Tag: nevin manimala

Fertil Steril. 2023 Aug 28:S0015-0282(23)01721-1. doi: 10.1016/j.fertnstert.2023.08.953. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether peak estradiol (E₂) levels above the usual physiologic range (300-500 pg/mL) will impact programmed frozen embryo transfer (FET) outcomes in an ideal study population of those using good-quality single euploid blastocysts.

DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study SUBJECTS: Single euploid programmed FET done at a single academic institution from January 2016 to December 2019. The population was divided into three groups based on peak serum E₂ levels during endometrial preparation: group A (E₂ <300 pg/mL), group B (300-500 pg/mL), and group C (>500 pg/mL). Group B was used as the reference range for statistical analysis.

MAIN OUTCOME: The primary outcome was live birth rate. Secondary outcomes included implantation, biochemical, ectopic, and miscarriage rates.

RESULTS: 750 FET cycles were included in this study. Poisson regression analysis showed a negative impact on higher peak E₂ on live birth rate (p=0.03). A decrease in live birth rate was noted between group C and referent group B (50.2% vs 63.4%, RR 0.79 [0.68-0.91], p<0.01) and group A and referent group B (42.5% vs 63.4%, RR 0.67 [0.46-0.98], p=0.04). Secondary outcomes were notable for a lower implantation rate when groups A and C were compared to group B, and a higher biochemical rate between group C and group B. There was no notable difference between groups in ectopic or miscarriage rate.

CONCLUSION: Limiting peak serum E₂ levels to 300-500 pg/mL during programmed FET cycles is associated with improved live birth rates compared to cycles with peak E₂ levels were <300 pg/mL or >500 pg/mL in an ideal study population.

PMID:37648142 | DOI:10.1016/j.fertnstert.2023.08.953

J Biomed Inform. 2023 Aug 28:104481. doi: 10.1016/j.jbi.2023.104481. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: Investigate the preliminary efficacy and feasibility of a personalized mobile health (mHealth) intervention based on social cognitive theory (SCT) to promote physical activity among type 2 diabetes patients via self-monitoring, goal setting, and automatic feedback.

METHODS: We conducted a pilot study involving 33 type 2 diabetes patients attending Mitsui Memorial Hospital in Japan using a pre-post evaluation design over 12 weeks. Participants measured daily step count, body weight, and blood pressure at home, with the measurements synchronized with the StepAdd application (app) automatically. Participants used the app to review daily results, update personalized step goals, identify individualized barriers to achieving the step goals, find coping strategies to overcome each barrier, and implement these strategies, thereby building effective coping skills to meet the goals. Pharmacists examined the usage of the app and provided coaching on lifestyle modifications. Ultimately, patients established skills to enhance diabetes self-care by using the app.

RESULTS: Daily step count increased dramatically with high statistical significance (p<0.0001), from a mean of 5,436 steps/day to 10,150 steps/day, an 86.7% increase. HbA1c (p=0.0001) and BMI (p = 0.0038) also improved. Diabetes self-care in diet, exercise, and foot care as well as self-management behavior, self-regulation, and self-efficacy in achieving daily step goals showed significant improvements. The retention rate of the study was very high, at 97.0% (n=32).

CONCLUSIONS: A personalized smartphone-based mHealth intervention based on SCT is feasible and effective at promoting physical activity among type 2 diabetes patients. The methodology of the intervention could be readily applied to other patient populations.

PMID:37648101 | DOI:10.1016/j.jbi.2023.104481

Phytomedicine. 2023 Aug 17;120:155038. doi: 10.1016/j.phymed.2023.155038. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: Traditional Chinese medicines (TCM) play an indispensable role during the pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), with an increasing number of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) designed and performed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of TCM for COVID-19. This study aimed to critically appraise the quality of currently available RCTs of TCM for COVID-19.

METHODS: RCTs of TCM for COVID-19 were searched from three databases by two investigators and selected according to pre-established inclusion and exclusion criteria. General information of included studies was presented by applying descriptive statistics. The methodological and reporting quality of eligible RCTs was critically evaluated based on the risk of bias assessment tool 2 (RoB2) and CONSORT Extension for TCM (CONSORT-CHM Formulas 2017), respectively. The differences of risks and main general information were compared between RCTs published in English and Chinese journals. Microsoft Excel 2019 and SPSS were used for the statistical analysis. A result with p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

RESULTS: This study finally included 64 RCTs with a total of 10858 participants investigating TCM for COVID-19. All 64 RCTs were evaluated as moderate-to-low RoB including 27 RCTs with high bias, 26 RCTs with some concerns, and 11 with low bias. Results of reporting quality appraisal by CONSORT-CHM Formulas 2017 showed that 61 (95%) RCTs reported more than 18 (50%) items, and 14 (22%) RCTs reported more than 26 (70%) items among all 38 items. Forty-two RCTs were approved by ethics committees and 47 RCTs reported the informed consent information. Twenty-five RCTs and 39 RCTs provided information on trial registration and funding resources, respectively. The quality of 44 RCTs published in Chinese was significantly worse than that of 20 RCTs published in English, especially in the following considerations including the overall RoB, ethics approved, informed consent, trial register, and reporting quality with CONSORT-CHM Formulas 2017.

CONCLUSION: The overall quality of RCTs investigating TCM for COVID-19 was appraised as moderate-to-high that was substandard and needs to be continuously improved, especially for RCTs published in Chinese, in the future.

PMID:37647671 | DOI:10.1016/j.phymed.2023.155038

Phytomedicine. 2023 Aug 14;120:155022. doi: 10.1016/j.phymed.2023.155022. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) system is a medical system that has been expanding for thousands of years that was formed by the extensive clinical practice experience of many physicians and the accumulation of personal medication habits in China. In TCM, there is a history of long-term medication for epilepsy, the main treatment for epilepsy is TCM drugs and its prescription, supplemented by TCM modalities such as acupuncture therapy, moxibustion therapy, tuina, emotion adjustment therapy, etc. PURPOSE: With the modernization of TCM, the active ingredients and molecular mechanisms of TCM for epilepsy treatment have been gradually revealed. This review aimed to comprehensively summarize the TCM treatment of epilepsy, focusing on the current TCM drugs and some TCM formulae for the treatment of epilepsy, and to discuss the research progress of TCM for the treatment of epilepsy, and to provide a reference to develop future related studies in this field.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: The mechanism of action of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) was interpreted from different perspectives by searching online databases and querying various materials identify drugs used in both modern medicine and TCM systems for the treatment of epilepsy. We collected all relevant TCM for epilepsy literature published in the last 30 years up to December 2022 from electronic databases such as PubMed, CNKI and Web of Science, and statistically analyzed the literature for the following keyword information. The search terms comprise the keywords “TCM”, “phytochemistry”, “pharmacological activity”, “epilepsy” and “traditional application” as a combination. Scientific plant names were provided by “The Plant List” (www.theplantlist.org).

RESULTS: Epilepsy is a complex and serious disease of the brain and nervous system. At present, the treatment of epilepsy in modern medicine is mainly surgery and chemotherapy, but there are many serious side effects. By summarizing the treatment of epilepsy in TCM, it is found that there are various methods to treat epilepsy in TCM, mainly TCM drugs and its formulae. Many TCM drugs have antiepileptic effects. Now found that the main effective TCM drugs for the treatment of epilepsy are Curcumae Longae Rhizoma, Scorpio, Acori Tatarinowii Rhizoma, Uncariae Ramulus Cum Uncis and Ganoderma, etc. And the main compounds that play a role in the treatment of epilepsy are curcumin, gastrodin, ligustrazine, baicalin and rhynchophylline, etc. These TCM drugs have played an important role in the treatment of epilepsy in TCM clinic. However, the chemically active components of these TCM drugs are diverse and their mechanisms of action are complex, which are not fully understood and need to be further explored.

CONCLUSIONS: TCM treats epilepsy in a variety of ways, and with the discovery of a variety of potential bioactive substances for treatment of epilepsy. With the new progress in the research of other TCM treatment methods for epilepsy, TCM will have greater potential in the clinical application of epilepsy.

PMID:37647670 | DOI:10.1016/j.phymed.2023.155022

J Hazard Mater. 2023 Aug 26;460:132418. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2023.132418. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

The high toxicity and low biodegradability of the phenolic pollutants destroyed the balance of the environment and influenced human health seriously. Here, we developed a three-dimensional coloremetric sensor array for discriminating and determinating phenolic pollutants basing on the distinct Cu/nucleotides MOFs. Firstly, three laccase-mimic Cu/MOFs (Cu/AMP, Cu/CMP, and Cu/GMP) were obtained by regulating the molar ratio of Cu²⁺ and nucleotides. Then the Cu/MOFs as the recognition elements of the sensor array catalyzed the pollutants-4-AAP-H₂O₂ system, obtaining the colored benzoquinone products. Subsequently, the data array obtaining from the combined training matrix (3 Cu/MOFs × 6 pollutants × 5 replicates) was projected into a new dimensional space to obtain the 3D canonical scores, and classified into individual clusters by introducing LDA method. No overlap in their respective LDA plots for the six phenolic pollutants with different concentrations suggested the prominent discriminating performance of the sensor array. Furthermore, the sensor array exhibited high selectivity compared to the “lock-and-key” sensors even other active matrices coexisting in water samples. Importantly, the most influential discrimination factor was used to monitor the levels of the six targets, evidencing the potential application in assessing water pollution and maintaining human health.

PMID:37647664 | DOI:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2023.132418

J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2023 Aug 30:1-17. doi: 10.1044/2023_JSLHR-23-00123. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: Previous studies have shown that individuals who stutter exhibit abnormal speech perception in addition to disfluent production as compared with their nonstuttering peers. This study investigated whether adult Chinese-speaking stutterers are still able to use knowledge of statistical regularities embedded in their native language to recognize spoken words and, if so, how much acoustic information is needed to trigger this information.

METHOD: Seventeen stutterers and 20 typical, nonstuttering controls participated in a gating experiment. All participants listened to monosyllabic words that consisted of syllables and lexical tones and were segmented into eight successive gates. These words differed in syllable token frequency and syllable-tone co-occurrence probability in line with a Chinese spoken word corpus. The correct syllable-only, correct tone-only, correct syllable-tone word, and correct syllable-incorrect tone responses were analyzed between the two groups using mixed-effects models.

RESULTS: Stutterers were less accurate overall than controls, with fewer correct syllables, tones, and their combination as words. However, stutterers showed consistent and reliable perceptual patterns triggered by statistical information of speech, as reflected by more accurate responses to high-frequency syllables, high-probability tones, and tone errors all in manners similar to those of nonstuttering controls.

CONCLUSIONS: Stutterers’ atypical speech perception is not due to a lack of statistical learning. Stutterers were able to perceive spoken words with phonological tones based on statistical regularities embedded in their native speech. This finding echoes previous production studies of stuttering and lends some support for a link between perception and production. Implications of pathological, diagnostic, and therapeutic conditions of stuttering are discussed.

PMID:37647655 | DOI:10.1044/2023_JSLHR-23-00123

J AOAC Int. 2023 Aug 30:qsad098. doi: 10.1093/jaoacint/qsad098. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Global financial market is still highly threatened by bovine fasciolosis; a parasitic infection, that targets cattle, mainly in tropical regions. Binary combination of Ivermectin (IVER) and Clorsulon (CLO), in challenging concentration ratios, is typically indicated for treatment and control of fasciolosis.

OBJECTIVE: Present study aims at smart simultaneous spectrophotometric assay of both compounds at their high ratio in marketed formulation and synthetic mixtures, without any prior separation. Furthermore, their greenness profile was evaluated and compared with previous reported assay methods including the official one.

METHODS: Mathematical-based proposed methods are Dual wavelength, Induced Dual wavelength and First Derivative Ratio methods. Each is developed, optimized and applied to determine simultaneously IVER and CLO at linear ranges of 1-30 and 5-40 μg/mL, respectively. They have been validated according to ICH guidelines. Statistical student t- and F-tests, compared the proposed methods with USP chromatographic technique. Ecological appraisal is accomplished using three independent metrics; Analytical Eco-Scale (AES), Green Analytical Procedure Index (GAPI) and Analytical GREEnness Metric Approach (AGREE).

RESULTS: Satisfactory recoveries, ICH compliance and adherence of proposed methods to the ecological safety margin are achieved.

CONCLUSION: Developed methods are eco-friendly, cost effective and can accomplish a routine quantitative quality control for concurrent determination of both drugs.

HIGHLIGHTS: Veterinary antimicrobials need analytical quality control using safer and green methodologies. Data manipulated spectral analyses of IVER and CLO, in ratio 1:10%v/v, is developed and optimized. AES, GAPI and AGREE approaches illustrate the high green compliance in respect to literary reported assays. Furthermore, the United States Pharmacopeia (USP) assay for IVER and CLO in injectable dosage form depends on analysis of each drug separately in the presence of the other drug but it cannot determine both drugs simultaneously at the same time.

PMID:37647651 | DOI:10.1093/jaoacint/qsad098

Bioinformatics. 2023 Aug 30:btad535. doi: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btad535. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

MOTIVATION: Existing methods for simulating synthetic genotype and phenotype datasets have limited scalability, constraining their usability for large-scale analyses. Moreover, a systematic approach for evaluating synthetic data quality and a benchmark synthetic dataset for developing and evaluating methods for polygenic risk scores are lacking.

RESULTS: We present HAPNEST, a novel approach for efficiently generating diverse individual-level genotypic and phenotypic data. In comparison to alternative methods, HAPNEST shows faster computational speed and a lower degree of relatedness with reference panels, while generating datasets that preserve key statistical properties of real data. These desirable synthetic data properties enabled us to generate 6.8 million common variants and nine phenotypes with varying degrees of heritability and polygenicity across 1 million individuals. We demonstrate how HAPNEST can facilitate biobank-scale analyses through the comparison of seven methods to generate polygenic risk scoring across multiple ancestry groups and different genetic architectures.

AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: A synthetic dataset of 1,008,000 individuals and 9 traits for 6.8 million common variants is available at https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-BSST936. The HAPNEST software for generating synthetic datasets is available as Docker/Singularity containers and open source Julia and C code at https://github.com/intervene-EU-H2020/synthetic_data.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

PMID:37647640 | DOI:10.1093/bioinformatics/btad535

Jpn J Clin Oncol. 2023 Aug 29:hyad113. doi: 10.1093/jjco/hyad113. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Wilms tumor is the most common cancer of the kidney that occurs during childhood, and histologically, it mimics renal embryogenesis. With the development and improvement of up-to-date treatment protocols, the survival rates of Wilms tumor have increased. However, metastases or local relapses are still observed in 15% of patients. The search for reliable biomarkers to identify at-risk patients is ongoing to predict the variability in treatment success. Currently, the evaluation of clinical, histopathological and genetic features are common diagnostic methods; however, epigenetic features can be examined with microRNA expression analyses and might allow us to comment on the behavior of the tumor and treatment response.

METHODS: In this study, we aimed to evaluate the relationship between microRNA-204 and microRNA-483-5p expression with clinicopathological data and the effect on Wilms tumor survival. For this purpose, the expression levels of RNU6B, microRNA-204 and microRNA-483-5p were evaluated in tumor and normal tissue by qreal time-polymerase chain reaction. We also investigated the relationship between microRNA expression levels with the clinicopathological and histological features of Wilms tumor.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The results of our study indicate that the relative expression levels of microRNA-204 in Wilms tumor tissues were significantly lower than that in adjacent normal tissues. By contrast, tumor tissue had a higher microRNA-483-5p expression than the corresponding normal tissues. A statistically significant difference between microRNA-204 expression level with age and the presence of anaplasia was observed. The upregulation of microRNA-483-5p was found to have a significant correlation with patients after preoperative chemotherapy and complete tumor necrosis. Taken together, our data suggest that microRNA-204 could play a critical role as a tumor suppressor, whereas microRNA-483-5p acts as an oncogene in Wilms tumor progression. More importantly, microRNA-204 might be a novel predictive biomarker for anaplastic histology and could be useful for developing therapeutic interventions targeting this marker.

PMID:37647636 | DOI:10.1093/jjco/hyad113

Emerg Infect Dis. 2023 Aug 30;29(10). doi: 10.3201/eid2910.230286. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Little is known about co-occurring tuberculosis (TB) and COVID-19 in low TB incidence settings. We obtained a cross-section of 333 persons in the United States co-diagnosed with TB and COVID-19 within 180 days and compared them to 4,433 persons with TB only in 2020 and 18,898 persons with TB during 2017‒2019. Across both comparison groups, a higher proportion of persons with TB-COVID-19 were Hispanic, were long-term care facility residents, and had diabetes. When adjusted for age, underlying conditions, and TB severity, COVID-19 co-infection was not statistically associated with death compared with TB infection only in 2020 (adjusted prevalence ratio 1.0 [95% CI 0.8‒1.4]). Among TB-COVID-19 patients, death was associated with a shorter interval between TB and COVID-19 diagnoses, older age, and being immunocompromised (non-HIV). TB-COVID-19 deaths in the United States appear to be concentrated in subgroups sharing characteristics known to increase risk for death from either disease alone.

PMID:37647628 | DOI:10.3201/eid2910.230286