Preparation of Spent Bleaching Earth-supported Calcium From Limestone as Catalyst in Transesterification of Waste Frying Oil

An investigation was conducted on palm oil refinery waste-spent bleaching earth (POR-SBE), POR-SBE supported by calcium as catalysts for methyl esters production through transesterification process using waste frying oil. The catalysts showed longer lasting activity than the traditional alkali catalysts. The optimum conditions for the process were: Ca-POR-SBE catalyst amount 7 %; methanol to oil molar ratio 12:1; and a reaction duration is 4 h. The process was able to transesterify oil to methyl esters at 96.8 % conversion at 65 °C. The catalysts were easily separated from the reaction mixture and the final product met selected biodiesel fuel properties in accordance with European Standard EN 14214

Exploring the Relationships Between Clinical Examination Findings, Subjective Reported Symptoms and Objective Nasal Patency Measures in Nasal Obstruction: A Baseline NAIROS Sub-Study Analysis

\ua9 2024 The Author(s). Clinical Otolaryngology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Background: The role of objective nasal airflow measures using peak nasal inspiratory flow (PNIF) and rhinospirometry in supporting clinical examination findings when offering patients septoplasty remain undefined. Objective: To explore the baseline relationships between clinical examination findings, subjective reported symptoms and objective nasal patency measures in nasal obstruction. Methods: This is a sub-study of the NAIROS trial. Participants with nasal obstruction secondary to septal deviation were included in this NAIROS sub-study. The side of septal deviation, enlargement of inferior turbinate (IT), the need for IT reduction if septoplasty was being performed, the area of septum deflecting into the airway and observer rated airway block (ORAB–arbitrarily divided by <50% and >50% blockage) were assessed by clinicians. The subjective score of nasal obstruction was assessed using the Double Ordinal Assessed Subjective Scale (DOASS). Objective nasal patency measures (e.g., nasal partitioning ratio, [NPR] and PNIF) were measured using PNIF and rhinospirometry. Results: The mean NPR for left-sided, both-sided and right-sided septal deviation was −0.35, −0.02 and 0.51, respectively (p < 0.001). There was very weak correlation between the requirement for IT reduction and PNIF change (0.13, p < 0.01). There was no difference in mean PNIF (94 L/min vs. 93 L/min) and mean DOASS (0.33 vs. 0.38) for participants with ORAB rated <50% and >50%. The mean NPR for participants with ORAB >50% was higher than for those with ORAB <50% (0.51 vs. 0.41, p = 0.002). There was strong correlation between the DOASS and NPR (+0.737, p < 0.001). The mean DOASS score for right-sided, both-sided and left-sided septal deviation was 0.32, 0.05 and −0.29, respectively (p < 0.001). Conclusion: This study identified strong relationships between the clinician rated side of septal deflection, the patient reported DOASS and the objective NPR measurements. NPR and the clinician rated degree of airway blockage were concordant

Isolation and characterization of bioactive compounds in medicinal plant centella asiatica and study the effects on fungal activities

Medicinal plants are sources of important therapeutic aids for alleviating human ailments. The present research investigation was carried out to study anti-fungal activity of C. asiatica were tested against C. albicans, Aspergillus niger, and Penicillium sp. using two methods, disc diffusion method and broth dilution method. C. asiatica crude methanol extract was found to be the most effective against fungal activity. Compared to disc diffusion, broth dilution was a more appropriate method to quantitatively determine the anti-Candida activity of plant extract, whereby the MIC values of the crude extracts was determined. The result from disc diffusion assay demonstrates that plant extracts have an inhibitory effect. However, the broth dilution method result reveal that C. asiatica crude methanol extract has lower MIC values, meaning it has more prove that C. asiatica has an anti-fungal effect. Bioactive analysis results reveled that bioactive compounds present in the leaf, stems, roots, and the whole plant extract from Centella asiatica are the major chemical constituents are n-Hexadecanoic acid (99%), cis-Vaccenic acid (91%), 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural (88%), Tetradecanoic acid (86%). Further study is required to find out the specific phytochemical which is responsible for its medicinal value

Understanding physicians’ behavior toward alerts about nephrotoxic medications in outpatients: a cross-sectional analysis

Background: Although most outpatients are relatively healthy, many have chronic renal insufficiency, and high override rates for suggestions on renal dosing have been observed. To better understand the override of renal dosing alerts in an outpatient setting, we conducted a study to evaluate which patients were more frequently prescribed contraindicated medications, to assess providers’ responses to suggestions, and to examine the drugs involved and the reasons for overrides. Methods: We obtained data on renal alert overrides and the coded reasons for overrides cited by providers at the time of prescription from outpatient clinics and ambulatory hospital-based practices at a large academic health care center over a period of 3 years, from January 2009 to December 2011. For detailed chart review, a group of 6 trained clinicians developed the appropriateness criteria with excellent inter-rater reliability (κ = 0.93). We stratified providers by override frequency and then drew samples from the high- and low-frequency groups. We measured the rate of total overrides, rate of appropriate overrides, medications overridden, and the reason(s) for override. Results: A total of 4120 renal alerts were triggered by 584 prescribers in the study period, among which 78.2% (3,221) were overridden. Almost half of the alerts were triggered by 40 providers and one-third was triggered by high-frequency overriders. The appropriateness rates were fairly similar, at 28.4% and 31.6% for high- and low-frequency overriders, respectively. Metformin, glyburide, hydrochlorothiazide, and nitrofurantoin were the most common drugs overridden. Physicians’ appropriateness rates were higher than the rates for nurse practitioners (32.9% vs. 22.1%). Physicians with low frequency override rates had higher levels of appropriateness for metformin than the high frequency overriders (P = 0.005). Conclusion: A small number of providers accounted for a large fraction of overrides, as was the case with a small number of drugs. These data suggest that a focused intervention targeting primarily these providers and medications has the potential to improve medication safety

Positive effects of Individual Cognitive Behavior Therapy for patients with unipolar mood disorders with suicidal ideation in Malaysia: a randomised controlled trial

The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of Individual Cognitive Behavior Therapy (ICBT) in treating patients with mood disorders with suicidal ideation. A total of 69 patients (48 females, 21 males) with the diagnoses above were randomly allocated to either the group of Treatment As Usual (TAU)+ICBT (n=33) or the TAU group (n=36). All participants completed the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Beck Scale for Suicide Ideation (BSS), Positive and Negative Suicide Ideation Inventory (PANSI), Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS), and Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21). These questionnaires were administered at pre-treatment, midway through treatment (week 4), post-treatment (week 8), and at follow-ups after three months (week 20) and six months (week 32). Factorial ANOVA results showed that the TAU+ICBT patients improved significantly and at faster rate as compared to the TAU group, which showed improvement only from pre to mid treatment on DASS-D and BHS-T measures. The effect size (Cohen's d), for the TAU+ICBT group showed large effect (1.47) for depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation (1.00). These findings suggest that ICBT used in addition to the TAU, was effective in enhancing treatment outcome of patients with unipolar mood disorders as well as, reducing risk for suicide behavior

Economical cultivation system of microalgae Spirulina platensis for lipid production

The marine algae Spirulina platensis was cultured in a medium of palm oil mill effluent (POME) and the production of lipid in the biomass was optimized. Among 7 species Spirulina platensis was isolated from the marine sample which have greater lipid potential was collected from Pantai Teluk Cempedak, Kuantan which is located at East Coast region of Pahang state. At 28+2 °C, the maximum lipid content in the biomass harvested at the end of a 15 days batch culture was quantified with the following values of the experimental factors: POME concentration with (10%, 20% and 30%) (v/v) and light intensity (3,000 lux, 4,000 lux, 5,000 lux). Under the optimized conditions with 20% of POME, the maximum dry mass concentration of the was 754.5 mg L−1 with lipid 34.5% production on day 13 of a batch culture, declining to ∼687 mg L−1 on day 15. At 5,000 lux light intensities, the maximum yield obtained was 854.6 mg L−1 with lipid 35.8% production on day 14, it declined to 732.8 mg L−1 on day 15

Combining PARP Inhibitors and Androgen Receptor Signalling Inhibitors in Metastatic Prostate Cancer: A Quantitative Synthesis and Meta-analysis

Copyright \ua9 2023. Published by Elsevier B.V. CONTEXT: PARP inhibitors (PARPi) are established treatments for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) with homologous recombination repair (HRR) deficiency after androgen receptor signalling inhibitor (ARSI) failure. New PARPi + ARSI combinations have been tested in all comers, although their clinical relevance in HRR-proficient tumours remains uncertain. OBJECTIVE: To quantitatively synthesise evidence from randomised trials assessing the efficacy and safety of PARPi + ARSI combinations for first-line treatment of mCRPC. EVIDENCE ACQUISITION: We searched the PubMed, EMBASE, SCOPUS, and Cochrane Library databases up to February 28, 2023. Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) comparing PARPi + ARSI versus placebo + ARSI for first-line treatment of mCRPC were eligible. Two reviewers independently performed screening and data extraction and assessed the risk of bias, while a third reviewer evaluated the eligibility criteria. EVIDENCE SYNTHESIS: Overall, three phase 3 RCTs were included in the systematic review: PROPEL, MAGNITUDE, and TALAPRO-2. A total of 2601 patients with mCRPC were enrolled. Two of these trials (PROPEL and TALAPRO-2) assessed the radiographic progression-free survival benefit of PARPi + ARSI for first-line treatment of mCRPC, independent of HRR status. The pooled hazard ratio was 0.62 (95% confidence interval 0.53-0.72). The pooled hazard ratio for overall survival was 0.84 (95% confidence interval 0.72-0.98), indicating a 16% reduction in the risk of death among patients who received the combination. CONCLUSIONS: Results from this meta-analysis support the use of ARSI + PARPi combinations in biomarker-unselected mCRPC. However, such combinations might be less clinically relevant in HRR-proficient cancers, especially considering the change in treatment landscape for mCRPC. PATIENT SUMMARY: We looked at outcomes from trials testing combinations of two classes of drugs (PARP inhibitors and ARSI) in advanced prostate cancer. We found that these combinations seem to work regardless of gene mutations identified as biomarkers of response to PARP inhibitors when used on their own