Control of Bactrocera oleae by low environmental impact methods: NPC methodology to evaluate the efficacy of lure-and-kill method and copper hydroxide treatments

The NonParametric Combination (NPC) methodology is proposed to verify the influence of the lure-and-kill method, using Ecotraps (Vioryl SA), on the distribution of Bactrocera oleae (Rossi) (Diptera Tephritidae) infestation in olive groves, and the integration of this method with copper hydroxide sprayings. This approach does not require the verification of any rigid assumption as many parametric methods do. Results of field trials indicate a strict relationship among the efficiency of the lure-and-kill method on time, dimension of the field, and population density of the olive fly. Moreover, the lure-and-kill method alone seems insufficient to provide an efficient control of the olive fly population in small olive groves. However, when this method is integrated with two copper hydroxide sprayings, the infestation of drupes is maintained below the damage threshold

Are hepatic steatosis and carotid intima media thickness associated in obese patients with normal or slightly elevated gamma-glutamyl-transferase?

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Hepatic steatosis (HS) has been associated with obesity and metabolic syndrome (MS), conditions carrying a high risk of coronary artery disease. We aimed to determine whether HS was an independent factor of atherogenic risk beyond its association with MS and its components.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We assessed the circulating levels of the heat shock protein-70 (HSP-70), a chaperone involved in inflammation, endoplasmic reticulum stress and apoptosis at liver and endothelial level and the gamma-glutamyl transferase activity (γ-GT) correlating them to carotid intima-media thickness (IMT), along with lipid profile, HOMA, C-reactive protein, fibrinogen, ferritin, adiposity type as well as spleen volume in 52 obese pts with grade 1, 128 with grade 2, and 20 with grade 3 of HS evaluated by sonography.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Patients with different grade of HS demonstrated overlapping HSP-70 levels; similarly performed obese subjects regarding IMT. Using multiple regression analysis, IMT was predicted by age, visceral adiposity and by HOMA (β = 0.50, <it>p </it>< 0.0001, β = 0.30, <it>p </it>= 0.01 and β = 0.18, <it>p </it>= 0.048 respectively, while the severity of HS was predicted by visceral and subcutaneous adiposity and HOMA (β = 0.50, <it>p </it>< 0.0001 and β = 0.27, <it>p </it>= 0.001 and β = 0.18, <it>p </it>= 0.024, respectively).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In our series of patients with normal or mild elevation of γ-GT, the severity of HS does not entail higher IMT, which may be linked to MS stigmata.</p

Serum Bcl-2 concentrations in overweight-obese subjects with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease

AIM: To shed some light on the relationship between anti-apoptotic serum Bcl-2 concentrations and metabolic status, anthropometric parameters, inflammation indices, and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease severity were investigated in 43 young individuals with fatty liver (FL) and 41 with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH)

Biophysical Behavior of Very High-Power Short-Duration Radiofrequency Ablation in Pulmonary Vein Isolation:Fast but Gently—Implications for a Successful Procedure

The very high-power short-duration (vHP-SD) ablation strategy is an alternative for pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) in patients with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (PAF). However, the acute procedural biophysical behavior of successful lesion creation by means of this technique is still unexplored. We performed a retrospective case–control study aimed at evaluating the behavior of vHP-SD ablation parameters with the QDOT MICRO™ ablation catheter (Biosense Webster) compared with standard radiofrequency (RF) ablation with the THERMOCOOL SMARTTOUCH® ablation catheter. Twenty consecutive cases of symptomatic PAF treated with the QDOT MICRO™ ablation catheter from December 2022 to March 2023 were compared with cases treated with the standard technique. The acute procedural success of PVI was obtained in all cases with 2192 RF applications, and no adverse events occurred. Compared with the controls, vHP-SD cases featured a significant reduction in procedural time (47 ± 10 vs. 56 ± 12 min, p = 0.023), total RF time (3.8 [CI 3.4–4.6] vs. 21.2 [CI 18.4–24.9] min, p &lt; 0.001), ablation phase time (25 ± 5 vs. 39 ± 9 min, p &lt; 0.001), and irrigation volume (165 [CI 139–185] vs. 404 [CI 336–472] ml, p &lt; 0.001). In vHP-SD RF ablation, a contact force of 5 g minimum throughout the 4 s of RF application appeared to be statistically significant in terms of an impedance drop of at least 10 Ohm (OR 2.63 [CI 1.37; 5.07], p = 0.003). In contrast, in the control group, the impedance drop depended linearly on the contact force. This suggests a different biophysical behavior of vHP-SD ablation. A maximum temperature and minimum contact force of &gt;5 g independently predicted an effective impedance drop in vHP-SD. Increasing the contact force over 5 g during 4 s of vHP RF application might not be necessary to achieve a successful lesion.</p

An asynchronous adaptive multi-population model for distributed differential evolution

In this paper a general-purpose asynchronous adaptive multi-population model for distributed Differential Evolution (AsAMP-dDE) algorithm is proposed. The distributed algorithm, following the stepping-stone model, is characterized by an asynchronous mechanism for the migration and for a multipopulation recombination employed to exchange information. The adaptive procedure is based on two steps. Firstly a local performance measure related to the average fitness improvement for each subpopulation is computed. Secondly, a specific updating scheme based on these measures takes place to randomly update the control parameter values. The asynchronous migration mechanism and the adaptive procedure allow reducing the number of control parameters to be set in the distributed model. AsAMP-dDE has been tested on the benchmarks of the CEC2016 real parameter single objective competition without adopting any specific mechanism opportunely tailored for solving such test problems. The results show that this algorithm allows obtaining good performance in most of the investigated benchmarks

Accurate estimate of Blood Glucose through Interstitial Glucose by Genetic Programming

Subjects suffering from Type 1 diabetes mellitus need to constantly receive insulin injections. To improve their life quality, a desirable solution is represented by the implementation of an artificial pancreas. In this paper we move a preliminary step towards this goal. Namely, we work at the knowledge base for such a device. One of the main problems is to estimate the Blood Glucose (BG) values, starting from the easily available Interstitial Glucose (IG) ones, and this is the aim of our paper. To face this regression task we avail ourselves of Genetic Programming over a real-world database containing both BG and IG measurements for several subjects suffering from Type 1 diabetes, aiming at finding an explicit relationship between BG and IG values under the form of a mathematical expression. This latter could be the core of the knowledge base part of an artificial pancreas. Experimental comparisons against the state-of-the-art models evidence the quality of the proposed approach

Fast Range Image Registration by an Asynchronous Adaptive Distributed Differential Evolution

In this paper the application of a general-purpose distributed Differential Evolution algorithm to range image registration is presented. The algorithm is characterized by an asynchronous migration mechanism and by a multi-population recombination information exchange, and is also supplied with adaptive updating schemes for automatically setting the Differential Evolution control parameters. In particular, this algorithm has been employed to tackle the problem of the pair-wise range image registration. Given two images with the first set as the model, the scope is to find the best possible spatial transformation of the second image allowing for 3D reconstruction of the original model. Experimental findings demonstrate the ability of such an adaptive algorithm in finding out efficient image transformations. A comparison of the results with those attained by recently presented evolutionary algorithms show the effectiveness of the proposed approach in terms of both quality and robustness of the reconstructed 3D image, and of computational cost

Can serum TGF-beta 1 be used to evaluate the response to antiviral therapy of haemophilic patients with HCV-related chronic hepatitis?

Congenital coagulation disorders limit the use of liver biopsy, especially when repeated assessment is needed. TGF-beta 1 plays a pivotal role in inducing fibrosis and has been proposed as its surrogate marker. Aiming at validating the clinical utility of this cytokine, fifteen haemophilic patients suffering from HCV-related chronic hepatitis were treated with Peg-IFN alpha2beta plus Ribavirin. Serum TGFbeta 1, viral load and liver enzymes were analyzed at baseline and at six, twelve, and eighteen months. As expected, patients initially showed significantly higher TGF-beta 1 levels than age-matched controls (43.8 ng/mL, 28.7-46.4 vs. 26.9 ng/mL, 23.0-34.0, median and 95% CI; p=0.004). The end of therapy response rate was 67%. The main finding was a significant drop in TGF-beta 1 at six months compared to baseline values; this drop de facto predicted the levels reached in the following six months, which were fixed at lower concentrations (37.0 ng/mL, 21.9-43.8 and 27.0 ng/mL, 24.1-44.0 respectively; p<0.009), independently of treatment outcome (three patients were breakthrough, twelve were sustained virological responders (SVRs). During the treatment period none had clinical or biochemical signs of inflammation in other areas. Treatment was followed by a six-month follow-up, at the end of which TGF-beta 1 was increased compared to the previous values, reaching the initial levels in ten SVRs (45 ng/mL, 24.5-52.9). Interestingly, at a longer follow-up, two out of ten SVRs, who displayed the highest values of TGF-beta 1, relapsed. Serum TGF-beta 1 could be used to assess therapeutic outcome and short-term prognosis of HCV-related chronic hepatitis