[Measurement of exhaled nitric oxide fraction in lung diseases]. / Fracción de óxido nítrico exhalado: una herramienta clínica para las enfermedades pulmonares.

Exhaled Nitric Oxide fraction measurement is a new method for the evaluation of respiratory diseases. It has good correlation with airway inflammation and decreases with the administration of corticosteroids. It is useful as a complement for the diagnosis of asthma, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, Cystic Fibrosis and Primary Ciliary Dyskinesia among other respiratory diseases that generate inflammation in the airway. Its assessment is easy, non-invasive, and safe, and the result is obtained immediately. It can be used routinely to evaluate the response and adherence to treatments. This article reviews the biology of Nitric Oxide, and the measurement, interpretation, and main clinical uses of Exhaled Nitric Oxide Fraction.

Synthesis and Liquid-Crystal Behavior of Bent Colloidal Silica Rods.

The design and assembly of novel colloidal particles are of both academic and technological interest. We developed a wet-chemical route to synthesize monodisperse bent rigid silica rods by controlled perturbation of emulsion-templated growth. The bending angle of the rods can be tuned in a range of 0-50° by varying the strength of perturbation in the reaction temperature or pH in the course of rod growth. The length of each arm of the bent rods can be individually controlled by adjusting the reaction time. For the first time we demonstrated that the bent silica rods resemble banana-shaped liquid-crystal molecules and assemble into ordered structures with a typical smectic B2 phase. The bent silica rods could serve as a visualizable mesoscopic model for exploiting the phase behaviors of bent molecules which represent a typical class of liquid-crystal molecules.

Interfacial Structure of a Liquid Crystal/Nanoparticle Nanocomposite Studied by X-ray Scattering: Indirect Evidence for the Role of Faceting of the Nanoparticles.

The interfacial structure in a liquid crystal/nanoparticle nanocomposite is dictated by the type of nanoparticle and its functionalization compound. Nanocomposites consisting of smectic liquid crystals and nanoparticles have been studied for their applications in devices such as photovoltaics and to model biological devices. With the use of a model system, this paper presents evidence of an interfacial structure close to the vicinity of the nanoparticles that is more disordered than that of the bulk liquid crystal but is still in the smectic phase, and it seems to follow the faceting of the structure the nanoparticles adopt when they coalesce or recluster after the liquid crystal is added.

Borderline Phyllodes Tumor in a Child.

Phyllodes tumor (PT) is considered a rare fibroepithelial tumor. Very few series have been reported in children and adolescents. Based on histopathological features, it can be classified as benign, borderline, or malignant, with the latter having a more aggressive clinical behavior. We report the case of a 10-year-old female who began with an asymptomatic mobile right breast mass. An initial fine needle biopsy (FNB) concluded fibroadenoma (FA). Months later, the mass kept growing, with the appearance of pain and nipple discharge. Benign PT was demonstrated in a new biopsy. A total mastectomy was performed. The post-surgical histopathological examination was compatible with a borderline PT. The patient is now symptom-free and with no signs of relapse. Not all breast masses in the pediatric or adolescent age bracket are FA. Attention is warranted when the clinical behavior does not follow the usual outline. PT has to be considered as a possible diagnosis and treated accordingly.

Effects of magnetic nanoparticles with different surface coating on the phase transitions of octylcyanobiphenyl liquid crystal.

The impact of magnetic nanoparticles with different surface coating upon the isotropic-to-nematic and nematic-to-smectic- A phase transitions of the liquid crystal octylcyanobiphenyl is explored by means of high-resolution adiabatic scanning calorimetry. A shrinkage of the nematic range is observed, which is strongly dependent on the surface coating of the nanoparticles. The isotropic-to-nematic transition remains weakly first order while the nematic-to-smectic- A is continuous with the effective critical exponent alpha values (0.35 and 0.39, depending on the coating) between the pure octylcyanobiphenyl value of 0.31+/-0.03 and the theoretical tricritical value of 0.5.

Phase behaviors of colloidal analogs of bent-core liquid crystals.

Bent-core liquid crystal (LC) molecules are known to form mesophases with fascinating polar order and supramolecular chirality despite the achiral nature of the mesogens. The assembly of colloidal particles with geometrical similarity to bent-core molecular mesogens not only provides new insights into the physical behaviors of atoms or molecules but also leads to new materials with broad applications. Despite tremendous progress in colloidal synthesis and assembly, there has been a lack of colloidal model systems of bent-core molecular mesogens for LC property discovery and application development. This article describes a systematic study on the phase behaviors of colloidal analogs of bent-core LC mesogens in both experiments and simulations. We demonstrated that bent rods with controlled bending angle (α) and aspect ratio (L/D, with L and D as the length and diameter of each rod arm, respectively) can spontaneously assemble into several typical banana phases including smectic A, smectic C, synclinic tilted antiferroelectric-like smectic, and twist smectic phases, resembling bent-core LC molecules. The formation and transition of these phases were found to be strongly dependent on the geometric parameters of rods. Phase diagrams were developed to illustrate the existence and stability range of all the LC phases in α and L/D space. This work opens the door to the development of novel complex types of molecular or colloidal self-organization and new functional materials with electro-optical or nonlinear optical properties.

Fracción de óxido nítrico exhalado: una herramienta clínica para las enfermedades pulmonares / Measurement of exhaled nitric oxide fraction in lung diseases

Exhaled Nitric Oxide fraction measurement is a new method for the evaluation of respiratory diseases. It has good correlation with airway inflammation and decreases with the administration of corticosteroids. It is useful as a complement for the diagnosis of asthma, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, Cystic Fibrosis and Primary Ciliary Dyskinesia among other respiratory diseases that generate inflammation in the airway. Its assessment is easy, non-invasive, and safe, and the result is obtained immediately. It can be used routinely to evaluate the response and adherence to treatments. This article reviews the biology of Nitric Oxide, and the measurement, interpretation, and main clinical uses of Exhaled Nitric Oxide Fraction.

Calidad de atención en el puerperio inmediato del Hospital Universitario del Valle, Cali, 1993

Se realizó un estudio descriptivo-prospectivo con una muestra de 114 mujeres que se observaron desde el ingreso al servicio de puerperio hasta su egreso, para evaluar la calidad de atención que se brinda en el puerperio inmediato en el Hospital Universitario del Valle, Cali, Colombia, durante los meses de octubre a diciembre de 1993. Se evaluaron tres componentes: el científico-técnico que permitió analizar el cumplimiento de normas, la existencia de manuales, recurso humano y material, el de ambiente físico que permitió determinar las condiciones del área en donde se presta la atención y por último el componente interpersonal que permitió identificar la opinión de la usuaria acerca de la atención humanizada recibida. El servicio de puerperio cumplió con el 63.5 por ciento de los requisitos mínimos establecidos para recursos humanos, con un 68.3 por ciento para recursos materiales, con un 18.2 por ciento para el cumplimiento de normas y un 66.6 por ciento para la existencia de manuales. El 68.8 por ciento de las mujeres opinó que la atención recibida fue humanizada, las condiciones del ambiente físico obtuvo un 56.7 por ciento de cumplimiento de los requisitos mínimos establecidos. Estos resultados reportados que ningún componente obtuvo un porcentaje mayor del 80 por ciento(porcentaje mínimo establecido), lo que índico que la calidad de atención en el puerperio inmediato no fue adecuado