Development of a neonatal incubator with phototherapy,biometric fingerprint reader,remote monitoring,and heart rate control adapted for developing countries hospitals

This paper aims to develop an automatic neonatal incubator equipped with phototherapy, biometric fingerprint reader, remote monitoring and heart rate control modules for developing countries due to the lack of neonatal incubators. The proposed device consists of an acquisition module that senses temperatures (of the enclosure and the baby) and humidity, a biometric fingerprint reader to identify the user, a remote monitoring module in charge of supervising the temperature and the heart rate of the baby, a video surveillance module which allows filming and transmitting the images to the web server in order to give parents and nurses the possibility of being able to visualize whatever their location the newborn baby, a phototherapy module used to treat newborn jaundice by lowering the bilirubin levels in the baby's blood, a digital control module from a pulse width modulation (PWM) signal generated by a microcontroller of Arduino Nano type for system operation monitoring, and a human machine interface module for setting parameters. The equations describing the energy balance and heat transfer for newborn baby (Ostrowski and Rojczyk, 2018) are taken into account for the implementation of power supply and the choice of the heating resistor. The desired temperature of 37 °C was obtained after only a few minutes inside the incubator.     

Heat and cold therapy reduce pain in patients with delayed onset muscle soreness: A systematic review and meta-analysis of 32 randomized controlled trials

ObjectiveThe aim of this review and meta-analysis was to evaluate the effect of heat and cold therapy on the treatment of delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS).MethodsWe followed our protocol that was registered in PROSPERO with ID CRD42020170632. A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCT) was conducted. Nine databases were searched up to December 2020. Data was extracted from the retained studies and underwent methodological quality assessment and meta-analysis.ResultsA total of 32 RCTs involving 1098 patients were included. Meta-analysis showed that, the application of cold therapy within 1 h after exercise could reduce the pain of DOMS patients within 24 h (≤24 h) after exercise (SMD -0.57,95%CI -0.89 to −0.25, P = 0.0005) and had no obvious effect within more than 24 h (>24 h) (P = 0.05). In cold therapies, cold water immersion (SMD -0.48, 95%CI -0.84 to −0.13, P = 0.008) and other cold therapies (SMD -0.68, 95%CI -1.28 to −0.08, P = 0.03) had the significant effects within 24 h. Heat treatment could reduce the pain of patients. It had obvious effects on the pain within 24 h (SMD -1.17, 95%CI -2.62 to −0.09, P = 0.03) and over 24 h (SMD -0.82, 95%CI -1.38 to −0.26, P = 0.004). Hot pack effect was the most obvious, which reduced the pain within 24 h (SMD -2.31, 95%CI -4.33 to −0.29, P = 0.03) and over 24 h (SMD -1.78, 95%CI -2.97 to −0.59, P = 0.003). Other thermal therapies were not statistically significant (P > 0.05). Both cold and heat showed effect in reducing pain of patients, however there was no significant difference between cold and heat group (P = 0.16).ConclusionsThe current evidence indicated that the application of cold and heat therapy within 1 h after exercise could effectively reduce the pain degree of DOMS patients for 24 h cold water immersion and hot pack therapy, which had the best effect, could promote the recovery of DOMS patients. But more high-quality studies are needed to confirm whether cold or heat therapy work better.     

Heat Shock Protein-70 Expression in Vitiligo and its Relation to the Disease Activity

Background:Vitiligo is a progressive depigmenting disorder characterized by the loss of functional melanocytes from the epidermis. The etiopathogenesis of vitiligo is still unclear. Heat shock proteins (HSPs) are prime candidates to connect stress to the skin. HSPs were found to be implicated in autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and other skin disorders as psoriasis.Results:Our analysis revealed a significantly higher expression of HSP-70 mRNA in lesional skin biopsies from vitiligo patients compared to nonlesional skin biopsies from vitiligo patients (P < 0.001) and compared to skin biopsies from healthy controls (P < 0.001). The level of HSP-70 was not found to be correlated with age, sex, or disease duration. The expression of HSP-70 was correlated with the disease activity and patients with active vitiligo showed higher mean HSP-70 level compared to those with inactive disease.Conclusions:HSP-70 plays a role in the pathogenesis of vitiligo and may enhance the immune response in active disease.     

Applicability of Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) in occupational heat stress assessment: a case study in brick industries

The present study aimed to investigate the applicability of Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) as an innovative and science-based index in public health researches, in occupational heat stress assessment. All indoor and outdoor workers (200 people) of Brick industries of Shahroud, Iran participated in the research. First, the environmental variables such as air temperature, wet-bulb temperature, globe temperature, air velocity and relative humidity were measured; then UTCI and WBGT (wet-bulb globe temperature) indices were calculated. Simultaneously, physiological parameters including systolic and diastolic blood pressure, oral temperature, skin temperature, tympanic temperature and heart rate of workers were measured. UTCI and WBGT indices were 34.2 ± 2°C, 21.8 ± 1.8°C in the outdoor environments and 38.1 ± 4.4°C, 24.7 ± 3.3°C at the indoor environments, respectively. There were the weak inverse relationships between UTCI and WBGT indices at the outdoor environments and physiological responses such as systolic blood pressure, and diastolic blood pressure. However, there were no similar results for indoor environments. The significant relationships were found between UTCI and WBGT at both indoor and outdoor environments. Both UTCI and WBGT indices are suitable for assessing the occupational heat stress. Although, UTCI index seems more appropriate for heat stress assessment in the environments with low humidity and air velocity.     

Ultrasonic measurement of the effects of light irradiation and presence of water on the polymerization of self‐adhesive resin cement

Self‐adhesive resin cements are useful in restorations because they reduce the number of clinical steps involved in the restoration process. This study evaluated, using ultrasonic measurements, the influence of light irradiation and the presence of water on the polymerization behavior and elastic modulus of a self‐adhesive resin cement. A self‐adhesive resin cement (RelyX Unicem 2 Automix) or a resin cement (RelyX ARC) was inserted into a transparent mold on a sample stage, and the presence of water and effect of light‐irradiation were evaluated. The transit time of a sonic wave through the cement disk was divided by the specimen thickness to obtain the sonic velocity, and longitudinal and shear waves were used to determine the elastic modulus. When the resin cements were light‐irradiated, the sonic velocity rapidly increased and plateaued at 2,500–2,700 m s^?1. When the cements were not irradiated, the rates of increase in the sonic velocity were reduced. When water was applied to the sample stage, the sonic velocity was reduced. The elastic modulus values of the specimens ranged from 9.9 to 15.9 GPa after 24 h. The polymerization behavior of self‐adhesive resin cements is affected by the polymerization mode and the presence of water.     

SLC41A1 is the only magnesium responsive gene significantly overexpressed in placentas of preeclamptic women

Objective: To examine expression profile of magnesium responsive genes (MRGs) in placentas of normoevolutive and preeclamptic women. Methods: The expression profiles of MRGs were determined in placentas of normoevolutive (N?=?26) and preeclamptic (N?=?25) women by RT-qPCR. Results: Among all tested MRGs (9) only SLC41A1 (encoding for Na⁺/Mg²⁺ exchanger) was significantly overexpressed in ～54.2% of preeclamptic (n?=?24) and in ～9.5% of normoevolutive (n?=?21) specimens. On average, SLC41A1 was overexpressed sixfold in the preeclamptic group. Presence of SLC41A1 in placentas was confirmed by Western blot analysis. Conclusion. SLC41A1 is significantly overexpressed in nearly 55% of preeclamptic placentas. This may indicate a direct contribution of changed Mg homeostasis in the development of preeclampsia.     

Relationship between physico-chemical properties of magnetic fluids and their heating capacity

Abstract

The final goal in magnetic hyperthermia research is to use nanoparticles in the form of a colloidal suspension injected into human beings for a therapeutic application. Therefore the challenge is not only to develop magnetic nanoparticles with good heating capacities, but also with good colloidal properties, long blood circulation time and with grafted ligands able to facilitate their specific internalisation in tumour cells. Significant advances have been achieved optimising the properties of the magnetic nanoparticles, showing extremely large specific absorption rate values that will contribute to a reduction in the concentration of the magnetic fluid that needs to be administered. In this review we show the effect of different characteristics of the magnetic particles, such as size, size distribution and shape, and the colloidal properties of their aqueous suspensions, such as hydrodynamic size and surface modification, on the heating capacity of the magnetic colloids.     

Photoablation of meningiomas and neurinomas by Holmium Yag laser radiation

Abstract

Cranial rat bone was irradiated by 2.1 pm Holmium Yag laser radiation. Quantitative edge rates were calculated. Histologic sections were investigated by light and electron microscopy. Eighteen cases of hard fibrous or calcified spinal and cranial meningiomas and neurinomas were operated upon using pulsed laser beam, in rat cranial bone ablation rate ranged between 0.3-0.5 mm per pulse. Perifocal thermal damage was observed in a zone of20-90 pm around the lesion. In all human cases tumors could be removed totally without additional neurological deficit. In vivo heat development was measured by an i.r.-camera. [Neurol Res 1999; 21: 96–98]     

Effects of the environment on bone mass: A human taphonomic study

An experiment was designed using human ribs placed in different environments to document how moisture and temperature affect the bone mass according to the postmortem interval. The bones were defleshed, weighed and partially buried, with some ribs being left unburied as controls. The ribs were weighed daily, and the mass loss was monitored over a period of 90 days. The results showed that significant differences in bone mass loss exist between environments, where the bone mass loss was significantly faster in an environment with low moisture content. This mass loss is thought to be primarily associated with the desiccation of the body and then for a greater part, with the atmospheric moisture content. However, the loss of bone mass can also be explained by early alterations in the organo-mineral matrix which were highlighted by Raman spectroscopy method.