Assessing the impact of climate change on reproductive health: A content analysis of climate journalism coverage.

complications, infectious diseases, maternal and infant health in disasters, gender-based violence, healthcare access inequities, mental health impacts, and food security issues. Findings reveal an uneven distribution of coverage across continents, with potential language bias in English-dominated sources. Acknowledging limitations, future research directions emphasize a more inclusive approach, incorporating diverse linguistic perspectives and qualitative exploration of community experiences. The study underscores the imperative for global representation in media discourse This research explores the intricate relationship between climate change and reproductive health through an analysis of 1000 global news articles from 2018 onwards. Utilizing Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), key topics in media coverage are identified, encompassing fertility challenges, pregnancy and advocates for comprehensive, evidence-based strategies to address the complex interplay between climate change and reproductive health.

Cette recherche explore la relation complexe entre le changement climatique et la santé reproductive à travers une analyse de 1 000 articles de presse mondiaux à partir de 2018. Grâce à l'allocation de Dirichlet latente (LDA), des sujets clés de la couverture médiatique sont identifiés, englobant les problèmes de fertilité, les complications de la grossesse, les maladies infectieuses, la santé maternelle et infantile en cas de catastrophe, la violence sexiste, les inégalités d'accès aux soins de santé, les impacts sur la santé mentale et les problèmes de sécurité alimentaire. . Les résultats révèlent une répartition inégale de la couverture à travers les continents, avec un biais linguistique potentiel dans les sources à dominante anglaise. Reconnaissant les limites, les futures orientations de recherche mettent l'accent sur une approche plus inclusive, intégrant diverses perspectives linguistiques et une exploration qualitative des expériences communautaires. L'étude souligne l'impératif d'une représentation mondiale dans le discours médiatique et préconise des stratégies globales et fondées sur des preuves pour aborder l'interaction complexe entre le changement climatique et la santé reproductive.

Predicting agricultural and meteorological droughts using Holt Winter Conventional 2D-Long Short-Term Memory (HW-Conv2DLSTM).

Drought is an extended shortage of rainfall resulting in water scarcity and affecting a region's social and economic conditions through environmental deterioration. Its adverse environmental effects can be minimised by timely prediction. Drought detection uses only ground observation stations, but satellite-based supervision scans huge land mass stretches and offers highly effective monitoring. This paper puts forward a novel drought monitoring system using satellite imagery by considering the effects of droughts that devastated agriculture in Thanjavur district, Tamil Nadu, between 2000 and 2022. The proposed method uses Holt Winter Conventional 2D-Long Short-Term Memory (HW-Conv2DLSTM) to forecast meteorological and agricultural droughts. It employs Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Station (CHIRPS) data precipitation index datasets, MODIS 11A1 temperature index, and MODIS 13Q1 vegetation index. It extracts the time series data from satellite images using trend and seasonal patterns and smoothens them using Holt Winter alpha, beta, and gamma parameters. Finally, an effective drought prediction procedure is developed using Conv2D-LSTM to calculate the spatiotemporal correlation amongst drought indices. The HW-Conv2DLSTM offers a better R2 value of 0.97. It holds promise as an effective computer-assisted strategy to predict droughts and maintain agricultural productivity, which is vital to feed the ever-increasing human population.

Adverse Cardiovascular Outcomes Among Older Adults With Primary Hyperparathyroidism Treated With Parathyroidectomy Versus Nonoperative Management.

OBJECTIVE: The authors sought to compare the incidence of adverse cardiovascular (CV) events in older adults with primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) treated with parathyroidectomy versus nonoperative management. BACKGROUND: PHPT is a common endocrine disorder that is associated with increased CV mortality, but it is not known whether parathyroidectomy reduces the incidence of adverse CV events. METHODS: The authors conducted a population-based, longitudinal cohort study of Medicare beneficiaries diagnosed with PHPT (2006-2017). Multivariable, inverse probability weighted Cox proportional hazards regression was used to determine the associations of parathyroidectomy with major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs), CV disease-related hospitalization, and CV hospitalization-associated mortality. RESULTS: The authors identified 210,206 beneficiaries diagnosed with PHPT from 2006 to 2017. Among 63,136 (30.0%) treated with parathyroidectomy and 147,070 (70.0%) managed nonoperatively within 1 year of diagnosis, the unadjusted incidence of MACE was 10.0% [mean follow-up 59.1 (SD 35.6) months] and 11.5% [mean follow-up 54.1 (SD 34.0) months], respectively. In multivariable analysis, parathyroidectomy was associated with a lower incidence of MACE [hazard ratio (HR): 0.92; 95% confidence interval (95% CI): 0.90-0.94], CV disease-related hospitalization (HR: 0.89; 95% CI: 0.87-0.91), and CV hospitalization-associated mortality (HR: 0.76; 95% CI: 0.71-0.81) compared to nonoperative management. At 10 years, parathyroidectomy was associated with adjusted absolute risk reduction for MACE of 1.7% (95% CI: 1.3%-2.1%), for CV disease-related hospitalization of 2.5% (95% CI: 2.1%-2.9%), and for CV hospitalization-associated mortality of 1.4% (95% CI: 1.2%-1.6%). CONCLUSIONS: In this large, population-based cohort study, parathyroidectomy was associated with a lower long-term incidence of adverse CV outcomes when compared with nonoperative management for older adults with PHPT, which is relevant to surgical decision making for patients with a long life expectancy.

Habitual sleep and kidney function in chronic kidney disease: the Chronic Renal Insufficiency Cohort study.

Physiological evidence suggests that sleep modulates kidney function. Our objective was to examine the cross-sectional association between kidney function and objectively-estimated habitual sleep duration, quality and timing in a cohort of patients with mild to moderate chronic kidney disease. This study involved two US clinical centers of the Chronic Renal Insufficiency Cohort (CRIC) study, including 432 participants in a CRIC ancillary sleep study. Habitual sleep duration, quality and timing were measured using wrist actigraphy for 5-7 days. Validated sleep questionnaires assessed subjective sleep quality, daytime sleepiness and risk of sleep apnea. Kidney function was assessed with the estimated glomerular filtration rate using the Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration equation, and the urinary protein to creatinine ratio. Lower estimated glomerular filtration rate was associated with shorter sleep duration (-1.1 mL min-1  1.73 m-2 per hour less sleep, P = 0.03), greater sleep fragmentation (-2.6 mL min-1  1.73 m-2 per 10% higher fragmentation, P < 0.001) and later timing of sleep (-0.9 mL min-1  1.73 m-2 per hour later, P = 0.05). Higher protein to creatinine ratio was also associated with greater sleep fragmentation (approximately 28% higher per 10% higher fragmentation, P < 0.001). Subjective sleep quality, sleepiness and persistent snoring were not associated with estimated glomerular filtration rate or protein to creatinine ratio. Thus, worse objective sleep quality was associated with lower estimated glomerular filtration rate and higher protein to creatinine ratio. Shorter sleep duration and later sleep timing were also associated with lower estimated glomerular filtration rate. Physicians treating patients with chronic kidney disease should consider inquiring about sleep and possibly sending for clinical sleep assessment. Longitudinal and interventional trials are needed to understand causal direction.

Draft genome sequence of 'Candidatus Phytoplasma asteris,' strain SW86 associated with sandal spike disease (SSD).

The sandal spike disease (SSD), related to 'Ca. Phytoplasma asteris' (Aster Yellows group), poses a significant threat to Indian sandalwood (Santalum album L.), making it the second most expensive wood globally due to declining population density. The epidemiology of SSD and the nature of the pathogen remain poorly understood. The SW86 isolate, collected from the Marayoor Sandalwood Reserve, was chosen for genome sequencing subsequent to confirming its titer and enriching phytoplasma DNA. Genome sequencing, utilizing Illumina and Oxford Nanopore Technology platforms, enabled a targeted hybrid metagenomic assembly resulting in 20 scaffolds totaling 554,025 bp, housing 436 protein-coding genes, 27 tRNA, and 1 rRNA operon. The genome analysis highlighted specific gene distributions, emphasizing translation, ribosomal structure, and biogenesis, with 352 genes assigned to 18 functional categories. Additionally, 322 proteins received functional assignments in the KEGG database, emphasizing 'Genetic Information Processing' and 'Environmental Information Processing'. Key potential pathogenicity factors, including signal peptide proteins and virulence proteins, were identified. Noteworthy findings include homologs of effectors genes like SAP11 and SAP05 and pathogenesis-related proteins, such as hemolysin III and SodA genes, in the SW86 genome. The duplicated cation-transporting P-type ATPase in the SW86 genome suggests a role in enhancing adaptability and contributing to the severity of SSD symptoms. This genome analysis provides crucial insights into the genomic features and potential virulence factors of 'Ca. Phytoplasma asteris' strain SW86, advancing our understanding of pathogenicity mechanisms and offering avenues for future disease management strategies in Indian sandalwood. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13205-024-03952-5.

Evaluation of Bond Strength and Adhesive Remnant Index of Different Lingual Retainers in Human Incisor Teeth.

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate and compare the bond strengths of four different lingual retainers and assess the adhesive remnant index (ARI) to determine their effectiveness in orthodontic retention. Methodology: Eighty human incisor teeth were divided into four groups, with each group bonded using a different retainer: Group 1 (E-Glass retainer), Group 2 (0.017" Co-axial stainless steel wire), Group 3 (Splint C.T. fiber mesh), and Group 4 (0.010" stainless steel ligature wire). Bond strength was measured using a universal testing machine, and ARI scores were recorded to assess bond failure types. Results: Group 1 (E-Glass retainer) demonstrated the highest bond strength, followed by Group 3 (Splint C.T. fiber mesh), Group 2 (Co-axial stainless steel wire), and Group 4 (stainless steel ligature wire). Cohesive bond failures were observed in most groups, except for the co-axial stainless steel wire group, which exhibited adhesive failures. Conclusion: E-Glass fiber-reinforced retainers showed the highest bond strength, making them a promising alternative to conventional stainless steel wires for orthodontic retention, especially in patients with esthetic concerns or nickel hypersensitivity. Stainless steel retainer groups exhibited lower bond strengths, and cohesive bond failures were prevalent. Further research is needed to validate these findings in clinical settings and evaluate the long-term effectiveness of different lingual retainers.

Protection against oxidative stress caused by intermittent cold exposure by combined supplementation with vitamin E and C in the aging rat hypothalamus.

This study investigated the effects of combined supplementation with vitamin E and C against oxidative stress (OS) caused by intermittent cold exposure (ICE) in the hypothalamus (HY) of aging male Wistar rats [adult (3-months), middle-aged (18-months) and old (24-months)]. Each age was divided into sub-groups: control (CON), cold-exposed at 10 °C (C10), cold-exposed at 5 °C (C5), supplemented control (CON+S) and supplemented cold-exposed at either 5 °C (C5+S) or 10 °C (C10+S). The supplement was a daily dose of 400 mg vitamin C and 50 IU of vitamin E/kg body weight. Cold exposure lasted 2 h/day for 4 weeks. All age groups exposed to cold showed increase in body mass and feeding efficiency. Feeding efficiency in the supplemented old group showed a statistically significant increase in the cold (p < 0.001). Age-related increases in levels of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), protein carbonyl (PrC), advanced oxidation protein products and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) were further increased by cold in the HY. Cold reduced thiol(P-SH) levels and increased superoxide dismutase (SOD) and, catalase (CAT) activities as well as Hsp72 levels. However, supplementation lowered H2O2, PrC and TBARS with decreases in Hsp72 levels and in SOD and CAT activities. These changes were concomitant with elevations in P-SH, vitamin E and C levels. The results show that the OS caused by ICE in the HY and its subsequent protection following supplementation is related to the intensity of ICE as well as age of the animal. Immunohistochemical studies are underway to examine the findings on ICE-induced oxidative injury in the HY, and the prospects for vitamin E and C supplementation in the senescent.

Evaluation of stress distribution values at the temporomandibular joint and distalization of teeth during en-masse retraction of the mandibular dentition using buccal shelf bone screws: A FEM study.

INTRODUCTION: Present Finite-element-method (FEM) study evaluates the stress distribution values at the Temporomandibular-Joint (TMJ) during en-masse retraction of the mandibular dentition using buccal shelf bone screws with varying magnitudes of forces. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Nine replicas of a pre-existing three-dimensional finite element model of the craniofacial skeleton and articular disc from Cone-Beam-Computed-Tomography (CBCT) data and Magnetic-Resonance-Imaging (MRI) data of a patient were used. Buccal shelf (BS) bone screws were inserted buccal to the mandibular second molar region. Forces of magnitudes 250 gm, 350 gm and 450 gm were applied through NiTi coil springs along with stainless-steel archwires of sizes 0.016 × 0.022-inch, 0.017 × 0.025-inch and 0.019 × 0.025-inch. RESULTS: On the articular disc, the maximum stress was observed at the inferior region and the inferior part of the anterior and posterior zone at all force levels. The stress on the articular disc and displacement of teeth increased with increase in force levels in all the 3 archwires. The maximum stress at the articular disc and displacement of teeth was observed for 450 gm force and the least for 250 gm force. No significant difference in the amount of displacement of teeth or the stresses produced at the articular disc was seen with increasing the size of the archwire. CONCLUSION: With the present FEM study, we can deduce that it is better to use forces of lower levels on patients with temporomandibular-disorders (TMD) so as to reduce the stresses produced at the TMJ to avoid worsening of the TMD condition.

Effect of Costus igneus stem extract on calcium oxalate urolithiasis in albino rats.

The effects of aqueous and ethanolic extracts of Costus igneus (stem) and isolated compounds lupeol and stigmasterol on calcium oxalate urolithiasis have been studied in male albino Wistar rats. Ethylene glycol feeding resulted in hyperoxaluria as well as increased renal excretion of calcium and oxalate. The increased deposition of stone-forming constituents in the urine, serum, and kidney homogenate of urolithic rats was significantly (p < 0.05) lowered by treatment using aqueous and ethanolic extracts of C. igneus (stem), and isolated compounds lupeol and stigmasterol. The calcium oxalate crystal deposition in the kidney was significantly greater in ethylene glycol-induced urolithic rats. After administration of aqueous and ethanolic extract of C. igneus, the deposition of calcium and oxalate was significantly lowered. Treatment with lupeol and stigmasterol significantly reduced the deposition of calcium and oxalate in the kidney, and also in the blood serum; the lipid profile serum total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) levels at 50 and 100 mg/kg were significantly (p < 0.05) lowered in urolithiatic rats. From this study, we conclude that both the treatments with aqueous and ethanolic extract of C. igneus (stem) and isolated compounds lupeol and stigmasterol had an inhibitory effect on calcium oxalate urinary stone. Lupeol and stigmasterol were identified from the stem of C. igneus by high-performance thin layer chromatography technique. The isolated compounds were confirmed by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and (13)C NMR spectra.

Effect of micro osteo-perforations (MOP) on the rate of tooth movement and levels of interleukin- 1ß - a split mouth study.

Introduction: Various procedures are available today to enhance tooth movement, with relative success rates, one among them being micro osteo-perforation (MOP). Our aim is to assess the rate of tooth movement and interleukin-1ß levels in gingival crevicular fluid levels (GCF) after MOPs. Methods: A group of 22 patients were selected, who required first premolars extraction and were designated for the split mouth study with equal allocation. MOP was performed on the right side, three vertical MOPs were given using 1.2 X 8 mm mini implants with the gap of 2 mm between them and surgical depth of the implant insertion was 5 mm. The left side was used as control. The individual canine retraction was initiated with placement of 150 grams on 19*25 SS wire. The case was evaluated at different timelines for canine retraction and interleukin-1ß levels. Results: There was a significant difference in the rate of canine movement at 45 days (1.42 mm) and end of canine retraction on experimental side (2.61 mm). The GCF levels were raised at T1 and T2 intervals on the side of MOP and were statically significant (p=0.00). Conclusion: MOP is a minimally invasive procedure which accelerates the tooth movement by 20%. The increase in IL-1ß levels indicates a higher rate of chemical interaction on the surgically assisted side. For enhanced efficiency MOPs should be repeated every 6-8 weeks.

Design and rationale of health-related quality of life and patient-reported outcomes assessment in the Frequent Hemodialysis Network trials.

BACKGROUND: End-stage renal disease patients experience significant impairments in health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Testing various strategies to improve patient HRQOL in multicenter clinical trials, such as the Frequent Hemodialysis Network (FHN) trials is vitally important. AIMS: The aim of this paper is to describe the design and conduct of HRQOL and patient-reported outcomes (PRO) assessment in the FHN trials. METHODS: In the FHN trials, HRQOL was examined as a multidimensional concept, and the SF-36 RAND Physical Health Composite score was one of the co-primary outcomes. The instruments completed to assess HRQOL included the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form SF-36, Health Utilities Index 3, Sleep Problems Index, Beck Depression Inventory and feeling thermometer. These instruments have been shown to have high reliability, validity and responsiveness to change in the end-stage renal disease population. Additional items evaluating PRO including sexual function, time to recovery after dialysis and patients' self-perceived burden to caregiver were also assessed. All questionnaires were administered by trained interviewers using computer-assisted telephone interviewing to ensure blinding and minimizing selection bias. Interim analysis reveals that these instruments can be used to collect a comprehensive set of HRQOL measures with minimal patient burden. CONCLUSIONS: Accurate measurement of HRQOL and PRO can help us test whether hemodialysis interventions improve the health and well-being of this compromised patient population. We have shown that a comprehensive set of HRQOL measures can be centrally collected through telephone interviews in a blinded fashion, in a way that is well tolerated with minimum respondent burden.

Epidemic zone of COVID-19 from social media using hypergraph with weighting factor (HWF).

Online social network is one of the most prominent media that holds information about society's epidemic problem. Due to privacy reasons, most of the users will not disclose their location. Detecting the location of the tweet users is required to track the geographic location of the spreading diseases. This work aims to detect the spreading location of the COVID-19 disease from the Twitter users and content discussed in the tweet. COVID-19 is a disease caused by the "novel coronavirus." About 80% of confirmed cases recover from the disease. However, one out of every six people who get COVID-19 can become seriously ill, stated by the World health organization. Inferring the user location for identifying the spreading location for the disease is a very challenging task. This paper proposes a new technique based on a hypergraph model to detect the Twitter user's locations based on the spreading disease. This model uses hypergraph with weighting factor technique to infer the spreading disease's spatial location. The accuracy of prediction can be improved when a massive volume of streaming data is analyzed. The Helly property of the hypergraph was applied to discard less potential words from the text analysis, which claims this work of unique nature. A weighting factor was introduced to calculate the score of each location for a particular user. The location of each user is predicted based on the one that possesses the highest weighting factor. The proposed framework has been evaluated and tested for various measures like precision, recall and F-measure. The promising results obtained have substantiated the claim for this work compared to the state-of-the-art methodologies.

Association of 24-Hour Ambulatory Blood Pressure Patterns with Cognitive Function and Physical Functioning in CKD.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Hypertension is highly prevalent in patients with CKD as is cognitive impairment and frailty, but the link between them is understudied. Our objective was to determine the association between ambulatory BP patterns, cognitive function, physical function, and frailty among patients with nondialysis-dependent CKD. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS: Ambulatory BP readings were obtained on 1502 participants of the Chronic Renal Insufficiency Cohort. We evaluated the following exposures: (1) BP patterns (white coat, masked, sustained versus controlled hypertension) and (2) dipping patterns (reverse, extreme, nondippers versus normal dippers). Outcomes included the following: (1) cognitive impairment scores from the Modified Mini Mental Status Examination of <85, <80, and <75 for participants <65, 65-79, and ≥80 years, respectively; (2) physical function, measured by the short physical performance battery (SPPB), with higher scores (0-12) indicating better functioning; and (3) frailty, measured by meeting three or more of the following criteria: slow gait speed, muscle weakness, low physical activity, exhaustion, and unintentional weight loss. Cognitive function and frailty were assessed at the time of ambulatory BP (baseline) and annually thereafter. SPPB was assessed at baseline logistic and linear regression and Cox discrete models assessed the cross-sectional and longitudinal relationship between dipping and BP patterns and outcomes. RESULTS: Mean age of participants was 63±10 years, 56% were male, and 39% were black. At baseline, 129 participants had cognitive impairment, and 275 were frail. Median SPPB score was 9 (interquartile range, 7-10). At baseline, participants with masked hypertension had 0.41 (95% CI, -0.78 to -0.05) lower SPPB scores compared with those with controlled hypertension in the fully adjusted model. Over 4 years of follow-up, 529 participants had incident frailty, and 207 had incident cognitive impairment. After multivariable adjustment, there was no association between BP or dipping patterns and incident frailty or cognitive impairment. CONCLUSIONS: In patients with CKD, dipping and BP patterns are not associated with incident or prevalent cognitive impairment or prevalent frailty.

Quality Enhancement of Ultrasonic TOFD Signals from Carbon Steel Weld Pad with Notches.

Welding is an integral part of component fabrication in industry. Even though the science and art of welding are more than 100 years old, defects continue to occur during welding. Codes of practice require that the welds be tested and evaluated. Conventionally ultrasonic testing has been widely applied in industry for the detection and evaluation of the flaws/defects in the weldments. With advances in sensor and signal analysis technologies, the last two decades have seen extensive developments in the field of ultrasonic testing. We have advanced techniques such as Time of Flight Diffraction (TOFD) which has better probability of detection for linear defects. A major irritant during the application of TOFD, especially for the testing of carbon steel weldments, is the presence of noise. A variety of approaches has been used internationally for the suppression of such noise and each has its own merits and demerits. This paper focuses on a method of enhancing the TOFD A-scan signals in carbon steel weldments by suppressing the noise from them using the discrete wavelet transform (DWT). The analysis clearly indicates that the DWT gives better signal-to-noise ratio improvement using higher-order wavelet filters with 4-level DWT decomposition. However the computational cost of this signal enhancement depends on the wavelet filter chosen along with the chosen level of DWT decomposition.

Thyroid-stimulating hormone receptor messenger ribonucleic acid measurement in blood as a marker for circulating thyroid cancer cells and its role in the preoperative diagnosis of thyroid cancer.

CONTEXT: Thyroid cancer cells express TSH receptor (TSHR) mRNA, and its measurement in the circulation may be useful in the diagnosis/management of differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC). OBJECTIVE: Our objective was to assess the diagnostic value of circulating TSHR mRNA for preoperative detection of DTC in patients with thyroid nodules. PATIENTS: We measured TSHR mRNA levels by RT-PCR in 258 subjects: 51 healthy subjects and 207 patients (thyroid nodules, n = 180; recurrent thyroid cancer, n = 27) with fine-needle aspirations (FNA) and/or thyroid/neck surgery. Eighty-nine patients also had d-1 postoperative levels assessed. OUTCOME MEASURES: TSHR mRNA levels were compared with FNA cytology for cancer detection preoperatively and serum thyroglobulin and/or whole-body 131I scans postoperatively. RESULTS: Based on cytology/pathology, 88 patients had DTC and 119 had benign thyroid disease. The TSHR mRNA levels in cancer patients were significantly higher than in benign disease (P < 0.0001). At a cutoff value of 1.02 ng/microg total RNA, the TSHR mRNA correctly classified 78.7% of patients preoperatively (sensitivity = 72.0%; specificity = 82.5%). Of 131 patients with FNA and surgery, 51 were FNA positive (all cancer), 17 were FNA negative (15 benign, two cancer), and 63 were indeterminate. TSHR mRNA correctly diagnosed DTC in 16 of 24 (67%) and benign disease in 29 of 39 (74%) patients with indeterminate FNA (combined sensitivity = 90%; specificity = 80%). Combining TSHR mRNA and ultrasound features for follicular lesions correctly classified all follicular cancers and could have spared surgery in 31% of these patients with benign disease. TSHR mRNA has a short life in circulation, and normalized levels on postoperative d 1 correlated with disease-free status, whereas elevated levels predicted residual/metastatic disease. CONCLUSIONS: TSHR mRNA measured with FNA enhances the preoperative detection of cancer in patients with thyroid nodules, reducing unnecessary surgeries, and immediate postoperative levels can predict residual/metastatic disease.

Transport behavior of n-alkane penetrants into castor oil based polyurethane-polyester nonwoven fabric composites.

Castor oil based polyurethane (PU)-polyester nonwoven fabric composites were fabricated by impregnating the polyester nonwoven fabric in a composition containing castor oil and diisocyanate. Composites were fabricated with two different isocyanates such as toluene-2,4-diisocyanate (TDI) and hexamethylene diisocyanate (HMDI). Transport behavior of n-alkane penetrants (pentane, hexane and heptane) into both PUs and PU-polyester nonwoven fabric composites were studied. Sorption studies were carried out at different temperatures. From the sorption results, the diffusion (D) and permeation (P) coefficients of penetrants have been calculated. Significant increase in the diffusion and permeation coefficients was observed with increase in the temperature of sorption experiments. Drastical reduction in diffusion and permeation coefficients was noticed in the composites compared to neat PUs. Attempts were made to estimate the empirical parameters like n, which suggests the mode of transport and K is a constant depends on the structural characteristics of the composite in addition to its interaction with penetrants. The temperature dependence of the transport coefficients has been used to estimate the activation energy parameter for diffusion (E(D)) and permeation (E(P)) processes from Arrhenius plots. Furthermore, the sorption results have been interpreted in terms of the thermodynamic parameters such as enthalpy (DeltaH) and entropy (DeltaS).

Measuring vascular reactivity with resting-state blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) signal fluctuations: A potential alternative to the breath-holding challenge?

Measurement of the ability of blood vessels to dilate and constrict, known as vascular reactivity, is often performed with breath-holding tasks that transiently raise arterial blood carbon dioxide (PaCO2) levels. However, following the proper commands for a breath-holding experiment may be difficult or impossible for many patients. In this study, we evaluated two approaches for obtaining vascular reactivity information using blood oxygenation level-dependent signal fluctuations obtained from resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data: physiological fluctuation regression and coefficient of variation of the resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging signal. We studied a cohort of 28 older adults (69 ± 7 years) and found that six of them (21%) could not perform the breath-holding protocol, based on an objective comparison with an idealized respiratory waveform. In the subjects that could comply, we found a strong linear correlation between data extracted from spontaneous resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging signal fluctuations and the blood oxygenation level-dependent percentage signal change during breath-holding challenge ( R2 = 0.57 and 0.61 for resting-state physiological fluctuation regression and resting-state coefficient of variation methods, respectively). This technique may eliminate the need for subject cooperation, thus allowing the evaluation of vascular reactivity in a wider range of clinical and research conditions in which it may otherwise be impractical.

Islet cell-associated autoantibodies in Ethiopians with diabetes mellitus.

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Our understanding of the role of autoimmunity in the pathogenesis of diabetes in African populations is limited. This study aims to evaluate the prevalence of 4 different islet cell-associated antibodies in Ethiopian patients with diabetes and non-diabetic controls. METHODS: A total of 187 subjects from a diabetic clinic at an Ethiopian hospital were evaluated in a cross-sectional study. Fifty-five patients had type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM), 86 had type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and 46 were non-diabetic controls. Islet cell-associated antibodies were measured using 4 different assays for antibodies against islet cells (ICA), glutamic acid decarboxylase (GADA), insulin (IAA) and the protein tyrosine phosphatase-like IA-2 (IA-2A). RESULTS: Comparing the antibody positivity in subjects with T1DM versus T2DM, the results were as follows: 29% versus 3.5% for GADA; 21% versus 2.7% for ICA; 27% versus 16% for IAA. In the control group, the only positive result was for IAA at 2%. IA-2A was absent in all groups. The combi-assay for GADA and IA-2A detected all GADA-positive subjects. T2DM patients who were GADA positive had lower BMI, lower C-peptide levels and all of them were on insulin therapy. CONCLUSIONS: Compared to Caucasians, Ethiopians with T1DM have less prevalence of islet cell-associated antibodies, but the rates are higher than in T2DM. GADA is present in Ethiopians, whereas IA-2A seems to be absent. GADA positivity in T2DM correlates with clinical features of T1DM, indicating the existence in Ethiopia of the subgroup, latent autoimmune diabetes in adults.