Pt(IV)-based nanoscale coordination polymers : antitumor activity, cellular uptake and interactions with nuclear DNA

Cisplatin has been for many years the gold standard chemotherapeutic drug for the treatment of a wide range of solid tumors, even though its use is commonly associated with serious side effects including non-selective toxicity, myelosuppression or development of cisplatin resistance, among others complications. Over the last decade, a number of nanoparticle formulations were developed to reduce its side effects and improve the selectivity and efficacy of this drug. In this study, we have developed a novel nanoparticle platform based on nanoscale coordination polymer named (Zn-Pt(IV)-NCPs) which contains a Pt(IV) prodrug, Zn and the linker ligand 1,4-Bis(imidazol-1-ylmethyl)benzene (bix). The main objective has been to gain insights into the mechanism of action of this nanostructured material in comparison with cisplatin and the free Pt(IV) prodrug in order to establish a correlation between nanostructuration and therapeutic activity. Zn-Pt(IV)-NCPs nanoparticles displayed an average size close to 200 nm as determined by DLS, a good stability in physiologic environments, and a controlled drug release of Pt. In vitro studies demonstrated that Pt(IV)-NCPs showed an enhanced cytotoxic effect against cell culture of cervical cancer, neuroblastoma and human adenocarcinoma cells in comparison with free Pt(IV) prodrug. Although no difference in cell uptake of Pt was observed for any of the three cell lines assayed, a higher amount of Pt bound to the DNA was found in the cells treated with the nanostructured Pt(IV) prodrug. These studies suggest that the nanostructuration of the prodrug facilitate its activation and induce a change in the mechanism of action related to an increased interaction with the DNA as corroborated by the studies of direct interaction of the Pt(IV) prodrug, nanostructured or not, with DNA

IFE Plant Technology Overview and contribution to HiPER proposal

HiPER is the European Project for Laser Fusion that has been able to join 26 institutions and signed under formal government agreement by 6 countries inside the ESFRI Program of the European Union (EU). The project is already extended by EU for two years more (until 2013) after its first preparatory phase from 2008. A large work has been developed in different areas to arrive to a design of repetitive operation of Laser Fusion Reactor, and decisions are envisioned in the next phase of Technology Development or Risk Reduction for Engineering or Power Plant facilities (or both). Chamber design has been very much completed for Engineering phase and starting of preliminary options for Reactor Power Plant have been established and review here

FLEX (Fluorescence Explorer) mission: Observation fluorescence as a new remote sensing technique to study the global terrestrial vegetation state

Revista oficial de la Asociación Española de Teledetección[EN] FLEX (Fluorescence EXplorer) is a candidate for the 8th ESA’s Earth Explorer mission. Is the first space mission specifically designed for the estimation of vegetation fluorescence on a global scale. The mission is proposed to fly in tandem with the future ESA´s Sentinel-3 satellite. It is foreseen that the information obtained by Sentinel-3 will be supplemented with that provided by FLORIS (Fluorescence Imaging Spectrometer) onboard FLEX. FLORIS will measure the radiance between 500 and 800 nm with a bandwidth between 0.1 nm and 2 nm, providing images with a 150 km swath and 300 m pixel size. This information will allow a detailed monitoring of vegetation dynamics, by improving the methods for the estimation of classical biophysical parameters, and by introducing a new one: fluorescence. This paper presents the current status of FLEX mission in A/B1 phase and the different ongoing studies, campaigns and projects carried out in support of the FLEX mission.[ES] La misión FLEX (FLuorescence EXplorer) candidata del programa “Earth Explorer” de la ESA, es la primera misión espacial diseñada específicamente para la estimación de la fluorescencia de la vegetación a escala global. La propuesta incluye que FLEX vuele en tándem con el futuro Sentinel-3 de la ESA. La información proporcionada por los sensores de Sentinel-3 será complementada con la proporcionada por FLORIS (FLuORescence Imaging Spectrometer) a bordo de FLEX, que medirá la radiancia entre 500 y 800 nm con una anchura de bandas entre 0,1 nm y 2 nm, proporcionando imágenes con un ancho de barrido de 150 km y tamaño de pixel de 300 m. Esta información permitirá el estudio detallado de la vegetación con métodos mejorados para la estimación de parámetros biofísicos clásicos y la introducción de nuevos parámetros biofísicos como la fluorescencia. En este trabajo se muestra el estado actual de la misión FLEX en fase A/B1 y de los distintos estudios, campañas y proyectos que se están llevando a cabo en torno a la misión FLEX.Este trabajo ha sido posible gracias al Proyecto AYA2010-21432-C02-01 (BIOFLEX) subvencionado por el Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad de España.Moreno, J.; Alonso, L.; Delegido, J.; Rivera, J.; Ruiz-Verdú, A.; Sabater, N.; Tenjo, C.... (2014). Misión FLEX (Fluorescence Explorer): Observación de la fluorescencia por teledetección como nueva técnica de estudio del estado de la vegetación terrestre a escala global. Revista de Teledetección. (41):111-119. https://doi.org/10.4995/raet.2014.2296SWORD11111941Meroni, M., Rossini, M., Guanter, L., Alonso, L., Rascher, U., Colombo, R., & Moreno, J. (2009). Remote sensing of solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence: Review of methods and applications. Remote Sensing of Environment, 113(10), 2037-2051. doi:10.1016/j.rse.2009.05.003Van der Tol, C., Verhoef, W., Timmermans, J., Verhoef, A., & Su, Z. (2009). An integrated model of soil-canopy spectral radiances, photosynthesis, fluorescence, temperature and energy balance. Biogeosciences, 6(12), 3109-3129. doi:10.5194/bg-6-3109-200

Características metodológicas de las evaluaciones de tecnologías sanitarias elaboradas en Perú, 2019-2021

Background: Limitations have been reported to comply with good methodological practices in the development of health technology assessments (HTA). Therefore, the objective of the present study was to describe the methodological characteristics of the HTAs carried out in Peru, between 2019-2021. Methods: Descriptive study. We are looking for Peruvian institutions that prepare HTAs whose reports are accessible to the public. We collected the total number of HTAs produced by these institutions per year, and we collected the characteristics of the HTAs produced during the 2019-2021 period. Results: Three Peruvian institutions developed at least three public HTAs between 2019-2021: The Institute for the Evaluation of Technologies in Health and Research (IETSI) (n=142), the Unit for the Analysis and Generation of Evidence in Public Health (UNAGESP) (n=60), and the National Institute of Neoplastic Diseases (INEN) (n=40). The HTAs of UNAGESP did not reach a decision, while 35.9% of those of IETSI and 70.0% of those of INEN concluded in favor of the evaluated technology. All STDs explained the methodology used and performed systematic searches. However, few presented the risk of bias assessment of the included studies (17.4%), the certainty of the evidence (4.6%), or the benefits and harms per outcome (14.4%). None of the HTAs carried out cost studies or made explicit the methodology used to reach the decision. Conclusions: The HTAs evaluated presented favorable methodological aspects and certain shortcomings (in topics such as the report in the evaluation of risk of bias and certainty of the evidence, presentation of benefits and harms by outcome, and explanation of the methodology used to make decisions).Introducción: Se han reportado limitaciones para cumplir con buenas prácticas metodológicas en el desarrollo de evaluaciones de tecnologías sanitarias (ETS). Por ello, el objetivo del presente estudio fue describir las características metodológicas de las ETS elaboradas en Perú, entre 2019-2021. Métodos: Estudio descriptivo. Buscamos las instituciones peruanas que elaboren ETS cuyos informes sean accesibles al público. Recolectamos el número total de ETS que elaboraron estas instituciones por año, y recolectamos las características de las ETS elaboradas durante el periodo 2019-2021. Resultados: Tres instituciones peruanas elaboraron al menos tres ETS públicas entre 2019-2021: El Instituto de Evaluación de Tecnologías en Salud e Investigación (IETSI) (n=142), la Unidad de Análisis y Generación de Evidencias en Salud Pública (UNAGESP) (n=60), y el Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Neoplásicas (INEN) (n=40). Las ETS de UNAGESP no brindaron una decisión, mientras que 35,9% de las de IETSI y 70,0% de las de INEN concluyeron a favor de la tecnología evaluada. Todas las ETS explicaron la metodología usada y realizaron búsquedas sistemáticas. Sin embargo, pocas presentaron la evaluación de riesgo de sesgo de los estudios incluidos (17,4%), la certeza de la evidencia (4,6%), o los beneficios y daños por desenlace (14,4%). Ninguna ETS realizó estudios de costos ni explicitó la metodología usada para llegar a la decisión. Conclusiones: Las ETS evaluadas presentaron aspectos metodológicos favorables y ciertas falencias (en temas como el reporte en la evaluación de riesgo de sesgo y certeza de la evidencia, presentación de beneficios y daños por desenlace, y explicitación de la metodología usada para tomar decisiones)

Reduced injury risk links sociality to survival in a group-living primate

This is the final version. Available on open access from Cell Press via the DOI in this recordData and code availability: Data have been deposited at Mendeley Data and are publicly available as of the date of publication. DOI is listed in the key resources table. All original code has been deposited on GitHub and is publicly available as of the date of publication. The link is listed in the key resources table. Any additional information required to reanalyze the data reported in this paper is available from the lead contact upon request.Sociality has been linked to a longer lifespan in many mammals, including humans. Yet, how sociality results in survival benefits remains unclear. Using 10 years of data and over 1,000 recorded injuries in rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta), we tested two injury-related mechanisms by which social status and affiliative partners might influence survival. Injuries increased individual risk of death by 3-fold in this dataset. We found that sociality can affect individuals’ survival by reducing their risk of injury but had no effect on the probability of injured individuals dying. Both males and females of high social status (measured as female matrilineal rank and male group tenure) and females with more affiliative partners (estimated using the number of female relatives) experienced fewer injuries and thus were less likely to die. Collectively, our results offer rare insights into one mechanism that can mediate the well-known benefits of sociality on an individual’s fitness.ANID-Chilean scholarshipNational Institutes of Health (NIH)European Research Council (ERC)MacCracken FellowshipNational Science Foundation (NSF

Reduced injury risk links sociality to survival in a group-living primate

Sociality has been linked to a longer lifespan in many mammals, including humans. Yet, how sociality results in survival benefits remains unclear. Using 10 years of data and over 1,000 recorded injuries in rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta), we tested two injury-related mechanisms by which social status and affiliative partners might influence survival. Injuries increased individual risk of death by 3-fold in this dataset. We found that sociality can affect individuals’ survival by reducing their risk of injury but had no effect on the probability of injured individuals dying. Both males and females of high social status (measured as female matrilineal rank and male group tenure) and females with more affiliative partners (estimated using the number of female relatives) experienced fewer injuries and thus were less likely to die. Collectively, our results offer rare insights into one mechanism that can mediate the well-known benefits of sociality on an individual’s fitness

Plasma–wall interaction in laser inertial fusion reactors: novel proposals for radiation tests of first wall materials

Dry-wall laser inertial fusion (LIF) chambers will have to withstand strong bursts of fast charged particles which will deposit tens of kJ m−2 and implant more than 1018 particles m−2 in a few microseconds at a repetition rate of some Hz. Large chamber dimensions and resistant plasma-facing materials must be combined to guarantee the chamber performance as long as possible under the expected threats: heating, fatigue, cracking, formation of defects, retention of light species, swelling and erosion. Current and novel radiation resistant materials for the first wall need to be validated under realistic conditions. However, at present there is a lack of facilities which can reproduce such ion environments. This contribution proposes the use of ultra-intense lasers and high-intense pulsed ion beams (HIPIB) to recreate the plasma conditions in LIF reactors. By target normal sheath acceleration, ultra-intense lasers can generate very short and energetic ion pulses with a spectral distribution similar to that of the inertial fusion ion bursts, suitable to validate fusion materials and to investigate the barely known propagation of those bursts through background plasmas/gases present in the reactor chamber. HIPIB technologies, initially developed for inertial fusion driver systems, provide huge intensity pulses which meet the irradiation conditions expected in the first wall of LIF chambers and thus can be used for the validation of materials too

On the performance of online and offline green path establishment techniques

© 2015, Ruiz-Rivera et al. To date, significant effort has gone into designing green traffic engineering (TE) techniques that consolidate traffic onto the minimal number of links/switches/routers during off-peak periods. However, little works exist that aim to green Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) capable networks. Critically, no work has studied the performance of green label switched paths (LSPs) establishment methods in terms of energy savings and acceptance rates. Henceforth, we add to the current state-of-the-art by studying green online and offline (LSP) establishment methods. Online methods rely only on past and current LSP requests while offline ones act as a theoretical benchmark whereby they also have available to them future LSP requests. We introduce a novel metric that takes into account both energy savings and acceptance rates. We also identify a new simpler heuristic that minimizes energy use by routing source–destination demands over paths that contain established links and require the fewest number of new links. Our evaluation of two offline and four online LSP establishment methods over the Abilene and AT&T topologies with random LSP setup requests show that energy savings beyond 20 % are achievable with LSP acceptance rates above 90 %

Vanadium Inhalation in a Mouse Model for the Understanding of Air-Suspended Particle Systemic Repercussion

There is an increased concern about the health effects that air-suspended particles have on human health which have been dissected in animal models. Using CD-1 mouse, we explore the effects that vanadium inhalation produce in different tissues and organs. Our findings support the systemic effects of air pollution. In this paper, we describe our findings in different organs in our conditions and contrast our results with the literature