(13C)-Methacetin breath test provides evidence of subclinical liver dysfunction linked to fat storage but not lifestyle

Background & Aims: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is characterised by the presence of hepatic steatosis in the absence of other causes of secondary hepatic fat accumulation, and is usually associated with visceral, metabolically active obesity. However, the subclinical effects of body and liver fat accumulation on liver function are still unclear. Methods: We used orally administered (13C)-methacetin and breath test to quantify the efficiency of hepatic extraction from portal blood flow and liver microsomal function in 81 participants, in relation to presence/absence of ultrasonographic NAFLD, extent of body fat accumulation, insulin resistance, dietary models, and lifestyle. Results: NAFLD was present in 23% of participants with normal weight, and prevalence increased with body fat and insulin resistance. Fat accumulation, NAFLD, and insulin resistance were associated with decreased hepatic extraction efficiency, and liver microsomal function was impaired in moderate-to-severe NAFLD. Caloric intake, dietary models, and lifestyles had a minor role in promoting functional changes. Conclusions: The interplay between body fat accumulation, insulin resistance, and NAFLD is linked with altered hepatic extraction efficiency from blood flow and deranged microsomal function. Non-invasive diagnosis of subclinical alterations of liver function is relevant for primary and secondary prevention measures. Furthermore, the occurrence of NAFLD in lean individuals and the evidence that caloric intake, dietary models, and lifestyle played a minor role require further studies exploring the role of environmental factors in the natural history of these diseases. Lay summary: Obesity is progressively increasing worldwide and is paralleled by fat accumulation in the liver (non-alcoholic fatty liver disease [NAFLD]), the most common chronic liver disease worldwide. NAFLD can alter liver structure and function, with a variety of consequences ranging from asymptomatic and subclinical alterations to cirrhosis and cancer. (13C)-Methacetin breath test, a non-invasive diagnostic tool, can reveal early subclinical alterations of liver dynamic function in individuals with obesity and in patients with NAFLD

Heat shock stimulation of a tilapia heat shock protein 70 promoter is mediated by a distal element

peer reviewedWe reported previously that a tilapia (Oreochromis mossambicus) heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) promoter is able to confer heat shock response on a reporter gene after transient expression both in cell culture and in microinjected zebrafish embryos. Here we present the first functional analysis of a fish HSP70 promoter, the tiHSP70 promoter. Using transient expression experiments in carp EPC (epithelioma papulosum cyprini) cells and in microinjected zebrafish embryos, we show that a distal heat shock response element (HSE1) at approx. -800 is predominantly responsible for the heat shock response of the tiHSP70 promoter. This element specifically binds an inducible transcription factor, most probably heat shock factor, and a constitutive factor. The constitutive complex is not observed with the non-functional, proximal HSE3 sequence, suggesting that both factors are required for the heat shock response mediated by HSE1

Aging and nutrition. Paving the way to better health.

AbstractSufficient caloric intake is important to maintain the balanced health status, especially during the period of aging, as aging and sickness share paths. Maintaining adequate nutritional balance is the best preventive measure to counteract the risk of malnutrition. There are several causes for malnutrition in elderly people, and some techniques such as anthropometric measurements, laboratory and clinical parameters could help to diagnose malnutrition in these patients. The use of a simple validated questionnaire called the 'Mini Nutritional Assessment' measures the nutritional status of elderly patients. In this review, we discuss about the malnutrition in elderly people with and without a known cause and we present some of nutritional intervention. There are promising strategies that help overcoming malnutrition

Validation of a new portable metabolic system during an incremental running test

We tested a new portable metabolic system, the Jaeger Oxycon Mobile (OM) at a range of running speeds. Six subjects carried out, in random order, two incremental tests on a treadmill, one of them using the OM, and the other using the Jaeger Oxycon Pro (OP). There are systematic errors in the measurements of oxygen consumption (VO2) and respiratory exchange ratio (RER) with the OM. Production of CO2 (VCO2) tends to be overestimated by the OM, although the differences are not significant. Ventilation (VE) showed very similar values in both analyzers. Data of VO2 and RER were corrected with a regression equation which minimised the differences among the devices. The portable metabolic system OM makes systematic errors in measurements of VO2 and RER which can be adjusted with a regression analysis to obtain data comparable to those obtained by fixed system

Experimenting with electromagnetism using augmented reality: Impact on flow student experience and educational effectiveness

Educational researchers have recognized Augmented Reality (AR) as a technology with great potential to impact affective and cognitive learning outcomes. However, very little work has been carried out to substantiate these claims. The purpose of this study was to assess to which extent an AR learning application affects learners' level of enjoyment and learning effectiveness. The study followed an experimental/control group design using the type of the application (AR-based, web-based) as independent variable. 64 high school students were randomly assigned to the experimental or control group to learn the basic principles of electromagnetism. The participants' knowledge acquisition was evaluated by comparing pre- and post-tests. The participants' level overall-state perception on flow was measured with the Flow State Scale and their flow states were monitored throughout the learning activity. Finally, participants' perceptions of benefits and difficulties of using the augmented reality application in this study were qualitatively identified. The results showed that the augmented reality approach was more effective in promoting students' knowledge of electromagnetic concepts and phenomena. The analysis also indicated that the augmented reality application led participants to reach higher flow experience levels than those achieved by users of the web-based application. However, not all the factors seem to have influence on learners' flow state, this study found that they were limited to: concentration, distorted sense of time, sense of control, clearer direct feedback, and autotelic experience. A deeper analysis of the flow process showed that neither of the groups reported being in flow in those tasks that were very easy or too difficult. However, for those tasks that were not perceived as difficult and included visualization clues, the experimental group showed higher levels of flow that the control group. The study suggests that augmented reality can be exploited as an effective learning environment for learning the basic principles of electromagnetism at high school provided that learning designers strike a careful balance between AR support and task difficulty.This research has been partially supported by the Spanish project EEE (TIN2011-28308-C03-01, Plan Nacional de I+D+i, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad) and the eMadrid network (S2009/TIC-1650, Comunidad de Madrid).Publicad

Support for augmented reality simulation systems: the effects of scaffolding on learning outcomes and behavior patterns

An AR-based simulation system that integrates background knowledge and experimental support (AR-SaBEr) was designed as a learning tool for teaching basic principles of electricity to ninth-grade students. The aim of this study was to investigate how supporting the learner focus on meaningful activities affects behavior and learning performance. The sample was 82 students, who were randomly assigned to two groups. The control group used AR-SaBEr with no support for recommending activities. The experimental group had personalized extra support designed to help learners focus on the subject matters that they did not master. The study found that learners from the experimental group showed better learning achievements than those who participated in the control group. Furthermore, learners' behavioral patterns were dependent upon the support received. Learners from the control group were more willing to browse information about activities than to read about the subject before experimenting. Learners from the experimental group browsed information about prior to carrying them out and read about the subject matter prior to experimentation. The observed behavioral patterns and learning achievements suggest that in augmented reality based simulation environments, it is worth providing mechanisms to focus the attention of students on the most relevant topics for them.This work was supported in part by the Spanish projects EEE CICYT (TIN2011-28308-C03-01), RESET-UC3M: Reformulando Ecosistemas Escalables Educativos under the grant CICYT (TIN2014-53199-C3-1-R) and eMadrid under the grant S2013/ICE-2715.Publicad

Pharmacological modulation of the endocannabinoid system in a viral model of multiple sclerosis

Theiler’s virus infection of the central nervous system (CNS) induces an immune-mediated demyelinating disease in susceptible mouse strains and serves as a relevant infection model for human multiple sclerosis (MS). Cannabinoids have been shown to exert beneficial effects on animal models of MS and evidence suggests that the endocannabinoid system plays a role in the tonic control of spasticity. In this study we show that OMDM1 [(R)-N-oleoyl-(1¢-hydroxybenzyl)-2¢-ethanolamine] and OMDM2 [(S)-N-oleoyl-(1¢-hydroxybenzyl)-2¢- ethanolamine], two selective inhibitors of the putative endocannabinoid transporter and hence of endocannabinoid inactivation, provide an effective therapy for Theiler murine encephalomyelitis virus-induced demyelinating disease (TMEV-IDD). Treatment of TMEV-infected mice with OMDM1 and OMDM2 enhanced anandamide levels in the spinal cord and ameliorated motor symptoms. This was associated with a down-regulation of inflammatory responses in the spinal cord. In addition we show that OMDM1 and OMDM2 down-regulate macrophage function by (i) decreasing the surface expression of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II molecules, (ii) inhibiting nitric oxide synthase-2 (NOS-2) expression and (iii) reducing the production of the pro-inflammatory cytokines interleukin-1beta (IL-1b) and interleukin-12 (IL-12p40). Taken together, these results point to the manipulation of the endocannabinoid system as a possible strategy to develop futureMS therapeutic drugs

First record of Xyleborus bispinatus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae, Scolytinae) and evidence of stable populations in the Iberian Peninsula

We present the first record of the tropical ambrosia beetle Xyleborus bispinatus in the Iberian Peninsula, collected in traps located in Murcia, Alicante and Valencia provinces (Spain). Insects have been captured in baited traps of long-time trapping networks (ESFP, MUFFET, RAT and SAMFIX) installed in Eastern Spain. Several individuals (410) of X. bispinatus have been collected in seven locations, first in 2009 in Murcia Region, and from 2018 to 2021 in Valencia Region. No attacks by X. bispinatus have been detected on plants thus far, and therefore the host plant in Spain remains unknown. Stable X. bispinatus populations have been detected in a wide area of central Valencian province. We may consider this as an alarming scenario that should be kept under surveillance by maintaining the current trapping network and intensifying the search for the host plants.A portion of MK’s research was supported by the Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic, institutional support MZE-RO0118. Research in related with SAMFIX trap network was supported by Life SAMFIX LIFE17 NAT/IT/000609. NDS was funded by Lazio Region (Agricultural Department) and Università degli Studi della Tuscia

A Spectral Library and Method for Sparse Unmixing of Hyperspectral Images in Fluorescence Guided Resection of Brain Tumors

Through spectral unmixing, hyperspectral imaging (HSI) in fluorescence-guided brain tumor surgery has enabled detection and classification of tumor regions invisible to the human eye. Prior unmixing work has focused on determining a minimal set of viable fluorophore spectra known to be present in the brain and effectively reconstructing human data without overfitting. With these endmembers, non-negative least squares regression (NNLS) was used to compute the abundances. However, HSI images are heterogeneous, so one small set of endmember spectra may not fit all pixels well. Additionally, NNLS is the maximum likelihood estimator only if the measurement is normally distributed, and it does not enforce sparsity, which leads to overfitting and unphysical results. Here, we analyzed 555666 HSI fluorescence spectra from 891 ex vivo measurements of patients with brain tumors to show that a Poisson distribution models the measured data 82% better than a Gaussian in terms of the Kullback-Leibler divergence and that the endmember abundance vectors are sparse. With this knowledge, we introduce (1) a library of 9 endmember spectra, (2) a sparse, non-negative Poisson regression algorithm to perform physics-informed unmixing with this library without overfitting, and (3) a highly realistic spectral measurement simulation with known endmember abundances. The new unmixing method was then tested on the human and simulated data and compared to four other candidate methods. It outperforms previous methods with 25% lower error in the computed abundances on the simulated data than NNLS, lower reconstruction error on human data, beUer sparsity, and 31 times faster runtime than state-of-the-art Poisson regression. This method and library of endmember spectra can enable more accurate spectral unmixing to beUer aid the surgeon during brain tumor resection.Comment: 17 pages, 4 tables, 6 figures; Under revie