Automated deployment and scaling of automotive safety services in 5G-Transformer

There is a growing interest of verticals (in this case, the automotive industry) to reap the benefits of 5G networks. At the same time, there is a clear trend of the telco industry to under-stand their needs. These are also some of the main goals of the EU 5G-TRANSFORMER (5GT) project. This demo focuses on the need of verticals to dynamically deploy services at the edge and to adapt the vertical service to network operational conditions. In particular, it is presented the extended virtual sensing (EVS) service, which deployed on demand at the distributed computing infrastructure (i.e. in the network), complements sensing and processing functions running in the car to detect the risk of collisions and take appropriate action, even if there is no direct communication between cars. The stringent latency constraints imposed by the EVS network service leave a limited processing budget at the vertical service level. Since such processing time is correlated with the CPU consumption of a virtual machine running a VNF of the EVS network service, in this demo we also show how the vertical service exploits the automated scaling capabilities offered by the 5GT service orchestrator to deploy a new instance of the EVS VNF upon reception of a CPU consumption alert generated by the available 5GT monitoring platform.Grant numbers : grant TEC2017-88373-R (5G-REFINE) and Generalitat de Catalunya grant 2017 SGR 1195.© 2019 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works

Association of HCV with diabetes mellitus: an Egyptian case-control study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The highest Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) prevalence in the world occurs in Egypt. Several studies from different parts of the world have found that 13% to 33% of patients with chronic HCV have associated diabetes, mostly type II Diabetes Mellitus (DM). In Egypt the prevalence of DM is 25.4% among HCV patients. Therefore, it is important to identify the magnitude of the problem of diabetes in order to optimize the treatment of chronic hepatitis C.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The objective of this case-control study was to evaluate the prevalence of DM and other extrahepatic (EH) manifestations among patients with different HCV morbidity stages including asymptomatic, chronic hepatic and cirrhotic patients. In this study, 289 HCV patients older than 18 were selected as cases. Also, 289 healthy controls were included. Laboratory investigations including Liver Function tests (LFT) and blood glucose level were done. Also serological assays including cryoglobulin profile, rheumatoid factor, antinuclear antibody, HCV-PCR were performed.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Out of 289 HCV cases, 40 (13.84%) were diabetic. Out of 289 healthy controls, 12 (4.15%) were diabetic. It was found that the diabetic HCV group mean age was [48.1 (± 9.2)]. Males and urbanians represented 72.5% and 85% respectively. Lower level of education was manifested in 52.5% and 87.5% were married. In the nondiabetic HCV group mean age was [40.7 (± 10.4)]. Males and urbanians represented 71.5% and 655% respectively. secondary and higher level of education was attained in 55.4% and 76.7% were married. Comparing between the diabetic HCV group and the non diabetic HCV group, age, residence and alcohol drinking were the only significant factors affecting the incidence of diabetes between the two groups. There was no significant difference regarding sonar findings although cirrhosis was more prevalent among diabetic HCV cases and the fibrosis score was higher in diabetic HCV patients than among the non diabetic HCV cases.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The diabetic patients in the HCV group were older, more likely to have a history of alcohol drinking than the non diabetic HCV cases. Age and alcohol drinking are factors that could potentially contribute to the development of type 2 diabetes. Logistic regression analyses showed that age and residence in urban regions were the predictive variables that could be associated with the presence of diabetes. Alcohol consumption was not a significant predictive factor.</p

Coke location in microporous and hierarchical ZSM-5 and the impact on the MTH reaction

The deactivation and reactivation of microporous and hierarchical ZSM-5 zeolites have been studied in the methanol-to-hydrocarbon (MTH) reaction. The hierarchical ZSM-5 was synthesized via the desilication reassembly technique using cetyltrimethylammonium bromide as a surfactant. The catalysts differed significantly in the catalytic behavior after the reactivation procedure. This is ascribed to a different coke location in the deactivated catalysts arising from the difference in the porosity. The microporous ZSM-5 showed a coke gradient over the particle with a stronger accumulation of carbonaceous species in the outer particle layers, whereas a homogeneous coke distribution was observed for the deactivated hierarchical ZSM-5. Due to the diverging coke distribution, the irreversible damage of the zeolitic structure caused by reactivation differs for both catalysts. This fact is assumed to be the reason for the different deactivation/reactivation behaviors of these two zeolitic systems

Nitric oxide sets off an antioxidant response in adrenal cells: Involvement of sGC and Nrf2 in HO-1 induction

Induction of microsomal heme oxygenase 1 (HO-1) activity is considered a cytoprotective mechanism in different cell types. In adrenal cells, HO-1 induction by ACTH exerts a modulatory effect on steroid production as well. As nitric oxide (NO) has been also regarded as an autocrine/paracrine modulator of adrenal steroidogenesis we sought to study the effects of NO on the induction of HO-1 and the mechanism involved. We hereby analyzed the time and dose-dependent effect of a NO-donor (DETA/NO) on HO-1 induction in a murine adrenocortical cell line. We showed that this effect is mainly exerted at a transcriptional level as it is inhibited by actinomycin D and HO-1 mRNA degradation rates were not affected by DETA/NO treatment. HO-1 induction by NO does not appear to involve the generation of oxidative stress as it was not affected by antioxidant treatment. We also demonstrated that NO-treatment results in the nuclear translocation of the nuclear factor-erythroid 2-related factor (Nrf2), an effect that is attenuated by transfecting the cells with a dominant negative isoform of Nrf2. We finally show that the effects of the NO-donor are reproduced by a permeable analog of cGMP and that a soluble guanylate cyclase specific inhibitor blocked both the induction of HO-1 by NO and the nuclear translocation of Nrf2.Fil: Astort, Francisco. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Centro de Estudios Farmacológicos y Botánicos. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Centro de Estudios Farmacológicos y Botánicos; ArgentinaFil: Mercau, María Elisa. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Centro de Estudios Farmacológicos y Botánicos. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Centro de Estudios Farmacológicos y Botánicos; ArgentinaFil: Giordanino, E. F.. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Centro de Estudios Farmacológicos y Botánicos. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Centro de Estudios Farmacológicos y Botánicos; ArgentinaFil: Degese, María Sol. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Celular. Laboratorio de Fisiología y Biología Molecular; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Caldareri, Lilian Julia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Centro de Estudios Farmacológicos y Botánicos. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Centro de Estudios Farmacológicos y Botánicos; ArgentinaFil: Coso, Omar Adrian. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Celular. Laboratorio de Fisiología y Biología Molecular; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Cymeryng, Cora Betriz. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Centro de Estudios Farmacológicos y Botánicos. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Centro de Estudios Farmacológicos y Botánicos; Argentin

Validación y comparación de dos modelos simples de estratificación de riesgo en pacientes con infarto agudo de miocardio con elevación del segmento ST en Argentina.

Introducción Los scores de riesgo se encuentran recomendados para estratificar y predecir mortalidad en el infarto agudo de miocardio con elevación del segmento ST (IAMCEST). Sin embargo, pocos se han validado en Argentina, y existen barreras en su implementación dada la complejidad de las puntuaciones de riesgo más difundidas. Los modelos ProACS y Simple Risk Index (SRI) son scores simples y bedside, que han demostrado una buena capacidad predictiva de mortalidad intrahospitalaria en pacientes con IAMCEST en otros países. Propósito: Validar y comparar los scores ProACS y SRI como predictores de mortalidad intrahospitalaria en pacientes con IAMCEST en Argentina. Metodología: Análisis retrospectivo de una cohorte compuesta por pacientes ingresados de forma consecutiva en 45 centros de todo el país con diagnóstico de IAMCEST, utilizando los datos del registro CONAREC XVII. Se calculó el puntaje para cada score: el ProACS (Edad ≥72 años: 2 puntos, presión arterial sistólica  ≤116 mmHg, Killip y Kimbal tipo B o C y la elevación del segmento ST 1 punto cada uno, y Killip y Kimball D 3 puntos) y el SRI (frecuencia cardiaca x [edad/10]2/presión arterial sistólica). Se estimó el valor predictivo del score para muerte intrahospitalaria, y se evaluó la validez mediante la discriminación y la calibración. Resultados Se analizaron 694 pacientes. Con una edad media de 63,35±13,1 años, siendo hombres el 78.3%. La mortalidad intrahospitalaria fue del 8,78%.  En aquellos que presentaron el evento, la mediana del score ProACS fue de 4 con (Pc 25-75, 2,5-5); y una mediana de 2 (Pc25-75 1-3) en aquellos que no lo presentaron (P<0,001). La mediana del score SRI fue de 41,3 (Pc25-75, 29,8-62,5) y de 20,8 (Pc25-75 15,4-30) en aquellos que fallecieron y los que no, respectivamente (P<0,001), y demostró una excelente discriminación para mortalidad intrahospitalaria (AUC 0.83, IC95% 0.78-0.88, P=0.001) y el score ProACS presentó una buena discriminación del desenlace (AUC 0.78, IC95% 0.71-0.86, P=0.001).  El test de HL aplicado al Score Proacs presentó χ2 de 8,6 (P=0,3), y el score SRi χ2 de 5,4 (P=0,7). Conclusión Los puntajes de riesgo de ProACS y SRI para la predicción de mortalidad intrahospitalaria fueron validados adecuadamente en pacientes con IAMCEST en Argentina. Esto sugiere su idoneidad para el uso clínico en esta població