A reasonable Approach for the Treatment of HIV Infection in the Early Phase with Ozonetherapy (Autohaemotherapy). How ‘Inflammatory’ Cytokines may have A therapeutic Role

Immunoregulatory cytokines produced by the TH1 subset and by CD8+ T lymphocytes appear to brake naturally and sometimes arrest the progress of HIV infection in the early phase. It appears reasonable to assume that a mild and equilibrated stimulation of the immune system may prevent or delay the fatal transition towards the prevalent production of TH2-type cytokines. The problem is how to stimulate the immune system in a physiological fashion. In the last 7 years we have clarified the main mechanisms of action of an unorthodox immunotherapeutic method first used 40 years ago. Optimized autohaemotherapy after a brief exposure ofblood to ozone may today afford the trick of reprogramming the immune system to keep HIV at bay. The autohaemotherapeutic procedure is simple, safe, inexpensive and most likely is more effective than conventional approaches

Studies on the biological effects of ozone: 10. Release of factors from ozonated human platelets.

In a previous work we have shown that heparin, in the presence of ozone (O3), promotes a dose-dependent platelet aggregation, while after Ca2+ chelation with citrate, platelet aggregation is almost negligible. These results led us to think that aggregation may enhance the release of platelet components. We have here shown that indeed significantly higher amount of platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF), transforming growth factor beta1 (TGF-beta1) and interleukin-8 (IL-8) are released in a dose-dependent manner after ozonation of heparinised platelet-rich plasma samples. These findings may explain the enhanced healing of torpid ulcers in patients with chronic limb ischemia treated with O3 autohaemoteraphy (O3-AHT)

Studies on the biological effects of ozone: 11. Release of factors from human endothelial cells.

BACKGROUND: Empirical observations have shown that ozonated autohemotherapy markedly improves the symptoms of chronic limb ischemia (muscular pain at rest, intermittent claudication, etc) in atherosclerotic patients, but mechanisms of action remain unclear. AIMS: Human endothelial cells (HUVECs) are known to release nitrogen monoxide (NO) and we investigated the biological effects of human ozonated serum on HUVECs in culture. METHODS: We assessed the relevance of peroxidation, the release of NO as nitrite and of three classical cytokines. RESULTS: The treatment of HUVECs with ozonated serum yields a dose dependent increase of thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) and of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and a decrease of protein thiol groups (PTG). Concomitantly, in comparison to either the control or the oxygenated sample, there is a significant and steady increase of nitric oxide (NO) production; this is markedly enhanced by the addition of L-arginine (20 microM) and inhibited in the presence of the NO inhibitor, L-NAME (20 mM). The main mediator of ozone action is H2O2 as it has been shown either after its direct measurement or by the addition of 20, 40 and 100 microM. Moreover, during 24 hours incubation we have investigated the production of endothelin 1 (ET-1), E-selectin and Interleukin 8 (IL-8) and it appears that ozonation enhances IL-8, inhibits E-selectin and hardly modifies ET-1 production. CONCLUSIONS: It appears that reinfusion of ozonated blood, by enhancing release of NO, may induce vasodilation in ischemic areas and reduce hypoxia

Cultivating diversity and food quality. Proceedings of Diversifood EU Forum, Brussels, 11 April 2018

To tackle this issue, Diversifood team organised a forum with policy makers and stakeholders on the 11th of April 2018, in Brussels. Diversifood’s aim is to share results and key lessons including new approaches for the management of cultivated biodiversity, for plant breeding for sustainable farming systems, and new relationships among actors of food systems. In the afternoon, there was time for discussion, knowledge sharing, collecting feedback and extending current policies to include cultivating diversity and food quality (for FP9, CAP 2020, The outputs of this workshop will feed Diversifood’s final recommendations. The forum was kindly hosted by the European Committee of the Regions (Rue Belliard/Belliardstraat 101, 1040 Brussels)

Ozone and Ozonated Oils in Skin Diseases: A Review

Although orthodox medicine has provided a variety of topical anti-infective agents, some of them have become scarcely effective owing to antibiotic- and chemotherapeutic-resistant pathogens. For more than a century, ozone has been known to be an excellent disinfectant that nevertheless had to be used with caution for its oxidizing properties. Only during the last decade it has been learned how to tame its great reactivity by precisely dosing its concentration and permanently incorporating the gas into triglycerides where gaseous ozone chemically reacts with unsaturated substrates leading to therapeutically active ozonated derivatives. Today the stability and efficacy of the ozonated oils have been already demonstrated, but owing to a plethora of commercial products, the present paper aims to analyze these derivatives suggesting the strategy to obtain products with the best characteristics

The m−m-dissimilarity map and representation theory of SLmSL_m

We give another proof that $m$-dissimilarity vectors of weighted trees are points on the tropical Grassmanian, as conjectured by Cools, and proved by Giraldo in response to a question of Sturmfels and Pachter. We accomplish this by relating $m$-dissimilarity vectors to the representation theory of $SL_m.$Comment: 11 pages, 8 figure

Studies on the biological effects of ozone: 8. Effects on the total antioxidant status and on interleukin-8 production.

Ozone (O3) is a controversial gas because, owing to its potent oxidant properties, it exerts damaging effects on the respiratory tract and yet it has been used for four decades as a therapy. While the disinfectant activity of O3 is understandable, it is less clear how other biological effects can be elicited in human blood with practically no toxicity. On the other hand plasma and cells are endowed with a powerful antioxidant system so that a fairly wide range of O3 concentrations between 40 and 80 microg/ml per gram of blood (approximately 0.83-1.66 mM) are effective but not deleterious. After blood ozonation total antioxidant status (TAS) and plasma protein thiol groups (PTG) decrease by 20% and 25%, respectively, while thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) increases up to five-fold. The increase of haemolysis is negligible suggesting that the erythrocyte membrane is spared at the expense of other sacrificial substrates. While there is a clear relationship between the ozone dose and IL-8 levels, we have noticed that high TAS and PTG values inhibit the cytokine production. This is in line with the current idea that hydrogen peroxide, as a byproduct of O3 decomposition, acts as a messenger for the cytokine induction

First measurement of the cross section for top-quark pair production in proton–proton collisions at √s = 7 TeV

20 páginas, 3 figuras, 1 tabla.-- This article is published Open Access at sciencedirect.com. It is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 3.0.-- CMS Collaboration: et al.The first measurement of the cross section for top-quark pair production in pp collisions at the Large Hadron Collider at center-of-mass energy √s = 7 TeV has been performed using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3.1 ± 0.3 pb−1 recorded by the CMS detector. This result utilizes the final state with two isolated, highly energetic charged leptons, large missing transverse energy, and two or more jets. Backgrounds from Drell–Yan and non-W/Z boson production are estimated from data. Eleven events are observed in the data with 2.1 ± 1.0 events expected from background. The measured cross section is 194±72(stat.)±24(syst.)±21(lumi.) pb, consistent with next-to-leading order predictions.Acknowledge support from: FMSR (Austria); FNRS and FWO (Belgium); CNPq, CAPES, FAPERJ, and FAPESP (Brazil); MES (Bulgaria); CERN; CAS, MoST, and NSFC (China); COLCIENCIAS (Colombia); MSES (Croatia); RPF (Cyprus); Academy of Sciences and NICPB (Estonia); Academy of Finland, ME, and HIP (Finland); CEA and CNRS/IN2P3 (France); BMBF, DFG, and HGF (Germany); GSRT (Greece); OTKA and NKTH (Hungary); DAE and DST (India); IPM (Iran); SFI (Ireland); INFN (Italy); NRF and WCU (Korea); LAS (Lithuania); CINVESTAV, CONACYT, SEP, and UASLPFAI (Mexico); PAEC (Pakistan); SCSR (Poland); FCT (Portugal); JINR (Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan); MST and MAE (Russia); MSTD (Serbia); MICINN and CPAN (Spain); Swiss Funding Agencies (Switzerland); NSC (Taipei); TUBITAK and TAEK (Turkey); STFC (United Kingdom); DOE and NSF (USA).Peer reviewe

The organic seed regulations framework in Europe – current status and recommendations for future development

Organic agriculture regulations, in particular European regulation EC 889/2008, prescribe the use of organically produced seed. For many cultivated plants, however, organic seed is often not available. This is mainly because investment in organic plant breeding and seed production has been low in the past. To bridge the gap between organic seed supply and demand, national and European regulations define certain circumstances under which organic producers are permitted to use non-organically produced seed. While the organic sector currently depends on these concessions, they also threaten to impede a further increase in the demand for organic seed, thereby potentially restraining present and future investment in organic seed production and plant breeding. We review the current status of the organic seed regulations framework by analysing key issues such as the role of the national derogation regimes, the role of expert groups, databases and seed prices. Key points are that (a) the situation of the organic seed sector has improved over the last few years; however, (b) reporting on organic seed to the EU by different countries needs to be harmonised; (c) the success of the organic seed sector depends critically on the implementation and improvement of national expert groups; and (d) to protect genetic diversity, the use of local varieties and landraces should not be impeded by organic seed regulations