Benefits of a dance group intervention on institutionalized elder people: A Bayesian network approach

The present study aims to explore the effects of an adapted classical dance intervention on the psychological and functional status of institutionalized elder people using a Bayesian network. All participants were assessed at baseline and after the 9 weeks period of the intervention. Measures included balance and gait, psychological well-being, depression, and emotional distress. According to the Bayesian network obtained, the dance intervention increased the likelihood of presenting better psychological well-being, balance, and gait. Besides, it also decreased the probabilities of presenting emotional distress and depression. These findings demonstrate that dancing has functional and psychological benefits for institutionalized elder people. Moreover it highlights the importance of promoting serious leisure variety in the daily living of institutionalized elder adults

Statistical analysis of soy cultivation in Argentina

Argentina are analyzed. The main objective is to obtain information that will be useful for the analysis of the environmental consequences of the progress of this crop in the country. This has been made by a descriptive statistical analysis and a factor analysis was used to identify factors which characterize the soybean crop and also a classification or clustering between provinces with similar characteristics. The information parameters studied were: the tendency and dispersion measures for soybean yield of 15 provinces in which it was grown between the 2001/02 and 2010/11 or from 2001/02 to 2010/11; the correlations between area harvested acreage, seeded area, production and performance, and the factors that bind some variables that characterize the soybean crop that allows a grouping between provinces with similar characteristics. Analyses were performed by using data obtained from: 1) MinAgri (last 10 seasons) b) 2001 National Census c) CNA 2002. From a group of variables: region extension (ha); population density 2001; population of the region in 2001; NBI 2001, literate people older than 10 years 2001; illiterate people older than 10 years 2001; permanent workers in the farming sector 2002; seeded area (ha) 2002; cultivated area of oily plants (ha) 2002; tractors 2002; harvesters 2002; seeded area (ha) 2001/02; harvested area (ha) 2001/02; production (Tn) 2001/02.Fil: Miranda del Fresno, Ma. Carolina. Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Ambientales; ArgentinaFil: Villacampa, Y.. Universidad de Alicante. Departamento de Qui­mica Orgánica; EspañaFil: Navarro Gonzalez, F. J.. Universidad de Alicante. Departamento de Qui­mica Orgánica; EspañaFil: Sastre Vazquez, P.. Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomia; Argentin

Gene Expression Analyses in Non Muscle Invasive Bladder Cancer Reveals a Role for Alternative Splicing and Tp53 Status

Non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) represents a crucial problem for the national health care systems due to its high rates of recurrence and the consequent need of frequent follow-ups. Here, gene expression analyses in patients diagnosed as NMIBC were performed to determine those molecular pathways involved in tumor initiation, finding that both MYC and E2F are up regulated and helps to tumor initiation and progression. Our results also support an important involvement of alternative splicing events, modifying key pathways to favour bladder tumor evolution. Finally, since MDM2 showed differential exon usage, mutations in TP53 and its protein expression have been also studied in the same patients. Our data support that recurrence is epigenetically mediated and favoured by an increase protein expression of TP53, which appears more frequently mutated in advanced stages and grades, being associated to a worse prognosis. Therefore, TP53 mutational status could be used as a potential biomarker in the first stages of NMIBC to predict recurrence and prognosis.We express our deepest acknowledgement to patients and their families. The authors also acknowledge the computing resources and technical support provided by Abel Paz-Gallardo and Alfonso Pardo from Extremadura Research Centre for Advanced Technologies (CETA−CIEMAT). This work was supported FEDER cofounded MINECO grant SAF2015-66015-R, ISCIII-RETIC RD12/0036/0009, and PIE15/00076 and CB/16/00228 (to J.M. Paramio); MMF was supported by a Jose Castillejo Fellowship (CAS16/00115)

Homogeneous heterotic supergravity solutions with linear dilaton

I construct solutions to the heterotic supergravity BPS-equations on products of Minkowski space with a non-symmetric coset. All of the bosonic fields are homogeneous and non-vanishing, the dilaton being a linear function on the non-compact part of spacetime.Comment: 36 pages; v2 conclusion updated and references adde

Intravitreal administration of recombinant human opticin protects against hyperoxia-induced pre-retinal neovascularization

Opticin is an extracellular glycoprotein present in the vitreous. Its antiangiogenic properties offer the potential for therapeutic intervention in conditions such as proliferative diabetic retinopathy and retinopathy of prematurity. Here, we investigated the hypothesis that intravitreal administration of recombinant human opticin can safely protect against the development of pathological angiogenesis and promote its regression. We generated and purified recombinant human opticin and investigated its impact on the development and regression of pathological retinal neovascularization following intravitreal administration in murine oxygen-induced retinopathy. We also investigated its effect on normal retinal vascular development and function, following intravitreal injection in neonatal mice, by histological examination and electroretinography. In oxygen-induced retinopathy, intravitreal administration of human recombinant opticin protected against the development of retinal neovascularization to similar extent as aflibercept, which targets VEGF. Opticin also accelerated regression of established retinal neovascularization, though the effect at 18 h was less than that of aflibercept. Intravitreal administration of human recombinant opticin in neonatal mice caused no detectable perturbation of subsequent retinal vascular development or function. In summary we found that intraocular administration of recombinant human opticin protects against the development of pathological angiogenesis in mice and promotes its regression

Stabilization of myeloid-derived HIFs promotes vascular regeneration in retinal ischemia

The retinal vasculature is tightly organized in a structure that provides for the high metabolic demand of neurons while minimizing interference with incident light. The adverse impact of retinal vascular insufficiency is mitigated by adaptive vascular regeneration but exacerbated by pathological neovascularization. Aberrant growth of neovessels in the retina is responsible for impairment of sight in common blinding disorders including retinopathy of prematurity, proliferative diabetic retinopathy, and age-related macular degeneration. Myeloid cells are key players in this process, with diverse roles that can either promote or protect against ocular neovascularization. We have previously demonstrated that myeloid-derived VEGF, HIF1, and HIF2 are not essential for pathological retinal neovascularization. Here, however, we show by cell-specific depletion of Vhl in a mouse model of retinal ischemia (oxygen-induced retinopathy, OIR) that myeloid-derived HIFs promote VEGF and bFGF expression and enhance vascular regeneration in association with improved density and organization of the astrocytic network

Gene Expression Analyses in Non Muscle Invasive Bladder Cancer Reveals a Role for Alternative Splicing and Tp53 Status

Non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) represents a crucial problem for the national health care systems due to its high rates of recurrence and the consequent need of frequent follow-ups. Here, gene expression analyses in patients diagnosed as NMIBC were performed to determine those molecular pathways involved in tumor initiation, finding that both MYC and E2F are up regulated and helps to tumor initiation and progression. Our results also support an important involvement of alternative splicing events, modifying key pathways to favour bladder tumor evolution. Finally, since MDM2 showed differential exon usage, mutations in TP53 and its protein expression have been also studied in the same patients. Our data support that recurrence is epigenetically mediated and favoured by an increase protein expression of TP53, which appears more frequently mutated in advanced stages and grades, being associated to a worse prognosis. Therefore, TP53 mutational status could be used as a potential biomarker in the first stages of NMIBC to predict recurrence and prognosis

UroMark-a urinary biomarker assay for the detection of bladder cancer.

BACKGROUND: Bladder cancer (BC) is one of the most common cancers in the western world and ranks as the most expensive to manage, due to the need for cystoscopic examination. BC shows frequent changes in DNA methylation, and several studies have shown the potential utility of urinary biomarkers by detecting epigenetic alterations in voided urine. The aim of this study is to develop a targeted bisulfite next-generation sequencing assay to diagnose BC from urine with high sensitivity and specificity. RESULTS: We defined a 150 CpG loci biomarker panel from a cohort of 86 muscle-invasive bladder cancers and 30 normal urothelium. Based on this panel, we developed the UroMark assay, a next-generation bisulphite sequencing assay and analysis pipeline for the detection of bladder cancer from urinary sediment DNA. The 150 loci UroMark assay was validated in an independent cohort (n = 274, non-cancer (n = 167) and bladder cancer (n = 107)) voided urine samples with an AUC of 97%. The UroMark classifier sensitivity of 98%, specificity of 97% and NPV of 97% for the detection of primary BC was compared to non-BC urine. CONCLUSIONS: Epigenetic urinary biomarkers for detection of BC have the potential to revolutionise the management of this disease. In this proof of concept study, we show the development and utility of a novel high-throughput, next-generation sequencing-based biomarker for the detection of BC-specific epigenetic alterations in urine

Prevalence and correlates of frailty in an older rural African population:findings from the HAALSI cohort study

Background: Frailty is a key predictor of death and dependency, yet little is known about frailty in sub-Saharan Africa despite rapid population ageing. We describe the prevalence and correlates of phenotypic frailty using data from the Health and Aging in Africa: Longitudinal Studies of an INDEPTH Community cohort. Methods: We analysed data from rural South Africans aged 40 and over. We used low grip strength, slow gait speed, low body mass index, and combinations of self-reported exhaustion, decline in health, low physical activity and high self-reported sedentariness to derive nine variants of a phenotypic frailty score. Each frailty category was compared with self-reported health, subjective wellbeing, impairment in activities of daily living and the presence of multimorbidity. Cox regression analyses were used to compare subsequent all-cause mortality for non-frail (score 0), pre-frail (score 1–2) and frail participants (score 3+). Results: Five thousand fifty nine individuals (mean age 61.7 years, 2714 female) were included in the analyses. The nine frailty score variants yielded a range of frailty prevalences (5.4% to 13.2%). For all variants, rates were higher in women than in men, and rose steeply with age. Frailty was associated with worse subjective wellbeing, and worse self-reported health. Both prefrailty and frailty were associated with a higher risk of death during a mean 17 month follow up for all score variants (hazard ratios 1.29 to 2.41 for pre-frail vs non-frail; hazard ratios 2.65 to 8.91 for frail vs non-frail). Conclusions: Phenotypic frailty could be measured in this older South African population, and was associated with worse health, wellbeing and earlier death