Associations of the Lipidome with Ageing, Cognitive Decline and Exercise Behaviours

One of the most recognisable features of ageing is a decline in brain health and cognitive dysfunction, which is associated with perturbations to regular lipid homeostasis. Although ageing is the largest risk factor for several neurodegenerative diseases such as dementia, a loss in cognitive function is commonly observed in adults over the age of 65. Despite the prevalence of normal agerelated cognitive decline, there is a lack of effective methods to improve the health of the ageing brain. In light of this, exercise has shown promise for positively influencing neurocognitive health and associated lipid profiles. This review summarises age-related changes in several lipid classes that are found in the brain, including fatty acyls, glycerolipids, phospholipids, sphingolipids and sterols, and explores the consequences of age-associated pathological cognitive decline on these lipid classes. Evidence of the positive effects of exercise on the affected lipid profiles are also discussed to highlight the potential for exercise to be used therapeutically to mitigate age-related changes to lipid metabolism and prevent cognitive decline in later life.Australian Research Council FL20010022

Associations of the lipidome with ageing, cognitive decline and exercise behaviours

One of the most recognisable features of ageing is a decline in brain health and cognitive dysfunction, which is associated with perturbations to regular lipid homeostasis. Although ageing is the largest risk factor for several neurodegenerative diseases such as dementia, a loss in cognitive function is commonly observed in adults over the age of 65. Despite the prevalence of normal age-related cognitive decline, there is a lack of effective methods to improve the health of the ageing brain. In light of this, exercise has shown promise for positively influencing neurocognitive health and associated lipid profiles. This review summarises age-related changes in several lipid classes that are found in the brain, including fatty acyls, glycerolipids, phospholipids, sphingolipids and sterols, and explores the consequences of age-associated pathological cognitive decline on these lipid classes. Evidence of the positive effects of exercise on the affected lipid profiles are also discussed to highlight the potential for exercise to be used therapeutically to mitigate age-related changes to lipid metabolism and prevent cognitive decline in later life

Face Verification Competition on the XM2VTS Database

In the year 2000 a competition was organised to collect face verification results on an identical, publicly available data set using a standard evaluation protocol. The database used was the Xm2vts database along with the Lausanne protocol [14]. Four different institutions submitted results on the database which were subsequently published in [13]. Three years later, a second contest using the same dataset and protocol was organised as part of AVBPA 2003. This time round seven seperate institutions submitted results to the competition. This paper presents the results of the competition and shows that verification results on this protocol have increased in performance by a factor of 3

HFE Gene Variants Modify the Association between Maternal Lead Burden and Infant Birthweight: A Prospective Birth Cohort Study in Mexico City, Mexico

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Neonatal growth is a complex process involving genetic and environmental factors. Polymorphisms in the hemochromatosis (<it>HFE</it>) iron regulatory genes have been shown to modify transport and toxicity of lead which is known to affect birth weight.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We investigated the role of <it>HFE C282Y</it>, <it>HFE H63 D</it>, and transferrin <it>(TF) P570 S </it>gene variants in modifying the association of lead and infant birthweight in a cohort of Mexican mother-infant pairs. Subjects were initially recruited between 1994-1995 from three maternity hospitals in Mexico City and 411 infants/565 mothers had archived blood available for genotyping. Multiple linear regression models, stratified by either maternal/infant <it>HFE </it>or <it>TF </it>genotype and then combined with interaction terms, were constructed examining the association of lead and birthweight after controlling for covariates.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>3.1%, 16.8% and 17.5% of infants (N = 390) and 1.9%, 14.5% and 18.9% of mothers (N = 533) carried the <it>HFE C282Y</it>, <it>HFE H63D</it>, and <it>TF P570 S </it>variants, respectively. The presence of infant <it>HFE H63 D </it>variants predicted 110.3 g (95% CI -216.1, -4.6) decreases in birthweight while maternal <it>HFE H63 D </it>variants predicted reductions of 52.0 g (95% CI -147.3 to 43.2). Interaction models suggest that both maternal and infant <it>HFE H63 D </it>genotype may modify tibia lead's effect on infant birthweight in opposing ways. In our interaction models, maternal <it>HFE H63 D </it>variant carriers had a negative association between tibia lead and birthweight.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These results suggest that the <it>HFE H63 D </it>genotype modifies lead's effects on infant birthweight in a complex fashion that may reflect maternal-fetal interactions with respect to the metabolism and transport of metals.</p

Current metabolomic strategies for the discovery of biomarkers for fatigue

The National Road Safety Action Plan concluded that “fatigue is four times more likely to contribute to impairment than drugs or alcohol”, however, unlike drugs and alcohol, there is currently no universal method of objectively testing for fatigue. This demand for a method of assessing fatigue-induced cognitive impairment as a way of determining a driver’s ‘fitness for operating a vehicle’, however, may be addressed via metabolomics. Here, this study explored the metabolic response to sleep deprivation in the urinary metabolome of 9 individuals (6 female, 3 male) who were subjected to 24 hours of continual wakefulness using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and Mass Spectrometry (MS). With NMR, an untargeted discovery approach, to highlight new metabolic pathways that may be impaired during sleep deprivation, as well as a targeted approach using a panel of 50 metabolites quantified by a special extraction algorithm was conducted. MS was used to investigate the effects of sleep deprivation on a panel of 19 bioactive metabolites from the Tryptophan pathway (consisting of amino acids, kynurenines and neurotransmitters). Analysis of the untargeted NMR spectral data showed a strong influence of urinary dilution on the metabolite profiles. The utilization of PQN normalisation to account for dilution revealed spectral differences that were not associated with fatigue. Further integrated multivariate statistical analysis of the targeted NMR and MS metabolites highlighted three metabolites (acetone, nicotinic acid and picolinic acid) which appeared to present in higher concentrations and four metabolites (dopamine, valine, citric acid and hydroxyindole acetic acid) in lower concentrations within the fatigue cohort. Of these seven metabolites, only acetone (p = 7.82E-05), dopamine (p = 0.026544) and hydroxyindole acetic acid (p = 0.002662) were univariately significant ( = 0.05). Whilst trying to control for diet related variables, a new confounding variable was introduced – fasting. It was determined that acetone was not significant due to fatigue, rather due to the participants fasting over the fatigue period. Further univariate comparisons of the four significant metabolites also showed no statistically significant differences between males and females. The results of this study indicate that the urinary metabolome may be useful for identifying discriminatory biomarkers of fatigue that can be used in a forensic context for both males and females, however further investigation is required. Future studies should incorporate a larger number of participants, alternate normalisation methods to correct for dilution effects and minimize the confounding effects of fasting and urine dilution

Simulating combustion processes based on digital technologies

The thermal power plants (TPP) make a basis of power-generation industry of the majority of countries. The global growth of power consumption and the policy of energy-saving demand to increase the efficiency of plants operation, which is, among others, determined by the technical level of steam-generating units. The up-to-date digital technologies make it possible to assess the efficiency of boiler furnace operation at the stage of boiler unit designing, its reconstruction or retrofitting and upgrading. Developed in the article are the algorithm, mathematic model and computer program of calculating diffusion-kinetic process of combustion of D-grade Donetsk coal in the coal-dust flame of boiler Е-230-14,0-520. The assigned tasks have been solved by using theoretical methods of analysis, the capabilities of devices of computer-aided calculations have utilized for visualization of results. The considered digital approach to solving technical tasks makes it possible to meet the current and future challenges

Simulating combustion processes based on digital technologies

The thermal power plants (TPP) make a basis of power-generation industry of the majority of countries. The global growth of power consumption and the policy of energy-saving demand to increase the efficiency of plants operation, which is, among others, determined by the technical level of steam-generating units. The up-to-date digital technologies make it possible to assess the efficiency of boiler furnace operation at the stage of boiler unit designing, its reconstruction or retrofitting and upgrading. Developed in the article are the algorithm, mathematic model and computer program of calculating diffusion-kinetic process of combustion of D-grade Donetsk coal in the coal-dust flame of boiler Е-230-14,0-520. The assigned tasks have been solved by using theoretical methods of analysis, the capabilities of devices of computer-aided calculations have utilized for visualization of results. The considered digital approach to solving technical tasks makes it possible to meet the current and future challenges

Evaluation of the Approach for the Identification of Trajectory Anomalies on CCTV Video from Road Intersections

The approach for the detection of vehicle trajectory abnormalities on CCTV video from road intersections was proposed and evaluated. We mainly focused on the trajectory analysis method rather than objects detection and tracking. Two basic challenges have been overcome in the suggested approach—spatial perspective on the image and performance. We used trajectory approximation by polynomials as well as the Ramer-Douglas-Peucker N thinning technique to increase the performance of the trajectory comparison method. Special modification of trajectory similarity metric LCSS was suggested to consider the spatial perspective. We used clustering to discover two types of classes—with normal and abnormal trajectories. The framework, which implements the suggested approach, was developed. A series of experiments were carried out for testing the approach and defining recommendations for using different techniques in the scope of it

Evaluation of the Approach for the Identification of Trajectory Anomalies on CCTV Video from Road Intersections

The approach for the detection of vehicle trajectory abnormalities on CCTV video from road intersections was proposed and evaluated. We mainly focused on the trajectory analysis method rather than objects detection and tracking. Two basic challenges have been overcome in the suggested approach&mdash;spatial perspective on the image and performance. We used trajectory approximation by polynomials as well as the Ramer-Douglas-Peucker N thinning technique to increase the performance of the trajectory comparison method. Special modification of trajectory similarity metric LCSS was suggested to consider the spatial perspective. We used clustering to discover two types of classes&mdash;with normal and abnormal trajectories. The framework, which implements the suggested approach, was developed. A series of experiments were carried out for testing the approach and defining recommendations for using different techniques in the scope of it