Effect of diacutaneous fibrolysis on the muscular properties of gastrocnemius muscle

Diacutaneous fibrolysis is a noninvasive technique that has been shown to be effective in the treatment of musculoskeletal disorders such as shoulder pain, lateral epicondylalgia, patellofemoral pain syndrome and carpal tunnel syndrome. However, while diacutaneous fibrolysis is applied to soft tissue, its effects on muscular properties are unknown. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the effects of diacutaneous fibrolysis on muscle properties as measured by tensiomyography and myotonometry in asymptomatic subjects. An analytical descriptive study was performed. A single session of diacutaneous fibrolysis on the gastrocnemius muscle was applied to one limb (treated limb group) and the other limb was the control (control limb group). Subjects were assessed with tensiomyography and myotonometry before treatment (T0), after treatment (T1) and 30 minutes later (T2). The primary outcomes were tensiomyography and myotonometry variables. The treated limb group showed a statistically significant increase (p<0.05) in tensiomyography parameters. A decrease in rigidity and increase in relaxation was also observed on myotonometry at T1, with some of the effects being maintained at T2. Rigidity and relaxation at T1 were statistically significant between groups (p<0.05). A single session of diacutaneous fibrolysis to the gastrocnemius muscle of asymptomatic subjects produced immediate changes in muscle properties. These changes were maintained 30 minutes after the application of the technique

Numerical simulations of conversion to Alfven waves in sunspots

We study the conversion of fast magneto-acoustic waves to Alfven waves by means of 2.5D numerical simulations in a sunspot-like magnetic configuration. A fast, essentially acoustic, wave of a given frequency and wave number is generated below the surface and propagates upward though the Alfven/acoustic equipartition layer where it splits into upgoing slow (acoustic) and fast (magnetic) waves. The fast wave quickly reflects off the steep Alfven speed gradient, but around and above this reflection height it partially converts to Alfven waves, depending on the local relative inclinations of the background magnetic field and the wavevector. To measure the efficiency of this conversion to Alfven waves we calculate acoustic and magnetic energy fluxes. The particular amplitude and phase relations between the magnetic field and velocity oscillations help us to demonstrate that the waves produced are indeed Alfven waves. We find that the conversion to Alfven waves is particularly important for strongly inclined fields like those existing in sunspot penumbrae. Equally important is the magnetic field orientation with respect to the vertical plane of wave propagation, which we refer to as "field azimuth". For field azimuth less than 90 degrees the generated Alfven waves continue upwards, but above 90 degrees downgoing Alfven waves are preferentially produced. This yields negative Alfven energy flux for azimuths between 90 and 180 degrees. Alfven energy fluxes may be comparable to or exceed acoustic fluxes, depending upon geometry, though computational exigencies limit their magnitude in our simulations.Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap

Pd-(L)1 inhibitors as monotherapy for the first-line treatment of non-small-cell lung cancer patients with high pd-l1 expression : A network meta-analysis

Altres ajuts: RocheProgrammed cell death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) has emerged as a potential biomarker for selec-tion of patients more likely to respond to immunotherapy and as a prognostic factor in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In this network meta-analysis, we aimed to evaluate the efficacy of first-line anti-PD-(L)1 monotherapy in advanced NSCLC patients with high PD-L1 expression (≥50%) compared to platinum-based chemotherapy. We also evaluated efficacy outcomes according to tumor mutational burden (TMB). To that end, we conducted a systematic review. Six clinical trials with 2111 patients were included. In head-to-head comparisons, immunotherapy showed a significant improvement in progression-free survival (PFS: HRpooled = 0.69, 95% CI: 0.52-0.90, p = 0.007), overall survival (OS: HRpooled = 0.69, 95% CI: 0.61-0.78; p < 0.001) and overall response rate (ORR) (Risk ratio (RR)pooled = 1.354, 95% CI: 1.04-1.762, p = 0.024). In the assessment of relative efficacy for PFS through indirect comparisons, pembrolizumab (results from KEYNOTE-024) ranked highest followed by cemiplimab and atezolizumab, with statistical significance determined for some of the drugs. In terms of OS, cemiplimab ranked highest followed by atezolizumab and pembrolizumab, although non-significant OS was determined for these drugs. In conclusion, PD-(L)1 inhibitor mon-otherapy improves efficacy outcomes in the first line setting of advanced NSCLC patients with high PD-L1 expression. Evaluations with longer follow up are still needed to determine the superiority of any specific drug

Residual Expression of the Reprogramming Factors Prevents Differentiation of iPSC Generated from Human Fibroblasts and Cord Blood CD34+ Progenitors

Human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC) have been generated from different tissues, with the age of the donor, tissue source and specific cell type influencing the reprogramming process. Reprogramming hematopoietic progenitors to hiPSC may provide a very useful cellular system for modelling blood diseases. We report the generation and complete characterization of hiPSCs from human neonatal fibroblasts and cord blood (CB)-derived CD34+ hematopoietic progenitors using a single polycistronic lentiviral vector containing an excisable cassette encoding the four reprogramming factors Oct4, Klf4, Sox2 and c-myc (OKSM). The ectopic expression of OKSM was fully silenced upon reprogramming in some hiPSC clones and was not reactivated upon differentiation, whereas other hiPSC clones failed to silence the transgene expression, independently of the cell type/tissue origin. When hiPSC were induced to differentiate towards hematopoietic and neural lineages those hiPSC which had silenced OKSM ectopic expression displayed good hematopoietic and early neuroectoderm differentiation potential. In contrast, those hiPSC which failed to switch off OKSM expression were unable to differentiate towards either lineage, suggesting that the residual expression of the reprogramming factors functions as a developmental brake impairing hiPSC differentiation. Successful adenovirus-based Cre-mediated excision of the provirus OKSM cassette in CB-derived CD34+ hiPSC with residual transgene expression resulted in transgene-free hiPSC clones with significantly improved differentiation capacity. Overall, our findings confirm that residual expression of reprogramming factors impairs hiPSC differentiation

Identifying multimorbidity profiles associated with COVID-19 severity in chronic patients using network analysis in the PRECOVID Study; 35181720

A major risk factor of COVID-19 severity is the patient''s health status at the time of the infection. Numerous studies focused on specific chronic diseases and identified conditions, mainly cardiovascular ones, associated with poor prognosis. However, chronic diseases tend to cluster into patterns, each with its particular repercussions on the clinical outcome of infected patients. Network analysis in our population revealed that not all cardiovascular patterns have the same risk of COVID-19 hospitalization or mortality and that this risk depends on the pattern of multimorbidity, besides age and sex. We evidenced that negative outcomes were strongly related to patterns in which diabetes and obesity stood out in older women and men, respectively. In younger adults, anxiety was another disease that increased the risk of severity, most notably when combined with menstrual disorders in women or atopic dermatitis in men. These results have relevant implications for organizational, preventive, and clinical actions to help meet the needs of COVID-19 patients. © 2022, The Author(s)

Science Requirement Document for the European Solar Telescope

The European Solar Telescope (EST)1 is a research infrastructure for solar physics. It is planned to be an on-axis solar telescope with an aperture of 4m and equipped with an innovative suite of spectro-polarimetric and imaging post-focus instrumentation. The EST project was initiated and is driven by EAST2, the European Association for Solar Telescopes. EAST was founded in 2006 as an association of 14 European countries. Today, as of December 2019, EAST consists of 26 European research institutes from 18 European countries. The Preliminary Design Phase of EST was accomplished between 2008 and 2011. During this phase, in 2010, the first version of the EST Science Requirement Document (SRD)was published. After EST became a project on the ESFRI3 roadmap 2016, the preparatory phase started. This phase is partially supported by EU funding through the PRE-EST H2020 project4. The goal of the preparatory phase is to accomplish a final design for the telescope and the legal governance structure of EST. A major milestone on this path is to revisit and update the Science Requirement Document (SRD). The EST Science Advisory Group (SAG) has been constituted by EAST and the Board of the PRE-EST4 EU project in November 2017 and has been charged with the task of providing with a final statement on the science requirements for EST. Based on the conceptual design, the SRD update takes into account recent technical and scientific developments, to ensure that EST provides significant advancement beyond the current state-of-the-art. The present update of the EST SRD has been developed and discussed during a series of EST SAG meetings: 1st telecon meeting on Nov 5th, 2017 2nd meeting in Freiburg, Nov 24, 2017 3rd telecon meeting, Dec 15, 2017 4th telecon meeting, March 26, 2018 5th meeting in Belfast, April 16 & 17, 2018 6th meeting in Naxos, June 16, 2018 7th telecon meeting, January 14, 2019 8th telecon meeting, October 11, 2019 9th telecon meeting, October 22, 2019 10th telecon meeting, December 3, 2019 The SRD develops the top-level science objectives of EST into individual science cases. Identifying critical science requirements is one of its main goals. Those requirements will define the capabilities of EST and the post-focus instrument suite. The technical requirements for the final design of EST will be derived from the SRD. The science cases presented in Part II (Sects. 1 to 8) are not intended to cover all the science questions to be addressed with EST, but rather to provide a precise overview of the capabilities that will make of EST a competitive state-of-the-art telescope to push the boundaries of our knowledge over the next few decades. The science cases contain detailed observing programmes specifying the type of observations needed to solve specific science problems. An eort is being made to define the parameters of the required observations as accurately as possible, taking into account both present capabilities and technological developments expected in the near future. The tables of the observing programmes corresponding to the science cases are compiled in Sect. 10. The EST science cases represent challenging observations that put strong constraints on the telescope and its instrument suite. Ultimately, they will be translated into Technical Requirement Document (TRD) leading to the final EST design to be implemented during the construction phase. The unique design advantages of the EST concept is presented in Section 11. The eect of the science cases on the EST design are discussed in Section 12 and summarized in Section 13.This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 739 50

Chronic diseases associated with increased likelihood of hospitalization and mortality in 68, 913 COVID-19 confirmed cases in Spain: A population-based cohort study

Background Clinical outcomes among COVID-19 patients vary greatly with age and underlying comorbidities. We aimed to determine the demographic and clinical factors, particularly baseline chronic conditions, associated with an increased risk of severity in COVID-19 patients from a population-based perspective and using data from electronic health records (EHR). Methods Retrospective, observational study in an open cohort analyzing all 68, 913 individuals (mean age 44.4 years, 53.2% women) with SARS-CoV-2 infection between 15 June and 19 December 2020 using exhaustive electronic health registries. Patients were followed for 30 days from inclusion or until the date of death within that period. We performed multivariate logistic regression to analyze the association between each chronic disease and severe infection, based on hospitalization and all-cause mortality. Results 5885 (8.5%) individuals showed severe infection and old age was the most influencing factor. Congestive heart failure (odds ratio -OR- men: 1.28, OR women: 1.39), diabetes (1.37, 1.24), chronic renal failure (1.31, 1.22) and obesity (1.21, 1.26) increased the likelihood of severe infection in both sexes. Chronic skin ulcers (1.32), acute cerebrovascular disease (1.34), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (1.21), urinary incontinence (1.17) and neoplasms (1.26) in men, and infertility (1.87), obstructive sleep apnea (1.43), hepatic steatosis (1.43), rheumatoid arthritis (1.39) and menstrual disorders (1.18) in women were also associated with more severe outcomes. Conclusions Age and specific cardiovascular and metabolic diseases increased the risk of severe SARSCoV-2 infections in men and women, whereas the effects of certain comorbidities are sex specific. Future studies in different settings are encouraged to analyze which profiles of chronic patients are at higher risk of poor prognosis and should therefore be the targets of prevention and shielding strategies. © 2021 Gimeno-Miguel et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

Baseline chronic comorbidity and mortality in laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases: Results from the PRECOVID study in Spain

We aimed to analyze baseline socio-demographic and clinical factors associated with an increased likelihood of mortality in men and women with coronavirus disease (COVID-19). We conducted a retrospective cohort study (PRECOVID Study) on all 4412 individuals with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 in Aragon, Spain, and followed them for at least 30 days from cohort entry. We described the socio-demographic and clinical characteristics of all patients of the cohort. Age-adjusted logistic regressions models were performed to analyze the likelihood of mortality based on demographic and clinical variables. All analyses were stratified by sex. Old age, specific diseases such as diabetes, acute myocardial infarction, or congestive heart failure, and dispensation of drugs like vasodilators, antipsychotics, and potassium-sparing agents were associated with an increased likelihood of mortality. Our findings suggest that specific comorbidities, mainly of cardiovascular nature, and medications at the time of infection could explain around one quarter of the mortality in COVID-19 disease, and that women and men probably share similar but not identical risk factors. Nonetheless, the great part of mortality seems to be explained by other patient-and/or health-system-related factors. More research is needed in this field to provide the necessary evidence for the development of early identification strategies for patients at higher risk of adverse outcomes

Science requirement document (SRD) for the European Solar Telescope (EST) (2nd edition, December 2019)

The European Solar Telescope (EST) is a research infrastructure for solar physics. It is planned to be an on-axis solar telescope with an aperture of 4 m and equipped with an innovative suite of spectro-polarimetric and imaging post-focus instrumentation. The EST project was initiated and is driven by EAST, the European Association for Solar Telescopes. EAST was founded in 2006 as an association of 14 European countries. Today, as of December 2019, EAST consists of 26 European research institutes from 18 European countries. The Preliminary Design Phase of EST was accomplished between 2008 and 2011. During this phase, in 2010, the first version of the EST Science Requirement Document (SRD) was published. After EST became a project on the ESFRI roadmap 2016, the preparatory phase started. The goal of the preparatory phase is to accomplish a final design for the telescope and the legal governance structure of EST. A major milestone on this path is to revisit and update the Science Requirement Document (SRD). The EST Science Advisory Group (SAG) has been constituted by EAST and the Board of the PRE-EST EU project in November 2017 and has been charged with the task of providing with a final statement on the science requirements for EST. Based on the conceptual design, the SRD update takes into account recent technical and scientific developments, to ensure that EST provides significant advancement beyond the current state-of-the-art. The present update of the EST SRD has been developed and discussed during a series of EST SAG meetings. The SRD develops the top-level science objectives of EST into individual science cases. Identifying critical science requirements is one of its main goals. Those requirements will define the capabilities of EST and the post-focus instrument suite. The technical requirements for the final design of EST will be derived from the SRD