The advent of Internet of Things (IoT) has created immense possibilities which are fundamentally altering the way healthcare services are provided around the world. In addition to improving accessibility of healthcare services and patient safety, this has also reduced healthcare expenditures and increased operational efficiency in the healthcare sector. In this regard, Cloud resources are widely used to support near real-time IoT based healthcare applications by performing efficient algorithms on the huge amount of data produced by medical sensor devices. However, response time along with data privacy and security still represent major concerns that inhibit Internet of Things (IoT) medical devices and frameworks from being entrusted as an efficient solution to attain the goal. Of late, there is a burgeoning interestedness towards development of fog and edge based frameworks as a way to counteract the shortcomings of the cloud. The paper offers a review of healthcare related developments from a variety of perspectives, including outbreak control, chronic disease management, neonatal and pediatric treatment, elderly care, and disability management. The paper further examines the challenges hindering the adoption of IoT based healthcare devices and outlines the future research directions.

Early childhood allergy prevention behaviours: trends in Germany from 2015 to 2020

A 30-year-old male with electrocardiographic (ECG) evidence of manifest pre-excitation (figure 1) was referred for an electrophysiology study (EPS). Quadripolar catheters were placed in the His position (His) and right ventricular apex (RVA) and a decapolar catheter was placed in the coronary sinus (CS). Ventricular pacing (VP) with and without isoproterenol infusion revealed poor retrograde ventriculoatrial (VA) conduction in both the atrioventricular node (AVN) and the accessory pathway (AP). Single atrial extra-stimuli (AES) were introduced after a drive train at 400ms from poles CS 9,10. The following reproducible phenomenon was observed (figure 2A, 2B). What has been unveiled, and how is it explained?

Intra-atrial conduction dissociations resulting from incisions made during mitral valve surgery or maze procedures reportedly cause pseudo-atrioventricular blocks, in which atrioventricular node function is preserved despite the electrocardiogram indicating an atrioventricular block. We evaluated a 55-year-old man with a pseudo-atrioventricular block for potential pacemaker implantation. The stroke volume was higher without pacing than with simulated pacing mimicking an implanted pacemaker. Additionally, escape beat responsiveness was maintained during an exercise stress test. Based on these results and the absence of symptoms, we decided not to implant a pacemaker in the patient.

We analysed the influenza epidemic that occurred in Australia during the 2022 winter using an age-structured dynamic transmission model which accounts for past epidemics to estimate the population susceptibility to an influenza infection. We applied the same model to five European countries. Our analysis suggests Europe might experience an early and moderately large influenza epidemic. Also, differences may arise between countries, with Germany and Spain experiencing larger epidemics, than France, Italy and the UK, especially in children.

Background: Whether the CD40-CD40 ligand (CD40L) and inducible co-stimulatory molecule (ICOS)-ICOS ligand (ICOSL) signals are involved in chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) development needs further investigation. Objectives: To investigate the association of CD40-CD40L and ICOS-ICOSL expression with CRS and underlying mechanisms. Methods: Immunohistology detected the expression of CD40, CD40L, ICOS, and ICOSL. Immunofluorescence was performed to evaluate the co-locations of CD40 or ICOSL with eosinophils. Correlations between CD40-CD40L and ICOS-ICOSL as well as clinical parameters were analyzed. Flow cytometry was used to explore the activation of eosinophils by CD69 expression and the CD40 and ICOSL expression on eosinophils. Results: Compared with the Non-eCRS subset, ECRS (Eosinophilic chronic rhinosinusitis) subset showed significantly increased CD40, ICOS, and ICOSL expression. The CD40, CD40L, ICOS, and ICOSL expressions were all positively correlated with eosinophil infiltration in nasal tissues. CD40 and ICOSL were mainly expressed on eosinophils. ICOS expression was significantly correlated with the expression of CD40-CD40L, while ICOSL expression was correlated with CD40 expression. ICOS-ICOSL expression positively correlated with blood eosinophils count and disease severity. rhCD40L and rhICOS significantly enhanced the activation of eosinophils from ECRS patients. TNF-α and IL-5 obviously upregulated CD40 and ICOSL expression on eosinophils, which was significantly inhibited by the p38 MAPK inhibitor. Conclusions: Increased CD40-CD40L and ICOS-ICOSL expression in nasal polyps are linked to eosinophils infiltration and disease severity of CRS. CD40-CD40L and ICOS-ICOSL signals enhance eosinophils activation of ECRS. TNF-α and IL-5 regulate eosinophils function by increasing CD40 and ICOSL expression partly via p38 MAPK activation in CRS patients.

Ecology is broad and relies on several complementary approaches to study the mechanisms driving the distribution and abundance of organisms and their interactions. One of them is citizen science, the co-production of scientific data and knowledge by non-professional scientists, in collaboration with or under the direction of professional scientists. Citizen science has bloomed in the scientific literature over the last decade and is being incrasingly popular. We used a bibliometric analysis to study whether associating the public to ecological research changes the making of ecology and the nature of questions it asks. We analysed keywords and abstracts of 41,105 articles published the last ten years, disentangling CitSci articles (those explicitly referring to citizen science) and non-CitSci articles. Keyword co-occurrence and thematic map analyses revealed that CitSci articles primarily focused on biodiversity and climate change in a more descriptive way than non-CitSci articles which were more likely to address theoretical questions in ecology. Roughly, citizen science in ecology addressed patterns, whereas non participatory research dug further into mechanisms. Biodiversity also appeared as a more central theme in the CitSci corpus, where it was more systematically associated with other keywords. Our study indicates that should the surge of citizen science approaches in ecological scientific literature have change the type of ecological inquiry, this thematic change is marginal. Still, we provide evidence that specific research questions individualized from ecological CitSci thus supporting the view that citizen science is becoming an independent field of investigation, and not only a peculiar methodological approach to ecological research.

With the proposal of the carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals, the number of electric vehicles is increasing day by day. Besides, the insufficient number of charging piles leads to the increase of the queuing time of electric vehicles, the pricing of aggregators and other issues becoming increasingly prominent. To solve the above problems, the aggregator pricing method of two-stage charging station allocation for electric vehicles is proposed. First, the contract signing mode between aggregators and electric vehicles is divided into three categories: complete dispatching, rolling reward and punishment mechanism dispatching, and free dispatching. Considering the impact of external factors on the energy consumption of electric vehicles, a road network model is established. Then, the improved A-star algorithm is used to solve the shortest path, in which the time factor is introduced into the evaluation function of A-star algorithm. At the same time, the evaluation function is improved according to traffic energy consumption, uninterrupted driving time, traffic light waiting time and other factors. The aggregator obtains the attraction of the charging station to the electric vehicle based on the charging and discharging demand of the electric vehicle and the Coulomb’s law, and then establishes the grid aggregator electric vehicle supply chain, and conducts reasonable pricing and charging station allocation in two stages. Finally, an example shows that this scheme can significantly improve the peak shaving efficiency, improve the profits of aggregators, and reduce the queuing time and traffic energy consumption of electric vehicles in terms of the distribution of electric vehicle charging stations and the pricing of aggregators.

To explore the influence of electrothermal aging on the properties of HVAC XLPE cable during its actual operation, two circuits of 110 kV XLPE cable were subjected to a combined electrothermal accelerated aging test for 180 days. The test voltage was set at 95 kV and the test temperature was set at 90 ℃. One circuit of cable adopted constant temperature aging mode and the other circuit adopted periodic thermal cycle aging mode. The dielectric property of the cable is diagnosed by dielectric spectroscopy measurement, and the thermal property is diagnosed by thermal parameters measurement. Combined with Fourier infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) measurements, morphological changes of the insulation under different electrothermal aging modes are analyzed to construct the correlation with the dielectric and thermal properties. The results show that short-term electrothermal constant temperature aging mode effectively enhances the dielectric and thermal properties of the cable by modifying spherulites’ morphology and migrating small polar compounds; short-term electrothermal cycle aging mode also enhances the thermal properties of the cable due to the drop in small polar compounds. However, different distributions of small polar compounds and crystal interfaces in the insulation lead to extreme distortion in electric field distribution.

Gold nanoparticles (GNPs) are promising materials for many bioapplications. However, upon contacting with biological media, GNPs undergo changes. The interaction with proteins results in the so-called protein corona (PC) around GNPs, leading to the new bioidentity and optical properties. Understanding the mechanisms of PC formation and its functions can help us to utilise its benefits and avoid its drawbacks. To date, most of the previous works aimed to understand the mechanisms governing PC formation and focused on the spherical nanoparticles although non-spherical nanoparticles are designed for a wide range of applications in biosensing. In this work, we investigated the differences in PC formation on spherical and anisotropic GNPs (nanostars in particular) from the joint experimental (extinction spectroscopy, zeta potential and surface enhanced Raman scattering [SERS]) and computational methods (the finite element method and molecular dynamics [MD] simulations). We discovered that protein does not fully cover the surface of anisotropic nanoparticles, leaving SERS hot-spots at the tips and high curvature edges “available” for analyte binding (no SERS signal after pre-incubation with protein) while providing protein-induced stabilization (indicated by extinction spectroscopy) of the GNPs by providing a protein layer around the particle’s core. The findings are confirmed from our MD simulations, the adsorption energy significantly decreases with the increased radius of curvature, so that tips (adsorption energy: 2762.334 kJ/mol) would be the least preferential binding site compared to core (adsorption energy: 11819.263 kJ/mol). These observations will help the development of new nanostructures with improved sensing and targeting ability.

Globally, more than 200 million women become pregnant each year, most of whom receive medications despite limited information on their safe use during pregnancy. The paucity of drug safety data on pregnant and breastfeeding women stems from the routine exclusion of this population from clinical trials due to scientific, ethical, regulatory and legal concerns. Consequently, at the time of initial drug approval, there may be scant safety data to inform the drug benefit-risk balance to the mother, foetus, or infant. Although momentum is growing to include this underrepresented population in clinical trials, most information on drug exposure outcomes comes from data collected in the post-marketing setting. Regulatory guidance and legislation on medication use in pregnancy and breastfeeding were reviewed globally by TransCelerate IGR PV Pregnancy and Breastfeeding Team. ICH standards and CIOMS guidelines served as benchmarks for national safety regulations and guidance. The landscape assessment identified a lack of harmonisation of global regulations on research in pregnant and breastfeeding women. This editorial focuses on the ambiguities and lack of harmonisation in global regulations on post-marketing pregnancy and breastfeeding safety studies. There is currently no ICH standard to guide these types of safety studies and, in most regions reviewed, there are no clear regulations or guidance on when and how to conduct them. While a challenging undertaking, greater clarity and harmonisation would facilitate more timely completion of post-marketing pregnancy safety studies that would ultimately generate the critical data needed to optimize benefit-risk decisions for pregnant and breastfeeding women.

Clinical presentation can sometimes make the diagnosis of giant-cell arteritis difficult. Histopathological features of temporal artery biopsy are challenging because of the various described appearances. We describe the case of a 51-year-old man with temporal artery biopsy corresponding to the adventitial pattern of giant-cell arteritis according to Hernandez-Rodriguez et al.

Soil salinization leading to ecological degradation and Melia azedarach can be effective in improving soil characteristics, such as reducing soil salinity. However, the mechanisms underlying the adaptation of Melia azedarach to saline-alkali land are unknown. In this study, we analyzed the soil properties and metabolome of Melia azedarach roots grown in high-salt (11.5 g/kg), medium-salt (7.5 g/kg), and low-salt soils (0.37 g/kg) to explore the mechanisms of adaptation of Melia azedarach to salt stress. Soil Na + was decreased, while soil organic matter, alkaline phosphatase and urease activities were increased when Melia azedarach was planted in low-, medium- and high- saline alkali soil. The metabolome analysis showed that the number of differential metabolites (DEMs), especially the up-regulated DEMs rose with the soil salinity increased. The sugar, amino acid and flavonoid DEMs produced by Melia azedarach were mostly up-regulated with the increase of soil salinity. The results demonstrated Melia azedarach was able to alleviate saline stress and reduce soil salinity. We propose that in situ bioremediation with Melia azedarach could be considered to ameliorate the coastal saline-alkali soil.

Rationale: IMS has been widely used for the on-site detection of explosives. Air sampling method is applicable only when the concentration of explosive vapor is considerably high in the air, but vapor pressures of common explosives such as TNT, RDX, and PETN are very low. A test method for analyzing the vapor detection efficiency of explosives with low vapor pressure via IMS was developed using artificial vapor and collection matrices. Methods: Artificial explosive vapor was produced by spraying an explosive solution in acetone. Fifteen collection matrices of various materials with woven or nonwoven structure were tested. Two arrangements of horizontal and vertical positions of the collection matrices were employed. Explosive vapor collected in the matrix was analyzed through IMS. Results: Only three collection matrices of stainless steel mesh (SSM), polytetrafluoroethylene sheet (PFS), and lens cleansing paper (LCP) showed the TNT and/or RDX ion peaks at explosive vapor concentration of 49 ng/L. There was no collection matrix to detect PETN vapor at lower than 49 ng/L. For the PFS, TNT and RDX were detected at 49 ng/L vapor concentration. For the LCP, TNT and RDX were detected at vapor concentrations of 14 and 49 ng/L, irrespectively. Conclusions: The difference in the explosive vapor detection efficiencies could be explained by the adsorption and desorption capabilities of the collection matrices. The proposed method can be used for evaluating the vapor detection efficiency of hazardous materials with low vapor pressure.

In today's networked world, the necessity for highly secured frameworks is increasing due to a surge in offences such as PC hacking, unauthorised access to ATMs and mobile devices, and security breaches in government institutions. Criminals exploit basic vulnerabilities in existing security systems. In response to these security problems, a biometric recognition framework is utilised to identify individuals using distinctive and singular evidence. Individual biometrics cannot be compromised as readily as a password. A multi-modal framework can integrate any number of free biometrics, making any biometric system significantly more effective than if it relied on a single biometric user verification device. A approach of gradually converging biometric modalities is included into combination techniques. This study describes the integration of three biometric characteristics, namely iris, face, and palm prints, at matching score level architecture employing weighted sum of score technique and fingerprint identification based on minutiae extraction approach.

Entrepreneurship is encouraged in every sector in the twenty-first century. In the field of health, nurse entrepreneurship emerges as an important issue in providing health services and improving public health. In this research, the development of entrepreneurial behavior in nursing in the world and a systematic examination of this development within the framework of academic knowledge are aimed. For this purpose, the types of entrepreneurship discussed in the last 10 years of research in the field of entrepreneurship in nursing and the methods, findings and results of these studies were examined. As a result of the search made in databases with high international recognition, 78.761 publications on nurse entrepreneurship were reached in the last ten years, and 30 articles were included in the final review. Classical, social, collective and intrapreneurship were discussed in these studies, which were examined in terms of entrepreneurship typology. As a result of the review, it was seen that the studies in the literature mostly focused on the opportunities and obstacles in front of entrepreneurial nurses. While collective entrepreneurship was included for the first time in the literature, it was found that eco-entrepreneurship and digital entrepreneurship have not yet been the subject of research on nurse entrepreneurship. However, it has been found that more research is needed on the relations between entrepreneurial nurses and non-governmental organizations, the incentives for increasing entrepreneurship and role modeling in entrepreneurship.

Many herbivores sequester plant toxins, and this occurs along a gradient of specialization including “toxic plant generalists” that also consume non-toxic hosts. We hypothesized that availability of toxins for sequestration may trade off with nutritional quality to shape dietary choices in a Lygaeid bug. In the absence of toxins (cardenolides) from a preferred food (milkweed seeds), bugs increased feeding on nutritionally poor, but cardenolide-rich milkweed plant tissue, corresponding to lower growth but greater sequestration. While bugs feeding on only milkweed plant tissue sequestered lower cardenolides than those feeding on seeds, they sequestered more diverse and less polar compounds. Cardenolide production was also induced by feeding on plant tissues, which may have downstream effects on future herbivory and sequestration. Accordingly, sequestration is a driver of diet choice in this toxic plant generalist, even at the cost of feeding on nutritionally poor plant tissue; reciprocally, plants defensively respond to such feeding choices.

A document by Saurav Misra. Click on the document to view its contents.

5. CONCLUSIONIn conclusion, we discovered that a new identified COL4A2 mutation contributed to astrocyte activation by activating JAK/STAT signaling in epilepsy. These findings help to better understand how astrocyte activation contributes to the pathology of COL4A2 related epilepsy. In the future, astrocytes may be the alternative targets for more efficient anti-seizure medications.

Health information is a powerful vehicle for enhancing community health and it highlights both the problems and opportunities that exist for development. In Uganda, there are cases where decisions have been made without using health information in primary health care units. The existing capacity inadequacy to efficiently utilize information to track service use patterns over time to determine the impacts of policy and service delivery improvements in Uganda is one of the key weaknesses. With the support of the Ministry of Health, the government of Uganda is implementing projects to build and enhance the nation’s web-based national health information system (DHIS2), which collects data from all health systems and allows for making decisions based on evidence on the delivery of health services. The broad study objective was to establish the factors influencing the utilization of routine health information for decisions making among the health workers. The research design was based on an analytical cross-sectional design. The target population for this study was 260 health workers specifically targeting those involved in the use of routine utilization of health information. Purposive sampling was used to select the key informants and other respondents were selected using simple and stratified random sampling. The self-administered structured questionnaire and key informants’ interviews were used to collect data from respondents. The analysis of the quantitative data was done using descriptive statistics consisting of tables, bar graphs, pie charts, frequency, percentages, mean and standard deviations. Logistic regression analysis was conducted for establishing the association amongst the variables. The study established that technical factors (χ2=801.069; p=0.001), organizational factors (χ2=895.224; p=0.000), and behavioural factors (χ2=994.559; p=0.000) had a significant influence on utilization of routine health information for decision making. Talk of significant predictors of utilization of routine health information for decision making, technical factors (p = 0.013) had the greatest influence on utilization of routine health information for decision making among health workers at health facilities followed by organizational factors (p = 0.049). The study recommends that management of health facilities in Moyo district to create organizational culture through increased demand for and use of routine health information for evidence-based decision making in all aspects. The study further established areas of the routine health information system that requires to be reinforced and backed up to ensure the use of routine data in health facility to make decisions.

The pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-1α, IL-6 and TNF-α are associated with major depressive disorder, psychological distress, cardiovascular health, and obesity. However, there is limited research that has examined multiple associations between these variables, among individuals with major depressive disorder in comparison to a control cohort, including sex differences. In this study, data was analysed from 60 individuals with major depressive disorder and 60 controls, including plasma IL-1α, IL-6 and TNF-α, adiposity measures (body mass index; waist circumference), cardiovascular health indices (blood pressure; heart rate) and psychological symptoms (depressive severity; anxiety; hostility; stress). The cytokines were compared by group and sex, and correlated with measures of adiposity, cardiovascular health indices and psychological health. Plasma IL-1α and IL-6 were higher in major depressive disorder group versus control, but with a sex interaction for IL-6, with this group difference only among females. TNF-α did not differ between groups. IL-1α and IL-6 correlated with depressive severity, anxiety, hostility, and stress, while TNF-α correlated only with anxiety and hostility. Psychopathology was associated with IL-1α in males only, and with IL-6 and TNF-α in females only. None of the cytokines correlated with body mass index, waist circumference, blood pressure or heart rate. The result of group by sex interaction for IL-6, and sex specific associations between pro-inflammatory cytokines and psychometrics could be aetiologically important in depression interventions and treatments for females versus males, warranting further investigation.

Background and Purpose There has been increasing interest in the causes and pathogenesis of depression, which is a common psychiatric disorder. We aimed to investigate the protective effect of hops ethyl acetate extract (HEA) on neuroinflammation-mediated lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced depression-like symptoms. Experimental Approach A battery of behavior tests, including the open field test (OFT), elevated plus maze (EPM), tail suspension test (TST), and forced swimming test (FST), was used to evaluate the effects of HEA on LPS-induced depression. Furthermore, the levels of inflammatory factors (tumor necrosis factor-α [TNF-α], interleukin-1β) and norepinephrine were evaluated through enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The density of hippocampal dendritic spines was assessed through Golgi staining. Finally, the toxicological effects of hops extract on depression in mice were further analyzed through hematoxylin and eosin staining and blood biochemistry. Key Results Based on the OFT, EPM, TST, and FST results, oral gavage HEA prevented LPS-induced depression-like behaviors in the mice. Further, HEA reduced neuroinflammation, increased norepinephrine levels, and increased the density of hippocampal dendritic spines. Finally, blood biochemistry and HE staining did not reveal any side effects or toxicity of HEA. Conclusion and Implications Our findings indicated that HEA is a potential compound for treating depression.

Epilepsy, a clinical diagnosis characterized by paroxysmal episodes known as seizures, affects 1% of people worldwide. Safe and patient-specific treatment is vital and can be achieved by the development of rapid pre-clinical models of for identified epilepsy genes. Epilepsy can result from either brain injury or gene mutations, and can also be induced chemically. Xenopus laevis tadpoles could be a useful model for confirmation of variants of unknown significance found in epilepsy patients, and for drug re-purposing screens that could eventually lead to benefits for patients. Here, we characterise and quantify seizure-related behaviours in X. laevis tadpoles arrayed in 24-well plates. To provoke acute seizure behaviours, tadpoles were chemically induced with either pentylenetetrazole (PTZ) or 4-aminopyridine (4-AP). To test the capacity to adapt this method for drug testing, we also exposed induced tadpoles to the anti-seizure drug valproate (VPA). Four induced seizure-like behaviours were described and manually quantified, and two of these (darting, circling) could be accurately detected automatically, using the video analysis software TopScan. Additionally, we recorded swimming trajectories and mean swimming velocity. Automatic detection showed that either PTZ or 4-AP induced darting behaviour and increased mean swimming velocity compared to untreated controls. Both parameters were significantly reduced in the presence of VPA. In particular, darting behaviour was a shown to be a sensitive measure of epileptic seizure activity. While we could not automatically detect the full range of seizure behaviours, this method shows promise for future studies, since X. laevis is a well-characterised and genetically tractable model organism.

Intel includes on its recent processors a powerful set of instructions capable of processing 512-bit registers with a single instruction (AVX-512). Some of these instructions have no equivalent in earlier instruction sets. We leverage these instructions to efficiently transcode strings between the most common formats: UTF-8 and UTF-16. With our novel algorithms, we are often twice as fast as the previous best solutions. For example, we transcode Chinese text from UTF-8 to UTF-16 at more than 5 GiB s − 1 using fewer than 2 CPU instructions per character. To ensure reproducibility, we make our software freely available as an open source library.