The pericapsular nerve group block, a highly selective blockage for intracapsular hip fractures: A case series.

Hip fracture is a very frequent clinical situation in the elderly and frail patient. The Pericapsular Nerve Group (PENG) has emerged as a highly selective block for the intracapsular hip fractures. We describe 44 patients with intracapsular hip fractures who underwent a PENG block in addition to spinal anaesthesia with. The main objective was to assess post-surgical pain control at the recovery room and after 24 h. Also, we considered the need for first of second analgesic rescue during the first 24 h after surgery. Only 10 patients presented mild pain at the recovery room. Up to 30 of them had pain after 24 h. However, 25 of these patients reported having mild pain. Only 9 patients required analgesic rescue for postoperative pain control. In conclusion, PENG block is a locoregional technique that allows good postoperative pain control and low opioid consumption during the postoperative period of intracapsular hip fractures.

Accumulation Dynamics of Defective Genomes during Experimental Evolution of Two Betacoronaviruses.

Virus-encoded replicases often generate aberrant RNA genomes, known as defective viral genomes (DVGs). When co-infected with a helper virus providing necessary proteins, DVGs can multiply and spread. While DVGs depend on the helper virus for propagation, they can in some cases disrupt infectious virus replication, impact immune responses, and affect viral persistence or evolution. Understanding the dynamics of DVGs alongside standard viral genomes during infection remains unclear. To address this, we conducted a long-term experimental evolution of two betacoronaviruses, the human coronavirus OC43 (HCoV-OC43) and the murine hepatitis virus (MHV), in cell culture at both high and low multiplicities of infection (MOI). We then performed RNA-seq at regular time intervals, reconstructed DVGs, and analyzed their accumulation dynamics. Our findings indicate that DVGs evolved to exhibit greater diversity and abundance, with deletions and insertions being the most common types. Notably, some high MOI deletions showed very limited temporary existence, while others became prevalent over time. We observed differences in DVG abundance between high and low MOI conditions in HCoV-OC43 samples. The size distribution of HCoV-OC43 genomes with deletions differed between high and low MOI passages. In low MOI lineages, short and long DVGs were the most common, with an additional cluster in high MOI lineages which became more prevalent along evolutionary time. MHV also showed variations in DVG size distribution at different MOI conditions, though they were less pronounced compared to HCoV-OC43, suggesting a more random distribution of DVG sizes. We identified hotspot regions for deletions that evolved at a high MOI, primarily within cistrons encoding structural and accessory proteins. In conclusion, our study illustrates the widespread formation of DVGs during betacoronavirus evolution, influenced by MOI and cell- and virus-specific factors.

Capture of Group A Streptococcus by Open-Microfluidic CandyCollect Device in Pediatric Patients.

Importance: Obtaining high-quality samples to diagnose streptococcal pharyngitis in pediatric patients is challenging due to discomfort associated with traditional pharyngeal swabs. This may cause reluctance to go to the clinic, inaccurate diagnosis, or inappropriate treatment for children with sore throat. Objective: Determine the efficacy of using CandyCollect, a lollipop-inspired open-microfluidic pathogen collection device, to capture Group A Streptococcus (GAS) and compare user preference for CandyCollect, conventional pharyngeal swabs, or mouth swabs among children with pharyngitis and their caregivers. Design: Participants of this cohort study were recruited over a 7-month period in 2022 - 2023. Setting: This study was conducted at an ambulatory care clinic that serves pediatric patients in the Madison, Wisconsin, metropolitan area. Participants: Study participants were diagnosed with GAS pharyngitis using a traditional pharyngeal swab via rapid antigen detection test (RADT); those testing positive were approached or reached out to about participation in the study. A total of 74 caregiver/children dyads were contacted about the study: 23 declined to participate; 21 were not eligible; and 30 willing and eligible participants were admitted into the study. A caregiver provided verbal consent and parental permission, and all children provided verbal assent. Immediately after the standard of care visit in which the throat swab was obtained, a research nurse guided participants through collecting oral samples: CandyCollect device and mouth swab (ESwab TM ). CandyCollect and mouth swab samples were analyzed for GAS by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) at the University of Washington. Exposure: Detection of salivary GAS using qPCR analysis of samples obtained from CandyCollect devices and mouth swabs. Main Outcomes and Measures: The proportion of pediatric patients with GAS pharyngitis, as determined by a positive pharyngeal swab tested via a RADT, who were also positive using a CandyCollect and mouth swab analyzed by qPCR. Results: All child participants (30/30) were positive for GAS by qPCR on both the mouth swab and CandyCollect. Caregivers ranked CandyCollect as a good sampling method overall (27/30), and all caregivers (30/30) would recommend the CandyCollect for children 5 years and older. Twenty-three of 30 children "really like" the taste and 24/30 would prefer to use the CandyCollect if a future test was needed. All caregivers (30/30) and most children (28/30) would be willing to use the CandyCollect device at home. Conclusion and relevance: All participants tested positive for GAS on all three collection methods (pharyngeal swab, mouth swab, and CandyCollect). While both caregivers and children like the CandyCollect device, some caregivers would prefer a shorter collection time. Future work includes additional studies with larger cohorts presenting with pharyngitis of unknown etiology and shortening collection time, while maintaining the attractive form of the device. Trial Registration: Registry name: ClinicalTrials.gov ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT05175196 Weblink: https://classic.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT05175196. Key Points: Question: In pediatric patients with Group A Streptococcus pharyngitis, how do test results and user experience compare across three sampling methods-CandyCollect devices, mouth swabs, and pharyngeal swabs?Findings: In this cohort study of 30 children, aged 5-14 years, saliva samples were collected with CandyCollect devices and mouth swabs and analyzed via qPCR. The results show CandyCollect, a pathogen collection tool preferred by children, had 100% concordance with the results from pharyngeal swabs positive with a rapid antigen detection test performed as part of their clinical care.Meaning: With further development and testing, the CandyCollect device may potentially become an alternative sampling tool for the diagnosis of streptococcal pharyngitis.

Eco-Friendly Natural Rubber-Jute Composites for the Footwear Industry.

Nowadays, biocomposites represent a new generation of materials that are environmentally friendly, cost-effective, low-density, and not derived from petroleum. They have been widely used to protect the environment and generate new alternatives in the polymer industry. In this study, we incorporated untreated jute fibers (UJFs) and alkaline-treated jute fibers (TJFs) at 1-5 and 10 phr into TSR 10 natural rubber as reinforcement fillers. These composites were produced to be used in countersole shoes manufacturing. Untreated fibers were compared to those treated with 10% sodium hydroxide. The alkali treatment allowed the incorporation of fibers without compromising their mechanical properties. The TJF samples exhibited 8% less hardness, 70% more tensile strength, and the same flexibility compared to their pure rubber counterparts. Thanks to their properties and ergonomic appearance, the composites obtained here can be useful in many applications: construction materials (sound insulating boards, and flooring materials), the automotive industry (interior moldings), the footwear industry (shoe soles), and anti-static moldings. These new compounds can be employed in innovative processes to reduce their carbon footprint and negative impact on our planet. Using the Lorenz-Park equation, the loaded composites examined in this study exhibited values above 0.7, which means a competitive load-rubber interaction. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to investigate the morphology of the composites in detail.

Patterns and outcome of unplanned care in lung cancer patients: an observational study in a medical oncology department.

Background: There is increasing interest in unplanned care utilization among lung cancer patients and its evaluation should allow the identification of areas for quality improvement. Being a major priority for transformation in oncology, we aim to measure the risk and burden of unplanned care in a medical oncology department and identify factors that determine acute care. Methods: This was an observational retrospective cohort study that included all lung cancer patients treated at Puerta de Hierro-Majadahonda University Hospital between January 1st 2016 and December 31st 2020. Data cut off: June 30th, 2021. The main objective was to assess the incidence of unplanned care, emergency department (ED) visits and unplanned hospital admissions, from the first visit to the medical oncology service and its potential conditioning variables, considering patient death as a competitive event. As secondary objectives, a description and a quality of unplanned care evaluation was carried out. Results: A total of 821 lung cancer patients, all histologies and stages, were included (median follow-up: 32.8 months). Six hundred and eighty-one patients required consultation in the ED (82.9%), and 558 required an unplanned admission (68%). Eighty-six percent of ED consultations and 80.9% of unplanned hospital admissions were related to cancer or its treatment. The 1-year cumulative incidence for ED consultation and for unplanned hospital admission was 71.3% (95% CI: 67.8-74.5%) and 56.7% (95% CI: 53-60%), respectively. In the multivariable analysis, a higher tumor stage increased the risk of consultation in the ED, while a higher stage, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status (ECOG PS) 2 compared to ECOG PS 0, male sex, opioid or steroid use at first consultation increased the risk of unplanned admission. Conclusions: Our study shows that lung cancer patients have an extremely high demand for unplanned care. It is an early need and related to cancer in the majority of consultations and admissions and therefore a key issue for the management of oncology departments. We must optimize the follow-up of patients with a higher risk of unplanned care, advanced lung cancer or symptomatic patients, incorporating remote monitoring strategies and early interventions, as developing specific urgent care pathways for a better comprehensive cancer care.

Correlative montage parallel array cryo-tomography for in situ structural cell biology.

Imaging large fields of view while preserving high-resolution structural information remains a challenge in low-dose cryo-electron tomography. Here we present robust tools for montage parallel array cryo-tomography (MPACT) tailored for vitrified specimens. The combination of correlative cryo-fluorescence microscopy, focused-ion-beam milling, substrate micropatterning, and MPACT supports studies that contextually define the three-dimensional architecture of cells. To further extend the flexibility of MPACT, tilt series may be processed in their entirety or as individual tiles suitable for sub-tomogram averaging, enabling efficient data processing and analysis.

A Real-Time FPGA-Based Metaheuristic Processor to Efficiently Simulate a New Variant of the PSO Algorithm.

Nowadays, high-performance audio communication devices demand superior audio quality. To improve the audio quality, several authors have developed acoustic echo cancellers based on particle swarm optimization algorithms (PSO). However, its performance is reduced significantly since the PSO algorithm suffers from premature convergence. To overcome this issue, we propose a new variant of the PSO algorithm based on the Markovian switching technique. Furthermore, the proposed algorithm has a mechanism to dynamically adjust the population size over the filtering process. In this way, the proposed algorithm exhibits great performance by reducing its computational cost significantly. To adequately implement the proposed algorithm in a Stratix IV GX EP4SGX530 FPGA, we present for the first time, the development of a parallel metaheuristic processor, in which each processing core simulates the different number of particles by using the time-multiplexing technique. In this way, the variation of the size of the population can be effective. Therefore, the properties of the proposed algorithm along with the proposed parallel hardware architecture potentially allow the development of high-performance acoustic echo canceller (AEC) systems.

Atomic-level architecture of Caulobacter crescentus flagellar filaments provide evidence for multi-flagellin filament stabilization.

Flagella are dynamic, ion-powered machines with assembly pathways that are optimized for efficient flagella production. In bacteria, dozens of genes are coordinated at specific times in the cell lifecycle to generate each component of the flagellum. This is the case for Caulobacter crescentus, but little is known about why this species encodes six different flagellin genes. Furthermore, little is known about the benefits multi-flagellin species possess over single flagellin species, if any, or what molecular properties allow for multi-flagellin filaments to assemble. Here we present an in-depth analysis of several single flagellin filaments from C. crescentus, including an extremely well-resolved structure of a bacterial flagellar filament. We highlight key molecular interactions that differ between each bacterial strain and speculate how these interactions may alleviate or impose helical strain on the overall architecture of the filament. We detail conserved residues within the flagellin subunit that allow for the synthesis of multi-flagellin filaments. We further comment on how these molecular differences impact bacterial motility and highlight how no single flagellin filament achieves wild-type levels of motility, suggesting C. crescentus has evolved to produce a filament optimized for motility comprised of six flagellins. Finally, we highlight an ordered arrangement of glycosylation sites on the surface of the filaments and speculate how these sites may protect the ß-hairpin located on the surface exposed domain of the flagellin subunit.

Vegetable Cellulose Fibers in Natural Rubber Composites.

In the last decade, natural fibers have had a significant impact on the research and development of innovative composites made with natural rubber, improving their properties over those of their counterparts that incorporate polluting synthetic fibers. In recent years, this fact has stimulated the research into several modified natural rubber composites reinforced with vegetable fibers. This paper reviews the scientific literature published in the last decade about the properties and characteristics of natural vegetable fibers and natural rubber used in composites. Nowadays the use of alternative materials has become necessary, considering that synthetic materials have caused irreversible damage to the environment, being associated with global warming, for this reason research and development with materials that print a lower carbon footprint during the manufacturing process and subsequent product manufacturing. This review is an invitation to the use of vegetable fibers, as well as vegetable-type matrices, in this case natural rubber as a binder system, it is fantastic to know the different works carried out by other scientists and engineers, in this way to project new compounds linked to innovation in processes that reduce the carbon footprint and its negative impact on our planet.

Advances in the development of tailor-made color alcoholic beverages based on an accelerated maturation process.

The study of the evolution of color of alcoholic beverages subjected to accelerate maturation process using heat-treated French oak wood fragments is presented. The results show that it is possible to obtain tonalities like aged beverages in 4 weeks. In this sense, the fragments conditioned at 150 °C (light toasted) proportionated colors like white wine, pale straw, and pale gold. On the other hand, the fragments that received a heat treatment at 200 °C (medium toasted) present yellow tones such as old gold, amber, and deep gold. Finally, the fragments treated at 250 °C (heavily toasted) are those with the most intense yellow tones, classified as sweet chestnut, sherry, russet, muscat, and tawny. The studies of kinetic maturation concluded that the mathematical model of parabolic diffusion could correctly describe the process. Based on this, it is concluded that the heat treatment increases the cavities of the most exposed surface of the wood, increasing the maximum humidity of the materials by 20 %; in such a way that during the first two weeks, there is a diffusion of the solution to the active sites. Wood bioactive compounds on the outer surface achieve a rapid extraction, such as flavonoids, which oxidize rapidly within the solution, generating an increase in yellow color. The previous results were corroborated in a real case analysis using Tequila which can be concluded that the proposed process can give the beverage similar colors to an aged, extra-aged, and ultra-aged class in less than 4 weeks.

Focal structural variants revealed by whole genome sequencing disrupt the histone demethylase KDM4C in B-cell lymphomas.

Histone methylation-modifiers, such as EZH2 and KMT2D, are recurrently altered in B-cell lymphomas. To comprehensively describe the landscape of alterations affecting genes encoding histone methylation-modifiers in lymphomagenesis we investigated whole genome and transcriptome data of 186 mature B-cell lymphomas sequenced in the ICGC MMML-Seq project. Besides confirming common alterations of KMT2D (47% of cases), EZH2 (17%), SETD1B (5%), PRDM9 (4%), KMT2C (4%), and SETD2 (4%), also identified by prior exome or RNA-sequencing studies, we here found recurrent alterations to KDM4C in chromosome 9p24, encoding a histone demethylase. Focal structural variation was the main mechanism of KDM4C alterations, and was independent from 9p24 amplification. We also identified KDM4C alterations in lymphoma cell lines including a focal homozygous deletion in a classical Hodgkin lymphoma cell line. By integrating RNA-sequencing and genome sequencing data we predict that KDM4C structural variants result in loss-offunction. By functional reconstitution studies in cell lines, we provide evidence that KDM4C can act as a tumor suppressor. Thus, we show that identification of structural variants in whole genome sequencing data adds to the comprehensive description of the mutational landscape of lymphomas and, moreover, establish KDM4C as a putative tumor suppressive gene recurrently altered in subsets of B-cell derived lymphomas.

A novel hydro-pneumatic fluid percussion device for inducing traumatic brain injury: assessment of sensory, motor, cognitive, molecular, and morphological outcomes in rodents.

Introduction: The fluid percussion method is widely used to induce brain injury in rodents. However, this approach has several limitations, including variability in the resulting damage, which is attributed to factors such as manual control of the mass used to generate the desired pressure. To address these issues, several modifications to the original method have been proposed. Methods: In this study, we present a novel device called the Hydro-pneumatic Fluid Percussion Device, which delivers fluid directly to a lateral region of the brain to induce injury. To validate this model, three groups of male and female rats were subjected to lateral fluid percussion using our device, and the resulting damage was evaluated using sensory, motor, and cognitive tests, measurements of serum injury biomarkers, and morphological analysis via cresyl violet staining. Results: Our results demonstrate that this new approach induced significant alterations in all parameters evaluated. Discussion: This novel device for inducing TBI may be a valuable alternative for modeling brain injury and studying its consequences.

DVGfinder: A Metasearch Tool for Identifying Defective Viral Genomes in RNA-Seq Data.

The generation of different types of defective viral genomes (DVG) is an unavoidable consequence of the error-prone replication of RNA viruses. In recent years, a particular class of DVGs, those containing long deletions or genome rearrangements, has gain interest due to their potential therapeutic and biotechnological applications. Identifying such DVGs in high-throughput sequencing (HTS) data has become an interesting computational problem. Several algorithms have been proposed to accomplish this goal, though all incur false positives, a problem of practical interest if such DVGs have to be synthetized and tested in the laboratory. We present a metasearch tool, DVGfinder, that wraps the two most commonly used DVG search algorithms in a single workflow for the identification of the DVGs in HTS data. DVGfinder processes the results of ViReMa-a and DI-tector and uses a gradient boosting classifier machine learning algorithm to reduce the number of false-positive events. The program also generates output files in user-friendly HTML format, which can help users to explore the DVGs identified in the sample. We evaluated the performance of DVGfinder compared to the two search algorithms used separately and found that it slightly improves sensitivities for low-coverage synthetic HTS data and DI-tector precision for high-coverage samples. The metasearch program also showed higher sensitivity on a real sample for which a set of copy-backs were previously validated.

On the Role of the Conserved Histidine at the Chromophore Isomerization Site in Phytochromes.

Phytochromes are sensory photoreceptors that use light to drive protein structural changes, which in turn trigger physiological reaction cascades. The process starts with a double-bond photoisomerization of the linear methine-bridged tetrapyrrole chromophore in the photosensory core module. The molecular mechanism of the photoconversion depends on the structural and electrostatic properties of the chromophore environment, which are highly conserved in related phytochromes. However, the specific role of individual amino acids is yet not clear. A histidine in the vicinity of the isomerization site is highly conserved and almost invariant among all phytochromes. The present study aimed at analyzing its role by taking advantage of a myxobacterial phytochrome SaBphP1 from Stigmatella aurantiaca, where this histidine is naturally substituted with a threonine (Thr289), and comparing it to its normal, His-containing counterpart from the same organism SaBphP2 (His275). We have carried out a detailed resonance Raman and IR spectroscopic investigation of the wild-type proteins and their respective His- or Thr-substituted variants (SaBphP1-T289H and SaBphP2-H275T) using the well-characterized prototypical phytochrome Agp1 from Agrobacterium fabrum as a reference. The overall mechanism of the photoconversion is insensitive toward the His substitution. However, the chromophore geometry at the isomerization site appears to be affected, with a slightly stronger twist of ring D in the presence of Thr, which is sufficient to cause different light absorption properties in SaBphP1 and SaBphP2. Furthermore, the presence of His allows for multiple hydrogen-bonding interactions with the ring D carbonyl which may be the origin for the geometric differences of the C-D methine bridge compared to the Thr-containing variants. Other structural and mechanistic differences are independent of the presence of His. The most striking finding is the protonation of the ring C propionate in the Pfr states of SaBphP2, which is common among bathy phytochromes but so far has not been reported in prototypical phytochromes.

Flagellar Structures from the Bacterium Caulobacter crescentus and Implications for Phage ϕ CbK Predation of Multiflagellin Bacteria.

Caulobacter crescentus is a Gram-negative alphaproteobacterium that commonly lives in oligotrophic fresh- and saltwater environments. C. crescentus is a host to many bacteriophages, including ϕCbK and ϕCbK-like bacteriophages, which require interaction with the bacterial flagellum and pilus complexes during adsorption. It is commonly thought that the six paralogs of the flagellin gene present in C. crescentus are important for bacteriophage evasion. Here, we show that deletion of specific flagellins in C. crescentus can indeed attenuate ϕCbK adsorption efficiency, although no single deletion completely ablates ϕCbK adsorption. Thus, the bacteriophage ϕCbK likely recognizes a common motif among the six known flagellins in C. crescentus with various degrees of efficiency. Interestingly, we observe that most deletion strains still generate flagellar filaments, with the exception of a strain that contains only the most divergent flagellin, FljJ, or a strain that contains only FljN and FljO. To visualize the surface residues that are likely recognized by ϕCbK, we determined two high-resolution structures of the FljK filament, with and without an amino acid substitution that induces straightening of the filament. We observe posttranslational modifications on conserved surface threonine residues of FljK that are likely O-linked glycans. The possibility of interplay between these modifications and ϕCbK adsorption is discussed. We also determined the structure of a filament composed of a heterogeneous mixture of FljK and FljL, the final resolution of which was limited to approximately 4.6 Å. Altogether, this work builds a platform for future investigations of how phage ϕCbK infects C. crescentus at the molecular level.IMPORTANCE Bacterial flagellar filaments serve as an initial attachment point for many bacteriophages to bacteria. Some bacteria harbor numerous flagellin genes and are therefore able to generate flagellar filaments with complex compositions, which is thought to be important for evasion from bacteriophages. This study characterizes the importance of the six flagellin genes in C. crescentus for infection by bacteriophage ϕCbK. We find that filaments containing the FljK flagellin are the preferred substrate for bacteriophage ϕCbK. We also present a high-resolution structure of a flagellar filament containing only the FljK flagellin, which provides a platform for future studies on determining how bacteriophage ϕCbK attaches to flagellar filaments at the molecular level.

Evaluación de cultivares de caña de azúcar (Saccharum spp.) para producción de panela en el departamento de Boyacá, Colombia / Evaluation of sugarcane cultivars (Saccharum spp.) for panela production in the department of Boyacá, Colombia

RESUMEN En Colombia, el departamento de Boyacá tiene uno de los mayores rendimientos de caña de azúcar (Saccharum spp.), para la producción de panela; sin embargo, los productores demandan constantemente la evaluación de material genético, que pueda aumentar los rendimientos por unidad de área y las características agroindustriales de los materiales tradicionales, de mayor dominio en la región. Con la finalidad de estimar los rendimientos de caña y de panela por hectárea, se evaluaron, a nivel experimental, los cultivares CC 01-1940, CC 99-2282, CC 05-940, CC 03-469, CC 06-791, en el municipio de Moniquirá, Boyacá. Posteriormente, se realizaron pruebas comerciales de molienda, con el mejor cultivar en Moniquirá y en San José de Pare, Boyacá, junto a los testigos de cada zona Caña Buena y RD 75-11, respectivamente. Experimentalmente, se destacó el cultivar CC 01-1940, con una producción de 183,3t/ha de caña (TCH), 24,2 toneladas de panela por hectárea (TPH), así como una conversión de 13,2% de panela (CP). En prueba comercial de molienda en San José de Pare, se encontró que CC 01-1940 alcanzó una producción de 221,9 TCH y 26,1 TPH, superando por más de 30 toneladas de caña y 5,2 toneladas de panela, al reporte alcanzado por RD 75-11. Para el municipio de Moniquirá, CC 01-1940 obtuvo 158,5 TCH, 18,5 TPH y 11,6% CP, superando al cultivar testigo Caña Buena.

ABSTRACT In Colombia, the department of Boyacá has one of the highest yields of sugar cane (Saccharum spp.) for panela production. However, producers constantly demand the evaluation of genetic material that could increase the yields per area and the agro-industrial characteristics of the traditional material of greater dominance in the region. In order to estimate cane and panela yields per hectare, cultivars CC 01-1940, CC 99-2282, CC 05-940, CC 03-469, CC 06-791 were evaluated experimentally in the municipality of Moniquirá, Boyacá. Subsequently, commercial milling tests were carried out with the best cultivar in Moniquirá and San José de Pare, Boyacá, together with the control materials from each zone, Caña Buena and RD 75-11, respectively. Experimentally, the cultivar CC 01-1940 stood out with a production of 183.3t/ha of sugarcane (TCH), 24.2 tons of panela per hectare (TPH), as well as a conversion of 13.2% of panela (CP). In a commercial milling test in San José de Pare, it was found that the cultivar CC 01-1940 had a production of 221.9 TCH and 26.1 TPH, surpassing by more than 30 tons of cane and 5.2 tons of panela, for what was reported by RD 75-11. For the municipality of Moniquirá, the cultivar CC 01-1940 obtained 158.5 TCH, 18.5 TPH and 11.6% CP, surpassing the cultivar Caña Buena.

Smoking pattern and risk of lung cancer among women participating in cancer screening programmes.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to describe the smoking prevalence, the smoking pattern, and the risk of lung cancer among women who participated in a cancer screening (breast, cervical and colorectal) in Spain. METHODS: We used data from the Spanish National Health Survey of 2011-12, a cross-sectional study of the adult Spanish population from women in the age of participation in the population cancer screening. We used two definitions of the high risk of lung cancer according to the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST) criteria and the NELSON criteria. RESULTS: Participation in screening was 76.6% in breast cancer, 6.6% in colorectal cancer, and 70.3% in cervical cancer. The percentage of current smokers was 17.1 of women who participated breast cancer, 15.4 of women who participated colorectal cancer, and 26.1 of women who participated cervical cancer. According to NLST criteria, the percentage of current smokers women who had a high risk of lung cancer was 23.1 for breast cancer, 23.5 for colorectal cancer and 4.5 for cervical cancer. These figures were higher with the NELSON criteria. CONCLUSION: At least 250 000 women in Spain have a high risk of lung cancer and are participating in a cancer screening programme. These programmes might be an opportunity for implementing specific interventions aiming to reduce this risk.

Connexins-Based Hemichannels/Channels and Their Relationship with Inflammation, Seizures and Epilepsy.

Connexins (Cxs) are a family of 21 protein isoforms, eleven of which are expressed in the central nervous system, and they are found in neurons and glia. Cxs form hemichannels (connexons) and channels (gap junctions/electric synapses) that permit functional and metabolic coupling between neurons and astrocytes. Altered Cx expression and function is involved in inflammation and neurological diseases. Cxs-based hemichannels and channels have a relevance to seizures and epilepsy in two ways: First, this pathological condition increases the opening probability of hemichannels in glial cells to enable gliotransmitter release, sustaining the inflammatory process and exacerbating seizure generation and epileptogenesis, and second, the opening of channels favors excitability and synchronization through coupled neurons. These biological events highlight the global pathological mechanism of epilepsy, and the therapeutic potential of Cxs-based hemichannels and channels. Therefore, this review describes the role of Cxs in neuroinflammation and epilepsy and examines how the blocking of channels and hemichannels may be therapeutic targets of anti-convulsive and anti-epileptic treatments.