Safety and efficacy of testosterone gel in the treatment of male hypogonadism

Transdermal testosterone gels were first introduced in the US in 2000. Since then, they have emerged as a favorable mode of testosterone substitution. Serum testosterone levels reach a steady-state in the first 24 hours of application and remain in the normal range for the duration of the application. This pharmacokinetic profile is comparable to that of testosterone patch but superior to injectable testosterone esters that are associated with peaks and troughs with each dose. Testosterone gels are as efficacious as patches and injectable forms in their effects on sexual function and mood. Anticipated increases in prostate-specific antigen with testosterone therapy are not significantly different with testosterone gels, and the risk of polycythemia is lower than injectable modalities. Application site reactions, a major drawback of testosterone patches, occur less frequently with testosterone gels. However, inter-personal transfer is a concern if appropriate precautions are not taken. Superior tolerability and dose flexibility make testosterone gel highly desirable over other modalities of testosterone replacement. Androgel and Testim, the two currently available testosterone gel products in the US, have certain brand-specific properties that clinicians may consider prior to prescribing

A Comparative Predicting Stock Prices using Heston and Geometric Brownian Motion Models

This paper presents a novel approach to predicting stock prices using technical analysis. By utilizing Ito's lemma and Euler-Maruyama methods, the researchers develop Heston and Geometric Brownian Motion models that take into account volatility, interest rate, and historical stock prices to generate predictions. The results of the study demonstrate that these models are effective in accurately predicting stock prices and outperform commonly used statistical indicators. The authors conclude that this technical analysis-based method offers a promising solution for stock market prediction

Exploring Practical Measures as an Approach for Measuring Elementary Students’ Attitudes Towards Computer Science

This paper presents a novel approach for predicting the outcomes of elementary students’ participation in computer science (CS) instruction by using exit tickets, a type of practical measure, where students provide rapid feedback on their instructional experiences. Such feedback can help teachers to inform ongoing teaching and instructional practices. We fit a Structural Equation Model to examine whether students\u27 perceptions of enjoyment, ease, and connections between mathematics and CS in an integrated lesson predicted their affective outcomes in self-efficacy, interest, and CS identity, collected in a pre- post- survey. We found that practical measures can validly measure student experiences

Deep learning-based meta-learner strategy for electricity theft detection

Electricity theft damages power grid infrastructure and is also responsible for huge revenue losses for electric utilities. Integrating smart meters in traditional power grids enables real-time monitoring and collection of consumers’ electricity consumption (EC) data. Based on the collected data, it is possible to identify the normal and malicious behavior of consumers by analyzing the data using machine learning (ML) and deep learning methods. This paper proposes a deep learning-based meta-learner model to distinguish between normal and malicious patterns in EC data. The proposed model consists of two stages. In Fold-0, the ML classifiers extract diverse knowledge and learns based on EC data. In Fold-1, a multilayer perceptron is used as a meta-learner, which takes the prediction results of Fold-0 classifiers as input, automatically learns non-linear relationships among them, and extracts hidden complicated features to classify normal and malicious behaviors. Therefore, the proposed model controls the overfitting problem and achieves high accuracy. Moreover, extensive experiments are conducted to compare its performance with boosting, bagging, standalone conventional ML classifiers, and baseline models published in top-tier outlets. The proposed model is evaluated using a real EC dataset, which is provided by the Energy Informatics Group in Pakistan. The model achieves 0.910 ROC-AUC and 0.988 PR-AUC values on the test dataset, which are higher than those of the compared models

NASA Mars Weather Station

The purpose of this project is to design an economical ground based weather station, with the overall goal of using these stations to gather meteorological data on the planet Mars. This data will then be used to create a working meteorological model for the planet, which in turn will be used to better coordinate the necessary resources to plan and carry out a manned mission to Mars. These weather stations will function by taking various meteorological measurements, such as air and ground temperature, wind speed, relative humidity, UV radiation levels, and air pressure, and then transmit this data to one of the Mars orbiters, which will then send the data to Earth. These measurements are to be taken every 100 seconds, day and night, for at least one full Martian year (two Earth years). The major concern with this proposal was making sure that the design itself remains as economical as possible, but at the same time remaining durable enough to survive in the Martian environment, as well as having the longevity to remain functional for more than one Martian year. In order to tackle this problem, the development of the stations was broken down into four separate areas of focus, being data collection, data transmission, power supply, and transportation, with additional considerations towards cost, durability, and feasibility. Taking into account these areas of focus and considerations, a product was designed that would function by using pre-existing technologies that could be easily replicated.https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/capstone/1219/thumbnail.jp

Investigating Health Inequality Using Trend, Decomposition and Spatial Analyses: A Study of Maternal Health Service Use in Nepal

Objectives: (a) To quantify the level and changes in socioeconomic inequality in the utilization of antenatal care (ANC), institutional delivery (ID) and postnatal care (PNC) in Nepal over a 20-year period; (b) identify key drivers of inequality using decomposition analysis; and (c) identify geographical clusters with low service utilization to inform policy.Methods: Data from the most recent five waves of the Demographic Health Survey were used. All outcomes were defined as binary variables: ANC (=1 if ≥4 visits), ID (=1 if place of delivery was a public or private healthcare facility), and PNC (=1 if ≥1 visits). Indices of inequality were computed at national and provincial-level. Inequality was decomposed into explanatory components using Fairile decomposition. Spatial maps identified clusters of low service utilization.Results: During 1996–2016, socioeconomic inequality in ANC and ID reduced by 10 and 23 percentage points, respectively. For PND, the gap remained unchanged at 40 percentage points. Parity, maternal education, and travel time to health facility were the key drivers of inequality. Clusters of low utilization were displayed on spatial maps, alongside deprivation and travel time to health facility.Conclusion: Inequalities in the utilization of ANC, ID and PNC are significant and persistent. Interventions targeting maternal education and distance to health facilities can significantly reduce the gap

Numerical Study for MHD Stagnation-Point Flow of a Micropolar Nanofluid Towards a Stretching Sheet

In this paper, we investigated the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) stagnation-point flow of micropolar nanofluid over a stretching sheet. A uniform magnetic field is applied normal to the flow. Nonlinear micropolar nanofluid problem in the presence of the strong concentration of microelements is modeled and then solved by numerical techniques. A parametric study of the involved parameters in the presence of spin gradient viscosity is conducted, and representative set of numerical results is illustrated in the graphical and tabular forms. The complete formulation of the Keller-box method for the considered flow problem is given, and a comparison of the obtained results is performed with the previous published results. The comparison shows that our present results have an excellent match with the previous results in a limiting case. We found that the non-dimensional temperature and its associated thermal boundary layer thickness are enhanced when we use the larger values of thermophoresis and Brownian motion parameter. The non-dimensional concentration is higher for larger thermophoresis parameter but smaller for higher Brownian motion parameter. It is also observed that the smaller values of Lewis number correspond to higher non-dimensional concentration and its associated boundary layer thickness