La falta d’expressió de MICA en pacients amb càncer de bufeta significa un pitjor pronòstic

Antecedents: el càncer de bufeta urinària i de pulmó es troben entre els deu tipus de càncer més comuns en ambdós sexes. El receptor NKG2D i un dels seus lligants, MICA, s’associen amb el tabaquisme i la susceptibilitat de patir malaltia pulmonar obstructiva crònica i càncer de pulmó. Objectiu: esbrinar si el sistema NKG2D-MICA s’associa amb altres càncers epitelials relacionats amb l’hàbit de fumar com el càncer de bufeta. Disseny, Escenari i Participants: 70 casos primaris de càncer de bufeta no múscul invasiu van ser examinats per detectar l’expressió de MICA i CD8 +, CD4 + i la infiltració de cèl·lules NK. La majoria dels pacients (n = 55, 78,6%) eren fumadors actuals o anteriors. Metodologia: la tecnologia de microarrays (TMA) va ser triada per avaluar MICA i l’infiltració tumoral de limfòcits en les mostres de càncer de bufeta. Es varen utilitzar Curves de Kaplan-Meier i l’anàlisi univariant de Cox per avaluar la recaiguda, mortalitat total per càncer i la mortalitat específica per càncer de bufeta. Resultats i limitacions: MICA es va expressar en la majoria dels espècimens de càncer examinats (és a dir, 70%). La recaiguda del càncer de bufeta no es va associar amb l’estat d’expressió de MICA (log rank p = 0,1123). No obstant això, ha existit una associació significativa entre l’expressió de MICA i l’alta mortalitat per càncer de bufeta (HR = 0,25; IC95% = 0,06-0,97). Limfòcits CD4 + i CD8 + es van trobar a la majoria (64%) de les mostres de tumors infiltrants. Les cèl·lules que expressen el receptor NKG2D es van trobar només en el 3% de les mostres. No hi havia cap funció lineal entre les cèl·lules NKG2D +, el nombre o proporció de cèl·lules CD4 + i CD8 + TIL. Conclusions: MICA s’expressa només en una proporció significativa de carcinomes de bufeta. L’expressió de MICA s’associa amb avantatges significatius en la supervivència davant el càncer de bufeta. El sistema NKG2D-MICABackground: Bladder and lung cancer are among the ten most common cancers in both genders. The NKG2D receptor and one of its ligands, MICA, are associated with smoking and susceptibility to both chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and lung cancer. Objective: We hypothesized that NKG2D-MICA system was associated with other smok- ing-related epithelial cancers such as bladder cancer. Design, Setting, and Participants: 70 cases of primary non-muscle invasive bladder cancer were screened for the MICA expression and CD8+, CD4+ and NK cell infiltration. Most patients (n = 55, 78.6%) were current or former smokers. Measurements: Tissue microarray (TMA) technology was chosen to evaluate MICA and tumor infiltrating lymphocytes in samples with confirmed bladder cancer. Kaplan- Meier curves and univariate Cox analysis was used to assess relapse, all-cancer mortality and specific bladder cancer mortality. Results and Limitations: MICA was expressed in most cancer specimens examined (i.e., 70%). Relapse of bladder cancer was not associated with the status of MICA expression (log rank p = 0.1123). Nevertheless, a signifi- cant association existed between high MICA expression and bladder cancer mortality (HR = 0.25; CI95% = 0.06 - 0.97). Tumor infiltrating CD4+ and CD8+ lymphocytes were found in the majority (64%) of samples. Cells expressing the NKG2D receptor were found in only 3% of the samples. There was no linear function between NKG2D+ cells and number or ratio of CD4+ and CD8+ TIL. Conclusions: MICA is expressed in a significant proportion of bladder carci- nomas. MICA expression associates with significant survival advantages in the face of both all-cancer and bladder can- cer. The NKG2D-MICA system could represent a common mechanism involved in the immunopathology and natural history of bladder neoplasms

Aedes albopictus diversity and relationships in south-western Europe and Brazil by rDNA/mtDNA and phenotypic analyses: ITS-2, a useful marker for spread studies

Background: Aedes albopictus is a very invasive mosquito, which has recently colonized tropical and temperate regions worldwide. Of concern is its role in the spread of emerging or re-emerging mosquito-borne diseases. Ae. albopictus from south-western Europe and Brazil were studied to infer genetic and phenetic diversity at intra-individual, intra-population and inter-population levels, and to analyse its spread. Methods: Genotyping was made by rDNA 5.8S-ITS-2 and mtDNA cox1 sequencing to assess haplotype and nucleotide diversity, genetic distances and phylogenetic networks. Male and female phenotyping included combined landmark-and outlined-based geometric morphometrics of wing size and shape. Results: Specimens from seven populations from Spain, France and Brazil provided 12 cox1 and 162 5.8S-ITS-2 haplotypes, with great genetic variability difference between both markers (0.9% vs 31.2%). Five cox1 haplotypes were shared with other countries, mainly Italy, USA and China, but none was shared between Europe and Brazil. The 5.8S-ITS-2 showed 2–7 intra-individual (mean 4.7) and 16–34 intra-/inter-population haplotypes (24.7), including haplotypes shared between Spain, France and Brazil. A 4.3% of ITS-2 haplotypes were shared, mainly with Italy, USA and Thailand, evidencing worldwide spread and introductions from areas where recent outbreaks of Ae. albopictus-transmitted pathogens occurred. Wing size showed sex differences. Wing shape distinguished between Brazilian and European specimens. Both genetic and morphometric markers showed differences between insular Spain and continental Spain, France and Brazil. Conclusions: ITS-2 proves to be a useful marker to assess Ae. albopictus spread, providing pronouncedly more information than cox1, including intra-individual, intra-population and inter-population levels, furnishing a complete overview of the evolutionary exchanges followed by this mosquito. Wing morphometry proves to be a useful phenotyping marker, allowing to distinguish different populations at the level of both male and female specimens. Results indicate the need for periodic surveillance monitorings to verify that no Ae. albopictus with high virus transmission capacity is introduced into Europe. Graphic Abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.] © 2021, The Author(s)

The Fourteenth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: First Spectroscopic Data from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey and from the second phase of the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment

The fourth generation of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-IV) has been in operation since July 2014. This paper describes the second data release from this phase, and the fourteenth from SDSS overall (making this, Data Release Fourteen or DR14). This release makes public data taken by SDSS-IV in its first two years of operation (July 2014-2016). Like all previous SDSS releases, DR14 is cumulative, including the most recent reductions and calibrations of all data taken by SDSS since the first phase began operations in 2000. New in DR14 is the first public release of data from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS); the first data from the second phase of the Apache Point Observatory (APO) Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE-2), including stellar parameter estimates from an innovative data driven machine learning algorithm known as "The Cannon"; and almost twice as many data cubes from the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at APO (MaNGA) survey as were in the previous release (N = 2812 in total). This paper describes the location and format of the publicly available data from SDSS-IV surveys. We provide references to the important technical papers describing how these data have been taken (both targeting and observation details) and processed for scientific use. The SDSS website (www.sdss.org) has been updated for this release, and provides links to data downloads, as well as tutorials and examples of data use. SDSS-IV is planning to continue to collect astronomical data until 2020, and will be followed by SDSS-V.Comment: SDSS-IV collaboration alphabetical author data release paper. DR14 happened on 31st July 2017. 19 pages, 5 figures. Accepted by ApJS on 28th Nov 2017 (this is the "post-print" and "post-proofs" version; minor corrections only from v1, and most of errors found in proofs corrected

Percepção do enfermeiro sobre promoção da saúde na Unidade de Terapia Intensiva

Objetivou-se relatar a percepção dos enfermeiros sobre a promoção da saúde, descrever ações de promoção da saúde e identificar dificuldades na realização de atividades de promoção da saúde na Unidade de Terapia Intensiva (UTI). Trata-se de um estudo descritivo, exploratório, qualitativo realizado com 31 enfermeiros de duas UTIs adulto e uma UTI neonatal de hospital de referência em Fortaleza, Ceará, Brasil, entre julho e agosto de 2009, mediante questionário. Os dados foram analisados e categorizados a partir da análise de conteúdo de Bardin. Emergiram as seguintes categorias e subcategorias: Conceito de promoção da saúde: visão biomédica x visão holística de promoção da saúde; Ações de promoção da saúde; Comunicação e apoio emocional ao paciente/família; Promoção da saúde na UTI; Promoção da saúde com enfoque na educação em saúde; e Dificuldades para o desenvolvimento de ações de promoção da saúde

X chromosome inactivation does not necessarily determine the severity of the phenotype in Rett syndrome patients

Rett syndrome (RTT) is a severe neurological disorder usually caused by mutations in the MECP2 gene. Since the MECP2 gene is located on the X chromosome, X chromosome inactivation (XCI) could play a role in the wide range of phenotypic variation of RTT patients; however, classical methylation-based protocols to evaluate XCI could not determine whether the preferentially inactivated X chromosome carried the mutant or the wild-type allele. Therefore, we developed an allele-specific methylation-based assay to evaluate methylation at the loci of several recurrent MECP2 mutations. We analyzed the XCI patterns in the blood of 174 RTT patients, but we did not find a clear correlation between XCI and the clinical presentation. We also compared XCI in blood and brain cortex samples of two patients and found differences between XCI patterns in these tissues. However, RTT mainly being a neurological disease complicates the establishment of a correlation between the XCI in blood and the clinical presentation of the patients. Furthermore, we analyzed MECP2 transcript levels and found differences from the expected levels according to XCI. Many factors other than XCI could affect the RTT phenotype, which in combination could influence the clinical presentation of RTT patients to a greater extent than slight variations in the XCI pattern