Unravelling the hidden ancestry of American admixed populations

The movement of people into the Americas has brought different populations into contact, and contemporary American genomes are the product of a range of complex admixture events. Here we apply a haplotype-based ancestry identification approach to a large set of genome-wide SNP data from a variety of American, European and African populations to determine the contributions of different ancestral populations to the Americas. Our results provide a fine-scale characterization of the source populations, identify a series of novel, previously unreported contributions from Africa and Europe and highlight geohistorical structure in the ancestry of American admixed populations

Performance Evaluation of end-to-end security protocols in an Internet of Things

Wireless Sensor Networks are destined to play a fundamental role in the next-generation Internet, which will be characterized by the Machine-to-Machine paradigm, according to which, embedded devices will actively exchange information, thus enabling the development of innovative applications. It will contribute to assert the concept of Internet of Things, where end-to-end security represents a key issue. In such context, it is very important to understand which protocols are able to provide the right level of security without burdening the limited resources of constrained networks. This paper presents a performance comparison between two of the most widely used security protocols: IPSec and DTLS. We provide the analysis of their impact on the resources of embedded devices. For this purpose, we have modified existing implementations of both protocols to make them properly run on our hardware platforms, and we have performed an extensive experimental evaluation study. The achieved results are not a consequence of a classical simulation campaign, but they have been obtained in a real scenario that uses software and hardware typical of the current technological developments. Therefore, they can help network designers to identify the most appropriate secure mechanism for end-to-end IP communications involving constrained devices

Approach to the correction of drooping tip: common problems and solutions

La punta cadente è una fastidiosa deformità estetica e funzionale del naso. Laspetto della punta è influenzato da aspetti sia statici che dinamici. Per questo motivo, appare logico tenere in considerazione questi fattori nel pianificare la correzione chirurgica di questa deformità. Molti studi hanno affrontato questo argomento, ma il trattamento resta controverso. Per rendere efficace la chirurgia della punta appare indispensabile identificare le caratteristiche anatomiche fondamentali della punta stessa. Diversi angoli e misure possono essere calcolati per definire la posizione della punta tra cui: langolo nasolabiale, lasse della narice, langolo di rotazione della punta in rapporto al piano di Francoforte, langolo columellare-facciale. Lobiettivo di questo studio è focalizzare lattenzione sulla nostra esperienza personale sulle alterazioni anatomiche del naso che meritano una correzione e sulle procedure chirurgiche necessarie per ottenere risultati soddisfacenti nel trattamento della punta cadente. Nel presente studio sono stati presi in considerazione la proiezione e la rotazione della punta pre e post-operatorie. La correzione della punta cadente è stata ottenuta mediante settorinoplastica aperta o chiusa a seconda dei casi. La tecnica prevalentemente usata per riposizionare la punta è risultata essere il raddrizzamento del setto (41/41 casi) e la tecnica Tongue-in-groove (36/41 casi) (87,6%). Lo strut columellare è stato impiegato in 8/41 pazienti (19,51%). Resezioni cefaliche delle cartilagini alari sono state applicate in 29/41 pazienti (70,73%). Suture per ri-orientare le cartilagini alari sono state impiegate in 18/41 casi (43,9%). Il Lateral crural overlay è stato necessario in 2/41 casi (4,8%). Il presente articolo rivaluta le principali varianti anatomiche del naso che meritano correzione e le tecniche chirurgiche utilizzabili per semplificare il processo decisionale preoperatorio

Screening strategies for the diagnosis of asymptomatic Leishmania infection in dialysis patients as a model for kidney transplant candidates

Despite being considered a tropical disease, visceral leishmaniasis (VL) caused by L. infantum is also endemic in the Mediterranean Europe and represents an increasing cause of morbidity and mortality in solid organ transplant (SOT) recipients. VL occurring in kidney transplant recipients is a severe event, often worsening the renal damage and leading to poor outcome. It is believed that most of VL cases in transplant recipients are caused by reactivation of a pre-existent, dormant leishmanial infection induced by the immunosuppressive drugs. Nevertheless, the prevalence of asymptomatic Leishmania infection in candidates to kidney transplant residing in or visiting endemic areas is unknown. As L. infantum is highly circulating in northeastern Italy, we aimed to examine the occurrence of this parasitic infection in 119 dialysis patients living in the mentioned area, 71 of whom were potential candidates to kidney transplant. By employing a combination of sensitive serological and molecular methods, we observed a prevalence of 15.9% asymptomatic Leishmania infection in the study cohort. This finding emphasizes the need of further evaluating potential screening strategies for Leishmania infection in solid organ transplant candidates residing in or visiting endemic areas

Electromagnetic biorezonance stimulation in the treatment of postoperative intestinal failure

Catedra de Chirurgie nr.2, USMF ”N.Testemițanu”, Clinica 2 Chirurgie «C.Țîbîrnă», SCM “Sf. Treime”, Chişinău, Moldova, Al XI-lea Congres al Asociației Chirurgilor „Nicolae Anestiadi” din Republica Moldova și cea de-a XXXIII-a Reuniune a Chirurgilor din Moldova „Iacomi-Răzeșu” 27-30 septembrie 2011Insuficiența intestinală postoperatorie prezintă una din complicațiile obscure cu evoluție deosebit de gravă şi pericol major de insuficiență poliorganică. Astfel se impune restabilirea cît mai timpurie a funcțiilor intestinale la bolnavul operat. Scopul: studierea eficacității terapeutice a electromagnetobiorezonanței la bolnavii cu sindromul insuficienței intestinale postoperatorii. Material şi metode: Lotul de bază a inclus 39 bolnavi, bărbați -20, femei -19, cu vîrstă de la 18 până la 79 ani cu peritonite postoperatorii de diversă geneză. Lotul martor a fost format din 28 bolnavi cu peritonite fără aplicarea electromagneto-biorezonanței postoperatorii, similar după vîrstă şi sex. Intervenții chirurgicale sau efectuat pentru: apendicită destructivă – 12, ulcer gastro-duodenal perforat – 7, ileus aderențial intestinal acut – 5, colecistită acută calculoasă destructivă- 8, pancreonecroză- 7. Funcțiile motorie şi evacuatorie au fost monitorizate prin înregistrarea elecrtogastroenterogramei. Rezultate: În lotul de bază am consemnat o revigorare mai rapidă a funcțiilor motorii şi evacuării intestinale şi gastrice, comparativ cu lotul de control. Peristaltismul intestinal în lotul martor s-a apreciat în mediu peste 32±4 ore postoperatorii. La bolnavii lotului de bază acest termen a constituit în mediu 20,9±3 ore, diferență semnificativă. Am consemnat o anumită consecutivitate în restabilirea activității bioelectrice a tractului digestiv: inițial segmentul jejunal (a 3 zi postoperatorie ), apoi ileonul şi a stomacului (4-5 zi postoperatorii). Concluzii: Utilizarea electromagneto-biorezonanței în perioada postoperatorie la bolnavii cu patologie abdominală chirurgicală complicată cu peritonită accelerează procesele de restabilire a funcției motor-evacuatorii a tractului gastro-intestinal şi pot fi obiectivizate prin datele electrogastroenterografiei.Postoperative intestinal insufficiency represents one of the obscure complications, with the severe evolution, evolving serious danger of poliorganic insufficiency. This requires restoration of bowel function earlier at the operated patient. The aim: To study the therapeutic efficacy of the electromagnetic-biorezonance in patients with postoperative intestinal failure syndrome. Material and methods: Lot base including 39 patients, men -20, women-19 aged from 18 to 79 years with postoperative peritonitis of various geneses was studied. Control group consisted of 28 patients with peritonitis without applying electromagnetic- biorezonance postoperative therapy, similar by age and sex. Surgical interventions were performed for: destructive appendicitis - 12, peptic ulcer perforation - 7, acute intestinal ileus adhesive - 5, acute cholecystitis calculated destructive-8, pancreonecrosis-7. Motoric and evacuatoric functions were monitored by elecrtogastroenterogram recording. Results: In the base group we observed a faster revival of basic motoric function of intestinal and gastric evacuation, comparing with the control group. Peristaltics in the control group was appreciated on average over 32 ± 4 hours in the postoperative period. At patients from the based lot this time was on average 20.9 ± 3 hours, significant difference. We determined some consecutivety in restoring of bioelectrical activity of the digestive tract: initial jejunal segment (after three days postoperative), after ileum and stomach (4-5 days postoperative). Conclusions: Using the electromagnetic-biorezonance therapy in postoperative period at patients with abdominal surgical pathology, complicated by peritonitis accelerates the process of gastrointestinal tract motoric function restoring, and can be objectified by dates of electrogastroenterography

Developing Central Nervous System and Vulnerability to Platinum Compounds

Comparative studies on the effects of the platinum complexes in use or in clinical trials are carried out in order to discover differences in the neurotoxic potential and the reversibility of neurotoxicity. In this paper, we summarized the current literature on neurotoxicity and chemoresistance of cisplatin (cisPt) and discussed our recent efforts on the interference of cisPt and a new platinum compound [Pt(O,O′-acac)(γ-acac)(DMS)] (PtAcacDMS), with high specific reactivity with sulphur ligands instead of nucleobases as cisPt, on some crucial events of rat postnatal cerebellum development. The acute effects of drug treatments on cell proliferation and death in the external granular layer and granule cell migration and the late effects on the dendrite growth of Purkinje cells were evaluated. Together with the demonstrated antineoplastic effectiveness in vitro, compared with cisPt, data suggest a lower neurotoxicity of PtAcacDMS, in spite of its presence in the brain that involves considerations on the blood brain barrier permeability

Dynamical Systems Gradient method for solving nonlinear equations with monotone operators

A version of the Dynamical Systems Gradient Method for solving ill-posed nonlinear monotone operator equations is studied in this paper. A discrepancy principle is proposed and justified. A numerical experiment was carried out with the new stopping rule. Numerical experiments show that the proposed stopping rule is efficient. Equations with monotone operators are of interest in many applications.Comment: 2 figure