Resting-State Functional MRI Metrics in Patients With Chronic Mild Traumatic Brain Injury and Their Association With Clinical Cognitive Performance.

Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) accounts for more than 80% of people experiencing brain injuries. Symptoms of mTBI include short-term and long-term adverse clinical outcomes. In this study, resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) was conducted to measure voxel-based indices including fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (fALFF), regional homogeneity (ReHo), and functional connectivity (FC) in patients suffering from chronic mTBI; 64 patients with chronic mTBI at least 3 months post injury and 40 healthy controls underwent rs-fMRI scanning.

N-acetyl cysteine administration affects cerebral blood flow as measured by arterial spin labeling MRI in patients with multiple sclerosis.

Background: The purpose of this study was to explore if administration of N-acetyl-cysteine (NAC) in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) resulted in altered cerebral blood flow (CBF) based on Arterial Spin Labeling (ASL) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Methods: Twenty-three patients with mild to moderate MS, (17 relapsing remitting and 6 primary progressive) were randomized to either NAC plus standard of care (N = 11), or standard of care only (N = 12). The experimental group received NAC intravenously (50 mg/kg) once per week and orally (500mg 2x/day) the other six days.

Hybrid diffusion imaging reveals altered white matter tract integrity and associations with symptoms and cognitive dysfunction in chronic traumatic brain injury.

The detection and association of in vivo biomarkers in white matter (WM) pathology after acute and chronic mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) are needed to improve care and develop therapies. In this study, we used the diffusion MRI method of hybrid diffusion imaging (HYDI)to detect white matter alterations in patients with chronic TBI (cTBI). 40 patients with cTBI presenting symptoms at least three months post injury, and 17 healthy controls underwent magnetic resonance HYDI.

Quantifying the impact of non-stationarity in reinforcement learning-based traffic signal control.

In reinforcement learning (RL), dealing with non-stationarity is a challenging issue. However, some domains such as traffic optimization are inherently non-stationary. Causes for and effects of this are manifold.

Sharing diverse information gets driver agents to learn faster: an application in en route trip building.

With the increase in the use of private transportation, developing more efficient ways to distribute routes in a traffic network has become more and more important. Several attempts to address this issue have already been proposed, either by using a central authority to assign routes to the vehicles, or by means of a learning process where drivers select their best routes based on their previous experiences. The present work addresses a way to connect reinforcement learning to new technologies such as car-to-infrastructure communication in order to augment the drivers knowledge in an attempt to accelerate the learning process.

Alterations in cerebral glucose metabolism as measured by 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose-PET in patients with persistent postconcussion syndrome.

Background: Many patients who have traumatic brain injury experience a wide range of psychiatric and neurological symptoms (including impairment in functional status, cognition, and mood), and if persistent are referred to as persistent postconcussion syndrome (PCS). To our knowledge, this is the first study to broadly evaluate metabolic dysregulation in a heterogenous patient population meeting the criteria for PCS.

Methods: A total of 64 PCS patients and 37 healthy controls underwent 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose-PET (18F-FDG-PET) scanning, and 70 brain structures (including left and right structures where appropriate) were analyzed in each subject.

N-acetyl Cysteine Administration Is Associated With Increased Cerebral Glucose Metabolism in Patients With Multiple Sclerosis: An Exploratory Study.

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease marked by progressive neurocognitive injury. Treatment options affording neuroprotective effects remain largely experimental. The purpose of this proof of concept study was to explore the effects of N-acetyl-cysteine (NAC) on cerebral glucose metabolism (CMRGlu) and symptoms in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS).

N-Acetyl Cysteine Is Associated With Dopaminergic Improvement in Parkinson's Disease.

This study assessed the biological and clinical effects in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) of N-acetyl-cysteine (NAC), the prodrug to l-cysteine, a precursor to the natural biological antioxidant glutathione. Forty-two patients with PD were randomized to either weekly intravenous infusions of NAC (50 mg/kg) plus oral doses (500 mg twice per day) for 3 months or standard of care only. Participants received prebrain and postbrain imaging with ioflupane (DaTscan) to measure dopamine transporter (DAT) binding.

Retrospective Evaluation of Clinical Experience With Intravenous Ascorbic Acid in Patients With Cancer.

Background: Intravenous ascorbic acid (IV AA) has been used extensively in cancer patients throughout the United States. Currently, there are limited data on the safety and clinical effects of IV AA. The purpose of this study was to expand the current literature using a retrospective analysis of adverse events and symptomatic changes of IV AA in a large sample of cancer patients.

Prevalence of ischemic heart disease and associated factors in patients with rheumatoid arthritis in Southern Brazil.

Objective: To estimate the prevalence of ischemic heart disease and associated factors in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Methods: A cross-sectional study using the American College of Rheumatology diagnostic criteria in order to select patients seen at primary or secondary health care units in Blumenau, Santa Catarina, Southern Brazil, in 2014. The presence of ischemic heart disease was defined as an acute myocardial infarction with percutaneous coronary intervention or coronary artery bypass graft surgery that has occurred after diagnosis.

N-Acetyl Cysteine May Support Dopamine Neurons in Parkinson's Disease: Preliminary Clinical and Cell Line Data.

Backgound: The purpose of this study was to assess the biological and clinical effects of n-acetyl-cysteine (NAC) in Parkinson's disease (PD).

Methods: The overarching goal of this pilot study was to generate additional data about potentially protective properties of NAC in PD, using an in vitro and in vivo approach. In preparation for the clinical study we performed a cell tissue culture study with human embryonic stem cell (hESC)-derived midbrain dopamine (mDA) neurons that were treated with rotenone as a model for PD.

Social choice functions: A tool for ranking variables involved in action plans against road noise.

Traffic noise is gaining importance in planning and operation of roads in developing countries, and particularly in Europe and Latin America. Many variables with different degrees of importance influence the perception of noise from roads. Thus, the problem of prioritizing road stretches for action against such noise is an important issue in environmental noise management.

Current evidence regarding the management of mood and anxiety disorders using complementary and alternative medicine.

This article is an updated review on the potential uses of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) approaches for the management of patients with mood and anxiety disorders. We have focused this current paper on the different types of disorders and the CAM intervention which might be useful. This is in distinction to the prior paper which focused on the CAM interventions.

Diet and nutrition in cancer survivorship and palliative care.

The primary goal of palliative cancer care is typically to relieve suffering and improve quality of life. Most approaches to diet in this setting have focused only on eating as many calories as possible to avoid cachexia. However, as the concept of palliative care has evolved to include all aspects of cancer survivorship and not just end of life care, there is an increasing need to thoughtfully consider diet and nutrition approaches that can impact not only quality of life but overall health outcomes and perhaps even positively affect cancer recurrence and progression.

Multi-nutrient supplement improves hormone ratio associated with cancer risk.

Background: Gynecological cancers are among the most common in women and are directly related to a variety of hormonal factors. One potential risk factor associated with developing a gynecological malignancy is the ratio of two hormone metabolites, 2-Hydroxyestrone (2-HE) and 16alpha-Hydroxyestrone (16alpha-HE). A number of botanical constituents such as indoles, flavonoids, and resveratrol have been shown to have a favorable effect on the metabolic pathways that affect this ratio.

RFMirTarget: predicting human microRNA target genes with a random forest classifier.

MicroRNAs are key regulators of eukaryotic gene expression whose fundamental role has already been identified in many cell pathways. The correct identification of miRNAs targets is still a major challenge in bioinformatics and has motivated the development of several computational methods to overcome inherent limitations of experimental analysis. Indeed, the best results reported so far in terms of specificity and sensitivity are associated to machine learning-based methods for microRNA-target prediction.

Phase I evaluation of intravenous ascorbic acid in combination with gemcitabine and erlotinib in patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer.

Background: Preclinical data support further investigation of ascorbic acid in pancreatic cancer. There are currently insufficient safety data in human subjects, particularly when ascorbic acid is combined with chemotherapy.

Methods And Findings: 14 subjects with metastatic stage IV pancreatic cancer were recruited to receive an eight week cycle of intravenous ascorbic acid (three infusions per week), using a dose escalation design, along with standard treatment of gemcitabine and erlotinib.

An agent-based system for re-annotation of genomes.

Genome annotation projects can produce incorrect results if they are based on obsolete data or inappropriate models. We have developed an automatic re-annotation system that uses agents to perform repetitive tasks and reports the results to the user. These tasks involve BLAST searches on biological databases (GenBank) and the use of detection tools (Genemark and Glimmer) to identify new open reading frames.

Automated annotation of keywords for proteins related to mycoplasmataceae using machine learning techniques.

Motivation: With the increase in submission of sequences to public databases, the curators of these are not able to cope with the amount of information. The motivation of this work is to generate a system for automated annotation of data we are particularly interested in, namely proteins related to the Mycoplasmataceae family. Following previous works on automatic annotation using symbolic machine learning techniques, the present work proposes a method of automatic annotation of keywords (a part of the SWISS-PROT annotation procedure), and the validation, by an expert, of the annotation rules generated.

[A systematic approach to the prediction of psychosomatic disease].

This paper is an introduction to the "philosophy" adopted in research on the influence of mental factors in the onset of psychosomatic diseases. The research is oriented to the construction and implementation on a computer of a model that makes it possible to formulate predictions regarding the onset and possibly the classification of the "type" of psychosomatic disease so as to be able to activate an appropriate prophylaxis.

Spontaneous spinal haematomas.

A series of 10 surgically treated "spontaneous" spinal haematomas (7 cases with epidural, 3 with intramedullary location), is presented. Symptomatology was rarely acute. Clinical onset was mostly dominated by spinal or radicular pain, followed by severe motor deficit.