Search results for "STICS"
showing 10 items of 21128 documents
Recommendations for enterovirus diagnostics and characterisation within and beyond Europe
2018
Enteroviruses (EV) can cause severe neurological and respiratory infections, and occasionally lead to devastating outbreaks as previously demonstrated with EV-A71 and EV-D68 in Europe. However, these infections are still often underdiagnosed and EV typing data is not currently collected at European level. In order to improve EV diagnostics, collate data on severe EV infections and monitor the circulation of EV types, we have established European non-polio enterovirus network (ENPEN). First task of this cross-border network has been to ensure prompt and adequate diagnosis of these infections in Europe, and hence we present recommendations for non-polio EV detection and typing based on the co…
Virus-host interactome: Putting the accent on how it changes
2017
[EN] Viral infections are extremely complex processes that could only be well understood by precisely characterizing the interaction networks between the virus and the host components. In recent years, much effort has gone in this directionwith the aimof unveiling themolecular basis of viral pathology. These networks are mostly formed by viral and host proteins, and are expected to be dynamic bothwith time and space (i.e., with the progression of infection, as well as with the virus and host genotypes; what we call plastodynamic). This largely overlooked spatio-temporal evolution urgently calls for a change both in the conceptual paradigms and experimental techniques used so far to characte…
Low-energy extracorporeal shockwave therapy (ESWT) improves metaphyseal fracture healing in an osteoporotic rat model.
2017
Purpose As result of the current demographic changes, osteoporosis and osteoporotic fractures are becoming an increasing social and economic burden. In this experimental study, extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT), was evaluated as a treatment option for the improvement of osteoporotic fracture healing. Methods A well-established fracture model in the metaphyseal tibia in the osteoporotic rat was used. 132 animals were divided into 11 groups, with 12 animals each, consisting of one sham-operated group and 10 ovariectomized (osteoporotic) groups, of which 9 received ESWT treatment. Different energy flux intensities (0.15 mJ/mm2, 0.35 mJ/mm2, or 0.55 mJ/mm2) as well as different numbers o…
FASTdoop: A versatile and efficient library for the input of FASTA and FASTQ files for MapReduce Hadoop bioinformatics applications
2017
Abstract Summary MapReduce Hadoop bioinformatics applications require the availability of special-purpose routines to manage the input of sequence files. Unfortunately, the Hadoop framework does not provide any built-in support for the most popular sequence file formats like FASTA or BAM. Moreover, the development of these routines is not easy, both because of the diversity of these formats and the need for managing efficiently sequence datasets that may count up to billions of characters. We present FASTdoop, a generic Hadoop library for the management of FASTA and FASTQ files. We show that, with respect to analogous input management routines that have appeared in the Literature, it offers…
The colored longest common prefix array computed via sequential scans
2018
Due to the increased availability of large datasets of biological sequences, the tools for sequence comparison are now relying on efficient alignment-free approaches to a greater extent. Most of the alignment-free approaches require the computation of statistics of the sequences in the dataset. Such computations become impractical in internal memory when very large collections of long sequences are considered. In this paper, we present a new conceptual data structure, the colored longest common prefix array (cLCP), that allows to efficiently tackle several problems with an alignment-free approach. In fact, we show that such a data structure can be computed via sequential scans in semi-exter…
Health/Nutrition food claims and low-fat food purchase: Projected personality influence in young consumers
2017
Abstract Health/nutrition food claims are increasingly used in the food industry but firms still require deeper research to develop a better understanding of consumers in the low-fat food market. In pursuit of this goal, this paper analyses the influence of projected consumer personality on healthy claim credibility, Perceived product health, physical appearance and its repercussion on attitudes (overall attitude to the product) and behaviours (purchase intention). With a sample of 300 young consumers (15–25 years old) and through PLS techniques, our results show that project personality influences the credibility of claims about healthiness and physical appearance. Both concepts play a sig…
Use of deep learning methods to translate drug-induced gene expression changes from rat to human primary hepatocytes
2020
In clinical trials, animal and cell line models are often used to evaluate the potential toxic effects of a novel compound or candidate drug before progressing to human trials. However, relating the results of animal and in vitro model exposures to relevant clinical outcomes in the human in vivo system still proves challenging, relying on often putative orthologs. In recent years, multiple studies have demonstrated that the repeated dose rodent bioassay, the current gold standard in the field, lacks sufficient sensitivity and specificity in predicting toxic effects of pharmaceuticals in humans. In this study, we evaluate the potential of deep learning techniques to translate the pattern of …
Behavioral fragmentation in the D1CT-7 mouse model of Tourette's syndrome.
2017
Aim The transgenic D1CT-7 mouse is one of the best-characterized animal models of Tourette's syndrome (TS), exhibiting spontaneous tic-like Head-Body Twitches (HBT) and deficits in sensorimotor gating. This study is aimed at evaluating the behavioral dynamics of these mutants and their potential relevance to TS. Methods The behavior of D1CT-7 and Wild Type littermates was firstly assessed by considering frequencies and durations. To detect recurrent real-time behavioral sequences, the multivariate T-pattern analysis was employed. Analyses of transition probabilities among behaviors further provided an overall picture of the behavioral dynamics. Results T-patterns and transition matrices rev…
Using the Intervention Mapping protocol to develop a family-based intervention for improving lifestyle habits among overweight and obese children: st…
2016
Abstract Background In light of the high prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity, there is a need of developing effective prevention programs to address the rising prevalence and the concomitant health consequences. The main aim of the present study is to systematically develop and implement a tailored family-based intervention for improving lifestyle habits among overweight and obese children, aged 6–10 years old, enhancing parental self-efficacy, family engagement and parent-child interaction. A subsidiary aim of the intervention study is to reduce the prevalence of overweight and obesity among those participating in the intervention study. Methods/design The Intervention Mapping p…
A Guide to Applying the Sex-Gender Perspective to Nutritional Genomics
2018
Precision nutrition aims to make dietary recommendations of a more personalized nature possible, to optimize the prevention or delay of a disease and to improve health. Therefore, the characteristics (including sex) of an individual have to be taken into account as well as a series of omics markers. The results of nutritional genomics studies are crucial to generate the evidence needed so that precision nutrition can be applied. Although sex is one of the fundamental variables for making recommendations, at present, the nutritional genomics studies undertaken have not analyzed, systematically and with a gender perspective, the heterogeneity/homogeneity in gene-diet interactions on the diffe…