The synthesis of a series of dialkylaminoalkylic amides of 1-chloro-3-carboxy-4-methylisoquinoline (VIII), of 1-methoxy-3-carboxy-4-methylisoquinoline (VI) and of ...3-carboxy-2,4-dimethyl-1-oxoisoquinoline (XIII) is described. In addition a series of 1-amino-substituted 3-carboxymethyl-4-methylisoquinolines (II) was synthesized. The pharmacological activity of some of these compounds was studied. The compounds (XIIIa), (VIa) and (VIIIa) showed a clear local anaesthetic activity, a little lower than that of lidocaine; the same compounds also showed fairly good antispasmodic properties.
A description is given of the synthesis of 7- and 8-nitro-derivatives of 1-keto- and 4-keto-2,3-diazaphenothiazine, by cyclization with acids and hydrated alkaline sulfides (XIV) and (XV). Oxidation ...of these nitroderivatives (XI), (XII), (XVI) and (XVII) gives products corresponding to those obtained by oxidation of the heterocyclic S atom to sulfones (IV), (XIII), (VIII) and (XVIII). Nitration of 1-keto- and 4-keto-2,3-diazaphenothiazine (1) and (V) gives the 7-nitroderivatives with simultaneous oxidation of the sulfur to sulfoxide (II) and (VI); oxidation of these sulfoxides or sulfones gives the same products (IV) and (VIII) obtained by the methods described above. The same compounds are obtained also by nitration of 1-keto- and 4-keto-5,5-dihidroxy-2,3-diazaphenothiazine (III) and (VII).
Blood flow occlusion (BFO) has been previously used to investigate physiological responses to muscle ischemia, showing increased perceptual effort (RPE) and pain along with impaired neuromuscular ...performance. However, at present, it is unclear how BFO alters corticomuscular activities when either applied to the exercising or nonexercising musculature. The present study therefore set out to assess the corticomuscular response to these distinct BFO paradigms during an isometric contraction precision task. In a repeated measures design, fifteen participants (age = 27.00 ± 5.77) completed 15 isometric contractions across three experimental conditions; no occlusion (CNTRL), occlusion of the contralateral (i.e., nonexercising) limb (CON‐OCC), and occlusion of the ipsilateral (i.e., exercising) limb (IPS‐OCC). Measures of force, electroencephalographic (EEG), and electromyographic (EMG) were recorded during contractions. We observed that IPS‐OCC broadly impaired force steadiness, elevated EMG of the vastus lateralis, and heightened RPE and pain. IPSI‐OCC also significantly decreased corticomuscular coherence during the early phase of contraction and decreased EEG alpha activity across the sensorimotor and temporoparietal regions during the middle and late phases of contraction compared with CNTRL. By contrast, CON‐OCC increased perceived levels of pain (but not RPE) and decreased EEG alpha activity across the prefrontal cortex during the middle and late phases of contraction, with no changes observed for EMG and force steadiness. Together, these findings highlight distinctive psychophysiological responses to experimental pain via BFO showing altered cortical activities (CON‐OCC) and altered cortical, corticomuscular, and neuromuscular activities (IPS‐OCC) when applied to the lower limbs during an isometric force precision task.
Blood flow occlusion is a common experimental model to induce pain and fatigue during exercise. However, the corticomuscular mechanisms underlying this model remain poorly understood. In this study, we show that blood flow occlusion of non‐exercising musculature elicits a suppression of electromyographic (EEG) alpha activity across the prefrontal cortex. By contrast, occlusion of exercising musculature elicits a suppression of EEG alpha activity across central and posterior cortical regions and impairs both brain‐muscle communication and neuromuscular activation.
The synthesis of a series of dialkylaminoalkylic esters of 1-chloro-3-carboxy-4-methylisoquinoline and of 1-chloro-3-carboxy-4-phenylisoquinoline is described. The pharmacological activity of some of ...these compounds was studied. The morpholinoethylester of 1-chloro-3-carboxy-4-methylisoquinoline (VIIa), dimethylaminoethylester (VIIb) and diethylaminoethylester (VIIc) showed a good antispasmodic activity. 4-Phenyl-derivatives (XVa), (XVb), (XVc) were more active than analogous 4-methyl derivatives; particularly the diethylaminoethylester of 1-chloro-3-carboxy-4-phenylisoquinoline (XVc) showed an antagonist effect against spasmogens similar to that of papaverine.
In this study, we assess how ecosystem type affects the short-term post-fire resilience of fire-prone forests, which are the predominant ecosystems in South West (SW) Europe. For this purpose, we ...focused on three forest systems, widespread across the European Atlantic coast, which are highly susceptible to fires at their SW distribution boundary, namely the European thermophilous Atlantic deciduous forests, dominated by Quercus robur L., and two types of forest plantations widespread globally, Eucalyptus globulus Labill. and Pinus pinaster Aiton plantations. At the community structure level, resilience to fire was measured based on changes in cover of each vertical stratum. At the functional level, resilience to fire was measured based on replacements of (both morphological and regenerative) plant functional types in the overstory and understory layers. The study variables were vertical structure and abundance of plant functional types in both overstory and understory layers. Vertical structure was assessed by defining nine vertical strata and estimating the cover in each vegetation stratum. All species identified in the overstory and understory layers were functionally classified according to their morphological attributes and regenerative traits pertaining to fire. One year after fire, we observed considerable differences in the structure between the three forest communities studied, particularly in the overstory layer, because most of the vertical strata were well recovered in the oak forest, partially recovered in the E. globulus plantation, and completely lost in the P. pinaster plantation. In contrast to the Atlantic deciduous forest and eucalyptus plantation, the pine plantation displayed distinct changes in its distribution of plant functional types. The pine plantation showed extremely low resilience to fire because the overstory layer decreased considerably, and the understory layer experienced substantial changes in the distribution of morphological and regenerative plant functional types. Fire favoured certain species which prevailed over others and, while grasses, herbaceous and spiny shrubs increased, the abundance of most morphologically functional plant types disappeared or decreased. These changes in the structure of forest communities and in the distribution of plant functional types have important implications for ecosystem functioning and services provision. Therefore, this study may serve as a foundation for devising forest management measures aimed at increasing ecosystem resilience to fire.
•Quercus native forest maintains their structure and functionating after fire.•Eucalyptus youth plantations does not recover the entire canopy one year after fire.•Plant morphological types changed drastically in Eucalyptus and Pinus communities.•Fire resilience was high in native forest and low in Eucalyptus and Pinus plantations.•These results have major implications for ecosystem functioning and forest management.
Deep Learning (DL), a groundbreaking branch of Machine Learning (ML), has emerged as a driving force in both theoretical and applied Artificial Intelligence (AI). DL algorithms, rooted in complex and ...non-linear artificial neural systems, excel at extracting high-level features from data. DL has demonstrated human-level performance in real-world tasks, including clinical diagnostics, and has unlocked solutions to previously intractable problems in virtual agent design, robotics, genomics, neuroimaging, computer vision, and industrial automation. In this paper, the most relevant advances from the last few years in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and several applications to neuroscience, neuroimaging, computer vision, and robotics are presented, reviewed and discussed. In this way, we summarize the state-of-the-art in AI methods, models and applications within a collection of works presented at the 9th International Conference on the Interplay between Natural and Artificial Computation (IWINAC). The works presented in this paper are excellent examples of new scientific discoveries made in laboratories that have successfully transitioned to real-life applications.
•The most groundbreaking advances in theoretical and applied Artificial Intelligence.•Deep Learning in real-world tasks, such as clinical diagnostics or robotics.•Several applications are presented, reviewed and discussed.•State-of-the-art in AI methods, models and applications.•New scientific discoveries successfully transferred to real-life applications.
Among nonpregnant individuals, diabetes mellitus and high body mass index increase the risk of COVID-19 and its severity.
This study aimed to determine whether diabetes mellitus and high body mass ...index are risk factors for COVID-19 in pregnancy and whether gestational diabetes mellitus is associated with COVID-19 diagnosis.
INTERCOVID was a multinational study conducted between March 2020 and February 2021 in 43 institutions from 18 countries, enrolling 2184 pregnant women aged ≥18 years; a total of 2071 women were included in the analyses. For each woman diagnosed with COVID-19, 2 nondiagnosed women delivering or initiating antenatal care at the same institution were also enrolled. The main exposures were preexisting diabetes mellitus, high body mass index (overweight or obesity was defined as a body mass index ≥25 kg/m2), and gestational diabetes mellitus in pregnancy. The main outcome was a confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19 based on a real-time polymerase chain reaction test, antigen test, antibody test, radiological pulmonary findings, or ≥2 predefined COVID-19 symptoms at any time during pregnancy or delivery. Relationships of exposures and COVID-19 diagnosis were assessed using generalized linear models with a Poisson distribution and log link function, with robust standard errors to account for model misspecification. Furthermore, we conducted sensitivity analyses: (1) restricted to those with a real-time polymerase chain reaction test or an antigen test in the last week of pregnancy, (2) restricted to those with a real-time polymerase chain reaction test or an antigen test during the entire pregnancy, (3) generating values for missing data using multiple imputation, and (4) analyses controlling for month of enrollment. In addition, among women who were diagnosed with COVID-19, we examined whether having gestational diabetes mellitus, diabetes mellitus, or high body mass index increased the risk of having symptomatic vs asymptomatic COVID-19.
COVID-19 was associated with preexisting diabetes mellitus (risk ratio, 1.94; 95% confidence interval, 1.55–2.42), overweight or obesity (risk ratio, 1.20; 95% confidence interval, 1.06–1.37), and gestational diabetes mellitus (risk ratio, 1.21; 95% confidence interval, 0.99–1.46). The gestational diabetes mellitus association was specifically among women requiring insulin, whether they were of normal weight (risk ratio, 1.79; 95% confidence interval, 1.06–3.01) or overweight or obese (risk ratio, 1.77; 95% confidence interval, 1.28–2.45). A somewhat stronger association with COVID-19 diagnosis was observed among women with preexisting diabetes mellitus, whether they were of normal weight (risk ratio, 1.93; 95% confidence interval, 1.18–3.17) or overweight or obese (risk ratio, 2.32; 95% confidence interval, 1.82–2.97). When the sample was restricted to those with a real-time polymerase chain reaction test or an antigen test in the week before delivery or during the entire pregnancy, including missing variables using imputation or controlling for month of enrollment, the observed associations were comparable.
Diabetes mellitus and overweight or obesity were risk factors for COVID-19 diagnosis in pregnancy, and insulin-dependent gestational diabetes mellitus was associated with the disease. Therefore, it is essential that women with these comorbidities are vaccinated.
Abstract Introduction Patients undergoing orthotopic liver transplantation often present with acute kidney injury (AKI) in the postoperative period. It has been associated with a greater number of ...complications and high mortality rates. The goal of this study was to determine the incidence of AKI during the early posttransplant period and mortality in patients undergoing orthotopic liver transplantation in our hospital. Patients and Methods In this retrospective cohort study, we reviewed the medical records of all patients aged >18 years undergoing liver transplantation from April 2008 to April 2011. The exclusion criteria were a glomerular filtration rate (estimated by using the Modification of Diet in Renal Disease formula) <60 mL/min/1.73 m2 or AKI at the time of transplantation. AKI was defined as an increase ≥50% from preoperative baseline serum creatinine levels during the hospitalization period. Results Of 113 selected patients, 78 (69%) were male. The mean age was 54.03 ± 9.38 years. The mean preoperative baseline creatinine level was 0.94 ± 0.15 mg/dL, and the estimated glomerular filtration rate was 87.09 ± 19.67 mL/min/1.73 m2 . The mean calculated Model for End-Stage Liver Disease score was 13. Hepatitis C serology was present in 70.8%, hepatitis B in 11.5%, hepatocellular carcinoma in 75.2%, and alcohol abuse in 31.9% of patients. The incidence of AKI was 56.6% (64 of 113 patients). The main risk factors for AKI were Model for End-Stage Liver Disease score and diuretic use at baseline. Renal replacement therapy (RRT) was performed in 19.5% (22 of 113) of patients. The hospital mortality rate in the group with AKI was 25% (16 of 64 patients) and 6.1% (3 of 49 patients) between patients without AKI (odds ratio, 5.11 confidence interval, 1.39–18.7; P < .01. Among patients who underwent RRT, the in-hospital mortality rate was 54.5% (12 of 22 patients) compared with 7.7% (7 of 91 patients) from the other remaining patient cohort (odds ratio, 14.40 confidence interval, 4.60–45.00; P < .01). Conclusions There was a high incidence of AKI in patients undergoing liver transplantation and an increased risk of mortality among patients who needed RRT.
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