Environmental challenges in hemodialysis: Exploring the road to sustainability.

Hemodialysis (HD) is a treatment with a significant environmental impact. One dialysis cycle is equivalent to the daily consumption of 3.5-4 people, and the average annual electricity consumption of a center is equivalent to that of approximately 2.

Pandemics and the English Language: Concepts Critical for Conversing About COVID-19.

We consider the multiple senses of several key terms that are used to discuss the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and clarify meanings of the corresponding concepts. Topics addressed include: 1) the meaning of immunity to an infectious agent in varying medical and scientific contexts, 2) the scientific factors that influenced the rapid generation and clinical implementation of safe and effective vaccines for COVID-19, 3) the difference between mutational abrogation of reactivity with B- or T-cell antigen receptors (immune escape) versus active interference with host immune mechanisms mediated by gene products encoded within the genome of the infectious agent (immune evasion), 4) the different ways by which the COVID-19 pandemic has "caused" deaths, and 5) briefly, the challenge of precisely defining the term .

Inflammatory and bone regulators expression in murine macrophages under exposure of commercial and experimental mineral trioxide aggregate.

Background: Mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA) has been used in a variety of surgical and non-surgical endodontic applications. The aim of this study was to evaluate the gene expression and protein production of TNF-α, IL-1β and IL-6, as well as the gene expression of RANKL and OPG using both commercial and experimental MTA in macrophage cell cultures.

Methods: Peritoneal macrophage cell culture was performed.

Analysis of the adjuvant effect of recombinant Leishmania infantum Hsp83 protein as a tool for vaccination.

The properties of Leishmania infantum hsp83 (LiHsp83) to elicit an immune response against a fused reporter antigen, maltose binding protein (MBP), was studied. CF1 mice were immunized with different purified recombinant proteins: MBP, LiHsp83 and MBP fused to LiHsp83 (MBP-LiHsp83). Serum samples were obtained at days 0, 21, 28, 60, 90, 120 and 150 post-immunization.

Results obtained with piracetam in foetal distress during labour.

A double-blind study was performed on ninety-six parturients of the Lima Maternity Hospital, Peru, with some evidence of foetal distress who were given indistinguishably piracetam or a placebo at random in order to investigate the effects of the drug on the foetus. The conditions of the new-born babies who had received piracetam were superior to those of the babies treated with the placebo, as evaluated with the Apgar at 1, 5 and 10 minutes after birth and on the basis of the neurological and clinical examination as from 24 hours until they were released. In addition, the reduction of the duration of the labour in the patients treated with piracetam as compared with the control group was obvious.