Pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions to influence adipose tissue function

Obesity is associated with metabolic derangements such as insulin resistance, inflammation and hypercoagulobility which can all be understood as consequences of adipose tissue dysfunction. The potential role for adipose tissue derived cytokines and adipokines in the development of vascular disease and diabetes may produce a clinical need to influence adipose tissue function. Various pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions affect plasma cytokine and adipokine levels. The effects of these interventions depend on weight loss per se, changes in fat distribution without weight loss and/or direct effects on adipose tissue inflammation

В портфеле редакции

OBJECTIVE Our aim is to compare the effect of type 2 diabetes on recurrent major cardiovascular events (MCVE) for patients with symptomatic vascular disease at different locations. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS A total of 6,841 patients from the single-center, prospective Second Manifestations of ARTerial disease (SMART) cohort study from Utrecht, the Netherlands, with clinically manifest vascular disease with (n = 1,155) and without (n = 5,686) type 2 diabetes were monitored between 1996 and 2013. The effect of type 2 diabetes on recurrent MCVE was analyzed with Cox proportional hazards models, stratified for disease location (cerebrovascular disease, peripheral artery disease, abdominal aortic aneurysm, coronary artery disease, or polyvascular disease, defined as >= 2 vascular locations). RESULTS Five-year risks for recurrent MCVE were 9% in cerebrovascular disease, 9% in peripheral artery disease, 20% in those with an abdominal aortic aneurysm, 7% in coronary artery disease, and 21% in polyvascular disease. Type 2 diabetes increased the risk of recurrent MCVE in coronary artery disease (hazard ratio [HR] 1.67; 95% CI 1.25-2.21) and seemed to increase the risk in cerebrovascular disease (HR 1.36; 95% CI 0.90-2.07), while being no risk factor in polyvascular disease (HR 1.12; 95% CI 0.83-1.50). Results for patients with peripheral artery disease (HR 1.42; 95% CI 0.79-2.56) or an abdominal aortic aneurysm (HR 0.93; 95% CI 0.23-3.68) were inconclusive. CONCLUSIONS Type 2 diabetes increased the risk of recurrent MCVE in patients with coronary artery disease, but there is no convincing evidence that it is a major risk factor for subsequent MCVE in all patients with symptomatic vascular disease

Computing emotion awareness through galvanic skin response and facial electromyography

To improve human-computer interaction (HCI), computers need to recognize and respond properly to their user’s emotional state. This is a fundamental application of affective computing, which relates to, arises from, or deliberately influences emotion. As a first step to a system that recognizes emotions of individual users, this research focuses on how emotional experiences are expressed in six parameters (i.e., mean, absolute deviation, standard deviation, variance, skewness, and kurtosis) of not baseline-corrected physiological measurements of the galvanic skin response (GSR) and of three electromyography signals: frontalis (EMG1), corrugator supercilii (EMG2), and zygomaticus major (EMG3). The 24 participants were asked to watch film scenes of 120 seconds, which they rated afterward. These ratings enabled us to distinguish four categories of emotions: negative, positive, mixed, and neutral. The skewness and kurtosis of the GSR, the skewness of the EMG2, and four parameters of EMG3, discriminate between the four emotion categories. This, despite the coarse time windows that were used. Moreover, rapid processing of the signals proved to be possible. This enables tailored HCI facilitated by an emotional awareness of systems

Perceiving emotions through psychophysiological signals

Emotions influence our cognitive functioning heavily. Therefore, it is interesting to develop measurement techniques that can record experienced emotions. Moreover, to improve user system interaction, computers need to recognize and respond properly to their user's emotional state. This would enable affective computing, which relates to, arises from, or deliberately influences emotion. A range of experiments will be discussed in which a range of psychophysiological measures are applied to penetrate human emotion space. Hereby, we distinguish three facets: the obtrusiveness and noise sensitivity of the measures and the ecological validity of the research. Several statistical parameters were derived from physiological measurements of three electromyography signals: frontalis (EMG1), corrugator supercilii (EMG2), and zygomaticus major (EMG3). In one experiment, 24 participants were asked to watch film scenes of 120 seconds, which they rated afterward. These ratings enabled us to distinguish four categories of emotions: negative, positive, mixed, and neutral. Using the EMG2 and EMG3, discrimination between the four emotion categories was possible. In two other experiments, the 26 participants were asked to read out a story and to relive a recent anxious experience and speak about it. The latter enabled us to determine the amount of experienced arousal. In addition to the three experiments, experiences with galvanic skin conductance and heart rate variability will be discussed. In all instances, real time processing of the signals proved to be possible. This enables tailored user system interaction, facilitated by an emotional awareness of systems. Such systems could, for example, be applied to increase the immersion of participants in games, in ambient intelligence settings, incorporating a Personalized Empathic Computing (PEC), or in telepsychiatry settings. Such systems would introduce a new era in user system interaction

Фінанси санаторно-курортних підприємств України

Метою дослідження є аналіз стану санаторно-курортної сфери України як на рівні галузі, так і на рівні окремого санаторно-курортного підприємства

Філософсько-правові проблеми реалізації права на працю

Розкривається зміст категорії «праця». Досліджуються філософсько-правові про­блеми у сфері здійснення права на працю.Раскрывается содержание категории «труд». Исследуются философско-правовые проблемы в сфере осуществления права на труд.In the article the content of the category «labour» is revealed. The philosophical and legal problems in the field of realization of the right to work are being researched

Neurodevelopmental basis of health and disease: the 14th meeting of the International Neurotoxicology Association

Biological events in early life are key determinants of health status in adult and aging stages. The evidence for this is compelling in neurotoxicology (Grandjean and Landrigan, 2006). The complexity of the developing nervous system creates multiple targets for the adverse structural, functional and behavioral effects of toxic chemicals: from overt neuroteratogenia to subtle influences on the functional decline occur during aging. Minamata disease is the best known example of dramatic alterations in nervous system structure and function as a result of chemical exposure during development. However, the impact of low dose exposure of several other toxic compounds on endpoints such as adolescent emotional growth, cognitive function, sensory deficits or risk of suffering neurodegenerative diseases (Grandjean and Landrigan, 2006; Cannon and Greenamyre, 2011; Bellinger, 2013) is a field of knowledge that still contains more questions than answers. The effects of toxicants on later life become more and more important as life expectancy increases. In addition to understanding the effects and underlying mechanisms, we want to predict the adverse effects on the developing nervous and sensory systems. This constitutes a major challenge for neurotoxicity testing. Facing these questions, the International Neurotoxicology Association (INA) selected the theme ''Neurodevelopmental Basis of Health and Disease'' for its 14th Meeting, held in Egmond aan Zee, The Netherlands, June 2013. Detailed information on the meeting, including lists of symposia, members of the organizing and scientific committees, awardees, sponsors, and exhibitors are included elsewhere in this Special Issue (De Groot et al., 2014)

Достаточные условия стойкости рандомизированных блочных cистем шифрования относительно метода криптоанализа на основе коммутативных диаграмм

Получены достаточные условия отсутствия определенных нетривиальных конгруэнций многоосновных алгебр, описывающих рандомизированные блочные системы шифрования, соответствующие SPN-подобным шифрам или шифрам Фейстеля. Указанные условия исключают возможность применения к таким системам шифрования метода криптоанализа на основе коммутативных диаграмм.Отримано достатні умови відсутності певних нетривіальних конгруенцій багатоосновних універсальних алгебр, що описують рандомізовані блокові системи шифрування, які відповідають SPN-подібним шифрам або шифрам Фейстеля. Зазначені умови виключають можливість застосування до таких систем шифрування методу криптоаналізу на основі комутативних діаграм.Sufficient conditions for the non-existence of certain nontrivial congruences of many-sorted universal algebras, that describe randomized block cipher systems based on the SPN-like ciphers or on Feistel ciphers, are obtained. These conditions guarantee that such cipher systems are secure against commutative diagram attacks