Effects of adenotonsillectomy on plasma inflammatory biomarkers in obese children with obstructive sleep apnea: A community-based study.

BackgroundObesity and obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSA) are highly prevalent and frequently overlapping conditions in children that lead to systemic inflammation, the latter being implicated in the various end-organ morbidities associated with these conditions.AimTo examine the effects of adenotonsillectomy (T&A) on plasma levels of inflammatory markers in obese children with polysomnographically diagnosed OSA who were prospectively recruited from the community.MethodsObese children prospectively diagnosed with OSA, underwent T&A and a second overnight polysomnogram (PSG) after surgery. Plasma fasting morning samples obtained after each of the two PSGs were assayed for multiple inflammatory and metabolic markers including interleukin (IL)-6, IL-18, plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1), monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9), adiponectin, apelin C, leptin and osteocrin.ResultsOut of 122 potential candidates, 100 obese children with OSA completed the study with only one-third exhibiting normalization of their PSG after T&A (that is, apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) ≤1/hour total sleep time). However, overall significant decreases in MCP-1, PAI-1, MMP-9, IL-18 and IL-6, and increases in adropin and osteocrin plasma concentrations occurred after T&A. Several of the T&A-responsive biomarkers exhibited excellent sensitivity and moderate specificity to predict residual OSA (that is, AHI⩾5/hTST).ConclusionsA defined subset of systemic inflammatory and metabolic biomarkers is reversibly altered in the context of OSA among community-based obese children, further reinforcing the concept on the interactive pro-inflammatory effects of sleep disorders such as OSA and obesity contributing to downstream end-organ morbidities

Towards a FPGA-controlled deep phase modulation interferometer

Deep phase modulation interferometry was proposed as a method to enhance homodyne interferometers to work over many fringes. In this scheme, a sinusoidal phase modulation is applied in one arm while the demodulation takes place as a post-processing step. In this contribution we report on the development to implement this scheme in a fiber coupled interferometer controlled by means of a FPGA, which includes a LEON3 soft-core processor. The latter acts as a CPU and executes a custom made application to communicate with a host PC. In contrast to usual FPGA-based designs, this implementation allows a real-time fine tuning of the parameters involved in the setup, from the control to the post-processing parameters.Comment: Proceedings of the X LISA Symposium, Gainesville, May 18-23, 201

La lucha biológica en Tucumán: enseñanzas del pasado y perspectivas futuras

Mi exposición se referirá a la lucha biológica en esta provincia. La primera parte estará dedicada a relatar algunos hechos del pasado y tratar de sacar de ellos enseñanzas que sean útiles hoy y en el futuro. La segunda parte desarrollará algunas ideas acerca de las perspectivas que esta táctica del control, sola o integrada a otras, puede aportar en el amplio campo de la sanidad de los vegetales.Academia Nacional de Agronomía y Veterinaria (ANAV

Control biológico : Sugerencias para desarrollar proyectos regionales

Control Biológico (CB) es la acción de los enemigos naturales que mantienen la densidad de población de una especie a niveles inferiores a los que tendría en ausencia de ellos. Esos enemigos naturales pueden ser parasítoides, predadores, microbios patógenos, competidores, fitófagos. El CB natural ocurre sin la intervención humana; el CB aplicado implica la intervención del hombre. Este último puede ser el CB clásico, cuando los enemigos naturales se introducen de una región a otra para limitar la proliferación de la plaga, o bien puede ser CB por incremento, obtenido mediante la manipulación del hábitat para hacerlo más favorable a los enemigos naturales ya existentes, o mediante colonizaciones periódicas de enemigos naturales multiplicados en insectario. La intervención del hombre se produce para llevar la población de la plaga a un nivel en el que ésta ya no produzca daños de significancia económica.Academia Nacional de Agronomía y Veterinaria (ANAV

Control biológico : Sugerencias para desarrollar proyectos regionales

Control Biológico (CB) es la acción de los enemigos naturales que mantienen la densidad de población de una especie a niveles inferiores a los que tendría en ausencia de ellos. Esos enemigos naturales pueden ser parasítoides, predadores, microbios patógenos, competidores, fitófagos. El CB natural ocurre sin la intervención humana; el CB aplicado implica la intervención del hombre. Este último puede ser el CB clásico, cuando los enemigos naturales se introducen de una región a otra para limitar la proliferación de la plaga, o bien puede ser CB por incremento, obtenido mediante la manipulación del hábitat para hacerlo más favorable a los enemigos naturales ya existentes, o mediante colonizaciones periódicas de enemigos naturales multiplicados en insectario. La intervención del hombre se produce para llevar la población de la plaga a un nivel en el que ésta ya no produzca daños de significancia económica.Academia Nacional de Agronomía y Veterinaria (ANAV

A class of quasi-sparse companion pencils

In this paper, we introduce a general class of quasi-sparse potential companion pencils for arbitrary square matrix polynomials over an arbitrary field, which extends the class introduced in [B. Eastman, I.-J. Kim, B. L. Shader, K.N. Vander Meulen, Companion matrix patterns. Linear Algebra Appl. 436 (2014) 255-272] for monic scalar polynomials. We provide a canonical form, up to permutation, for companion pencils in this class. We also relate these companion pencils with other relevant families of companion linearizations known so far. Finally, we determine the number of different sparse companion pencils in the class, up to permutation.This work has been partially supported by theMinisterio de Economía y Competitividad of Spain through grants MTM2015-68805-REDT and MTM2015-65798-P

(R)-(+)-Dimeth­yl[4-oxido-2-oxo-1-(1-phenyl­eth­yl)-1,2,5,6-tetra­hydro­pyridin-3-yl]sulfonium

In the title zwitterionic compound, C15H19NO2S, the six-membered heterocycle adopts a sofa conformation. The negative charge is delocalized along the carbonyl and enolate system on the ring and the positive charge is localized on the S atom. Two inter­molecular C—H⋯O inter­actions help to establish the packing

Safety assessment of chronic oral exposure to iron oxide nanoparticles

Iron oxide nanoparticles with engineered physical and biochemical properties are finding a rapidly increasing number of biomedical applications. However, a wide variety of safety concerns, especially those related to oral exposure, still need to be addressed for iron oxide nanoparticles in order to reach clinical practice. Here, we report on the effects of chronic oral exposure to low doses of γ-Fe2O3 nanoparticles in growing chickens. Animal observation, weight, and diet intake reveal no adverse signs, symptoms, or mortality. No nanoparticle accumulation was observed in liver, spleen, and duodenum, with feces as the main excretion route. Liver iron level and duodenal villi morphology reflect the bioavailability of the iron released from the partial transformation of γ-Fe2O3 nanoparticles in the acid gastric environment. Duodenal gene expression studies related to the absorption of iron from γ-Fe2O3 nanoparticles indicate the enhancement of a ferric over ferrous pathway supporting the role of mucins. Our findings reveal that oral administration of iron oxide nanoparticles is a safe route for drug delivery at low nanoparticle doses.Peer Reviewe

Differential proteomic analysis of lactic acid bacteria - Escherichia coli O157:H7 interaction and its contribution to bioprotection strategies in meat

Original ResearchHuman infection by Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia (E.) coli (EHEC) occurs through the ingestion of contaminated foods such as milk, vegetable products, water-based drinks, and particularly minced meats. Indeed EHEC is a pathogen that threatens public health and meat industry. The potential of different Lactic Acid Bacteria (LAB) strains to control EHEC in a meat-based medium was evaluated by using a simple and rapid method and by analyzing the growth kinetics of co-cultures (LAB-EHEC) in a meat-based medium. The activity of LAB toward EHEC in co-cultures showed variable inhibitory effect. Although, LAB were able to control EHEC, neither the produced acid nor bacteriocins were responsible of the inhibition. The bacteriocinogenic Enteroccus (Ent.) mundtii CRL35 presented one of the highest inhibition activities. A proteomic approach was used to evaluate bacterial interaction and antagonistic mechanisms between Ent. mundtii and EHEC. Physiological observations, such as growth kinetics, acidification ability and EHEC inhibitory potential were supported by the proteomic results, demonstrating significant differences in protein expression in LAB: (i) due to the presence of the pathogen and (ii) according to the growth phase analyzed. Most of the identified proteins belonged to carbohydrate/amino acid metabolism, energy production, transcription/translation, and cell division. These results contribute to the knowledge of competition strategies used by Ent. mundtii during its co-culture with EHEC setting new perspectives for the use of LAB to control this pathogen in meatinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Axially symmetric Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov Calculations for Nuclei Near the Drip-Lines

Nuclei far from stability are studied by solving the Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov (HFB) equations, which describe the self-consistent mean field theory with pairing interaction. Calculations for even-even nuclei are carried out on two-dimensional axially symmetric lattice, in coordinate space. The quasiparticle continuum wavefunctions are considered for energies up to 60 MeV. Nuclei near the drip lines have a strong coupling between weakly bound states and the particle continuum. This method gives a proper description of the ground state properties of such nuclei. High accuracy is achieved by representing the operators and wavefunctions using the technique of basis-splines. The detailed representation of the HFB equations in cylindrical coordinates is discussed. Calculations of observables for nuclei near the neutron drip line are presented to demonstrate the reliability of the method.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures. Submitted to Physical Review C on 05/08/02. Revised on Dec/0