Lagrangian tracers on a surface flow: the role of time correlations

Finite time correlations of the velocity in a surface flow are found to be important for the formation of clusters of Lagrangian tracers. The degree of clustering characterized by the Lyapunov spectrum of the flow is numerically shown to be in qualitative agreement with the predictions for the white-in-time compressible Kraichnan flow, but to deviate quantitatively. For intermediate values of compressibility the clustering is surprisingly weakened by time correlations.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, to be published in PR

Systematic literature review of burden of illness in chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP)

Altres ajuts: CSL Behring GmbHBackground: Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP) is a rare neurological disorder characterised by muscle weakness and impaired sensory function. The present study provides a comprehensive literature review of the burden of illness of CIDP. Methods: Systematic literature search of PubMed, Embase, and key conferences in May 2019. Search terms identified studies on the epidemiology, humanistic burden, current treatment, and economic burden of CIDP published since 2009 in English. Results: Forty-five full texts and nineteen conference proceedings were identified on the epidemiology (n = 9), humanistic burden (n = 7), current treatment (n = 40), and economic burden (n = 8) of CIDP. Epidemiological studies showed incidence and prevalence of 0.2-1.6 and 0.8-8.9 per 100,000, respectively, depending on geography and diagnostic criteria. Humanistic burden studies revealed that patients experienced physical and psychosocial burden, including impaired physical function, pain and depression. Publications on current treatments reported on six main types of therapy: intravenous immunoglobulins, subcutaneous immunoglobulins, corticosteroids, plasma exchange, immunosuppressants, and immunomodulators. Treatments may be burdensome, due to adverse events and reduced independence caused by treatment administration setting. In Germany, UK, France, and the US, CIDP economic burden was driven by direct costs of treatment and hospitalisation. CIDP was associated with indirect costs driven by impaired productivity. Conclusions: This first systematic review of CIDP burden of illness demonstrates the high physical and psychosocial burden of this rare disease. Future research is required to fully characterise the burden of CIDP, and to understand how appropriate treatment can mitigate burden for patients and healthcare systems

The hidden face of wine polyphenol polymerization highlighted by high resolution mass spectrometry

Polyphenols, including tannins and red anthocyanin pigments, are responsible for the color, taste, and beneficial health properties of plant-derived foods and beverages, especially in red wines. Known compounds represent only the emerged part of the "wine polyphenol iceberg". It is believed that the immersed part results from complex cascades of reactions involving grape polyphenols and yeast metabolites. We used a nontargeted strategy based on high-resolution mass spectrometry and Kendrick mass defect plots to explore this hypothesis. Reactions of acetaldehyde, epicatechin, and malvidin-3-O-glucoside, representing yeast metabolites, tannins, and anthocyanins, respectively, were selected for a proof-of-concept experiment. A series of compounds including expected and so-farunknown structures were detected. Random polymerization involving both the original substrates and intermediate products resulting from cascade reactions was demonstrated

Emotional Impairment and Persistent Upregulation of mGlu5 Receptor following Morphine Abstinence: Implications of an mGlu5-MOPr Interaction.

BACKGROUND: A difficult problem in treating opioid addicts is the maintenance of a drug-free state because of the negative emotional symptoms associated with withdrawal, which may trigger relapse. Several lines of evidence suggest a role for the metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 in opioid addiction; however, its involvement during opioid withdrawal is not clear. METHODS: Mice were treated with a 7-day escalating-dose morphine administration paradigm. Following withdrawal, the development of affective behaviors was assessed using the 3-chambered box, open-field, elevated plus-maze and forced-swim tests. Metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 autoradiographic binding was performed in mouse brains undergoing chronic morphine treatment and 7 days withdrawal. Moreover, since there is evidence showing direct effects of opioid drugs on the metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 system, the presence of an metabotropic glutamate receptor 5/μ-opioid receptor interaction was assessed by performing metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 autoradiographic binding in brains of mice lacking the μ-opioid receptor gene. RESULTS: Withdrawal from chronic morphine administration induced anxiety-like, depressive-like, and impaired sociability behaviors concomitant with a marked upregulation of metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 binding. Administration of the metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 antagonist, 3-((2-Methyl-4-thiazolyl)ethynyl)pyridine, reversed morphine abstinence-induced depressive-like behaviors. A brain region-specific increase in metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 binding was observed in the nucleus accumbens shell, thalamus, hypothalamus, and amygdala of μ-opioid receptor knockout mice compared with controls. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest an association between metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 alterations and the emergence of opioid withdrawal-related affective behaviors. This study supports metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 system as a target for the development of pharmacotherapies for the treatment of opioid addiction. Moreover, our data show direct effects of μ-opioid receptor system manipulation on metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 binding in the brain

Advantages of plasmatic CXCL-10 as a prognostic and diagnostic biomarker for the risk of rejection and subclinical rejection in kidney transplantation

This study evaluate the potential of plasmatic CXCL-10 (pCXCL-10) as a pre&post transplantation prognostic and diagnostic biomarker of T-cell-mediated rejection (TCMR), antibody-mediated rejection (ABMR) and subclinical rejection (SCR) risk in adult kidney recipients considering BKV and CMV infections as possible clinical confounder factors. Twenty-eight of 100 patients included experienced rejection (TCMR:14; ABMR:14); 8 SCR; 13 and 16 were diagnosed with BKV and CMV infection, respectively. Pre-transplantation pCXCL-10 was significantly increased in TCMR and ABMR and post-transplantation in TCMR, ABMR and SCR compared with nonrejectors. All CMV+ patients showed pCXCL-10 levels above the cutoff values established for rejection whereas the 80% of BKV+ patients showed pCXCL-10 concentration < 100 pg/mL. pCXCL-10 could improve pre-transplantation patient stratification and immunosuppressive treatment selection according to rejection risk; and after kidney transplantation could be a potential early prognostic biomarker for rejection. Clinical confounding factor in BKV+ and particularly in CMV+ patients must be discarded

Turbulence and passive scalar transport in a free-slip surface

We consider the two-dimensional (2D) flow in a flat free-slip surface that bounds a three-dimensional (3D) volume in which the flow is turbulent. The equations of motion for the two-dimensional flow in the surface are neither compressible nor incompressible but strongly influenced by the 3D flow underneath the surface. The velocity correlation functions in the 2D surface and in the 3D volume scale with the same exponents. In the viscous subrange the amplitudes are the same, but in the inertial subrange the 2D one is reduced to 2/3 of the 3D amplitude. The surface flow is more strongly intermittent than the 3D volume flow. Geometric scaling theory is used to derive a relation between the scaling of the velocity field and the density fluctuations of a passive scalar advected on the surface.Comment: 11 pages, 10 Postscript figure

Turbulence in a free surface

We report an experimental and numerical study of turbulent fluid motion in a free surface. The flow is realized experimentally on the surface of a tank filled with water stirred by a vertically oscillating grid positioned well below the surface. Particles floating on the surface are used to visualize the flow. The effect of surface waves appears to be negligible. The flow is unconventional in that it is confined to two dimensions but does not have squared vorticity as a conservation law, that it is not divergence free and that it inherits scaling features of the mean square velocity differences S_2(R) and the vorticity fluctuations Omega(R) from the bulk 3-d turbulence.Comment: 4 pages, 4 Postscript figure

Early prognostic performance of miR155-5p monitoring for the risk of rejection: Logistic regression with a population pharmacokinetic approach in adult kidney transplant patients

Previous results from our group and others have shown that urinary pellet expression of miR155-5p and urinary CXCL-10 production could play a key role in the prognosis and diagnosis of acute rejection (AR) in kidney transplantation patients. Here, a logistic regression model was developed using NONMEM to quantify the relationships of miR155-5p urinary expression, CXCL-10 urinary concentration and tacrolimus and mycophenolic acid (MPA) exposure with the probability of AR in adult kidney transplant patients during the early post-transplant period. Owing to the contribution of therapeutic drug monitoring to achieving target exposure, neither tacrolimus nor MPA cumulative exposure was identified as a predictor of AR in the studied population. Even though CXCL-10 urinary concentration showed a trend, its effect on AR was not significant. In contrast, urinary miR155-5p expression was prognostic of clinical outcome. Monitoring miR155-5p urinary pellet expression together with immunosuppressive drug exposure could be very useful during routine clinical practice to identify patients with a potential high risk of rejection at the early stages of the post-transplant period. This early risk assessment would allow for the optimization of treatment and improved prevention of AR

Hydrokinetic pancreatic function and insulin secretion are moduled by Cl− uniporter Slc26a9 in mice

Aim: Slc26a9 is a member of the Slc26 multifunctional anion transporter family. Polymorphisms in Slc26a9 are associated with an increased incidence of meconium ileus and diabetes in cystic fibrosis patients. We investigated the expression of Slc26a9 in the murine pancreatic ducts, islets and parenchyma, and elucidated its role in pancreatic ductal electrolyte and fluid secretion and endocrine function. Methods: Pancreatic Slc26a9 and CFTR mRNA expression, fluid and bicarbonate secretion were assessed in slc26a9−/− mice and their age- and sex-matched wild-type (wt) littermates. Glucose and insulin tolerance tests were performed. Results: Compared with stomach, the mRNA expression of Slc26a9 was low in pancreatic parenchyma, 20-fold higher in microdissected pancreatic ducts than parenchyma, and very low in islets. CFTR mRNA was ~10 fold higher than Slc26a9 mRNA expression in each pancreatic cell type. Significantly reduced pancreatic fluid secretory rates and impaired glucose tolerance were observed in female slc26a9−/− mice, whereas alterations in male mice did not reach statistical significance. No significant difference was observed in peripheral insulin resistance in slc26a9−/− compared to sex- and aged-matched wt controls. In contrast, isolated slc26a9−/− islets in short term culture displayed no difference in insulin content, but a significantly reduced glucose-stimulated insulin secretion compared to age- and sex-matched wt islets, suggesting that the impaired glucose tolerance in the absence of Slc26a9 expression these is a pancreatic defect. Conclusions: Deletion of Slc26a9 is associated with a reduction in pancreatic fluid secretion and impaired glucose tolerance in female mice. The results underline the importance of Slc26a9 in pancreatic physiology. © 2021 The Authors. Acta Physiologica published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Scandinavian Physiological Society