Processed meat consumption and Lung function: modification by antioxidants and smoking

This article has supplementary material available from www.erj.ersjournals.com: This study was supported by the Medical Research Council, UK. H. Okubo was supported in part by fellowship of the Astellas Foundation for Research on Metabolic Disorders, Japan and the Naito Memorial Grant for Research Abroad from the Naito Foundation, Japan

Rising to the challenge of defining and operationalising multimorbidity in a UK hospital setting: the ADMISSION research collaborative

\ua9 The Author(s) 2024. Purpose: Greater transparency and consistency when defining multimorbidity in different settings is needed. We aimed to: (1) adapt published principles that can guide the selection of long-term conditions for inclusion in research studies of multimorbidity in hospitals; (2) apply these principles and identify a list of long-term conditions; (3) operationalise this list by mapping it to International Classification of Diseases 10th revision (ICD-10) codes. Methods: Review by independent assessors and ratification by an interdisciplinary programme management group. Results: Agreement was reached that when defining multimorbidity in hospitals for research purposes all conditions must meet the following four criteria: (1) medical diagnosis; (2) typically present for ≥ 12 months; (3) at least one of currently active; permanent in effect; requiring current treatment, care or therapy; requiring surveillance; remitting-relapsing and requiring ongoing treatment or care, and; (4) lead to at least one of: significantly increased risk of death; significantly reduced quality of life; frailty or physical disability; significantly worsened mental health; significantly increased treatment burden (indicated by an increased risk of hospital admission or increased length of hospital stay). Application of these principles to two existing lists of conditions led to the selection of 60 conditions that can be used when defining multimorbidity for research focused on hospitalised patients. ICD-10 codes were identified for each of these conditions to ensure consistency in their operationalisation. Conclusions: This work contributes to achieving the goal of greater transparency and consistency in the approach to the study of multimorbidity, with a specific focus on the UK hospital setting

Simulating actuator energy consumption for trajectory optimisation

This work aims to construct a high-speed simulation tool which is used to quantify the dynamic actuator power consumption of an aircraft in flight, for use within trajectory optimisation packages. The purpose is to evaluate the energy penalties of the flight control actuation system as an aircraft manoeuvre along any arbitrary trajectory. The advantage is that the approximations include major transient properties which previous steady state techniques could not capture. The output can be used to provide feedback to a trajectory optimisation process to help it compute the aircraft level optimality of any given flight path. The tool features a six degree of freedom dynamic model of an aircraft which is combined with low frequency functional electro-mechanical actuator models in order to estimate the major transient power demands. The actuator models interact with the aircraft using an aerodynamic load estimator which generates load forces on the actuators that vary as a function of flight condition and control surface demands. A total energy control system is applied for longitudinal control and a total heading control system is implemented to manage the lateral motion. The outer loop is closed using a simple waypoint following guidance system with turn anticipation and variable turn radius control. To test the model, a simple trajectory analysis is undertaken which quantifies a heading change executed with four different turn rates. The tool shows that the actuation system requires 12.8 times more electrical energy when performing a 90° turn with a radius of 400 m compared to 1000 m. A second test is performed to verify the model’s ability to track a longer trajectory under windy conditions

Comparison of Cytokine Responses in Ecuadorian Children Infected with Giardia, Ascaris, or Both Parasites.

More than 2 billion people are infected with parasites globally, and the majority have coinfections. Intestinal protozoa and helminths induce polarizing CD4(+) T-helper cell 1 (Th1) mediated cytokine responses within the host. Such immune polarization may inhibit the ability of the host to mount an adequate immune response for pathogen clearance to concurrent pathogens. The current study evaluated the plasma cytokine profile in Ascaris and Giardia coinfected children compared with Giardia- and Ascaris-only infected children. Fecal samples and blood samples were collected from asymptomatic 3-year-old children living in the district of Quininde, Ecuador. Stool samples that tested positive for Giardia lamblia-only, Ascaris lumbricoides-only, or G. lamblia and A. lumbricoides coinfections were confirmed by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Plasma samples from the study subjects were used to quantitate cytokines. A total of 39 patients were evaluated. Children with coinfection had a significant decrease in Th1 cytokine production, interleukin 2 (IL-2) (P < 0.05), IL-12 (P < 0.05), and tumor necrosis factor alpha (P < 0.05) compared with Giardia-only infected children. Coinfected children had an increase in IL-10/interferon gamma (IFN-γ) ratio compared with uninfected (P < 0.05) and Ascaris alone (P < 0.05). The increased IL-10/IFN-γ ratio in the setting of decreased Th1 cytokine response indicates Th2 polarization in the coinfected group. Reduced Th1 cytokines in children coinfected with Ascaris and Giardia may impair the host's ability to eradicate Giardia infection leading to chronic giardiasis

Tractability in Constraint Satisfaction Problems: A Survey

International audienceEven though the Constraint Satisfaction Problem (CSP) is NP-complete, many tractable classes of CSP instances have been identified. After discussing different forms and uses of tractability, we describe some landmark tractable classes and survey recent theoretical results. Although we concentrate on the classical CSP, we also cover its important extensions to infinite domains and optimisation, as well as #CSP and QCSP

Can measures of physical performance in mid-life improve the clinical prediction of disability in early old age? Findings from a British birth cohort study

BACKGROUND: Poor performance in physical tests such as grip strength and walking speed is a risk factor for disability in old age, although whether such measures improve the discrimination of clinical prediction models when traditional clinical risk factors are already known is not clear. The prevalence of disability in mid-life is relatively low and hence screening in this age group may present an opportunity for early identification of those at increased future risk who may benefit most from preventative interventions. METHODS: Data were drawn from two waves of the Medical Research Council National Survey of Health and Development. We examined whether several chronic conditions, poor health behaviours and lower scores on three measures of physical performance (grip strength, chair rise speed and standing balance time) at age 53 were associated with self-reported mobility and/or personal care disability at age 69. We used the area under the curve statistic (AUC) to assess model discrimination. RESULTS: At age 69, 44% (826/1855) of participants reported mobility and/or personal care disability. Our final clinical prediction model included sex, knee osteoarthritis, taking 2+ medications, smoking, increased BMI and poor performance in all three physical tests, with an AUC of 0.740 compared with 0.708 for a model which did not include the performance measures. CONCLUSION: Measures of physical performance in midlife improve discrimination in clinical prediction models for disability over 16 years. Importantly, these and similar measures are also potential targets of future diet, exercise and pharmacological intervention in mid-life

Sedentary time and markers of inflammation in people with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes

This is the final version. Available on open access from Elsevier via the DOI in this recordBACKGROUND AND AIMS: We investigated whether objectively measured sedentary time was associated with markers of inflammation in adults with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes. METHODS AND RESULTS: We studied 285 adults (184 men, 101 women, mean age 59.0 ± 9.7) who had been recruited to the Early ACTivity in Diabetes (Early ACTID) randomised controlled trial. C-reactive protein (CRP), adiponectin, soluble intracellular adhesion molecule-1 (sICAM-1), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and accelerometer-determined sedentary time and moderate-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) were measured at baseline and after six-months. Linear regression analysis was used to investigate the independent cross-sectional and longitudinal associations of sedentary time with markers of inflammation. At baseline, associations between sedentary time and IL-6 were observed in men and women, an association that was attenuated following adjustment for waist circumference. After 6 months of follow-up, sedentary time was reduced by 0.4 ± 1.2 h per day in women, with the change in sedentary time predicting CRP at follow-up. Every hour decrease in sedentary time between baseline and six-months was associated with 24% (1, 48) lower CRP. No changes in sedentary time between baseline and 6 months were seen in men. CONCLUSIONS: Higher sedentary time is associated with IL-6 in men and women with type 2 diabetes, and reducing sedentary time is associated with improved levels of CRP in women. Interventions to reduce sedentary time may help to reduce inflammation in women with type 2 diabetes.National Institute for Health Research (NIHR

Dynamical Autler-Townes control of a phase qubit

Routers, switches, and repeaters are essential components of modern information-processing systems. Similar devices will be needed in future superconducting quantum computers. In this work we investigate experimentally the time evolution of Autler-Townes splitting in a superconducting phase qubit under the application of a control tone resonantly coupled to the second transition. A three-level model that includes independently determined parameters for relaxation and dephasing gives excellent agreement with the experiment. The results demonstrate that the qubit can be used as a ON/OFF switch with 100 ns operating time-scale for the reflection/transmission of photons coming from an applied probe microwave tone. The ON state is realized when the control tone is sufficiently strong to generate an Autler-Townes doublet, suppressing the absorption of the probe tone photons and resulting in a maximum of transmission.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figure

Effects of beta-alanine supplementation on brain homocarnosine/carnosine signal and cognitive function: an exploratory study

Objectives: Two independent studies were conducted to examine the effects of 28 d of beta-alanine supplementation at 6.4 g d-1 on brain homocarnosine/carnosine signal in omnivores and vegetarians (Study 1) and on cognitive function before and after exercise in trained cyclists (Study 2). Methods: In Study 1, seven healthy vegetarians (3 women and 4 men) and seven age- and sex-matched omnivores undertook a brain 1H-MRS exam at baseline and after beta-alanine supplementation. In study 2, nineteen trained male cyclists completed four 20-Km cycling time trials (two pre supplementation and two post supplementation), with a battery of cognitive function tests (Stroop test, Sternberg paradigm, Rapid Visual Information Processing task) being performed before and after exercise on each occasion. Results: In Study 1, there were no within-group effects of beta-alanine supplementation on brain homocarnosine/carnosine signal in either vegetarians (p = 0.99) or omnivores (p = 0.27); nor was there any effect when data from both groups were pooled (p = 0.19). Similarly, there was no group by time interaction for brain homocarnosine/carnosine signal (p = 0.27). In study 2, exercise improved cognitive function across all tests (P0.05) of beta-alanine supplementation on response times or accuracy for the Stroop test, Sternberg paradigm or RVIP task at rest or after exercise. Conclusion: 28 d of beta-alanine supplementation at 6.4g d-1 appeared not to influence brain homocarnosine/ carnosine signal in either omnivores or vegetarians; nor did it influence cognitive function before or after exercise in trained cyclists