Association between Resistin Levels and All-Cause and Cardiovascular Mortality: A New Study and a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

CONTEXT: Studies concerning the association between circulating resistin and mortality risk have reported, so far, conflicting results. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association between resistin and both all-cause and cardiovascular (CV) mortality risk by 1) analyzing data from the Gargano Heart Study (GHS) prospective design (n=359 patients; 81 and 58 all-cause and CV deaths, respectively); 2) performing meta-analyses of all published studies addressing the above mentioned associations. DATA SOURCE AND STUDY SELECTION: MEDLINE and Web of Science search of studies reporting hazard ratios (HR) of circulating resistin for all-cause or CV mortality. DATA EXTRACTION: Performed independently by two investigators, using a standardized data extraction sheet. DATA SYNTHESIS: In GHS, adjusted HRs per one standard deviation (SD) increment in resistin concentration were 1.28 (95% CI: 1.07-1.54) and 1.32 (95% CI: 1.06-1.64) for all-cause and CV mortality, respectively. The meta-analyses included 7 studies (n=4016; 961 events) for all-cause mortality and 6 studies (n=4,187: 412 events) for CV mortality. Pooled HRs per one SD increment in resistin levels were 1.21 (95% CI: 1.03-1.42, Q-test p for heterogeneity<0.001) and 1.05 (95% CI: 1.01-1.10, Q-test p for heterogeneity=0.199) for all-cause and CV mortality, respectively. At meta-regression analyses, study mean age explained 9.9% of all-cause mortality studies heterogeneity. After adjusting for age, HR for all-cause mortality was 1.24 (95% CI: 1.06-1.45). CONCLUSIONS: Our results provide evidence for an association between circulating resistin and mortality risk among high-risk patients as are those with diabetes and coronary artery disease

Neutron imaging and modelling inclined vortex driven thin films.

The vortex fluidic device (VFD) is a thin film microfluidic platform which has a wide range of applications in synthesis and other areas of science, and it is important to understand the nature of the thin film of liquid in its inclined rapidly rotating tube. Neutron imaging has been used to determine the thickness of the film in a quartz tube with its shape modelled mathematically, showing good agreement between the model and experiments. The resultant equations are useful for studying VFD mediated processing in general, for which the optimal tilt angle of the tube is typically 45°. This includes its utility for the intelligent scale-up of organic syntheses, as demonstrated in the present study by the scaling up of an imine and amide synthesis to >1 g/min

Characterization of Samples for Optimization of Infrared Stray Light Coatings

NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) is a converted 747SP that houses a 2.5 m telescope that observes the sky through an opening in the side of the aircraft. Because it flies at altitudes up to 45,000 feet, SOFIA gets 99.99% transmission in the infrared. Multiple science instruments mount one at a time on the telescope to interpret infrared and visible light from target sources. Ball Infrared Black (BIRB) currently coats everything that the optics sees inside the telescope assembly (TA) cavity in order to eliminate noise from the glow of background sky, aircraft exhaust, and other sources. A reflectometer and emissometer were used to measure and characterize the coatings in terms of their ability to absorb stray light. These measurements were then compared to the BIRB currently used. Though Aeroglaze Z306 showed lower better (lower) reflectance values than Desothane, neither of these coatings showed better reflectance values than the current BIRB. These characterizations help us to determine an improved recipe for TA cavity coating

Supraspinal inactivation of mitochondrial superoxide dismutase is a source of peroxynitrite in the development of morphine antinociceptive tolerance.

Effective treatment of chronic pain with morphine is limited by decreases in the drug’s analgesic action with chronic administration (antinociceptive tolerance). Because opioids are mainstays of pain management, restoring their efficacy has great clinical importance. We have recently reported that formation of peroxynitrite (ONOO(−), PN) in the dorsal horn of the spinal cord plays a critical role in the development of morphine antinociceptive tolerance and have further documented that nitration and enzymatic inactivation of mitochondrial superoxide dismutase (MnSOD) at that site provides a source for this nitroxidative species. We now report for the first time that antinociceptive tolerance is also associated with the inactivation of MnSOD at supraspinal sites. Inactivation of MnSOD led to nitroxidative stress as evidenced by increased levels of products of oxidative DNA damage and activation of the nuclear factor poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase in whole brain homogenates. Co-administration of morphine with potent Mn porphyrin-based peroxynitrite scavengers, (MnTE-2-PyP(5+) and MnTnHex-2-PyP(5+)) (1) restored the enzymatic activity of MnSOD, (2) attenuated PN derived nitroxidative stress, and (3) blocked the development of morphine induced antinociceptive tolerance. The more lipophilic analogue, MnTnHex-2-PyP(5+) was able to cross the blood brain barrier at higher levels than its lipophylic counterpart MnTE-2-PyP(5+) and was about 30 fold more efficacious. Collectively, these data suggest that peroxynitrite mediated enzymatic inactivation of supraspinal MnSOD provides a source of nitroxidative stress, which in turn contributes to central sensitization associated with the development of morphine antinociceptive tolerance. These results support our general contention that PN-targeted therapeutics may have potential as adjuncts to opiates in pain management

Monge Distance between Quantum States

We define a metric in the space of quantum states taking the Monge distance between corresponding Husimi distributions (Q--functions). This quantity fulfills the axioms of a metric and satisfies the following semiclassical property: the distance between two coherent states is equal to the Euclidean distance between corresponding points in the classical phase space. We compute analytically distances between certain states (coherent, squeezed, Fock and thermal) and discuss a scheme for numerical computation of Monge distance for two arbitrary quantum states.Comment: 9 pages in LaTex - RevTex + 2 figures in ps. submitted to Phys. Rev.

Integrating Human Factors Engineering and Information Processing Approaches to Facilitate Evaluations in Criminal Justice Technology Research

Background: Evaluations are routinely conducted by government agencies and research organizations to assess the effectiveness of technology in criminal justice. Interdisciplinary research methods are salient to this effort. Technology evaluations are faced with a number of challenges including (1) the need to facilitate effective communication between social science researchers, technology specialists, and practitioners, (2) the need to better understand procedural and contextual aspects of a given technology, and (3) the need to generate findings that can be readily used for decision making and policy recommendations. Objectives: Process and outcome evaluations of technology can be enhanced by integrating concepts from human factors engineering and information processing. This systemic approach, which focuses on the interaction between humans, technology, and information, enables researchers to better assess how a given technology is used in practice. Subjects: Examples are drawn from complex technologies currently deployed within the criminal justice system where traditional evaluations have primarily focused on outcome metrics. Although this evidence-based approach has significant value, it is vulnerable to fully account for human and structural complexities that compose technology operations. Conclusions: Guiding principles for technology evaluations are described for identifying and defining key study metrics, facilitating communication within an interdisciplinary research team, and for understanding the interaction between users, technology, and information. The approach posited here can also enable researchers to better assess factors that may facilitate or degrade the operational impact of the technology and answer fundamental questions concerning whether the technology works as intended, at what level, and cost

The +276 G/T Single Nucleotide Polymorphism of the Adiponectin Gene Is Associated With Coronary Artery Disease in Type 2 Diabetic Patients

OBJECTIVE —Two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) at the adiponectin locus (+45T>G and +276G>T) have been associated with low circulating adiponectin levels, insulin resistance, and type 2 diabetes. We investigated whether these genetic markers are determinants of coronary artery disease (CAD) in type 2 diabetic patients. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS —A total of 376 consecutive type 2 diabetic patients were studied: 142 case subjects with coronary stenosis >50% or previous myocardial infarction and 234 control subjects with no symptoms, no electrocardiogram (ECG) signs of myocardial ischemia, and a normal ECG stress test ( n = 189) and/or ( n = 45) with coronary stenosis ≤50%. RESULTS —No association with CAD was observed for the +45 SNP ( P = 0.48). By contrast, a significant association was observed for the +276 SNP, with T/T homozygotes having a lower risk of CAD than carriers of other genotypes (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 0.13 [95% CI 0.037–0.46], P = 0.002). A similarly protective effect of the +276 T/T genotype was observed in 110 case and 45 control subjects for whom the CAD status had been determined by angiography (0.04 [0.006–0.30], P = 0.002).  Serum adiponectin, although clearly related to several features of the proatherogenic/insulin-resistant phenotype, was not different between control subjects and CAD patients (26 ± 17 vs. 25 ± 13 μg/ml). CONCLUSIONS —In conclusion, the +276 G>T polymorphism is a determinant of CAD risk in type 2 diabetic patients. This marker may assist in the identification of diabetic individuals at especially high risk of CAD, so that preventive programs can be targeted at these subjects

CPO and quantitative textural analyses within sheath folds

Acknowledgments This has been a multi-national collaboration from authors based in Europe, North America, Australia and India. Erasmus funding to GIA in 2018 enabled a visit to Catania leading to discussion and initiation of this project. The authors are grateful to Amarnath Dandapat for preparation of superpolished rock thin sections at the Department of Geology and Geophysics (IIT Kharagpur, India). Niloy Bhowmik is thanked for assistance with SEM-EBSD data generation in the Central Research Facility (IIT Kharagpur, India). E.F. thanks Sibio Carmelo for thin sections preparation at the University of Turin (Italy). Authors are grateful to ANSTO laboratory personnel for the preparation of specimens (funded proposals: P9835 with the title “Sheath fold texture characterisation”, principal scientist: E.F.; co-proposers: G.I.A. and V.L.; DB6749 with the title “Texture analysis of rocks”, principal scientist: V.L.; co-proposer: E.F.; DB9606 with the title “A pilot experiment for texture characterisation in a sheath fold”, principal scientist: E.F..; co-proposers: G.I.A. and V.L.). L.N. and R.G. report that this publication has been assigned the NRCan contribution number 20230109. Many thanks to Richard D. Law and an anonymous reviewer for their careful revision that substantially improved the original version of the manuscript. We also thanks Dr. T.K. Cawood from the Geological Survey of Canada for her useful comments on the drafted manuscript. The editorial handling by Fabrizio Agosta is greatly appreciated.Peer reviewedPublisher PD