Duggancraft3789

Age-adjusted severe infection during the first three months was associated with an increased three-year mortality rate (HR [95% CI] 3.13 [1.24-7.88]; p = 0.01). Thus, SI is a common early complication in anti-GBM disease, particularly in the elderly and those with positive anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (ANCA). No significant association was observed between immunosuppressive strategy and occurrence of SI.Increasing evidence implicates mitochondrial dysfunction in the etiology of Parkinson's disease (PD). Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutations are considered a possible cause and this mechanism might be shared with the aging process and with other age-related neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease (AD). We have recently proposed a computerized method for mutated mtDNA characterization able to discriminate between AD and aging. The present study deals with mtDNA mutation-based profiling of PD. Peripheral blood mtDNA sequences from late-onset PD patients and age-matched controls were analyzed and compared to the revised Cambridge Reference Sequence (rCRS). The chaos game representation (CGR) method, modified to visualize heteroplasmic mutations, was used to display fractal properties of mtDNA sequences and fractal lacunarity analysis was applied to quantitatively characterize PD based on mtDNA mutations. Parameter β, from the hyperbola model function of our lacunarity method, was statistically different between PD and control groups when comparing mtDNA sequence frames corresponding to GenBank np 5713-9713. Our original method, based on CGR and lacunarity analysis, represents a useful tool to analyze mtDNA mutations. Lacunarity parameter β is able to characterize individual mutation profile of mitochondrial genome and could represent a promising index to discriminate between PD and aging.This work develops a distributed message-passing approach to cooperative localization for autonomous mobile vehicles that communicate via mm-wave wireless connection in vehicle-to-vehicle networks. Vehicles in the network obtain the measurement information about the relative distance and the angle of arrival from the mm-wave connections made with each other. Some vehicles may obtain knowledge about their absolute position information of different quality, for example, via additional localization feature. learn more The main objective is to estimate the locations of all vehicles using reciprocal exchanges of simple information called a message in a distributed and autonomous way. A simulation is developed to examine the performance of the localization and navigation of vehicles under various network configurations. The results show that it does provide better positioning results in most cases and there are also several cases where the use of the cooperative technique adapts to design parameters such as accuracies of measurement equipment, and initial position estimates, that can affect the localization performance.Track-to-track association (T2TA) is a challenging task in situational awareness in intelligent vehicles and surveillance systems. In this paper, the problem of track-to-track association with sensor bias (T2TASB) is considered. Traditional T2TASB algorithms only consider a statistical distance cost between local tracks from different sensors, without exploiting the geometric relationship between one track and its neighboring ones from each sensor. However, the relative geometry among neighboring local tracks is usually stable, at least for a while, and thus helpful in improving the T2TASB. In this paper, we propose a probabilistic method, called the local track geometry preservation (LTGP) algorithm, which takes advantage of the geometry of tracks. Assuming that the local tracks of one sensor are represented by Gaussian mixture model (GMM) centroids, the corresponding local tracks of the other sensor are fitted to those of the first sensor. In this regard, a geometrical descriptor connectivity matrix is constructed to exploit the relative geometry of these tracks. The track association problem is formulated as a maximum likelihood estimation problem with a local track geometry constraint, and an expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm is developed to find the solution. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed methods offer better performance than the state-of-the-art methods.In hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) retinopathy, early detection of asymptomatic retinal changes and the interruption of the drug are essential to prevent permanent vision loss. Our purpose was to investigate the roles of ganglion cell layer (GCL) and outer nuclear layer (ONL) thicknesses measured by optical coherence tomography (OCT) in the early diagnosis of retinopathy. One hundred and fourteen eyes of 76 individuals with HCQ treatment were enrolled in the study (42 eyes with impaired visual field (VF) and 72 eyes with nondamaged VF). link2 We found that ONL was significantly decreased in the HCQ retinopathy group compared with the control group in the nasal macula (p = 0.032) as well as in four sectors (p less then 0.044), whereas no significant differences were found comparing GCL in both groups. If VF were altered superiorly or temporarily, ONL was significantly thinned inferiorly (p = 0.029) and nasally (p = 0.008), respectively. Duration of HCQ treatment was significantly related with ONL in seven sectors of ONL (p less then 0.047). We suggest that ONL measured with OCT might be used to assess early HCQ retinal toxicity.As mesothelin is overexpressed in various types of cancer, it is an attractive target for therapeutic antibodies. T-cell bispecific antibodies bind to target cells and engage T cells via binding to CD3, resulting in target cell killing by T-cell activation. However, the affinity of the CD3-binding arm may influence CD3-mediated plasma clearance or antibody trapping in T-cell-containing tissues. This may then affect the biodistribution of bispecific antibodies. In this study, we used scFab and knob-into-hole technologies to construct novel IgG-based 1 + 1 MG1122-A and 2 + 1 MG1122-B bispecific antibodies against mesothelin and CD3ε. MG1122-B was designed to be bivalent to mesothelin and monovalent to CD3ε, using a 2 + 1 head-to-tail format. Activities of the two antibodies were evaluated in mesothelin-positive tumor cells in vitro and xenograft models in vivo. Although both antibodies exhibited target cell killing efficacy and produced regression of xenograft tumors with CD8+ T-cell infiltration, the antitumor efficacy of MG1122-B was significantly higher. MG1122-B may improve tumor targeting because of its bivalency for tumor antigen. It may also reduce systemic toxicity by limiting the activation of circulating T cells. Thus, MG1122-B may be useful for treating mesothelin-positive solid tumors.This study aimed to first elucidate prostate-specific antigen (PSA) kinetics in prostate cancer patients treated with carbon ion radiotherapy (CIRT). From 2010 to 2015, 131 patients with prostate adenocarcinoma treated with CIRT (57.6 Gy relative biological effectiveness (RBE) in 16 fractions) alone were recruited. PSA was measured at 1, 2, 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 30, 36, 42, 48, 54, and 60 months post-CIRT. PSA bounce was defined as PSA increase over a cutoff followed by spontaneous decrease to or below the pre-bounce nadir. PSA failure was determined using the Phoenix criteria (nadir + 2.0 ng/mL). As a result, non-failure-associated temporary increase in PSA exhibited two distinct patterns, namely a classical bounce and a surge at one month. PSA bounce of ³0.2 ng/mL was observed in 55.7% of the patients. Bounce amplitude was less then 2.0 ng/mL in 97.6% of cases. link3 Bounce occurred significantly earlier than PSA failure. Younger age was a significant predictor of bounce occurrence. Bounce positivity was a significant predictor of favorable 5-year PSA failure-free survival. Meanwhile, a PSA surge of ³0.2 ng/mL was observed in 67.9% of patients. Surge amplitude was significantly larger than bounce amplitude. Larger prostate volume was a significant predictor of PSA surge occurrence. PSA surge positivity did not significantly predict PSA failure. In summary, PSA bounce was distinguishable from PSA failure with regard to timing of occurrence and amplitude (earlier and lower for bounce, respectively). These data are useful for post-CIRT surveillance of prostate cancer patients.Background With the increase in aging population, the rising prevalence of osteoporosis (OP) has become an important medical issue. Accumulating evidence showed a close relationship between OP and hematopoiesis and emerging proofs revealed that platelets (PLTs), unique blood elements, rich in growth factors (GFs), play a critical role in bone remodeling. The aim of this review was to evaluate how PLT features, size, volume, bioactive GFs released, existing GFs in PLTs and PLT derivatives change and behave during OP. Methods A systematic search was carried out in PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science Core Collection and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials databases to identify preclinical and clinical studies in the last 10 years on PLT function/features and growth factor in PLTs and on PLT derivatives during OP. The methodological quality of included studies was assessed by QUIPS tool for assessing risk of bias in the clinical studies and by the SYRCLE tool for assessing risk of bias in animal studies. Results In the initial search, 2761 studies were obtained, only 47 articles were submitted to complete reading, and 23 articles were selected for the analysis, 13 on PLT function/features and growth factor in PLTs and 10 on PLT derivatives. Risk of bias of almost all animal studies was high, while the in the clinical studies risk of bias was prevalently moderate/low for the most of the studies. The majority of the evaluated studies highlighted a positive correlation between PLT size/volume and bone mineralization and an improvement in bone regeneration ability by using PLTs bioactive GFs and PLT derivatives. Conclusions The application of PLT features as OP markers and of PLT-derived compounds as therapeutic approach to promote bone healing during OP need to be further confirmed to provide clear evidence for the real efficacy of these interventions and to contribute to the clinical translation.Beer is one of the most consumed drinks around the world, containing a variety of compounds that offer both appreciated sensorial characteristics and health advantages. Important healthy compounds in beer are those with antioxidant properties that attenuate the content of free radicals produced as by-products in the human metabolism, exerting an appreciable effect against cancers or cardiovascular diseases. This work details a study of antioxidant compounds present in beer, focusing on the two main groups phenols (including polyphenolic forms) and melanoidins, formed specifically during brewing as Maillard products. The fundaments of the most important methods to evaluate beer antioxidant activity, the main antioxidant compounds present in beer-especially those with healthy properties-and the new trends to increase beer antioxidant activity are also discussed.Aqueous foam is widely used in fire extinguishing and dust suppression technologies. Improving the foaming ability is the key to reducing the added concentration of foaming agents as well as the economic cost. In this work, the effect of a water-soluble polymer (polyvinyl alcohol, PVA) on the foaming ability of anionic surfactant (sodium dodecyl ether sulfate, SDES) was studied by an experiment and molecular dynamics simulation. The experimental results showed that PVA greatly improves the foaming ability of SDES solutions when the surfactant concentration is less than 0.1%, which is attributed to the fact that the polymer can enhance the stability of bubble films and reduce the bubble rupture rate during the foam generation process. The simulation results indicate that PVA can enhance the hydration of surfactant head groups and contribute to the formation of a three-dimensional hydrogen bond network between surfactants, polymers, and water molecules, thus greatly improving the stability of bubble liquid films.