Molecular heat pump for rotational states

In this work we investigate the theory for three different uni-directional population transfer schemes in trapped multilevel systems which can be utilized to cool molecular ions. The approach we use exploits the laser-induced coupling between the internal and motional degrees of freedom so that the internal state of a molecule can be mapped onto the motion of that molecule in an external trapping potential. By sympathetically cooling the translational motion back into its ground state the mapping process can be employed as part of a cooling scheme for molecular rotational levels. This step is achieved through a common mode involving a laser-cooled atom trapped alongside the molecule. For the coherent mapping we will focus on adiabatic passage techniques which may be expected to provide robust and efficient population transfers. By applying far-detuned chirped adiabatic rapid passage pulses we are able to achieve an efficiency of better than 98% for realistic parameters and including spontaneous emission. Even though our main focus is on cooling molecular states, the analysis of the different adiabatic methods has general features which can be applied to atomic systems

A new framework architecture for next generation e-Health services

The challenge for fast and low-cost deployment of ubiquitous personalized e-Health services has prompted us to propose a new framework architecture for such services. We have studied the operational features and the environment of e-Health services and we led to a framework structure that extends the ETSI/Parlay architecture, which is used for the deployment of standardized services over the next generation IP networks. We expanded the ETSI/Parlay architecture with new service capability features as well as sensor, profiling and security mechanisms. The proposed framework assists the seamless integration, within the e-Health service structure, of diverse facilities provided by both the underlying communication and computing infrastructure as well as the patient's bio and context sensor networks. Finally, we demonstrate the deployment of a tele-monitoring service in smart home environment based on the proposed framework architecture

Restless legs syndrome is contributing to fatigue and low quality of life levels in hemodialysis patients

AIM: To examine whether hemodialysis (HD) patients with restless legs syndrome (RLS) are subjects of greater fatigue and impaired quality of life (QoL) compared to HD patients without RLS. METHODS: Eighty five stable HD patients participated in this study. According to their RLS status, the patients were divided into the RLS group (n = 23) and the non-RLS group (n = 62). QoL, fatigue, sleep quality, daily sleepiness and depression symptoms were assessed by using various questionnaires. Finally, biochemical parameters including iron, ferritin, hemoglobin, hematocrit and parathormone were assessed. RESULTS: The HD patients with RLS scored worse in all the questionnaires used in the study (P < 0.05). The patients with RLS were more likely to receive the HD therapy on the morning shift, whilst 43.5% of the RLS patients reported to experience the RLS symptoms also during HD. The severity of RLS was correlated with fatigue, depression score and sleep quality (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: HD patients with RLS are subject to lower QoL related parameters and greater fatigue compared to HD patients without RLS. RLS should be successfully managed in order to improve the QoL of the sufferers

GEOGRAPHIC OBJECTS: THEORY OR TECHNOLOGY DRIVEN?

This article aims to compare the geo-graphic (spatial) objects in 2D (planar objects) proposed by CON.G.O.O. and ISO standards, and the ability of a number of GIS software to handle them. The results achieved so far showed that the actual technical possibilities are not always sufficient to support the complex spatial objects proposed by CON.G.O.O

Dietary and other lifestyle characteristics of Cypriot school children: results from the nationwide CYKIDS study

Dietary and lifestyle behaviors at young ages have been associated with the development of various chronic diseases. Schools are regarded as an excellent setting for lifestyle modification; there is a lack, however, of published dietary data in Cypriot school children. Thus, the objective of this work was to describe lifestyle characteristics of a representative segment of Cypriot school children and provide implications for school health education. Methods. The CYKIDS (Cyprus Kids Study) is a national, cross-sectional study conducted among 1140 school children (10.7 0.98 years). Sampling was stratified and multistage in 24 primary schools of Cyprus. Dietary assessment was based on a 154-item semi-quantitative food-frequency questionnaire and three supplementary questionnaires, assessing dietary patterns and behaviors. Adherence to the Mediterranean diet was evaluated by the KIDMED index (Mediterranean Diet Quality Index for children and adolescents). Physical activity was assessed by a 32-item, semi-quantitative questionnaire. Results. Analysis revealed that 6.7% of the children were classified as high adherers, whereas 37% as low adherers to the Mediterranean diet. About 20% of boys and 25% of girls reported "not having breakfast on most days of the week", while more than 80% of the children reported having meals with the family at least 5 times/week. Some food-related behaviors, such as intake of breakfast, were associated with socio-demographic factors, mostly with gender and the geomorphological characteristics of the living milieu. With respect to physical activity, boys reported higher levels compared to girls, however, one fourth of children did not report any kind of physical activity. Conclusion. A large percentage of Cypriot school children have a diet of low quality and inadequate physical activity. Public health policy makers should urgently focus their attention to primary school children and design school health education programs that target the areas that need attention in order to reduce the future burden of metabolic disorders and chronic diseases

Drug-disease Graph: Predicting Adverse Drug Reaction Signals via Graph Neural Network with Clinical Data

Adverse Drug Reaction (ADR) is a significant public health concern world-wide. Numerous graph-based methods have been applied to biomedical graphs for predicting ADRs in pre-marketing phases. ADR detection in post-market surveillance is no less important than pre-marketing assessment, and ADR detection with large-scale clinical data have attracted much attention in recent years. However, there are not many studies considering graph structures from clinical data for detecting an ADR signal, which is a pair of a prescription and a diagnosis that might be a potential ADR. In this study, we develop a novel graph-based framework for ADR signal detection using healthcare claims data. We construct a Drug-disease graph with nodes representing the medical codes. The edges are given as the relationships between two codes, computed using the data. We apply Graph Neural Network to predict ADR signals, using labels from the Side Effect Resource database. The model shows improved AUROC and AUPRC performance of 0.795 and 0.775, compared to other algorithms, showing that it successfully learns node representations expressive of those relationships. Furthermore, our model predicts ADR pairs that do not exist in the established ADR database, showing its capability to supplement the ADR database.Comment: To appear at PAKDD 202

A Halomethane thermochemical network from iPEPICO experiments and quantum chemical calculations

Internal energy selected halomethane cations CH3Cl+, CH2Cl2+, CHCl3+, CH3F+, CH2F2+, CHClF2+ and CBrClF2+ were prepared by vacuum ultraviolet photoionization, and their lowest energy dissociation channel studied using imaging photoelectron photoion coincidence spectroscopy (iPEPICO). This channel involves hydrogen atom loss for CH3F+, CH2F2+ and CH3Cl+, chlorine atom loss for CH2Cl2+, CHCl3+ and CHClF2+, and bromine atom loss for CBrClF2+. Accurate 0 K appearance energies, in conjunction with ab initio isodesmic and halogen exchange reaction energies, establish a thermochemical network, which is optimized to update and confirm the enthalpies of formation of the sample molecules and their dissociative photoionization products. The ground electronic states of CHCl3+, CHClF2+ and CBrClF2+ do not confirm to the deep well assumption, and the experimental breakdown curve deviates from the deep well model at low energies. Breakdown curve analysis of such shallow well systems supplies a satisfactorily succinct route to the adiabatic ionization energy of the parent molecule, particularly if the threshold photoelectron spectrum is not resolved and a purely computational route is unfeasible. The ionization energies have been found to be 11.47 ± 0.01 eV, 12.30 ± 0.02 eV and 11.23 ± 0.03 eV for CHCl3, CHClF2 and CBrClF2, respectively. The updated 0 K enthalpies of formation, ∆fHo0K(g) for the ions CH2F+, CHF2+, CHCl2+, CCl3+, CCl2F+ and CClF2+ have been derived to be 844.4 ± 2.1, 601.6 ± 2.7, 890.3 ± 2.2, 849.8 ± 3.2, 701.2 ± 3.3 and 552.2 ± 3.4 kJ mol–1, respectively. The ∆fHo0K(g) values for the neutrals CCl4, CBrClF2, CClF3, CCl2F2 and CCl3F and have been determined to be –94.0 ± 3.2, –446.6 ± 2.7, –702.1 ± 3.5, –487.8 ± 3.4 and –285.2 ± 3.2 kJ mol–1, respectively

Comparing serial X-ray crystallography and microcrystal electron diffraction (MicroED) as methods for routine structure determination from small macromolecular crystals.

Innovative new crystallographic methods are facilitating structural studies from ever smaller crystals of biological macromolecules. In particular, serial X-ray crystallography and microcrystal electron diffraction (MicroED) have emerged as useful methods for obtaining structural information from crystals on the nanometre to micrometre scale. Despite the utility of these methods, their implementation can often be difficult, as they present many challenges that are not encountered in traditional macromolecular crystallography experiments. Here, XFEL serial crystallography experiments and MicroED experiments using batch-grown microcrystals of the enzyme cyclophilin A are described. The results provide a roadmap for researchers hoping to design macromolecular microcrystallography experiments, and they highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the two methods. Specifically, we focus on how the different physical conditions imposed by the sample-preparation and delivery methods required for each type of experiment affect the crystal structure of the enzyme

Reversible Keap1 inhibitors are preferential pharmacological tools to modulate cellular mitophagy

Mitophagy orchestrates the autophagic degradation of dysfunctional mitochondria preventing their pathological accumulation and contributing to cellular homeostasis. We previously identified a novel chemical tool (hereafter referred to as PMI), which drives mitochondria into autophagy without collapsing their membrane potential (ΔΨm). PMI is an inhibitor of the protein-protein interaction (PPI) between the transcription factor Nrf2 and its negative regulator, Keap1 and is able to up-regulate the expression of autophagy-associated proteins, including p62/SQSTM1. Here we show that PMI promotes mitochondrial respiration, leading to a superoxide-dependent activation of mitophagy. Structurally distinct Keap1-Nrf2 PPI inhibitors promote mitochondrial turnover, while covalent Keap1 modifiers, including sulforaphane (SFN) and dimethyl fumarate (DMF), are unable to induce a similar response. Additionally, we demonstrate that SFN reverses the effects of PMI in co-treated cells by reducing the accumulation of p62 in mitochondria and subsequently limiting their autophagic degradation. This study highlights the unique features of Keap1-Nrf2 PPI inhibitors as inducers of mitophagy and their potential as pharmacological agents for the treatment of pathological conditions characterized by impaired mitochondrial quality control

Identification of PSD-95 in the Postsynaptic Density Using MiniSOG and EM Tomography

Combining tomography with electron microscopy (EM) produces images at definition sufficient to visualize individual protein molecules or molecular complexes in intact neurons. When freeze-substituted hippocampal cultures in plastic sections are imaged by EM tomography, detailed structures emerging from 3D reconstructions reveal putative glutamate receptors and membrane-associated filaments containing scaffolding proteins such as postsynaptic density (PSD)-95 family proteins based on their size, shape, and known distributions. In limited instances, structures can be identified with enhanced immuno-Nanogold labeling after light fixation and subsequent freeze-substitution. Molecular identification of structure can be corroborated in their absence after acute protein knockdown or gene knockout. However, additional labeling methods linking EM level structure to molecules in tomograms are needed. A recent development for labeling structures for TEM employs expression of endogenous proteins carrying a green fluorescent tag, miniSOG, to photoconvert diaminobenzidine (DAB) into osmiophilic polymers. This approach requires initial mild chemical fixation but many of structural features in neurons can still be discerned in EM tomograms. The photoreaction product, which appears as electron-dense, fine precipitates decorating protein structures in neurons, may diffuse to fill cytoplasm of spines, thus obscuring specific localization of proteins tagged with miniSOG. Here we develop an approach to minimize molecular diffusion of the DAB photoreaction product in neurons, which allows miniSOG tagged molecule/complexes to be identified in tomograms. The examples reveal electron-dense clusters of reaction product labeling membrane-associated vertical filaments, corresponding to the site of miniSOG fused at the C-terminal end of PSD-95-miniSOG, allowing identification of PSD-95 vertical filaments at the PSD. This approach, which results in considerable improvement in the precision of labeling PSD-95 in tomograms without complications due to the presence of antibody complexes in immunogold labeling, may be applicable for identifying other synaptic proteins in intact neurons