[Neuromuscular Blockade in Geriatric Patients].

The administration of neuromuscular blocking agents has been used in anesthesia for decades and continues to play an important role in modern anesthesia. Special patient populations, such as very young or very old patients, require adapted use. The following article discusses the specifics of neuromuscular blocking agents administration in geriatric patients.

Periodic Open Cellular Structures in Chemical Engineering: Application in Catalysis and Separation Processes.

Periodic open cellular structures (POCS) represent a promising new class of structured internals as next-generation catalyst supports in reactors or structured packing elements in separation columns. POCS feature a well-defined morphology and can be fabricated with high reproducibility even for complex geometries by means of additive manufacturing. This results in a uniform and easily controllable flow field, which allows for adjusting the heat and mass transport processes to realize optimal process conditions.

The Minimal Spherical Dispersion.

We prove upper and lower bounds on the minimal spherical dispersion, improving upon previous estimates obtained by Rote and Tichy in (Anz Österreich Akad Wiss Math Nat Kl 132:3-10, 1995). In particular, we see that the inverse of the minimal spherical dispersion is, for fixed , linear in the dimension of the ambient space. We also derive upper and lower bounds on the expected dispersion for points chosen independently and uniformly at random from the Euclidean unit sphere.

Modifying immune responses to adeno-associated virus vectors by capsid engineering.

immune responses are considered major challenges in gene therapy. With the aim to lower innate immune responses directly in cells targeted by adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors, we equipped the vector capsid with a peptide known to interfere with Toll-like receptor signaling. Specifically, we genetically inserted in each of the 60 AAV2 capsid subunits the myeloid differentiation primary response 88 (MyD88)-derived peptide RDVLPGT, known to block MyD88 dimerization.

The coumarin osthole is a non-electrophilic agonist of TRPA1.

The naturally occurring coumarin osthole has antipruritic properties, and recent reports suggest that this effect is due an inhibition or desensitization of the cation channels TRPV1 and TRPV3. Osthole was also suggested to activate TRPA1, an effect that should rather be pruritic than antipruritic. Here we characterized the effects of osthole on TRPA1 by means of ratiometric calcium imaging and patch clamp electrophysiology.