Friction Stir Welding of Aluminum in the Aerospace Industry: The Current Progress and State-of-the-Art Review.

The use of the friction stir welding (FSW) process as a relatively new solid-state welding technology in the aerospace industry has pushed forward several developments in different related aspects of this strategic industry. In terms of the FSW process itself, due to the geometric limitations involved in the conventional FSW process, many variants have been required over time to suit the different types of geometries and structures, which has resulted in the development of numerous variants such as refill friction stir spot welding (RFSSW), stationary shoulder friction stir welding (SSFSW), and bobbin tool friction stir welding (BTFSW). In terms of FSW machines, significant development has occurred in the new design and adaptation of the existing machining equipment through the use of their structures or the new and specially designed FSW heads.

Pea (Pisum sativum L.) pod powder as a potential enhancer of probiotic Enterococcus faecium M74 in ice cream and its physicochemical, structural, and sensory effects.

Background: In this study, pea (Pisum sativum L.) pod powder (PPP) was incorporated (1% and 3% w/w) into a probiotic ice cream formulation containing Enterococcus faecium M74 to investigate the potential effect of PPP on the probiotic survivability in the ice cream throughout 60 days of frozen storage. Moreover, the produced symbiotic ice creams were evaluated for their physiochemical properties, stability, and sensory acceptability.

Appropriate Use of Tocilizumab in COVID-19: Early Use is Beneficial.

Objective: Interleukin-6 inhibitor Tocilizumab (TCZ) is effective to prevent the mortality of severe COVID-19 by suppressing the cytokine storm, however, its appropriate use needs to be detailed. We aimed to describe the appropriate use of TCZ in severe to critical cases with COVID-19 pneumonia in the early phase of the pandemic.

Materials And Methods: This single-center, retrospective, observational study was conducted in a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) positive COVID-19 patients who received TCZ between April 01, 2020 and June 30, 2020, in Ümraniye Research and Training Hospital İstanbul, Turkey.

Clinical characteristics and risk factors associated with severe disease and outcome of patients with COVID-19.

Introduction: Since the beginning of the pandemic, factors associated with mortality in patients with corona virus infection disease 2019 (COVID-19) have been investigated. Comorbidities and increased age have been frequently reported to be associated with mortality. We aimed to evaluate the factors associated with unfavorable outcome of patients with COVID-19 at an early period of the pandemic.

AA amyloidosis complicating cryopyrin-associated periodic syndrome: a study of 86 cases including 23 French patients and systematic review.

Objective: Cryopyrin-associated periodic syndrome (CAPS) is a rare but treatable inherited autoinflammatory condition including familial cold autoinflammatory syndrome (FCAS), Muckle-Wells syndrome (MWS) and chronic infantile neurologic cutaneous articular syndrome (CINCA). Our objective was to describe the main features of CAPS AA amyloidosis (AA-CAPS) associated and the efficacy of IL-1 inhibitors in this indication.

Methods: Retrospective study in France associated with a systematic literature review.

[Renal amyloidosis revealing a cryopyrin associated periodic syndrome].

Introduction: Cryopyrin associated periodic syndrome is a rare auto inflammatory disease including three clinical entities with a common genetic cause. Among these three entities, Muckle-Wells syndrome is described as an intermediate phenotype associated with a progressive sensorineural hearing loss and AA amyloidosis. The present case reports a renal AA amyloidosis associated with an IgA nephropathy, revealing a Muckle-Wells syndrome.

The nuclear retinoid-related orphan receptor RORα controls circadian thermogenic programming in white fat depots.

The RORα-deficient staggerer (sg/sg) mouse is lean and resistant to diet-induced obesity. Its thermogenic activity was shown to be increased not only in brown adipose tissue (BAT), but also in subcutaneous white adipose tissue (WAT) where UCP1 content was enhanced, however, without Prdm16 coexpression. Our observation of partial multilocular lipid morphology of WAT in sg/sg mice both in the inguinal and perigonadal sites led us to focus on the phenotype of both fat depots.

[Prospective study of drug-induced interstitial nephritis in eleven French nephrology units].

Objective: Certain medications have been associated with drug-induced acute interstitial nephritis (AIN), but few prospective studies have been published. This prospective observational study aims to record and assess incidents of drug-induced AIN observed over a period of one year in nephrology units in France. The goal is to determine which medications are involved in AIN and to expound the clinical and biological presentation, management, and evolution of AIN.

The sheep genome illuminates biology of the rumen and lipid metabolism.

Sheep (Ovis aries) are a major source of meat, milk, and fiber in the form of wool and represent a distinct class of animals that have a specialized digestive organ, the rumen, that carries out the initial digestion of plant material. We have developed and analyzed a high-quality reference sheep genome and transcriptomes from 40 different tissues. We identified highly expressed genes encoding keratin cross-linking proteins associated with rumen evolution.

Acute and chronic nephropathy induced by fluindione must be addressed.

Background: Among the vitamin K antagonists (VKA), indanedione-derived VKA is suspected to induce an immunoallergic risk. One indanedione-derived VKA, fluindione, is still being used in France. The aim of this study was to evaluate the contribution of VKA to acute and chronic nephritis.

Gene expression profiles of BMP4, FGF10 and cognate inhibitors, in the skin of foetal Merino sheep, at the time of secondary follicle branching.

The high concentration of secondary branched follicles is a distinctive feature of the Merino sheep. These follicles initiate from 100 days of gestation. Here, we report a transition in abundance of the BMP4 and FGF10 morphogens occurring at this time.

[Recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (Hallopeau-Siemens) with IgA nephropathy: 4 cases].

Background: The Hallopeau-Siemens type of recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (HS-RDEB) is a severe hereditary dermatosis, associated with a collagen VII deficiency. A chronic inflammatory syndrome, secondary to recurrent cutaneous infections, may be the cause of AA amyloidosis, with chronic renal failure, involving life prognosis. Less frequently, an IgA glomerulonephritis may occur and induce renal failure.

Epidemiologic data of primary glomerular diseases in western France.

Between January 1, 1976, and December 31, 2002, histologic diagnosis of primary glomerular diseases (PGD) was made in 898 patients born and living at the time of diagnosis in a region of France, comprising 412,735 inhabitants, of whom 391,265 were aged from 10 to 85 years. The prevalence of PGD during a 75-year exposure to risk (10 to 85 years of age) was evaluated to 6.9 in 1000 (8.

Gene expression in sheep skin and wool (hair).

We sequenced 2939 ESTs from fetal and adult sheep skin. Stages of gestation were picked to coincide with the major events in skin appendage (wool follicle) formation. Clustering analysis generated a nonredundant set of ESTs 2435 strong (83% nonredundant).

Characterization of mouse Frizzled-3 expression in hair follicle development and identification of the human homolog in keratinocytes.

Frizzled genes encode a family of Wnt ligand receptors, which have a conserved cysteine-rich Wnt binding domain and include both transmembrane and secreted forms. Work by others has shown that experimental perturbation of Wnt signaling results in aberrant hair formation, hair growth, and hair structure. To date, however, there is no information on the contribution of individual Frizzled proteins to hair development.

Analysis of mouse keratin 6a regulatory sequences in transgenic mice reveals constitutive, tissue-specific expression by a keratin 6a minigene.

The analysis of keratin 6 expression is complicated by the presence of multiple isoforms that are expressed constitutively in a number of internal stratified epithelia, in palmoplantar epidermis, and in the companion cell layer of the hair follicle. In addition, keratin 6 expression is inducible in interfollicular epidermis and the outer root sheath of the follicle, in response to wounding stimuli, phorbol esters, or retinoic acid. In order to establish the critical regions involved in the regulation of keratin 6a (the dominant isoform in mice), we generated transgenic mice with two different-sized mouse keratin 6a constructs containing either 1.

Large-scale analysis of differential gene expression in the hindlimb muscles and diaphragm of mdx mouse.

The mdx mouse is an animal model for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), which is caused by the absence of dystrophin. Mdx limb muscles substantially compensate for the lack of dystrophin while the diaphragm is affected like DMD skeletal muscles. To understand better the complex cascade of molecular events leading to muscle degeneration and compensatory processes in mdx muscles, we analyzed alterations of gene expression in mdx hindlimb and diaphragm muscles as compared to their normal counterparts.

Evidence for developmentally regulated transcriptional, translational and post-translational control of metallothionein gene expression in hair follicles.

The distribution of metallothionein (MT) and MT mRNAs was examined in hair (wool) follicles, where high levels of cell proliferation are found and where the resulting cells provide a temporal record of differentiation events. MT was found in the cytoplasm and some nuclei of follicle bulb cells of the proliferative zone, outer root sheath cells and in basal layer cells of sebaceous glands and sweat glands. The population of 5-bromo-2'-deoxyuridine (BrdU)+ cells in these tissues overlapped, but were not completely coincident with the distribution of MT staining.

[Epidemiologic data, clinical and prognostic features of autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease in a French region].

Epidemiological study on autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) was undertaken in a French region from 1988 to 1993. This survey was led in a population of 410,000 inhabitants and 84 kindreds with ADPKD and 296 affected members were studied. Prevalence of ADPKD in the studied region was calculated to 1/1111 inh.

Down-regulation of mitochondrial mRNAs in the mdx mouse model for Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

In our search for genes up- or down-regulated genes in the mdx mouse model for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, we isolated a down-regulated mitochondrial DNA clone. In addition to this clone, all protein-coding mitochondrial genes tested had tissue-specific and age independent down-regulated expression. This implied mechanisms at the RNA level since no change in the mitochondrial DNA contents were detected.

Growth factor expression in skin during wool follicle development.

A variety of growth factors are likely to be involved in initiation and morphogenesis of wool follicles. To enable direct comparisons of the expression of different growth factors, reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reactions (RT-PCR) were developed for ovine and murine TGF alpha, TGF beta 1, TGF beta 2, TGF beta 3, IGF1, IGF2, and FGF-2, which could all be carried out on a single cDNA sample. These RT-PCR were used with 16 sheep RNA samples from different foetal stages, neonatal sheep and mouse skin.

[Epidemiology of primary glomerulopathies in a French region. Variations as a function of age in patients].

Between January 1st, 1976 and December 31st, 1990, histological diagnosis of primary glomerular diseases (PGD) was made in 480 patients born and living at the time of diagnosis in a region of France comprising 410,664 inhabitants, of whom 390,574 were aged from 10 to 80 years. The prevalence of PGD during a 70-year exposure to risk (10-80 years of age) was evaluated to 5.7 in 1000 (7.