The Impact of 18F-DCFPyL PSMA PET-CT in the Management of Prostate Cancer Biochemical Recurrence

Purpose: We evaluated the findings from 18F-DCFPyL PSMA PET-CTs performed on patients presenting biochemical recurrence (BCR) of prostate cancer (PCa) and assessed its impact on staging. Methods and materials: This was a multicenter retrospective analysis of patients with PCa and BCR who underwent 18F-DCFPyL PSMA PET-CT in 2020. The patients were stratified into two groups: BCR after prostatectomy (PSA ≥ 0.2 ng/mL) or BCR after radiotherapy (PSA ≥ 2 ng/mL + nadir). We analyzed the lesions according to number and location. The Shapiro-Wilk test was used to estimate the distribution of the variables. We calculated representative statistics for the quantitative variables including the mean, standard deviation, median, and interquartile range. The association between qualitative variables was examined using Chi-squared tests. Results: 40 patients with BCR were analyzed;67.5% presented disease progression, predominantly distant recurrence (42.5%), which was found exclusively in bone;55% presented ≤5 lesions and of these, 68.2% only presented 1 lesion. There was a change in staging in 66.7% of the cases;17.7% received ablative treatment with stereotactic radiotherapy (SABR). Conclusions: 18F-DCFPyL PSMA PET-CT represents a new way to manage patients with BCR that, in this study, resulted in a change in staging in 66.7% of cases and early identification of oligometastatic progressions in the subgroup of patients with PSA < 0.5 ng/mL.

Conditioned Taste and Place Preferences Induced by Electrical Stimulation of the External Lateral Parabrachial Nucleus: A General Reinforcing Mechanism?

This study examined the stimulus specificity of external lateral parabrachial (LPBe) rewarding stimulation by using two identical learning procedures that may dissociate conditioned reinforcement to either the place or the flavor stimulus. Animals were presented with two distinct flavors in two different positions (left and right) that were varied throughout the experimental sessions. In the first experiment, LPBe stimulation was associated with one or other flavor, while in the second it was conditioned to one or other place in which these flavors were offered. The results show that, despite stimulus interferences, the animals develop specific conditioned preferences for the flavor stimuli (experiment 2A), and also for the place of their presentation (experiment 2B). These data are discussed in the context of brain reward systems and the biological constraints that characterize some learning modalities.

Project for Residues Valorisation and Reutilization from an Oxy-Combustion Circulating Fluidized Bed Boiler with CO₂Capture

Power generation industry has tackled waste reuse and valorisation for decades. Nevertheless, new technologies, like Circulating fluidized bed (CFB) boilers operating in oxy-combustion, have an important gap of knowledge in residues characterization and valorisation. This project will tackle this. Furthermore, as a result of the high quantity of waste that these installations generate new business models can be opened. The project aims at characterizing the residues from a large scale oxy-CFB facility with carbon, capture, use and storage (CCUS) focusing on the larger and main residues produced: fly ash, bottom ash, and algae production from captured CO2. An analysis of possible uses and treatment needs, such as additives or preparation for use in agriculture or industry, will be carried out. Best re-utilization and valorisation options will be stated for fly ash, bottom ash and algae, aiming for a novel combination of CO2 capture technologies with recovery of valuable materials from different wastes, addressing different and sustainable solutions for their reuse, enhancing the feasibility of CCUS, and combining research with the creation of new business models towards a green economy more attractive to the public perception.

Economics of Coalbed Methane in North West Spain

Coal during its carbonization process produces a gas. This gas, mainly formed by methane, can be used. The use of CBM (Coal bed methane) as an energetic resource is not much known in Spain. This work is the first step to enhance the development of this resource in Castilla y León. A theoretical review and a state of the art description have been carried out, taking into account all the factors that can influence in the development of a CBM project. Then CBM resources have been quantified by Castilla y León accurately for every coal bed. After that, technical feasibility has been used to evaluate total amount of gas that can be recovered. The last step was to evaluate economic feasibility to know how much gas could be economically profitable. This paper covers the economic factor and exploitation options of CBM in Castilla y León, considering technical parameters together with costs and economic requirements for the tow most promising areas in north-west Spain. The main findings include that a CBM system would be feasible in Guardo-Barruelo, however, the economic feasibility will be limited to long operation time of the wells and an increase of the prices of natural gas. In North Leon, the results show a high profitability even under low natural gas prices.

Novel Simplified Method for Coalbed Methane Feasibility Evaluation

Coal during its carbonization process produces a gas. This gas, mainly formed by methane, can be used. This gas, coalbed methane (CBM), is usually mainly formed by methane and can be considered similar to natural gas as energy source. The evaluation of the techno-economic feasibility of the extraction of this gas depends on a large number of complex different factors. The work carried out covers the different aspects to simplify the first approach for CBM feasibility quantification considering a short number of indicators. A theoretical review and a state of the art description have been carried out, taking into account all the factors that can influence in the development of a CBM project. After that, technical feasibility has been used to evaluate total amount of gas that can be recovered. The last step was to evaluate economic feasibility to know how much gas could be economically profitable. Conclusions got have been used to develop a simple method for evaluating CBM economic feasibility considering just four easy known parameters of coal beds. These are: the rank, the thickness, the gas concentration, and the permeability.

SIRT3-mediated inhibition of FOS through histone H3 deacetylation prevents cardiac fibrosis and inflammation

Sirtuin 3(SIRT3)is a deacetylase that modulates proteins that control metabolism and protects against oxidative stress.Modulation of SIRT3 activity has been proposed as a promising therapeutic target for ameliorating metabolic diseases and associated cardiac disturbances.In this study,we investigated the role of SIRT3 in inflammation and fibrosis in the heart using male mice with constitutive and systemic deletion of SIRT3 and human cardiac AC16 cells.SIRT3 knockout mice showed cardiac fibrosis and inflammation that was characterized by augmented transcriptional activity of AP-1.Consistent with this,SIRT3 overexpression in human and neonatal rat cardiomyocytes partially prevented the inflammatory and profibrotic response induced by TNF-α.Notably,these effects were associated with a decrease in the mRNA and protein levels of FOS and the DNA-binding activity of AP-1.Finally,we demonstrated that SIRT3 inhibits FOS transcription through specific histone H3 lysine K27 deacetylation at its promoter.These findings highlight an important function of SIRT3 in mediating the often intricate profibrotic and proinflammatory responses of cardiac cells through the modulation of the FOS/AP-1 pathway.Since fibrosis and inflammation are crucial in the progression of cardiac hypertrophy,heart failure,and diabetic cardiomyopathy,our results point to SIRT3 as a potential target for treating these diseases.