Surgical Treatment of Intestinal Perforation in Behçet Syndrome: an Unusual Presentation

Behçet syndrome is a chronic, recurring, systemic disorder characterized by the histopathologic finding of nonspecific vasculitis in multiple organs. Behçet syndrome involves the gastrointestinal tract in 10-50% of patients; The main sites of involvement are the terminal ileum and cecum. In patients with Behçet syndrome, CT is advocated for early detection of complications as well as for exclusion of other abdominal pathologic conditions but there is no specific exam. The report of histology in conjunction with the clinical history and the presence of oral ulcers, uveitis and suspected cutaneous lesions suggests the diagnosis. The optimal medical treatment of Behçet syndrome has not yet been well established. In rare cases surgery must be required to control the disease. The authors report one case of Behcet Syndrome presenting with intestinal perforation.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Re-programming mouse liver-resident invariant natural killer T cells for suppressing hepatic and diabetogenic autoimmunity

Invariant NKT (iNKT) cells comprise a heterogeneous group of non-circulating, tissue-resident T lymphocytes that recognize glycolipids, including alpha-galactosylceramide (?GalCer), in the context of CD1d, but whether peripheral iNKT cell subsets are terminally differentiated remains unclear. Here we show that mouse and human liver-resident ?GalCer/CD1d-binding iNKTs largely correspond to a novel Zbtb16+Tbx21+Gata3+MaflowRorc- subset that exhibits profound transcriptional, phenotypic and functional plasticity. Repetitive in vivo encounters of these liver iNKT (LiNKT) cells with intravenously delivered ?GalCer/CD1d-coated nanoparticles (NP) trigger their differentiation into immunoregulatory, IL-10+IL-21-producing Zbtb16highMafhighTbx21+Gata3+Rorc- cells, termed LiNKTR1, expressing a T regulatory type 1 (TR1)-like transcriptional signature. This response is LiNKT-specific, since neither lung nor splenic tissue-resident iNKT cells from ?GalCer/CD1d-NP-treated mice produce IL-10 or IL-21. Additionally, these LiNKTR1 cells suppress autoantigen presentation, and recognize CD1d expressed on conventional B cells to induce IL-10+IL-35-producing regulatory B (Breg) cells, leading to the suppression of liver and pancreas autoimmunity. Our results thus suggest that LiNKT cells are plastic for further functional diversification, with such plasticity potentially targetable for suppressing tissue-specific inflammatory phenomena.© 2022. The Author(s)

LHC and lepton flavour violation phenomenology of a left-right extension of the MSSM

We study the phenomenology of a supersymmetric left-right model, assuming minimal supergravity boundary conditions. Both left-right and (B-L) symmetries are broken at an energy scale close to, but significantly below the GUT scale. Neutrino data is explained via a seesaw mechanism. We calculate the RGEs for superpotential and soft parameters complete at 2-loop order. At low energies lepton flavour violation (LFV) and small, but potentially measurable mass splittings in the charged scalar lepton sector appear, due to the RGE running. Different from the supersymmetric 'pure seesaw' models, both, LFV and slepton mass splittings, occur not only in the left- but also in the right slepton sector. Especially, ratios of LFV slepton decays, such as Br(${\tilde\tau}_R \to \mu \chi^0_1$)/Br(${\tilde\tau}_L \to \mu \chi^0_1$) are sensitive to the ratio of (B-L) and left-right symmetry breaking scales. Also the model predicts a polarization asymmetry of the outgoing positrons in the decay $\mu^+ \to e^+ \gamma$, A ~ [0,1], which differs from the pure seesaw 'prediction' A=1$. Observation of any of these signals allows to distinguish this model from any of the three standard, pure (mSugra) seesaw setups.Comment: 43 pages, 17 figure

The actin-myosin regulatory MRCK kinases: regulation, biological functions and associations with human cancer

The contractile actin-myosin cytoskeleton provides much of the force required for numerous cellular activities such as motility, adhesion, cytokinesis and changes in morphology. Key elements that respond to various signal pathways are the myosin II regulatory light chains (MLC), which participate in actin-myosin contraction by modulating the ATPase activity and consequent contractile force generation mediated by myosin heavy chain heads. Considerable effort has focussed on the role of MLC kinases, and yet the contributions of the myotonic dystrophy-related Cdc42-binding kinases (MRCK) proteins in MLC phosphorylation and cytoskeleton regulation have not been well characterized. In contrast to the closely related ROCK1 and ROCK2 kinases that are regulated by the RhoA and RhoC GTPases, there is relatively little information about the CDC42-regulated MRCKα, MRCKβ and MRCKγ members of the AGC (PKA, PKG and PKC) kinase family. As well as differences in upstream activation pathways, MRCK and ROCK kinases apparently differ in the way that they spatially regulate MLC phosphorylation, which ultimately affects their influence on the organization and dynamics of the actin-myosin cytoskeleton. In this review, we will summarize the MRCK protein structures, expression patterns, small molecule inhibitors, biological functions and associations with human diseases such as cancer

Influence of the quality implementation of a physical education curriculum on the physical development and physical fitness of children

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>This study was constructed as a comparison group pre-test/post-test quasi-experiment to assess the effect of the implementation of the PE curriculum by specialist PE teachers on children's physical development and physical fitness.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>146 classes from 66 Slovenian primary schools were assigned to quasi-test (71) and quasi-control (75) groups. Data from the SLOFIT database was used to compare the differences in physical fitness and development between groups of children whose PE lessons were delivered by specialist PE teachers from the second grade onwards (quasi-test, n = 950) or by generalist teachers in all first three grades (quasi-control, n = 994). The Linear Mixed Model was used to test the influence of specialist PE teachers' teaching.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The quasi-control group showed significantly lower improvement of physical fitness by -0.07 z-score units (95% CI -0.12 to 0.02) compared to the quasi-test group. A significant difference of -0.20 (-0.27 to -0.13) was observed in explosive strength, and of -0.15 (-0.23 to -0.08) in running speed, and in flexibility by -0.22 (-0.29 to -0.14). No significant differences in physical development were observed.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Specialist PE teachers were more successful than generalist teachers in achieving greater improvement of children's physical fitness, but no differences were observed in physical development of quasi-test and quasi-control group.</p

Monthly precipitation mapping of the Iberian Peninsula using spatial interpolation tools implemented in a Geographic Information System

Premi a l'excel·lència investigadora. Àmbit de les Ciències Socials. 2008In this study, spatial interpolation techniques have been applied to develop an objective climatic cartography of precipitation in the Iberian Peninsula (583,551 km2). The resulting maps have a 200m spatial resolution and a monthly temporal resolution. Multiple regression, combined with a residual correction method, has been used to interpolate the observed data collected from the meteorological stations. This method is attractive as it takes into account geographic information (independent variables) to interpolate the climatic data (dependent variable). Several models have been developed using different independent variables, applying several interpolation techniques and grouping the observed data into different subsets (drainage basin models) or into a single set (global model). Each map is provided with its associated accuracy, which is obtained through a simple regression between independent observed data and predicted values. This validation has shown that the most accurate results are obtained when using the global model with multiple regression mixed with the splines interpolation of the residuals. In this optimum case, the average R2 (mean of all the months) is 0.85. The entire process has been implemented in a GIS (Geographic Information System) which has greatly facilitated the filtering, querying, mapping and distributing of the final cartography

An alternative route for the synthesis of silicon nanowires via porous anodic alumina masks

Amorphous Si nanowires have been directly synthesized by a thermal processing of Si substrates. This method involves the deposition of an anodic aluminum oxide mask on a crystalline Si (100) substrate. Fe, Au, and Pt thin films with thicknesses of ca. 30 nm deposited on the anodic aluminum oxide-Si substrates have been used as catalysts. During the thermal treatment of the samples, thin films of the metal catalysts are transformed in small nanoparticles incorporated within the pore structure of the anodic aluminum oxide mask, directly in contact with the Si substrate. These homogeneously distributed metal nanoparticles are responsible for the growth of Si nanowires with regular diameter by a simple heating process at 800°C in an Ar-H2 atmosphere and without an additional Si source. The synthesized Si nanowires have been characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and Raman

Measurement of the Bottom-Strange Meson Mixing Phase in the Full CDF Data Set

We report a measurement of the bottom-strange meson mixing phase \beta_s using the time evolution of B0_s -> J/\psi (->\mu+\mu-) \phi (-> K+ K-) decays in which the quark-flavor content of the bottom-strange meson is identified at production. This measurement uses the full data set of proton-antiproton collisions at sqrt(s)= 1.96 TeV collected by the Collider Detector experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron, corresponding to 9.6 fb-1 of integrated luminosity. We report confidence regions in the two-dimensional space of \beta_s and the B0_s decay-width difference \Delta\Gamma_s, and measure \beta_s in [-\pi/2, -1.51] U [-0.06, 0.30] U [1.26, \pi/2] at the 68% confidence level, in agreement with the standard model expectation. Assuming the standard model value of \beta_s, we also determine \Delta\Gamma_s = 0.068 +- 0.026 (stat) +- 0.009 (syst) ps-1 and the mean B0_s lifetime, \tau_s = 1.528 +- 0.019 (stat) +- 0.009 (syst) ps, which are consistent and competitive with determinations by other experiments.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, Phys. Rev. Lett 109, 171802 (2012

Characterising droughts in Central America with uncertain hydro-meteorological data

Central America is frequently affected by droughts that cause significant socio-economic and environmental problems. Drought characterisation, monitoring and forecasting are potentially useful to support water resource management. Drought indices are designed for these purposes, but their ability to characterise droughts depends on the characteristics of the regional climate and the quality of the available data. Local comprehensive and high-quality observational networks of meteorological and hydrological data are not available, which limits the choice of drought indices and makes it important to assess available datasets. This study evaluated which combinations of drought index and meteorological dataset were most suitable for characterising droughts in the region. We evaluated the standardised precipitation index (SPI), a modified version of the deciles index (DI), the standardised precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI) and the effective drought index (EDI). These were calculated using precipitation data from the Climate Hazards Group Infra-Red Precipitation with Station (CHIRPS), the CRN073 dataset, the Climate Research Unit (CRU), ECMWF Reanalysis (ERA-Interim) and a regional station dataset, and temperature from the CRU and ERA-Interim datasets. The gridded meteorological precipitation datasets were compared to assess how well they captured key features of the regional climate. The performance of all the drought indices calculated with all the meteorological datasets was then evaluated against a drought index calculated using river discharge data. Results showed that the selection of database was more important than the selection of drought index and that the best combinations were the EDI and DI calculated with CHIRPS and CRN073. Results also highlighted the importance of including indices like SPEI for drought assessment in Central America.Universidad de Costa Rica/[805-B0-810]/UCR/Costa RicaUniversidad de Costa Rica/[805-A9-532]/UCR/Costa RicaUniversidad de Costa Rica/[805-B3-600]/UCR/Costa RicaUniversidad de Costa Rica/[805-B0-065]/UCR/Costa RicaUniversidad de Costa Rica/[805-B3-413]/UCR/Costa RicaUniversidad de Costa Rica/[805-B4-227]/UCR/Costa RicaUniversidad de Costa Rica/[805-B4-228]/UCR/Costa RicaUniversidad de Costa Rica/[805-B5-295]/UCR/Costa RicaUppsala University/[54100006]//SueciaMarie Curie Intra-European Fellowship/[No.329762]//EuropaUCR::Vicerrectoría de Investigación::Unidades de Investigación::Ciencias Básicas::Centro de Investigaciones Geofísicas (CIGEFI)UCR::Vicerrectoría de Docencia::Ciencias Básicas::Facultad de Ciencias::Escuela de Físic