130 research outputs found
Effect of Antioxidants on the Outcome of Therapy in Paraquat-intoxicated Patients
Get PDFPurpose: The present study was conducted to determine the effect of vitamins C and E administration on the outcome of therapy in patients with paraquat intoxication admitted in the Poisoning EmergencyDepartment (PED) of Noor Teaching General Hospital, Isfahan, Iran.Methods: We studied retrospectively medical records of 186 patients admitted to the PED in two different study periods: 157 patients were evaluated from 1985 to 2001 (first study period) in which patients received conventional treatment protocol consisting of fluid replacement, oral absorbents, haemodialysis, etc, Also, 29 other patients were assessed from 2001 to 2005 (second study period) in which vitamins C and E had been administered to the patients, in addition to the conventional protocol.The patients' mortality rate after the first study period was compared to that of the second one, with regard to the impact of the additional therapeutic intervention (use of antioxidant vitamins).Results: Most of the patients (40.5 %) had ingested more than 20 mL of 20 % paraquat solution and were admitted to the hospital during the first 4 h after exposure. Paraquat poisoning was more common in men (76.6 %), young adults in the age group 19 - 34 (47 %) and during summer (43.3 %). Mean (± SE) length of hospital stay was 62.6 ± 15.6 h. Overall mortality rates were 31 and 55.2 % in the first and second periods, respectively.Conclusion: Although the addition of antioxidants (vitamins C and E) to the conventional therapy did not reduce the mortality rate, other dependent variables including different doses of antioxidants may beconsidered for future studies
The Potential Use of Drones for Tourism in Crises: A Facility Location Analysis Perspective
Get PDFConsidering the recent lockdowns and travel bans due to COVID-19, novel tourism strategies are necessary to face the increasing need for innovative products and services and to ensure long-term sustainable growth. This study looks into the potential use of drones in providing online virtual tours of open-space tourist attractions. To do so, a novel mixed-integer linear mathematical model is developed to optimally determine the number and location of required facilities and the number of drones assigned to each center. The model is applied to a case study of Rome by selecting six historic sites as the tourist attractions and considering several candidate locations for establishing the facilities. The results of different potential scenarios imply that the project is profitable, even if the demand for virtual tours is low
Electro-magneto-thermo-mechanical Behaviors of a Radially Polarized FGPM Thick Hollow Sphere
Get PDFABSTRACT In this study an analytical method is developed to obtain the response of electro-magneto-thermoelastic stress and perturbation of a magnetic field vector for a thick-walled spherical functionally graded piezoelectric material (FGPM). The hollow sphere, which is placed in a uniform magnetic field, is subjected to a temperature gradient, inner and outer pressures and a constant electric potential difference between its inner and outer surfaces. The thermal, piezoelectric and mechanical properties except the Poisson's ratio are assumed to vary with the power law functions through the thickness of the hollow sphere. By solving the heat transfer equation, in the first step, a symmetric distribution of temperature is obtained. Using the infinitesimal electro-magnetothermo-elasticity theory, then, the Navier's equation is solved and exact solutions for stresses, electric displacement, electric potential and perturbation of magnetic field vector in the FGPM hollow sphere are obtained. Moreover, the effects of magnetic field vector, electric potential and material in-homogeneity on the stresses and displacements distributions are investigated. The presented results indicate that the material in-homogeneity has a significant influence on the electro-magneto-thermo-mechanical behaviors of the FGPM hollow sphere and should therefore be considered in its optimum design
Machine Learning Classification of Females Susceptibility to Visceral Fat Associated Diseases
Get PDFThe problem of classifying subjects into risk categories is a common challenge in medical research. Machine Learning (ML) methods are widely used in the areas of risk prediction and classification. The primary objective of these algorithms is to predict dichotomous responses (e.g. healthy/at risk) based on several features. Similarly to statistical inference models, also ML models are subject to the common problem of class imbalance. Therefore, they are affected by the majority class increasing the false-negative rate.
In this paper, we built and evaluated eighteen ML models classifying approximately 4300 female participants from the UK Biobank into three categorical risk statuses based on responses for the discretised visceral adipose tissue values from magnetic resonance imaging. We also examined the effect of sampling techniques on classification modelling when dealing with class imbalance.
Results showed that the use of sampling techniques had a significant impact. They not only drove an improvement in predicting patients risk status but also facilitated an increase in the information contained within each variable. Based on domain experts criteria, the three best models for classification were finally identified.
These encouraging results will guide further developments of classification models for predicting visceral adipose tissue without the need for a costly scan
The genetic basis of DOORS syndrome: an exome-sequencing study.
Get PDFDeafness, onychodystrophy, osteodystrophy, mental retardation, and seizures (DOORS) syndrome is a rare autosomal recessive disorder of unknown cause. We aimed to identify the genetic basis of this syndrome by sequencing most coding exons in affected individuals
Polymorphism of C3 complement in association with myocardial infarction in a sample of central Tunisia
Get PDFCarta de S. M. Golabi a Alain Guy. Trabiz, 11 de Julio de 1977
No full textCarta de S. M. Golabi a Alain Guy en la que le dice que si le puede comunicar las impresiones que tiene sobre la capacidad de trabajo del Señor Mahmoud Navali, asistente de la Facultad de Letras y Ciencicas humanas y que Navali debe entregar su tésis doctoral antes del comienzo del curso 1977-1978.- Observaciones: S.M. Golabi director del departamento de búsquedas de la Universidad de Azarabadegan. Mahmoud Navali fue profesor de la Universidad de Azarabadegan.- Bibliografía: Navali, Mahmoud. Les origines de la Philosophie de Bergson Et la Tradition philosophique. Tesis doctoral supervisada por: Alain Guy. Université Toulouse-Le Mirail, Toulouse, 197
OPTIMIZATION OF CLADDING USING LASER SHOCK WELDING BY MULTI-OBJECTIVE PARTICLE SWARM ALGORITHM
No full textLaser shock welding process has recently attracted the attention of many researchers. Similar to explosive and magnetic welding, this process may also be used for impact welding using solid state welding principle. Impact welding is based on the influence of high-velocity collision of two base metals and generation of metallurgical atomic bonding in the solid phase at the contact area at ambient temperature. This process is also used to clad a sheet metal with a thin layer of other metal, named flyer plate. The base metal is serrated with certain angle and depth and the flyer plate is moved rapidly to collide with the base plate to generate bonding. The energy required to move the flyer plate, is produced by plasma pressure created by laser impact on the surface of
the flyer plate. The main advantage of this connection is its capability to attach two dissimilar metals in order to enhance physical, chemical, or mechanical properties on one side of a cheaper metal.Same as other welding methods, it is very important to forecast and optimize the weld quality obtained by this process. Hence, finite element method using ABAQUS software, was employed to simulate the laser welding or cladding process in this research and verified by experimental data. Impact speed, serration angle and depth are the main affecting parameters on weld quality. Therefore, multi-objective particle swarm optimization (MOPSO) algorithm for a certain thickness of the flyer plate was utilized to maximize the welded area of two plates and minimize the cost of machining the base plate for making serration using the data generated by finite element analysis, linked to MATLAB for optimization of these objectives. The optimization results indicate an increase in joined area at the connection point as well as reduced number of grooves which leads to decrease in manufacturing cost
Intravitreal injection of methotrexate in persistent diabetic macular edema: a 6-month follow-up study
No full textPurpose: To evaluate the efficacy of intravitreal injection of methotrexate (MTX) in patients with persistent diabetic macular edema (DME) nonresponsive to intravitreal bevacizumab. Methods: In this prospective, interventional study, intravitreal injection of 400 μg MTX was performed in eyes with persistent center-involving DME unresponsive to at least three consecutive bevacizumab injections or two consecutive bevacizumab injections plus macular photocoagulation. Best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), central subfield thickness (CST), and maximum retinal thickness (MRT) were recorded before and 1, 3, and 6 months after injections. Results: Eighteen eyes of 16 patients with a mean age of 61.1 ± 6.7 years were included. Mean number of intravitreal bevacizumab injections was 3.9 ± 1.8 (range 2�8). The mean change in BCVA was �0.09 ± 0.19, �0.1 ± 0.19, and �0.1 ± 0.19 LogMAR at 1, 3, and 6 months after intravitreal MTX injections, respectively (all P = 0.04). Three eyes (16.6 ) had improvement of at least two lines of BCVA and no eye lost visual acuity. Mean change in CST was �23.7 ± 66.7, �28.7 ± 82.2 and 26.5 ± 83.4 μm at 1, 3, and 6 months after MTX injections, respectively (all P = 0.1). A decrease in CST was found in 13 eyes (72.2 ) at 1 and 3 months, and seven eyes (38.8 ) at 6 months of follow-up. Other eyes showed an increase in CST measurements. Mean change in MRT was �35.1 ± 76.4, �40.6 ± 86.3, and 29.8 ± 68.6 μm at 1, 3, and 6 months after MTX injections, respectively (P = 0.06, P = 0.06, and P = 0.08, respectively). No complication attributable to intravitreal MTX occurred. Conclusion: In this study, intravitreal injection of MTX resulted in anatomical improvement in a significant proportion of eyes with persistent DME. Significant visual improvement was found in 16.6 of eyes. © 2016, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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