In vitro percutaneous penetration of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from sunscreen creams

Background: Dermal exposure to Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) affects many outdoor workers such as asphalt workers. Usually the use of sunscreen creams is suggested to protect them from UV radiation. However sunscreen could prevent or facilitate dermal absorption of industrial chemicals. Objectives: The aim of the study was to assess percutaneous penetration of anthracene using 2 different sunscreen creams as vehicle. Methods: In vitro permeation experiments were carried out using standardized in vitro methods with static diffusion cells. Excised human skin prepared to approximately 350 mm thickness was fixed on the diffusion cells. The receiving phase was a saline solution with 6% PEG 20. The 2 sunscreen creams (one lipophilic and one hydrophilic) were applied uniformly (2mg/cm2) on the skin mounted on the diffusion cell. After 20 minutes, a solution of anthracene and artificial sweat was added. Analysis of anthracene in the receptor samples was carried out by beta counter analyzer (Packard). Results: Results did not show a percutaneous penetration of anthracene from sunscreen creams while in previous studies in vitro percutaneous penetration of anthracene was demonstrated using the same methodology. Discussion and Conclusion: The use of sunscreen creams among outdoor workers, would not seem to enhance percutaneous penetration of PAHs. On the contrary it seems to be able to reduce dermal absorption of anthracene in the workplace

Tratamento da insuficiência cardíaca -- aspectos atuais

Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP) Escola Paulista de MedicinaUNIFESP, EPMSciEL

The involvement of T regulatory lymphocytes in a cohort of lupus nephritis patients: a pilot study

T regulator lymphocytes (Tregs) play a key role in the maintenance of immune tolerance and in the development of autoimmune diseases. Expression of Foxp3 is specific for Tregs, and can be used for the identification of these cells. This study investigated the variations of Tregs Foxp3? in the kidney biopsies inflammatory infiltrate of different lupus nephritis classes compared to that of ANCA glomerulonephritis, acute tubulointerstitial nephritis and nephroangiosclerosis. Sections of paraffin-embedded tissue have been stained by immunohistochemistry with anti-CD3 and anti-FoxP3 antibodies. We find that the ratio of FoxP3?/CD3? cells is significantly lower in patients with lupus nephritis class IV and in patients with vasculitides than in the course of nephroangiosclerosis, tubulointerstitial nephritis and lupus nephritis class V. The data presented herein demonstrate a decrease of FoxP3? Treg cells in the inflammatory infiltrate of lupus nephritis, particularly during the most active phases of lupus nephritis, as observed in the course of a IV class nephritis

Performance of a Simplified Soft-Distance decoding algorithm for LDPC codes over the Rayleigh fading channel

In this paper, we investigate the performance of a Soft-Input soft-Output decoding algorithm for LDPC codes that uses Euclidean distance as its metric, in the Rayleigh fading channel. It is found that its Bit Error Rate performance is close to that of traditional decoding algorithms like the SumProduct algorithm and its logarithmic version. Main characteristics of the proposed algorithm and its modification to perform over the Rayleigh channel are described. This algorithm uses squared Euclidean distance as the metric, does not require knowledge of the signal-to-noise ratio of the received signal, and is less complex to implement than other soft-input, soft-output algorithms.Fil: Arnone, Leonardo Jose. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ingeniería; ArgentinaFil: Liberatori, Mónica Cristina. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ingeniería. Departamento de Electrónica. Laboratorio de Comunicaciones; ArgentinaFil: Petruzzi, David Mario. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ingeniería. Departamento de Electrónica. Laboratorio de Comunicaciones; ArgentinaFil: Farrell, P. G.. Lancaster University. Department of Communications Systems; Reino UnidoFil: Castiñeira Moreira, Jorge. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ingenieria; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Mar del Plata; Argentin

Cantrell Syndrome. Case report of an adult

Cantrell syndrome is characterized by defects that involve the diaphragm, abdominal wall, pericardium, heart, and lower region of the sternum. It is a rare entity, usually diagnosed at birth and accompanied by high mortality due to the complexity and gravity of the anomalies. In this report, we present a 32-year-old male patient, who was diagnosed in infancy but who reached adult age asymptomatic.Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP) Escola Paulista de MedicinaUNIFESP, EPMSciEL

"Family is Really All Over The Place:" Ethnic Identity Formation Within A Transnational Network

This dissertation explores the process of ethnic identity formation in immigrants from the Campania region of Italy who settled in Ontario (Canada) and Buenos Aires (Argentina) after the Second World War. It centres on the collection of twenty-five original testimonies from narrators from the Campania who travelled from Italy between 1949 and 1979. Testimonies are complemented by ethnic newspaper archives and a diverse collection of archival materials from Canada, Argentina, and Italy. Campani understood their ethnic identities not via national boundaries, nor by a hyphenated or binary relationship; they did so using a shared imagined space that formed part of a multi-directional and transnational network, a mental map that included nodal points across the globe. This project argues that the identity of Campani depended less on formalized ethnic associations and more on informal networks of family to develop a sense of identity. Focusing on this unorganized group offers an intriguing perspective on how immigrants develop ethnic identities in situations where regional ties or formalized institutions are not strong enough to adhere to as a viable source of ethnic identity. Women were a vital part of these transnational networks, and this dissertation explores how networks of transmission work within this category of analysis. Language, food, and music are some of the means of forging and affirming ethnic identity that operate within the transnational network. Hyphenated identities are unsatisfactory, since they rely on a linear connection between two places and obfuscate the existence of other nodal spaces. Instead, Campani turned to other identifiers for constancy. Discussions of identity centre on the family or use familial terms to describe that tension. Campani had multiple identifiers at their disposal, and they adopted them strategically to navigate the situation at hand. The dissertation complicates the presence of hybrid or hyphenated identities by considering the vast but understudied transnational network that provided Campani with a domain for ethnic identity formation. It explores immigration as a process of non-linear mobility that transcends borders by creating nodes of settlement and streaks of movement that together create a picture of how identity is defined

Membrane proteins and proteomics: Love is possible, but so difficult

Despite decades of extensive research, the large-scale analysis of membrane proteins remains a difficult task. This is due to the fact that membrane proteins require a carefully balanced hydrophilic and lipophilic environment, which optimum varies with different proteins, while most protein chemistry methods work mainly, if not only, in water-based media. Taking this review [Santoni, Molloy and Rabilloud, Membrane proteins and proteomics: un amour impossible? Electrophoresis 2000, 21, 1054-1070] as a pivotal paper, the current paper analyzes how the field of membrane proteomics exacerbated the trend in proteomics, i.e. developing alternate methods to the historical two-dimensional electrophoresis, and thus putting more and more pressure on the mass spectrometry side. However, in the case of membrane proteins, the incentive in doing so is due to the poor solubility of membrane proteins. This review also shows that in some situations, where this solubility problem is less acute, two-dimensional electrophoresis remains a method of choice. Last but not least, this review also critically examines the alternate approaches that have been used for the proteomic analysis of membrane proteins

Minimum area, low cost fpga implementation of aes

The Rijndael cipher, designed by Joan Daemen and Vincent Rijmen and recently selected as the official Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) is well suited for hardware use. This implementation can be carried out through several trade-offs between area and speed. This paper presents an 8-bit FPGA implementation of the 128-bit block and 128 bit-key AES cipher. Selected FPGA Family is Altera Flex 10K. The cipher operates at 25 MHz and consumes 470 clock cycles for algorithm encryption, resulting in a throughput of 6.8 Mbps. The design target was optimisation of area and cost.Eje: IV - Workshop de procesamiento distribuido y paraleloRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Abbondanze chimiche in un campione di stelle metal-poor della galassia nana del Sagittario

Lo scenario oggi più accreditato per spiegare la formazione delle galassie è quello del merging gerarchico: Sgr è una delle prove più importanti a favore di questo scenario. Sgr è una galassia satellite della MW ed è il caso migliore di processo di distruzione mareale in corso dalla MW. La sua distruzione ha contribuito alla costituzione dell'alone della Via Lattea. Di Sgr si osserva solo ciò che ne rimane del corpo principale, i suoi streams ed il suo nucleo, dominato dall'ammasso metal-poor M54. È la presenza di M54 che rende complessa la selezione di stelle metal-poor di Sgr: il main-body di Sgr è rarefatto e fortemente contaminato da stelle galattiche ed il suo nucleo si sovrappone con M54 rendendo quasi impossibile identificare stelle di Sagittario metal-poor non appartenenti ad M54. Fino ad ora l'unico metodo utilizzato per selezionare i targets per studiare la chimica di Sgr ha fatto uso della loro posizione sul CMD: questo metodo introduce un bias, selezionando solo le stelle metal-rich di Sgr. In questo lavoro sono state studiate 23 stelle metal-poor appartenenti al main-body di Sgr ma fuori dal raggio mareale di M54 selezionate grazie ai moti propri dalla missione GAIA. Gli spettri analizzati sono stati ottenuti con lo spettrografo UVES-FLAMES del VLT (ESO)da cui è stata ottenuta l'abbondanza di 17 elementi sia di stelle di Sgr che in 12 stelle di M54. Questo campione di abbondanze chimiche permette per la prima volta: (a) di comprendere la storia di arricchimento chimico di Sgr in un ampio range di metallicità (mai studiato finora) e (b) di confrontare la chimica di Sgr con quella di M54. Tali abbondanze dimostrano come Sgr abbia avuto un'evoluzione chimica diversa da quella della MW, con un contributo inferiore da parte di stelle massive, probabilmente a causa del suo basso SFR. Inoltre è stato possibile determinare la forte somiglianza chimica tra Sgr e M54, confermando che i due sistemi condividono la stessa storia di arricchimento chimico

A mi hijo lo eligió dios. Un análisis sobre las moralidades en torno a muertes violentas en villa La Tela (Córdoba-Argentina)

En este artículo busco reflexionar, etnográficamente, sobre diferentes moralidades configuradas en torno a una muerte acontecida en una villa de Córdoba. Ludo Hernández era un joven de 18 años quien era acusado de incurrir en prácticas delictivas tales como robos, consumo y venta de drogas, entre otras. Murió asesinado el 29 de diciembre de 2010. A partir de allí los vecinos de La Tela construyeron diversos relatos sobre esta muerte; muchos de ellos vinculados con cuestionamientos morales relacionados con su conducta, con la educación recibida por su familia, y por consiguiente, con la reputación de la misma. Su madre, por su parte, intentaba “limpiar” la memoria del muerto, a la vez que canalizar el sufrimiento. Intentaré reconstruir las diferentes explicaciones en torno a esta muerte, para ello compararé la muerte de Ludo Hernández, con la de otro joven quien también fue asesinado en la villa, pero en un contexto completamente diferente, puesto que era considerado por sus vecinos como un “chico bueno” y por tanto, su muerte fue llorada y considerada “injusta”