Nutrition for the ageing brain: towards evidence for an optimal diet

As people age they become increasingly susceptible to chronic and extremely debilitating brain diseases. The precise cause of the neuronal degeneration underlying these disorders, and indeed normal brain ageing remains however elusive. Considering the limits of existing preventive methods, there is a desire to develop effective and safe strategies. Growing preclinical and clinical research in healthy individuals or at the early stage of cognitive decline has demonstrated the beneficial impact of nutrition on cognitive functions. The present review is the most recent in a series produced by the Nutrition and Mental Performance Task Force under the auspice of the International Life Sciences Institute Europe (ILSI Europe). The latest scientific advances specific to how dietary nutrients and non-nutrient may affect cognitive ageing are presented. Furthermore, several key points related to mechanisms contributing to brain ageing, pathological conditions affecting brain function, and brain biomarkers are also discussed. Overall, findings are inconsistent and fragmented and more research is warranted to determine the underlying mechanisms and to establish dose-response relationships for optimal brain maintenance in different population subgroups. Such approaches are likely to provide the necessary evidence to develop research portfolios that will inform about new dietary recommendations on how to prevent cognitive decline

Association of common genetic variants with brain microbleeds

OBJECTIVE: To identify common genetic variants associated with the presence of brain microbleeds (BMBs). METHODS: We performed geno

Pattern and control of distribution of ¹⁴C-assimilates in reproductive plants of Lolium multiflorum Lam. var. Westerwoldicum

The distribution of ¹⁴C-assimilates was examined in reproductive plants of Lolium multiflorum Lam. var. Westerwoldicum (cv. Tama) from which all emerged tillers had been removed, leaving the main tiller with two expanding leaves, one of them the flag leaf, and two expanded leaves. Export of ¹⁴C from the lower expanded leaf was mainly to the tiller in its axil, the stem internode below its node and the roots, whereas the upper expanded leaf supplied predominantly the expanding leaves, the ear, stem internodes, roots and the tiller bud in the axil of the lower leaf. Defoliation and root-pruning showed that expanding leaves were able to compete successfully for assimilates, probably through the production of substances capable of mobilizing supply. Local application of 1-naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA), gibberellic acid (GA₃) and 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP) to small tiller buds showed that GA₃ and BAP promoted bud growth and ¹⁴C accumulation, but that addition of NAA reduced these effects

Plant growth regulators and the orchid cut-flower industry

Plant Growth Regulation133231-239PGRE

Partitioning of 14C-assimilate between sources and sinks in the monopodial orchid Aranda Tay Swee Eng

Annals of Botany693209-212ANBO

Robust parameter extraction for decision support using multimodal intensive care data

Digital information flow within the intensive care unit (ICU) continues to grow, with advances in technology and computational biology. Recent developments in the integration and archiving of these data have resulted in new opportunities for data analysis and clinical feedback. New problems associated with ICU databases have also arisen. ICU data are high-dimensional, often sparse, asynchronous and irregularly sampled, as well as being non-stationary, noisy and subject to frequent exogenous perturbations by clinical staff. Relationships between different physiological parameters are usually nonlinear (except within restricted ranges), and the equipment used to measure the observables is often inherently error-prone and biased. The prior probabilities associated with an individual's genetics, pre-existing conditions, lifestyle and ongoing medical treatment all affect prediction and classification accuracy. In this paper, we describe some of the key problems and associated methods that hold promise for robust parameter extraction and data fusion for use in clinical decision support in the ICU.National Library of Medicine (U.S.)National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (U.S.)National Institutes of Health (NIH) (grant no. R01 EB001659)National Center for Research Resources (U.S.) (grant no. U01EB008577)Philips Medical SystemsInformation and Communication University (ICU), Kore

Label Noise-Tolerant Hidden Markov Models for Segmentation: Application to ECGs

The performance of traditional classification models can adversely be impacted by the presence of label noise in training observations. The pioneer work of Lawrence and Schölkopf tackled this issue in data sets with independent observations by incorporating a statistical noise model within the inference algorithm. In this paper, the specific case of label noise in non-independent observations is rather considered. For this purpose, a label noise-tolerant expectation-maximisation algorithm is proposed in the frame of hidden Markov models. Experiments are carried on both healthy and pathological electrocardiogram signals with distinct types of additional artificial label noise. Results show that the proposed label noise-tolerant inference algorithm can improve the segmentation performances in the presence of label noise

RNA and sex determination in Caenorhabditis elegans: Post-transcriptional regulation of the sex-determining tra-2 and fem-3 mRNAs in the Caenorhabditis elegans hermaphrodite

The Caenorhabditis elegans hermaphrodite sequentially produces sperm and oocytes from a single pool of precursors. Therefore, the hermaphrodite’s germ line is the site of two major cell fate decisions: a germ cell precursor first undergoes a mitosis/meiosis decision and then a sperm/oocyte decision. While the mitosis/meiosis decision is governed by Notch/GLP-1 signalling, the sperm/oocyte decision relies on post-transcriptional regulation of two key mRNAs, tra-2 and fem-3. This review focuses on factors that are required for the silencing of these mRNAs, which results in the sequential production of sperm and oocytes. Most factors that regulate the expression of tra-2 and fem-3 are homologous to proteins involved in RNA regulation in yeast, mammals or Drosophila, suggesting that at least some of the molecular mechanisms regulating the two worm mRNAs have been conserved throughout evolution