Search

ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of isotonic and hypotonic intravenous fluids in maintenance fluid therapy for term infants.MethodsThis was a multi-centre, prospective, observational study conducted in 21 participating centres from December 30, 2020, to June 30, 2023. The study included term newborns requiring parenteral fluid therapy for maintenance (NCT04781361). The fluid treatment was divided into two groups based on the concentration of sodium in the parenteral fluid, designated as hypotonic (NaCl 145 mmol/L), and the occurrence of clinically significant changes in sodium levels (∆pNa >0.5 mmol/L/h).ResultsA total of 420 patients from 21 centers were included. The ∆pNa was negative in the hypotonic fluid group and positive in the isotonic fluid group, with a significant difference between the groups [respectively −0.07 ± 0.03 (95% CI: −0.13 to −0.02); 0.04 ± 0.03 (95%CI: −0.02 to 0.09), p = 0.04]. There was no difference between the groups in terms of the development of hypernatremia or a clinically meaningful pNa increase. The hypotonic fluid group had a higher incidence of hyponatremia and a clinically meaningful sodium decrease compared to the isotonic fluid group [7.9% vs. 1.2% (OR:6.5, p:0.03)] and [12.2% vs.4.2% (OR:2.9, p = 0.03)].ConclusionContrary to current understanding, this large-scale study is the first to demonstrate that the use of hypotonic fluids in maintenance fluid therapy for newborns poses a risk of hyponatremia development, whereas isotonic fluid therapy appears safe.

Dietary diversity is a qualitative and proxy indicator of food security status. Social, physical, economic and biological factors, among others, may impact positively or negatively on the dietary diversity of a population. The aim of this study was to explore the food and dietary diversity in Malava and Lurambi sub-Counties of Kakamega County during COVID-19 pandemic. A descriptive survey design was used for data collection. The sample size was 200 households. A questionnaire that was designed and developed using KoBo Collect and synchronized to Open Data Kit (ODK) server was used to collect data. Data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences Version 26.0 to generate descriptive and inferential statistical data. Independent t-test statistics for mean differences was used to determine differences in Household Dietary Diversity Scores (HDDS) between Lurambi and Malava sub-Counties. The study results showed that grains and grain products and all other starchy foods recorded the highest HDDS (100%), followed by dark green leafy vegetables (90.1%) and fruits (46.7%). Foods with the lowest HDDS were meat and meat products (16.5%) and other vegetables (19.7%). Lurambi sub-County had a higher dietary diversity score during COVID-19 pandemic as compared to Malava sub-County. The HDDS scores showed that the dietary diversity for Lurambi sub-County was 3.8 and that of Malava sub-County was 3.2. The T-test results were significant at p= 0.02, Key words: Dietary diversity, COVID-19, household food access, food security, INTRODUCTION Food accessibility is one of the dimensions of food security [1]. There has been an increase in global advocacy for healthy dietary choices and embracing dietary diversity at household [...]

Lake Chad region is currently experiencing trending issues. Climate change is among the major influencers of these issues that require inevitable consideration for a sustainable ecosystem. Various crop models have been developed and employed in various environmental conditions and management practices, which are cheaper and easier than field experiments. Therefore, crop models could be used to simulate various water management strategies and suggest suitable options. In this work, the FAO AquaCrop model has been evaluated to simulate deficit irrigation (DI) scenarios for wheat crops using data generated from a field experiment. The model simulated grain yield (GY), biomass yield (BMY), biomass production (BMP) and canopy cover (CC) adequately during its calibration and validation. However, its performance in simulating water productivity (WP) and actual crop evapotranspiration (ETa) was low with average r2, NRMSE, model efficiency (EF) and Willmot Index of agreement (d) of 0.58, 11.0 %, -1.40 and 0.69 respectively. The study of DI scenarios using the model revealed that the application of DI throughout the growth stages of the crop could significantly affect GY and WP. The highest GY and WP of 5.3 t/ha and 1.50 kg/m3 were respectively obtained at the application of full irrigation (T100). Increasing DI beyond 20 % depressed both GY and WP significantly. However, increasing the irrigation interval from seven to ten days did not affect GY, thereby improving WP from 1.28 kg/m3 to 1.38 kg/m3. Therefore, applying an 80 % irrigation requirement throughout the wheat growing season at 10-day intervals could save 25 % of irrigation water, a valuable strategy to improve irrigation water use without significant yield reduction. Furthermore, irrigation-related scientists and managers can use the validated model to decide the current and future irrigation water management for similar wheat varieties in similar environmental conditions.

In the context of hyperspectral image (HSI) analysis, a widely used feature extraction method, Principal Components Analysis (PCA) suffers from limitations such as wavelength bias and a lack of consideration for local spectral information. While various segmentation based PCA methods attempt to address these issues by incorporating local relationships, they still overlook band similarity beyond immediate neighbours. To address these challenges, this paper introduces a novel approach called dependency based segmented PCA (dPCA). This method employs hierarchical clustering-driven mutual information-based segmentation, facilitating more comprehensive feature extraction from HSI data. By utilizing this dependency-based segmentation, both global and local structures are effectively captured, providing enhanced details for classification tasks. The proposed dPCA is evaluated on four prominent HSI datasets in remote sensing for land use classification, and the experimental results underscore its superiority over conventional PCA, and other segmentation based PCA methods in terms of classification performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We show that opportunistic insiders can be identified through the profitability of their trades prior to quarterly earnings announcements (QEAs) and that opportunistic trading is associated with various kinds of firm or managerial misconduct. A value-weighted trading strategy based on (not necessarily pre-QEA) trades of opportunistic insiders earns monthly four-factor alphas of over 1%, which is much higher than in past insider trading literature and substantial and significant even on the short side. Firms with opportunistic insiders have higher levels of earnings management, restatements, US Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement actions, shareholder litigation, and executive compensation. These findings suggest that opportunism is a domain-general trait.

Aftab Ullah,1 Gang Chen,2 Abid Hussain,3,4 Hanif Khan,1 Azar Abbas,5 Zhanwei Zhou,5 Muhammad Shafiq,6 Saleem Ahmad,7 Usman Ali,8 Muhammad Usman,6 Faisal Raza,8 Abrar Ahmed,8 Zijie Qiu,5 Maochao Zheng,1 Daojun Liu1 1Department of Pharmacy, Shantou University Medical College, Shantou, 515041, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China; 2Institute of Comparative Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, 225009, Jiangsu, People’s Republic of China; 3School of Life Science, Key Laboratory of Molecular Medicine and Biotherapy, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, 100081, People’s Republic of China; 4Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Key Laboratory for Biomedical Effects of Nanomaterials and Nanosafety, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology of China, Beijing, 100190, People’s Republic of China; 5School of Pharmacy, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing, 210028, Jiangsu, People’s Republic of China; 6Department of Cell Biology and Genetics, Shantou University Medical College, Shantou, Guangdong, 515041, people’s Republic of China; 7Department of Medicine, Shantou University Medical College Cancer Hospital, Shantou, People’s Republic of China; 8School of Pharmacy, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai, 200240, Shanghai, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Aftab Ullah; Daojun Liu Email aftab@stu.edu.cn; liudj@stu.edu.cnBackground: Liver fibrosis is a chronic liver disease with excessive production of extracellular matrix proteins, leading to cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma, and death.Purpose: This study aimed at the development of a novel derivative of polyethyleneimine (PEI) that can effectively deliver transforming growth factor β (TGFβ) siRNA and inhibit chemokine receptor 4 (CXCR4) for TGFβ silencing and CXCR4 Inhibition, respectively, to treat CCl4-induced liver fibrosis in a mouse model.Methods: Cyclam-modified PEI (PEI-Cyclam) was synthesized by incorporating cyclam moiety into PEI by nucleophilic substitution reaction. Gel electrophoresis confirmed the PEI-Cyclam polyplex formation and stability against RNAase and serum degradation. Transmission electron microscopy and zeta sizer were employed for the morphology, particle size, and zeta potential, respectively. The gene silencing and CXCR4 targeting abilities of PEI-Cyclam polyplex were evaluated by luciferase and CXCR4 redistribution assays, respectively. The histological and immunohistochemical staining determined the anti-fibrotic activity of PEI-Cyclam polyplex. The TGFβ silencing of PEI-Cyclam polyplex was authenticated by Western blotting.Results: The 1H NMR of PEI-Cyclam exhibited successful incorporation of cyclam content onto PEI. The PEI-Cyclam polyplex displayed spherical morphology, positive surface charge, and stability against RNAse and serum degradation. Cyclam modification decreased the cytotoxicity and demonstrated CXCR4 antagonistic and luciferase gene silencing efficiency. PEI-Cyclam/siTGFβ polyplexes decreased inflammation, collagen deposition, apoptosis, and cell proliferation, thus ameliorating liver fibrosis. Also, PEI-Cyclam/siTGFβ polyplex significantly downregulated α-smooth muscle actin, TGFβ, and collagen type III.Conclusion: Our findings validate the feasibility of using PEI-Cyclam as a siRNA delivery vector for simultaneous TGFβ siRNA delivery and CXCR4 inhibition for the combined anti-fibrotic effects in a setting of CCl4-induced liver fibrosis.Keywords: polyethyleneimine, cyclam, gene delivery, liver fibrosis, CXCR4

The seeds are generally much larger than wild seeds and are most likely to respond to selective pressure on yield, uniform germination, and seedling vitality exerted by humans during domestication. In particular, on the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, we are able to clone various genes such as seed weight and size. Cloned genes responsible for seed-weight variation also control the number and size of cells in the integument, embryo, and endoderm, but mainly control cell division affecting the final weight/size of the seed. QTL mapping and cloning experiments carried out on rapeseed over the past decade have identified many seed weight QTLs, cloned some genes regulated the seed weight and dissected part of mechanism of the formation of seed weight in rapeseed. In this review, identifying main loci and cloning of some genes responsible for seed-weight variation in the Brassica genus from the prior studies is summarized to provide basic information on the cloning of the gene responsible for seed weight.'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Respiratory virus infections pose a significant public health concern, contributing to increase morbidity and mortality rates. This study investigated the determinants of hospital length of stay (LOS) for patients with Influenza-like illness (ILI) and Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI). A quantitative study was conducted in Cheras, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from 1 September 2022 until 28 February 2023. Demographic data, viral infection status (influenza A, influenza B, and COVID-19), and environmental factors (temperature, humidity, wind speed, and particulate matter levels) were collected for 632 patients. The data were analysed using ordinal logistic regression in Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22.0. The results revealed that older age and higher body mass index (BMI) were associated with longer hospital stays, highlighting their significance as risk factors during respiratory outbreaks. Unexpectedly, patients tested positive for the investigated viruses experienced shorter LOS, indicating potential comorbidities or co-infections. Environmental factors played a critical role, with temperature, humidity, and wind speed significantly influencing LOS. These findings provided valuable insights for healthcare resource allocation during epidemics and underscored the need for comprehensive diagnostic tools and further research to enhance prediction accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]