Due to the absolute need for arginine that certain cancer cells have, arginine depletion is a therapy in clinical trials to treat several types of cancers. Arginine is an amino acids utilized not only as a precursor for other important molecules, but also for protein synthesis. Because arginine depletion can potentially exacerbate the progressive loss of body weight, and especially lean body ma...

Background Anecdotal evidence suggests that a high proportion of patients diagnosed with HIV in Guatemala present with AIDS. There remain limited data on the epidemiology of AIDS-defining illnesses (ADIs) in Central America. Methods We conducted a retrospective cohort study of all patients living with HIV at the largest HIV clinic in Guatemala. Charts were analyzed for clinical and demographi...

This study was suggested by previous work on the simulation of evolution equations with scale-dependent processes, e.g., wave-propagation or heat-transfer, that are modeled by wave equations or heat equations. Here, we study both parabolic and hyperbolic equations. We focus on ADI (alternating direction implicit) methods and LOD (locally one-dimensional) methods, which are standard splitting me...

BACKGROUND Multivitamin/multimineral (MVM) supplements are commonly consumed by the general population, but little is known regarding their composition and compliance with local regulations. We assessed the composition and compliance with regulations [no indication in the label of vitamin/minerals amounting <15% of the acceptable daily intake (ADI)] of MVM available in Switzerland. METHODS Th...

Adipose tissue dysfunction related to obesity is overwhelmingly associated with increased risk of developing cardiovascular diseases. In the setting of obesity, (pro)renin receptor (PRR) is increased in adipose tissue of mice. We sought to determine the physiological consequences of adipocyte-PRR deficiency using adiponectin-Cre mice. We report a unique model of adipocyte-PRR-deficient mice (PR...

BACKGROUND There is great interest in the relationship between polyunsaturated fatty acids and health. Yet, the combinatory effect of factors such as sex, ethnicity, genetic polymorphisms and hormonal contraceptives (HC) on the concentrations of these fatty acids is unknown. Therefore, we sought to determine the effects of FADS polymorphisms, and HC use in females, on aggregate desaturase indic...

We consider new high-order Alternating Direction Implicit (ADI) schemes for the numerical solution of initial-boundary value problems for convection-diffusion equations with cross derivative terms. Our approach is based on the unconditionally stable ADI scheme proposed by Hundsdorfer [12]. Different numerical discretizations which lead to schemes which are fourth-order accurate in space and sec...

BACKGROUND Depressive disorders are highly prevalent and of significant societal burden. In fall 2004, the 'Alberta Depression Initiative' (ADI) research program was formed with a mission to enhance the mental health of the Alberta population. A key expectation of the ADI is that research findings will be effectively translated to appropriate research users. To help ensure this, one of the init...