SusFL: Energy-Aware Federated Learning-based Monitoring for Sustainable Smart Farms

We propose a novel energy-aware federated learning (FL)-based system, namely SusFL, for sustainable smart farming to address the challenge of inconsistent health monitoring due to fluctuating energy levels of solar sensors. This system equips animals, such as cattle, with solar sensors with computational capabilities, including Raspberry Pis, to train a local deep-learning model on health data. These sensors periodically update Long Range (LoRa) gateways, forming a wireless sensor network (WSN) to detect diseases like mastitis. Our proposed SusFL system incorporates mechanism design, a game theory concept, for intelligent client selection to optimize monitoring quality while minimizing energy use. This strategy ensures the system's sustainability and resilience against adversarial attacks, including data poisoning and privacy threats, that could disrupt FL operations. Through extensive comparative analysis using real-time datasets, we demonstrate that our FL-based monitoring system significantly outperforms existing methods in prediction accuracy, operational efficiency, system reliability (i.e., mean time between failures or MTBF), and social welfare maximization by the mechanism designer. Our findings validate the superiority of our system for effective and sustainable animal health monitoring in smart farms. The experimental results show that SusFL significantly improves system performance, including a $10\%$ reduction in energy consumption, a $15\%$ increase in social welfare, and a $34\%$ rise in Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF), alongside a marginal increase in the global model's prediction accuracy

Initial serum sodium concentration determines the decrease in sodium level after terlipressin administration in patients with liver cirrhosis

BACKGROUND: Terlipressin, as a prodrug of vasopressin, has agonistic effects on the V1 receptor and partial agonistic effects on renal vasopressin V2 receptors. However, its effects on serum sodium concentration are controversial. METHODS: This study retrospectively investigated 127 patients with liver cirrhosis to examine the incidence and risk factors for the decrease in serum sodium level following terlipressin administration. RESULTS: Terlipressin was prescribed for bleeding control (99) and management of hepatorenal syndrome (28). Serum sodium level decreased from 134.0 ± 6.5 mmol/L to 130.4 ± 6.2 mmol/L during or after terlipressin treatment (P < 0.001) in all patients. In 45 patients (35.4%), the serum sodium concentration decreased by > 5 mmol/L, in 29 patients (22.8%); by 5–10 mmol/L; and in 16 patients (12.6%), by > 10 mmol/L. Five patients in the latter group showed neurological manifestations. In the univariate analysis, several factors including age, purpose of use, serum creatinine, and Model for End-Stage Liver Disease score, representing liver function, were significantly associated with the decrease in serum sodium after terlipressin administration. However, a multivariate analysis revealed that only initial sodium level was the most powerful predictor of terlipressin-induced reduction in serum sodium. CONCLUSION: An acute reduction in serum sodium concentration was not uncommon during terlipressin treatment, and the baseline serum sodium level was closely related to the reduction in serum sodium concentration

Toxicological Study on MUNOPHIL, Water Extract of Panax ginseng and Hericium erinaceum in Rats

AbstractObjectiveAs data on the safety profile of Panax ginseng and Hericium erinaceum is lacking, the safety of these two compounds was examined in a series of toxicological studies.Materials and MethodsMUNOPHIL, the water extract mixture of Panax ginseng and Hericium erinaceum was tested in an oral subchronic 28-day toxicity study in rats at doses of 1250, 2500 and 5000 mg/kg/day.ResultsIn repeated dose toxicity studies, no mortality was observed when varying doses of the extracts were administered once daily for a period of 28 days. There were no significant differences in body weight, absolute and relative organ weights between controls and treated rats of both sexes. Hematological analysis showed no differences in most parameters examined. In the biochemistry parameter analysis, no significant change occurred. Pathologically, neither gross abnormalities nor his-topathological changes were observed. Therefore, MUNOPHIL appears to be safe and non-toxic in these studies and a no-observed adverse effect level in rats was established at 5000 mg/kg/day.ConclusionThe data could provide satisfactory preclinical evidence of safety to launch clinical trials on standardized formulation of plant extracts

Robust Chemiresistive Behavior in Conductive Polymer/MOF Composites

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are promising materials for gas sensing but are often limited to single-use detection. We demonstrate a hybridization strategy synergistically deploying conductive MOFs (cMOFs) and conductive polymers (cPs) as two complementary mixed ionic-electronic conductors in high-performing stand-alone chemiresistors. Our work presents significant improvement in i) sensor recovery kinetics, ii) cycling stability, and iii) dynamic range at room temperature. We demonstrate the effect of hybridization across well-studied cMOFs based on 2,3,6,7,10,11-hexahydroxytriphenylene (HHTP) and 2,3,6,7,10,11-hexaiminotripphenylene (HITP) ligands with varied metal nodes (Co, Cu, Ni). We conduct a comprehensive mechanistic study to relate energy band alignments at the heterojunctions between the MOFs and the polymer with sensing thermodynamics and binding kinetics. Our findings reveal that hole enrichment of the cMOF component upon hybridization leads to selective enhancement in desorption kinetics, enabling significantly improved sensor recovery at room temperature, and thus long-term response retention. This mechanism was further supported by density functional theory calculations on sorbate-analyte interactions. We also find that alloying cPs and cMOFs enables facile thin film co-processing and device integration, potentially unlocking the use of these hybrid conductors in diverse electronic applications

Inappropriate antidiuretic hormone syndrome presenting as ectopic antidiuretic hormone-secreting gastric adenocarcinoma: a case report

INTRODUCTION: Although the syndrome of inappropriate antidiuretic hormone has connection with various malignant tumors, there are few reports associated with advanced gastric cancer. CASE PRESENTATION: We describe the case of a 63-year-old Korean male with inappropriate antidiuretic hormone syndrome due to an ectopic antidiuretic hormone-producing advanced gastric adenocarcinoma manifested with overt serum hypo-osmolar hyponatremia and high urinary sodium concentrations. His adrenal, thyroidal, and renal functioning were normal, and the hyponatremia improved following removal of the tumor. The cancer cells were immunostained and found to be positive for the antidiuretic hormone. To our knowledge, this is the first report of an antidiuretic hormone-secreting advanced gastric adenocarcinoma associated with the syndrome of inappropriate antidiuretic hormone, showing cancer cells immunostained for the antidiuretic hormone. CONCLUSIONS: Although a strong relationship between gastric cancer and the syndrome of inappropriate antidiuretic hormone remains to be established, we suggest that gastric cancer could be included as a differential diagnosis of cancer that is associated with the syndrome of antidiuretic hormone

Variables affecting new drug prices in South Korea’s pricing system

Objective: The price of pharmaceuticals is important from the economic and industrial perspectives but as well as patients’ access to treatment. This study aimed to analyze the variables affecting the prices of new drugs in South Korea’s pricing system.Methods: Data on 192 new drugs listed in South Korea from 2012 to 2022 were collected from the official website of the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service. The independent variables included drugs for severe diseases, alternatives, number of patients, number of advanced 7 countries listed, budget impact, and listing period. The dependent variables included annual treatment cost and the price ratio to the advanced 7 country’s average adjusted price. Descriptive statistics of variables, linear correlations between quantitative independent and dependent variables, and associations between independent and dependent variables were analyzed.Results: The mean annual treatment cost and price ratio to the advanced 7 country’s average adjusted price were higher for drugs for severe diseases and those with no alternatives. Annual treatment cost and price ratio to the advanced 7 country’s average adjusted price were negatively correlated with the number of patients and positively correlated with the number of advanced 7 countries listed. Annual treatment cost was affected by the variables drugs for severe diseases, alternatives, number of patients, number of advanced 7 countries listed, and budget impact. The price ratio to the advanced 7 country’s average adjusted price was affected by drugs for severe diseases, alternatives, and the number of patients.Conclusion: This study revealed the effect of different variables on the prices of new drugs in South Korea, allowing for the development of a more effective assessment system to evaluate the prices of new drugs while ensuring profitability for pharmaceutical companies, sustainability of public insurance, and accessibility to drugs by patients