Neutron Scattering as a Powerful Tool to Investigate Magnetic Shape Memory Alloys: A Review

Magnetic shape memory alloys (MSMAs) are an interesting class of smart materials characterized by undergoing macroscopic deformations upon the application of a pertinent stimulus: temperature, stress and/or external magnetic fields. Since the deformation is rapid and contactless, these materials are being extensively investigated for a plethora of applications, such as sensors and actuators for the medical, automotive and space industries, energy harvesting and damping devices, among others. These materials also exhibit a giant magnetocaloric effect, whereby they are very promising for magnetic refrigeration. The applications in which they can be used are extremely dependent on the material properties, which are, in turn, greatly conditioned by the structure, atomic ordering and magnetism of a material. Particularly, exploring the material structure is essential in order to push forward the current application limitations of the MSMAs. Among the wide range of available characterization tools, neutron scattering techniques stand out in acquiring advanced knowledge about the structure and magnetism of these alloys. Throughout this manuscript, a comprehensive review about the characterization of MSMAs using neutron techniques is presented. Several elastic neutron scattering techniques will be explained and exemplified, covering neutron imaging techniques—such as radiography, tomography and texture diffractometry; diffraction techniques—magnetic (polarized neutron) diffraction, powder neutron diffraction and single crystal neutron diffraction, reflectometry and small angle neutron scattering. This will be complemented with a few examples where inelastic neutron scattering has been employed to obtain information about the phonon dispersion in MSMAs.This work has been carried out with the financial support of the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (project RTI2018-094683-B-C53-54) and Basque Government Department of Education (project IT1245-19). N.A.R.-L. wants to thank the Basque Government (Department of Education) for providing funding under the specific investigation PFPI grant

Fatal outcome in classic Kaposi's sarcoma

First described in 1872, Kaposi's sarcoma is defined as a rare multifocal tumor that originates in the endothelial cells and presents with cutaneous and extracutaneous manifestations. The classic form is most common in elderly men and progression is slow. This tumor responds well to chemotherapy and radiotherapy. This report describes a classic case of Kaposi's sarcoma in a woman with skin and visceral manifestations in whom the disease rapidly progressed to a fatal outcome.Descrito em 1872, o sarcoma de Kaposi é neoplasia multicêntrica rara originária de células endoteliais com manifestação cutânea e extracutânea. A forma clássica é muito mais frequente em homens idosos, com evolução prolongada e boa resposta a quimioterapia e radioterapia. Apresentaremos um caso de sarcoma de Kaposi clássico com comprometimento cutâneo e visceral em paciente do sexo feminino com rápida evolução fatal.Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP)UNIFESPSciEL

Deferral of assessment of pulmonary embolism

We evaluated a simplified algorithm for safely postponing diagnostic imaging for pulmonary embolism (PE). At the index visit, patients were identified as being at high or low risk of PE; the former received full dosage low molecular weight heparin while the latter were left untreated until performance of diagnostic imaging (max 72 hours). During this period, no thromboembolic events occurred in low-risk patients (0/211, 0.% [upper 95% CI 0.9%]); only one event occurred in those at high-risk (1/125, 0.8% [upper 95% CI, 1.2]). Our study demonstrates that diagnostic imaging for PE can be safely deferred for up to 3 days

SYMBIOmatics: Synergies in Medical Informatics and Bioinformatics – exploring current scientific literature for emerging topics

Background: The SYMBIOmatics Specific Support Action (SSA) is "an information gathering and dissemination activity" that seeks "to identify synergies between the bioinformatics and the medical informatics" domain to improve collaborative progress between both domains (ref. to http://www.symbiomatics.org). As part of the project experts in both research fields will be identified and approached through a survey. To provide input to the survey, the scientific literature was analysed to extract topics relevant to both medical informatics and bioinformatics. Results: This paper presents results ofa systematic analysis of the scientific literature from medical informatics research and bioinformatics research. In the analysis pairs of words (bigrams) from the leading bioinformatics and medical informatics journals have been used as indication of existing and emerging technologies and topics over the period 2000-2005 ("recent") and 1990-1990 ("past"). We identified emerging topics that were equally important to bioinformatics and medical informatics in recent years such as microarray experiments, ontologies, open source, text mining and support vector machines. Emerging topics that evolved only in bioinformatics were system biology, protein interaction networks and statistical methods for microarray analyses, whereas emerging topics in medical informatics were grid technology and tissue microarrays. Conclusion: We conclude that although both fields have their own specific domains of interest, they share common technological developments that tend to be initiated by new developments in biotechnology and computer science

The Changing Landscape for Stroke\ua0Prevention in AF: Findings From the GLORIA-AF Registry Phase 2

Background GLORIA-AF (Global Registry on Long-Term Oral Antithrombotic Treatment in Patients with Atrial Fibrillation) is a prospective, global registry program describing antithrombotic treatment patterns in patients with newly diagnosed nonvalvular atrial fibrillation at risk of stroke. Phase 2 began when dabigatran, the first non\u2013vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulant (NOAC), became available. Objectives This study sought to describe phase 2 baseline data and compare these with the pre-NOAC era collected during phase 1. Methods During phase 2, 15,641 consenting patients were enrolled (November 2011 to December 2014); 15,092 were eligible. This pre-specified cross-sectional analysis describes eligible patients\u2019 baseline characteristics. Atrial fibrillation disease characteristics, medical outcomes, and concomitant diseases and medications were collected. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results Of the total patients, 45.5% were female; median age was 71 (interquartile range: 64, 78) years. Patients were from Europe (47.1%), North America (22.5%), Asia (20.3%), Latin America (6.0%), and the Middle East/Africa (4.0%). Most had high stroke risk (CHA2DS2-VASc [Congestive heart failure, Hypertension, Age  6575 years, Diabetes mellitus, previous Stroke, Vascular disease, Age 65 to 74 years, Sex category] score  652; 86.1%); 13.9% had moderate risk (CHA2DS2-VASc = 1). Overall, 79.9% received oral anticoagulants, of whom 47.6% received NOAC and 32.3% vitamin K antagonists (VKA); 12.1% received antiplatelet agents; 7.8% received no antithrombotic treatment. For comparison, the proportion of phase 1 patients (of N = 1,063 all eligible) prescribed VKA was 32.8%, acetylsalicylic acid 41.7%, and no therapy 20.2%. In Europe in phase 2, treatment with NOAC was more common than VKA (52.3% and 37.8%, respectively); 6.0% of patients received antiplatelet treatment; and 3.8% received no antithrombotic treatment. In North America, 52.1%, 26.2%, and 14.0% of patients received NOAC, VKA, and antiplatelet drugs, respectively; 7.5% received no antithrombotic treatment. NOAC use was less common in Asia (27.7%), where 27.5% of patients received VKA, 25.0% antiplatelet drugs, and 19.8% no antithrombotic treatment. Conclusions The baseline data from GLORIA-AF phase 2 demonstrate that in newly diagnosed nonvalvular atrial fibrillation patients, NOAC have been highly adopted into practice, becoming more frequently prescribed than VKA in Europe and North America. Worldwide, however, a large proportion of patients remain undertreated, particularly in Asia and North America. (Global Registry on Long-Term Oral Antithrombotic Treatment in Patients With Atrial Fibrillation [GLORIA-AF]; NCT01468701

Factores personales y sociales relacionados con las conductas de bullying en estudiantes adolescentes: el papel de la resiliencia y el soporte de autonomía del profesor en las clases de Educación Física

Estudiar los factores personales y sociales relacionados con la prevención del bullying ha sido el objetivo de este trabajo. Para ello 537 estudiantes de educación física con edades comprendidas entre los 12 y 15 años, completaron diferentes cuestionarios para analizar; 1)las conductas de bullying (acoso y/o victimización), 2) su resiliencia y 3) el soporte deautonomía y el estilo controlador del profesor, percibido en las clases de educación física. Los resultados mostraron que el acoso fue predicho por un estilo más controlador y negativamente por un mayor soporte de autonomía en las clases de educación física. La victimización fue predicha negativamente por una mayor resiliencia y positivamente por un estilo controlador. Por otra parte, el análisis de mediación realizado, mostró que el soporte de autonomía, predecía, indirectamente y a través de la mediación de la resiliencia, la victimización, de forma negativa. Futuros trabajos deberán proponer estrategias concretas, basadas en la intervención en EF, para prevenir el acoso en las clases.Studying the personal and social factors related to the prevention of bullying has been the objective of this work. For this, 537 physical education students aged between 12 and 15 years old completed different questionnaires to analyze; 1) the behavior of bullying (harassment and / or victimization), 2) its resilience and 3) the autonomy support and the controlling style of the teacher, perceived in physical education classes. The results showed that the harassment was predicted by a more controlling style and negatively by a greater support of autonomy in physical education classes. Victimization was negatively predicted by greater resilience and positively by a controlling style. On the other hand, the mediation analysis carried out showed that the support of autonomy predicted, indirectly and through the mediation of resilience, victimization, in a negative way. Future works should propose concrete strategies, based on the intervention in PE, to prevent bullying in the classes

ER triage in patients showing acute hypersensitivity reactions: one year's experience

Acute hypersensitivity reactions include different clinical entities, the most threatening of which is anaphylaxis. In the Emergency Department, triage evaluation and decisions can be a determinant of successful treatment. We retrospectively studied 1009 patients who underwent triage in our ED because of acute hypersensitivity over a one year time period. Our aim was to correlate triage priority codes with the clinical manifestations registered at the medical examination, time spent in ED before and after the examination, and admission to hospital or discharge. Emergency codes (red or yellow code) were attributed to 10% of our cases, non-emergency codes (green o white) to 90%. Code grading was changed in 9 patients while awaiting medical evaluation. Severity of symptoms was underestimated in one case, and overestimated in 23. Hospital admission rate was greater among patients with more critical codes. No patient died. In conclusion evaluation, direct observation and re-evaluation are needed for the safe treatment of patients with hypersensitivity reactions in ED, even when initial clinical conditions appear stable

ER triage in patients showing acute hypersensitivity reactions: one year's experience

Acute hypersensitivity reactions include different clinical entities, the most threatening of which is anaphylaxis. In the Emergency Department, triage evaluation and decisions can be a determinant of successful treatment. We retrospectively studied 1009 patients who underwent triage in our ED because of acute hypersensitivity over a one year time period. Our aim was to correlate triage priority codes with the clinical manifestations registered at the medical examination, time spent in ED before and after the examination, and admission to hospital or discharge. Emergency codes (red or yellow code) were attributed to 10% of our cases, non-emergency codes (green o white) to 90%. Code grading was changed in 9 patients while awaiting medical evaluation. Severity of symptoms was underestimated in one case, and overestimated in 23. Hospital admission rate was greater among patients with more critical codes. No patient died. In conclusion evaluation, direct observation and re-evaluation are needed for the safe treatment of patients with hypersensitivity reactions in ED, even when initial clinical conditions appear stable

Characterization of the distal polyadenylation site of the ß-adducin (Add2) pre-mRNA.

Most genes have multiple polyadenylation sites (PAS), which are often selected in a tissue-specific manner, altering protein products and affecting mRNA stability, subcellular localization and/or translability. Here we studied the polyadenylation mechanisms associated to the beta-adducin gene (Add2). We have previously shown that the Add2 gene has a very tight regulation of alternative polyadenylation, using proximal PAS in erythroid tissues, and a distal one in brain. Using chimeric minigenes and cell transfections we identified the core elements responsible for polyadenylation at the distal PAS. Deletion of either the hexanucleotide motif (Hm) or the downstream element (DSE) resulted in reduction of mature mRNA levels and activation of cryptic PAS, suggesting an important role for the DSE in polyadenylation of the distal Add2 PAS. Point mutation of the UG repeats present in the DSE, located immediately after the cleavage site, resulted in a reduction of processed mRNA and in the activation of the same cryptic site. RNA-EMSA showed that this region is active in forming RNA-protein complexes. Competition experiments showed that RNA lacking the DSE was not able to compete the RNA-protein complexes, supporting the hypothesis of an essential important role for the DSE. Next, using a RNA-pull down approach we identified some of the proteins bound to the DSE. Among these proteins we found PTB, TDP-43, FBP1 and FBP2, nucleolin, RNA helicase A and vigilin. All these proteins have a role in RNA metabolism, but only PTB has a reported function in polyadenylation. Additional experiments are needed to determine the precise functional role of these proteins in Add2 polyadenylation