Metabolic risk score indexes validation in overweight healthy people

The constellation of adverse cardiovascular disease (CVD) and metabolic risk factors, including elevated abdominal obesity, blood pressure (BP), glucose, and triglycerides (TG) and lowered high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C), has been termed the metabolic syndrome (MetSyn) [1]. A number of different definitions have been developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) [2], the National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III (ATP III) [3], the European Group for the Study of Insulin Resistance (EGIR) [4] and, most recently, the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) [5]. Since there is no universal definition of the Metabolic Syndrome, several authors have derived different risk scores to represent the clustering of its components [6-11]

Corrosion of cast aluminum alloys: a review

Research on corrosion resistance of cast aluminum alloys is reviewed in this article. The effect of the main microstructural features of cast aluminum alloys such as secondary dendrite arm spacing (SDAS), eutectic silicon morphology, grain size, macrosegregation, microsegregation, and intermetallic compounds is discussed. Moreover, the corrosion resistance of cast aluminum alloys obtained by modern manufacturing processes such as semi-solid and additive manufacturing are analyzed. Finally, the protective effects provided by different coatings on the aluminum cast alloys?such as anodized, plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO), and laser?is reviewed. Some conclusions and future guidelines for future works are proposed

Tolerance analysis for efficient MMI devices in silicon photonics

The proceeding at: IX Conference Silicon Photonics, took place at 2014, March, 8 in S. Francisco (USA).Silicon is considered a promising platform for photonic integrated circuits as they can be fabricated in state-of-the-art electronics foundaries with integrated CMOS electronics. While much of the existing work on CMOS photonics has used directional couplers for power splitting, multimode interference (MMI) devices may have relaxed fabrication requirements and smaller footprints, potentially energy efficient designs. They have already been used as 1x2 splitters, 2x1 combiners in Quadrature Phase Shift Keying modulators, and 3-dB couplers among others. In this work, 3-dB, butterfly and cross MMI couplers are realized on bulk CMOS technology. Footprints from around 40um2 to 200 um2 are obtained. MMI tolerances to manufacturing process and bandwidth are analyzed and tested showing the robustness of the MMI devices.This work has been sponsored by the Spanish institutions Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad under project TEC2012-37983-C03-02, and grant EEBB-1-13-07511, Ministerio de Educación under grant PRX12/00007 and Fundación Caja Madrid.Publicad

Experimental test of polymer optical fiber temperature sensor on different surrounding media

The proceeding at: 22nd International Conference on Plastic Optical Fibers (POF 2013), took place in 2013 September,11-13, in Armação dos Buzios, Rio de Janeiro, (Brasil). The event Web site at: http://www.pof2013.org.br/ .Influence of external media on a fiber-optic temperature sensor based on a macro-bend multimode Polymer Optical Fiber (POF) is analyzed. The sensor has a linear response with a sensitivity of 〖1.92.10〗^(-3) 〖(°C) 〗^(-1) at a fixed bend radius. 2.4 times sensitivity variations for different surrounding media are reported.This work has been sponsored by the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (TEC2012-37983-C03-02) & (TEC2012-37983-C03-01), Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deportes (PRX12/00007) y Comunidad de Madrid FACTOTEM-2/2010/00068/001.Publicad

Effect of different exercise modalities plus a hypocaloric diet on inflammation markers in overweight patients

Summary Background & aims Inflammation markers (IM) have been associated with the development of chronic diseases. This study compares the effects on IM of three exercise programs combined with a hypocaloric diet. Methods 119 overweight participants (73 women, 46 men) aged 18–50 years were randomised into four treatment groups: strength training (S; n = 30), endurance training (E; n = 30), combined S + E (SE; n = 30), and a diet and physical activity recommendations group (D; n = 29). Energy intake, anthropometric variables (AV), training variables (VO2peak, strength index, dynamometric strength index [DSI]) and plasma IM were recorded at baseline and after 22 weeks of treatment. Results 84 participants completed the study. At 22 weeks, all groups showed a significantly reduced energy intake (P < 0.001) and improved AV (P < 0.001). VO2peak significantly increased in all groups (P < 0.01). DSI increased in the exercise groups only (P < 0.05). Plasma leptin fell significantly (P < 0.001) in the S and E groups, but not significantly in the SE group (P = 0.029) (no significant differences between these groups). Tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), and C-reactive protein (CRP) concentrations decreased in all groups when examined together, but not when examined separately. No significant differences were seen in interleukin-6 (IL-6). Conclusions Combining strength or endurance training with a hypocaloric diet improved AV and reduced plasma leptin concentrations. No differences were seen between groups in terms of TNF-α, IL-6 or CRP reduction. This trial was registered at clinical trials.gov as NCT01116856. http://clinicaltrials.gov/

Can the exercise mode determine lipid profile improvements in obese patients?

Influencia del modo de ejercicio sobre el perfil lipídic

Combined exercise effects on metabolic syndrome

Few randomized trials have examined the optimal mode of exercise or combination of modalities for specific cardiometabolic health benefits [1-3] . Therefore, questions remain unaddressed whether strength training or endurance training alone improves cardiometabolic health in overweight adults; whether a combination of both provides additional improvements [4, 5]

Large-scale database mining reveals hidden trends and future directions for cancer immunotherapy

LLC Cancer immunotherapy has fundamentally changed the landscape of oncology in recent years and significant resources are invested into immunotherapy research. It is in the interests of researchers and clinicians to identify promising and less promising trends in this field in order to rationally allocate resources. This requires a quantitative large-scale analysis of cancer immunotherapy related databases. We developed a novel tool for text mining, statistical analysis and data visualization of scientific literature data. We used this tool to analyze 72002 cancer immunotherapy publications and 1469 clinical trials from public databases. All source codes are available under an open access license. The contribution of specific topics within the cancer immunotherapy field has markedly shifted over the years. We show that the focus is moving from cell-based therapy and vaccination towards checkpoint inhibitors, with these trends reaching statistical significance. Rapidly growing subfields include the combination of chemotherapy with checkpoint blockade. Translational studies have shifted from hematological and skin neoplasms to gastrointestinal and lung cancer and from tumor antigens and angiogenesis to tumor stroma and apoptosis. This work highlights the importance of unbiased large-scale database mining to assess trends in cancer research and cancer immunotherapy in particular. Researchers, clinicians and funding agencies should be aware of quantitative trends in the immunotherapy field, allocate resources to the most promising areas and find new approaches for currently immature topics

Friction during earthquakes: 25 years of experimental studies

Notas: Export Date: 21 March 2022Dynamic fault strength (rock friction in the broad sense) and its evolution with seismic slip and slip rate are among the most relevant parameters in earthquake mechanics. Given the large slip rate (1 m s-1 on average), displacement (up to tens of meters), effective stress (tens of MPa), typical of seismic faulting at depth, thermo-mechanical effects become outstanding: dynamic fault strength is severely affected by fluid and rock phase changes, extreme grain size reduction, and the production of amorphous and unstable materials in the slipping zone. Here, first we will summarize the most relevant findings about dynamic fault strength during seismic slip mainly obtained thanks to the exploitation of dedicated experimental machines (i.e., rotary shear apparatus). However, the interpretation of this experimental dataset remains debated because of technical limitations which impede us to measure fundamental parameters such as temperature, strain rate, pore fluid pressure and grain size in the slipping zone. Without a sound estimate of these physical parameters, any constitutive law proposed to describe the evolution of dynamic fault strength during simulated seismic slip remains speculative. Then, we will discuss the results of some recent experiments which exploit new technical approaches to overcome the main limitations of the previous studies. The experimental approach, together with field studies of the geometry and architecture of exhumed faults and modelling, remains our most powerful tool to investigate seismic-related deformation mechanisms in both natural and human-induced earthquakes

A comparison between flow-through cathode and mixed tank cells for the electro-Fenton process with conductive diamond anode

This work focusses on the production of hydrogen peroxide and in the removal of bromacil by the electro-Fenton process using two different electrochemical cells: mixed tank cell (MTC) and flow-through cell (FTC). Both cells use boron doped diamond (BDD) as anode and carbon felt as cathode to promote the formation of hydrogen peroxide. In the case of the MTC, two surface area ratios, Acathode/Aanode, have been used. Results show that the H2O2 produced by MTC and FTCPSC increases with the time until a stabilization state. For the FTCPSC, the average hydrogen peroxide concentration produced increases progressively with the current, while for MTC the maximum values are found in applying very low current densities. In addition, the FTCPSC provides higher concentrations of hydrogen peroxide for the same current density applied. Regarding the MTC, it can be stated that the higher the area of the cathode, the higher is the amount of H2O2 produced and the lower is the cell voltage (because of a more efficient current lines distribution). The initial oxidation of bromacil is very efficiently attained being rapidly depleted from wastewater. However, the higher production of hydrogen peroxide obtained by the FTCPSC cell does not reflect on a better performance of the electro-Fenton process. Thus, bromacil is better mineralized using the MTC cell with the lowest cathode area. This observation has been explained because larger concentrations of produced hydrogen peroxide seems to benefit the oxidation of intermediates and not the mineralization