High temperature heat treatment of B precursor and P.I.T. process optimization to increase Jc performances of MgB2-based conductor

Promising results reported in our previous works led us to think that production of B powder plays a crucial role in MgB2 synthesis. A new method for boron preparation has been developed in our laboratory. This particular process is based on magnesiothermic reaction (Moissan process) with the addition of an initial step that gives boron powder with nano-metric grain size. In this paper we report our efforts regarding optimization of PIT method for these nanometric powders and the resolution of problems previously highlighted such as the difficulty in powder packaging and the high friction phenomena occurring during cold working. This increases cracking during the tape and wire manufacturing leading to its failure. Packaging problems are related to the amorphous nature of boron synthesized in our laboratory, so a crystallization treatment was applied to improve crystallinity of B powder. To prevent excessive friction phenomena we synthesized non-stoichiometric MgB2 and using magnesium as lubricant. Our goal is the Jc improvement, but a global physical-chemical characterization was also made to analyze the improvement given by our treatments: this characterization includes X-ray diffraction, resistivity vs. temperature measurement, SEM image, besides magnetic and transport Jc measurements.Comment: 15 pages, 11 figure

Molecular classification and biomarkers of clinical outcome in breast ductal carcinoma in situ: Analysis of TBCRC 038 and RAHBT cohorts

Ductal carcinoma in situ; Tumor microenvironment; Whole genome sequencingCarcinoma ductal in situ; Microambiente tumoral; Secuenciación del genoma completoCarcinoma ductal in situ; Microambient tumoral; Seqüenciació del genoma completDuctal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) is the most common precursor of invasive breast cancer (IBC), with variable propensity for progression. We perform multiscale, integrated molecular profiling of DCIS with clinical outcomes by analyzing 774 DCIS samples from 542 patients with 7.3 years median follow-up from the Translational Breast Cancer Research Consortium 038 study and the Resource of Archival Breast Tissue cohorts. We identify 812 genes associated with ipsilateral recurrence within 5 years from treatment and develop a classifier that predicts DCIS or IBC recurrence in both cohorts. Pathways associated with recurrence include proliferation, immune response, and metabolism. Distinct stromal expression patterns and immune cell compositions are identified. Our multiscale approach employed in situ methods to generate a spatially resolved atlas of breast precancers, where complementary modalities can be directly compared and correlated with conventional pathology findings, disease states, and clinical outcome.This publication is part of the HTAN (Human Tumor Atlas Network) Consortium paper package. A list of HTAN members is available at humantumoratlas.org/htan-authors/. R01 CA185138-01 (E.S.H.); U2C CA-17-035 Pre-Cancer Atlas (PCA) Research Centers (E.S.H., R.B.W., C.M., K.P., G.A.C., K.O.); UO1 CA214183 (J.R.M.); DOD BC132057 (E.S.H., C.M.); BCRF 19-074 (E.S.H.); BCRF 19-028 (G.A.C.); PRECISION CRUK Grand Challenge (E.S.H.); R01CA193694 (R.B.W., G.A.C.), BCRF PPI-18-006 (R.B.W.). AEI RYC2019- 026576-I, "LaCaixa" Foundation LCF/PR/PR17/51120011 (J.A.S.). S.H.S. was supported by the Lundbeck Foundation (R288-2018-35) and the Danish Cancer Society (R229-A13616). K.E.H. was supported by a CIHR Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship. TBCRC 038 was conducted by the TBCRC, which receives major funding support from The Breast Cancer Research Foundation and Susan G. Komen. Some results in this paper are based upon data generated by the TCGA Research Network

Grain size determination of superconducting MgB2 powders from magnetization curve, image analysis and surface area measurement

The present article reports a method for the average grain size evaluation of superconducting nano-particles through their magnetic properties. The use of SQUID magnetometry to determine the average MgB2 particle size was investigated and the results compared with those achieved through other techniques. In particular the data obtained from zero field cooled magnetization measurement as function of the temperature were compared with the results obtained by scanning electron microscopy and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller techniques. The particle magnetization was measured by a commercial SQUID magnetometer in magnetic field (1 mT) and temperatures ranging from 5 to 50 K dispersing the powders in a grease medium. The grain size is obtained by fitting the data taking into account the Ginzburg-Landau temperature dependence of the London penetration depth. Variations on typical modeling parameters were explored in order to gain a better picture of the average grain size and the effectiveness of various measurement techniques. We find that it is possible to use the magnetization measurements to determine the average grain size even if the SEM image analysis allows extracting more information about the grain size distribution. Furthermore a Matlab routine has been developed in order to get automatic analysis of SEM images.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figures, 5 table

Il Numero 0 del primo giornale online della Cattedra Unesco in \u201cAntropologia della Salute. Biosfera e Sistemi di Cura\u201d

Il presente contributo intende raccontare l\u2019origine e lo sviluppo di un progetto di promozione della diversit\ue0 culturale, di dialogo interculturale e di accesso alla cultura (Decisione UE 864/2017, Art. 2.1.a). Un progetto che mira a fortificare, direttamente e indirettamente, processi di pace (Decisione UE 864/2017, Art. 2.2.k), facilitando la creazione di contatti tra i gruppi etnici e religiosi, rafforzando l\u2019identit\ue0 culturale e l\u2019apertura verso il prossimo, eliminando stereotipi spesso causa di tensioni sociali, etniche o religiose, e garantendo a tutti il diritto di accedere alla cultura (Decisione UE 864/2017, Art. 2.2.d), in accordo con le Linee Guida della Cooperazione Italiana su Patrimonio Culturale e Sviluppo

Father-to-daughter transmission in late-onset OTC deficiency: an underestimated mechanism of inheritance of an X-linked disease

BACKGROUND Ornithine Transcarbamylase Deficiency (OTCD) is an X-linked urea cycle disorder characterized by acute hyperammonemic episodes. Hemizygous males are usually affected by a severe/fatal neonatal-onset form or, less frequently, by a late-onset form with milder disease course, depending on the residual enzymatic activity. Hyperammonemia can occur any time during life and patients could remain non- or mis-diagnosed due to unspecific symptoms. In heterozygous females, clinical presentation varies based on the extent of X chromosome inactivation. Maternal transmission in X-linked disease is the rule, but in late-onset OTCD, due to the milder phenotype of affected males, paternal transmission to the females is possible. So far, father-to-daughter transmission of OTCD has been reported only in 4 Japanese families. RESULTS We identified in 2 Caucasian families, paternal transmission of late-onset OTCD with severe/fatal outcome in affected males and 1 heterozygous female. Furthermore, we have reassessed the pedigrees of other published reports in 7 additional families with evidence of father-to-daughter inheritance of OTCD, identifying and listing the family members for which this transmission occurred. CONCLUSIONS Our study highlights how the diagnosis and pedigree analysis of late-onset OTCD may represent a real challenge for clinicians. Therefore, the occurrence of paternal transmission in OTCD should not be underestimated, due to the relevant implications for disease inheritance and risk of recurrence

Response to “prognostic biomarkers in oral leukoplakia”

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/152757/1/odi13185.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/152757/2/odi13185_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/152757/3/odi13185-sup-0001-AppendixS1.pd

Summaries of plenary, symposia, and oral sessions at the XXII World Congress of Psychiatric Genetics, Copenhagen, Denmark, 12-16 October 2014

The XXII World Congress of Psychiatric Genetics, sponsored by the International Society of Psychiatric Genetics, took place in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 12-16 October 2014. A total of 883 participants gathered to discuss the latest findings in the field. The following report was written by student and postdoctoral attendees. Each was assigned one or more sessions as a rapporteur. This manuscript represents topics covered in most, but not all of the oral presentations during the conference, and contains some of the major notable new findings reported

Language production impairments in patients with a first episode of psychosis

Language production has often been described as impaired in psychiatric diseases such as in psychosis. Nevertheless, little is known about the characteristics of linguistic difficulties and their relation with other cognitive domains in patients with a first episode of psychosis (FEP), either affective or non-affective. To deepen our comprehension of linguistic profile in FEP, 133 patients with FEP (95 non-affective, FEP-NA; 38 affective, FEP-A) and 133 healthy controls (HC) were assessed with a narrative discourse task. Speech samples were systematically analyzed with a well-established multilevel procedure investigating both micro- (lexicon, morphology, syntax) and macro-linguistic (discourse coherence, pragmatics) levels of linguistic processing. Executive functioning and IQ were also evaluated. Both linguistic and neuropsychological measures were secondarily implemented with a machine learning approach in order to explore their predictive accuracy in classifying participants as FEP or HC. Compared to HC, FEP patients showed language production difficulty at both micro- and macro-linguistic levels. As for the former, FEP produced shorter and simpler sentences and fewer words per minute, along with a reduced number of lexical fillers, compared to HC. At the macro-linguistic level, FEP performance was impaired in local coherence, which was paired with a higher percentage of utterances with semantic errors. Linguistic measures were not correlated with any neuropsychological variables. No significant differences emerged between FEP-NA and FEP-A (p≥0.02, after Bonferroni correction). Machine learning analysis showed an accuracy of group prediction of 76.36% using language features only, with semantic variables being the most impactful. Such a percentage was enhanced when paired with clinical and neuropsychological variables. Results confirm the presence of language production deficits already at the first episode of the illness, being such impairment not related to other cognitive domains. The high accuracy obtained by the linguistic set of features in classifying groups support the use of machine learning methods in neuroscience investigations

Consolidación de un sistema de producción in vitro de piel humana para pacientes con diversas afecciones epidérmicas.

Proyecto de Investigación. Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica. Escuela de Biología. Centro de Investigación en Biotecnología (CIB). Laboratorio de Ingeniería de Tejidos (LAINTEC); Hospital Nacional de Niños. Servicio de Dermatología, Laboratorio de Citogenética, Unidad de Quemados; Hospital San Juan de Dios. Servicio de radioterapia, Unidad de Quemados, Clínica Unidad Nacional de Quemados; Hospital México. Servicio de Dermatología y Alergología, 2009Durante los últimos, investigadores del Centro de Investigación en Biotecnología (CIB, ITCR) y personal médico de la CCSS, han colaborado para el desarrollo de tratamientos terapéuticos innovadores para mejorar la calidad de vida de pacientes con afecciones epidérmicas. A la fecha, no existe un tratamiento de reepitelización efectiva en Costa Rica. Alternativamente, el cultivo de células epidérmicas para el tratamiento de afecciones de la piel se realiza con éxito en otros países. Este procedimiento implica el cultivo in vitro de fibroblastos y queratinocitos humanos, donde las células obtenidas y amplificadas se re-injertan al paciente para tratar la zona afectada, posibilitando una recuperación más rápida y efectiva, lo que incidiría en mejorar su calidad de vida y en la disminución de costos hospitalarios. Mediante esta estrategia, se ha iniciado en el Laboratorio de Ingeniería de Tejidos del CIB del ITCR el establecimiento de protocolos de cultivo de fibroblastos y queratinocitos humanos. Los protocolos de irradiación, criopreservación y descongelamiento han sido parcialmente implementados utilizando fibroblastos humanos y murinos. Sin embargo, no se han tratado pacientes con el material cultivado, pues se está a la espera de la aprobación del Comité de Bioética del CENDEISSS. No obstante, los protocolos de cultivo celular han sido adaptados a nuestro medio mediante los resultados de visitas científicas y capacitaciones. Gracias a estas experiencias, el ITCR ha establecido funcional y físicamente dos Laboratorios de Ingeniería de Tejidos, que lo posesionan como pionero en el cultivo in vitro de células epidérmicas con fines terapéuticos en Centro América y el Caribe