HARAPAN DAN MASA DEPAN ANAK·ANAK YANG MENGALAMI PENYAKIT GINJAL

Nefrologi adalah ilmu yang mempelajari fungsi ginjal, sebagai akibat penyakit yang menyerang ginjal, dengan konsekuensi terganggunya fungsi ginjal. N efrologi pediatri memfokuskan diri pada penyakit ginjal pada anak-anak mulai dad bayi baru lahir, masa kanak-kanak dan remaja hingga masuk masa dewasanya. Ginjal berfungsi untuk mempertahankan volume dan komposisi cairan tubuh, terutama cairan ekstra seluler, serta fungsi-fungsi endokrin dan metabolik. Oleh karena itu disiplin ilmu nefrologi tidak hanya meliputi fisiologi pengaturan volume dan fisikokimiawi saja, tapijuga semua faktor-faktor lain yang mempengaruhinya.1 Pengetahuan manusia tentang penyakit ginjal sebenarnya telah tua sekali. Sejak zaman Hippocrates, abad kelima sebelum Masehi, para perintis kedokteran di zaman itu telah mampu mendeteksi adanya penyakit ginjal. N amun baru pada abad 16 tulisan tentang penyaki~ ginjal pada anak mulai dipublikasikan. Pengetahuan tentang penyakit ginjal terus berkembang dengan pesat dari abad ke abad, di mana pada tahun 1820 terbentuklah embrio ilmu penyakit ginjal pada anak yang disebut sebagai Childhood Renal Diseases. Baru pada tahun 1950 dicanangkanlah Pediatric Nephrology yaitu ilmu penyakit ginjal anak sebagai suatu disiplin ilmu

Recent Advances in Angiogenesis Assessment Methods and their Clinical Applications

Angiogenesis, a natural phenomenon of developing new blood vessels, is an integral part of normal developmental processes as well as numerous pathological states in humans. The angiogenic assays are reliable predictors of certain pathologies in particular tumor growth, metastasis, inflammation, wound healing, tissue regeneration, ischemia, cardiovascular, and ocular diseases. The angiogenic inducer and inhibitor studies rely on both in vivo and in vitro angiogenesis methods, and various animal models are also standardized to assess qualitative and quantitative angiogenesis. Analogously, the discovery and development of anti-angiogenic agents are also based on the choice of suitable angiogenic assays and potential drug targeted sites within the angiogenic process. Similarly, the selection of cell types and compatible experimental conditions resembling the angiogenic disease being studied are also potential challenging tasks in recent angiogenesis studies. The imaging analysis systems for data acquisition from in vivo, in vitro, and in ova angiogenesis assay to preclinic, and clinical research also requires novel but easy-to-use tools and well-established protocols. The proposition of this pragmatic book chapter overviews the recent advances in angiogenesis assessment methods and discusses their applications in numerous disease pathogenesis

In silico characterisation of the complete Ly6 protein family in Fasciola gigantica supported through transcriptomics of the newly-excysted juveniles

Fasciola gigantica is one of the aetiological trematodes associated with fascioliasis, which heavily impacts food-production systems and human and animal welfare on a global scale. In the absence of a vaccine, fascioliasis control and treatment is restricted to pasture management, such as clean grazing, and a limited array of chemotherapies, to which signs of resistance are beginning to appear. Research into novel control strategies is therefore urgently required and the advent of ‘omics technologies presents considerable opportunity for novel drug and vaccine target discovery. Here, interrogation of the first available F. gigantica newly excysted juvenile (NEJ) transcriptome revealed several protein families of current interest to parasitic flatworm vaccine research, including orthologues of mammalian complement regulator CD59 of the Ly6 family. Ly6 proteins have previously been identified on the tegument of Schistosoma mansoni and induced protective immunity in vaccination trials. Incorporating the recently available F. gigantica genome, the current work revealed 20 novel Ly6 family members in F. gigantica and, in parallel, significantly extended the F. hepatica complement from 3 to 18 members. Phylogenetic analysis revealed several distinct clades within the family, some of which are unique to Fasciola spp. trematodes. Analysis of available proteomic databases also revealed three of the newly discovered FhLy6s were present in extracellular vesicles, which have previously been prioritised in studying the host-parasite interface. The presentation of this new transcriptomic resource, in addition to the Ly6 family proteins here identified, represents a wealth of opportunity for future vaccine research

Boosting contact sliding and wear protection via atomic intermixing and tailoring of nanoscale interfaces

Friction and wear cause energy wastage and system failure. Usually, thicker overcoats serve to combat such tribological concerns, but in many contact sliding systems, their large thickness hinders active components of the systems, degrades functionality, and constitutes a major barrier for technological developments. While sub-10-nm overcoats are of key interest, traditional overcoats suffer from rapid wear and degradation at this thickness regime. Using an enhanced atomic intermixing approach, we develop a similar to 7- to 8-nm-thick carbon/silicon nitride (C/SiNx) multilayer overcoat demonstrating extremely high wear resistance and low friction at all tribological length scales, yielding similar to 2 to 10 times better macroscale wear durability than previously reported thicker (similar to 20 to 100 nm) overcoats on tape drive heads. We report the discovery of many fundamental parameters that govern contact sliding and reveal how tuning atomic intermixing at interfaces and varying carbon and SiNx thicknesses strongly affect friction and wear, which are crucial for advancing numerous technologies

Solution Processable High Performance Multiwall Carbon Nanotube-Si Heterojunctions

10.1002/aelm.202000617ADVANCED ELECTRONIC MATERIALS61