Search results for "CONTROL"
showing 10 items of 13168 documents
Communication about vaccination: A shared responsibility
2016
ABSTRACT Vaccine hesitancy is an important issue to be addressed, due to the risk of decrease of vaccination coverage and consequent control of preventable diseases. While it is not considered a specific determinant, poor or inadequate communication can contribute to vaccine hesitancy and negatively influence vaccination uptake. As a contribution to the ongoing discussion regarding this theme and in the perspective of the implementation of the upcoming national vaccination plan in Italy, the Erice Declaration was drafted by experts in the field of immunization following a 5-day residential, independent workshop regarding communication topics in vaccinology. The aim of the current letter is …
Rare coding variants in PLCG2, ABI3, and TREM2 implicate microglial-mediated innate immunity in Alzheimer's disease
2017
International audience; We identified rare coding variants associated with Alzheimer's disease in a three-stage case-control study of 85,133 subjects. In stage 1, we genotyped 34,174 samples using a whole-exome microarray. In stage 2, we tested associated variants (P < 1 × 10-4) in 35,962 independent samples using de novo genotyping and imputed genotypes. In stage 3, we used an additional 14,997 samples to test the most significant stage 2 associations (P < 5 × 10-8) using imputed genotypes. We observed three new genome-wide significant nonsynonymous variants associated with Alzheimer's disease: a protective variant in PLCG2 (rs72824905: p.Pro522Arg, P = 5.38 × 10-10, odds ratio (OR) = 0.68…
Ovarian Transcriptomic Analysis Reveals Differential Expression Genes Associated with Cell Death Process after Selection for Ovulation Rate in Rabbits
2020
[EN] Transcriptomic analysis showed nineteen potential biomarkers in ovarian tissue from females belonged to a rabbit line selected for ovulation rate for 10 generations and the control line. These females differed not only in ovulation rate but also in prenatal survival since similar litter size were observed. Litter size is an essential trait in rabbit meat production but with low heritability. A selection experiment for ovulation rate has been performed for 10 generations to improve litter size in rabbits. The selected line increased two ova more than the control line but nevertheless a negative correlation was observed with prenatal survival. A transcriptomic study was performed, using …
Dietary components modulate the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma in cirrhotic patients.
2018
Abstract Eighty percent of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cases occur after cirrhosis from various etiologies. The association between diet and cancer is well accepted, but the links with cirrhosis progression and HCC risk have been poorly investigated. However, we hypothesized that diet could be a modifiable preventive factor for HCC. Thus, the aim of our study was to explore the relationships between dietary factors and the risk of HCC in a population of cirrhotic patients. A total of 582 cirrhotic patients were studied: 401 without HCC (controls) and 181 with HCC (cases). These patients were recruited between 2008 and 2012 for the “CiRCE” case-control study conducted in six French univer…
Pharmacokinetics of a sustained release formulation of PDGFβ-receptor directed carrier proteins to target the fibrotic liver
2018
Liver fibrogenesis is associated with excessive production of extracellular matrix by myofibroblasts that often leads to cirrhosis and consequently liver dysfunction and death. Novel protein-based antifibrotic drugs show high specificity and efficacy, but their use in the treatment of fibrosis causes a high burden for patients, since repetitive and long-term parenteral administration is required as most proteins and peptides are rapidly cleared from the circulation. Therefore, we developed biodegradable polymeric microspheres for the sustained release of proteinaceous drugs. We encapsulated the drug carrier pPB-HSA, which specifically binds to the PDGF beta R that is highly upregulated on a…
A randomized, placebo-controlled trial of cenicriviroc for treatment of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis with fibrosis
2018
The aim of this study was to evaluate cenicriviroc (CVC), a dual antagonist of C-C chemokine receptor types 2 and 5, for treatment of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) with liver fibrosis. A randomized, double-blind, multinational phase 2b study enrolled subjects with NASH, a nonalcoholic fatty liver disease activity score [NAS] ≥4, and liver fibrosis (stages 1-3, NASH Clinical Research Network) at 81 clinical sites. Subjects (N = 289) were randomly assigned CVC 150 mg or placebo. Primary outcome was ≥2-point improvement in NAS and no worsening of fibrosis at year 1. Key secondary outcomes were: resolution of steatohepatitis and no worsening of fibrosis; improvement in fibrosis by ≥1 stag…
Elafibranor, an Agonist of the Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor-alpha and -delta, Induces Resolution of Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis Withou…
2016
International audience; BACKGROUND & AIMS: Elafibranor is an agonist of the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-α and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-δ. Elafibranor improves insulin sensitivity, glucose homeostasis, and lipid metabolism and reduces inflammation. We assessed the safety and efficacy of elafibranor in an international, randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled trial of patients with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).METHODS: Patients with NASH without cirrhosis were randomly assigned to groups given elafibranor 80 mg (n = 93), elafibranor 120 mg (n = 91), or placebo (n = 92) each day for 52 weeks at sites in Europe and the United States. Clinical and …
Prevalence and severity of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease by transient elastography: Genetic and metabolic risk factors in a general population.
2017
BACKGROUND & AIMS The worldwide spread of obesity is leading to a dramatic increase in the prevalence of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and its complications. We aimed to evaluate both prevalence and factors associated with NAFLD in a general population in a Mediterranean area. METHODS We considered 890 consecutive individuals included in the community-based ABCD (Alimentazione, Benessere Cardiovascolare e Diabete) study (ISRCTN15840340). Controlled attenuation parameter (CAP) and liver stiffness measurement (LSM) were measured with FibroScan. Participants were genotyped for PNPLA3 rs738409 and TM6SF2 rs58542926 variants. RESULTS The prevalence of NAFLD in the cohort was 48%. NAFL…
On Switching between Motion and Force Control
2019
In motion control technologies, an automatic switching between trajectory following and set reference force, upon the impact, is a frequently encountered requirement. Despite both, motion and force controls, are something of well-understood and elaborated in the control theory and engineering practice, a reliable switching between them is not always self-evident. It can lead to undesired deadlocks, limit cycles, chattering around switching point and, as consequence, to wearing or damages in the controlled plant and its environment. This paper contributes to analysis and understanding of the autonomous switching from the motion to force control and vice versa. Simple output and state feedbac…
Hybrid Position/Force Control for Hydraulic Actuators
2020
In this paper a novel hybrid position/force control with autonomous switching between both control modes is introduced for hydraulic actuators. A hybrid position/force control structure with feed-forwarding, full-state feedback, including integral control error, pre-compensator of the deadzone, and low-pass filtering of the control value is designed. Controller gains are obtained via local linearization and pole placement accomplished separately for the position and force control. A hysteresis-based autonomous switching is integrated into the closed control loop, while multiple Lyapunov function based approach is applied for stability analysis of the entire hybrid control system. Experiment…