Radiographic Association of Maxillary Sinus Volume in Patients with Deviated Nasal Septum: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

The nasal septum, composed of bone and cartilage, maintains nasal alignment and airflow. Deviation, common but potentially problematic, can lead to symptoms like congestion and sinusitis. Maxillary sinus, a key paranasal sinus, influences airflow and drainage. Nasal septum deviation can alter maxillary sinus volume, affecting airflow dynamics and drainage. Cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) and CT imaging are essential for assessing these conditions accurately, providing detailed 3D images and aiding in diagnosis and treatment planning. The study aims to review the radiographic association of maxillary sinus volume in patients with deviated nasal septum. The present review has been registered with PROSPERO-An international prospective register of systematic review CRD42023467988. Eligibility criteria: Studies from 2013 to 2022, in English, on maxillary sinus volume in deviated nasal septum patients. Exclusions: Animal studies, case reports, non-English articles. The Meta-analysis found that consistent association between nasal septum deviation and reduced maxillary sinus volume and no publication bias. The radiographic association of maxillary sinus volume in patients with deviated nasal septum was found to be statistically meaningful.

Six Weeks to Wellness: The Role of Breathing Exercises Based on Motor Development Pattern in Improving Fitness and Quality of Life in Overweight Elderly Women.

Background: Being overweight is a major global health epidemic of the 20th and 21st centuries, which can affect the movement system function of older adult women. This study evaluated the effects of a breathing exercise based on motor development patterns on functional fitness and quality of life in overweight older adult women. Methods: A randomized controlled trial was conducted with 40 community-dwelling women aged 65-75. Participants were randomly assigned to an intervention group, which completed a 6-week breathing exercise program (three supervised and three home-based sessions per week), or a control group, which maintained usual routines. Outcome measures included cardiovascular fitness, upper and lower body flexibility, muscle strength, dynamic balance, and quality of life, assessed at baseline and post-intervention. Results: The intervention group showed significant improvements in cardiovascular fitness (p < .001, ES = 0.652), upper body flexibility (p < .001, ES = 0.652), lower body flexibility (p < .001, ES = 0.538), upper body strength (p < .001, ES = 0.538), lower body strength (p < .001, ES = 0.538), and dynamic balance (p < .001, ES = 0.475) compared to the control group. Quality of life also significantly improved in the intervention group (p < .001, ES = 0.475). Conclusion: Breathing exercises based on motor development patterns significantly enhance functional fitness and quality of life in overweight older adult women. Incorporating these exercises into regular physical activity routines may promote health and independence in older adults. Further research should explore long-term benefits and optimal exercise parameters for older adults.

Unraveling the intricate link between cell death and neuroinflammation using Drosophila as a model.

Protein aggregation is a common pathological occurrence in neurodegenerative diseases. This often leads to neuroinflammation, which exacerbates the aggregation and progression of diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. Here, we focus on immune responses and neurotoxicity in a Parkinson's disease model in Drosophila. Mutations in the SNCA gene that encodes the alpha (α)-Synuclein protein have been linked to familial Parkinson's disease, disrupting autophagy regulation in neuronal cells and promoting the formation of Lewy bodies, a hallmark of Parkinson's pathology. This results in the loss of dopaminergic neurons, manifesting as movement disorders. α-Synuclein aggregation triggers innate immune responses by activating microglial cells, leading to phagocytic activity and the expression of neuroprotective antimicrobial peptides (AMPs). However, sustained AMP expression or chronic inflammation resulting from inadequate microglial phagocytosis can induce neuronal toxicity and apoptosis, leading to severe dopaminergic neuron loss. This review underscores the mechanistic connection between immune response pathways and α-Synuclein-mediated neurodegeneration using Drosophila models. Furthermore, we extensively explore factors influencing neuroinflammation and key immune signaling pathways implicated in neurodegenerative diseases, particularly Parkinson's disease. Given the limited success of traditional treatments, recent research has focused on therapies targeting inflammatory signaling pathways. Some of these approaches have shown promising results in animal models and clinical trials. We provide an overview of current therapeutic strategies showing potential in treating neurodegenerative diseases, offering new avenues for future research and treatment development.

Compressible turbulent plane channel DNS datasets.

The database contains detailed statistics of compressible turbulent plane channel (TPC) flow, obtained from direct numerical simulation (DNS), with a very-high-order massively parallel solver of the compressible Navier-Stokes equations. It contains datasets for 25 different flow conditions determined by the corresponding HCB friction Reynolds number and centerline Mach number, covering the ranges 100 ⪅ R e τ ★ ⪅ 1000 and 0.3 ⪅ M ¯ CL x ⪅ 2.5 . All calculations are for strictly isothermal wall conditions at temperature T w = 298 K in a medium-size (MB) computational box ( 8 π δ × 2 δ × 4 π δ where 2 δ is the channel-height). Statistics (moments and pdfs) were collected after the elimination of the transient, and post-processed to create the dataset, which contains only plain text (.txt) space-separated multicolumn files for ease of use. The dataset for each flow-condition is tagged by the values of ( R e τ ★ , M ¯ CL x ) and is organized in 4 directories: (0) global data files, (1) profiles and budgets (meanflow profiles, velocity-moments up to 6-order, budgets of Reynolds-stresses transport, turbulent fluxes appearing in transport equations for velocity-moments and thermodynamic quantities, correlation coefficients between thermodynamic variables, and skewness and flatness profiles) as a function of the wall-distance, (2) single-variable probability density functions (pdfs) for numerous flow quantities at selected wall-normal distances, and (3) two-variable joint pdfs for numerous couples of flow-quantities at the same selected wall-normal distances.

Single versus multiple metabolite quantification of in vitro starch digestion: A comparison for the case of pulse cotyledon cells.

Different quantification methods for in vitro amylolysis were compared for individual chickpea and lentil cotyledon cells (ICC) as a relevant case study. For the first time, much-applied spectrophotometric methods relying on the quantification of certain functional groups (i.e., DNS, GOPOD) were compared to chromatographic quantification of starch metabolites (HPLC-ELSD). The estimated rate constant and linked initial rates of amylolysis were highly correlated for DNS, GOPOD, and HPLC-ELSD. However, absolute amylolysis levels depended on the applied method and sample-specific metabolite formation patterns. Multiresponse modelling was employed to further investigate HPLC-ELSD metabolite formation patterns. This delivered insight into the relative importance of different amylolysis reactions during in vitro digestion of pulse ICC, proving that maltotriose and maltose formation determined the overall amylolysis rate in this case. Multiresponse reaction rate constants of maltotriose and maltose formation were highly correlated to single response amylolysis rate constants (and initial rates) obtained for all three quantification methods.

Reducing DNS Traffic to Enhance Home IoT Device Privacy.

The deployment of Internet of Things (IoT) devices is widespread in different environments, including homes. Although security is incorporated, homes can become targets for cyberattacks because of their vulnerabilities. IoT devices generate Domain Name Server (DNS) traffic primarily for communication with Internet servers. In this paper, we present a detailed analysis of DNS traffic from IoT devices. The queried domains are highly distinctive, enabling attackers to easily identify the IoT device. In addition, we observed an unexpectedly high volume of queries. The analysis reveals that the same domains are repeatedly queried, DNS queries are transmitted in plain text over User Datagram Protocol (UDP) port 53 (Do53), and the excessive generation of traffic poses a security risk by amplifying an attacker's ability to identify IoT devices and execute more precise, targeted attacks, consequently escalating the potential compromise of the entire IoT ecosystem. We propose a simple measure that can be taken to reduce DNS traffic generated by IoT devices, thus preventing it from being used as a vector to identify the types of devices present in the network. This measure is based on the implementation of the DNS cache in the devices; caching few resources increases privacy considerably.

Numerical investigation of the effect of air layer on drag reduction in channel flow over a superhydrophobic surface.

This study investigates the effects of an air layer on drag reduction and turbulence dynamics in channel flow over a superhydrophobic surface (SHS). Employing the OpenFOAM platform, direct numerical simulation was conducted to investigate turbulent channel flow with an air layer over an SHS. The simulations, which take into account the interaction between water and air, analyze various parameters such as velocity distribution, drag reduction (DR), Reynolds stress, turbulent kinetic energy (TKE), and coherent structures near the water-air interface. The presence of an air layer significantly alters the velocity distribution, leading to higher velocities at the interface compared to simulations without the air layer. Notably, the thickness of the air layer emerges as an important factor, with larger thicknesses resulting in increased velocities and drag reduction. This study underscores the substantial impact of the air layer on TKE near the superhydrophobic surface, emphasizing its role in understanding and optimizing drag reduction. Furthermore, the nonlinear relationship between slip velocity, Q contours, and coherent structures near the SHS are investigated.

A user DNS fingerprint dataset.

Using a user DNS fingerprint allows one to identify a specific network user regardless of the knowledge of his IP address. This method is proper, for example, when examining the behavior of a monitored network user in more depth. In contrast to other studies, this work introduces a dataset for possible user identification based only on the knowledge of its DNS fingerprint created from the previously sent DNS queries. We created a large dataset from the real network traffic of a metropolitan Internet service provider. The dataset was created from 2.3 billion DNS queries representing 6.2 million different domain names. The data collection took place over three months from 12/2023 to 02/2024. The dataset contains a detailed user activity description in the sense of overall daily activity statistics and detailed 24 h activity statistics. Each dataset record contains a list of 1137 classification attributes. The absolutely unique feature of this data set is the classification of user activity based on categories of content accessed by a user. The new dataset can be used for the creation of machine learning models, allowing the identification of a specific user without direct knowledge of their IP addresses or additional network location information. The dataset can also serve as a reference dataset for the creation of DNS fingerprints of users.

Analyzing global utilization and missed opportunities in debt-for-nature swaps with generative AI.

We deploy a prompt-augmented GPT-4 model to distill comprehensive datasets on the global application of debt-for-nature swaps (DNS), a pivotal financial tool for environmental conservation. Our analysis includes 195 nations and identifies 21 countries that have not yet used DNS before as prime candidates for DNS. A significant proportion demonstrates consistent commitments to conservation finance (0.86 accuracy as compared to historical swaps records). Conversely, 35 countries previously active in DNS before 2010 have since been identified as unsuitable. Notably, Argentina, grappling with soaring inflation and a substantial sovereign debt crisis, and Poland, which has achieved economic stability and gained access to alternative EU conservation funds, exemplify the shifting suitability landscape. The study's outcomes illuminate the fragility of DNS as a conservation strategy amid economic and political volatility.

Short-term effectiveness of single-dose intranasal spray COVID-19 vaccine against symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 Omicron infection in healthcare workers: a prospective cohort study.

Background: The pivotal phase 3 efficacy clinical trial has demonstrated that a two-dose regimen of dNS1-RBD (Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy Enterprise, Beijing, China) is well-tolerated and provides wide protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection. However, the effectiveness of a single-dose regimen is still unknown. We aimed to estimate the effectiveness of one-dose of dNS1-RBD against symptomatic Omicron infections in real-world conditions. Methods: This prospective cohort study was conducted during an Omicron outbreak among healthcare workers in Xiamen, China, from December 22, 2022 to January 16, 2023. Participants chose to receive single-dose of dNS1-RBD or remain unvaccinated based on personal preference. Healthcare workers daily validated their SARS-CoV-2 infection status, using either RT-PCR or rapid antigen test. A survey questionnaire was conducted to gather information on acute symptoms from individuals infected with SARS-CoV-2. The primary outcome was the symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections after enrollment in the dNS1-RBD recipients or the control group among all participants and by prior COVID-19 vaccination status. Findings: On December 22, 2022, a total of 1391 eligible participants without a history of prior SARS-CoV-2 infection were enrolled. Among them, 550 received single-dose of dNS1-RBD, while 841 remained unvaccinated. In the total cohort, the range of follow-up time was 1∼26 days. During the study period, a total of 880 symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections were identified in the total cohort. The adjusted vaccine effectiveness against symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections and the infections requiring medical attention were 19.0% (95% CI: 6.7, 29.7, P = 0.004) and 59.4% (95% CI: 25.1, 78.0, P = 0.004) in the total cohort, 11.6% (95% CI: -2.4, 23.7, P = 0.100) and 55.3% (95% CI: 15.3, 76.4, P = 0.014) in the participants with inactivated COVID-19 vaccination history, as well as 87.0% (95% CI: 72.6, 93.9, P < 0.001) and 84.2% (95% CI: -41.8, 98.2, P = 0.099) in the naïve participants, respectively. Interpretation: When administered as a booster to individuals with a history of inactivated COVID-19 vaccination, a single-dose of dNS1-RBD provides protection against infections requiring medical attention at least in the short-term after vaccination. The data also showed that a single-dose of dNS1-RBD is protective against symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections as a primary immunization for individuals without prior exposure, but due to the limited sample size of naïve participants, further research with a larger sample size is needed to make a solid conclusion. Funding: Xiamen Science and Technology Bureau 2022 General Science and Technology Plan Project and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Band gap, Jahn-Teller deformation, octahedra rotation in transition metal perovskites LaTiO 3 .

The LaTiO 3 perovskite (where Ti is in a d1 state) is investigated by using an all electron Gaussian basis and many functionals, ranging from pure GGA (PBE), to hybrids (full range, B3LYP and PBE0, and range separated, HSE06) to Hartree Fock. Recently, Varignon et al. (Phys. Rev. Res 1, 033131, 2019), showed that, when GGA+U or HSE06 are used, a metallic solution and fractional occupancy of the t 2 g subshell are obtained. Here, it is shown that when a full range hybrid functional is used, an integer occupancy is obtained, as suggested by the Jahn-Teller theorem. When the exact exchange percentage varies from 0 to 100, the system is insulating when it exceeds 20. By reducing progressively the symmetry from cubic down to orthorhombic, the relative importance of the Jahn-Teller deformation and of the rotation of the octahedra is explored.

Inhibiting cholesterol de novo synthesis promotes hepatocellular carcinoma progression by upregulating prostaglandin E synthase 2-mediated arachidonic acid metabolism under high fatty acid conditions.

Inhibition of cholesterol de novo synthesis (DNS) by statins has controversial effects on the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). High fatty acid conditions have been reported to limit the effect of statins on metabolism diseases. Whether high fatty acid conditions interfere with the effect of statins on HCC remains unclear. Here, we reported that inhibiting cholesterol DNS with atorvastatin promoted the oncogenic capabilities of diethylnitrosamine (DEN) in mice fed high fatty acid diets (HFD). The combined analysis of metabolomics and transcriptomics revealed that arachidonic acid (AA) metabolism was the most significant changed pathway between mice with and without atorvastatin treatment. In vitro, in the presence of AA precursor linoleic acid (LA), atorvastatin promoted the proliferation and migration ability of HCC cell lines. However, in the absence of LA, these phenomena disappeared. TCGA and tissue microarray examination revealed that prostaglandin e synthase 2 (PTGES2), a key enzyme in AA metabolism, was associated with the poor outcome of HCC patients. Overexpression of PTGES2 promoted the proliferation and migration of HCC cell lines, and knockdown of PTGES2 inhibited the proliferation and migration of cells. Additionally, atorvastatin upregulated PTGES2 expression by enhancing Sterol-regulatory element binding protein 2 (SREBP2)-mediated transcription. Knockdown of PTGES2 reversed the proliferation and migration ability enhanced by atorvastatin. Overall, our study reveals that a high fatty acid background is one of the possible conditions limiting the application of statins in HCC, under which statins promote the progression of HCC by enhancing SREBP2-mediated PTGES2 transcription.

SERS detection of triazole pesticide residues on vegetables and fruits using Au decahedral nanoparticles.

Triazole pesticides are widely used in modern agricultural practices to improve agricultural production quality. Simultaneously, unreasonable and standardized use of triazole pesticides could induce a series of potential diseases of humans. Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy has attracted enormous research attention because of its label-free and fingerprint detection capability to noninvasively trace extremely low concentration analytes. To the best of our knowledge, there is a lack of systematic comparison regarding the Raman spectral information of triazole pesticides in existing literatures. In this work, we successfully captured the characteristic peaks of six different triazole pesticides individually and simultaneously using Au decahedral nanoparticles. The proposed method exhibited remarkable detection sensitivity, a wide dynamic range, and the capability for in-situ detection of multiple pesticide residues on bean, apple, and vegetable surfaces with satisfactory recovery rates. Therefore, our proposed SERS platform have great applications in agricultural products safety, environmental monitoring and other fields.

Using Human-Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell Derived Neurons on Microelectrode Arrays to Model Neurological Disease: A Review.

In situ physiological signals of in vitro neural disease models are essential for studying pathogenesis and drug screening. Currently, an increasing number of in vitro neural disease models are established using human-induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC) derived neurons (hiPSC-DNs) to overcome interspecific gene expression differences. Microelectrode arrays (MEAs) can be readily interfaced with two-dimensional (2D), and more recently, three-dimensional (3D) neural stem cell-derived in vitro models of the human brain to monitor their physiological activity in real time. Therefore, MEAs are emerging and useful tools to model neurological disorders and disease in vitro using human iPSCs. This is enabling a real-time window into neuronal signaling at the network scale from patient derived. This paper provides a comprehensive review of MEA's role in analyzing neural disease models established by hiPSC-DNs. It covers the significance of MEA fabrication, surface structure and modification schemes for hiPSC-DNs culturing and signal detection. Additionally, this review discusses advances in the development and use of MEA technology to study in vitro neural disease models, including epilepsy, autism spectrum developmental disorder (ASD), and others established using hiPSC-DNs. The paper also highlights the application of MEAs combined with hiPSC-DNs in detecting in vitro neurotoxic substances. Finally, the future development and outlook of multifunctional and integrated devices for in vitro medical diagnostics and treatment are discussed.

Chromogenic Assay Is More Efficient in Identifying α-Amylase Inhibitory Properties of Anthocyanin-Rich Samples When Compared to the 3,5-Dinitrosalicylic Acid (DNS) Assay.

The inhibition of carbohydrate digestion by plant bioactive compounds is a potential dietary strategy to counteract type 2 diabetes. Indeed, inhibition of α-amylase, a key enzyme that carries out the bulk of starch digestion, has been demonstrated for a range of bioactive compounds including anthocyanins; however, sample pigmentation often interferes with measurements, affecting colorimetric assay outcomes. Therefore, the present study compared the performance of a direct chromogenic assay, using 2-chloro-4 nitrophenyl α-D-maltotrioside (CNPG3) as a substrate, with the commonly used 3,5-dinitrosalicylic acid (DNS) assay. The direct chromogenic assay demonstrated a 5-10-fold higher sensitivity to determine α-amylase inhibition in various samples, including acarbose as a reference, pure anthocyanins, and anthocyanin-rich samples. The IC50 values of acarbose presented as 37.6 µg/mL and 3.72 µg/mL for the DNS assay and the direct chromogenic assay, respectively, whereas purified anthocyanins from blackcurrant showed IC50 values of 227.4 µg/mL and 35.0 µg/mL. The direct chromogenic assay is easy to perform, fast, reproducible, and suitable for high-throughput screening of pigmented α-amylase inhibitors.

The Variations in Deviation of Nasal Septum and their Impact on Maxillary Sinus Volume and Occurrence of Sinusitis.

To study the effect of variations in deviation of the nasal septum and their impact on maxillary sinus volume and occurrence of sinusitis. This prospective observational study was conducted in the department of ENT, Head &Neck surgery GMC Jammu from August 2021 to November 2022. 130 patients (90 males, 40 females), with age range of 18-47 years with DNS were included in the study. Grade of DNS was classified according to Mladina's classification and volume of maxillary sinus was calculated using geometric formula by performing 256 slice CT Scan. In our study mean age of the males was 32.8 ± 6.99 years and females was 33.7 ± 7.26 years with Male: Female ratio of 9:4.Patients with grade 1 DNS had mean maxillary sinus volume of 9.9 ± 1.97 cu mm while patients with grade 7 DNS had mean maxillary sinus volume of 3.8 ± 1.47 cu mm. Thus, with the increasing grade of DNS, the OMC blockage increased towards the side of DNS and so the occurrence of maxillary sinusitis. The study showed that with high grade DNS, the maxillary sinus volume decreases on the side of septum deviation and there is association of blocked OMC with increasing grade of DNS. The incidence of maxillary sinusitis findings on the side of septum deviation was significantly increased.

Effect of Dynamic Neuromuscular Stabilization and Vojta Therapy on Respiratory Complications in Neuromuscular Diseases: A Literature Review.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to review the literature on the effect of dynamic neuromuscular stabilization (DNS)/Vojta on respiratory complications of neuromuscular diseases. Methods: The search strategy was conducted, based on the population, intervention, comparison, and outcome method, in the PubMed, Embase, ISI Web of Knowledge, ProQuest, and Scopus databases from inception to August 2021. The quality assessment of included papers was performed through the Physiotherapy Evidence Database scale. A narrative analysis was performed since a meta-analysis could not be conducted. Results: A total of 7 papers were chosen for the final assessment. All studies, except 1, evaluated individuals with neurological disease. Three studies evaluated Vojta therapy effects, and 4 studies evaluated DNS effects on respiratory parameters. Although the studies had limitations in their methodology according to the Physiotherapy Evidence Database scale, 4 were identified as level 1 evidence. None of the studies reported any adverse effects of Vojta therapy or DNS on respiratory parameters. However, not enough clinical trials were found to examine the effect of DNS on respiratory disease. Conclusion: Although the studies were weak in internal and external validity, this review suggests that Vojta therapy and DNS may influence respiratory parameters, such as blood gases, diaphragm movements, and functional respiratory parameters, in patients with neuromuscular diseases.

Enhance the oral insulin delivery route using a modified chitosan-based formulation fabricated by microwave.

Chitosan (Cs) was subjected to ball milling and subsequently functionalized with Dinitro salicylic acid (Cs-DNS) to enhance the efficacy of oral insulin delivery. The hydrodynamic spherical particle sizes exhibited 33.29 ± 5.08 nm for modified Cs-DNS NPs. Irrespective of insulin entrapment, zeta potential measurements revealed positively charged Cs-DNS NPs (+ 35 ± 3.5 mV). The entrapment performance (EP%) was evaluated in vitro, and insulin release patterns at various pH levels. The EP% for Cs-DNS NPs was 99.3 ± 1.6. Cs- DNS NPs retained a considerable amount of insulin (92 %) in an acidic medium, and significant quantities were released at increasing pH values over time. In vivo investigations, the diabetic rats which taken insulin-incorporated NPs had lower serum glucose levels (SGL) after 3 h to (39.4 ± 0.6 %) for Cs- DNS NPs. For insulin-incorporated Cs- DNS NPs, the bioavailability (BA%) and pharmacological availability (PA%) were 17.5 ± 0.31 % and 8.6 ± 0.8 %, respectively. The assertion above highlights the significance and effectiveness of modified chitosan in promoting insulin delivery, decreasing SGL levels, and guaranteeing safety.