An examination of peripheral blood to reflect transcriptomic adaptation to physical exercise training in sedentary men compared with sex-matched athletic phenotypes

There is renewed interest in exercise genomics that peripheral blood RNA expression may be important to understand exercise mediated adaptations to exercise. However, there is little direct supporting evidence. Therefore, this thesis involved two studies to examine the relationship between RNA expression and exercise, and two experimental studies to examine relationships and adaptive response of peripheral blood RNA in sedentary compared with athletic phenotypes. In the first two studies, we conducted both meta-analysis and network meta-analysis to examine current randomised controlled trial (RCT) evidence to determine current best evidence on the link between RNA expression and athletic phenotype in addition to head-to-head comparison of different exercise types to induce differential expression of RNA transcripts in sedentary compared with athletic phenotypes. We observed that current available body of RCTs in peripheral blood exercise genomics presents too large heterogeneity in study design, methodological and data reporting aspects. Thus, we concluded that peripheral blood cannot be established as a valid source for identifying, neither the effect of physical exercise training on transcriptomic markers nor the distinction of divergent transcriptomic profiles in response to different exercise modalities. In the third and fourth studies, we aimed to determine whether peripheral blood RNA and circular RNA (circRNA) expression was different between sedentary and athletic phenotypes, and whether these transcripts were consistent in response to exercise training in exercise-naïve men. To achieve this, we conducted two STROBE compliant observational experiments of n=71 participants with distinct athletic phenotypes. We concluded that peripheral blood transcriptome expression might allow for identification of divergent athletic phenotypes, although this is not supported by further examination of peripheral blood RNA expression levels in response to an exercise training intervention. The sum of works presented in this thesis does not agree with many propositions relating to the strength of evidence in peripheral blood transcriptomics literature. This is principally due to the heterogeneity and lack of consistency of research in this field which is currently insufficient to provide any strong conclusions. In conclusion, peripheral blood RNA and circRNA do not yet offer useful avenues to predict the adaptive response to different exercise types in athletic and non-athletic men.Doctor of Philosoph

Erosion and use of the Coast in the Northern Sardinia (Italy)

AbstractThe study provides an overview of coastal erosion of northern Sardinia, indicating the causes and the effects of the most relevant and identifies critical areas to the possible scenarios of extreme events. The knowledge of the state of natural balance of the coasts is essential for planning and protection in the medium-long term and requires careful evaluation of the risks and potential dangers, obtainable through geomorphological, sedimentological and meteomarine data interpretation, and degree and the human settlement type. Many of sardinians waterways are torrential and have poor solids discharges due to existence of the dams, was 393 (56 large reservoirs and 336 small reservoirs) that remove sediment to natural beach nourishment. It is enough to calculate the volume of sediment trapped from the reservoir to have a phenomenon dimension, total 4,372,933.5 m3 for Cedrino in use from 1989 to 1,085,700.0 m3 for Cixerri in activity since 1992 and 2498.226,2 m3 for Bidighinzu in use since 1959. An interference with such significant contributions to the sea involves a sedimentary deficit in the system which leads to an inevitable retreat of shorelines. For the evaluation of the areas with greater sensitivity and vulnerability, it is over considered the human load resulting from the infrastructure presence and activities along the coast and next to the river banks. It has also been decided through a questionnaire meant to assess the value of an environmental asset (in this case a stretch of coastline) which is understood as a "sense of well received" by the people, because it has become clear that the remediation or enhancement cannot be delegated to a mere technical-scientific approach but there has to be shared with the community. The integrated analysis of these factors helped to identify critical situations and vulnerabilities along the coasts of Northern Sardinia that led to the mapping of areas at risk

Applying machine learning for healthcare: A case study on cervical pain assessment with motion capture

Given the exponential availability of data in health centers and the massive sensorization that is expected, there is an increasing need to manage and analyze these data in an effective way. For this purpose, data mining (DM) and machine learning (ML) techniques would be helpful. However, due to the specific characteristics of the field of healthcare, a suitable DM and ML methodology adapted to these particularities is required. The applied methodology must structure the different stages needed for data-driven healthcare, from the acquisition of raw data to decision-making by clinicians, considering the specific requirements of this field. In this paper, we focus on a case study of cervical assessment, where the goal is to predict the potential presence of cervical pain in patients affected with whiplash diseases, which is important for example in insurance-related investigations. By analyzing in detail this case study in a real scenario, we show how taking care of those particularities enables the generation of reliable predictive models in the field of healthcare. Using a database of 302 samples, we have generated several predictive models, including logistic regression, support vector machines, k-nearest neighbors, gradient boosting, decision trees, random forest, and neural network algorithms. The results show that it is possible to reliably predict the presence of cervical pain (accuracy, precision, and recall above 90%). We expect that the procedure proposed to apply ML techniques in the field of healthcare will help technologists, researchers, and clinicians to create more objective systems that provide support to objectify the diagnosis, improve test treatment efficacy, and save resources

Prevalência da hipertensão arterial sistêmica em área rural do município de Serra, Espírito Santo.

A Hipertensão Arterial Sistêmica (HAS) é uma doença cardiovascular que mais alta morbidade tem na população adulta no Brasil, constituindo o maior fator de risco para complicações cerebrovasculares e cardíacas, entre os fatores de risco modificáveis da HAS estão tabagismo, inatividade física, alimentação inadequada, obesidade, dislipidemias e consumo de álcool. Na literatura disponível não existem estudos feitos sobre a efetividade de intervenções educativas no controle na HAS no município Serra para implementar ações e políticas voltadas para melhorar as condições de vida e saúde. Devido a alta prevalência da HAS na população rural de abrangência, os pacientes não tem controle da doença, por isso acredita-se que o projeto de intervenção proposto seja importante e possibilite melhora das condições de saúde e a qualidade de vida da população. Assim a partir da abordagem multidisciplinar e da procura em levar a informação aos pacientes de forma mais dinâmica, espera-se que ocorra maior adesão dos pacientes ao tratamento e as mudanças dos estilos de vida

Laser-Induced Linear Electron Acceleration in Free Space

Linear acceleration in free space is a topic that has been studied for over 20 years, and its ability to eventually produce high-quality, high energy multi-particle bunches has remained a subject of great interest. Arguments can certainly be made that such an ability is very doubtful. Nevertheless, we chose to develop an accurate and truly predictive theoretical formalism to explore this remote possibility in a computational experiment. The formalism includes exact treatment of Maxwell's equations, exact relativistic treatment of the interaction among the multiple individual particles, and exact treatment of the interaction at near and far field. Several surprising results emerged. For example, we find that 30 keV electrons (2.5% energy spread) can be accelerated to 7.7 MeV (2.5% spread) and to 205 MeV (0.25% spread) using 25 mJ and 2.5 J lasers respectively. These findings should hopefully guide and help develop compact, high-quality, ultra-relativistic electron sources, avoiding conventional limits imposed by material breakdown or structural constraints.Comment: Supplementary Information starts on pg 1

Healthcare-related cost of oropharyngeal dysphagia and its complications pneumonia and malnutrition after stroke : a systematic review

Objectives: To assess the healthcare costs associated with poststroke oropharyngeal dysphagia (OD) and its complications (malnutrition, dehydration, pneumonia and death). Design: Systematic review following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses recommendations. Data sources: MEDLINE, Embase and the National Health Service Economic Evaluation Database were searched up to 31 December 2019. Participants: Patients with poststroke. Primary outcome measures: The costs associated to poststroke OD and its complications. Data analysis: Data were synthetised narratively, quality evaluation was done using an adaptation of Drummond's checklist and Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation recommendations were used to assess strength of evidence. Results: A total of 166 articles were identified, of which 10 studies were included. The cost of OD during the hospitalisation was assessed in four studies. One prospective study showed an increase of US$6589 for patients requring tube feeding. Two retrospective studies found higher costs for those patients who developed OD, (US$7329 vs US$5939) among patients with haemorrhagic stroke transferred to inpatient rehabilitation and an increase of €3000 (US$3950) and SFr14 000 (US$15 300) in hospitalisation costs. One study did not found OD as a predictor for total medical costs in the multivariate analysis. One retrospective study showed an increase of US$4510 during the first year after stroke for those patients with OD. For pneumonia, five retrospective studies showed an increase in hospitalisation costs after stroke of between US$1456 and US$27 633. One prospective study showed an increase in hospitalisation costs during 6 months after stroke in patients at high malnutrition risk. Strength of evidence was considered moderate for OD and pneumonia and low for malnutrition. Conclusions: This systematic review shows moderate evidence towards higher costs for those patients who developed OD after stroke. The available literature is heteogeneous, and some important aspects have not been studied yet. Further studies are needed to define the specific cost of poststroke OD

Acute-Stress Biomarkers in Three Octopodidae Species After Bottom Trawling

Several Octopodidae species have a great potential for the diversification of worldwide aquaculture. Unfortunately, the lack of stress-related biomarkers in this taxon results an obstacle for its maintenance in conditions where animal welfare is of paramount relevance. In this study, we made a first approach to uncover physiological responses related to fishing capture in Eledone moschata, Eledone cirrhosa, and Octopus vulgaris. Captured octopus from all three species were individually maintained in an aquaculture system onboard of oceanographic vessel in south-western waters of Europe. Haemolymph plasma and muscle were collected in animals at the moment of capture, and recovery was evaluated along a time-course of 48 h in Eledone spp., and 24 h for O. vulgaris. Survival rates of these species captured in spring and autumn were evaluated. Physiological parameters such as plasma pH, total CO2, peroxidase activity, lysozyme, hemocyanin, proteases, pro-phenoloxidase, anti-proteases, free amino acids, lactate and glucose levels, as well as muscle water percentage, free amino acids, lactate, glycogen and glucose values were analyzed. The immune system appears to be compromised in these species due to capture processes, while energy metabolites were mobilized to face the acute-stress situation, but recovery of all described parameters occurs within the first 24 h after capture. Moreover, this situation exerts hydric balance changes, as observed in the muscle water, being these responses depending on the species assessed. In conclusion, three Octopodidae species from south-western waters of Europe have been evaluated for stress-related biomarkers resulting in differentiated mechanisms between species. This study may pave the way to further study the physiology of stress in adult octopuses and develop new methodologies for their growth in aquaculture conditions

Adding preferences and moral values in an agent-based simulation framework for high-performance computing

Agent-Based Simulation is a suitable approach used now-a-days to simulate and analyze complex societal environments and scenarios. Current Agent-Based Simulation frameworks either scale quite well in computation but implement very simple reasoning mechanisms, or employ complex reasoning systems at the expense of scalability. In this paper we present our work to extend an agent-based HPC platform, enabling goal-driven agents with HTN planning capabilities to scale and run parallelly. Our extension includes preferences over their objectives, preferences over their plans, actions, and moral values. We show the expresiveness of the extended platform with a sample scenario.This work has been partially supported by EU Horizon 2020 Project StairwAI (grant agreement No.101017142).Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Coordinatively Unsaturated Hf-MOF-808 Prepared via Hydrothermal Synthesis as a Bifunctional Catalyst for the Tandem N-Alkylation of Amines with Benzyl Alcohol

[EN] The modulated hydrothermal (MHT) synthesis of an active and selective Hf-MOF-808 material for the N-alkylation reaction of aniline with benzyl alcohol under base-free mild reaction conditions is reported. Through kinetic experiments and isotopically labeled NMR spectroscopy studies, we have demonstrated that the reaction mechanism occurs via borrowing hydrogen (BH) pathway, in which the alcohol dehydrogenation is the limiting step. The high concentration of defective -OH groups generated on the metallic nodes through MHT synthesis enhances the alcohol activation, while the unsaturated Hf4+, which acts as a Lewis acid site, is able to borrow the hydrogen from the methylene position of benzyl alcohol. This fact makes this material at least 14 times more active for the N-alkylation reaction than the material obtained via solvothermal synthesis. The methodology described in this work could be applied to a wide range of aniline and benzyl alcohol derivates, showing in all cases high selectivity toward the corresponding N-benzylaniline product. Finally, Hf-MOF-808, which acts as a true heterogeneous catalyst, can be reused in at least four consecutive runs without any activity loss.This work has been supported by Spanish Government through "severo Ochoa" (SEV-2016-0683, MINECO) and RTI2018-101033-B-I00 (MCIU/AEI/FEDER, UE). The Electron Microscopy Service of the UPV is also acknowledged for their help in sample characterization.Bohigues, B.; Rojas-Buzo, S.; Moliner Marin, M.; Corma Canós, A. (2021). Coordinatively Unsaturated Hf-MOF-808 Prepared via Hydrothermal Synthesis as a Bifunctional Catalyst for the Tandem N-Alkylation of Amines with Benzyl Alcohol. ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering. 9(47):15793-15806. https://doi.org/10.1021/acssuschemeng.1c04903157931580694