Estimating poisoning substance amounts: Comparative study of the accuracy of health care professionals and non-practitioners

Objective. Intentional or unintentional substance intoxications are common in patients presenting to the Emergency Department (ED). When we treat intoxicated patients, it is important to know the amount of drug ingestion. We invested the actual amount of semi-quantitative term expressed by patients, and investigated the accuracy of amount estimates by the public and healthcare professionals. Participants and interventions. 200 volunteers (86 health care providers and 114 non-practitioners) participated. Participants grabbed the 3 types of tablets (5mm, 10mm, and 15mm) in handfuls and fistfuls and estimated the tablet amounts. Actual amounts were measured. 100 volunteers (58 health care providers and 41 non-practitioners) participated in the investigation of accuracy of liquid amount estimation. Participant ingested water in 2.6 cm diameter bottle in response to request to take 1 sip, 1 mouthful, and 3 sips. Results. The estimated tablet counts became more accurate in terms of both fistfuls and handfuls as the size increased within the same shape classification. Participants tended to underestimate the counts of oval-shaped tablets to a greater extent than round tablets of the same size. The estimated liquids both groups of participants tended to underestimate the amounts but both groups overestimated the volumes when drinking 3 continuous sips. In tablets and liquids, there were no statistically significant differences in accuracy between the groups. Conclusions. When approaching intoxicated patients who have visited emergency department (ED), treatment should be implemented based on the assumption that the actual ingested amounts are higher than the amounts estimated by patients

Taurine reduces ER stress in C. elegans

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>ER stress is a strong indicator of whether or not a cell is undergoing physiological stress. C. elegans is a practical system of characterizing the effect of ER stress at the <it>in vivo</it> or organismal level.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This study characterized taurine’s anti-ER stress potential employing western blotting on ER stress markers and assays of motility, lifespan comparison, and fecundity measurement.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>When treated with tunicamycin, C. elegans showed the typical ER stress symptoms. It showed a higher expression of hsp-70 and skn-1 than the non-treated control. Survivorship significantly decreased under tunicamycin treatment, and the offspring number also decreased. During the synchronized culture under ER stress conditions, the C. elegans showed early signs of aging especially between L3 and L4 within their life span, along with lowered motility. The worms, however, showed a positive response to the taurine treatment under ER stress conditions.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>When C. elegans were treated with taurine before or after the tunicamycin treatment, they showed a less severe level of ER stress, including an enhanced survivorship, increased motility, and augmented fecundity. Taken together, these results strongly indicate that taurine works positively to cope with ER stress from the organismal perspective.</p

A Dicationic Calix 4 Pyrrole Derivative and Its Use for the Selective Recognition and Displacement-Based Sensing of Pyrophosphate

A new bis-pyridinium calix[4] pyrrole derivative is reported. This system forms a non-fluorescent complex upon exposure to the chromenolate anion. The resulting supramolecular ensemble binds the pyrophosphate anion with high affinity (K-a (2.55 +/- 0.12) x 10(7) M-1) in acetonitrile. It exhibits sensitive "turn-on" fluorescence when exposed to tetrabutylammonium pyrophosphate, and does so in preference to other anions, including the fluoride and phosphate anions.NRF 2009-0087013BK21 programNational Science Foundation NSF CHE-1057904Chemistr

Future development strategies for KODISA journals: overview of 2016 and strategic plans for the future

Purpose – With the rise of the fourth industrial revolution, it has converged with the existing industrial revolution to give shape to increased accessibility of knowledge and information. As a result, it has become easier for scholars to actively pursue and compile research in various fields. This current study aims to focus and assess the current standing of KODISA: the Journal of Distribution Science (JDS), International Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business (IJIDB), the East Asian Journal of Business Management (EAJBM), the Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business (JAFEB) in a rapidly evolving era. Novel strategies for creating the future vision of KODISA 2020 will also be examined. Research design, data, and methodology – The current research will analyze published journals of KODISA in order to offer a vision for the KODISA 2020 future. In part 1, this paper will observe the current address of the KODISA journal and its overview of past achievements. Next, part 2 will discuss the activities that will be needed for journals of KODISA, JDS, IJIDB, EAJBM, JAFEB to branch out internationally and significant journals will be statistically analyzed in part 3. The last part 4 will offer strategies for the continued growth of KODISA and visions for KODISA 2020. Results – Among the KODISA publications, IJIDB was second, JDS was 23rd (in economic publications of 54 journals), and EAJBM was 22nd (out of 79 publications in management field journals). This shows the high quality of the KODISA publication journals. According to 2016 publication analysis, JDS, IJIDB, etc. each had 157 publications, 15 publications, 16 publications, and 28 publications. In the case of JDS, it showed an increase of 14% compared to last year. Additionally, JAFEB showed a significant increase of 68%. This shows that compared to other journals, it had a higher rate of paper submission. IJIDB and EAJBM did not show any significant increases. In JDS, it showed many studies related to the distribution, management of distribution, and consumer behavior. In order to increase the status of the KODISA journal to a SCI status, many more international conferences will open to increase its international recognition levels. Second, the systematic functions of the journal will be developed further to increase its stability. Third, future graduate schools will open to foster future potential leaders in this field and build a platform for innovators and leaders. Conclusions – In KODISA, JDS was first published in 1999, and has been registered in SCOPUS February 2017. Other sister publications within the KODISA are preparing for SCOPUS registration as well. KODISA journals will prepare to be an innovative journal for 2020 and the future beyond

Experimental and theoretical analysis of organic dyes having a double D-π-A configurations for dye-sensitized solar cells

Two spiro-like organic dyes linked at the thiophene bridge (KS-11 and KS-12) together with the original rod-shaped D-π-A configuration (C1) were designed, synthesized, and characterized based on their electronic structure, and determine the photophysical and photovoltaic properties for its application in dye-sensitized solar cells. Compared to C1, the double D-π-A spiro-like configuration, which consists of two separated light-harvesting moieties, was found to be beneficial to photocurrent generation provided that they are separated properly to prevent intramolecular exciton annihilation. This was observed when KS-11, which is linked at the β-position of the thiophene moiety of D-π-A, was compared with KS-12, where the two D-π-A are linked with an additional thiophene using a α-β linkage. The results show that KS-12 produced a 20% and 17% increase in photovoltaic efficiency under simulated AM 1.5G solar irradiation compared to KS-11 and C1, respectively. This increase in photovoltaic performance is credited mostly to the reduction of recombination effects and the increase in the density of states at the semiconductor surface due to high dye loading and better charge-transfer properties

Topological Structure of Dense Hadronic Matter

We present a summary of work done on dense hadronic matter, based on the Skyrme model, which provides a unified approach to high density, valid in the large $N_c$ limit. In our picture, dense hadronic matter is described by the {\em classical} soliton configuration with minimum energy for the given baryon number density. By incorporating the meson fluctuations on such ground state we obtain an effective Lagrangian for meson dynamics in a dense medium. Our starting point has been the Skyrme model defined in terms of pions, thereafter we have extended and improved the model by incorporating other degrees of freedom such as dilaton, kaons and vector mesons.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures, Talk given at the KIAS-APCTP Symposium in Astro-Hadron Physics "Compact Stars: Quest for New States of Dense Matter", November 10-14, 2003, Seoul, Korea, published by World Scientific. Based on talk by B.-Y. Par