Platelet-Derived Extracellular Vesicles for Regenerative Medicine

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) present a great potential for the development of new treatments in the biomedical field. To be used as therapeutics, many different sources have been used for EVs obtention, while only a few studies have addressed the use of platelet-derived EVs (pEVs). In fact, pEVs have been shown to intervene in different healing responses, thus some studies have evaluated their regenerative capability in wound healing or hemorrhagic shock. Even more, pEVs have proven to induce cellular differentiation, enhancing musculoskeletal or neural regeneration. However, the obtention and characterization of pEVs is widely heterogeneous and differs from the recommendations of the International Society for Extracellular Vesicles. Therefore, in this review, we aim to present the main advances in the therapeutical use of pEVs in the regenerative medicine field while highlighting the isolation and characterization steps followed. The main goal of this review is to portray the studies performed in order to enhance the translation of the pEVs research into feasible therapeutical applications.     

Nickel versus cobalt catalysts for hydrogen production by ethanol steam reforming: Ni–Co–Zn–Al catalysts from hydrotalcite-like precursors

The urea hydrolysis method allowed to prepare well-crystallized Ni–Co–Zn–Al Layered Double Hydroxides to be used as precursors of mixed oxide catalysts for the Ethanol Steam Reforming (ESR) reaction. The calcination of the layered precursors gives rise to high surface area mixed oxides, being actually a mixture of a rock salt phase (NiO), a wurtzite phase (ZnO) and a spinel phase.     

Quantification of “delivered” H2 by a volumetric method to test H2 storage materials

We set up and validated a volumetric method to quantify the amount of hydrogen “delivered” after saturation of a solid material as adsorber at different pressures (up to 100 kg_f/cm²) and temperatures (down to 77 K). This is the practically most relevant datum to quantify the effectiveness of an adsorbent for the present application. A complementary dynamic method has been also developed to take into account the reversibility of adsorption and to assess in at least a semi-quantitative way the strength of interaction between H₂ and the adsorbent. The method has been applied to compare the hydrogen storage capacity of some significant different carbon-based materials (two active carbons and one graphite), as supplied or after thermal treatments under oxidising or reducing conditions. The best results, ca. 7 wt% H₂ “delivered”, were achieved after saturation at 77 K, 20 kg_f/cm² with an active carbon with ca. 3000 m²/g of apparent specific surface area. The thermal treatments, almost always inducing a drop in surface area, showed effective only for saturation at 273 K, in particular the oxidising procedure. This was correlated to the formation of surface oxidised species, likely carboxylic groups, which improved the interaction strength between H₂ and the adsorbent.     

High-surface-area SBA-15–SO3H with enhanced catalytic activity by the addition of poly(ethylene glycol)

The influence of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) and synthesis temperature in the synthesis of SBA-15–SO₃H was investigated to evaluate the catalytic activity in the esterification of propionic acid with methanol. The catalysts were characterized by means of surface and structure analyses; X-ray diffraction, FT-IR, scanning electron microscopy, Thermo-gravimetric and N₂ adsorption/desorption techniques. It was found that, by the addition of PEG, the surface area and porosity of SBA-15–SO₃H increased, while the structure and size of mesopores remained unchanged. Nitrogen sorption measurements indicate that PEG introduces additional pores into the pore walls of SBA-15–SO₃H. Thus, a simple way of improving the porosity of mesoporous SBA-15–SO₃H was presented that could enhance transport of substrates through the porous system and allow the generation of stable mesoporous replicas, important for catalytic applications and also beneficial for replication and nanocasting purposes.     

Photocuring of cycloaliphatic epoxy formulations using polyesters with multiarm star topology as additives

Multiam star polyesters were synthesized by growing poly(ε‐caprolactone) (PCL) arms from hyperbranched polyesters cores of different molecular weight and used as polymeric modifiers in UV‐curable cationic formulations based on a biscycloaliphatic epoxy resin. The effect of the multiarm stars on the curing kinetics has been investigated by real‐time FTIR. The thermal‐mechanical properties of the photocured thermosets have been studied with calorimetry and dynamomechanical and thermogravimetric analysis. Impact strength tests have been performed to assess their effect on the toughness of the cured materials. An accelerative effect of these modifiers has been observed as a consequence of the participation of the hydroxyl groups of the modifiers in the cationic curing of the epoxy resin. A modest increase in toughness accompanied by a decrease in the glass transition are observed, as a consequence of the incorporation of the modifiers into the network structure, leading to homogeneous, in situ reinforced materials. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 2014 , 131, 40005.     

Curing of mixtures of epoxy resins and 4‐methyl‐1,3‐dioxolan‐2‐one with several initiators

Diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A or 3,4‐epoxycyclohexylmethyl 3,4‐epoxycyclohexane carboxylate were mixed with different proportions of 4‐methyl‐1,3‐dioxolan‐2‐one and cured using lanthanide triflates as initiators. In order to compare the materials obtained, conventional initiators such as boron trifluoride complexes and N,N‐dimethylaminopyridine were also tested. The curing process was followed by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and Fourier transform IR in attenuated total reflectance mode. This technique proved that the carbonate accelerates the curing process because it helps to form the active initiating species, although it was not chemically incorporated into the network and remained entrapped in the material. The DSC kinetic study was also reported. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 102: 2086–2093, 2006     

Mortality due to lung, laryngeal and bladder cancer in towns lying in the vicinity of combustion installations

Background

Installations that burn fossil fuels to generate power may represent a health problem due to the toxic substances which they release into the environment.

Objectives

To investigate whether there might be excess mortality due to tumors of lung, larynx and bladder in the population residing near Spanish combustion installations included in the European Pollutant Emission Register.

Methods

Ecologic study designed to model sex-specific standardized mortality ratios for the above three tumors in Spanish towns, over the period 1994-2003. Population exposure to pollution was estimated on the basis of distance from town of residence to pollution source. Using mixed Poisson regression models, we analyzed: risk of dying from cancer in a 5-kilometer zone around installations that commenced operations before 1990; effect of type of fuel used; and risk gradient within a 50-kilometer radius of such installations.

Results

Excess mortality (relative risk, 95% confidence interval) was detected in the vicinity of pre-1990 installations for lung cancer (1.066, 1.041-1.091 in the overall population; 1.084, 1.057-1.111 in men), and laryngeal cancer among men (1.067, 0.992-1.148). Lung cancer displayed excess mortality for all types of fuel used, whereas in laryngeal and bladder cancer, the excess was associated with coal-fired industries. There was a risk gradient effect in the proximity of a number of installations.

Conclusions

Our results could support the hypothesis of an association between risk of lung, laryngeal and bladder cancer mortality and proximity to Spanish combustion installations.     

Cationic curing of diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A and 2,2,5,5‐tetramethyl‐4,6‐dioxo‐1,3‐dioxane and degradation of the thermosets obtained

Ytterbium and lanthanum triflates were used as cationic initiators to cure mixtures of diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A and 2,2,5,5‐tetramethyl‐4,6‐dioxo‐1,3‐dioxane in several proportions. The evolution of the epoxy and lactone during curing and the linear ester groups in the final materials were evaluated with Fourier transform infrared in the attenuated total reflection mode. The shrinkage after curing and the thermal degradability of the materials with variations in the comonomer ratios and initiator used were evaluated and related to the chemical structure of the final network. The expandable character of 2,2,5,5‐tetramethyl‐4,6‐dioxo‐1,3‐dioxane was confirmed. The obtained materials were more degradable than conventional epoxy resins because of the tertiary ester groups incorporated into the network by copolymerization. The kinetic parameters of the curing and degradation processes were calculated with differential scanning calorimetry and thermogravimetric analysis, respectively, with isoconversional procedures applied in both cases. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2008     

On the design of uplink and downlink group-orthogonal multicarrier wireless systems

Group-orthogonal multicarrier code-division multiple access (GO-MC-CDMA) has been proposed as an attractive multiplexing technique for the uplink segment of wireless systems. More recently, a variant of this scheme has also been proposed for the downlink. This paper presents a unified bit error rate (BER) performance analysis of group-orthogonal wireless systems when using maximum likelihood (ML) multiuser/multisymbol detection covering both link directions. Valuable design rules regarding the number of subcarriers per group and the selection of spreading codes are derived. Simulations results using realistic system parameters and ETSI BRAN channel models are also presented which serve to validate the analytical results.