Cross-reactivity syndromes

In the last 10-15 years, we have been dealing with a “second wave” of allergic disease outbreaks caused by food allergies. 60% of cases of food allergy in adults and children are associated with the co-occurrence of inhaled allergy. The structural similarity of proteins, even those of a different origin, is the main factor determining the occurrence of cross-reactions. The article reviews important clinical aspects of food allergy related to cross-reactivity syndromes.W ostatnich 10-15 latach mamy do czynienia z „drugą falą” epidemii chorób alergicznych wywołaną uczuleniem na pokarmy. 60% przypadków alergii pokarmowej u osób dorosłych i dzieci związane jest z współwystępowaniem alergii wziewnej. Strukturalne podobieństwo białek, nawet tych o odmiennym pochodzeniu, jest głównym czynnikiem determinującym występowanie reakcji krzyżowych. W artykule dokonano przeglądu istotnych klinicznych aspektów alergii pokarmowej związanych z zespołami klinicznymi alergii krzyżowej

Revisiting strategies for fitting logistic regression for positive and unlabeled data

Positive unlabeled (PU) learning is an important problem motivated by the occurrence of this type of partial observability in many applications. The present paper reconsiders recent advances in parametric modeling of PU data based on empirical likelihood maximization and argues that they can be significantly improved. The proposed approach is based on the fact that the likelihood for the logistic fit and an unknown labeling frequency can be expressed as the sum of a convex and a concave function, which is explicitly given. This allows methods such as the concave-convex procedure (CCCP) or its variant, the disciplined convex-concave procedure (DCCP), to be applied. We show by analyzing real data sets that, by using the DCCP to solve the optimization problem, we obtain significant improvements in the posterior probability and the label frequency estimation over the best available competitors

Panallergens - main causes of food allergy

Panalergeny to powszechnie występujące w przyrodzie białka. Pomimo, iż są one obecne w niespokrewnionych organizmach, to pełnią w nich podobną funkcję. Panalergeny w swojej budowie posiadają wysoce konserwatywne regiony sekwencji aminokwasów oraz podobną strukturę trójwymiarową, a zatem spełniają wymagania dotyczące wzajemnego, krzyżowego rozpoznawania przez IgE. Część z nich stanowi białka obronne, produkowane w tkankach roślinnych w wyniku działania biotycznego i abiotycznego stresu środowiskowego. W artykule scharakteryzowano opisane do tej pory najważniejsze rodziny panalergenów.Panallergens are proteins commonly found in nature. Although they are present in unrelated organisms, they perform a similar function in them. Panallergens have highly conserved amino acid sequence regions and a similar three-dimensional structure, and thus meet the requirements for cross-recognition by IgE. Some of them are pathogenesis-releted proteins produced in plant tissues as a result of biotic and abiotic environmental stress. The article describes the most important panallergen families described so fa

Frost Durability of Steel Fiber Self-Compacting Concrete for Pavements

  The paper presents the results from the research on self-compacting concrete with different steel fibre type addition. The reference self-compacting concrete mix with water/binder = 0.33 was prepared, then modified with steel fibres in the amounts of 0–60 kg/m3 and air entrained with polymer microspheres (40 μm diameter). The major objective of the research was to determine the effect of steel fibre and air content on the self-compacting concrete mix properties and hardened concrete frost durability. The tests also included internal cracking and scaling resistance evaluation for concrete specimens subjected to cyclic freeze-thaw process − two beams were frozen in air and two beams were partially submerged in water and then frozen. The scaling resistance was tested using the slab method on the specimens with sawn surface and on the specimens with natural finished surface. Non-air entrained steel fibre-reinforced concretes, despite their high strength class (C55/67–C60/75) and medium absorption (4.34–5.11%), showed unsatisfactory resistance to internal cracking and scaling tests. The beams partially submerged in water failed after 100 freeze-thaw cycles, which confirms a significant influence of water uptake from moist environment during freeze-thaw cycles and the acceleration of the damage process. Test results indicate that air entrainment with polymer microspheres is a very effective method and allows obtaining very good air pore structure parameters and frost resistance results. The specimens with top − finished surface exhibited less damage in the scaling resistance tests in relation to the specimens with sawn surface

Intravascular Imaging versus Physiological Assessment versus Biomechanics—Which Is a Better Guide for Coronary Revascularization

Today, coronary artery disease (CAD) continues to be a prominent cause of death worldwide. A reliable assessment of coronary stenosis represents a prerequisite for the appropriate management of CAD. Nevertheless, there are still major challenges pertaining to some limitations of current imaging and functional diagnostic modalities. The present review summarizes the current data on invasive functional and intracoronary imaging assessment using optical coherence tomography (OCT), and intravascular ultrasound (IVUS). Amongst the functional parameters—on top of fractional flow reserve (FFR) and instantaneous wave-free ratio (iFR)—we point to novel angiography-based measures such as quantitative flow ratio (QFR), vessel fractional flow reserve (vFFR), angiography-derived fractional flow reserve (FFRangio), and computed tomography-derived flow fractional reserve (FFR-CT), as well as hybrid approaches focusing on optical flow ratio (OFR), computational fluid dynamics and attempts to quantify the forces exaggerated by blood on the coronary plaque and vessel wall