Anti-ulcer activity of aqueous leaf extract of Nauclea latifolia (rubiaceae) on indomethacin-induced gastric ulcer in rats

Nauclea latifolia is known to possess various therapeutic properties. The present study was designed to evaluate the anti-ulcer activity of aqueous leaf extract of N. latifolia against indomethacin-induced gastric ulcers in rats. Five groups of albino rats were pre-treated orally with: vehicle, distilled water (ulcer control), cimetidine (100 mg/kg, reference control), and 170, 340 and 510 mg/kg N. latifolia leaf extracts (experimental groups) respectively, 60 min prior to oral administration of indomethacin to generate gastric mucosal injury. Seven hours later, the animals were sacrificed by a blow on the head; their stomachs were removed and examined for ulcer index. The extract produced significant (P<0.05), and dose dependent anti-ulcer activity against indomethacin-induced ulcers in rats. These results suggest that the extract possesses significant anti-ulcer activity against experimentally induced gastric lesions and may justify its use as an anti-ulcerogenic agent.Keywords: Anti-ulcer activity, Nauclea latifolia leaf, mucosal injury, indomethacin, ratsAfrican Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(32), pp. 5080-508

Deep transfer learning for partial differential equations under conditional shift with DeepONet

Traditional machine learning algorithms are designed to learn in isolation, i.e. address single tasks. The core idea of transfer learning (TL) is that knowledge gained in learning to perform one task (source) can be leveraged to improve learning performance in a related, but different, task (target). TL leverages and transfers previously acquired knowledge to address the expense of data acquisition and labeling, potential computational power limitations, and the dataset distribution mismatches. Although significant progress has been made in the fields of image processing, speech recognition, and natural language processing (for classification and regression) for TL, little work has been done in the field of scientific machine learning for functional regression and uncertainty quantification in partial differential equations. In this work, we propose a novel TL framework for task-specific learning under conditional shift with a deep operator network (DeepONet). Inspired by the conditional embedding operator theory, we measure the statistical distance between the source domain and the target feature domain by embedding conditional distributions onto a reproducing kernel Hilbert space. Task-specific operator learning is accomplished by fine-tuning task-specific layers of the target DeepONet using a hybrid loss function that allows for the matching of individual target samples while also preserving the global properties of the conditional distribution of target data. We demonstrate the advantages of our approach for various TL scenarios involving nonlinear PDEs under conditional shift. Our results include geometry domain adaptation and show that the proposed TL framework enables fast and efficient multi-task operator learning, despite significant differences between the source and target domains.Comment: 19 pages, 3 figure

Covering California's Kids: Outcomes from Children's Health Initiatives in California

Examines the outcomes and policy implications of CHIs and the Healthy Kids insurance program in the state

Covering California's Kids: Functioning at the Brink: The Children's Health Initiatives Have Grown but May Not Survive

Highlights efforts by the Healthy Kids programs to provide coverage for California's uninsured children, the utilization of preventive health care, the long waitlists due to funding limitations, and policy implications of anticipated funding deficits

U-shaped fairings suppress vortex-induced vibrations for cylinders in cross-flow

We employ three-dimensional direct and large-eddy numerical simulations of the vibrations and flow past cylinders fitted with free-to-rotate U-shaped fairings placed in a cross-flow at Reynolds number 100 ⩽ Re ⩽ 10,000. Such fairings are nearly neutrally buoyant devices fitted along the axis of long circular risers to suppress vortex-induced vibrations (VIVs). We consider three different geometric configurations: a homogeneous fairing, and two configurations (denoted A and AB) involving a gap between adjacent segments. For the latter two cases, we investigate the effect of the gap on the hydrodynamic force coefficients and the translational and rotational motions of the system. For all configurations, as the Reynolds number increases beyond 500, both the lift and drag coefficients decrease. Compared to a plain cylinder, a homogeneous fairing system (no gaps) can help reduce the drag force coefficient by 15 % for reduced velocity U* = 4.65, while a type A gap system can reduce the drag force coefficient by almost 50 % for reduced velocity U* = 3.5, 4.65, 6, and, correspondingly, the vibration response of the combined system, as well as the fairing rotation amplitude, are substantially reduced. For a homogeneous fairing, the cross-flow amplitude is reduced by about 80 %, whereas for fairings with a gap longer than half a cylinder diameter, VIVs are completely eliminated, resulting in additional reduction in the drag coefficient. We have related such VIV suppression or elimination to the features of the wake flow structure. We find that a gap causes the generation of strong streamwise vorticity in the gap region that interferes destructively with the vorticity generated by the fairings, hence disorganizing the formation of coherent spanwise cortical patterns. We provide visualization of the incoherent wake flow that leads to total elimination of the vibration and rotation of the fairing–cylinder system. Finally, we investigate the effect of the friction coefficient between cylinder and fairing. The effect overall is small, even when the friction coefficients of adjacent segments are different. In some cases the equilibrium positions of the fairings are rotated by a small angle on either side of the centreline, in a symmetry-breaking bifurcation, which depends strongly on Reynolds number

U-shaped fairings suppress vortex-induced vibrations for cylinders in cross-flow

We employ three-dimensional direct and large-eddy numerical simulations of the vibrations and flow past cylinders fitted with free-to-rotate U-shaped fairings placed in a cross-flow at Reynolds number 100 ⩽ Re ⩽ 10,000. Such fairings are nearly neutrally buoyant devices fitted along the axis of long circular risers to suppress vortex-induced vibrations (VIVs). We consider three different geometric configurations: a homogeneous fairing, and two configurations (denoted A and AB) involving a gap between adjacent segments. For the latter two cases, we investigate the effect of the gap on the hydrodynamic force coefficients and the translational and rotational motions of the system. For all configurations, as the Reynolds number increases beyond 500, both the lift and drag coefficients decrease. Compared to a plain cylinder, a homogeneous fairing system (no gaps) can help reduce the drag force coefficient by 15 % for reduced velocity U* = 4.65, while a type A gap system can reduce the drag force coefficient by almost 50 % for reduced velocity U* = 3.5, 4.65, 6, and, correspondingly, the vibration response of the combined system, as well as the fairing rotation amplitude, are substantially reduced. For a homogeneous fairing, the cross-flow amplitude is reduced by about 80 %, whereas for fairings with a gap longer than half a cylinder diameter, VIVs are completely eliminated, resulting in additional reduction in the drag coefficient. We have related such VIV suppression or elimination to the features of the wake flow structure. We find that a gap causes the generation of strong streamwise vorticity in the gap region that interferes destructively with the vorticity generated by the fairings, hence disorganizing the formation of coherent spanwise cortical patterns. We provide visualization of the incoherent wake flow that leads to total elimination of the vibration and rotation of the fairing–cylinder system. Finally, we investigate the effect of the friction coefficient between cylinder and fairing. The effect overall is small, even when the friction coefficients of adjacent segments are different. In some cases the equilibrium positions of the fairings are rotated by a small angle on either side of the centreline, in a symmetry-breaking bifurcation, which depends strongly on Reynolds number

Efficacy of an intensive outpatient rehabilitation program in alcoholism: Predictors of outcome 6 months after treatment

Treatment of alcohol-dependent patients was primarily focused on inpatient settings in the past decades. The efficacy of these treatment programs has been evaluated in several studies and proven to be sufficient. However, with regard to the increasing costs in public healthcare systems, questions about alternative treatment strategies have been raised. Meanwhile, there is growing evidence that outpatient treatment might be comparably effective as inpatient treatment, at least for subgroups of alcohol dependents. On that background, the present study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of a high-structured outpatient treatment program in 103 alcohol-dependent patients. 74 patients (72%) terminated the outpatient treatment regularly. At 6 months' follow-up, 95% patients were successfully located and personally re-interviewed. Analyses revealed that 65 patients (64%) were abstinent at the 6-month follow-up evaluation and 37 patients ( 36%) were judged to be non-abstinent. Pretreatment variables which were found to have a negative impact (non-abstinence) on the 6-month outcome after treatment were a higher severity of alcohol dependence measured by a longer duration of alcohol dependence, a higher number of prior treatments and a stronger alcohol craving (measured by the Obsessive Compulsive Drinking Scale). Further patients with a higher degree of psychopathology measured by the Beck Depression Inventory (depression) and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (anxiety) relapsed more often. In summary, results of this study indicate a favorable outcome of socially stable alcohol-dependent patients and patients with a lower degree of depression, anxiety and craving in an intensive outpatient rehabilitation program