New Biopsy Forceps for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy

n/

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and homocysteine levels in plasma and cerebrospinal fluid

Background: There is evidence that homocysteine contributes to various neurodegenerative disorders. Objective: To assess the values of homocysteine in patients with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in both cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and plasma. Methods: Study design: Case control study. Total homocysteine was quantified in CSF and plasma samples of CJD patients (n = 13) and healthy controls (n = 13). Results: Mean values in healthy controls: 0.15 mumol/l +/- 0.07 (CSF) and 9.10 mumol/l +/- 2.99 (plasma); mean values in CJD patients: 0.13 mumol/l +/- 0.03 (CSF) and 9.22 mumol/l +/- 1.81 (plasma). No significant differences between CJD patients and controls were observed (Mann-Whitney U, p > 0.05). Conclusions: The results indicate that the CSF and plasma of CJD patients showed no higher endogenous levels of homocysteine as compared to normal healthy controls. These findings provide no evidence for an additional role of homocysteine in the pathogenetic mechanisms underlying CJD neurodegeneration. Copyright (C) 2005 S. Karger AG, Basel

The role of cooperation amongst cities, universities, research bodies and civil society organizations on urban food policies in Africa as innovative actions in the cadre of the Milan urban food policy pact

Within the framework of the international debate focusing on experiences emerging from cities in the global North, this paper aims to explore urban food policies under the lens of a global South perspective, paying particular attention to African cities and taking into account the common elements they present -compared with other urban contexts and territories- but also the specificities and uniqueness of them with respect to the process of urbanization and the linkages existing amongst cities and food. Urban food policies are powerful institutional actions, able to build more sustainable food systems of contemporary cities. These innovative policies are designed with a systemic and cross-sectoral approach, capable of acting at the intersection of different issues and fields such as water, waste, planning, health, transport, education, environment, trade, but also food and nutrition security, self-sufficiency and food sovereignty. We will describe an overview of initiatives developed in African cities, in view of the values stemming from the New Urban Agenda and the recommended actions by the recent Milan Urban Food Policy Pact, as an inspiring and propelling opportunity for new forms of territorial partnerships which could promote new types of cooperation amongst cities, universities, research bodies and civil society organizations from global North and South. Our research follows also the broader Italian development agenda. Under this light we will describe the mobilization of a number of institutional actors towards enhancing collaboration with the African context, drawing a geography of priorities, places and initiatives that are being activated in this field. The paper will identify a series of cross-cutting issues (such as land tenure, climate change, urban agriculture, rural-urban migration, waste management) to create a set of interpretative geographies, comparing cases across different African perspectives (for instance, environmental and socio-cultural) to identify common grounds and regional features

Confirmation That MAT1A p.Ala259Val Mutation Causes Autosomal Dominant Hypermethioninemia

Methionine adenosyltransferase (MAT) I/III deficiency is an inborn error of metabolism caused by mutations in MAT1A, encoding the catalytic subunit of MAT responsible for the synthesis of S-adenosylmethionine, and is characterized by persistent hypermethioninemia. While historically considered a recessive disorder, a milder autosomal dominant form of MAT I/III deficiency occurs, though only the most common mutation p.Arg264His has ample evidence to prove dominant inheritance. We report a case of hypermethioninemia caused by the p.Ala259Val substitution and provide evidence of autosomal dominant inheritance by showing both maternal inheritance of the mutation and concomitant hypermethioninemia. The p.Ala259Val mutation falls in the dimer interface, and thus likely leads to dominant inheritance by a similar mechanism to that described in the previously reported dominant negative mutation, that is, by means of interference with subunits encoded by the wild-type allele

Plasma S-adenosylmethionine, DNMT polymorphisms, and peripheral blood LINE-1 methylation among healthy Chinese adults in Singapore

10.1186/1471-2407-13-389BMC Cancer13-BCMA

Characterization of GPS time series at the Neapolitan volcanic area by statistical analysis

The GPS time series recorded at the Neapolitan volcanic area reveals a very peculiar behavior. When a clear deformation is observed, the amplitude distribution evolves from a super‐Gaussian to a broader distribution. This behavior can be characterized by evaluating the kurtosis. Spurious periodic components were evidenced by independent component analysis and then removed by filtering the original signal. The time series for all stations was modeled with a fifth‐order polynomial fit, which represents the deformation history at that place. Indeed, when this polynomial is subtracted from the time series, the distributions again become super‐Gaussian. A simulation of the deformation time evolution was performed by superposing a Laplacian noise and a synthetic deformation history. The kurtosis of the obtained signals decreases as the superposition increases, enlightening the insurgence of the deformation. The presented approach represents a contribution aimed at adding further information to the studies about the deformation at the Neapolitan volcanic area by revealing geologically relevant data

ANALISI DELLE COMPONENTI INDIPENDETI (ICA) NELLO STUDIO DELLE DEFORMAZIONI DEL SUOLO IN AREE VULCANICHE

Independent component analysis (ICA) is a recent and well-known technique used to separate mixtures of signals. This technique has been applied to the ground deformation time-series recorded at the permanent GPS network of the Osservatorio Vesuviano-INGV in order to characterize the deformation background level in the Neapolitan volcanic area. The analysis revealed the presence of five independent periodic signals common at all the GPS stations; some of them are interpreted as effects of earth tides. The residual signal at each station represent the local ground deformation. Unfortunately the ICA cannot provide the absolute amplitude of the components, indeed we are not able to obtain a residual amplitude at each station. Then we used a stationarity analysis in order to investigate the eventual presence of local transient deformations. The ICA technique combined with the stationarity analysis has shown to be a very interesting tool for individuating ground deformation trends and could be very useful in volcanic areas monitoring

Spatial and temporal distribution of vertical ground movements at Mt. Vesuvius in the period 1973-2009

Since the early ’70s vertical ground movements at Mount Vesuvius area have been investigated and monitored by the Osservatorio Vesuviano (Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica Vulcanologia - Osservatorio Vesuviano since 2001). This monitoring began with the installation of a high-precision leveling line in the region at medium-high elevations on the volcano. The deformation pattern and expected strain field assessment methods in the volcanic structure induced by inner sources has demanded in subsequent years the expansion of the leveling network up to cover the whole volcanic area, enclosing part of leveling lines of other institutions. As a result of this expansion, the Mt. Vesuvius Area Leveling Network (VALN) has today reached a length of about 270 km and consists of 359 benchmarks. It is configured in 21 circuits and is connected, westward, to the Campi Flegrei leveling network and, northward, to the Campania Plain leveling network. The data collected have been carefully re-analyzed for random and systematic errors and for error propagation along the leveling lines to identify the areas affected by significant ground movements. For each survey, the data were rigorously adjusted and vertical ground movements were evaluated by differentiating the heights calculated by the various measurements conducted by the Osservatorio Vesuviano from 1973 to 2009

Generalized Arcsine Law and Stable Law in an Infinite Measure Dynamical System

Limit theorems for the time average of some observation functions in an infinite measure dynamical system are studied. It is known that intermittent phenomena, such as the Rayleigh-Benard convection and Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction, are described by infinite measure dynamical systems.We show that the time average of the observation function which is not the $L^1(m)$ function, whose average with respect to the invariant measure $m$ is finite, converges to the generalized arcsine distribution. This result leads to the novel view that the correlation function is intrinsically random and does not decay. Moreover, it is also numerically shown that the time average of the observation function converges to the stable distribution when the observation function has the infinite mean.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figure