Hardware Acceleration of Digital Pulse Shape Analysis Using FPGAs.

The BC501A sensor is a liquid scintillator frequently used in nuclear physics for detecting fast neutrons. This paper describes a hardware implementation of digital pulse shape analysis (DPSA) for real-time analysis. DPSA is an algorithm that extracts the physically relevant parameters from the detected BC501A signals. The hardware solution is implemented in a MicroTCA system that provides the physical, mechanical, electrical, and cooling support for an AMC board (NAMC-ZYNQ-FMC) with a Xilinx ZYNQ Ultrascale-MP SoC. The Xilinx FPGA programmable logic implements a JESD204B interface to high-speed ADCs. The physical and datalink JESD204B layers are implemented using hardware description language (HDL), while the Xilinx high-level synthesis language (HLS) is used for the transport and application layers. The DPSA algorithm is a JESD204B application layer that includes a FIR filter and a constant fraction discriminator (CFD) function, a baseline calculation function, a peak detection function, and an energy calculation function. This architecture achieves an analysis mean time of less than 100 µs per signal with an FPGA resource utilization of about 50% of its most used resources. This paper presents a high-performance DPSA embedded system that interfaces with a 1 GS/s ADC and performs accurate calculations with relatively low latency.

Potential Therapeutic Use of Aptamers against HAT1 in Lung Cancer.

Lung cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide and the most common of all cancer types. Histone acetyltransferase 1 (HAT1) has attracted increasing interest as a potential therapeutic target due to its involvement in multiple pathologies, including cancer. Aptamers are single-stranded RNA or DNA molecules whose three-dimensional structure allows them to bind to a target molecule with high specificity and affinity, thus making them exceptional candidates for use as diagnostic or therapeutic tools. In this work, aptamers against HAT1 were obtained, subsequently characterized, and optimized, showing high affinity and specificity for HAT1 and the ability to inhibit acetyltransferase activity in vitro. Of those tested, the apHAT610 aptamer reduced cell viability, induced apoptosis and cell cycle arrest, and inhibited colony formation in lung cancer cell lines. All these results indicate that the apHAT610 aptamer is a potential drug for the treatment of lung cancer.

New insights into host-parasite ubiquitin proteome dynamics in P. falciparum infected red blood cells using a TUBEs-MS approach.

Malaria, caused by Plasmodium falciparum (P. falciparum), ranks as one of the most baleful infectious diseases worldwide. New antimalarial treatments are needed to face existing or emerging drug resistant strains. Protein degradation appears to play a significant role during the asexual intraerythrocytic developmental cycle (IDC) of P. falciparum. Inhibition of the ubiquitin proteasome system (UPS), a major intracellular proteolytic pathway, effectively reduces infection and parasite replication. P. falciparum and erythrocyte UPS coexist during IDC but the nature of their relationship is largely unknown. We used an approach based on Tandem Ubiquitin-Binding Entities (TUBEs) and 1D gel electrophoresis followed by mass spectrometry to identify major components of the TUBEs-associated ubiquitin proteome of both host and parasite during ring, trophozoite and schizont stages. Ring-exported protein (REX1), a P. falciparum protein located in Maurer's clefts and important for parasite nutrient import, was found to reach a maximum level of ubiquitylation in trophozoites stage. The Homo sapiens (H. sapiens) TUBEs associated ubiquitin proteome decreased during the infection, whereas the equivalent P. falciparum TUBEs-associated ubiquitin proteome counterpart increased. Major cellular processes such as DNA repair, replication, stress response, vesicular transport and catabolic events appear to be regulated by ubiquitylation along the IDC P. falciparum infection. BIOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE: In this work we analyze for the first time the interconnection between Plasmodium and human red blood cells ubiquitin-regulated proteins in the context of infection. We identified a number of human and Plasmodium proteins whose ubiquitylation pattern changes during the asexual infective stage. We demonstrate that ubiquitylation of REX1, a P. falciparum protein located in Maurer's clefts and important for parasite nutrient import, peaks in trophozoites stage. The ubiquitin-proteome from P. falciparum infected red blood cells (iRBCs) revealed a significant host-parasite crosstalk, underlining the importance of ubiquitin-regulated proteolytic activities during the intraerythrocytic developmental cycle (IDC) of P. falciparum. Major cellular processes defined from gene ontology such as DNA repair, replication, stress response, vesicular transport and catabolic events appear to be regulated by ubiquitylation along the IDC P. falciparum infection. Given the importance of ubiquitylation in the development of infectious diseases, this work provides a number of potential drug-target candidates that should be further explored.

[Drug interactions and adverse events induced by drugs used in an intensive care unit]. / Interacciones de medicamentos y eventos adversos en fármacos utilizados en una unidad de cuidados intensivos.

BACKGROUND: Eleven percent of hospitalized patients experience drug-drug interactions (DDIs), elevating morbidity, mortality and health care costs. Polypharmacy is very common in intensive care units (ICUs), increasing the risks of drug adverse events (AEs). AIM: To assess DDIs in ICU patients. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A prospective study conducted in the ICU of a private hospital, evaluating the frequency of DDIs, AEs developed and their relationship. Patients admitted to the ICU were included if they stayed at least three days in the ICU and received at least one studied drug. RESULTS: Thirty-five patients aged 59+/-16 years (24 women) were enrolled in the study. Seventy six DDIs and 60 AEs were recorded. Statistically significant associations were only found for midazolam-fentanyl-propofol with bradycardia and hypotension and amphotericin B-vancomycin and vancomycin-amikacin with acute renal failure (ARF). Relative risks were 10.4 (95% confidence intervals (CI) 1.59-68) for bradycardia, 5 (95% CI 1.082-23.4) for hypotension and 6.4 (95% CI 1.9-21.6) for ARF. The odds ratios were 125.2 (95% CI 3-250), 12.6 (95% CI 1.3-77) and 10.8 (95% CI 1.3-282) respectively. CONCLUSIONS: DDIs associated with risk of AEs were fentanyl, propofol and midazolam for bradycardia and hypotension and amphotericin B-vancomycin and vancomycin-amikacin for ARF.

Interacciones de medicamentos y eventos adversos en fármacos utilizados en una unidad de cuidados intensivos / Drug interactions and adverse events induced by drugs used in an intensive care unit

Background: Eleven percent of hospitalized patients experience drug-drug interactions (DDIs), elevating morbidity, mortality and health care costs. Polypharmacy is very common in intensive care units (ICUs), increasing the risks of drug adverse events (AEs). Aim: To assess DDIs in ICU patients. Material and Methods: A prospective study conducted in the ICU of a private hospital, evaluating the frequency of DDIs, AEs developed and their relationship. Patients admitted to the ICU were included if they stayed at least three days in the ICU and received at least one studied drug Results: Thirty fve patients aged 59 ± 16 years (24 women) were enrolled in the study. Seventy six DDIs and 60 AEs were recorded. Statistically signifcant associations were only found for midazolam-fentanyl-propofol with bradycardia and hypotension and amphotericin B-vancomycin and vancomycin-amikacin with acute renal failure (ARF). Relative risks were 10.4 (95 percent confdence intervals (CI) 1.59 - 68) for bradicardia, 5 (95 percent CI 1.082 - 23.4) for hypotension and 6.4 (95 percent CI 1.9 - 21.6) for ARF. The odds ratios were 125.2 (95 percent CI 3 - 250), 12.6 (95 percent CI 1.3 - 77) and 10.8 (95 percent CI 1.3 - 282) respectively. Conclusions: DDIs associated with risk of AEs were fentanyl, propofol and midazolam for bradycardia and hypotension and amphotericin B-vancomycin and vancomycin-amikacin for ARF.

Correlación entre los niveles sericos de IgG de cllamydia pneumoniae y la aterosclerosis / Correlation between the sericos levels of IgG of cllamydia pneumoniae and aterosclerosis

El presente trabajo es un estudio estadÝstico de tipo prospectivo, longitudinal, realizado en pacientes sometidos a una coronariografÝa en el Departamento de Hemodinamia del Hospital Luis Vernaza de la Junta de Bebeficencia. En esta investigación se buscó una relación entre niveles altos de IgG de Clamydia pneumoniae y la existencia de enfermedad de arterias coronarias. Con este fin se cuantificaron los niveles de IgG en el suero. La edad promedio fue de 59 años +/-11 años. Los resultados obtenidos del laboratorio mostraron una tasa ne negatividad del anticuerpo del 78 por ciento, y solo un 22 por ciento de positividad del IgG. De los pacientes con coronariografÝa anormal, 39 individuos (78 por ciento) tenÝan IgG negativo...

Monitoreo en neuroanestesia / Monitoreo in neuroanestesia

Enfoca en el monitoreo neuroanestésico se utilisan parámetros hemodinámicos standard como es el elctrocardiograma por las variaciones de frecuencia que se pueden presentar en la inducción anastésica, transoperatorio y postoperatorio; la presión arterial no invasiva útil en jóvenes robustos, presión arteria invasiva para cirujías de alto riesgo por variaciones bruscas de la presión arterial y/o la necesidad de hipotensión controlada, la saturacioïn de O2 cotinuo así como los gaces arteriales, la capnografía que es un paramétro importante para manejar el CO2 en la hiperventilación en pacientes que se desea provoca una vosoconstricción de las arterias celebrales, y así diminuir el flujo sangíneo cerebral. Otros medios, como la presión venosa crtral para el cálculo de la volemia y llenado cárdiaco, ó más específicos como el doppler precordial para el diagnóstico de embolia aérea venosa, y la ecocardiografía transesofágica cuya ideonidad se está evaluando debido a su alto costo. Adicionalmente, otra opción en investigación es el nitrógeno teleespirado. En la actualidad se encuentra con los poteciales evocados sesoriales y los poteciales evocados motores, que cuentan con datos ya establecidos de alarma durante una injuria quirúrjica, se encuentran en investigación los potenciales evocados motores con estimulación magnética transcraneal, que aumentarían la la especifidad del monitoreo neurofisiológico.