Conceptual design of the enhanced coolant purification systems for the European HCLL and HCPB test blanket modules

The Coolant Purification Systems (CPSs) is one of the most relevant ancillary systems of European Helium Cooled Lead Lithium (HCLL) and Helium Cooled Pebble Bed (HCPB) Test Blanket Modules (TBMs) which are currently in the preliminary design phase in view of their installation and operation in ITER. The CPS implements mainly two functions: the extraction and concentration of the tritium permeated from the TBM modules into the primary cooling circuit and the chemistry control of helium primary coolant. During the HCLL and HCPB-TBSs (Test Blanket Systems) Conceptual Design Review (CDR) in 2015 it was recognized the need of reducing the tritium permeation into the Port Cell #16 of ITER. To achieve this and, then, to lower the tritium partial pressure in the Helium Cooling Systems in normal operation, the helium flow-rate treated by each CPS has been increased of almost one order of magnitude. In 2017, to satisfy the CDR outcomes and the new design requirements requested by Fusion for Energy (F4E, the European Domestic Agency for ITER), ENEA performed a preliminary design of the “enhanced” CPSs. This paper presents the current design of the “enhanced” CPSs, focusing on design requirements, assumptions, selection of technologies and preliminary components sizing

An Architecture for Data and Knowledge Acquisition for the Semantic Web: the AGROVOC Use Case

We are surrounded by ever growing volumes of unstructured and weakly-structured information, and for a human being, domain expert or not, it is nearly impossible to read, understand and categorize such information in a fair amount of time. Moreover, different user categories have different expectations: final users need easy-to-use tools and services for specific tasks, knowledge engineers require robust tools for knowledge acquisition, knowledge categorization and semantic resources development, while semantic applications developers demand for flexible frameworks for fast and easy, standardized development of complex applications. This work represents an experience report on the use of the CODA framework for rapid prototyping and deployment of knowledge acquisition systems for RDF. The system integrates independent NLP tools and custom libraries complying with UIMA standards. For our experiment a document set has been processed to populate the AGROVOC thesaurus with two new relationships

Lipid Peroxidation and Depressed Mood in Community-Dwelling Older Men and Women

It has been hypothesized that cellular damage caused by oxidative stress is associated with late-life depression but\ud epidemiological evidence is limited. In the present study we evaluated the association between urinary 8-iso-prostaglandin\ud F2a (8-iso-PGF2a), a biomarker of lipid peroxidation, and depressed mood in a large sample of community-dwelling older\ud adults. Participants were selected from the Health, Aging and Body Composition study, a community-based longitudinal\ud study of older persons (aged 70–79 years). The present analyses was based on a subsample of 1027 men and 948 women\ud free of mobility disability. Urinary concentration of 8-iso-PGF2a was measured by radioimmunoassay methods and adjusted\ud for urinary creatinine. Depressed mood was defined as a score greater than 5 on the 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale and/\ud or use of antidepressant medications. Depressed mood was present in 3.0% of men and 5.5% of women. Depressed men\ud presented higher urinary concentrations of 8-iso-PGF2a than non-depressed men even after adjustment for multiple\ud sociodemographic, lifestyle and health factors (p=0.03, Cohen’s d = 0.30). This association was not present in women\ud (depressed status-by-sex interaction p = 0.04). Our study showed that oxidative damage may be linked to depression in\ud older men from a large sample of the general population. Further studies are needed to explore whether the modulation of\ud oxidative stress may break down the link between late-life depression and its deleterious health consequences

Real-life appraisal on blood pressure targets achievement in adult outpatients at high cardiovascular risk

Background and aim: Although hypertension guidelines highlight the benefits of achieving the recommended blood pressure (BP) targets, hypertension control rate is still insufficient, mostly in high or very high cardiovascular (CV) risk patients. Thus, we aimed to estimate BP control in a cohort of patients at high CV risk in both primary and secondary prevention. Methods and results: A single-center, cross-sectional study was conducted by extracting data from a medical database of adult outpatients aged 40–75 years, who were referred to our Hypertension Unit, Rome (IT), for hypertension assessment. Office BP treatment targets were defined according to 2018 ESC/ESH guidelines as: a)<130/80 mmHg in individuals aged 40–65 years; b)<140/80 mmHg in subjects aged >65 years. Primary prevention patients with SCORE <5% were considered to be at low-intermediate risk, whilst individuals with SCORE ≥5% or patients with comorbidities were defined to be at very high risk. Among 6354 patients (47.2% female, age 58.4 ± 9.6 years), 4164 (65.5%) were in primary prevention with low-intermediate CV risk, 1831 (28.8%) in primary prevention with high-very high CV risk and 359 (5.6%) in secondary prevention. In treated hypertensive outpatients, uncontrolled hypertension rate was significantly higher in high risk primary prevention than in low risk primary prevention and secondary prevention patients (18.4% vs 24.4% vs. 12.5%, respectively; P < 0.001). In high risk primary prevention diabetic patients only 10% achieved the recommended BP targets. Conclusions: Our data confirmed unsatisfactory BP control among high-risk patients, both in primary and secondary prevention, and suggest the need for a more stringent BP control policies in these patients

Vitamin D receptor and megalin gene polymorphisms are associated with central adiposity status and changes among US adults

We examined longitudinal associations of vitamin D receptor (VDR) and megalin (LRP2; LDL receptor-related protein-2) gene polymorphisms with central adiposity. We used data from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging (BLSA), an ongoing prospective open cohort study. Study participants consisted of non-Hispanic white adults residing in Baltimore city, with one or more visits at age ≥50 years, and complete data (n 609–617). Repeated assessments on waist circumference (WC) and waist:hip ratio (WHR) were available. Multiple linear mixed models were used to estimate mid-follow-up age central adiposity level and annual rate of change with cut-points set at the sex-specific 80th percentile. The four binary outcomes were: ‘elevated central adiposity’ (ECA-WC and ECA-WHR) and ‘significant increase in central adiposity’ (SICA-WC and SICA-WHR). SNP for VDR (four SNP: (1) rs11568820 (CdX-2:T/C); (2) rs1544410 (BsmI:G/A); (3) rs7975232 (ApaI:A/C); (4) rs731236 (TaqI:G/A)) and Megalin (three SNP: (1) rs3755166:G/A; (2) rs2075252:C/T; (3) rs4668123:C/T) genes were selected. SNP latent classes (SNPLC) and SNP haplotypes (SNPHAP) were created. Multiple logistic regression analyses indicated that, in men, higher ECA-WHR odds were associated with SNPLC Megalin2:rs3755166[–]/rs2075252[TT]/rs4668123[T–] (v. Megalin1:rs3755166[–]/rs2075252[CC]/rs4668123[–]) (OR 2·87; 95 % CI 1·15, 7·12; P = 0·023) and that SNPLC Megalin3:rs3755166[–]/rs2075252[CT]/rs4668123[–] (v. Megalin1) was linked to lower SICA-WC odds (OR 0·48; 95 % CI 0·26, 0·88; P = 0·019) (P > 0·05 for sex × SNPLC). In women, VDR3 SNPHAP (GAA:bAT) was related to lower odds of ECA-WC (OR 0·37; 95 % CI 0·16, 0·87; P = 0·023) (P 0·05 for sex × SNPHAP). Vitamin D-related gene polymorphisms were associated with central adiposity status and change. Future mechanistic studies are needed to confirm those polymorphisms' biological significance to central adiposity

Visual perception and dissociation during Mirror Gazing Test in patients with anorexia nervosa : a preliminary study

Purpose: It has been widely shown that dissociative features might play a fundamental role in producing body image distortions in patients affected by eating disorders. Here, we hypothesize that the Mirror Gazing Test (MGT), a task consisting in mirror exposure in a condition of sensory deprivation, would elicit dissociative symptoms in a group of patients with anorexia nervosa (AN). Methods: Fourteen patients with AN and fourteen healthy controls (HC) underwent a 10 min MGT and completed the Strange Face Questionnaire and a short version of the Clinician-Administered Dissociative States Scale, along with a psychological assessment for eating disorders psychopathology, anxiety and depression. Results: AN patients reported a higher number of strange-face apparitions and dissociative sensations than HC during the MGT. Dissociative identity (compartmentalization of two or more identities) and depersonalization (detachment of bodily-self) were much higher in patients with AN than in HC. These findings were correlated with body dissatisfaction and disruption in interoceptive awareness. Conclusion: Dissociation and body image dysfunction are strongly connected in the pathophysiology of anorexia nervosa. Future research should investigate the same aspects in other psychiatric conditions characterized by body image distortions, such as Body Dysmorphic Disorder. Level of evidence: I, Experimental studies

The Relationship between Heart Rate Variability and Adiposity Differs for Central and Overall Adiposity

While frank obesity is associated with reduced HRV, indicative of poorer autonomic nervous system (ANS) function, the association between body mass index (BMI) and HRV is less clear. We hypothesized that effects of adiposity on ANS are mostly mediated by visceral fat and less by subcutaneous fat; therefore, centrally distributed adipose tissue, that is, waist circumference (WC), should be more strongly associated with HRV than overall adiposity (BMI). To examine this hypothesis, we used data collected in a subset of the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging to compare strength of association between HRV and WC to that of HRV and BMI. Time domain HRV variables SDNN (standard deviation of successive differences in normal-to-normal (N-N) intervals) and RMSSD (root mean square of successive differences in N-N intervals) were calculated from 24-hour Holter recordings in 159 participants (29–96 years). Increasing WC was associated with decreasing SDNN and RMSSD in younger but not older participants (P value for WC-by-age interaction = 0.003). BMI was not associated with either SDNN or RMSSD at any age. In conclusion, central adiposity may contribute to sympathetic and parasympathetic ANS declines early in life

Nephrotic syndrome in the horse: 2 case reports

Introduction - The nephrotic syndrome (NS), defined as the concurrent presence of proteinuria, hypoalbuminemia, systemic hypertension and extravascular fluid accumulation, is a rare but well-recognized complication of glomerular disease in small animals and humans. NS in horses is not well documented, because alterations in blood pressure in cases of chronic kidney disease (CKD) with proteinuria are not routinely evaluated. Because NS is an important factor leading to the progression of CKD, medical treatment of proteinuria and hypertension has become an important aspect in the management of CKD in small animals and humans. In particular, the administration of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) is widely used to slow the progression of CKD. There are no reports of the use of ACEIs in horses with CKD and proteinuria, possibly due the elevated cost of daily treatment. Description of the case - Two 7 year-old French warmblood horses, a female (case 1) and a male (case 2) were referred to our Unit for progressive weight loss, poor athletic performance and ventral edema (case 1) and polyuria-polydipsia arising after a previous episode of hematuria (case 2). Physical examination in case 1 revealed a poor body-condition score (2/5) and a moderate ventral edema; a cardiac murmur, (intensity III/VI) was detected with the point of maximum intensity located on the tricuspid area. Both patients showed pale mucous membranes. Laboratory examinations showed moderate anemia (6.03 and 6.46 x 106 /\u3bcL in case 1 and 2 respectively), hypokaliemia (3.0 and 2.5 nmol/L), marked hypoprotidemia (3.4 and 4.8 gr/dL) and hypoalbuminemia (1.8 and 2.1 gr/dL); serum protein electrophoresis revealed a marked increase in the alpha-2 globulin region in both cases. Urinalysis showed proteinuria (307 and 106 mg/dL) with normal specific density but with a high urine proteine/creatinine ratio (2.15 and 2.34). Electrolyte clearance ratio of Na+ and K+ was altered in both horses; urine GGT-index and GGT-activity were markedly elevated in case 1 only (60.8 and 87 U/L respectively). SDS-agarose gel electrophoresis allowed the qualitative evaluation of the proteinuria; case 1 showed a mixed glomerular and tubular pattern (protein with high and low molecular weight), while case 2 was characterized by a glomerular pattern only (molecular weight > 80KDa). Transabdominal ultrasonography was performed and both kidneys in case 1, and left kidney in case 2 were enlarged, with normal echogenicity between cortex and medulla but abnormal cortical thickness. Color Doppler was performed in case 2, and an increase in the renal vascular flow was detected. In case 1, echocardiography revealed a mild (II/IV) tricuspid regurgitation jet. Resting systemic blood pressure was measured indirectly with the use of an ultrasonic Doppler device with an inflatable cuff placed on the coccygeal artery. Systolic and diastolic pressure readings were increased (153 and 127 mmHg in case 1 and 182 and 161 mmHg in case 2). According to the results of the above mentioned procedures, a diagnosis of early CKD and nephrotic syndrome was made. To minimize further loss of renal function, both nutritional and pharmacological managements were recommended, and the exclusion of the horses from athletic activity was suggested. A treatment with ACEIs benazepril (0.5 mg/kg, PO, sid) was suggested, and the horses were discharged to continue home therapy. The owner of case 1 entered the treatment, unlike the owner of case 2, whose athletic activity was prolonged during the following four months. The follow up of case 1 was performed every 4 months for the following year, with good results regarding renal function; furthermore, the horse was able to perform some limited work. On the opposite, the clinical condition of case 2 worsened in the next 3 months, developing azotemia. A further hospitalization allowed to monitor and stabilise the renal function with a dosage of 1 mg/kg of benazepril. Conclusion - The clinical features observed in our two cases are specific and characteristic of nephrotic syndrome. The prevalence of this condition in the horse is unknown, and investigation on the relationship between renal impairment and alteration in blood pressure in the horse is still lacking. Proteinuria in small animals and humans is a negative prognostic factor for CKD, and is associated with progressive worsening of azotemia to End-Stage-Kidney Disease; for this reason this feature must be considered as a warning in the equine species in the same way. The ACEIs Benazepril seems a valid therapeutic option in reducing proteinuria and hypertension, since it doesn\u2019t seem to have any adverse effect. Future investigations are recommended to identify the minimal dose that results to be effective and the frequency of administration to decrease the costs related to its use. Bibliography - Reed SM et al., \u201cEquine Internal Medicine\u201d 4th Ed., 2018, St. Louis, Saunders Elsevier; Schott H.C., Vet. Clin. North Am. Equine Pract. 2007, 23, 596-612; Vaden L.S., Elliott J., Vet. Clin. North Am. Small Anim. Pract. 2016 Nov;46(6); King J.N. et al., J.Vet. Int. Med. 2017, 31 (1113-1122); Afonso T. et al., Equine Vet. Journal 2017 (49)3, 358-36