Classification of burn injuries using near-infrared spectroscopy.

Early surgical management of those burn injuries that will not heal spontaneously is critical. The decision to excise and graft is based on a visual assessment that is often inaccurate but yet continues to be the primary means of grading the injury. Superficial and intermediate partial-thickness injuries generally heal with appropriate wound care while deep partial- and full-thickness injuries generally require surgery. This study explores the possibility of using near-infrared spectroscopy to provide an objective and accurate means of distinguishing shallow injuries from deeper burns that require surgery. Twenty burn injuries are studied in five animals, with burns covering <1% of the total body surface area. Carefully controlled superficial, intermediate, and deep partial-thickness injuries as well as full-thickness injuries could be studied with this model. Near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy was used to evaluate these injuries 1 to 3 hours after the insult. A probabilistic model employing partial least-squares logistic regression was used to determine the degree of injury, shallow (superficial or intermediate partial) from deep (deep partial and full thickness), based on the reflectance spectrum of the wound. A leave-animal-out cross-validation strategy was used to test the predictive ability of a 2-latent variable, partial least-squares logistic regression model to distinguish deep burn injuries from shallow injuries. The model displayed reasonable ranking quality as summarized by the area under the receiver operator characteristics curve, AUC = 0.879. Fixing the threshold for the class boundaries at 0.5 probability, the model sensitivity (true positive fraction) to separate deep from shallow burns was 0.90, while model specificity (true negative fraction) was 0.83. Using an acute porcine model of thermal burn injuries, the potential of near-infrared spectroscopy to distinguish between shallow healing burns and deeper burn injuries was demonstrated. While these results should be considered as preliminary and require clinical validation, a probabilistic model capable of differentiating these classes of burns would be a significant aid to the burn specialist

A novel validated assay to support the discovery of new anti-malarial gametocytocidal agents

Additional file 1. Graphical representation of the expression of 12 selected genes throughout the 30 days of gametocytogenesis. Y-axis shows the gene expression represented as (Ctgene−Ct18S rRNA)Ttime × −(Ctgene−Ct18S rRNA)T0, considering the time 0 as the basal expression. Although only the gametocytogenesis during 30 days is presented, similar results were obtained from day 0 to day 15 in both assays

Emerging Techniques in Breast MRI

As indicated throughout this chapter, there is a constant effort to move to more sensitive, specific, and quantitative methods for characterizing breast tissue via magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In the present chapter, we focus on six emerging techniques that seek to quantitatively interrogate the physiological and biochemical properties of the breast. At the physiological scale, we present an overview of ultrafast dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI and magnetic resonance elastography which provide remarkable insights into the vascular and mechanical properties of tissue, respectively. Moving to the biochemical scale, magnetization transfer, chemical exchange saturation transfer, and spectroscopy (both “conventional” and hyperpolarized) methods all provide unique, noninvasive, insights into tumor metabolism. Given the breadth and depth of information that can be obtained in a single MRI session, methods of data synthesis and interpretation must also be developed. Thus, we conclude the chapter with an introduction to two very different, though complementary, methods of data analysis: (1) radiomics and habitat imaging, and (2) mechanism-based mathematical modeling

Determinación de polifenoles totales y actividad antioxidante en orujo de vid de las variedades malbec y torrontés riojano

Resulta importante avanzar en la búsqueda de fuentes de compuestos fenólicos con actividadantioxidante en materiales abundantes y renovables, tales como los residuos de la industriavitivinícola. Según datos estadísticos de la OIV (Organización Internacional de la Viña y el Vino)Argentina es actualmente el quinto productor mundial de vinos. En la provincia de Catamarca estecultivo se localiza principalmente en la región oeste, debido a las condiciones climáticas y edáficas adecuadas para su producción. Según el Instituto Nacional de Vitivinicultura, en el año 2015 en la provincia de Catamarca se produjeron 14.746.900 kg de uva, casi la totalidad de esta producción fue destinada para la elaboración de vinos y mostos. El proceso de vinificación genera entre 25 a 30 % de residuos del total de la producción. En este trabajo se determinó el contenido fenólico y la actividad antioxidante de extractos obtenidos a partir de orujo de las variedades Malbec y Torrontés Riojano de vid (Vitis vinífera L.). Se estudió el orujo extraído del proceso de vinificación en la bodega Municipal Vinos de Hualfín, durante las campañas 2017 y 2018. Se prepararon extractos hidrotérmicos a partir de los orujos de las dos variedades. Se determinó la concentración polifenoles totales (PFT) por el método de Folin?Ciocalteau. La actividad antioxidante se evaluó por los ensayos de DPPH, FRAP y TEAC. Los datos se analizaron mediante ANAVA (p=0,05) considerando como factores campaña y variedad. Las medias de PFT variaron entre 57800 y 15008µg de ácido gálico g-1 de muestra seca, para Malbec y Torrontés Riojano respectivamente. Los extractos de Malbec resultaron significativamente superiores en PFT, DPPH y FRAP a los de Torrontés Riojano. Únicamente la actividad antioxidante medida por TEAC no mostró diferencia entre los extractos de Malbec y el extracto de Torrontés de la campaña 2018.It is important to move forward in the search for sources of phenolic compounds with antioxidant activity in abundant and renewable materials, such as the residues of the wine industry. According to statistical data from the OIV (International Organization of Vine and Wine) Argentina is currently the fifth world producer of wines. In the province of Catamarca this crop is located mainly in the western region, due to its climatic and edaphic conditions suitable for its production. According to the National Institute of Viticulture, in 2015 in the province of Catamarca, 14,746,900 kg of grapes were produced, almost all of this production was destined for the production of wines and musts. The winemaking process generates between 25 and 30% of waste from the total production. In this work the phenolic content and the antioxidant activity of extracts obtained from pomace of the Malbec and Torrontés Riojano grape varieties (Vitis vinífera L.) were determined. The pomace extracted during the winemaking process was studied after being pressed in the municipal winery “Vinos de Hualfín” belonging to the 2017 and 2018 campaigns. Hydrothermal extracts were prepared from the two varieties. The PFT concentration was determined by the Folin-Ciocalteau method and DPPH, FRAP and TEAC were evaluated for antioxidant activity. The data were analyzed using ANAVA (p = 0.05) considering campaign and variety factors. The PFT means varied between 57800 and 15008µg of gallic acid g-1 of sample, for Malbec and Torrontés Riojano respectively. Malbec extracts were significantly higher in PFT, DPPH and FRAP than in Torrontés Riojano. Only the antioxidant activity measured by TEAC showed no difference between Malbec extracts and Torrontés extract from the 2018 campaign.Fil: Segovia, Adrian Federico. Universidad Nacional de Catamarca. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias; ArgentinaFil: Gomez, Patricia E.. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro de Investigaciones y Transferencia de Catamarca. Universidad Nacional de Catamarca. Centro de Investigaciones y Transferencia de Catamarca; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Catamarca. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias; ArgentinaFil: Lorenzo, María Emilia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro de Investigaciones y Transferencia de Catamarca. Universidad Nacional de Catamarca. Centro de Investigaciones y Transferencia de Catamarca; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Catamarca. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias; ArgentinaFil: Olivera, Luciana G.. Universidad Nacional de Catamarca. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias; ArgentinaFil: Delgado, Antonella V.. Universidad Nacional de Catamarca. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias; Argentin

Multi-Messenger Astronomy with Extremely Large Telescopes

The field of time-domain astrophysics has entered the era of Multi-messenger Astronomy (MMA). One key science goal for the next decade (and beyond) will be to characterize gravitational wave (GW) and neutrino sources using the next generation of Extremely Large Telescopes (ELTs). These studies will have a broad impact across astrophysics, informing our knowledge of the production and enrichment history of the heaviest chemical elements, constrain the dense matter equation of state, provide independent constraints on cosmology, increase our understanding of particle acceleration in shocks and jets, and study the lives of black holes in the universe. Future GW detectors will greatly improve their sensitivity during the coming decade, as will near-infrared telescopes capable of independently finding kilonovae from neutron star mergers. However, the electromagnetic counterparts to high-frequency (LIGO/Virgo band) GW sources will be distant and faint and thus demand ELT capabilities for characterization. ELTs will be important and necessary contributors to an advanced and complete multi-messenger network.Comment: White paper submitted to the Astro2020 Decadal Surve

Anisotropy and chemical composition of ultra-high energy cosmic rays using arrival directions measured by the Pierre Auger Observatory

The Pierre Auger Collaboration has reported evidence for anisotropy in the distribution of arrival directions of the cosmic rays with energies $E>E_{th}=5.5\times 10^{19}$ eV. These show a correlation with the distribution of nearby extragalactic objects, including an apparent excess around the direction of Centaurus A. If the particles responsible for these excesses at $E>E_{th}$ are heavy nuclei with charge $Z$, the proton component of the sources should lead to excesses in the same regions at energies $E/Z$. We here report the lack of anisotropies in these directions at energies above $E_{th}/Z$ (for illustrative values of $Z=6,\ 13,\ 26$). If the anisotropies above $E_{th}$ are due to nuclei with charge $Z$, and under reasonable assumptions about the acceleration process, these observations imply stringent constraints on the allowed proton fraction at the lower energies

Search for a High-Mass Diphoton State and Limits on Randall-Sundrum Gravitons at CDF

We have performed a search for new particles which decay to two photons using 1.2/fb of integrated luminosity from p-pbar collisions at sqrt(s) = 1.96 TeV collected using the CDF II Detector at the Fermilab Tevatron. We find the diphoton mass spectrum to be in agreement with the standard model expectation, and set limits on the cross section times branching ratio for the Randall-Sundrum graviton, as a function of diphoton mass. We subsequently derive lower limits for the graviton mass of 230 GeV/c2 and 850 GeV/c2, at the 95% confidence level, for coupling parameters (k/M_Pl) of 0.01 and 0.1 respectively.Comment: submitted to Phys. Rev. Let

Search for the Higgs boson in events with missing transverse energy and b quark jets produced in proton-antiproton collisions at s**(1/2)=1.96 TeV

We search for the standard model Higgs boson produced in association with an electroweak vector boson in events with no identified charged leptons, large imbalance in transverse momentum, and two jets where at least one contains a secondary vertex consistent with the decay of b hadrons. We use ~1 fb-1 integrated luminosity of proton-antiproton collisions at s**(1/2)=1.96 TeV recorded by the CDF II experiment at the Tevatron. We find 268 (16) single (double) b-tagged candidate events, where 248 +/- 43 (14.4 +/- 2.7) are expected from standard model background processes. We place 95% confidence level upper limits on the Higgs boson production cross section for several Higgs boson masses ranging from 110 GeV/c2 to 140 GeV/c2. For a mass of 115 GeV/c2 the observed (expected) limit is 20.4 (14.2) times the standard model prediction.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let