2,080 research outputs found

    Unanswered questions over NHS health checks

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    Uloga adrenalnih žlijezda u nastanku promjena u metabolizmu ugljikohidrata izazvanih diazinonom u štakora

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    Treatment of rats with diazinon (40 mg/kg, i.p.) resulted in hyper-glycaemia and depletion of glycogen from the brain and peripheral tissues two hours after administration. The activities of glycogen phosphorylase and phosphoglucomutase were significantly higher in the brain and liver; that of glucose-6-phosphatase was not altered. The activities of the glycolytic enzymes hexokinase and lactate dehydrogenase were increased only in the brain. The cholinesterase activity in the brain was reduced by treatment with diazinon. The activities of the hepatic gluconeogenic enzymes fructose I.6-diphosphatase and phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase were significantly increased. The lactate level was increased in the brain and blood, whereas that of pyruvate was not changed. The activity of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase was not changed to any major extent. Cholesterol and ascorbic acid contents of adrenals were depleted in diazinon-treated animals. The changes were pronounced after intraperitoneal administration of 40 mg/kg diazinon, they were slight but significant after 20 mg/kg, and absent after l0 mg/kg. Hyperglycaemia and changes in carbohydrate metabolism were abolished by adrenalectomy suggesting possible involvement of adrenals.U štakora koji su dobivali diazinon (40 mg/kg) intraperitonealno dva sata nakon pnm1ene utvrđena je hiperglikemija i smanjenje nivoa glikogena u tkivima mozga i živaca. Aktivnosti glikogen fosforilaze i fosfoglukomutaze u mozgu i jetri bile su značajno više, dok se aktivnost glukoza-6-fosfataze nije promijenila. Glikolitski enzimi heksokinaza i laktat dehidrogenaza imali su povišenu aktivnost samo u mozgu. Tretman diazinonom doveo je do smanjene aktivnosti kolinesteraze u mozgu. Aktivnosti glukoneogenih enzima jetre fruktoza 1,6-difosfataze i fosfoenolpiruvatne karboksikinaze značajno su porasle. Nivo laktata bio je povišen u mozgu i krvi, dok je koncentracija piruvata ostala nepromijenjena. Aktivnost glukoza-6-fosfatne dehidrogenaze nije se bitno promijenila. Sadržaj kolesterola i askorbinske kiseline u nadbubrežnim žlijezdama bioje niži u životinja koje su primale diazinon, Promjene su bile najizraženije nakon doze od 40 mg kg diazinona, male ali značajne nakon doze od 20 mg/kg, a nije ih bilo nakon doze od 10 mg/kg. Hiperglikemija i promjene u metabolizmu ugljikohidrata bile su spriječene adrenalektomijom što ukazuje na moguću ulogu nadbubrežnih žlijezda u biokemijskim promjenama izazvanima diazinonom

    A New Learning Theory-based Framework for Combining Flow State with Game Elements to Promote Engagement and Learning in Serious Games

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    Serious games (SGs) are seen as a clear aid and a potential technique for motivating learners to engage in active and beneficial learning. The creation of SGs is a difficult task. Learning theory, learning aspects (pedagogy and learning materials), and game design are three cross-disciplinary issues related to successful SG design. Numerous studies have looked at this matter and provided guidelines and frameworks for resolving important research concerns. We discovered, however, that research hardly ever discusses the roots of learning theory in SGs. Unfortunately, designing proper SGs is still more of an art than a science. The science of SGs has to be developed on a strong theoretical basis. By illustrating how SGs may be understood from several theoretical viewpoints in learning theory and going through a number of core game design elements that are necessary for successful learning, this paper makes an attempt to solve this issue. Then, in order to encourage engagement and learning in SG contexts, we provide a new framework for the design and development of SG models that makes it easier to combine flow state with such game elements. The agile software process model serves as the basis for the development process in our system. The Unified Modeling Language was used to model prototypes and diagrams. A case study entitled One day without the use of computer-based intervention technologies was used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed framework

    Increasing physical activity in older adults using STARFISH, an interactive smartphone application (app); a pilot study

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    Background:Increasing physical activity in older adults has preventative and therapeutic health benefits. We have developed STARFISH, a smartphone application, to increase physical activity. This paper describes the features of STARFISH, presents the views of older users on the acceptability and usability of the app and reports the results of a six week pilot study of the STARFISH app in older adults. Methods:The operationalisation of the behaviour change techniques (BCTs) within the STARFISH app was mapped against the BCT Taxonomy of Michie et al. Sixteen healthy older adults (eight women and eight men; age 71.1 ± 5.2 years) used the app, in groups of four, for six weeks. Focus groups explored the user experience and objective measure of steps per day recorded. Results:Participants were very positive about using the STARFISH app, in particular the embedded BCTs of self-monitoring, feedback and social support (in the form of group rewards). Objective step data, available for eight participants, showed that step counts increased by an average of 14% (p = 0.077, d = 0.56). Conclusion:The STARFISH app was acceptable and straightforward to use for older adults. STARFISH has potential to increase physical activity in older adults; however, a fully powered randomised controlled trial is required

    Clinicopathologic features predictive of distant metastasis in patients diagnosed with invasive breast cancer

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    Purpose: National Comprehensive Cancer Network and European Society for Medical Oncology guidelines suggest screening for distant metastasis (M1) in symptomatic patients or those with locally advanced breast cancer. These guidelines are based on studies that often used pathologic staging for analysis. Physician variability in screening for M1 has also resulted in overuse of diagnostic tests. We sought to identify clinicopathologic features at diagnosis that could guide testing for metastatic disease.Methods: Patients diagnosed with invasive breast cancer between January 2014 and December 2015 were identified from our institutional database. Demographic and clinical variables were collected, including receptor profiles and clinical TNM staging. Rates of upstaging for each clinical stage and rates of concordance of pathologic and clinical staging were analyzed. Univariate analysis and multivariate regression analysis (P \u3c .05) identified predictors of upstaging to stage IV disease.Results: A total of 370 patients met the inclusion criteria. Seventy patients (18.9%) had metastatic disease at diagnosis. The rate of upstaging for stages I, IIA, IIB, and III were 0%, 5.6%, 18.8%, and 36.6%, respectively. Advancing clinical stage, tumor size, and nodal status resulted in a significantly higher rate (P \u3c .001) of upstaging to M1 disease. Age and hormone receptor status were not associated with upstaging to stage IV disease. Clinical stages I-III were concordant with pathologic staging in 65(42.8%) of 152 patients (kappa\u27s index, 0.197; P \u3c .000).Conclusion: Advancing clinical stage, tumor size, and nodal status at diagnosis were predictive of upstaging to M1 disease in patients with breast cancer. Distant metastatic workup should be considered in patients with clinical stage IIB disease or higher

    Impact of irrigation management on crop water footprint reduction using RZWQM2 in Baghdad, Iraq

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    Water scarcity becomes a serious global challenge in several world regions and particularly in the Middle East. Appropriate irrigation practice is critical for improving crop yield and alleviating crop water footprint (WF). To alleviate water scarcity, the possibility of reducing wheat and barley water footprint has been examined through alternative surface irrigation practices. The WF was compared under farmers’ irrigation practice and experimental irrigation practice to discover the impact of irrigation practices on the reduction of WF in the west of Baghdad. Weather data and crop management information were collected from 2016 to 2020 for the farmer’s fields in the study area as well as for the experimental field. The Root Zone Water Quality Model (RZWQM2) was used for estimating wheat and barley evapotranspiration. The study results showed that the crop WF was well estimated using the RZWQM2 due to the model capability and accuracy for estimating the impact of field management on crop evapotranspiration and crop water use. Experimental irrigation practice could improve crop yield, water use efficiency, and water profitability by up to 28%, 35%, and 35%, respectively; while the WF was reduced by 35%, compared to the farmers’ irrigation practice. The WF of the wheat crop was lower than the barley WF due to the low barley production

    Shape Evasion: Preventing Body Shape Inference of Multi-Stage Approaches

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    Modern approaches to pose and body shape estimation have recently achieved strong performance even under challenging real-world conditions. Even from a single image of a clothed person, a realistic looking body shape can be inferred that captures a users' weight group and body shape type well. This opens up a whole spectrum of applications -- in particular in fashion -- where virtual try-on and recommendation systems can make use of these new and automatized cues. However, a realistic depiction of the undressed body is regarded highly private and therefore might not be consented by most people. Hence, we ask if the automatic extraction of such information can be effectively evaded. While adversarial perturbations have been shown to be effective for manipulating the output of machine learning models -- in particular, end-to-end deep learning approaches -- state of the art shape estimation methods are composed of multiple stages. We perform the first investigation of different strategies that can be used to effectively manipulate the automatic shape estimation while preserving the overall appearance of the original image

    Analytical Solutions for Simulation of Mathematical Modelling of Liposomal Drug Release to Tumor by Adomian Decomposition Method.

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    In this paper,  the  system of partial differential equations of the  thermo sensitive liposome-mediated drug delivery  model is solved analytically by applied the Adomian decomposition method with the appropriate initial and boundary  condition as well. Also, to determine the effectiveness of suggested models, simulated results were in comparison to the corresponding experimental information , and an important agreement was reached . So that a quantitative analysis is finally done by numerical simulation by adopting the values of all typical parameters to clarify the drug concentrations behavior with increasing time in different cases. Keywords: Local drug ; Drug delivery ; cancer stem cells ; Adomian decomposition method ; Different locations

    Hyperglycemia Has a Greater Impact on Left Ventricle Function in South Asians Than in Europeans

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    OBJECTIVE Diabetes is associated with left ventricular (LV) diastolic and systolic dysfunction. South Asians may be at particular risk of developing LV dysfunction owing to a high prevalence of diabetes. We investigated the role of diabetes and hyperglycemia in LV dysfunction in a community-based cohort of older South Asians and white Europeans. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Conventional and Doppler echocardiography was performed in 999 participants (542 Europeans and 457 South Asians aged 58–86 years) in a population-based study. Anthropometry, fasting bloods, coronary artery calcification scoring, blood pressure, and renal function were measured. RESULTS Diabetes and hyperglycemia across the spectrum of HbA1c had a greater adverse effect on LV function in South Asians than Europeans (N-terminal-probrain natriuretic peptide β ± SE 0.09 ± 0.04, P = 0.01, vs. −0.04 ± 0.05, P = 0.4, P for HbA1c/ethnicity interaction 0.02), diastolic function (E/e′ 0.69 ± 0.12, P < 0.0001, vs. 0.09 ± 0.2, P = 0.6, P for interaction 0.005), and systolic function (s′ −0.11 ± 0.06, P = 0.04, vs. 0.14 ± 0.09, P = 0.1, P for interaction 0.2). Multivariable adjustment for hypertension, microvascular disease, LV mass, coronary disease, and dyslipidemia only partially accounted for the ethnic differences. Adverse LV function in diabetic South Asians could not be accounted for by poorer glycemic control or longer diabetes duration. CONCLUSIONS Diabetes and hyperglycemia have a greater adverse effect on LV function in South Asians than Europeans, incompletely explained by adverse risk factors. South Asians may require earlier and more aggressive treatment of their cardiometabolic risk factors to reduce risks of LV dysfunction
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