Nitric oxide synthase system in the brain development of neonatal hypothyroid rats.

Thyroid hormones play an important morphogenetic role during the fetal and neonatal periods and regulate numerous metabolic processes. In the central nervous system, they control myelination and overall brain development, regional gene expression, and regulation of oxygen consumption. Their deficiency in the fetal and neonatal periods causes severe mental retardation, due to lack of thyroid function, or to iodine deficiency.

All-Optical Trapping and Programmable Transport of Gold Nanorods with Simultaneous Orientation and Spinning Control.

Gold nanorods (GNRs) are of special interest in nanotechnology and biomedical applications due to their biocompatibility, anisotropic shape, enhanced surface area, and tunable optical properties. The use of GNRs, for example, as sensors and mechanical actuators, relies on the ability to remotely control their orientation as well as their translational and rotational motion, whether individually or in groups. Achieving such particle control by using optical tools is challenging and exceeds the capabilities of conventional laser tweezers.

Simplified feedback control system for scanning tunneling microscopy.

A Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM) is one of the most important scanning probe tools available to study and manipulate matter at the nanoscale. In a STM, a tip is scanned on top of a surface with a separation of a few Å. Often, the tunneling current between the tip and the sample is maintained constant by modifying the distance between the tip apex and the surface through a feedback mechanism acting on a piezoelectric transducer.

Metformin protects against diclofenac-induced toxicity in primary rat hepatocytes by preserving mitochondrial integrity via a pathway involving EPAC.

Background And Purpose: It has been shown that the antidiabetic drug metformin protects hepatocytes against toxicity by various stressors. Chronic or excessive consumption of diclofenac (DF) - a pain-relieving drug, leads to drug-induced liver injury via a mechanism involving mitochondrial damage and ultimately apoptotic death of hepatocytes. However, whether metformin protects against DF-induced toxicity is unknown.

Tailored optical propulsion forces for controlled transport of resonant gold nanoparticles and associated thermal convective fluid flows.

Noble metal nanoparticles illuminated at their plasmonic resonance wavelength turn into heat nanosources. This phenomenon has prompted the development of numerous applications in science and technology. Simultaneous optical manipulation of such resonant nanoparticles could certainly extend the functionality and potential applications of optothermal tools.

Effect of a Therapeutic Strategy Guided by Lung Ultrasound on 6-Month Outcomes in Patients with Heart Failure: Randomized, Multicenter Trial (EPICC Study).

Introduction And Objectives: Pulmonary congestion (PC) is associated with an increased risk of hospitalization and death in patients with heart failure (HF). Lung ultrasound has shown to be highly sensitive for detecting PC in HF. The aim of this study is to evaluate whether lung ultrasound-guided therapy improves 6-month outcomes in patients with HF compared with conventional treatment.

Label-free bioanalysis of Leishmania infantum using refractive index tomography with partially coherent illumination.

In this work, we report the use of refractive index (RI) tomography for quantitative analysis of unstained DH82 cell line infected with Leishmania infantum. The cell RI is reconstructed by using a modality of optical diffraction tomography technique that employs partially coherent illumination, thus enabling inherent compatibility with conventional wide-field microscopes. The experimental results demonstrate that the cell dry mass concentration (DMC) obtained from the RI allows for reliable detection and quantitative characterization of the infection and its temporal evolution.

Conserved Critical Evolutionary Gene Structures in Orthologs.

Unravelling gene structure requires the identification and understanding of the constraints that are often associated with the evolutionary history and functional domains of genes. We speculated in this manuscript with the possibility of the existence in orthologs of an emergent highly conserved gene structure that might explain their coordinated evolution during speciation events and their parental function. Here, we will address the following issues: (1) is there any conserved hypothetical structure along ortholog gene sequences? (2) If any, are such conserved structures maintained and conserved during speciation events? The data presented show evidences supporting this hypothesis.

The Merete BioBall system in hip revision surgery: A systematic review.

Background: Modular hip arthroplasty is widely recognized in hip surgery; nevertheless, despite advances in prosthetic design, the incidence of hip revision surgery is increasing. In these procedures, a modular adapter that engages the femoral stem and the modular femoral head could be useful in order to protect the neck-head junction and restore preoperative biomechanics and soft tissue tension when the femoral or acetabular component should be retained. The Merete™ BioBall™ system (Merete Medical, Berlin, Germany) could fill this need.

Partially coherent illumination engineering for enhanced refractive index tomography.

Optical diffraction tomography based on partially coherent illumination (PC-ODT) is a quantitative label-free imaging technique that allows reconstructing of the object's 3D refractive index from measured through-focus intensity images. PC illumination provides advantages such as speckle noise-free imaging and inherent compatibility with conventional wide-field microscopes. Here we experimentally demonstrate that a proper design of the PC illumination, different from the familiar bright-field one, and the use of more realistic optical transfer functions (OTFs) have crucial importance in PC-ODT to significantly increase the accuracy in 3D refractive index reconstruction.

Programmable optical transport of particles in knot circuits and networks.

A freestyle single-beam laser trap allows for multi-particle optical transport along arbitrary open or closed trajectories with independent control of the all-optical confinement and propulsion forces exerted over the particles. Here, exploiting this manipulation tool, we propose and experimentally demonstrate an optical dynamic routing technique to assist multi-particle transport in knot circuits and networks exhibiting multiple crossing paths. This new functionality for optical transport enables the particle circulation in such complex systems handling traffic jams and making possible particle separation/mixing in them.

Three-dimensional Tricuspid Area. A New Criterion to Improve Patient Selection for Annuloplasty in Tricuspid Regurgitation.

Introduction And Objectives: Late functional tricuspid regurgitation after rheumatic left-sided valve surgery is an important predictor of poor prognosis. This study investigated the usefulness and accuracy of 3-dimensional transthoracic echocardiography tricuspid area compared with conventional 2-dimensional diameter (2DD) for assessing significant tricuspid annulus dilatation, providing cutoff values that could be used in clinical practice to improve patient selection for surgery.

Methods: We prospectively included 109 patients with rheumatic heart disease in the absence of previous valve replacement.

Vector polymorphic beam.

A scalar polymorphic beam is designed with independent control of its intensity and phase along a strongly focused laser curve of arbitrary shape. This kind of beam has been found crucial in the creation of freestyle laser traps able to confine and drive the motion of micro/nano-particles along reconfigurable 3D trajectories in real time. Here, we present and experimentally prove the concept of vector polymorphic beam adding the benefit of independent design of the light polarization along arbitrary curves.

Optical diffraction tomography with fully and partially coherent illumination in high numerical aperture label-free microscopy [Invited].

Quantitative label-free imaging is an important tool for the study of living microorganisms that, during the last decade, has attracted wide attention from the optical community. Optical diffraction tomography (ODT) is probably the most relevant technique for quantitative label-free 3D imaging applied in wide-field microscopy in the visible range. The ODT is usually performed using spatially coherent light illumination and specially designed holographic microscopes.

Fast label-free microscopy technique for 3D dynamic quantitative imaging of living cells.

The refractive index (RI) is an important optical characteristic that is often exploited in label-free microscopy for analysis of biological objects. A technique for 3D RI reconstruction of living cells has to be fast enough to capture the cell dynamics and preferably needs to be compatible with standard wide-field microscopes. To solve this challenging problem, we present a technique that provides fast measurement and processing of data required for real-time 3D visualization of the object RI.

Antibiotic-loaded Bone Cement as Prophylaxis in Total Joint Replacement.

One of its most serious complications associated with arthroplasty is the development of infections. Although its prevalence is only between 0.5% and 3%, in some cases it can lead to death.

Label-free quantitative 3D tomographic imaging for partially coherent light microscopy.

Crucial benefits provided by partially coherent light microscopy such as improved spatial resolution, optical sectioning and speckle-noise suppression are exploited here to achieve 3D quantitative imaging: reconstruction of the object refractive index (RI). We present a partially coherent optical diffraction tomography technique (PC-ODT) that can be easily implemented in commercially available bright-field microscopes. We show that the high numerical apertures of the objective and condenser lenses, together with optical refocusing, are main issues for achieving fast and successful 3D RI reconstruction of weak objects.

Fast optoelectric printing of plasmonic nanoparticles into tailored circuits.

Plasmonic nanoparticles are able to control light at nanometre-scale by coupling electromagnetic fields to the oscillations of free electrons in metals. Deposition of such nanoparticles onto substrates with tailored patterns is essential, for example, in fabricating plasmonic structures for enhanced sensing. This work presents an innovative micro-patterning technique, based on optoelectic printing, for fast and straightforward fabrication of curve-shaped circuits of plasmonic nanoparticles deposited onto a transparent electrode often used in optoelectronics, liquid crystal displays, touch screens, etc.

A Method for the Annotation of Functional Similarities of Coding DNA Sequences: the Case of a Populated Cluster of Transmembrane Proteins.

The analysis of a large number of human and mouse genes codifying for a populated cluster of transmembrane proteins revealed that some of the genes significantly vary in their primary nucleotide sequence inter-species and also intra-species. In spite of that divergence and of the fact that all these genes share a common parental function we asked the question of whether at DNA level they have some kind of common compositional structure, not evident from the analysis of their primary nucleotide sequence. To reveal the existence of gene clusters not based on primary sequence relationships we have analyzed 13574 human and 14047 mouse genes by the composon-clustering methodology.

Implementing a care bundle approach reduces ventilator-associated pneumonia and delays ventilator-associated tracheobronchitis in children: differences according to endotracheal or tracheostomy devices.

Objective: To reduce ventilator-associated infections (VARI) and improve outcomes for children.

Methods: This prospective interventional cohort study was conducted in a paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) over three periods: pre-intervention, early post-intervention, and late post-intervention. These children were on mechanical ventilation (MV) for ≥48h.

Polymorphic beams and Nature inspired circuits for optical current.

Laser radiation pressure is a basis of numerous applications in science and technology such as atom cooling, particle manipulation, material processing, etc. This light force for the case of scalar beams is proportional to the intensity-weighted wavevector known as optical current. The ability to design the optical current according to the considered application brings new promising perspectives to exploit the radiation pressure.

Light-driven transport of plasmonic nanoparticles on demand.

Laser traps provide contactless manipulation of plasmonic nanoparticles (NPs) boosting the development of numerous applications in science and technology. The known trapping configurations allow immobilizing and moving single NPs or assembling them, but they are not suitable for massive optical transport of NPs along arbitrary trajectories. Here, we address this challenging problem and demonstrate that it can be handled by exploiting phase gradients forces to both confine and propel the NPs.

Tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion inaccuracy to assess right ventricular function in patients with previous tricuspid annulopasty.

Objetives: The clinical and prognostic usefulness of tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion (TAPSE) is well established. However, the ability of TAPSE to assess right ventricular (RV) function in patients with previous tricuspid valve annulopasty is controversial. This study examined the TAPSE suitability in patients with previous tricuspid valve annuloplasty using right ventricular fractional area change (RVFAC) as reference method.