The Contribution of Small Vessel Disease to Neurodegeneration: Focus on Alzheimer’s Disease,Parkinson’s Disease and Multiple Sclerosis

Brain small vessel disease (SVD) refers to a variety of structural and functional changes affecting small arteries and micro vessels, and manifesting as white matter changes, microbleeds and lacunar infarcts. Growing evidence indicates that SVD might play a significant role in the neurobiology of central nervous system (CNS) neurodegenerative disorders, namely Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Parkinson’s disease (PD), and neuroinflammatory diseases, such as multiple sclerosis (MS). These disorders share different pathophysiological pathways and molecular mechanisms (i.e., protein misfolding, derangement of cellular clearance systems, mitochondrial impairment and immune system activation) having neurodegeneration as biological outcome. In these diseases, the actual contribution of SVD to the clinical picture, and its impact on response to pharmacological treatments, is not known yet. Due to the high frequency of SVD in adult-aged patients, it is important to address this issue. In this review, we report preclinical and clinical data on the impact of SVD in AD, PD and MS, with the main aim of clarifying the predictability of SVD on clinical manifestations and treatment response.     

Topological and Variational Properties of a Model for the Reconstruction of Three-Dimensional Transparent Images with Self-Occlusions

We introduce and study a two-dimensional variational model for the reconstruction of a smooth generic solid shape E, which may handle the self-occlusions and that can be considered as an improvement of the 2.1D sketch of Nitzberg and Mumford (Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Computer Vision, Osaka, 1990). We characterize from the topological viewpoint the apparent contour of E, namely, we characterize those planar graphs that are apparent contours of some shape E. This is the classical problem of recovering a three-dimensional layered shape from its apparent contour, which is of interest in theoretical computer vision. We make use of the so-called Huffman labeling (Machine Intelligence, vol. 6, Am. Elsevier, New York, 1971), see also the papers of Williams (Ph.D. Dissertation, 1994 and Int. J. Comput. Vis. 23:93–108, 1997) and the paper of Karpenko and Hughes (Preprint, 2006) for related results. Moreover, we show that if E and F are two shapes having the same apparent contour, then E and F differ by a global homeomorphism which is strictly increasing on each fiber along the direction of the eye of the observer. These two topological theorems allow to find the domain of the functional ℱ describing the model. Compactness, semicontinuity and relaxation properties of ℱ are then studied, as well as connections of our model with the problem of completion of hidden contours.

Photonic-aware neural networks

Neural Computing and Applications - Photonics-based neural networks promise to outperform electronic counterparts, accelerating neural network computations while reducing power consumption and...     

Alkali-silica reactivity criteria for concrete aggregates

In this study, the suitability of the threshold alkali level, TAL, the kinetic parameter, In k, and the microstructural disorder coefficient, Cd, of the aggregates, taken as alkali-silica reactivity criteria, was assessed using different typologies of Italian natural ASR-susceptible aggregates of known field performance. The TAL, In k, and Cd were determined using a modified version of the RILEM AAR-3 concrete prism expansion test, the ASTM C1260 mortar-bar expansion test, and the infrared spectroscopy test, respectively. It was found that the three reactivity criteria are all appropriate for discriminating between reactive and innocuous aggregates. However, the TAL proves to be a more suitable criterion for interpreting the field performance data of the aggregates investigated. There exists a linear relationship between TAL and In k, or between TAL and Cd, which provides a rapid means of estimating the threshold alkali levels of ASR-susceptible aggregates from the results of the ultra-accelerated mortar-bar test and/or the infrared spectroscopy test. A TAL-based classification of the degree of reactivity of the aggregates, as well as some modifications of the reactivity domains established by the infrared spectroscopy method are also proposed.     

Esophago-jejuno-gastroplasty in the treatment of peptic stenosis of the esophagus]

Resistance to benzalkonium chloride (BC) among Pseudomonas spp. isolated from poultry carcasses was determined and strategies for elimination of resistant strains evaluated. This investigation showed that resistance was quite common, about 30% of the isolates being able to grow in 200 micrograms ml-1 BC. Pseudomonas fluorescens strains were generally less susceptible than strains of Ps. lundensis and Ps. fragi. An overnight incubation in medium containing 200 micrograms ml-1 BC was sufficient to reduce the susceptibility of two Pseudomonas strains to the lethal effect of BC significantly. Adding EDTA enhanced the lethal effect of BC, but the effect was reduced after growing cells in medium containing BC and EDTA. Growth in medium with a quaternary ammonium compound (QAC) rendered the cells more susceptible to chlorine, phenolics, and alkylaminoacetate. These results indicate that alternating use of QACs with these compounds can be used to avoid build-up of resistant strains. In addition, increased temperatures improved the lethal effect of BC and should be considered when planning disinfection routines.     

Kinetic considerations on the performance of activated sludge reactors and rotating biological contactors

This study compares the performance characteristics of laboratory-scale activated sludge and rotating biological contactor (RBC) units treating an industrial effluent. It is found that, within the range of hydraulic detention time examined (0.3–1.7 days), the two plants show very similar BOD₅ removal kinetics. These results indicate that an RBC unit with a geometrical area of the discs of 1340 cm²1⁻¹ of aeration reactor is equivalent to an activated sludge plant with an MLVSS concentration of about 2000 mg 1⁻¹. Experimental data from the two units are also analyzed by two steady-state kinetic models. It is proved that the kinetic constants of suspended microbial growths may be used successfully for fixed biological films. At the same time, a simplified design equation for RBC systems is verified and an estimation procedure for the effective surface area of the biofilm developed.     

Mapping external views to a common data model

In the context of a multilevel database management system architecture, the problem arises of translating, or mapping, operations at the user's representation level (the External Schema) into operations at the system's common logical level (the Conceptual Schema).In order to support different structured user's data models, the need for an unstructured, view-independent and yet carefully defined data model at the Conceptual Schema level is recognized.In this paper a binary model for the Conceptual Schema is illustrated through the specification of a set of primitives, and the elements of a language for the definition of a binary Schema and of the corresponding operations are given.Procedures are then illustrated for translating external into conceptual operations through exploitation of the primitives of the binary model. Two types of mapping specifications are illustrated: the operational mapping, in which the translation is explicitly defined, and the structural mapping, in which only the structural correspondences between elements of the External and the Conceptual Schema are defined. The automatic mapping between n-ary relational views and the binary Conceptual Schema is finally discussed.     

Emissions of VOCs,SVOCs, and mold during the construction process: Contribution to indoor air quality and future occupants’ exposure

Building materials and human activities are important sources of contamination indoors, but little information is available regarding contamination during construction process which could persist during the whole life of buildings. In this study, six construction stages on two construction sites were investigated regarding the emissions of 43 volatile organic compounds (VOCs), 46 semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs), and the presence of 4 genera of mold. Results show that the future indoor air quality does not only depend on the emissions of each building product but that it is also closely related to the whole implementation process. Mold spore measurements can reach 1400 CFU/m³, which is particularly high compared with the concentrations usually measured in indoor environments. Relatively low concentrations of VOCs were observed, in relation to the use of low emissive materials. Among SVOCs analyzed, some phthalates, permethrin, and hydrocarbons were found in significant concentrations upon the delivery of building as well as triclosan, suspected to be endocrine disruptor, and yet prohibited in the treatment of materials and construction since 2014. As some regulations exist for VOC emissions, it is necessary to implement them for SVOCs due to their toxicity.