Training, nutrition and exercise immunology: The use of salivary Epstein Barr Virus DNA as a marker of in vivo immunity

Aim: The aim of this thesis was to investigate the use of salivary Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) DNA as a marker of in vivo immunity in response to training and nutritional intervention. Methods: Initially, an assay for the detection of EBV DNA in saliva was developed which was subsequently used to detect the concentration of EBV DNA in samples collected in subsequent studies. The potential role of EBV as a predictor of URTI in response to endurance exercise are presented, along with the outcome of nutritional interventions, with chapters investigating the effects of supplementation with carbohydrate, and Chlorella pyrenoidosa. Finally, data from all four of these chapters were consolidated, and the role of salivary EBV DNA as a marker of in vivo immunity investigated. Outcome: The main finding from this thesis is that salivary EBV DNA does not appear to be a useful marker of in vivo immunity based on the present data. EBV concentration was not a predictor of URTI, nor was there a relationship between EBV concentration and SIgA concentration or secretion rate, or the absolute change or percentage change in EBV from pre-post exercise and the absolute and percentage change in SIgA concentration or secretion rate

Exploration of nociceptive cortical processing with steady-state evoked potentials

The periodic presentation of a sensory stimulus induces, at certain frequencies of stimulation, a sustained electroencephalographic response known as steady-state evoked potentials (SS-EP). SS-EPs are considered to reflect entrainment of cortical sensory networks resonating at the frequency of stimulation. In the present study we characterize and compare SS-EPs elicited by the selective electrical activation of nociceptive Aδ-fibers and non-nociceptive Aβ-fibers. Nine subjects took part in the experiment. Ten second trains of nociceptive (intra-epidermal electrical stimulation) and non-nociceptive (transcutaneous electrical stimulation) stimuli were applied to the left and right hand in separate blocks. Trains consisted of 0.5 ms constant-current pulses modulated at 3, 7, 13, 23 and 43 Hz. Consistent nociceptive and non-nociceptive SS-EPs were recorded at all stimulation frequencies. Whereas non-nociceptive SS-EPs were maximal over the parietal region contralateral to the stimulated side, nociceptive SS-EPs were maximal at the vertex and symmetrically distributed over both hemispheres, thus indicating that the two responses reflect the entrainment of distinct neuronal populations. The recording of nociceptive and non-nociceptive somatosensory SS-EPs offers a unique opportunity to study the cortical representation of nociception and touch in humans

Influence of the calcium concentration in the presence of organic phosphorus on the physicochemical compatibility and stability of all-in-one admixtures for neonatal use

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Preterm infants need high amounts of calcium and phosphorus for bone mineralization, which is difficult to obtain with parenteral feeding due to the low solubility of these salts. The objective of this study was to evaluate the physicochemical compatibility of high concentrations of calcium associated with organic phosphate and its influence on the stability of AIO admixtures for neonatal use.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Three TPN admixture formulas were prepared in multilayered bags. The calcium content of the admixtures was adjusted to 0, 46.5 or 93 mg/100 ml in the presence of a fixed organic phosphate concentration as well as lipids, amino acids, inorganic salts, glucose, vitamins and oligoelements at pH 5.5. Each admixture was stored at 4°C, 25°C or 37°C and evaluated over a period of 7 days. The physicochemical stability parameters evaluated were visual aspect, pH, sterility, osmolality, peroxide formation, precipitation, and the size of lipid globules.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Color alterations occurred from the first day on, and reversible lipid film formation from the third day of study for the admixtures stored at 25°C and 37°C. According to the parameters evaluated, the admixtures were stable at 4°C; and none of them presented precipitated particles due to calcium/phosphate incompatibility or lipid globules larger than 5 μm, which is the main parameter currently used to evaluate lipid emulsion stability. The admixtures maintained low peroxide levels and osmolarity was appropriate for parenteral administration.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The total calcium and calcium/phosphorus ratios studied appeared not to influence the physicochemical compatibility and stability of AIO admixtures.</p

Paging and Addressing in the VM-DP System

denotes the number of bytes of RAM, and B denotes the number of bytes per disk block. Accordingly, the track size BD is also measured in bytes. We use bytes rather than records because Vcode, the stack-based, intermediate, dataparallel language that is interpreted by VM-DP supports two different record sizes: 4-byte integers and 8-byte floats. Normalizing all sizes to bytes makes our descriptions independent of record sizes. When does VM-DP use demand paging? All operations that access vectors use VM-DP&apos;s demand-paging system. Operations other than the permuting operations use it for all their vector accesses. These operations include all elementwise operations, scans, and reduces. In addition, Vcode includes six different operations that permute according to target addresses. These permuting operations go through the paging system at least part of the time; they disable it only during external radix sor