The Impact of poor glycaemic control on the prevalence of erectile dysfunction in men with type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: A Systematic Review.

To determine the impact of poor glycaemic control on the prevalence of erectile dysfunction among men with type 2 Diabetics aged 27 to 85 years.The databases Embase classic+Embase, Global health, Ovid Medline and PsychINFO, were searched for relevant studies in June 2014 using the keywords: (Diabetes Mellitus OR diabetes mellitus type2 OR DM2 OR T2DM OR insulin resistance) AND (erectile dysfunction OR sexual dysfunction OR impotence) AND glycaemic control.All study settings were considered (primary care, secondary care and tertiary care setting).Type 2 Diabetic Patients with erectile dysfunction.Included studies must include one of the following outcomes: (1) HBA1c for assess the level of glycaemic control; (2) Erectile dysfunction (any stage: IIEF-5 = 21 or less).Five cross-sectional studies involving 3299 patients were included. The findings pointed to a positive association between erectile dysfunction and glycaemic control. Three studies showed a significant positive association, while one study showed only a weak correlation and one study showed borderline significance. Patients age, diabetes mellitus duration, peripheral neuropathy and body mass index had positive association with erectile dysfunction. However, smoking and hypertension were not associated with erectile dysfunction in most included studies. Physical activity had a protective effect against erectile dysfunction.We may conclude that the risk of erectile dysfunction is higher in type 2 diabetic men with poor glycaemic control than those with good control

Neutrino masses in the economical 3-3-1 model

We show that, in frameworks of the economical 3-3-1 model, the suitable pattern of neutrino masses arises from the three quite different sources - the lepton-number conserving, the spontaneous lepton-number breaking and the explicit lepton-number violating, widely ranging over the mass scales including the GUT one: $u\sim O(1) \mathrm{GeV}$, $v\approx 246 \mathrm{GeV}$, \om\sim O(1) \mathrm{TeV} and $\mathcal{M}\sim \mathcal{O}(10^{16}) \mathrm{GeV}$. At the tree-level, the model contains three Dirac neutrinos: one massless, two large with degenerate masses in the order of the electron mass. At the one-loop level, the left-handed and right-handed neutrinos obtain Majorana masses $M_{L,R}$ in orders of $10^{-2}-10^{-3} \mathrm{eV}$ and degenerate in $M_R=-M_L$, while the Dirac masses get a large reduction down to $\mathrm{eV}$ scale through a finite mass renormalization. In this model, the contributions of new physics are strongly signified, the degenerations in the masses and the last hierarchy between the Majorana and Dirac masses can be completely removed by heavy particles. All the neutrinos get mass and can fit the data.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figure

Higgs-gauge boson interactions in the economical 3-3-1 model

Interactions among the standard model gauge bosons and scalar fields in the framework of SU(3)_C X SU(3)_L X U(1)_X gauge model with minimal (economical) Higgs content are presented. From these couplings, all scalar fields including the neutral scalar $h$ and the Goldstone bosons can be identified and their couplings with the usual gauge bosons such as the photon, the charged $W^\pm$ and the neutral $Z$, without any additional condition, are recovered. In the effective approximation, full content of scalar sector can be recognized. The CP-odd part of Goldstone associated with the neutral non-Hermitian bilepton gauge boson $G_{X^0}$ is decouple, while its CP-even counterpart has the mixing by the same way in the gauge boson sector. Masses of the new neutral Higgs boson $H^0_1$ and the neutral non-Hermitian bilepton $X^0$ are dependent on a coefficient of Higgs self-coupling ($\lambda_1$). Similarly, masses of the singly-charged Higgs boson $H_2^\pm$ and of the charged bilepton $Y^\pm$ are proportional through a coefficient of Higgs self-interaction ($\lambda_4$). The hadronic cross section for production of this Higgs boson at the LHC in the effective vector boson approximation is calculated. Numerical evaluation shows that the cross section can exceed 260 $fb$.Comment: 22 pages, 1 figure, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Bilepton contributions to the neutrinoless double beta decay in the economical 3-3-1 model

Possible contributions of the bilepton to the neutrinoless double beta $(\beta\beta)_{0\nu}$ decay in the economical 3-3-1 model are discussed. We show that the $(\beta\beta)_{0\nu}$ decay in this model is due to both sources--Majorana $_{L}$ and Dirac $_{D}$ neutrino masses. If the mixing angle between charged gauge bosons, the standard model $W$ and bilepton $Y$, is in range of the ratio of neutrino masses $_{L}/< M_{\nu}>_{D}$, both the Majorana and Dirac masses simultaneously give contributions dominant to the decay. As results, constraints on the bilepton mass are also given.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figure

Quartic Gauge Boson Couplings and Tree Unitarity in the SU(3)_C X SU(3)_L X U(1)_N Models

The quartic gauge boson couplings in the ${SU(3)}_C \otimes {SU(3)}_L \otimes {U(1)}_N$ models are presented. We find that the couplings of four {\it differrent} gauge bosons may have unusual Lorentz structure and the couplings sastify the tree unitarity requirement at high energy limit.Comment: 13 pages, Latex, axodraw.st

Scalar Bilepton Dark Matter

In this work we show that 3-3-1 model with right-handed neutrinos has a natural weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) dark mater candidate. It is a complex scalar with mass of order of some hundreds of GeV which carries two units of lepton number, a scalar bilepton. This makes it a very peculiar WIMP, very distinct from Supersymmetric or Extra-dimension candidates. Besides, although we have to make some reasonable assumptions concerning the several parameters in the model, no fine tunning is required in order to get the correct dark matter abundance. We also analyze the prospects for WIMP direct detection by considering recent and projected sensitivities for WIMP-nucleon elastic cross section from CDMS and XENON Collaborations.Comment: 21 pages, 8 figures, uses iopart.cls, same text as published version with a small different arrangement of figure

The 3-3-1 model with S_4 flavor symmetry

We construct a 3-3-1 model based on family symmetry S_4 responsible for the neutrino and quark masses. The tribimaximal neutrino mixing and the diagonal quark mixing have been obtained. The new lepton charge \mathcal{L} related to the ordinary lepton charge L and a SU(3) charge by L=2/\sqrt{3} T_8+\mathcal{L} and the lepton parity P_l=(-)^L known as a residual symmetry of L have been introduced which provide insights in this kind of model. The expected vacuum alignments resulting in potential minimization can origin from appropriate violation terms of S_4 and \mathcal{L}. The smallness of seesaw contributions can be explained from the existence of such terms too. If P_l is not broken by the vacuum values of the scalar fields, there is no mixing between the exotic and the ordinary quarks at the tree level.Comment: 20 pages, revised versio

Modified Alvarado Scoring System as a diagnostic tool for Acute Appendicitis at Bugando Medical Centre, Mwanza, Tanzania

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Decision-making in patients with acute appendicitis poses a diagnostic challenge worldwide, despite much advancement in abdominal surgery. The Modified Alvarado Scoring System (MASS) has been reported to be a cheap and quick diagnostic tool in patients with acute appendicitis. However, differences in diagnostic accuracy have been observed if the scores were applied to various populations and clinical settings. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic value of Modified Alvarado Scoring System in patients with acute appendicitis in our setting.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A cross-sectional study involving all patients suspected to have acute appendicitis at Bugando Medical Centre over a six-month period between November 2008 and April 2009 was conducted. All patients who met the inclusion criteria were consecutively enrolled in the study. They were evaluated on admission using the MASS to determine whether they had acute appendicitis or not. All patients underwent appendicectomy according to the hospital protocol. The decision to operate was the prerogative of the surgeon or surgical resident based on overall clinical judgment and not the MASS. The diagnosis was confirmed by histopathological examination. Data was collected using a pre-tested coded questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS statistical computer software.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A total number of 127 patients were studied. Their ages ranged from eight to 76 years (mean 29.64 ± 12.97). There were 37 (29.1%) males and 90 (70.9%) females (M: F = 1:2.4). All patients in this study underwent appendicectomy. The perforation rate was 9.4%. Histopathological examination confirmed appendicitis in 85 patients (66.9%) and the remaining 42 patients had normal appendix giving a negative appendicectomy rate of 33.1% (26.8% for males and 38.3% for females). The sensitivity and specificity of MASS in this study were 94.1% (males 95.8% and females 88.3%) and 90.4% (males 92.9% and females 89.7%) respectively. The Positive Predictive Value and Negative Predictive Value were 95.2% (males 95.5% and females 90.6%) and 88.4% (males 89.3% and females 80.1%) respectively. The accuracy of MASS was 92.9% (males 91.5% and females 87.6%).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The study shows that use of MASS in patients suspected to have acute appendicitis provides a high degree of diagnostic accuracy and can be employed at Bugando Medical Centre to improve the diagnostic accuracy of acute appendicitis and subsequently reduces negative appendicectomy and complication rates. However, additional investigations may be required to confirm the diagnosis in case of atypical presentation.</p