Manejo de colecciones osteológicas del Museo Etnográfico J. B. Ambrosetti (FFyL-UBA).

A finales de 2006 se dio inicio a un proyecto de conservación desarrollado en el Área de Antropología Biológica del Museo Etnográfico J. B. Ambrosetti, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Buenos Aires, en el marco de un proceso de revalorización de los restos humanos que esta institución alberga. El proyecto general implementado tiene por objetivo desarrollar un protocolo que se base en el manejo ético de los restos, destacándose los conceptos de custodia, identidad y respeto, y que cubra en el largo plazo aspectos que se articulan en cuatro ejes principales: 1) ética, 2) educación, 3) conservación y 4) patrimonio. Esta forma de abordar las colecciones modifica sustancialmente las prácticas de manejo tal como se venían realizando con anterioridad, ya que establece estrategias novedosas que contemplan en un mismo plano de importancia la necesidad de desarrollar tareas de conservación y analizar su información científica para el desarrollo de actividades de investigación y docencia, todas las cuales deben ser necesariamente abordadas dentro de un marco que priorice los aspectos bioéticos de las políticas de manejo patrimonial. Se describen y discuten en este trabajo las diferentes líneas de trabajo implementadas desde hace cuatro años en el Área, y se detallan los logros alcanzados y las dificultades superadas, enfatizando tanto en aquellos aspectos del plan que están en proceso como en los que deberán ser desarrollados en el futuro

Manejo de colecciones osteológicas del Museo Etnográfico J. B. Ambrosetti (FFyL, UBA)

A finales de 2006 se dio inicio a un proyecto de conservación desarrollado en el Área de Antropología Biológica del Museo Etnográfico J. B. Ambrosetti, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Buenos Aires, en el marco de un proceso de revalorización de los restos humanos que esta institución alberga. El proyecto general implementado tiene por objetivo desarrollar un protocolo que se base en el manejo ético de los restos, destacándose los conceptos de custodia, identidad y respeto, y que cubra en el largo plazo aspectos que se articulan en cuatro ejes principales: 1) ética, 2) educación, 3) conservación y 4) patrimonio. Esta forma de abordar las colecciones modifica sustancialmente las prácticas de manejo tal como se venían realizando con anterioridad, ya que establece estrategias novedosas que contemplan en un mismo plano de importancia la necesidad de desarrollar tareas de conservación y analizar su información científica para el desarrollo de actividades de investigación y docencia, todas las cuales deben ser necesariamente abordadas dentro de un marco que priorice los aspectos bioéticos de las políticas de manejo patrimonial. Se describen y discuten en este trabajo las diferentes líneas de trabajo implementadas desde hace cuatro años en el Área, y se detallan los logros alcanzados y las dificultades superadas, enfatizando tanto en aquellos aspectos del plan que están en proceso como en los que deberán ser desarrollados en el futuro. (Párrafo extraído del texto a modo de resumen)Eje 1: Manejo de Colecciones y GestiónRed de Museos de la Universidad Nacional de La Plat

CT Images in Follicular Lymphoma: Changes after Treatment Are Predictive of Cardiac Toxicity in Patients Treated with Anthracycline-Based or R-B Regimens

The aim of this study is to evaluate changes in epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) and cardiac extracellular volume (ECV) in patients with follicular lymphoma (FL) treated with R-CHOP-like regimens or R-bendamustine. We included 80 patients with FL between the ages of 60 and 80 and, using computed tomography (CT) performed at onset and at the end of treatment, we assessed changes in EAT by measuring tissue density at the level of the cardiac apex, anterior interventricular sulcus and posterior interventricular sulcus of the heart. EAT is known to be associated with metabolic syndrome, increased calcium in the coronary arteries and therefore increased risk of coronary artery disease. We also evaluated changes in ECV, which can be used as an early imaging marker of cardiac fibrosis and thus myocardial damage. The R-CHOP-like regimen was associated with lower EAT values (p < 0.001), indicative of a less active metabolism and more adipose tissue, and an increase in ECV (p < 0.001). Furthermore, in patients treated with anthracyclines and steroids (R-CHOP-like) there is a greater decrease in ejection fraction (EF p < 0.001) than in the R-B group. EAT and ECV may represent early biomarkers of cardiological damage, and this may be considered, to our knowledge, the first study investigating radiological and cardiological parameters in patients with FL

B7h triggering inhibits the migration of tumor cell lines

Vascular endothelial cells (ECs) and several cancer cells express B7h, which is the ligand of the ICOS T cell costimulatory molecule. We have previously shown that B7h triggering via a soluble form of ICOS (ICOS-Fc) inhibits the adhesion of polymorphonuclear and tumor cell lines to HUVECs; thus, we suggested that ICOS-Fc may act as an anti-inflammatory and antitumor agent. Because cancer cell migration and angiogenesis are crucial for metastasis dissemination, the aim of this work was to evaluate the effect of ICOS-Fc on the migration of cancer cells and ECs. ICOS-Fc specifically inhibited the migration of HUVECs, human dermal lymphatic ECs, and the HT29, HCT116, PC-3, HepG2, JR8, and M14 tumor cell lines expressing high levels of B7h, whereas it was ineffective in the RPMI7932, PCF-2, LM, and BHT-101 cell lines expressing low levels of B7h. Furthermore, ICOS-Fc downmodulated hepatocyte growth factor facilitated the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition in HepG2 cells. Moreover, ICOS-Fc downmodulated the phosphorylation of focal adhesion kinase and the expression of \u3b2-Pix in both HUVECs and tumor cell lines. Finally, treatment with ICOS-Fc inhibited the development of lung metastases upon injection of NOD-SCID-IL2R\u3b3null mice with CF-PAC1 cells, as well as C57BL/6 mice with B16-F10 cells. Therefore, the B7h-ICOS interaction may modulate the spread of cancer metastases, which suggests the novel use of ICOS-Fc as an immunomodulatory drug. However, in the B16-F10-metastasized lungs, ICOS-Fc also increased IL-17A/RORc and decreased IL-10/Foxp3 expression, which indicates that it also exerts positive effects on the antitumor immune response

Covid-19 And Rheumatic Autoimmune Systemic Diseases: Role of Pre-Existing Lung Involvement and Ongoing Treatments

The Covid-19 pandemic may have a deleterious impact on patients with autoimmune systemic diseases (ASD) due to their deep immune-system alterations

Lightning indirect effects certification of a transport aircraft by numerical simulation

The interaction of lightning with an aircraft induces voltages and currents in the onboard wire harnesses, which can cause critical electronic equipment damage or malfunction, thus compromising the flight safety. The lightning interaction with an aircraft made largely of composite materials, like Boeing 787 and Airbus 380, is a subject of strong interest to the aeronautical industry. The computational tool "Virtual Aircraft Electromagnetic Lightning Indirect Effect Evaluation" (VAM-LIFE) was developed for the complete analysis of the electromagnetic fields inside and outside a medium-sized aircraft struck by lightning, and for the evaluation of the indirect lightning effects induced in the aircraft wiring system. The tool VAM-LIFE was used to obtain the certification by the Italian Aeronautic Authority of the C-27J aircraft of Alenia Aeronautica for indirect effects of lightning. This paper reviews the main features of the tool and presents new computational results of specific interest for the certification process of the C-27J aircraft. Moreover, this paper discusses the relevant aspects related to the modeling and simulation of innovative advanced composite materials with improved protection performance against a lightening electromagnetic pulse stroke

Plasma Levels of Soluble HLA-E and HLA-F at Diagnosis May Predict Overall Survival of Neuroblastoma Patients

The purpose of this study was to identify the plasma/serum biomarkers that are able to predict overall survival (OS) of neuroblastoma (NB) patients. Concentration of soluble (s) biomarkers was evaluated in plasma (sHLA-E, sHLA-F, chromogranin, and B7H3) or serum (calprotectin) samples from NB patients or healthy children. The levels of biomarkers that were significantly higher in NB patients were then analyzed considering localized or metastatic subsets. Finally, biomarkers that were significantly different in these two subsets were correlated with patient’s outcome. With the exception of B7H3, levels of all molecules were significantly higher in NB patients than those in controls. However, only chromogranin, sHLA-E, and sHLA-F levels were different between patients with metastatic and localized tumors. sHLA-E and -F levels correlated with each other but not chromogranin. Chromogranin levels correlated with different event-free survival (EFS), whereas sHLA-E and -F levels also correlated with different OS. Association with OS was also detected considering only patients with metastatic disease. In conclusion, low levels of sHLA-E and -F significantly associated with worse EFS/OS in the whole cohort of NB patients and in patients with metastatic NB. Thus, these molecules deserve to be tested in prospective studies to evaluate their predictive power for high-risk NB patients

Role of neuronal and non-neuronal acetylcholine signaling in Drosophila humoral immunity

: Acetylcholine (ACh) is one the major neurotransmitters in insects, whose role in mediating synaptic interactions between neurons in the central nervous system is well characterized. It also plays largely unexplored regulatory functions in non-neuronal tissues. Here we demonstrate that ACh signaling is involved in the modulation of the innate immune response of Drosophila melanogaster. Knockdown of ACh synthesis or ACh vesicular transport in neurons reduced the activation of drosomycin (drs), a gene encoding an antimicrobial peptide, in adult flies infected with a Gram-positive bacterium. drs transcription was similarly affected in Drosophila α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor, nAChRalpha7 (Dα7) mutants, as well as in flies expressing in the nervous system a dominant negative form (Dα7DN) of this specific receptor subunit. Interestingly, Dα7DN elicited a comparable response when it was expressed in non-neuronal tissues and even when it was specifically produced in the hemocytes. Consistently, full activation of the drs gene required Dα7 expression in these cells. Moreover, knockdown of ACh synthesis in non-neuronal cells affected drs expression. Overall, these findings uncover neural and non-neural cholinergic signals that modulate insect immune defenses and shed light on the role of hemocytes in the regulation of the humoral immune response

Expression of FOXP3, CD14, and ARG1 in Neuroblastoma Tumor Tissue from High-Risk Patients Predicts Event-Free and Overall Survival

The prognosis of children with metastatic neuroblastoma (NB) > 18 months at diagnosis is dismal. Since the immune status of the tumor microenvironment could play a role in the history of disease, we evaluated the expression of CD45, CD14, ARG1, CD163, CD4, FOXP3, Perforin-1 (PRF1), Granzyme B (GRMB), and IL-10 mRNAs in primary tumors at diagnosis from children with metastatic NB and tested whether the transcript levels are significantly associated to event-free and overall survival (EFS and OS, resp.). Children with high expression of CD14, ARG1 and FOXP3 mRNA in their primary tumors had significantly better EFS. Elevated expression of CD14, and FOXP3 mRNA was significantly associated to better OS. CD14 mRNA expression levels significantly correlated to all markers, with the exception of CD4. Strong positive correlations were found between PRF1 and CD163, as well as between PFR1 and FOXP3. It is worth noting that the combination of high levels of CD14, FOXP3, and ARG1 mRNAs identified a small group of patients with excellent EFS and OS, whereas low levels of CD14 were sufficient to identify patients with dismal survival. Thus, the immune status of the primary tumors of high-risk NB patients may influence the natural history of this pediatric cancer