Advances in Nonviral mRNA Delivery Materials and Their Application as Vaccines for Melanoma Therapy.

Messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines are promising platforms for cancer immunotherapy because of their potential to encode for a variety of tumor antigens, high tolerability, and capacity to induce strong antitumor immune responses. However, the clinical translation of mRNA cancer vaccines can be hindered by the inefficient delivery of mRNA . In this review, we provide an overview of mRNA cancer vaccines by discussing their utility in treating melanoma.

Unveiling invasive insect threats to plant biodiversity: Leveraging eDNA metabarcoding and saturated salt trap solutions for biosurveillance.

The negative global impacts of invasive alien species (IAS) on biodiversity are second only to habitat loss. eDNA metabarcoding allows for a faster and more comprehensive evaluation of community species composition, with a higher taxonomic resolution and less taxonomic expertise required than traditional morphological-based biosurveillance. These advantages have positioned eDNA metabarcoding as the standard method for molecular-based detection of invasive alien species, where fast and accurate detectability allows prompt responses to mitigate their adverse effects.

Biomechanical in silico evaluation of a 3D novel total hip implant with cemented fixation using finite elements.

This paper presents the biomechanical evaluation of a proposed replacement implant for a total hip arthroplasty considering both the effect of the material and using a numerical tool. The use of titanium, alumina, polycarbonate urethane (PCU), and nitride titanium allows the manufacture of a cemented hip prosthesis with better resistance to corrosion, greater biocompatibility, greater mechanical resistance for physiological conditions, and does not present plastic deformation. This article provides an analysis of biomaterials and adequate geometries for a total hip prosthesis, with the aim of finding the optimal model, thus avoiding complications such as loosening or fatigue that current models present.

BigBrain 3D atlas of cortical layers: Cortical and laminar thickness gradients diverge in sensory and motor cortices.

Histological atlases of the cerebral cortex, such as those made famous by Brodmann and von Economo, are invaluable for understanding human brain microstructure and its relationship with functional organization in the brain. However, these existing atlases are limited to small numbers of manually annotated samples from a single cerebral hemisphere, measured from 2D histological sections. We present the first whole-brain quantitative 3D laminar atlas of the human cerebral cortex.

fastMRI: A Publicly Available Raw k-Space and DICOM Dataset of Knee Images for Accelerated MR Image Reconstruction Using Machine Learning.

A publicly available dataset containing k-space data as well as Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine image data of knee images for accelerated MR image reconstruction using machine learning is presented.

Learning normalized inputs for iterative estimation in medical image segmentation.

In this paper, we introduce a simple, yet powerful pipeline for medical image segmentation that combines Fully Convolutional Networks (FCNs) with Fully Convolutional Residual Networks (FC-ResNets). We propose and examine a design that takes particular advantage of recent advances in the understanding of both Convolutional Neural Networks as well as ResNets. Our approach focuses upon the importance of a trainable pre-processing when using FC-ResNets and we show that a low-capacity FCN model can serve as a pre-processor to normalize medical input data.

A Benchmark for Endoluminal Scene Segmentation of Colonoscopy Images.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third cause of cancer death worldwide. Currently, the standard approach to reduce CRC-related mortality is to perform regular screening in search for polyps and colonoscopy is the screening tool of choice. The main limitations of this screening procedure are polyp miss rate and the inability to perform visual assessment of polyp malignancy.

Perceived versus Observed Patient Safety Measures in a Critical Care Unit from a Teaching Hospital in Southern Colombia.

Introduction. Patient safety is an important topic. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the perceived versus observed patient safety measures (PSM) in critically ill patients in a teaching hospital in Latin America.

Meta-Parameter Free Unsupervised Sparse Feature Learning.

We propose a meta-parameter free, off-the-shelf, simple and fast unsupervised feature learning algorithm, which exploits a new way of optimizing for sparsity. Experiments on CIFAR-10, STL-10 and UCMerced show that the method achieves the state-of-the-art performance, providing discriminative features that generalize well.

[MMP-3 and MMP-8 levels in patients with chronic periodontitis before and after nonsurgical periodontal therapy].

Immune-inflammatory processes are trigged in chronic periodontitis (CP), where matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are released and involved in the degradation of the extracellular matrix components that can be detected in the gingival crevicular fluid (GCF). The purpose of the study was to determine the levels of MMP-3 and MMP-8 in GCF, before and after nonsurgical periodontal treatment (NSPT), to evaluate disease activity and therapy response. Eleven patients with PC and eleven healthy controls were selected.

Chlamydia trachomatis Tarp harbors distinct G and F actin binding domains that bundle actin filaments.

All species of Chlamydia undergo a unique developmental cycle that transitions between extracellular and intracellular environments and requires the capacity to invade new cells for dissemination. A chlamydial protein called Tarp has been shown to nucleate actin in vitro and is implicated in bacterial entry into human cells. Colocalization studies of ectopically expressed enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP)-Tarp indicate that actin filament recruitment is restricted to the C-terminal half of the effector protein.

Chlamydia trachomatis Tarp cooperates with the Arp2/3 complex to increase the rate of actin polymerization.

Actin polymerization is required for Chlamydia trachomatis entry into nonphagocytic host cells. Host and chlamydial actin nucleators are essential for internalization of chlamydiae by eukaryotic cells. The host cell Arp2/3 complex and the chlamydial translocated actin recruiting phosphoprotein (Tarp) are both required for entry.

Combined alcohol and burn injury differentially regulate P-38 and ERK activation in mesenteric lymph node T cell.

Recent studies from our laboratory have suggested that acute alcohol ingestion prior to burn injury enhances gut bacterial translocation by suppressing T cell-mediated intestinal immune defense. To determine the mechanism responsible for suppressed T cell function, we examined the activation of mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPK) members p-38 and ERK-1/2. Both p-38 and ERK-1/2 are known to play a significant role in the T cell proliferation and their cytokine production.