Association Between Oxidative Potential of Particulate Matter Collected by Personal Samplers and Systemic Inflammation Among Asthmatic and Non-Asthmatic Adults.

With the rationale that the oxidative potential of particulate matter (PM-OP) may induce oxidative stress and inflammation, we conducted the ASTHMA-FENOP study in which 44 asthmatic patients and 37 matched controls wore a personal sampler for 24 h, allowing the collection of fine and coarse PM fractions separately, to determine PM-OP by the dithiothreitol (DTT) and ascorbic acid (AA) methods. The levels of Interleukin 6 (IL-6) and the IL-6/IL-10 ratio, as indicators of pro- and anti-inflammatory statuses, were determined by calculating the mean differences (MDs), odds ratios (ORs) and p-trends adjusted for sex, age, study level and body mass index. Positive associations for IL-6 levels in the form of adjusted MDs and ORs were obtained for all PM-OP metrics, reaching statistical significance for both OP-DTT and OP-AA in the fine fraction, with adjusted OR = 5.

First records of hydroid epibionts on the introduced macroalga in the Mexican Pacific.

Background: The red macroalga is an introduced species in the Mexican Pacific. To date, there are no published studies on its sessile epibionts, including the hydrozoans and bryozoans, which are the dominant epibionts on macrophytes and of significant biological and economic interest.

New Information: This study provides insight into the faunal diversity of hydroids growing on .

Left atrial strain in adults after the arterial switch operation for transposition of the great arteries.

Background: No study has focused on left atrial (LA) function assessed by echocardiography in adult patients with simple D-TGA after arterial switch operation (ASO). We aimed to describe LA strain parameters in these patients.

Methods: A prospective cohort study including 42 adult patients with simple D-TGA after ASO and 33 aged-matched controls.

Alterations in circulating mitochondrial signals at hospital admission for COPD exacerbation.

Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exacerbation (ECOPD) alters the natural course of the disease. To date, only C-reactive protein has been used as a biomarker in ECOPD, but it has important limitations. The mitochondria release peptides (Humanin (HN), FGF-21, GDF-15, MOTS-c and Romo1) under certain metabolic conditions.

An Optimal Integral Controller for Adaptive Optics Systems.

Integral controllers are commonly employed in astronomical adaptive optics. This work presents a novel tuning procedure for integral controllers in adaptive optics systems which relies on information about the measured disturbances. This tuning procedure consists of two main steps.