Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Is Associated with Altered Neuropsychological Performance in Young Adults

Subjects with ischemic lesions have an increased risk of dementia. In addition, Alzheimer's disease (AD) and vascular cognitive impairment share many risk factors. These observations suggest that different diseases that cause altered blood perfusion of the brain or hypoxia promote AD neurodegeneration. In this case-control, cross-sectional study, we sought to test the hypothesis that hypoxia facilitates cognitive decline. We looked for altered neuropsychological performance in subjects with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) without apparent cardio- or cerebrovascular diseases or risk factors for atherosclerosis. A selected, homogeneous group of workers from two ceramic factories in a small town of central Italy was enrolled in this study. The COPD patients had a slightly, but significantly worse performance than controls in a number of neuropsychological tests. The findings are consistent with the working hypothesis that chronic hypoxia facilitates cognitive decline

The Metagenome-Derived Enzymes LipS and LipT Increase the Diversity of Known Lipases

Triacylglycerol lipases (EC 3.1.1.3) catalyze both hydrolysis and synthesis reactions with a broad spectrum of substrates rendering them especially suitable for many biotechnological applications. Most lipases used today originate from mesophilic organisms and are susceptible to thermal denaturation whereas only few possess high thermotolerance. Here, we report on the identification and characterization of two novel thermostable bacterial lipases identified by functional metagenomic screenings. Metagenomic libraries were constructed from enrichment cultures maintained at 65 to 75°C and screened resulting in the identification of initially 10 clones with lipolytic activities. Subsequently, two ORFs were identified encoding lipases, LipS and LipT. Comparative sequence analyses suggested that both enzymes are members of novel lipase families. LipS is a 30.2 kDa protein and revealed a half-life of 48 h at 70°C. The lipT gene encoded for a multimeric enzyme with a half-life of 3 h at 70°C. LipS had an optimum temperature at 70°C and LipT at 75°C. Both enzymes catalyzed hydrolysis of long-chain (C12 and C14) fatty acid esters and additionally hydrolyzed a number of industry-relevant substrates. LipS was highly specific for (R)-ibuprofen-phenyl ester with an enantiomeric excess (ee) of 99%. Furthermore, LipS was able to synthesize 1-propyl laurate and 1-tetradecyl myristate at 70°C with rates similar to those of the lipase CalB from Candida antarctica. LipS represents the first example of a thermostable metagenome-derived lipase with significant synthesis activities. Its X-ray structure was solved with a resolution of 1.99 Å revealing an unusually compact lid structure

EVALITA Evaluation of NLP and Speech Tools for Italian - December 17th, 2020

Welcome to EVALITA 2020! EVALITA is the evaluation campaign of Natural Language Processing and Speech Tools for Italian. EVALITA is an initiative of the Italian Association for Computational Linguistics (AILC, http://www.ai-lc.it) and it is endorsed by the Italian Association for Artificial Intelligence (AIxIA, http://www.aixia.it) and the Italian Association for Speech Sciences (AISV, http://www.aisv.it)

From a static to a dynamic concept of risk: the circadian epidemiology of cardiovascular events

A growing body of evidence substantiates that the occurrence of cardiovascular events in unevenly distributed in time, especially during the 24 h. These temporal patterns are indicative of temporal variation in the (1) pathophysiological mechanisms that trigger cardiovascular events and (2) physiological status of the cardiovascular system, which combine to give rise to 24 h and other periodicities in the susceptibility to disease. The classic assumption of epidemiologic studies is constancy (or homeostasis) in one's risk to disease during the 24 h, as well as other, time domains. However, we propose a new concept, that of chronorisk since it takes into account the temporal variability in the pathophysiological mechanisms and their reciprocal temporal interactions that lead to day-night and other time-dependent patterns in cardiovascular events. This chronobiological approach, which is expected to contribute new insight into the prognostic and therapeutic assessment of cardiovascular events, is worthy of broader application in cardiovascular and other fields of medicine and warrants further investigation

Direct access to optical aberration information in fluorescence laser scanning microscopy using detector arrays

In the recent years, numerous adaptive optics techniques have emerged to address optical aberrations in fluorescence microscopy imaging. However, many existing methods involve complex hardware implementations or lengthy iterative algorithms that may induce photo-damage to the sample. Our study proposes an innovative approach centered around a novel detector array capable of potentially capturing the probed sample in a single acquisition. Our solution is gentle on the sample and applicable to any laser scanning microscope equipped with a detector array. We demonstrate that the multi-dimensional dataset obtained using the detector array inherently encodes information about optical aberrations. Finally, we propose a convolutional neural network approach to decode these optical aberrations in real-Time and with high accuracy, establishing the foundation for a new class of adaptive optics laser-scanning microscopy methods

Pushing the performance of image scanning microscopy to its limits with maximum likelihood reconstruction

Fast and sensitive detector arrays make Image Scanning Microscopy (ISM) the natural successor of confocal microscopy. Indeed, ISM enables super-resolution at an excellent signal-to-noise ratio. Optimizing photon collection requires large detectors and so more out-of-focus light is collected. Nonetheless, the ISM dataset inherently contains information on the axial position of the fluorescence emitters. We exploit such information to directly invert the cmresponding physical model with a maximum-likelihood approach and reassign the signal in the thr ee dimensions, improving the signal-to-background ratio and resolution. We validated our method on synthetic and experimental images; these latter acquired with a custom setup equipped with a single photon avalanche diode array detector. Moreover, our method is compatible with recent developments in ISM data processing and requires minimal knowledge of physical parameters

Relationships of the circadian rhythms of thrombotic, ischemic, hemorrhagic, and arrhythmic events to blood pressure rhythms

Convincing evidence has recently accumulated that several unfavorable cardiovascular events show a well defined pattern in their occurrence throughout the day. Myocardial angina and infarction, sudden cardiac death, arrhythmias, fatal pulmonary thromboembolism, and ischemic and hemorrhagic cerebrovascular accidents occur more frequently in the morning, after awaking, until noon. Diurnal variations in multiple biologic functions, such as assumption of an upright posture associated with increased platelet aggregability, changes in blood clotting, fibrinolysis, and vascular tone and resistance, may be potentially active triggering factors. Moreover, variations in sympathetic tone, catecholamine secretion, and blood pressure have to be considered. The role of triggering factors and their relationships with blood pressure patterns is discussed in view of an optimized pharmacologic treatment

Common bile duct lithiasis: therapeutic approach.

INTRODUCTION: Treatment of cholecysto-choledocholithiasis has been revisited from the standpoint of either endoscopic or laparoscopic mini invasive approach. A standard diagnostic-therapeutic procedure has not been unanimously defined. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Since 1997 to 2011 we have treated 924 patients: 555 gallbladder lithiasis, 276 acute biliary pancreatitis and 93 choledocholithiasis (without pancreatitis). We have compared, by the review of the literature, our results of two stage endoscopic stones removal followed by laparoscopic cholecystectomy versus one stage laparo-endoscopic rendez vous technique/VLC and laparoscopic approach alone. RESULTS: In our experience endoscopic removal of stones have been performed in 82 patients (88.17%); 11 patients (11.82%),not elegible for endoscopic approach, have been submitted to laparotomic therapy. In sum preoperative ERCP/ES with CBD cleaning followed by VLC, not with standing the valid results of laparoscopic approach alone remains the strategy more frequently applied in clinical practice, because the good results. CONCLUSIONS: The results of the treatment of CBD lithiasis of sequential laparo-endoscopic approach (two or one stage) and of laparoscopic approach alone are roughly overlappable. Therefore the first has remained the treatment of reference and comparison in all the clinical evaluation of different procedure

Circadian pattern in occurrence of renal colic in an emergency department: analysis of patients' notes

According to anecdotal evidence people are more at risk of renal colic during the night. Although this has never been investigated, several studies have shown a circadian variation for other acute diseases. We investigated whether renal colic occurred in a circadian pattern. METHODS AND RESULTS We reviewed all episodes of renal colic from 1 January 1990 to 31 December 1996 in the emergency department of St Anna Hospital, which serves the 150 000 people in the city and suburbs of Ferrara, Italy. Altogether 3410 episodes of renal colic were reported (66.0% (2281) in men). The mean age of the patients was 46 years (SD 16 years). The time (within 30 minutes) when symptoms started could be determined for 3360 (98.5%) patients (2272 men and 1088 women). All patients were physically examined and had radiological, ultrasound, urine, and blood tests. Kidney stones were found in 1641 patients (48.8%; 1134 men and 507 women), of which 71.0% (1165) were calcium stones. For the main statistical analysis of the 3360 patients for whom time of onset could be determined precisely, we used a partial Fourier series with up to four harmonics (24, 12, 8, 6 hours), categorising each precise time of event as one of 24 increments of one hour. To test goodness of fit we calculated the “percentage of rhythm,” the percentage of overall variability of data about the arithmetic mean attributable to the fitted rhythmic function. We used the F test to determine the significance of the fit of each function. The 50 patients for whom the onset time of the episode of renal colic could not be determined precisely had the same confounding factors as the other 3360—age, sex, race, and underlying condition of nephrolithiasis. A secondary analysis including these 50 patients showed that excluding them from the main analysis did not significantly affect the results. A highly significant (P < 0.001) circadian rhythm was found, with a morning peak and an afternoon low (figure) both in the population as a whole (overall peak 0432 hours (95% confidence interval 0320 to 0556), percentage of rhythm 62.8%), and in subgroups by sex (men: n=2272, 0456 (0328 to 0624), 56.6%; women: n=1088, 0411 (0300 to 0520), 66.7%). Participants with or without kidney stones did not differ (n=1641, 0448 (0315 to 0550), 59.2%; n=1719, 0424 (0305 to 0535), 64.4%, respectively). COMMENT Episodes of renal colic show a significant circadian pattern, with a morning peak and a minimum in the afternoon. Urine production and renal excretion rates of solutes rise during daytime and reach minimum values at night. In healthy people, the glomerular filtration rate shows a circadian rhythm peaking in the morning, with a relative amplitude of 33%. This rhythm means that urine is hyperconcentrated during night time, which entails a risk of nephrolithiasis and infections. The lithogenic risk for calcium oxalate stones is highest at the end of the night or during the early morning, when urinary output is minimal. Studies on healthy people and people who have had kidney stones showed a higher risk of calcium oxalate crystallisation in the morning. The inhibitory activity of calcium oxalate crystallisation showed a marked circadian rhythm in both groups, but in people who had had kidney stones the peak time was delayed (0900­1000 v 0500­0600). A circadian variation with a midnight peak, independent of meal times, has been reported for episodes of biliary colic