Self-organized pore formation and open-loop-control in semiconductor etching

Electrochemical etching of semiconductors, apart from many technical applications, provides an interesting experimental setup for self-organized structure formation capable e.g. of regular, diameter-modulated, and branching pores. The underlying dynamical processes governing current transfer and structure formation are described by the Current-Burst-Model: all dissolution processes are assumed to occur inhomogeneously in time and space as a Current Burst (CB); the properties and interactions between CB's are described by a number of material- and chemistry- dependent ingredients, like passivation and aging of surfaces in different crystallographic orientations, giving a qualitative understanding of resulting pore morphologies. These morphologies cannot be influenced only by the current, by chemical, material and other etching conditions, but also by an open-loop control, triggering the time scale given by the oxide dissolution time. With this method, under conditions where only branching pores occur, the additional signal hinders side pore formation resulting in regular pores with modulated diameter

Atopic dermatitis: tacrolimus vs. topical corticosteroid use

Atopic dermatitis (AD), the dermatological manifestation of the atopic diathesis, has a variety of clinical presentations. It is a chronic and relapsing inflammatory disorder, requiring a multifaceted treatment approach. Topical corticosteroids are the backbone of therapy. However, concerns over adverse drug reactions associated with their long-term application limit their use. Tacrolimus, on the other hand, has been shown to be effective in stabilising the symptoms of AD in the long-term setting, without the side-effects that hamper the use of topical corticosteroids. Long-term safety data up to ten years are available in the literature. Despite this, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) black box warning of possible malignancies has resulted in much debate among experts. The main focus of this article is to compare the safety and efficacy of topical corticosteroids to calcineurin inhibitors, particularly tacrolimus. Furthermore, the aim is to evaluate the place of tacrolimus in AD therapy. A brief overview of the condition and other treatment modalities will also be discussed.Keywords: atopic dermatitis, tacroliums, topical corticosteroid us

Flattening, squeezing and the existence of random attractors

The study of qualitative properties of random and stochastic differential equations is now one of the most active fields in the modern theory of dynamical systems. In the deterministic case, the properties of flattening and squeezing in infinite-dimensional autonomous dynamical systems require the existence of a bounded absorbing set and imply the existence of a global attractor. The flattening property involves the behaviour of individual trajectories while the squeezing property involves the difference of trajectories. It is shown here that the flattening property is implied by the squeezing property and is in fact weaker, since the attractor in a system with the flattening property can be infinite-dimensional, whereas it is always finite-dimensional in a system with the squeezing property. The flattening property is then generalized to random dynamical systems, for which it is called the pullback flattening property. It is shown to be weaker than the random squeezing property, but equivalent to pullback asymptotic compactness and pullback limit-set compactness, and thus implies the existence of a random attractor. The results are also valid for deterministic non-utonomous dynamical systems formulated as skew-product flows.Ministerio de Educación y Cienci

Association of Lifestyle and Genetic Risk With Incidence of Dementia

This is the final version. Available from the American Medical Association via the DOI in this recordImportance: Genetic factors increase risk of dementia, but the extent to which this can be offset by lifestyle factors is unknown. Objective: To investigate whether a healthy lifestyle is associated with lower risk of dementia regardless of genetic risk. Design, Setting, and Participants: A retrospective cohort study that included adults of European ancestry aged at least 60 years without cognitive impairment or dementia at baseline. Participants joined the UK Biobank study from 2006 to 2010 and were followed up until 2016 or 2017. Exposures: A polygenic risk score for dementia with low (lowest quintile), intermediate (quintiles 2 to 4), and high (highest quintile) risk categories and a weighted healthy lifestyle score, including no current smoking, regular physical activity, healthy diet, and moderate alcohol consumption, categorized into favorable, intermediate, and unfavorable lifestyles. Main Outcomes and Measures: Incident all-cause dementia, ascertained through hospital inpatient and death records. Results: A total of 196 383 individuals (mean [SD] age, 64.1 [2.9] years; 52.7% were women) were followed up for 1 545 433 person-years (median [interquartile range] follow-up, 8.0 [7.4-8.6] years). Overall, 68.1% of participants followed a favorable lifestyle, 23.6% followed an intermediate lifestyle, and 8.2% followed an unfavorable lifestyle. Twenty percent had high polygenic risk scores, 60% had intermediate risk scores, and 20% had low risk scores. Of the participants with high genetic risk, 1.23% (95% CI, 1.13%-1.35%) developed dementia compared with 0.63% (95% CI, 0.56%-0.71%) of the participants with low genetic risk (adjusted hazard ratio, 1.91 [95% CI, 1.64-2.23]). Of the participants with a high genetic risk and unfavorable lifestyle, 1.78% (95% CI, 1.38%-2.28%) developed dementia compared with 0.56% (95% CI, 0.48%-0.66%) of participants with low genetic risk and favorable lifestyle (hazard ratio, 2.83 [95% CI, 2.09-3.83]). There was no significant interaction between genetic risk and lifestyle factors (P = .99). Among participants with high genetic risk, 1.13% (95% CI, 1.01%-1.26%) of those with a favorable lifestyle developed dementia compared with 1.78% (95% CI, 1.38%-2.28%) with an unfavorable lifestyle (hazard ratio, 0.68 [95% CI, 0.51-0.90]). Conclusions and Relevance: Among older adults without cognitive impairment or dementia, both an unfavorable lifestyle and high genetic risk were significantly associated with higher dementia risk. A favorable lifestyle was associated with a lower dementia risk among participants with high genetic risk.James Tudor FoundationMary Kinross Charitable TrustHalpin TrustNational Institute for Health Research (NIHR)National Health and Medical Research Council, AustraliaNational Institute on Aging/National Institutes of HealthEngineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC

Exposure to secondhand smoke and cognitive impairment in non-smokers: national cross sectional study with cotinine measurement

Objective To examine the association between a biomarker of exposure to secondhand smoke (salivary cotinine concentration) and cognitive impairment

Informal Caregiving for Diabetes and Diabetic Complications Among Elderly Americans

Objectives: Little is known regarding the amount of time spent by unpaid caregivers providing help to elderly individuals for disabilities associated with diabetes mellitus (DM). We sought to obtain nationally representative estimates of the time, and associated cost, of informal caregiving provided to the elderly with diabetes, and to determine the complications of DM that contribute most significantly to the subsequent need for informal care. Methods: We estimated multivariable regression models using data from the 1993 Asset and Health Dynamics (AHEAD) Study, a nationally representative survey of people aged 70 or older (N=7,443), to determine the weekly hours of informal caregiving and imputed cost of caregiver time for community-dwelling elderly with and without a diagnosis of DM. Results: Those without DM received an average of 6.1 hours per week of informal care, those with DM taking no medications received 10.5 hours, those with DM taking oral medications received 10.1 hours, and those with DM taking insulin received 14.4 hours of care (P

Investigation of MicroRNA-134 as a Target against Seizures and SUDEP in a Mouse Model of Dravet Syndrome

Dravet syndrome (DS) is a catastrophic form of pediatric epilepsy mainly caused by noninherited mutations in the SCN1A gene. DS patients suffer severe and life-threatening focal and generalized seizures which are often refractory to available anti-seizure medication. Antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) based approaches may offer treatment opportunities in DS. MicroRNAs are short noncoding RNAs that play a key role in brain structure and function by post-transcriptionally regulating gene expression, including ion channels. Inhibiting miRNA-134 (miR-134) using an antimiR ASO (Ant-134) has been shown to reduce evoked seizures in juvenile and adult mice and reduce epilepsy development in models of focal epilepsy. The present study investigated the levels of miR-134 and whether Ant-134 could protect against hyperthermia-induced seizures, spontaneous seizures and mortality (SUDEP) in F1.Scn1a(1/)tm1kea mice. At P17, animals were intracerebroventricular in-jected with 0.1–1 nmol of Ant-134 and subject to a hyperthermia challenge at postnatal day (P)18. A second cohort of P21 F1.Scn1a(1/)tm1kea mice received Ant-134 and were followed by video and EEG monitoring until P28 to track the incidence of spontaneous seizures and SUDEP. Hippocampal and cortical levels of miR-134 were similar between wild-type (WT) and F1.Scn1a(1/)tm1kea mice. Moreover, Ant-134 had no effect on hyperthermia-induced seizures, spontaneous seizures and SUDEP incidence were unchanged in Ant-134-treated DS mice. These findings suggest that targeting miR-134 does not have therapeutic applications in DS

Measurement differences in the assessment of functional limitations for cognitive impairment classification across geographic locations

Introduction: The measurement of dementia in cross-national contexts relies on the assessment of functional limitations. We aimed to evaluate the performance of survey items on functional limitations across culturally diverse geographic settings. Methods: We used data from the Harmonized Cognitive Assessment Protocol Surveys (HCAP) in five countries (total N = 11,250) to quantify associations between items on functional limitations and cognitive impairment. Results: Many items performed better in the United States and England compared to South Africa, India, and Mexico. Items on the Community Screening Instrument for Dementia (CSID) had the least variability across countries (SD = 0.73 vs. 0.92 [Blessed] and 0.98 [Jorm IQCODE]), but also the weakest associations with cognitive impairment (median odds ratio [OR] = 2.23 vs. 3.01 [Blessed] and 2.75 [Jorm IQCODE]). Discussion: Differences in cultural norms for reporting functional limitations likely influences performance of items on functional limitations and may affect the interpretation of results from substantive studies. Highlights: There was substantial cross-country variation in item performance. Items from the Community Screening Instrument for Dementia (CSID) had less cross-country variability but lower performance. There was more variability in performance of instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) compared to activities of daily living (ADL) items. Variability in cultural expectations of older adults should be taken into account. Results highlight the need for novel approaches to assessing functional limitations

Antagomir-mediated suppression of microRNA-134 reduces kainic acid-induced seizures in immature mice

MicroRNAs are short non-coding RNAs that negatively regulate protein levels and perform important roles in establishing and maintaining neuronal network function. Previous studies in adult rodents have detected upregulation of microRNA-134 after prolonged seizures (status epilepticus) and demonstrated that silencing microRNA-134 using antisense oligonucleotides, termed antagomirs, has potent and long-lasting seizure-suppressive effects. Here we investigated whether targeting microRNA-134 can reduce or delay acute seizures in the immature brain. Status epilepticus was induced in 21 day-old (P21) male mice by systemic injection of 5 mg/kg kainic acid. This triggered prolonged electrographic seizures and select bilateral neuronal death within the CA3 subfield of the hippocampus. Expression of microRNA-134 and functional loading to Argonaute-2 was not significantly changed in the hippocampus after seizures in the model. Nevertheless, when levels of microRNA-134 were reduced by prior intracerebroventricular injection of an antagomir, kainic acid-induced seizures were delayed and less severe and mice displayed reduced neuronal death in the hippocampus. These studies demonstrate targeting microRNA-134 may have therapeutic applications for the treatment of seizures in children

Physico-chemical properties of crude oil of Khaya senegalensis (Desr.) A. Juss according to bioclimatic zones in Chad

The mature seeds of Khaya senegalensis are from 2 to 2.5 cm long and weigh 289 g per 1000 seeds. These seeds contain about 67% oil by weight. This oil, which is fairly rich in oleic acid (66%), is used in West Africa for cooking, for cosmetics, as an insecticide and in traditional medicine. Prospecting to enhance the development of this oil in Chad, the present study aims to determine the physico-chemical properties of this oil according to bioclimatic zones. The density, acidity, peroxide value, moisture content and percentage of impurities were the parameters studied. The results showed that the crude oil of the seeds of K. senegalensis has the qualities close to those of other edible oils. The study also revealed that climate has influenced the physico-chemical parameters of this oil. Further and more research investigations are necessary to guide decisions on the valorisation and large-scale production of this oil. Keywords: Khaya senegalensis, seed crude oil, physico-chemical parameters, valorisation, bioclimatic zone, Cha