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Heart Failure: Diagnosis, Severity Estimation and Prediction of Adverse Events Through Machine Learning Techniques
No full textAbstractHeart failure is a serious condition with high prevalence (about 2% in the adult population in developed countries, and more than 8% in patients older than 75years). About 3–5% of hospital admissions are linked with heart failure incidents. Heart failure is the first cause of admission by healthcare professionals in their clinical practice. The costs are very high, reaching up to 2% of the total health costs in the developed countries. Building an effective disease management strategy requires analysis of large amount of data, early detection of the disease, assessment of the severity and early prediction of adverse events. This will inhibit the progression of the disease, will improve the quality of life of the patients and will reduce the associated medical costs. Toward this direction machine learning techniques have been employed. The aim of this paper is to present the state-of-the-art of the machine learning methodologies applied for the assessment of heart failure. More specifically, models predicting the presence, estimating the subtype, assessing the severity of heart failure and predicting the presence of adverse events, such as destabilizations, re-hospitalizations, and mortality are presented. According to the authors' knowledge, it is the first time that such a comprehensive review, focusing on all aspects of the management of heart failure, is presented
Development of flood alert application in Mushim stream watershed Korea
No full textAbstractKorea repeatedly experiences flash floods and droughts that cause traumatic environmental conditions with huge economic impact. Recently due to climate change, the frequency and magnitude of natural disasters associated with extreme hydrologic events increased rapidly in Korea. Floods caused the greatest damage among all natural disasters. To prevent this damage it is important to inform people about ongoing and upcoming flash flood events to avoid the loss of life and property. In this study hardware and software based smart technology is used to develop an early flood warning system for Mushim stream watershed to send to end users early flood warning messages about potentially impacted areas. Hydrologic Engineering Center's Hydrologic Modeling System (HEC-HMS) is the core of flood alert application provides the forecast with sufficient lead time and decides the threshold conditions of runoff/stage. Short range weather forecasts from Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) at every three hours interval, are stored in hydro-meteorological database and fed in HEC-HMS for identification of flood risks. Server-Client based program used to visualize the real time flood condition and to deliver the early warning message. The findings of this study are expected to be used as basic data required for designing of flood mitigation measures at Mushim stream watershed to cope with the flash flood events in future. The flood hazard maps thus developed will be useful to policy-makers and responsible authorities, as well as to local residents in finding suitable measures for reducing flood risk in the study area
Synthesis, characterization and biological behavior of some Schiff's and Mannich base derivatives of Lamotrigine
No full textAbstractA series of various Schiff's and Mannich base derivatives (N1–2 & ND1–6) of Lamotrigine with isatin and substituted isatin were synthesized to get more potent anticonvulsant agents. The starting material for the synthesis of various new Schiff's and Mannich base derivatives was isatin (1H-indole- 2, 3-dione) which in turn was prepared from substituted isonitrosoacetanilide using aniline. Lamotrigine reacts with isatin & substituted isatin gave Schiff's bases (N1–2) which on reaction with various secondary amines (dimethylamine, diethylamine, morpholine) produced Mannich bases (ND1–6). The structures of newly synthesized compounds were characterized by using TLC, UV, FT-IR, 1HNMR and studied for their anticonvulsant activity. Anticonvulsant activity of all the derivatives was evaluated by MES method using phenobarbitone sodium & Lamotrigine as standard drugs and % reduction of time spent by animals in extension, flexion, clonus, and stupor phase were noted. Compounds ND-4 and ND-6 showed significant anticonvulsant activity when compared with that of standard drugs. The remaining all compounds show moderate activity. Biological activity data of the synthesized derivatives revealed that, the synthesized derivatives are good anticonvulsant agents as compared to Lamotrigine
Assessing the activity of faults in continental interiors: Palaeoseismic insights from SE Kazakhstan
No full textAbstractThe presence of fault scarps is a first-order criterion for identifying active faults. Yet the preservation of these features depends on the recurrence interval between surface rupturing events, combined with the rates of erosional and depositional processes that act on the landscape. Within arid continental interiors single earthquake scarps can be preserved for thousands of years, and yet the interval between surface ruptures on faults in these regions may be much longer, such that the lack of evidence for surface faulting in the morphology may not preclude activity on those faults. In this study we investigate the 50 km-long ‘Toraigyr’ thrust fault in the northern Tien Shan. From palaeoseismological trenching we show that two surface rupturing earthquakes occurred in the last 39.9±2.7 ka BP, but only the most recent event (3.15–3.6 ka BP) has a clear morphological expression. We conclude that a landscape reset took place in between the two events, likely as a consequence of the climatic change at the end of the last glacial maximum. These findings illustrate that in the Tien Shan evidence for the most recent active faulting can be easily obliterated by climatic processes due to the long earthquake recurrence intervals. Our results illustrate the problems related to the assessment of active tectonic deformation and seismic hazard assessments in continental interior settings
Synthesis and antimicrobial activity of some imidazothiazole derivatives of benzofuran
No full textAbstractA series of 6-(1-benzofuran-2-yl)-3-phenyl imidazo[2,1-b][1,3]thiazole (5a–f) and 3,6-bis (1-benzofuran-2-yl)imidazo[2,1-b][1,3]thiazole (6a–d) derivatives are synthesized by the reaction of 1-(1-benzofuran-2-yl)-2-bromoethanones (2a–b) with 4-phenyl-1,3-thiazol-2-amines (4a–c) and 4-benzofurano-1,3-thiazol-2-amines (3a–b) respectively. The structures of newly synthesized compounds are characterized by IR, 1H NMR and mass spectroscopic studies and were screened for their antimicrobial activities. The preliminary results revealed that some of the compounds exhibited promising antimicrobial activities
Levosimendan as a treatment for acute renal failure associated with cardiogenic shock after hip fracture
No full textAbstractInotropic drugs are part of the treatment of heart failure; however, inotropic treatment has been largely debated due to the increased incidence of adverse effects and increased mortality. Recently levosimendan, an inotropic positive agent, has been proved to be effective in acute heart failure, reducing the mortality and improving cardiac and renal performance. We report the case of a 75-year-old woman with history of heart and renal failure and hip fracture. Levosimendan was used in preoperative preparation as an adjuvant therapy, to improve cardiac and renal function and to allow surgery
The influence of facility and home pen design on the welfare of the laboratory-housed dog
No full textAbstractWe have an ethical and scientific obligation to Refine all aspects of the life of the laboratory-housed dog. Across industry there are many differences amongst facilities, home pen design and husbandry, as well as differences in features of the dogs such as strain, sex and scientific protocols. Understanding how these influence welfare, and hence scientific output is therefore critical. A significant proportion of dogs' lives are spent in the home pen and as such, the design can have a considerable impact on welfare. Although best practice guidelines exist, there is a paucity of empirical evidence to support the recommended Refinements and uptake varies across industry. In this study, we examine the effect of modern and traditional home pen design, overall facility design, husbandry, history of regulated procedures, strain and sex on welfare-indicating behaviours and mechanical pressure threshold. Six groups of dogs from two facilities (total n=46) were observed in the home pen and tested for mechanical pressure threshold. Dogs which were housed in a purpose-built modern facility or in a modern design home pen showed the fewest behavioural indicators of negative welfare (such as alert or pacing behaviours) and more indicators of positive welfare (such as resting) compared to those in a traditional home pen design or traditional facility. Welfare indicating behaviours did not vary consistently with strain, but male dogs showed more negative welfare indicating behaviours and had greater variation in these behaviours than females. Our findings showed more positive welfare indicating behaviours in dogs with higher mechanical pressure thresholds. We conclude that factors relating to the design of home pens and implementation of Refinements at the facility level have a significant positive impact on the welfare of laboratory-housed dogs, with a potential concomitant impact on scientific endpoints
PLK1, A Potential Target for Cancer Therapy
No full textAbstractPolo-like kinase 1 (PLK1) plays an important role in the initiation, maintenance, and completion of mitosis. Dysfunction of PLK1 may promote cancerous transformation and drive its progression. PLK1 overexpression has been found in a variety of human cancers and was associated with poor prognoses in cancers. Many studies have showed that inhibition of PLK1 could lead to death of cancer cells by interfering with multiple stages of mitosis. Thus, PLK1 is expected to be a potential target for cancer therapy. In this article, we examined PLK1’s structural characteristics, its regulatory roles in cell mitosis, PLK1 expression, and its association with survival prognoses of cancer patients in a wide variety of cancer types, PLK1 interaction networks, and PLK1 inhibitors under investigation. Finally, we discussed the key issues in the development of PLK1-targeted cancer therapy
Oral administration of synthetic selenium nanoparticles induced robust Th1 cytokine pattern after HBs antigen vaccination in mouse model
No full textSummaryHepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is known as a life-threatening liver infection and leads to chronic liver disease if left untreated. Nevertheless, the prevalence of HBV infection has been reduced by an approved vaccination approach using recombinant Hepatitis B surface Antigen (HBsAg) and Alum, known as the HBV vaccine. Alum can be used as an adjuvant to increase HBsAg immunogenicity as a strong Th2 stimulator. There is a vital need to stimulate Th1 immunity by HBsAg vaccination; however, the present vaccine does not induce a prophylactic immune response in some groups. The main aim of the present study was to induce a Th1 cytokine pattern and stimulate an immune response after HBsAg vaccination. Experimental mice were fed selenium nanoparticles (SeNPs) and were later immunized with 5μg of Hepatitis B Vaccine. After a period of 30 days, the experimental animals were given two booster doses of SeNPs during their vaccination course. Group one, i.e., the control vaccine group, was only administered the HBsAg vaccine. The two treated groups, Groups 2 and 3, were daily fed different doses of SeNPs (100μg and 200μg, respectively) via gavage. Group four was considered the control group and was only given phosphate buffered saline (PBS). Lymphocyte proliferation, IFN-γ and IL-4 levels, total antibody and the isotypes of IgG1, IgG2a, IgG2b, and IgM were measured by Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA). The administration of SeNPs and the HBs antigen vaccine affected the lymphocyte proliferation; moreover, the total antibody responses also increased the IFN-γ level and induced a Th1 response.ConclusionsThe present study proposed that the administration of SeNPs with a conventional HBs antigen vaccine induces a better immune response with a Th1 bias
On the equivalence of two curvature conditions for Lorentzian hypersurfaces
No full textAbstractLet n≥3. We show that semi-symmetry and Ricci-semisymmetry conditions are equivalent for any n-dimensional Lorentzian hypersurface in a Lorentzian space form with nonzero curvature. We also show that these curvature conditions are equivalent for any n-dimensional Lorentzian isoparametric hypersurface in Minkowski space R1n+1, and we construct an example of a Ricci-semisymmetric 5-dimensional Lorentzian hypersurface in R16 which is not semi-symmetric