Comparative study on levonorgestrel intrauterine system and oral progestogen in women with heavy menstrual bleeding in terms of efficacy, user satisfaction and quality of life using MMAS score

Background: To compare the efficacy, safety and user satisfaction of levonorgestrel intrauterine system (LNG-IUS) with oral progestogen in medical management of heavy menstrual bleeding (HMB).Methods: This prospective study was conducted on 80 women with HMB in age group of 35-55 years. Patients were divided into two groups of 40 each and followed for six months. In Group I, LNG-IUS was inserted in post menstrual period and in Group II, patients received oral norethisterone 5 mg twice a day during 5th-25th day of cycle for 6 months. Patients were evaluated about amount and duration of blood loss by pictorial blood assessment chart (PBAC) along with haemoglobin estimation on each follow up visit. MMAS (Menorrhagia Multi-Attribute Scale) score comparison between two groups was done to measure the improvement in quality of life. The results were analysed by using Chi-square test and Student t-test.Results: Percentage reduction in PBAC score after six cycles of treatment was 89.3% in LNG IUS group as compared to 68% in norethisterone group. LNG-IUS was found to be more efficient in correcting anemia, lowering duration of bleeding and improving MMAS score as compared to norethisterone.Conclusions: Present study showed that LNG IUS was superior to oral progestogen in decreasing quantity and duration of bleeding and improving overall quality of life over time.

Text Mining of Stocktwits Data for Predicting Stock Prices

Stock price prediction can be made more efficient by considering the price fluctuations and understanding the sentiments of people. A limited number of models understand financial jargon or have labelled datasets concerning stock price change. To overcome this challenge, we introduced FinALBERT, an ALBERT based model trained to handle financial domain text classification tasks by labelling Stocktwits text data based on stock price change. We collected Stocktwits data for over ten years for 25 different companies, including the major five FAANG (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Google). These datasets were labelled with three labelling techniques based on stock price changes. Our proposed model FinALBERT is fine-tuned with these labels to achieve optimal results. We experimented with the labelled dataset by training it on traditional machine learning, BERT, and FinBERT models, which helped us understand how these labels behaved with different model architectures. Our labelling method competitive advantage is that it can help analyse the historical data effectively, and the mathematical function can be easily customised to predict stock movement

Escherichia coli K1 utilizes host macropinocytic pathways for invasion of brain microvascular endothelial cells.

Eukaryotic cells utilize multiple endocytic pathways for specific uptake of ligands or molecules, and these pathways are commonly hijacked by pathogens to enable host cell invasion. Escherichia coli K1, a pathogenic bacterium that causes neonatal meningitis, invades the endothelium of the blood-brain barrier, but the entry route remains unclear. Here, we demonstrate that the bacteria trigger an actin-mediated uptake route, stimulating fluid phase uptake, membrane ruffling and macropinocytosis. The route of uptake requires intact lipid rafts as shown by cholesterol depletion. Using a variety of perturbants we demonstrate that small Rho GTPases and their downstream effectors have a significant effect on bacterial invasion. Furthermore, clathrin-mediated endocytosis appears to play an indirect role in E. coli K1 uptake. The data suggest that the bacteria effect a complex interplay between the Rho GTPases to increase their chances of uptake by macropinocytosis into human brain microvascular endothelial cells

Environmental Dimensionality Controls the Interaction of Phagocytes with the Pathogenic Fungi Aspergillus fumigatus and Candida albicans

The fungal pathogens Aspergillus fumigatus and Candida albicans are major health threats for immune-compromised patients. Normally, macrophages and neutrophil granulocytes phagocytose inhaled Aspergillus conidia in the two-dimensional (2-D) environment of the alveolar lumen or Candida growing in tissue microabscesses, which are composed of a three-dimensional (3-D) extracellular matrix. However, neither the cellular dynamics, the per-cell efficiency, the outcome of this interaction, nor the environmental impact on this process are known. Live imaging shows that the interaction of phagocytes with Aspergillus or Candida in 2-D liquid cultures or 3-D collagen environments is a dynamic process that includes phagocytosis, dragging, or the mere touching of fungal elements. Neutrophils and alveolar macrophages efficiently phagocytosed or dragged Aspergillus conidia in 2-D, while in 3-D their function was severely impaired. The reverse was found for phagocytosis of Candida. The phagocytosis rate was very low in 2-D, while in 3-D most neutrophils internalized multiple yeasts. In competitive assays, neutrophils primarily incorporated Aspergillus conidia in 2-D and Candida yeasts in 3-D despite frequent touching of the other pathogen. Thus, phagocytes show activity best in the environment where a pathogen is naturally encountered. This could explain why “delocalized” Aspergillus infections such as hematogeneous spread are almost uncontrollable diseases, even in immunocompetent individuals

Unusual site of capillary hemangioma: Practitioner′s dilemma!

Hemangioma is a common tumor characterized by the proliferation of blood vessels. It is often congenital in nature and usually but not invariably follows a benign course. Hemangioma is often present at birth, but may become more apparent later in life. Capillary hemangioma is known to have a significant predilection for lips, tongue, buccal mucosa, and palate. This case report describes a hemangioma at an unusual site which is seldom reported earlier in the published literature. Despite being benign in nature, hemangiomas are of clinical importance to the dental professionals as they may pose serious bleeding risk. Because of their uncommon clinical presentations they may mimic other gingival lesions; hence, dental practitioners need to be aware of these lesions