ATP-citrate lyase is a central integrator of cellular metabolism in the interface of protein, carbohydrate, and lipid metabolism. The physiological consequences as well as the molecular mechanisms ...orchestrating the response to long-term pharmacologically induced Acly inhibition are unknown. We report here that the Acly inhibitor SB-204990 improves metabolic health and physical strength in wild-type mice when fed with a high-fat diet, while in mice fed with healthy diet results in metabolic imbalance and moderated insulin resistance. By applying a multiomic approach using untargeted metabolomics, transcriptomics, and proteomics, we determined that, in vivo, SB-204990 plays a role in the regulation of molecular mechanisms associated with aging, such as energy metabolism, mitochondrial function, mTOR signaling, and folate cycle, while global alterations on histone acetylation are absent. Our findings indicate a mechanism for regulating molecular pathways of aging that prevents the development of metabolic abnormalities associated with unhealthy dieting. This strategy might be explored for devising therapeutic approaches to prevent metabolic diseases.
Sensory disturbances in fibromyalgia extend beyond nociception. It has been proposed that imbalance in the mutual competition between painful input and non-painful sensory activity may, to a ...significant extent, account for the augmented subjective perception of pain. In this context, non-nociceptive somatosensory stimulation could arguably attenuate fibromyalgia symptoms by restoring the sensory balance. We specifically tested the effect of vibrotactile stimulation on symptom relief in fibromyalgia patients with a randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled, crossover clinical trial.
Seventy-seven female patients were randomized and data from 63 valid cases were analyzed. Active intervention involved extensive body stimulation with gentle mechanical vibrations administered during 3 h at night for 3 weeks, and the placebo effect was controlled using identical instruments to simulate an alternative treatment option. The primary outcome measure combined pain, fatigue, and complaints of poor cognition.
Vibrotactile stimulation was significantly superior to sham in alleviating fibromyalgia symptoms globally. However, univariate analyses showed that the effect was not universal. Benefits were perceived on unpleasant somatic sensations such as generalized pain and fatigue, but not on poor cognition, anxiety, and depression. Vibrotactile stimulation was notably well tolerated and sleep quality significantly improved despite the fact that vibrations were administered at night.
Results thus provide new evidence that non-nociceptive somatosensory stimulation may favorably act upon altered somatosensory balance in fibromyalgia. From a clinical perspective, both the degree of improvement and the easy application of our proposal would seem to support a potential role for vibrotactile stimulation in the symptomatic treatment of fibromyalgia.
ClinicalTrials.gov registration number NCT03227952 . Registered 24 July, 2017.
Shoulder pain is a prevalent condition in older adults. Some authors associate nonspecific shoulder pain with myofascial trigger points (MTrPs) in the infraspinatus muscle. Dry needling is ...recommended to relieve the MTrP pain of shoulders in the short term (<9 days). Active MTrPs dry needling improves shoulder pain and the irritability of the satellite MTrPs in the referred pain area. Nociceptive activity at a latent MTrP may influence motor activity and the sensitivity of MTrPs in distant muscles at a similar segmental level. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate dry needling on 1 latent MTrP, in conjunction with 1 active MTrP, in the infraspinatus muscle of older adults with nonspecific shoulder pain.
A single-center, randomized, single-blinded, controlled study (NCT02032602) was carried out. Sixty-six patients aged 65 years and older with trigger points in the ipsilateral infraspinatus of the painful shoulder were randomly assigned to (1) of (2) treatment groups. A session of dry needling on the infraspinatus was performed in (1) the most hyperalgesic active and latent MTrP or (2) only the most hyperalgesic active MTrP. The Numeric Rating Scale, the pressure pain threshold (primary outcome) on the anterior deltoid and extensor carpi radialis brevis latent MTrPs, and grip strength were assessed before, after, and 1 week after the intervention.
Statistically significant differences in the reduction of pain intensity (P ≤ .001; η = 0.159-0.269; d = 1.017-1.219) and the increase of pressure pain threshold (P < .001; η = 0.206-0.481; d = 0.870-1.924) were found for the (1) treatment group immediately and 1 week postintervention. Nevertheless, no statistical significant differences were found in grip strength (P >. 05; η = 0.006-0.033; d = 0.158-0.368).
One dry needling intervention of the latent MTrP associated with the key active MTrP of the infraspinatus reduces pain intensity and the irritability of the satellite MTrPs located in the referred pain area in the short term in older adults with nonspecific shoulder pain.
Nowadays, the use of insoles in sport practice have been recognized to decrease the foot and lower limb injury patterns. The aim of this study was to analyse the effect of four types of hardness ...insoles (HI) in the activity patterns of the hip and thigh muscles (HTM) in motoriders during motorcycling sport. The study was a crossover trial. Subjects were elite motoriders. The mean age was 33 ± 5.14 years. Electromyography (EMG) of hip and thigh muscles (HTM) data was registered via surface while subjects were riding on an elite motorcycle simulator. Subjects had to complete different tests with randomly hardest insoles (HI
: 1: only polypropylene (58° D Shore); 2: Polypropylene (58° D Shore) with selective aluminium in hallux and metatarsal heads (60 HB Brinell hardness); 3: Ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) (52° A Shore); and finally, 4: Ordinary EVA (25° A Shore) as the control. EMG patterns of the HTM, riding on an elite motorcycle simulator, showed the lowest peak amplitude with the insoles with polypropylene and selective aluminium. Using the hardest insoles in our study (selective aluminium) the EMG amplitude peaks decreased in all HTM.
The Rheumatoid Arthritis Foot Disease Activity Index (RADAI-F5) questionnaire, based on five questions, is used to assess the severity of rheumatoid arthritis disease in the foot. Nowadays, RADAI-F5 ...has been validated in different languages; however a Spanish version was lacking. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to translate and validate the Spanish version (RADAI-F5-es).
A cross-cultural translation of the RADAI-F5 questionnaire was performed from English to Spanish. To validate its use, 50 subjects with rheumatoid arthritis who responded to the translated questionnaire two times in an interval of less than 3 months were selected in order to verify the psychometric properties.
Excellent agreement between the two versions according to the Cronbach's α was shown. Five domains with regards to arthritis activity in foot joint tenderness and swelling, foot arthritis pain, general foot health and joint stiffness were added together to obtain the total score. Excellent retest reliability was shown for the total score. Test/retest reliability was excellent for joint stiffness on awakening and foot arthritis pain domains. There were no significant differences among any domains (
> 0.05). There were no statistically significant differences (
= 0.000) for the mean ± standard deviations (SD) between pre- and post-tests (98.09 ± 15.42) 93.75-102.43 and 97.96 ± 13.88 94.5-101.86 points, respectively). Bland-Altman plots or clinically pertinent variations were not statistically significantly different.
The RADAI-F5-es is considered a valid and strong tool with adequate repeatability in the Spanish community.
The effect of different carbon structures on the properties of low density polyethylene film and linear low density polyethylene blends (LDPE/LLDPE) subjected to artificial weathering, was studied. ...The carbon structures used were carbon black (CB), multi wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) and Graphene nanoparticles (GNP), at various loadings: 0.05, 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, 1.0, and 2 wt%. The PE‐Carbon structure composite films were characterized by optical microscopy (MOP), Haze, visible light transmission, UV–visible, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), melt flow determinations (MFI) and tensile properties. Weathering measurements were evaluated in a QUV panel chamber with UV fluorescent lamps. The films degradation was analyzed following the change in carbonyl index of FTIR spectra, mechanical properties, and molecular weight. A noticeable better dispersion of CB and CNT particles in polyethylene matrix was observed compared with GNP. MWCNTs and CB produced high Haze and low visible light transmission. Thermal stability measured by TGA increased with the presence of GNP and CB. The crystallinity, melting, and crystallinity temperature (Tm and Tc) of the polymers increased with MWCNT and GNP. All the films with carbon structures presented an increase in the modulus of elasticity, with CB giving the highest elastic modulus. Artificial weathering of films with carbon structures showed that CB particles and CNT provided the highest UV protection to polyethylene, with a noticeable increase in low molecular weights and a retention in tensile strength and elongation at break which was reflected in maintaining their flexibility. Films with CNT showed the least significant changes in their properties, being more resistant to photo‐degradation.
Hallux abductus valgus (HAV) is a forefoot condition produced by extrinsic and intrinsic factors. Shoes with a high heel height and a typical narrow tip toe box can induce deviations in both the ...proximal phalanx of the hallux (PPH) and the first metatarsal (IMTT) bones. Nevertheless, the isolated role of heel height remains unclear in the development of HAV pathology.
The goal was to determine if the heel height increase of shoes without a narrow box toe could augment the PPH and IMTT deviation in frontal, sagittal, and transverse planes toward the first metatarsophalangeal joint (MPJ) and the first metatarsocuneiform joint (MCJ), respectively, during static and dynamic conditions in relation to precursor movements of HAV.
Women with an average age of 25.10 ± 4.67 years were recruited in this cross-sectional study to assess the three planes of motion of PPH and IMTT while wearing high heels with heights at 3, 6, 9 cm and unshod conditions via sandals. The measurements used an electromagnetic goniometer device with sensors placed on medial aspects of the PPH and IMTT bones under static and dynamic conditions.
Wearing shoes with a 6 cm heel in dynamic condition may increase the PPH valgus and abduction deviation from 3.15 ± 0.10° to 3.46 ± 0.05° (p < 0.05) and from 1.35 ± 0.28° to 1.69 ± 0.30° (p < 0.001), respectively. In addition, a PPH abduction increase from 1.01 ± 0.36° to 1.31 ± 0.46° (p < 0.05) after wearing shoes with a 6 cm heel height was observed under static conditions.
Wearing shoes with a heel height of 6 cm without a narrow box toe interference may produce PPH abduction and valgus deviations related to HAV formation.
This study determined if the body mass index, dynamic plantar-pressures, plantar surface contact-area, velocity of the centre of pressure (COP), gastrocnemius equinus, and gastrocnemius soleus ...equines are related to calcaneal apophysitis (Sever's disease) in athletic children.
This case-control study examined 106 boys enrolled in a soccer academy, including 53 with Sever's disease and 53 age-matched healthy controls. The dynamic average and maximum peak plantar-pressures, plantar surface contact-area, and velocity of the COP were evaluated with a digital pressure sensor platform. Goniometry was used to measure the ankle dorsiflexion range of motion and thereby identify gastrocnemius equinus and gastrocnemius soleus equinus.
Participants with Sever's condition had significantly higher BMI and peak plantar-pressures (maximum and average) at the heel (Cohen's d > 3 for pressures) than the controls. Those with Sever's disease also had significantly slower velocity of the COP (Cohen's d > 3). Boys with Sever's disease were also 8 times more likely to have bilateral gastrocnemius equinus than disease controls.
High heel plantar pressure and low velocity of COP are related to Sever's condition in boys, although it is not clear whether these factors predispose individuals to the disease or are consequences of the disease. Gastrocnemius ankle equinus could be a predisposing factor for Sever's condition.
The high demand of artificial intelligence services at the edges that also preserve data privacy has pushed the research on novel machine learning paradigms that fit these requirements. Federated ...learning has the ambition to protect data privacy through distributed learning methods that keep the data in its storage silos. Likewise, differential privacy attains to improve the protection of data privacy by measuring the privacy loss in the communication among the elements of federated learning. The prospective matching of federated learning and differential privacy to the challenges of data privacy protection has caused the release of several software tools that support their functionalities, but they lack a unified vision of these techniques, and a methodological workflow that supports their usage. Hence, we present the Sherpa.ai Federated Learning framework that is built upon a holistic view of federated learning and differential privacy. It results from both the study of how to adapt the machine learning paradigm to federated learning, and the definition of methodological guidelines for developing artificial intelligence services based on federated learning and differential privacy. We show how to follow the methodological guidelines with the Sherpa.ai Federated Learning framework by means of a classification and a regression use cases.
•We analyse the most recent federated learning and differential privacy frameworks.•We present Sherpa.ai FL, a unified framework for federated learning and differential privacy.•We discuss the adaptation of machine learning models to federated learning.•We define the guidelines for privacy-preserving artificial intelligence services.
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