Adolescents with Inflammatory Bowel Disease: The Roles of Negative Afectivity and Hostility in Subjective Versus Objective Health

Examination of how psychological factors relate to illness severityamong adolescents with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is rare.Further, studies have not accounted for the pervasive influenceof negative affectivity (NA) or distinguished among subjective,behavioral, and objective measures of IBD severity. We examinedhow NA, positive affectivity, expressed hostility, and negativelife events were related to subjective (pain, fatigue, disability),behavioral (health care contacts), and objective (erythrocytesedimentation rate) illness severity among 56 adolescents withIBD. NA was positively related to subjective illness, and expressedhostility was inversely related to objective illness. Otherrelationships were eliminated after controlling for NA. Datasuggest that NA and subjective illness are comanifestationsof a single disposition, but that expressed hostility has anindependent relationship with disease activity among adolescentswith IBD.     

Prim?re totale Ellenbogenprothese zur Versorgung distaler Humerusfrakturen

Operationsziel   

Erreichen einer stabilen und schmerzfreien Funktion durch primäre Implantation einer totalen Ellenbogenprothese bei komplexen intraartikulären distalen Humerusfrakturen älterer Patienten.     

Identification and red blood cell automated counting from blood smear images using computer-aided system

Red blood cell count plays a vital role in identifying the overall health of the patient. Hospitals use the hemocytometer to count the blood cells. Conventional method of placing the smear under microscope and counting the cells manually lead to erroneous results, and medical laboratory technicians are put under stress. A computer-aided system will help to attain precise results in less amount of time. This research work proposes an image-processing technique for counting the number of red blood cells. It aims to examine and process the blood smear image, in order to support the counting of red blood cells and identify the number of normal and abnormal cells in the image automatically. K-medoids algorithm which is robust to external noise is used to extract the WBCs from the image. Granulometric analysis is used to separate the red blood cells from the white blood cells. The red blood cells obtained are counted using the labeling algorithm and circular Hough transform. The radius range for the circle-drawing algorithm is estimated by computing the distance of the pixels from the boundary which automates the entire algorithm. A comparison is done between the counts obtained using the labeling algorithm and circular Hough transform. Results of the work showed that circular Hough transform was more accurate in counting the red blood cells than the labeling algorithm as it was successful in identifying even the overlapping cells. The work also intends to compare the results of cell count done using the proposed methodology and manual approach. The work is designed to address all the drawbacks of the previous research work. The research work can be extended to extract various texture and shape features of abnormal cells identified so that diseases like anemia of inflammation and chronic disease can be detected at the earliest.     

Measurement in Comparative Effectiveness Research

Comparative effectiveness research (CER) on preventive services can shape policy and help patients, their providers, and public health practitioners select regimens and programs for disease prevention. Patients and providers need information about the relative effectiveness of various regimens they may choose. Decision makers need information about the relative effectiveness of various programs to offer or recommend. The goal of this paper is to define and differentiate measures of relative effectiveness of regimens and programs for disease prevention. Cancer screening is used to demonstrate how these measures differ in an example of two hypothetical screening regimens and programs.     

Viral protein U counteracts a human host cell restriction that inhibits HIV-1 particle production

Human cells resist viral infections by a variety of mechanisms. Viruses must overcome host cell restrictions to successfully reproduce their genetic material. Here, we identify a host restriction to viral replication that acts at the stage of particle assembly. Viral protein U (Vpu) is an HIV-1 accessory protein that enhances particle assembly and release in most human cells, but not in simian cells. By using human-simian cell heterokaryons, we show that the inhibition of assembly in human cells is dominant. Vpu overcomes the block to assembly in human cells and in human-simian heterokaryons. The HIV-1 vpu gene may have evolved to counteract an assembly restriction that is present in human cells.     

Structural and magnetic study of undoped and cobalt doped TiO2 nanoparticles

The present study investigates the influence of cobalt doping on the structural and magnetic properties of TiO₂ nanoparticles prepared by a simple wet chemical method. The single phase anatase structure of Co-doped TiO₂ nanoparticles was confirmed by X-ray powder diffraction. A morphological study using scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy indicates the formation of TiO₂ nanoparticles of sizes 6–10 nm. The high resolution TEM image shows clear lattice fringes indicating the highly crystalline nature of the nanoparticles which was further analysed by selected area electron diffraction pattern which indicates a polycrystalline nature of anatase TiO₂. The shifting and broadening of the most intense E_g (1) mode in micro-Raman study of Co-doped TiO₂ nanoparticles and XPS spectra indicate the incorporation of Co in TiO₂. Magnetic measurement shows ferromagnetic behavior at room temperature in undoped TiO₂ which has originated due to the presence of oxygen vacancies which are intrinsic in nature. But the M–H curve of Co-doped TiO₂ shows the coexistence of ferromagnetic and paramagnetic phases with enhanced magnetization. The enhancement in magnetization has arisen due to Co doping and the paramagnetism may be due to the presence of some undetected clusters of oxides of cobalt.

The present study investigates the influence of cobalt doping on the structural and magnetic properties of TiO₂ nanoparticles prepared by a simple wet chemical method.     

Smartphone-based kanamycin sensing with ratiometric FRET

Smartphone-based fluorescence detection is a promising avenue for biosensing that can aid on-site analysis. However, quantitative detection with fluorescence in the field has been limited due to challenges with robust excitation and calibration requirements. Here, we show that ratiometric analysis with Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) between dye pairs on DNA aptamers can enable rapid and sensitive kanamycin detection. Since our detection scheme relies on ligand binding-induced changes in the aptamer tertiary structure, it is limited only by the kinetics of ligand binding to the aptamer. Our FRET-based kanamycin binding aptamer (KBA) sensor displays two linear ranges of 0.05–5 nM (detection limit of 0.18 nM) and 50–900 nM of kanamycin. The aptamer displays high specificity even in the presence of the ‘natural’ background from milk. By immobilizing the aptamer in the flow cell, our KBA sensor design is also suitable for repeated kanamycin detection. Finally, we show that the ratiometric FRET-based analysis can be implemented on a cheap custom-built smartphone setup. This smartphone-based FRET aptamer scheme detects kanamycin in a linear range of 50–500 nM with a limit of detection (LOD) of 28 nM.

FRET aptamer based kanamycin detection enables reusable and smartphone sensing.     

Short-term glucose dysregulation following acute poisoning with organophosphorus insecticides but not herbicides,carbamate or pyrethroid insecticides in South Asia

Background: Ingestion of organophosphorus (OP) insecticides is associated with acute hyperglycaemia. We conducted a prospective study to determine whether glucose dysregulation on admission associated with ingestion of OP insecticides or other pesticides is sustained to hospital discharge or to 3–12 months later.

Methods: We recruited participants to two similar studies performed in parallel in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka, and Chittagong, Bangladesh, following hospitalisation for OP insecticide, herbicide or other pesticide self-poisoning. Two-hour 75?g oral glucose tolerance testing (OGTT) was performed after recovery from the acute poisoning, at around the time of discharge. In Sri Lanka, a four time-point OGTT for area-under-the-curve (AUC), C-peptide and homeostatic modelling of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) was undertaken, repeated after 1 year. In Bangladesh, a 2-h OGTT for glucose was undertaken and repeated after 3 months in participants with initial elevated 2-h glucose. We compared glucose homeostasis by poison group and adjusted findings for age, BMI and sex.

Findings: Seventy-three Sri Lankan and 151 Bangladeshi participants were recruited. We observed higher mean [SD] fasting (4.91 [0.74] vs. 4.66 [0.46] mmol/L, p?=?.003) and 2-h glucose (7.94 [2.54] vs. 6.71 [1.90] mmol/L, p?p?=?.352; 2-h glucose 6.96 [2.31] mmol/L vs. 6.27 [1.86] mmol/L, p?=?.225).

Conclusion: We found in this small prospective study that acute OP insecticide poisoning caused acute glucose dysregulation that was sustained to hospital discharge but had recovered by 3–12 months. Acute glucose dysregulation was related to defects in insulin action and secretion. This study did not address long-term risk of diabetes following acute OP insecticide poisoning, but could provide the data for a power calculation for such a study