Reply to Dr. Takeuchi: PRES after epidural anesthesia

[No abstract available

Cell Death Induced by the Herpes Simplex Virus-1 Thymidine Kinase Delivered by Human Immunodeficiency Virus-1-Based Virus-like Particles

HIV-1 Nef incorporates into virions at low levels, likely about 10 molecules per viral particle. Here, we describe a Nef mutant (Nef7) apparently showing more than 100-fold higher efficiency of virion incorporation. Interestingly, Nef7 can act as a cargo molecule for protein delivery into the cells, as its virion incorporation appeared conserved even upon C-terminal fusion with proteins of up to 30 kDa. This was demonstrated first by assessing the intracellular fluorescence of cells challenged with lentivirus-based virus-like particles (VLPs) pseudotyped with the vesicular stomatitis virus envelope glycoprotein (VSV-G) and incorporating Nef7 fused with the green fluorescent protein. Furthermore, the biologic activity of products delivered by Nef7-based VLPs was demonstrated by tagging Nef7 with the herpes simplex virus-1 thymidine kinase (HSV-1 TK). In fact, we observed that both cell lines and primary human macrophages challenged with (VSV-G) Nef7/TK VLPs died after 5 to 7 days of treatment with ganciclovir (GCV). In sum, our findings support the notion that Nef7-based VLPs can be considered platforms for original systems of protein delivery. In particular, the here- described Nef7/TK VLPs represent a first applicative example opening the way toward new HSV-1 TK/GCV-based cell suicide therapies circumventing cell gene engineering procedures

Vínculos familiares disfuncionales asociado al riesgo suicida en la adolescencia

El adolescente atraviesa un complejo proceso en cuyo telón de fondo está el tipo de apego vivido con sus cuidadores primarios. Numerosas investigaciones de distintas líneas teóricas, demostraron que aumenta los riesgos y la vulnerabilidad a los comportamientos suicidas de los adolescentes cuando provienen de familias disfuncionales o violentas; ya sea violencia en el plano sincrónico o diacrónico. En base a una muestra de 248 adolescentes, 135 presentaron riesgo suicida, y se concluyó que el 77,77% provienen de familias disfuncionales y de ellas, el 60% provienen de familias violentas.  Ante las heridas narcisísticas que debe enfrentar el adolescente, si no cuenta con la contención y sostén familiar o social, el riesgo es el pasaje al acto. En ese sentido, la autoagresión se vuelve una defensa ante sentimientos dolorosos e intolerable

Riesgo suicida en adolescentes

Según la OMS en los últimos años ha aumentado, en el mundo, la tasa de muerte violenta – entre las que se incluye el suicidio- en adolescentes. En la mayoría de los países, el suicidio es la segunda causa de muerte, en la población etárea entre 15 a 24 años, la primera causa de mortalidad adolescente es por accidente de tránsito. En este sentido Argentina no es la excepción; en el país el número de suicidios e intentos de suicidios han aumentado y han descendido las edades en que se presentan. Objetivo: Esta investigación está dirigida a detectar los indicadores significativos de riesgo suicida con el Test de Pirámides de Pfister en la población adolescente. Método: El presente trabajo se realiza en base a una investigación correlacional y comparativa, para detectar las diferencias significativas entre los grupos analizados. La investigación se realizó con una muestra de doscientos cuarenta y ocho adolescentes compuesta por grupos de pacientes intentantes, pacientes con Trastorno Alimentario y No pacientes. Todos provenientes de medio socio-cultural bajo y medio bajo de la provincia de San Juan (Argentina). Resultados: La conclusión, luego de aplicar la muestra, no es posible aislar indicadores específicos de riesgo suicida. Sin embargo, si pudo corroborarse que el riesgo suicida se potencia cuando confluyen situaciones de separación, abandono o ataques a la autoestima con un lábil equilibrio emocional e impulsividad exacerbada o una sobrecarga de ansiedad o depresión y desesperanza; vale decir, cuando la estabilidad afectiva y la adaptación social están comprometidas, en especial, si el sujeto proviene de una familia disfuncional.According to WHO in the later years the rate of violent death has increased among adolescents in the World. Suicide is part of it. It is the principal second cause of death, in most of countries, in the ages between 15 and 24 years old, after traffic accidents. In this way Argentine is not exception, the number of suicide and attemps of suicide has increased and ages have decreased. Objetives: This research was aimed to detect significant indicators of suicide risk with the Color Pyramid Test in the adolescent population. Method: It consists of a correlational and comparative research to determine if some significant differences exist between the analized groups. It was worked with a sample of two hundred and forty eight adolescents, made up groups by attempters, pacients with Alimentary Disorders and non pacients. All of them come from a low and mid low social-cultural enviroment of San Juan (Argentine). Results: with this sample it is concluded that is not possible to separate specific indicators of suicide risk. But it was possible to confirm that risk of suicidal it is powered when situations of separation, abandonment or attacks on self-esteem come together with a labile emotional balance and exacerbated impulsivity or an overload of anxiety or depression and hopelessness; that is, when affective stability and social adaptation are compromised, especially if he or she comes from a dysfunctional family.Fil: Pugliese, Silvia Vivian

Uncertainty Analysis for the Classification of Multispectral Satellite Images Using SVMs and SOMs

Abstract: Classification of multispectral remotely sensed data with textural features is investigated with a special focus on uncertainty analysis in the produced land-cover maps. Much effort has already been directed into the research of satisfactory accuracy-assessment techniques in image classification, but a common approach is not yet universally adopted. We look at the relationship between hard accuracy and the uncertainty on the produced answers, introducing two measures based on maximum probability and a quadratic entropy. Their impact differs depending on the type of classifier. In this paper, we deal with two different classification strategies, based on support vector machines (SVMs) and Kohonen's self-organizingmaps (SOMs), both suitably modified to give soft answers. Once the multiclass probability answer vector is available for each pixel in the image, we studied the behavior of the overall classification accuracy as a function of the uncertainty associated with each vector, given a hard-labeled test set. The experimental results show that the SVM with one-versus-one architecture and linear kernel clearly outperforms the other supervised approaches in terms of overall accuracy. On the other hand, our analysis reveals that the proposed SOM-based classifier, despite its unsupervised learning procedure, is able to provide soft answers which are the best candidates for a fusion with supervised results

Effect of pasture in oak and chestnut groves on chemical and sensorial traits of cured lard of Cinta Senese pigs

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of pasture in oak and chestnut groves on the chemical and sensorial traits of cured lard. Thirty Cinta Senese barrows (124kg of l.w. on average) were allotted to three groups: one group (CONC) was reared outdoors in a confined area and fed commercial feedstuff. The other two groups were raised under free-range conditions on acorns (AC) or chestnuts (CH). At slaughtering (148kg of LW) the backfat was seasoned for 60 days to obtained cured lard. Results demonstrated that the lard of CH and AC respect to CONC group was the richest in MUFA (46.9 and 47.76 vs 44.78% respectively) because of the higher content of oleic acid (44.2 and 44.91 vs 42.05%, P<0.05, respectively). CH showed a higher percentage of PUFA-n3 than AC and CONC (1.18 vs 1.06 and 1.03%, P<0.05, respectively), a lower content of α-tocopherol (9.77 vs 14.46 and 13.31μ/g, P<0.05 respectively) and a higher content of γ-tocopherol (13.73 vs 6.02 and 4.32μ/g, P<0.05, respectively). As regards sensorial traits, the lard of CH and AC groups exhibited a lower value of pinkness than CONC (29.3 and 32.4 vs 49.2, P<0.05, respectively) and higher scores of yellowness (31.4 and 28.6 vs 18.6, P<0.05, respectively) and oiliness (37.0 and 33.7 vs 24.0, P<0.05, respectively). The pasture in the acorn and chestnut groves affected the chemical traits of lard, prevalently the composition of fatty acids . The consumption of acorns or chestnuts led to a higher content of oleic acid with respect to concentrate, affecting some sensorial traits of lard

Asymmetric posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome in patient with hyperplastic anterior choroidal artery

We describe a case of asymmetric PRES due to the presence of hyperplastic anterior choroidal artery (AChA) in a man affected by sever hypertension. Posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome (PRES) has become synonymous with a unique pattern of brain vasogenic edema and predominates in the parietal and occipital regions, accompanied by clinical neurological alterations. Sever hypertension is a risk factor that exceeds the limits of brain autoregulation, leading to breakthrough brain edema. In our knowledge this is the first case reported in literature, in which a similar vascular abnormality is linked to a PRES syndrome

Cardio-Metabolic Indices and Metabolic Syndrome as Predictors of Clinical Severity of Gastroenteropancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumors

BackgroundObesity, mainly visceral obesity, and metabolic syndrome (MetS) are major risk factors for the development of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer. Data analyzing the association of obesity and MetS with gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasms (GEP-NEN) are lacking. Fatty liver index (FLI) is a non-invasive tool for identifying individuals with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Visceral adiposity index (VAI) has been suggested as a gender-specific indicator of adipose dysfunction. Both indexes have been proposed as early predictors of MetS. This study aimed to investigate the association of FLI VAI as early predictors of MetS with gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (GEP-NETs).MethodsA cross-sectional, case-control, observational study was carried out at the ENETS Centers of Excellence Multidisciplinary Group for Neuroendocrine Tumors, University "Federico II". VAI and FLI were calculated.ResultsWe enrolled 109 patients with histologically confirmed G1/G2 GEP-NET (53 M; 57.06 +/- 15.96 years), as well as 109 healthy subjects, age, sex- and body mass index-matched. Forty-four GEP-NET patients were G2, of which 21 were with progressive disease, and 27 patients had metastases. GEP-NET patients had a higher value of VAI (p &lt; 0.001) and FLI (p = 0.049) and higher MetS presence (p &lt; 0.001) compared with controls. VAI and FLI values and MetS presence were higher in G2 than in G1 patients (p &lt; 0.001), in patients with progressive disease, and in metastatic vs non-metastatic patients (p &lt; 0.001). In addition, higher values of VAI and FLI and higher MetS presence were significantly correlated with the worst clinical severity of NENs. The cut-off values for the FLI and MetS to predict high grading of GEP-NETs and the presence of metastasis were also provided.ConclusionsThis is the first study investigating an association between VAI and FLI as early predictors of MetS and GEP-NET. Our findings report that the worsening of clinicopathological characteristics in GEP-NET is associated with higher presence of MetS, NAFLD, evaluated by FLI, and visceral adiposity dysfunction, evaluated by VAI. Addressing the clinical evaluation of MetS presence, NAFLD, and visceral adiposity dysfunction might be of crucial relevance to establish targeted preventive and treatment interventions of NEN-related metabolic comorbidities