Cerebral Hemodynamic Responses to Acupuncture in Migraine Patients: A Systematic Review

ABSTRACTWe review the literature conjoining acupuncture, migraine, and cerebral hemodynamics. To do so, we searched PubMed in March 2013 for studies investigating cerebral hemodynamics with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), transcranial Doppler (TCD) ultrasound, and other tools in migraineurs, acupuncture recipients, and migraineurs receiving acupuncture. Our search identified 1321 distinct articles – acupuncture (n=463), migraine (n=866), and both (n=8). Only three (n=3) satisfied our inclusion criteria. Based on these three, we found the following: (1) Acupuncture may positively influence not just dynamic, but also static cerebral autoregulation during the interictal phase, depending on the intervals between sessions of acupuncture as dose units. (2) TCD can detect pretreatment differences between responders and non-responders to acupuncture, which may be predictive of clinical response. (3) “Point-through-point” needling (at angles connecting acupoints) may be clinically superior to standard acupuncture, thus needling angles may affect treatment effectiveness. None of the reviewed articles investigated patient responses during migraine attack. Although the 2009 Cochrane review affirmed acupuncture as effective prophylaxis for migraine, few studies investigated the cerebrovascular aspects – only analyzing arterial blood flow, but not microcirculation. Future research is warranted in monitoring brain tissue oxygenation to investigate acupuncture as both a preventive and abortive treatment for migraine, varying the type and dose interval and analyzing variations in clinical response

THE INFLUENCE OF FINELY GROUND MINERAL ADMIXTURE (FGMA) ON EFFLORESCENCE

Efflorescence phenomenon on concrete is not new and found in the form of white deposits on surfaces of concrete. Incorporation of Finely Ground Mineral Admixture (FGMA) in concrete to prevent occurrence of efflorescence is based on reduction of portlandite, densified microstructure and thus enhanced watertightness. The magnitude of efflorescence in term of percentage of calcium carbonate formation of FGMA modified mortar were evaluated at water-cement ratio of 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5 with 10%, 20%, and 30% of cement replacement by weight. The samples were tested with chemical analysis at 7, 14, 21, 28, 60 and 90 days. The FGMA additions into mortar were comparing with ordinary mortar to evaluate enhanced performance of FGMA modified mortar toward efflorescence. The results of this experiment showed that addition of FGMA into mortar caused less formation of calcium carbonate as partial replacement of cement with certain w/c ratio and percentage of cement replacement

THE INFLUENCE OF FINELY GROUND MINERAL ADMIXTURE (FGMA) ON EFFLORESCENCE

Efflorescence phenomenon on concrete is not new and found in the form of white deposits on surfaces of concrete. Incorporation of Finely Ground Mineral Admixture (FGMA) in concrete to prevent occurrence of efflorescence is based on reduction of portlandite, densified microstructure and thus enhanced watertightness. The magnitude of efflorescence in term of percentage of calcium carbonate formation of FGMA modified mortar were evaluated at water-cement ratio of 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5 with 10%, 20%, and 30% of cement replacement by weight. The samples were tested with chemical analysis at 7, 14, 21, 28, 60 and 90 days. The FGMA additions into mortar were comparing with ordinary mortar to evaluate enhanced performance of FGMA modified mortar toward efflorescence. The results of this experiment showed that addition of FGMA into mortar caused less formation of calcium carbonate as partial replacement of cement with certain w/c ratio and percentage of cement replacement

Effectiveness of RSS feed item duplication detection using word matching

Users of feed aggregators know that duplicated articles are found occasionally on the feeds they subscribe to. It can be time consuming to read all articles and stumble upon duplicated items they have already read. Our work here is to determine the effectiveness of using basic word matching to remove duplicated items and only show the most relevant item, thus saving readers’ time. The method described in this paper to remove duplicates involves word matching heuristics with an appropriate matching percentage. The duplicated feeds are then ranked to only display the highest ranked article. Ranking is done using the number of search items found on the titles of the news feeds where the highest number returned will be considered the highest ranked article. Using Malaysian online news feeds, our method found that with a matching percentage of 40%, our method will be able to minimize duplicates effectively with minimal errors. We did further empirical studies using 9 technology blog feeds over a longer period to provide us with a better averaging results. The matching percentage obtained is also within the same quantum. The method described here has a low overhead in terms of processing for the duplicates and with careful selection of matching percentage, the system will effectively remove the majority of duplicate

Palm oil mill effluent as alternate carbon source for ammonia removal in wastewater treatment

To address high demand in searching for carbon sources alternatives in ammonia wastewater treatment, comparison among various carbon sources in term of pollutants reduction efficiency was essential to determine the most cost-effective carbon source selection for industry scale in bulk amount. This study focuses on investigating palm oil mill effluent (POME) as the alternate carbon source for supporting ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB) in ammonia removal of glove industrial wastewater treatment. Ammonia reduction efficiency was compared between POME with molasses, one of the most commonly used carbon sources. POME as carbon source in ammonia wastewater treatment had shown significant comparable reduction efficiency as compared to molasses. Furthermore, the study on various mixture ratios of POME-molasses had also shown further improvement in ammonia reduction efficiency. At the optimum ratio of 50:50 (v/v) POME-molasses as carbon source mixture, the ammonia reduction in the treatment system had achieved 53.11% reduction, which reduced ammonia content down to 10.49 mg/L NH3. In this study, the results suggested that POME showing great potential to be the new cost-effective carbon source alternative in industry scale treatment

T3SEdb: data warehousing of virulence effectors secreted by the bacterial Type III Secretion System

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Effectors of Type III Secretion System (T3SS) play a pivotal role in establishing and maintaining pathogenicity in the host and therefore the identification of these effectors is important in understanding virulence. However, the effectors display high level of sequence diversity, therefore making the identification a difficult process. There is a need to collate and annotate existing effector sequences in public databases to enable systematic analyses of these sequences for development of models for screening and selection of putative novel effectors from bacterial genomes that can be validated by a smaller number of key experiments.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Herein, we present T3SEdb <url>http://effectors.bic.nus.edu.sg/T3SEdb</url>, a specialized database of annotated T3SS effector (T3SE) sequences containing 1089 records from 46 bacterial species compiled from the literature and public protein databases. Procedures have been defined for i) comprehensive annotation of experimental status of effectors, ii) submission and curation review of records by users of the database, and iii) the regular update of T3SEdb existing and new records. Keyword fielded and sequence searches (BLAST, regular expression) are supported for both experimentally verified and hypothetical T3SEs. More than 171 clusters of T3SEs were detected based on sequence identity comparisons (intra-cluster difference up to ~60%). Owing to this high level of sequence diversity of T3SEs, the T3SEdb provides a large number of experimentally known effector sequences with wide species representation for creation of effector predictors. We created a reliable effector prediction tool, integrated into the database, to demonstrate the application of the database for such endeavours.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>T3SEdb is the first specialised database reported for T3SS effectors, enriched with manual annotations that facilitated systematic construction of a reliable prediction model for identification of novel effectors. The T3SEdb represents a platform for inclusion of additional annotations of metadata for future developments of sophisticated effector prediction models for screening and selection of putative novel effectors from bacterial genomes/proteomes that can be validated by a small number of key experiments.</p

Antinociceptive activity of 2-benzoyl-6-(3-bromo-4-hydroxybenzylidene)cyclohexen-1-ol in mice

A novel compound from diarylpentanoids analogues, 2-benzoyl-6-(3-bromo-4-hydroxybenzylidene)cyclohexen-1-ol, was evaluated on its antinociceptive activity in mice through acetic acid-induced abdominal constriction test. Antinociception of 2-benzoyl-6-(3-bromo-4-hydroxybenzylidene)cyclohexen-1-ol was indicated by the reduction in the mean of the number of abdominal constrictions in the test groups compared to the control group. Acetylsalicylic acid (ASA, 100 mg/kg) was used as reference drugs while control group only received vehicle (5% DMSO: 5% Tween 20: 90% Distilled water) that used to dissolve the compound. The mice that received intraperitoneal injections of 2-benzoyl-6-(3-bromo-4-hydroxybenzylidene)cyclohexen-1-ol at 0.1, 0.3, 1.0 and 3.0 mg/kg showed 48.34%, 60.79%, 90.07% and 98.54% of inhibition respectively. Acetic acid injection in mice peritoneal cavity can promote the release of many inflammatory mediators such as prostaglandin, bradykinin, substance P, TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-8 and other mediator, which will then stimulate primary afferent neurons to enhance the release of aspartate and glutamate. Hence, the result obtained from this chemical model of nociception suggests that the antinociceptive activity of 2-benzoyl-6-(3-bromo-4-hydroxybenzylidene)cyclohexen-1-ol may be linked partly to the inhibition of the inflammatory mediators

Dosimetric comparison of peripheral NSCLC SBRT using Acuros XB and AAA calculation algorithms.

There is a concern for dose calculation in highly heterogenous environments such as the thorax region. This study compares the quality of treatment plans of peripheral non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) using 2 calculation algorithms, namely, Eclipse Anisotropic Analytical Algorithm (AAA) and Acuros External Beam (AXB), for 3-dimensional conformal radiation therapy (3DCRT) and volumetric-modulated arc therapy (VMAT). Four-dimensional computed tomography (4DCT) data from 20 anonymized patients were studied using Varian Eclipse planning system, AXB, and AAA version 10.0.28. A 3DCRT plan and a VMAT plan were generated using AAA and AXB with constant plan parameters for each patient. The prescription and dose constraints were benchmarked against Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) 0915 protocol. Planning parameters of the plan were compared statistically using Mann-Whitney U tests. Results showed that 3DCRT and VMAT plans have a lower target coverage up to 8% when calculated using AXB as compared with AAA. The conformity index (CI) for AXB plans was 4.7% lower than AAA plans, but was closer to unity, which indicated better target conformity. AXB produced plans with global maximum doses which were, on average, 2% hotter than AAA plans. Both 3DCRT and VMAT plans were able to achieve D95%. VMAT plans were shown to be more conformal (CI = 1.01) and were at least 3.2% and 1.5% lower in terms of PTV maximum and mean dose, respectively. There was no statistically significant difference for doses received by organs at risk (OARs) regardless of calculation algorithms and treatment techniques. In general, the difference in tissue modeling for AXB and AAA algorithm is responsible for the dose distribution between the AXB and the AAA algorithms. The AXB VMAT plans could be used to benefit patients receiving peripheral NSCLC SBRT. [Abstract copyright: Copyright © 2017 American Association of Medical Dosimetrists. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Correlates of HIV self-testing among female sex workers in China: implications for expanding HIV screening.

BACKGROUND: Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) self-testing may help improve test uptake among female sex workers. China has implemented many HIV self-testing programs among men who have sex with men, creating an opportunity for promotion among female sex workers. However, there is a limited literature on examining HIV self-testing among female sex workers. This study aimed to examine HIV self-testing experiences and its determinants among female sex workers in China. METHODS: A venue-based, cross-sectional study was conducted among Chinese female sex workers in 2019. Participants completed a survey including social-demographic characteristics, sexual behaviors, and HIV self-testing history, the distribution of which were analyzed using descriptive analysis. Multivariable logistic regression was conducted to identify associations with HIV self-testing. RESULTS: Among 1287 Chinese female sex workers, 1072 (83.3%, 95% confidence interval [CI] 81.2-85.3%) had ever tested for HIV, and 103 (8.0%, 95% CI 6.6-9.6%) had ever used HIV self-testing. More than half reported that the self-test was their first HIV test (59.2%, 61/103), around one-fifth reported HIV self-testing results influenced the price of sex (21.4%, 22/103). A minority of individuals reported ever experiencing pressure to undertake HIV self-testing (6.8%, 7/103). After adjusting for covariates, HIV self-testing was positively associated with receiving anal sex in the past month (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 2.2, 95% CI 1.4-3.5), using drugs before or during sex (aOR = 2.8, 95% CI 1.8-4.5), injecting drugs in the past 6 months (aOR = 2.6, 95% CI 1.2-6.0), being diagnosed with other sexually transmitted infections (aOR = 1.6, 95% CI 1.0-2.5), tested for other sexually transmitted infections in the past six months (aOR = 3.4, 95% CI 2.1-5.5), ever tested in the hospital (aOR = 3.4, 95% CI 2.0-5.6), and ever tested in the community (aOR = 1.5, 95% CI 1.2-1.9). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that HIV self-testing could expand overall HIV testing uptake, increase HIV testing frequency, reach sub-groups of high-risk female sex workers and has limited potential harms among female sex workers. HIV self-testing should be incorporated among Chinese female sex workers as a complement to facility-based HIV testing services