Cellulitis at GLP-1 Agonist Injection Site: Rare But Relevant

We present a case of cellulitis complicating with abscess formation as a possible complication of treatment with injectable GLP-1 agonists on a sixty-one-year-old woman. Pus cultures showed isolation of Streptococcus anginosus and clindamycin was started as targeted therapy but absence of improvement prompted a consultation with the surgery department and a manual surgical debridement was performed. A second isolate of Eikenella corrodens, which is frequently resistant to clindamycin, was identified. We opted for a switch to ceftriaxone and after nineteen days, having achieved clinical improvement, plans were made for her to continue to change her wound dressing at her local health center and for a short-term revaluation at a surgery outpatient consultation. Caring for social needs and assuring continuity across multiple care levels can be fundamental in preventing adverse effects from self-injectable drugs.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Robocasting of Cu 2+ & La 3+ doped sol–gel glass scaffolds with greatly enhanced mechanical properties: Compressive strength up to 14 MPa

This research details the successful fabrication of scaffolds by robocasting from high silica sol–gel glass doped with Cu 2+ or La 3+ . The parent HSSGG composition within the system SiO 2 –CaO–Na 2 O–P 2 O 5 [67% Si – 24% Ca – 5% Na – 4% P (mol%)] was doped with 5 wt% Cu 2+ or La 3+ (Cu5 and La5). The paper sheds light on the importance of copper and lanthanum in improving the mechanical properties of the 3–D printed scaffolds. 1 h wet milling was sufficient to obtain a bioglass powder ready to be used in the preparation of a 40 vol% solid loading paste suitable for printing. Moreover, Cu addition showed a small reduction in the mean particle size, while La exhibited a greater reduction, compared with the parent glass. Scaffolds with macroporosity between 300 and 500 µm were successfully printed by robocasting, and then sintered at 800 °C. A small improvement in the compressive strength (7–18%) over the parent glass accompanied the addition of La. However, a much greater improvement in the compressive strength was observed with Cu addition, up to 221% greater than the parent glass, with compressive strength values of up to ∼14 MPa. This enhancement in compressive strength, around the upper limit registered for human cancellous bones, supports the potential use of this material in biomedical applications. Statement of Significance: 3D porous bioactive glass scaffolds with greatly improved compressive strength were fabricated by robocasting from a high silica sol–gel glasses doped with Cu 2+ or La 3+ . In comparison to the parent glass, the mechanical performance of scaffolds was greatly improved by copper-doping (>220%), while a modest increase of ∼9% was registered for lanthanum-doping. Doping ions (particularly La 3+ ) acted as glass modifiers leading to less extents of silica polymerisation. This favoured the milling of the glass powders and the obtaining of smaller mean particle sizes. Pastes with a high solid loading (40 vol%) and with suitable rheological properties for robocasting were prepared from all glass powders. Scaffolds with dimensions of 3 × 3 × 4 mm and macro-pore sizes between 300 and 500 µm were fabricated

Robocasting: Prediction of ink printability in solgel bioactive glass

Bioactive glass powders synthesized by solgel are usually porous and exhibit high specific surface areas, conferring them poor ability for scaffolds fabrication using colloidal processing approaches. The difficulties associated with colloidal processing of solgel glass have hindered so far the processing of 3-D scaffolds by robocasting. This research paper investigates the importance of calcination temperature (CT) and balls to powder ratio (BPR) used upon wet milling on the maximum achievable solid loading in aqueous media. The effects of CT, BPR, and solid loading on the flow behavior and viscoelastic properties of the suspensions/pastes were evaluated in this preliminary work. The aim is to disclose the sets of experimental variables that are most promising for the formulation of printable inks, and open the way for the future fabrication of porous scaffolds by robocasting and other 3-D additive manufacturing techniques

Robocasting of ceramic glass scaffolds: Sol–gel glass, new horizons

This article reports the first robocasting of a sol–gel based glass ceramic scaffold. Sol–gel bioactive glass powders usually exhibit high volume fractions of meso– and micro–porosities, bad for colloidal processing as this adsorbs significant portion of the dispersing medium, affecting dispersion and flow. We circumvent these practical difficulties, to achieve pastes with particle size distributions, high solids loading and appropriate rheological properties for extrusion through fine nozzles for robocasting. Scaffolds with different macro-pore sizes (300–500 μm) with solid loadings up to 40 vol.% were robocast. The sintered (800 °C, 2 h) scaffolds exhibited compressive strength of 2.5–4.8 MPa, formed hydroxyapatite after 72 h in SBF, and had no cytotoxicity and a considerable MG63 cells viability rate. These features make the scaffolds promising candidates for tissue engineering applications and worthy for further in vivo investigations

EUROnu-WP6 2010 Report

This is a summary of the work done by the Working Package 6 (Physics) of the EU project "EUROnu" during the second year of activity of the project.Comment: 82 pages, 51 eps figure

Direct determination of the solar neutrino fluxes from solar neutrino data

We determine the solar neutrino fluxes from a global analysis of the solar and terrestrial neutrino data in the framework of three-neutrino mixing. Using a Bayesian approach we reconstruct the posterior probability distribution function for the eight normalization parameters of the solar neutrino fluxes plus the relevant masses and mixing, with and without imposing the luminosity constraint. This is done by means of a Markov Chain Monte Carlo employing the Metropolis-Hastings algorithm. We also describe how these results can be applied to test the predictions of the Standard Solar Models. Our results show that, at present, both models with low and high metallicity can describe the data with good statistical agreement.Comment: 24 pages, 1 table, 7 figures. Acknowledgments correcte

Testing matter effects in propagation of atmospheric and long-baseline neutrinos

We quantify our current knowledge of the size and flavor structure of the matter effects in the evolution of atmospheric and long-baseline neutrinos based solely on the analysis of the corresponding neutrino data. To this aim we generalize the matter potential of the Standard Model by rescaling its strength, rotating it away from the e-e sector, and rephasing it with respect to the vacuum term. This phenomenological parametrization can be easily translated in terms of non-standard neutrino interactions in matter. We show that in the most general case, the strength of the potential cannot be determined solely by atmospheric and long-baseline data. However its flavor composition is very much constrained and the present determination of the neutrino masses and mixing is robust under its presence. We also present an update of the constraints arising from this analysis in the particular case in which no potential is present in the e-mu and e-tau sectors. Finally we quantify to what degree in this scenario it is possible to alleviate the tension between the oscillation results for neutrinos and antineutrinos in the MINOS experiment and show the relevance of the high energy part of the spectrum measured at MINOS.Comment: PDFLaTeX file using JHEP3 class, 25 pages, 7 figures included. Accepted for publication in JHE

Enhanced insulin sensitivity associated with provision of mono and polyunsaturated fatty acids in skeletal muscle cells involves counter modulation of PP2A

International audienceAims/Hypothesis: Reduced skeletal muscle insulin sensitivity is a feature associated with sustained exposure to excess saturated fatty acids (SFA), whereas mono and polyunsaturated fatty acids (MUFA and PUFA) not only improve insulin sensitivity but blunt SFA-induced insulin resistance. The mechanisms by which MUFAs and PUFAs institute these favourable changes remain unclear, but may involve stimulating insulin signalling by counter-modulation/repression of protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A). This study investigated the effects of oleic acid (OA; a MUFA), linoleic acid (LOA; a PUFA) and palmitate (PA; a SFA) in cultured myotubes and determined whether changes in insulin signalling can be attributed to PP2A regulation. Principal Findings: We treated cultured skeletal myotubes with unsaturated and saturated fatty acids and evaluated insulin signalling, phosphorylation and methylation status of the catalytic subunit of PP2A. Unlike PA, sustained incubation of rat or human myotubes with OA or LOA significantly enhanced Akt-and ERK1/2-directed insulin signalling. This was not due to heightened upstream IRS1 or PI3K signalling nor to changes in expression of proteins involved in proximal insulin signalling, but was associated with reduced dephosphorylation/inactivation of Akt and ERK1/2. Consistent with this, PA reduced PP2Ac demethylation and tyrosine 307 phosphorylation-events associated with PP2A activation. In contrast, OA and LOA strongly opposed these PA-induced changes in PP2Ac thus exerting a repressive effect on PP2A.Conclusions/Interpretation: Beneficial gains in insulin sensitivity and the ability of unsaturated fatty acids to oppose palmitate-induced insulin resistance in muscle cells may partly be accounted for by counter-modulation of PP2A

High intensity neutrino oscillation facilities in Europe

The EUROnu project has studied three possible options for future, high intensity neutrino oscillation facilities in Europe. The first is a Super Beam, in which the neutrinos come from the decay of pions created by bombarding targets with a 4 MW proton beam from the CERN High Power Superconducting Proton Linac. The far detector for this facility is the 500 kt MEMPHYS water Cherenkov, located in the Fréjus tunnel. The second facility is the Neutrino Factory, in which the neutrinos come from the decay of μ+ and μ− beams in a storage ring. The far detector in this case is a 100 kt magnetized iron neutrino detector at a baseline of 2000 km. The third option is a Beta Beam, in which the neutrinos come from the decay of beta emitting isotopes, in particular He6 and Ne18, also stored in a ring. The far detector is also the MEMPHYS detector in the Fréjus tunnel. EUROnu has undertaken conceptual designs of these facilities and studied the performance of the detectors. Based on this, it has determined the physics reach of each facility, in particular for the measurement of CP violation in the lepton sector, and estimated the cost of construction. These have demonstrated that the best facility to build is the Neutrino Factory. However, if a powerful proton driver is constructed for another purpose or if the MEMPHYS detector is built for astroparticle physics, the Super Beam also becomes very attractive