The protective effect of garlic extract on diabetic nephropathy

Diabetes causes significant changes in urine and serum constituents such as albumin, creatinine, urea nitrogen, and glycated hemoglobin. Garlic extract, however, has been shown to restore all of these biochemicals, and cause histopathological changes. Administration of garlic extract or metformin, or their combinations has also been demonstrated to have both curative and protective effects against gentamicin nephrotoxicity. These findings can potentiate the clinical use of combinations of metformin and garlic extract in the prevention of diabetic nephropathy

Hyperuricemia aggravates IgA nephropathy

It is well documented that hyperuricemia is an independent risk factor for IgA nephropathy, and appropriate treatment by allopurinol is a reasonable modality in the patients. We believe that, this drug should routinely be included to the treatment of patients with IgA nephropathy. In this regard, to better understand the allopurinol kidney protective properties in IgA nephropathy, clinical studies are suggested

A Comparative Study of Different Phase Detrending Algorithms for Scintillation Monitoring

Rapid and sudden fluctuations of phase and amplitude in Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signals due to diffraction of the ionosphere phase components when signals passing through small-scale irregularities (less than hundreds meters) are commonly so-called ionospheric scintillation. The aim of the paper is to analyze the implementation and compare the performance of different phase detrending algorithms to improve scintillation monitoring. Three different phase detrending methods, namely, three cascaded second-order high pass filters, six order Butterworth filter conducted by cascading six first-order high pass Butterworth filters, and Fast Iterative Filter (FIF) are considered in this paper. The study exploits real GNSS signals (GPS L1, Galileo E1b) affected by significant phase scintillation effects, collected in early September 2017 at Brazilian Centro de Radioastronomia e Astrofisica Mackenzie (CRAAM) monitoring station and at Adventdalen (Svalbard, Norway) research station. In this study, a software defined radio (SDR) based GNSS receiver is used to process GNSS signals and to implement the aforementioned detrending algorithms

A systematic framework for predictive biomarkers in immune effector cell-associated neurotoxicity syndrome

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell therapy has revolutionized the management of several life-threatening malignancies, often achieving durable sustained responses. The number of patients treated with this new class of cell-based therapy, along with the number of Food and Drug Association (FDA) approved indications, are growing significantly. Unfortunately Immune Effector Cell-Associated Neurotoxicity Syndrome (ICANS) can often occur after treatment with CAR-T cells, and severe ICANS can be associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Current standard treatments are mainly steroids and supportive care, highlighting the need for early identification. In the last several years, a range of predictive biomarkers have been proposed to distinguish patients at increased risk for developing ICANS. In this review, we discuss a systematic framework to organize potential predictive biomarkers that builds on our current understanding of ICANS

Adaptive Phase Detrending for GNSS Scintillation Detection: A Case Study Over Antarctica

We aim at contributing to the reliability of the phase scintillation index on Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signals at high-latitude. To the scope, we leverage on a recently introduced detrending scheme based on the signal decomposition provided by the fast iterative filtering (FIF) technique. This detrending scheme has been demonstrated to enable a fine-tuning of the cutoff frequency for phase detrending used in the phase scintillation index definition. In a single case study based on Galileo data taken by a GNSS ionospheric scintillation monitor receiver (ISMR) in Concordia Station (Antarctica), we investigate how to step ahead of the cutoff frequency optimization. We show how the FIF-based detrending allows deriving adaptive cutoff frequencies, whose value changes minute-by-minute. They are found to range between 0.4 and 1.2 Hz. This allows better accounting for diffractive effects in phase scintillation index calculation and provides a GNSS-based estimation of the relative velocity between satellite and ionospheric irregularities

Disentangling ionospheric refraction and diffraction effects in GNSS raw phase through fast iterative filtering technique

We contribute to the debate on the identification of phase scintillation induced by the ionosphere on the global navigation satellite system (GNSS) by introducing a phase detrending method able to provide realistic values of the phase scintillation index at high latitude. It is based on the fast iterative filtering signal decomposition technique, which is a recently developed fast implementation of the well-established adaptive local iterative filtering algorithm. FIF has been conceived to decompose nonstationary signals efficiently and provide a discrete set of oscillating functions, each of them having its frequency. It overcomes most of the problems that arise when using traditional time–frequency analysis techniques and relies on a consolidated mathematical basis since its a priori convergence and stability have been proved. By relying on the capability of FIF to efficiently identify the frequencies embedded in the GNSS raw phase, we define a method based on the FIF-derived spectral features to identify the proper cutoff frequency for phase detrending. To test such a method, we analyze the data acquired from GPS and Galileo signals over Antarctica during the September 2017 storm by the ionospheric scintillation monitor receiver (ISMR) located in Concordia Station (75.10° S, 123.33° E). Different cases of diffraction and refraction effects are provided, showing the capability of the method in deriving a more accurate determination of the σϕ index. We found values of cutoff frequency in the range of 0.73–0.83 Hz, providing further evidence of the inadequacy of the choice of 0.1 Hz, which is often used when dealing with ionospheric scintillation monitoring at high latitudes

The Prevalence of Nosocomial Infections in Iranian Hospitals

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Nosocomial infections are one of the major health problems. As the length of stay in the hospital increases, the risk of mortality and morbidity increases, which ultimately increases the cost of treatment. Therefore, the present study was performed as a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate the prevalence of nosocomial infections in Iran. METHODS: This systematic review and meta-analysis was performed in the range of the years 2001 – 2017. Articles related to the topic were assessed using Persian keywords “nosocomial infections”, “hospital”, and “Iran”, and their English equivalent in descriptive and cross sectional studies by searching online databases of SID & Magiran, PubMed and Scopus, ScienceDirect and Google Scholar. Analytical and interventional studies were excluded from the study list. FINDINGS: 578 articles had the preliminary inclusion criteria, and with the removal of 568 unrelated or low quality articles during secondary analyses, 10 articles were finally included in the process of meta-analysis. The overall prevalence of nosocomial infections in Iranian hospitals was 4.6% (CI-95%: 2.6 – 8.1). The highest prevalence of nosocomial infections was in Sanandaj with 15.6% (CI-95%: 10.22–82.1) and the lowest prevalence was in Urmia with 0.4% (CI-95%: 0.1–1.01). CONCLUSION: The results of the study showed that nosocomial infection has a low prevalence in Iran, but more attention and control over nosocomial infections in Iranian hospitals is necessary to reach standard levels