Development of an invasively monitored porcine model of acetaminophen-induced acute liver failure

Background: The development of effective therapies for acute liver failure (ALF) is limited by our knowledge of the pathophysiology of this condition, and the lack of suitable large animal models of acetaminophen toxicity. Our aim was to develop a reproducible invasively-monitored porcine model of acetaminophen-induced ALF. Method: 35kg pigs were maintained under general anaesthesia and invasively monitored. Control pigs received a saline infusion, whereas ALF pigs received acetaminophen intravenously for 12 hours to maintain blood concentrations between 200-300 mg/l. Animals surviving 28 hours were euthanased. Results: Cytochrome p450 levels in phenobarbital pre-treated animals were significantly higher than non pre-treated animals (300 vs 100 pmol/mg protein). Control pigs (n=4) survived 28-hour anaesthesia without incident. Of nine pigs that received acetaminophen, four survived 20 hours and two survived 28 hours. Injured animals developed hypotension (mean arterial pressure; 40.8+/-5.9 vs 59+/-2.0 mmHg), increased cardiac output (7.26+/-1.86 vs 3.30+/-0.40 l/min) and decreased systemic vascular resistance (8.48+/-2.75 vs 16.2+/-1.76 mPa/s/m3). Dyspnoea developed as liver injury progressed and the increased pulmonary vascular resistance (636+/-95 vs 301+/-26.9 mPa/s/m3) observed may reflect the development of respiratory distress syndrome. Liver damage was confirmed by deterioration in pH (7.23+/-0.05 vs 7.45+/-0.02) and prothrombin time (36+/-2 vs 8.9+/-0.3 seconds) compared with controls. Factor V and VII levels were reduced to 9.3 and 15.5% of starting values in injured animals. A marked increase in serum AST (471.5+/-210 vs 42+/-8.14) coincided with a marked reduction in serum albumin (11.5+/-1.71 vs 25+/-1 g/dL) in injured animals. Animals displayed evidence of renal impairment; mean creatinine levels 280.2+/-36.5 vs 131.6+/-9.33 mumol/l. Liver histology revealed evidence of severe centrilobular necrosis with coagulative necrosis. Marked renal tubular necrosis was also seen. Methaemoglobin levels did not rise >5%. Intracranial hypertension was not seen (ICP monitoring), but there was biochemical evidence of encephalopathy by the reduction of Fischer's ratio from 5.6 +/- 1.1 to 0.45 +/- 0.06. Conclusion: We have developed a reproducible large animal model of acetaminophen-induced liver failure, which allows in-depth investigation of the pathophysiological basis of this condition. Furthermore, this represents an important large animal model for testing artificial liver support systems

Wikipedia as an encyclopaedia of life

In his 2003 essay E O Wilson outlined his vision for an “encyclopaedia of life” comprising “an electronic page for each species of organism on Earth”, each page containing “the scientific name of the species, a pictorial or genomic presentation of the primary type specimen on which its name is based, and a summary of its diagnostic traits.” Although the “quiet revolution” in biodiversity informatics has generated numerous online resources, including some directly inspired by Wilson's essay (e.g., "http://ispecies.org":http://ispecies.org, "http://www.eol.org":http://www.eol.org), we are still some way from the goal of having available online all relevant information about a species, such as its taxonomy, evolutionary history, genomics, morphology, ecology, and behaviour. While the biodiversity community has been developing a plethora of databases, some with overlapping goals and duplicated content, Wikipedia has been slowly growing to the point where it now has over 100,000 pages on biological taxa. My goal in this essay is to explore the idea that, largely independent of the efforts of biodiversity informatics and well-funded international efforts, Wikipedia ("http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page) has emerged as potentially the best platform for fulfilling E O Wilson’s vision

2015 Update on Acute Adverse Reactions to Gadolinium based Contrast Agents in Cardiovascular MR. Large Multi-National and Multi-Ethnical Population Experience With 37788 Patients From the EuroCMR Registry

Objectives: Specifically we aim to demonstrate that the results of our earlier safety data hold true in this much larger multi-national and multi-ethnical population. Background: We sought to re-evaluate the frequency, manifestations, and severity of acute adverse reactions associated with administration of several gadolinium- based contrast agents during routine CMR on a European level. Methods: Multi-centre, multi-national, and multi-ethnical registry with consecutive enrolment of patients in 57 European centres. Results: During the current observation 37788 doses of Gadolinium based contrast agent were administered to 37788 patients. The mean dose was 24.7 ml (range 5–80 ml), which is equivalent to 0.123 mmol/kg (range 0.01 - 0.3 mmol/kg). Forty-five acute adverse reactions due to contrast administration occurred (0.12 %). Most reactions were classified as mild (43 of 45) according to the American College of Radiology definition. The most frequent complaints following contrast administration were rashes and hives (15 of 45), followed by nausea (10 of 45) and flushes (10 of 45). The event rate ranged from 0.05 % (linear non-ionic agent gadodiamide) to 0.42 % (linear ionic agent gadobenate dimeglumine). Interestingly, we also found different event rates between the three main indications for CMR ranging from 0.05 % (risk stratification in suspected CAD) to 0.22 % (viability in known CAD). Conclusions: The current data indicate that the results of the earlier safety data hold true in this much larger multi-national and multi-ethnical population. Thus, the “off-label” use of Gadolinium based contrast in cardiovascular MR should be regarded as safe concerning the frequency, manifestation and severity of acute events

Restrictions and extensions of semibounded operators

We study restriction and extension theory for semibounded Hermitian operators in the Hardy space of analytic functions on the disk D. Starting with the operator zd/dz, we show that, for every choice of a closed subset F in T=bd(D) of measure zero, there is a densely defined Hermitian restriction of zd/dz corresponding to boundary functions vanishing on F. For every such restriction operator, we classify all its selfadjoint extension, and for each we present a complete spectral picture. We prove that different sets F with the same cardinality can lead to quite different boundary-value problems, inequivalent selfadjoint extension operators, and quite different spectral configurations. As a tool in our analysis, we prove that the von Neumann deficiency spaces, for a fixed set F, have a natural presentation as reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces, with a Hurwitz zeta-function, restricted to FxF, as reproducing kernel.Comment: 63 pages, 11 figure

Murine model for Fusarium oxysporum invasive fusariosis reveals organ-specific structures for dissemination and long-term persistence

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

A comparison between padding and bath exhaustion to apply microcapsules onto cotton

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10570-015-0600-8[EN] The use of Microcapsules has increased in the textile sector. They have been applied as a possible means of introducing new products to textiles, such as insect repellents, antibiotics, skin moisturizers, etc. Microencapsulation technology has improved the fragrance durability on fabrics. Historically, the durability of the fragrance was poor, especially once the fabric had been washed. Microcapsules have been used in textiles for many years, however their previous characterization, adhesion behaviour and permanence on the fabrics are not well known. Nowadays the majority of textile industries are not able to characterize commercial products, or to study the process of adhering the microcapsule to the fibre's surface nor their functionality. Thus, the characterization of microencapsulated fabrics with different active core and the knowledge of the various application processes becomes a major challenge in the field of microcapsules use. There are various industrial processes to apply microcapsules, but determining optimal amounts of products, temperature, conditions and other process variables are an important challenge for the textile sector in order to achieve the highest depositions and retention of microcapsules. This work is focused on determining and quantifying presence fragrance microcapsules when applied onto fabrics by padding and by bath exhaustion and determining which method is the most effective. Consequently, diverse analysis techniques such as microscopy (SEM), spectroscopy FTIR and XPS have been used. We concluded that proposed techniques seem to be useful to compare fabrics treated with microcapsules. Results demonstrate that padding application gives better yields than bath exhaustion.Bonet Aracil, MA.; Monllor Pérez, P.; Capablanca Francés, L.; Gisbert Paya, J.; Díaz-García, P.; Montava Seguí, IJ. (2015). A comparison between padding and bath exhaustion to apply microcapsules onto cotton. Cellulose. 22(3):2117-2127. doi:10.1007/s10570-015-0600-8S21172127223Bonet M, Quijada C, Muñoz S, Cases F (2004) Characterization of ethylcellulose with different degrees of substitution (DS): a diffuse-reflectance infrared study. Can J Anal Sci Spectrosc 49(4):234–239Bonet M, Capablanca L, Monllor P, Díaz P, Montava I (2012) Studying bath exhaust as a method to apply microcapsules on fabrics. J Text Inst 103(6):629–635Buchert J, Pere LS, Johanson JM, Campbell J (2001) Analysis of surface chemistry of linen and cotton fabrics. Text Res J 71:626–629Fras L, Johanson LS, Stenius P, Laine P, Stana-Kleinscheck K, Ribitsch V (2005) Analysis of theoxidation of cellulosefibresbytitration and XPS. Colloids Surf A 260:101–108Gisbert G, Ibañez F, Bonet M, Monllor P, Díaz P, Montava I (2009) Increasing hydration of the epidermis by microcapsules in sterilized products. J Appl Polym Sci 113(4):2282–2286Hong K, Park S (1999) Melamine resin microcapsules containing fragant oil: synthesis and characterization. J Appl Polym Sci 58:128–131Jing HU, Zuobing X, Rujun Z, Shuangshuang M, Mingxi W, Zhen L (2011) Properties of aroma sustained-release cotton fabric with rose fragrance nanocapsule. Chin J Chem Eng 19(3):523–528Kokot S, Czarnik-Matusewicz C, Ozaki Y (2002) Two- dimensional correlation spectroscopy and principal component analysis studies of temperature-dependent IR spectra of cotton-cellulose. Biopolymers 67:456–469Kondo T, Sawatari C, Manley RJ, Gray DG (1994) Characterization of hydrogen bonding in cellulose synthetic polymer blend systems with regioselectively substituted methylcellulose. Macromolecules 27(1):210–215Miró Specos MM, Escobar G, Marino P, Puggia C, Defain Tesoriero MV, Hermida L (2010) Aroma finishing of cotton fabrics by means of microencapsulation techniques. J Ind Text 40(1):13–32Monllor P, Bonet M, Cases F (2007) Characterization of the behaviour of flavour microcapsules in cotton fabrics. Eur Polym J 43:2481–2490Monllor P, Bonet M, Sánchez L, Cases F (2009) Thermal behaviour of microencapsulated flavours when applied to cellulose fabrics. Text Res J 79(4):365–380Monllor P, Capablanca L, Gisbert J, Díaz P, Bonet M (2010) Improvement of microcapsule adhesion to fabrics. Text Res J 80(7):631–635Nelson G (1991) Microencapsulates in textile coloration and finishing. Rev Prog Color Relat Top 21:72–85Nelson G (2001) Microencapsulation in textile finishing. Rev Prog Color Relat Top 321:57–64Nelson G (2002) Application of microencapsulation in textiles. Int J Pharm 242:55–62Rodrigues SN, Fernandes I, Martins IM, Mata VG, Barreiro F, Rodrigues AE (2008) Microencapsulation of limonene for textiles application. Ind Eng Chem Res 47:4142–4147Rodrigues SN, Martins, IM, Fernades IP, Gomes PB, Mata VG, Barreiro MF, Rodrigues AE (2009) Scentfashion®: microencapsulated perfumes for textile application. Chem Eng J 149(1–3):463–472. ISSN:1385-8947Sócrates G (1997) In: Infrared characteristic group frequencies. Tables and charts, 2nd ednTopalovic T, Nierstrasz VA, Bautista L, Jocic D, Navarro A, Warmoeskerken MMCG (2007) XPS and contact angle study of cotton surface oxidation by catalytic bleaching. Colloids Surf A 296:76–85Wilson RC, Pfhol WF (2000) Study of crosslinking reactions of melamine/formaldehyde resin with hydroxyl functional polyester by generalized 2-D infrared spectroscopy. Vib Spectrosc 23:13–22Zhang H, Wang X (2009) Fabrication and performances of microencapsulated phase change materials based on n-octadecane core and resorcinol-modified melamine-formaldehyde shell. Colloids Surf A 332:129–13

Logarithmic correction to BH entropy as Noether charge

We consider the role of the type-A trace anomaly in static black hole solutions to semiclassical Einstein equation in four dimensions. Via Wald's Noether charge formalism, we compute the contribution to the entropy coming from the anomaly induced effective action and unveil a logarithmic correction to the Bekenstein-Hawking area law. The corrected entropy is given by a seemingly universal formula involving the coefficient of the type-A trace anomaly, the Euler characteristic of the horizon and the value at the horizon of the solution to the uniformization problem for Q-curvature. Two instances are examined in detail: Schwarzschild and a four-dimensional massless topological black hole. We also find agreement with the logarithmic correction due to one-loop contribution of conformal fields in the Schwarzschild background.Comment: 14 pages, JHEP styl