Improving graph-based detection of singular events for photochemical smog agents

Recently, a set of graph-based tools have been introduced for the identification of singular events of O3, NO2 and temperature time series, as well as description of their dynamics. These are based on the use of the Visibility Graphs (VG). In this work, an improvement of the original approach is proposed, being called Upside-Down Visibility Graph (UDVG). It adds the possibility of investigating the singular lowest episodes, instead of the highest. Results confirm the applicability of the new method for describing the multifractal nature of the underlying O3, NO2, and temperature. Asymmetries in the NO2 degree distribution are observed, possibly due to the interaction with different chemicals. Furthermore, a comparison of VG and UDVG has been performed and the outcomes show that they describe opposite subsets of the time series (low and high values) as expected. The combination of the results from the two networks is proposed and evaluated, with the aim of obtaining all the information at once. It turns out to be a more complete tool for singularity detection in photochemical time series, which could be a valuable asset for future research.Comment: 35 pages, 7 figure

Early estimates of seasonal influenza vaccine effectiveness in Europe among target groups for vaccination: results from the I-MOVE multicentre case-control study, 2011/12

To provide an early estimate of 2011/12 influenza vaccine effectiveness (VE), we conducted a multicentre case-control study based on seven sentinel surveillance networks. We included influenza-like illness cases up to week 7/2012 from the vaccination target groups, swabbed less than eight days after symptom onset. Laboratory-confirmed influenza A(H3) cases were compared to negative controls. Adjusted VE was 43% (95% confidence interval: -0.4 to 67.7), suggesting low to moderate VE against influenza A(H3) in the early 2011/12 season.The I-MOVE network has been funded by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) since 2007.S

Early estimates of seasonal influenza vaccine effectiveness in Europe, 2010/11: I-MOVE, a multicentre case-control study

We present early estimates (up to week 4 of 2011) of the 2010/11 seasonal influenza vaccine effectiveness in preventing medically attended influenza-like illness(ILI) laboratory confirmed as influenza. Practitioners from seven European sentinel networks systematically swabbed ILI patients. We included patients meeting the European Union ILI case definition and swabbed less than eight days after symptom onset. Laboratory-confirmed influenza cases were compared with negative controls. The adjusted vaccine effectiveness was 42.3% (95% CI: -7.3 to 69.0%), suggesting moderate protection of the seasonal vaccine.The I-MOVE network has been funded by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) since 2007.S

In vitro and in vivo anti-Trypanosoma cruzi activity of new arylamine Mannich base-type derivatives

Chagas disease is a neglected tropical disease with 6-7 million people infected worldwide and there is no effective treatment. Therefore, there is an urgent need to continue researching in order to discover novel therapeutic alternatives. We present a series of arylaminoketone derivatives as means of identifying new drugs to treat Chagas disease in the acute phase with greater activity, less toxicity and with a larger spectrum of action than that corresponding to the reference drug benznidazole. Indexes of high selectivity found in vitro formed the basis for later in vivo assays in BALB/c mice. Murine model results show that compounds 3, 4, 7 and 10 induced a remarkable decrease in parasitemia levels in acute phase and the parasitemia reactivation following immunosuppression, and curative rates were higher than with benznidazole. These high anti-parasitic activities encourage us to propose these compounds as promising molecules for developing an easy to synthesize anti-Chagas agent

In vitro antileishmanial activity and iron superoxide dismutase inhibition of arylamine Mannich base derivatives

Leishmaniasis is one of the world’s most neglected diseases, and it has a worldwide prevalence of 12 million. There are no effective human vaccines for its prevention, and treatment is hampered by outdated drugs. Therefore, research aiming at the development of new therapeutic tools to fight Leishmaniasis remains a crucial goal today. With this purpose in mind, we present twenty arylaminoketone derivatives with a very interesting in vitro and in vivo efficacy against Trypanosoma cruzi that have now been studied against promastigote and amastigote forms of L. infantum, L. donovani and L. braziliensis strains. Six out of the twenty Mannich base-type derivatives showed Selectivity Index between 39 and 2337 times higher in the amastigote form than the reference drug glucantime. These six derivatives affected the parasite infectivity rates; the result was lower parasite infectivity rates than glucantime tested at a IC25 dose. In addition, these derivatives were substantially more active against the three Leishmania species tested than glucantime. The mechanism of action of these compounds has been studied, showing a greater alteration in glucose catabolism and leading to greater levels of Fe-SOD (iron superoxide dismutase) inhibition. These molecules could be potential candidates for Leishmaniasis chemotherapy

Проверка эффективности вспомогательной системы для маневрирования в местах слияния автомобильных потоков в режиме реального вождения автомобиля

In the latest study conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in 2018, it was published that human error is still considered the major factor in traffic accidents, 94 %, compared with other causes such as vehicles, environment and unknown critical reasons. Some driving scenarios are especially complex, such as highways merging lanes, where the driver obtains information from the environment while making decisions on how to proceed to perform the maneuver smoothly and safely. Ignorance of the intentions of the drivers around him leads to risky situations between them caused by misunderstandings or erroneous assumptions or perceptions. For this reason, Advanced Driver Assistance Systems could provide information to obtain safer maneuvers in these critical environments. In previous works, the behavior of the driver by means of a visual tracking system while merging in a highway was studied, observing a cognitive load in those instants due to the high attentional load that the maneuver requires. For this reason, a driver assistance system for merging situations is proposed. This system uses V2V communications technology and suggests to the driver how to modify his speed in order to perform the merging manoeuver in a safe way considering the available gap and the relative speeds between vehicles. The paper presents the results of the validation of this system for assisting in the merging maneuver. For this purpose, the interface previously designed and validated in terms of usability, has been integrated into an application for a mobile device, located inside the vehicle and tests has been carried out in real driving conditions.In the latest study conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in 2018, it was published that human error is still considered the major factor in traffic accidents, 94 %, compared with other causes such as vehicles, environment and unknown critical reasons. Some driving scenarios are especially complex, such as highways merging lanes, where the driver obtains information from the environment while making decisions on how to proceed to perform the maneuver smoothly and safely. Ignorance of the intentions of the drivers around him leads to risky situations between them caused by misunderstandings or erroneous assumptions or perceptions. For this reason, Advanced Driver Assistance Systems could provide information to obtain safer maneuvers in these critical environments. In previous works, the behavior of the driver by means of a visual tracking system while merging in a highway was studied, observing a cognitive load in those instants due to the high attentional load that the maneuver requires. For this reason, a driver assistance system for merging situations is proposed. This system uses V2V communications technology and suggests to the driver how to modify his speed in order to perform the merging manoeuver in a safe way considering the available gap and the relative speeds between vehicles. The paper presents the results of the validation of this system for assisting in the merging maneuver. For this purpose, the interface previously designed and validated in terms of usability, has been integrated into an application for a mobile device, located inside the vehicle and tests has been carried out in real driving conditions

LITIO COMO TERAPIA NEUROPROTECTORA EN EL MODELO APPSL/PS1M146L DE LA ENFERMEDAD DE ALZHEIMER

El litio se utiliza desde hace varias décadas en el tratamiento de trastornos bipolares y la depresión, y recientemente se debate su uso potencial en patologías neurodegenerativas como la enfermedad de Alzheimer (AD). Diversos estudios han puesto de manifiesto su efecto positivo como potente inhibidor de GSK3beta disminuyendo la fosforilación de tau, la producción de Abeta e incrementando plasticidad sináptica. Sin embargo, su posible efecto neuroprotector previniendo la muerte neuronal in vivo no ha sido aun demostrado ya que la mayoría de los modelos transgénicos de AD no presentan pérdida neuronal. Nuestro modelo APPSL/PS1M146L sufre una pérdida significativa de neuronas SOM/NPY en hipocampo y corteza entorrinal desde edades tempranas (6 meses) con un marcado desarrollo de distrofias axonales. En este trabajo hemos estudiado el posible efecto neuroprotector del litio en este modelo animal mediante tratamiento crónico en la dieta desde los 3 hasta los 9 meses de edad. Se han utilizado técnicas imnunohistoquímicas, western blots y análisis por RT-PCR, y además se ha determinado la carga amiloide, el grado de compactación y el tamaño de las placas. El resultado más relevante de este estudio fue la preservación de la población de interneuronas SOM/NPY tanto en hipocampo como corteza entorrinal en los animales tratados, mientras que en los no tratados existió una pérdida significativa de esta supoblación neuronal. El efecto neuroprotector del litio se manifestó también en una marcada disminución de tau fosforilado, distrofias axonales y marcadores sinápticos, junto con una mejora cognitiva de los animales utilizando el test de reconocimiento de objetos. Este efecto preventivo del litio parece estar asociado con cambios en la formación de placas de Abeta que podrían afectar a su toxicidad, ya que los animales tratados presentaron placas más pequeñas y apariencia más compacta. Financiación: FIS PI12/01431 (AG) y FIS PI12/01439 (JV).Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Reduction of the ATPase inhibitory factor 1 (IF1) leads to visual impairment in vertebrates

In vertebrates, mitochondria are tightly preserved energy producing organelles, which sustain nervous system development and function. The understanding of proteins that regulate their homoeostasis in complex animals is therefore critical and doing so via means of systemic analysis pivotal to inform pathophysiological conditions associated with mitochondrial deficiency. With the goal to decipher the role of the ATPase inhibitory factor 1 (IF1) in brain development, we employed the zebrafish as elected model reporting that the Atpif1a−/− zebrafish mutant, pinotage (pnttq209), which lacks one of the two IF1 paralogous, exhibits visual impairment alongside increased apoptotic bodies and neuroinflammation in both brain and retina. This associates with increased processing of the dynamin-like GTPase optic atrophy 1 (OPA1), whose ablation is a direct cause of inherited optic atrophy. Defects in vision associated with the processing of OPA1 are specular in Atpif1−/− mice thus confirming a regulatory axis, which interlinks IF1 and OPA1 in the definition of mitochondrial fitness and specialised brain functions. This study unveils a functional relay between IF1 and OPA1 in central nervous system besides representing an example of how the zebrafish model could be harnessed to infer the activity of mitochondrial proteins during development

Searching for a Cosmological Preferred Axis: Union2 Data Analysis and Comparison with Other Probes

We review, compare and extend recent studies searching for evidence for a preferred cosmological axis. We start from the Union2 SnIa dataset and use the hemisphere comparison method to search for a preferred axis in the data. We find that the hemisphere of maximum accelerating expansion rate is in the direction $(l,b)=({309^\circ}^{+23^\circ}_{-3^\circ}, {18^\circ}^{+11^\circ}_{-10^\circ})$ (\omm=0.19) while the hemisphere of minimum acceleration is in the opposite direction $(l,b)=({129^\circ}^{+23^\circ}_{-3^\circ},{-18^\circ}^{+10^\circ}_{-11^\circ})$ (\omm=0.30). The level of anisotropy is described by the normalized difference of the best fit values of \omm between the two hemispheres in the context of \lcdm fits. We find a maximum anisotropy level in the Union2 data of \frac{\Delta \ommax}{\bomm}=0.43\pm 0.06. Such a level does not necessarily correspond to statistically significant anisotropy because it is reproduced by about $30$ of simulated isotropic data mimicking the best fit Union2 dataset. However, when combined with the axes directions of other cosmological observations (bulk velocity flow axis, three axes of CMB low multipole moments and quasar optical polarization alignment axis), the statistical evidence for a cosmological anisotropy increases dramatically. We estimate the probability that the above independent six axes directions would be so close in the sky to be less than $1$. Thus either the relative coincidence of these six axes is a very large statistical fluctuation or there is an underlying physical or systematic reason that leads to their correlation.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures. Accepted in JCAP (to appear). Extended analysis with redshift tomography of SnIa, included errorbars and increased number of axes. The Mathematica 7 files with the data used for the production of the figures along with a Powerpoint file with additional figures may be downloaded from http://leandros.physics.uoi.gr/anisotrop