Prevalence and awareness of lower urinary tract symptoms among males in the Outpatient Clinics of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre.

This study aims to determine the prevalence of lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) and level of awareness among male outpatients in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre (UKMMC). A questionnaire consisting of demographic data, questions related to knowledge, attitude and practice on BPH and the International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS) was used for this study. Uroflowmetry and bladder scan were used to evaluate the function of the urinary tract and severity of BPH. Urine dipstick was done for glycosuria, proteinuria and haematuria. A total of 220 respondents were surveyed. The prevalence of moderately and severely symptomatic LUTS was 42.7%. The most commonly reported LUTS were nocturia (78.2%), frequency (58.2%) and incomplete emptying (44.6%). The prevalence of glycosuria, proteinuria and haematuria were 23.6%, 11.4% and 1.8% respectively. There was a significant association between increasing age with the severity of LUTS (p=0.005). Out of 102 respondents with voided urine volume greater than 150 mL, there was a significant decrease in maximum (Qmax) (p=0.039) and average (Qave) urine flow rates with every 10 years increase of age (p=0.001). The majority of respondents (59.5%) have heard of BPH before. Over 78.2% of the respondents would seek medical attention if they have LUTS with 15.9% saying they would seek traditional treatment. In conclusion, the prevalence of LUTS was high and the level of awareness was satisfactory

Lost therapeutic potential of monocyte-derived dendritic cells through lost tissue homing: Stable restoration of gut specificity with retinoic acid

© 2013 The Authors. Published by Wiley. This is an open access article available under a Creative Commons licence. The published version can be accessed at the following link on the publisher’s website: https://doi.org/10.1111/cei.12118Summary: Human monocyte-derived dendritic cells (DC) (MoDC) are utilized for immunotherapy. However, in-vitro immunological effects are often not mirrored in vivo. We studied the tissue-homing potential of MoDC. Circulating monocytes and DC expressed different tissue-homing markers and, during in-vitro development of MoDC, homing marker expression was lost resulting in a 'homeless' phenotype. Retinoic acid (RA) induced gut-homing markers (β7 and CCR9) and a regulatory phenotype and function [decreased human leucocyte antigen D-related (HLA-DR) and increased ILT3 and fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC-dextran uptake) in MoDC]. RA-MoDC were less stimulatory and primed conditioned T cells with a gut-homing profile (β7+CLA-). Unlike the normal intestinal microenvironment, that from inflamed colon of ulcerative colitis (UC) patients did not induce regulatory properties in MoDC. However, RA-MoDC maintained their regulatory gut-specific properties even in the presence of UC microenvironment. Therefore, MoDC may be ineffectual for immunotherapy because they lack tissue-homing and tissue-imprinting specificity. However, MoDC rehabilitation with gut-homing potential by RA could be useful in promoting immunotherapy in pathologies such as UC. © 2013 The Authors. Clinical and Experimental Immunology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British. Society for Immunology.This work was supported by Marie Curie Intra European Fellowship (FP7‐people‐IEF‐2008‐235993), St Mark's Hospital Foundation the Brigid Balfour Fund and the BBSRC (WMNI P33458).Published versio

A direct method to obtain a realization of a polynomial matrix and its applications

[EN] In this paper we present a Silverman-Ho algorithm-based method to obtain a realization of a polynomial matrix. This method provides the final formulation of a minimal realization directly from a full rank factorization of a specific given matrix. Also, some classical problems in control theory such as model reduction in singular systems or the positive realization problem in standard systems are solved with this method.Work supported by the Spanish DGI grant MTM2017-85669-P-AR.Cantó Colomina, R.; Moll López, SE.; Ricarte Benedito, B.; Urbano Salvador, AM. (2020). A direct method to obtain a realization of a polynomial matrix and its applications. Revista de la Real Academia de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales Serie A Matemáticas. 114(2):1-15. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13398-020-00819-1S1151142Anderson, B.D.O., Bongpanitlerd, S.: Network Analysis and Synthesis, A Modern Systems Theory Approach. Prentice-Hall Inc., New Jersey (1968)Benvenuti, L., Farina, L.: A tutorial on the positive realization problem. IEEE Trans. Autom. Control 49(5), 651–664 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1109/TAC.2004.826715Bru, R., Coll, C., Sánchez, E.: Structural properties of positive linear time-invariant difference-algebraic equations. Linear Algebra Appl. 349, 1–10 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1016/S0024-3795(02)00277-XCantó, R., Ricarte, B., Urbano, A.M.: Positive realizations of transfer matrices with real poles. IEEE Trans. Circuits Syst. II Expr. Br. 54(6), 517–521 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1109/TCSII.2007.894408Cantó, R., Ricarte, B., Urbano, A.M.: On positivity of discrete-time singular systems and the realization problem. Lect. Notes Control Inf. Sci. 389, 251–258 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-02894-6_24Climent, J., Napp, D., Requena, V.: Block Toeplitz matrices for burst-correcting convolutional codes. RACSAM 114, 38 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13398-019-00744-yDai, L.: Singular Control Systems. Lecture Notes in Control and Information Sciences. Springer-Verlag, New York (1989)Golub, G.H., Van Loan, C.F.: Matrix Computations, Fourth edn. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore (2013)Henrion, D., Šebek, M.: Polynomial and matrix fraction description. In: Control Systems, Robotics and Automation, vol. 7, pp. 211-231, (2009). http://www.eolss.net/Sample-Chapters/C18/E6-43-13-05.pdfHo, B.L., Kalman, R.E.: Effective construction of linear state-variable models from mput/output functions. Regelungstechnik 14(12), 545–548 (1966)Kaczorek, T.: Weakly positive continuous-time linear systems. Lect. Notes Control Inf. Sci. 243, 3–16 (1999)Kaczorek, T.: Positive 1D and 2D Systems, vol. 431. Springer, London (2002)Kaczorek, T.: Externally and internally positive singular discrete-time linear systems. Int. J. Appl. Math. Comput. Sci. 12(2), 197–202 (2002)MATLAB, The Math Works, Inc., Natick, Massachusetts, United States. Official website: http://www.mathworks.comMcCrory, C., Parusinski, A.: The weight filtration for real algebraic varieties II: classical homology. RACSAM 108, 63–94 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13398-012-0098-ySilverman, L.: Realization of linear dynamical systems. IEEE Trans. Autom. Control 16(6), 554–567 (1971)Virnik, E.: Stability analysis of positive descriptor systems. Linear Algebra Appl. 429(10), 2640–2659 (2008

Analyses of the mechanical, electrical and electromagnetic shielding properties of thermoplastic composites doped with conductive nanofillers

The purpose of this study is to observe effect of incorporating vapor-grown carbon nanofibers with various amounts in polyvinylidene fluoride matrix in terms of mechanical strength and electromagnetic shielding effectiveness. Thermoplastic conductive nanocomposites were prepared by heat-pressed compression molding. Vapor-grown carbon nanofibers were utilized at various weight ratios (1 wt.%, 3 wt.%, 5 wt.%, and 8 wt.%) as conductive and reinforcing materials. Polyvinylidene fluoride was used as a thermoplastic polymer matrix. Scanning electron microscopic analysis was conducted in order to characterize the morphology and structural properties of the nanocomposites and results revealed well dispersion of carbon nanofibers within the matrix for all concentrations. Mechanical characteristics were investigated according to standards. Findings proved that overall increments of 16%, 37.5%, and 56% were achieved in terms of tensile strength, elasticity modulus, and impact energy, respectively, where a total reduction of 44.8% was observed in terms of elongation for 8 wt.% vapor-grown nanofiber matrix compared to that of 0 wt.%. Electromagnetic shielding effectiveness's of the nanocomposites were determined by standard protocol using coaxial transmission line measurement technique in the frequency range of 15–3000 MHz. It was observed that resistance, sheet resistance, and resistivity of nanocomposites depicted substantial reduction with the increment in nanofiber content. Nevertheless, it was observed that nanofiber content, dispersion, and network formation within the composites were highly influent on the electromagnetic shielding effectiveness performance of the structures

Thermal inactivation and conformational lock studies on glucose oxidase

In this study, the dissociative thermal inactivation and conformational lock theories are applied for the homodimeric enzyme glucose oxidase (GOD) in order to analyze its structure. For this purpose, the rate of activity reduction of glucose oxidase is studied at various temperatures using b-D-glucose as the substrate by incubation of enzyme at various temperatures in the wide range between 40 and 70 �C using UV–Vis spectrophotometry. It was observed that in the two ranges of temperatures, the enzyme has two different forms. In relatively low temperatures, the enzyme is in its dimeric state and has normal activity. In high temperatures, the activity almost disappears and it aggregates. The above achievements are confirmed by dynamic light scattering. The experimental parameter ‘‘n’’ as the obvious number of conformational locks at the dimer interface of glucose oxidase is obtained by kinetic data, and the value is near to two. To confirm the above results, the X-ray crystallography structure of the enzyme, GOD (pdb, 1gal), was also studied. The secondary and tertiary structures of the enzyme to track the thermal inactivation were studied by circular dichroism and fluorescence spectroscopy, respectively. We proposed a mechanism model for thermal inactivation of GOD based on the absence of the monomeric form of the enzyme by circular dichroism and fluorescence spectroscopy

Smoking among Young Rural to Urban Migrant Women in China: A Cross-Sectional Survey

Rural-to-urban migrant women may be vulnerable to smoking initiation as they are newly exposed to risk factors in the urban environment. We sought to identify correlates of smoking among rural-to-urban migrant women in China.A cross-sectional survey of rural-to-urban migrant women working in restaurants and hotels (RHW) and those working as commercial sex workers (CSW) was conducted in ten provincial capital cities in China. Multiple logistic regression was conducted to identify correlates of smoking. We enrolled 2229 rural-to-urban migrant women (1697 RHWs aged 18–24 years and 532 CSWs aged 18–30 years). Of these, 18.4% RHWs and 58.3% CSWs reported ever tried smoking and 3.2% RHWs and 41.9% CSWs reported current smoking. Participants who first tried smoking after moving to the city were more likely to be current smokers compared to participants who first tried smoking before moving to the city (25.3% vs. 13.8% among RHWs, p = 0.02; 83.6% vs. 58.6% among CSWs, p = <0.01). Adjusting for other factors, “tried female cigarette brands” had the strongest association with current smoking (OR 5.69, 95%CI 3.44 to 9.41) among participants who had ever tried smoking.Exposure to female cigarette brands may increase the susceptibility to smoking among rural-to-urban migrant women. Smoke-free policies and increased taxes may be effective in preventing rural-to-urban migrant women from smoking initiation