39 research outputs found
Exergy as a measure of sustainable retrofitting of buildings
This study presents a novel optimization methodology for choosing optimal building retrofitting strategies based on the concept of exergy analysis. The study demonstrates that the building exergy analysis may open new opportunities in the design of an optimal retrofit solution despite being a theoretical approach based on the high performance of a Carnot reverse cycle. This exergy-based solution is different from the one selected through traditional efficient retrofits where minimizing energy consumption is the primary selection criteria. The new solution connects the building with the reference environment, which acts as “an unlimited sink or unlimited sources of energy”, and it adapts the building to maximize the intake of energy resources from the reference environment. The building hosting the School of Architecture at the University of Navarra has been chosen as the case study building. The unique architectural appearance and bespoke architectural characteristics of the building limit the choices of retrofitting solutions; therefore, retrofitting solutions on the façade, roof, roof skylight and windows are considered in multi-objective optimization using the jEPlus package. It is remarkable that different retrofitting solutions have been obtained for energy-driven and exergy-driven optimization, respectively. Considering the local contexts and all possible reference environments for the building, three “unlimited sinks or unlimited sources of energy” are selected for the case study building to explore exergy-driven optimization: the external air, the ground in the surrounding area and the nearby river. The evidence shows that no matter which reference environment is chosen, an identical envelope retrofitting solution has been obtaine
Endemic Circulation of European Bat Lyssavirus Type 1 in Serotine Bats, Spain
To determine the presence of European bat lyssavirus type 1 in southern Spain, we studied 19 colonies of serotine bats (Eptesicus isabellinus), its main reservoir, during 1998–2003. Viral genome and antibodies were detected in healthy bats, which suggests subclinical infection. The different temporal patterns of circulation found in each colony indicate independent endemic circulation
Aspergillus fumigatus Fumagillin Contributes to Host Cell Damage
The activity of fumagillin, a mycotoxin produced by Aspergillus fumigatus, has not been studied in depth. In this study, we used a commercial fumagillin on cultures of two cell types (A549 pneumocytes and RAW 264.7 macrophages). This toxin joins its target, MetAP2 protein, inside cells and, as a result, significantly reduces the electron chain activity, the migration, and the proliferation ability on the A549 cells, or affects the viability and proliferation ability of the RAW 264.7 macrophages. However, the toxin stimulates the germination and double branch hypha production of fungal cultures, pointing out an intrinsic resistant mechanism to fumagillin of fungal strains. In this study, we also used a fumagillin non-producer A. fumigatus strain (∆fmaA) as well as its complemented strain (∆fmaA::fmaA) and we tested the fumagillin secretion of the fungal strains using an Ultra High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (UHPLC) method. Furthermore, fumagillin seems to protect the fungus against phagocytosis in vitro, and during in vivo studies using infection of immunosuppressed mice, a lower fungal burden in the lungs of mice infected with the ∆fmaA mutant was demonstrated.This research was funded by the Basque Government: grant number IT1362-19. X.G. and S.C.-S. received a Ph.D. fellowship from the Basque Government; and U.P.-C. from the University of the Basque Country
Interactions of Kid–Kis toxin–antitoxin complexes with the parD operator-promoter region of plasmid R1 are piloted by the Kis antitoxin and tuned by the stoichiometry of Kid–Kis oligomers
The parD operon of Escherichia coli plasmid R1 encodes a toxin–antitoxin system, which is involved in plasmid stabilization. The toxin Kid inhibits cell growth by RNA degradation and its action is neutralized by the formation of a tight complex with the antitoxin Kis. A fascinating but poorly understood aspect of the kid–kis system is its autoregulation at the transcriptional level. Using macromolecular (tandem) mass spectrometry and DNA binding assays, we here demonstrate that Kis pilots the interaction of the Kid–Kis complex in the parD regulatory region and that two discrete Kis-binding regions are present on parD. The data clearly show that only when the Kis concentration equals or exceeds the Kid concentration a strong cooperative effect exists between strong DNA binding and Kid(2)–Kis(2)–Kid(2)–Kis(2) complex formation. We propose a model in which transcriptional repression of the parD operon is tuned by the relative molar ratio of the antitoxin and toxin proteins in solution. When the concentration of the toxin exceeds that of the antitoxin tight Kid(2)–Kis(2)–Kid(2) complexes are formed, which only neutralize the lethal activity of Kid. Upon increasing the Kis concentration, (Kid(2)–Kis(2))(n) complexes repress the kid–kis operon
Burnout among surgeons before and during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: an international survey
Background: SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has had many significant impacts within the surgical realm, and surgeons have been obligated to reconsider almost every aspect of daily clinical practice. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study reported in compliance with the CHERRIES guidelines and conducted through an online platform from June 14th to July 15th, 2020. The primary outcome was the burden of burnout during the pandemic indicated by the validated Shirom-Melamed Burnout Measure. Results: Nine hundred fifty-four surgeons completed the survey. The median length of practice was 10 years; 78.2% included were male with a median age of 37 years old, 39.5% were consultants, 68.9% were general surgeons, and 55.7% were affiliated with an academic institution. Overall, there was a significant increase in the mean burnout score during the pandemic; longer years of practice and older age were significantly associated with less burnout. There were significant reductions in the median number of outpatient visits, operated cases, on-call hours, emergency visits, and research work, so, 48.2% of respondents felt that the training resources were insufficient. The majority (81.3%) of respondents reported that their hospitals were included in the management of COVID-19, 66.5% felt their roles had been minimized; 41% were asked to assist in non-surgical medical practices, and 37.6% of respondents were included in COVID-19 management. Conclusions: There was a significant burnout among trainees. Almost all aspects of clinical and research activities were affected with a significant reduction in the volume of research, outpatient clinic visits, surgical procedures, on-call hours, and emergency cases hindering the training. Trial registration: The study was registered on clicaltrials.gov "NCT04433286" on 16/06/2020
NIST Interlaboratory Study on Glycosylation Analysis of Monoclonal Antibodies: Comparison of Results from Diverse Analytical Methods
Glycosylation is a topic of intense current interest in the
development of biopharmaceuticals because it is related
to drug safety and efficacy. This work describes results of
an interlaboratory study on the glycosylation of the Primary
Sample (PS) of NISTmAb, a monoclonal antibody
reference material. Seventy-six laboratories from industry,
university, research, government, and hospital sectors
in Europe, North America, Asia, and Australia submit-
Avenue, Silver Spring, Maryland 20993; 22Glycoscience Research Laboratory, Genos, Borongajska cesta 83h, 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia;
23Faculty of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, University of Zagreb, A. Kovacˇ ic´ a 1, 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia; 24Department of Chemistry, Georgia
State University, 100 Piedmont Avenue, Atlanta, Georgia 30303; 25glyXera GmbH, Brenneckestrasse 20 * ZENIT / 39120 Magdeburg, Germany;
26Health Products and Foods Branch, Health Canada, AL 2201E, 251 Sir Frederick Banting Driveway, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0K9 Canada;
27Graduate School of Advanced Sciences of Matter, Hiroshima University, 1-3-1 Kagamiyama Higashi-Hiroshima 739–8530 Japan; 28ImmunoGen,
830 Winter Street, Waltham, Massachusetts 02451; 29Department of Medical Physiology, Jagiellonian University Medical College,
ul. Michalowskiego 12, 31–126 Krakow, Poland; 30Department of Pathology, Johns Hopkins University, 400 N. Broadway Street Baltimore,
Maryland 21287; 31Mass Spec Core Facility, KBI Biopharma, 1101 Hamlin Road Durham, North Carolina 27704; 32Division of Mass
Spectrometry, Korea Basic Science Institute, 162 YeonGuDanji-Ro, Ochang-eup, Cheongwon-gu, Cheongju Chungbuk, 363–883 Korea
(South); 33Advanced Therapy Products Research Division, Korea National Institute of Food and Drug Safety, 187 Osongsaengmyeong 2-ro
Osong-eup, Heungdeok-gu, Cheongju-si, Chungcheongbuk-do, 363–700, Korea (South); 34Center for Proteomics and Metabolomics, Leiden
University Medical Center, P.O. Box 9600, 2300 RC Leiden, The Netherlands; 35Ludger Limited, Culham Science Centre, Abingdon,
Oxfordshire, OX14 3EB, United Kingdom; 36Biomolecular Discovery and Design Research Centre and ARC Centre of Excellence for Nanoscale
BioPhotonics (CNBP), Macquarie University, North Ryde, Australia; 37Proteomics, Central European Institute for Technology, Masaryk
University, Kamenice 5, A26, 625 00 BRNO, Czech Republic; 38Max Planck Institute for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems, Sandtorstrasse
1, 39106 Magdeburg, Germany; 39Department of Biomolecular Sciences, Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, 14424
Potsdam, Germany; 40AstraZeneca, Granta Park, Cambridgeshire, CB21 6GH United Kingdom; 41Merck, 2015 Galloping Hill Rd, Kenilworth,
New Jersey 07033; 42Analytical R&D, MilliporeSigma, 2909 Laclede Ave. St. Louis, Missouri 63103; 43MS Bioworks, LLC, 3950 Varsity Drive
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48108; 44MSD, Molenstraat 110, 5342 CC Oss, The Netherlands; 45Exploratory Research Center on Life and Living
Systems (ExCELLS), National Institutes of Natural Sciences, 5–1 Higashiyama, Myodaiji, Okazaki 444–8787 Japan; 46Graduate School of
Pharmaceutical Sciences, Nagoya City University, 3–1 Tanabe-dori, Mizuhoku, Nagoya 467–8603 Japan; 47Medical & Biological Laboratories
Co., Ltd, 2-22-8 Chikusa, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya 464–0858 Japan; 48National Institute for Biological Standards and Control, Blanche Lane, South
Mimms, Potters Bar, Hertfordshire EN6 3QG United Kingdom; 49Division of Biological Chemistry & Biologicals, National Institute of Health
Sciences, 1-18-1 Kamiyoga, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo 158–8501 Japan; 50New England Biolabs, Inc., 240 County Road, Ipswich, Massachusetts
01938; 51New York University, 100 Washington Square East New York City, New York 10003; 52Target Discovery Institute, Nuffield Department
of Medicine, University of Oxford, Roosevelt Drive, Oxford, OX3 7FZ, United Kingdom; 53GlycoScience Group, The National Institute for
Bioprocessing Research and Training, Fosters Avenue, Mount Merrion, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland; 54Department of Chemistry, North
Carolina State University, 2620 Yarborough Drive Raleigh, North Carolina 27695; 55Pantheon, 201 College Road East Princeton, New Jersey
08540; 56Pfizer Inc., 1 Burtt Road Andover, Massachusetts 01810; 57Proteodynamics, ZI La Varenne 20–22 rue Henri et Gilberte Goudier 63200
RIOM, France; 58ProZyme, Inc., 3832 Bay Center Place Hayward, California 94545; 59Koichi Tanaka Mass Spectrometry Research Laboratory,
Shimadzu Corporation, 1 Nishinokyo Kuwabara-cho Nakagyo-ku, Kyoto, 604 8511 Japan; 60Children’s GMP LLC, St. Jude Children’s
Research Hospital, 262 Danny Thomas Place Memphis, Tennessee 38105; 61Sumitomo Bakelite Co., Ltd., 1–5 Muromati 1-Chome, Nishiku,
Kobe, 651–2241 Japan; 62Synthon Biopharmaceuticals, Microweg 22 P.O. Box 7071, 6503 GN Nijmegen, The Netherlands; 63Takeda
Pharmaceuticals International Co., 40 Landsdowne Street Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139; 64Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry,
Texas Tech University, 2500 Broadway, Lubbock, Texas 79409; 65Thermo Fisher Scientific, 1214 Oakmead Parkway Sunnyvale, California
94085; 66United States Pharmacopeia India Pvt. Ltd. IKP Knowledge Park, Genome Valley, Shamirpet, Turkapally Village, Medchal District,
Hyderabad 500 101 Telangana, India; 67Alberta Glycomics Centre, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2G2 Canada; 68Department
of Chemistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2G2 Canada; 69Department of Chemistry, University of California, One Shields Ave,
Davis, California 95616; 70Horva´ th Csaba Memorial Laboratory for Bioseparation Sciences, Research Center for Molecular Medicine, Doctoral
School of Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Egyetem ter 1, Hungary; 71Translational Glycomics
Research Group, Research Institute of Biomolecular and Chemical Engineering, University of Pannonia, Veszprem, Egyetem ut 10, Hungary;
72Delaware Biotechnology Institute, University of Delaware, 15 Innovation Way Newark, Delaware 19711; 73Proteomics Core Facility, University
of Gothenburg, Medicinaregatan 1G SE 41390 Gothenburg, Sweden; 74Department of Medical Biochemistry and Cell Biology, University of
Gothenburg, Institute of Biomedicine, Sahlgrenska Academy, Medicinaregatan 9A, Box 440, 405 30, Gothenburg, Sweden; 75Department of
Clinical Chemistry and Transfusion Medicine, Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Bruna Straket 16, 41345 Gothenburg,
Sweden; 76Department of Chemistry, University of Hamburg, Martin Luther King Pl. 6 20146 Hamburg, Germany; 77Department of Chemistry,
University of Manitoba, 144 Dysart Road, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada R3T 2N2; 78Laboratory of Mass Spectrometry of Interactions and
Systems, University of Strasbourg, UMR Unistra-CNRS 7140, France; 79Natural and Medical Sciences Institute, University of Tu¨ bingen,
Markwiesenstrae 55, 72770 Reutlingen, Germany; 80Bijvoet Center for Biomolecular Research and Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical
Sciences, Utrecht University, Padualaan 8, 3584 CH Utrecht, The Netherlands; 81Division of Bioanalytical Chemistry, Amsterdam Institute for
Molecules, Medicines and Systems, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, de Boelelaan 1085, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands; 82Department
of Chemistry, Waters Corporation, 34 Maple Street Milford, Massachusetts 01757; 83Zoetis, 333 Portage St. Kalamazoo, Michigan 49007
Author’s Choice—Final version open access under the terms of the Creative Commons CC-BY license.
Received July 24, 2019, and in revised form, August 26, 2019
Published, MCP Papers in Press, October 7, 2019, DOI 10.1074/mcp.RA119.001677
ER: NISTmAb Glycosylation Interlaboratory Study
12 Molecular & Cellular Proteomics 19.1
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ted a total of 103 reports on glycan distributions. The
principal objective of this study was to report and compare
results for the full range of analytical methods presently
used in the glycosylation analysis of mAbs. Therefore,
participation was unrestricted, with laboratories
choosing their own measurement techniques. Protein glycosylation
was determined in various ways, including at
the level of intact mAb, protein fragments, glycopeptides,
or released glycans, using a wide variety of methods for
derivatization, separation, identification, and quantification.
Consequently, the diversity of results was enormous,
with the number of glycan compositions identified by
each laboratory ranging from 4 to 48. In total, one hundred
sixteen glycan compositions were reported, of which 57
compositions could be assigned consensus abundance
values. These consensus medians provide communityderived
values for NISTmAb PS. Agreement with the consensus
medians did not depend on the specific method or
laboratory type. The study provides a view of the current
state-of-the-art for biologic glycosylation measurement
and suggests a clear need for harmonization of glycosylation
analysis methods. Molecular & Cellular Proteomics
19: 11–30, 2020. DOI: 10.1074/mcp.RA119.001677.L
Experimental Frequency Tuning Methodology of a Cantilever Piezoelectric Harvester Validated in a Multimodal Transportation
Piezoelectric energy harvesting is a promising technology that increases the autonomy of low power IoT devices in scenarios that are subjected to mechanical vibrations. This work shows the potential of this technology to power IoT devices with the energy that is harvested from vibrations occurred during air and road transportation. Adjusting the natural resonance frequency of the piezoelectric generator (PEG) to the mechanical acceleration frequency that has the highest power spectral density is key to increase the harvested energy. Therefore, in this work a commercial PEG is tuned to the best spectrogram frequency of a real vibration signal following a two-phase tuning process. The harvested power generated by the PEG has been validated in real scenarios, providing 2.4 μ Wh during flight (take-off, cruise flight, and landing), 11.3 μ Wh during truck transportation in urban areas, and 4.8 μ Wh during intercity transportation. The PEG has been embedded in an ultra-low power IoT device to validate how much this harvested energy can increase the autonomy in a real scenario that is subjected to similar vibrations. An NFC temperature data logger is developed for perishable products that are transported by air and road transports. The energy harvested by the PEG tuned with the methodology proposed in this work has increased the autonomy of the data logger 16.7% during a real use case of 30 h, which validates the potential of the piezoelectric energy harvesting technology to increase the autonomy of future low power IoT devices used in scenarios with aperiodic vibrations
WebTag: Web Browsing into Sensor Tags over NFC
Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) continue to overcome many of the challenges related to wireless sensor monitoring, such as for example the design of smarter embedded processors, the improvement of the network architectures, the development of efficient communication protocols or the maximization of the life cycle autonomy. This work tries to improve the communication link of the data transmission in wireless sensor monitoring. The upstream communication link is usually based on standard IP technologies, but the downstream side is always masked with the proprietary protocols used for the wireless link (like ZigBee, Bluetooth, RFID, <em>etc</em>.). This work presents a novel solution (WebTag) for a direct IP based access to a sensor tag over the Near Field Communication (NFC) technology for secure applications. WebTag allows a direct web access to the sensor tag by means of a standard web browser, it reads the sensor data, configures the sampling rate and implements IP based security policies. It is, definitely, a new step towards the evolution of the Internet of Things paradigm
Analysis of Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells from Thoracic Aortic Aneurysms Reveals DNA Damage and Cell Cycle Arrest as Hallmarks in Bicuspid Aortic Valve Patients.
Thoracic aortic aneurysm (TAA) is mainly sporadic and with higher incidence in the presence of a bicuspid aortic valve (BAV) for unknown reasons. The lack of drug therapy to delay TAA progression lies in the limited knowledge of pathophysiology. We aimed to identify the molecular hallmarks that differentiate the aortic dilatation associated with BAV and tricuspid aortic valve (TAV). Aortic vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) isolated from sporadic TAA patients with BAV or TAV were analyzed by mass spectrometry. DNA oxidative damage assay and cell cycle profiling were performed in three independent cohorts supporting proteomics data. The alteration of secreted proteins was confirmed in plasma. Stress phenotype, oxidative stress, and enhanced DNA damage response (increased S-phase arrest and apoptosis) were found in BAV-TAA patients. The increased levels of plasma C1QTNF5, LAMA2, THSB3, and FAP confirm the enhanced stress in BAV-TAA. Plasma FAP and BGN point to an increased inflammatory condition in TAV. The arterial wall of BAV patients shows a limited capacity to counteract drivers of sporadic TAA. The molecular pathways identified support the need of differential molecular diagnosis and therapeutic approaches for BAV and TAV patients, showing specific markers in plasma which may serve to monitor therapy efficacy.This study was supported by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III
with cofunding from the ERDF (PI20/01103, CP22/00100,
FI21/00128, IF08/3667-1, PI21/00158, PRB3[IPT17/0019-
ISCIII-SGEFI/ERDF], RD16/0009, RD21/0005/0001), the
Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities
(PGC2018-097019-B-I00 and PID2021-122348NB-I00), Getinge Group Spain SL, CAM (PEJ-2020-AI/BMD-17899,
PEJD-2019-PRE/BMD-16992, 2018-T2/BMD-11561, PIPF2022/SAL-GL-25760), Fundacioń SENEFRO/SEN, Fundacioń Mutua Madrileña and Fundacioń Conchita Rabago ́ de
Jimenez ́ Dí
az, and “la Caixa” Banking Foundation (project
codes HR17-00247 and HR22-00253). The CNIC is supported by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), the
Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacioń (MCIN), and the Pro
CNIC Foundation) and is a Severo Ochoa Center of
Excellence (grant CEX2020-001041-S funded by MICIN/
AEI/10.13039/501100011033).S