Meteorological conditions on days of radon measurements in air over the eastern Arabian sea off Bombay

Meteorological conditions prevailing over and west of Bombay on the four days on which Bhat et. al., (1974) made measurements of radon concentration at different altitudes from the surface to 3.7 km and distances of 0-50 and 350-400 km west of Bombay, do not appear to support their conclusions about airmasses

A note on the relapse rate over a four-year period in patients with quiescent pulmonary tuberculosis following treatment with reserve regimens

Fifty patients, all of whom had failed on previous treatment with isoniazid or isoniazid plus PAS, attained bacteriologically quiescent disease at the end of one year of daily treatment with streptomycin (1 g.) plus pyrazinamide (1-1.75 g.). Over a four-year period of follow-up (during which 38 continued to receive the regimen for 1-14 months), only one had a bacteriological relapse. Twenty patients, of whom 18 had failed on two previous chemotherapeutic regimens, attained bacteriologically quiescent disease at the end of one year of daily treatment with ethionamide (500 mg.) plus cycloserine (in an intended dose of 500 mg.). Over a four-year period of follow-up (during which nine continued to receive the regimen for 1-14 months), four had a bacteriological relaps

A Bidding Mechanism for Resource Allocation in Network Slicing

In this paper, we present a resource allocation mechanism for network slices. We consider a dynamic resource allocation model with multiple independent resource providers. We call our allocation mechanism, the soft-max allocation mechanism, where the slices bid for resources and the resource providers allocate resources such that their revenue is close to the maximum revenue possible. We show that this mechanism translates into a game among the slices with a unique Nash equilibrium. We also show that the network utility obtained at this Nash equilibrium is close to the optimal social utility. We then present a stochastic dual sub-gradient algorithm that provably converges to the unique Nash equilibrium

Graph Neural Network based scheduling : Improved throughput under a generalized interference model

International audienceIn this work, we propose a Graph Convolutional Neural Networks (GCN) based scheduling algorithm for adhoc networks. In particular, we consider a generalized interference model called the k-tolerant conflict graph model and design an efficient approximation for the wellknown Max-Weight scheduling algorithm. A notable feature of this work is that the proposed method do not require labelled data set (NP-hard to compute) for training the neural network. Instead, we design a loss function that utilises the existing greedy approaches and trains a GCN that improves the performance of greedy approaches. Our extensive numerical experiments illustrate that using our GCN approach, we can significantly (4-20 percent) improve the performance of the conventional greedy approach

Alzheimer Disease and Related Disorders and Out-of-Pocket Health Care Spending and Burden Among Elderly Medicare Beneficiaries

Objective—To estimate the excess burden of out-of-pocket healthcare spending associated with Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders (ADRD) among older individuals (age ≥ 65 years). Methods—We adopted a retrospective, cross-sectional study design with data from 2012 Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey. The study sample comprised of elderly community dwelling individuals who had positive total healthcare expenditures, and enrolled in Medicare throughout the calendar year (462 with ADRD, and 7,160 without ADRD). We estimated the percapita total annual out-of-pocket spending on healthcare and out-of-pocket spending by service type: inpatient, outpatient, home health, prescription drugs, and other services. We measured outof-pocket spending burden by calculating the percentage of income spent on healthcare and defined high out-of-pocket spending burden as having this percentage above 10%. Multivariable analyses included ordinary least squares regressions and logistic regressions and these analyses adjusted for predisposing, enabling, need, personal healthcare practices and external environment characteristics. Results—The average annual per-capita out-of-pocket healthcare spending was greater among individuals with ADRD compared to those without ADRD ($3,285 vs.$1,895); home health and prescription drugs accounted for 52% of total out-of-pocket spending among individuals with ADRD and 34% among individuals without ADRD. Elderly individuals with ADRD were more likely to have high out-of-pocket spending burden (AOR = 1.49; 95% CI = 1.13, 1.97) compared to those without ADRD. Conclusion—ADRD is associated with excess out-of-pocket healthcare spending, primarily driven by prescription drugs and home healthcare use

Cycloserine Plus Ethionamide Plus Pyrazinamide in the Treatment of Patients Excreting Isoniazid-resistant Tubercle Bacilli following Previous Chemotherapy

The results of treatment with a daily triple-drug regimen of cycloserine plus ethionamide plus pyrazinamide in 62 patients with chronic drug-resistant pulmonary tuberculosis are described. Of 51 patients who could be assessed, 37 (73 per cent) had a favourable bacteriological response at 1 year; 2 had a bacteriological relapse by 36 months. Drug toxicity requiring clinical action occurred in 22 (35 per cent) of the 62 patients. Ethionamide was the main drug accounting for toxicity and had to be terminated in 7 patients

QbD-based design and characterization of mucoadhesive microspheres of quetiapine fumarate with improved oral bioavailability and brain biodistribution potential

The present work aims to discuss on Quality by Design based development and characterization of the sustained release mucoadhesive microspheres of quetiapine fumarate. The microspheres were prepared by non-aqueous solvent evaporation process. Factor screening study was carried out using fractional factorial design for identifying the influential factors. Systematic optimization of microspheres was accomplished by Box-Behnken design and characterized for particle size, entrapment efficiency, in vitro drug release and ex vivo mucoadhesion strength, which indicated that microspheres were consequence to be spherical and free flowing in nature. The microspheres exhibited high drug entrapment efficiency and in vitro drug release in a sustained manner, which was considered to be dependent on the concentration of rate controlling polymers. Ex vivo wash-off test on microspheres indicated good mucoadhesive property on excised goat intestinal mucosa. Out of all the accepted formulation, F6 was preferred as the optimized formulation. In vivo pharmacokinetic and brain biodistribution study revealed significant increase in the levels of drug in blood plasma and brain homogenates from the optimized formulation vis-à-vis the pure drug suspension. Overall, current study corroborated significant improvement in the biopharmaceutical attributes of quetiapine fumarate from mucoadhesive microspheres, which can be effectively used for management of depression and schizophrenia. Keywords: Quality by Design, DoE, Sustained release, Mucoadhesion, Depressio

ABHD11-AS1: An Emerging Long Non-Coding RNA (lncRNA) with Clinical Significance in Human Malignancies

The aberrant expression of lncRNAs has been linked to the development and progression of different cancers. One such lncRNA is ABHD11 antisense RNA 1 (ABHD11-AS1), which has recently gained attention for its significant role in human malignancies. ABHD11-AS1 is highly expressed in gastric, lung, breast, colorectal, thyroid, pancreas, ovary, endometrium, cervix, and bladder cancers. Several reports highlighted the clinical significance of ABHD11-AS1 in prognosis, diagnosis, prediction of cancer progression stage, and treatment response. Significantly, the levels of ABHD11-AS1 in gastric juice had been exhibited as a clinical biomarker for the assessment of gastric cancer, while its serum levels have prognostic potential in thyroid cancers. The ABHD11-AS1 has been reported to exert oncogenic effects by sponging different microRNAs (miRNAs), altering signaling pathways such as PI3K/Akt, epigenetic mechanisms, and N6-methyladenosine (m6A) RNA modification. In contrast, the mouse homolog of AHD11-AS1 (Abhd11os) overexpression had exhibited neuroprotective effects against mutant huntingtin-induced toxicity. Considering the emerging research reports, the authors attempted in this first review on ABHD11-AS1 to summarize and highlight its oncogenic potential and clinical significance in different human cancers. Lastly, we underlined the necessity for future mechanistic studies to unravel the role of ABHD11-AS1 in tumor development, prognosis, progression, and targeted therapeutic approaches