Impact of obesity on urologic complications among unrelated living donor kidney transplants

Purpose: Although obesity has been associated with improved survival on dialysis, its effects on renal transplantation outcomes remain unclear. Herein we aimed to evaluate the effect of obesity on posttransplantation complications. Patients and methods: A retrospective analysis of consecutive renal transplant recpients from un related living donors was undertaken from 2006 to 2008. Results: We included 180 patients, 34 (18) were obese (body mass index >30 kg/m2) and 146 were lean. Obese patients were more likely to develope renal artery stenosis (17.6 vs 2.8, p < 0.001), hematoma (47.9 vs 17.6, p = 0.009), wound complications (64.7 vs 9.6, P < 0.001) and renal vein thrombosis(2 vs 0, p < 0.001). Urologic complications consisting ureteral, ureteropelvic and ureterovesicular junction stenosis, wound bleeding, urinary leakage and renal artery thrombosis and also hospitalization time were found similar between the two groups. 2 year patiets and graft survival were not statististically different. Conclusions: Renal transplantation could be performed with reasonable urologic complications in obese patients © 2010 Association of Surgeons of India

Skin Conductance as Proxy for the Identification of Hydration Level in Human Body

The skin dehydration level can be used to infer serious health conditions in patients since diseases like cardiovascular abnormality, diabetes and cancer symptoms do exhibit correlation with skin disorders. Therefore a systematic analysis of human skin hydration levels is critical for multiple health care applications. Motivated by this, in this study we proposed a unique approach of measuring body hydration levels against different body postures using skin conductance electrical activity. In this paper, we report the collection, processing and analysis techniques used in the analysis of skin conductance data. Subsequently in order to predict body hydration levels we employed state-of-the-art machine learning models using the skin conductance data and achieved 81.82% and 73.91% recognition accuracy for the data of standing and sitting postures,respectively using KNN model

Renal transplantation in allografts with multiple versus single renal arteries.

Allograft with multiple renal arteries (MRA) is considered to have an increased post-transplantation risk due to vascular and urologic complications. The aim of this study is to investigate the outcome of living donor kidney transplantation using allograft with a single artery and recipients of allografts with multiple arteries. Seven hundred and eighteen consecutive adult kidney transplants done between 1998 and 2007, with living unrelated kidney donors, were enrolled in this retrospective analysis. Data from the group with MRA (n = 60) were compared with those from the group with single renal artery (SRA) (n = 658). Delayed graft function (DGF) was more frequent in recipients' allografts with more than 2 arteries when compared with SRA recipients (Odds Ratio: 1.2; 95 CI:1.08-1.9, P = 0.02), but there was no difference between SRA and allograft with two arteries. The incidence of acute rejection (AR) was not statistically greater in recipients with MRA. Renal artery stenosis (RAS) occurred more frequently in patients with MRA (8.3 vs. 5.9 and P = 0.02), but other vascular complications such as renal artery thrombosis and hematoma revealed no differences (P > 0.05). Urologic complications such as UVJ obstruction, urinary leakage and ureteropelvic obstruction were not statistically different between the groups. The actuarial 1-year allograft survival rate was comparable in both groups (93.6 vs 96.8, P = 0.22). Allografts with more than two arteries were associated with increased DGF and RAS, but no surgical or urological complications were detected in our series. Our findings demonstrate that renal allograft transplantation with multiple arteries could be performed with reasonable complications and acceptable outcomes

Characterization of Whole Grain Pasta: Integrating Physical, Chemical, Molecular, and Instrumental Sensory Approaches

The consumption of whole-grain foodincluding pastahas been increasing steadily. In the case of whole-grain pasta, given the many different producers, it seems important to have some objective parameters to define its overall quality. In this study, commercial whole-grain pasta samples representative of the Italian market have been characterized from both molecular and electronic-senses (electronic nose and electronic tongue) standpoint in order to provide a survey of the properties of different commercial samples. Only 1 pasta product showed very low levels of heat damage markers (furosine and pyrraline), suggesting that this sample underwent to low temperature dry treatment. In all samples, the furosine content was directly correlated to protein structural indices, since protein structure compactness increased with increasing levels of heat damage markers. Electronic senses were able to discriminate among pasta samples according to the intensity of heat treatment during the drying step. Pasta sample with low furosine content was discriminated by umami taste and by sensors responding to aliphatic and inorganic compounds. Data obtained with this multidisciplinary approach are meant to provide hints for identifying useful indices for pasta quality. Practical ApplicationAs observed for semolina pasta, objective parameters based on heat-damage were best suited to define the overall quality of wholegrain pasta, almost independently of compositional differences among commercial samples. Drying treatments of different intensity also had an impact on instrumental sensory traits that may provide a reliable alternative to analytical determination of chemical markers of heat damage in all cases where there is a need for avoiding time-consuming procedures

Synthesis and molecular docking of new hydrazones derived from ethyl isonipecotate and their biological activities

Purpose: To investigate the antibacterial and α-glucosidase inhibitory activities of hydrazone derivatives (8a-h) of ethyl isonipecotate.Methods: The reaction of ethyl isonipecotate (2) with 3,5-dichloro-2-hydroxybenzenesulfonyl chloride (1) in an aqueous basic medium yielded ethyl 1-[(3,5-dichloro-2-hydroxyphenyl)sulfonyl]piperidin-4- carboxylate (3). Compound 3 was subsequently converted to ethyl 1-[(3,5-dichloro-2-ethoxyphenyl) sulfonyl]piperidin-4-carboxylate (5) via O-alkylation. Compound 5 on reaction with hydrated hydrazine yielded 1-[(3,5-dichloro-2-ethoxyphenyl)sulfonyl]piperidin-4-carbohyrazide (6) in MeOH. Target compounds 8a-h were synthesized by stirring 6 with different aromatic aldehydes (7a-h) in MeOH. All the synthesized compounds were structurally elucidated by proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H-NMR), electron impact mass spectrometry (EI-MS) and infrared (IR) spectroscopy. For antibacterial activity, solutions of the synthesized compounds were mixed with bacterial strains, and the change in absorbance before and after incubation was determined. For enzyme inhibitory activity, change in the absorbance of mixtures of synthesized compounds and enzyme before and after incubation with substrate was determined.Results: The target compounds were synthesized in appreciable yields and well characterized by spectral data analysis. Salmonella typhi was inhibited by 8e (MIC 8.00 ± 0.54 μM), Escherichia coli by 8f (8.21 ± 0.83 μM), Bacillus subtilis by 8c (8.56 ± 0.63 μM) and Staphylococcus aureus by 8c (8.86 ± 0.29 μM). Two compounds, 8e and 8d, were very effective inhibitors of α-glucosidase with IC50 values of 40.62 ± 0.07 and 48.64 ± 0.08 μM, respectively.Conclusion: Low IC50  values of the synthesized compounds against α-glucosidase demonstrates their potential in type-2 diabetes treatment. Furthermore, these compounds exhibit substantial antibacterial activity against the bacterial strains tested.Keywords: Antibacterial activity, α-Glucosidase inhibition, Ethyl isonipecotate, Hydrazo

Evaluation of service quality from patients' viewpoint

Background: Measuring patients' perception from health service quality as an important element in the assessment of service quality has attracted much attention in recent years. Therefore, this study was conducted to find out how the patients evaluated service quality of clinics at teaching hospitals affiliated with Tehran University of Medical Sciences in Iran. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in Tehran in 2017 and 400 patients were randomly selected from four hospitals. Data were collected using a questionnaire, the validity and reliability of which were confirmed in previous study. In order to analyze the data, T-test, ANOVA, and Pearson correlation coefficient were calculated using SPSS 23. Results: The results indicated that among eight dimensions of health service quality, the patients were more satisfied with physician consultation, services costs and admission process. The highest and lowest mean scores were related to physician consultation (Mean = 4.17), and waiting time (Mean = 2.64), in that order. The total mean score of service quality was 3.73 (± 0.51) out of 5. Outpatient services were assessed as good, moderate and weak by 57.5, 40 and 2.5 of the patients, respectively. There was a significant relationship between the positive perception of service quality and reason for admission, source of recommendation, gender, education level, health status, and waiting time in the clinics (p < 0.05). Conclusion: The majority of the patients had a positive experience with visiting clinics and perceived service provision as good. In fact, patients' perceptions of physician consultation, provision of information to patients and the environment of delivering services, are the most important determinants of service quality in clinics. © 2019 The Author(s)

Biological screening and docking studies of unique hybrids synthesized by conventional versus microwave assisted techniques

Purpose: To carry out the synthesis of various hybrids of 1,2,4-triazole in search of potential therapeutic enzyme inhibitory agents, and carry out docking and bovine serum albumin (BSA) binding studies on docking and bovine serum albumin (BSA) binding studies on the hybrids. Methods: The target compounds were synthesized by following a multistep protocol. Compound 1 was synthesized from 4-methoxybenzenesulfonyl chloride (a) and ethyl isonipecotate (b). Compound 1 was refluxed with hydrazine to synthesize compound 2, which was converted to compound 3 through two consecutive steps. Compound 4 and different amines (5a-5i), were utilized to synthesize an array of electrophiles (6a-6i). A series of 1,2,4-triazole hybrids (7a-7i) were synthesized at room temperature by stirring together 3 and 6a-6i. The final structures of 7a-7i were elucidated through 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR and EI-MS spectroscopy. The BSA binding studies were performed by fluorometric titration. Furthermore, antioxidant and enzyme inhibition activities were determined colorimetrically. Results: Compound 7d was the most active antioxidant agent, compared to butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), while compounds 7d, 7e, 7f, 7g and 7i proved to be potent urease inhibitors with half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) values of 19.5 ± 0.12, 21.1 ± 0.68, 18.2 ± 0.78, 19.9 ± 0.77 and 17.9 ± 0.10 µM, respectively, compared to thiourea with an IC50 of 24.3 ± 0.24 µM. Compounds 7a, 7b, 7d, and 7e exhibited high butyrylcholinesterase inhibition potential, compared to eserine. Conclusion: The synthesized compounds require studies further as potential therapeutic enzyme inhibitory agents in view of their urease inhibition as well as antioxidant activity

Preventing Identity Attacks in RFID Backscatter Communication Systems: a Physical-Layer Approach

This work considers identity attack on a radio-frequency identification (RFID)-based backscatter communication system. Specifically, we consider a singlereader, single-tag RFID system whereby the reader and the tag undergo two-way signaling which enables the reader to extract the tag ID in order to authenticate the legitimate tag (L-tag). We then consider a scenario whereby a malicious tag (M-tag)—having the same ID as the Ltag programmed in its memory by a wizard—attempts to deceive the reader by pretending to be the L-tag. To this end, we counter the identity attack by exploiting the non-reciprocity of the end-to-end channel (i.e., the residual channel) between the reader and the tag as the fingerprint of the tag. The passive nature of the tag(s) (and thus, lack of any computational platform at the tag) implies that the proposed light-weight physical-layer authentication method is implemented at the reader. To be concrete, in our proposed scheme, the reader acquires the raw data via two-way (challenge-response) message exchange mechanism, does least-squares estimation to extract the fingerprint, and does binary hypothesis testing to do authentication. We also provide closed-form expressions for the two error probabilities of interest (i.e., false alarm and missed detection). Simulation results attest to the efficacy of the proposed method

Observation of the Ankle and Evidence for a High-Energy Break in the Cosmic Ray Spectrum

We have measured the cosmic ray spectrum at energies above $10^{17}$ eV using the two air fluorescence detectors of the High Resolution Fly's Eye experiment operating in monocular mode. We describe the detector, PMT and atmospheric calibrations, and the analysis techniques for the two detectors. We fit the spectrum to models describing galactic and extragalactic sources. Our measured spectrum gives an observation of a feature known as the ``ankle'' near $3\times 10^{18}$ eV, and strong evidence for a suppression near $6\times 10^{19}$ eV.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures. To appear in Physics Letters B. Accepted versio