Advocating Powerhouse Fruits & Vegetables

Fruits and vegetables are great, but they are not all created equally. In 2014, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a study on which fruits and vegetables contain the most nutrients for preventing cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. The top 41 have been named Powerhouse Fruits and Vegetables.https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/fmclerk/1000/thumbnail.jp

Ultrasonography of a Helical Left Common Carotid Artery

Case Presentation: An 83-year-old woman was admitted to the intensive care unit for septic shock at which point an internal jugular central venous line was placed. The patient’s common carotid artery was visualized in an atypical location, lateral to the internal jugular vein. Further inspection revealed the common carotid artery travelling in a rotational trajectory around the internal jugular vein.Discussion: For at least two decades, point-of-care ultrasound has become the standard of care for placing central venous lines. This surprising anatomical orientation is rare and cautions physicians to fully explore a patient’s anatomy prior to placing central lines

Intestinal absorption barriers as modelled by p-glycoprotein and cytochrome p450 a34 in caco2 cells

The passage number and origin of two populations of Caco-2 cells influence their enterocyte-like characteristics. Caco-2 cells of passage number >90 from Novartis pharmaceutical company possess higher levels of expression of alkaline phosphatase and P-glycoprotein and a greater cellular uptake of Gly-1.-Pro than those of passage number <40 from the American Type Tissue Culture collection. High P-gp expressing Caco-2 cells have been developed through stepwise selection of the cells with doxonibicin. This newly-developed cell line (hereafter referred to as Type I) possesses approximately twice as much P-gp protein than non-exposed cells, restricts the transepithelial transport of vincristine in the apical-to-basolateral direction whilst facilitating its transport in the reverse direction and accumulates less vincristine than non-exposed cells. There is no apparent evidence of the co-existence of the multidrug resistance protein (MIT) in Type I cells to account for the above-listed observations. Stopping the exposure for more than 28 days decreases the P-gp protein expression in previously doxorubicin-exposed Type I Caco-2 cells and reduces the magnitude of vincristine transepithelial fluxes in both directions to the levels that are almost similar to those of non-exposed cells. Exposing Caco-2 cells to 0.25 JAM la, 25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 induces their expression of cytochrome P450 3A4 protein to the level that is equivalent to that from isolated human jejunal cells. Under the same treatment, doxorubiein-exposed (Type I) cells metabolise naidazolam poorly and less extensively compared to non-exposed cells, suggesting that there is no such co-regulation of P-gp and CYP3A4 in Caco-2 cells. However, there is evidence which suggests CYP3A metabolises mida_zolam into 1- and 4-hydroxymidazolam, the latter may possibly be a P-gp substrate and is transported extracellularly by P-gp, supporting the hypothesis of P-gp-CYP3A4 synergistic roles in keeping xenobiotics out of the body. Doxoru.bicin-exposed (Type I) cells are less effective in translocating L-proline and glycyl-L-proline across the cell mono layers

Moments of the generalized hyperbolic distribution

In this paper we demonstrate a recursive method for obtaining the moments of the generalized hyperbolic distribution. The method is readily programmable for numerical evaluation of moments. For low order moments we also give an alternative derivation of the moments of the generalized hyperbolic distribution. The expressions given for these moments may be used to obtain moments for special cases such as the hyperbolic and normal inverse Gaussian distributions. Moments for limiting cases such as the skew hyperbolic t and variance gamma distributions can be found using the same approach.Generalized hyperbolic distribution; hyperbolic distribution; kurtosis; moments; normal inverse Gaussian distribution; skewed-t distribution; skewness; Student-t distribution.

Utilizing Digital Health to Collect Electronic Patient-Reported Outcomes in Prostate Cancer: Single-Arm Pilot Trial

Background: Measuring patient-reported outcomes (PROs) requires an individual’s perspective on their symptoms, functional status, and quality of life. Digital health enables remote electronic PRO (ePRO) assessments as a clinical decision support tool to facilitate meaningful provider interactions and personalized treatment. Objective: This study explored the feasibility and acceptability of collecting ePROs using validated health-related quality of life (HRQoL) questionnaires for prostate cancer. Methods: Using Apple ResearchKit software, the Strength Through Insight app was created with content from validated HRQoL tools 26-item Expanded Prostate Cancer Index Composite (EPIC) or EPIC for Clinical Practice and 8-item Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy Advanced Prostate Symptom Index. In a single-arm pilot study with patients receiving prostate cancer treatment at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and affiliates, participants were recruited, and instructed to download Strength Through Insight and complete ePROs once a week over 12 weeks. A mixed methods approach, including qualitative pre- and poststudy interviews, was used to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of Strength Through Insight for the collection and care management of cancer treatment. Results: Thirty patients consented to the study; 1 patient failed to complete any of the questionnaires and was left out of the analysis of the intervention. Moreover, 86% (25/29) reached satisfactory questionnaire completion (defined as completion of 60% of weekly questions over 12 weeks). The lower bound of the exact one-sided 95% CI was 71%, exceeding the 70% feasibility threshold. Most participants self-identified with having a high digital literacy level (defined as the ability to use, understand, evaluate, and analyze information from multiple formats from a variety of digital sources), and only a few participants identified with having a low digital literacy level (defined as only having the ability to gather information on the Web). Interviews were thematically analyzed to reveal the following: (1) value of emotional support and wellness in cancer treatment, (2) rise of social patient advocacy in online patient communities and networks, (3) patient concerns over privacy, and (4) desire for personalized engagement tools. Conclusions: Strength Through Insight was demonstrated as a feasible and acceptable method of data collection for ePROs. A high compliance rate confirmed the app as a reliable tool for patients with localized and advanced prostate cancer. Nearly all participants reported that using the smartphone app is easier than or equivalent to the traditional paper-and-pen approach, providing evidence of acceptability and support for the use of remote PRO monitoring. This study expands on current research involving the value of digital health, as a social and behavioral science, augmented with technology, can begin to contribute to population health management, as it shapes psychographic segmentation by demographic, socioeconomic, health condition, or behavioral factors to group patients by their distinct personalities and motivations, which influence their choices

The significance of retinal image contrast and spatial frequency composition for eye growth modulation in young chicks

AbstractPurpose: This study sought further insight into the stimulus dependence of form deprivation myopia, a common response to retinal image degradation in young animals.Methods: Each of 4 Bangerter diffusing filters (0.6, 0.1, <0.1, and LP (light perception only)) combined with clear plano lenses, as well as plano lenses alone, were fitted monocularly to 4-day-old chicks. Axial ocular dimensions and refractive errors were monitored over a 14-day treatment period, using high frequency A-scan ultrasonography and an autorefractor, respectively.Results: Only the <0.1 and LP filters induced significant form deprivation myopia; these filters induced similarly large myopic shifts in refractive error (mean interocular differences±SEM: −9.92±1.99, −7.26±1.60D, respectively), coupled to significant increases in both vitreous chamber depths and optical axial lengths (p<0.001). The other 3 groups showed comparable, small changes in their ocular dimensions (p>0.05), and only small myopic shifts in refraction (<3.00D). The myopia-inducing filters eliminated mid-and-high spatial frequency information.Conclusions: Our results are consistent with emmetropization being tuned to mid-spatial frequencies. They also imply that form deprivation is not a graded phenomenon

Encapsulation of Huh-7 cells within alginate-poly(ethylene glycol) hybrid microspheres

Novel calcium alginate poly(ethylene glycol) hybrid microspheres (Ca-alg-PEG) were developed and evaluated as potentially suitable materials for cell microencapsulation. Grafting 5-13% of the backbone units of sodium alginate (Na-alg) with α-amine-ω-thiol PEG maintained the gelling capacity in presence of calcium ions, while thiol end groups allowed for preparing chemically crosslinked hydrogel via spontaneous disulfide bond formation. The combination of these two gelling mechanisms yielded Ca-alg-PEG. Human hepatocellular carcinoma cells (Huh-7) were encapsulated in Ca-alg-PEG and calcium alginate beads (Ca-alg), and cultured for 2weeks under agitation conditions. Immediately after completion of the microencapsulation, the cell viability was 60% and similar in Ca-alg-PEG and Ca-alg. The proliferation of Huh-7 encapsulated in Ca-alg-PEG was slightly higher than in Ca-alg. Accelerated proliferation after 2weeks was observed for the encapsulation in Ca-alg-PEG. The production of albumin confirmed the functionality of the encapsulated Huh-7 cells. The study confirms the suitability of Ca-alg-PEG and the one-step technology for cell microencapsulatio

Integrating agroecological principles into rapid value chain analysis: An operational guideline

AE-I’s third work package (WP3 – “Inclusive business models and financing strategies”), constitutes one of AE-I’s two adaptive scaling strategies, i.e., along with WP4 – “Strengthening the policy- and institutional-enabling environment”. One of AE-I’s WP3 tasks is to identify the potential for co-developing/upgrading business models (and the value chains (VCs) they are part of) through the integration of HLPE’s agroecological principles. In order to do so, one has to first analyze the selected VCs and diagnose their current agroecological status, which constitute the main objectives of this Rapid Agroecological Value Chain Analysis (RAVCA) guideline

On side refrigerant measurement of heat pump seasonal performances

International audienceHeat pump systems have become very popular for space heating in the residential sector in Europe. However, there is no data available on the in situ seasonal heating performances of air-to-air heat pumps. This is due to the difficulty of measuring their thermal capacity on field over a long period. Several methods relying on air flow rate and enthalpy measurements are being considered for in-situ measurement for air-to-air heat pumps. But accuracy and reliability of these methods are still unknown. In this paper, we show the results of a method based on intrusive measurements (on the refrigerant side) adapted to the dynamic behavior. This method uses Coriolis flow meters measures for the refrigerant flow rate and for enthalpies. Results confirm that the refrigerant density measurement with a Coriolis flow meter can help to predict the refrigerant vapor quality with a satisfying accuracy if the quality is not too high. The method is validated by testing an air-to-water heat pump in laboratory and by using the water enthalpy method as a reference. The experimental results show that the method is reliable in dynamic conditions (including during the defrosting periods). This internal method can be used as a reference to check the air enthalpy method for air-to-air heat pumps