Effect of pH and zeta potential of Pickering stabilizing magnetite nanoparticles on the features of magnetized polystyrene microspheres

Styrene as a monomer was emulsified in water using several magnetite nanoparticles concentration and pH values. Emulsified styrene drops were used as templates for polymerization, in presence of water soluble free radical initiator, and formation of composite particles. Styrene template drops stabilization was verified by light as well as scanning electron microscopy imaging, which ensured the participation of the particles in building up a mechanical barrier to stop oil drops coalescence. Furthermore, the produced polystyrene composites were strongly attracted to an external magnet. The difference in particles size as a function of pH was elucidated using zeta potential measurements, which indicated dominance of pH on the hydrophilicity of the particles and consequently the extent of emulsification, which in turn affected the size of the obtained microspheres. Under some circumstances, capsules were formed instead of particles. Thereby, it can be concluded that the magnetic microspheres are optimally formed at pH 2.3 independently of the magnetite content used.     

Description and evaluation of a new 3-D computerized treatment planning dose compensator system

Evaluation has been performed of compensators generated by means of a computerized three-dimensional treatment planning system that can utilize either digitized slice profiles or CT scans. Two methods of calculating compensator thickness are used: the modified Batho power law (dSAR) method for digitized profiles and the equivalent TAR (eqTAR) method for CT scans. This system not only compensates for patient surface contours but also compensates for internal inhomogeneities. In addition, any required wedging will be incorporated in the compensator generation. This system has been tested for a number of extreme cases with inhomogeneities and sloping contours. Good agreement was obtained between the measured and computer calculated dose profiles especially along the central axis of the beam. A "Profile Uniformity Index" was defined to quantify the goodness of dose compensation in three dimensions. Compensation using this system can achieve good dose uniformity within the target volume in all clinical cases and is definitely an improvement over systems based solely on tissue deficit.     

Using the Nutrition Screening Initiative to survey the nutritional status of clients participating in a home delivered meals program

A large percentage of older Americans are at risk for malnutrition. This puts them at risk for premature institutionalization, creating a financial burden. The objective of this survey was to determine the nutritional health of clients receiving home delivered meals in Lake County, Indiana and the impact that home delivered meals had on them. Nutrition Screening Initiative (NSI) Determine Your Nutritional Health Checklists were mailed to recipients of meals; 58.3% were returned. Twenty-eight percent were found to be at no nutritional risk, 39% at moderate nutritional risk and 33% at high nutritional risk. One-hundred-thirty clients that scored three or more on the "Checklist" were visited by a Registered Dietitian for further screening using the NSI Level I Screen. This screen found many nutritional problems but the fact that the clients did receive home delivered meals decreased the risk. It was determined by the author that 68% of these clients could not function in their own homes without home delivered meals.     

Detection of Abnormal Activities from Various Signals Based on Statistical Analysis

We perceive big data with massive datasets of complex and variegated structures in the modern era. Such attributes formulate hindrances while analyzing and storing the data to generate apt aftermaths. Privacy and security are the colossal perturb in the domain space of extensive data analysis. In this paper, our foremost priority is the computing technologies that focus on big data, IoT (Internet of Things), Cloud Computing, Blockchain, and fog computing. Among these, Cloud Computing follows the role of providing on-demand services to their customers by optimizing the cost factor. AWS, Azure, Google Cloud are the major cloud providers today. Fog computing offers new insights into the extension of cloud computing systems by procuring services to the edges of the network. In collaboration with multiple technologies, the Internet of Things takes this into effect, which solves the labyrinth of dealing with advanced services considering its significance in varied application domains. The Blockchain is a dataset that entertains many applications ranging from the fields of crypto-currency to smart contracts. The prospect of this research paper is to present the critical analysis and review it under the umbrella of existing extensive data systems. In this paper, we attend to critics' reviews and address the existing threats to the security of extensive data systems. Moreover, we scrutinize the security attacks on computing systems based upon Cloud, Blockchain, IoT, and fog. This paper lucidly illustrates the different threat behaviour and their impacts on complementary computational technologies. The authors have mooted a precise analysis of cloud-based technologies and discussed their defense mechanism and the security issues of mobile healthcare.

     

Reference Range Estimation: Accounting for Measurement System Errors

Reference range is a statistic that is used in health related fields to represent the range of the most likely values for a variable of interest. Based on this range, individuals are classified as being healthy or unhealthy. In biostatistics, the reference range is calculated as the (1 ? α)% prediction interval, where this prediction interval is based on the estimated population variance from the data. Such estimation of population variance is not precise, because obtained test results do usually have errors associated with them. These errors are due to the imprecise test procedure or gauge used. In this paper, the total variability in the data is decomposed into two categories. The first is the patient‐to‐patient variability and the other is the variability due to the measurement system used. Estimation of the two kinds is performed through a gauge repeatability and reproducibility study, then the reference range is calculated, taking into account only the patient‐to‐patient variability. The revised reference range procedure is illustrated through a case study of vitamin B12 test results. A closed form formula is given to calculate the probability of a given test result being within the revised reference range. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Differentiation of promonocytic U937 subclones into macrophagelike phenotypes regulates a cellular factor(s) which modulates fusion/entry of macrophagetropic human immunodeficiency virus type 1

Monocytes/macrophages (M/M) and CD4+ T cells are two important targets of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. Different strains of HIV-1 vary markedly in their abilities to infect cells belonging to the M/M lineage. Macrophagetropic (M-tropic) HIV-1 strains replicate well in primary lymphocytes as well as in primary macrophages; however, they generally infect T-cell lines poorly, if at all. Although promonocytic cell lines such as U937 have been used as in vitro models of HIV-1 infection of M/M, these cell lines are susceptible to certain T-cell-tropic (T-tropic) HIV-1 strains but are resistant to M-tropic HIV-1. In this study, we demonstrate that (i) certain U937 clones ("plus" clones), which are susceptible only to T-tropic HIV-1, become highly susceptible to M-tropic HIV-1 upon differentiation with retinoic acid (RA); (ii) other U937 clones ("minus" clones), which are resistant to both T- and M-tropic HIV-1, remain resistant to both viruses; and (iii) RA treatment induces expression of CCR5, a fusion/entry cofactor for M-tropic HIV-1 in both types of U937 clones, and yet enhances the fusogenicity of the plus clones, but not the minus clones, with M-tropic Env's. These results indicate that the major restriction of M-tropic HIV-1 infection in promonocytic cells occurs at the fusion/entry level, that differentiation into macrophage-like phenotypes renders some of these cells highly susceptible to infection with M-tropic HIV-1, and that CD4 and CCR5 may not be the only determinants of fusion/entry of M-tropic HIV-1 in these cells.     

Refining the level for anticipated hepatotoxicity in acetaminophen poisoning

Treatment of an acetaminophen overdose with N-acetyl cysteine usually is based on the position of the 4-h acetaminophen (APAP) level on the Rumack-Matthew nomogram; however, there is disagreement on the level at which clinically relevant hepatotoxicity occurs. A retrospective review of all acute adult formulation APAP exposures reported to our poison center between 1986 and 1993 was performed and cases corresponding to the "possible risk or toxicity" range on the nomogram were identified. Our current poison center protocol for APAP poisoning does not recommend treatment with N-acetylcysteine (NAC) in low-risk patients if the 4-h serum APAP level or the extrapolated equivalent falls within the possible toxicity range on the nomogram. Seventeen cases met the inclusion criteria for the study and received no NAC; six additional patients met inclusion criteria but received one or two doses of NAC before therapy was discontinued. No patients in either group demonstrated clinical evidence of hepatotoxicity. This pilot study suggests that patients with no risk factors and APAP levels in the "possible risk" range may not require NAC therapy.     

Hamstrings and psoas lengths during normal and crouch gait: implications for muscle-tendon surgery

OBJECTIVE: To study the relative contribution of the lung and the chest wall on the total respiratory system mechanics, gas exchange, and work of breathing in sedated-paralyzed normal subjects and morbidly obese patients, in the postoperative period. SETTING: Policlinico Hospital, University of Milan, Italy. METHODS: In ten normal subjects (normal) and ten morbidly obese patients (obese), we partitioned the total respiratory mechanics (rs) into its lung (L) and chest wall (w) components using the esophageal balloon technique together with airway occlusion technique, during constant flow inflation. We measured, after abdominal surgery, static respiratory system compliance (Cst,rs), lung compliance (Cst,L), chest wall compliance (Cst,w), total lung (Rmax,L) and chest wall (Rmax,w) resistance. Rmax,L includes airway (Rmin,L) and "additional" lung resistance (DR,L). DR,L represents the component due to viscoelastic phenomena of the lung tissue and time constant inequalities (pendelluft). Functional residual capacity (FRC) was measured by helium dilution technique. RESULTS: We found that morbidly obese patients compared with normal subjects are characterized by the following: (1) reduced Cst,rs (p < 0.01), due to lower Cst,L (55.3 +/- 15.3 mL x cm H2O-1 vs 106.6 +/- 31.7 mL x cm H2O-1; p < 0.01) and Cst,w (112.4 +/- 47.4 mL x cm H2O-1 vs 190.7 +/- 45.1 mL x cm H2O-1; p < 0.01); (2) increased Rmin,L (4.7 +/- 3.1 mL x cm H2O x L-1 x s; vs 1.0 +/- 0.8 mL x cm H2O x L-1 x s; p < 0.01) and DR,L (4.9 +/- 2.6 mL x cm H2O x L-1 x s; vs 1.5 +/- 0.8 mL x cm H2O x L-1 x s; p < 0.01); (3) reduced FRC (0.665 +/- 0.191 L vs 1.691 +/- 0.325 L; p < 0.01); (4) increased work performed to inflate both the lung (0.91 +/- 0.25 J/L vs 0.34 +/- 0.08 J/L; p < 0.01) and the chest wall (0.39 +/- 0.13 J/L vs 0.18 +/- 0.04 J/L; p < 0.01); and (5) a reduced pulmonary oxygenation index (PaO2/PAO2 ratio). CONCLUSION: Sedated-paralyzed morbidly obese patients, compared with normal subjects, are characterized by marked derangements in lung and chest wall mechanics and reduced lung volume after abdominal surgery. These alterations may account for impaired arterial oxygenation in the postoperative period.     

ARO: A new model free optimization algorithm for real time applications inspired by the asexual reproduction

This paper presents a new individual based optimization algorithm, which is inspired from asexual reproduction known as a remarkable biological phenomenon, called as asexual reproduction optimization (ARO). ARO can be essentially considered as an evolutionary based algorithm that mathematically models the budding mechanism of asexual reproduction. In ARO, a parent produces a bud through a reproduction operator; thereafter the parent and its bud compete to survive according to a performance index obtained from the underlying objective function of the optimization problem; this leads to the fitter individual. ARO adaptive search ability along with its strength and weakness points are fully described in the paper. Furthermore, the ARO convergence to the global optimum is mathematically analyzed. To approve the effectiveness of the ARO performance, it is tested with several benchmark functions frequently used in the area of optimization. Finally, the ARO performance is statistically compared with that of an improved genetic algorithm (GA). Results of simulation illustrate that ARO remarkably outperforms GA.     

Combining docking, scoring and molecular field analyses to probe influenza neuraminidase-ligand interactions

In this project, several docking conditions, scoring functions and corresponding protein-aligned molecular field analysis (CoMFA) models were evaluated for a diverse set of neuraminidase (NA) inhibitors. To this end, a group of inhibitors were docked into the active site of NA. The docked structures were utilized to construct a corresponding protein-aligned CoMFA models by employing probe-based (H+, OH, CH3) energy grids and genetic partial least squares (G/PLS) statistical analysis. A total of 16 different docking configurations were evaluated, of which some succeeded in producing self-consistent and predictive CoMFA models. However, the best model coincided with docking the ionized ligands into the hydrated form of the binding site via PLP1 scoring function (r2LOO=0.735, r2PRESS against 24 test compounds=0.828). The highest-ranking CoMFA models were employed to probe NA-ligand interactions. Further validation by comparison with a co-crystallized ligand-NA crystallographic structure was performed. This combination of docking/scoring/CoMFA modeling provided interesting insights into the binding of different NA inhibitors.