Autoimmune reaction after vaccination is sporadically reported in the medical literature. Vaccinations are generally safe and have an important role in eradicating endemic diseases worldwide. ...Nevertheless, the question arises as to whether there is a possibility of post-vaccination autoimmune phenomena. The anti-tetanus vaccine is being used since 1924, and it is part of the recommended immunization schedules for children. There are few reports of autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis and anti-phospholipid syndrome after anti-tetanus vaccination. Herein, we describe four cases, of which we believe, show a clear temporal relation between anti-tetanus vaccination and the appearance of dermatomyositis, systemic lupus erythematosus, type 1 diabetes mellitus and anti-phospholipid syndrome. We also suggest some of the pathogenic mechanisms that promote a pathogenic autoimmune response.
Damage assessment applied to reinforced concrete elements is one of the main activities of infrastructure maintenance tasks. Among these elements, the problem of corrosion in reinforced concrete is ...particularly critical and requires careful consideration. Annually, governments invest a large amount of economic resources in this activity. However, most methodologies for damage assessment rely on visual inspection, which may be subjectively interpreted, producing inconsistent results and requiring a considerable amount of time and resources. This study evaluates the performance of real-time object detection using You Only Look Once, version 3, for detecting corrosion damage in concrete structures. The architecture of YOLOv3 is based on a complex, but efficient, convolutional neural network fed by a dataset proposed and labeled by the authors. Two training stages were established to improve the model precision, using transfer learning with medium- and high-resolution training images. The test results show satisfactory concrete-corrosion detection through validation photographs and videos demonstrating the capabilities of explainable artificial intelligence and its applications in civil engineering.
The relationship between human papillomavirus (HPV) and oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma has been established. However, data from Ecuador is limited. The objective of this study was to ...characterize HPV infection in Ecuadorian patients with tongue cancer. Fifty-three patients with tongue cancer treated at the tertiary referral center Sociedad de Lucha Contra el Cancer (SOLCA), Guayaquil, between 2006 and 2011 were identified. Linear Array® HPV genotyping was used to identify the presence and types of HPV on formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded biopsy samples from these patients with tongue cancer. HPV was identified in 42% (n=22) and high-risk (HR) HPV in 17% (n=9), with 18 different HPV types identified. The most common types were the HR HPV 33 (14%) and low-risk HPV 67 (14%), followed by the HR HPV 58. More than one HPV type was identified in 27.3% of cases. HPV 33 was frequently associated with other HPV types. No statistically significant differences in gender (P=0.58) and age (P=0.12) were observed between HPV-positive and HPV-negative cases. HPV was identified in almost half of the tongue cancer samples, with subtypes 33 and 67 being the most common. This suggested that HPV played an important role in this disease in the population studied. Given these results, current HPV vaccines may not be as effective in reducing tongue cancer rates in this population.
The match rate of medical schools in the U.S. has been extensively studied from the perspective of applicants and influential factors. A method to objectively estimate the efficiency of a medical ...school’s match rate has not been described in the literature. Such a method constitutes a significant improvement opportunity for medical schools via benchmarking best practices. This research fills the gap and proposes a bootstrap data envelopment analysis (DEA) framework to assess the residency match rate efficiency of medical schools. The efficacy of the proposed method is confirmed when benchmarking the Texas allopathic medical schools to representative samples of allopathic medical schools in the United States. The model allows to determine the statistical significance of differences in the residency match rate efficiency between groups of medical schools. The proposed bootstrap DEA approach is used to estimate the real efficiency's density function of 40 medical schools in the U.S. over the 2018–2020 period. The aggregate efficiency estimation showed that the medical schools are performing at a high competitive level; they have experienced a slight decline in scale efficiencies and have preserved high managerial performance. The study measured four groups: Texas medical schools, top ten ranked, middle ten ranked, and bottom ten ranked U.S. medical schools. The overall major improvement opportunity for medical schools is the scale of operations. Results confirm that medical schools are shown to be efficient in training future physicians.
We consider the multiprocessor scheduling problem in which independent jobs are scheduled on identical parallel machines, with the objective of minimizing the normalized sum of square for workload ...deviations (NSSWD) criterion in order to obtain workload balancing. NSSWD and other criteria for the related problem of number partitioning are presented from a statistical viewpoint, which allows to derive some insightful connections with statistical measures of dispersion. A new local search algorithm is also developed. The algorithm at first generates and merges a set of partial solutions in order to obtain a feasible solution for the multiprocessor scheduling problem. Then a set of interchange procedures are utilized in order to improve the solution. The effectiveness of this approach is evaluated by solving a large number of benchmark instances.
•Enhancement of HPLC performance for basic compounds with additives is studied.•The effect on retention and peak shape with ionic liquids and amines is compared.•Chlorides and tetrafluoroborates of ...imidazolium are considered.•More bulky additives are more efficient in masking silanol activity.•Retention changes do not offer good indication of suppression potency of silanols.
In reversed-phase liquid chromatography in the absence of additives, cationic basic compounds give rise to broad and asymmetrical peaks as a result of ionic interactions with residual free silanols on silica-based stationary phases. Ionic liquids (ILs), added to the mobile phase, have been suggested as alternatives to amines to block the activity of silanols. However, the dual character of ILs should be considered: both cation and anion may be adsorbed on the stationary phase, thereby creating a double asymmetrical layer positively or negatively charged, depending on the relative adsorption of both ions. In this work, a study of the performance of six imidazolium-based ILs (the chlorides and tetrafluoroborates of 1-ethyl-, 1-butyl- and 1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium) as modifiers of the chromatographic behaviour of a group of 10 β-blockers is performed, and compared with triethylamine and dimethyloctylamine. In order to gain more insight in the behaviour of ILs in RPLC, the changes in the nature of the chromatographic system, at increasing concentration of the additives, were followed based on retention and peak shape modelling. The multiple interactions that amines and ILs experience inside the chromatographic system suggest that the suppressing potency should be measured based on the shape of chromatographic peaks and not on the changes in retention. The ILs 1-hexyl-3-methyl-imidazolium chloride and tetrafluoroborate offered the most interesting features for the separation of the basic drugs.
OBJECTIVE:Characterize homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (HoFH) individuals from Iberoamerica.
APPROACH AND RESULTS:In a cross-sectional retrospective evaluation 134 individuals with a HoFH ...phenotype, 71 adults (age 39.3±15.8 years, 38.0% males), and 63 children (age 8.8±4.0 years, 50.8% males) were studied. Genetic characterization was available in 129 (96%). The majority (91%) were true homozygotes (true HoFH, n=79, 43.0% children, 46.8% males) or compound heterozygotes (compound heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia, n=39, 51.3% children, 46.2% males) with putative pathogenic variants in the LDLR. True HoFH due to LDLR variants had higher total (P=0.015) and LDL (low-density lipoprotein)-cholesterol (P=0.008) compared with compound heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia. Children with true HoFH (n=34) tended to be diagnosed earlier (P=0.051) and had a greater frequency of xanthomas (P=0.016) than those with compound heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (n=20). Previous major cardiovascular events were present in 25 (48%) of 52 children (missing information in 2 cases), and in 43 (67%) of 64 adults with LDLR variants. Children who are true HoFH had higher frequency of major cardiovascular events (P=0.02), coronary heart (P=0.013), and aortic/supra-aortic valve diseases (P=0.022) than compound heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia. In adults, no differences were observed in major cardiovascular events according to type of LDLR variant. From 118 subjects with LDLR variants, 76 (64%) had 2 likely pathogenic or pathogenic variants. In 89 subjects with 2 LDLR variants, those with at least one null allele were younger (P=0.003) and had a greater frequency of major cardiovascular events (P=0.038) occurring at an earlier age (P=0.001).
CONCLUSIONS:There was a high frequency of cardiovascular disease even in children. Phenotype and cardiovascular complications were heterogeneous and associated with the type of molecular defect.
Magnetic porous silicon flakes (MPSF) were obtained from mesoporous silicon layers formed by multi-step anodization and subsequent composite formation with Fe oxide nanoparticles by thermal ...annealing. The magnetic nanoparticles adhered to the surface and penetrated inside the pores. Their structure evolved as a result of the annealing treatments derived from X-ray diffraction and X-ray absorption analyses. Moreover, by tailoring the magnetic load, the dynamic and hydrodynamic properties of the particles were controlled, as observed by the pressure displayed against a sensor probe. Preliminary functionality experiments were performed using an eye model, seeking potential use of MPSF as reinforcement for restored detached retina. It was observed that optimal flake immobilization is obtained when the MPSF reach values of magnetic saturation >10−4Am2g−1. Furthermore, the MPSF were demonstrated to be preliminarily biocompatible in vitro. Moreover, New Zealand rabbit in vivo models demonstrated their short-term histocompatibility and their magnetic functionality as retina pressure actuators.
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