Improved cognitive performance after dietary supplementation with a Pinus radiata bark extract formulation

Dietary interventions may have the potential to counter age-related cognitive decline. Studies have demonstrated an improvement in age-related cognitive impairment in animals after supplementation with plant extracts containing flavonoids but there are few human studies. This double-blind, controlled study examined the effects on cognitive performance of a 5 week supplementation with Enzogenol Pinus radiata bark extract containing flavonoids, in 42 males aged 50-65 years, with a body mass index >25. Participants were supplemented for 5 weeks either with Enzogenol plus vitamin C, or with vitamin C only. A battery of computerized cognitive tests was administered, and cardiovascular and haematological parameters were assessed prior to and following supplementation. The speed of response for the spatial working memory and immediate recognition tasks improved after supplementation with Enzogenol plus vitamin C, whereas vitamin C alone showed no improvements. A trend in a reduction of systolic blood pressure was observed with Enzogenol plus vitamin C, but not with vitamin C alone. The blood safety parameters were unchanged. The findings suggest a beneficial effect of supplementation with Enzogenol on cognition in older individuals. Larger studies are needed to ascertain its potential as a preventive treatment for age-related cognitive decline.     

Aplasia cutis congenita, terminal limb defects and falciform retinal folds: confirmation of a distinct syndrome of vascular disruption

We describe a son of consanguineous parents with congenital scalp defects, transverse limb abnormalities, hypoplasia of the corpus callosum and bilateral falciform retinal folds. Aplasia cutis congenita with transverse limb defects are features of Adams-Oliver syndrome, which is usually inherited as an autosomal dominant condition. The association of bilateral retinal folds and brain abnormalities with scalp defects and terminal limb defects has only once been previously described. It is possible that these cases represent a severe variant of Adams-Oliver syndrome. We, however, suggest that they may characterize a new, distinct, autosomal recessive syndrome, involving vascular disruption.     

Algorithm for Determining Time Series of Phase Transformations in the Solid State Using Long-Short-Term Memory Neural Network

In the numerical analysis of manufacturing processes of metal parts, many material properties depending on, for example, the temperature or stress state, must be taken into account. Often these data are dependent on the temperature changes over time. Strongly non-linear material property relationships are usually represented using diagrams. In numerical calculations, these diagrams are analyzed in order to take into account the coupling between the properties. An example of these types of material properties is the dependence of the kinetics of phase transformations in the solid state on the rate and history of temperature change. In literature, these data are visualized Continuous Heating Transformation (CHT) and Continuous Cooling Transformation (CCT) diagrams. Therefore, it can be concluded that time series analysis is important in numerical modeling. This analysis can also be performed using neural networks. This work presents a new approach to storing and analyzing the data contained in the discussed CCT diagrams. The application of Long-Short-Term Memory (LSTM) neural networks and their architecture to determine the correct values of phase fractions depending on the history of temperature change was analyzed. Moreover, an area of research was elements that determine what type of information should be stored by LSTM network coefficients, e.g., whether the network should store information about changes of single phase transformations, or whether it would be better to extract data from differences between several networks with similar architecture. The purpose of the studied network is strongly different from typical applications of artificial neural networks. The main goal of the network was to store information (even by overfitting the network) rather than some form of generalization that allows computation for unknown cases. Therefore, the authors primarily investigated in the ability of the layer-based LSTM network to store nonlinear time series data. The analyses presented in this paper are an extension of the issues presented in the paper entitled “Model of the Austenite Decomposition during Cooling of the Medium Carbon Steel Using LSTM Recurrent Neural Network”.     

Prevalence of Orthorexia in Groups of Students with Varied Diets and Physical Activity (Silesia,Poland)

(1) Background: The literature emphasizes the role of many factors influencing the onset of eating disorders (EDs) and their mutual influence on each other. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate and compare the prevalence of orthorexic behaviors in groups of health-related and non-health-related students in terms of their differential health behaviors—diet and physical activity levels. (2) The study included 300 individuals representing two equal groups of fields of study, which for the study were called the health-related field (HRF) and the non-health-related field (NRF). (3) Results: Based on the results of the dietary assessment, it was found that the best dietary model was characterized by the HRF group; in this group, 97.2% of students were characterized by a very good and good dietary mode. The NRF group, on the other hand, was dominated by a sufficient dietary mode for 64.4% of all cases in this group (94 people), while the dietary model marked as “good” was less popular, at 24.6% of this group (36 people). (4) Conclusions: Based on the cited self-research and information from the literature, it can be concluded that the problem of orthorexia is still a new issue at the level of social sciences, medical sciences, and health sciences. The psychometric tools used in this study allowed us to demonstrate the prevalence of the aforementioned eating disorders in the sample groups of students.     

Live‐attenuated influenza vaccine effectiveness against hospitalization in children aged 2–6 years,the first three seasons of the childhood influenza vaccination program in England, 2013/14–2015/16

IntroductionIn 2013, the United Kingdom began to roll‐out a universal annual influenza vaccination program for children. An important component of any new vaccination program is measuring its effectiveness. Live‐attenuated influenza vaccines (LAIVs) have since shown mixed results with vaccine effectiveness (VE) varying across seasons and countries elsewhere. This study aims to assess the effectiveness of influenza vaccination in children against severe disease during the first three seasons of the LAIV program in England.MethodsUsing the screening method, LAIV vaccination coverage in children hospitalized with laboratory‐confirmed influenza infection was compared with vaccination coverage in 2–6‐year‐olds in the general population to estimate VE in 2013/14–2015/16.ResultsThe overall LAIV VE, adjusted for age group, week/month and geographical area, for all influenza types pooled over the three influenza seasons was 50.1% (95% confidence interval [CI] 31.2, 63.8). By age, there was evidence of protection against hospitalization from influenza vaccination in both the pre‐school (2–4‐year‐olds) (48.1%, 95% CI 27.2, 63.1) and school‐aged children (5–6‐year‐olds) (62.6%, 95% CI 2.6, 85.6) over the three seasons.ConclusionLAIV vaccination in children provided moderate annual protection against laboratory‐confirmed influenza‐related hospitalization in England over the three influenza seasons. This study contributes further to the limited literature to date on influenza VE against severe disease in children.     

Restoration of E-cadherin/beta-catenin expression in pancreatic cancer cells inhibits growth by induction of apoptosis

BACKGROUND: beta-Catenin is a component of the E-cadherin/catenin adhesion complex that maintains epithelial cell integrity. We have previously observed decreased beta-catenin expression in both human pancreatic cancer cell lines and primary tumors. To determine the significance of this finding with respect to pancreatic carcinogenesis, this study evaluated the effects of restoring expression of beta-catenin with and without E-cadherin in pancreatic cancer cells. METHODS: MiaPaca-2 cells were stably transfected with full-length cDNAs for beta-catenin, E-cadherin, or a mutated E-cadherin lacking the beta-catenin-binding domain. Doubly transfected cell clones containing beta-catenin and either E-cadherin or deleted E-cadherin were also selected. Assays for cell adhesion, cell cycle profile, motility, and apoptosis were performed. RESULTS: Cell clones expressing beta-catenin alone or beta-catenin and deleted E-cadherin did not differ significantly from the parental cell lines in any of the assays performed. In contrast, MiaPaca-2 cell clones expressing both beta-catenin and E-cadherin showed tight adhesion, decreased cell growth, and a significantly increased apoptotic index as compared to the parental line or singly transfected clones. CONCLUSIONS: MiaPaca-2 cells undergo apoptosis at a significantly increased rate after restoration of the E-cadherin/beta-catenin adhesion complex. This increase in apoptosis is dependent on the ability of E-cadherin to bind beta-catenin. Loss of beta-catenin expression may therefore provide pancreatic cancer cells with a growth advantage that contributes to tumor progression.