Background: Polyinosinic:polycytidylic acid (Poly-IC) has been used as a viral stimulus to mimic in vivo and in vitro infection induced by some viruses. Objective: To determine whether non-viable Lactobacillus casei CRL431 (LcM) can modulate the immune response induced by Poly I:C in co-culture models of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and A549 cells. Methods: T and NK cell activati...

The ability of cells to proliferate in the presence of low extracellular calcium levels has been proposed as a marker for malignancy. To further evaluate this marker, the effects of extracellular calcium deprivation on proliferation and morphology in culture were examined in eight tumorigenic lines derived from human cancers. With calcium reduced from 1.8 mM (HCM) to 0.02 mM (LCM), the colony-f...

A3 Start with a finite sequence a1, a2, . . . , an of positive integers. If possible, choose two indices j < k such that aj does not divide ak, and replace aj and ak by gcd(aj , ak) and lcm(aj , ak), respectively. Prove that if this process is repeated, it must eventually stop and the final sequence does not depend on the choices made. (Note: gcd means greatest common divisor and lcm means leas...

Using a simple basis of rational polynomial-like functions P0, . . . , Pn−1 for the free module of functions Z/nZ → Z/mZ, we characterize the subfamily of congruence preserving functions as the set of linear combinations of the products lcm(k)Pk where lcm(k) is the least common multiple of 2, . . . , k (viewed in Z/mZ). As a consequence, when n ≥ m, the number of such functions is independent o...

Division of Physical Chemistry, Institute of Advanced Materials, Physicochemical Processes, Nanotechnology and Microsystems (IAMPPNM), NCSR Demokritos, 15310 Aghia Paraskevi, Attikis, Athens, Greece LCM – Laboratory of Catalysis and Materials – Associate Laboratory LSRE/LCM, Faculdade de Engenharia, Universidade do Porto, Rua Dr. Roberto Frias, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal Grupo de Fotocatálisis y ...

AIM This study investigated the influence of different composite resin organic matrix (methacrylate - Filtek Z350 XT and silorane - Filtek P90) on light energy transmission through the composite and bottom/top rate. MATERIALS AND METHODS A light-emitting diode (New Blue Phase), light-curing unit was used with different photoactivation protocols (high-continuous mode - HCM, 1400 mW/cm2 for 20 ...

The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of levels of cottonseed meal with various carbohydrate sources in concentrate on feed intake, nutrient digestibility, rumen fermentation and microbial protein synthesis in dairy bulls. Four, 6 months old dairy bulls were randomly assigned to receive four dietary treatments according to a 2×2 factorial arrangement in a 4×4 Latin square de...

Resident pulmonary alveolar macrophages (PAM) play an important role in the maintenance of immunological homeostasis in the lung via downmodulation of local T cell responses in the steady state. The present study demonstrates that this pathway for T cell suppression is reversible via granulocyte/macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF). Thus, freshly isolated PAM strongly inhibit mitogen-i...

OBJECTIVE Treatment of status epilepticus (SE) has not changed in the last few decades, benzodiazepines plus phenytoin or valproate being the most common treatment. Once this first and second line treatment has failed SE is considered refractory (RSE). This study aimed to assess the efficacy and tolerability of intravenous (iv) lacosamide (LCM) in RSE. METHOD Patients with RSE who were treate...