Advanced megaesophagus (Group III) secondary to vector-borne Chagas disease in a 20-month-old infant

The authors report the case of a female infant with Group III (or Grade III) megaesophagus secondary to vector-borne Chagas disease, resulting in severe malnutrition that reversed after surgery (Heller technique). The infant was then treated with the antiparasitic drug benznidazole, and the infection was cured, as demonstrated serologically and parasitologically. After follow-up of several years without evidence of disease, with satisfactory weight and height development, the patient had her first child at age 23, in whom serological tests for Chagas disease yielded negative results. Thirty years after the initial examination, the patient's electrocardiogram, echocardiogram, and chest radiography remained normal.

Towards modification of Medicago truncatula epigenome: genome editing with engineered nucleases

Periodic drought is the primary limitation of plant growth and crop yield. The rise of water demand caused by the increase in world population and climate change, leads to one of the biggest challenges of modern agriculture: to increase food and feed production. De novo DNA methylation is a process regulated by small interfering RNA (siRNAs), which play a role in plant response and adaptation to abiotic stress. In the particular case of water deficit, growing evidences suggest a link between the siRNA pathways and drought response in the model legume Medicago truncatula. As a first step to understand the role of DNA methylation under water stress, we have set up several bioinformatics and molecular methodologies allowing the design of Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/Cas9 systems and the assembly of TALENs (transcription activator-like effector nucleases), to target both dicer-like 3 (MtDCL3) and RNA-Dependent RNA polymerase (MtRDR2), enzymes of the RNA-directed DNA methylation pathway. TALENs efficiency was evaluated prior to plant transformation by a yeast-based assay using two different strategies to test TALENs activity: Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) and Single strand conformation polymorphisms (SSCP). In this assay, yeast cells triple transformation emerged as good and rapid alternative to laborious yeast mating strategies. PAGE analysis might be a valuable tool to test TALENs efficacy in vivo if we could increase TALENs activity. SSCP-based approach proved to be ineffective due to the generation of several false positives. TALENs and CRISPR/Cas9 system constructed and designed in this work will in the future certainly enable the successful disruption of DCL3 and RDR2 genes and shed the light on the relationship between plant stress resistance and epigenetic regulation mediated by siRNAs in M.truncatula.

Long term (five-year) survival following radical surgical treatment plus adjuvant chemotherapy (FAM) in advanced gastric cancer: a controlled study

Several drugs and their associations are being used for adjuvant or complementary chemotherapy with the aim of improving results of gastric cancer treatment. The objective of this study was to verify the impact of these drugs on nutrition and on survival rate after radical treatment of 53 patients with gastric cancer in stage III of the TNM classification. A control group including 28 patients who had only undergone radical resection was compared to a group of 25 patients who underwent the same operative technique followed by adjuvant polychemotherapy with FAM (5-fluorouracil, Adriamycin, and mitomycin C). In this latter group, chemotherapy toxicity in relation to hepatic, renal, cardiologic, neurological, hematologic, gastrointestinal, and dermatological functions was also studied. There was no significant difference on admission between both groups in relation to gender, race, macroscopic tumoral type of tumor according to the Borrmann classification, location of the tumor in the stomach, length of the gastric resection, or response to cutaneous tests on delayed sensitivity. Chemotherapy was started on average, 2.3 months following surgical treatment. Clinical and laboratory follow-up of all patients continued for 5 years. The following conclusions were reached: 1) The nutritional status and incidence of gastrointestinal manifestation were similar in both groups; 2) There was no occurrence of cardiac, renal, neurological, or hepatic toxicity or death due to the chemotherapeutic method per se; 3) Dermatological alterations and hematological toxicity occurred exclusively in patients who underwent polychemotherapy; 4) There was no significant difference between the rate and site of tumoral recurrence, the disease-free interval, or the survival rate of both study groups; 5) Therefore, we concluded, after a 5-year follow-up, chemotherapy with the FAM regimen did not increase the survival rate.

Prognostic factors in locally advanced colon cancer treated by extended resection

The impact of clinical, pathologic, and surgical variables on the postoperative morbidity, mortality, and survival of patients undergoing extended resections of colon carcinoma were evaluated. METHODS: The medical records of 95 patients who underwent extended resections for colon carcinoma between 1953 and 1996 were reviewed. In all cases, in addition to colectomy, 1 or more organs and/or structures were resected en bloc due to a macroscopically based suspicion of tumor invasion. The clinical, pathologic, and surgical parameters were analyzed. Overall survival rates were analyzed according to the method of Kaplan and Meier. Multivariate analysis was performed using the Cox proportional hazards model. RESULTS: Eighty-six patients were treated by curative surgeries and the remaining by palliative resections. Invasion of the organs and/or adjacent structures and regional lymph nodes was found microscopically in 48 and 31 patients, respectively. The median follow-up without postoperative mortality was 47.7 months. The 5-year overall survival rates was 52.6%. The 5-year overall survival rates for patients undergoing curative and palliative surgeries was 58.3% and 0%, respectively. The mean survival time in the palliative surgery group was 3.1 months. Multivariate analysis showed that Karnofsky performance status was strongly related to the risk of postoperative complications (P = .01), and postoperative deaths were associated with the type of surgery and Karnofsky performance status at the time of admission (P = .001). CONCLUSIONS: Some patients with locally advanced colon adenocarcinomas undergoing extended resections have a 5-year overall survival rates of 58.3%. Patients could benefit from palliative-intent procedures, but these measures should cautiously be indicated and avoided in patients with low Karnofsky performance status due to high rates of postoperative mortality and poor survival.

Affordable prefabricated modular houses using cement and polymer based materials and advanced design tools

By taking advantage of the appropriate use of cement and polymer based materials and advanced computational tools, a pre-fabricated affordable house was built in a modular system. Modular system refers to the complete structure that is built-up by assembling pre-fabricated sandwich panels composed of steel fibre reinforced self-compacting concrete (SFRSCC) outer layers that are connected by innovative glass fibre reinforced polymer (GFRP) connectors, resulting in a panel with adequate structural, acoustic, and thermal insulation properties. The modular house was prepared for a typical family of six members, but its living area can be easily increased by assembling other pre-fabricated elements. The speed of construction and the cost of the constructive elements make these houses competitive when compared to traditional solutions. In this paper the relevant research subjacent to this project (LEGOUSE) is briefly described, as well as the construction process of the built real scale prototype.

Engineering modular viral scaffolds for targeted bacterial population editing

Bacteria are central to human health and disease, but existing tools to edit microbial consortia are limited. For example, broad-spectrum antibiotics are unable to precisely manipulate bacterial communities. Bacteriophages can provide highly specific targeting of bacteria, but assembling well-defined phage cocktails solely with natural phages can be a time-, labor- and cost-intensive process. Here, we present a synthetic biology strategy to modulate phage host ranges by engineering phage genomes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We used this technology to redirect Escherichia coli phage scaffolds to target pathogenic Yersinia and Klebsiella bacteria, and conversely, Klebsiella phage scaffolds to target E. coli by modular swapping of phage tail components. The synthetic phages achieved efficient killing of their new target bacteria and were used to selectively remove bacteria from multi-species bacterial communities with cocktails based on common viral scaffolds. We envision this approach accelerating phage biology studies and enabling new technologies for bacterial population editing.

Green composites for advanced technical applications

This paper provides an overview of properties and application of natural fibre composites. Natural fibre market, merits and demerits, surface treatment techniques, properties of some recently developed natural fibre composites and applications have been discussed.

Towards high performance and multi-functional structural membranes using advanced fibrous and textile materials

Scientific and technological advancements in the area of fibrous and textile materials have greatly enhanced their application potential in several high-end technical and industrial sectors including construction, transportation, medical, sports, aerospace engineering, electronics and so on. Excellent performance accompanied by light-weight, mechanical flexibility, tailor-ability, design flexibility, easy fabrication and relatively lower cost are the driving forces towards wide applications of these materials. Cost-effective fabrication of various advanced and functional materials for structural parts, medical devices, sensors, energy harvesting devices, capacitors, batteries, and many others has been possible using fibrous and textile materials. Structural membranes are one of the innovative applications of textile structures and these novel building skins are becoming very popular due to flexible design aesthetics, durability, lightweight and cost benefits. Current demand on high performance and multi-functional materials in structural applications has motivated to go beyond the basic textile structures used for structural membranes and to use innovative textile materials. Structural membranes with self-cleaning, thermoregulation and energy harvesting capability (using solar cells) are examples of such recently developed multi-functional membranes. Besides these, there exist enormous opportunities to develop wide varieties of multi-functional membranes using functional textile materials. Additionally, it is also possible to further enhance the performance and functionalities of structural membranes using advanced fibrous architectures such as 2D, 3D, hybrid, multi-layer and so on. In this context, the present paper gives an overview of various advanced and functional fibrous and textile materials which have enormous application potential in structural membranes.

Implementação de sistemas de encriptação AES advanced encryption standard em hardware para segurança

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Engenharia Electrónica Industrial e Computadores

Development of advanced cell/tissue culture systems, based on enhanced polymeric scaffolds and sophisticated bioreactors, for tissue engineering applications

Programa Doutoral em Engenharia Biomédica

Estrategias estadístico-computacionales avanzadas para análisis de expresión de proteínas/genes en cáncer. Advanced statistical and computational strategies for protein/gene expression analysis in cancer.

El objetivo de este proyecto, enmarcado en el área de metodología de análisis en bioingeniería-biotecnología aplicadas al estudio del cancer, es el análisis y caracterización a través modelos estadísticos con efectos mixtos y técnicas de aprendizaje automático, de perfiles de expresión de proteínas y genes de las vías metabolicas asociadas a progresión tumoral. Dicho estudio se llevará a cabo mediante la utilización de tecnologías de alto rendimiento. Las mismas permiten evaluar miles de genes/proteínas en forma simultánea, generando así una gran cantidad de datos de expresión. Se hipotetiza que para un análisis e interpretación de la información subyacente, caracterizada por su abundancia y complejidad, podría realizarse mediante técnicas estadístico-computacionales eficientes en el contexto de modelos mixtos y técnias de aprendizaje automático. Para que el análisis sea efectivo es necesario contemplar los efectos ocasionados por los diferentes factores experimentales ajenos al fenómeno biológico bajo estudio. Estos efectos pueden enmascarar la información subycente y así perder informacion relavante en el contexto de progresión tumoral. La identificación de estos efectos permitirá obtener, eficientemente, los perfiles de expresión molecular que podrían permitir el desarrollo de métodos de diagnóstico basados en ellos. Con este trabajo se espera poner a disposición de investigadores de nuestro medio, herramientas y procedimientos de análisis que maximicen la eficiencia en el uso de los recursos asignados a la masiva captura de datos genómicos/proteómicos que permitan extraer información biológica relevante pertinente al análisis, clasificación o predicción de cáncer, el diseño de tratamientos y terapias específicos y el mejoramiento de los métodos de detección como así tambien aportar al entendimieto de la progresión tumoral mediante análisis computacional intensivo.

Aortic Counterpulsation Therapy in Patients with Advanced Heart Failure: Analysis of the TBRIDGE Registry

Abstract Background: The use of aortic counterpulsation therapy in advanced heart failure is controversial. Objectives: To evaluate the hemodynamic and metabolic effects of intra-aortic balloon pump (IABP) and its impact on 30-day mortality in patients with heart failure. Methods: Historical prospective, unicentric study to evaluate all patients treated with IABP betwen August/2008 and July/2013, included in an institutional registry named TBRIDGE (The Brazilian Registry of Intra-aortic balloon pump in Decompensated heart failure - Global Evaluation). We analyzed changes in oxygen central venous saturation (ScvO2), arterial lactate, and use of vasoactive drugs at 48 hours after IABP insertion. The 30-day mortality was estimated by the Kaplan-Meier method and diferences in subgroups were evaluated by the Log-rank test. Results: A total of 223 patients (mean age 49 ± 14 years) were included. Mean left ventricle ejection fraction was 24 ± 10%, and 30% of patients had Chagas disease. Compared with pre-IABP insertion, we observed an increase in ScvO2 (50.5% vs. 65.5%, p < 0.001) and use of nitroprusside (33.6% vs. 47.5%, p < 0.001), and a decrease in lactate levels (31.4 vs. 16.7 mg/dL, p < 0.001) and use of vasopressors (36.3% vs. 25.6%, p = 0.003) after IABP insertion. Thirty-day survival was 69%, with lower mortality in Chagas disease patients compared without the disease (p = 0.008). Conclusion: After 48 hours of use, IABP promoted changes in the use of vasoactive drugs, improved tissue perfusion. Chagas etiology was associated with lower 30-day mortality. Aortic counterpulsation therapy is an effective method of circulatory support for patients waiting for heart transplantation.

Advanced production systems : developing context-oriented method and adaptation capabilities for enhanced supply network

Magdeburg, Univ., Fak. für Maschinenbau, Diss., 2014

Phyletic analysis of fifty characters of advanced snakes [by] Hymen Marx and George B. Rabb.

v.63(1972)