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IMPORTANCE: Dysbiosis has been robustly demonstrated in Parkinson disease (PD), and fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) has shown promising effects in preclinical PD models. OBJECTIVE: To assess the safety and symptomatic efficacy of colonic single-dose anaerobically prepared FMT. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This was a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized clinical trial conducted between November 2020 and June 2023 with a follow-up period of 12 months at 4 hospitals in Finland. Patients with PD aged 35 to 75 years in Hoehn & Yahr stage 1-3 with a mild to moderate symptom burden and dysbiosis of fecal microbiota were included. Of 229 patients screened, 48 were randomized and 47 received the intervention. One patient discontinued due to worsening of PD symptoms. Two further patients were excluded before analysis and 45 were included in the intention-to-treat analysis. INTERVENTION: Participants were randomized in a 2:1 ratio to receive FMT or placebo via colonoscopy. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: The primary end point was the change of Movement Disorder Society Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale parts I-III (part III off medication) at 6 months. Safety was assessed by recording adverse events (AEs). RESULTS: The median (IQR) age was 65 (52.5-70.0) years in the placebo group and 66 (59.25-69.75) years in the FMT group; 9 (60.0%) and 16 (53.3%) patients were male in the placebo group and the FMT group, respectively. The primary outcome did not differ between the groups (0.97 points, 95% CI, −5.10 to 7.03, P = .75). Gastrointestinal AEs were more frequent in the FMT group (16 [53%] vs 1 [7%]; P = .003). Secondary outcomes and post hoc analyses showed stronger increase of dopaminergic medication and improvement of certain motor and nonmotor outcomes in the placebo group. Microbiota changes were more pronounced after FMT but differed by donor. Nevertheless, dysbiosis status was reversed more frequently in the placebo group. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: FMT was safe but did not offer clinically meaningful improvements. Further studies—for example, through modified FMT approaches or bowel cleansing—are warranted regarding the specific impact of donor microbiota composition and dysbiosis conversion on motor and nonmotor outcomes as well as medication needs in PD. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04854291

The present study aimed to investigate the thermochemical treatment of olive pomace carbonization to improve its value and use. For this purpose, experimental procedures were carried out at different temperatures, 300, 400, 500, 600, and 700 °C, and heating rates, 10 and 20 °C/min, with a residence time of 1 h. The resulting biochar was characterized through physical–chemical analysis, including elemental analysis, thermogravimetric analysis, and evaluation of chemical kinetics through temperature and heating rate, as well as its morphology and chemical composition by scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. In addition, different applications for biochar were evaluated using the hierarchical analysis method. The results indicated that the 400 °C treatment showed the highest priority for application as a biofertilizer (26% priority vector), while heating rates of 20 °C/min and treatments at 400 and 500 °C showed the highest priority for application as a biofuel (between 44 and 46% priority vector). For application as a biocatalyst, treatments at 300 and 400 °C showed the highest percentage values of the priority vector (27 and 26%, respectively). These results contribute to expanding the possibilities of using olive pomace as a sustainable resource in various areas.

Desmoid tumor is a rare mesenchymal neoplasm of unknown etiology. Despite rare, the diagnosis of desmoid tumors after bariatric surgery is increased over the last few years. We report a case of a 26-year-old male with complains of abdominal pain and postprandial fullness, diagnosed with a locally advanced large intra-abdominal mass (40 × 21 × 11.7 cm) centered in the mesentery, developed 3 years after sleeve gastrectomy. Percutaneous biopsy was suggestive of a mesenquimatous tumor and the patient underwent surgery. R0 surgical resection was achieved, despite intimal contact and common vascularization with a jejunal loop. Histopathology examination of the surgical specimen revealed fusiform to stellate cells with mild atypia, thin-walled vessels, and diffuse beta-catenin expression (negative for DOG-1, CD117, CD34, S100, desmin, and alpha-actin). The diagnosis of a desmoid tumor was made. The patient remained asymptomatic, and no recurrence occurred over a 4-year follow-up. With the increasing number of bariatric surgeries, owing to the alarming growing incidence of obesity and related conditions, it is expected that desmoid tumors reports will gradually increase over the next few years. Thus, both gastroenterologists and surgeons should be aware of the potential for desmoid tumor development shortly after surgery, to offer a prompt diagnosis and treatment.

The distribution of avian haemosporidians of the genus Leucocytozoon in the Neotropics remains poorly understood. Recent studies confirmed their presence in the region using molecular techniques alone, but evidence for gametocytes and data on putative competent hosts for Leucocytozoon are still lacking outside highland areas. We combined morphological and molecular data to characterize a new Leucocytozoon species infecting a non-migratory red-legged seriema (Cariama cristata), the first report of a competent host for Leucocytozoon in Brazil. Leucocytozoon cariamae n. sp. is distinguished from the Leucocytozoon fringillinarum group by its microgametocytes that are not strongly appressed to the host cell nucleus. The bird studied was coinfected with Haemoproteus pulcher , and we present a Bayesian phylogenetic analysis based on nearly complete mitochondrial genomes of these 2 parasites. Leucocytozoon cariamae n. sp. morphology is consistent with our phylogenetic analysis indicating that it does not share a recent common ancestor with the L. fringillinarum group. Haemoproteus pulcher and Haemoproteus catharti form a monophyletic group with Haemocystidium parasites of Reptilia, supporting the polyphyly of the genus Haemoproteus. We also discussed the hypothesis that H. pulcher and H. catharti may be avian Haemocystidium , highlighting the need to study non-passerine parasites to untangle the systematics of Haemosporida. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this correspondence is two-fold: (i) to assess the performance of a conventional wireless system jointly subject to short-term fading ($\bm {\alpha }$-$\bm {\mu }$ model), long-term fading (Gamma model), path loss (power-law decay), and mobility (random waypoint model) through analytical formulations; and (ii) to assess the performance of a non-conventional wireless system subject to the same conditions as before but with the transmission-medium-receiving chain replaced by an autoencoder using deep neural networks. The paper derives novel closed-form expressions for the probability density function, cumulative distribution function, and moment-generating function of the received signal. The performance analysis under investigation concerns outage probability, symbol error probability, asymptotic analyses, and channel capacity, all in closed-form formulations. In addition to showing that mobility has a beneficial effect on the overall mean performance, this work also illustrates that the said unconventional system may achieve as good a performance of the conventional one.

Soft robotics presents itself as a new path to adopt in several applications in the industry. The area of soft robotics aims to equip robots for unpredictable needs, providing them with capabilities that are based not on control systems, but on the properties of materials and the morphology of their bodies. This work aims the creation of a soft robotics application, more specifically a soft gripper. The development of an original concept of a soft material handler (soft gripper) is intended, capable of performing the stipulated handling functions, through certain actuation mechanisms, meeting the requirements and constraints presented in the next sub-section. The final solution is based on an improvement procedure supported on structural Finite Element (FE) analyses. Cost analysis and prototype construction/validation finalize the evaluation. The gripper was designed, a prototype was executed, and tests were carried out to prove correct operation. These tests were successful showing the project as suitable for a real production environment.

Background:Apart from ATTR amyloidosis, the epidemiology and outcomes of the most common subtypes of systemic amyloidosis in Portugal remain primarily unknown. Methods:This retrospective cohort study evaluated patients with renal biopsy-proven amyloidosis, diagnosed from January 1978 to December 2019. Follow-up started at kidney disease presentation and ended at death or August 2020. Clinical presentation, survival, and prognostic factors were analysed. Results:Of 123 patients with amyloid nephropathy, 111 had definite amyloid typing and were analysed. AA amyloidosis was the most frequent type (56.1%) and was related mainly to chronic infection (47.8%) and chronic inflammatory arthritis (29.0%). AL amyloidosis was present in 25.2% of patients and hereditary forms in 6.5% (4.1% AFibE526V, 2.4% ATTRV30M). During follow-up, 73.9% of AA and 54.8% of AL patients progressed to end-stage renal disease, and 79.7% of AA and 77.4% of AL died; median overall survival was 66.0 (95% CI, 33.0–99.0) and 18.0 (95% CI, 9.3–26.7) months (p= 0.025), respectively. There were no significant differences in renal outcome and survival on dialysis between these two types. In multivariate analysis, cardiac involvement at presentation (HR 6.26 [95% CI, 2.89–13.56]) and estimated glomerular filtration rate <30 mL/min/1.73 m2 (HR 2.05 [95% CI, 1.06–3.99]) independently influenced AA and AL amyloidosis survival. Cardiac involvement at presentation was an independent predictor of death (HR 9.65 [95% CI, 2.91–31.95]) and early mortality in AL amyloidosis. Conclusions:In Portugal, AA amyloidosis and related chronic infections are still relevant. Regarding AL amyloidosis, the low incidence and advanced disease at presentation result from missed and erroneous diagnoses, leading to delayed referrals and poor outcomes in these patients.

This paper proposes ReAdapt–a reconfigurable datapath architecture for scaling the energy-quality trade-off of adaptive filtering at runtime. The ReAdapt can dynamically select four adaptive filtering algorithms for gradating complexity levels during runtime by reconfiguring the processing flow in its datapath and by blocking the switching activity (e.g., reducing the CMOS dynamic power) of unused modules with data-gating. The ReAdapt proposal can scale the energy-quality trade-off by choosing the following four different levels of filter algorithms complexity: 1) least mean square (LMS); 2) partial update normalized LMS (PU-NLMS); 3) set-membership normalized LMS (SM-NLMS); 4) normalized LMS (NLMS). The ReAdapt architecture reuses common modules of each adaptive filter, resulting in a compact VLSI hardware implementation. The ReAdapt architecture operation is implemented in a case-study for interference mitigation for electroencephalogram (EEG) signal processing. The hardware synthesis results show an increase of 6.80 times in throughput and at least a reduction of 2.84 times in energy per operation compared with the state-of-the-art adaptive filters. This paper also investigates the benefits of dynamically reconfiguring the four ReAdapt operating modes at runtime for different levels of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for the processed signals. We also demonstrate that dynamically reconfiguring the ReAdapt operating modes during runtime results in an optimal energy-quality trade-off which is advantageous over the conventional single static mode.

ObjectiveTo better understand the immune microenvironment of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas (PDACs), here we explored the relevance of T and B cell compartmentalisation into tertiary lymphoid structures (TLSs) for the generation of local antitumour immunity.DesignWe characterised the functional states and spatial organisation of PDAC-infiltrating T and B cells using single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq), flow cytometry, multicolour immunofluorescence, gene expression profiling of microdissected TLSs, as well as in vitro assays. In addition, we performed a pan-cancer analysis of tumour-infiltrating T cells using scRNA-seq and sc T cell receptor sequencing datasets from eight cancer types. To evaluate the clinical relevance of our findings, we used PDAC bulk RNA-seq data from The Cancer Genome Atlas and the PRINCE chemoimmunotherapy trial.ResultsWe found that a subset of PDACs harbours fully developed TLSs where B cells proliferate and differentiate into plasma cells. These mature TLSs also support T cell activity and are enriched with tumour-reactive T cells. Importantly, we showed that chronically activated, tumour-reactive T cells exposed to fibroblast-derived TGF-β may act as TLS organisers by producing the B cell chemoattractant CXCL13. Identification of highly similar subsets of clonally expanded CXCL13+tumour-infiltrating T cells across multiple cancer types further indicated a conserved link between tumour-antigen recognition and the allocation of B cells within sheltered hubs in the tumour microenvironment. Finally, we showed that the expression of a gene signature reflecting mature TLSs was enriched in pretreatment biopsies from PDAC patients with longer survival after receiving different chemoimmunotherapy regimens.ConclusionWe provided a framework for understanding the biological role of PDAC-associated TLSs and revealed their potential to guide the selection of patients for future immunotherapy trials.

Recent advancements in microelectronics, information technology, and communication protocols have led to smaller devices with greater processing capabilities and lower energy consumption. These developments have contributed to the growing number of physical devices used in industrial environments that are interconnected and communicate through the internet, allowing for the realization of Industry 4.0 and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). Numerous companies are involved in producing these devices, each using differentcommunication protocols, data structures, and IoT platforms. This has resulted in interoperability issues that need to be addressed. To mitigate these issues, this paper proposes an interoperability middleware for IIoT gateways that adopts ontologies based on international standards (IEEE 1872-2015) and the asset administration shell (AAS) using industrial frameworks.

This article presents a distributed model predictive control algorithm for a scenario of spacecraft formation flying, namely, spacecraft platooning in a leader–follower formation. This spacecraft formation application can be regarded as a cooperative system composed of several spacecraft with a common goal, for which a relative translational model is considered connecting the different agents. A distributed algorithm is proposed that solves a 1-hop optimization problem in order to estimate the optimal control action sequence, including also relevant constraints to protect and deal with the overall system. The algorithm is then analyzed in terms of uniqueness and convergence of the optimal control action. The proposed methods are validated with realistic simulation results, showing that all vehicles demonstrate reliable performance following a given trajectory or goal in a formation, while satisfying all the considered constraints.

This paper presents a comprehensive design space exploration for boosting energy efficiency of a fast Fourier transform (FFT) VLSI accelerator, exploiting several approximate multipliers (AxM) combined with approximate adder (AxA) circuits. The FFT hardware herein presented consists of a fixed-point sequential architecture using a radix-2 butterfly with decimation in time. We explore a set of AxMs – namely Dynamic Range Unbiased (DRUM), Rounding-based Approximate (RoBA), leading one Bit-based Approximate (LoBA), and Truncated approach – jointly with the LOA, ETA-I, CopyA, CopyB, Trunc0, Trunc1 approximate adders. The approximate arithmetic operators are used in the butterfly kernel with exploration of the approximation levels (for the ${L}$ and ${K}$ least-significant bits, respectively, for the AxM and AxA), aiming at discovering the most energy-efficient configuration under a design-time QoR constraint. The mean square error and peak signal-to-noise ratio metrics define which approximate levels combining ${L}$ and ${K}$ variations will enable the FFT to process signals to generate spectrograms without significant losses. Our results show that the LoBA multiplier with $L$ =8 together with the LOA, Trunc1 and Trunc0, at different approximation levels, provide most energy savings with controllable quality degradation, presenting a minimum decrease of 20.2% in power dissipation without degrading the spectrogram generation quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nosocomial infections caused by resistant Gram-positive organisms are on the rise, presumably due to a combination of factors including prolonged hospital exposure, increased use of invasive procedures, and pervasive antibiotic therapy. Although antibiotic stewardship and infection control measures are helpful, newer agents against multidrug-resistant (MDR) Gram-positive bacteria are urgently needed. Here, we describe our efforts that led to the identification of 5-amino-4-quinolone 111with exceptionally potent Gram-positive activity with minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) ≤0.06 μg/mL against numerous clinical isolates. Preliminary mechanism of action and resistance studies demonstrate that the 5-amino-4-quinolones are bacteriostatic, do not select for resistance, and selectively disrupt bacterial membranes. While the precise molecular mechanism has not been elucidated, the lead compound is nontoxic displaying a therapeutic index greater than 500, is devoid of hemolytic activity, and has attractive physicochemical properties (clog P= 3.8, molecular weight (MW) = 441) that warrant further investigation of this promising antibacterial scaffold for the treatment of Gram-positive infections.

Food efficiency in production aims for better productive results in body weight gain and reduction of dietary costs. Sorghum is a great cereal to use in pig feed, but it has a greater concentration of phytate than corn, which is not degraded by monogastric animals. The addition of exogenous enzymes aims to increase nutrient digestibility, providing greater efficiency of use. The study aim was to evaluate the performance of the animals and the economic viability of the joint use of protease and phytase in sorghum-based diets of sorghum for finishing pigs. The experiment was carried out on a commercial farm, in Patos de Minas, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Commercial hybrid pigs (n = 240; 70 d old; body weight = 26 kg) were used. Individually identified and distributed in pens respecting body weight and sex blocks in a randomized block design, two treatments with 12 replications each were evaluated, totaling 24 experimental plots, with 10 animals each. In treatment 1, control diet based on sorghum and soybean meal (SBM) with phytase 600 FYT/kg of feed (HiPhorius); and treatment 2, same composition as treatment 1 with addition of 30,000 NFP/kg of feed of protease (ProAct 360). The diets were formulated according to Brazilian tables and use nutritional matrix of enzymes (phytase and protease), excepted in control group. At 0, 48, 70 and 89 d of the experiment, the animals were weighed individually, and all the food provided was weighed and the leftovers were quantified, providing information for calculating the variables: average daily gain (ADG), average daily feed intake (ADFI) and feed conversion ratio (FCR). The feeding program costs were calculated. The results were submitted to the variance test, using the statistical program SAS, version 9.4. The difference between mean values was considered statistically significant when P< 0.050, using the Turkey test. There was no statistical difference (P> 0.05) between treatments in relation to ADFI between 0 to 49 d (P= 0.110), 0 to70 d (P= 0.431) and 0 to 89 d of experiment (P= 0.490). There was also no impact on ADG at 0 to 49 d (P= 0.325), 0 to 70 d (P= 0.834) and 0 to 89 experimental days (P= 0.915); and FCR at 0 to 49 days (P= 0.304), 0 to 70 d (P= 0.470) and 0 to 89 experimental days (P= 0.177). Although, there was no effect on the performance indices evaluated in this study, the use of exogenous enzymes such as proteases can have an economic impact on the composition of the pig diet, as it reduced the nutritional cost, increased the revenue per pig produced, increased the margin on feed in 1.06% and reducing the cost per kilogram produced by 1.18%. Therefore, the association of protease and phytase showed a significant economic impact when used in diets based on sorghum and SBM for growing and finishing pigs, even with no direct impact on performance indices.

Introduction: Increasing interest has been seen in understanding the anatomy and biomechanics involved in the Deep Gluteal Syndrome, therefore the main objective of our paper was to define the anatomy of the deep gluteal space concerning the important osseous, muscular and neurological structures.Methods: 12 cadaveric models (24 hemipelvises) were used. We proceeded with classical anatomic dissection and evaluated numerous osseous, musculotendinous and neurologic structures and their relationships. We also determined the femoral anteversion and neck-shaft angles.Results: We found that 15.4% of lower limbs examined presented variations in the sciatic nerve (SN) emergence, and this was significantly longer in men. The distance from the SN to the trochanteric region was also significantly lower in males. The average ischiofemoral distance (IFD) was 2.5 ± 1.3 cm, at the same time that the structures comprised in that space showed superior areas, such as the quadratus femoris (QF) with 5.0 ± 1.1 cm and the SN with 1.4 ± 0.3 cm widths. Besides that, we also evaluated the distance from the SN to the lesser trochanter (LT) and the ischial tuberosity (IT), in the ischiofemoral space, reaching average values of 1.1 ± 0.7 cm and 1.5 ± 0.6 cm respectively. Regarding the relationship between the proximal hamstring insertion, we verified that the LT was at an average distance of 1.6 ± 1.1 cm, that the SN was only 0.2 ± 0.3 cm lateral to it, and the PN is just 2.6 ± 1.2 cm proximal to it.Conclusions: Our study confirmed the extreme variation in the SN origin that can contribute to the Piriformis syndrome. The IFD obtained in our study showed that this distance was small for the structures contained in this space. The proximal hamstring insertion showed a significantly more extended footprint in males, which puts the pudendal nerve (PN) at higher risk of iatrogenic injury.

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.infoecopol.2007.08.001 Byline: Duarte Brito (a), Pedro Pereira (b) Keywords: Cable networks; Local access; Competition Abstract: We analyze the impact of the ownership structure of cable television firms on the incentives to upgrade the cable networks to offer telecommunication services. First, we show that dual ownership of a local telephone network and a cable network, compared with separate ownership, may increase or decrease incentives to invest in upgrading the cable television network. Coordination economies benefit dual ownership, and business-stealing benefits separate ownership. Second, we perform a welfare analysis of the investment decision and third, a welfare analysis of the ownership structure. Author Affiliation: (a) DCSA, Faculdade de CiA*ncias e Tecnologia da Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Quinta da Torre, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal (b) AdC, Rua Laura Alves, n[degrees] 4, 6[degrees], 1050-188 Lisboa, Portugal Article History: Received 28 June 2006; Revised 4 July 2007; Accepted 1 August 2007 Article Note: (footnote) [star] We thank D. Waterman and two anonymous referees for useful comments. Brito also thanks the Portuguese Competition Authority where some of this research was done. The opinions expressed in this article reflect only the authors' views, and in no way bind the institutions to which they are affiliated.

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijindorg.2006.05.008 Byline: Emin M. Dinlersoz (a), Pedro Pereira (b) Keywords: E-commerce; Technology adoption; Retail industries Abstract: This paper analyzes retailers' adoption of e-commerce in a technology adoption race framework. An internet-based firm with no traditional market presence competes with an established traditional firm to adopt the e-commerce technology and sell to a growing number of consumers with on-line shopping capability. The focus of the analysis is on identifying how consumer loyalty, differences in firms' technology and consumers' preferences for the traditional versus the virtual market, and the expansion in market size made possible by the internet can affect the timing and sequence of adoption by firms, as well as the post-adoption evolution of prices. The model's implications are used to discuss empirical evidence on adoption patterns for different product categories and firm types. Author Affiliation: (a) Department of Economics, University of Houston, 204 McElhinney Hall, Houston, TX, 77204-5019 USA (b) Portuguese Competition Authority, Av. Laura Alves, n[degrees]4, 1050-138 Lisbon, Portugal Article History: Received 28 December 2004; Revised 30 November 2005; Accepted 18 May 2006 Article Note: (footnote) [star] We thank the editor Stephen Martin and an anonymous referee for helpful comments.

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijindorg.2006.05.007 Byline: Philippe Gagnepain (a)(b), Pedro Pereira (c) Keywords: Mobile telephony; Entry; Competition; Efficiency; Empirical analysis Abstract: We study the effect of entry on costs and competition in the Portuguese mobile telephony industry. We construct and estimate a model that includes demand, network, and cost equations. The latter accounts for inefficiency and cost reducing effort. Our results suggest that the entry of a third operator in 1998 lead to significant cost reductions and fostered competition. We also show that failure to account for cost reducing effort leads to biased estimates of competition in the industry. Finally, we also find that our estimated price-cost margins are similar to hypothetical Nash margins, if firms are patient and have optimistic beliefs about the industry growth. Author Affiliation: (a) Departamento de Economia, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, C./Madrid, 126, 28903 Getafe, Madrid, Spain (b) CEPR, London, UK (c) Autoridade da ConcorrA*ncia, AdC, Rua Laura Alves, n[degrees]4, 4[degrees], 1050-188 Lisboa, Portugal Article History: Received 9 August 2005; Revised 5 April 2006; Accepted 26 May 2006

This article analyses the evolution of relative per capita income distribution of Brazilian municipalities over the period 1970-1996. Analyses are based on non-parametric methodologies and do not assume probability distributions [...]

A study analyzing the presence of multiple equilibria in search markets, while firms having marginal costs, and may enter and exit the market freely, is presented. When search costs get small, multiplicity disappears.

A search model is presented to examine the impact of decrease in the search cost on price levels and price dispersion.

The paper shows why considering a number of education-dependent covariates in a wage equation decreases the coefficient of education in that equation. This result is illustrated empirically with a meta-analysis [...]

Energy communities serve as vital stakeholders within contemporary power grids. Nevertheless, managing these communities presents formidable challenges, owing to the intricate nature of the task, the presence of uncertainties, and competing objectives. This paper aims to demonstrate the positive impact of incorporating a storage system into an energy community, ensuring the welfare of every community member during grid malfunctions. The research investigates two separate energy communities, considering both uncontrollable and controllable devices within individual households as consumption sources, in addition to power supply sources like PV systems installed in community residences, as well as power derived from the main grid or the storage system.

A matching employer-employee database is used to study wage and career correlation within large firms. Analysis shows that the relation between human capital qualities and hierarchical levels strongly determine wages, which shows that vertical, or horizontal promotions and demotions of an individual is a positive and negative implication of wage premiums respectively.

This work aims at evaluating the effect of microstructure on the corrosion behavior of an Al–Mg–Sc alloy processed by high-pressure torsion (HPT) and annealed from 523 to 773 K. The corrosion resistance of the annealed alloy was evaluated by using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and potentiodynamic polarization tests in 3.5% (wt.%) NaCl solution. The EIS and polarization analyses suggested a higher corrosion resistance of the Al–Mg–Sc alloy that presented a more homogeneous grain distribution. The Al alloy samples were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) after the polarization tests. The heterogeneity of the microstructure, but also the formation of a high density of grain boundaries during HPT processing, and a change in the structure of grain boundaries, including the formation of grain boundary segregations of alloying elements, affected the corrosion behavior of the HPT processed and thermal annealed Al–Mg–Sc alloy.

We propose a dynamic controller for position tracking of a point-mass load attached to an omnidirectional aerial vehicle by means of a cable. Both the load and the aerial vehicle are subject to unknown wind forces. We model the dynamics of the slung-load system and put it into canonical form, i.e., a form which is independent of the system's physical parameters. Following a backstepping strategy, we design a dynamic control law for the canonical system that contains four estimators, since each of the two wind disturbances has two separate effects: an effect on the linear acceleration and another on the angular acceleration. Loosely speaking, the difference between the wind forces is an input-additive disturbance, while the wind force on the load is not, which makes removing the wind force on the load nontrivial. We identify conditions on the desired position trajectory and on the wind on the load, which guarantee that a well-defined equilibrium trajectory exists. The designed controller guarantees simultaneously that the latter trajectory is asymptotically tracked and the cable remains taut, provided that the system is initialized in a suitable set. Simulations illustrate our results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Self-expandable metal stent (SEMS) placement for malignant dysphagia before preoperative neoadjuvant therapy (NT) is controversial. Aim: Evaluate SEMS placement impact on clinical and oncologic outcomes in patients with esophageal cancer who underwent surgery after NT. Methods: Retrospective study of esophageal cancer patients referred for esophagectomy after NT. A propensity score was built consisting of the conditional probability of having had a SEMS given a set of baseline variables. In the SEMS group, patients underwent SEMS placement followed by NT and esophagectomy, whereas in the non-SEMS group, patients underwent only NT and esophagectomy. Results: One hundred patients were included, 29 in the SEMS group and 71 in the non-SEMS group. Median follow-up was 18 months. SEMS-related adverse events occurred in 20.7% of the patients. After propensity score analysis, SEMS use decreased delta dysphagia score (regression coefficient [RC]: − 2.69, 95% CI − 3.18 to − 2.21), dysphagia grade before surgery (RC: − 0.74, 95% CI − 1.22 to − 0.27), hospital readmissions at 1 month (OR 0.18; p= 0.019), but increased overall morbidity after surgery (OR 3.02; p= 0.045). No significant differences were found regarding delta albumin levels and albumin levels before surgery, delta weight and weight before surgery, death related to surgery, number of lymph nodes harvested, R0 resection rate, tumor recurrence, recurrence-free survival, overall survival, and 30-day, 6-month, and 3-year mortality. Conclusion: SEMS placement improved dysphagia and allowed patients to maintain an equal nutritional status compared to patients without dysphagia during NT. Although postsurgical morbidity was higher in patients with SEMS placement, postsurgical mortality and oncological outcome were not different.

Graphic abstract:

The throughput level currently reached by automatic liquid handling and assay monitoring techniques is expected to facilitate the discovery of new modulators of enzyme activity. Judicious and dependable ways to interpret vast amounts of information are, however, required to effectively answer this challenge. Here, the 3-point method of kinetic analysis is proposed as a means to significantly increase the hit success rates and decrease the number of falsely identified compounds (false positives). In this post-Michaelis–Menten approach, each screened reaction is probed in three different occasions, none of which necessarily coincide with the initial period of constant velocity. Enzymology principles rather than subjective criteria are applied to identify unwanted outliers such as assay artifacts, and then to accurately distinguish true enzyme modulation effects from false positives. The exclusion and selection criteria are defined based on the 3-point reaction coordinates, whose relative positions along the time-courses may change from well to well or from plate to plate, if necessary. The robustness and efficiency of the new method is illustrated during a small drug repurposing screening of potential modulators of the deubiquinating activity of ataxin-3, a protein implicated in Machado–Joseph disease. Apparently, intractable Z factors are drastically enhanced after (1) eliminating spurious results, (2) improving the normalization method, and (3) increasing the assay resilience to systematic and random variability. Numerical simulations further demonstrate that the 3-point analysis is highly sensitive to specific, catalytic, and slow-onset modulation effects that are particularly difficult to detect by typical endpoint assays.

•1,8-naphthyridine sulfonamides showed synergy with norfloxacin and ethidium bromide.•MICs of multidrug-resistant S. aureusstrains SA-1199 and SA-1199B were reduced.•In silico tests agreed with microbiologic results, with clinically relevant values.•Compounds had favourable interaction energy and undergo gastrointestinal absorption.•Data suggest that the drug would be relatively non-toxic for individual consumption.•1,8-naphthyridines possibly inhibit the NorA efflux pump.

Superplasticity denotes the ability of a limited number of materials to achieve exceptionally high tensile elongations of at least 400%. Experiments show that the Al-Mg-Sc alloys provide excellent capabilities for achieving superplastic flow and also they can be formed easily in biaxial superplastic forming operations. It is important, therefore, to examine the superplastic flow mechanism when the alloy is prepared using different procedures. This report examines the superplastic characteristics of these alloys after preparation without subjecting to any severe plastic deformation (SPD), after processing using the two SPD procedures of equal-channel angular pressing (ECAP) and high-pressure torsion (HPT) and after processing using the alternative procedure of friction stir processing (FSP). The results are compared using each technique and they are examined with reference to a theoretical model that was developed specifically for superplastic flow in conventional alloys.

The nucleotides were discovered in the early 19th century and a few years later, the role of such molecules in energy metabolism and cell survival was postulated. In 1972, a pioneer work by Burnstock and colleagues suggested that ATP could also work as a neurotransmitter, which was known as the “purinergic hypothesis”. The idea of ATP working as a signaling molecule faced initial resistance until the discovery of the receptors for ATP and other nucleotides, called purinergic receptors. Among the purinergic receptors, the P2Y family is of great importance because it comprises of G proteincoupled receptors (GPCRs). GPCRs are widespread among different organisms. These receptors work in the cells' ability to sense the external environment, which involves: to sense a dangerous situation or detect a pheromone through smell; the taste of food that should not be eaten; response to hormones that alter metabolism according to the body's need; or even transform light into an electrical stimulus to generate vision. Advances in understanding the mechanism of action of GPCRs shed light on increasingly promising treatments for diseases that have hitherto remained incurable, or the possibility of abolishing side effects from therapies widely used today.

Introduction:Transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) is the first-line treatment for patients with intermediate-stage hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). For patients without an adequate response, current finding suggests that treatment with molecular target agents, approved for advanced stage, might present benefits. However, this requires a preserved liver function. This study aims to evaluate possible predictors of early deterioration of hepatic reserve, prior to TACE refractoriness, in a cohort of patients treated with TACE. Methods:Retrospective analysis of 99 patients withChild-Pugh class A and intermediate-stage HCC who underwent TACE as the first-line treatment. All patients were submitted to a biochemical and medical evaluation prior to initial TACE and every month afterward. Response to initial TACE was evaluated at 1 month. The time to Child-Pugh class deterioration before TACE refractoriness was assessed. Results:Ninety-nine patients were included. Objective response rate (ORR) to initial TACE was assessed as present in 59 (63.4%) and as absent in 34 (36.6%) patients. Liver decompensated before TACE refractoriness in 51 (51.5%) patients, and the median time to liver decompensation was 14 (IQR 8–20) months after first TACE. In multivariate analysis, beyond up-to-7 criteria (HR 2.4, p= 0.031), albumin <35 mg/dL (HR 3.5, p< 0.001) and absence of ORR (HR 2.4, p= 0.020) were associated with decreased overall survival free of liver decompensation. Moreover, beyond up-to-7 criteria, albumin <35 mg/dL and absence of ORR associated negatively with 6-month survival free of liver decompensation. Our model created using those variables was able to predict liver decompensation at 6 months with an AUROC of 0.701 (p= 0.02). Conclusions:The absence of ORR after initial TACE, beyond up-to-7 criteria and albumin <35 mg/dL, was a predictive factor for early liver decompensation before TACE refractoriness in our population. Such patients might benefit from treatment escalation to systemic therapy, in monotherapy or in combination with TACE.

Synaptic dysfunction plays a central role in Alzheimer’s disease (AD), since it drives the cognitive decline. An association between a polymorphism of the adenosine A2Areceptor (A2AR) encoding gene—ADORA2A, and hippocampal volume in AD patients was recently described. In this study, we explore the synaptic function of A2AR in age-related conditions. We report, for the first time, a significant overexpression of A2AR in hippocampal neurons of aged humans, which is aggravated in AD patients. A similar profile of A2AR overexpression in rats was sufficient to drive age-like memory impairments in young animals and to uncover a hippocampal LTD-to-LTP shift. This was accompanied by increased NMDA receptor gating, dependent on mGluR5 and linked to enhanced Ca2+influx. We confirmed the same plasticity shift in memory-impaired aged rats and APP/PS1 mice modeling AD, which was rescued upon A2AR blockade. This A2AR/mGluR5/NMDAR interaction might prove a suitable alternative for regulating aberrant mGluR5/NMDAR signaling in AD without disrupting their constitutive activity.

The authors intend, by presenting a case study, emphasize the neuromodulation process of orofacial pain induced by the stimulation of the sensory and motor stimulation of the trigeminal nerve, which can play an important role on pain modulation.

In this paper, we study attitude synchronization for elements in the unit sphere in $\mathbb {R}^{\scriptscriptstyle {\scriptscriptstyle {3}}}$ and for elements in the three-dimensional (3-D) rotation group, for a network with switching topology. The agents’ angular velocities are assumed to be the control inputs, and a switching control law for each agent is devised that guarantees synchronization, provided that all elements are initially contained in a region, which we identify later in the paper. The control law is decentralized and it does not require a common orientation frame among all agents. We refer to synchronization of unit vectors in $\mathbb {R}^{\scriptscriptstyle {3}}$ as incomplete synchronization, and of 3-D rotation matrices as complete synchronization. Our main contribution lies in showing that these two problems can be analyzed under a common framework, where all agents’ dynamics are transformed into unit vectors dynamics on a sphere of appropriate dimension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New York: Orders are backed up, boxes are piled high and quarterly earnings are suddenly in jeopardy across the entire computer industry. In just two painful weeks, the United Parcel […]

###Craig Zarley & Pedro Pereira New York-The channel is racing to invent new business models that will ensure a leadership position in the burgeoning but underserved small and midsize business […]

An Al–3% Mg–0.2% Sc alloy was solution treated and processed through 10 turns of high-pressure torsion (HPT) at 450K. Afterwards, the HPT-processed alloy was annealed for 1h at temperatures ranging from 423 to 773K and its mechanical properties and microstructural evolution were examined using microhardness measurements and electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) analysis. The results demonstrate that HPT processing at an elevated temperature leads to a more uniform microhardness distribution and to an early saturation in the hardness values in the Al alloy compared with high-pressure torsion at room temperature. In addition, detailed EBSD analysis conducted on the HPT-processed samples immediately after annealing revealed that the Al–Mg–Sc alloy subjected to HPT processing at 450K exhibits superior thermal stability by comparison with the same material subjected to HPT at 300K.

The anophelins are small protein thrombin inhibitors that are produced in the salivary glands of the Anophelesmosquito to fulfill a vital role in blood feeding. A bioinformatic analysis of anophelin sequences revealed the presence of conserved tyrosine residues in an acidic environment that were predicted to be post-translationally sulfated in vivo. To test this prediction, insect cell expression of two anophelin proteins, from Anopheles albimanusand Anopheles gambiae, was performed, followed by analysis by mass spectrometry, which showed heterogeneous sulfation at the predicted sites. Homogeneously sulfated variants of the two proteins were subsequently generated by chemical synthesis via a one-pot ligation–desulfurization strategy. Tyrosine sulfation of the anophelins was shown to significantly enhance the thrombin inhibitory activity, with a doubly sulfated variant of the anophelin from A. albimanusexhibiting a 100-fold increase in potency compared with the unmodified homologue. Sulfated anophelins were also shown to exhibit potent in vivoanticoagulant and antithrombotic activity.

Background:Cholangiocarcinoma is the second most frequent primitive liver malignancy and is responsible for 3% of the malignant gastrointestinal neoplasms. The aims of this study were to determine the association of serum levels of CA 19-9 at diagnosis with other clinical data and serum liver function tests and to identify possible factors that influence the survival rates during follow-up. Methods:Retrospective observational study of 89 patients with a diagnosis of cholangiocarcinoma followed at the Department of Gastroenterology during 5 years. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS version 20.0. Results:Patients were followed up for a median time of 127 days (IQR: 48-564), and the median age at diagnosis was 71.0 years (IQR: 62.0-77.5). The median survival rate was 14.0 months (IQR: 4.3-23.7), and the mortality rate was 79%. Patients with CA 19-9 levels ≥103 U/L had lower albumin levels and higher levels of alanine aminotransferase and γ-glutamyltransferase. CA 19-9 levels ≥103 U/L were associated with a higher probability of metastization (p= 0.001) and lower rates of treatment with curative intent (p= 0.024). In a multivariate analysis, CA 19-9 levels <103 U/L and surgery were independent predictors of survival. Conclusion:Predictive factors for overall survival were identified, namely presence of metastasis, surgery, and chemotherapy. CA 19-9 levels ≥103 U/L were predictive factors for survival and metastization.

Introduction and objectives: periprosthetic hip fractures show increasing incidence and complexity, representing a challenge for the surgeon. We aimed to evaluate the survival of uncemented modular tapered stems in the treatment of periprosthetic Vancouver B2 and B3 type fractures and review the main complications and factors associated with decreased survival.