Age‐related white matter hyperintensities and overactive bladder: a systematic review

© 2023 The Authors. Neurourology and Urodynamics published by Wiley Periodicals LLC. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.Introduction: Age-related white matter hyperintensities (ARWMHs) on brain magnetic resonance imaging have been associated with lower urinary tract symptoms/dysfunction (LUTS/LUTD), namely overactive bladder (OAB) and detrusor overactivity. We aimed to systematically review existing data on the association between ARWMH and LUTS and which clinical tools have been used for this assessment. Materials and methods: We searched PubMed/MEDLINE, Cochrane Library, and clinicaltrials.gov (from 1980 to November 2021) and considered original studies reporting data on ARWMH and LUTS/LUTD in patients of both sexes aged 50 or above. The primary outcome was OAB. We calculated the unadjusted odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) for the outcomes of interest using random-effects models. Results: Fourteen studies were included. LUTS assessment was heterogeneous and mainly based on the use of nonvalidated questionnaires. Urodynamics assessment was reported in five studies. ARWMHs were graded using visual scales in eight studies. Patients with moderate-to-severe ARWMHs were more likely to present with OAB and urgency urinary incontinence (UUI; OR = 1.61; 95% CI: 1.05-2.49, p = 0.03), I2 = 21.3%) when compared to patients with similar age and absent or mild ARWMH. Discussion and conclusions: High-quality data on the association between ARWMH and OAB is scarce. Patients with moderate to severe ARWMH showed higher levels of OAB symptoms, including UUI, when compared to patients with absent or mild ARWMH. The use of standardized tools to assess both ARWMH and OAB in these patients should be encouraged in future research.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Artisanal ceramic factories using wood combustion: A nanoparticles and human health study

The ceramics industry, resulting from developments of modern compounds, is a segment of great influence in worldwide sustainability. Artisanal ceramic factories based on wood combustion have significant risks for the creation and discharge of atmosphere nanoparticles (NPs) and ultra-fine particles (UFPs). At present, there is insufficient recognition on the influence of engineered-NPs on the atmosphere and health. Real improvements are indispensable to diminish contact with NPs. The present study demonstrates the main NPs and UFPS present in an area of intense artisanal wood-combustion ceramic manufacturing. Particulate matter was sampled for morphological, chemical, and geochemical studies by sophisticated electron microbeam microscopy, X-Ray Diffraction, and Raman spectroscopy. From NPs configuration (10 nm) were produced around the studied artisanal ceramic factories. This study presents an indication of the recent information on population and work-related contact to NPs in the artisanal ceramic factories and their influence on health

Propuesta de un método de estimación de tiempo y esfuerzo para las pruebas de liberación, aceptación y piloto.

La estimación es una predicción aproximada que tiene una probabilidad de ser cierta. En el orden internacional es poco usada la estimación en la fase de pruebas, siendo imprescindible debido a los constantes cambios del desarrollo del software. En la fase de pruebas de software más específi camente en las pruebas de aceptación, liberación y piloto es necesaria la aplicación de un método de estimación de tiempo y esfuerzo, para lograr así tener estimaciones reales, que se traducirán en una mejor planifi cación de los recursos humanos y materiales. El objetivo de este artículo espresentar una propuesta de un método de estimación de tiempo y esfuerzo para las pruebas de liberación, aceptación y piloto, a partir de un análisis de los principales métodos de estimación usados en el mundo del software, así como la utilización de los métodos convencionales de estimación, para realizar un estudio de losprincipales factores que infl uyen en la fase de pruebas

On the continuous processing of health data in edge-fog-cloud computing by using micro/nanoservice composition

The edge, the fog, the cloud, and even the end-user's devices play a key role in the management of the health sensitive content/data lifecycle. However, the creation and management of solutions including multiple applications executed by multiple users in multiple environments (edge, the fog, and the cloud) to process multiple health repositories that, at the same time, fulfilling non-functional requirements (NFRs) represents a complex challenge for health care organizations. This paper presents the design, development, and implementation of an architectural model to create, on-demand, edge-fog-cloud processing structures to continuously handle big health data and, at the same time, to execute services for fulfilling NFRs. In this model, constructive and modular $blocks$ , implemented as microservices and nanoservices, are recursively interconnected to create edge-fog-cloud processing structures as ¿This work was supported in part by the Council for Science and Technology of Mexico (CONACYT) through the Basic Scientific Research under Grant 2016-01-285276, and in part by the Project CABAHLA-CM: Convergencia Big data-Hpc: de los sensores a las Aplicaciones from Madrid Regional Government under Grant S2018/TCS-4423

Comunicar ciencia en México. Discursos y espacios sociales

La generación y divulgación de la ciencia y la tecnología es una tarea que implica contribuir al desarrollo de una cultura que vaya más allá del registro y difusión de los hechos y nombres científicos, al suponer la comprensión crítica de la labor propia como proceso socialmente contextualizado, enraizado en factores históricos, políticos, económicos y éticos. Los trabajos aquí presentados proponen asumir que la comunicación pública del conocimiento expresa también las controversias socio–científicas y la relación social de ciencia y tecnología en las condiciones imperantes de transición vertiginosa en la producción cultural, científica y tecnológica.ITESO, A.C.Consejo de Ciencia y Tecnología del Estado de Jalisc

Integrating informatics tools and portable sequencing technology for rapid detection of resistance to anti-tuberculous drugs

BACKGROUND: Mycobacterium tuberculosis resistance to anti-tuberculosis drugs is a major threat to global public health. Whole genome sequencing (WGS) is rapidly gaining traction as a diagnostic tool for clinical tuberculosis settings. To support this informatically, previous work led to the development of the widely used TBProfiler webtool, which predicts resistance to 14 drugs from WGS data. However, for accurate and rapid high throughput of samples in clinical or epidemiological settings, there is a need for a stand-alone tool and the ability to analyse data across multiple WGS platforms, including Oxford Nanopore MinION. RESULTS: We present a new command line version of the TBProfiler webserver, which includes hetero-resistance calling and will facilitate the batch processing of samples. The TBProfiler database has been expanded to incorporate 178 new markers across 16 anti-tuberculosis drugs. The predictive performance of the mutation library has been assessed using > 17,000 clinical isolates with WGS and laboratory-based drug susceptibility testing (DST) data. An integrated MinION analysis pipeline was assessed by performing WGS on 34 replicates across 3 multi-drug resistant isolates with known resistance mutations. TBProfiler accuracy varied by individual drug. Assuming DST as the gold standard, sensitivities for detecting multi-drug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) and extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) were 94% (95%CI 93-95%) and 83% (95%CI 79-87%) with specificities of 98% (95%CI 98-99%) and 96% (95%CI 95-97%) respectively. Using MinION data, only one resistance mutation was missed by TBProfiler, involving an insertion in the tlyA gene coding for capreomycin resistance. When compared to alternative platforms (e.g. Mykrobe predictor TB, the CRyPTIC library), TBProfiler demonstrated superior predictive performance across first- and second-line drugs. CONCLUSIONS: The new version of TBProfiler can rapidly and accurately predict anti-TB drug resistance profiles across large numbers of samples with WGS data. The computing architecture allows for the ability to modify the core bioinformatic pipelines and outputs, including the analysis of WGS data sourced from portable technologies. TBProfiler has the potential to be integrated into the point of care and WGS diagnostic environments, including in resource-poor settings

Clinical trial evaluating the effectiveness of biocompound IMMUNEPOTENT CRP in the third-molar extraction

ABSTRACT A controlled, parallel, randomized and comparative trial was carried out to evaluate the antiinflammatory efficacy of IMMUNEPOTENT CRP versus ibuprofen in patients after third-molar surgery over seven days. The anti-inflammatory efficacy of IMMUNEPOTENT CRP was evaluated using the method of Amin and Laskin, and the analysis of cytokine production (IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, TNF-a, INF-g) in saliva was done by flow cytometry. The swelling process after surgery was significant (p < 0.05) and the treatments with IMMUNEPOTENT CRP or ibuprofen controlled this process properly; no difference between the groups was found (p < 0.05). Both treatments were shown to modulate the cytokine production. These results demonstrate the anti-inflammatory activity of the natural compound IMMUNEPOTENT CRP and suggest it could be used in clinical dental practice

Evaluation of ichthyofauna in lotic and lentic environments in the Araguaia River basin, Cerrado Biome, Brazil

The Araguaia River is an important watercourse located in Central Brazil and well known for its diversity of fish fauna. Differences between landscape and resources in the distinct environments existing in a floodplain can determine the success of a species. This study presents a list of ichthyofauna species found in lentic and lotic environments in the floodplain of the Araguaia River basin, bordering Mato Grosso and Goiás States. We carried out sampling in July 2019, during the dry season, using diverse fish collection strategies, such as waiting nets, trawl, cast net and fishing rods. Were distributed 12 sampling points between lentic and lotic environments and we captured a total of 168 individuals of 42 species, 19 families and six orders. The predominant orders were Characiformes, Siluriformes and Cichliformes, while the families were Serrasalmidae, Characidae, Triportheidae, Curimatidae and Anostomidae. The genera Triportheus, Psectrogaster and Moenkhausia were the most abundant, while Pimelodus was the most dispersed. Results showed greater abundance and diversity in the lentic environment than in the lotic one, with top-of-the-chain species in both. The variance between environments and the presence of species that are endemic, recently described, of undefined taxonomic status, and bioindicators, highlight the importance of conserving and further studying the ichthyofauna in the Araguaia River basin

Knowledge to Serve the City: Insights from an Emerging Knowledge-Action Network to Address Vulnerability and Sustainability in San Juan, Puerto Rico

This paper presents initial efforts to establish the San Juan Urban Long-Term Research Area Exploratory (ULTRA-Ex), a long-term program aimed at developing transdisciplinary social-ecological system (SES) research to address vulnerability and sustainability for the municipality of San Juan. Transdisciplinary approaches involve the collaborations between researchers, stakeholders, and citizens to produce socially-relevant knowledge and support decision-making. We characterize the transdisciplinary arrangement emerging in San Juan ULTRA-Ex as a knowledge-action network composed of multiple formal and informal actors (e.g., scientists, policymakers, civic organizations and other stakeholders) where knowledge, ideas, and strategies for sustainability are being produced, evaluated, and validated. We describe in this paper the on-the-ground social practices and dynamics that emerged from developing a knowledge-action network in our local context. Specifically, we present six social practices that were crucial to the development of our knowledge-action network: 1) understanding local framings; 2) analyzing existing knowledge-action systems in the city; 3) framing the social-ecological research agenda; 4) collaborative knowledge production and integration; 5) boundary objects and practices; and 6) synthesis, application, and adaptation. We discuss key challenges and ways to move forward in building knowledge-action networks for sustainability. Our hope is that the insights learned from this process will stimulate broader discussions on how to develop knowledge for urban sustainability, especially in tropical cities where these issues are under-explored