Design of a wide-bandwidth on-chip antenna for uncooled passive THz imaging

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Halofantrin zur Behandlung der importierten Malaria bei nicht-immunen Reisenden

Im Rahmen einer prospektiven Multizenterstudie wurden die Wirksamkeit (Kriterien: Heilungsrate, Zeit bis zur Entfieberung oder Parasitenfreiheit) und Verträglichkeit (Kriterien: klinische Nebenwirkungen, veränderte Laborparameter) von Halofantrin bei 96 nicht-immunen Malaria-Patienten (71 Männer, 25 Frauen, mittleres Alter 34,3 [21-62] Jahre) untersucht, die aus Hochresistenzgebieten nach Deutschland oder in die Schweiz zurückgekehrt waren. 63 Patienten wurden mit einer Eintagestherapie behandelt (dreimal 500 mg Halofantrin); die folgenden 33 Patienten erhielten einen zusätzlichen Therapiezyklus nach einer Woche. In der zweiten Gruppe war die Therapie in allen Fällen wirksam, während bei der Eintagestherapie fünf von 41 Patienten (12,2 %) mit Malaria tropica einen Rückfall erlitten. Die Zeit bis zur Entfieberung betrug 45 Stunden, die Zeit bis zur Parasitenfreiheit 66 Stunden. Bei fünf Behandelten kam es unter der Therapie zu leichten Transaminasenanstiegen, die jedoch spontan innerhalb weniger Tage zurückgingen und am ehesten infektionsbedingt waren. - Bei guter Verträglichkeit ist Halofantrin für die Therapie und Stand-by-Therapie von multiresistenten Plasmodien-Infektionen geeignet. Die Behandlung muß nach 7 Tagen wiederholt werden.The efficacy (criteria: cure rate, time to resolution of fever or absence of parasites) and safety (criteria: clinical side effects, altered laboratory parameters) of halofantrin were investigated in a multi-centre study of 96 non-immune patients (71 men, 25 women, mean age 34.3 [21-62] years) with malaria imported from regions of high resistance into Germany or Switzerland. The initial 63 patients received one-day treatment (three doses of 500 mg halofantrin), while the last 33 patients received an additional course of treatment one week later. Treatment was curative in all patients in the second group, but relapses occurred in five of the 41 patients (12.2 %) with falciparum malaria who received one-day therapy. Fever resolved after a mean of 45 hours and parasites were absent after a mean of 66 hours. There were small increases in transaminase values (most probably because of the infection) in five patients, but all became normal again within a few days. - Halofantrin is a safe drug and is suitable for both therapy and stand-by therapy of resistant Plasmodium infections. Treatment should be repeated after 7 days

Malnutrition protéino-énergétique chez les enfants de moins de 5 ans du département de la Méfou au Cameroun, février-mars 1993

Dans le cadre d'un projet de renforcement des activités de soins de santé primaires du département de la Méfou, situé dans la province du Centre au Cameroun, une enquête anthropométrique a été réalisée du 4 février au 26 mars 1993. L'échantillon de 1303 enfants âgés de 0 à 59 mois, a été obtenu par un sondage en grappes à deux degrés. 24,5% des enfants (I.C. 95% : 21,5%-27,5%) présentaient une malnutrition chronique (Taille pour l'âge < moins 2 écarts-type de la moyenne de la population de référence N.C.H.S./O.M.S.), 12,9% (I.C. 95% : 10,7%-15,2%) une insuffisance pondérale (poids pour l'âge < moins 2 écarts-type) et 2,1% (I.C. 95% : 1,4 %-2,8 %) une malnutrition aiguë (poids pour l'âge < moins 2 écarts-type et/ou présence d'oedèmes des pieds). (Résumé d'auteur

Smoking cessation interventions in COPD: a network meta-analysis of randomised trials

The aim of this study was to rank order the effectiveness of smoking cessation interventions for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients. We searched 10 databases to identify randomised trials of smoking cessation counselling (SCC) with or without pharmacotherapy or nicotine replacement therapy (NRT). We conducted a network meta-analysis using logistic regression analyses to assess the comparative effectiveness of smoking cessation interventions while preserving randomisation of each trial. The analysis of 7,372 COPD patients from six out of eight identified trials showed that SCC in combination with NRT had the greatest effect on prolonged abstinence rates versus usual care (OR 5.08, p<0.0001) versus SCC alone (2.80, p = 0.001) and versus SCC combined with an antidepressant (1.53, p = 0.28). The second most effective intervention was SCC combined with an antidepressant (3.32, p = 0.002) versus SCC alone (1.83, p = 0.007), with no difference between antidepressants. SCC alone was of borderline superiority compared with usual care (1.81, p = 0.07). A small body of evidence suggests that SCC combined with NRT is more effective than other combinations and single smoking cessation treatments in COPD, but substantially more research is needed for this most important COPD treatment

Impfungen für Auslandreisen [Vaccinations for travel abroad]

Travel to the developing world by Swiss citizens has been increasing. Vaccine-preventable diseases challenges the physician to provide pre-travel advice. Each traveler's itinerary, duration of stay and medical history, including previous immunization, should be reviewed. Vaccinations are required or recommended according to the requirements and the epidemiology of countries being visited. This article summarizes updated recommendations to individual vaccines and immunoglobulins

Room-temperature THz imaging based on antenna-coupled MOSFET bolometer

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A 64Gb/s 1.4pJ/b NRZ Optical-Receiver Data-Path in 14nm CMOS FinFET

This work describes a NRZ receiver data-path fabricated in 14nm bulk FinFET technology and characterized in an 850nm VCSEL based optical link up to 64Gb/s. It achieves 1.42pJ/bit energy efficiency while recovering PRBS-7 data (BER< 10-12) modulated by a VCSEL driver with 1-tap FFE. The receiver utilizes a self-referenced low-bandwidth TIA combined with a speculative 1-tap DFE to achieve high sensitivity. The measured sensitivity at 64 Gb/s, 56 Gb/s and 32 Gb/s are -5.5dBm, -9dBm and -13dBm OMA respectively

Inhibition of EGF Uptake by Nephrotoxic Antisense Drugs In Vitro and Implications for Preclinical Safety Profiling

Antisense oligonucleotide (AON) therapeutics offer new avenues to pursue clinically relevant targets inaccessible with other technologies. Advances in improving AON affinity and stability by incorporation of high affinity nucleotides, such as locked nucleic acids (LNA), have sometimes been stifled by safety liabilities related to their accumulation in the kidney tubule. In an attempt to predict and understand the mechanisms of LNA-AON-induced renal tubular toxicity, we established human cell models that recapitulate in vivo behavior of pre-clinically and clinically unfavorable LNA-AON drug candidates. We identified elevation of extracellular epidermal growth factor (EGF) as a robust and sensitive in vitro biomarker of LNA-AON-induced cytotoxicity in human kidney tubule epithelial cells. We report the time-dependent negative regulation of EGF uptake and EGF receptor (EGFR) signaling by toxic but not innocuous LNA-AONs and revealed the importance of EGFR signaling in LNA-AON-mediated decrease in cellular activity. The robust EGF-based in vitro safety profiling of LNA-AON drug candidates presented here, together with a better understanding of the underlying molecular mechanisms, constitutes a significant step toward developing safer antisense therapeutics. Keywords: kidney, nephrotoxicity, EGF, EGFR, PTEC, antisense, oligonucleotide, safety, preclinica