Drug Hepatotoxicity: Environmental Factors

Drug-induced liver injury presents as various forms of acute and chronic liver disease. There is wide geographic variation in the most commonly implicated agents. Smoking can induce cytochrome P450 enzymes but this does not necessarily translate into clinically relevant drug-induced liver injury. Excessive alcohol consumption is a clear risk factor for intrinsic hepatotoxicity from acetaminophen and may predispose to injury from antituberculosis medications. Understanding of the role of infection, proinflammatory states, disorders of coagulation, and the hepatic clock in predisposing patients to drug-induced liver injury is evolving. More study focusing specifically on environmental risk factors predisposing patients to drug-induced liver injury is needed

Effect of ultrasonication on selected enzymes from Neurospora crassa mycelia

Effect of ultrasonication on selected enzymes from Neurospora crassa myceli

Germination and enzyme activities by the aging of Neurospora conidia in water

Effect of storage in water on germination and enzyme activitie

Migrating to Cloud-Native Architectures Using Microservices: An Experience Report

Migration to the cloud has been a popular topic in industry and academia in recent years. Despite many benefits that the cloud presents, such as high availability and scalability, most of the on-premise application architectures are not ready to fully exploit the benefits of this environment, and adapting them to this environment is a non-trivial task. Microservices have appeared recently as novel architectural styles that are native to the cloud. These cloud-native architectures can facilitate migrating on-premise architectures to fully benefit from the cloud environments because non-functional attributes, like scalability, are inherent in this style. The existing approaches on cloud migration does not mostly consider cloud-native architectures as their first-class citizens. As a result, the final product may not meet its primary drivers for migration. In this paper, we intend to report our experience and lessons learned in an ongoing project on migrating a monolithic on-premise software architecture to microservices. We concluded that microservices is not a one-fit-all solution as it introduces new complexities to the system, and many factors, such as distribution complexities, should be considered before adopting this style. However, if adopted in a context that needs high flexibility in terms of scalability and availability, it can deliver its promised benefits

Prenatal exposure to methadone or buprenorphine: Early childhood developmental outcomes.

BACKGROUND: Methadone and buprenorphine are recommended to treat opioid use disorders during pregnancy. However, the literature on the relationship between longer-term effects of prenatal exposure to these medications and childhood development is both spare and inconsistent. METHODS: Participants were 96 children and their mothers who participated in MOTHER, a randomized controlled trial of opioid-agonist pharmacotherapy during pregnancy. The present study examined child growth parameters, cognition, language abilities, sensory processing, and temperament from 0 to 36 months of the child\u27s life. Maternal perceptions of parenting stress, home environment, and addiction severity were also examined. RESULTS: Tests of mean differences between children prenatally exposed to methadone vs. buprenorphine over the three-year period yielded 2/37 significant findings for children. Similarly, tests of mean differences between children treated for NAS relative to those not treated for NAS yielded 1/37 significant finding. Changes over time occurred for 27/37 child outcomes including expected child increases in weight, head and height, and overall gains in cognitive development, language abilities, sensory processing, and temperament. For mothers, significant changes over time in parenting stress (9/17 scales) suggested increasing difficulties with their children, notably seen in increasing parenting stress, but also an increasingly enriched home environment (4/7 scales). CONCLUSIONS: Findings strongly suggest no deleterious effects of buprenorphine relative to methadone or of treatment for NAS severity relative to not-treated for NAS on growth, cognitive development, language abilities, sensory processing, and temperament. Moreover, findings suggest that prenatal opioid agonist exposure is not deleterious to normal physical and mental development

IMPACT ASSESSMENT IN REHABILITATION OF TORTURE SURVIVORS – a long-term research strategy based on a global multi-centre study design. Part I: Theoretical considerations

Accumulated evidence that torture and other related human rights violation produces health-related consequences that require health professional assistance, has been the point of departure for the development of a global association of rehabilitation centres specialised in rehabilitation of torture survivors. The work field of torture is therefore a work field with an applied clinical practice rooted in a health professional paradigm recognising, though, the importance and influence of the socio-political and legal dimension of torture as a trauma and in service provision. In spite of a long history of rehabilitation of torture survivors, very few questions within service provision are answered. The implications of this shortcoming of knowledge are: 1) that effectiveness information on rehabilitation of torture survivors is not available, and 2) that no clear and scientifically valid recommendations on the organisation and functioning of rehabilitation services, and the intervention they offer in different socio-cultural contexts can be put forward. Given the uniqueness of torture as a trauma, the complexity of the health-related consequences with numerous contributing and modifying factors and the diversity of provided rehabilitation services to torture survivors, outcome research in this area is complex. The scientific approach implicates a series of methodological challenges and the use of combined research methodologies applied in several steps in order to ensure validity of the results. Research qualified of producing such knowledge will demand a shift from the traditional discipline-centred mode of knowledge production towards a broader conception of knowledge production, where knowledge is generated in the context of application and addresses problems identified through continual dialogue between actors from a variety of settings. The present article is a presentation of a long-term research strategy – The Impact Assessment Study – based on a global multi-centre study design and comprising 5 phases. The strategy has been developed with the aim of conducting a systematic »mapping« of the work field of torture, and the clinical practice applied in multidisciplinary rehabilitation of torture survivors. The main objective of the overall study is to assess if, how and to what extend rehabilitation at specialized centres provided in different socio-cultural contexts improves the well-being of torture survivors, and based on the achieved knowledge to establish empirically founded »best practice guidelines« for the future clinical work. Point of departure in the article will be an introduction to some of the theoretical considerations behind the research strategy, focusing on outcome assessment from a health professional perspective – what are we to measure? – and the nature of the existing knowledge-base within rehabilitation of torture survivors – the scientific state of the art

Suborbital Payload Testing Aboard Level 3 Rocket Research Platform

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) has launched several suborbital scientific payloads aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard in 2017 and 2019. Students continue gaining hands-on experience in rocket design and construction, and payload integration and testing of future and more mature payloads to be launched into space. A Level 3 Rocket is being designed and developed at ERAU to serve as a scaled-down model research platform for launching and testing of payloads that will be later flown in commercial suborbital platforms such as Blue Origin’s New Shepard and PLD space Miura 1 rockets. Computer simulations were conducted to calculate the key parameters such as flight trajectory profiles, stability and flight velocities for different rocket motors configurations. A preliminary design of the rocket was developed using Computer-Aided Design (CAD) software. The rocket will accommodate multiple payloads (Cubesats, NanoLabs, TubeSats) designed and developed in the Payload Applied, Technology and Operations (PATO) laboratory. The rocket will be primarily constructed of carbon fiber composite as it has a high strength to weight ratio. These simulations are used to select a suitable motor for the rocket according to the flight requirements and landing restrictions. This prospective Level 3 Rocket is referred to as Suborbital Technology Experimental Vehicle for Exploration (STEVE). Rocket procedures and results from the design, simulation, construction and assembly will be presented