Begonia bangsamoro (Begoniaceae, section Petermannia), a new species from Mindanao Island, the Philippines

Buenavista, Dave P., Ang, Yu Pin, Pranada, Mc Andrew K., Salas, Daryl S., Mollee, Eefke, Mcdonald, Morag (2021): Begonia bangsamoro (Begoniaceae, section Petermannia), a new species from Mindanao Island, the Philippines. Phytotaxa 497 (1): 39-48, DOI: 10.11646/phytotaxa.497.1.4, URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.497.1.

A Conceptual Design Framework based on TRIZ Scientific Effects and Patent Mining

Conceptual design represents a critical initial design stage that involves both technical and creative thinking to develop and derive concept solutions to meet design requirements. TRIZ Scientific Effects (TRIZSE) is one of the TRIZ tools that utilize a database on functional, transformation, parameterization of scientific effects to provide conceptual solutions to engineering and design problems. Although TRIZSE has been introduced to help engineers solve design problems in the conceptual design phase, the current TRIZSE database presents general scientific concept solutions with a few examples of solutions from patents which are very abstract and not updated since its introduction. This research work explores the derivation of a novel framework that integrates TRIZ scientific effects to the current patent information (USPTO) using data mining techniques to develop a better design support tool to assist engineers in deriving innovative design concept solutions. This novel framework will provide better, updated, relevant and specific examples of conceptual design ideas from patents to engineers. The research used Python as the base programming platform to develop a conceptual design software prototype based on this new framework where both the TRIZSE Database and Patents Database (USPTO) are searched and processed in order to build a Doc2Vec similarity model. A case study on the corrosion of copper pipelines by seawater is presented to validate this novel framework and results of the novel TRIZSE Database and patents examples are presented and further discussed in this paper. The results of the case study indicated that the Doc2Vec model is able to perform its intended similarity queries. The patent examples from results of the case study warrant further consideration in conceptual design activities

Image Filtering Techniques for Object Recognition in Autonomous Vehicles

The deployment of autonomous vehicles has the potential to significantly lessen the variety of current harmful externalities, (such as accidents, traffic congestion, security, and environmental degradation), making autonomous vehicles an emerging topic of research. In this paper, a literature review of autonomous vehicle development has been conducted with a notable finding that autonomous vehicles will inevitably become an indispensable future greener solution. Subsequently, 5 different deep learning models, YOLOv5s, EfficientNet-B7, Xception, MobilenetV3, and InceptionV4, have been built and analyzed for 2-D object recognition in the navigation system. While testing on the BDD100K dataset, YOLOv5s and EfficientNet-B7 appear to be the two best models. Finally, this study has proposed Hessian, Laplacian, and Hessian-based Ridge Detection filtering techniques to optimize the performance and sustainability of those 2 models. The results demonstrate that these filters could increase the mean average precision by up to 11.81%, reduce detection time by up to 43.98%, and significantly reduce energy consumption by up to 50.69% when applied to YOLOv5s and EfficientNet-B7 models. Overall, all the experiment results are promising and could be extended to other domains for semantic understanding of the environment. Additionally, various filtering algorithms for multiple object detection and classification could be applied to other areas. Different recommendations and future work have been clearly defined in this study

Time spent in primary care for hip osteoarthritis patients once the diagnosis is set: a prospective observational study

Background: Previous research on time to referral to orthopaedic surgery has predominantly used hip complaints as starting point instead of the moment the diagnosis of osteoarthritis (OA) of the hip is established, therefore little is known about the length of time a patient diagnosed with hip OA stays under the care of a general practitioner (GP). No knowledge on factors of influence on this time period is available either. Aim of this study was thus to determine the time an incident hip OA patient stays in the care of a GP until referral to an orthopaedic department. Influencing factors were also analyzed. Methods: A prospective observational study was conducted based on data over a 10-year period from a general practice-based registration network (17 GPs, > 30,000 patients registered yearly). Patients with the diagnosis of hip OA were included. A survival analysis was used to determine time until referral to an orthopaedic department, and to determine factors of influence on this time. Results: Of 391 patients diagnosed with hip OA, 121 (31%) were referred; average survival time until referral was 82.0 months (95% CI 76.6-87.5). Less contact with the GP for hip complaints before the diagnosis of hip OA was established resulted in a decreased time to referral. Conclusions: The results of this study show that patients with hip OA were under the care of a general practitioner, and thus in primary care, for a considerable amount of time once the diagnosis of hip OA was established

The association between overall health, psychological distress, and occupational heat stress among a large national cohort of 40,913 Thai workers

Background: Occupational heat stress is a well-known problem, particularly in tropical countries, affecting workers, health and well-being. There are very few recent studies that have reported on the effect of heat stress on mental health, or overall health in workers, although socioeconomic development and rapid urbanization in tropical developing countries like Thailand create working conditions in which heat stress is likely. Objective: This study is aimed at identifying the relationship between self-reported heat stress and psychological distress, and overall health status in Thai workers. Results: 18% of our large national cohort (>40,000 subjects) often works under heat stress conditions and males are exposed to heat stress more often than females. Furthermore, working under heat stress conditions is associated with both worse overall health and psychological distress (adjusted odds ratios ranging from 1.49 to 1.84). Conclusions: This association between occupational heat stress and worse health needs more public health attention and further development on occupational health interventions as climate change increases Thailand's temperatures

Long term outcome and pulmonary vein reconnection of patients undergoing cryoablation and/or radiofrequency ablation: Results from the cryo versus RF Trial

Introduction:Long term prospective data comparing the efficacy of radiofrequency (RF) and cryoballoon ablation (CRYO) for paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (PAF) is lacking. We report the long-Term outcomes of a randomized control trial comparing CRYO to RF ablation, or a novel COMBINED approach (RF followed by CRYO) for PAF. We studied the number and pattern of pulmonary vein (PV) reconnections in patients undergoing repeat procedure(s). The COMBINED approach had significantly higher single procedure success rate and is associated with the fewest reconnected PVs. Methods: 203 patients who underwent first time PAF ablation in a randomized clinical trial comparing CRYO (67), RF (67) and COMBINED (69) approaches were followed up. All patients with symptomatic recurrence of AF were offered a repeat procedure(s). Reconnected PV(s) at repeat procedure(s) were recorded. In a subset, the PV reconnection sites during the first repeat procedure were prospectively assessed and categorised into one of 8 segments. Results: At 5 years, 57% of COMBINED patients remained free of AF after a single procedure compared to 47% CRYO and 19% RF patients (p<0.001 COMBINED vs RF and CRYO vs RF, p=0.043 COMBINED vs CRYO). During the first repeat procedure, the COMBINED group had less number of reconnected PVs (mean number of reconnected PVs in the COMBINED group 1.2 vs 2.3 CRYO and 2.4 RF, p=0.034). There was a different pattern of PV reconnection comparing the CRYO and RF groups. Conclusion:The COMBINED approach had a significantly higher single procedure success rate with fewer reconnected PVs and fewer reconnection sites compared to either CRYO or RF alone. CRYO in turn was superior to RF. PV reconnection pattern differed between CRYO and RF and the synergistic effect of the COMBINED approach may explain the improved single procedure efficacy

Measuring quality of life in rheumatic conditions

Musculoskeletal disorders often have associated pain, functional impairment and work disability, and, not surprisingly, are the most common reasons for utilizing healthcare resources. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and fibromyalgia (FM) are causes of musculoskeletal pain and disability. Research indicates that there is a widespread impact of RA and FM on physical, psychological and social factors in affected individuals, and thus, outcome measures that encompass multiple aspects of quality of life are needed. Generic measures of quality of life identify associations between physical conditions and mental health and highlight the need to address psychological functioning to ultimately improve the individuals’ quality of life

Glargine and degludec: solution behaviour of higher dose synthetic insulins

Single, double and triple doses of the synthetic insulins glargine and degludec currently used in patient therapy are characterised using macromolecular hydrodynamic techniques (dynamic light scattering and analytical ultracentrifugation) in an attempt to provide the basis for improved personalised insulin profiling in patients with diabetes. Using dynamic light scattering and sedimentation velocity in the analytical ultracentrifuge glargine was shown to be primarily dimeric under solvent conditions used in current formulations whereas degludec behaved as a dihexamer with evidence of further association of the hexamers (“multi-hexamerisation”). Further analysis by sedimentation equilibrium showed that degludec exhibited reversible interaction between mono- and-di-hexamer forms. Unlike glargine, degludec showed strong thermodynamic non-ideality, but this was suppressed by the addition of salt. With such large injectable doses of synthetic insulins remaining in the physiological system for extended periods of time, in some case 24–40 hours, double and triple dose insulins may impact adversely on personalised insulin profiling in patients with diabetes

Safety and effectiveness of switching from infliximab to etanercept in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: results from a large Japanese postmarketing surveillance study

Finding an effective treatment strategy for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients who have not benefited from previous tumor necrosis factor–α antagonist treatment is important for minimizing RA disease activity and improving patient outcomes. The aim of this study was to compare the safety and effectiveness of etanercept in patients with and without infliximab (IFX) treatment experience. Patients (n = 7,099) from a large postmarketing observational study of etanercept use in Japan were divided into 2 cohorts based on previous IFX use (pre-IFX and non-IFX). Baseline characteristics were assessed in each cohort. Adverse events (AEs) and European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) responses were monitored every 4 weeks for 24 weeks. At baseline, pre-IFX patients were younger and had fewer comorbidities and a shorter RA duration than non-IFX patients. During the study, pre-IFX patients received concomitant methotrexate more often than non-IFX patients. The incidence of AEs and serious AEs were significantly lower in pre-IFX patients, as was the percentage of patients who discontinued treatment. Both cohorts had significant improvement (P < 0.001) in EULAR responses at the end of the treatment period. This study demonstrated that etanercept was effective and well tolerated in active RA patients with and without prior IFX treatment

Pharmaceutical electrochemistry: the electrochemical detection of aspirin utilising screen printed graphene electrodes as sensors platforms.

A sensitive electrochemical sensor was designed for acetyl salicylic acid detection using graphene modified Screen Printed Electrodes. The electrochemical response of the sensor with graphene was improved compared to Screen Printed Electrodes without graphene and displayed an excellent analytical performance for the detection of acetyl salicylic acid. The high acetyl salicylic acid loading capacity on the electrode surface and the outstanding electric conductivity of graphene were also discussed in this manuscript. When a range of different concentrations of acetyl salicylic acid from 0.1 to 100 μM into a pH 4 buffer solution (N defined as the sample size N = 9) were plotted against the oxidation peak a linear response was observed. The detection limit was found to be 0.09 μM based on (3-σ/slope). Screen Printed Graphene electrodes sensors methodology is shown to be useful for quantifying low levels of acetyl salicylic acid in a buffer solution as well as in biological matrixes such as human oral fluid. A linear response was obtained over a range of concentrations from 10 to 150 μM into a human oral fluid solution (N = 10) giving a detection limit of 8.7 μM