Intragastric balloons for obesity: critical review of device design, efficacy, tolerability, and unmet clinical needs

Introduction Sustaining a healthy weight is a challenge and obesity, with associated risk of co-morbidities, is a major public health concern. Bariatric surgery has shown a great promise for many where pharmacological and lifestyle interventions failed to work. However, challenges and limitations associated with bariatric surgery has pushed the demand for less invasive, reversible (anatomically) interventions, such as intragastric balloons (IGBs). Areas covered This review critically appraises IGBs used in the past, present, and those in clinical trials, discussing the device designs, limitations, placement and removal techniques, patient eligibility, efficacy, and safety issues. Expert opinion Several intragastric balloons were developed over the years that brought excitement to patients and healthcare professionals alike. Albeit good efficacy, there had been several safety issues reported with IGBs such as spontaneous deflation, intestinal occlusion, gut perforation, and mucosal ulcerations. This led to evolution of IGBs design; device material, filling mechanism, fluid type, inflation volume, and further innovations to ease ingestion and removal of device. There are some IGB devices under development aimed to swallow like a conventional pill and excrete naturally through defecation, however, how successful they will be in clinical practice in terms of their efficacy and tolerability remains to be seen in the future

Voltammetry as a rapid screening method for NPS identification

Designer drugs, also commonly known as new psychoactive substances (NPS), are increasingly in their prevalence and a challenge to toxicologists and forensic chemists. Synthetic cannabinoids (SCs) are among the largest group of NPS that have emerged in the illicit drug market all over the world. SCs may consist of different chemicals prepared in laboratories and herbal mixtures that said to be incense and not-for-human-consumption. The main aim of this paper is to investigate the use of electrochemical based methods for screening some of the emerging types of SC. More specifically, the paper takes electrochemistry approach called voltammetry to perform the detection and analysis of SCs whereby the main subjects for screening include STS-135 and 5F-ADB-PINACA. The expected result is that those compounds that belong to the same class should indicate almost similar behaviour to help achieve its objective, the paper reviews a number of recent publications relating to forensic drug analysis and much attention to electrochemical sensor methods

Robust Wilks' Statistic based on RMCD for One-Way Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA)

The classical Wilks' statistic is the most using for testing the hypotheses of equal mean vectors of several multivariate normal populations for one-way MANOVA. It is extremely sensitive to the influence of outliers. Therefore, the robust Wilks' statistic based on reweighted minimum covariance determinant (RMCD) estimator with Hampel weighted function has been proposed. The distribution of the proposed statistic differs from the classical one. Mont Carlo simulations are used to evaluate the performance of the test statistic under the normal and contaminated distribution for the data set. Moreover, the type I error rate and power of test have been considered as statistical measures to comparison between the classical and the robust statistics. The results show that, the robust Wilks' statistic based on RMCD is closely to the classical Wilks' statistic in case of normal distribution for the data set while in case of contaminated distribution the method in question is the best. Keywords: One-Way Multivariate Analysis of Variance, Wilks' Statistic, Outliers, Robustness, Minimum Covariance Determinant Estimator.

Copolymerization of Acrylamide with Acrylic acid

Low conversion copolymerization of acrylamide AM (monomer-1) have been conducted with acrylic acid AA in dry benzene at 70°C , using Benzoyl peroxide BPO as initiator . The copolymer composition has been determined by elemental analysis. The monomer reactivity ratios have been calculated by the Kelen-Tudos and Finman-Ross graphical procedures. The derived reactivity ratios (r1, r2) are: (0.620, 0.996) for (AM / AA) systems , and found that the reactivity of the monomer AA is more than the monomer AM in the copolymerization of (AA/AM) system. The reactivity ratios values were used for microstructures calculation

Linear Increasing in Radial Electronic Density Distribution for K and L Shells throughout Some Be-Like Ions

Maximum values of one particle radial electronic density distribution has been calculated by using Hartree-Fock (HF)wave function with data published by[A. Sarsa et al. Atomic Data and Nuclear Data Tables 88 (2004) 163–202] for K and L shells for some Be-like ions. The Results confirm that there is a linear behavior restricted the increasing of maximum points of one particle radial electronic density distribution for K and L shells throughout some Be-like ions. This linear behavior can be described by using the nth term formula of arithmetic sequence, that can be used to calculate the maximum radial electronic density distribution for any ion within Be like ions for

Antioxidant activity, total phenolic content and antimicrobial activity of two medicinal plants from Sulaimani City, Iraqi Kurdistan Region

Malabar spinach  fruit  with dark blue skin and deep red violet flesh is a potential source of natural colorant. Nasturtium  officinal (watercress) of family  Brassica  ceae  has been long used as a home remedy or a medical plant by the people  Iraq- Sulaimaini City .The aim of this study was to investigate the antioxidant , antimicrobial activity of Malabar spinach &Nasturtium  official (water cress) extracts using various in vitro assay systems including ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP),1,1-dipheny-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), and 2,2-azinobis -3- ethylbenzothiozoline sulphonate (ABTS ).Antibacterial activity were tested against five gram-positive ,three gram –negative bacteria and two fungi by disc  diffusion method for different extract  and determining their minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC)values . Total phenolic content was determined by folin ciocalteu reagent for the extract (mg Gallic acid  /g extract ). From the result  highest total phenol content was shown by Malabar  spinach  & Nastartium officinale in methanol extracts. Elemental analysis  have been done element by inductive couple plasma (ICP) techniques for each this two medicinal plants high amount of Na ,K Ca, Mn ,Zn ,Mg, Fe, Cu ,and se  elements have been detected in ppb. Key words:  Malabar spinach  , Nasturtium  officinal, antioxidant   , antimicrobial  ,phenolic

Plasmid DNA Analysis of Pasteurella multocida Serotype B isolated from Haemorrhagic Septicaemia outbreaks in Malaysia

A total of 150 purified isolates of Pasteurella multocida serotype B were used (Salmah, 2004) for plasmid DNA curing experiment to determine hyaluronidase activity, antibiotic resistance pattern (ARP) and mice lethality test (LD50) for their role of pathogenicity. A plasmid curing experiment was carried out by using the intercalating agent; ethidium bromide and rifampicin, where it was found all the plasmids had been cured (plasmidless) from Pasteurella multocida. All of these plasmidless isolates maintained their phenotypic characteristics. They showed the same antibiotic resistancepattern as before curing, produced hyaluronidase and possessed lethality activity in mice when injected intraperitoneally(i.p). Based on this observation, the antibiotic resistance, hyaluronidase activity and mice virulence could probably be chromosomal-mediated. Plasmids were detected 100% in all P. multocida isolates with identical profile of 2 plasmids size 3.0 and 5.5 kb. No large plasmids could be detected in all isolates. Since all the isolates appeared to have identicalplasmid profiles, they were subjected to restriction enzyme(RE) analysis. From RE analysis results obtained, it can be concluded that the plasmid DNA in serotype B isolates are identical. Only 4 of 32 REs were found to cleave these plasmids with identical restriction fingerprints; BglII, HaeIII, RsaI and SspI. From RE analysis results, it can be concluded that the plasmid DNA isolates are identical. This plasmid might not played any role in pathogenicity of Pasteurella multocida serotype B, however this information is important for the construction of shuttle vectors in genetic studies of the pathogenicity of haemorrhagic septicaemia(HS)

Soft nodec spaces

Following van Douwen, we call a soft topological space soft nodec if every soft nowhere dense subset of it is soft closed. This paper considers soft nodec spaces, which contain soft submaximal and soft door spaces. We investigate the basic properties and characterizations of soft nodec spaces. More precisely, we show that a soft nodec space can be written as a union of two disjoint soft closed soft dense (or soft open) soft nodec subspaces. Then, we study the behavior of soft nodec spaces under various operations, including the following: taking soft subspaces, soft products, soft topological sums, and images under specific soft functions with the support of appropriate counterexamples. Additionally, we show that the Krull dimension of a soft nodec soft $T_{0}$-space is less than or equal to one. After that, we present some connections among soft nodec, soft strong nodec, and soft compact spaces. Finally, we successfully determine a condition under which the soft one-point compactification of a soft space is soft nodec if and only if the soft space is soft strong nodec

Assessing E-Government Effectiveness: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach

In this study, we address the pressing need to improve e-government services by conducting a comprehensive evaluation of document management practices within the Ministry of Higher Education in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Employing structural equation modeling and regression modeling techniques, we assess the effectiveness of key variables using the six factors (digitalization, utility, reliability, efficiency, user satisfaction, and accessibility) under the e-government assessment model. Our findings reveal that user satisfaction and ease of access are pivotal for the success of e-government services, with digitization and efficiency significantly impacting operational effectiveness. Furthermore, it also concerns that without improving the overall user satisfaction, the level of acceptance and use of e-government remains low. High user satisfaction can make a lot of difference in overall engagement besides improving service delivery among organizations. Through insights specific to the Kurdistan Region, we underscore the importance of balancing technical infrastructure with user experience. Our proposed six-factor model offers valuable guidance for policymakers and practitioners globally, aiming to enhance e-government services

Seven Kinds of Intermediate Filament Networks in the Cytoplasm of Polarized Cells: Structure and Function

Intermediate filaments (IFs) are involved in many important physiological functions, such as the distribution of organelles, signal transduction, cell polarity and gene regulation. However, little information exists on the structure of the IF networks performing these functions. We have clarified the existence of seven kinds of IF networks in the cytoplasm of diverse polarized cells: an apex network just under the terminal web, a peripheral network lying just beneath the cell membrane, a granule-associated network surrounding a mass of secretory granules, a Golgi-associated network surrounding the Golgi apparatus, a radial network locating from the perinuclear region to the specific area of the cell membrane, a juxtanuclear network surrounding the nucleus, and an entire cytoplasmic network. In this review, we describe these seven kinds of IF networks and discuss their biological roles