Perception of the environment for walking according the locality in Barranquilla, Colombia.

El objetivo fue estimar la percepción del ambiente del barrio para caminar según la localidad de la ciudad. Se realizó un estudio descriptivo transversal en 2103 personas entre 15 y 69 años de edad. Se aplicó el Cuestionario Internacional de Actividad Física (IPAQ), y el Módulo Ambiente del International Physical Activity Study. Se estimó la asociación entre la percepción de los atributos del barrio y la localidad donde reside la persona. Los residentes del sur de la ciudad tienen mayor riego de percibir pocos supermercados a poca distancia de sus casas [OR 1,29(IC 95% 1,10-1,65)], aceras en mal estado [OR 1,44(IC 95% 1,10-1,90)], pocas personas físicamente activas [OR 4,13(IC 95% 2,50-6,82)], peligro para pasear durante el día[OR 3,07(IC 95% 1,96-4,80)], y pocas cosas interesantes en el vecindario [OR 3,21(IC 95% 2,05-5,02)]The objective was to estimate the perception of the neighborhood environment for walking according to the location of the city. A cross-sectional descriptive study was performed in 2103 people aged 15 to 69 years of age. We applied the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) and the Environment Module of the International Physical Activity Study. We estimated the association between perceived attributes of the neighborhood and the locality where the person lives. The residents of the South of the city have a higher risk of perceiving a few supermarkets within walking distance of their homes [OR 1,29 (95% CI 1,10-1,65)], presence of sidewalks in bad condition [OR 1,44 (95% CI 1,10-1,90)], few people physically active [OR 4,13 (95% CI 2,50-6,82)], danger to stroll during the day [OR 3,07 (95% CI 1,96-4,80)] and few interesting things in the neighborhood [OR 3,21 (95% CI 2,05-5,02)

Second language (L2) development as concept-mediated textual activity: Exploring the role of functional language concepts in classroom L2 communication and learning

This multiple case study explored the roles that functional second-language concepts (FL2Cs) played in learners’ oral L2 communication and development in a Colombian English as foreign language (EFL) classroom. Particularly, the study sought to describe how learners’ conceptual language knowledge and potential to mean during oral L2 communication changed over time, and to determine the mediational roles that FL2Cs played in that change. To that end, the study followed three teenage learner dyads over four months of instruction. Instruction focused on two oral genres, shopping exchanges and recipe procedures, and combined a genre-based approach for language development (Burns, 2010; Rose & Martin, 2012) with concept-based instruction, as proposed by Gal’Perin (1992). Data sources included video and audio recordings of classroom interaction, questionnaires, participant and non-participant observations, and a teacher diary and reflection log. Detailed data analysis of learner-learner and teacher-learner talk revealed that FL2Cs helped students master a variety of L2 resources needed for oral L2 meaning-making in shopping exchanges and recipes, the two genres that were taught. More importantly, FL2Cs set L2 developmental processes in motion as they transformed learners’ approach to oral communication in a language not their own. Specifically, FL2Cs transformed the way learners conceptualized, made sense of, and planned their L2 choices before oral communication in the two genres, oriented their ongoing oral L2 production, and assessed their L2 choices once these had been realized. Accordingly, this study corroborates the argument that academic or scientific concepts are consequential for learners’ L2 learning and development (Lantolf, 2011), but also contends that the main claim of concept-based instruction, namely that academic concepts are developmental, needs further elaboration to account for a description of who develops what concepts for what uses when and ho

Local and Systemic CD4 +

Investigation of the Th1 immune response in sarcoidosis CD4+ T cells has revealed reduced proliferative capacity and cytokine expression upon TCR stimulation. In other disease models, such cellular dysfunction has been associated with a step-wise, progressive loss of T cell function that results from chronic antigenic stimulation. T cell exhaustion is defined by decreased cytokine production upon TCR activation, decreased proliferation, increased expression of inhibitory cell surface receptors, and increased susceptibility to apoptosis. We characterized sarcoidosis CD4+ T cell immune function in systemic and local environments among subjects undergoing disease progression compared to those experiencing disease resolution. Spontaneous and TCR-stimulated Th1 cytokine expression and proliferation assays were performed in 53 sarcoidosis subjects and 30 healthy controls. PD-1 expression and apoptosis were assessed by flow cytometry. Compared to healthy controls, sarcoidosis CD4+ T cells demonstrated reductions in Th1 cytokine expression, proliferative capacity (p<0.05), enhanced apoptosis (p<0.01), and increased PD-1 expression (p<0.001). BAL-derived CD4+ T cells also demonstrated multiple facets of T cell exhaustion (p<0.05). Reversal of CD4+ T cell exhaustion was observed in subjects undergoing spontaneous resolution (p<0.05). Sarcoidosis CD4+ T cells exhibit loss of cellular function during progressive disease that follows the archetype of T cell exhaustion

Identification and validation of differentially expressed transcripts by RNA-sequencing of formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) lung tissue from patients with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis

Background: Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) is a lethal lung disease of unknown etiology. A major limitation in transcriptomic profiling of lung tissue in IPF has been a dependence on snap-frozen fresh tissues (FF). In this project we sought to determine whether genome scale transcript profiling using RNA Sequencing (RNA-Seq) could be applied to archived Formalin-Fixed Paraffin-Embedded (FFPE) IPF tissues. Results: We isolated total RNA from 7 IPF and 5 control FFPE lung tissues and performed 50 base pair paired-end sequencing on Illumina 2000 HiSeq. TopHat2 was used to map sequencing reads to the human genome. On average similar to 62 million reads (53.4% of similar to 116 million reads) were mapped per sample. 4,131 genes were differentially expressed between IPF and controls (1,920 increased and 2,211 decreased (FDR lt 0.05). We compared our results to differentially expressed genes calculated from a previously published dataset generated from FF tissues analyzed on Agilent microarrays (GSE47460). The overlap of differentially expressed genes was very high (760 increased and 1,413 decreased, FDR lt 0.05). Only 92 differentially expressed genes changed in opposite directions. Pathway enrichment analysis performed using MetaCore confirmed numerous IPF relevant genes and pathways including extracellular remodeling, TGF-beta, and WNT. Gene network analysis of MMP7, a highly differentially expressed gene in both datasets, revealed the same canonical pathways and gene network candidates in RNA-Seq and microarray data. For validation by NanoString nCounter (R) we selected 35 genes that had a fold change of 2 in at least one dataset (10 discordant, 10 significantly differentially expressed in one dataset only and 15 concordant genes). High concordance of fold change and FDR was observed for each type of the samples (FF vs FFPE) with both microarrays (r = 0.92) and RNA-Seq (r = 0.90) and the number of discordant genes was reduced to four. Conclusions: Our results demonstrate that RNA sequencing of RNA obtained from archived FFPE lung tissues is feasible. The results obtained from FFPE tissue are highly comparable to FF tissues. The ability to perform RNA-Seq on archived FFPE IPF tissues should greatly enhance the availability of tissue biopsies for research in IPF

Identification and validation of differentially expressed transcripts by RNA-sequencing of formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) lung tissue from patients with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis

Background: Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) is a lethal lung disease of unknown etiology. A major limitation in transcriptomic profiling of lung tissue in IPF has been a dependence on snap-frozen fresh tissues (FF). In this project we sought to determine whether genome scale transcript profiling using RNA Sequencing (RNA-Seq) could be applied to archived Formalin-Fixed Paraffin-Embedded (FFPE) IPF tissues. Results: We isolated total RNA from 7 IPF and 5 control FFPE lung tissues and performed 50 base pair paired-end sequencing on Illumina 2000 HiSeq. TopHat2 was used to map sequencing reads to the human genome. On average similar to 62 million reads (53.4% of similar to 116 million reads) were mapped per sample. 4,131 genes were differentially expressed between IPF and controls (1,920 increased and 2,211 decreased (FDR lt 0.05). We compared our results to differentially expressed genes calculated from a previously published dataset generated from FF tissues analyzed on Agilent microarrays (GSE47460). The overlap of differentially expressed genes was very high (760 increased and 1,413 decreased, FDR lt 0.05). Only 92 differentially expressed genes changed in opposite directions. Pathway enrichment analysis performed using MetaCore confirmed numerous IPF relevant genes and pathways including extracellular remodeling, TGF-beta, and WNT. Gene network analysis of MMP7, a highly differentially expressed gene in both datasets, revealed the same canonical pathways and gene network candidates in RNA-Seq and microarray data. For validation by NanoString nCounter (R) we selected 35 genes that had a fold change of 2 in at least one dataset (10 discordant, 10 significantly differentially expressed in one dataset only and 15 concordant genes). High concordance of fold change and FDR was observed for each type of the samples (FF vs FFPE) with both microarrays (r = 0.92) and RNA-Seq (r = 0.90) and the number of discordant genes was reduced to four. Conclusions: Our results demonstrate that RNA sequencing of RNA obtained from archived FFPE lung tissues is feasible. The results obtained from FFPE tissue are highly comparable to FF tissues. The ability to perform RNA-Seq on archived FFPE IPF tissues should greatly enhance the availability of tissue biopsies for research in IPF

Optical characterization of WISE selected blazar candidates

Context. Over the last decade more than five thousand γ-ray sources have been detected by the Large Area Telescope (LAT) onboard the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. Given the positional uncertainty of the telescope, nearly 30% of these sources remain without an obvious counterpart at lower energies. This has motivated the release of new catalogs of γ-ray counterpart candidates and several follow up campaigns in the last decade. Aims. Recently, two new catalogs of blazar candidates were released. These are the improved and expanded version of the WISE Blazar-Like Radio-Loud Sources (WIBRaLS2) catalog and the Kernel Density Estimation selected candidate BL Lacs (KDEBLLACS) catalog, both selecting blazar-like sources based on their infrared colors from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). In this work we characterize these two catalogs, clarifying the true nature of their sources based on their optical spectra from SDSS data release 15, thus testing their efficiency in selecting true blazars. Methods. We first selected all WIBRaLS2 and KDEBLLACS sources with available optical spectra in the footprint of Sloan Digital Sky Survey data release 15. We then analyzed these spectra to verify the nature of each selected candidate and to measure the fraction of the catalogs composed by spectroscopically confirmed blazars. Finally, we evaluated the impact of selection effects, especially those related to optical colors of WIBRaLS2/KDEBLLACS sources and their optical magnitude distributions. Results. We found that at least ∼30% of each catalog is made up of confirmed blazars, with quasars being the major contaminants in the case of WIBRaLS2 (≈58%) and normal galaxies in the case of KDEBLLACS (≈38.2%). The spectral analysis also allowed us to identify the nature of 11 blazar candidates of uncertain type (BCUs) from the Fermi-LAT fourth Point Source Catalog (4FGL) and to find 25 new BL Lac objects.Fil: de Menezes, Raniere. Universidade Do Sao Paulo. Instituto Astronomia, Geofísica E Ciencias Atmosfericas. Departamento de Astronomia; Brasil. Università degli Studi di Torino; ItaliaFil: Peña Herazo, Harold A.. Instituto Nacional de Astrofísica; México. Università di Torino; Italia. Istituto Nazionale Di Fisica Nucleare.; Italia. Osservatorio Astrofisico di Torino; ItaliaFil: Marchesini, Ezequiel Joaquín. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Astrofísica La Plata. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas. Instituto de Astrofísica La Plata; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas; Argentina. Istituto Nazionale Di Fisica Nucleare.; Italia. Università di Torino; ItaliaFil: D´Abrusco, Raffaele. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics; Estados UnidosFil: Masetti, Nicola. Osservatorio di Astrofisica e Scienza dello Spazio; Italia. Universidad Andrés Bello; ChileFil: Nemmen, Rodrigo. Universidade Do Sao Paulo. Instituto Astronomia, Geofísica E Ciencias Atmosfericas. Departamento de Astronomia; BrasilFil: Massaro, Francesco. Università di Torino; Italia. Istituto Nazionale Di Fisica Nucleare.; Italia. Osservatorio Astrofisico di Torino; Italia. Consorzio Interuniversitario per la Fisica Spaziale ; ItaliaFil: Ricci, Federica. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile; ChileFil: Landoni, Marco. Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera; ItaliaFil: Paggi, Alessandro. Università di Torino; ItaliaFil: Smith, Howard A.. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics; Estados Unido

Evolution of pulmonary hypertension in interstitial lung disease: a journey through past, present, and future

Interstitial lung diseases (ILD) are a spectrum of disorders often complicated by pulmonary hypertension (PH) in its course. The pathophysiologic mechanism of WHO group 3 PH is different to other forms of PH. The advent of PH is a harbinger for adverse events like mortality and morbidity, implying that the PH component of disease expedites deteriorated clinical outcomes. In fact, WHO group 3 PH due to ILD has the worse prognosis among all groups of PH. Hence, early detection of PH by a comprehensive screening method is paramount. Given considerable overlap in clinical manifestations between ILD and PH, early detection of PH is often elusive. Despite, the treatment of PH due to ILD has been frustrating until recently. Clinical trials utilizing PAH-specific pulmonary vasodilators have been ongoing for years without desired results. Eventually, the INCREASE study (2018) demonstrated beneficial effect of inhaled Treprostinil to treat PH in ILD. In view of this pioneering development, a paradigm shift in clinical approach to this disease phenotype is happening. There is a renewed vigor to develop a well validated screening tool for early detection and management. Currently inhaled Treprostinil is the only FDA approved therapy to treat this phenotype, but emergence of a therapy has opened a plethora of research toward new drug developments. Regardless of all these recent developments, the overall outlook still remains grim in this condition. This review article dwells on the current state of knowledge of pre-capillary PH due to ILD, especially its diagnosis and management, the recent progresses, and future evolutions in this field

Risk of 30-Day All-Cause Readmission in Interstitial Lung Disease Patients after COVID-19: National-Level Data

Rationale Hospital readmission within 30 days poses challenges for healthcare providers, policymakers, and patients because of its impact on care quality, costs, and outcomes. Patients with interstitial lung disease (ILD) are particularly affected by readmission, which is associated with increased morbidity and mortality and reduced quality of life. Because small sample sizes have hindered previous studies, this study seeks to address this gap in knowledge by examining a large-scale dataset. Objective: To determine the rate and probability of 30-day all-cause readmission and secondary outcomes in patients with coronavirus disease (COVID-19) or ILD admitted to the hospital. Methods This study is a nested cohort study that used the PearlDiver patient records database. Adult patients (age ⩾18 yr) who were admitted to hospitals in 28 states in the United States with COVID-19 or ILD diagnoses were included. We defined and analyzed two separate cohorts in this study. The first cohort consisted of patients with COVID-19 and was later divided into two groups with or without a history of ILD. The second cohort consisted of patients with ILD and was later divided into groups with COVID-19 or with a non–COVID-19 pneumonia diagnosis at admission. We also studied two other subcohorts of patients with and without idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis within the second cohort. Propensity score matching was employed to match confounders between groups. The Kaplan-Meier log rank test was applied to compare the probabilities of outcomes. Results We assessed the data of 2,286,775 patients with COVID-19 and 118,892 patients with ILD. We found that patients with COVID-19 with preexisting ILD had an odds ratio of 1.6 for 30-day all-cause readmission. Similarly, an odds ratio of 2.42 in readmission rates was observed among hospitalized individuals with ILD who contracted COVID-19 compared with those who were hospitalized for non–COVID-19 pneumonia. Our study also found a significantly higher probability of intensive care admission among patients in both cohorts. Conclusions Patients with ILD face heightened rates of hospital readmissions, particularly when ILD is combined with COVID-19, resulting in adverse outcomes such as decreased quality of life and increased healthcare expenses. It is imperative to prioritize preventive measures against COVID-19 and establish effective postdischarge care strategies for patients with ILD