Effect of a Weight Loss and Lifestyle Intervention on Dietary Behavior in Men with Obstructive Sleep Apnea: The INTERAPNEA Trial

This study investigated the effects of an eight-week interdisciplinary weight loss and lifestyle intervention on dietary behavior in men who were overweight/had obesity and moderateto- severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). It was based on data from INTERAPNEA (ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT03851653); a randomized clinical trial conducted from April 2019 to April 2020. Men aged 18–65 years with moderate-to-severe OSA and a body mass index 25 kg/m2 were randomly assigned to a usual-care group or an eight-week interdisciplinary weight loss and lifestyle intervention combined with usual-care. Dietary behavior was assessed through the Food Behavior Checklist (FBC) and the Mediterranean Diet Adherence Screener (MEDAS). Of the 89 participants who underwent randomization, 75 completed the intervention endpoint assessment, 89 participants being therefore included in the intention-to-treat analyses, and 75 in the per-protocol approach. As compared with usual-care, the intervention group had greater improvements at intervention endpoint in dietary behavior, as measured by the FBC total score (20% increase in FBC total score, mean between-group difference, 8.7; 95% confidence interval, 5.7 to 11.7), and MEDAS total score (33% increase in MEDAS total score, mean between-group difference, 2.1; 95% CI 1.3 to 2.9). At 6 months after intervention, the intervention group also had greater improvements in both the FBC total score (15% increase) and MEDAS total score (25% increase), with mean between-group differences of 7.7 (CI 95%, 4.4 to 10.9) and 1.7 (CI 95%, 0.9 to 2.6), respectively. An eight-week interdisciplinary weight loss and lifestyle intervention resulted in meaningful and sustainable improvements in dietary behavior, including adherence to the Mediterranean diet in men who were overweight/ had obesity and CPAP-treated moderate-to-severe OSA.Spanish Government FPU16/01093 FPU14/04172 FPU19/01609University of Granada-LoMonaco S.L. Sleep Research Cathedra University of Granada Plan Propio de Investigacion 2016-Excellence actions: Unit of Excellence on Exercise and Health (UCEES)Regional Ministry of Economy, Knowledge, Enterprise, and Universities (CECEU) of Andalusia (European Regional Development Funds) SOMM17/6107/UG

Occupational choice, number of entrepreneurs and output: theory and empirical evidence with Spanish data

This paper extends the (Lucas, Bell J Econ 9:508–523,1978) model of occupational choices by individuals with different skills, beyond the simple options of self-employment or wage-employment, by including a second choice for the self-employed. That is, an option to hire employees and so become self-employed with employees (SEWEs), or to be self-employed without employees (SEWNEs). We solve for the market equilibrium and examine the sensitivity of relative sizes of occupational groups, and of the level of productivity, to changes in the exogenous parameters. The results show that the positive (negative) association between number of SEWEs (SEWNEs) and productivity, observed in the Spanish data, can be explained, under certain conditions, as the result of cross-region and time differences in average skills. These findings point to the importance of distinguishing between SEWEs and SEWNEs in drawing valid conclusions concerning any link between entrepreneurship and economic development

Artificial intelligence-based software (AID-FOREST) for tree detection: A new framework for fast and accurate forest inventorying using LiDAR point clouds

Forest inventories are essential to accurately estimate different dendrometric and forest stand parameters. However, classical forest inventories are time consuming, slow to conduct, sometimes inaccurate and costly. To address this problem, an efficient alternative approach has been sought and designed that will make this type of field work cheaper, faster, more accurate, and easier to complete. The implementation of this concept has required the development of a specifically designed software called "Artificial Intelligence for Digital Forest (AID-FOREST)", which is able to process point clouds obtained via mobile terrestrial laser scanning (MTLS) and then, to provide an array of multiple useful and accurate dendrometric and forest stand parameters. Singular characteristics of this approach are: No data pre-processing is required either pre-treatment of forest stand; fully automatic process once launched; no limitations by the size of the point cloud file and fast computations.To validate AID-FOREST, results provided by this software were compared against the obtained from in-situ classical forest inventories. To guaranty the soundness and generality of the comparison, different tree spe-cies, plot sizes, and tree densities were measured and analysed. A total of 76 plots (10,887 trees) were selected to conduct both a classic forest inventory reference method and a MTLS (ZEB-HORIZON, Geoslam, ltd.) scanning to obtain point clouds for AID-FOREST processing, known as the MTLS-AIDFOREST method. Thus, we compared the data collected by both methods estimating the average number of trees and diameter at breast height (DBH) for each plot. Moreover, 71 additional individual trees were scanned with MTLS and processed by AID-FOREST and were then felled and divided into logs measuring 1 m in length. This allowed us to accurately measure the DBH, total height, and total volume of the stems.When we compared the results obtained with each methodology, the mean detectability was 97% and ranged from 81.3 to 100%, with a bias (underestimation by MTLS-AIDFOREST method) in the number of trees per plot of 2.8% and a relative root-mean-square error (RMSE) of 9.2%. Species, plot size, and tree density did not significantly affect detectability. However, this parameter was significantly affected by the ecosystem visual complexity index (EVCI). The average DBH per plot was underestimated (but was not significantly different from 0) by the MTLS-AIDFOREST, with the average bias for pooled data being 1.8% with a RMSE of 7.5%. Similarly, there was no statistically significant differences between the two distribution functions of the DBH at the 95.0% confidence level.Regarding the individual tree parameters, MTLS-AIDFOREST underestimated DBH by 0.16 % (RMSE = 5.2 %) and overestimated the stem volume (Vt) by 1.37 % (RMSE = 14.3 %, although the BIAS was not statistically significantly different from 0). However, the MTLS-AIDFOREST method overestimated the total height (Ht) of the trees by a mean 1.33 m (5.1 %; relative RMSE = 11.5 %), because of the different height concepts measured by both methodological approaches. Finally, AID-FOREST required 30 to 66 min per ha-1 to fully automatically process the point cloud data from the *.las file corresponding to a given hectare plot. Thus, applying our MTLS-AIDFOREST methodology to make full forest inventories, required a 57.3 % of the time required to perform classical plot forest inventories (excluding the data postprocessing time in the latter case). A free trial of AID -FOREST can be requested at [email protected]

The Attitudes to Ageing Questionnaire:Mokken Scaling Analysis

BACKGROUND:Hierarchical scales are useful in understanding the structure of underlying latent traits in many questionnaires. The Attitudes to Ageing Questionnaire (AAQ) explored the attitudes to ageing of older people themselves, and originally described three distinct subscales: (1) Psychosocial Loss (2) Physical Change and (3) Psychological Growth. This study aimed to use Mokken analysis, a method of Item Response Theory, to test for hierarchies within the AAQ and to explore how these relate to underlying latent traits. METHODS:Participants in a longitudinal cohort study, the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936, completed a cross-sectional postal survey. Data from 802 participants were analysed using Mokken Scaling analysis. These results were compared with factor analysis using exploratory structural equation modelling. RESULTS:Participants were 51.6% male, mean age 74.0 years (SD 0.28). Three scales were identified from 18 of the 24 items: two weak Mokken scales and one moderate Mokken scale. (1) 'Vitality' contained a combination of items from all three previously determined factors of the AAQ, with a hierarchy from physical to psychosocial; (2) 'Legacy' contained items exclusively from the Psychological Growth scale, with a hierarchy from individual contributions to passing things on; (3) 'Exclusion' contained items from the Psychosocial Loss scale, with a hierarchy from general to specific instances. All of the scales were reliable and statistically significant with 'Legacy' showing invariant item ordering. The scales correlate as expected with personality, anxiety and depression. Exploratory SEM mostly confirmed the original factor structure. CONCLUSIONS:The concurrent use of factor analysis and Mokken scaling provides additional information about the AAQ. The previously-described factor structure is mostly confirmed. Mokken scaling identifies a new factor relating to vitality, and a hierarchy of responses within three separate scales, referring to vitality, legacy and exclusion. This shows what older people themselves consider important regarding their own ageing

Independent Evidence for Earlier Formation Epochs of Fossil Groups of Galaxies through the Intracluster Light: The Case for RX J100742.53+380046.6

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Fossil groups (FG) of galaxies still present a puzzle to theories of structure formation. Despite the low number of bright galaxies, they have relatively high velocity dispersions and ICM temperatures often corresponding to cluster-like potential wells. Their measured concentrations are typically high, indicating early formation epochs as expected from the originally proposed scenario for their origin as being older undisturbed systems. This is, however, in contradiction with the typical lack of expected well developed cool cores. Here, we apply a cluster dynamical indicator recently discovered in the intracluster light fraction (ICLf) to a classic FG, RX J1000742.53+380046.6, to assess its dynamical state. We also refine that indicator to use as an independent age estimator. We find negative radial temperature and metal abundance gradients, the abundance achieving supersolar values at the hot core. The X-ray flux concentration is consistent with that of cool core systems. The ICLf analysis provides an independent probe of the system’s dynamical state and shows that the system is very relaxed, more than all clusters, where the same analysis has been performed. The specific ICLf is about 6 times higher, than any of the clusters previously analyzed, which is consistent with an older noninteractive galaxy system that had its last merging event within the last ∼5 Gyr. The specific ICLf is predicted to be an important new tool to identify fossil systems and to constrain the relative age of clusters. © 2022. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society.R.A.D. acknowledges partial support from NASA grants 80NSSC20P0540 and 80NSSC20P0597 and the CNPq grant 308105/2018-4. R.A.D. also thanks Drs. MARc Kessler for very insightful discussions, Francois Mernier and Zack Li for helpful suggestions. This paper used the cosmology calculator of Wright (2006). Y.J.-T. has received funding from the European Unions Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 898633. Y.J.-T. also acknowledges financial support from the State Agency for Research of the Spanish MCIU through the Center of Excellence Severo Ochoa award to the Instituto de Astrofsica de Andaluca (SEV-2017-0709). This study was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior—Brasil (CAPES)—Finance Code 001. Based on observations obtained at the international Gemini Observatory, a program of NSFs NOIRLab, which is managed by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation on behalf of the Gemini Observatory partnership: the National Science Foundation (United States), National Research Council (Canada), Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo (Chile), Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación (Argentina), Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia, Inovações e Comunicações (Brazil), and Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (Republic of Korea). This work was enabled by observations made from the Gemini North telescope, located within the Maunakea Science Reserve and adjacent to the summit of Maunakea.Peer reviewe

CXCL12-mediated murine neural progenitor cell movement Requires PI3Kß activation

The migratory route of neural progenitor/precursor cells (NPC) has a central role in central nervous system development. Although the role of the chemokine CXCL12 in NPC migration has been described, the intracellular signaling cascade involved remains largely unclear. Here we studied the molecular mechanisms that promote murine NPC migration in response to CXCL12, in vitro and ex vivo. Migration was highly dependent on signaling by the CXCL12 receptor, CXCR4. Although the JAK/STAT pathway was activated following CXCL12 stimulation of NPC, JAK activity was not necessary for NPC migration in vitro. Whereas CXCL12 activated the PI3K catalytic subunits p110α and p110β in NPC, only p110β participated in CXCL12-mediated NPC migration. Ex vivo experiments using organotypic slice cultures showed that p110β blockade impaired NPC exit from the medial ganglionic eminence. In vivo experiments using in utero electroporation nonetheless showed that p110β is dispensable for radial migration of pyramidal neurons. We conclude that PI3K p110β is activated in NPC in response to CXCL12, and its activity is necessary for immature interneuron migration to the cerebral cortex.BLH received an FPI predoctoral fellowship (BES-2006-12965) from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. This work was supported in part by grants from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (SAF 2011-27370), the RETICS Program (RD08/0075/0010, RD12/0009/0009; RIER), the Madrid regional government (S2010/BMD-2350; RAPHYME), and the European Union (FP7-integrated project Masterswitch 223404).Peer reviewe