Search results for "HM"
showing 10 items of 10594 documents
Portion size selection in children: Effect of sensory imagery for snacks varying in energy density
2020
Food sensory imagery - creating a vivid mental image of the sensory experience of eating - can lead to the selection of smaller portions because it serves as a reminder that eating enjoyment does not necessarily increase with portion size. The evidence is mostly limited to adults and to energy-dense foods for which it is particularly difficult to predict the satiating effects of consumption quantity. The objective was to study how food sensory imagery influences portion size selection of foods varying in energy density (brownie and applesauce) by 7- to 11-year-old children. During after-school time, 171 children were randomized into two conditions. Children in the food sensory imagery condi…
Objective Assessment of Nuclear and Cortical Cataracts through Scheimpflug Images: Agreement with the LOCS III Scale.
2016
Purpose To assess nuclear and cortical opacities through the objective analysis of Scheimpflug images, and to check the correlation with the Lens Opacity Classification System III (LOCS III). Methods Nuclear and cortical opacities were graded according to the LOCS III rules after pupil dilation. The maximum and average pixel intensity values along an elliptical mask within the lens nucleus were taken to analyse nuclear cataracts. A new metric based on the percentage of opaque pixels within a region of interest was used to analyse cortical cataracts. The percentage of opaque pixels was also calculated for half, third and quarter areas from the region of interest’s periphery. Results The maxi…
Direct-acting antivirals and visceral leishmaniasis: a case report
2019
Abstract Background Visceral leishmaniasis is a vector-borne parasitic disease caused by protozoa belonging to the genus Leishmania. The clinical presentation of visceral leishmaniasis strictly depends on the host immunocompetency, whereas depressive conditions of the immune system impair the capability to resolve the infection and allow reactivation from sites of latency of the parasite. Case presentation We describe a case of visceral leishmaniasis (VL) that occurred in a patient with chronic hepatitis C treated with direct-acting antiviral drugs (DAA). The hypothesized mechanism is the alteration of protective inflammation mechanisms secondary to DAA therapy. Downregulation of type II an…
International prevalence and risk factors evaluation for drug-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae pneumonia
2019
Objective: Streptococcus pneumoniae is the most frequent bacterial pathogen isolated in subjects with Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) worldwide. Limited data are available regarding the current global burden and risk factors associated with drug-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae (DRSP) in CAP subjects. We assessed the multinational prevalence and risk factors for DRSP-CAP in a multinational point-prevalence study. Design: The prevalence of DRSP-CAP was assessed by identification of DRSP in blood or respiratory samples among adults hospitalized with CAP in 54 countries. Prevalence and risk factors were compared among subjects that had microbiological testing and antibiotic susceptibility…
Genetic justification of severe COVID-19 using a rigorous algorithm
2021
Recent studies suggest excessive complement activation in severe coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19). The latter shares common characteristics with complement-mediated thrombotic microangiopathy (TMA). We hypothesized that genetic susceptibility would be evident in patients with severe COVID-19 (similar to TMA) and associated with disease severity. We analyzed genetic and clinical data from 97 patients hospitalized for COVID-19. Through targeted next-generation-sequencing we found an ADAMTS13 variant in 49 patients, along with two risk factor variants (C3, 21 patients; CFH,34 patients). 31 (32%) patients had a combination of these, which was independently associated with ICU hospitalization (…
Detection of Torque Teno Virus (TTV) and TTV-Like Minivirus in patients with presumed infectious endophthalmitis in India
2020
Human anelloviruses (Torque Teno Virus (TTV) and TTV Like Mini Virus (TLMV)) are now being reported at a high prevalence across the world, with a controversial disease-inducing potential. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of these anellovirus in vitreous of patients with presumed infectious endophthalmitis. After informed consent, vitreous fluid from patients with endophthalmitis (n = 103) and non-infectious pathologies (n = 102) were analyzed for the presence of TTV and TLMV DNA by qPCR with the limit of quantification defined as 100 copies per reaction. Among the patients clinically diagnosed with endophthalmitis, 29 of the 40 culture proven samples (72.5%) and 42 out of 6…
Morphologic variations in the pineal gland of the albino rat after a chronic alcoholisation process.
2018
We studied the effect of alcohol on the pineal gland of 48 male Wistar rats. Animals were divided into control and experimental groups. The experimental group underwent a previous progressive alcoholisation period with ethanol diluted in water at a concentration of 40%. Animals were sacrificed at 3, 6, 9 and 12 months, and the ultrastructure, karyometric indices, and number of synaptic bodies in the pineal gland were analysed. The results showed progressive morphologic alterations in the ethanol-treated animals, which culminated in fatty degeneration of the pineal parenchyma after 6 months. The karyometric indices decreased in both the central and peripheral areas compared with the control …
Software-based analysis of 1-hour Holter ECG to select for prolonged ECG monitoring after stroke.
2020
Abstract Objective Identification of ischemic stroke patients at high risk for paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (pAF) during 72 hours Holter ECG might be useful to individualize the allocation of prolonged ECG monitoring times, currently not routinely applied in clinical practice. Methods In a prospective multicenter study, the first analysable hour of raw ECG data from prolonged 72 hours Holter ECG monitoring in 1031 patients with acute ischemic stroke/TIA presenting in sinus rhythm was classified by an automated software (AA) into “no risk of AF” or “risk of AF” and compared to clinical variables to predict AF during 72 hours Holter‐ECG. Results pAF was diagnosed in 54 patients (5.2%; mean …
Multimodal determinants of phase-locked dynamics across deep-superficial hippocampal sublayers during theta oscillations
2020
Theta oscillations play a major role in temporarily defining the hippocampal rate code by translating behavioral sequences into neuronal representations. However, mechanisms constraining phase timing and cell-type-specific phase preference are unknown. Here, we employ computational models tuned with evolutionary algorithms to evaluate phase preference of individual CA1 pyramidal cells recorded in mice and rats not engaged in any particular memory task. We applied unbiased and hypothesis-free approaches to identify effects of intrinsic and synaptic factors, as well as cell morphology, in determining phase preference. We found that perisomatic inhibition delivered by complementary populations…
Conf-VLKA: A structure-based revisitation of the Virtual Lock-and-key Approach
2016
In a previous work, we developed the in house Virtual Lock-and-Key Approach (VLKA) in order to evaluate target assignment starting from molecular descriptors calculated on known inhibitors used as an information source. This protocol was able to predict the correct biological target for the whole dataset with a good degree of reliability (80%), and proved experimentally, which was useful for the target fishing of unknown compounds. In this paper, we tried to remodel the previous in house developed VLKA in a more sophisticated one in order to evaluate the influence of 3D conformation of ligands on the accuracy of the prediction. We applied the same previous algorithm of scoring and ranking b…