conformance químico profundo en nueve campos con el objetivo de aumentar la eficiencia de barrido volumétrico para incrementar el factor de recuperación de petróleo. El resultado de los tratamientos reportados es de hasta 3 barriles de petróleo incremental por cada barril de gel rígido inyectado. Sin embargo, la cantidad de tratamientos de conformance es baja en comparación con el número de pozos inyectores en el país de aproximadamente 1400). Por lo tanto, Ecopetrol adaptó una metodología de selección de pozos candidatos para tratamientos de conformance químico que tiene en cuenta continuidad de los yacimientos, determinación y caracterización de la heterogeneidad, estudio de movimiento de fluidos, determinación de conectividad del patrón de inyección, distribución vertical y areal de los fluidos inyectados y producidos, generación de gráficos diagnósticos en software Sahara para finalmente identificar los pozos candidatos y realizar el diseño del tratamiento de conformance. La generación de los gráficos diagnóstico base de la metodología tiene como punto de partida la distribución vertical de producción secundaria realizada por el método IWR de alocación de producciones de malla ponderando caudales, en el cual la producción de un pozo es distribuida entre los inyectores que lo afectan, y esta producción es asociada a cada inyector. Con respecto a la distribución areal se toman elementos de flujo creando mallas dinámicas centradas en inyector y se pondera utilizando la distribución angular. La distribución de producción secundaria tiene en cuenta los ILT/PLT realizados históricamente en los pozos inyectores/ productores, mallado y coeficientes de distribución de los patrones de inyección en el tiempo. En el presente trabajo se hace una descripción y aplicación de la metodología integrada que permite identificar la producción de petróleo y agua por yacimiento en cada patrón de inyección, así como la eficiencia del agua inyectada para mapear acciones de mejoramiento de la producción de petróleo y disminución de la producción de agua, con el objetivo de identificar los sectores con menor desempeño y que requieren optimización del proceso secundario y/o mejorado. La metodología se validó y complementó con información de trazadores interwell (IWTT) y simulación numérica en líneas de flujo (streamline). En ese sentido, se vienen aplicando tratamientos de conformance desde el año 2021 en 23 nuevos pozos con resultados prometedores de producción incremental de petróleo. La selección de pozos candidatos para tratamientos de conformance químico amplían las expectativas de masificación de estas tecnologías en diferentes campos del país y se convierten en pieza fundamental para apalancar la consecución de reservas y una disminución de la huella de carbono debido principalmente a que con el mismo caudal de fluido inyectado se incrementa la producción de petróleo y en algunos tratamientos puede disminuir la producción de agua, asegurando menor consumo de energía (CO2) por cada barril de petróleo extraído

Impact of common cardio-metabolic risk factors on fatal and non-fatal cardiovascular disease in Latin America and the Caribbean: an individual-level pooled analysis of 31 cohort studies

Background: Estimates of the burden of cardio-metabolic risk factors in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) rely on relative risks (RRs) from non-LAC countries. Whether these RRs apply to LAC remains un- known. Methods: We pooled LAC cohorts. We estimated RRs per unit of exposure to body mass index (BMI), systolic blood pressure (SBP), fasting plasma glucose (FPG), total cholesterol (TC) and non-HDL cholesterol on fatal (31 cohorts, n = 168,287) and non-fatal (13 cohorts, n = 27,554) cardiovascular diseases, adjusting for regression dilution bias. We used these RRs and national data on mean risk factor levels to estimate the number of cardiovascular deaths attributable to non-optimal levels of each risk factor. Results: Our RRs for SBP, FPG and TC were like those observed in cohorts conducted in high-income countries; however, for BMI, our RRs were consistently smaller in people below 75 years of age. Across risk factors, we observed smaller RRs among older ages. Non-optimal SBP was responsible for the largest number of attributable cardiovascular deaths ranging from 38 per 10 0,0 0 0 women and 54 men in Peru, to 261 (Dominica, women) and 282 (Guyana, men). For non-HDL cholesterol, the lowest attributable rate was for women in Peru (21) and men in Guatemala (25), and the largest in men (158) and women (142) from Guyana. Interpretation: RRs for BMI from studies conducted in high-income countries may overestimate disease burden metrics in LAC; conversely, RRs for SBP, FPG and TC from LAC cohorts are similar to those esti- mated from cohorts in high-income countries