Self-Reinforced Biocomposites Made from Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate--3-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV): An Innovative Approach to Sustainable Packaging Production through Melt Processing.

The production of self-reinforced composites allows for a targeted tailoring of the property profile for specific applications and offers the physical-mechanical advantages of a synergistic combination of the two components with a high value in terms of their end-of-life scenarios. This study deals with the preparation and evaluation of self-reinforced biocomposites of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate--3-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV) with PHBV microparticles produced for the first time by industry-oriented melt processing. First, microparticles with a size of 4 μm were prepared and characterized by using the miniemulsion/evaporation technique.

Injectable Carrageenan/Green Graphene Oxide Hydrogel: A Comprehensive Analysis of Mechanical, Rheological, and Biocompatibility Properties.

In this work, physically crosslinked injectable hydrogels based on carrageenan, locust bean gum, and gelatin, and mechanically nano-reinforced with green graphene oxide (GO), were developed to address the challenge of finding materials with a good balance between injectability and mechanical properties. The effect of GO content on the rheological and mechanical properties, injectability, swelling behavior, and biocompatibility of the nanocomposite hydrogels was studied. The hydrogels' morphology, assessed by FE-SEM, showed a homogeneous porous architecture separated by thin walls for all the GO loadings investigated.

The Impact of the Successive Outbreaks of COVID-19, Vaccination, and Physical Activity on Mental Health in the Argentine Population: A Repeated Cross-Sectional Study.

Background and objectives A controversy regarding the duration of generalized anxiety disorders (GAD) and depressive symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic arose, stating that these symptoms last a short time, perhaps a few months, or that they are more persistent over time. After more than three years of the pandemic, this is still a question that requires an answer. The main goal of this work was to record the levels of self-perceived GAD and depression in the Argentine population at several time points during the pandemic to characterize whether they were transient or persisted over the successive waves of contagion.

Modulation of memory reconsolidation by adjacent novel tasks: timing defines the nature of change.

Reconsolidation turns memories into a responsive state that allows their modulation until they stabilize again. This phenomenon attracted remarkable attention due to its potential impact on therapeutics and education. Recent evidence revealed that different memories undergo reconsolidation via a behavioral tagging process.

An Overview of the Effectiveness of Corticoids in Croup: A Systematic Literature Review.

Croup, also known as laryngotracheobronchitis, frequently leads to blockages in the upper respiratory tract in young children, presenting symptoms, such as a raspy voice, a distinctive cough, and noisy breathing during inhalation. Despite being a condition that often resolves on its own, it puts considerable strain on healthcare resources due to regular doctor visits, emergency room usage, and occasional hospital stays. Research focused on larger populations suggests that only a small percentage of children with croup end up requiring hospital admission for their condition.

Time-Restricted Feeding and Intermittent Fasting as Preventive Therapeutics: A Systematic Review of the Literature.

Multiple studies have shown that intermittent fasting (IF) is associated with better health conditions and longer lifespans, as is time-restricted feeding (TRF). One crucial explanation is that IF and TRF permit a set length of time for caloric ingestion, during which our systems activate a variety of mechanisms that lead to the enhancement and renewal of different body systems. Accordingly, the benefits of IF and TRF are a lot greater than those of complete calorie restriction (CR).

Physical Activity as a Lifestyle Modification in Patients With Multiple Comorbidities: Emphasizing More on Obese, Prediabetic, and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Patients.

In this research, physical activity (PA) was shown to be inversely associated with the incidence of diabetes. This emphasizes the relevance of PA in diabetes prevention lifestyle intervention initiatives and encourages healthcare practitioners to advise high-risk patients on a healthy lifestyle combining PA for the reduction of weight in prediabetic, obese, and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients. The link between PA and diabetes was stronger in people with moderate or higher baseline PA, reflecting national recommendations that imply increasing activity levels may provide larger advantages for those who are comparatively less active.

Dynamics of humoral immune response in SARS-CoV-2 infected individuals with different clinical stages.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic remains a global health problem. As in other viral infections, the humoral immune response against SARS-CoV-2 is thought to be crucial for controlling the infection. However, the dynamic of B cells in the clinical spectrum of this disease is still controversial.

Effect of Different Plasticizers on Thermal, Crystalline, and Permeability Properties of Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyhexanoate) Films.

Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyhexanoate) (PHBH) films were prepared using a cast film technique. Dioxane was chosen over other polymer solvents as it resulted in homogenous films with better morphology. Several plasticizers with different molecular weights and concentrations were added to the biopolymer solution prior to casting.

Second Wave of COVID-19 Pandemic in Argentinian Population: Vaccination Is Associated With a Decrease in Depressive Symptoms.

Background: Since the irruption of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) the planet has submerged in a time of concern and uncertainty, with a direct impact on people's mental health. Moreover, the recurrent outbreaks that periodically harry different regions of the world constantly refocus people's concerns to the pandemic. Yet, each new wave heats the diverse countries in different situations, including the advances in their vaccination campaigns.

Liquiñe-Ofqui's fast slipping intra-volcanic arc crustal faulting above the subducted Chile Ridge.

The southernmost portion of the Liquiñe-Ofqui fault zone (LOFZ) lies within the proposed slab window which formed due to oblique subduction of the Chile Ridge in Patagonia. Mapping of paleo-surface ruptures, offsets, and lithological separations along the master fault allowed us to constrain geologic slip rates for the first time with dextral rates of 11.6-24.

Behavioral tagging underlies memory reconsolidation.

Memory reconsolidation occurs when a retrieving event destabilizes transiently a consolidated memory, triggering thereby a new process of restabilization that ensures memory persistence. Although this phenomenon has received wide attention, the effect of new information cooccurring with the reconsolidation process has been less explored. Here we demonstrate that a memory-retrieving event sets a neural tag, which enables the reconsolidation of memory after binding proteins provided by the original or a different contiguous experience.

Novelty Improves the Formation and Persistence of Memory in a Naturalistic School Scenario.

One of the top challenges in education and neuroscience consists in translating laboratory results into strategies to improve learning and memory in teaching environments. In that sense, during the last two decades, researchers have discovered specific temporal windows around learning, during which the intervention with some experiences induces modulatory effects on the formation and/or persistence of memory. Based on these results, the aim of the present study was to design a specific strategy to improve the memory of students in a high-school scenario, by assessing the effect of a novel situation experienced close to learning.

Fatal Disseminated Infection by Trichosporon asahii Under Voriconazole Therapy in a Patient with Acute Myeloid Leukemia: A Review of Breakthrough Infections by Trichosporon spp.

Introduction: Cases of invasive Trichosporon infections have increasingly emerged; it is now the second leading cause of yeast bloodstream infections after Candida spp., particularly in the immunosuppressed population, where it often causes breakthrough fungemia with high mortality.

Methods: We present a case report of a breakthrough Trichosporon asahii infection in a patient with acute myeloid leukemia and review all of the cases of breakthrough Trichosporon spp.

Enzyme-Linked Aptamer Assay (ELAA) for Detection of ROP18 Protein in Human Serum.

engenders the common parasitic disease toxoplasmosis in almost all warm-blooded animals. Being a critical secretory protein, ROP18 is a major virulence factor of . There are no reports about ROP18 detection in human serum samples with different clinical manifestations.

Orofacial infection by Conidiobolus coronatus.

Entomophtoramycosis is a type of subcutaneous mycosis which includes both basidiobolomycosis and conidiobolomycosis; the latter is caused by Conidiobolus coronatus, a saprophytic fungus which lives in tropical soils. This mycosis characteristically affects the paranasal sinuses and oropharynx, with the potential to deform the face in patients without apparent immunodeficiency. It has a chronic course of infection with a tendency to form granulomas visible using histology.

Evidence of VTA and LC control of protein synthesis required for the behavioral tagging process.

Several works have shown that the formation of different long-term memories relies on a behavioral tagging process. In other words, to establish a lasting memory, at least two parallel processes must occur: the setting of a learning tag (triggered during learning) that defines where a memory could be stored, and the synthesis of proteins, that once captured at tagged sites will effectively allow the consolidation process to occur. This work focused in studying which brain structures are responsible of controlling the synthesis of those proteins at the brain areas where memory is being stored.

Role of the 52 KDa thioredoxin protein disulfide isomerase of Toxoplasma gondii during infection to human cells.

Toxoplasma protein disulfide isomerase (PDI) is a 52 KDa thioredoxin of interest because have a great immunogenicity for humans. We cloned and produced a recombinant protein (recTgPDI) used to test its effect during infection to different human cell lines (epithelial and retinal). We also determine if there were differences in gen expression during in vitro infection.

Behavioral Tagging: A Translation of the Synaptic Tagging and Capture Hypothesis.

Similar molecular machinery is activated in neurons following an electrical stimulus that induces synaptic changes and after learning sessions that trigger memory formation. Then, to achieve perdurability of these processes protein synthesis is required for the reinforcement of the changes induced in the network. The synaptic tagging and capture theory provided a strong framework to explain synaptic specificity and persistence of electrophysiological induced plastic changes.

A rational approach to select immunogenic peptides that induce IFN-γ response against Toxoplasma gondii in human leukocytes.

The ideal vaccine to prevent toxoplasmosis in humans would comprise antigens that elicit a protective T cell type 1 response with high IFN-γ production. Here, we report the use of a bioinformatics pipeline to discover peptides based on biochemical characteristics that predict strong IFN-γ response by human leukocytes. We selected peptide sequences that previously were reported to induce IFN-γ to identify the biophysical characteristics that will predict HLA-A*02 high-affinity epitopes.

Successful treatment of hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis and disseminated intravascular coagulation secondary to histoplasmosis in a patient with HIV/AIDS.

Haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis is an uncommon syndrome that results from an uncontrolled activation of macrophages and lymphocytes resulting in the compromise of multiple organs that is potentially fatal without timely treatment. It can be hereditary or a secondary result of infectious processes, neoplasms or autoimmune conditions. We present the case of a patient with HIV/AIDS who developed hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis as well as disseminated intravascular coagulation associated with histoplasmosis and who was successfully treated with amphotericin B, steroids and transitory dialytic support.

[Gene polymorphisms in the dihydrofolate reductase ( dhfr ) and dihydropteroate synthase ( dhps ) genes and structural modelling of the dhps gene in Colombian isolates of Toxoplasma gondii].

Introduction: There are no reports describing polymorphisms in target genes of anti- Toxoplasma drugs in South American isolates.

Objective: This study sought to perform cloning and sequencing of the dihydrofolate reductase ( dhfr ) and dihydropteroate-synthase ( dhps ) genes of the reference Rh strain and two Colombian isolates of Toxoplasma gondii .

Materials And Methods: Two isolates were obtained from the cerebrospinal fluid of HIV-infected patients with cerebral toxoplasmosis.