Bradycardia Following Oral Corticosteroid Use: Case Report and Literature Review

Introduction: Corticosteroids are used in various clinical conditions that include many immune-mediated inflammatory diseases. Different side effects were described including cardiac arrhythmias. Most of those arrhythmias were in the form of bradycardia which usually occurs with high intravenous steroid doses. More significant arrhythmias and cardiac arrest were also described. In this report we describe a case of bradycardia that developed after the use of oral corticosteroids.Case report: We report a case of bradycardia that developed in a 14 year-old male after receiving oral prednisone. The patient had steroid- sensitive nephrotic syndrome and presented with anasarca that started to develop few days prior to hospitalization. He had no underlying heart disease. Vitals was normal. Investigations confirmed a new nephrotic relapse. Oral prednisone 80 mg / day divided into three doses was started. Albumin infusions were initially given with intravenous furosemide to control the edema. Seven days after hospitalization, he developed bradycardia with a pulse rate of 50-60 per minute, which was less than 50% of the baseline heart rate. He didn’t develop significant symptoms and he had no other apparent corticosteroids side effects. Cardiac evaluation and echocardiography were normal. Electrocardiogram revealed only sinus bradycardia.The bradycardia recovered after decreasing the dose of steroids to 60 mg PO every other day and he was discharged in stable condition a few days later.Conclusion: Cardiac arrhythmias may develop with all forms of steroids including oral prednisone. Bradyarrhythmias can occur even with standard doses of oral prednisone

Social identity loss and reverse culture shock: Experiences of international students in China during the COVID-19 pandemic

The results revealed that students who remained in China experienced challenges which included anxiety, closure of campuses, lockdown, their parents’ concern regarding health issues, and not being able to meet with friends. On the other hand, students who had left China during the pandemic were confined to their home countries. This group of students experienced more severe problems than the students who remained in China. Since the transition to home countries was “unplanned,” they were not ready to readjust to their native culture and were vulnerable to severe reverse culture shock. Upon returning to their home countries, international students faced a number of challenges, including readjustment to their home countries and changes in their lives in host and home countries. In addition, they lost social and academic resources, such as the disruption of study environment, losing important group memberships, financial constraints, visa expiry, graduation delay, and academic suspension

Microalgae production in fresh market wastewater and its utilization as a protein substitute in formulated fish feed for oreochromis spp.

Rapid growing of human population has led to increasing demand of aquaculture production. Oreochromis niloticus or known as tilapia is one of the most globally cultured freshwater fish due to its great adaptation towards extreme environment. Besides, farming of tilapia not only involves small scales farming for local consumption but also larger scales for international market which contributes to a foreign currency earning. Extensive use of fishmeal as feed for fish and for other animals indirectly caused an increasing depletion of the natural resource and may consequently cause economic and environmental unstable. Microalgae biomass seems to be a promising feedstock in aquaculture industry. It can be used for many purposes such as live food for fish larvae and dried microalgae to substitute protein material in fish feed. The microalgae replacement in fish feed formulation as protein alternative seem potentially beneficial for long term aqua-business sustainability. The present chapter discussed the potential of microalgae as an alternative nutrition in fish feed formulations, specifically Tilapia

A novel approach for vibration analysis of fractional viscoelastic beams with attached masses and base excitation

The Galerkin method is widely applied for finding approximate solutions to vibration problems of beam and plate structures and for estimating their dynamic behavior. Most studies employ the Galerkin method in the analysis of the undamped systems, or for simple structure models with viscous damping. In this paper, a novel approach of using the Galerkin method and Fourier transform to find the solution to the problem of vibration of fractionally damped beams with an arbitrary number of attached concentrated masses and base excitation is presented. The considered approach is novel and it lends itself to determination of the impulse response of the beam and leads to the solution of the system of coupled fractional order differential equations. The proposed approximate solution is validated against the exact solution for a special case with only one tip mass attached, as well as against the Finite Element Method Solution for a special case with classical viscous damping model. Numerical analysis is also given, including the examples of vibration analysis of viscoelastic beams with different fractional derivative orders, retardation times, and the number, weight and position of the attached masses

Evaluasi Tiga Jenis Padang Penggembalaan di Unit Pendidikan Penelitian Peternakan Jonggol (UP3J), Kabupaten Bogor

Tujuan penelitian ini untuk mengevaluasi dan mengetahui potensi pengembangan tiga jenis padang penggembalaan yang berbeda di UP3J. Penelitian ini dilaksanakan pada bulan April tahun 2014 bertempat di Padang Penggembalaan UP3J Jonggol, Bogor. Adapun tiga padang penggembalaan yang dievaluasi yaitu padang penggembalaan intensif, padang penggembalaan terintegrasi dengan Indigofera sp. dan padang penggembalaan recovery. Pengambilan sampel menggunakan metode random sampling, komposisi botani dihitung dengan metode dry weigh rank serta kapasitas tampung dihitung dengan metode Nell dan Rolinson. Peubah yang diamati adalah skor kondisi pastura (SKP), kapasitas tampung dan komposisi botani. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan padang penggembalaan intensif memiliki nilai SKP yang paling tinggi, sehingga padang penggembalaan tersebut sudah siap untuk menampung ternak ruminansia. Telah terjadi invasi leguminosa pada padang penggembalaan monokultur di UP3J sebesar 0,72-9,08%. Kapasitas tampung padang penggembalaan di UP3J sebesar 1,07 ST/ha

Prevalence of amyloid deposition in long standing rheumatoid arthritis in Iranian patients by abdominal subcutaneous fat biopsy and assessment of clinical and laboratory characteristics

BACKGROUND: The study was aimed at determining the prevalence of secondary amyloidosis in a group of Iranian patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), and the assessment of its correlation with the clinical and laboratory findings and data. METHOD: A total number of 220 patients (167 female and 53 male) with a minimum five-year history of RA were selected. Congo red staining method was used for staining the specimens obtained by abdominal subcutaneous fat biopsy (ASFB) method. All of the specimens were examined for apple-green birefringence under polarized light microscope. Clinical and laboratory characteristics of the patients were assessed. Chi-square test and unpaired student's t-test were run for intergroup comparisons. RESULTS: Amyloid deposition test yielded positive results in 15 out of the 220 cases (6.8%) examined by the ASFB technique. Thirteen patients were found to have minimal amyloid deposits. Of all the clinically significant cases, 8 (53%) presented with proteinuria, and 7 cases (46.6%) had severe constipation. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of fat amyloid deposits in Iranian patients with RA is low. In up to half of the study group the deposits were subclinical. Follow up studies are required to determine whether this subclinical amyloidosis can develop into full-blown clinically significant amyloidosis

Protein–protein HADDocking using exclusively pseudocontact shifts

In order to enhance the structure determination process of macromolecular assemblies by NMR, we have implemented long-range pseudocontact shift (PCS) restraints into the data-driven protein docking package HADDOCK. We demonstrate the efficiency of the method on a synthetic, yet realistic case based on the lanthanide-labeled N-terminal ε domain of the E. coli DNA polymerase III (ε186) in complex with the HOT domain. Docking from the bound form of the two partners is swiftly executed (interface RMSDs < 1 Å) even with addition of very large amount of noise, while the conformational changes of the free form still present some challenges (interface RMSDs in a 3.1–3.9 Å range for the ten lowest energy complexes). Finally, using exclusively PCS as experimental information, we determine the structure of ε186 in complex with the HOT-homologue θ subunit of the E. coli DNA polymerase III

Application of filament winding technology in composite pressure vessels and challenges : A review

The filament winding (FW) technology is one of the emerging manufacturing practices with a high degree of excellence and automation that has revolutionized gas storage and transportation doctrine. Various pressure vessels have evolved in the last few decades, from metal to fiber-reinforced tanks, primarily for weight savings and high-pressure ratings; advantageously, Type 4 composite pressure vessels (CPVs) can affect fuel gas tanks' weight savings to 75% compared to metallic vessels. As a result, composite pipelines and CPV manufacturing through FW technology have proliferated. Though many design and manufacturing challenges are associated with various process factors involved in winding technology, careful considerations are needed to create a reliable product. Therefore, it is essential to comprehend the various process parameters, their combined effects, and the associated challenges while designing and fabricating filament-wound structures. This article reviews the FW technique's utility, its evolution, various process parameters, and the CPVs as an emerging contender for high-pressure gas and cryo fluid storage. In addition, different optimization techniques, numerical analysis strategies, and challenges are summarized with related disputes and suggestions