Specific IgE to propolis extracts among pollen allergic patients

International audienc

Comprehensive analysis of epigenetic clocks reveals associations between disproportionate biological ageing and hippocampal volume

The concept of age acceleration, the difference between biological age and chronological age, is of growing interest, particularly with respect to age-related disorders, such as Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). Whilst studies have reported associations with AD risk and related phenotypes, there remains a lack of consensus on these associations. Here we aimed to comprehensively investigate the relationship between five recognised measures of age acceleration, based on DNA methylation patterns (DNAm age), and cross-sectional and longitudinal cognition and AD-related neuroimaging phenotypes (volumetric MRI and Amyloid-β PET) in the Australian Imaging, Biomarkers and Lifestyle (AIBL) and the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI). Significant associations were observed between age acceleration using the Hannum epigenetic clock and cross-sectional hippocampal volume in AIBL and replicated in ADNI. In AIBL, several other findings were observed cross-sectionally, including a significant association between hippocampal volume and the Hannum and Phenoage epigenetic clocks. Further, significant associations were also observed between hippocampal volume and the Zhang and Phenoage epigenetic clocks within Amyloid-β positive individuals. However, these were not validated within the ADNI cohort. No associations between age acceleration and other Alzheimer’s disease-related phenotypes, including measures of cognition or brain Amyloid-β burden, were observed, and there was no association with longitudinal change in any phenotype. This study presents a link between age acceleration, as determined using DNA methylation, and hippocampal volume that was statistically significant across two highly characterised cohorts. The results presented in this study contribute to a growing literature that supports the role of epigenetic modifications in ageing and AD-related phenotypes

The quality of options in strategic decision making: a study about creativity and completeness in business decision making

A qualidade das decisões estratégicas dos empresários está diretamente relacionada à capacidade que eles demonstram para encontrar alternativas criativas quando enfrentam os problemas de suas empresas. Essas alternativas podem ser geradas intuitivamente, utilizando heurísticas. As pesquisas sobre geração de alternativas têm indicado consistentemente que as pessoas não são eficientes nessa atividade. As explicações para esse fato, contidas na literatura sobre decisão, não são conclusivas e permitem especulações a respeito. Para explorar essa questão e relacioná-la ao administrador brasileiro, foi idealizado um experimento com 174 alunos de quatro cursos de MBA para avaliar a originalidade e a completude das alternativas. O experimento e a respectiva análise basearam-se na confluência da pesquisa experimental, oriunda da psicologia cognitiva da decisão, com as visões da ciência da decisão organizacional tradicional e o novo campo de estudo das decisões intuitivas ou naturalísticas. Para mensurar a criatividade das alternativas apresentadas durante o experimento, empregou-se o conceito de árvore hierárquica, que demonstrou ser uma poderosa ferramenta para a tipologia de alternativas. O resultado desse experimento confirmou o baixo desempenho em geração de alternativas dos gerentes e, ao mesmo tempo, indicou que, provavelmente, a etapa de geração de alternativas isolada da etapa de escolha pode melhorar a qualidade das alternativas. A heurística, por sua vez, não demonstrou influenciar o conjunto de alternativas geradas. _________________________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACT: The quality of strategic decisions of executives is directly related to the ability they have to find creative alternatives when facing business problems. These alternatives could be generated intuitively, using heuristics. On the other hand, the researches on alternatives generation have consistently indicated that people are not efficient on this duty. The argument for that, contained in the decision’s literature, is not conclusive and it allows speculation about it. To explore this issue and relate it to the Brazilian Administration, an experiment was designed for 174 students of four courses of MBA. The experiment and the analysis were resulted from the confluence between the experimental research from decision cognitive psychology with science’s vision of the traditional organizational decision and the new field of study on naturalistic or intuitive decisions. To measure the creativity of the alternatives presented during the experiment, the concept of hierarchical tree was utilized and it has proved a powerful tool to the typology of alternatives. The result of this experiment confirmed the poor performance in alternatives generation by managers and at the same time, indicated that probably, the generation of options isolated of analysis can produce better quality of alternatives. The heuristic, do not demonstrated any influence on options generated

Determination of the Most Common Indoor and Outdoor Allergens in 602 Patients with Allergic Symptoms Using Specific IgE Local Panel

Aeroallergens play an important role in developing allergic diseases. The aim of this study was to determine the outdoor and indoor sensitization using a specific regional panel of aeroallergens in allergic patients. All patients with allergic symptoms referred to Immunology, Asthma and Allergy Research Institute (IAARI) in Tehran, Iran from December 2010 to July 2013 entered this cross sectional study. We evaluated serum samples for specific IgE against 20 selected aeroallergens provided by a specific panel (RIDA Allergy Screen test, IAARI panel). A p value less than 0.05 was considered as significant. The patients (n=602) were 49.8 male and 50.2 female. The median age was 9 years. Positive specific IgE at least to one allergen was 53.2. The percentages of patients with only outdoor or indoor sensitization were 37.5 and 19.7, respectively. Moreover, 42.8 showed sensitization to both indoor and outdoor aeroallergens. The most common outdoor aeroallergens in decreasing order were plane tree (32.8), Bermuda grass (32.2), timothy grass (30.6), saltwort (28.4). The percentage of specific IgE to indoor allergens including mold and mite were 23.8 and 22.2, respectively. There was a statistically significant relationship between specific IgE to timothy grass and mold allergens between two genders (p=0.04 and p=0.02, respectively). The results of this study shows that outdoor aeroallergens can be considered as the most common causes of allergic symptoms in our allergic patients