A single-center non-blinded randomized clinical trial to assess the safety and effectiveness of PhR160 spray in the treatment of COVID-19 pneumonia

7-16COVID-19 is an emerging pandemic that caused a very widespread infection with more than 1000000 cases in Iran within a year. The main cause of mortality among patients with COVID-19 is pulmonary failure. In Iranian Traditional Medicine, essences have been used for curing pulmonary diseases. Pinen-Hydronoplacton-Ribonucleic acid (PHR) is an inhaler spray made of seven different plants, which all are used by humans and have desirable pharmacological features for treating pulmonary symptoms of COVID-19 patients. This study was conducted to assess the safety and effectiveness of PHR160 spray in improving pulmonary symptoms of COVID-19 patients. This was a single-centre, non-blinded randomized clinical trial with two parallel groups in two different wards of Baqiyatallah hospital, Tehran, Iran. Participants were 63 male patients diagnosed with COVID-19 pneumonia, divided into 2 groups of 32 in the intervention group and 31 in the control group. The intervention group received 5 days of PHR160 spray, 10 puffs each day, 300 micrograms in each puff in addition to the routine treatment. Oxygen saturation was measured by a pulse oximeter, every six hours and recorded daily. This study showed that administration of PhR 160 in patients of COVID-19 was safe, and it significantly increased the arterial oxygen saturation percentage in COVID-19 patients. In addition, it decreased hospitalization duration, dyspnea score, and cough score significantly in the patients. The statistical modelling test, with adjusting the age and respiratory rate for baseline and 4 days of the intervention, shows that the oxygen saturation percentage mean was significantly more in the intervention group by 5.14 units (p<0.001)

Cosmology from LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey Data Release 2: Angular Clustering of Radio Sources

Covering ∼5600 deg2 to rms sensitivities of ∼70−100 μJy beam−1, the LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey Data Release 2 (LoTSS-DR2) provides the largest low-frequency (∼150 MHz) radio catalogue to date, making it an excellent tool for large-area radio cosmology studies. In this work, we use LoTSS-DR2 sources to investigate the angular two-point correlation function of galaxies within the survey. We discuss systematics in the data and an improved methodology for generating random catalogues, compared to that used for LoTSS-DR1, before presenting the angular clustering for ∼900,000 sources ≥1.5 mJy and a peak signal-to-noise ≥7.5 across ∼80% of the observed area. Using the clustering we infer the bias assuming two evolutionary models. When fitting {angular scales of 0.5≤θ&lt;5°, using a linear bias model, we find LoTSS-DR2 sources are biased tracers of the underlying matter, with a bias of bC=2.14+0.22−0.20 (assuming constant bias) and bE(z=0)=1.79+0.15−0.14 (for an evolving model, inversely proportional to the growth factor), corresponding to bE=2.81+0.24−0.22 at the median redshift of our sample, assuming the LoTSS Deep Fields redshift distribution is representative of our data. This reduces to bC=2.02+0.17−0.16 and bE(z=0)=1.67+0.12−0.12 when allowing preferential redshift distributions from the Deep Fields to model our data. Whilst the clustering amplitude is slightly lower than LoTSS-DR1 (≥2 mJy), our study benefits from larger samples and improved redshift estimates

25th Annual Computational Neuroscience Meeting: CNS-2016

Abstracts of the 25th Annual Computational Neuroscience Meeting: CNS-2016 Seogwipo City, Jeju-do, South Korea. 2–7 July 201

25th annual computational neuroscience meeting: CNS-2016

The same neuron may play different functional roles in the neural circuits to which it belongs. For example, neurons in the Tritonia pedal ganglia may participate in variable phases of the swim motor rhythms [1]. While such neuronal functional variability is likely to play a major role the delivery of the functionality of neural systems, it is difficult to study it in most nervous systems. We work on the pyloric rhythm network of the crustacean stomatogastric ganglion (STG) [2]. Typically network models of the STG treat neurons of the same functional type as a single model neuron (e.g. PD neurons), assuming the same conductance parameters for these neurons and implying their synchronous firing [3, 4]. However, simultaneous recording of PD neurons shows differences between the timings of spikes of these neurons. This may indicate functional variability of these neurons. Here we modelled separately the two PD neurons of the STG in a multi-neuron model of the pyloric network. Our neuron models comply with known correlations between conductance parameters of ionic currents. Our results reproduce the experimental finding of increasing spike time distance between spikes originating from the two model PD neurons during their synchronised burst phase. The PD neuron with the larger calcium conductance generates its spikes before the other PD neuron. Larger potassium conductance values in the follower neuron imply longer delays between spikes, see Fig. 17.Neuromodulators change the conductance parameters of neurons and maintain the ratios of these parameters [5]. Our results show that such changes may shift the individual contribution of two PD neurons to the PD-phase of the pyloric rhythm altering their functionality within this rhythm. Our work paves the way towards an accessible experimental and computational framework for the analysis of the mechanisms and impact of functional variability of neurons within the neural circuits to which they belong

Chemoreduction in the management of intraocular retinoblastoma using new international classification

Purpose: To evaluate the effectiveness of chemoreduction (CRD) for globe saving in patients with intraocular retinoblastoma. Methods: In this interventional case series all patients with intraocular retinoblastoma were included and classified according to the international classification of retinoblastoma (ICRB) from group A to E. Six cycles of intravenous Vincristine, Etoposide and Carboplatin (VEC) were used for all groups, except for unilateral group A and E. After reduction of tumor volume adjuvant therapy was applied in all cases. Main outcome measure was CRD success, defined as globe salvage by avoidance of external beam radiotherapy or enucleation (EBRT). Results: Forty-three eyes from 31 patients were enrolled, 12 patients had bilateral involvement. 5 eyes were in group A, 7 in group B, 6 in group C, 8 in group D and 15 in group E. Thirty-one eyes were treated with VEC protocol and aggressive focal consolidation. Successful response was observed in 24 patients, de-novo recurrences occurred in 6 eyes that treated with additional VEC and neoadjuvant therapy. Success rate was 100 for groups A, B and C and 55 for group D during 6-18 months (mean=11.4 months) follow-up. Overall 19 eyes were enucleated (group E=15 and group D=4). Conclusion: CRD is an effective treatment modality for globe salvage in patients with intraocular retinoblastoma with a high success rate in groups B and C, and an acceptable success in group D. © 2010 by the Iranian Society of Ophthalmology

Reduced impurity-driven defect states in anodized nanoporous Nb2O5: the possibility of improving performance of photoanodes

Anodized nanoporous Nb2O5 films are synthesized using two different types of electrolyte compositions onto transparent conductive glasses and their impurities induced during the anodization process are assessed. These films are incorporated as photoanodes in dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The one with no traces of impurity-driven defects exhibits higher current density and longer electron lifetimes, and consequently, an improvement in photoconversion efficiencies compared to the one that contains impurities

Acoustic-excitonic coupling for dynamic photoluminescence manipulation of quasi-2D MoS2 nanoflakes

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Transparent amorphous strontium titanate resistive memories with transient photo-response

Transparent non-volatile memory devices are desirable for realizing visually-clear integrated systems for information storage. Optical transparency provides advantages in applications such as smart glass electronic devices and wearable electronics. However, achieving high transparency limits the choice of active layers as well as the electrodes; thereby, constraining device processing and performance. Here, we demonstrate bilayer transparent memory cells using room temperature deposited amorphous strontium titanate as the functional material and indium tin oxide electrodes. The entire device is fabricated on glass, making the system highly transparent ( &gt; 85%) in the visible spectrum. The devices exhibit switching ratios of over two orders of magnitude with measured retention of 10 5 s and endurance 10 4 cycles. Through the cross-sectional microstructural analyses it is shown that the asymmetric interfaces and distribution of oxygen vacancies in the bilayer oxide stack are responsible for defining the bipolar resistive switching behaviors. A photoluminescence mapping technique is employed to map the evolution of oxygen vacancies and pinpoint the location of the conductive filament. A transient response to optical excitation (using UV and blue light) is demonstrated in the high resistance state which indicates their potential as multifunctional memories for future transparent electronics