262 research outputs found
In the Light of the Metabolic Memory Theory, Should Not All Aged People with Dysglycemia Be Treated?
No full textDysglycemia has been coined to define the prediabetic state. It defines high glucose levels below the diabetes
‘‘cut-offs.’’ The negative effects of dysglycemia, leading to cardiovascular complications, are amplified during
aging. Despite this knowledge, treatment of dysglycemia in old subjects is usually overlooked by clinical
practice. This article deals with a new theory regarding an intensive therapeutic approach targeting aged people.
This hypothesis arises from the recent theory of metabolic memory, which defines early imprinting due to
hyperglycemia in cells of the vasculature and of target organs, favoring the development of vascular complications.
In addition, metabolic memory determines a durable effect of hypoglycemic treatment that is much
longer than the period of therapy. This new evidence could allow us to hypothesize that a treatment of dysglycemia
in aged people could remodel their glucose ‘‘trajectory’’ during aging toward a more optimal one,
leading to successful aging
Distributed Submodular Minimization Over Networks: A Greedy Column Generation Approach
No full textSubmodular optimization is a special class of combinatorial optimization arising in several machine learning problems, but also in cooperative control of complex systems. In this paper, we consider agents in an asynchronous, unreliable and time-varying directed network that aim at cooperatively solving submodular minimization problems in a fully dis- tributed way. The challenge is that the (submodular) objective set-function is only partially known by agents, that is, each one is able to evaluate the function only for subsets including itself. We propose a distributed algorithm based on a proper linear programming reformulation of the combinatorial problem. Our algorithm builds on a column generation approach in which each agent maintains a local candidate basis and locally generates columns with a suitable greedy inner routine. A key interesting feature of the proposed algorithm is that the pricing problem, which involves an exponential number of constraints, is solved by the agents through a polynomial time greedy algorithm. We prove that the proposed distributed algorithm converges in finite time to an optimal solution of the submodular minimization problem and we corroborate the theoretical results by performing numerical computations on instances of the s–t minimum graph cut proble
A significant relationship between plasminogen activator inhibitor type-1 and lipoprotein(a) in non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus without complications
No full textThe significance of IR-HOMA index in diabetic and non-diabetic people starting a physical exercise therapy
No full text
Glycosylated hemoglobin and fructosamines: does their determination really reflect the glycemic control in diabetic patients?
No full textAge-dependent changes of serum oxygen radical scavenger capacity and haemoglobin glycosylation in non-insulin-dependent diabetic patients
No full textTecniche narrative nelle autobiografie italiane del Secondo Settecento
No full textThis Ph.D thesis analyses seven autobioraphies by italian writers, all born in in the Eighteenth century: Vittorio Alfieri, Carlo Goldoni, Lorenzo Da Ponte, Giacomo Casanova, Filippo Mazzei, Francesco Bal. It is divided in two parts: the first concerns with microtextuality aspects (incipit, explicit, dialogues, descriptions); the second deals with the macrotextuality ones (structures of time, structures of the plot). Besides evalutating in which ways the autobiographies organize their narration, the author compares them with Eighteenth Century italian novels and with other autobiographical works to see how much their structure is different
Asymptomatic Helicobacter pylori Infection Increases Asymmetric Dimethylarginine Levels in Healthy Subjects
No full textBackground. Chronic infections have been demonstrated
to be early factors of atherosclerosis and cardiovascular
diseases, and their relevance increases when
they are caused by agents with extremely broad spectrum
of disease outcome such as Helicobacter pylori. The
consequent endothelial impairment leads to a reduced
bioavailability of nitric oxide. Increasing evidences have
pointed out that the endogenous inhibitor of nitric oxide
synthase, asymmetric dimethylarginine, defined as a
risk factor for cardiovascular disease, may increase in
infections and plays an important role impairing the
vascular functions of the endothelium. Starting from
these findings, we aim to investigate whether H. pylori
may affect asymmetric dimethylarginine levels.
Materials and Methods. The study was carried out
on a group of 186 subjects (age 46.2 ± 14.9 years). We
evaluated asymmetric dimethylarginine, symmetric
dimethylarginine, L-arginine, presence of H. pylori
by 13C-urea breath test, and the main parameters of
glyco and lipo metabolic balance.
Results. Increased levels of asymmetric dimethylarginine
were found in H. pylori-positive subjects with
respect to H. pylori-negative subjects (0.46 ×/÷ 1.13
versus 0.42 ×/÷ 1.23 μmol/l, p < .001, respectively). No
differences were detected in L-arginine levels between
the two groups. Multiple regression analysis performed
in H. pylori-positive subjects and H. pylori-negative
subjects showed profound differences in the variables
related to asymmetric dimethylarginine (R2 = 66.9%,
p < .01 versus 34.3%, p < .01, respectively) and symmetric
dimethylarginine (R2 = 39.2%, p < .01 versus
20.6%, p = .09, respectively) levels.
Conclusions. Our data clearly demonstrate that
H. pylori infection increases asymmetric dimethylarginine
levels. Moreover, this infection causes a profound
metabolic modification that alters the role of the
known determinants of asymmetric dimethylarginine
levels. We conclude that H. pylori infection must be
taken into account as a cause of increased asymmetric
dimethylarginine levels and that the eradication of
H. pylori may therefore lead to a decrease in asymmetric
dimethylarginine levels, which is a further reason for
the reduction of the risk for cardiovascular disease in
this large portion of population
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