Critical Review of the Evolution of Extracellular Vesicles’ Knowledge: From 1946 to Today

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are a family of particles/vesicles present in blood and body fluids, composed of phospholipid bilayers that carry a variety of molecules that can mediate cell communication, modulating crucial cell processes such as homeostasis, induction/dampening of inflammation, and promotion of repair. Their existence, initially suspected in 1946 and confirmed in 1967, spurred a sharp increase in the number of scientific publications. Paradoxically, the increasing interest for EV content and function progressively reduced the relevance for a precise nomenclature in classifying EVs, therefore leading to a confusing scientific production. The aim of this review was to analyze the evolution of the progress in the knowledge and definition of EVs over the years, with an overview of the methodologies used for the identification of the vesicles, their cell of origin, and the detection of their cargo. The MISEV 2018 guidelines for the proper recognition nomenclature and ways to study EVs are summarized. The review finishes with a “more questions than answers” chapter, in which some of the problems we still face to fully understand the EV function and potential as a diagnostic and therapeutic tool are analyzed.     

Young children in the aftermath of the World Trade Center attacks.

The attacks of September 11, 2001, on the World Trade Center were unprecedented acts of terrorism on U.S. soil. The disaster provides an opportunity to understand the responses of young children to a traumatic event of this proportion. This retrospective study took place within a year of the attacks and examined the relationship of levels of exposure to the World Trade Center disaster and family level predictors to trauma symptoms in a highly exposed sample of 180 young children in New York City. Data were collected through interviews with parents of children five years or younger at the time of the attacks. Primary variables included direct exposure and post 9/11 child and parent functioning, including trauma symptoms. Child trauma symptoms were related to direct exposure to the disaster, previous trauma, negative changes in parenting, and increased couple tension. Findings support the conceptualization that children's responses to traumatic events must be addressed within the caregiving context of family relationships. Clinical and preventive intervention for young children should be aimed at multiple levels of the social ecology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Non-singular term effect on the fracture quantities of a crack in a piezoelectric medium

The static problem of a crack in a piezoelectric plate subjected to biaxial loading at infinity is analyzed. The aim of this paper is to estimate the influence of non-singular terms originated by the load biaxiality on the stress fields and on the elastic and electric displacements in the vicinity of the crack tip. An analytical method for seeking the electro-elastic solution is proposed. The novel procedure involves a transformation of similarity induced by the fundamental matrix that enables to express the equations governing the problem in terms of complex potentials. The application of the boundary conditions leads then to the formulation of Hilbert problems whose solutions allow to obtain the generalized stress and displacement components. Numerical results and graphs are presented and discussed for various loading conditions. The non-singular solution is compared to the asymptotic one, generally considered in the literature when analyzing fracture problems. In particular, it is shown that the direction of incipient crack extension, sought through the maximum circumferential stress criterion, can be seen to deviate from the crack axis as the collinear load increases, although geometry and applied load are symmetric.     

Liquid-crystallization induced reactions. Microstructure and morphology of copolyesters synthesized by transesterification of PET with some LCP monomers

The transesterification of poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) with a mixture of sebacic acid (S), 4,4′-diacetoxybiphenyl (B) and 4-acetoxybenzoic acid (H), carried out under conditions expectedly favoring the formation of a p(ET-SBH) random copolyester, produces biphasic materials with an isotropic matrix and a highly fibrous, liquid-crystalline dispersed phase. Spectroscopic, calorimetric, microscopic and diffractometric characterization of the fractions separated by solvent extraction has shown that the two phases consist of practically random copolyesters having different average composition. Interestingly, the degree of aromaticity of the matrix is even lower than that of PET, whereas that of the minor phase is appreciably higher than that calculated for the SBH copolyester that would be produced from the monomer mixture in the absence of PET. This unexpected result is interpreted on the basis of an enthalpy-driven progressive diffusion of aromatic-rich material toward the mesophase which segregates at an early stage of the polycondensation within the isotropic mixture of low molar mass oligomers initially produced by the PET acidolysis. Thus, an increasing differentiation, rather than an equilibration, of the composition of the two phases takes place. It is noteworthy that, despite the strong compositional difference, the two phases of these products show fairly good compatibility and interfacial adhesion.     

A rapid spectroscopic method to detect the fraudulent treatment of tuna fish with carbon monoxide

Carbon monoxide (CO) can be used to treat fresh meat and fish in order to retain its ‘fresh’ red colour appearance for a longer period of time. In fact, upon aging, myoglobin is oxidized to met-myoglobin with the concomitant blue-shift and broadening of the Soret maximum, which brings about a change in the colour of the fish, revealing that it is no longer fresh. The use of carbon monoxide, which reacts with the oxy-myoglobin to form a fairly stable cherry red carboxy-myoglobin complex may mask spoilage, because the CO-complex can be stable beyond the microbiological shelf life of the meat. The presence of CO in tuna fish has been investigated by optical spectroscopy as the formation of the CO adduct can be easily detected by the combined analysis of electronic absorption spectra in their normal and second derivative modes, monitoring the intense Soret band at 420 nm. The presence of met- and oxy-myoglobin can obscure the presence of small amounts of the CO adduct; however, it can be revealed by chemically reducing the met- and oxy-forms to the deoxy-form in an anaerobic environment. This spectroscopic method provides a qualitatively rapid laboratory screening procedure for food control to unmask the presence of CO in frozen or fresh fish.     

Understanding the implications of view update policies

Database views are traditionally described as unmaterialized queries, which may be coincidentally updatable according to some fixed criteria. One of the problems in updating through views lies in determining whether a given view modification can be correctly translated by the system. To define an updatable view, a view designer must be aware of how an update request in the view will be mapped into updates of the underlying relations. Furthermore, because of side effects, the view designer must also be made aware of the effects of isolated updates back into the view. To address this problem, we present a general algorithm that predicts the effects of arbitrary mapping policies. Given an update policy, this algorithm indicates whether a desired update will, in fact, occur in the view and describes all possible side effects it may have, documenting the conditions under which they occur. The algorithm subsumes the results obtained by other view design tools, and generalizes their use to encompass a larger class of views.     

Selbstbestimmung und Selbstverständnis – Themenschwerpunkte im Umgang mit der Patientenverfügung

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Perspektiven der Plasmamedizin

Prospects of plasma medicine: Applications of Tissue Tolerable Plasmas (TTP) Based on the current knowledge on the physical properties and biological effects of tissue tolerable plasma (ttp) potential perspectives of plasma medicine are discussed. Currently, the foundations for the following medical applications of ttp are developed by an interdisciplinary research team: Prevention and/or treatment of diseases such as chronic wounds, skin and mucosal infectious diseases, localized tumors, promotion of angiogenesis, and tissue ablation Inhibition and/or elimination of biofilms by prevention of biofilm development due to surface treatment and/or plasma steered application of antimicrobial active layers with drug delivery function on foreign objects implanted into humans (implantable prosthesis, contact lenses, stents etc.) as well as elimination of biofilms by direct action of ttp on surfaces and tissues (chronic wounds, tooth surface, prosthesis) promotion of the incorporation of implants into viable tissue by changing the surface of materials (hydrophobicity) Promotion of penetration of topically applied drugs with therapeutic results Assessment of veterinary indications Improved cleaning performance in reprocessing of medical devices by surface modification.