From Rat Poison to Medicine: Medical Applications of Coumarin Derivatives

Historical reports mention the application of medicinal plants containing coumarins against various ailments. Current research suggests that at least some of the actions described may be attributable to the action of these coumarins. Warfarin and its derivatives are coumarins used today in medical practice. Their mechanism of action lies in the competitive antagonism of vitamin K, through which they inhibit coagulation in the body by preventing the production of prothrombin. Due to this action, these coumarins are a major group of drugs with anticoagulant activity. Anticoagulants reduce the risks of undesirable blood clots leading to myocardial infarction, pulmonary embolism, and ischemic stroke among others. The anticoagulant activity can also lead to undesired bleeding. Extreme caution is warranted when given to menstruating women, patients suffering from disorders prone to bleeding like gastric ulcer and rheumatoid arthritis, and to persons with a high likelihood of blunt and sharp trauma. In addition, there is a significant augmentation of the anticoagulant activity when used in combination with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents and agents interfering with the metabolism of the coumarins. Recent findings propose additional uses like anti-tumor and antibiotic actions for coumarins. The clinical application of these actions has yet to be demonstrated

Analyzing the Use of Camera Glasses in the Wild

Camera glasses enable people to capture point-of-view videos using a common accessory, hands-free. In this paper, we investigate how, when, and why people used one such product: Spectacles. We conducted 39 semi-structured interviews and surveys with 191 owners of Spectacles. We found that the form factor elicits sustained usage behaviors, and opens opportunities for new use-cases and types of content captured. We provide a usage typology, and highlight societal and individual factors that influence the classification of behaviors.Comment: In Proceedings of the 37th Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2019). ACM, New York, NY, US

Towards a procedure for survey item selection in MIS

management information systems. Scholars can choose to develop survey items themselves or reuse survey items from existing studies. When survey items are reused without justification, the connection between theory and measurement is not made explicit. We present a procedure that facilitates selection and justification. Our procedure covers the selection of survey items, when one could choose from a pool of existing items and the justification of the selected set of survey items. We draw upon bibliometric theory and develop a rating that combines the relevance of the paper that presents the reused survey items, with the relevance of the survey item sources. We demonstrate our procedure by operationalizing sub-constructs of information technology capability and address potential concerns of our procedure. Our study provides an initial step towards a procedure that facilitates scholars with selecting and justifying their survey items, while at the same time, provides insight for peers regarding the connection between theory and measurement

What Affects Information Technology Capability: A Meta-Analysis on Aspects that Influence Information Technology Capability

The extent to which a firm deploys IT resources in conjunction with other resources is sometimes referred to as IT capability. The aim of this paper is to investigate what affects IT capability. To understand the drivers that affect IT capability, we systematically examined prior literature. Through a combination of deductive and inductive coding we have identified four generic IT capability aspects (organisational, people, relational and technical IT competencies). We then analyse how these four aspects affected IT capability by calculating effect sizes. _x000D_ Early results suggest most variance in IT capability can be explained by organisational IT competence. However, upon further analyses these results became inconclusive. Nevertheless, we believe an extension of our study would advance insights on aspects affecting IT capability. We discuss the limitations of our study and suggest directions for future research

Evaluating QualiCO. An ontology to facilitate qualitative methods sharing to support open science

Qualitative science methods have largely been omitted from discussions of open science. Platforms focused on qualitative science that support open science data and method sharing are rare. Sharing and exchanging coding schemas has great potential for supporting traceability in qualitative research as well as for facilitating the reuse of coding schemas. In this study, we present and evaluate QualiCO, an ontology to describe qualitative coding schemas. Twenty qualitative researchers used QualiCO to complete two coding tasks. In our findings, we present task performance and interview data that focus participants\u27 attention on the ontology. Participants used QualiCO to complete the coding tasks, decreasing time on task, while improving accuracy, signifying that QualiCO enabled the reuse of qualitative coding schemas. Our discussion elaborates some issues that participants had and highlights how conceptual and prior practice frames their interpretation of how QualiCO can be used. (DIPF/Orig.

Mannitol Reduces the Hydrostatic Pressure in the Proximal Tubule of the Isolated Blood-Perfused Rabbit Kidney during Hypoxic Stress and Improves Its Function

Background/Aims: Hypoxia may play a role in the development of renal failure in donated kidneys. In the present study, the effects of hypoxia on isolated blood-perfused rabbit kidneys were investigated and the effects of mannitol were explored, giving special attention to intratubular pressure. Methods: Kidneys were perfused with their autologous blood during four 30-min periods (P1–P4). P1 was considered baseline function. In P2, hypoxia was induced either alone or with an infusion of mannitol (15 mg/min) during P2–P4. Reoxygenation was applied after P2. Proximal intratubular pressure was measured in all conditions. Results: During hypoxia, renal blood flow doubled and restored immediately in P3. Urine flow stopped in P2, except in the series with mannitol, but gradually resumed in P3 and P4. Likewise, creatinine clearance recovered slightly (50% of P1. Proximal intratubular pressure (mean ± SD) increased from 12 ± 5 in P1 to 24 ± 11 mm Hg during hypoxia and returned to 10 ± 6 mm Hg in P3. This increase was not observed with mannitol. Conclusion: Cellular swelling might be responsible for the suppressed filtration during hypoxia and can be prevented by mannitol

It is Not All Fun and Games: Breaking News Consumption on Snapchat

Snapchat is a camera and ephemeral messaging application popular among young adults. Due to its self-destructing content and playful features, Snapchat is often associated with more trivial uses. However, the platform has added functionality to support consumption of news. To understand how users perceive and interact with news content on Snapchat, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 19 users of the platform, focusing on their use of Snapchat during breaking news events, including the 2016/2017 US presidential election and inauguration. Through the lens of Network Gatekeeping, our research explains how users consume breaking news content on Snapchat. We unpack users’ ambiguous perceptions of news reliability on Snapchat, and demonstrate how this contrasts with traditional news consumption. Our research also describes how users’ mental models of how Snapchat works—specifically their theories about how the platform curates news content—shape their judgments of reliability, media bias and authenticity