Vitamin d sufficiency in hemodialysis patients and its association with nutritional and clinical parameters

Renal failure is a complicating factor in the maintenance of vitamin D adequate levels, which can interfere in the patients’ nutritional status. The aim of this study was to evaluate the association of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] with clinical and nutritional parameters. Prevalent hemodialysis (HD) patients were submitted to a single evaluation about demographic characteristics, clinical data and laboratory measurements. Anthropometric measurements and electrical bioimpedance were performed to obtain BMI, percentage of standard MAMC (%MAMC), fat percentage (%Fat) and phase angle (PA). Deficiency was defined as a 25(OH)D level<15ng/mL, insufficiency as 15-30 ng/mL and sufficiency as>30ng/mL. Univariate models were constructed and the variables associated with 25(OH)D sufficiency were included subsequently in the multiple regression model. Statistical significance was p<0.05.One hundred twelve patients (59 male, 53 female) were included. Twenty seven (24.1%) were 25(OH)D deficient, 43 (38.4%) insufficient and 42 (37.5%) sufficient. In univariate regression, creatinin, albumin and PA were positively associated with serum 25(OH)D, while age, glucose, BMI and %MAMC were negatively associated. In multivariate regression, age and %MAMC were negatively associated with sufficiency. Most studied sample showed inadequate 25(OH)D levels. In our study, the result to be highlighted was the negative associations of 25(OH)D sufficiency with age and %MAMC, but all the findings suggest that fat interferes with vitamin D stores in HD patients

The Fourteenth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: First Spectroscopic Data from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey and from the second phase of the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment

The fourth generation of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-IV) has been in operation since July 2014. This paper describes the second data release from this phase, and the fourteenth from SDSS overall (making this, Data Release Fourteen or DR14). This release makes public data taken by SDSS-IV in its first two years of operation (July 2014-2016). Like all previous SDSS releases, DR14 is cumulative, including the most recent reductions and calibrations of all data taken by SDSS since the first phase began operations in 2000. New in DR14 is the first public release of data from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS); the first data from the second phase of the Apache Point Observatory (APO) Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE-2), including stellar parameter estimates from an innovative data driven machine learning algorithm known as "The Cannon"; and almost twice as many data cubes from the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at APO (MaNGA) survey as were in the previous release (N = 2812 in total). This paper describes the location and format of the publicly available data from SDSS-IV surveys. We provide references to the important technical papers describing how these data have been taken (both targeting and observation details) and processed for scientific use. The SDSS website (www.sdss.org) has been updated for this release, and provides links to data downloads, as well as tutorials and examples of data use. SDSS-IV is planning to continue to collect astronomical data until 2020, and will be followed by SDSS-V.Comment: SDSS-IV collaboration alphabetical author data release paper. DR14 happened on 31st July 2017. 19 pages, 5 figures. Accepted by ApJS on 28th Nov 2017 (this is the "post-print" and "post-proofs" version; minor corrections only from v1, and most of errors found in proofs corrected

Using an insect mushroom body circuit to encode route memory in complex natural environments

Ants, like many other animals, use visual memory to follow extended routes through complex environments, but it is unknown how their small brains implement this capability. The mushroom body neuropils have been identified as a crucial memory circuit in the insect brain, but their function has mostly been explored for simple olfactory association tasks. We show that a spiking neural model of this circuit originally developed to describe fruitfly (Drosophila melanogaster) olfactory association, can also account for the ability of desert ants (Cataglyphis velox) to rapidly learn visual routes through complex natural environments. We further demonstrate that abstracting the key computational principles of this circuit, which include one-shot learning of sparse codes, enables the theoretical storage capacity of the ant mushroom body to be estimated at hundreds of independent images

The Fourteenth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: First Spectroscopic Data from the Extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey and from the Second Phase of the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment

The fourth generation of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-IV) has been in operation since 2014 July. This paper describes the second data release from this phase, and the 14th from SDSS overall (making this Data Release Fourteen or DR14). This release makes the data taken by SDSS-IV in its first two years of operation (2014–2016 July) public. Like all previous SDSS releases, DR14 is cumulative, including the most recent reductions and calibrations of all data taken by SDSS since the first phase began operations in 2000. New in DR14 is the first public release of data from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey; the first data from the second phase of the Apache Point Observatory (APO) Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE-2), including stellar parameter estimates from an innovative data-driven machine-learning algorithm known as "The Cannon"; and almost twice as many data cubes from the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at APO (MaNGA) survey as were in the previous release (N = 2812 in total). This paper describes the location and format of the publicly available data from the SDSS-IV surveys. We provide references to the important technical papers describing how these data have been taken (both targeting and observation details) and processed for scientific use. The SDSS web site (www.sdss.org) has been updated for this release and provides links to data downloads, as well as tutorials and examples of data use. SDSS-IV is planning to continue to collect astronomical data until 2020 and will be followed by SDSS-V

Mitochondrial physiology

As the knowledge base and importance of mitochondrial physiology to evolution, health and disease expands, the necessity for harmonizing the terminology concerning mitochondrial respiratory states and rates has become increasingly apparent. The chemiosmotic theory establishes the mechanism of energy transformation and coupling in oxidative phosphorylation. The unifying concept of the protonmotive force provides the framework for developing a consistent theoretical foundation of mitochondrial physiology and bioenergetics. We follow the latest SI guidelines and those of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) on terminology in physical chemistry, extended by considerations of open systems and thermodynamics of irreversible processes. The concept-driven constructive terminology incorporates the meaning of each quantity and aligns concepts and symbols with the nomenclature of classical bioenergetics. We endeavour to provide a balanced view of mitochondrial respiratory control and a critical discussion on reporting data of mitochondrial respiration in terms of metabolic flows and fluxes. Uniform standards for evaluation of respiratory states and rates will ultimately contribute to reproducibility between laboratories and thus support the development of data repositories of mitochondrial respiratory function in species, tissues, and cells. Clarity of concept and consistency of nomenclature facilitate effective transdisciplinary communication, education, and ultimately further discovery

Mitochondrial physiology

As the knowledge base and importance of mitochondrial physiology to evolution, health and disease expands, the necessity for harmonizing the terminology concerning mitochondrial respiratory states and rates has become increasingly apparent. The chemiosmotic theory establishes the mechanism of energy transformation and coupling in oxidative phosphorylation. The unifying concept of the protonmotive force provides the framework for developing a consistent theoretical foundation of mitochondrial physiology and bioenergetics. We follow the latest SI guidelines and those of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) on terminology in physical chemistry, extended by considerations of open systems and thermodynamics of irreversible processes. The concept-driven constructive terminology incorporates the meaning of each quantity and aligns concepts and symbols with the nomenclature of classical bioenergetics. We endeavour to provide a balanced view of mitochondrial respiratory control and a critical discussion on reporting data of mitochondrial respiration in terms of metabolic flows and fluxes. Uniform standards for evaluation of respiratory states and rates will ultimately contribute to reproducibility between laboratories and thus support the development of data repositories of mitochondrial respiratory function in species, tissues, and cells. Clarity of concept and consistency of nomenclature facilitate effective transdisciplinary communication, education, and ultimately further discovery

31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC 2016) : part two

Background The immunological escape of tumors represents one of the main ob- stacles to the treatment of malignancies. The blockade of PD-1 or CTLA-4 receptors represented a milestone in the history of immunotherapy. However, immune checkpoint inhibitors seem to be effective in specific cohorts of patients. It has been proposed that their efficacy relies on the presence of an immunological response. Thus, we hypothesized that disruption of the PD-L1/PD-1 axis would synergize with our oncolytic vaccine platform PeptiCRAd. Methods We used murine B16OVA in vivo tumor models and flow cytometry analysis to investigate the immunological background. Results First, we found that high-burden B16OVA tumors were refractory to combination immunotherapy. However, with a more aggressive schedule, tumors with a lower burden were more susceptible to the combination of PeptiCRAd and PD-L1 blockade. The therapy signifi- cantly increased the median survival of mice (Fig. 7). Interestingly, the reduced growth of contralaterally injected B16F10 cells sug- gested the presence of a long lasting immunological memory also against non-targeted antigens. Concerning the functional state of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), we found that all the immune therapies would enhance the percentage of activated (PD-1pos TIM- 3neg) T lymphocytes and reduce the amount of exhausted (PD-1pos TIM-3pos) cells compared to placebo. As expected, we found that PeptiCRAd monotherapy could increase the number of antigen spe- cific CD8+ T cells compared to other treatments. However, only the combination with PD-L1 blockade could significantly increase the ra- tio between activated and exhausted pentamer positive cells (p= 0.0058), suggesting that by disrupting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis we could decrease the amount of dysfunctional antigen specific T cells. We ob- served that the anatomical location deeply influenced the state of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In fact, TIM-3 expression was in- creased by 2 fold on TILs compared to splenic and lymphoid T cells. In the CD8+ compartment, the expression of PD-1 on the surface seemed to be restricted to the tumor micro-environment, while CD4 + T cells had a high expression of PD-1 also in lymphoid organs. Interestingly, we found that the levels of PD-1 were significantly higher on CD8+ T cells than on CD4+ T cells into the tumor micro- environment (p < 0.0001). Conclusions In conclusion, we demonstrated that the efficacy of immune check- point inhibitors might be strongly enhanced by their combination with cancer vaccines. PeptiCRAd was able to increase the number of antigen-specific T cells and PD-L1 blockade prevented their exhaus- tion, resulting in long-lasting immunological memory and increased median survival

Associações entre síndrome metabólica, inflamação, índices do estado nutricional e de distribuição de gordura corporal em pacientes em hemodiálise crônica

Since 1998, eight definitions for the diagnosis of metabolic syndrome (MS) have been proposed by institutions and/or groups of experts, in order to correctly identify individuals exposed to increased cardiovascular risk. The existence of multiple definitions for the diagnosis of MS is difficult to determine their prevalence rates. Regardless of the guideline used for diagnosis, the frequency data show that SM is a big public health problem worldwide and the number of people affected is increasing. This is due to increased rates of obesity, particularly visceral obesity, which is considered a key element in the development of MS. The production of adipokines by visceral adipose tissue is the factor that links obesity to insulin resistance (IR). To assess IR, the euglycemic hyperinsulinemic clamp is considered the gold standard methodology, but the homeostatic model assessment can be used for this purpose, because it is already validated method. Body fat and its distribution has great influence on the IR, and its evaluation has strong correlation with IR. Imaging tests such as computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging are important tools in research body composition in humans, because they allow the accurate and precise measurement of visceral and subcutaneous fat located in the abdominal region. Anthropometric measurements can also be used to assess obesity, by presenting low cost, safety and simplicity in implementation. Anthropometric measures of obesity seem to be associated with metabolic changes related to IR and stand out as noninvasive indicators for the risk assessment of IR, both in epidemiological research and clinical practice. They are: sagittal abdominal diameter, abdominal circumference, neck circumference, conicity index, waist-height, body mass index, body fat percentage, waist-hip ratio, waist-hip ratio and sagittal index. In the general population, MS is associated with high cardiovascular mortality, which is ...Desde 1998, oito definições para o diagnóstico de síndrome metabólica (SM) foram propostas por instituições e/ou grupos de especialistas, com o objetivo de identificar corretamente os indivíduos expostos à maior risco cardiovascular. A existência de múltiplas definições para o diagnóstico da SM tem dificultado a determinação de suas taxas de prevalência. Independentemente da diretriz utilizada para seu diagnóstico, os dados de frequência mostram que a SM é um grande problema de saúde pública no mundo todo e o número de pessoas afetadas é crescente. Isso se deve ao aumento das taxas de obesidade, particularmente a obesidade visceral, que é considerada o elemento chave no desenvolvimento da SM. A produção de adipocinas pelo tecido adiposo visceral é o fator que associa a obesidade à resistência a insulina (RI). Para avaliação da RI, o clamp euglicêmico hiperinsulinêmico é a metodologia considerada padrão ouro, mas o homeostatic model assessment pode ser utilizado com essa finalidade por se tratar de método já validado. A gordura corporal e sua distribuição tem grande influência sobre a RI, e sua avaliação tem forte correlação com a RI. Os exames de imagem, como a tomografia computadorizada e ressonância magnética são importantes ferramentas na pesquisa de composição corporal em seres humanos, pois permitem a mensuração acurada e precisa das gorduras visceral e subcutânea localizadas na região abdominal. Medidas antropométricas também podem ser utilizadas para avaliação da obesidade, por apresentam baixo custo, inocuidade e simplicidade em sua execução. Medidas antropométricas de obesidade parecem estar associadas com as alterações metabólicas relacionadas com a RI e destacam-se como indicadores não invasivos para a avaliação do risco de RI, tanto na pesquisa epidemiológica como na prática clínica. São eles: diâmetro abdominal sagital, circunferência abdominal, circunferência ..

Metabolic Syndrome Criteria As Predictors of Insulin Resistance, Inflammation and Mortality in Chronic Hemodialysis Patients

Background: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) and metabolic syndrome are characterized by overlapping disorders, including glucose intolerance, hypertension, dyslipidemia, and, in some cases, obesity. However, there are no specific criteria for the diagnosis of metabolic syndrome in CKD. Metabolic syndrome can also be associated with increased risk of mortality. Some traditional risk factors may protect dialysis patients from mortality, known as "reverse epidemiology." Metabolic syndrome might undergo reverse epidemiology. The objectives were to detect differences in frequency and metabolic characteristics associated with three sets of diagnostic criteria for metabolic syndrome, to evaluate the accuracy of insulin resistance (IR) and inflammation to identify patients with metabolic syndrome, and to investigate the effects of metabolic syndrome by three sets of diagnostic criteria on mortality in chronic hemodialysis patients.Methods: An observational study was conducted. Diagnostic criteria for metabolic syndrome proposed by National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III (NCEP ATP III), International Diabetes Federation (IDF), and Harmonizing the Metabolic Syndrome (HMetS) statement were applied to 98 hemodialysis patients.Results: The prevalence of metabolic syndrome was 51%, 66.3%, and 75.3% according to NCEP ATP III, IDF, and HMetS criteria, respectively. Diagnosis of metabolic syndrome by HMetS was simultaneously capable of revealing both inflammation and IR, whereas NCEP ATP III and IDF criteria were only able to identify IR. Mortality risk increased in the presence of metabolic syndrome regardless of the criteria used.Conclusions: The prevalence of metabolic syndrome in hemodialysis varies according to the diagnostic criteria used. IR and inflammation predict metabolic syndrome only when diagnosed by HMetS criteria. HMetS was the diagnostic criteria that can predict the highest risk of mortality.Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES

12-weeks combined resistance and aerobic training confers greater benefits than aerobic alone in non-dialysis CKD.

There is a growing consensus that chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients should engage in regular exercise, but there is a lack of formal guidelines. In this report, we determined whether combined aerobic and resistance exercise would elicit superior physiological gains, in particular muscular strength, compared to aerobic training alone in non-dialysis CKD. Non-dialysis CKD patients stage 3b-5 were randomly allocated to aerobic exercise (AE, n=21; 9 males; median age 63years [IQR, 58-71]; median eGFR 24[IQR, 20-30] mL/min/1.73m2) or combined exercise (CE, n=20, 9 males, median age 63years [IQR, 51-69], median eGFR 27[IQR, 22-32] mL/min/1.73m2), preceded by a 6-week run in control period. Patients then underwent 12-weeks of supervised AE (treadmill, rowing or cycling exercise) or CE training (as AE plus leg extension and leg press exercise) performed 3x/week. Outcome assessments of knee extensor muscle strength, quadriceps muscle volume, exercise capacity and central haemodynamics were performed at baseline, following the 6-week control period and at the end of the intervention. AE and CE resulted in significant increases in knee extensor strength of 1619% (P=0.001) and 4837% (P<0.001) respectively, which were greater after CE (P=0.02). AE and CE resulted in 57% (P=0.04) and 97% (P<0.001) increases in quadriceps volume respectively (P<0.001) which was greater after CE (P=0.01). Both AE and CE increased distance walked in ISWT (2844m; P=0.01 and 3245m P=0.01) respectively. In non-dialysis CKD, the addition of resistance exercise to aerobic exercise confers greater increases in muscle mass and strength than aerobic exercise alone