The application of Information Technologies into Precision Agriculture methods has clear benefits. Precision Agriculture optimises production efficiency, increases quality, minimises environmental ...impact and reduces the use of resources (energy, water); however, there are different barriers that have delayed its wide development. Some of these main barriers are expensive equipment, the difficulty to operate and maintain and the standard for sensor networks are still under development. Nowadays, new technological development in embedded devices (hardware and communication protocols), the evolution of Internet technologies (Internet of Things) and ubiquitous computing (Ubiquitous Sensor Networks) allow developing less expensive systems, easier to control, install and maintain, using standard protocols with low-power consumption. This work develops and test a low-cost sensor/actuator network platform, based in Internet of Things, integrating machine-to-machine and human-machine-interface protocols. Edge computing uses this multi-protocol approach to develop control processes on Precision Agriculture scenarios. A greenhouse with hydroponic crop production was developed and tested using Ubiquitous Sensor Network monitoring and edge control on Internet of Things paradigm. The experimental results showed that the Internet technologies and Smart Object Communication Patterns can be combined to encourage development of Precision Agriculture. They demonstrated added benefits (cost, energy, smart developing, acceptance by agricultural specialists) when a project is launched.
Heavy binge drinking in adolescence can cause long‐term cognitive and behavioral dysfunctions. Recent experimental evidence indicates the participation of immune system activation in the effects of ...ethanol in the adolescent brain and suggests gender differences. The present study aims to assess plasma cytokine and chemokine levels in male and female adolescents and young adults during acute alcohol intoxication and to correlate these results with the toll‐like receptor 4 (TLR4) response. The potential role of the TLR4 signaling response was also assessed in plasma and prefrontal cortex (PFC) of adolescent wild‐type and TLR4‐knockout male and female mice with binge ethanol treatment. The results showed that alcohol intoxication increased the plasma levels of several cytokine and chemokine interferon‐γ, interleukin (IL)‐10, IL‐17A, IL‐1β, IL‐2, IL‐4, IL‐6, IL‐8, fractalkine, monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 (MCP‐1) and macrophage inflammatory protein 1α (MIP‐1α) and the upregulation of TLR4 mRNA levels occurred in intoxicated females, while elevation of colony‐stimulating factor was only observed in the plasma of males. In wild‐type female adolescent mice, intermittent ethanol treatment increased the levels of several cytokines (IL‐17A and IL‐1β) and chemokines (MCP‐1, MIP‐1α and fractalkine) in PFC and in serum (IL‐17A, MCP‐1 and MIP‐1α), but significant differences in the fractalkine levels in PFC were observed only in male mice. No changes in serum or prefrontal cortex cytokine and chemokine levels were noted in ethanol‐treated male or female TLR4‐knockout mice. Our findings revealed that females are more vulnerable than males to inflammatory effects of binge ethanol drinking and suggested that TLR4 is an important target of ethanol‐induced inflammation and neuroinflammation in adolescence.
Female adolescents are more vulnerable than male adolescents to the inflammatory effects of binge alcohol drinking. Circulating cytokines and chemokines might serve as clinical biomarkers of neuroinflammation. The TLR4 response is an important target of the ethanol‐induced immune and neuroimmune response in adolescence. This figure shows a negative correlation (Pearson's coefficient) between cytokines/chemokines and blood alcohol levels in intoxicated females (red ellipses) and positive correlation in intoxicated males (blue ellipses). Black and white points denote significance and tendency, respectively.
Objective
The objective was to determine the effect of frailty on risk of 30‐day mortality in nonseverely disabled older patients with acute heart failure (AHF) attended in emergency departments ...(EDs).
Methodology
The Frailty‐AHF Study is a retrospective analysis of a multicenter, observational, prospective, cohort study (Older‐AHF Register). This study included consecutive patients ≥ 65 years of age without severe functional dependence or dementia attended for AHF in three Spanish EDs for 4 months. Frailty was defined by frailty phenotype as the presence of three or more domains. Baseline and episode characteristics and 30‐day mortality were collected in all the patients.
Results
A total of 465 patients with a mean (±SD) age of 82 (±7) years were included, 283 (61.0%) being female and 225 (51.3%) with severe comorbidity (Charlson index ≥ 3). Frailty was present in 169 (36.3%). The rate of 30‐day mortality was 7.3%. Frailty adjusted for potential confounding factors was an independent factor associated with 30‐day mortality (adjusted hazard ratio = 2.5; 95% confidence interval = 1.0 to 6.0; p = 0.047).
Conclusion
The presence of frailty is an independent risk factor of 30‐day mortality in nonsevere dependent older patients attended with AHF in EDs.
Objectives
To compare the efficacy and safety of a combined treatment of percutaneous needle tunnelling (PNT) and a modified collagenase Clostridium histolyticum (CCH) protocol (PNT/CCH) vs the ...modified protocol alone (CCH) in the treatment of Peyronie's disease (PD).
Patients and Methods
A prospective registry of patients treated with a modified CCH protocol was maintained between June 2014 and February 2018. The last 50 patients received PNT as an adjuvant therapy (PNT/CCH), and their data were compared with those of the other 94 patients treated previously (CCH). PNT involves the creation of multiple holes made percutaneously in the plaque before each injection. The modified protocol consisted of two collagenase injections, at 1‐week intervals, followed by penile modelling. Patients used penile traction therapy, tadalafil and pentoxifylline for the next 2 months and were followed up for 6 months. The main outcome was improvement of curvature. Secondary outcomes were improvements in erectile function, PD symptoms, stretched penile length and satisfaction.
Results
Improvement in curvature was greater in patients in the PNT/CCH group than in the CCH group (mean ± sd 19.2 ± 6.1° vs 12.7 ± 5.0°; P < 0.001 36.2 ± 12.5% vs 28.1 ± 14.5%; P = 0.001). Compared with baseline, both interventions were associated with significant improvement in secondary outcomes. The main complications were ecchymosis, bruising and penile pain, with no significant differences between groups.
Conclusions
Treatment of PD with CCH using our modified protocol in combination with PNT is safe and more effective than the modified protocol alone, with the potential for improved cost‐effectiveness.
The diagnosis of adult-onset Still's disease (AOSD) can be very difficult. There are no specific tests available, and diagnosis is usually based on a symptom complex and the well-described typical ...evanescent rash seen in the majority of patients. However, in recent years, other atypical cutaneous manifestations of AOSD have been reported. These atypical skin eruptions often present in addition to the typical evanescent rash but may also be the only skin manifestation, resulting in delayed diagnosis because of under-recognition.In this study, we present 3 new cases of AOSD with atypical cutaneous manifestations diagnosed during a 30-year period in our department and review 78 additional cases previously reported (PubMed 1990-2016). These 81 patients form the basis of the present analysis.The overall prevalence of atypical cutaneous manifestations in our AOSD population was 14%. These manifestations may appear at any time over the course of the disease, and usually occur in patients who have persistent and severe disease, with a considerable frequency of clinical complications (23%), including serositis, myopericarditis, lung involvement, abdominal pain, neurologic involvement, and reactive hemophagocytic syndrome.The most representative and frequent lesion among the nonclassical skin rashes is the development of persistent pruritic papules and/or plaques. Interestingly, these lesions show a distinctive histological pattern. Other, less frequently observed lesions include urticaria and urticaria-like eruptions, generalized or widespread non-pruritic persistent erythema, vesiculopustular eruptions, a widespread peau d'orange appearance of the skin, and edema of the eyelids mimicking dermatomyositis without any accompanying skin lesion.The great majority of these patients required medium or high doses of glucocorticoids (including intravenous methylprednisolone pulse therapy in some cases) and, in nearly 40%, a more potent or maintenance immunotherapy with immunosuppressant drugs and/or biologic agents (mainly anakinra or tocilizumab) to control or manage symptoms because of a polycyclic or chronic course. The development of atypical cutaneous manifestations seems to be associated with a potentially worse prognosis, with a mortality rate reaching 8% primarily because of infectious complications related to immunosuppressive therapy.In conclusion, the appearance of atypical cutaneous manifestations is not uncommon in AOSD. Recognition of this clinical variant is crucial for the early diagnosis of AOSD, as it might imply persistent disease activity and the need for more aggressive treatment.
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•A method for gait parameters extraction and abnormal gait detection from video.•It only requires RGB side view gait video sequences to obtain gait parameters.•Approximation of ...skeleton joints extraction.•Classification results show that the proposed method has great potential.
Human gait is mainly related to the foot and leg movements but, obviously, the entire motor system of the human body is involved. We hypothesise that movement parameters such as dynamic balance, movement harmony of each body element (arms, head, thorax…) could enable us to finely characterise gait singularities to pinpoint potential diseases or abnormalities in advance. Since this paper deals with the preliminary problem pertaining to the classification of normal and abnormal gait, our study will revolve around the lower part of the body. Our proposal presents a functional specification of gait in which only observational kinematic aspects are discussed. The resultant specification will confidently be open enough to be applied to a variety of gait analysis problems encountered in areas connected to rehabilitation, sports, children’s motor skills, and so on. To carry out our functional specification, we develop an extraction system through which we analyse image sequences to identify gait features. Our prototype not only readily lets us determine the dynamic parameters (heel strike, toe off, stride length and time) and some skeleton joints but also satisfactorily supplies us with a proper distinction between normal and abnormal gait. We have performed experiments on a dataset of 30 samples.
Current studies evidence the role of miRNAs in extracellular vesicles (EVs) as key regulators of pathological processes, including neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration. As EVs can cross the ...blood-brain barrier, and EV miRNAs are very stable in peripheral circulation, we evaluated the potential gender differences in inflammatory-regulated miRNAs levels in human and murine plasma EVs derived from alcohol-intoxicated female and male adolescents, and whether these miRNAs could be used as biomarkers of neuroinflammation. We demonstrated that while alcohol intoxication lowers anti-inflammatory miRNA (mir-146a-5p, mir-21-5p, mir-182-5p) levels in plasma EVs from human and mice female adolescents, these EV miRNAs increased in males. In mice brain cortices, ethanol treatment lowers mir-146a-5p and mir-21-5p levels, while triggering a higher expression of inflammatory target genes (Traf6, Stat3, and Camk2a) in adolescent female mice. These results indicate, for the first time, that female and male adolescents differ as regards the ethanol effects associated with the inflammatory-related plasma miRNAs EVs profile, and suggest that female adolescents are more vulnerable than males to the inflammatory effects of binge alcohol drinking. These findings also support the view that circulating miRNAs in EVs could be useful biomarkers for screening ethanol-induced neuroinflammation and brain damage in adolescence.
Redox regulation based on disulfide-dithiol conversion catalyzed by thioredoxins is an important component of chloroplast function. The reducing power is provided by ferredoxin reduced by the ...photosynthetic electron transport chain. In addition, chloroplasts are equipped with a peculiar NADPH-dependent thioredoxin reductase, termed NTRC, with a joint thioredoxin domain at the carboxyl terminus. Because NADPH can be produced by the oxidative pentose phosphate pathway during the night, NTRC is important to maintain the chloroplast redox homeostasis under light limitation. NTRC is exclusive for photosynthetic organisms such as plants, algae, and some, but not all, cyanobacteria. Phylogenetic analysis suggests that chloroplast NTRC originated from an ancestral cyanobacterial enzyme. While the biochemical properties of plant NTRC are well documented, little is known about the cyanobacterial enzyme. With the aim of comparing cyanobacterial and plant NTRCs, we have expressed the full-length enzyme from the cyanobacterium Anabaena species PCC 7120 as well as site-directed mutant variants and truncated polypeptides containing the NTR or the thioredoxin domains of the protein. Immunological and kinetic analysis showed a high similarity between NTRCs from plants and cyanobacteria. Both enzymes efficiently reduced 2-Cys peroxiredoxins from plants and from Anabaena but not from the cyanobacterium SYNECHOCYSTIS: Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) NTRC knockout plants were transformed with the Anabaena NTRC gene. Despite a lower content of NTRC than in wild-type plants, the transgenic plants showed significant recovery of growth and pigmentation. Therefore, the Anabaena enzyme fulfills functions of the plant enzyme in vivo, further emphasizing the similarity between cyanobacterial and plant NTRCs.
Plastids are organelles present in photosynthetic and nonphotosynthetic plant tissues. While it is well known that thioredoxin-dependent redox regulation is essential for leaf chloroplast function, ...little is known of the redox regulation in plastids of nonphotosynthetic tissues, which cannot use light as a direct source of reducing power. Thus, the question remains whether redox regulation operates in nonphotosynthetic plastid function and how it is integrated with chloroplasts for plant growth. Here, we show that NADPH-thioredoxin reductase (NTRC), previously reported as exclusive to green tissues, is also expressed in nonphotosynthetic tissues of Arabidopsis thaliana, where it is localized to plastids. Moreover, we show that NTRC is involved in maintaining the redox homeostasis of plastids also in nonphotosynthetic organs. To test the relationship between plastids of photosynthetic and nonphotosynthetic tissues, transgenic plants were obtained with redox homeostasis restituted exclusively in leaves or in roots, through the expression of NTRC under the control of organspecific promoters in the ntrc mutant. Our results show that fully functional root amyloplasts are not sufficient for root, or leaf, growth, but fully functional chloroplasts are necessary and sufficient to support wild-type rates of root growth and lateral root formation.
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