Adaptation of vulcanized rubber as pessaries for the treatment of uterovaginal prolapse in a resource-poor setting

No Abstract

Survey of wild plant seeds and their value in traditional herbal medicine in Osun State, Nigeria

A gap in knowledge exist on the traditional medicinal use of wild plant seeds in Nigeria. The study involved oral interview of 100 herb sellers (stall owners) in five selected herbal markets in Osun State to elicit vital information on medicinal seeds. Seeds of 58 medicinal plant species belonging to 56 genera and 34 families were identified and documented. These seeds are used in the traditional management of about 28 ailments. The common ailments are fever, cough, skin disease, asthma, dysentery and piles. Seeds from tree species accounted for 23 or (39.7%) of the total list, closely followed by seeds of climbing plants with 13 or (22.4% .The price per kilogram of these medicinal seeds varies between N1, 766.79 for Sarcocephalus latifolius (Sm) Bruce and N6,557.38 for Monodora myristica (Geartn) Dunal, in the markets surveyed. Establishment of medicinal plant gardens by traditional health practitioners is proposed to reduce the mounting pressure on the natural forest ecosystem and ensure the conservation of its rich medicinal plant genetic resources

Murine adenoviruses: tools for studying adenovirus pathogenesis in a natural host

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/153088/1/feb213699.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/153088/2/feb213699_am.pd

Ever-Evolving Memory by Blending and Refining the Past

For a human-like chatbot, constructing a long-term memory is crucial. However, current large language models often lack this capability, leading to instances of missing important user information or redundantly asking for the same information, thereby diminishing conversation quality. To effectively construct memory, it is crucial to seamlessly connect past and present information, while also possessing the ability to forget obstructive information. To address these challenges, we propose CREEM, a novel memory system for long-term conversation. Improving upon existing approaches that construct memory based solely on current sessions, CREEM blends past memories during memory formation. Additionally, we introduce a refining process to handle redundant or outdated information. Unlike traditional paradigms, we view responding and memory construction as inseparable tasks. The blending process, which creates new memories, also serves as a reasoning step for response generation by informing the connection between past and present. Through evaluation, we demonstrate that CREEM enhances both memory and response qualities in multi-session personalized dialogues.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures, 7 table

Open antero-lateral dislocation of the elbow. A case report

BACKGROUND: Open dislocations are infrequent, often associated with damage to the neuro vascular structures. We present an unusual case of an open antero-lateral dislocation of the elbow, which was not associated with any vascular or neural injury. CASE PRESENTATION: A 34 year female dance instructor sustained an open dislocation of her elbow. Surgical exploration was undertaken. No major neurovascular injury was present. There was almost complete disruption of all the muscular and ligamentous attachments to the distal humerus and the proximal radius and ulna, which were not formally repaired during surgery. The elbow was found to be very unstable, and was placed in a back slab. The functional recovery was complete in about six months, the patient regaining full range of elbow movement. Elbow dislocations without associate fractures are adequately treated by manipulation and reduction, in spite of the almost complete disruption of the soft tissues around the joint

Fischer-tropsch synthesis on charcoal-supported molybdenum: The effect of preparation conditions and potassium promotion on activity and selectivity

High dispersion and high activity charcoal-supported molybdenum catalysts were prepared using incipient wetness and equilibrium adsorption methods. Activities and selectivities of these catalysts were tested after reducing the catalysts at 773 K in flowing hydrogen. It was found that all the catalysts, particularly those prepared by the equilibrium adsorption method, showed high activities in Fischer-Tropsch synthesis of C1 to C3 hydrocarbons. Potassium promotion increased the selectivity towards C2 and C3 hydrocarbons while reducing moderately the activity. Without potassium promotion, C2+ selectivities of all the catalysts with metal loading of three weight percent or higher were about 50 +/- 5% under differential reactor conditions. Promotion by potassium increased the C2+ selectivity to as much as 70%. It was found that there was a critical potassium loading at which point the activity decrease levelled off. The method of potassium addition to the catalyst also plays a major role in determining the final activity.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/25875/1/0000438.pd

Two-dimensional non-Hermitian skin effect in an ultracold Fermi gas

The concept of non-Hermiticity has expanded the understanding of band topology leading to the emergence of counter-intuitive phenomena. One example is the non-Hermitian skin effect (NHSE), which involves the concentration of eigenstates at the boundary. However, despite the potential insights that can be gained from high-dimensional non-Hermitian quantum systems in areas like curved space, high-order topological phases, and black holes, the realization of this effect in high dimensions remains unexplored. Here, we create a two-dimensional (2D) non-Hermitian topological band for ultracold fermions in spin-orbit-coupled optical lattices with tunable dissipation, and experimentally examine the spectral topology in the complex eigenenergy plane. We experimentally demonstrate pronounced nonzero spectral winding numbers when the dissipation is added to the system, which establishes the existence of 2D skin effect. We also demonstrate that a pair of exceptional points (EPs) are created in the momentum space, connected by an open-ended bulk Fermi arc, in contrast to closed loops found in Hermitian systems. The associated EPs emerge and shift with increasing dissipation, leading to the formation of the Fermi arc. Our work sets the stage for further investigation into simulating non-Hermitian physics in high dimensions and paves the way for understanding the interplay of quantum statistics with NHSE.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures with supplementary informatio

Futibatinib, an irreversible FGFR1-4 inhibitor, in patients with advanced solid tumors harboring FGF/FGFR aberrations: a phase I dose-expansion study

Futibatinib, a highly selective, irreversible FGFR1-4 inhibitor, was evaluated in a large multihistology phase I dose-expansion trial that enrolled 197 patients with advanced solid tumors. Futibatinib demonstrated an objective response rate (ORR) of 13.7%, with responses in a broad spectrum of tumors (cholangiocarcinoma and gastric, urothelial, central nervous system, head and neck, and breast cancer) bearing both known and previously uncharacterized FGFR1-3 aberrations. The greatest activity was observed in FGFR2 fusion/rearrangement-positive intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ORR, 25.4%). Some patients with acquired resistance to a prior FGFR inhibitor also experienced responses with futibatinib. Futibatinib demonstrated a manageable safety profile. The most common treatment-emergent adverse events were hyperphosphatemia (81.2%), diarrhea (33.5%), and nausea (30.4%). These results formed the basis for ongoing futibatinib phase II/III trials and demonstrate the potential of genomically selected early-phase trials to help identify molecular subsets likely to benefit from targeted therapy