Although the recurrence of chronic subdural hematoma (CSDH) after surgical treatment significantly affects the patients’ quality of life, the recurrence rate has not improved in decades. Goreisan, a ...Japanese herbal Kampo medicine, promotes the hydragogue effect and has been empirically used in the treatment of CSDH in Japan. We conducted a prospective randomized study to investigate whether Goreisan treatment decreases the recurrence rate of CSDH. Between March 2013 and December 2018, a total of 224 patients who underwent initial burr hole surgery for CSDH were randomly assigned to receive Goreisan for 3 months (Group G) or no medication (Group N). The primary endpoint was symptomatic recurrence within 3 months postoperatively, and the secondary endpoint was complications, including the adverse effects of Goreisan. Of 224 randomized patients, 208 were included in the final analysis (104 in Group G and 104 in Group N). The overall recurrence rate was 9.1% (19/208). The recurrence rate of Group G was lower than that of Group N (5.8% vs 12.5%, P = 0.09), but the difference was not statistically significant. However, a significant preventive effect of Goreisan was found in 145 patients with high-risk computed tomography (CT) features, namely, homogeneous and separated types (5.6% vs 17.6%, P = 0.04). Although the present study did not prove the beneficial effect of Goreisan treatment, it suggested the importance of selecting patients with an increased risk of recurrence. A subset of patients whose hematoma showed homogeneous and separated patterns on CT image might benefit from Goreisan treatment.
Vitamin D is among the vitamins necessary for both adults’ and children’s health. It plays a significant role in calcium absorption, the immune system, cell proliferation and differentiation, bone ...protection, skeletal health, rickets, muscle health, heart health, disease pathogenesis and severity, glucose metabolism, glucose intolerance, varying insulin secretion, and diabetes. Because the 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD) test, which is used to measure vitamin D is expensive and may not be covered in healthcare benefits in many countries, this study aims to predict vitamin D deficiency in diabetic patients. The prediction method is based on data mining techniques combined with feature selection by using historical electronic health records. The results were compared with a filter-based feature selection algorithm, namely relief-F. Non-valuable features were eliminated effectively with the relief-F feature selection method without any performance loss in classification. The performances of the methods were evaluated using classification accuracy (ACC), sensitivity, specificity, F1-score, precision, kappa results, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. The analyses have been conducted on a vitamin D dataset of diabetic patients and the results show that the highest classification accuracy of 97.044% was obtained for the support vector machines (SVM) model using radial kernel that contains 18 features.
Introduction: Contrast-induced nephropathy (CIN) is an iatrogenic complication occurring in patients exposed to contrast agents. Objectives: We aimed to investigate the relationship between blood ...methemoglobin (MHb) levels and the development of CIN in patients undergoing coronary angiography (CAG), with or without primary coronary intervention for acute coronary syndrome (ACS). Patients and Methods: In this retrospective study, 119 patients diagnosed with ACS who underwent coronary angiography were included. MHb levels were measured in patients before and at during the first 1 to 3 hours after the procedure. CIN was defined as an increase in serum creatinine levels by ≥0.3 mg/dL (26.5 µmol/L) from baseline within 48 hours after contrast exposure or an increase of 1.5-1.9 times the baseline value within 7 days. Results: The relationship between CIN-positive and CIN-negative patients and patients with MHb ≤%1 and MHb >% 1 was similar (P=0.4). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that an MHb value greater than 1 did not independently predict the development of CIN. Significant differences were observed between these two groups in terms of pre-CAG creatinine levels (P=0.02), Mehran risk score (<0.001), hemoglobin levels (P=0.03), the presence of hypotension (P=0.03), blood pH value (P=0.03), left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) (<0.001), the presence of diabetes mellitus (P=0.014), age (P=0.001), and smoking history (P=0.02). Conclusion: Our study demonstrates that traditional risk factors contribute to nephropathy. However, the increased blood MHb levels do not appear to contribute to the development of CIN in ACS patients.
A transpiration-type thermoelectric-power-generating paper based on previously developed carbon nanotube (CNT) composite paper, which is a composite material of CNTs and pulp that can generate ...thermoelectric power, was developed. The newly developed thermoelectric-power-generating material does not require an external high-temperature heat source due to the ability of paper to absorb liquid through capillary action and heat of vaporization generated when the liquid evaporates. The aim of this study is to investigate the feasibility of realizing the transpiration-type thermoelectric-power-generating paper. To begin with, the type of paper used as raw material for the composite paper was examined, and the fabrication process was modified in order to obtain more efficient liquid absorption based on capillary action. Then, the absorbing ability of the liquid was evaluated. Next, the feasibility of thermoelectric power generation using the heat of vaporization was confirmed. Moreover, for more efficient thermoelectric conversion, multisheet structures were also studied. Through several experiments, the material’s feasibility was verified, and it was confirmed that more power can be easily obtained through the use of multiple sheets. Specifically, a single sample spontaneously generated a temperature difference of up to 1.7 °C due to the heat of vaporization, generating an electromotive force of 36 μV. From the sample with a five-sheet structure, an electromotive force of 356 μV was obtained at a temperature difference of 2 °C. This material can be used in watery environments, such as rivers, lakes, and hot springs, and is expected to become a new energy-harvesting device.
Zika virus (ZIKV) is a re-emerging mosquito-borne flavivirus that affects humans and can cause severe neurological complications, including Guillain-Barré syndrome and microcephaly. Since 2007 there ...have been three large outbreaks; the last and larger spread in the Americas in 2015. Actually, ZIKV is circulating in the Americas, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific Islands, and represents a potential pandemic threat. Given the rapid ZIKV dissemination and the severe neurological and teratogenic sequelae associated with ZIKV infection, the development of a safe and efficacious vaccine is critical. In this study, we have developed and characterized the immunogenicity and efficacy of a novel ZIKV vaccine based on the highly attenuated poxvirus vector modified vaccinia virus Ankara (MVA) expressing the ZIKV prM and E structural genes (termed MVA-ZIKV). MVA-ZIKV expressed efficiently the ZIKV structural proteins, assembled in virus-like particles (VLPs) and was genetically stable upon nine passages in cell culture. Immunization of mice with MVA-ZIKV elicited antibodies that were able to neutralize ZIKV and induced potent and polyfunctional ZIKV-specific CD8
T cell responses that were mainly of an effector memory phenotype. Moreover, a single dose of MVA-ZIKV reduced significantly the viremia in susceptible immunocompromised mice challenged with live ZIKV. These findings support the use of MVA-ZIKV as a potential vaccine against ZIKV.
The effects of rhenium (Re) addition on deuterium (D) retention in neutron-irradiated tungsten (W) were investigated. Pure W and W-5Re (5 at.%) alloy samples were irradiated with neutrons at High ...Flux Isotope Reactor using MFE-RB-19 J capsule. The sample temperature and the damage level were 864 K and 0.35 dpa for pure W and 792 K and 0.26 dpa for W-5Re alloy. A portion of the samples was exposed to D plasma at Tritium Plasma Experiment at Idaho National Laboratory at 823 K to a fluence of 5 × 1025m−2. Vacancy-type defects in neutron-irradiated samples were examined using positron annihilation spectroscopy (PAS); D retention after plasma exposure was evaluated by thermal desorption spectrometry (TDS).
TDS measurements revealed that D retention in the neutron-irradiated W-5Re alloy was similar to that in the unirradiated W sample, whereas a significant increase in D retention was observed in neutron-irradiated W. Thus, Re addition significantly suppressed the increase in D retention after neutron irradiation. This effect was attributed to the suppression of vacancy-type defect formation, as confirmed by PAS.
El objetivo de este artículo es criticar la opinión común entre los estudiosos de Unamuno de que Miguel de Unamuno defendió una especie de argumento pragmático para la fe religiosa y que su noción de ...fe religiosa como “querer creer” debe identificarse con la “will to believe” (“voluntad de creer”) de William James. Cómo mostraré en este artículo, uno de los aspectos que hace el razonamiento de Unamuno filosóficamente relevante es su habilidad de formular una defensa no pragmatista de la fe religiosa sin un compromiso previo a la verdad de ningún enunciado religioso o teológico y basada en nuestro anhelo de una existencia eterna mediante la Salvación de Dios.
The aim of this paper is to argue against the received view among Unamuno scholars that Miguel de Unamuno was defending a sort of pragmatic argument for religious faith and that his notion of religious faith as “querer creer” (“wanting to believe”) is to be identified with William James’s “the will to believe”. As I will show in this paper, one of the aspects that makes Unamuno’s reasoning philosophically relevant is his ability to formulate a non-pragmatist defense of religious faith without a prior commitment to the truth of any religious or theological statement and grounded in our longing for an endless existence through God’s Salvation.
The hub location problem deals with finding the location of hub facilities and allocating the demand nodes to these hub facilities so as to effectively route the demand between any origin–destination ...pair. In the extensive literature on this challenging network design problem, it has widely been assumed that the subgraph induced by the hub nodes is complete. Relaxation of this basic assumption constitutes the starting point of the present work. In this study, we provide a uniform modeling treatment to all the single allocation variants of the existing hub location problems, under the incomplete hub network design. No network structure other than connectivity is imposed on the induced hub network. Within this context, the single allocation incomplete
p-hub median, the incomplete hub location with fixed costs, the incomplete hub covering, and the incomplete
p-hub center network design problems are defined, and efficient mathematical formulations for these problems with
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variables are introduced. Computational analyses with these formulations are presented on the various instances of the CAB data set and on the Turkish network.
In this paper, a new molecularly imprinted solid-phase extraction (MISPE) method was described for the determination of the chlorpyrifos in water samples. A thiol-ene based UV-cured polymer was ...prepared by mixing glyoxal bis (-diallyl acetal), pentaerythritol tetrakis (3-mercaptopropionate), polyethylene glycol diacrylate (PEGDA), and photoinitiator. Chlorpyrifos was added to the prepared polymer as a template analyte, and its analysis was performed by gas chromatography with mass detection (GC–MS). The influence of some analytical parameters was studied. We found that the use of the molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) UV-cured disc provides an easy, selective, and available solution for removing chlorpyrifos from water samples.
Communication with humans is a multi-faceted phenomenon where the emotions, personality and non-verbal behaviours, as well as the verbal behaviours, play a significant role, and human-robot ...interaction (HRI) technologies should respect this complexity to achieve efficient and seamless communication. In this paper, we describe the design and execution of five public demonstrations made with two HRI systems that aimed at automatically sensing and analysing human participants' non-verbal behaviour and predicting their facial action units, facial expressions and personality in real time while they interacted with a small humanoid robot. We describe an overview of the challenges faced together with the lessons learned from those demonstrations in order to better inform the science and engineering fields to design and build better robots with more purposeful interaction capabilities. This article is part of the theme issue 'From social brains to social robots: applying neurocognitive insights to human-robot interaction'.
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