Potential for Further Evolution of CRDs

Although Grondona prepared detailed guidelines that his system should be implemented in relation to durable, essential, basic imported commodities, he also understood that, once established successfully, CRDs' operations could evolve in various ways in order to achieve greater benefits. For example, the inclusion of precious metals such as gold and silver, albeit on a somewhat different basis than industrial commodities, is an interesting possibility. Grondona also recommended that other products such as basic manufactured components like standardised steel or aluminium strip could be included. Another potential evolution is a CRD's role in a currency crisis: a sudden change in the exchange rate would be countered to some extent by a CRD being asked to sell or buy commodities, which would tend to resist the initial change. A CRD's terms of operation might be adjusted in order to strengthen its influence as such a countermeasure.

New dynamical features of pure k-essential cosmologies

We come back on the dynamical properties of [Formula: see text]-essential cosmological models and show how the interesting phenomenological features of those models are related to the existence of boundaries in the phase surface. We focus our attention to the branching curves where the energy density has an extremum and the effective speed of sound diverges. We discuss the behaviour of solutions of a general class of cosmological models exhibiting such curves and give two possible interpretations; the most interesting possibility regards the arrow of time that is reversed in trespassing the branching curve. This study teaches to us something new about general FLRW cosmologies where the fluids driving the cosmic evolution have equations of state that are multivalued functions of the energy density and other thermodynamical quantities.

Nutritional Regulation of Hepatic FGF21 by Dietary Restriction of Methionine

FGF21 is a potent metabolic regulator of energy balance, body composition, lipid metabolism, and glucose homeostasis. Initial studies reported that it was increased by fasting and the associated increase in ketones, but more recent work points to the importance of dietary protein and sensing of essential amino acids in FGF21 regulation. For example, dietary restriction of methionine produces a rapid transcriptional activation of hepatic FGF21 that results in a persistent 5- to 10-fold increase in serum FGF21. Although FGF21 is a component of a complex transcriptional program activated by methionine restriction (MR), loss-of-function studies show that FGF21 is an essential mediator of the resulting effects of the MR diet on energy balance, remodeling of adipose tissue, and enhancement of insulin sensitivity. These studies also show that FGF21 signaling in the brain is required for the MR diet-induced increase in energy expenditure (EE) and reduction of adiposity. Collectively, the evidence supports the view that the liver functions as a sentinel to detect and respond to changes in dietary amino acid composition, and that the resulting mobilization of hepatic FGF21 is a key element of the homeostatic response. These findings raise the interesting possibility that therapeutic diets could be developed that produce sustained, biologically effective increases in FGF21 by nutritionally modulating its transcription and release.

A Short Review on Heterocyclic Compounds Showing Anti-Breast Cancer Activity

Breast cancer (BC) is the most common cancer for females, and its incidence tends to increase year by year. Currently, the backbone of therapy for BC is mainly chemotherapy; however, its toxicity in normal cells and acquired tumor resistance to the drug users are considered the main barriers. Therefore, there is still an urgent need for the development of more effective and safer anti-BC agents. Based on previous reference documents in recent years, this review covers the work reported on the anti-BC compounds classified according to the structures. This review summarized significant anti-BC compounds organized by functional groups according to the animal model data, although there would be some limitations. This review highlights the properties of new compounds having promising anti-BC properties, which may be proven to be more effective and selective, and possibly free of unwanted side effects. The reviewed compounds represent an interesting possibility of overcoming BC and reducing the percentage of patients with an inadequate response to drug therapy.

Molecular Analysis of Prothrombotic Gene Variants in Patients with Acute Ischemic Stroke and with Transient Ischemic Attack

Background and objectives: ischemic stroke (IS) is among the most frequent causes of death worldwide; thus, it is of paramount relevance to know predisposing factors that may help to identify and treat the high-risk subjects. Materials and Methods:we tested nine variants in genes involved in thrombotic pathway in 282 patients that experienced IS and 87 that had transient ischemic attacks (TIA) in comparison to 430 subjects from the general population (GP) of the same geographic area (southern Italy). We included cases of young and child IS to evaluate the eventual differences in the role of the analyzed variants. Results: we did not observe significant differences between TIA and the GP for any of the variants, while the allele frequencies of methylene-tetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) C677T, beta-fibrinogen -455G>A and factor (FXIII) V34L were significantly higher in patients with IS than in the subjects from the GP. No significant interaction was observed with sex. Conclusions: the present data argue that some gene variants have a role in IS and this appears to be an interesting possibility to be pursued in large population studies to help design specific strategies for IS prevention.

Terrestrial snail-mucus mediated green synthesis of silver nanoparticles and in vitro investigations on their antimicrobial and anticancer activities

Over the past few years, biogenic methods for designing silver nanocomposites are in limelight due to their ability to generate semi-healthcare and para-pharmaceutical consumer goods. The present study reports the eco-friendly synthesis of silver nanoparticles from the hitherto unexplored mucus of territorial snail Achatina fulica by the facile, clean and easily scalable method. The detailed characterization of the resultant samples by UV–Visible Spectroscopy, FESEM-EDS, XRD and FTIR Spectroscopy techniques corroborated the formation of silver nanoparticles in snail mucus matrix. The resultant samples were tested against a broad range of Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria like Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and a fungal strain Aspergillus fumigatus by well diffusion method. The results indicate that silver nanoparticles in mucus matrix exhibit strong antibacterial as well as antifungal activity. The pertinent experiments were also performed to determine the inhibitory concentration against both bacterial and fungal strains. Anticancer activity was executed by in vitro method using cervical cancer cell lines. Curiously, our biogenically synthesized Ag nanoparticles in biocompatible mucus revealed anticancer activity and demonstrated more than 15% inhibition of Hela cells. We suggest an interesting possibility of formulating antimicrobial and possibly anticancer creams/gels for topical applications in skin ailments.

Light-driven continuous rotating Möbius strip actuators

Twisted toroidal ribbons such as the one-sided Möbius strip have inspired scientists, engineers and artists for many centuries. A physical Möbius strip exhibits interesting mechanical properties deriving from a tendency to redistribute the torsional strain away from the twist region. This leads to the interesting possibility of building topological actuators with continuous deformations. Here we report on a series of corresponding bi-layered stripe actuators using a photothermally responsive liquid crystal elastomer as the fundamental polymeric material. Employing a special procedure, even Möbius strips with an odd number of twists can be fabricated exhibiting a seamless homeotropic and homogeneous morphology. Imposing a suitable contraction gradient under near-infrared light irradiation, these ribbons can realize continuous anticlockwise/clockwise in-situ rotation. Our work could pave the way for developing actuators and shape morphing materials that need not rely on switching between distinct states.

Way to Go, Me

This chapter considers an interesting possibility related to human psychology and explores its relevance with respect to understanding and impacting behavior in the face of climate change understood as a “creeping environmental problem.” The possibility is that one’s best bet in terms of predicting and understanding someone’s take on her individually trivial contributions to positive or negative outcomes is not to look for clues about whether she is individualistic or group-oriented, but instead to figure out whether an individualistic take or a group-oriented take will facilitate her seeing herself as praiseworthy, or at least not blameworthy: insofar as one take is better suited to facilitating self-praise, or avoiding self-blame, with respect to the behavior at hand, it will, other things equal, be adopted. If this is right, it has important implications with respect to attempts at promoting environmentally friendly behavior by activating motivations associated with the prospect of self-praise or self-blame.

Microsatellite Instability in Colorectal Cancer Liquid Biopsy—Current Updates on Its Potential in Non-Invasive Detection, Prognosis and as a Predictive Marker

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most commonly-diagnosed cancer in the world and ranked second for cancer-related mortality in humans. Microsatellite instability (MSI) is an indicator for Lynch syndrome (LS), an inherited cancer predisposition, and a prognostic marker which predicts the response to immunotherapy. A recent trend in immunotherapy has transformed cancer treatment to provide medical alternatives that have not existed before. It is believed that MSI-high (MSI-H) CRC patients would benefit from immunotherapy due to their increased immune infiltration and higher neo-antigenic loads. MSI testing such as immunohistochemistry (IHC) and PCR MSI assay has historically been a tissue-based procedure that involves the testing of adequate tissue with a high concentration of cancer cells, in addition to the requirement for paired normal tissues. The invasive nature and specific prerequisite of such tests might hinder its application when surgery is not an option or when the tissues are insufficient. The application of next-generation sequencing, which is highly sensitive, in combination with liquid biopsy, therefore, presents an interesting possibility worth exploring. This review aimed to discuss the current body of evidence supporting the potential of liquid biopsy as a tool for MSI testing in CRC.

A little FABLE: exploring AGN feedback in dwarf galaxies with cosmological simulations

ABSTRACT Contrary to the standard lore, there is mounting observational evidence that feedback from active galactic nuclei (AGN) may also play a role at the low-mass end of the galaxy population. We investigate this using the cosmological simulation suite fable, with a particular focus on the dwarf regime (Mstellar < 109.5 M⊙). We find that overmassive black holes (BHs), with respect to the mean scaling relations with their host galaxies, drive hotter and faster outflows and lead to significantly reduced gas mass fractions. They are also more likely to display a kinematically misaligned ionized gas component in our mock MaNGA velocity maps, although we caution that cosmic inflows and mergers contribute to misalignments as well. While in the local Universe the majority of AGN in dwarfs are much dimmer than the stellar component, for z ≥ 2 there is a significant population that outshines their hosts. These high-redshift overmassive BHs contribute to the quenching of dwarfs, whereas at late cosmic times supernova (SN) feedback is more efficient. While our results are overall in good agreement with X-ray observations of AGN in dwarfs, the lack of high-luminosity X-ray AGN in fable at low redshifts highlights an interesting possibility that SN feedback could be too strong in fable’s dwarfs, curtailing AGN growth and feedback. We predict that future observations may uncover many more AGN in dwarfs with lower luminosities and at higher redshifts.