Cervidellus vinciguerrae sp. n. (Nematoda : Cephalobidae) from Tierra del Fuego and notes on the genus Cervidellus Thorne, 1937

Une nouvelle espèce du genre #Cervidellus Thorne, 1937, #Cervidellus vinciguerrae sp. n., a été trouvée dans des mousses et des échantillons de sol de la Terre de Feu. La nouvelle espèce est caractérisée par la cuticule pourvue de striations transversales et longitudinales, la région céphalique légèrement séparée du reste du corps, des proboles céphaliques asymétriques avec deux excroissances sur leurs bords dans les axiles primaires et trois excroissances sur le bord des axiles secondaires, des proboles labiales longues, de 7-8 micromètres avec une unique fourche à la moitié de leur longueur, le pore excréteur et la cellule excrétrice en position variable, la branche utérine postulvaire de l'appareil reproducteur contenant trois à quatre petits ovocytes, la queue conoïde se terminant par un petit mucron. Quelques remarques sont également faites sur la structure des proboles céphaliques dans le genre #Cervidellus$. (Résumé d'auteur

Studio della riattivazione del Polyomavirus umano JC durante il trattamento con anticorpi monoclonali: analisi di fattori virali e dell'ospite.

Polyomavirus JC (JCV) reactivation causing progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) is a main concern during biological therapies. We investigated JCV reactivation in the blood (PBMC and plasma samples) and urine of immunomediated diseases and relapsing-remitting subtype of multiple sclerosis (RRMS) patients after a long-term treatment with infliximab and natalizumab, respectively. Although JCV DNAemia occurred transiently, an higher JCV prevalence was detected in PBMC of patients treated with both mAbs than that observed in the diseases and healthy control groups. However, the viral load in the positive samples was low and did not significantly differ among them. All the patients, treated and untreated, exhibited an high prevalence of JCV in urine samples, with a range of viral load higher than that in the blood, as commonly reported in the literature. In order to monitor the risk of the viral reactivation, influenced by these mAbs treatment, we studied the possible JCV non-coding control region (NCCR) evolution. All positive samples sequenced exhibited the NCCR archetype structure; of note, several infliximab samples showed few point mutations in some cellular transcriptional factor binding sites on the viral NCCR. Moreover, we focused on the viral-host factor interaction during JCV reactivation. In particular, we analysed the possible effect of the mAb therapy on features related to the immunity response by exploiting the viremia of persistent widespread Torquetenovirus (TTV) as marker of immune functional status. A positive correlation between TTV viral load and number of mAb infusions performed was observed. Finally, we investigated whether infliximab and natalizumab treatment exerted some effect on microRNAs (miRNAs) expression level. We examined the expression level of four main miRNAs miR146-a, miR-150, miR-155, miR-223, potential players of the innate and adaptive immunity. Collectively, our results confirmed that infliximab treatment led to a down-regulation of miRNAs highly expressed in rheumatic patients, with miRNA-146a levels under that of healthy controls. Instead, no significant variations were detected among patients treated or not with natalizumab. Although these results derived from relatively small groups of patients, the infliximab and natalizumab long-term treatment, did not seem to exert foremost effects on the possible JCV reactivation. Further investigations should be performed in order to assess the real risk of a long-term mAbs treatment, to identify the possible factor(s) and shed light on the mechanism(s) implicated in the JCV molecular evolution and PML development

Study of fuel cell powerplant with heat recovery

It was shown that heat can be recovered from fuel cell power plants by replacing the air-cooled heat exchangers in present designs with units which transfer the heat to the integrated utility system. Energy availability for a 40-kW power plant was studied and showed that the total usable energy at rated power represents 84 percent of the fuel lower heating value. The effects of design variables on heat availability proved to be small. Design requirements were established for the heat recovery heat exchangers, including measurement of the characteristics of two candidate fuel cell coolants after exposure to fuel cell operating conditions. A heat exchanger test program was defined to assess fouling and other characteristics of fuel cell heat exchangers needed to confirm heat exchanger designs for heat recovery

The role of the cerebellum in unconsciuos and conscious processing of emotions: a review

Studies from the past three decades have demonstrated that there is cerebellar involvement in the emotional domain. Emotional processing in humans requires both unconscious and conscious mechanisms. A significant amount of evidence indicates that the cerebellum is one of the cerebral structures that subserve emotional processing, although conflicting data have been reported on its function in unconscious and conscious mechanisms. This review discusses the available clinical, neuroimaging and neurophysiological data on this issue. We also propose a model in which the cerebellum acts as a mediator between the internal state and external environment for the unconscious and conscious levels of emotional processing