Comorbidities and side effects of the imunomodulatory treatment in multiple sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis is a demyelinating, neurodegenerative disease of the central nervous system, that affects the young adult and is associated with a high degree of disability. Physical and mental comorbidity and adverse health behaviors are common in patients with MS. Comorbidities and health behaviors are associated with adverse outcomes in MS and should be considered in the assessment and management of patients with MS. We have studied a group of 150 MS patients treated with immunomodulators inside the Romanian national MS treatment programme. The patients we analysed corresponded to the available literature in matters or number, age and sex. We searched for associated pathology and side effects of the treatment. After selecting and statistically analyzing the data we concluded that dyslipidemia was the most common comorbidity, followed by hyperglicemia and vertebral hernia. The presence or not of a comorbidity before the treatment does not relate to the EDSS score (

Enhancing the Sustainability of the Aviation Industry: Airlines’ Commitment to “Green” Practices

The aviation industry represents an important polluter, being responsible for increasing environmental impacts on global scale. Aiming to approach the adoption of suitable policies in the aviation industry towards the achievement of the national and international sustainability goals, the present research tackles airlines’ commitment to aviation-related environmental issues, as well as their willingness to adopt sustainable aviation fuel (i.e., bio jet fuel) and sustainable development strategies, focusing on those companies operating flights in the Karol Wojtyła Airport (Bari, Italy). The paper adopts the χ2 test and the logistic regression to investigate three different hypotheses related to airlines’ headquarters, carriers’ typology (i.e., low-cost or not, flag carriers or not) and years of service. Results outline that traditional airlines, either flag carriers or not, as well as South and North American companies, are more likely to be aware of aviation environmental consequences, publishing environmental reports and offering to passengers the chance to participate to climate change reduction (e.g., through online carbon offset programs or more expensive ticket to produce bio jet fuels). In addition, airlines transiting in Karol Wojtyła Airport show a small willingness to share information through environmental reports and are scarcely intentioned to make use of bio jet fuels, confirming that low-cost companies are still less attentive towards aviation environmental issues. The present research contributes to the empirical studies on sustainable aviation and carriers’ commitment to environmental strategies, highlighting the need to enhance carbon offsets programs and digital technologies as the online compensation of CO2 emissions

Kondo effect in spin-orbit mesoscopic interferometers

We consider a flux-threaded Aharonov-Bohm ring with an embedded quantum dot coupled to two normal leads. The local Rashba spin-orbit interaction acting on the dot electrons leads to a spin-dependent phase factor in addition to the Aharonov-Bohm phase caused by the external flux. Using the numerical renormalization group method, we find a splitting of the Kondo resonance at the Fermi level which can be compensated by an external magnetic field. To fully understand the nature of this compensation effect, we perform a scaling analysis and derive an expression for the effective magnetic field. The analysis is based on a tight-binding model which leads to an effective Anderson model with a spin-dependent density of states for the transformed lead states. We find that the effective field originates from the combined effect of Rashba interaction and magnetic flux and that it contains important corrections due to electron-electron interactions. We show that the compensating field is an oscillatory function of both the spin-orbit and the Aharonov-Bohm phases. Moreover, the effective field never vanishes due to the particle-hole symmetry breaking independently of the gate voltage.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure

Cryptands and bismacrocycles with cyanuric and isocyanuric units: synthesis and structural investigations

Hay synthesis of cryptands and bismacrocycles starting from tripodands with cyanuric and isocyanuric cores is reported. The structure of the compounds is revealed by X-ray diffraction, NMR spectrometry and MS investigations. DNMR experiments carried out with bismacrocycles indicated the flipping of the rings and the free-energy barrier for the conformational process could be determined in one case. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Macrocycles with bithiophene units: synthesis, structure, and electrochemical properties

Bithiophene macrocycles with oligo(oxyethylene) loops were synthesized in good yields by reacting 4,4-bis(hydroxymethyl)-2,2-bithiophene with ditosylated oligoethyleneglycols. The structures of the macrocycles were elucidated by NMR spectroscopy and MS spectrometry. The electronic and electrochemical properties of the macrocyclic compounds were determined using cyclic voltammetry and UV-Vis spectroscopy. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Amino-acid PET versus MRI guided re-irradiation in patients with recurrent glioblastoma multiforme (GLIAA) – protocol of a randomized phase II trial (NOA 10/ARO 2013-1)

Background: The higher specificity of amino-acid positron emission tomography (AA-PET) in the diagnosis of gliomas, as well as in the differentiation between recurrence and treatment-related alterations, in comparison to contrast enhancement in T1-weighted MRI was demonstrated in many studies and is the rationale for their implementation into radiation oncology treatment planning. Several clinical trials have demonstrated the significant differences between AA-PET and standard MRI concerning the definition of the gross tumor volume (GTV). A small single-center non-randomized prospective study in patients with recurrent high grade gliomas treated with stereotactic fractionated radiotherapy (SFRT) showed a significant improvement in survival when AA-PET was integrated in target volume delineation, in comparison to patients treated based on CT/MRI alone. Methods: This protocol describes a prospective, open label, randomized, multi-center phase II trial designed to test if radiotherapy target volume delineation based on FET-PET leads to improvement in progression free survival (PFS) in patients with recurrent glioblastoma (GBM) treated with re-irradiation, compared to target volume delineation based on T1Gd-MRI. The target sample size is 200 randomized patients with a 1:1 allocation ratio to both arms. The primary endpoint (PFS) is determined by serial MRI scans, supplemented by AA-PET-scans and/or biopsy/surgery if suspicious of progression. Secondary endpoints include overall survival (OS), locally controlled survival (time to local progression or death), volumetric assessment of GTV delineated by either method, topography of progression in relation to MRIor PET-derived target volumes, rate of long term survivors (> 1 year), localization of necrosis after re-irradiation, quality of life (QoL) assessed by the EORTC QLQ-C15 PAL questionnaire, evaluation of safety of FET-application in AA-PET imaging and toxicity of re-irradiation. Discussion: This is a protocol of a randomized phase II trial designed to test a new strategy of radiotherapy target volume delineation for improving the outcome of patients with recurrent GBM. Moreover, the trial will help to develop a standardized methodology for the integration of AA-PET and other imaging biomarkers in radiation treatment planning. Trial registration: The GLIAA trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT01252459, registration date 02.12.2010), German Clinical Trials Registry (DRKS00000634, registration date 10.10.2014), and European Clinical Trials Database (EudraCT-No. 2012-001121-27, registration date 27.02.2012)

Design of coupling for synchronization in time-delayed systems

We report a design of delay coupling for targeting desired synchronization in delay dynamical systems. We target synchronization, antisynchronization, lag-, antilag- synchronization, amplitude death (or oscillation death) and generalized synchronization in mismatched oscillators. A scaling of the size of an attractor is made possible in different synchronization regimes. We realize a type of mixed synchronization where synchronization, antisynchronization coexist in different pairs of state variables of the coupled system. We establish the stability condition of synchronization using the Krasovskii-Lyapunov function theory and the Hurwitz matrix criterion. We present numerical examples using the Mackey-Glass system and a delay R\"{o}ssler system.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures; Chaos 22 (2012

Effect of Quetiapine, from Low to High Dose, on Weight and Metabolic Traits: Results from a Prospective Cohort Study.

The atypical antipsychotic quetiapine is known to induce weight gain and other metabolic complications. The underlying mechanisms are multifactorial and poorly understood with almost no information on the effect of dosage. Concerns were thus raised with the rise in low-dose quetiapine off-label prescription (i. e.,<150 mg/day). In this study, we evaluated the influence of quetiapine dose for 474 patients included in PsyMetab and PsyClin studies on weight and metabolic parameter evolution. Weight, blood pressure, lipid, and glucose profiles were evaluated during a follow-up period of 3 months after treatment initiation. Significant dose-dependent metabolic alterations were observed. The daily dose was found to influence weight gain and increase the risk of undergoing clinically relevant weight gain (≥7% from baseline). It was also associated with a change in plasma levels of cholesterol (total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and HDL cholesterol) as well as with increased odds of developing hypertriglyceridemia, as well as total and LDL hypercholesterolemia. No impact of a dose increase on blood pressure and plasma glucose level was observed. The dose-dependent effect highlighted for weight gain and lipid alterations emphasizes the importance of prescribing the minimal effective dose. However, as the effect size of a dose increase on metabolic worsening is low, the potential harm of low-dose quetiapine should not be dismissed. Prescriptions must be carefully evaluated and regularly questioned in light of side effect onset

CYP2C19 expression modulates affective functioning and hippocampal subiculum volume-a large single-center community-dwelling cohort study.

Given controversial findings of reduced depressive symptom severity and increased hippocampus volume in CYP2C19 poor metabolizers, we sought to provide empirical evidence from a large-scale single-center longitudinal cohort in the community-dwelling adult population-Colaus|PsyCoLaus in Lausanne, Switzerland (n = 4152). We looked for CYP2C19 genotype-related behavioral and brain anatomy patterns using a comprehensive set of psychometry, water diffusion- and relaxometry-based magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data (BrainLaus, n = 1187). Our statistical models tested for differential associations between poor metabolizer and other metabolizer status with imaging-derived indices of brain volume and tissue properties that explain individuals' current and lifetime mood characteristics. The observed association between CYP2C19 genotype and lifetime affective status showing higher functioning scores in poor metabolizers, was mainly driven by female participants (ß = 3.9, p = 0.010). There was no difference in total hippocampus volume between poor metabolizer and other metabolizer, though there was higher subiculum volume in the right hippocampus of poor metabolizers (ß = 0.03, p <sub>FDRcorrected</sub> = 0.036). Our study supports the notion of association between mood phenotype and CYP2C19 genotype, however, finds no evidence for concomitant hippocampus volume differences, with the exception of the right subiculum