Current Knowledge on Endometriosis Etiology: A Systematic Review of Literature.

OBJECTIVE: To review the mechanisms of endometriosis development, including those related to epigenetic mutations, cellular dysregulation, inflammatory processes, and oxidative stress. METHODS: A systematic literature review regarding current aspects of endometriosis etiology, genesis and development was performed using the PubMed, Google Scholar, and eLibrary databases. Keywords included endometriosis, etiology, development, genesis, associations and mechanisms. A multilingual search was performed. RESULTS: Several mechanisms underline the pathophysiological pathways for endometriosis development. Epigenetic mutations, external and internal influences, and chronic conditions have a significant impact on endometriosis development, survival and regulation. Several historically valid theories on endometriosis development were discussed, as well as updated findings. CONCLUSION: Despite recent advances, fundamental problems in understanding endometriosis remain unresolved. The identification of unknown circulating epithelial progenitors or stem cells that are responsible for epithelial growth in both the endometrium and endometriotic foci seems to be the next step in solving these questions.

Histomorphological and Functional Features of the Eutopic Endometrium in Patients with Ovarian Endometriosis After Surgery-a Clinical Study.

Endometriosis causes infertility and the alterations in endometrial receptivity. Pinopodia in eutopic endometrial epithelium may have significant implications in the endometriosis-associated infertility. The aim of this study is to ascertain whether the surgical interventions to remove endometrioid ovarian cysts (EOCs) can improve endometrial receptivity. The study included 172 patients of reproductive age with EOC, who underwent laparoscopic cystectomy. Aspiration endometrial biopsy was performed at 6 and 12 months after the surgery during the proliferation and secretion phases. Histopathology analysis included H&E staining and IHC. Morphometric studies were performed on endometrial biopsies collected during the proliferation phase of 28 patients, and the secretion phase of 12 patients. The expression of IHC markers for estrogen receptors (ER) and progesterone receptors (PR) and the percentage of cells containing pinopodia were determined. A significant increase in the ER and PR expression was observed in the epithelium during the "middle stage, proliferation phase" and in the stroma and glands during "middle stage, secretion phase". A delay in endometrial secretory transformation and statistically significant decrease in the number of pinopodia was observed on the apical surface of the cells. These structural and functional alterations were observed both at 6 and 12 months after cystectomy. The endometriosis-associated infertility after surgical intervention of EOC could be due to the extensive expression of ER and PR during the proliferation and secretion phases, as well as the delayed secretory transformation and impaired formation of pinopodia in the eutopic endometrium in the patients at 6 and 12 months after surgery.

Prospects for Electrical Performance Tuning in Ca3Co4O9 Materials by Metallic Fe and Ni Particles Additions.

This work further explores the possibilities for designing the high-temperature electrical performance of the thermoelectric Ca3Co4O9 phase, by a composite approach involving separate metallic iron and nickel particles additions, and by employing two different sintering schemes, capable to promote the controlled interactions between the components, encouraged by our recent promising results obtained for similar cobalt additions. Iron and nickel were chosen because of their similarities with cobalt. The maximum power factor value of around 200 µWm-1K-2 at 925 K was achieved for the composite with the nominal nickel content of 3% vol., processed via the two-step sintering cycle, which provides the highest densification from this work. The effectiveness of the proposed approach was shown to be strongly dependent on the processing conditions and added amounts of metallic particles. Although the conventional one-step approach results in Fe- and Ni-containing composites with the major content of the thermoelectric Ca3Co4O9 phase, their electrical performance was found to be significantly lower than for the Co-containing analogue, due to the presence of less-conducting phases and excessive porosity. In contrast, the relatively high performance of the composite with a nominal nickel content of 3% vol. processed via a two-step approach is related to the specific microstructural features from this sample, including minimal porosity and the presence of the Ca2Co2O5 phase, which partially compensate the complete decomposition of the Ca3Co4O9 matrix. The obtained results demonstrate different pathways to tailor the phase composition of Ca3Co4O9-based materials, with a corresponding impact on the thermoelectric performance, and highlight the necessity of more controllable approaches for the phase composition tuning, including lower amounts and different morphologies of the dispersed metallic phases.

Exploring Tantalum as a Potential Dopant to Promote the Thermoelectric Performance of Zinc Oxide.

Zinc oxide (ZnO) has being recognised as a potentially interesting thermoelectric material, allowing flexible tuning of the electrical properties by donor doping. This work focuses on the assessment of tantalum doping effects on the relevant structural, microstructural, optical and thermoelectric properties of ZnO. Processing of the samples with a nominal composition Zn1-xTaxO by conventional solid-state route results in limited solubility of Ta in the wurtzite structure. Electronic doping is accompanied by the formation of other defects and dislocations as a compensation mechanism and simultaneous segregation of ZnTa2O6 at the grain boundaries. Highly defective structure and partial blocking of the grain boundaries suppress the electrical transport, while the evolution of Seebeck coefficient and band gap suggest that the charge carrier concentration continuously increases from x = 0 to 0.008. Thermal conductivity is almost not affected by the tantalum content. The highest ZT~0.07 at 1175 K observed for Zn0.998Ta0.002O is mainly provided by high Seebeck coefficient (-464 V/K) along with a moderate electrical conductivity of ~13 S/cm. The results suggest that tantalum may represent a suitable dopant for thermoelectric zinc oxide, but this requires the application of specific processing methods and compositional design to enhance the solubility of Ta in wurtzite lattice.

Porous Carrageenan-Derived Carbons for Efficient Ciprofloxacin Removal from Water.

Porous carbon materials derived from biopolymers are attractive sorbents for the removal of emerging pollutants from water, due to their high specific surface area, high porosity, tunable surface chemistry, and reasonable cost. However, carrageenan biopolymers were scarcely investigated as a carbon source to prepare porous carbon materials. Herein, hydrochars (HCs) and porous activated carbons (ACs) derived from natural occurring polysaccharides with variable sulfate content (κ-, ι- and λ-carrageenan) were prepared and investigated in the uptake of ciprofloxacin, which is an antibiotic detected in water sources and that poses serious hazards to public health. The materials were prepared using hydrothermal carbonization and subsequent chemical activation with KOH to increase the available surface area. The activated carbons were markedly microporous, presenting high specific surface area, up to 2800 m²/g. Activated carbons derived from κ- and λ-carrageenan showed high adsorption capacity (422 and 459 mg/g, respectively) for ciprofloxacin and fast adsorption kinetics, reaching the sorption equilibrium in approximately 5 min. These features place the ACs investigated here among the best systems reported in the literature for the removal of ciprofloxacin from water.

Site Redistribution, Partial Frozen-in Defect Chemistry, and Electrical Properties of Ba1-x(Zr,Pr)O3-δ.

Changes in nominal composition of the perovskite (ABO3) solid solution Ba1-x(Zr,Pr)O3-δ and adjusted firing conditions at very high temperatures were used to induce structural changes involving site redistribution and frozen-in point defects, as revealed by Raman and photoluminescence spectroscopies. Complementary magnetic measurements allowed quantification of the reduced content of Pr. Weak dependence of oxygen stoichiometry with temperature was obtained by coulometric titration at temperatures below 1000 °C, consistent with a somewhat complex partial frozen-in defect chemistry. Electrical conductivity measurements combined with transport number and Seebeck coefficient measurements showed prevailing electronic transport and also indicated trends expected for partial frozen-in conditions. Nominal Ba deficiency and controlled firing at very high temperatures allows adjustment of structure and partial frozen-in defect chemistry, opening the way to engineer relevant properties for high-temperature electrochemical applications.

A very large diversity space of synthetically accessible compounds for use with drug design programs.

We have constructed a very large virtual diversity space containing more than 10(13) chemical compounds. The diversity space is built from about 400 combinatorial libraries, which have been expanded by choosing sizeable collections of suitable R-groups that can be attached to each link point of their scaffolds. These R-group collections have been created by selecting reagents that have drug-like properties from catalogs of available chemicals. As members of known combinatorial libraries, the compounds in the diversity space are in general synthetically accessible and useful as potential drug leads. Hence, the diversity space can be used as a vast source of compounds by a de novo drug design program. For example, we have used such a program to generate inhibitors of HIV integrase enzyme that exhibited activity in the micromolar range.