High throughput spatial convolution filters on FPGAs

Digital signal processing (DSP) on field- programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) has long been appealing because of the inherent parallelism in these computations that can be easily exploited to accelerate such algorithms. FPGAs have evolved significantly to further enhance the mapping of these algorithms, included additional hard blocks, such as the DSP blocks found in modern FPGAs. Although these DSP blocks can offer more efficient mapping of DSP computations, they are primarily designed for 1-D filter structures. We present a study on spatial convolutional filter implementations on FPGAs, optimizing around the structure of the DSP blocks to offer high throughput while maintaining the coefficient flexibility that other published architectures usually sacrifice. We show that it is possible to implement large filters for large 4K resolution image frames at frame rates of 30–60 FPS, while maintaining functional flexibility

Effects of ginseng ingestion on salivary testosterone and DHEA levels in healthy females: An exploratory study

From MDPI via Jisc Publications RouterGinseng is a traditional herbal adaptogen that has been historically used in China and the Far East. Ginsenosides are the active component of ginseng known to exert several actions by targeting “multi-receptor systems”, both extracellular and intracellular. In humans, ginseng effects remain unclear. This study aimed to investigate whether ginseng can influence salivary androgen levels (testosterone and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA)) in females. The study followed a parallel partially controlled design. Healthy women (n = 24) were recruited and divided into two groups (A = 20−32 and B = 38−50 years). Volunteers were asked to maintain a food diary pre and post ginseng consumption and collected four salivary samples (7 a.m., 9 a.m., 12 p.m., and 5 p.m.) before and after ingesting 75 mg red Korean ginseng extract per day for seven days. Testosterone and DHEA were then assayed by ELISA methods. Group A’s mean daily salivary testosterone pre ginseng ingestion increased from 76.3 ± 16.6 to 98.4 ± 21.1 pg/mL post ginseng (p 0.01) with significant difference at all time points, and mean daily salivary DHEA increased from 1.53 ± 0.63 to 1.98 ± 0.89 ng/mL post ginseng (p = 0.02). Group B’s mean daily salivary testosterone pre ginseng ingestion was 61.2 ± 16.9 and post ginseng 68.1 ± 11.5 pg/mL (p = 0.132), and daily salivary DHEA increased from 0.91 ± 0.32 to 1.62 ± 0.49 ng/mL post ginseng (p = 0.014) with significant difference at all time points. In conclusion, it appears that ginseng intake significantly increased salivary testosterone levels in the younger women group, but only slightly in the older group. However, DHEA levels in the older women showed a marked and significant increase. These results suggest a potential role for ginseng in modulating salivary androgen levels and that such effect may be more evident in older women where the levels of androgens (DHEA) start to decline. However, it has to be stressed that our results are preliminary and further properly controlled trials are justified.12pubpub

Post-prandial changes in salivary glucocorticoids: Effects of dietary cholesterol and associations with bile acid excretion

Mechanisms to explain post-prandial increases in circulating glucocorticoids are not well understood and may involve increased adrenal secretion and/or altered steroid metabolism. We have compared salivary levels of cortisol and cortisone levels in healthy male and female volunteers fed either a low or cholesterol-rich midday meal. Urinary levels of steroids, bile acids and markers of lipid peroxidation were also measured. Males and females showed expected circadian changes in salivary steroids and postprandial peaks within 1h of feeding. After a high-cholesterol meal, postprandial cortisol increases were higher in males whereas post-prandial cortisone levels were higher in females. Urinary cortisol but not cortisone levels were higher on the day when males and females ate a high-cholesterol meal. Urinary bile acid excretion and anti-oxidant markers of lipid peroxidation, thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS), and total phenol content were not affected by dietary cholesterol but tended to be higher in males. Cross-tabulation of correlation coefficients indicated positive associations between urinary markers of peroxidation, bile acids, and cortisol:cortisone ratios. We conclude that dietary cholesterol (a substrate for steroidogenesis) does not have an acute effect on adrenal glucocorticoid synthesis and that gender but not a high-cholesterol meal may influence the interconversion of cortisol and cortisone. Longer term studies of the effects of dietary cholesterol are needed to analyze the associations between bile acids, steroid metabolism, and secretion and lipid peroxidation.11pubpub

Effect of Pomegranate Extract Consumption on Satiety Parameters in Healthy Volunteers: A Preliminary Randomized Study

From MDPI via Jisc Publications RouterHistory: accepted 2022-08-22, pub-electronic 2022-08-31Publication status: PublishedThere has been an increasing interest in nutraceuticals and functional foods in reducing appetite and to lose weight. We assessed the effect of oral pomegranate extract (PE) and PE juice (PJ) intake vs. placebo on satiety parameters in healthy volunteers. Twenty-eight subjects (mean age 34.5 ± 13.7 years, body mass index [BMI] 25.05 ± 3.91 kg/m2) were randomized to 3-week priming supplementation with PE (Pomanox®) or placebo. On week 3, satiety parameters were determined on 1 testing day after participants ingested a breakfast and a lunch meal with PJ juice, using 100-mm visual acuity scales (VAS) for hunger, desire to eat, fullness and satisfaction. Meal quality and palatability were also tested. The desire to eat was less at all time points in the PJ juice with PE priming group and participants were also less hungry (p = 0.044) than those who consumed placebo. There was an overall significant difference between the groups (p 0.001). Participants in the PJ juice with PE priming group experienced significantly greater satisfaction (p = 0.036) and feeling of fullness (p = 0.02) than those in the placebo group. These findings suggest that consumption of PE could have the potential to modulate satiety indicators

Effect of Polyphenol Supplementation on Memory Functioning in Overweight and Obese Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Negative health consequences of obesity include impaired neuronal functioning and celldeath, thus bringing the risk of impaired cognitive functioning. Antioxidant properties of polyphenolsoffer a possible intervention for overweight people, but evidence for their effectiveness in supportingcognitive functioning is mixed. This review examined evidence from randomized controlledtrials concerning the effect of polyphenols on tasks requiring either immediate or delayed retrievalof learned information, respectively, thus controlling for differences in cognitive processes and relatedneural substrates supporting respective task demands. Searches of the PubMed/Medline,PsycInfo, and Scopus databases identified 24 relevant primary studies with N = 2336 participantshaving a BMI ≥ 25.0 kg/m2. The participants’ mean age for the 24 studies exceeded 60 years. Respectivemeta-analyses produced a significant summary effect for immediate retrieval but not for delayedretrieval. The present findings support a potential positive effect of chronic supplementationwith polyphenols, most notably flavonoids, on immediate retrieval in participants aged over 60years with obesity being a risk factor for cognitive impairment. We recommend further investigationof this potential positive effect in participants with such risk factors. Future research on all populationsshould report the phenolic content of the supplementation administered and be specific regardingthe cognitive processes tested

Consumption of Green Coffee Reduces Blood Pressure and Body Composition by Influencing 11_-HSD1 Enzyme Activity in Healthy Individuals: A Pilot Crossover Study Using Green and Black Coffee

Dietary polyphenols may have a protective role against the development of CVD. Thus, we aimed to investigate the effects of green coffee (GC), rich in chlorogenic acid, and black coffee (BC) on cardiovascular markers. A randomised pilot crossover study was performed on healthy subjects who consumed both coffees for 2 weeks. We measured anthropometry, blood pressure, and arterial elasticity after each intervention and collected urine samples to monitor antioxidant capacity. Free cortisol and cortisone levels were obtained from urine and analysed by specific ELISA methods. Systolic blood pressure (P = 0.018) and arterial elasticity (P = 0.001) were significantly reduced after GC. BMI (P = 0.04 for BC; P = 0.01 for GC) and abdominal fat (P = 0.01 for BC; P = 0.009 for GC) were also significantly reduced with no changes in energy intake. Urinary free cortisol was significantly reduced from 125.6 85.9 nmol/day to 76.0 54.9 nmol/day following GC and increased to 132.1 89.1 nmol/day after BC. Urinary free cortisone increased by 18% following BC and 9% following GC (nonsignificant). Cortisol/cortisone ratio (indicating 11_-HSD1 activity) was reduced after GC (from 3.5 1.9 to 1.7 1.04, P = 0.002). This suggests that GC can play a role in reducing cardiovascular risk factors. Further research including hypertensive and overweight individuals will now be justified to clarify whether GC could have a therapeutic role in CVD. 2014 R. Revuelta-Iniesta and E. A. S. Al-Dujaili.sch_die2014pub3995pub48270

Physical Properties of Pure and Nano Agdoped Liquid Crystalline Compounds Containing 1,3,4-Oxadizole Unit

Dielectric properties and other physical properties such as electrical conductivity (AC) and relaxation time or activation energy have been studied for two systems pure LC [V]6,6, [V]7,6, [V]8,6, [V]6,7, [V]7,7 and [V]8,7 and their doped with silver nanoparticles. The results show the increasing in real dielectric permittivity έ with increasing length terminal chain. So the real dielectric permittivity increasing with raising temperature. To compare between the values of at (400) Hz and (4000) Hz we observe these values at the low frequency are larger than that in high frequency. Generally, one can see that the doping of Ag nano particles effectively reduced the permittivity of the LC materials with its large electric dipole moment. The electrical conductivity value for pure LC samples in general increases  with increasing temperature. So we observed increasing of  electrical conductivity values at high frequency. The time scale is discussed in terms of the Arrhenius plot. Generally, with increasing the temperature the time period that spend by molecules at the transition state will increase. The activation energy Ea values show the increase in the activation energy to the doped systems.

Antioxidant Properties and Beneficial Cardiovascular Effects of a Natural Extract of Pomegranate in Healthy Volunteers: A Randomized Preliminary Single-Blind Controlled Study

From MDPI via Jisc Publications RouterHistory: received 2022-09-20, accepted 2022-10-25, epub 2022-10-28, collection 2022-11Peer reviewed: TrueAcknowledgements: Acknowledgments: The authors would like to acknowledge the support of all volunteers who participated in the study. They are grateful for the supply of pomegranate extract, Pomanox® from Euromed S.A., Mollet del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain. We are grateful for Gordon McDougall, the James Hutton Institute, Invergowrie, Scotland for carrying out the LC/MS/MS analysis, and Marta Pulido, for editing the manuscript.Article version: VoRPublication status: PublishedPomegranates are known to possess anti-hypertensive, anti-atherogenic and cardioprotective effects mainly due to their pleiotropic effects on various cellular pathways, especially those triggered by oxidative stress. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of natural standardized pomegranate (PE) extract on cardiovascular risk factors in 24 healthy volunteers who participated in a randomized, single-blind placebo-controlled study. There were 12 subjects in the PE group and 12 in the placebo group. Variables were measured at baseline and after 14 and 28 days of supplementation are anthropometry, BP, pulse wave velocity, fat and lean body mass, salivary and urinary cortisol, and cortisone, total phenolics, antioxidant capacity and lipid peroxidation. Urinary total phenolics excretion and antioxidant capacity were significantly increased after 14 and 28 days of PE intake. At day 28, there were also statistically significant decreases in systolic and diastolic blood pressure (BP), pulse wave velocity, body fat and fat mass, as well as an increase in lean body mass. Significant changes in the placebo group were not found. Glucocorticoid levels showed a significant decrease in saliva cortisol at day 28 (morning) in the PE group, and cortisol/cortisone ratio was significantly decreased following 28 days of PE intake at morning, noon, and evening. Urine free cortisol was significantly reduced at day 14. These findings suggest that pomegranate extract intake may improve antioxidant and oxidative stress status and play a beneficial role in the attenuation of some cardiovascular risk factors. Future studies should concentrate on overweight and older people