Mercat A

RATIONALE: Extracellular histones, released into the surrounding environment during extensive cell death, promote inflammation and cell death and these deleterious roles have been well documented in sepsis. Clusterin (CLU) is a ubiquitous extracellular protein that chaperones misfolded proteins and promotes their removal. OBJECTIVES: We investigated whether CLU could protect against the deleterious properties of histones. METHODS: We assessed CLU and histones expression in sepsis patients and evaluated the protective role of CLU against histones in in vitro assays and in vivo models of experimental sepsis...

BACKGROUND: Proportional assist ventilation with load-adjustable gain factors (PAV+) is a mechanical ventilation mode that delivers assistance to breathe in proportion to the patient's effort. The proportional assistance, called the gain, can be adjusted by the clinician to maintain the patient's respiratory effort or workload within a normal range. Short-term and physiological benefits of this mode compared to pressure support ventilation (PSV) include better patient-ventilator synchrony and a more physiological response to changes in ventilatory demand...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

BACKGROUND: Unique blood culture (UBC) has been proposed to limit the number of venipuncture and to decrease the risk of BC contaminations (BCC) without affecting their yield. We hypothesized that a multi-faceted program based on UBC in the ICU may reduce the rate of contaminants with a similar performance for bloodstream infections (BSI) identification. METHODS: In a before and after design, we compared the proportion of BSI and BCC. A first 3-year period with multi-sampling (MS) strategy followed by a 4-month washout period, where staff received education and training for using UBC, and a 32-month period, where UBC was routinely used, while education and feedback were maintained...

BACKGROUND: Numerous genomic scans for positive selection have been performed in livestock species within the last decade, but often a detailed characterization of the detected regions (gene or trait under selection, timing of selection events) is lacking. Cryopreserved resources stored in reproductive or DNA gene banks offer a great opportunity to improve this characterization by providing direct access to recent allele frequency dynamics, thereby differentiating between signatures from recent breeding objectives and those related to more ancient selection constraints...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

BACKGROUND: Fasting is frequently imposed before extubation in patients in intensive care units, with the aim to reduce risk of aspiration. This unevaluated practice might delay extubation, increase workload, and reduce caloric intake. We aimed to compare continued enteral nutrition until extubation with fasting before extubation in patients in the intensive care unit. METHODS: We conducted an open-label, cluster-randomised, parallel-group, non-inferiority trial in 22 intensive care units in France...

INTRODUCTION: Studies regarding coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) were mainly performed in the initial wave, but some small-scale data points to prognostic differences for patients in successive waves. We therefore aimed to study the impact of time on prognosis of ICU-admitted COVID-19 patients. METHOD: We performed a national retrospective cohort study, including all adult patients hospitalized in French ICUs from March 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021, and identified three surge periods...

Essential oils from aerial parts of six aromatic plants were analysed by GC-MS. The major compounds identified were γ -terpinene (11.5%), cuminaldehyde (26.6%) and γ -terpinen-7-al (40.6%) in Cuminum cyminum , trans -anethol (95.2%) in Pimpinella anisum , α-pinene (11.6%), limonene (21.0%), β-caryophyllene (22.3%) and α-humulene (16.7%) in Lippia integrifolia , limonene (40.8%) and artemisia ketone (19.3%) in Lippia junelliana , trans -β-ocimene (15.6%), 4-ethyl-4-methyl-1-hexene (24...

INTRODUCTION: In Brazil, scorpion stings are recorded in high numbers with an increasing epidemiological situation in most municipalities. In the present study, data between 1998 and 2018 in Americana, São Paulo, were analyzed. METHODS: In total, 4122 records on scorpion stings were georeferenced using a Garmin eTREX 30X global positioning system device, with WGS84 datum projection and Universal Transverse Mercator zone 23S. Multiple Poisson regression was used to explore the relationship between the incidence rates of stings and urban planning areas (UPAs)...

The Mercator projection map of the world provides a useful, but distorted, view of the relative scale of countries. Current cellular models suffer from a similar distortion. Here, we undertook an in-depth structural analysis of the molecular dimensions in the cell's computational machinery, the MeshCODE, that is assembled from a meshwork of binary switches in the scaffolding proteins talin and vinculin. Talin contains a series of force-dependent binary switches and each domain switching state introduces quantised step-changes in talin length on a micrometre scale...

BACKGROUND: Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) decreases lung volume below the functional residual capacity and can generate intrathoracic airway closure. Conversely, large insufflations can induce thoracic distension and jeopardize circulation. The capnogram (CO2 signal) obtained during continuous chest compressions can reflect intrathoracic airway closure, and we hypothesized here that it can also indicate thoracic distension. OBJECTIVES: To test whether a specific capnogram may identify thoracic distension during CPR and to assess the impact of thoracic distension on gas exchange and hemodynamics...

BACKGROUND: In patients with septic shock, the impact of the mean arterial pressure (MAP) target on the course of mottling remains uncertain. In this post hoc analysis of the SEPSISPAM trial, we investigated whether a low-MAP (65 to 70 mmHg) or a high-MAP target (80 to 85 mmHg) would affect the course of mottling and arterial lactate in patients with septic shock. METHODS: The presence of mottling was assessed every 2 h from 2 h after inclusion to catecholamine weaning...

BACKGROUND: Liberating patients from mechanical ventilation (MV) requires a systematic approach. In the context of a clinical trial, we developed a simple algorithm to identify patients who tolerate assisted ventilation but still require ongoing MV to be randomized. We report on the use of this algorithm to screen potential trial participants for enrollment and subsequent randomization in the Proportional Assist Ventilation for Minimizing the Duration of MV (PROMIZING) study. METHODS: The algorithm included five steps: enrollment criteria, pressure support ventilation (PSV) tolerance trial, weaning criteria, continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) tolerance trial (0 cmH2 O during 2 min) and spontaneous breathing trial (SBT): on fraction of inspired oxygen (Fi O2 ) 40% for 30-120 min...

PURPOSE: In acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), physiological parameters associated with outcome may help defining targets for mechanical ventilation. This study aimed to address whether transpulmonary pressures (PL ), including transpulmonary driving pressure (DPL ), elastance-derived plateau PL , and directly-measured end-expiratory PL , are better associated with 60-day outcome than airway driving pressure (DPaw ). We also tested the combination of oxygenation and stretch index [PaO2 /(FiO2 *DPaw )]...

BACKGROUND: The primary determinant of crop yield is photosynthetic capacity, which is under the control of photosynthesis-related genes. Therefore, the mining of genes involved in photosynthesis is important for the study of photosynthesis. MapMan Mercator 4 is a powerful annotation tool for assigning genes into proper functional categories; however, in maize, the functions of approximately 22.15% (9520) of genes remain unclear and are labeled "not assigned", which may include photosynthesis-related genes that have not yet been identified...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

Rationale: Whether patients with coronavirus disease (COVID-19) may benefit from extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) compared with conventional invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV) remains unknown. Objectives: To estimate the effect of ECMO on 90-day mortality versus IMV only. Methods: Among 4,244 critically ill adult patients with COVID-19 included in a multicenter cohort study, we emulated a target trial comparing the treatment strategies of initiating ECMO versus no ECMO within 7 days of IMV in patients with severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (PaO2 /FiO2  < 80 or PaCO2  ⩾ 60 mm Hg)...

Countries have implemented control programmes (CPs) for cattle diseases such as bovine viral diarrhoea virus (BVDV) that are tailored to each country-specific situation. Practical methods are needed to assess the output of these CPs in terms of the confidence of freedom from infection that is achieved. As part of the STOC free project, a Bayesian Hidden Markov model was developed, called STOC free model, to estimate the probability of infection at herd-level. In the current study, the STOC free model was applied to BVDV field data in four study regions, from CPs based on ear notch samples...

Preserving diversity of indigenous pig (Sus scrofa) breeds is a key factor to (i) sustain the pork chain (both at local and global scales) including the production of high-quality branded products, (ii) enrich the animal biobanking and (iii) progress conservation policies. Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) chips offer the opportunity for whole-genome comparisons among individuals and breeds. Animals from twenty European local pigs breeds, reared in nine countries (Croatia: Black Slavonian, Turopolje; France: Basque, Gascon; Germany: Schwabisch-Hällisches Schwein; Italy: Apulo Calabrese, Casertana, Cinta Senese, Mora Romagnola, Nero Siciliano, Sarda; Lithuania: Indigenous Wattle, White Old Type; Portugal: Alentejana, Bísara; Serbia: Moravka, Swallow-Bellied Mangalitsa; Slovenia: Krškopolje pig; Spain: Iberian, Majorcan Black), and three commercial breeds (Duroc, Landrace and Large White) were sampled and genotyped with the GeneSeek Genomic Profiler (GGP) 70 K HD porcine genotyping chip...