Comparison of Protein- or Amino Acid-Based Supplements in the Rehabilitation of Men with Severe Obesity: A Randomized Controlled Pilot Study

Background: Weight loss is associated with a reduction in all body compartments, including muscle mass (MM), and this effect produces a decrease in function and muscle strength. Our objective was to assess the impact of protein or amino acid supplements on MM loss in middle-aged men (age 35 kg/m2) during weight loss. Materials and Methods: We conducted a single-site randomized controlled trial (Clinicaltrials.gov NCT05143398) with 40 in-patient male subjects with severe obesity. Participants underwent an intervention program consisting of a low-calorie balanced diet and structured physical activity. They were randomly assigned to 4-week treatment groups: (1) control (CTR, N = 10), (2) protein (P, N = 10), (3) branched-chain amino acid (BCAA, N = 10), and (4) essential amino acid mixture with tricarboxylic acid cycle intermediates (PD-E07, N = 10) supplementation. Results: Following 4 weeks of intervention, all groups showed similar reductions in body weight compared to baseline. When examining the delta values, a notable increase in muscle mass (MM) was observed in the PD-E07 intervention group [MM (kg): 2.84 ± 3.57; MM (%): 3.63 ± 3.14], in contrast to the CTR group [MM (kg): −2.46 ± 3.04; MM (%): −0.47 ± 2.28], with a statistical significance of p = 0.045 and p = 0.023, respectively. However, the MM values for the P group [MM (kg): −2.75 ± 5.98, p = 0.734; MM (%): −0.44 ± 4.02, p = 0.990] and the BCAA group [MM (kg): −1 ± 3.3, p = 0.734; MM (%): 0.34 ± 2.85, p = 0.956] did not exhibit a statistically significant difference when compared to the CTR group. Conclusions: Amino acid-based supplements may effectively mitigate the loss of MM typically observed during weight reduction. Further validation through large-scale studies is necessary

Lansoprazole as a rescue agent in chemoresistant tumors: a phase I/II study in companion animals with spontaneously occurring tumors

Background: The treatment of human cancer has been seriously hampered for decades by resistance to chemotherapeutic drugs. Mechanisms underlying this resistance are far from being entirely known. A very efficient mechanism of tumor resistance to drugs is related to the modification of tumour microenvironment through changes in the extracellular and intracellular pH. The acidification of tumor microenvironment depends on proton pumps that actively pump protons outside the cells, mostly to avoid intracellular acidification. In fact, we have shown in pre-clinical settings as pre-treatment with proton-pumps inhibitors (PPI) increase tumor cell and tumor responsiveness to chemotherapeutics. In this study pet with spontaneously occurring cancer proven refractory to conventional chemotherapy have been recruited in a compassionate study.Methods: Thirty-four companion animals (27 dogs and 7 cats) were treated adding to their chemotherapy protocols the pump inhibitor lansoprazole at high dose, as suggested by pre-clinical experiments. Their responses have been compared to those of seventeen pets (10 dogs and 7 cats) whose owners did not pursue any other therapy than continuing the currently ongoing chemotherapy protocols.Results: The drug was overall well tolerated, with only four dogs experiencing side effects due to gastric hypochlorhydria consisting with vomiting and or diarrhea. In terms of overall response twenty-three pets out of 34 had partial or complete responses (67.6%) the remaining patients experienced no response or progressive disease however most owners reported improved quality of life in most of the non responders. On the other hand, only three animals in the control group (17%) experienced short lived partial responses (1-3 months duration) while all the others died of progressive disease within two months.Conclusions: high dose proton pump inhibitors have been shown to induce reversal of tumor chemoresistance as well as improvement of the quality of life in pets with down staged cancer and in the majority of the treated animals PPI were well tolerated. Further studies are warranted to assess the efficacy of this strategy in patients with advanced cancers in companion animals as well as in humans. © 2011 Spugnini et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd

Global Food Security Support Analysis Data (GFSAD) at Nominal 1 km (GCAD) Derived from Remote Sensing in Support of Food Security in the Twenty-First Century: Current Achievements and Future Possibilities

The precise estimation of the global agricultural cropland— extents, areas, geographic locations, crop types, cropping intensities, and their watering methods (irrigated or rain-fed; type of irrigation)—provides a critical scientific basis for the development of water and food security policies (Thenkabail et al., 2010, 2011, 2012). By year 2100, the global human population is expected to grow to 10.4 billion under median fertility variants or higher under constant or higher fertility variants (Table 6.1) with over three-quarters living in developing countries and in regions that already lack the capacity to produce enough food. With current agricultural practices, the increased demand for food and nutrition would require about 2 billion hectares of additional cropland, about twice the equivalent to the land area of the United States, and lead to significant increases in greenhouse gas productions associated with agricultural practices and activities (Tillman et al., 2011). For example, during 1960–2010, world population more than doubled from 3 to 7 billion. The nutritional demand of the population also grew swiftly during this period from an average of about 2000 calories per day per person in 1960 to nearly 3000 calories per day per person in 2010. The food demand of increased population along with increased nutritional demand during this period was met by the “green revolution,” which more than tripled the food production, even though croplands decreased from about 0.43 ha per capita to 0.26 ha per capita (FAO, 2009). The increase in food production during the green revolution was the result of factors such as: (1) expansion of irrigated croplands, which had increased in 2000 from 130 Mha in the 1960s to between 278 Mha (Siebert et al., 2006) and 467 Mha (Thenkabail et al., 2009a,b,c), with the larger estimate due to consideration of cropping intensity; (2) increase in yield and per capita production of food (e.g., cereal production from 280 to 380 kg/person and meat from 22 to 34 kg/person (McIntyre, 2008); (3) new cultivar types (e.g., hybrid varieties of wheat and rice, biotechnology); and (4) modern agronomic and crop management practices (e.g., fertilizers, herbicide, pesticide applications)..

FIRST LINE AVELUMAB IN PD-L1+VE METASTATIC OR LOCALLY ADVANCED UROTHELIAL CANCER (AUC) PATIENTS UNFIT FOR CISPLATIN (CIS): THE ARIES TRIAL

Background: Avelumab (ave) was approved as maintenance therapy after platinum-based first line (1L) therapy for patients (pts) with aUC based on ph. 3 Javelin Bladder 100 study (NCT02603432), showing significant overall survival (OS) improvement. Here we tested the activity of ave as 1L of therapy in pts with aUC and PD-L1+ve expression. Methods: ARIES is a single-arm, multi-site, open-label phase II trial. Enrolled pts had aUC, were cis-unfit (at least one of: ECOG-PS=2, CrCl <60 mL/min, grade ⩾2 peripheral neuropathy/hearing loss, progression within 6-mos before the end of neo/adj chemo), had not previously received chemo for aUC and PD-L1⩾5% (SP263) centrally assessed. Pts received ave 10 mg/Kg IV Q2W until progression, unacceptable toxicity and withdrawal, whichever occurred first. The primary endpoint was the 1-year OS. Key secondary endpoints were median-OS, -PFS, ORR, DOR and safety. The outcome based on PDL1 expression >10 has also been investigated. Results: A total of 198 eligible cis-unfit pts have been tested for PD-L1 and 71 (35.6%) have been found positive. Among enrolled patients (N=71), median age was 75 y, 35 (49.3%) had visceral disease, and 22 (31.0%) had ECOG-PS=2; 50 (70.4%) had CrCl <60 mL/min and 9 (12.7%) progressed within 6-mos from the end of neo/adj chemo. At the cut-off data (Feb 2, 2022), median follow up was 10.0 mos and 14 patients are still on treatment. The median OS was 10.0 mos (95% CI, 5.5-14.5), and 43.0% of patients were alive at 1-year. The ORR for all patients was 24.0%; complete response, 8.5% (n=6); partial response, 15.5% (n=11). Clinical benefit was 43.6% (n=31). Median PFS was 2.0 mos (95% CI, 1.7-2.3). Among the 17 pts who had tumour response 13 had DOR > 1y and 5 > 2y. A total of 67 patients have been evaluated for CPS and among these 56 (83.6%) have been classified as high expression. The median OS was 11.0 mos (95%CI, 0.1 – 22.9) for those with high CPS and 7.0 mos (95%CI 2.8 – 11.2) for low CPS (p=0.13). The median PFS was 2.0 mos for both high and low CPS (p=0.34). Five (7.0%) grade 3 ave-related adverse events, and no treatment-related death were reported. Conclusions: Ave is active and safe in pts with cis-unfit, PD-L1+ve aUC and poor baseline characteristics

Association between Glucose Levels and Intraocular Pressure: Pre- and Postprandial Analysis in Diabetic and Nondiabetic Patients

The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between glucose levels and intraocular pressure (IOP) fluctuation in diabetic and nondiabetic patients. Seventeen nondiabetic and 20 diabetic subjects underwent a complete ophthalmic examination, capillary glucose testing, and applanation tonometry in two distinct situations: first, fasting for at least 8 hours and, second, postprandial measurements. Baseline glucose levels were higher in diabetic patients (P<0.001). Postprandial IOP was significantly higher than baseline IOP in diabetic (P<0.001) and nondiabetic patients (P=0.006). Postprandial glucose levels were significantly higher than baseline measurements in both diabetic (P=0.005) and nondiabetic patients (P=0.015). There was a significant association between glucose levels variation and IOP change in both diabetic patients (R2=0.540; P<0.001) and nondiabetic individuals (R2=0.291; P=0.025). There is also a significant association between the baseline glucose levels and IOP change in diabetic group (R2=0.445; P=0.001). In a multivariable model, the magnitude of glucose level change remained significantly associated with IOP variation even including age, baseline IOP, ancestry, and gender as a confounding factor (P<0.001). We concluded that there is a significant association between blood glucose levels and IOP variation, especially in diabetic patients

Measurement of the cross-section and charge asymmetry of WW bosons produced in proton-proton collisions at s=8\sqrt{s}=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper presents measurements of the $W^+ \rightarrow \mu^+\nu$ and $W^- \rightarrow \mu^-\nu$ cross-sections and the associated charge asymmetry as a function of the absolute pseudorapidity of the decay muon. The data were collected in proton--proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC and correspond to a total integrated luminosity of 20.2~\mbox{fb^{-1}}. The precision of the cross-section measurements varies between 0.8% to 1.5% as a function of the pseudorapidity, excluding the 1.9% uncertainty on the integrated luminosity. The charge asymmetry is measured with an uncertainty between 0.002 and 0.003. The results are compared with predictions based on next-to-next-to-leading-order calculations with various parton distribution functions and have the sensitivity to discriminate between them.Comment: 38 pages in total, author list starting page 22, 5 figures, 4 tables, submitted to EPJC. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at https://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/STDM-2017-13

Search for chargino-neutralino production with mass splittings near the electroweak scale in three-lepton final states in √s=13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for supersymmetry through the pair production of electroweakinos with mass splittings near the electroweak scale and decaying via on-shell W and Z bosons is presented for a three-lepton final state. The analyzed proton-proton collision data taken at a center-of-mass energy of √s=13  TeV were collected between 2015 and 2018 by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139  fb−1. A search, emulating the recursive jigsaw reconstruction technique with easily reproducible laboratory-frame variables, is performed. The two excesses observed in the 2015–2016 data recursive jigsaw analysis in the low-mass three-lepton phase space are reproduced. Results with the full data set are in agreement with the Standard Model expectations. They are interpreted to set exclusion limits at the 95% confidence level on simplified models of chargino-neutralino pair production for masses up to 345 GeV

Search for direct stau production in events with two hadronic tau-leptons in root s=13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for the direct production of the supersymmetric partners ofτ-leptons (staus) in final stateswith two hadronically decayingτ-leptons is presented. The analysis uses a dataset of pp collisions corresponding to an integrated luminosity of139fb−1, recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LargeHadron Collider at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. No significant deviation from the expected StandardModel background is observed. Limits are derived in scenarios of direct production of stau pairs with eachstau decaying into the stable lightest neutralino and oneτ-lepton in simplified models where the two staumass eigenstates are degenerate. Stau masses from 120 GeV to 390 GeV are excluded at 95% confidencelevel for a massless lightest neutralino