Capgras Syndrome in Dementia: A Systematic Review of Case Studies.

Background: In an ageing population, dementia has become an imminent healthcare emergency. Capgras syndrome, the most common delusion of misidentification (DMS), is frequently found alongside dementia. Previous research showed that Capgras syndrome has significant negative effects on people living with dementia and their carers due to its complex presentation and impact on their lives.

The Relationship between Circulating Kidney Injury Molecule-1 and Cardiovascular Morbidity and Mortality in Hemodialysis Patients.

Background: The importance of identifying mortality biomarkers in chronic kidney disease (CKD), and especially in patients treated with hemodialysis (HD), has become evident. In addition to being a marker of tubulointerstitial injury, plasma kidney injury molecule-1 (KIM-1) has been mentioned in regard to HD patients as a risk marker for cardiovascular (CV) mortality and coronary artery calcification. The aim of this study was to assess the level of plasma KIM-1 as a marker of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and mortality in CKD5-HD patients (patients with CKD stage G5D treated with hemodialysis).

Importance of Multimodality Cardiac Imaging in the Diagnosis of Lipomatous Hypertrophy of the Interatrial Septum-A View beyond Standard Situations.

Lipomatous hypertrophy of the interatrial septum (LHIAS) represents a benign proliferation of lipoid cells at the level of the interatrial septum (IAS) inducing an important thickening of this structure. It respects the fossa ovalis (FO) region, having a typical "hourglass" echocardiographic appearance. There are certain cases though, with unusual appearances and/or with associated pathologies that may induce similar lesions in the heart, in which the differential diagnosis cannot be guaranteed using only the standard methods.

The shapes of elongating gastruloids are consistent with convergent extension driven by a combination of active cell crawling and differential adhesion.

Gastruloids have emerged as highly useful in vitro models of mammalian gastrulation. One of the most striking features of 3D gastruloids is their elongation, which mimics the extension of the embryonic anterior-posterior axis. Although axis extension is crucial for development, the underlying mechanism has not been fully elucidated in mammalian species.

Comparative study of the immediate postoperative pain for the classical versus laparoscopic types of surgery within the treatement of inguinal hernias.

Background: The inguinal hernia is the protrusion of intra-abdominal contents through a defect of the abdominal wall. This content can be represented by omentum, most frequently intestine. Theoretically, any intraperitoneal organ can be located in the hernia sac.

The Challenges of Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy in Patients with Dilated Cardiomyopathy and Persistent Left Superior Vena Cava: A Case Report and Concise Literature Review.

Heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) is a chronic and debilitating disease, which requires extensive diagnostic and treatment resources in order to achieve an acceptable quality of life for the patient. While optimal medical treatment remains at the core of the disease's management, interventional cardiology also plays a very important role. However, in very rare situations, interventionists might find cases especially challenging due to the presence of venous anomalies, such as persistent left superior vena cava (PLSVC), anomalies that may go undiscovered during the patient's lifetime until venous cannulation is necessary.

ETV2 Upregulation Marks the Specification of Early Cardiomyocytes and Endothelial Cells During Co-differentiation.

The ability to differentiate human-induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) efficiently into defined cardiac lineages, such as cardiomyocytes and cardiac endothelial cells, is crucial to study human heart development and model cardiovascular diseases in vitro. The mechanisms underlying the specification of these cell types during human development are not well understood which limits fine-tuning and broader application of cardiac model systems. Here, we used the expression of ETV2, a master regulator of hematoendothelial specification in mice, to identify functionally distinct subpopulations during the co-differentiation of endothelial cells and cardiomyocytes from hiPSCs.

A gastruloid model of the interaction between embryonic and extra-embryonic cell types.

Stem-cell derived in vitro systems, such as organoids or embryoids, hold great potential for modeling in vivo development. Full control over their initial composition, scalability, and easily measurable dynamics make those systems useful for studying specific developmental processes in isolation. Here we report the formation of gastruloids consisting of mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) and extraembryonic endoderm (XEN) cells.

Phiclust: a clusterability measure for single-cell transcriptomics reveals phenotypic subpopulations.

The ability to discover new cell phenotypes by unsupervised clustering of single-cell transcriptomes has revolutionized biology. Currently, there is no principled way to decide whether a cluster of cells contains meaningful subpopulations that should be further resolved. Here, we present phiclust (ϕ), a clusterability measure derived from random matrix theory that can be used to identify cell clusters with non-random substructure, testably leading to the discovery of previously overlooked phenotypes.

How a cell decides its own fate: a single-cell view of molecular mechanisms and dynamics of cell-type specification.

On its path from a fertilized egg to one of the many cell types in a multicellular organism, a cell turns the blank canvas of its early embryonic state into a molecular profile fine-tuned to achieve a vital organismal function. This remarkable transformation emerges from the interplay between dynamically changing external signals, the cell's internal, variable state, and tremendously complex molecular machinery; we are only beginning to understand. Recently developed single-cell omics techniques have started to provide an unprecedented, comprehensive view of the molecular changes during cell-type specification and promise to reveal the underlying gene regulatory mechanism.

Human-iPSC-Derived Cardiac Stromal Cells Enhance Maturation in 3D Cardiac Microtissues and Reveal Non-cardiomyocyte Contributions to Heart Disease.

Cardiomyocytes (CMs) from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) are functionally immature, but this is improved by incorporation into engineered tissues or forced contraction. Here, we showed that tri-cellular combinations of hiPSC-derived CMs, cardiac fibroblasts (CFs), and cardiac endothelial cells also enhance maturation in easily constructed, scaffold-free, three-dimensional microtissues (MTs). hiPSC-CMs in MTs with CFs showed improved sarcomeric structures with T-tubules, enhanced contractility, and mitochondrial respiration and were electrophysiologically more mature than MTs without CFs.

Supporting the improvement of air quality management practices: The "FAIRMODE pilot" activity.

This paper presents the first outcomes of the "FAIRMODE pilot" activity, aiming at improving the way in which air quality models are used in the frame of the European "Air Quality Directive". Member States may use modelling, combined with measurements, to "assess" current levels of air quality and estimate future air quality under different scenarios. In case of current and potential exceedances of the Directive limit values, it is also requested that they "plan" and implement emission reductions measures to avoid future exceedances.

Impacts of air pollution on human and ecosystem health, and implications for the National Emission Ceilings Directive: Insights from Italy.

Across the 28 EU member states there were nearly half a million premature deaths in 2015 as a result of exposure to PM, O and NO. To set the target for air quality levels and avoid negative impacts for human and ecosystems health, the National Emission Ceilings Directive (NECD, 2016/2284/EU) sets objectives for emission reduction for SO, NOx, NMVOCs, NH and PM for each Member State as percentages of reduction to be reached in 2020 and 2030 compared to the emission levels into 2005. One of the innovations of NECD is Article 9, that mentions the issue of "monitoring air pollution impacts" on ecosystems.

Single-cell RNA-seq denoising using a deep count autoencoder.

Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) has enabled researchers to study gene expression at a cellular resolution. However, noise due to amplification and dropout may obstruct analyses, so scalable denoising methods for increasingly large but sparse scRNA-seq data are needed. We propose a deep count autoencoder network (DCA) to denoise scRNA-seq datasets.

Modeled deposition of nitrogen and sulfur in Europe estimated by 14 air quality model systems: evaluation, effects of changes in emissions and implications for habitat protection.

The evaluation and intercomparison of air quality models is key to reducing model errors and uncertainty. The projects AQMEII3 and EURODELTA-Trends, in the framework of the Task Force on Hemispheric Transport of Air Pollutants and the Task Force on Measurements and Modelling, respectively (both task forces under the UNECE Convention on the Long Range Transport of Air Pollution, LTRAP), have brought together various regional air quality models to analyze their performance in terms of air concentrations and wet deposition, as well as to address other specific objectives. This paper jointly examines the results from both project communities by intercomparing and evaluating the deposition estimates of reduced and oxidized nitrogen (N) and sulfur (S) in Europe simulated by 14 air quality model systems for the year 2010.

High resolution estimates of the corrosion risk for cultural heritage in Italy.

Air pollution plays a pivotal role in the deterioration of many materials used in buildings and cultural monuments causing an inestimable damage. This study aims to estimate the impacts of air pollution (SO, HNO, O, PM) and meteorological conditions (temperature, precipitation, relative humidity) on limestone, copper and bronze based on high resolution air quality data-base produced with AMS-MINNI modelling system over the Italian territory over the time period 2003-2010. A comparison between high resolution data (AMS-MINNI grid, 4 × 4 km) and low resolution data (EMEP grid, 50 × 50 km) has been performed.

Properties of agricultural aerosol released during wheat harvest threshing, plowing and sowing.

This study shows for the first time a chemical and morphological characterization of agricultural aerosols released during three important agricultural operations: threshing, plowing and sowing. The field campaigns were carried out in the eastern part of the Po Valley, Italy, in summer and autumn 2009. The aerosol particles were sampled on quartz fiber filters and polytetrafluoroethylene membranes in order to allow Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) analysis and Scanning Electron Microscopy equipped with an Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectrometer (SEM-EDS) investigations, respectively.

Late hepatic metastasis in the evolution of gastrointestinal stromal tumors.

Gastro-intestinal stromal tumours develop in the digestive tract wall, in the undifferentiated mesenchymal cells with a starting point at the level of the interstitial cells of Cajal. Gastro-intestinal stromal tumours often lead to peritoneal and hepatic metastasis. Assessment of aggressive behavior of GIST is difficult.

Important source of marine secondary organic aerosol from biogenic amines.

Relevant concentrations of dimethyl- and diethylammonium salts (DMA+ and DEA+) were measured in submicrometer marine aerosol collected over the North Atlantic during periods of high biological activity (HBA) in clean air masses (median concentration (minimum-maximum)=26(6-56) ng m(-3)). Much lower concentrations were measured during periods of low biological activity (LBA): 1 (<0.4-20) ng m(-3) and when polluted air masses were advected to the sampling site: 2 (<0.

Source attribution of water-soluble organic aerosol by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy.

The functional group compositions of atmospheric aerosol water-soluble organic compoundswere obtained employing proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR) spectroscopy in a series of recent experiments in several areas of the world characterized by different aerosol sources and pollution levels. Here, we discuss the possibility of using 1H NMR functional group distributions to identifythe sources of aerosol in the different areas. Despite the limited variability of functional group compositions of atmospheric aerosol samples, characteristic 1H NMR fingerprints were derived for three major aerosol sources: biomass burning, secondary formation from anthropogenic and biogenic VOCs, and emission from the ocean.

An anion-exchange high-performance liquid chromatography method coupled to total organic carbon determination for the analysis of water-soluble organic aerosols.

The chemical composition of water-soluble organic carbon (WSOC) in atmospheric aerosol particles is largely unexplored, due to the myriad of individual compounds, which has hampered attempts to attain a full characterization at the molecular level. An alternative approach, focusing on the analysis of a few main chemical classes, allowed the quantitative fractionation of WSOC into neutral compounds (NC), mono- and di-acids (MDA) and polyacids (PA) through an anion-exchange liquid chromatographic method. Previous attempts to quantify NC, MDA and PA relied on a low-pressure chromatographic technique using a volatile buffer, followed by total organic carbon (TOC) analysis of the fractions, or alternatively on a faster HPLC-UV method which provided a quantification of the fractions based on empirical relationships between UV signal and TOC concentration.

Biogenically driven organic contribution to marine aerosol.

Marine aerosol contributes significantly to the global aerosol load and consequently has an important impact on both the Earth's albedo and climate. So far, much of the focus on marine aerosol has centred on the production of aerosol from sea-salt and non-sea-salt sulphates. Recent field experiments, however, have shown that known aerosol production processes for inorganic species cannot account for the entire aerosol mass that occurs in submicrometre sizes.

Binary homogeneous nucleation in water-succinic acid and water-glutaric acid systems.

Binary homogeneous nucleation of water-succinic acid and water-glutaric acid systems have been investigated. The numerical approach was based on the classical nucleation theory. Usually, nucleation is discussed in terms of kinetics, but the thermodynamics involved is undoubtedly equally important.