This paper discusses the analytical arguments used to explain the international financial crisis thatbroke out in 2007. First, we stress Ben Bernanke’s global saving glut hypothesis, which holds that the causes of the financial instability in the USA were exogenous and primarily triggered by the actions of developing countries, the effects of which escaped the control of the American financial and monetary authorities. We then review the criticism of this hypothesis and the correction that Bernake himself applied, which admits, as being foremost, the existence of factors other than the actions of developing countries. Below, we present the theory of credit development and regulatory failures, which includes the unprecedented growth in credit and financial leverage amid increasing financial deregulation. Finally, we review the central ideas of Hyman Minsky, which stress the systemic nature of the crisis in the capitalist economy.The theory of credit development and regulatory failures strikes us as the most fitting, as the evidence in its favor is substantial; what is more, Bernanke amended his initial approach and incorporated elements of this hypothesis. The recent study by Reinhart and Rogoff (2009) isconsiderably broader, analyzing several centuries of crisis and allowing the recent crisis to be reconciled with the credit development and regulatory failures theory. / Este trabajo discute los argumentos analíticos que se usaron para explicar la crisis financiera internacional que se desató a partir de 2007. Empezamos con la hipótesis del «exceso de ahorro» desarrollada por Ben Bernanke, quien sostiene que la causa de los desequilibrios financieros en EEUU fue exógena, generada, básicamente, por acciones de países en desarrollo, y que sus efectos escapaban al manejo de las autoridades monetarias y financieras norteamericanas. Luego revisamos la crítica que se le hizo y la corrección que él mismo procesó en la que se admite, como elemento prioritario, la existencia de otros factores distintos de las acciones de los países en desa- rrollo. A continuación, presentamos la hipótesis del «desarrollo del crédito y falencias regulatorias» en las que se destaca la ampliación sin precedentes del crédito y el apalancamiento financiero, en medio de creciente desregulación financiera. En tercer lugar, revisamos las ideas centrales de Hyman Minsky que destacan el carácter sistémico de las crisis en la economía capitalista.La hipótesis de crédito y falencia regulatorias nos parece la más acertada, pues la evidencia a su favor es sustancial y, además, también Bernanke corrige su enfoque inicial e incorpora los elementos de este segundo enfoque. El reciente trabajo Reinhart y Rogoff (2009) siendo bastante más amplio, pues estudia varios siglos de crisis, con respecto a la crisis reciente podría ser ubicado dentro de la hipótesis del «desarrollo del crédito y falencias regulatorias».

BackgroundHead and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is a common cancer. Positron emission tomography (PET) with 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) is a widely used imaging modality in HNSCC.PurposeTo provide evident data about associations between 18F-FDG PET and histopathology in HNSCC.Material and MethodsThe MEDLINE database was screened for associations between maximum standard uptake values (SUVmax) derived from 18F-FDG PET and histopathological features in HNSCC up to May 2020. Only papers containing correlation coefficients between SUVmax and histopathology were acquired. Overall, 23 publications were collected.ResultsThe following correlations were calculated: KI 67: 12 studies (345 patients), pooled correlation coefficient (PCC): 0.23 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.06–0.40); hypoxia-inducible factor-1α: eight studies (240 patients), PCC: 0.24 (95% CI 0.06–0.42); microvessel density: three studies (64 patients), PCC: 0.33 (95% CI 0.02–0.65); vascular endothelial growth factor: two studies (59 cases), PCC: 0.27 (95% CI 0.02–0.51); tumor suppressor protein p53: four studies (159 patients), PCC: 0.05 (95% CI –0.41 to 0.51); epidermal growth factor receptor: two studies (124 patients), PCC: 0.21 (95% CI 0.05–0.37); tumor cell count: three studies (67 patients), PCC: 0.18 (95% CI –0.06 to 0.42); tumor cell apoptosis: two studies (40 patients), PCC: 0.07 (95% CI = –0.85 to 0.99); B-cell lymphoma-2 protein: two studies (118 patients); PCC: 0.04 (95% CI –0.65 to 0.74); glucose-transporter 1: 10 studies (317 patients), PCC: 0.20 (95% CI 0.10–0.30).ConclusionSUVmax derived from 18F-FDG PET cannot reflect relevant histopathological features in HNSCC.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T15:32:22Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 LucileideCO_DISSERT.pdf: 2248988 bytes, checksum: f9aafad24354c13fb349a052f5b90d8e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-06-27 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cient?fico e Tecnol?gico / The expression of glucose transporter protein 1 (GLUT-1), as well the angiogenesis has been associated to clinical behavior and aggressiveness in tumors of various origin. It is believed that the expression of this protein denotes metabolic demand of the tumor cells and, thus its influence upon the formation of new blood vessels. Pleomorphic adenoma (PA) and the adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC) and mucoepidermoid carcinoma (MEC) represent, respectively, the most commom benign and malignant tumors of salivary glands. The aim of this study was to analyze and compare the immunohistochemical expression of GLUT-1 and its correlation with angiogenesis in cases of PAs, ACCs and MECs considering their histological grades. The sample consisted of 20 PAs, 20 ACCs and 10 MECs. The cases were analyzed and classified according to their histological grades. The expression of GLUT-1 was evaluated in the parenchyma lesions, establishing the percentage of immunopositive cells, according to the following scores: 0 (no cell immunomarked), 1 (up to 25% of tumor cells immunostained), 2 (25 - 50% of tumor cells immunostained) and 3 (more than 50% of tumor cells immunostained). The angiogenic index was analyzed by counting the microvessels immunostained by anti-CD34 antibody, in 5 fields (200X). The analysis of the expression of GLUT-1 in tumor parenchyma showed statistically significant differences between benign and malignant groups (p = 0.022). The average number of microvessels in PAs was 40.4, 21.2 in ACCs and 66.5 in MECs, with significant differences between groups (p <0.001). When compared to the expression of GLUT-1 and angiogenic index as a whole, there was no significant correlation between the number of microvessels and the expression of GLUT-1 (r = 0.211, p = 0.141). In conclusion, the results of this study suggest not only that differences in biological behavior between PAs, ACCs and MECs may be associated to the expression of GLUT-1, but also that benign and malignant salivary gland present differences in the average number of microvessels, with higher levels considered more aggressive tumors. Furthermore, the number of newly formed microvessels can be independent of the metabolic demand of the tumor cells / A express?o da prote?na transportadora de glicose tipo 1 (GLUT-1), bem como a angiog?nese, t?m sido relacionadas ao comportamento cl?nico e agressividade em neoplasias de origem diversas. Acredita-se que a express?o desta prote?na denote a demanda metab?lica das c?lulas tumorais e, assim, a sua influ?ncia na forma??o de novos vasos sanguineos. O adenoma pleom?rfico (AP) e o carcinoma adenoide c?stico (CAC) e carcinoma mucoepiderm?ide (CME) representam, respectivamente, a neoplasia benigna e as malignas mais frequentes das gl?ndulas salivares. O prop?sito deste estudo foi comparar a express?o imuno-histoqu?mica da GLUT-1, bem como correlacionar com a angiog?nese em casos de APs, CACs e CMEs levando em considera??o suas grada??es histol?gicas. A amostra foi composta por 20 APs, 20 CACs e 10 CMEs os quais foram classificados de acordo com os graus histol?gicos apresentados. A express?o da GLUT-1 foi avaliada no par?nquima das les?es, estabelecendo-se o percentual de c?lulas imunopositivas, de acordo com os escores: 0 (nenhuma c?lula imunomarcada), 1 (at? 25% das c?lulas tumorais imunomarcadas), 2 (de 25-50% das c?lulas tumorais imunomarcadas) e 3 (mais de 50% das c?lulas tumorais imunomarcadas). O ?ndice angiog?nico foi analisado por meio da contagem de microvasos imunomarcados pelo anticorpo anti-CD34, em 5 campos (200x). A an?lise da express?o da GLUT-1 revelou diferen?as estatisticamente significativas entre os grupos benignos e malignos (p = 0,022). O n?mero m?dio de microvasos foi de 40,4 em APs, 21,2 em CACs e 66,5 em CMEs, com diferen?as significativas entre os grupos (p < 0,001). Quando comparadas a express?o da GLUT-1 com o ?ndice angiog?nico em conjunto, n?o foi evidenciada correla??o significativa entre a quantidade de microvasos e a express?o da GLUT-1 (r = 0,211; p = 0,141). Os resultados do presente estudo sugerem que as diferen?as no comportamento biol?gico entre APs, CACs e CMEs podem estar relacionadas ? express?o da GLUT-1 e que tumores benignos e malignos de gl?ndulas salivares exibem diferen?as no n?mero m?dio de microvasos, com maiores ?ndices nos tumores considerados mais agressivos. Al?m disto, o n?mero de microvasos neoformados pode ser independente da demanda metab?lica das c?lulas tumorais

BAKGRUND Modifierad Atkins Diet (MAD) och ketogenkost är kostbehandlingar som ordineras till barn med svårbehandlad epilepsi. Andra patientgrupper som behandlas med dessa dieter är patienter med glukostransportprotein typ 1-brist. Kostbehandlingarna är kolhydratfattiga och fettrika. I Sverige finns fyra sjukhus som arbetar med MAD och ketogenkost. I dagsläget saknas studier som beskriver hur behandlingarna upplevs av berörda familjer. SYFTE Syftet med studien var att utforska hur föräldrar till barn som behandlas med MAD eller ketogenkost upplever kostbehandlingen. METOD Kvalitativa intervjuer baserade på en halvstrukturerad frågeguide har genomförts. Fem familjer från olika delar av landet deltog i studien. Intervjuerna spelades in med mp3-spelare för att sedan transkriberas ordagrant. Samtalen analyserades genom kvalitativ innehållsanalys. RESULTAT Föräldrarna berättade om en rädsla och oro inför behandlingsstarten och att introduktionsperioden som familjerna erbjöds inför kostbehandlingen visade sig vara mycket viktig för kommande behandlingsprocess. Föräldrarna upplevde det svårt att tillaga en varierad kost och att det var viktigt med adekvata hjälpmedel och regelbunden vårdkontakt för att kunna tillämpa kostbehandlingen i vardagslivet. Deras behov av stöd förändrades under behandlingsprocessen. Genomgående var att informanterna upplevde att de sociala aktiviteterna anpassades efter kostbehandlingen. Föräldrarna upplevde det som viktigt att ha kontakt med andra familjer i liknade situation. Trots att föräldrarna upplevde flera olika praktiska och sociala problem ansåg de ändå att det positiva, som var kopplat till behandlingens resultat övervägde. En förälder uttryckte sig med orden ”Vi fick tillbaka vårt barn”- vilket återspeglar många föräldrars åsikt om behandlingen. SLUTSATS MAD och ketogenkost kräver mycket tid och kunskap för berörda familjer och påverkar deras vardag både praktiska och socialt. Med stöd från vård, barnomsorg, familj och vänner upplevde föräldrarna att det var lättare att upprätthålla behandlingen. Det finns också ett behov av att få prata med andra föräldrar och familjer som är liknande situationer. / BACKGROUND Modified Atkins Diet (MAD) and Ketogenic Diet are treatments prescribed to children suffering from refractory epilepsy. Patients with glucose transporter protein type 1 deficiency are also commonly treated with these diets, which are low in carbohydrates and high in fat. In Sweden, there are four hospitals implementing these treatments, but there is currently not sufficient information on how they are affecting the families. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to explore how parents of children treated with MAD or Ketogenic Diet experience the treatment. METHOD Qualitative interviews based on a semi-structured topic guide was conducted. Five families from different parts of Sweden participated in this study. The interviews were recorded with an mp3 device and transcribed verbatim. Qualitative content analysis was used for data analysis. RESULT The parents disclosed anxiety before the start of the treatment and they acknowledged that the first week of introduction, which they, were offered before the start, proved to be essential for the rest of the treatment process. The families found it difficult to cook a balanced meal according to the dietary requriements, and also that it was important to have adequate resources and routine contact with health services to be able to apply the treatment to daily life. Their need for support changed during the treatment process. The informants believed their social activities were accommodated due to treatment. The parents felt the need to be in contact with other families in a similar situation. One parent expressed him-/herself with the words “We got our child back”, which reflects many parents view, regarding the treatment. CONCLUSION MAD and Ketogenic Diet require a lot of time and knowledge and affect practical and social aspects in daily living. With the support of health care, child care, family and friends, the parents felt it was easier to maintain treatment. The informants also shed light on the necessity of being in contact with other parents and families in similar situations.

Energy homeostasis is an important physiological mechanism essential for balancingenergy flow through the living systems by managing overall metabolism in the body. Thus, energy homeostasis is under a tight control by means of extremely well-regulated energy metabolism. One of the most common metabolic disorders that occur following disruption in energy homeostasis mechanisms is obesity. Obese individuals develop insulin resistance in the peripheral tissues (fat and muscle) and may also include non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Insulin resistance is the primary factor responsible for the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D). Towards control and management of T2D condition, insulin, drugs that regulate the insulin sensitivity and drugs that regulate glucose metabolism are widely used. Repeated insulin administration is painful, expensive and requires constant glucose monitoring while other drugs have various limitations and side effects. Therefore, there is wide scope development of new anti-diabetic molecules for effective management of T2D. Studies related to energy metabolism are necessary to understand the cause of such disorders and improve existing methods to manage metabolic abnormalities. Animal models to understand such metabolic disorders have been developed by chemical treatments and genetic modifications, but diet-induced obese (DIO) animal models appear to be the better among all the models reported. DIO animal models are known to most closely mimic the physiological situation. Apart from the experimental model system studies have been conducted under physiological conditions to gain knowledge on possible mechanisms behind energy balance maintained and established during extreme situations such as pregnancy and lactation. To support fetal growth and milk synthesis several metabolic adjustments occur during pregnancy and lactation without the major disruption in the maternal energy homeostasis. In the present study, to gain knowledge on the mother’s body glucose, lipid management and insulin responses throughout the gestation and lactation periods analyses were carried out during at different stages of pregnancy and lactation in rats. It was observed that during pregnancy, the dam developed insulin resistance in peripheral tissues with decreased activation of insulin pathway and reduced glucose utilization while the liver remained unaffected. Although, as soon as the lactation began, peripheral tissue such as muscle developed increased insulin sensitivity associated with increased expression of glucose transporter gene and higher glucose metabolism. The reversal of insulin response in the muscle tissue observed during lactation appears to be a suitable model system for understanding the process by which the body undergoes a transition from insulin resistant state to sensitive state under a physiological condition. Interestingly, early lactation period is known to have much lower levels of insulin available to act upon peripheral tissues. Factors involved in this transition could be potential therapeutic agents for control of T2D, since during early stages of T2D muscle appears to be the first metabolic organ to exhibit resistance to insulin. The undercarboxylated osteocalcin (UNOC) has been reported to function as anti-diabetic molecule. UNOC is released from skeletal system during bone turnover, especially due to resorption process. Experiments were carried out to examine the role of UNOC during the transition from insulin resistant state of pregnancy to sensitive state of lactation period. It was observed that UNOC levels were lower during pregnancy, but increased during early lactation (day 3 to 6 of lactation). The increased UNOC levels seen during early lactation was higher than the levels observed in non-pregnant, non-lactating (NPNL) rats and the UNOC levels decreased following removal of pups immediately after parturition. It was noted that altering UNOC levels during early lactation altered the insulin response of the whole body and muscle transporter-4 expression (glut4) of lactating rats. A significant increase in bone turnover was also observed during lactation compared to NPNL and pregnant rats. The data suggest that increased bone turnover leads to increased UNOC levels in blood during lactation. Estrogen is known as bone protector molecule which acts via its receptors, estrogen receptor α and β (ERα and β). It was reported that ERβ is a dominant regulator of estrogen signaling when both the receptors of estrogen i.e. ERα and ERβ coexist in the target tissue and estrogen levels are relatively higher. Compared to NPNL rats estrogen levels have shown to be higher during late pregnancy and lower during early lactation. It was observed that liver and adipose tissues largely express ERα, but the muscle showed expression of both the receptors in NPNL rats indicating that muscle is the metabolic tissue that may be modulated by both the receptors. It has been reported that ERβ suppresses ERα action on glut4 transcription in the myocytes. It is possible that the altered ERs ratio modulates glut4 expression during late pregnancy and early lactation. The receptor expression ratio data indicated that muscle is an ERβ dominant during late pregnancy, while it is ERα dominant during early lactation. Further, alteration in UNOC levels during early lactation changed ERs ratio but not sufficient enough to alter the ER dominance, indicating lack of effect of UNOC on ER dominance during early lactation. Experiments were conducted to alter insulin sensitivity during early lactation to extrapolate physiological findings to a pathological condition of the DIO model by feeding rats with high-fat diet (HFD). During early lactation, HFD dams had lower insulin response, lower circulatory UNOC level and lower UNOC receptor (GPRC6A) expression in the muscle. Gene expression of muscle glut4 was lower in HFD rats and the tissue remained ERα dominant indicating no role of HFD on ERs ratio in muscle during early lactation. UNOC has been found to have negative effect on lipid accumulation. During pregnancy, lipid accumulation is one of the first events essential for proper fetal development. Since UNOC levels were suppressed during pregnancy, experiments were carried out to examine relevance of UNOC suppression on lipid accumulation during early pregnancy. For this purpose, pharmacological approaches were utilized to alter UNOC levels during early pregnancy. It was observed that the transient elevation of UNOC levels caused decrease in maternal fat depots without changing circulatory triacylglyceride (TAG) levels. In experiments that decreased UNOC levels in NPNL state to mimic lower levels of UNOC present during early pregnancy, it was found fat storage was higher and TG was found to be lowered in the circulation. These results indicate that UNOC can cause a reduction in fat accumulation and TG levels but UNOC effects on TG levels, was not observed during pregnancy. The data taken together suggest that suppression of UNOC is required for better fat deposition in the mother’s body. Although, some studies have indicated an insulin response transition occurring during pregnancy to lactation, but the factors involved in this transition have not been reported. This report discusses about the factors such as UNOC and ERs and their involvement in the transition process. UNOC role has been studied in genetically modified models and in metabolic disorders such as obesity model system and evidence for physiological role of UNOC would further support its candidature as anti-diabetic molecule. The present research work is the first report to detail relevance of UNOC in physiological conditions such as pregnancy and lactation for glucose and lipid management.

No description available.

The evolution of depth‐perception visualization technologies, emerging format standardization work and research within the field of multi‐view 3D video and imagery addresses the need for flexible 3D video visualization. The wide variety of available 3D‐display types and visualization techniques for multi‐view video, as well as the high throughput requirements for high definition video, addresses the need for a real‐time 3D video playback solution that takes advantage of hardware accelerated graphics, while providing a high degree of flexibility through format configuration and cross‐platform interoperability. A modular component based software solution based on FFmpeg for video demultiplexing and video decoding is proposed,using OpenGL and GLUT for hardware accelerated graphics and POSIX threads for increased CPU utilization. The solution has been verified to have sufficient throughput in order to display 1080p video at the native video frame rate on the experimental system, which is considered as a standard high‐end desktop PC only using commercial hardware. In order to evaluate the performance of the proposed solution a number of throughput evaluation metrics have been introduced measuring average frame rate as a function of: video bit rate, video resolution and number of views. The results obtained have indicated that the GPU constitutes the primary bottleneck in a multi‐view lenticular rendering system and that multi‐view rendering performance is degraded as the number of views is increased. This is a result of the current GPU square matrix texture cache architectures, resulting in texture lookup access times according to random memory access patterns when the number of views is high. The proposed solution has been identified in order to provide low CPU efficiency, i.e. low CPU hardware utilization and it is recommended to increase performance by investigating the gains of scalable multithreading techniques. It is also recommended to investigate the gains of introducing video frame buffering in video memory or to move more calculations to the CPU in order to increase GPU performance.