1,905 research outputs found

    Comparative Sorption of Methylene Blue onto Hydrophobic Clays

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    Chemical modifications of clay to remove methylene blue (MB) from aqueous solutions at room temperature were compared. Natural bentonite (NC) was modified by cation exchange with hexadecyltrimethylammonium chloride (HC), bencyltriethylammonium chloride (BC), and tetramethylammonium chloride (TC) to reverse the surface polarity of the hydrophilic bentonite. The adsorption of MB was studied and fitted by the adsorption theories of Langmuir, Freundlich, Dubinin-Radushkevich, and Temkin. Equilibrium parameters were calculated, indicating that chemical modification did not improve the adsorption, due to the electrostatic adsorption mechanism. Specific surface area was determined, reporting the following trend: NC \u3e TC \u3e BC \u3e HC. Isotherms show that TC is the best modified clay for the adsorption of MB with a capacity of 217 mg/g. Adsorbents were characterized by SEM and the determination of their point zero charge, indicating a charge reversal at pH 9.5 and a heterogeneous surface that is optimum for the adsorption of molecules and ions onto their surfaces

    Gut-Brain Axis: Role of Microbiota in Parkinson’s Disease and Multiple Sclerosis

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    It has recently been discovered that the digestive tract is lined with about 100 million nerve cells; the digestive tract has been baptized, metaphorically speaking, as “the second brain,” which contains a multitude of neurotransmitters, viruses, and bacteria that help regulate our emotional state. This second brain, known as the enteric nervous system, is a unique anatomical unit that extends from the esophagus to the anus. Like the nervous system, it produces a whole series of psychoactive substances, such as serotonin, dopamine, and opioids for pain, and synthesizes benzodiazepines. In it, we find the microbiota: a set of microorganisms (viruses and bacteria). Together with the brain, the microbiota directly influences mood, character, or sleep. Knowledge about the possible relationship of the microbiota with frequent neurological diseases is still just beginning. Recently, possible changes in the microbiota have been linked to the onset of Parkinson’s disease (PD). Also, today, we know that there are differences between the microbiota of healthy people and people with multiple sclerosis and that these differences have also been related to the disease and its evolution

    On Modular Invariance and 3D Gravitational Instantons

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    We study the modular transformation properties of Euclidean solutions of 3D gravity whose asymptotic geometry has the topology of a torus. These solutions represent saddle points of the grand canonical partition function with an important example being the BTZ black hole, and their properties under modular transformations are inherited from the boundary conformal field theory encoding the asymptotic dynamics. Within the Chern Simons formulation, classical solutions are characterised by specific holonomies describing the wrapping of the gauge field around cycles of the torus. We find that provided these holonomies transform in an appropriate manner, there exists an associated modular invariant grand canonical partition function and that the spectrum of saddle points naturally includes a thermal bath in AdS3AdS_3 as discussed by Maldacena and Strominger. Indeed, certain modular transformations can naturally be described within classical bulk dynamics as mapping between different foliations with a "time" coordinate along different cycles of the asymptotic torus.Comment: 14 pages, RevTeX, typos corrected, to appear in Phys. Rev.

    Medial compartment disease of the canine elbow. Evaluation of dog ́s owners satisfaction undergoing proximal abducting ulnar osteotomy. Preliminary study

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    En este estudio se analiza, de forma retrospectiva, el grado de satisfacción de los propietarios de perros con enfermedad del compartimento medial de codo (ECM) sometidos a artroscopia de codo y una osteotomía de abducción proximal de cúbito (PAUL). Se recopiló la información de los pacientes intervenidos con un periodo de evolución mayor o igual a 4 meses mediante cuestionario telefónico a los propietarios. Se concluye que la “PAUL” es una técnica que, en el tratamiento de la enfermedad de compartimento medial de codo, logra un grado de satisfacción excelente (10/10) en el 81,8 % de los casos evaluados, con una gran aceptación por parte del propietario.This study analyses retrospectively the degree of satisfaction of owners of dogs with medial compartment disease undergoing elbow arthroscopy and Proximal Abducting Ulnar Osteotomy (PAUL). Data of the patients undergoing surgery after an evolution period of at least 4 months were collected through telephone calls. It is concluded that PAUL is a new technique for treating medial compartment elbow disease that achieves an excellent degree of satisfaction (10/10) of the owner in 81.8% of the evaluated cases, with a great acceptance by the owner. However, an increased number of cases with a longer evolution period are needed to reach a definitive conclusion.Veterinari

    Analytic structure factors and pair-correlation functions for the unpolarized homogeneous electron gas

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    We propose a simple and accurate model for the electron static structure factors (and corresponding pair-correlation functions) of the 3D unpolarized homogeneous electron gas. Our spin-resolved pair-correlation function is built up with a combination of analytic constraints and fitting procedures to quantum Monte Carlo data, and, in comparison to previous attempts (i) fulfills more known integral and differential properties of the exact pair-correlation function, (ii) is analytic both in real and in reciprocal space, and (iii) accurately interpolates the newest, extensive diffusion-Monte Carlo data of Ortiz, Harris and Ballone [Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 5317 (1999)]. This can be of interest for the study of electron correlations of real materials and for the construction of new exchange and correlation energy density functionals.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

    An alternative CYB5A transcript is expressed in aneuploid ALL and enriched in relapse

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    Background: B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (BCP-ALL) is a genetically heterogenous malignancy with poor prognosis in relapsed adult patients. The genetic basis for relapse in aneuploid subtypes such as near haploid (NH) and high hyperdiploid (HeH) BCP-ALL is only poorly understood. Pathogenic genetic alterations remain to be identified. To this end, we investigated the dynamics of genetic alterations in a matched initial diagnosis-relapse (ID-REL) BCP-ALL cohort. Here, we firstly report the identification of the novel genetic alteration CYB5Aalt, an alternative transcript of CYB5A, in two independent cohorts. Methods: We identified CYB5alt in the RNAseq-analysis of a matched ID-REL BCP-ALL cohort with 50 patients and quantified its expression in various molecular BCP-ALL subtypes. Findings were validated in an independent cohort of 140 first diagnosis samples from adult BCP-ALL patients. Derived from patient material, the alternative open reading frame of CYB5Aalt was cloned (pCYB5Aalt) and pCYB5Aalt or the empty vector were stably overexpressed in NALM-6 cells. RNA sequencing was performed of pCYB5Aalt clones and empty vector controls followed by differential expression analysis, gene set enrichment analysis and complementing cell death and viability assays to determine functional implications of CYB5Aalt. Results: RNAseq data analysis revealed non-canonical exon usage of CYB5Aalt starting from a previously undescribed transcription start site. CYB5Aalt expression was increased in relapsed BCP-ALL and its occurrence was specific towards the shared gene expression cluster of NH and HeH BCP-ALL in independent cohorts. Overexpression of pCYB5Aalt in NALM-6 cells induced a distinct transcriptional program compared to empty vector controls with downregulation of pathways related to reported functions of CYB5A wildtype. Interestingly, CYB5A wildtype expression was decreased in CYB5Aalt samples in silico and in vitro. Additionally, pCYB5Aalt NALM-6 elicited a more resistant drug response. Conclusions: Across all age groups, CYB5Aalt was the most frequent secondary genetic event in relapsed NH and HeH BCP-ALL. In addition to its high subgroup specificity, CYB5Aalt is a novel candidate to be potentially implicated in therapy resistance in NH and HeH BCP-ALL. This is underlined by overexpressing CYB5Aalt providing first evidence for a functional role in BCL2-mediated apoptosis

    Analysis of TNFAIP3, a feedback inhibitor of nuclear factor-κB and the neighbor intergenic 6q23 region in rheumatoid arthritis susceptibility

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    Introduction Genome-wide association studies of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have identified an association of the disease with a 6q23 region devoid of genes. TNFAIP3, an RA candidate gene, flanks this region, and polymorphisms in both the TNFAIP3 gene and the intergenic region are associated with systemic lupus erythematosus. We hypothesized that there is a similar association with RA, including polymorphisms in TNFAIP3 and the intergenic region. Methods To test this hypothesis, we selected tag-single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in both loci. They were analyzed in 1,651 patients with RA and 1,619 control individuals of Spanish ancestry. Results Weak evidence of association was found both in the 6q23 intergenic region and in the TNFAIP3 locus. The rs582757 SNP and a common haplotype in the TNFAIP3 locus exhibited association with RA. In the intergenic region, two SNPs were associated, namely rs609438 and rs13207033. The latter was only associated in patients with anti-citrullinated peptide antibodies. Overall, statistical association was best explained by the interdependent contribution of SNPs from the two loci TNFAIP3 and the 6q23 intergenic region. Conclusions Our data are consistent with the hypothesis that several RA genetic factors exist in the 6q23 region, including polymorphisms in the TNFAIP3 gene, like that previously described for systemic lupus erythematosus
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