Diagnosis of fibromyalgia (FM), a chronic musculoskeletal pain syndrome characterized by generalized body pain, hyperalgesia and other functional and emotional comorbidities, is a challenging process ...hindered by symptom heterogeneity and clinical overlap with other disorders. No objective diagnostic method exists at present. The aim of this study was to identify changes in miRNA expression profiles (miRNome) of these patients for the development of a quantitative diagnostic method of FM. In addition, knowledge of FM patient miRNomes should lead to a deeper understanding of the etiology and/or symptom severity of this complex disease.
Genome-wide expression profiling of miRNAs was assessed in Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells (PBMCs) of FM patients (N=11) and population-age-matched controls (N=10) using human v16-miRbase 3D-Gene microarrays (Toray Industries, Japan). Selected miRNAs from the screen were further validated by RT-qPCR. Participating patients were long term sufferers (over 10 years) diagnosed by more than one specialist under 1990 American College of Rheumatology criteria.
Microarray analysis of FM patient PBMCs evidenced a marked downregulation of hsa-miR223-3p, hsa-miR451a, hsa-miR338-3p, hsa-miR143-3p, hsa-miR145-5p and hsa-miR-21-5p (4-fold or more). All but the mildest inhibited miRNA, hsa-miR-21-5p, were validated by RT-qPCR. Globally, 20% of the miRNAs analyzed (233/1212) showed downregulation of at least 2-fold in patients. This might indicate a general de-regulation of the miRNA synthetic pathway in FM. No significant correlations between miRNA inhibition and FM cardinal symptoms could be identified. However, the patient with the lowest score for mental fatigue coincided with the mildest inhibition in four of the five miRNAs associated with the FM-group.
We propose a signature of five strikingly downregulated miRNAs (hsa-miR223-3p, hsa-miR451a, hsa-miR338-3p, hsa-miR143-3p and hsa-miR145-5p) to be used as biomarkers of FM. Validation in larger study groups is required before the results can be transferred to the clinic.
In this work, the properties of concrete modified with dosages of natural pozzolans (NP) in substitution of cement or superfine aggregates were evaluated. Proportions of 20/80 pozzolan/cement or ...pozzolan/superfine aggregates were selected for the additions of quarry and tuff pozzolans. Pozzolanic activity, durability, compressive strength, characteristic resistance, settling consistency, density, electrical resistivity, depth of water penetration, accessible porosity, and carbonation and chloride penetration were determined for the resulting concrete mixtures, and they were subsequently compared to the values obtained for the reference concrete batches without additions. The results of the cementitious mixtures supplemented with tuff (PZT) and quarry (PZQ) pozzolans, expressed in mmol/L, are consistent with the pozzolanism test, with Ca(OH)
/OH
ratios at 7 days are 6.03/60.19 for PZQ and 1.78/92.78 PZT. In addition to the pozzolanic activity at these dosages, the characteristic resistance and durability parameters required by EHE-08 were verified. Particular attention was given to the determination of the diffusion of chloride ions, introducing an instrumental modification of the accelerated integral method. The modification provides values of diffusion coefficients similar to those obtained by the other methods with the advantage of greater stability and quality of the measurement.
Ubiquitous sensing allows smart cities to take control of many parameters (e.g., road traffic, air or noise pollution levels, etc.). An inexpensive Wireless Mesh Network can be used as an efficient ...way to transport sensed data. When that mesh is autonomously powered (e.g., solar powered), it constitutes an ideal portable network system which can be deployed when needed. Nevertheless, its power consumption must be restrained to extend its operational cycle and for preserving the environment. To this end, our strategy fosters wireless interface deactivation among nodes which do not participate in any route. As we show, this contributes to a significant power saving for the mesh. Furthermore, our strategy is wireless-friendly, meaning that it gives priority to deactivation of nodes receiving (and also causing) interferences from (to) the rest of the smart city. We also show that a routing protocol can adapt to this strategy in which certain nodes deactivate their own wireless interfaces.
BACKGROUND: The etiology of fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome (FM/CFS) is currently unknown. A recurrent viral infection is an attractive hypothesis repeatedly found in the literature since ...it would explain the persistent pain and tiredness these patients suffer from. The initial striking link of two distinct orphan retroviruses: the gamma retroviruses murine leukemia virus (MLV)-related virus and the delta retrovirus T-lymphotropic virus type 2 (HTLV-2) to chronic fatigue have not been confirmed to date. RESULTS: Genomic DNA (gDNA) from 75 fibromyalgia patients suffering from chronic fatigue and 79 age-matched local healthy controls were screened for the presence of MLV-related and HTLV-2 related proviral sequences. The XMRV env gene was amplified in 20% of samples tested (24% patients/15% healthy controls). Unexpectedly, no PCR amplifications from independent gDNA preparations of the same individuals were obtained. None of the positive samples showed presence of contaminating murine sequences previously reported by other investigators, neither contained additional regions of the virus making us conclude that the initial env amplification came from spurious air-driven amplicon contaminants. No specific HTLV-2 sequences were obtained at any time from any of the 154 quality-controlled gDNA preparations screened. CONCLUSIONS: Previous associations between MLV-related or HTLV-2 retrovirus infection with chronic fatigue must be discarded. Thus, studies showing positive amplification of HTLV-2 sequences from chronic fatigue participants should be revised for possible undetected technical problems. To avoid false positives of viral infection, not only extreme precautions should be taken when nested-PCR reactions are prepared and exhaustive foreign DNA contamination controls performed, but also consistent amplification of diverse regions of the virus in independent preparations from the same individual must be demanded. The fact that our cohort of patients did not present evidence of any of the two types of retroviral infection formerly associated to chronic fatigue does not rule out the possibility that other viruses are involved in inciting or maintaining fibromyalgia and/or chronic fatigue conditions.
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•Propolis is an efficient green corrosion inhibitor for bronze surface.•The inhibitive effectiveness of propolis on bronze is time-dependent.•The main organic constituents of propolis ...sample were identified by HPLC-DAD.•The adsorption of propolis on bronze surface obeys Langmuir isotherm.
In the present work, the inhibitive action of natural propolis on bronze corrosion in a weakly acidic solution containing Na2SO4 and NaHCO3 at pH 5 was evaluated using multiscale electrochemical techniques, namely potentiodynamic polarization, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and scanning vibrating electrode technique measurements. The major constituents of propolis were identified by HPLC. Surface characterization was performed by SEM-EDX and AFM analysis. Experiments were performed as a function of the propolis concentration and immersion time in the corrosive electrolyte. The obtained results showed that propolis presents good anticorrosive properties on bronze, acting as a mixed-type inhibitor, but its protective effectiveness is time-dependent. The highest inhibiting efficiency of 98.9% was obtained in the presence of 100ppm propolis, after about 12h of exposure to inhibitor-containing electrolyte through the stabilization of Cu2O on the bronze surface. The inhibitive properties of propolis on bronze corrosion are likely due to the adsorption of its main constituents (flavonoids and phenolic compounds), through the oxygen atoms in their functional groups and aromatic rings, which have been evidenced by FT-IR spectra. The adsorption of propolis on bronze was found to follow Langmuir adsorption isotherm.
This study investigates the operating conditions used in the soda-anthraquinone pulping of Eucalyptus globulus wood after autohydrolysis pretreatment on the yield, kappa number, and brightness of the ...resulting unbleached pulp. Moreover, strength-related properties of the resulting handsheets was examined to identify the best pulping conditions and compare the outcome with that of a conventional soda-anthraquinone pulping process. The paper strength properties of the pulp were similar to or better than papers made from soda-AQ delignified pulps conducted in a single step. Also, a liquid fraction with a substantial content in hemicellulosic extracts was recovered in the simplified process. Autohydrolysis of the raw material facilitates carrying out soda-AQ pulping under milder conditions. In addition, autohydrolysis improves other properties relative to paper from raw cellulose pulp. Yield, kappa number, and brightness for pulp from solid residues of autohydrolysed eucalyptus wood were similar to those for pulp from untreated eucalyptus wood.
Wireless sensor networks proliferate more and more in all social scopes and sectors. Such networks are implemented in smart homes, smart cities, security systems, medical resources, agriculture, ...automotive industry, etc. Communication devices and sensors of such networks are powered with batteries: the enlarging of battery life is a hot research topic. We focus on wireless sensor networks based on ZigBee technology. While sleep standard operation mode is defined for end devices, it is not the case for the rest of devices (routers and Coordinator), which usually always remain in active mode. We designed a formal optimization model for maximizing the enlarging of the battery life of routers and Coordinator, allowing us to delimit practical successful conditions. It was successfully tested with a standard ZigBee datasheet comprising technical data for sensors, routers, and coordinators. It was tested in a practical wireless sensor network assembly with XBee S2C devices. We derived, from the previous model, a novel but simple protocol of communication among routers and coordinators. It was tested in different use cases. We showed that when end devices generate traffic at regular intervals, the enlarging of the battery life of routers and Coordinator was possible only under certain use cases.
Daily human actions cause positive or negative side effects on Environment. A city is a kind of Environment that supports a big amount of people daily causing side effects on it. Urban wastes and car ...driving are typical actions that pollute the city. Smart city treats to reinvent cities making them a good living environment. Wireless Sensor Networks are the base technology of Smart cities. These networks are in charge to sense physical variables that could feedback the behaviour of humans. These sensors usually send data to a cloud server for applying big data technology in order to discover behaviour patterns of humans. In this way a smart city could take corrective actions in order to reduce, for example, polluted air in a critical zone. But the sensors and the backbone network that send data to that server also consume electric power. Usually the wireless backbone elements are always turned on, which could incur a high pattern of electric energy consumption. In this paper we present a new mechanism for energy saving in the wireless backbone network. Our energy saving mechanism also allows us to produce a portable wireless backbone network that could be used in several places.
RSSI is a reference magnitude of radio signal strength received by a wireless terminal. Traditionally, it has been used to implement wireless services like
scanning
in
handoff
. But its high long ...term variability (
volatility
) makes its high precision estimation be impossible, complicating its applicability. Moreover, every wireless terminal has its own way to provide RSSI. Recently a high impact paper has formally shown that RSSI of laboratory radio signal in WiFi always reverts to its mean. That is, its long term stability can be estimated. We present a new RSSI estimation model that improves other recently published methods; and shows that it can be used, in contrast with those other techniques, to a wide range of current wireless terminals and real world scenarios. We also show its applicability to
indoor localization
service, by observing how it can be used in a recent high impact paper and improving another paper also published in a high impact journal. Our method can be used in SDN.
Currently environment protection is a big challenge. One way of protection is focusing on power saving of electrical devices. Although computers and networks are not the main air polluting sources, ...they are contributing in a considerable way. Multiple proposals to reduce the power consumption have been presented due to the massive usage of the networking equipment. It is also important the economic profit (and not only the decreased pollution) derived by the reduction, at home and enterprises, of costs generated by the high power consumption of devices always on and, often, not utilized for a long time. In WiFi networks the main efforts to reduce consumption are focused on the user terminals, excluding the access points as main target. In this paper, we present a method to power saving focused on reducing consumption in the devices of access to the network, concretely of the access points. With this proposal, the consumption in the access points decreases and the costs would be reduced but keeping the utility for which they were designed.
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