Zika Virus Growth in Human Kidney Cells Is Restricted by an Elevated Glucose Level

Mosquito-borne Zika virus (ZIKV) became a real threat to human health due to the lack of vaccine and effective antiviral treatment. The virus has recently been responsible for a global outbreak leading to millions of infected cases. ZIKV complications were highlighted in adults with Guillain–Barré syndrome and in newborns with increasing numbers of congenital disorders ranging from mild developmental delays to fatal conditions. The ability of ZIKV to establish a long-term infection in diverse organs including the kidneys has been recently documented but the consequences of such a viral infection are still debated. Our study aimed to determine whether the efficiency of ZIKV growth in kidney cells relates to glucose concentration. Human kidney HK-2 cells were infected with different ZIKV strains in presence of normal and high glucose concentrations. Virological assays showed a decrease in viral replication without modifying entry steps (viral binding, internalization, fusion) under high glucose conditions. This decrease replication was associated with a lower virus progeny and increased cell viability when compared to ZIKV-infected HK-2 cells in normal glucose concentration. In conclusion, we showed for the first time that an elevated glucose level influences ZIKV replication level with an effect on kidney cell survival.     

Gammagraphic diagnosis of a non-hyperactive suprarenal adenoma

It is described the case of a patient with Ovarian Cystadenoma in whom a 3.5 cm nodular lesion was accidentally detected in her left suprarenal gland. She had no signs of hypercortisolism or any other suprarenal pathology and was symptomless. Determinations in the urine of 24 hours of Cortisol, Adrenaline and Noradrenaline, 17-ketosteroids and Tetrahydroaldosterone were normal. Daily rhythm and plasmatic determinations of ACTH, cortisol and 11-deoxycortisol were normal. The Dexamethasone suppression test was also normal. In the suprarenal gammagraphy it appeared an intense captation by left suprarenal without visualization of right gland. A left suprarenalectomy was performed and the anatomopathological analysis showed a clear cell corticoadrenal adenoma. Therefore the only data of the function of suprarenal adenoma was the one coming from gammagraphy. We thought that the adenoma was responsible of practically all the corticoadrenal function without reaching pathological levels, meeting the criteria of "pre-Cushing" syndrome or subclinical Cushing, due to the fact that the contralateral gland was not seen in the gammagraphy. Therefore in the characterization of certain tumors which appear clinically and biochemically as non functional, the suprarenal gammagraphy could be a technique of great usefulness for the diagnosis.     

Dichotic listening and corpus callosum magnetic resonance imaging in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis with emphasis on sex differences.

Twenty-five early-onset relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis patients (12 women and 13 men) with mild disability were compared with 25 matched controls in a dichotic listening (DL) test under nonforced and forced attentional-shift conditions. Patients showed left ear impairment and no left ear advantage in the forced-left condition. Four corpus callosum (CC) regions were measured in patients on a rnidsaggital magnetic resonance imaging scan. The right ear score was negatively correlated whereas the left ear score was positively correlated with CC regions (significant only for the nonforced condition). Moreover, in men, the correlations with DL scores were linked mainly to the splenium and posterior isthmus, and in women, they were stronger for anterior isthmus and posterior body. An inverse correlation between months of disease evolution and CC area was found only in women. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

FPGA Implementation of a Pipelined On-Line Backpropagation

The paper describes the implementation of a systolic array for a multilayer perceptron with a hardware-friendly learning algorithm. A pipelined modification of the on-line backpropagation algorithm is shown and explained. It better exploits the parallelism because both the forward and backward phases can be performed simultaneously. The neural network performance for the proposed modification is discussed and compared with the standard so-called on-line backpropagation algorithm in typical databases and with the various precisions required. Although the preliminary results are positive, subsequent theoretical analysis and further experiments with different training sets will be necessary. For this reason our VLSI systolic architecture—together with the combination of FPGA reconfiguration properties and a design flow based on generic VHDL—can create a reusable, flexible, and fast method of designing a complete ANN on a single FPGA and can permit very fast hardware verifications for our trials of the Pipeline On-line Backpropagation algorithm and the standard algorithms.     

Evaluation of acoustic and dynamic behaviour of ethylene vinyl acetate panels

Ethylene vinyl acetate panels, with high vinyl acetate content and a closed‐cell structure, were studied through various experimental techniques as a first approach to evaluate the vibrational and acoustic behaviour of ethylene vinyl acetate panels for building applications. Test specimens, with a variety of densities and thicknesses were tested to evaluate the influence of these two parameters on acoustic impedance, sound transmission loss, dynamic stiffness and attenuation of vibrations. The results obtained shows sound transmission loss values for frequencies up to 2500 Hz with a maximum of about 63.7 dB, the dynamic stiffness results presented a wide range, with a maximum value of 350 MN/m³ and a minimum value of 23.3 MN/m³.On the other hand the lack of pore in the surface produce a high acoustic impedance. It can be concluded that ethylene vinyl acetate presents appropriate characteristics, mainly as an acoustic and vibration isolating material, for floorings and light partitions.     

Effect of in vitrofertilization medium on the acrosome reaction,cortical reaction,zona pellucida hardening and in vitro development in pigs

Physiological events at the time of fertilization of pig oocytes may differ in vitro depending on the in vitro fertilization (IVF) medium. This hypothesis was tested by in vitro maturation of pig oocytes for 44 h in NCSU-37 medium and thereafter fertilization with frozen-thawed ejaculated spermatozoa. Three different IVF media (TCM-199, Tyrode's albumin lactate pyruvate (TALP) and Tris-buffered medium (TBM)) were used. For the acrosome reaction test, spermatozoa were incubated for 0-150 min in the three IVF media, and the proportion of live acrosome-reacted and acrosome-intact cells was determined by fluorescein isothiocyanate-labelled peanut agglutinin (FITC-PNA) and propidium iodide (PI) staining. The cortical granule density of oocytes was evaluated by confocal microscopy, 2.5 and 5.0 h after culture in each medium in the presence or absence of spermatozoa. Zona pellucida resistance to pronase digestion was also determined in the same groups. The percentages of penetration, monospermy, male pronucleus formation, cleavage and blastocyst formation, and the number of cells per blastocyst after culture were determined. The results indicate that the acrosome reaction occurred much faster in TBM than in TCM-199 or TALP medium. Continuous cortical granule synthesis was observed in the three media when oocytes were incubated in the absence of spermatozoa. The presence of spermatozoa triggered the cortical reaction in a large proportion of oocytes fertilized in TCM-199 and TALP media. On the basis of the duration of pronase digestion, the zona pellucida of oocytes incubated in TCM-199 was harder (407.7 +/- 35.5 s) than that of oocytes cultured in TALP (235.4 +/- 18.2 s) or TBM (189.1 +/- 16.8 s). No zona pellucida hardening was noted in oocytes after insemination in any of the media. The percentages of penetration and cleavage were higher in oocytes cultured in TCM-199 and TALP than in TBM. The percentage of monospermy was higher in TCM-199 and TBM than in TALP. No effect of the medium was shown on the percentage of blastocyst formation or on the number of cells per blastocyst. In conclusion, the results highlight how differently the fertilization events take place in each IVF medium and how far these IVF media still are from achieving biological properties of gametes close to those observed in the physiological setting.     

Magnetic Rotation in the A = 80 Region: M1 Bands in Heavy Rb Isotopes

We have studied the isotopes ⁸²Rb₄₅, ⁸³Rb₄₆, and ⁸⁴Rb₄₇ to search for magnetic rotation which is predicted in the tilted-axis cranking model for a certain mass region around A = 80. Excited states in these nuclei were populated via the reaction ¹¹B + ⁷⁶Ge with E = 50 MeV at the XTU tandem accelerator of the LNL Legnaro. Based on a γ-coincidence experiment using the spectrometer GASP we have found magnetic dipole bands in each studied nuclide. The regular M1 bands observed in the odd-odd nuclei ⁸²Rb and ⁸⁴Rb include B(M1)/B(E2) ratios decreasing smoothly with increasing spin in a range of 13⁻ ≤ J^π ≤ 16⁻. These bands are interpreted in the tilted-axis cranking model on the basis of four-quasiparticle configurations of the type π(fp)πg9/22νg9/2. This is the first evidence of magnetic rotation in the A ≈ 80 region. In contrast, the M1 sequences in the odd-even nucleus ⁸³Rb are not regular, and the B(M1)/B(E2) ratios show a pronounced staggering.     

Zirconia nano-colloids transfer from continuous hydrothermal synthesis to inkjet printing

Water dispersions of nanometric yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ) particles synthesized by Continuous Hydrothermal Synthesis are transferred into nano-inks for thin film deposition. YSZ nanoparticles are synthesized in supercritical conditions resulting in highly dispersed crystals of 10 nm in size. The rheology of the colloid is tailored to achieve inkjet printability (Z) by using additives for regulating viscosity and surface tension. Inks with a wide range of properties are produced. A remarkable effect of nanoparticles on the ink printability is registered even at solid load < 1%vol. In particular, nanoparticles hinder the droplet formation at low values of the printability while suitable jetting is observed at high Z values, i.e. Z ≈ 20. For the optimized inks, we achieve high quality printing with lateral and thickness resolutions of 70 μm and ca. 250 nm respectively, as well as self-levelling effect with a reduction of the substrate roughness. Densification is achieved at sintering temperatures below 1200 °C.