Asthma diagnosis and treatment - 1012. The efficacy of budesonide in the treatmetn of acute asthma in children: a double-blind, randomized, controlled trial.

Background Current evidence suggests that inhaled glucocorticoids (IGC) have a more profound topical none genomic effect on bronchial airways as compared to systemic glucocorticoids. The value of adding IGC to current therapy of acute asthma is not well established. Methods We conducted a double-blind, randomized, two-arm, parallel groups, controlled clinical trial to compare the addition of budesonide 1500 mcg or placebo (normal saline) to standard acute asthma treatment (albuterol and ipratropium bromide) administered in 3 divided mixed doses within 1 hour in the emergency department (ED). Children 2-12 years of age with moderate or severe acute asthma, scoring 8-15/15 on a well-validated scoring system were included. Both groups received a single dose of prednisone 2 mg/kg/day (max. 60 mg) at the beginning of therapy. The primary outcome was admission rate within 2-4 hours from starting therapy. Results A total of 723 children were enrolled in the study over 17 months duration, of whom 139 were allowed to re-enroll and be randomized to constitute 906 randomization assignments (458 on the treatment group and 448 on the control group); with baseline mean + SD asthma score of 10.63 + 1.73; age 5.52 + 2.76 years; 35% girls; 30.8% (16.5%) with baseline severe asthma score of ≥12 (≥ 13). Statistical Analysis plan allowed for the potential dependency in response due to reenrollments of a subset of children, using Generalized Linear Mixed Modeling (GLMM) techniques. Baseline demographic and clinical characteristics were not significantly different between the two randomized groups. Seventy-five out of 458 (16.4%) of the treatment group vs. 82/448 (18.3%) of the control group were admitted, (OR 0.85, CI: 0.59-1.23, p-value=0.39). Among the severe asthmatics with baseline score ≥13, treatment vs. placebo group, GLMM adjusted admission rate was 30% vs. 47%, indicating a 17% difference in admission rate in favor of the treatment group (adjusted OR of 0.49, CI: 0.25-0.95; p-value= 0.035) that indicated a 51% reduction in the risk of admission for the treatment vs. control group. Conclusions Children with baseline severe asthma score ≥13 who were treated with budesonide had a significant reduction in their admission rate

Mobile robot based electrostatic spray system for controlling pests on cotton plants in Iraq

A mobile robot based electrostatic spray system was developed to combat pest infestation on cotton plants in Iraq. The system consists of a charged spray nozzle, a CCD camera, a mobile robot (vehicle and arm) and Arduino microcontroller. Arduino microcontroller is used to control the spray nozzle and the robot. Matlab is used to process the image from the CCD camera and to generate the appropriate control signals to the robot and the spray nozzle. COMSOL multi-physics FEM software was used to design the induction electrodes to achieve maximum charge transfer onto the fan spray liquid film resulting in achieving the desired charge/mass ratio of the spray. The charged spray nozzle was operated on short duration pulsed spray mode. Image analysis was employed to investigate the spray deposition on improvised insect targets on an artificial plant.The ministry of higher education and scientific research of Iraqi governmen

ENHANCED METHOD FOR AMPLIFYING ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY OF LACTOPEROXIDASE SYSTEM IN MILK AND DERIVED PRODUCTS BY CARROT EXTRACT AND BETA CAROTENE

OSCN–  has  been  known  and  well  documented  as  natural  antimicrobial  agent    generated  from the  lactoperoxidase  system (LPOS)  but  the  antimicrobial  activity  exerted  from  this  system  is  too  low  for  certain  food  such  as  milk  and  derived products (up to 1.2 log CFU/ml) resulting in the restriction on industrial  development  of  LPOS.  Our  previous  study  concluded  that  involvement  of  carrot  extract and beta carotene in LPOS significantly boosted the antimicrobial activity  (up  to  6  log  CFU/ml)  against  S.  enteritidis.  This  finding  should  be  continued  to  the  application  on  food.  Since  we  found  that  LPOS  generates  low  antimicrobial  activity  on  milk  and  derived  product,  our  research  will  be  conducted  on  the  application  of  LPOS  plus  carrot  extract  and  beta  carotene  on  milk  and  derived  product.  Because  the  high  antimicrobial  activity  is  needed  for  industrial  purposes,  this  research  may  open  the  way  for  industrial  development  of  natural  antimicrobial agent from LPOS.  This research will be conducted in three steps of experiment: (1) ensuring  the  incredible  antimicrobial  activity  of  LPOS  plus  carrot  extract  and  beta  carotene  against  three  poisonous  tropical bacteria:  C. jejuni,  S. enteritidis,  and E.  coli,  (2)  utilization  of  LPOS  plus  carrot  extract  and  beta  carotene  in  milk:  full  cream and skimmed milk, and (3) utilization of LPOS plus carrot extract and beta  carotene  in  milk  derived  product:  yogurt  and  tropical  fruity  milk.  The  purification  of  LPO  from  bovine  milk,  the  complimentary  data  analysis  for  generation  of  LPOS  antimicrobial  activity  by  the  addition  of  carrot  extract  and  beta  carotene  will  be  conducted  in  Japan  and  for  the  application  in  tropical  poisonous  bacteria,  milk,  and  milk  derived  product  will  be  conducted  in  Indonesia.  The  outcomes  of  this  research  from  three  step  of  research  are  three  international  publications  at  international‐scopus‐indexed‐journals  :  International Journal of  Dairy Science and  one  of  patent:  “enhanced  method  for  improvement of LPOS antimicrobial activity by involvement of carrot extract and  beta carotene in milk and derived product”.     Keywords:  Lactoperoxidase,  antimicrobial  activity,  carrot  extract,  beta  carotene,  milk, derived products

Rule Managed Reporting in Energy Controlled Wireless Sensor Networks

This paper proposes a technique to extend the network lifetime of a wireless sensor network, whereby each sensor node decides its network involvement, based on energy resources and the information in each message (ascertained through a system of rules). Results obtained from the simulation of an industrial monitoring scenario have shown that a considerable increase in the lifetime and connectivity can be obtained

The Regulatory Review Process in South Africa: Challenges and Opportunities for a New Improved System.

BACKGROUND: The aims of this study were to assess the regulatory review process in South Africa from 2015 to 2017, identify the key milestones and timelines; evaluate the effectiveness of measures to ensure consistency, transparency, timeliness, and predictability in the review process; and to provide recommendations for enhanced regulatory practices. METHODS: A questionnaire was completed by the Medicines Control Council (MCC) to describe the organization of the authority, record key milestones and timelines in the review process and to identify good review practices (GRevPs). RESULTS: Currently, the MCC conducts a full assessment of quality, efficacy, and safety data in the review of all applications. The overall regulatory median approval time decreased by 14% in 2017 (1411 calendar days) compared with that of 2016, despite the 27% increase in the number of applications. However, the MCC has no target for overall approval time of new active substance applications and no targets for key review milestones. Guidelines, standard operating procedures, and review templates are in place, while the formal implementation of GRevPs and the application of an electronic document management system are planned for the near future. CONCLUSIONS: As the MCC transitions to the newly established South Africa Health Products Regulatory Authority, it would be crucial for the authority to recognize the opportunities for an enhanced regulatory review and should consider models such as abridged assessment, which encompass elements of risk stratification and reliance. It is hoped that resource constraints may then be alleviated and capacity developed to meet target timelines.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Numerical solution of the two-dimensional Helmholtz equation with variable coefficients by the radial integration boundary integral and integro-differential equation methods

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below. Copyright @ 2012 Taylor & Francis.This paper presents new formulations of the boundary–domain integral equation (BDIE) and the boundary–domain integro-differential equation (BDIDE) methods for the numerical solution of the two-dimensional Helmholtz equation with variable coefficients. When the material parameters are variable (with constant or variable wave number), a parametrix is adopted to reduce the Helmholtz equation to a BDIE or BDIDE. However, when material parameters are constant (with variable wave number), the standard fundamental solution for the Laplace equation is used in the formulation. The radial integration method is then employed to convert the domain integrals arising in both BDIE and BDIDE methods into equivalent boundary integrals. The resulting formulations lead to pure boundary integral and integro-differential equations with no domain integrals. Numerical examples are presented for several simple problems, for which exact solutions are available, to demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed methods

Many-Spin Effects and Tunneling Properties of Magnetic Molecules

Spin tunneling in molecular magnets has attracted much attention, however theoretical considerations of this phenomenon up to now have not taken into account the many-spin nature of molecular magnets. We present, to our knowledge, the first successful attempt of a realistic calculation of tunneling splittings for Mn$_{12}$ molecules, thus achieving a quantitatively accurate many-spin description of a real molecular magnet in the energy interval ranging from about 100 K down to 10$^{-12}$ K. Comparison with the results of the standard single-spin model shows that many-spin effects affect the tunneling splittings considerably. The values of ground state splitting given by single-spin and many-spin models differ from each other by a factor of five.Comment: 3REVTeX pages, 2 figure

Interactions between cardiac activity and conscious somatosensory perception

Fluctuations in the heart's activity can modulate the access of external stimuli to consciousness. The link between perceptual awareness and cardiac signals has been investigated mainly in the visual and auditory domain. Here, we investigated whether the phase of the cardiac cycle and the prestimulus heart rate influence conscious somatosensory perception. We also tested how conscious detection of somatosensory stimuli affects the heart rate. Electrocardiograms (ECG) of 33 healthy volunteers were recorded while applying near‐threshold electrical pulses at a fixed intensity to the left index finger. Conscious detection was not uniformly distributed across the cardiac cycle but significantly higher in diastole than in systole. We found no evidence that the heart rate before a stimulus influenced its detection, but hits (correctly detected somatosensory stimuli) led to a more pronounced cardiac deceleration than misses. Our findings demonstrate interactions between cardiac activity and conscious somatosensory perception, which highlights the importance of internal bodily states for sensory processing beyond the auditory and visual domain