Summary The aim of the present work has been the determination of the effectiveness of a primary prevention in the allergopathy induced by house dust mites weighing its benefits as regards asthmatic symptomatology.A sample of 56 subjects, aged 6 to 30 years, monosensitive to house dust mites (DTP and DTF) and with a diagnosis of bronchial asthma has been examined. The patients have entered a study plan whose purpose has been the evaluation of the effects of an environmental improvement on symptomatology. The diagnosis of asthma induced by house dust mites has been confirmed both by in vivo (Prick-test) and in vitro (PRIST and RAST) investigations.A follow-up after 3 months has shown that the hygienic measures have produced beneficial effects on symptomatology in as many as 22 patients (52.4%) out of a total of 42 who have put into practice the environmental improvement. These results encourage to proceed on this path in the choice of the therapy for those subjects affected by respiratory allergopathy to house dust mites. 相似文献
In this paper we explore the specific role of randomness in financial markets, inspired by the beneficial role of noise in many physical systems and in previous applications to complex socio-economic systems. After a short introduction, we study the performance of some of the most used trading strategies in predicting the dynamics of financial markets for different international stock exchange indexes, with the goal of comparing them to the performance of a completely random strategy. In this respect, historical data for FTSE-UK, FTSE-MIB, DAX, and S & P500 indexes are taken into account for a period of about 15–20 years (since their creation until today). 相似文献
Social contact patterns among individuals encode the transmission route of infectious diseases and are a key ingredient in the realistic characterization and modeling of epidemics. Unfortunately, the gathering of high quality experimental data on contact patterns in human populations is a very difficult task even at the coarse level of mixing patterns among age groups. Here we propose an alternative route to the estimation of mixing patterns that relies on the construction of virtual populations parametrized with highly detailed census and demographic data. We present the modeling of the population of 26 European countries and the generation of the corresponding synthetic contact matrices among the population age groups. The method is validated by a detailed comparison with the matrices obtained in six European countries by the most extensive survey study on mixing patterns. The methodology presented here allows a large scale comparison of mixing patterns in Europe, highlighting general common features as well as country-specific differences. We find clear relations between epidemiologically relevant quantities (reproduction number and attack rate) and socio-demographic characteristics of the populations, such as the average age of the population and the duration of primary school cycle. This study provides a numerical approach for the generation of human mixing patterns that can be used to improve the accuracy of mathematical models in the absence of specific experimental data. 相似文献
In the mammalian hippocampus, the dentate gyrus (DG) is characterized by sparse and powerful unidirectional projections to CA3 pyramidal cells, the so-called mossy fibers. Mossy fiber synapses appear to duplicate, in terms of the information they convey, what CA3 cells already receive from entorhinal cortex layer II cells, which project both to the dentate gyrus and to CA3. Computational models of episodic memory have hypothesized that the function of the mossy fibers is to enforce a new, well separated pattern of activity onto CA3 cells, to represent a new memory, prevailing over the interference produced by the traces of older memories already stored on CA3 recurrent collateral connections. Can this hypothesis apply also to spatial representations, as described by recent neurophysiological recordings in rats? To address this issue quantitatively, we estimate the amount of information DG can impart on a new CA3 pattern of spatial activity, using both mathematical analysis and computer simulations of a simplified model. We confirm that, also in the spatial case, the observed sparse connectivity and level of activity are most appropriate for driving memory storage – and not to initiate retrieval. Surprisingly, the model also indicates that even when DG codes just for space, much of the information it passes on to CA3 acquires a non-spatial and episodic character, akin to that of a random number generator. It is suggested that further hippocampal processing is required to make full spatial use of DG inputs. 相似文献
Studies indicated that people behave less responsibly after exposure to information containing deterministic statements as compared to free will statements or neutral statements. Thus, deterministic primes should lead to enhanced risk-taking behavior. We tested this prediction in two studies with healthy participants. In experiment 1, we tested 144 students (24 men) in the laboratory using the Iowa Gambling Task. In experiment 2, we tested 274 participants (104 men) online using the Balloon Analogue Risk Task. In the Iowa Gambling Task, the free will priming condition resulted in more risky decisions than both the deterministic and neutral priming conditions. We observed no priming effects on risk-taking behavior in the Balloon Analogue Risk Task. To explain these unpredicted findings, we consider the somatic marker hypothesis, a gain frequency approach as well as attention to gains and / or inattention to losses. In addition, we highlight the necessity to consider both pro free will and deterministic priming conditions in future studies. Importantly, our and previous results indicate that the effects of pro free will and deterministic priming do not oppose each other on a frequently assumed continuum. 相似文献
The tumor suppressive function of PTEN is exerted within 2 different cellular compartments. In the cytosol-membrane, it negatively regulates PI3K-AKT pathway through the de-phosphorylation of phosphatidylinositol (3,4,5)-triphosphate (PIP3), therefore blocking one of the major signaling transduction pathways in tumorigenesis. In the nucleus, PTEN controls genomic stability and cellular proliferation through phosphatase independent mechanisms. Importantly, impairments in PTEN cellular compartmentalization, changes in protein levels and post-transductional modifications affect PTEN tumor suppressive functions. Targeting mechanisms that inactivate PTEN promotes apoptosis induction of cancer cells, without affecting normal cells, with appealing therapeutic implications. Recently, we have shown that BCR-ABL promotes PTEN nuclear exclusion by favoring HAUSP mediated PTEN de-ubiquitination in Chronic Myeloid Leukemia. Here, we show that nuclear exclusion of PTEN is associated with PTEN inactivation in the cytoplasm of CML cells. In particular, BCR-ABL promotes Casein Kinase II-mediated PTEN tail phosphorylation with consequent inhibition of the phosphatase activity toward PIP3. Targeting Casein Kinase II promotes PTEN reactivation with apoptosis induction. We therefore propose a novel BCR-ABL/CKII/PTEN pathway as a potential target to achieve synthetic lethality with tyrosine kinase inhibitors. 相似文献
In urethane-anesthetized rats, intrathecal administration of endothelin-1 (ET-1), endothelin-3 (ET-3) (3–100 pmol/rat) or the C-terminal hexapeptide ET(16–21) (10–100 nmol/rat) dose-dependently increased mean blood pressure (MBP) and suppressed the supraspinal micturition reflex (SMR). ET(16–21), at 100 nmol, produced a pressor response comparable to that induced by ET-1 at 100 pmol.
Guanethidine and hexamethonium pretreatment significantly reduced the increase of MBP induced by ET-1 but was inactive in antagonizing inhibition of SMR. Neither naloxone nor adrenalectomy were effective in preventing the responses to ET-1.
The high degree of lethality (60–100%), observed with ET-1 (10–100 pmol), was not reduced by guanethidine, naloxone, adrenalectomy or by hexamethonium.
ET-3, at 100 pmol or 1 nmol, induced death in about 50% of cases. The symptoms before death were reduction of the respiratory rate followed by respiratory arrest.
These findings indicate that the pressor response to intrathecally-administered endothelins involves activation of sympathetic preganglionic elements; induction of secretion of catecholamines from adrenal glands was excluded.
Lethality and inhibition of SMR does not involve opioids, sympathetic activation or release of catecholamines from the adrenal glands. 相似文献
A 5-HT1A pharmacophore has been obtained employing a set of rigid templates encompassing the 5-HT1A structure. The use of rigid templates allowed us to overcome the discrepancy found when flexible structures where the energy of the active conformers are sometimes higher than the global minimum energy are used. On the basis of the results herein reported the three-dimensional requirements necessary for the binding interaction have been defined within this set of molecules. In this study forbidden zones of the receptor have been characterised. The pharmacophore model derived places some agonist/antagonist pharmacophore models appeared in the literature. 相似文献