731 research outputs found
Rates and determinants of antibiotics and probiotics prescription to children in Asia-Pacific countries
Antibiotic therapy may have important side effects. Guidelines recommend the administration of specific probiotics to reduce the risk of antibiotic-associated diarrhoea (AAD). The rates and determinants of antibiotics and co-prescription of probiotics in children remain poorly known in Asia-Pacific countries, which are very heterogenous in terms of economic development, health care organization and health policies. A survey among general practitioners (GPs) and paediatricians was performed in seven countries of the Asia-Pacific area (Australia, Japan, Indonesia, India, China, Singapore, and South Korea). Physicians completed an online questionnaire that explored their current habits and the determinants for prescribing antibiotics and probiotics. For the 731 physicians who completed the questionnaire (390 paediatricians and 341 GPs), 37% of all consultations for a child led to the prescription of antibiotics (ranging from 17% in Australia to 47% in India). A large majority of physicians (84%) agreed that antibiotics disrupted gut microbiota and considered probiotics an effective intervention to prevent AAD (68%). However, only 33% co-prescribed probiotics with antibiotics (ranging from 13% in Japan to 60% in South Korea). The main reasons for prescribing probiotics were previous episodes of AAD (61%), presence of diarrhoea (55%), prolonged antibiotic treatment (54%) or amoxicillin-clavulanic acid therapy (54%). Although current local guidelines recommend the use of selected probiotics in children receiving antibiotics in Asia-Pacific area, the rates of antibiotics and probiotics prescription significantly vary among countries and are deeply affected by country-related cultural and organisational issues
A decentralized spectrum allocation and partitioning scheme for a two-tier macro-femtocell network with downlink beamforming
This article examines spectrum allocation and partitioning schemes to mitigate cross-tier interference under downlink beamforming environments. The enhanced SIR owing to beamforming allows more femtocells to share their spectrum with the macrocell and accordingly improves overall spectrum efficiency. We first design a simplified centralized scheme as the optimum and then propose a practical decentralized algorithm that determines which femtocells to use the full or partitioned spectrum with acceptable control overhead. To exploit limited information of the received signal strength efficiently, we consider two types of probabilistic femtocell base station (HeNB) selection policies. They are equal selection and interference weighted selection policies, and we drive their outage probabilities for a macrocell user. Through performance evaluation, we demonstrate that the outage probability and the cell capacity in our decentralized scheme are significantly better than those in a conventional cochannel deployment scheme. Furthermore, we show that the cell utility in our proposed scheme is close to that in the centralized scheme and better than that in the spectrum partitioning scheme with a fixed ratio.open0
A note on q-Euler numbers and polynomials
The purpose of this paper is to construct q-Euler numbers and polynomials by
using p-adic q-integral equations on Zp. Finally, we will give some interesting
formulae related to these q-Euler numbers and polynomials.Comment: 6 page
Mesoporous carbon-containing voltammetric biosensor for determination of tyramine in food products
A voltammetric biosensor based on tyrosinase (TYR) was developed for determination of tyramine. Carbon material (multi-walled carbon nanotubes or mesoporous carbon CMK-3-type), polycationic polymerâi.e., poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride) (PDDA), and Nafion were incorporated into titania dioxide sol (TiO(2)) to create an immobilization matrix. The features of the formed matrix were studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and cyclic voltammetry (CV). The analytical performance of the developed biosensor was evaluated with respect to linear range, sensitivity, limit of detection, long-term stability, repeatability, and reproducibility. The biosensor exhibited electrocatalytic activity toward tyramine oxidation within a linear range from 6 to 130Â ÎŒM, high sensitivity of 486Â ÎŒAÂ mM(â1)Â cm(â2), and limit of detection of 1.5Â ÎŒM. The apparent MichaelisâMenten constant was calculated to be 66.0Â ÎŒM indicating a high biological affinity of the developed biosensor for tyramine. Furthermore, its usefulness in determination of tyramine in food product samples was also verified. [Figure: see text] ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00216-016-9612-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users
A dp53-Dependent Mechanism Involved in Coordinating Tissue Growth in Drosophila
A study in the Drosophila wing suggests a crucial role of p53 in the coordination of growth between adjacent cell populations to maintain organ proportions and shape
A randomised multicentre phase II trial of capecitabine vs S-1 as first-line treatment in elderly patients with metastatic or recurrent unresectable gastric cancer
This randomised multicentre phase II study was conducted to investigate the activity and safety of two oral fluoropyrimidines, capecitabine or S-1, in elderly patients with advanced gastric cancer (AGC). Elderly (â©Ÿ65 years) chemo-naive patients with AGC were randomly assigned to receive capecitabine 1250âmgâmâ2 two times daily on days 1â14 every 3 weeks or S-1 40â60âmg two times daily according to body surface area on days 1â28 every 6 weeks. Ninety-six patients were enrolled and 91 patients were randomised to capecitabine (N=46) or S-1 (N=45). Overall response rate, the primary end point, was 27.2% (95% CI, 14.1â40.4, 12 of 44 assessable patients) with capecitabine and 28.9% (95% CI, 15.6â42.1, 13 of 45) with S-1. Median times to progression and overall survival in the capecitabine arm (4.7 and 9.5 months, respectively) were similar to those in the S-1 arm (4.2 and 8.2 months, respectively). The incidence of grade 3â4 granulocytopenia was 6.8% with capecitabine and 4.8% with S-1. Grade 3â4 nonhaematologic toxicities were: asthenia (9.1% with capecitabine vs 7.1% with S-1), anorexia (6.8 vs 9.5%), diarrhoea (2.3 vs 0%), and handâfoot syndrome (6.8 vs 0%). Both capecitabine and S-1 monotherapies were active and tolerable as first-line treatment for elderly patients with AGC
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