Development of a Proposed Community Action Plan for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation

The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) is a national organization that was started back in 1970 by two mothers of sons with type 1 diabetes. Since its founding, JDRF has awarded more than $1.5 billion to diabetes research around the world, including$9.9 million of research in San Diego. JDRF is a volunteer-driven organization with thousands of volunteers in locations worldwide. While JDRF is working hard to find a cure and improve the lives of those living with type 1 diabetes, it also has a goal of providing volunteer-led support programs to people with type 1 diabetes and their families. JDRF San Diego is challenged with being able to provide outreach support to families in the South Bay area. Alicia Milla and Alexis Rodriguez developed a proposed Community Action Plan to assist the San Diego chapter of JDRF in becoming more responsive to the South Bay community.https://digital.sandiego.edu/npi-bpl-communityengagement/1001/thumbnail.jp

Diabetes gestacional como factor asociado a retinopatia de la prematuridad en el Hospital Belén de Trujillo

Objetivo: Nuestro propósito fue determinar si la diabetes gestacional es factor asociado a retinopatía de la prematuridad en el Hospital Belén de Trujillo. Material y Métodos: Se llevó a cabo un estudio de tipo casos y controles. En una muestra de 126 neonatos pretérmino, que cumplieron los criterios de selección, fueron distribuidos en dos grupos, de los cuales 42 neonatos con retinopatía de la prematuridad en el grupo de casos y 84 neonatos sin retinopatía de la prematuridad en el grupo de los controles, se aplicó el test de chi cuadrado, T-Student y Odds ratio Resultados: La frecuencia de diabetes gestacional en madres de neonatos con retinopatía de la prematuridad fue 20%. La frecuencia de diabetes gestacional en madres de neonatos sin retinopatía de la prematuridad fue 7%. La diabetes gestacional es factor de riesgo para retinopatía de la prematuridad con un odds ratio de 3.05 el cual fue significativo (p<0.05). En el análisis multivariado se verifica la significancia del riesgo para las variables diabetes gestacional, ventilación mecánica y oxigenoterapia en estudio en relación con la aparición del desenlace retinopatía de la prematuridad. Conclusiones: La diabetes gestacional es factor asociado a retinopatía de la prematuridad en el Hospital Belén de Trujillo.Objective: Our purpose was to determine if gestational diabetes is a factor associated with retinopathy of prematurity in the Bethlehem Hospital of Trujillo.. Material and Methods: A case-control study was carried out. In a sample of 126 preterm infants, who met the selection criteria, who were divided into two groups, 42 neonates with retinopathy of prematurity in the case group and 84 neonates without retinopathy of prematurity in the control group, applied the chi-square test, TStudent and Odds ratio. Results: The frequency of gestational diabetes in mothers of neonates with retinopathy of prematurity was 20%. The frequency of gestational diabetes in mothers of neonates without retinopathy of prematurity was 7%. Gestational diabetes is a risk factor for retinopathy of prematurity with an odds ratio of 3.05 which was significant (p <0.05). In the multivariate analysis, the significance of the risk for the variables gestational diabetes, mechanical ventilation and oxygen therapy under study in relation to the onset of retinopathy of prematurity was verified. Conclusions: Gestational diabetes is a factor associated with retinopathy of prematurity in the Bethlehem Hospital in Trujillo.Tesi

Comportamiento estructural del ladrillo patrón arcilla artesanal agregando 8%, 10% y 12% de vidrio molido reciclado Bellavista, Nuevo Chimbote, Ancash-2020

La presente tesis titulada “Comportamiento estructural del ladrillo patrón arcilla artesanal agregando 8%, 10% y 12% de vidrio molido reciclado Bellavista, Nuevo Chimbote, Ancash-2020”, tiene como objetivo general determinar las propiedades físicas y mecánicas del ladrillo patrón arcilla artesanal al agregar 8%, 10% y 12% de vidrio molido reciclado Bellavista, Nuevo Chimbote, Áncash-2020. La investigación está orientada al diseño no experimental, así mismo, la población y la muestra es la misma dando un total de 100 ladrillos. Para la recolección de datos de la presente investigación, serán evaluados a través de instrumentos como protocolos, el cual será de ayuda para la evaluación de los ensayos de resistencia a la compresión, resistencia a compresión por prisma, variabilidad dimensional, alabeo, densidad y absorción, para ladrillos artesanales elaborados con vidrio molido reciclado, están diseñados para el cumplimiento de la norma técnica E.070 Albañilería, NTP (399.613, 399.604, 331.040) ITINTEC (331.017, 331.019). Luego de la utilización de los instrumentos, se llegó a la conclusión que al adicionar 10% de vidrio molido reciclado, aumenta la resistencia a compresión y la resistencia a compresión por prisma. Debido a que presenta una resistencia superior en comparación al ladrillo patrón de arcilla, esto significa que favorece a las propiedades mecánicas y físicas del ladrillo de arcilla, siendo este un material recomendable, generando de esta forma una nueva alternativa para las construcciones de edificaciones con un sistema de albañilería confinada

Acceptance of digital payment methods in Switzerland

The advent of the technology brings new possibilities in term of payment solutions and as a consequence the use of cash is declining. There are even regulations that force people to pay by electronic methods depending on the amount/or the country. These regulations limit the amount of cash in a single transaction to combat illegal practices. Indeed, cashless payment methods offer transparency and traceability which allows verification in case of fraudulent transactions. However, according to some articles, Swiss are very attached to cash and are far away from a cashless society. Switzerland being part of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is the only nation where you can pay in cash up to 100,000 Swiss francs and it has the highest banknote denomination, 1,000 Swiss francs, compared to any other European nations. Therefore, this work addresses the adoption of digital payment methods in Switzerland. The aim of this thesis is, using an online survey, to find out what factors affect the decision of Swiss residents to use digital payment systems. For further relevance, the linear regression model helped to analyze the survey data. This method allows to determine how the use of a payment method is affected by a number of factors. It has been noticed that there are specific reasons and demographic variables that affect the use of different payment methods. Convenience and security are the main advantages, whereas costs and poor internet connection are the main drawbacks regarding cashless payment methods. Regulations and restrictions lead to the opposite of the desired effect because they are perceived as limiting freedom. As a consequence, introducing restriction to encourage people to use cashless payment systems in not the best way to go about it. Therefore, the best approach to encourage people to adopt cashless payment methods is by improving the infrastructures and lowering the costs for its use for customers as well as for small business. It might not exclude the use of cash definitely, but it can decrease it considerably. Finally, this work is meant to be useful for businesses which want to be actors in the payments industry. The diversity of digital payment methods might increase even more with the advance of the technology

Switchable CAR T cell strategy against osteosarcoma

Immunotherapy with chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR T) cells has changed the treatment of hematological malignances, but they are still a challenge for solid tumors, including pediatric sarcomas. Here, we report a switchable CAR T cell strategy based on anti-FITC CAR T cells and a switch molecule conjugated with FITC for targeting osteosarcoma (OS) tumors. As a potential target, we analyzed the expression of B7-H3, an immune checkpoint inhibitor, in OS cell lines. In addition, we evaluate the capacity of an anti-B7-H3 monoclonal antibody conjugated with FITC (anti-B7-H3-FITC mAb) to control the antitumor activity of anti-FITC CAR T cells. The effector functions of anti-FITC CAR T cells against OS, measured in vitro by tumor cell killing activity and cytokine production, are dependent on the presence of the anti-B7-H3-FITC mAb switch. Moreover, OS cells stimulate anti-FITC CAR T cells migration. In vivo, anti-B7-H3 mAb penetrates in the tumor and binds 143B OS tumor cells. Furthermore, anti-FITC CAR T cells reach tumor region and exert antitumor effect in an OS NSG mouse model only in the presence of the switch molecule. We demonstrate that anti-B7-H3-FITC mAb redirects the cytotoxic activity of anti-FITC CAR T cells against OS tumors suggesting that switchable CAR T cell platforms might be a plausible strategy against OS.This research was funded by Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII): PI20CIII-00040 and RD21/0017/0005, Red Española de Terapias Avanzadas TERAV-ISCIII (NextGenerationEU. Plan de Recuperación Transformación y Resiliencia), the Asociación Pablo Ugarte, the Fundación Oncohematología Infantil and AFANION for grants support. LH is benefciary of a grant under the Talent Attraction Program of the Comunidad de Madrid (2018-T2/BMD-10337). AM-M is benefciary of a grant under the PhD ISCIII-PFIS program (FI18CIII/00017) and is a member of the PhD Program in Molecular Biosciences of Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. PR-G is enrolled in the Doctoral Program in Biomedical Sciences and Public Health as a trainee researcher at the UNED International Doctoral School. AntiFITC CAR single chain variable fragment (scFv) encoding plasmid was kindly provided by Dr. Michael Jensen from Seattle Children´s Research Institute, Washington, USA. The authors wish to thank the donors, and the Biobank Hospital Universitario Puerta de Hierro Majadahonda (HUPHM)/Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Puerta de Hierro-Segovia de Arana (IDIPHISA) (PT17/0015/0020 in the Spanish National Biobanks Network) for the human specimens used in this study. Images for the graphical scheme of experiments were obtained and modifed from SMART—Servier Medical Art under a Creative Common Attribution 3.0 Unported License.S

Probing Quantum Aspects of Gravity

We emphasize that a specific aspect of quantum gravity is the absence of a super-selection rule that prevents a linear superposition of different gravitational charges. As an immediate consequence, we obtain a tiny, but observable, violation of the equivalence principle, provided, inertial and gravitational masses are not assumed to be operationally identical objects. In this framework, the cosmic gravitational environment affects local experiments. A range of terrestrial experiments, from neutron interferometry to neutrino oscillations, can serve as possible probes to study the emergent quantum aspects of gravity.Comment: Phys. Lett. B (in press). S. Sarkar's name was inadvertently missed from the list of authors for "Nature 393 (1998) 763-765." This has been now correcte

Zebrafish fin immune responses during high mortality infections with viral haemorrhagic septicemia rhabdovirus. A proteomic and transcriptomic approach

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Despite rhabdoviral infections being one of the best known fish diseases, the gene expression changes induced at the surface tissues after the natural route of infection (infection-by-immersion) have not been described yet. This work describes the differential infected versus non-infected expression of proteins and immune-related transcripts in fins and organs of zebrafish <it>Danio rerio </it>shortly after infection-by-immersion with viral haemorrhagic septicemia virus (VHSV).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Two-dimensional differential gel electrophoresis detected variations on the protein levels of the enzymes of the glycolytic pathway and cytoskeleton components but it detected very few immune-related proteins. Differential expression of immune-related gene transcripts estimated by quantitative polymerase chain reaction arrays and hybridization to oligo microarrays showed that while more transcripts increased in fins than in organs (spleen, head kidney and liver), more transcripts decreased in organs than in fins. Increased differential transcript levels in fins detected by both arrays corresponded to previously described infection-related genes such as complement components (<it>c3b, c8 </it>and <it>c9</it>) or class I histocompatibility antigens (<it>mhc1</it>) and to newly described genes such as secreted immunoglobulin domain (<it>sid4</it>), macrophage stimulating factor (<it>mst1</it>) and a cluster differentiation antigen (<it>cd36</it>).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The genes described would contribute to the knowledge of the earliest molecular events occurring in the fish surfaces at the beginning of natural rhabdoviral infections and/or might be new candidates to be tested as adjuvants for fish vaccines.</p

Mesoporous silica nanoparticles grafted with a light-responsive protein shell for highly cytotoxic antitumoral therapy

A novel phototriggered drug delivery nanocarrier, which exhibits very high tumor cytotoxicity against human tumoral cells, is presented. This device is based on mesoporous silica nanoparticles decorated with a biocompatible protein shell cleavable by light irradiation. The proteins that compose the protein shell (avidin, streptavidin and biotinylated transferrin) act as targeting and capping agents at the same time, avoiding the use of redundant systems. The light responsive behavior is provided by a biotinylated photocleavable cross-linker covalently grafted on the mesoporous surface, which suffers photocleavage by UV radiation (366 nm). Human tumoral cells incubated in the presence of a very low particle concentration enter into the apoptotic stage after a short irradiation time. Thus, the system described here could be applied to the treatment of exposed tumors that affect the skin, oesophagus, and stomach, among others, and are easily accessible for light irradiation

AKT and JUN are differentially activated in mesenchymal stem cells after infection with human and canine oncolytic adenoviruses

Factor de impacto: 5,987 Q1There is increasing evidence about the use of oncolytic adenoviruses (Ads) as promising immunotherapy agents. We have previously demonstrated the clinical efficiency of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) infected with oncolytic Ads as an antitumoral immunotherapy (called Celyvir) in human and canine patients, using ICOVIR-5 or ICOCAV17 as human and canine oncolytic Ads, respectively. Considering the better clinical outcomes of canine patients, in this study we searched for differences in cellular responses of human and canine MSCs to Ad infection that may help understand the mechanisms leading to higher antitumor immune response. We found that infection of human and canine MSCs with ICOVIR-5 or ICOCAV17 did not activate the NF-κB pathway or the interferon regulatory factors IRF3 and IRF7. However, we observed differences in the profile of cytokines secretion, as infection of canine MSCs with ICOCAV17 resulted in lower secretion of several cytokines. Moreover, we showed that infection of human MSCs with ICOVIR-5 increased the phosphorylation of a number of proteins, including AKT and c-JUN. Finally, we demonstrated that differences in regulation of AKT and c-JUN in human and canine MSCs by ICOVIR-5 or ICOCAV17 are intrinsic to each virus. Our findings suggest that ICOCAV17 induces a more limited host response in canine MSCs, which may be related to a better clinical outcome. This result opens the possibility to develop new human oncolytic Ads with these specific properties. In addition, this improvement could be imitated by selecting specific human MSC on the basis of a limited host response after Ad infection.This study was funded by Instituto de Salud Carlos III (PI14CIII/00005 and PI17CIII/00013 grants), Consejería de Educación, Juventud y Deporte of Comunidad de Madrid (P2017/BMD-3692 grant), Fundación Oncohematología Infantil, AFANION, and Asociación Pablo Ugarte, whose support we gratefully acknowledge.S