Sex difference and intra-operative tidal volume: Insights from the LAS VEGAS study

BACKGROUND: One key element of lung-protective ventilation is the use of a low tidal volume (VT). A sex difference in use of low tidal volume ventilation (LTVV) has been described in critically ill ICU patients.OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to determine whether a sex difference in use of LTVV also exists in operating room patients, and if present what factors drive this difference.DESIGN, PATIENTS AND SETTING: This is a posthoc analysis of LAS VEGAS, a 1-week worldwide observational study in adults requiring intra-operative ventilation during general anaesthesia for surgery in 146 hospitals in 29 countries.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Women and men were compared with respect to use of LTVV, defined as VT of 8 ml kg-1 or less predicted bodyweight (PBW). A VT was deemed 'default' if the set VT was a round number. A mediation analysis assessed which factors may explain the sex difference in use of LTVV during intra-operative ventilation.RESULTS: This analysis includes 9864 patients, of whom 5425 (55%) were women. A default VT was often set, both in women and men; mode VT was 500 ml. Median [IQR] VT was higher in women than in men (8.6 [7.7 to 9.6] vs. 7.6 [6.8 to 8.4] ml kg-1 PBW, P < 0.001). Compared with men, women were twice as likely not to receive LTVV [68.8 vs. 36.0%; relative risk ratio 2.1 (95% CI 1.9 to 2.1), P < 0.001]. In the mediation analysis, patients' height and actual body weight (ABW) explained 81 and 18% of the sex difference in use of LTVV, respectively; it was not explained by the use of a default VT.CONCLUSION: In this worldwide cohort of patients receiving intra-operative ventilation during general anaesthesia for surgery, women received a higher VT than men during intra-operative ventilation. The risk for a female not to receive LTVV during surgery was double that of males. Height and ABW were the two mediators of the sex difference in use of LTVV.TRIAL REGISTRATION: The study was registered at Clinicaltrials.gov, NCT01601223

Technical Embroidery for Smart Textiles : Review

Traditionally embroidery is known as a conventional technique of textile decoration. Since the niche of technical textiles is rapidly expanding and is the main field of innovation and research in textile and apparel industry, embroidery is found in a variety of new functional applications due to the unique opportunity of creating three-dimensional light-weight structures and laying threads on the base material in all directions. As the field of smart textiles is vast per se and is associated with technical textiles and wearable technologies, the main applications of the embroidery may be described accordingly as ones for technical applications. In the sphere of medical textiles, embroidery is a relatively new technique, but is successfully used for wound-dressing development and innovative solutions for tissue engineering due to the opportunity of creating three-dimensional structures from fine polymer materials. Another advantageous characteristic of goods developed by embroidery is dimensional stability of manufactured textile structures. Due to these particularities embroidery is used widely also for such technical applications as development of heating grids, shielding, conductive interconnections, intelligent textile sensors and interfaces etc. Moreover, a large variety of materials and threads can be used in prototyping by the technique, e.g., conductive threads, metal wires, laminated polymer and carbon fibers.One of the challenging sub-sectors of intelligent textiles and smart textiles for healthcare applications is the research and development of textile sensors for biometrics and measurement of physical parameters. Most of the mentioned biosensors are implemented by transferring the principles of conventional actuators to the textile structures

Technical Embroidery for Smart Textiles: Review

Traditionally embroidery is known as a conventional technique of textile decoration. Since the niche of technical textiles is rapidly expanding and is the main field of innovation and research in textile and apparel industry, embroidery is found in a variety of new functional applications due to the unique opportunity of creating three-dimensional light-weight structures and laying threads on the base material in all directions. As the field of smart textiles is vast per se and is associated with technical textiles and wearable technologies, the main applications of the embroidery may be described accordingly as ones for technical applications. In the sphere of medical textiles, embroidery is a relatively new technique, but is successfully used for wound-dressing development and innovative solutions for tissue engineering due to the opportunity of creating three-dimensional structures from fine polymer materials. Another advantageous characteristic of goods developed by embroidery is dimensional stability of manufactured textile structures. Due to these particularities embroidery is used widely also for such technical applications as development of heating grids, shielding, conductive interconnections, intelligent textile sensors and interfaces etc. Moreover, a large variety of materials and threads can be used in prototyping by the technique, e.g., conductive threads, metal wires, laminated polymer and carbon fibers. One of the challenging sub-sectors of intelligent textiles and smart textiles for healthcare applications is the research and development of textile sensors for biometrics and measurement of physical parameters. Most of the mentioned biosensors are implemented by transferring the principles of conventional actuators to the textile structures

Protein disulfide isomerase-A1 regulates intraplatelet reactive oxygen speciesthromboxane A<SUB>2</SUB>-dependent pathway in human platelets

BACKGROUND: Platelet‐derived protein disulfide isomerase 1 (PDIA1) regulates thrombus formation, but its role in the regulation of platelet function is not fully understood. AIMS: The aim of this study was to characterize the role of PDIA1 in human platelets. METHODS: Proteomic analysis of PDI isoforms in platelets was performed using liquid chromatography tandem mass spectometry, and the expression of PDIs on platelets in response to collagen, TRAP‐14, or ADP was measured with flow cytometry. The effects of bepristat, a selective PDIA1 inhibitor, on platelet aggregation, expression of platelet surface activation markers, thromboxane A(2) (TxA(2)), and reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation were evaluated by optical aggregometry, flow cytometry, ELISA, and dihydrodichlorofluorescein diacetate‐based fluorescent assay, respectively. RESULTS: PDIA1 was less abundant compared with PDIA3 in resting platelets and platelets stimulated with TRAP‐14, collagen, or ADP. Collagen, but not ADP, induced a significant increase in PDIA1 expression. Bepristat potently inhibited the aggregation of washed platelets induced by collagen or convulxin, but only weakly inhibited platelet aggregation induced by TRAP‐14 or thrombin, and had the negligible effect on platelet aggregation induced by arachidonic acid. Inhibition of PDIA1 by bepristat resulted in the reduction of TxA(2) and ROS production in collagen‐ or thrombin‐stimulated platelets. Furthermore, bepristat reduced the activation of αIIbβ3 integrin and expression of P‐selectin. CONCLUSIONS: PDIA1 acts as an intraplatelet regulator of the ROS‐TxA(2) pathway in collagen‐GP VI receptor‐mediated platelet activation that is a mechanistically distinct pathway from extracellular regulation of αIIbβ3 integrin by PDIA3

Aziridine-2-carboxylic acid derivatives and its open-ring isomers as a novel PDIA1 inhibitors

Acyl derivatives of aziridine-2-carboxylic acid have been synthesized and tested as PDIA1 inhibitors. Calculations of charge value and distribution in aziridine ring system and some alkylating agents were performed. For the first time was found that acyl derivatives of aziridine-2-carboxylic acid are weak to moderately active PDIA1 inhibitors

P13, the EMBL macromolecular crystallography beamline at the low-emittance PETRA III ring for high-and low-energy phasing with variable beam focusing

The macromolecular crystallography P13 beamline is part of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory Integrated Facility for Structural Biology at PETRA III (DESY, Hamburg, Germany) and has been in user operation since mid-2013. P13 is tunable across the energy range from 4 to 17.5 keV to support crystallographic data acquisition exploiting a wide range of elemental absorption edges for experimental phase determination. An adaptive Kirk­patrick–Baez focusing system provides an X-ray beam with a high photon flux and tunable focus size to adapt to diverse experimental situations. Data collections at energies as low as 4 keV (λ = 3.1 Å) are possible due to a beamline design minimizing background and maximizing photon flux particularly at low energy (up to 1011 photons s−1 at 4 keV), a custom calibration of the PILATUS 6M-F detector for use at low energies, and the availability of a helium path. At high energies, the high photon flux (5.4 × 1011 photons s−1 at 17.5 keV) combined with a large area detector mounted on a 2θ arm allows data collection to sub-atomic resolution (0.55 Å). A peak flux of about 8.0 × 1012 photons s−1 is reached at 11 keV. Automated sample mounting is available by means of the robotic sample changer `MARVIN' with a dewar capacity of 160 samples. In close proximity to the beamline, laboratories have been set up for sample preparation and characterization; a laboratory specifically equipped for on-site heavy atom derivatization with a library of more than 150 compounds is available to beamline users

P13 and P14, the EMBL Beamlines for Macromolecular Crystallography at PETRA III

EMBL is operating two beamlines for macromolecular crystallography on PETRA III (DESY, Hamburg). Both beamlines are fully tunable and provide a wide range of beam conditions. High flux X-ray beams with adjustable dimensions between 5 and 200 µm are available in the energy range between 4 and 18 keV. To demonstrate the capability of the beamlines, we will describe and discuss typical experiments including: - Structure solution via S-SAD phasing using 4 keV X-rays on P13. - Structure solution using SAD phasing at 6.5 keV on multiple crystals with linear dimensions < 10 µm. - Structure solution by molecular replacement from data collected using serial helical scans on micro-crystals   presented to the beam at room temperature in CrystalDirectTM plates. - Rapid ( < 3 min) data collection using a CRL-collimated X-ray beam with a ‘top-hat’ profile. As a CrystalDirect Harvester system will be installed at EMBL Hamburg in June 2016, we hope to be able to present first results with crystals harvested with this system by the time of the meeting