Predicting functional impairment trajectories in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: a probabilistic, multifactorial model of disease progression.

To employ Artificial Intelligence to model, predict and simulate the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) progression over time in terms of variable interactions, functional impairments, and survival. We employed demographic and clinical variables, including functional scores and the utilisation of support interventions, of 3940 ALS patients from four Italian and two Israeli registers to develop a new approach based on Dynamic Bayesian Networks (DBNs) that models the ALS evolution over time, in two distinct scenarios of variable availability. The method allows to simulate patients' disease trajectories and predict the probability of functional impairment and survival at different time points. DBNs explicitly represent the relationships between the variables and the pathways along which they influence the disease progression. Several notable inter-dependencies were identified and validated by comparison with literature. Moreover, the implemented tool allows the assessment of the effect of different markers on the disease course, reproducing the probabilistically expected clinical progressions. The tool shows high concordance in terms of predicted and real prognosis, assessed as time to functional impairments and survival (integral of the AU-ROC in the first 36 months between 0.80-0.93 and 0.84-0.89 for the two scenarios, respectively). Provided only with measurements commonly collected during the first visit, our models can predict time to the loss of independence in walking, breathing, swallowing, communicating, and survival and it can be used to generate in silico patient cohorts with specific characteristics. Our tool provides a comprehensive framework to support physicians in treatment planning and clinical decision-making. [Abstract copyright: © 2022. The Author(s).

Maternity in the Brazilian CV Lattes : when will it become a reality?

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Polarimetric SAR interferometry over urban areas: first results

In this work, the possibility to separate different point scatterers inside a resolution cell from single-baseline polarimetric interferometric SAR (Pol-InSAR) data with application to urban areas is studied. The simple cases of two and three point scatterers are discussed and first numerical simulations for a typical urban scenario are provided

Analysis of the effect of grape withering on aroma profile of wine using HS-SPME and GCxGC TOF-MS

Drying of grapes and subsequent wine-making are processes that characterize some premium quality Italian wines including in particular Amarone, a “Passito” dry red wine produced by a traditional, slow drying grape process. During this process, depending on the occurrence of favourable seasonal conditions for a noble rot infection, a positive impact on volatile compounds can develop[1-2]. In recent years a more modern drying approach has been suggested, with the aim of faster and more strictly controlled drying of grape. The drying conditions are expected to lead to different wine composition and the aim of this study was to evaluate the differences in wine volatile compounds produced from a) traditional and b) modern processes applying 2 different analytical approaches, SPME followed by GCxGC TOF MS and a classical approach with SPE followed by GC MS [3]. The wines produced from two different grapevine cultivars, Sangiovese and Corvina, with two different grape drying systems (slow vs. accelerated) were analyzed. The profiles of volatile compounds in wines were, as expected, quite different and the sample were clearly separated by PCA. The compounds that characterize the wines obtained by traditional drying system were well distinguishable and some of them were produced by Botrytis cinerea such as 1-octen-3-ol, p- cymene, 4-terpineol, benzaldehyde, phenylacetaldeide. The concentrations of fatty acids and ethyl esters were higher in the wine produced by faster drying system as already reported in the literature [2], as well as the 3- hydroxy ethyl butyrate, phenyl ethyl acetate and linalool. The preliminary results of this survey calls for further metabolomic and transcriptomic analyses of grapes, in order to better understand how the variability of the grape metabolism induced by different drying conditions can influence the aroma of Amarone wine

Effects of Consumer Interactions on Benthic Resources and Ecosystem Processes in a Neotropical Stream

The effect of consumers on their resources has been demonstrated in many systems but is often confounded by trophic interactions with other consumers. Consumers may also have behavioral and life history adaptations to each other and to co-occurring predators that may additionally modulate their particular roles in ecosystems. We experimentally excluded large consumers from tile periphyton, leaves and natural benthic substrata using submerged electrified frames in three stream reaches with overlapping consumer assemblages in Trinidad, West Indies. Concurrently, we assessed visits to (nonelectrified) control frames by the three most common large consumers–primarily insectivorous killifish (Rivulus hartii), omnivorous guppies (Poecilia reticulata) and omnivorous crabs (Eudaniela garmani). Consumers caused the greatest decrease in final chlorophyll a biomass and accrual rates the most in the downstream reach containing all three focal consumers in the presence of fish predators. Consumers also caused the greatest increase in leaf decay rates in the upstream reach containing only killifish and crabs. In the downstream reach where guppies co-occur with predators, we found significantly lower benthic invertebrate biomass in control relative to exclosure treatments than the midstream reach where guppies occur in the absence of predators. These data suggest that differences in guppy foraging, potentially driven by differences in their life history phenotype, may affect ecosystem structure and processes as much as their presence or absence and that interactions among consumers may further mediate their effects in these stream ecosystems

VEGF121 and VEGF165 differentially promote vessel maturation and tumor growth in mice and humans

Tumor angiogenesis depends on the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), which exists in multiple splicing isoforms, including the most abundant VEGF(165) and VEGF(121). We have previously shown that the differential capacity of these two VEGF isoforms to bind Neuropilin-1 accounts for their diverse ability to recruit Nrp1-expressing monocytes (NEMs), resulting in a different arteriogenic potential. Here we measure the expression of VEGF(165) and VEGF(121) in human cancer and their influence on tumor growth and vascularization. We measured the expression levels of VEGF(165) and VEGF(121) in human colorectal cancer and found that VEGF(121) was more expressed than VEGF(165), particularly in patients with extensive lymph node infiltration. Overexpressing either VEGF(165) or VEGF(121) in a cancer mouse model, we observed that the former decreased, whereas the latter increased tumor growth. In both clinical and experimental tumors, VEGF(165) expression resulted in the recruitment of NEMs, paralleled by maturation of the tumor vascular network. Finally, hypoxia induced a shift toward the VEGF(165) isoform in the central core of human cancers, as well as in various types of cultured cells. These results demonstrate that the two VEGF splicing isoforms are differentially expressed in colorectal cancers, exerting opposite effects on tumor growth and vessel maturation