On the standardisation of Web service management operations

Given the current interest in TCP/IP network management research towards Web services, it is important to recognise how standardisation can be achieved. This paper mainly focuses on the standardisation of operations and not management information. We state that standardisation should be done by standardising the abstract parts of a WSDL document, i.e. the interfaces and the messages. Operations can vary in granularity and parameter transparency, creating four extreme operation signatures, all of which have advantages and disadvantages

Subchondral bone density distribution of the talus in clinically normal Labrador Retrievers

Background: Bones continually adapt their morphology to their load bearing function. At the level of the subchondral bone, the density distribution is highly correlated with the loading distribution of the joint. Therefore, subchondral bone density distribution can be used to study joint biomechanics non-invasively. In addition physiological and pathological joint loading is an important aspect of orthopaedic disease, and research focusing on joint biomechanics will benefit veterinary orthopaedics. This study was conducted to evaluate density distribution in the subchondral bone of the canine talus, as a parameter reflecting the long-term joint loading in the tarsocrural joint. Results: Two main density maxima were found, one proximally on the medial trochlear ridge and one distally on the lateral trochlear ridge. All joints showed very similar density distribution patterns and no significant differences were found in the localisation of the density maxima between left and right limbs and between dogs. Conclusions: Based on the density distribution the lateral trochlear ridge is most likely subjected to highest loads within the tarsocrural joint. The joint loading distribution is very similar between dogs of the same breed. In addition, the joint loading distribution supports previous suggestions of the important role of biomechanics in the development of OC lesions in the tarsus. Important benefits of computed tomographic osteoabsorptiometry (CTOAM), i.e. the possibility of in vivo imaging and temporal evaluation, make this technique a valuable addition to the field of veterinary orthopaedic research

Association between arterial stiffness, cerebral small vessel disease and cognitive impairment: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Arterial stiffness may be a cause of cerebral small vessel disease and cognitive impairment. We therefore performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies on the association between stiffness, cerebral small vessel disease and cognitive impairment. For the associations between stiffness (i.e. carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (cfPWV), brachial-ankle PVVV (baPWV), carotid stiffness and pulse pressure) on the one hand and cerebral small vessel disease and cognitive impairment on the other, we identified 23 (n = 15,666/20 cross-sectional; 1 longitudinal; 2 combined cross-sectional/longitudinal) and 41 studies (n= 57,671/26 cross-sectional; 11 longitudinal; 4 combined cross-sectional/longitudinal), respectively. Pooled analyses of cross-sectional studies showed that greater stiffness was associated with markers of cerebral small vessel disease with odds ratios, per +1 SD, of 1.29-1.32 (

Greater Blood Pressure Variability Is Associated With Lower Cognitive Performance:The Maastricht Study

An increasing number of individuals will face age-related cognitive difficulties because life expectancy has increased. It is, therefore, important to identify modifiable risk factors for cognitive impairment. Very short-term to mid-term blood pressure variability (BPV) may be such a factor because it may cause cerebral ischemia. To this end, we investigated whether greater systolic and diastolic BPV are cross-sectionally associated with memory function (n=1804), information processing speed (n=1793), and executive function (n=1780) in 40- to 75-year-old individuals from The Maastricht Study. A composite BPV-index was derived by standardizing within-visit, 24-hour, and 7-day BPV. We performed linear regression with adjustments for age, sex, educational level, 24-hour systolic or diastolic pressure, and cardiovascular risk factors. We found that a 1-SD greater systolic BPV was not associated with information processing speed (β [SD difference], -0.10; 95% CI, -0.14 to 0.06), or executive function (-0.09; 95% CI, -0.20 to 0.02) but was marginally associated with lower memory function (-0.11; 95% CI, -0.21 to 0.00). A 1-SD greater diastolic BPV was associated with lower information processing speed (-0.10; 95% CI, -0.20 to -0.00) and executive function (-0.12; 95% CI, -0.22 to -0.01) and marginally associated with lower memory function (-0.09; 95% CI, -0.20 to 0.01). These effects on cognitive performance are equivalent to ≈3 additional years of aging. In conclusion, greater very short-term to mid-term diastolic and, to a lesser extent, systolic BPV may be a modifiable risk factor for cognitive deterioration in 40- to 75-year-old, community-dwelling individuals

Skin Autofluorescence and Pentosidine Are Associated With Aortic Stiffening:The Maastricht Study

Arterial stiffening, as characterized by an increase in carotid-femoral pulse-wave velocity or pulse pressure, increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, especially among individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Advanced glycation end products are hypothesized to play a role in the development of arterial stiffness. Therefore, we investigated the association between skin autofluorescence, an estimate of tissue advanced glycation end products, and plasma advanced glycation end products on the one hand and arterial stiffening on the other in 862 participants of The Maastricht Study (mean age of 60 years; 45% women) with normal glucose metabolism (n=469), impaired glucose metabolism (n=140), or type 2 diabetes (n=253). Associations were analyzed with linear regression analysis and adjusted for potential confounders. We found that higher skin autofluorescence as measured by the AGE Reader and plasma pentosidine were independently associated with higher carotid-femoral pulse-wave velocity (s 0.10; 95% confidence interval, 0.03-0.17 and 0.10; 0.04-0.16, respectively) and central pulse pressure (s 0.08; 95% confidence interval 0.01-0.15 and 0.07; 0.01-0.13, respectively). The associations between skin autofluorescence and pentosidine, and carotid-femoral pulse-wave velocity were more pronounced in individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus (P-interaction</p

Association of Type 2 Diabetes, According to the Number of Risk Factors Within Target Range, With Structural Brain Abnormalities, Cognitive Performance, and Risk of Dementia

OBJECTIVE: Type 2 diabetes is associated with increased risks of cognitive dysfunction and brain abnormalities. The extent to which risk factor modification can mitigate these risks is unclear. We investigated the associations between incident dementia, cognitive performance, and brain abnormalities among individuals with type 2 diabetes, according to the number of risk factors on target, compared with control subjects without diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Prospective data were from UK Biobank of 87,856 individuals (n = 10,663 diabetes, n = 77,193 control subjects; baseline 2006-2010), with dementia follow-up until February 2018. Individuals with diabetes were categorized according to the number of seven selected risk factors within the guideline-recommended target range (nonsmoking; guideline-recommended levels of glycated hemoglobin, blood pressure, BMI, albuminuria, physical activity, and diet). Outcomes were incident dementia, domain-specific cognitive performance, white matter hyperintensities, and total brain volume. RESULTS: After a mean follow-up of 9.0 years, 147 individuals (1.4%) with diabetes and 412 control subjects (0.5%) had incident dementia. Among individuals with diabetes, excess dementia risk decreased stepwise for a higher number of risk factors on target. Compared with control subjects (incidence rate per 1,000 person-years 0.62 [95% CI 0.56; 0.68]), individuals with diabetes who had five to seven risk factors on target had no significant excess dementia risk (absolute rate difference per 1,000 person-years 0.20 [-0.11; 0.52]; hazard ratio 1.32 [0.89; 1.95]). Similarly, differences in processing speed, executive function, and brain volumes were progressively smaller for a higher number of risk factors on target. These results were replicated in the Maastricht Study. CONCLUSIONS: Among individuals with diabetes, excess dementia risk, lower cognitive performance, and brain abnormalities decreased stepwise for a higher number of risk factors on target

Association of change in cardiovascular risk factors with incident cardiovascular events

Importance: There is consistent evidence of the association between ideal cardiovascular health and lower incident cardiovascular disease (CVD); however, most studies used a single measure of cardiovascular health.Objective: To examine how cardiovascular health changes over time and whether these changes are associated with incident CVD.Design, Setting, and Participants: Prospective cohort study in a UK general community (Whitehall II), with examinations of cardiovascular health from 1985/1988 (baseline) and every 5 years thereafter until 2015/2016 and follow-up for incident CVD until March 2017.Exposures: Using the 7 metrics of the American Heart Association (nonsmoking; and ideal levels of body mass index, physical activity, diet, blood pressure, fasting blood glucose, and total cholesterol), participants with 0 to 2, 3 to 4, and 5 to 7 ideal metrics were categorized as having low, moderate, and high cardiovascular health. Change in cardiovascular health over 10 years between 1985/1988 and 1997/1999 was considered.Main Outcome and Measure: Incident CVD (coronary heart disease and stroke).Results: The study population included 9256 participants without prior CVD (mean [SD] age at baseline, 44.8 [6.0] years; 2941 [32%] women), of whom 6326 had data about cardiovascular health change. Over a median follow-up of 18.9 years after 1997/1999, 1114 incident CVD events occurred. In multivariable analysis and compared with individuals with persistently low cardiovascular health (consistently low group, 13.5% of participants; CVD incident rate per 1000 person-years, 9.6 [95% CI, 8.4-10.9]), there was no significant association with CVD risk in the low to moderate group (6.8% of participants; absolute rate difference per 1000 person-years, -1.9 [95% CI, -3.9 to 0.1]; HR, 0.84 [95% CI, 0.66-1.08]), the low to high group, (0.3% of participants; absolute rate difference per 1000 person-years, -7.7 [95% CI, -11.5 to -3.9]; HR, 0.19 [95% CI, 0.03-1.35]), and the moderate to low group (18.0% of participants; absolute rate difference per 1000 person-years, -1.3 [95% CI, -3.0 to 0.3]; HR, 0.96 [95% CI, 0.80-1.15]). A lower CVD risk was observed in the consistently moderate group (38.9% of participants; absolute rate difference per 1000 person-years, -4.2 [95% CI, -5.5 to -2.8]; HR, 0.62 [95% CI, 0.53-0.74]), the moderate to high group (5.8% of participants; absolute rate difference per 1000 person-years, -6.4 [95% CI, -8.0 to -4.7]; HR, 0.39 [95% CI, 0.27-0.56]), the high to low group (1.9% of participants; absolute rate difference per 1000 person-years, -5.3 [95% CI, -7.8 to -2.8]; HR, 0.49 [95% CI, 0.29-0.83]), the high to moderate group (9.3% of participants; absolute rate difference per 1000 person-years, -4.5 [95% CI, -6.2 to -2.9]; HR, 0.66 [95% CI, 0.51-0.85]), and the consistently high group (5.5% of participants; absolute rate difference per 1000 person-years, -5.6 [95% CI, -7.4 to -3.9]; HR, 0.57 [95% CI, 0.40-0.80]).Conclusions and Relevance: Among a group of participants without CVD who received follow-up over a median 18.9 years, there was no consistent relationship between direction of change in category of a composite metric of cardiovascular health and risk of CVD

Associations between arterial stiffness, depressive symptoms and cerebral small vessel disease: cross-sectional findings from the AGES-Reykjavik Study.

To access publisher's full text version of this article, please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links field or click on the hyperlink at the top of the page marked Files. This article is open access.Arterial stiffness may contribute to depression via cerebral microvascular damage, but evidence for this is scarce. We therefore investigated whether arterial stiffness is associated with depressive symptoms and whether cerebral small vessel disease contributes to this association.This cross-sectional study included a subset of participants from the AGES-Reykjavik study second examination round, which was conducted from 2007 to 2011. Arterial stiffness (carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity [CFPWV]), depressive symptoms (15-item geriatric depression scale [GDS-15]) and cerebral small vessel disease (MRI) were determined. Manifestations of cerebral small vessel disease included higher white matter hyperintensity volume, subcortical infarcts, cerebral microbleeds, Virchow-Robin spaces and lower total brain parenchyma volume.We included 2058 participants (mean age 79.6 yr; 59.0% women) in our analyses. Higher CFPWV was associated with a higher GDS-15 score, after adjustment for potential confounders (β 0.096, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.005-0.187). Additional adjustment for white matter hyperintensity volume or subcortical infarcts attenuated the association between CFPWV and the GDS-15 score, which became nonsignificant (p > 0.05). Formal mediation tests showed that the attenuating effects of white matter hyperintensity volume and subcortical infarcts were statistically significant. Virchow-Robin spaces, cerebral microbleeds and cerebral atrophy did not explain the association between CFPWV and depressive symptoms.Our study was limited by its cross-sectional design, which precludes any conclusions about causal mediation. Depressive symptoms were assessed by a self-report questionnaire.Greater arterial stiffness is associated with more depressive symptoms; this association is partly accounted for by white matter hyperintensity volume and subcortical infarcts. This study supports the hypothesis that arterial stiffness leads to depression in part via cerebral small vessel disease.National Institutes of Health (NIH) N01-AG-12100 Intramural Research Program of the National Institute on Aging, USA Icelandic Heart Association Icelandic Parliament, Iceland National Institutes of Health, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute HL094898 National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases DK08244