RICORS2040 : The need for collaborative research in chronic kidney disease

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a silent and poorly known killer. The current concept of CKD is relatively young and uptake by the public, physicians and health authorities is not widespread. Physicians still confuse CKD with chronic kidney insufficiency or failure. For the wider public and health authorities, CKD evokes kidney replacement therapy (KRT). In Spain, the prevalence of KRT is 0.13%. Thus health authorities may consider CKD a non-issue: very few persons eventually need KRT and, for those in whom kidneys fail, the problem is 'solved' by dialysis or kidney transplantation. However, KRT is the tip of the iceberg in the burden of CKD. The main burden of CKD is accelerated ageing and premature death. The cut-off points for kidney function and kidney damage indexes that define CKD also mark an increased risk for all-cause premature death. CKD is the most prevalent risk factor for lethal coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and the factor that most increases the risk of death in COVID-19, after old age. Men and women undergoing KRT still have an annual mortality that is 10- to 100-fold higher than similar-age peers, and life expectancy is shortened by ~40 years for young persons on dialysis and by 15 years for young persons with a functioning kidney graft. CKD is expected to become the fifth greatest global cause of death by 2040 and the second greatest cause of death in Spain before the end of the century, a time when one in four Spaniards will have CKD. However, by 2022, CKD will become the only top-15 global predicted cause of death that is not supported by a dedicated well-funded Centres for Biomedical Research (CIBER) network structure in Spain. Realizing the underestimation of the CKD burden of disease by health authorities, the Decade of the Kidney initiative for 2020-2030 was launched by the American Association of Kidney Patients and the European Kidney Health Alliance. Leading Spanish kidney researchers grouped in the kidney collaborative research network Red de Investigación Renal have now applied for the Redes de Investigación Cooperativa Orientadas a Resultados en Salud (RICORS) call for collaborative research in Spain with the support of the Spanish Society of Nephrology, Federación Nacional de Asociaciones para la Lucha Contra las Enfermedades del Riñón and ONT: RICORS2040 aims to prevent the dire predictions for the global 2040 burden of CKD from becoming true

First measurement of Ωc0 production in pp collisions at s=13 TeV

The inclusive production of the charm–strange baryon 0 c is measured for the first time via its hadronic √ decay into −π+ at midrapidity (|y| <0.5) in proton–proton (pp) collisions at the centre-of-mass energy s =13 TeV with the ALICE detector at the LHC. The transverse momentum (pT) differential cross section multiplied by the branching ratio is presented in the interval 2 < pT < 12 GeV/c. The pT dependence of the 0 c-baryon production relative to the prompt D0-meson and to the prompt 0 c-baryon production is compared to various models that take different hadronisation mechanisms into consideration. In the measured pT interval, the ratio of the pT-integrated cross sections of 0 c and prompt + c baryons multiplied by the −π+ branching ratio is found to be larger by a factor of about 20 with a significance of about 4σ when compared to e+e− collisions

Elliptic flow of charged particles at midrapidity relative to the spectator plane in Pb–Pb and Xe–Xe collisions

Measurements of the elliptic flow coefficient relative to the collision plane defined by the spectator neutrons v2{ SP} in collisions of Pb ions at center-of-mass energy per nucleon–nucleon pair √ 2.76 TeV and Xe ions at √ sNN = sNN =5.44 TeV are reported. The results are presented for charged particles produced at midrapidity as a function of centrality and transverse momentum for the 5–70% and 0.2–6 GeV/c ranges, respectively. The ratio between v2{ SP} and the elliptic flow coefficient relative to the participant plane v2{4}, estimated using four-particle correlations, deviates by up to 20% from unity depending on centrality. This observation differs strongly from the magnitude of the corresponding eccentricity ratios predicted by the TRENTo and the elliptic power models of initial state fluctuations that are tuned to describe the participant plane anisotropies. The differences can be interpreted as a decorrelation of the neutron spectator plane and the reaction plane because of fragmentation of the remnants from the colliding nuclei, which points to an incompleteness of current models describing the initial state fluctuations. A significant transverse momentum dependence of the ratio v2{ SP}/v2{4} is observed in all but the most central collisions, which may help to understand whether momentum anisotropies at low and intermediate transverse momentum have a common origin in initial state f luctuations. The ratios of v2{ SP} and v2{4} to the corresponding initial state eccentricities for Xe–Xe and Pb–Pb collisions at similar initial entropy density show a difference of (7.0 ±0.9)%with an additional variation of +1.8% when including RHIC data in the TRENTo parameter extraction. These observations provide new experimental constraints for viscous effects in the hydrodynamic modeling of the expanding quark–gluon plasma produced in heavy-ion collisions at the LHC

BS69 : A novel adenovirus E1A-associated protein that inhibits E1A transactivation

The adenovirus ElA gene products are nuclear phosphoproteins that can transactivate the other adenovirus early genes as well as several cellular genes, and can transform primary rodent cells in culture. Transformation and transactivation by ElA proteins is most likely to be mediated through binding to several cellular proteins, including the retinoblastoma gene product pRb, the pRb-related p107 and p130, and the TATA box binding protein TBP. We report here the cloning of BS69, a novel protein that specifically interacts with adenovirus 5 ElA. BS69 has no significant homology to known proteins and requires the region that is unique to the large (289R) ElA protein for high affinity binding. BS69 and ElA proteins coimmunoprecipitate in adenovirus-transformed 293 cells, indicating that these proteins also interact in vivo. BS69 specifically inhibits transactivation by the 289R ElA protein, but not by the 243R ElA protein. BS69 also suppressed the ElA-stimulated transcription of the retinoic acid receptor in COS cells, but did not affect the cellular ElA-like activity that is present in embryonic carcinoma cells. Our data indicate that BS69 is a novel and specific suppressor of ElA-activated transcription

Relações entre crescimento vegetativo e acúmulo de nitrogênio em duas cultivares de arroz com arquiteturas contrastantes The relationship between vegetative growth and nitrogen accumulation in two rice cultivars with contrasting architecture

Foram estudados, mediante análise do crescimento, o acúmulo de biomassa e nitrogênio (N) e sua eficiência de utilização, durante o estádio de crescimento vegetativo, em duas cultivares de arroz (Oryza sativa L.) com arquiteturas contrastantes: IAC-4440, cultivar do grupo moderno para inundação, e Comum Branco, cultivar local rústica de sequeiro. Em experimento com solução nutritiva, foram efetuadas sete coletas, dos 25 aos 85 dias de crescimento, quando foram quantificados a área foliar, a massa seca e o conteúdo de N nas porções vegetativas. A cultivar IAC apresentou maiores valores de biomassa na fase inicial do crescimento, enquanto Comum Branco maiores valores na fase final do experimento. IAC-4440 teve maiores área foliar, área foliar específica e relação raiz: parte aérea do que Comum Branco. As cultivares tiveram o mesmo acúmulo total de N, mas Comum Branco apresentou valores superiores na taxa de assimilação líquida e na taxa de utilização específica de N, indicando melhor utilização do N absorvido. As maiores taxas de crescimento de Comum Branco estiveram associadas aos seus maiores teores de N por unidade de área foliar, mas não aos teores de N por unidade de massa foliar, superiores em IAC-4440. Os resultados indicam que uma cultivar local rústica de arroz pode servir como fonte de eficiência para utilização de N.<br>Accumulation of biomass and nitrogen (N) during the vegetative growth stage and N utilization efficiency were evaluated using plant growth analysis in two rice (Oryza sativa L.) cultivars with contrasting architecture: IAC-4440, a modern lowland cultivar, and Comum Branco, a rustic upland cultivar. An experiment with nutrient solution involved seven harvests that took place in the 25 to 85 growth-days period, where leaf area, dry mass, and N content in vegetative plant parts were measured. Cultivar IAC had higher biomass at the beginning of the growth cycle, whereas Comum Branco had higher values at the end of the experiment. IAC-4440 had greater leaf area, specific leaf area and root-to-shoot ratio than Comum Branco. The cultivars accumulated the same amount of N, but Comum Branco showed greater net assimilation rate and specific N utilization rate, indicating greater utilization of the N absorbed. Higher growth rates of Comum Branco were associated with higher N concentration per unit leaf area, but not with N concentration per unit leaf mass which were superior in IAC-4440. These results indicate that a local rustic cultivar of rice can provide a source of N utilization efficiency