showing 36 of ~574560 from 574555 documents
Fruits arriving to the west. Introduction of cultivated fruits in the Iberian Peninsula
2021
Agricultural activities, including practices, crops and techniques have evolved throughout history undergoing tremendous changes. From the early Neolithic farmers in the Mediterranean focused on cereal agriculture and only later, during the 4th/3rd millennium cal. BC in the Eastern basin, other species such as fruit trees were introduced into the agrarian system transforming the model that had been in use for millennia. Fruit tree management required innovation and investment and more importantly multi-year foresight as the new crops entailed a new pace of work with delayed returns and, thus, a greater entanglement with the land. Processes of social complexity and urbanization accompanied t…
Temperature differences associated with colour do not determine where the acorn ant Temnothorax crassispinus (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) chooses to nest
2021
Temperature is an important factor for invertebrates. Social insects build nests, which along with their ability to thermoregulate, provide shelter from extreme temperatures. However, for many species of ants the most common method of controlling the temperature inside a nest is to choose a suitable nest site. During a fi eld experiment, the choice of nest site by the acorn ant Temnothorax crassispinus, a species which lives in coniferous and mixed forests, was studied. It typically occupies ephemeral nest sites and can move to a new nest site several times in one season. It was predicted that in early spring, dark coloured nest sites would be warmer and thus more frequently occupied by ant…
Walnut Consumption, Plasma Metabolomics, and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease
2021
BACKGROUND: Walnut consumption is associated with lower risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D) and cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, it is unknown whether plasma metabolites related to walnut consumption are also associated with lower risk of cardiometabolic diseases. OBJECTIVES: The study aimed to identify plasma metabolites associated with walnut consumption and evaluate the prospective associations between the identified profile and risk of T2D and CVD. METHODS: The discovery population included 1833 participants at high cardiovascular risk from the PREvención con DIeta MEDiterránea (PREDIMED) study with available metabolomics data at baseline. The study population included 57% women (baseli…
Circular dichroism in atomic vapors: magnetically induced transitions responsible for two distinct behaviors
2021
Atomic transitions of alkali metals for which the condition $F_e-F_g = \pm2$ is satisfied have null probability in a zero magnetic field, while a giant increase can occur when an external field is applied. Such transitions, often referred to as magnetically-induced (MI) transitions, have received interest because their high probabilities in wide ranges of external magnetic fields which, in some cases, are even higher than that of usual atomic transitions. Previously, the following rule was established: the intensities of MI transitions with $\Delta F=\pm2$ are maximum when using respectively $\sigma^\pm$ radiation. Within the same ground state, the difference in intensity for $\sigma^+$ and…
Brush Conformation of Polyethylene Glycol Determines the Stealth Effect of Nanocarriers in the Low Protein Adsorption Regime
2021
For nanocarriers with low protein affinity, we show that the interaction of nanocarriers with cells is mainly affected by the density, the molecular weight, and the conformation of polyethylene glycol (PEG) chains bound to the nanocarrier surface. We achieve a reduction of nonspecific uptake of ovalbumin nanocarriers by dendritic cells using densely packed PEG chains with a "brush" conformation instead of the collapsed "mushroom" conformation. We also control to a minor extent the dysopsonin adsorption by tailoring the conformation of attached PEG on the nanocarriers. The brush conformation of PEG leads to a stealth behavior of the nanocarriers with inhibited uptake by phagocytic cells, whi…
ESTUDIOS ANARQUISTAS
2021
Vaccaro reassess the political philosophy of anarchist thought through a series of critical analysis of some concepts and cultural categories that are newly criticezed by contemporary anarchism.
Benign and malignant mimickers of infiltrative hepatocellular carcinoma: tips and tricks for differential diagnosis on CT and MRI
2021
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) may have an infiltrative appearance in about 8-20% of cases. Infiltrative HCC can be a challenging diagnosis and it is associated with the worst overall survival among HCC patients. Infiltrative HCC is characterized by the spread of multiple minute nodules throughout the liver, without a dominant one, ultimately resulting into macrovascular invasion. On CT and MRI, infiltrative HCC appears as an ill-defined, large mass, with variable degree of enhancement, and satellite neoplastic nodules in up to 52% of patients. On MRI, it may show restriction on diffusion weighted imaging, hyperintensity on T2- and hypointensity on T1-weighted images, and, if hepatobiliary …
The Risk of Contracting COVID-19 Is Not Increased in Patients With Celiac Disease
2021
The World Health Organization declared coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) a global pandemic in March 2020. Since then, there are more than 34 million cases of COVID-19 leading to more than 1 million deaths worldwide. Numerous studies suggest that celiac disease (CeD), a chronic immune-mediated gastrointestinal condition triggered by gluten, is associated with an increased risk of respiratory infections.(1-3) However, how it relates to the risk of COVID-19 is unknown. To address this gap, we conducted a cross-sectional study to evaluate whether patients with self-reported CeD are at an increased risk of contracting COVID-19.
Effects of short-term methionine and cysteine restriction and enrichment with polyunsaturated fatty acids on oral glucose tolerance, plasma amino aci…
2021
Abstract Objective In this 7-day pilot study we randomized healthy, normal-weight men and women to either a dietary intervention with methionine and cysteine restriction enriched in PUFA (Met/Cyslow + PUFA, n = 7) or with high contents of methionine, cysteine and SFA (Met/Cyshigh + SFA, n = 7). The objective was to describe the short-term responses in oral glucose tolerance, amino acid profile, total fatty acid profile, pyruvate and lactate following a Met/Cyslow + PUFA diet vs. Met/Cyshigh + SFA. Results The diet groups consisted of five women and two men, aged 20–38 years. After the 7-d intervention median pre- and post-oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) glucose concentrations were 5 mmol…
Narratives and Counter-Narratives about Radicalization: Experiences of Moderation of an Online Communication Campaign
2021
This paper presents the results of a cyber-ethnographic study. The research analyzes the dynamics that make, calm and increase the radicalization narratives. This study is part of the Oltre project (ISF - DG Migration and Home Affairs, EU) which directly involved 42 Italian and second generation youths in the dissemination and moderation of an online communication campaign in order to prevent radicalized behaviors. This paper illustrates how the young “moderators” interacted each other, highlighting how counter-narratives can represent useful tools for deconstructing "complex" issues such as radicalization. Furthermore, the paper shows (using social network analysis) how on the social media…
NEXMIF encephalopathy: an X-linked disorder with male and female phenotypic patterns
2021
Contains fulltext : 231688.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access) PURPOSE: Pathogenic variants in the X-linked gene NEXMIF (previously KIAA2022) are associated with intellectual disability (ID), autism spectrum disorder, and epilepsy. We aimed to delineate the female and male phenotypic spectrum of NEXMIF encephalopathy. METHODS: Through an international collaboration, we analyzed the phenotypes and genotypes of 87 patients with NEXMIF encephalopathy. RESULTS: Sixty-three females and 24 males (46 new patients) with NEXMIF encephalopathy were studied, with 30 novel variants. Phenotypic features included developmental delay/ID in 86/87 (99%), seizures in 71/86 (83%) and multiple comorbidi…
Whispers from the dark side: Confronting light new physics with NANOGrav data
2021
The NANOGrav collaboration has recently observed first evidence of a gravitational wave background (GWB) in pulsar timing data. Here we explore the possibility that this GWB is due to new physics, and show that the signal can be well fit also with peaked spectra like the ones expected from phase transitions (PTs) or from the dynamics of axion like particles (ALPs) in the early universe. We find that a good fit to the data is obtained for a very strong PT at temperatures around 1 MeV to 10 MeV. For the ALP explanation the best fit is obtained for a decay constant of $F \approx 5\times 10^{17}$ GeV and an axion mass of $2\times 10^{-13}$ eV. We also illustrate the ability of PTAs to constrain…
Analyzing Regional Geographic Challenges: The Resilience of Chinese Vineyards to Land Degradation Using a Societal and Biophysical Approach
2021
Land degradation, especially soil erosion, is a societal issue that affects vineyards worldwide, but there are no current investigations that inform specifically about soil erosion rates in Chinese vineyards. In this review, we analyze this problem and the need to avoid irreversible damage to soil and their use from a regional point of view. Information about soil erosion in vineyards has often failed to reach farmers, and we can affirm that to this time, soil erosion in Chinese vineyards has been more of a scientific hypothesis than an agronomic or environmental concern. Two hypotheses can be presented to justify this review: (i) there are no official and scientific investigations on viney…
Simple equations for strength and deformability verification of tubular steel wind turbine towers
2021
Abstract Simple analytical expressions for a preliminary design of tubular steel wind turbine towers under flexure and shear are proposed. Expressions derived included local buckling effects, shear to moment interaction, ovalization of cross-section and inelastic rotation of foundation. A finite-element analysis with ABAQUS program was also conducted for examination of the ovalization effects and for the whole response of steel tube in flexure. Numerical and analytical results were compared with the experimental results of recent studies available in the literature, showing good agreement. The range of variable investigated refers to medium and large size steel wind tower with cylindrical s…
Comparison of feature importance measures as explanations for classification models
2021
AbstractExplainable artificial intelligence is an emerging research direction helping the user or developer of machine learning models understand why models behave the way they do. The most popular explanation technique is feature importance. However, there are several different approaches how feature importances are being measured, most notably global and local. In this study we compare different feature importance measures using both linear (logistic regression with L1 penalization) and non-linear (random forest) methods and local interpretable model-agnostic explanations on top of them. These methods are applied to two datasets from the medical domain, the openly available breast cancer …
Loneliness Among Older Home-Dwelling Persons: A Challenge for Home Care Nurses.
2021
Solveig Tomstad, Kari Sundsli, Hans Inge Sævareid, Ulrika Söderhamn Centre for Caring Research, Faculty of Health and Sport Sciences, University of Agder, Grimstad, NorwayCorrespondence: Solveig TomstadFaculty of Health and Sport Sciences, University of Agder, Kristiansand, 4604, NorwayEmail solveig.t.tomstad@uia.noAim: To explore how nurses working in the home care service sector perceived the loneliness experienced by older people living at home, and how they met these lonely individuals’ needs.Background: Loneliness is a well-known phenomenon among groups of older home-dwelling people and has been shown to be a health-related problem. Health care professional…
Information quality life cycle in secondary use of EHR data
2021
Abstract The paper argues that existing research on information quality (IQ) mainly focuses on the primary use of electronic health record (EHR) data, whereas IQ in secondary use of EHR data needs further deliberation. The current view of IQ in a healthcare context is static. It assumes that once the EHR system generates the information product, individual users may act on the information based on their subjective perception of its quality. However, this view ignores the complexities of secondary use of EHR data, in which users are actively involved in (re)generating and communicating the information product. Thus, IQ does not remain static but keeps on transforming through active engagemen…
COVID-19 and Alzheimer’s Disease
2021
The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a neurotropic virus with a high neuroinvasive potential. Indeed, more than one-third of patients develop neurological symptoms, including confusion, headache, and hypogeusia/ageusia. However, long-term neurological consequences have received little interest compared to respiratory, cardiovascular, and renal manifestations. Several mechanisms have been proposed to explain the potential SARS-CoV-2 neurological injury that could lead to the development of neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). A mutualistic relationship between AD and COVID-19 seems to exist. On the one hand, COVID-19 patients seem to …
Key Enzymes in Pyrimidine Synthesis, CAD and CPS1, Predict Prognosis in Hepatocellular Carcinoma
2021
Simple Summary Individual patients with liver cancer have a highly variable clinical course. Hence, there is an urgent need to identify new prognostic markers to determine prognosis and select specific therapies. Expression of two key enzymes in pyrimidine synthesis was analyzed in a large, well-characterized cohort of patients with liver cancer. Dysregulated expression of these enzymes was associated with shorter survival of the patients. A combined score of both markers was found to be a statistically independent prognostic marker. Abstract Patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) have a highly variable clinical course. Therefore, there is an urgent need to identify new prognostic mar…
Learning about students in co-teaching teams
2021
Teachers are facing increasingly diverse classrooms globally. To support all students efficiently, teachers need to know their students. Drawing from the literature of teacher learning and inclusive education, we explored how teachers learn to know their students in a co-teaching context. Analysis of interviews and diaries of five co-teaching teams showed that teachers learned about their students in a co-taught classroom by observing students and by obtaining knowledge from and co-constructing knowledge with their co-teaching partner. Moreover, teachers’ learning led to shared responsibility for the student and a better understanding of student diversity. Thus, sharing knowledge of student…
Intelligent purchasing : How artificial intelligence can redefine the purchasing function
2021
Abstract Artificial intelligence (AI) can affect all of a company’s functions, not least the purchasing department. In addition to automating and optimizing existing processes, AI opens up new opportunities for purchasers to undertake new, strategic, collaborative, enduring missions. AI enables complex, strategic decision-making in an unpredictable, hostile environment. This article analyzes to what extent AI can improve the performance of the purchasing department. First, a review is undertaken of how AI is used in purchasing. Thereafter, the research follows an exploratory, inductive, and qualitative approach based on a multiple case study of the following technologies: (1) the Synertrade…
Archéologie et GEoarchéologie du premier Remiremont et de ses abords
2021
La montagne comme espace peu et tardivement peuplé en marge des grands axes d’échanges, fait depuis quelques temps déjà l’objet d’une attention particulière. Le massif vosgien n’échappe pas à ce phénomène. En écho aux travaux déjà réalisés sur les hautes-chaumes et le versant alsacien du massif, une équipe pluridisciplinaire tente de mesurer, sur la longue durée, la dynamique d’un espace forestier du versant lorrain. Le choix, comme objet d'étude, du massif du Fossard, qui domine le piémont occidental du massif et s'étend sur près de 150 km² entre Epinal et Remiremont (Vosges), résulte de son lien étroit, topographique et historique, avec cette dernière ville née d'une abbaye fondée au VIIe…
Could the Calcium Silicate-Based Sealer Presentation Form Influence Dentinal Sealing? An In Vitro Confocal Laser Study on Tubular Penetration
2021
Dentinal tubule penetration influences root canal treatment sealing. The aim of this study was to compare dentinal penetration of two clinical presentations of silicate-based sealers using confocal laser. Sixty single-rooted human teeth from 50–70 year-old patients extracted for orthodontic/periodontal reasons were used. Canals were prepared using Mtwo system up to 35/0.04, with 5.25% NaOCl irrigation and final irrigation using 17% EDTA. Teeth were randomly assigned into study groups (ni = 20): EndoSequence BC sealer (ES, group 1), BioRoot RCS (BR, group 2); and a control group (nc = 20) with AH Plus (AHP). Root canals were obturated with 35/0.04 gutta-percha (single-cone technique). The sa…
The overstated generational gap in online news use? A consolidated infrastructural perspective
2021
Recent research by Taneja et al. suggested that digital infrastructures diminish the generational gap in news use by counteracting preference structures. We expand on this seminal work by arguing that an infrastructural perspective requires overcoming limitations of highly aggregated web tracking data used in prior research. We analyze the individual browsing histories of two representative samples of German Internet users collected in 2012 ( N = 2970) and 2018 ( N = 2045) and find robust evidence for a smaller generational gap in online news use than commonly assumed. While short news website visits mostly demonstrated infrastructural factors, longer news use episodes were shaped more by …
Lipid droplets and autophagy-links and regulations from yeast to humans.
2021
Recent advances in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae and higher eukaryotes have been increasingly connecting lipid droplet (LD) dynamics to the regulation of autophagy. In this review we will discuss implications that connect LD de novo synthesis and LD mobilization to autophagy and how autophagy is regulated by these mechanisms. Elucidating these connections might pose a chance to further understand autophagy induction and membrane biogenesis for the growing autophagosome under different conditions. Increasing our understanding of these mechanisms might provide a chance to understand several conditions that might be related to LD dysregulation and, possibly, as a consequence of this, dysr…
Psychometric properties of the Mobile Phone Dependency Test (TDMB) in Argentina and its relationship with impulsivity
2021
El uso de teléfonos celulares ha aumentado exponencialmente en la mayoría de los países del mundo. Desde una perspectiva psicológica, se han desarrollado diferentes técnicas para evaluar el nivel de dependencia hacia el uso del teléfono móvil, y el test TDMB es una de las más utilizadas. Objetivo. El objetivo principal del trabajo fue realizar la adaptación y validación al contexto argentino del cuestionario TDMB y sus relaciones con la impulsividad. Método. Participaron del estudio 339 adultos residentes en Argentina, con edades entre los 18 y 65 años (M = 37.66; DT = 12.87), siendo el 74.3% mujeres. La batería de evaluación incluyó el TDMD, la UPPS-P para evaluar impulsividad y variables …
Effects of a HIIT Protocol on Cardiovascular Risk Factors in a Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus Population
2021
Cardiovascular complications are important causes of morbidity and mortality of Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus (T1DM) people. Regular exercise is strongly recommended to these patients due to its preventive action against this type of disease. However, a large percentage of patients with T1DM people present a sedentary behavior, mainly, because of the fear of a post-exercise hypoglycemia event and lack of time. High-intensity interval training (HIIT) is an efficient and safe methodology since it prevents hypoglycemia and does not require much time, which are the main barriers for this population to doing exercise and increasing physical conditioning. Nineteen sedentary adults (37 ± 6.5 years) wit…
Detection of Myocardial Infarction by Cardiac Magnetic Resonance in Embolic Stroke Related to First Diagnosed Atrial Fibrillation
2021
Elevated troponin levels are found in a significant number of patients who are diagnosed with acute embolic stroke (AES) after first diagnosed atrial fibrillation (AF). These myocardial injuries, which are known as cardiocerebral infarction (CCI), are potentially caused by coronary embolism and correspond to simultaneous cardiac and cerebral embolisms. However, this severe condition remains poorly understood. In this prospective study, we aimed to investigate the prevalence and the cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) characteristics of CCI.Consecutive patients with first diagnosed AF hospitalized for AES in a neurovascular intensive care unit from 2019 to 2020 were included. Troponin Ic kineti…
Mapping Susceptibility to Debris Flows Triggered by Tropical Storms: A Case Study of the San Vicente Volcano Area (El Salvador, CA)
2021
In this study, an inventory of storm-triggered debris flows performed in the area of the San Vicente volcano (El Salvador, CA) was used to calibrate predictive models and prepare a landslide susceptibility map. The storm event struck the area in November 2009 as the result of the simultaneous action of low-pressure system 96E and Hurricane Ida. Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines (MARS) was employed to model the relationships between a set of environmental variables and the locations of the debris flows. Validation of the models was performed by splitting 100 random samples of event and non-event 10 m pixels into training and test subsets. The validation results revealed an excellent (…
S-Adenosylmethionine Supplementation May Reduce Cancer-Related Fatigue: A Prospective Evaluation Using the FACIT-F Questionnaire in Colon Cancer Pati…
2021
<b><i>Background:</i></b> Fatigue is a common distressing symptom for patients living with chronic or acute diseases, including liver disorders and cancer (<i>Cancer-Related Fatigue</i>, CRF). Its etiology is multifactorial, and some hypotheses regarding the pathogenesis are summarized, with possible shared mechanisms both in cancer and in chronic liver diseases. A deal of work has investigated the role of a multifunctional molecule in improving symptoms and outcomes in different liver dysfunctions and associated symptoms, including chronic fatigue: S-adenosylmethionine (SAM; AdoMet). The aim of this work is actually to consider its role also in oncologic…
Importance of stem cell culture conditions for their derived extracellular vesicles therapeutic effect.
2021
Stem cell-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs) could be enhanced by modifying specific in vitro parameters when culturing their originating stem cells. Controlling stem cell growth conditions with physical properties, oxygen tension and media preconditioning with soluble factors may influence EVs biogenesis and EVs biological function as well. Unfortunately, many misconceptions and methodological issues have hampered the progress in understanding the biological properties of EVs. In this review we will first discuss the major concerns involved in a suitable EVs production from stem cell culture. Then, we will describe the current techniques for EV isolation, focusing on their advantages and…
A gender study of principal investigator lead public R&D centres and funding
2021
To survive and grow public Research and Development (R&D) centres need to raise competitive funds (Bazeley 1998; Lee and Om 1996; Muñoz 2007; Santamaría, Brage-Gil and Modrego 2010). The factors that can influence the capacity of national R&D teams within R&D centres to apply for and obtain competitive funding does not seem to have been studied in depth. The purpose of study is to firstly, to examine whether a consistent set of priorities defined by R&D centre lead principal investigators secures more competitive funding. Secondly, to examine whether the PI gender moderates the effect of the PI’s priorities on the amount of competitive public funds that the R&D team of the PI obtains. Our s…
In Vitro Modulation of P-Glycoprotein Activity by Euphorbia intisy Essential Oil on Acute Myeloid Leukemia Cell Line HL-60R
2021
Euphorbia species have a large spectrum of traditional medicinal uses. We tested the biological activities of the essential oil (EO) of Euphorbia intisy Drake in an acquired multidrug resistance leukemia model to assess whether the EO obtained by hydrodistillation of stems was able to reverse the resistant phenotype. HL-60R cell lines are characterized by the overexpression of P-glycoprotein (P-gp), inhibitors of apoptosis proteins (IAPs) and constitutive expression of NF-κB. EO chemical composition was determined by GC/MS analysis
Desajuste de trayectorias estudiantiles : caso comparativo de la Universidad Federal de Paraíba y la Universidad de València
2021
Este artículo aborda la cuestión del ajuste académico en las trayectorias universitarias entendiéndolo en base al ritmo de renovación de los estudiantes y de idoneidad de su rendimiento académico. El objetivo planteado es calibrar el ajuste entre ambos indicadores de rendimiento, es decir, renovación e idoneidad para poder proponer una medida integral de ajuste. Proponemos una metodología para ponderar el grado de ajuste en las trayectorias universitarias a partir de los indicadores de renovación e idoneidad mediante la propuesta de un nuevo indicador que denominamos tasa de ajuste. El procedimiento de su cálculo es a través de la adaptación del habitual índice de Gini y cuenta con la carac…
From Country Girl in Southern Finland to Longitudinal Research into Alternatives to Aggression and Violence
2021
Lea Pulkkinen, born in Finland in 1939, is Emerita Professor of Psychology at the University of Jyväskylä (Finland). She is best known for creating the ongoing Jyväskylä Longitudinal Study of Personality and Social Development (JLSPSD). The study was specifically intended to test the hypothesis that the human brain allows for more variation in behavior than the simple ‘fight or flight’ response observed in animal studies of aggression. She further hypothesized that humans’ capacity for cognitive control over emotional behavior was the key factor involved in controlling aggressive behavior. These hypotheses led her to devise an impulse control model to depict behavioral alternatives, which s…