Hyperbaric oxygen treatment for inflammatory bowel disease: a systematic review and analysis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Traditionally, hyperbaric oxygen treatment (HBOT) has been used to treat a limited repertoire of disease, including decompression sickness and healing of problem wounds. However, some investigators have used HBOT to treat inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), including Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Comprehensive searches were conducted in 8 scientific databases through 2011 to identify publications using HBOT in IBD. Human studies and animal models were collated separately.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Thirteen studies of HBOT in Crohn's disease and 6 studies in ulcerative colitis were identified. In all studies, participants had severe disease refractory to standard medical treatments, including corticosteroids, immunomodulators and anti-inflammatory medications. In patients with Crohn's disease, 31/40 (78%) had clinical improvements with HBOT, while all 39 patients with ulcerative colitis improved. One study in Crohn's disease reported a significant decrease in proinflammatory cytokines (IL-1, IL-6 and TNF-alpha) and one study in ulcerative colitis reported a decrease in IL-6 with HBOT. Adverse events were minimal. Twelve publications reported using HBOT in animal models of experimentally-induced IBD, including several studies reporting decreased markers of inflammation or immune dysregulation, including TNF-alpha (3 studies), IL-1beta (2 studies), neopterin (1 study) and myeloperoxidase activity (5 studies). HBOT also decreased oxidative stress markers including malondialdehyde (3 studies) and plasma carbonyl content (2 studies), except for one study that reported increased plasma carbonyl content. Several studies reported HBOT lowered nitric oxide (3 studies) and nitric oxide synthase (3 studies) and one study reported a decrease in prostaglandin E₂levels. Four animal studies reported decreased edema or colonic tissue weight with HBOT, and 8 studies reported microscopic improvements on histopathological examination. Although most publications reported improvements with HBOT, some studies suffered from limitations, including possible publication and referral biases, the lack of a control group, the retrospective nature and a small number of participants.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>HBOT lowered markers of inflammation and oxidative stress and ameliorated IBD in both human and animal studies. Most treated patients were refractory to standard medical treatments. Additional studies are warranted to investigate the effects of HBOT on biomarkers of oxidative stress and inflammation as well as clinical outcomes in individuals with IBD.</p

The self-consistent quantum-electrostatic problem in strongly non-linear regime

The self-consistent quantum-electrostatic (also known as Poisson-Schr\"odinger) problem is notoriously difficult in situations where the density of states varies rapidly with energy. At low temperatures, these fluctuations make the problem highly non-linear which renders iterative schemes deeply unstable. We present a stable algorithm that provides a solution to this problem with controlled accuracy. The technique is intrinsically convergent including in highly non-linear regimes. We illustrate our approach with (i) a calculation of the compressible and incompressible stripes in the integer quantum Hall regime and (ii) a calculation of the differential conductance of a quantum point contact geometry. Our technique provides a viable route for the predictive modeling of the transport properties of quantum nanoelectronics devices.Comment: 28 pages. 14 figures. Added solution to a potential failure mode of the algorith

Eurostar E3000 Satellite On-Board Software Development of a product line towards multiple system needs

International audienceThe present paper describes how the on-board software for the telecommunication satellites family Eurostar E3000 contributes to the successful story of the product line. It encompasses a synthetic description of the platform and the on-board software functions and major requirements to support the different options and variants, how this generic software was efficiently developed and verified, how each instantiation for each new satellite program could benefit from the overall industrialization process

Second-generation nitazoxanide derivatives: thiazolides are effective inhibitors of the influenza A virus

Aim: The only small molecule drugs currently available for treatment of influenza A virus (IAV) are M2 ion channel blockers and sialidase inhibitors. The prototype thiazolide, nitazoxanide, has successfully completed Phase III clinical trials against acute uncomplicated influenza. Results: We report the activity of seventeen thiazolide analogs against A/PuertoRico/8/1934(H1N1), a laboratory-adapted strain of the H1N1 subtype of IAV, in a cell culture-based assay. A total of eight analogs showed IC50s in the range of 0.14–5.0 μM. Additionally a quantitative structure–property relationship study showed high correlation between experimental and predicted activity based on a molecular descriptor set. Conclusion: A range of thiazolides show useful activity against an H1N1 strain of IAV. Further evaluation of these molecules as potential new small molecule therapies is justified

Contrasted role of disorder for magnetic properties in an original mixed valency iron Phosphate

We have measured the magnetic properties of a mixed valency iron phosphate. It presents an original structure with crossed chains containing Fe II and orthogonal to the longest direction of the crystallites. Microstructural investigations using electron microscopy show the presence of random nano-twinning. The ac susceptibility measurements demonstrate similarities with the kinetics of a disordered magnetic, spin-glass like, state but are shown to be essentially due to this peculiar disorder. Scaling properties are characteristics of 3D second order transition implying that this disorder at a small scale does not influence significantly long range magnetic ordering. At low temperature, a decrease of the spontaneous magnetization and an irreversible metamagnetic transition is observed, and is attributed to a canting of the spins in the iron chain.Comment: accepted for publication in PR

Toward model-based engineering for space embedded systems and software

International audienceEmbedded systems development suffers from difficulties to reach cost, delay and safety requirements. The continuous increase of system complexity requires a corresponding increase in the capability of design fault-free systems. Model-based engineering aims to make complexity management easier with the construction of a virtual representation of systems enabling early prediction of behaviour and performance. In this context, Space industry has specific needs to deal with remote systems that can not be maintained on ground. In such systems, fault management includes complex detection, localisation and recovery automatic procedures that can not be performed without confidence on safety. In this way, only simulation and formal proofs can support the validation of all the possible configurations. Thus, formal description of both functional and non-functional properties with temporal logic formulae is expected to analyse and to early predict system characteristics at execution. This paper is based on various studies and experiences that are carried out in space domain on the support provided by model-based engineering in terms of: • support to needs capture and requirements analysis, • support to design, • support to early verification and validation, • down to automatic generation of code

Effect of a Grazing Intensity Gradient on Primary Production and Soil Nitrogen Mineralisation in a Humid Grassland of Western France

Large herbivores have a major influence on the structure and the functions of humid grasslands and especially on primary production. Earlier work on the study site showed that grazing intensity was spatially varied and created a diversity of vegetation patches in the grassland (Loucougaray, 2003). The first objective of this study was to determine whether the variation in grazing intensity led to variation of primary production within the three plant communities located at three topographic levels in the grassland. The second objective was to determine whether a relationship linked primary production variation and net soil nitrogen (N) mineralisation

Sub-Terahertz Monochromatic Transduction with Semiconductor Acoustic Nanodevices

We demonstrate semiconductor superlattices or nanocavities as narrow band acoustic transducers in the sub-terahertz range. Using picosecond ultrasonics experiments in the transmission geometry with pump and probe incident on opposite sides of the thick substrate, phonon generation and detection processes are fully decoupled. Generating with the semiconductor device and probing on the metal, we show that both superlattices and nanocavities generate spectrally narrow wavepackets of coherent phonons with frequencies in the vicinity of the zone center and time durations in the nanosecond range, qualitatively different from picosecond broadband pulses usually involved in picosecond acoustics with metal generators. Generating in the metal and probing on the nanoacoustic device, we furthermore evidence that both nanostructured semiconductor devices may be used as very sensitive and spectrally selective detectors

Towards a neural hierarchy of time scales for motor control

Animals show remarkable rich motion skills which are still far from realizable with robots. Inspired by the neural circuits which generate rhythmic motion patterns in the spinal cord of all vertebrates, one main research direction points towards the use of central pattern generators in robots. On of the key advantages of this, is that the dimensionality of the control problem is reduced. In this work we investigate this further by introducing a multi-timescale control hierarchy with at its core a hierarchy of recurrent neural networks. By means of some robot experiments, we demonstrate that this hierarchy can embed any rhythmic motor signal by imitation learning. Furthermore, the proposed hierarchy allows the tracking of several high level motion properties (e.g.: amplitude and offset), which are usually observed at a slower rate than the generated motion. Although these experiments are preliminary, the results are promising and have the potential to open the door for rich motor skills and advanced control

Federal Listing of Prairie Grouse: Lessons from the Attwater’s Prairie Chicken

Considerable controversy has often surrounded proposals to confer official status (i.e., list) species under the authority of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) of 1973 as amended or its precursors. Recent proposals to list the lesser prairie-chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus), the western sage grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus phaios), and the Gunnison sage grouse (C. minimus) were met with strong opposition by those concerned with prospects of an increased regulatory environment associated with such an action. The Attwater\u27s prairie-chicken (T. cupido attwateri) was one of the first species listed under The Endangered Species Conservation Act of 1966, the first federal effort to specifically protect endangered species. Federal listing benefited the Attwater\u27s by raising awareness of its status and by authorizing additional sources of funding for its management. While concern over an increased regulatory environment associated with the endangered status of the Attwater\u27s probably has always existed among property owners and land managers, conflicts involving this bird have been few and local in scope. Maintaining good working relationships and respect for all affected interests, including property owners and land managers, has been paramount in Attwater\u27s recovery efforts. However, these efforts at times have been hampered by lightning-rod issues pertaining to other species. Despite 35 years of ESA protection, the Attwater\u27s prairie-chicken remains perilously close to extinction. Based on these experiences, federal listing should be viewed neither as a panacea nor as a demon, but rather as a tool in species recovery