Relationship between Sustained Reductions in Plasma Lipid and Lipoprotein Concentrations with Apheresis and Plasma Levels and mRNA Expression of PTX3 and Plasma Levels of hsCRP in Patients with HyperLp(a)lipoproteinemia

The effect of lipoprotein apheresis (Direct Adsorption of Lipids, DALI) (LA) on plasma levels of pentraxin 3 (PTX3), an inflammatory marker that reflects coronary plaque vulnerability, and expression of PTX3 mRNA was evaluated in patients with hyperLp(a)lipoproteinemia and angiographically defined atherosclerosis/coronary artery disease. Eleven patients, aged 55 ± 9.3 years (mean ± SD), were enrolled in the study. PTX3 soluble protein levels in plasma were unchanged by 2 sessions of LA; however, a downregulation of mRNA expression for PTX3 was observed, starting with the first session of LA (p < 0.001). The observed reduction was progressively increased in the interval between the first and second LA sessions to achieve a maximum decrease by the end of the second session. A statistically significantly greater treatment-effect correlation was observed in patients undergoing weekly treatments, compared with those undergoing treatment every 15 days. A progressive reduction in plasma levels of C-reactive protein was also seen from the first session of LA, with a statistically significant linear correlation for treatment-effect in the change in plasma levels of this established inflammatory marker (R(2) = 0.99; p < 0.001). Our findings suggest that LA has anti-inflammatory and endothelium protective effects beyond its well-established efficacy in lowering apoB100-containing lipoproteins

Could time detect a faking-good attitude? A study with the MMPI-2-RF

Background and Purpose: Research on the relationship between response latency (RL) and faking in self-administered testing scenarios have generated contradictory findings. We explored this relationship further, aiming to add further insight into the reliability of self-report measures. We compared RLs and T-scores on the MMPI-2-RF (validity and restructured clinical [RC] scales) in four experimental groups. Our hypotheses were that: the Fake-Good Speeded group would obtain a different completion time; show higher RLs than the Honesty Speeded Group in the validity scales; show higher T-Scores in the L-r and K-r scales and lower T-scores in the F-r and RC scales; and show higher levels of tension and fatigue. Finally, the impact of the speeded condition in malingering was assessed. Materials and Methods: The sample was comprised of 135 subjects (M = 26.64; SD = 1.88 years old), all of whom were graduates (having completed at least 17 years of instruction), male, and Caucasian. Subjects were randomly assigned to four groups: Honesty Speeded, Fake-Good Speeded, Honesty Un-Speeded, and Fake-Good Un-Speeded. A software version of the MMPI-2-RF and Visual Analog Scale (VAS) were administered. To test the hypotheses, MANOVAs and binomial logistic regressions were run. Results: Significant differences were found between the four groups, and particularly between the Honest and Fake-Good groups in terms of test completion time and the L-r and K-r scales. The speeded condition increased T-scores in the L-r and K-r scales but decreased T-scores in some of the RC scales. The Fake groups also scored higher on the VAS Tension subscale. Completion times for the first and second parts of the MMPI-2-RF and T-scores for the K-r scale seemed to predict malingering. Conclusion: The speeded condition seemed to bring out the malingerers. Limitations include the sample size and gender bias

Resources Optimization For Distributed Mobile Platforms In Smart Cities

This thesis is focused on the study and design of techniques able to optimize resources in distributed mobile platforms. It is related to a smart city environment, in order to enhance quality, performance and interactivity of urban services. The subject is the computation offloading, intended as the delegation of certain computing tasks to an external platform, such as a cloud or a cluster of devices. Offloading the computation tasks can effectively expand the usability of mobile devices beyond their physical limits and may be necessary due to limitations of a system handling a particular task on its own. The computation offloading within an ecosystem as a urban community, where a large amount of users are connected towards even multiple devices, is a challenging subject. In a very close future, smart cities will be peculiar sources of intensive computing tasks, since they are conceived as systems where e-governance will be not only transparent and fast, but also oriented to energy and water conservation, efficient waste disposal, city automation, seamless facilities to travel and affordable access to health management systems. Also traffic will need to be monitored intelligently, emergencies foreseen and resolved quickly, homes and citizens provided with a wide series of control and security devices. All these ambitious aspirations will require the deployment of infrastructures and systems where devices will generate massive data and should be orchestrated in a collective way. In this context, the computation offloading is an operation dealing with the optimization of urban services, in order to reduce costs and consumption of resources and to improve the connection between citizens and government. This dissertation is organized in three main parts, dealing with the optimization of the resources in a smart city from different points of view

Assessing neural responses towards objectified human targets and objects to identify processes of sexual objectification that go beyond the metaphor

Objectification - reducing a someone to a something - represents a powerful and potentially damaging way in which we can see and treat others. Women are often victims of processes of objectification that occur whenever a woman is reduced to her body or certain body parts. What remains unclear is the extent to which a woman becomes an object when objectified. Using the oddball paradigm in three experiments, participants' neural activity was measured while they analyzed frequently presented male and female human stimuli and infrequently presented gender-matched doll-like objects. The infrequent doll-like objects were expected to trigger a late event-related neurophysiological response (P300) the more they were perceived different from the repeated, human stimuli (i.e., the oddball effect). In Experiment 1, the oddball effect was significantly smaller for objectified women compared to objectified men. Results of Experiment 2 confirmed that this effect was confined to objectified depictions of women. In Experiment 3, no semantic references to the human-object divide were provided, but objectified women were still perceived more similar to real objects. Taken together, these results are the first to demonstrate that the perception of women, when objectified, changes in essence beyond the metaphor

Thermodynamic and Kinetic Study of Lignocellulosic Waste Gasification

In this chapter, the kinetic behavior during the steam gasification of sawdust, plum, and olive pits was investigated by thermogravimetric analysis where the weight loss is measured with the temperature variation at different heating rates (5, 10, and 15 K/min). The weight loss and their derivative curves show that the gasification takes place in three visible stages. The kinetic study was carried out using Coats-Redfern methods. The Ginstling-Brounstein model showed better fit. The obtained activation energy values vary between 70 and 100 kJ/mol for the pyrolysis stage for all studied agro-industrial wastes. On the other hand, a thermodynamic model was proposed to predict the five waste gasification processes, considering the char and tar production. The proposed model allows it to perform a parametric study, analyzing the process variables’ effect on the exergetic efficiency. The higher temperatures favor the endothermic reactions as the H2 and CO formation reactions. Therefore, in the product, moles of H2 and CO increase and consequently the exergy efficiency of the process. Increasing the equivalence ratio value, H2, CO, and CH4 contents decrease; thus the calorific value of the produced gas and the exergetic efficiency decrease. In addition, the CO2 and H2O presences in the syngas composition diminish its calorific value and the exergetic efficiency. Considering the influence of supply steam/biomass ratio, the exergetic efficiency decreases with the growth of this parameter

Syphilis as osteomyelitis of the fifth metatarsal of the left foot: the great imitator hits once again

We report an unusual case of osteomyelitis of the left foot due to syphilitic bone involvement

Parenting-Related Exhaustion During the Italian COVID-19 Lockdown

Worldwide, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has generated significant worry, uncertainty, anxiety, sadness, and loneliness. In Italy, these effects have been particularly pronounced. While research on the COVID-19 outbreak has mainly focused on the clinical features of infected patients and the psychological impact on the general population and health professionals, no investigation has yet assessed the psychological impact of the pandemic on parents. In the present research, we conducted a web-based survey of Italian parents to examine the prevalence of parenting-related exhaustion-and to identify its associated risk and protective factors-4 weeks into the lockdown

Use of the Parents Preference Test in Child Custody Evaluations: Preliminary Development of Conforming Parenting Index

The Parents Preference Test (PPT) is a graphical test comprised of 24 easy to understand images of daily family life, which is widely used in forensic assessments of parenting skills. Nevertheless, the PPT lacks validity scales to detect participants’ attitudes toward the test; this is an important oversight, as the tendency to demonstrate faking-good parenting behaviors is common in child custody litigants. Study 1 aimed at identifying the differences in PPT responses between a normative/control group (N = 110) and a sample of parents undergoing a psychological evaluation of parenting ability (N = 99). Chi-square goodness of fit tests showed significant differences in answer preferences between groups in 11 vignettes (almost half of the total PPT items). Study 2 aimed at developing an index to detect faking-good behaviors. On the 11 vignettes in which significant differences in answer preferences were found in Study 1, the alternatives chosen with the highest frequency by the forensic group were added to an index called the “Conforming Parenting Index” (CPI). The area under the curve (AUC) of a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve for a sample of 58 participants who completed the PPT under both standard and faking-good instructions demonstrated good classification accuracy (AUC= .813)

Kinetic analysis and thermodynamics properties of air/steam gasification of agricultural waste

The air/steam gasification of wood sawdust (SD), plum and olive pits (PP, OP) bio-wastes was studied using macro-thermogravimetric analysis at three heating rates (5, 10, 15K/min). Three stages were identified during gasification process: water vaporization; de-volatilization and char gasification. The experimental data were analysed by applying five model-free methods: Flynn-Wall-Ozawa (FWO), Distributed Activation Energy Model (DAEM), Friedman, Starink, and Kissinger-Akahira-Sunose (KAS), to evaluate the gasification kinetic parameters. The FWO method exhibited the best fit to the experimental results. The pre-exponential factor was estimated using the Kissinger's expression. The average apparent activation energy (E) for the char-gasification step was found to be 218.27 (SD), 143.70 (PP) and 87.89kJ mol-1 (OP). The pre-exponential factors were 6.93 1023 (SD), 5.10 1014 (PP), and 3.71 1009 s-1 (OP). A kinetic model to predict the CO release during the bio-waste decomposition was also proposed and validated. The E values for global release of CO were 87.34 (SD), 67.19 (PP), and 133.23kJ mol-1 (OP). In addition, the thermodynamic parameters ΔS, ΔH and ΔG were calculated from the FWO method. The positive values of ΔH evidenced the global endothermicity of the gasification process over the whole range of the conversion degree. The average ΔG values were 130.53 (SD), 148.17 (PP) and 132.91kJ mol-1 (OP). The average ΔS and ΔG values, together with the Arrhenius kinetic coefficient showed that the reactivity for gasification decreased in the following order: SD>OP>PP. The results are in good agreement with previously reported data.Fil: Fernandez Brizuela, Anabel Alejandra. Universidad Nacional de San Juan. Facultad de Ingeniería. Instituto de Ingeniería Química; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte. Instituto de Investigación y Desarrollo en Ingeniería de Procesos, Biotecnología y Energías Alternativas. Grupo Vinculado Instituto de Ingeniería Química | Universidad Nacional del Comahue. Instituto de Investigación y Desarrollo en Ingeniería de Procesos, Biotecnología y Energías Alternativas. Grupo Vinculado Instituto de Ingeniería Química; ArgentinaFil: Rodriguez Ortiz, Leandro Alexei. Universidad Nacional de San Juan. Facultad de Ingeniería. Instituto de Ingeniería Química; ArgentinaFil: Asensio, Daniela Anabel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte. Instituto de Investigación y Desarrollo en Ingeniería de Procesos, Biotecnología y Energías Alternativas. Grupo Vinculado Instituto de Ingeniería Química | Universidad Nacional del Comahue. Instituto de Investigación y Desarrollo en Ingeniería de Procesos, Biotecnología y Energías Alternativas. Grupo Vinculado Instituto de Ingeniería Química; ArgentinaFil: Rodriguez, Rosa Ana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte. Instituto de Investigación y Desarrollo en Ingeniería de Procesos, Biotecnología y Energías Alternativas. Grupo Vinculado Instituto de Ingeniería Química | Universidad Nacional del Comahue. Instituto de Investigación y Desarrollo en Ingeniería de Procesos, Biotecnología y Energías Alternativas. Grupo Vinculado Instituto de Ingeniería Química; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de San Juan. Facultad de Ingeniería. Instituto de Ingeniería Química; ArgentinaFil: Mazza, German Delfor. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte. Instituto de Investigación y Desarrollo en Ingeniería de Procesos, Biotecnología y Energías Alternativas. Grupo Vinculado Instituto de Ingeniería Química | Universidad Nacional del Comahue. Instituto de Investigación y Desarrollo en Ingeniería de Procesos, Biotecnología y Energías Alternativas. Grupo Vinculado Instituto de Ingeniería Química; Argentin