Anti-Inflammatory Characteristics of Local Anesthetics: Inhibition of TNF-α Secretion of Lipopolysaccharide-Stimulated Leucocytes in Human Blood Samples

Background. Local anesthetics (LAs) have potent anti-inflammatory properties. Inflammatory down-regulation is crucial in diseases with overactive immune reactions, such as acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and chronic inflammation. We investigated the influence of four LAs, procaine, lidocaine, mepivacaine, and bupivacaine, on the reduction of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) secretion in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-activated human leucocytes. Methods. Blood samples of 28 individuals were stimulated with LPS. The reduction of TNF-α production by each of the four LAs added (0.5 mg/mL) was measured and correlated with biometric variables. A response was defined as reduction to <85% of initial levels. Results. All four LAs down-regulated the TNF-α secretion in 44–61%: Bupivacaine (44.4%), lidocaine (61.5%), mepivacaine (44.4%), and procaine (50% of the individuals, “responders”). The TNF-α secretion was reduced to 67.4, 68.0, 63.6, and 67.1% of the initial values in responders. The effects in both patients and healthy persons were the same. Interindividual responses to LAs were not correlated with the duration or type of complaints, basal TNF-α serum level, sex, BMI, or age of responders. Conclusions. Four clinically relevant LAs (amid-LA and ester-LA) attenuate the inflammatory response provoked by LPS. They are potential candidates for drug repositioning in treating overactive immune reactions and chronic inflammation.     

On the natural structure of thermodynamic potentials and fluxes in the theory of chemically non-reacting binary mixtures

A theory describing the behavior of chemically non-reacting binary mixtures can be based on a detailed formulation of the governing equations for the individual components of the mixture or on treating the mixture as a single homogenized continuous medium. We argue that if we accept that both approaches can be used to describe the behavior of the given mixture, then the requirement on the equivalence of these approaches places restrictions on the possible structure of the internal energy, entropy, Helmholtz potential, and also of the diffusive, energy, and entropy fluxes. (The equivalence of the approaches is understood in the sense that the quantities used in one approach can be interpreted in terms of the quantities used in the other approach and vice versa. Further, both approaches must lead to the same predictions concerning the evolution of the physical system under consideration). In the case of a general chemically non-reacting binary mixture of components at the same temperature, we show that these restrictions can indeed be obtained by purely algebraic manipulations. An important outcome of this analysis is, for example, a general form of the evolution equation for the diffusive flux. The restrictions can be further exploited in the specification of thermodynamically consistent constitutive relations for quantities such as the interaction (drag) force or the Cauchy stress tensor. As an example of the application of the current framework, we derive, among others, a generalization of Fick’s law and we recover several non-trivial results obtained by other techniques. The qualitative features of the derived generalization of Fick’s law are demonstrated by a numerical experiment.     

Actor networks and the construction of applicable knowledge: the case of the Timbre Brownfield Prioritization Tool

This article deals with experiences acquired during the process of developing the Timbre Brownfield Prioritization Tool (TBPT). Developing a decision support tool that takes into account the expectations and experiences of its potential users is similar to creating applicable knowledge by the joint action of scientists and heterogeneous actors. Actor network theory is used to explore the construction of this form of applicable knowledge as a process of actor network creation. Following the French sociologist Callon, networks are seen to be initiated and carried out by a group of scientists (tool developers) via four moments of translation, called problematization, interessement, enrolment and mobilization. Each step in the construction of the TBPT—from the initial research question to the final model—can be linked in retrospect to changing configurations of actor networks. Based on the experiences of the tool developers in the Czech Republic, Poland, Germany and Romania, we illustrate how these configurations varied across space and time. This contribution emphasizes the ability to correlate gains in knowledge with the more visible changes in the scope of actor networks in order to highlight achievements but also limitations in acquiring applicable knowledge.     

(De)stabilization of required and spontaneous postural dynamics with learning.

The present research examined how learning a new ankle-hip coordination influenced the preexisting postural repertoire. Standing participants learned a new ankle-hip coordination mode (relative phase of 90'). Before and after practice, postural patterns were evaluated in two different tasks. In the required task, specific ankle-hip patterns were requested (12 relative phases in multiples of 30'). In the spontaneous task, participants performed a tracking task in which no instructions about ankle-hip coordination were given. Learning induced changes in both required and spontaneous coordination dynamics. When ankle-hip patterns were required, learning led to improvement and homogenization in performance over the entire postural repertoire. When ankle-hip patterns emerged spontaneously, in-phase and antiphase preexisting patterns destabilized and changed toward the learned pattern of 90'. These findings demonstrate that learning a new coordination pattern can induce modifications of patterns that have not been practiced. The results also suggest that the consequences of learning do not generalize across different types of tasks, even when similar coordination modes are involved. We discuss implications of these findings for the generality of learning mechanisms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of raspberry pomace extracts isolated by high pressure extraction on the quality and shelf‐life of beef burgers

Raspberry pomace extracts isolated with supercritical carbon dioxide (SCE) and pressurised ethanol/water (ETE) were tested in beef burgers. Only ETE additives effectively inhibited lipid oxidation and the growth of microorganisms, as it was observed by measuring the changes of thiobarbituric acid reactive substances, bacterial counts and the content of O₂ and CO₂ during storage in the modified atmosphere package. ETE additives also demonstrated some meat colour preservation effects, which were assessed by the intensity of hamburger colour and metmyoglobin concentration. However, ETE additives did not alter burger's taste at the applied concentrations (up to 1%). It may be concluded that the most effective extracts possessing strong antioxidant and antimicrobial activity may be isolated from raspberry pomace by the pressurised liquid extraction with a hydroethanolic solvent; such extracts may be considered as promising additives in meat products for improving their stability and enriching with beneficial to health phytochemicals.     

Comparison of secure spread-spectrum modulations applied to still image watermarking

This article shows the results obtained when using secure spread-spectrum watermarking on gray-scale images in the watermark only attack (WOA) framework. Two secure modulations, natural watermarking (NW) and circular watermarking (CW), are compared with classical insecure modulations, spread spectrum (SS) and improved spread spectrum (ISS), from distortion, robustness, and security points of view. Implementations of CW and NW for still images are proposed: they use a wavelet transform and variable strength embedding with bounded distortion. Robustness of these schemes is assured by using JPEG compression and security is quantified by using a source separation technique: independent component analysis (ICA). Finally, tests are conducted on 2,000 natural images. They allow to distinguish between WOA security classes.     

Detecting stock-price manipulation in an emerging market: The case of Turkey

This paper aims to develop methods that are capable of detecting manipulation in the Istanbul Stock Exchange. We take the difference between manipulated stock’s and index’s average daily return, average daily change in trading volume and average daily volatility and used these statistics as explanatory variables. The data in post-manipulation and pre-manipulation periods are used as non-manipulated instances while the data in the manipulation period are used as manipulated instances. Test performance of classification accuracy, sensitivity and specificity statistics for Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) and Support Vector Machine (SVM) are compared with the results of discriminant analysis and logistics regression (logit). We found that the data mining techniques (ANN and SVM) are better suited to detect stock-price manipulation than multivariate statistical techniques (discriminant analysis, logistics regression) as the performances of the data mining techniques in terms of total classification accuracy and sensitivity statistics are better than those of multivariate techniques. We also found that unit change in difference between average daily return of manipulated stock and the index has the largest effect while unit change in difference between average daily change in trading volume of manipulated stock and index has the least effect on multivariate classifiers’ decision functions.