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To control and prevent the spread of the infectious agents in the environment and body, various measures have been taken, including the use of disinfectants for hands and surfaces, use of detergents, self-medication by herbal concoctions, and dietary supplements. Although these actions may have a therapeutic effect or reduce the viral load, incorrect use (abuse or overuse) could have negative health repercussions. Therefore, public awareness in this context is essential. The purpose of this narrative review was to evaluate the health consequences of overexposure to disinfectants and self-medication against infectious agents, specially SARS-CoV-2. The literature search for this review was conducted using related keywords in PubMed, Web of Science (WOS), and Scopus databases. This review found a significant number of reported poisoning cases during the pandemic as a result of the overuse of alcoholic hand sanitizers, household bleach products, and detergents. This paper also provides an integrated systemic overview of the possible toxic effects of self-medication, alcohol consumption, and self-administration of dietary supplements and herbs during the COVID-19 pandemic. The present review indicated that the main adverse effects associated with the overuse of popular preventative actions against contagious respiratory illnesses specially COVID-19 and Influenza (flu) were methanol intoxication, skin damage, respiratory problems, gastrointestinal ulcers, nausea, vomiting, epigastric pain, and liver injury. Due to the significant increase in the use of these preventative measures, it is essential to raise public awareness of the side effects of their excessive and unnecessary use.

Launched on 2021 December 9, the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) is a NASA Small Explorer Mission in collaboration with the Italian Space Agency (ASI). The mission will open a new window of investigation—imaging x-ray polarimetry. The observatory features three identical telescopes, each consisting of a mirror module assembly with a polarization-sensitive imaging x-ray detector at the focus. A coilable boom, deployed on orbit, provides the necessary 4-m focal length. The observatory utilizes a three-axis-stabilized spacecraft, which provides services such as power, attitude determination and control, commanding, and telemetry to the ground. During its 2-year baseline mission, IXPE will conduct precise polarimetry for samples of multiple categories of x-ray sources, with follow-on observations of selected targets.

Honey is known not only as a natural food but also as complementary medicine. According to the controversial evidence about the effects of honey on blood lipids, this meta-analysis was performed to investigate the potential effects of honey on lipid profiles. Relevant studies were identified by searching PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, Embase and Cochrane databases. All human controlled clinical trials (either with a parallel or a crossover design) published in English that reported changes in serum lipid markers (total cholesterol (TC), TAG, LDL-cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol:HDL-cholesterol ratio) following honey consumption were considered. Standardised mean differences and their respective 95 % CI were calculated to assess the changes in lipid profiles following honey consumption by random effects model. Statistical heterogeneity, sensitivity analysis, publication bias and quality of the included studies were assessed, as well. The meta-analysis of twenty-three trials showed that honey had no significant effects on TC, TAG, LDL-cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol:HDL-cholesterol ratio. Significant heterogeneity was seen among the studies for all the studied factors (I2 index > 50 %). Subgroup analysis based on the lipid profile status, types of honey and intervention duration revealed no significant effect on TC, TAG, LDL-cholesterol and HDL-cholesterol. Quality of the evidences varied from very low to moderate according to various parameters. In conclusion, honey consumption did not affect serum lipid profiles (TC, TAG, LDL-cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol:HDL-cholesterol ratio).

In this study, the effects of melatonin were investigated on the exosome release from bovine cumulus cells after 7 days. Cells were randomly allocated into three groups as follows; Control, 0.1 nM, and 0.1 mM Met groups. The physicochemical properties of exosomes such as size and zeta potential were measured by the dynamic light scattering. Both scanning electron microscope (SEM) and transmission electron microscope (TEM) were used to characterize exosome morphology. The effect of melatonin on cell viability was studied using an MTT assay. The expression of exosome markers like Alix, CD63, Rab27a, and Rab27b was monitored using real-time PCR analysis. We also investigated fatty acid composition by the gas chromatography method. TEM and SEM confirmed typical exosome's morphology. By increasing the concentration of melatonin, the viability of cumulus cells was significantly increased compared to the control group (p

Angiotensinergic, GABAergic, and glutamatergic neurons are present in the parvocellular region of the paraventricular nucleus (PVNp). It has been shown that microinjection of AngII into the PVNp increases arterial pressure (AP) and heart rate (HR). The presence of synapses between the angiotensinergic, GABAergic, and glutamatergic neurons has been shown in the PVNp. In this study, we investigated the possible interaction between these three systems of the PVNp for control of AP and HR. All drugs were bilaterally (100 nl/side) microinjected into the PVNp of urethane-anesthetized rats, and AP and HR were recorded continuously. Microinjection of AngII into the PVNp produced pressor and tachycardia responses. Pretreatment of PVNp with AP5 or CNQX, glutamatergic NMDA and AMPA receptors antagonists, attenuated the responses to AngII. Pretreatment of PVNp with bicuculline greatly attenuated the pressor and tachycardia responses to AngII. In conclusion, this study provides the first evidence that pressor and tachycardia responses to microinjection of AngII into the PVNp are partly mediated by both NMDA and non-NMDA receptors of glutamate. Activation of glutamatergic neurons by AngII stimulates the sympathoexcitatory neurons. We also showed that the responses to AngII were strongly mediated by GABA

Electrocardiogram (ECG) is the most frequent and routine diagnostic tool used for monitoring heart electrical signals and evaluating its functionality. The human heart can suffer from a variety of diseases, including cardiac arrhythmias. Arrhythmia is an irregular heart rhythm that in severe cases can lead to heart stroke and can be diagnosed via ECG recordings. Since early detection of cardiac arrhythmias is of great importance, computerized and automated classification and identification of these abnormal heart signals have received much attention for the past decades. Methods: This paper introduces a light deep learning approach for high accuracy detection of 8 different cardiac arrhythmias and normal rhythm. To leverage deep learning method, resampling and baseline wander removal techniques are applied to ECG signals. In this study, 500 sample ECG segments were used as model inputs. The rhythm classification was done by an 11-layer network in an end-to-end manner without the need for hand-crafted manual feature extraction. Results: In order to evaluate the proposed technique, ECG signals are chosen from the two physionet databases, the MIT-BIH arrhythmia database and the long-term AF database. The proposed deep learning framework based on the combination of Convolutional Neural Network(CNN) and Long Short Term Memory (LSTM) showed promising results than most of the state-of-the-art methods. The proposed method reaches the mean diagnostic accuracy of 98.24%. Conclusion: A trained model for arrhythmia classification using diverse ECG signals were successfully developed and tested. Significance: Since the present work uses a light classification technique with high diagnostic accuracy compared to other notable methods, it could successfully be implemented in holter monitor devices for arrhythmia detection., 7 pages, 4 figures, 3 tables

During a step-change in exercise power output (PO), ventilation ([Formula: see text]) increases with a similar time course to the rate of carbon dioxide delivery to the lungs ([Formula: see text]). To test the strength of this coupling, we compared [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] kinetics from ten independent exercise transitions performed within the moderate-intensity domain. Thirteen males completed 3-5 repetitions of ∆40 W step transitions initiated from 20, 40, 60, 80, 100, and 120 W on a cycle ergometer. Preceding the ∆40 W step transitions from 60, 80, 100, and 120 W was a 6 min bout of 20 W cycling from which the transitions of variable ∆PO were examined. Gas exchange ([Formula: see text] and oxygen uptake, [Formula: see text]) and [Formula: see text] were measured by mass spectrometry and volume turbine. The kinetics of the responses were characterized by the time constant (τ) and amplitude (Δ[Formula: see text]/Δ[Formula: see text]). Overall, [Formula: see text] kinetics were consistently slower than [Formula: see text] kinetics (by ~ 45%) and τ[Formula: see text] rose progressively with increasing baseline PO and with heightened ∆PO from a common baseline. Compared to τ[Formula: see text], τ[Formula: see text] was on average slightly greater (by ~ 4 s). Repeated-measures analysis of variance revealed that there was no interaction between τ[Formula: see text] and τ[Formula: see text] in either the variable baseline (p = 0.49) and constant baseline (p = 0.56) conditions indicating that each changed in unison. Additionally, for Δ[Formula: see text]/Δ[Formula: see text], there was no effect of either variable baseline PO (p = 0.05) or increasing ΔPO (p = 0.16). These data provide further evidence that, within the moderate-intensity domain, both the temporal- and amplitude-based characteristics of V̇

Background Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a common disorder that is highly associated with postoperative complications. The STOP-Bang questionnaire is a simple screening tool for OSA. The objective of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to evaluate the validity of the STOP-Bang questionnaire for screening OSA in the surgical population cohort. Methods A systematic search of the following databases was performed from 2008 to May 2021: MEDLINE, Medline-in-process, Embase, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, PsycINFO, Journals @ Ovid, Web of Science, Scopus, and CINAHL. Continued literature surveillance was performed through October 2021. Results The systematic search identified 4641 articles, from which 10 studies with 3247 surgical participants were included in the final analysis. The mean age was 57.3 ± 15.2 years, and the mean BMI was 32.5 ± 10.1 kg/m2 with 47.4% male. The prevalence of all, moderate-to-severe, and severe OSA were 65.2, 37.7, and 17.0%, respectively. The pooled sensitivity of the STOP-Bang questionnaire for all, moderate-to-severe, and severe OSA was 85, 88, and 90%, and the pooled specificities were 47, 29, and 27%, respectively. The area under the curve for all, moderate-to-severe, and severe OSA was 0.84, 0.67, and 0.63. Conclusions In the preoperative setting, the STOP-Bang questionnaire is a valid screening tool to detect OSA in patients undergoing surgery, with a high sensitivity and a high discriminative power to reasonably exclude severe OSA with a negative predictive value of 93.2%. Trial registration PROSPERO registration CRD42021260451.

Prostate cancer (PCa) is the second most common cancer in men and one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths. Early detection is the key to successful treatment and provides the greatest chance to cure the patient. Currently, early detection involves screening for prostate-specific antigen levels in blood, which is not a tumor-specific biomarker. There is a critical need to develop clinically useful methods for screening for more reliable biomarkers. Here, we introduce an electrochemical biosensor that measures the concentrations of the amino acids tyrosine and tryptophan, and propose it as a possible diagnostic and prognostic tool for PCa. The limits of detection of tyrosine and tryptophan using the electrochemical sensors were 1.15 and 1.13 μmol/L in 1:10 urine: PBS, respectively. This study is the first to present electrochemical measurements of tyrosine and tryptophan directly in patient urine samples. We demonstrated an inverse correlation between the measured electrochemical signals and the severity of PCa. The most notable observation was a significant difference between controls and metastatic PCa patients (P ≤ 0.001). This observation was further validated using Liquid-Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry. Our data provides the basis for further research with electrochemical measurements of tyrosine and tryptophan as potential biomarkers for PCa.

Various adverse effects particularly cutaneous manifestations associated with different COVID-19 vaccines have been observed in practice. The aim of our study was to evaluate all patients who presented to our tertiary center with skin manifestations following COVID-19 vaccines injection from September to December 2021. All patients with skin manifestation within 30 days or less following COVID-19 vaccination were enrolled in our case-series. All cases included in our study were diagnosed based on clinical and/or histopathological evaluation and all other possible differential diagnoses were ruled out. Twenty-five individuals including 16 (64%) males and 9 (36%) females with the mean age of 47 ± 17.62 years (range 18-91) were enrolled in our study. Twenty-two (88%) patients developed lesions after Sinopharm vaccine injection and 3 (12%) cases manifested lesions after the AstraZeneca vaccine. Six (24%) patients developed new-onset lichen planus (LP) and 1 (4%) patient manifested LP flare-up. Two (8%) individuals developed psoriasis and 1 (4%) case showed psoriasis exacerbation. One (4%) patient developed new-onset pemphigus vulgaris (PV) and 1 (4%) case experienced a flare of PV lesions. One (4%) patient manifested pityriasis lichenoides et varioliformis acuta (PLEVA) flare-up. Other new-onset cases were as follows: toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN) (n = 1, 4%), bullous pemphigoid (BP) (n = 2, 8%), alopecia areata (AA) (n = 2, 8%), pytriasis rosea (n = 1, 4%), herpes zoster (n = 1, 4%), cutaneous small vessel vasculitis (n = 1, 4%), erythema multiform (EM) and urticaria (n = 3, 12%), and morphea (n = 1, 4%). Physicians should be aware of the possible side effects especially cutaneous manifestations associated with COVID-19 vaccines.

BACKGROUND Angiofibromas are common benign skin lesions that are diagnosed clinically and histopathologically. Fibrous papule (FP) is one of the clinical types of angiofibromas located primarily on the nose. METHODS The cases with the confirmed diagnosis of angiofibroma were enrolled. Demographic features of the patients and clinical characteristics of the lesions were extracted. Moreover, histopathological features of the available slides were microscopically reviewed. RESULTS From 83 cases of cutaneous angiofibromas, 57 (69%) had lesions consistent with FP. The mean age at diagnosis was 37.7 ± 16.3 years and the most common site of involvement was the nose (53% of cases). Regarding the histopathological evaluation of 71 slides, most cases represented vascular changes (97%) and dermal fibroplasia (87%). Melanin incontinence (41%), acanthosis (31%), and lichenoid features (25%) were other common histopathological findings. Moreover, a sparse inflammatory cell infiltrate was present in 68% of cases. The most prevalent inflammatory cells were lymphocytes (61%) and histiocytes (34%). CONCLUSION This study presented the histopathological findings of a series of cutaneous angiofibromas. Dermatopathologists should be aware of these features, especially those that are less common, to better diagnose and differentiate them from malignant neoplasms.

Due to be launched in late 2021, the imaging X-ray polarimetry explorer (IXPE) is a NASA Small Explorer mission designed to perform polarization measurements in the 2–8-keV band, complemented with imaging, spectroscopy, and timing capabilities. At the heart of the focal plane, there are a set of three polarization-sensitive gas pixel detectors, each based on a custom-integrated circuit acting as a charge-collecting anode, with their readout electronics. We designed an integrated test equipment based on the VMEbus protocol to characterize the performance of such detectors, debug the IXPE readout electronics, and perform stable data acquisitions to study the whole system. The test campaign was conducted to validate the readout processor against the mission requirements in more demanding conditions than the worst case foreseen for in-orbit operations. The test showed that the device under test could sustain an event rate with a 5.9-keV source, nearly twice the worst case of 300 Hz at 3 keV, with a dead time down to 1.1 ms. Additionally, we performed various scans in the readout electronics parameter space to optimize its performance in observing celestial sources. The success of the test campaign proved the robustness and reliability of the system in these conditions, legitimating its adoption for the IXPE mission.

It has been shown that near all organs, especially the cardiovascular system, are affected by bacterial lipopolysaccharide via the activation of Toll-like receptor signaling pathways. Here, we tried to find the blunting effect of bacterial lipase on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced cardiac tissue toxicity in chicken embryos. 7-day fertilized chicken eggs were divided randomly into different groups as follows; Control, Normal Saline, LPS (0.1, 0.5 and 1 mg/kbw), and LPS (0.1, 0.5 and 1 mg/kbw) plus 5 mg/ml Lipase. On day 17, the hearts were sampled. The expression of genes such as GATA4, NKX2.5, EGFR, TRIF, and NF-ƙB was monitored using real-time PCR analysis. Using western blotting, we measured NF-ƙB protein level. Total antioxidant capacity, glutathione peroxidase, and Catalase activity were also studied. Microvascular density and anterior wall thickness were monitored in histological samples using HE staining. High dose of LPS (1 mg/kbw) increased the expression of TRIF but not NF-ƙB compared to the control group (p 0.05). We found a statistically significant reduction in groups that received LPS + Lipase compared to the control and LPS groups (p 0.05). Western blotting revealed that the injection of Lipase could reduce LPS-induced NF-ƙB compared to the control group (p 0.05). The expression of GATA4, NKx2.5, and EGFR was not altered in the LPS group, while the simultaneous application of LPS and Lipase significantly reduced GATA4, NKx2.5, and EGFR levels below the control (p 0.05). We found non-significant differences in glutathione peroxidase, and Catalase activity in all groups (p 0.05), while total antioxidant capacity was increased in groups that received LPS + Lipase. Anterior wall thickness was diminished in LPS groups and the use of both lipase and LPS returned near-to-control values (p 0.05). Despite a slight increase in microvascular density, we found statistically non-significant differences in all groups (p 0.05). Bacterial lipase reduces detrimental effects of LPS on chicken embryo heart induced via Toll-like receptor signaling pathway.