Visuospatial working memory in children and adolescents with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome; an fMRI study

22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11DS) is a genetic disorder associated with a microdeletion of chromosome 22q11. In addition to high rates of neuropsychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, children with 22q11DS have a specific neuropsychological profile with particular deficits in visuospatial and working memory. However, the neurobiological substrate underlying these deficits is poorly understood. We investigated brain function during a visuospatial working memory (SWM) task in eight children with 22q11DS and 13 healthy controls, using fMRI. Both groups showed task-related activation in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and bilateral parietal association cortices. Controls activated parietal and occipital regions significantly more than those with 22q11DS but there was no significant between-group difference in DLPFC. In addition, while controls had a significant age-related increase in the activation of posterior brain regions and an age-related decrease in anterior regions, the 22q11DS children showed the opposite pattern. Genetically determined differences in the development of specific brain systems may underpin the cognitive deficits in 22q11DS, and may contribute to the later development of neuropsychiatric disorders

Progress and Research Needs of Plant Biomass Degradation by Basidiomycete Fungi

Peer reviewe

Trials

BACKGROUND: Postoperative upper gastrointestinal fistula (PUGIF) is a devastating complication, leading to high mortality (reaching up to 80%), increased length of hospital stay, reduced health-related quality of life and increased health costs. Nutritional support is a key component of therapy in such cases, which is related to the high prevalence of malnutrition. In the prophylactic setting, enteral nutrition (EN) is associated with a shorter hospital stay, a lower incidence of severe infectious complications, lower severity of complications and decreased cost compared to total parenteral nutrition (TPN) following major upper gastrointestinal (GI) surgery. There is little evidence available for the curative setting after fistula occurrence. We hypothesize that EN increases the 30-day fistula closure rate in PUGIF, allowing better health-related quality of life without increasing the morbidity or mortality. METHODS/DESIGN: The NUTRILEAK trial is a multicenter, randomized, parallel-group, open-label phase III trial to assess the efficacy of EN (the experimental group) compared with TPN (the control group) in patients with PUGIF. The primary objective of the study is to compare EN versus TPN in the treatment of PUGIF (after esophagogastric resection including bariatric surgery, duodenojejunal resection or pancreatic resection with digestive tract violation) in terms of the 30-day fistula closure rate. Secondary objectives are to evaluate the 6-month postrandomization fistula closure rate, time of first fistula closure (in days), the medical- and surgical treatment-related complication rate at 6 months after randomization, the fistula-related complication rate at 6 months after randomization, the type and severity of early (30 days after randomization) and late fistula-related complications (over 30 days after randomization), 30-day and 6-month postrandomization mortality rate, nutritional status at day 30, day 60, day 90 and day 180 postrandomization, the mean length of hospital stay, the patient's health-related quality of life (by self-assessment questionnaire), oral feeding time and direct costs of treatment. A total of 321 patients will be enrolled. DISCUSSION: The two nutritional supports are already used in daily practice, but most surgeons are reluctant to use the enteral route in case of PUGIF. This study will be the first randomized trial testing the role of EN versus TPN in PUGIF. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT03742752. Registered on 14 November 2018.This research program is funded by the French Ministry of Health through Programme Hospitalier de Recherche Clinique 2016

Etude d'un moteur à réluctance variable à disques imbriqués alimenté à tension constante

Dans cet article, nous présentons une étude théorique et expérimentale d'un moteur à réluctance variable à disques imbriqués alimenté directement à 50 Hz par un réseau triphasé industriel à tension efficace constante. Les deux principales hypothèses faites dans ce travail sont les suivantes : les circuits magnétiques de la machine à réluctance variable sont non saturés et la ligne d'arbre entraînée est supposée infiniment rigide. Dans ce cadre, nous présentons les caractéristiques des divers fonctionnements synchrones possibles ainsi que leurs conditions de stabilité

Implementação de recursos computacionais para apoio ao processo logístico de coleta em castanhais.

Os agroextrativistas enfrentam dificuldades de locomoção e transporte por trabalharem coletando frutos em floresta natural, principalmente quando se trata de castanheiras. Para facilitar essa atividade, podem ser usados cabos aéreos móveis presos a árvores, possibilitando, assim, transportar os frutos sem a necessidade de força humana para carregá-los por longas distâncias. No entanto, ainda falta a disseminação e popularização das instruções e cálculos envolvidos. Com base nisso, foi proposto e desenvolvido um protótipo para dispositivos móveis com sistema operacional Android, usando a linguagem Dart e o framework Flutter, com o objetivo de fornecer informações referentes ao processo da ancoragem e realizar cálculos dos pontos de ancoragem com base nas coordenadas fornecidas manualmente no padrão UTM e Datum SIRGAS 2000

Classification of weeds in agricultural crops with ensembles of convolutional neural networks.

Classificação de Ervas Daninhas em Culturas Agrícolas com Comitês de Redes Neurais Convolucionais

Ethanol fermentation­ and ethylene physiology­related genes expression profiles in Red Delicious apples stored under variable hypoxic conditions and protocols

Dynamic Controlled Atmosphere (DCA) is beneficial in maintaining specific quality parameters but, due to the extreme oxygen levels applied, can cause adverse effects on the fruit by inducing excessive anaerobic metabolism and the production of off­flavors. The metabolic adaptation and responses of apples (Malus domestica Borkh.) cv. Red Delicious to static or dynamic oxygen concentrations (0.3 and 0.8%, with sequential shifts) during cold storage for 7 months were studied by monitoring quality parameters and the expression of genes involved in sugar, fermentative metabolism, and ethylene physiology. Ethanol content reached the highest levels (around 400 mg/kg FW) under 0.3% oxygen concentration and fruit firmness appeared to be reduced in samples accumulating the highest levels of ethanol. Oxygen switch was effective in reducing the ethanol concentrations with timing­dependent variable effects. The expression of fermentative (alcohol dehydrogenase, lactate dehydrogenase, pyruvate decarboxylase) and sugar metabolism (β‐amylase; phosphofructokinase; sucrose synthase) genes resulted to be differently affected by the hypoxic conditions imposed, in particular during the early stages of storage. Sucrose synthase expression appeared to be highly sensitive to changes in low oxygen concentration. Ethylene biosynthesis (ACC synthase and oxidase) genes showed marked differences in their expression in relation to the static and dynamic protocols and the hypoxic conditions, as well as six Ethylene Responsive Factors (ERF) genes, some of them possibly involved in the oxygen sensing mechanism operating in fruit tissues

[Takotsubo and surroundings. Step by step postpartum stress-induced cardiomyopathy shows its facet. A peculiar case of atypical takotasubo in the peripartum period].

Takotsubo syndrome is an acquired cardiomyopathy with transient and reversible left ventricular dysfunction that can mimic an acute coronary syndrome. It is characterized by ECG abnormalities, including minimal ST-segment elevation and T-wave changes, mild troponin elevation, typical left ventricular regional wall motion abnormalities (apical ballooning) and atypical forms (midventricular or reverse apical ballooning) without significant coronary artery stenosis. Its etiology and pathophysiology remain unclear. The sympathetic system seems to play a central role: its exaggerated response to emotional or physical stress triggers may induce microvascular dysfunction and catecholamine-induced cardiotoxicity due to cyclic AMP-mediated calcium overload. We report our experience highlighting the possible pathophysiological and clinical overlap of emotional-triggered catecholamine cardiotoxicity, arterial hypertension and physiological cardiovascular overload in pregnancy describing an atypical case of takotsubo cardiomyopathy with diffuse left ventricular hypokinesia at onset and subsequent evolution to apical ballooning

Bone marrow aspirate concentrate versus platelet-rich plasma for treating knee osteoarthritis: a one-year non-randomized retrospective comparative study

Abstract Background Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is a debilitating condition affecting human body biomechanics and quality of life. Current standard care for knee OA leads to trivial improvement and entails multiple adverse effects or complications. Recently, investigational cell therapies injected intra-articularly, such as bone marrow aspirate concentrate (BMAC) and platelet-rich plasma (PRP), have shown safety and therapeutic potency providing patients with pain relief. In the current retrospective comparative study, we investigated the differences in pain and functional improvements in patients with symptomatic knee OA receiving intra-articular injections of BMAC vs PRP. Methods Pain and functionality scores were measured at baseline and at different time points post-injection over 12 months, using 3 self-administered, clinically validated questionnaires: the visual analogue scale (VAS) for assessing pain intensity, the knee injury and osteoarthritis outcome score (KOOS) for evaluating functionality and knee-related quality of life, and the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Arthritis Index (WOMAC) for evaluating physical function. The repeated-measures general linear model with Sidak test for pairwise comparisons was used to investigate the influence of the treatment on the score evolution within groups (between baseline and each time point) and between groups (overall). Results The BMAC group (n = 26 knees) significantly improved in VAS, KOOS, and WOMAC scores between baseline and 12 months (57.4, 75.88, and 73.95% mean score improvement, respectively). In contrast, the PRP group (n = 13 knees) witnessed nonsignificant improvement in all scores. BMAC, in comparison to PRP, induced significant improvement in outcomes by 29.38% on the VAS scale, 53.89% on the KOOS scale, and 51.71% on the WOMAC scale (P < .002, P < .01, P < .011, respectively). Conclusions Intra-articular autologous BMAC injections are safe, effective in treating pain, and ameliorate functionality in patients with symptomatic knee OA to a greater extent than PRP injections. Graphical abstract Intra-articular autologous BMAC therapy is safe and provides more relief to patients with symptomatic knee osteoarthritis compared to PRP therapy