Paraffin-Peloid Formulations from Copahue: Processing, Characterization, and Application.

The Copahue Thermal Center, situated in Neuquén, Argentina, produces natural and matured peloids, which are employed in the prevention and treatment of various osteoarticular and dermatological disorders. The presence of sulfur as a constituent and its thermotherapeutic potential constitute the primary strengths of these peloids. Nevertheless, accessing Copahue is challenging due to its distance from densely populated centers and the snow cover during the winter months in the southern hemisphere. Therefore, in order to propose a material that can be utilized year-round in any location, a mudpack was obtained by combining medicinal paraffin with dehydrated Copahue peloids, with concentrations evaluated up to 10% w/w. This mudpack was analyzed through X-ray diffraction, which detected the presence of sulfur, the most important component of Copahue's peloids. Through IR spectroscopy, the signals that identify medicinal paraffin were clearly observed, and for concentrations of 6% and 10% peloid in the material, it was possible to detect the presence of mineral clay components associated with Si-O stretching vibrations at around 1041 cm-1. The low values of luminosity and grey tonality obtained for the mudpack contributed to patient acceptability and the absorption of electromagnetic radiation. The experimental cooling rate, calculated using the ratio of the temperature variation (∆T) with respect to the time variation (∆t) in each interval of the experimental curve, was determined to be 0.6 °C·min-1 for both paraffin and the mudpack. However, for peloids, higher values ranging from 0.6 to 4.8 °C·min-1 were obtained. This suggests that the mudpack mixtures have a slower heat release, which is a desirable property for their use as a thermotherapeutic agent. Considering the reusability of the mudpack, its stability was evaluated after 10 cycles of cooling and heating through XRD, DSC, and FTIR tests, resulting in a system that retains its properties. The formulation of the obtained mudpack is promising for the development of these materials on a larger scale.

Rare earth elements as statistical sentinels of pollution and paleoenvironments?: Application to a highly polluted estuary in southwestern Spain.

Multivariate analyses have been applied to the REE contents of three cores collected in the Tinto estuary, SW Spain, an extremely polluted area. Results indicate an extremely correlation between all REE, which behave as a single variable. A slight natural pollution peak and three anthropogenic pollution peaks are identified, related with the first mining activities, the Roman period and a recent intensive mining accompanied by a heavy industrial pollution. In all these peaks, the increase of Cu is parallel to that of MREE, which are configured as the best indicators of pollution among REE. Statistical analyses clearly differentiate four groups, each consisting of samples from different environments. Although grain size and this strong pollution alter the study of REE as environmental indicators, it is possible to recognise groups of samples with a common origin or to identify the surface extent of a given pollution peak.

How Did People with Functional Disability Experience the First COVID-19 Lockdown? A Thematic Analysis of YouTube Comments.

People with functional disability endure barriers to health and other services and to full participation in social life. In the context of COVID-19, this discrimination has been intensified worldwide. We examine how the experience of COVID-19 lockdown was depicted in comments to a video about functional disability and COVID published on VICE's YouTube channel. We analysed the first 100 comments on the video, which was posted in spring 2020, during the first COVID-19 lockdown (roughly from March to June 2020, with some variations around the world). We identified four themes: lack of access to care and services, isolation and lifestyle changes, mental health consequences, and peer support. Legal regulations regarding COVID-19 and people with functional disability have not been sufficient in most countries. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed inadequate care systems, even in Western countries with advanced social protection policies.

Silver and copper as pollution tracers in Neogene to Holocene estuarine sediments from southwestern Spain.

Estuaries are very sensitive ecosystems to human activities and the natural evolution of their drainage basins located upstream. Pollution derived from human activities, such as historical mining or recent industrial wastes, can significantly affect their environmental quality. This paper analyzes the silver and copper contents of four cores extracted in two estuaries of SW Spain. Its chronology and vertical evolution allow to differentiate the effects of several pollution episodes (natural, Roman, 19th-20th centuries) on its different sedimentary environments in the last 6 million years. Possible future applications are included in the fields of environmental management or even education.

The optimal size of protocells from simple entropic considerations.

Potential constraints on protocell size are developed from simple entropic considerations. To do that, two new different indexes as measures of their structural and dynamic order were developed and applied to an elemental model of the heterotrophic protocell. According to our results, cell size should be a key factor determining the potential of these primitive systems to evolve and consequently to support life. Our analyses also suggest that the size of the optimal vesicles could be constrained to have radii in the interval [Formula: see text], where the two extreme limits [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] represent the states of maximum structural order (largest accumulation of substrate inside the vesicle) and the maximum flux of entropy production, respectively. According to the above criteria, the size of the optimum vesicles falls, approximately, in the same spatial range estimated for biological living cells assuming plausible values for the second-order rate constant involved in the catabolic process. Furthermore, the existence of very small vesicles could be seriously affected by the limited efficiency, far from the theoretical limits, with which these catabolic processes may proceed in a prebiotic system.

Bone Regeneration Using Adipose-Derived Stem Cells with Fibronectin in Dehiscence-Type Defects Associated with Dental Implants: An Experimental Study in a Dog Model.

PURPOSE: To determine the bone regeneration potential of a ceramic biomaterial coated with fibronectin and adipose-derived stem cells covered in three-wall critical-size defects associated with dental implants. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In a total of 18 dogs, four dehiscence-type and critical-size defects were created surgically in the edentulous alveolar ridge with the simultaneous placement of dental implants. Defects were randomly regenerated using biomaterials coated with particulate ß-tricalcium phosphate (ß-TCP), ß-TCP with fibronectin (Fn) (ß-TCP-Fn), and ß-TCP with a combination of Fn and autologous adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) (ß-TCP-Fn-ADSCs), leaving one defect as the control. The animals were divided into three groups according to the time of euthanasia (1, 2, or 3 months). RESULTS: Statistically significant differences between the three study groups (ß-TCP, ß-TCP-Fn, ß-TCP-Fn-ADSCs) and the control group in the total area of bone regeneration and mineralized and nonmineralized tissue at 1, 2, and 3 months of healing were not observed. At 2 months, defects treated with ß-TCP-Fn-ADSCs showed a significant decrease in the percentage of bone-to-implant contact (BIC) as compared with the ß-TCP-Fn (P = .041) and control (P = .012) groups. At 3 months of healing, however, significant differences in BIC between the three study groups and controls were not found (P = .388). CONCLUSION: The use of ADSCs in the bone regeneration processes of dehiscencetype defects associated with simultaneous implant insertion does not seem to improve the area of bone regeneration or the percentage of BIC compared with other biomaterials or the control alveolar defect.

Assessment of Bone Regeneration Using Adipose-Derived Stem Cells in Critical-Size Alveolar Ridge Defects: An Experimental Study in a Dog Model.

PURPOSE: To assess bone regeneration potential of a fibronectin- and adipose-derived stem cell-covered ceramic biomaterial in three-wall critical-size alveolar ridge defects. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In 18 dogs, four dehiscence-type and critical-size defects were created surgically in the edentulous alveolar ridge. Defects were randomly regenerated using biomaterials coated with particulate ß-tricalcium phosphate (ß-TCP), ß-TCP with fibronectin (Fn) (ß-TCP-Fn), and ß-TCP with a combination of Fn and autologous adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) (ß-TCP-Fn-ADSCs), leaving one defect as control. The animals were divided into three groups according to the time of euthanasia (1, 2, or 3 months of healing). RESULTS: At the time of sacrifice, statistically significant differences between the four types of defects in the total area of bone regeneration, percentage of neoformed bone matrix, medullary space, or contact between particulate biomaterial and neoformed bone matrix were not found. All defects showed a significant increase in neoformed bone matrix as sacrifice was delayed, but a uniform pattern was not followed. Only defects treated with ß-TCP-Fn-ADSCs showed a significant increase in the bone regeneration area when animals sacrificed at 3 months were compared to those sacrificed at 1 month (P = .006). CONCLUSION: The use of ADSCs in bone regeneration processes of critical-size defects of the alveolar ridge did not entail an advantage regarding greater bone regeneration as compared with other biomaterials. However, the use of ß-TCP coated with a combination of Fn and ADSCs appeared to favor stabilization of the regenerated area, allowing a more efficient maintenance of the space at 3 months of healing.

Hepatitis autoinmune, revisión a propósito de un caso / Autoimmune hepatitis, review in relation to a case

El presente es un caso de hepatitis autoinmune (HAI) con datos de citolisis importante (AST y ALT elevadas) e insuficiencia hepática (tiempo de protrombina prolongado y colinesterasa baja). El proceso que lleva al diagnóstico de esta entidad clínica es mostrado de manera detallada y evidente, resaltando las claves diagnósticas como la hipergammaglobulinemia. La clasificación del caso como hepatitis autoinmune del tipo I, sostenido en marcadores seroinmunológicos, como los anticuerpos antinucleares (ANA), antimúsculo liso (SMA), antiactina, en el presente caso estuvieron positivos, la ausencia de infección de virus hepatotropos y las condiciones epidemiológicas que dan luces al diagnóstico de HAI. Se instaura tratamiento inmunosupresor con prednisona y azatioprina y la remisión clínica y de laboratorio son evidentes. Se revisa factores pronósticos los cuales se asocia con los niveles y gravedad de las alteraciones de laboratorio, a las cuales se les da un peso importante al momento de indicar los inmunosupresores. Todos estos aspectos sostenidos por la más diversa evidencia.

This is a case of autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) with important cytolysis data (high AST and ALT) and liver insufficiency (prolonged prothrombin time an low cholinesterase). The process that leads to this diagnosis is showed in a detailed an obvious way, standing out the diagnosis keys such as hypergammaglobulinemia. Classification of the case as autoimmune hepatitis type I, sutained by seroimmunological markers such as antinuclear antibodies (ANA), anti smooth muscle (SMA), antiactina, in this case wer positive, the absence of infection by hepatotropic viruses and epidemiological conditions lighten the diagnosis of AIH. An immunosuppressive treatment is established with prednisone and azathioprine and clinical and laboratory remissions are evident. Prognosis factors are checked and are associated with levels and seriousness of laboratory alterations, which have importance at the time of prescribing the immunosupressives. All these aspects sustained by the most varied evidence.

[Ileal endometriosis and Crohn's disease. A difficult differential diagnosis]. / Endometriosis ileal y enfermedad de Crohn. Un diagnóstico diferencial problemático.

Endometriosis is an endometrial tissue proliferation that occurs in any extrauterine site and is usually confined to the pelvis. When the terminal ileum is affected, this entity can simulate Crohn's disease both clinically and radiologically. We describe 2 patients previously diagnosed with Crohn's disease with inadequate response to treatment, who showed intestinal obstruction located in the ileum. One patient had an enterocutaneous fistula, which is extremely unusual. In both patients intestinal endometriosis was diagnosed after histopathologic assessment. Although complex, the differential diagnosis between endometriosis and Crohn's disease should be kept in mind since the prognosis and treatment of these 2 entities differ.

Endometriosis ileal y enfermedad de Crohn. Un diagnóstico diferencial problemático / Ileal endometriosis and Crohn’s disease. A difficult differential diagnosis

La endometriosis es una proliferación de tejido endometrial de localización extrauterina que está generalmente confinada en la pelvis. Cuando afecta al íleon terminal puede simular, tanto clínica como radiológicamente, la enfermedad de Crohn. Se describe a 2 pacientes diagnosticadas previamente de enfermedad de Crohn, con mala respuesta al tratamiento y que presentaron cuadros de obstrucción intestinal de localización ileal. Una de ellas presentó una fístula enterocutánea, lo que representa una rareza. En ambos casos sólo se llegó al diagnóstico de endometriosis intestinal después del examen anatomopatológico. El diagnóstico diferencial de la endometriosis y la enfermedad de Crohn, aunque complejo, se debe tenerlo en cuenta por los diferentes tratamiento y pronóstico de estas dos entidades (AU)

Endometriosis is an endometrial tissue proliferation that occurs in any extrauterine site and is usually confined to the pelvis. When the terminal ileum is affected, this entity can simulate Crohn’s disease both clinically and radiologically. We describe 2 patients previously diagnosed with Crohn’s disease with inadequate response to treatment, who showed intestinal obstruction located in the ileum. One patient had an enterocutaneous fistula, which is extremely unusual. In both patients intestinal endometriosis was diagnosed after histopathologic assessment. Although complex, the differential diagnosis between endometriosis and Crohn’s disease should be kept in mind since the prognosis and treatment of these 2 entities differ (AU)

Sarcoma de la pared abdominal / Abdominal wall sarcoma

El sarcoma de partes blandas es una proliferación neoplásica mesenquimal extraesquelética y no epitelial, que representa el 0,8 por ciento del total de tumores en el adulto, y que causa el 2 por ciento de la mortalidad total. Se presenta un caso de sarcoma localizado en los músculos oblicuos de la pared abdominal en una mujer de 68 años que consultó en el servicio de urgencias por dolor en la fosa ilíaca derecha. La punción-aspiraciónbiopsia con control radiológico evidenció sarcoma pleomórfico de alto grado. La paciente fue intervenida quirúrgicamente, sustituyendo el defecto de pared abdominal resultante con prótesis doble de duramadre y polipropileno, evolucionando satisfactoriamente (AU)