Deciphering the lung microbiota in COVID-19 patients: insights from culture analysis, FilmArray pneumonia panel, ventilation impact, and mortality trends.

Few studies have analyzed the role of the lung microbiome in the diagnosis of pulmonary coinfection in ventilated ICU COVID-19 patients. We characterized the lung microbiota in COVID-19 patients with severe pneumonia on invasive mechanical ventilation using full-length 16S rRNA gene sequencing and established its relationship with coinfections, mortality, and the need for mechanical ventilation for more than 7 days. This study included 67 COVID-19 ICU patients.

Identification of Olives Using In-Field Hyperspectral Imaging with Lightweight Models.

During the growing season, olives progress through nine different phenological stages, starting with bud development and ending with senescence. During their lifespan, olives undergo changes in their external color and chemical properties. To tackle these properties, we used hyperspectral imaging during the growing season of the olives.

A General-Purpose Distributed Analytic Platform Based on Edge Computing and Computational Intelligence Applied on Smart Grids.

Currently, in many data landscapes, the information is distributed across various sources and presented in diverse formats. This fragmentation can pose a significant challenge to the efficient application of analytical methods. In this sense, distributed data mining is mainly based on clustering or classification techniques, which are easier to implement in distributed environments.

HIV/AIDS infection in critical care: epidemiological profile and risk factors for mortality in a Colombian cohort.

Introduction: Outcomes of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infected patients admitted to intensive care units (ICU) have improved with antiretroviral therapy (ART). However, whether the outcomes have improved in low- and middle-income countries, paralleling those of high-income countries is unknown. The objective of this study was to describe a cohort of HIV-infected patients admitted to ICU in a middle-income country and identify the risk factors associated with mortality.

Characterization of the external exposome and its contribution to the clinical respiratory and early biological effects in children: The PROMESA cohort study protocol.

Background: Air pollution contains a mixture of different pollutants from multiple sources. However, the interaction of these pollutants with other environmental exposures, as well as their harmful effects on children under five in tropical countries, is not well known.

Objective: This study aims to characterize the external exposome (ambient and indoor exposures) and its contribution to clinical respiratory and early biological effects in children.

Environmental and health risk implications of unregulated emissions from advanced biofuels in a Euro 6 engine.

The use of conventional and advanced biofuels is part of the efforts to reduce greenhouse gases and harmful exhaust gaseous emissions. This study investigates the unregulated emissions in gas and particles from a Euro 6b diesel engine, operated with four unconventional and advanced biofuels (two hydrogenated terpenic biofuels, a polyoxymethylene dimethyl ether, and a glycerol-derived biofuel), blended with diesel fuel and pure hydrotreated vegetable oil as base biofuel. The engine was operated following WLTC starting from cold-engine conditions.

Comparison of gastric reactance with commonly used perfusion markers in a swine hypovolemic shock model.

Background: The gut has been hypothesized to be a protagonist tissue in multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS) for the past three decades. Gastric reactance (XL) is a potential perfusion marker derived from gastric impedance spectroscopy (GIS), which is an emerging tool through which living tissue can be continuously measured to determine its pathophysiological evolution. This study aimed to compare the performance of XL [positive predictive values (PPV), negative predictive values (NPV), and area under the curve (AUC)] against commonly used perfusion markers before and during hypovolemic shock in swine subjects.

Cytokine levels as predictors of mortality in critically ill patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia: Case-control study nested within a cohort in Colombia.

Background: High levels of different cytokines have been associated in COVID-19 as predictors of mortality; however, not all studies have found this association and its role to cause multi-organ failure and death has not been fully defined. This study aimed to investigate the association of the levels of 10 cytokines with mortality in patients with COVID-19 admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU).

Materials And Methods: This is a case-control study nested within a cohort of patients with COVID-19 who were on mechanical ventilation and were not hospitalized for more than 48 h across nine ICUs in Medellín, Colombia.

Biological toxicity risk assessment of two potential neutral carbon diesel fuel substitutes.

We investigated the biological response of soluble organic fraction (SOF) and water-soluble fraction (WSF) extracted from particulate matter (PM) emitted by an automotive diesel engine operating in a representative urban driving condition. The engine was fueled with ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD), and its binary blends by volume with 13% of butanol (Bu13), and with hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) at 13% (HVO13) and 20% (HVO20). Cytotoxicity, genotoxicity, oxidative DNA damage and ecotoxicity tests were carried out, and 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) expressed as tbenzo(a)pyrene total toxicity equivalent (BaP-TEQ) were also analyzed.

Diagnostic concordance between BioFire® FilmArray® Pneumonia Panel and culture in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia admitted to intensive care units: the experience of the third wave in eight hospitals in Colombia.

Background: The detection of coinfections is important to initiate appropriate antimicrobial therapy. Molecular diagnostic testing identifies pathogens at a greater rate than conventional microbiology. We assessed both bacterial coinfections identified via culture or the BioFire® FilmArray® Pneumonia Panel (FA-PNEU) in patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 in the ICU and the concordance between these techniques.

Adverse events in critical care: Search and active detection through the Trigger Tool.

Aim: To investigate the incidence of disadvantageous events by using the Global Trigger Tool in an intensive care unit (ICU).

Methods: A retrospective descriptive study was performed in a 12-bed university ICU in the city of Medellin, Colombia. Clinical charts of hospitalized patients were reviewed, between January 1 and December 31, 2016, with the following inclusion criteria: subjects aged over 18 years, with at least 24 h of hospitalization and who had a complete medical history that could be accessed.

Thermoconformity strategy in the freshwater turtle Hydromedusa tectifera (Testudines, Chelidae) in its southern distribution area.

Ectotherm species are not capable of generating metabolic heat; therefore, they present different strategies for regulating their body temperatures, ranging from a precise degree of thermoregulation to a passive thermoconformity with ambient temperatures. In reptiles, aerial basking is the most common mechanism for gaining heat. However, among aquatic reptiles, such as freshwater turtles, aquatic basking is also frequent.

Implications of observed PBDE diffusion coefficients in low density polyethylene and silicone rubber.

A film-stacking technique was used to estimate diffusion coefficients of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in low density polyethylene (LDPE) and silicone rubber. Substantially higher PBDE diffusion coefficients were observed for silicone rubber (AlteSil™) than for LDPE. A much steeper decrease in LDPE diffusion coefficients was found with increasing PBDE molecular weight than that for silicone rubber.

Five years of designing wireless sensor networks in the Doñana Biological Reserve (Spain): an applications approach.

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are a technology that is becoming very popular for many applications, and environmental monitoring is one of its most important application areas. This technology solves the lack of flexibility of wired sensor installations and, at the same time, reduces the deployment costs. To demonstrate the advantages of WSN technology, for the last five years we have been deploying some prototypes in the Doñana Biological Reserve, which is an important protected area in Southern Spain.

Clinical course of sepsis, severe sepsis, and septic shock in a cohort of infected patients from ten Colombian hospitals.

Background: Sepsis has several clinical stages, and mortality rates are different for each stage. Our goal was to establish the evolution and the determinants of the progression of clinical stages, from infection to septic shock, over the first week, as well as their relationship to 7-day and 28-day mortality.

Methods: This is a secondary analysis of a multicenter cohort of inpatients hospitalized in general wards or intensive care units (ICUs).

Efficacy of corticosteroid therapy in patients with an acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease receiving ventilatory support.

Background: Randomized trials assessing the effect of systemic corticosteroids on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exacerbations excluded patients who were mechanically ventilated or admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU). Critically ill patients constitute a population of persons who are prone to develop complications that are potentially associated with the use of corticosteroids (eg, infections, hyperglycemia, ICU-acquired paresis) that could prolong the duration of mechanical ventilation and even increase mortality.

Methods: A double-blind placebo-controlled trial was conducted to evaluate the efficacy and safety of systemic corticosteroid treatment in patients with an exacerbation of COPD who were receiving ventilatory support (invasive or noninvasive mechanical ventilation).

Immunohistochemistry of neuronal nitric oxide synthase and protein nitration in the striatum of the aged rat.

To ascertain the possible implications of the nitric oxide (NO*) producing system in striatal senescence, and by using immunohistochemistry and image-processing approaches, we describe the presence of the enzyme nitric oxide synthase (NOS), the NADPH-diaphorase (NADPH-d) histochemical marker, and nitrotyrosine-derived complexes (N-Tyr) in the striatum of adult and aged rats. The results showed neuronal NOS immunoreactive (nNOS-IR) aspiny medium-sized neurons and nervous fibres in both age groups, with no variation in the percentage of immunoreactive area but a significant decrease in the intensity and in the number of somata with age, which were not related to the observed increase with age of the striatal bundles of the white matter. In addition, NADPH-d activity was detected in neurons with morphology similar to that of the nNOS-IR cells; a decrease in the percentage of area per field and in the number of cells, but an increase in the intensity of staining for the NADPH-d histochemical marker, were detected with age.

Promoter hypermethylation of cancer-related genes: a strong independent prognostic factor in acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Promoter hypermethylation plays an important role in the inactivation of cancer-related genes. This abnormality occurs early in leukemogenesis and seems to be associated with poor prognosis in acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). To determine the extent of hypermethylation in ALL, we analyzed the methylation status of the CDH1, p73, p16, p15, p57, NES-1, DKK-3, CDH13, p14, TMS-1, APAF-1, DAPK, PARKIN, LATS-1, and PTEN genes in 251 consecutive ALL patients.