Intake of Nutritional Supplements among People Exercising in Gyms in Beirut City

The use of nutritional supplements among exercisers in gyms has been never investigated in the Middle East. The aim of the current study was to assess the prevalence intake of nutritional supplements and the potential influencing factors among people exercising in gyms in Beirut city. In this cross-sectional study, 512 exercisers, aged between 20 and 50 years, were randomly selected from gyms. The intake of nutritional supplements was reported among 36.3% (95% confidence interval 32.2–40.5) of participants, with a weak presence of medical supervision. Patterns of supplement use differed by gender and age. Men and younger exercisers were found to focus on supplements associated with performance enhancement and muscle building, while women and older exercisers were more concerned with health-promoting products such as vitamins, minerals, and herbal supplements. An appropriate dissemination of accurate and scientifically sound information regarding the benefits and side effects of nutritional supplements is highly recommended in the sports environment in Beirut city

Méthodes de vérification de la commutativité des diagrammes dans les catégories symétriques monoïdales fermées libres et non-libres

Dans la thèse on s'occupe des méthodes et des algorithmes de vérifications de la commutativité des diagrammes dans les catégories symétriques monoidales fermées (catégories des modules, des semi-modules etc...). On démontre l'infinité de structures de catégories intermédiaires entre la structure des catégories libres et la structure triviale et on étudie l'utilisation des méthodes de la théorie de la démonstration pour la vérification de la commutativité dans ces cas intermédiaires.The subject of this thesis belongs to the field of categorical proof theory, which lies somewhere between category theory and proof theory. It uses proof theoretical methods in solving problems related to some general matters in category theory, which are syntactical nature (for example, question of commuting diagrams in canonical structure of some freely generated category belonging to a particular class of categories). On the other hand, categrorical proof theory uses categories as contexts where comme questions of particular interest fo general proof theory may be correctly formulated and answered (for example, the question whether two dérivations are equal, which is the main question of general proof theory)

Decentralized Enforcement of Artifact Lifecycles

International audienceArtifact-centric workflows describe possible executions of a business process through constraints expressed from the point of view of the documents exchanged between principals. A sequence of manipulations is deemed valid as long as every document in the workflow follows its prescribed lifecycle at all steps of the process. So far, establishing that a given workflow complies with artifact lifecycles has mostly been done through static verification, or by assuming a centralized access to all artifacts where these constraints can be monitored and enforced. We present in this paper an alternate method of enforcing document lifecycles that requires neither static verification nor single-point access. Rather, the document itself is designed to carry fragments of its history, protected from tampering using hashing and public-key encryption. Any principal involved in the process can verify at any time that a document's history complies with a given lifecycle. Moreover, the proposed system also enforces access permissions: not all actions are visible to all principals, and one can only modify and verify what one is allowed to observe

Decentralized Enforcement of Artifact Lifecycles

International audienceArtifact-centric workflows describe possible executions of a business process through constraints expressed from the point of view of the documents exchanged between principals. A sequence of manipulations is deemed valid as long as every document in the workflow follows its prescribed lifecycle at all steps of the process. So far, establishing that a given workflow complies with artifact lifecycles has mostly been done through static verification, or by assuming a centralized access to all artifacts where these constraints can be monitored and enforced. We present in this paper an alternate method of enforcing document lifecycles that requires neither static verification nor single-point access. Rather, the document itself is designed to carry fragments of its history, protected from tampering using hashing and public-key encryption. Any principal involved in the process can verify at any time that a document's history complies with a given lifecycle. Moreover, the proposed system also enforces access permissions: not all actions are visible to all principals, and one can only modify and verify what one is allowed to observe

Catalytic Oxidation of Carbon Black Over Ru/CoxMgyAl2 Catalysts

AbstractDifferent catalysts based on ruthenium impregnated on hydrotalcites (Ru/CoxMgyAl2-HT) were prepared by wet impregnation from aqueous nitrosyl nitrate solutions and activated under air at 600°C for 4h. The reactivity of the catalysts was evaluated in the oxidation of carbon black (CB). The results showed that the best catalyst decreased the temperature at which the rate of carbon black oxidation is the highest by about 150°C. This good reactivity was attributed to the formation of easily reducible ruthenium and cobalt oxide species at the surface of the support. The addition of ruthenium made the reduction of surface and bulk cobalt oxides possible at lower temperatures

Severe Cholestasis and Bile Cast Nephropathy Induced by Anabolic Steroids Successfully Treated with Plasma Exchange

We report a case of a bodybuilder who took a regimen of anabolic steroids containing stanozolol and testosterone propionate for 8 weeks which led to the development of jaundice and severe pruritus with serum total bilirubin reaching 41.22 mg/dL. Despite supportive care with fluid and albumin therapy, serum creatinine was progressively increasing. He underwent 6 successful sessions of plasma exchange (PE) with marked improvement at the end of the sessions. Three months after discharge, the patient’s creatinine and total bilirubin levels were 1.08 mg/dL and 1.2 mg/dL, respectively

A mechanism for the extension and unfolding of parallel telomeric G-quadruplexes by human telomerase at single-molecule resolution

30 pags., 10 figs., 1 tab.Telomeric G-quadruplexes (G4) were long believed to form a protective structure at telomeres, preventing their extension by the ribonucleoprotein telomerase. Contrary to this belief, we have previously demonstrated that parallel-stranded conformations of telomeric G4 can be extended by human and ciliate telomerase. However, a mechanistic understanding of the interaction of telomerase with structured DNA remained elusive. Here, we use single-molecule fluorescence resonance energy transfer (smFRET) microscopy and bulk-phase enzymology to propose a mechanism for the resolution and extension of parallel G4 by telomerase. Binding is initiated by the RNA template of telomerase interacting with the G-quadruplex; nucleotide addition then proceeds to the end of the RNA template. It is only through the large conformational change of translocation following synthesis that the G-quadruplex structure is completely unfolded to a linear product. Surprisingly, parallel G4 stabilization with either small molecule ligands or by chemical modification does not always inhibit G4 unfolding and extension by telomerase. These data reveal that telomerase is a parallel G-quadruplex resolvase.Cancer Council NSW RG 11-07 Tracy M Bryan, Cancer Institute NSW Aaron Lavel Moye, Australian Research Council FL140100027 Antoine M van Oijen, Ernest and Piroska Major Foundation Scott B Cohen, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Masad J Damha Centre of Excellence for Innovation in Chemistry PERCH-CIC Siritron Samosorn Research Unit of Natural Products and Organic Synthesis for Drug Discovery NPOS 405/2560 Siritron Samosorn Cancer Council NSW RG 16-10 Tracy M Brya

Identification of a Blood-Based Protein Biomarker Panel for Lung Cancer Detection

Lung cancer is the deadliest cancer worldwide, mainly due to its advanced stage at the time of diagnosis. A non-invasive method for its early detection remains mandatory to improve patients’ survival. Plasma levels of 351 proteins were quantified by Liquid Chromatography-Parallel Reaction Monitoring (LC-PRM)-based mass spectrometry in 128 lung cancer patients and 93 healthy donors. Bootstrap sampling and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) penalization were used to find the best protein combination for outcome prediction. The PanelomiX platform was used to select the optimal biomarker thresholds. The panel was validated in 48 patients and 49 healthy volunteers. A 6-protein panel clearly distinguished lung cancer from healthy individuals. The panel displayed excellent performance: area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) = 0.999, positive predictive value (PPV) = 0.992, negative predictive value (NPV) = 0.989, specificity = 0.989 and sensitivity = 0.992. The panel detected lung cancer independently of the disease stage. The 6-protein panel and other sub-combinations displayed excellent results in the validation dataset. In conclusion, we identified a blood-based 6-protein panel as a diagnostic tool in lung cancer. Used as a routine test for high- and average-risk individuals, it may complement currently adopted techniques in lung cancer screening.publishedVersio