Development of HIF-mimicking materials for chronic wound healing

Non-healing (chronic) wounds are a major health problem; they are painful, cause considerable morbidity and costs the NHS between £4.5 and £5.1 billion annually. New approaches to wound healing that target tissue regeneration, rather than infection management, are urgently needed. The cellular response to oxygen via the Hypoxia Inducible Factor (HIF) pathway is vital for healthy wound repair and activates a number of processes important for wound regeneration including; the recruitment of inflammatory cells, metabolic adaptation, cell survival and a plethora of pro-angiogenic factors. Considering that patients with increased chance of developing chronic wounds (e.g. diabetic and elderly patients) have an impaired response to hypoxia, wound dressings that artificially targets the HIF pathway may offer some promise in restoring chronic wound healing. Here we investigate if HIF mimetics (DMOG, DFO and cobalt) and HIF mimicking bioactive glasses as a possible strategy for chronic wound repair. To test the effect of these HIF mimetics an in vitro hyperglycaemic model, that mimics the impaired HIF response observed in diabetic patients, was developed. HaCaT preconditioned with high glucose levels for 28 days, resulted in an impaired response to hypoxia (reduced VEGF expression and reduced HIF stabilisation, p0.001). Silica-based bioactive glasses containing cobalt (and other ions that may enhance wound healing, Mg & Zn) were prepared via the melt-derived route. Controlled Co release from the glasses was observed in the physiological range of HIF stabilisation. Zinc ions promoted cell proliferation under hypoxic conditions but not normoxic conditions (p<0.01). The dissolution products from the Cobalt-containing glasses stimulated VEGF secretion linearly to the percentage of cobalt molarity in the glass compositions. Cobalt and zinc-releasing glasses demonstrated the potential use in advanced wound dressings for chronic wounds

Funcionalidad familiar y desajuste psicosocial en estudiantes de secundaria, Arequipa - 2022

La presente investigación tuvo como finalidad hallar la relación entre la funcionalidad familiar según el nivel de cohesión y adaptabilidad, con el desajuste del comportamiento psicosocial en estudiantes de secundaria, Arequipa - 2022. El estudio fue de tipo básico, tuvo un enfoque cuantitativo de nivel correlacional con un diseño no experimental transversal. Se tuvo una muestra de 162 estudiantes de secundaria quienes fueron seleccionados a través de un muestreo no probabilístico por conveniencia. Las pruebas utilizadas fueron dos cuestionarios: la Escala de Evaluación de la Cohesión y Adaptabilidad Familiar (FACES III) y el Inventario de Desajuste del Comportamiento Psicosocial (INDACAPS-N). En cuanto a los resultados, para contrastar la hipótesis se hizo uso de la prueba estadística rho de Spearman encontrando que solo la cohesión se relaciona de manera significativa e inversa con el desajuste del comportamiento psicosocial (p=0.000; rho= -.315) y de igual forma con sus dimensiones (p<0.05); asimismo se obtuvo que predomina el tipo de familia rígidamente desligada y que la mayoría presenta un nivel medio de desajuste del comportamiento psicosocial

Electrospinning 3D bioactive glasses for wound healing

An electrospinning technique was used to produce three-dimensional (3D) bioactive glass fibrous scaffolds, in the SiO2-CaO system, for wound healing applications. Previously, it was thought that 3D cotton wool-like structures could only be produced when the sol contained calcium nitrate, implying that the Ca2+ and its electronic charge had a significant effect on the structure produced. Here, fibres with a 3D appearance were also electrospun from compositions containing only silica. A polymer binding agent was added to inorganic sol-gel solutions, enabling electrospinning prior to bioactive glass network formation and the polymer was removed by calcination. While the addition of Ca2+ contributes to the 3D morphology, here we show that other factors, such as relative humidity, play an important role in producing the 3D cotton-wool-like macrostructure of the fibres. A human dermal fibroblast cell line (CD-18CO) was exposed to dissolution products of the samples. Cell proliferation and metabolic activity tests were carried out and a VEGF ELISA showed a significant increase in VEGF production in cells exposed to the bioactive glass samples compared to control in DMEM. A novel SiO2-CaO nanofibrous scaffold was created that showed tailorable physical and dissolution properties, the control and composition of these release products are important for directing desirable wound healing interactions

Insights into immune responses in oral cancer through proteomic analysis of saliva and salivary extracellular vesicles

FAPESP - FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULOCNPQ - CONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICOThe development and progression of oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) involves complex cellular mechanisms that contribute to the low five-year survival rate of approximately 20% among diagnosed patients. However, the biological processes essential to tumor progression are not completely understood. Therefore, detecting alterations in the salivary proteome may assist in elucidating the cellular mechanisms modulated in OSCC and improve the clinical prognosis of the disease. The proteome of whole saliva and salivary extracellular vesicles (EVs) from patients with OSCC and healthy individuals were analyzed by LC-MS/MS and label-free protein quantification. Proteome data analysis was performed using statistical, machine learning and feature selection methods with additional functional annotation. Biological processes related to immune responses, peptidase inhibitor activity, iron coordination and protease binding were overrepresented in the group of differentially expressed proteins. Proteins related to the inflammatory system, transport of metals and cellular growth and proliferation were identified in the proteome of salivary EVs. The proteomics data were robust and could classify OSCC with 90% accuracy. The saliva proteome analysis revealed that immune processes are related to the presence of OSCC and indicate that proteomics data can contribute to determining OSCC prognosis.The development and progression of oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) involves complex cellular mechanisms that contribute to the low five-year survival rate of approximately 20% among diagnosed patients. However, the biological processes essential to tumor progression are not completely understood. Therefore, detecting alterations in the salivary proteome may assist in elucidating the cellular mechanisms modulated in OSCC and improve the clinical prognosis of the disease. The proteome of whole saliva and salivary extracellular vesicles (EVs) from patients with OSCC and healthy individuals were analyzed by LC-MS/MS and label-free protein quantification. Proteome data analysis was performed using statistical, machine learning and feature selection methods with additional functional annotation. Biological processes related to immune responses, peptidase inhibitor activity, iron coordination and protease binding were overrepresented in the group of differentially expressed proteins. Proteins related to the inflammatory system, transport of metals and cellular growth and proliferation were identified in the proteome of salivary EVs. The proteomics data were robust and could classify OSCC with 90% accuracy. The saliva proteome analysis revealed that immune processes are related to the presence of OSCC and indicate that proteomics data can contribute to determining OSCC prognosis5FAPESP - FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULOCNPQ - CONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICOFAPESP - FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULOCNPQ - CONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICO2009/54067-3; 2010/19278-0470549/2011-4; 301702/2011-0; 470268/2013-1

Occupational health in higher education administrators: Relationship between psychological well-being and job satisfaction

En el presente estudio se evaluó la relación entre el bienestar psicológico y la satisfacción laboral en el personal administrativo de una Institución Privada de Educación Superior de San Juan de Pasto. Para ello se seleccionó una muestra de 147 trabajadores del área administrativa, bajo un muestreo aleatorio estratificado, que permitió contar con la participación de hombres y mujeres que ocupan los diferentes puestos de trabajo dentro de la institución. Esta investigación tuvo un diseño no experimental transversal de tipo correlacional. Para la recolección de la información se utilizó la Escala de Bienestar Psicológico de Ryff adaptada a adultos de una IES y la Escala de Satisfacción Laboral NTP394. Los resultados obtenidos permitieron evidenciar que existe una relación entre las variables y dimensiones estudiadas, permitiendo concluir que, a mayor nivel de bienestar psicológico, mayor será el nivel de satisfacción laboral.The purpose of this research was to analyze the relationship between psychological well-being and job satisfaction in the administrative staff of a Private Institution of Higher Education in San Juan de Pasto. For this, a sample of 147 workers from the administrative area was selected, under a stratified random sampling, which allowed the participation of men and women who occupy the different jobs within the institution. This research had a non-experimental cross-sectional correlational design. The Ryff Psychological Well-Being Scale and the Work Satisfaction Scale NTP394 were used to collect the information. The results obtained showed that there is a relationship between the variables and dimensions studied, allowing us to conclude that the higher the level of psychological well-being, the higher the level of job satisfaction

Obscuration beyond the nucleus: infrared quasars can be buried in extreme compact starbursts

In the standard quasar model, the accretion disk obscuration is due to the canonical dusty torus. Here, we argue that a substantial part of the quasar obscuration can come from the interstellar medium (ISM) when the quasars are embedded in compact starbursts. We use an obscuration-unbiased sample of 578 infrared (IR) quasars at $z\approx 1-3$ and archival ALMA submillimeter host galaxy sizes to investigate the ISM contribution to the quasar obscuration. We calculate SFR and ISM column densities for the IR quasars and a control sample of submillimeter galaxies (SMGs) not hosting quasar activity and show that: (1) the quasar obscured fraction is constant up to $\rm SFR\approx 300 \: M_{\odot} \: yr^{-1}$, and then increases towards higher SFR, suggesting that the ISM obscuration plays a significant role in starburst host galaxies, and (2) at $\rm SFR\gtrsim 300 \: M_{\odot} \: yr^{-1}$, the SMGs and IR quasars have similarly compact submillimeter sizes ($R_{\rm e}\approx 0.5-3\rm \: kpc$) and, consequently, the ISM can heavily obscure the quasar, even reaching Compton-thick ($N_{\rm H}>10^{24} \rm \: cm^{-2}$) levels in extreme cases. Based on our results, we infer that $\approx 10-30\%$ of the IR quasars with $\rm SFR\gtrsim 300 \: M_{\odot} \: yr^{-1}$ are obscured solely by the ISM.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS Letter

Evaluating assumptions of scales for subjective assessment of thermal environments – Do laypersons perceive them the way, we researchers believe?

International audienc

Acciones de reducción de riesgos volcánicos, implementados por el Observatorio Vulcanológico del Ingemmet frente a la erupción del volcán Ubinas 2013 – 2014

El volcán Ubinas ha presentado desde el año 1550 D.C. alrededor de 25 erupciones y es considerado el volcán más activo del sur peruano (Rivera, 1998). Se ubica en el extremo norte de la región Moquegua, a 70 km al SE de la ciudad de Arequipa. El Observatorio Vulcanológico del INGEMMET OVI, fue creado oficialmente el 21 de marzo del 2013, bajo Resolución de Presidencia N° 037-2013-INGEMMET/ PCD, en este observatorio laboran alrededor de 20 vulcanólogos en diferentes disciplinas como geólogos, sismólogos, geoquímicos, geodestas, electrónicos, ing. De sistemas y comunicadores, con especialidades en vulcanología. Por medio del OVI se vienen monitoreando y estudiando los volcanes activos en el Sur del Perú como por ejemplo Misti, Ubinas, Sabancaya entre otros. El volcán Ubinas viene siendo monitoreado desde el año 2006. A la fecha se cuenta con 7 estaciones sísmicas alrededor del volcán, termómetros a 6 km del cráter, dataloggers para medir temperaturas y CO2, 1 MiniDOAS para mediciones de SO2, 4 bases de geodesia con 15 prismas de control para medir la deformación del edificio volcánico, además se cuenta con una cámara que cambia de imagen cada 30 segundos. Por otro lado, se han instalado hasta 30 cenizómetros, para medir la cantidad y dispersión de la ceniza. Tanto las imágenes de la cámara como de los sismógrafos se pueden apreciar en tiempo real en http://ovi.ingemmet.gob.pe/portal_volcan/ para conocimiento de las autoridades, la población en riesgo y público en general. Además, se cuenta con imágenes OMI (Ozone Monitoring Instrument) de la NASA; así mismo se cuenta con estudios de las anomalías térmicas del Ubinas reportados por la Universidad de Torino – Italia. Por otro lado, se cuenta con un modelo de dispersión de cenizas elaborado en colaboración con el SENAMH

Acciones en la reducción de riesgos, implementados por el Observatorio Vulcanológico del INGEMMET frente a la erupción del volcán Ubinas 2013 - 2014

Cuando un volcán entra en erupción, puede que unas pocas semanas no sean suficientes para prevenir una tragedia. La planificación es la clave para salvar vidas. Mucho antes de que aparezcan los signos precursores, hay que educar a la gente e informarles acerca de los peligros de los volcanes, así como fijar los planes de evacuación. La comunicación entre científicos, autoridades, prensa y el público en general debe ser fluida. El volcán Ubinas es el volcán más activo del Perú, ha presentado desde el año 1550 D.C. alrededor de 25 erupciones (Rivera, 1998). Se ubica en el extremo norte de la región Moquegua, a 70 km al SE de la ciudad de Arequipa