Transition from Cyclosporine-Induced Renal Dysfunction to Nephrotoxicity in an in Vivo Rat Model

Cyclosporin A (CsA), a calcineurin inhibitor, remain the cornerstone of immunosuppressive regimens, regardless of nephrotoxicity, which depends on the duration of drug exposure. The mechanisms and biomarkers underlying the transition from CsA-induced renal dysfunction to nephrotoxicity deserve better elucidation, and would help clinical decisions. This study aimed to clarify these issues, using a rat model of short- and long-term CsA (5 mg/kg bw/day) treatments (3 and 9 weeks, respectively). Renal function was assessed on serum and urine; kidney tissue was used for histopathological characterization and gene and/or protein expression of markers of proliferation, fibrosis and inflammation. In the short-term, creatinine and blood urea nitrogen (BUN) levels increased and clearances decreased, accompanied by glomerular filtration rate (GFR) reduction, but without kidney lesions; at that stage, CsA exposure induced proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGF-β1), factor nuclear kappa B (NF-κβ) and Tumor Protein P53 (TP53) kidney mRNA up-regulation. In the long-term treatment, renal dysfunction data was accompanied by glomerular and tubulointerstitial lesions, with remarkable kidney mRNA up-regulation of the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) and the antigen identified by monoclonal antibody Ki-67 (Mki67), accompanied by mTOR protein overexpression. Transition from CsA-induced renal dysfunction to nephrotoxicity is accompanied by modification of molecular mechanisms and biomarkers, being mTOR one of the key players for kidney lesion evolution, thus suggesting, by mean of molecular evidences, that early CsA replacement by mTOR inhibitors is indeed the better therapeutic choice to prevent chronic allograft nephropathy.     

Material properties and nondestructive evaluation of laminated veneer lumber (LVL) made from Pinus oocarpa and P. kesiya

This study aimed at evaluating the mechanical, physical and biological properties of laminated veneer lumber (LVL) made from Pinus oocarpa Schiede ex Schltdl (PO) and Pinus kesiya Royle ex Gordon (PK) and at providing a nondestructive characterization thereof. Four PO and four PK LVL boards from 22 randomly selected 2-mm thickness veneers were produced according to the following characteristics: phenol-formaldehyde (190 g/m²), hot-pressing at 150°C for 45 min and 2.8 N/mm² of specific pressure. After board production, nondestructive evaluation was conducted, and stress wave velocity (v ₀) and dynamic modulus of elasticity (E _Md ) were determined. The following mechanical and physical properties were then evaluated: static bending modulus of elasticity (E _M ), modulus of rupture (f _M ), compression strength parallel to grain (f _c,0), shear strength parallel to glue-line (f _v,0), shear strength perpendicular to glue-line (f _v,90), thickness swelling (TS), water absorption (WA), and permanent thickness swelling (PTS) for 2, 24, and 96-hour of water immersion. Biological property was also evaluated by measuring the weight loss by Trametes versicolor (Linnaeus ex Fries) Pilát (white-rot) and Gloeophyllum trabeum (Persoon ex Fries.) Murrill (brown-rot). After hot-pressing, no bubbles, delamination nor warping were observed for both species. In general, PK boards presented higher mechanical properties: E _M , E _Md , f _M , f _c,0 whereas PO boards were dimensionally more stable, with lower values of WA, TS and PTS in the 2, 24, and 96-hour immersion periods. Board density, f _v,0, f _v,90 and rot weight loss were statistically equal for PO and PK LVL. The prediction of flexural properties of consolidated LVL by the nondestructive method used was not very efficient, and the fitted models presented lower predictability.     

Ground-based single-frequency microwave radiometric measurement of water vapour

The integrated water vapour content of the atmosphere is measured by a ground-based radiometer at 22.234 GHz at the Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE), Brazil. The data set has been partitioned into two sets: one for no cloud and the other for cloudy conditions. The attenuation (dB) under the no cloud condition was always found to vary within 1.0–1.5 dB, except at around 1400 hrs (local time) through 1800 hrs (local time), and it reached a value of more than 1.5 dB with a maximum at 1700. This is in conformity with the theoretically calculated values of water vapour density over the same location. An effort has been made to get the regression relation between the measured and calculated water vapour content, for which the RMS error was found to be 0.49 kg m^?2.     

Addressing Brazilian diversity in personal computing systems with a tailoring-based approach

Personal and Ubiquitous Computing - Access to knowledge, information, and technology is a key element for the development of individuals and society as a whole. While computing systems play a...     

A social interactive whiteboard system using finger-tracking for mobile devices

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Mobile devices have become a commodity in nowadays allowing people to get connected and perform several tasks for work. The usefulness of mobile is mobility...     

Expanding user’s query with tag-neighbors for effective medical information retrieval

Medical information is a natural human demand. Existing search engines on the Web often are unable to handle medical search well because they do not consider its special requirements. Often a medical information searcher is uncertain about his exact questions and unfamiliar with medical terminology. Under-specified queries often lead to undesirable search results that do not contain the information needed. To overcome the limitations of under-specified queries, we utilize tags to enhance information retrieval capabilities by expanding users’ original queries with context-relevant information. We compute a set of significant tag neighbor candidates based on the neighbor frequency and weight, and utilize the qualified tag neighbors to expand an entry query. The proposed approach is evaluated by using MedWorm medical article collection and results show considerable precision improvements over state-of-the-art approaches.     

A high-repetition rate scheme for synchrotron-based picosecond laser pump/x-ray probe experiments on chemical and biological systems in solution

We present the extension of time-resolved optical pump/x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) probe experiments towards data collection at MHz repetition rates. The use of a high-power picosecond laser operating at an integer fraction of the repetition rate of the storage ring allows exploitation of up to two orders of magnitude more x-ray photons than in previous schemes based on the use of kHz lasers. Consequently, we demonstrate an order of magnitude increase in the signal-to-noise of time-resolved XAS of molecular systems in solution. This makes it possible to investigate highly dilute samples at concentrations approaching physiological conditions for biological systems. The simplicity and compactness of the scheme allows for straightforward implementation at any synchrotron beamline and for a wide range of x-ray probe techniques, such as time-resolved diffraction or x-ray emission studies.