Delivery Systems in Ocular Retinopathies: The Promising Future of Intravitreal Hydrogels as Sustained-Release Scaffolds

Delivery systems; Hydrogels; RetinopathiesSistemes de lliurament; Hidrogels; RetinopatiesSistemas de liberación; Hidrogeles; RetinopatíasSlow-release delivery systems are needed to ensure long-term sustained treatments for retinal diseases such as age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy, which are currently treated with anti-angiogenic agents that require frequent intraocular injections. These can cause serious co-morbidities for the patients and are far from providing the adequate drug/protein release rates and required pharmacokinetics to sustain prolonged efficacy. This review focuses on the use of hydrogels, particularly on temperature-responsive hydrogels as delivery vehicles for the intravitreal injection of retinal therapies, their advantages and disadvantages for intraocular administration, and the current advances in their use to treat retinal diseases.This research was partially funded by ANID FONDECYT Regular (Chile) through project Nº 1210476 (granted to E.D.-L.). D.R. is recipient of a PTA fellowship from the Agencia Estatal de Investigación, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Spain. S.J.C. receives financial support from the Helmut Ecker Foundation

Decreased endostatin in db/db retinas is associated with optic disc intravitreal vascularization

Research Areas: OphthalmologyABSTRACT - Endostatin, a naturally cleaved fragment of type XVIII collagen with antiangiogenic activity, has been involved in the regulation of neovascularization during diabetic retinopathy. Here, the intracellular distribution of endostatin in healthy mouse and human neuroretinas has been analyzed. In addition, to study the effect of experimental hyperglycemia on retinal endostatin, the db/db mouse model has been used. Endostatin protein expression in mouse and human retinas was studied by immunofluorescence and Western blot, and compared with db/db mice. Eye fundus angiography, histology, and immunofluorescence were used to visualize mouse retinal and intravitreal vessels. For the first time, our results revealed the presence of endostatin in neurons of mouse and human retinas. Endostatin was mainly expressed in bipolar cells and photoreceptors, in contrast to the optic disc, where endostatin expression was undetectable. Diabetic mice showed a reduction of endostatin in their retinas associated with the appearance of intravitreal vessels at the optic disc in 50% of db/db mice. Intravitreal vessels showed GFAP positive neuroglia sheath, basement membrane thickening by collagen IV deposition, and presence of MMP-2 and MMP-9 in the vascular wall. All together, these results point that decreased retinal endostatin during experimental diabetes is associated with optic disc intravitreal vascularization. Based on their phenotype, these intravitreal vessels could be neovessels. However, it cannot be ruled out the possibility that they may also represent persistent hyaloid vessels.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A Study on Goodwill Accounting Based on the Corporate Competence Theory

在一个多世纪的时间里，商誉问题一直是会计研究领域内极具魅力的主题之一。如今，随着企业的价值创造过程日益依赖于无形资源，随着企业并购市场的日趋扩大，人们对于商誉这个超越了具体产品和服务、提升了企业整体价值的战略性资产日益重视，也更加渴求有关它的高质量会计信息。有关商誉的论述浩如烟海，然而，人们对于商誉的许多问题仍争辩激烈，莫衷一是。本文依据战略管理领域内迅速发展的一种理论——“企业能力论”来对商誉作一系统的研究，希望通过相关学科知识的引入来为商誉研究的发展作出一些贡献。 本文分为八章来进行论述：第一章为引言。第二章进行了系统的文献回顾。第三章介绍了企业能力论，并提出了资源和能力基础的商誉定义，...Since the beginning of last century, goodwill has been an extremely attractive topic in accounting. Nowadays, with the corporate value creation process depending more on intangible resources, and the acquisition and merger market growing dramatically, people pay more attention to goodwill, which overtakes specific product and service and adds to the whole corporate value. Also, people desire for m...学位：管理学硕士院系专业：管理学院会计系_会计学学号：2005130118

Modelling aerosol transport and virus exposure with numerical simulations in relation to SARS-CoV-2 transmission by inhalation indoors

We provide research findings on the physics of aerosol and droplet dispersion relevant to the hypothesized aerosol transmission of SARS-CoV-2 during the current pandemic. We utilize physics-based modeling at different levels of complexity, along with previous literature on coronaviruses, to investigate the possibility of airborne transmission. The previous literature, our 0D-3D simulations by various physics-based models, and theoretical calculations, indicate that the typical size range of speech and cough originated droplets (dPeer reviewe

Standardising personalised diabetes care across European health settings:A person-centred outcome set agreed in a multinational Delphi study

ObjectiveStandardised person-reported outcomes (PRO) data can contextualise clinical outcomes enabling precision diabetes monitoring and care. Comprehensive outcome sets can guide this process, but their implementation in routine diabetes care has remained challenging and unsuccessful at international level. We aimed to address this by developing a person-centred outcome set for Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, using a methodology with prospects for increased implementability and sustainability in international health settings.MethodsWe used a three-round questionnaire-based Delphi study to reach consensus on the outcome set. We invited key stakeholders from 19 countries via purposive snowball sampling, namely people with diabetes (N = 94), healthcare professionals (N = 65), industry (N = 22) and health authorities (N = 3), to vote on the relevance and measurement frequency of 64 previously identified clinical and person-reported outcomes. Subsequent consensus meetings concluded the study.ResultsThe list of preliminary outcomes was shortlisted via the consensus process to 46 outcomes (27 clinical outcomes and 19 PROs). Two main collection times were recommended: (1) linked to a medical visit (e.g. diabetes-specific well-being, symptoms and psychological health) and (2) annually (e.g. clinical data, general well-being and diabetes self management-related outcomes).ConclusionsPROs are often considered in a non-standardised way in routine diabetes care. We propose a person-centred outcome set for diabetes, specifically considering psychosocial and behavioural aspects, which was agreed by four international key stakeholder groups. It guides standardised collection of meaningful outcomes at scale, supporting individual and population level healthcare decision making. It will be implemented and tested in Europe as part of the H2O project

Standardising personalised diabetes care across European health settings:A person-centred outcome set agreed in a multinational Delphi study

ObjectiveStandardised person-reported outcomes (PRO) data can contextualise clinical outcomes enabling precision diabetes monitoring and care. Comprehensive outcome sets can guide this process, but their implementation in routine diabetes care has remained challenging and unsuccessful at international level. We aimed to address this by developing a person-centred outcome set for Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, using a methodology with prospects for increased implementability and sustainability in international health settings.MethodsWe used a three-round questionnaire-based Delphi study to reach consensus on the outcome set. We invited key stakeholders from 19 countries via purposive snowball sampling, namely people with diabetes (N = 94), healthcare professionals (N = 65), industry (N = 22) and health authorities (N = 3), to vote on the relevance and measurement frequency of 64 previously identified clinical and person-reported outcomes. Subsequent consensus meetings concluded the study.ResultsThe list of preliminary outcomes was shortlisted via the consensus process to 46 outcomes (27 clinical outcomes and 19 PROs). Two main collection times were recommended: (1) linked to a medical visit (e.g. diabetes-specific well-being, symptoms and psychological health) and (2) annually (e.g. clinical data, general well-being and diabetes self management-related outcomes).ConclusionsPROs are often considered in a non-standardised way in routine diabetes care. We propose a person-centred outcome set for diabetes, specifically considering psychosocial and behavioural aspects, which was agreed by four international key stakeholder groups. It guides standardised collection of meaningful outcomes at scale, supporting individual and population level healthcare decision making. It will be implemented and tested in Europe as part of the H2O project

Decreased TLR3 in Hyperplastic Adipose Tissue, Blood and Inflamed Adipocytes is Related to Metabolic Inflammation

Background/Aims: Obesity is characterized by the immune activation that eventually dampens insulin sensitivity and changes metabolism. This study explores the impact of different inflammatory/ anti-inflammatory paradigms on the expression of toll-like receptors (TLR) found in adipocyte cultures, adipose tissue, and blood. Methods: We evaluated by real time PCR the impact of acute surgery stress in vivo (adipose tissue) and macrophages (MCM) in vitro (adipocytes). Weight loss was chosen as an anti-inflammatory model, so TLR were analyzed in fat samples collected before and after bariatric surgery-induced weight loss. Associations with inflammatory and metabolic parameters were analyzed in non-obese and obese subjects, in parallel with gene expression measures taken in blood and isolated adipocytes/ stromal-vascular cells (SVC). Treatments with an agonist of TLR3 were conducted in human adipocyte cultures under normal conditions and upon conditions that simulated the chronic low-grade inflammatory state of obesity. Results: Surgery stress raised TLR1 and TLR8 in subcutaneous (SAT), and TLR2 in SAT and visceral (VAT) adipose tissue, while decreasing VAT TLR3 and TLR4. MCM led to increased TLR2 and diminished TLR3, TLR4, and TLR5 expressions in human adipocytes. The anti-inflammatory impact of weight loss was concomitant with decreased TLR1, TLR3, and TLR8 in SAT. Cross-sectional associations confirmed increased V/ SAT TLR1 and TLR8, and decreased TLR3 in obese patients, as compared with non-obese subjects. As expected, TLR were predominant in SVC and adipocyte precursor cells, even though expression of all of them but TLR8 (very low levels) was also found in ex vivo isolated and in vitro differentiated adipocytes. Among SVC, CD14+ macrophages showed increased TLR1, TLR2, and TLR7, but decreased TLR3 mRNA. The opposite patterns shown for TLR2 and TLR3 in V/ SAT, SVC, and inflamed adipocytes were observed in blood as well, being TLR3 more likely linked to lymphocyte instead of neutrophil counts. On the other hand, decreased TLR3 in adipocytes challenged with MCM dampened lipogenesis and the inflammatory response to Poly(I:C). Conclusion: Functional variations in the expression of TLR found in blood and hypertrophied fat depots, namely decreased TLR3 in lymphocytes and inflamed adipocytes, are linked to metabolic inflammation

Adjuvant dabrafenib and trametinib for patients with resected BRAF-mutated melanoma: DESCRIBE-AD real-world retrospective observational study

BRAF and MEK inhibitor, dabrafenib plus trametinib, adjuvant therapy is effective for high-risk resected melanoma patients with BRAF-V600 mutations. However, real-world evidence is limited. We aimed to determine the feasibility of this therapy in routine clinical practice. DESCRIBE-AD, a retrospective observational study, collected real-world data from 25 hospitals in Spain. Histologically confirmed and resected BRAF-mutated melanoma patients aged & GE;18 years who were previously treated with dabrafenib plus trametinib adjuvant therapy, were included. The primary objectives were treatment discontinuation rate and time to discontinuation. The secondary objectives included safety and efficacy. From October 2020 to March 2021, 65 patients were included. Dabrafenib and trametinib discontinuation rate due to treatment-related adverse events (TRAEs) of any grade was 9%. Other reasons for discontinuation included patients' decisions (6%), physician decisions (6%), unrelated adverse events (3%), disease progression (5%), and others (5%). The median time to treatment discontinuation was 9 months [95% confidence interval (CI), 5-11]. G3-4 TRAEs occurred in 21.5% of patients, the most common being pyrexia (3%), asthenia (3%), and diarrhoea (3%). Unscheduled hospitalisations and clinical tests occurred in 6 and 22% of patients, respectively. After 20-month median follow-up (95% CI, 18-22), 9% of patients had exitus due to disease progression, with a 12-month relapse-free survival and overall survival rates of 95.3% and 100%, respectively. Dabrafenib and trametinib adjuvant therapy proved effective for melanoma patients in a real-world setting, with a manageable toxicity profile. Toxicity frequencies were low leading to low incidence of unscheduled medical visits, tests, and treatment discontinuations

La Economía del Comportamiento en la asignatura de Teoría de Juegos: Experimentos en las aulas

El objetivo es introducir la economía experimental como herramienta pedagógica en la enseñanza de Teoría de Juegos para alumnos de los Grados en Economía y Doble Grado en Economía, Matemáticas y Estadística acercándoles a un análisis económico actual