Sequential analysis of biomarkers in cerebrospinal fluid and serum during invasive meningococcal disease

The aim of the present study was to determine the profile of different inflammatory molecules in serum and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) during invasive meningococcal disease (IMD). Their relationship with IMD severity was also assessed. A cohort of 12 patients with IMD was investigated. Paired serum and CSF samples were obtained at the time of diagnostic and follow-up lumbar puncture and were examined using Luminex® analysis. IMD severity correlated with serum interleukin-6 (IL-6) and interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1ra) on admission. Furthermore, the CSF levels of IL-1β, IL-1ra, IL-6, IL-8, macrophage inflammatory protein-1β (MIP-1β), and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) were significantly higher than their respective serum levels. The strongest correlations were found between serum concentrations of IL-1β and IL-1ra, IL-6, IL-8, and MIP-1β, whereas the strongest correlations in CSF were found between endotoxin and IL-8, IL-17, MIP-1β, and MCP-1. As was expected, the concentrations of inflammatory molecules in both serum and CSF significantly decreased after antibiotic treatment. With regard to kinetics, a severe course of IMD correlated positively with rapid declines of CSF IL-6 and cortisol levels. Sequential multiple analyses revealed patterns of inflammatory responses that were associated with the severity of IMD, as well as with the compartmentalization and kinetics of the immune reaction

Least Squares and Shrinkage Estimation under Bimonotonicity Constraints

In this paper we describe active set type algorithms for minimization of a smooth function under general order constraints, an important case being functions on the set of bimonotone r-by-s matrices. These algorithms can be used, for instance, to estimate a bimonotone regression function via least squares or (a smooth approximation of) least absolute deviations. Another application is shrinkage estimation in image denoising or, more generally, regression problems with two ordinal factors after representing the data in a suitable basis which is indexed by pairs (i,j) in {1,...,r}x{1,...,s}. Various numerical examples illustrate our methods

Changes in prevalence and the cascade of care for type 2 diabetes over ten years (2005-2015): results of two nationally representative surveys in Mozambique

Background: Sub-Saharan Africa is predicted to have the steepest increase in the prevalence of diabetes in the next 25 years. The latest Mozambican population-based STEPS survey (STEPS 2005) estimated a 2.9% prevalence of diabetes in the adult population aged 25-64 years. We aimed to assess the change in prevalence, awareness, and management of diabetes in the national STEPS survey from 2014/2015 compared to 2005. Methods: We conducted an observational, quantitative, cross-sectional study following the WHO STEPS surveillance methodology in urban and rural settings, targeting the adult population of Mozambique in 2015. We collected sociodemographic data, anthropometric, and 12 hour fasting glucose blood samples in a sample of 1321 adults. The analysis consisted of descriptive measures of the prevalence of impaired fasting glucose (IFG), diabetes and related risk factors by age group, sex, and urban/rural residence and compared the findings to those of the 2005 survey results. Results: The prevalence of IFG and diabetes was 4.8% (95CI: 3.6-6.3) and 7.4% (95CI: 5.5-10.0), respectively. These prevalence of IFG and diabetes did not differ significantly between women and men. The prevalence of diabetes in participants classified with overweight/obesity [10.6% (95CI: 7.5-14.6)] and with central obesity (waist hip ratio) [11.0% (95CI: 7.4-16.1)] was almost double the prevalence of their leaner counterparts, [6.3% (95CI, 4.0-9.9)] and [5.2% (95CI: 3.2-8.6)], respectively. Diabetes prevalence increased with age. There were 50% more people with diabetes in urban areas than in rural. Only 10% of people with diabetes were aware of their disease, and only 44% of those taking oral glucose-lowering drugs. The prevalence of IFG over time [2.0% (95CI: 1.1-3.5) vs 4.8% (95CI: 3.6-6.3)] and diabetes [2.9% (95CI: 2.0-4.2) vs 7.4% (95CI: 5.5-10.0)] were more than twofold higher in 2014/2015 than in 2005. However, awareness of disease and being on medication decreased by 3% and by 50%, respectively. Though this was not statistically significant. Conclusions: While the prevalence of diabetes in Mozambique has increased from 2005 to 2015, awareness and medication use have declined considerably. There is an urgent need to improve the capacity of primary health care and communities to detect, manage and prevent the occurrence of NCDs and their risk factors. © 2022, The Author(s).The study was supported by the Mozambican Ministry of Health and by the WHO. Additionally, this research forms part of a thesis for a Doctoral degree funded by the COHESION Project financed by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF), under the funding scheme r4d - Swiss Programme for Research on Global Issues for Development, grant number #160366

Turbulence Time Series Data Hole Filling using Karhunen-Loeve and ARIMA methods

Measurements of optical turbulence time series data using unattended instruments over long time intervals inevitably lead to data drop-outs or degraded signals. We present a comparison of methods using both Principal Component Analysis, which is also known as the Karhunen--Loeve decomposition, and ARIMA that seek to correct for these event-induced and mechanically-induced signal drop-outs and degradations. We report on the quality of the correction by examining the Intrinsic Mode Functions generated by Empirical Mode Decomposition. The data studied are optical turbulence parameter time series from a commercial long path length optical anemometer/scintillometer, measured over several hundred metres in outdoor environments.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figures, submitted to ICOLAD 2007, City University, London, U

Generic Multifractality in Exponentials of Long Memory Processes

We find that multifractal scaling is a robust property of a large class of continuous stochastic processes, constructed as exponentials of long-memory processes. The long memory is characterized by a power law kernel with tail exponent $\phi+1/2$, where $\phi >0$. This generalizes previous studies performed only with $\phi=0$ (with a truncation at an integral scale), by showing that multifractality holds over a remarkably large range of dimensionless scales for $\phi>0$. The intermittency multifractal coefficient can be tuned continuously as a function of the deviation $\phi$ from 1/2 and of another parameter $\sigma^2$ embodying information on the short-range amplitude of the memory kernel, the ultra-violet cut-off (``viscous'') scale and the variance of the white-noise innovations. In these processes, both a viscous scale and an integral scale naturally appear, bracketing the ``inertial'' scaling regime. We exhibit a surprisingly good collapse of the multifractal spectra $\zeta(q)$ on a universal scaling function, which enables us to derive high-order multifractal exponents from the small-order values and also obtain a given multifractal spectrum $\zeta(q)$ by different combinations of $\phi$ and $\sigma^2$.Comment: 10 pages + 9 figure

IFN-( and Cortisol Levels in CSF During Aseptic Meningoencephalitis Interferon-( and Cortisol Levels in Cerebrospinal Fluid and its Relationship to the Etiology of Aseptic Meningoencephalitis

Holub M.; Beran O.; Lacinová Z.; Cinek O.; Chalupa P. Abstract: The aim of the study was to analyze the concentrations of Th1/Th2 cytokines and cortisol in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from patients with aseptic meningoencephalitis (AM). The study enrolled 37 patients with AM and 11 control subjects. CSF concentrations of IL-2, IL-4, IL-5, IL-10, IFN-(, and TNF-a were analyzed using cytokine bead array and flow cytometry; CSF cortisol concentrations were measured by a RIA method. Cortisol was detected in 37 CSF samples (100%) from patients with AM, and it was significantly elevated in comparison to control subjects. IFN-( was detected in 32 CSF samples (86.5%) and IL-10 was detectable in 9 CSF samples (24.3%). The CSF cortisol levels correlated negatively with the duration of AM. The intrathecal concentration of IFN-( correlated positively with CSF numbers of leukocytes and lymphocytes, and negatively with the duration of AM. The etiology of AM influenced the CSF cortisol concentration, which was significantly higher in patients with tick-borne encephalitis when compared to persons with AM of unknown origin and control subjects. The results indicate that the prevailing intrathecal immune reaction during AM is shifted to a Th1-like response, whereas anti-inflammatory response in the brain is executed by the effect of cortisol

Conductance of a Conjugated Molecule with Carbon Nanotube Contacts

Calculations of the conductance of a carbon nanotube (CNT)-molecule-CNT structure are in agreement with experimental measurements [1]. The features in the transmission correspond directly to the features of the isolated molecular orbitals. The HOMO provides conductance at low bias that is relatively insensitive to the end groups of the cut CNTs, the cut angle, or the number of molecular bridges. A molecular conformation change not directly in the path of the carrier transport increases the resistance by over 2 orders of magnitude. [1] X. Guo, J. P. Small, J. E. Klare, Y. Wang, M. S. Purewal, I. W. Tam, B. H. Hong, R. Caldwell, L. Huang, S. O'Brien, et al., Science 311, 356 (2006), URL http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/311/5759/356Comment: 15 Pages, 4 figures, 1 tabl