Etiology and Management of Sexual Dysfunction

Sexual dysfunction is the impairment or disruption of any of the three phases of normal sexual functioning, including loss of libido, impairment of physiological arousal and loss, delay or alteration of orgasm. Each one of these can be affected by an orchestra of factors like senility, medical and surgical illnesses, medications and drugs of abuse. Non-pharmacological therapy is the main stay in the treatment of sexual dysfunction and drugs are used as adjuncts for a quicker and better result. Management in many of the cases depends on the primary cause. Here is a review of the major etiological factors of sexual dysfunction and its managemen

Cryopreservation of quince (Cydonia oblonga mill.)

BACKGROUND: Quince (Cydonia oblonga Mill.) has great potential for utilisation in pharmaceutical and food industries. OBJECTIVE: The study was to develop an efficient cryopreservation approachfor quince. METHODS: Factors on the survival and regrowth such as cold acclimation, explant type and recovery media composition were assessed. The effectiveness of the resultant protocols for a number of quince cultivars was determined. RESULTS and CONCLUSION: Quince shoot tips and nodal sections are successfully cryopreserved. Sustained regrowth of quince ‘Angers A’ was observed after encapsulation-osmoprotection/dehydration, encapsulation-dehydration and PVS2 vitrification. The highest regrowth rate (80%) was obtained from explants excised from cold hardened shoots and cryopreserved using encapsulation-osmoprotection/dehydration and vitrification protocols. The optimised vitrification protocol in combination with shoot cold hardening and a MS recovery mediumwithout activated charcoal and auxin resulted in satisfactory regrowth of shoots from six quince cultivars. The morphology of acclimatised plants derived from cryopreserved shoots was comparablewith non-cryopreserved plants.Ayesha Siddika is grateful to the University of Derby for the research studentship. The authors acknowledge the Commission of European Union for funding 196 support through CRYMCEPT (Establishing Cryopreservation Methods for Conserving European Plant Germplasm Collections, Quality of Life and Management of Living Resources, QLK5-CT-2002-01279) and CRYOPLANET, COST Action 871 (Establishing Cryopreservation of Crop Species in Europe ). Maurizio Lambardi thanks the Ente Cassa di Risparmio of Florence for the support for this study (project POLICENTRO)

Review article – The effects of clinical support surfaces on pressure as a risk factor in the development of pressure ulcers, from a radiographical perspective: a narrative literature review

Purpose: Pressure ulcers are a high cost, high volume issue for health and medical care providers, having a detrimental effect on patients and relatives. Pressure ulcer prevention is widely covered in the literature, but little has been published regarding the risk to patients in the radiographical setting. This review of the current literature is to identify findings relevant to radiographical context. Methods: Literature searching was performed using Science Direct and Medline databases. The search was limited to articles published in the last ten years to remain current and excluded studies containing participants less than 17 years of age. In total 14 studies were acquired; three were excluded as they were not relevant. The remaining 11 studies were compared and reviewed. Discussion: Eight of the studies used ‘healthy’ participants and three used symptomatic participants. Nine studies explored interface pressure with a range of pressure mat technologies, two studies measured shear (MRI finite element modelling, and a non-invasive instrument), and one looked at blood flow and haemoglobin oxygenation. A range of surfaces were considered from trauma, nursing and surgical backgrounds for their ability to reduce pressure including standard mattresses, high specification mattresses, rigid and soft layer spine boards, various overlays (gel, air filled, foam). Conclusion: The current literature is not appropriate for the radiographic patient and cannot be extrapolated to a radiologic context. Sufficient evidence is presented in this review to support the need for further work specific to radiography in order to minimise the development of PU in at risk patients

An experimental study to compare the interface pressure and experience of healthy participants when lying still for 20 minutes in a supine position on two different imaging surfaces

Introduction: Pressure ulcers are a high cost, high volume issue for health and medical care providers, affecting patients’ recovery and psychological wellbeing. The current research of support surfaces on pressure as a risk factor in the development of pressure ulcers is not relevant to the specialised, controlled environment of the radiological setting. Method: 38 healthy participants aged 19-51 were placed supine on two different imaging surfaces. The XSENSOR pressure mapping system was used to measure the interface pressure. Data was acquired over a time of 20 minutes preceded by 6 minutes settling time to reduce measurement error. Qualitative information regarding participants’ opinion on pain and comfort was recorded using a questionnaire. Data analysis was performed using SPSS 22. Results: Data was collected from 30 participants aged 19 to 51 (mean 25.77, SD 7.72), BMI from 18.7 to 33.6 (mean 24.12, SD 3.29), for two surfaces, following eight participant exclusions due to technical faults. Total average pressure, average pressure for jeopardy areas (head, sacrum & heels) and peak pressure for jeopardy areas were calculated as interface pressure in mmHg. Qualitative data showed that a significant difference in experiences of comfort and pain was found in the jeopardy areas (P<0.05) between the two surfaces. Conclusion: A significant difference is seen in average pressure between the two surfaces. Pain and comfort data also show a significant difference between the surfaces, both findings support the proposal for further investigation into the effects of radiological surfaces as a risk factor for the formation of pressure ulcers

The effects of clinical support surfaces on pressure as a risk factor in the development of pressure ulcers, from a radiographical perspective: a narrative literature review

Purpose: Pressure ulcers are a high cost, high volume issue for health and medical care providers, having a detrimental effect on patients and relatives. Pressure ulcer prevention is widely covered in the literature, but little has been published regarding the risk to patients in the radiographical setting. This review of the current literature is to identify findings relevant to radiographical context. Methods: Literature searching was performed using Science Direct and Medline databases. The search was limited to articles published in the last ten years to remain current and excluded studies containing participants less than 17 years of age. In total 14 studies were acquired; three were excluded as they were not relevant. The remaining 11 studies were compared and reviewed. Discussion: Eight of the studies used ‘healthy’ participants and three used symptomatic participants. Nine studies explored interface pressure with a range of pressure mat technologies, two studies measured shear (MRI finite element modelling, and a non-invasive instrument), and one looked at blood flow and haemoglobin oxygenation. A range of surfaces were considered from trauma, nursing and surgical backgrounds for their ability to reduce pressure including standard mattresses, high specification mattresses, rigid and soft layer spine boards, various overlays (gel, air filled, foam). Conclusion: The current literature is not appropriate for the radiographic patient and cannot be extrapolated to a radiologic context. Sufficient evidence is presented in this review to support the need for further work specific to radiography in order to minimise the development of PU in at risk patients

Study and Performance Analysis of Different Techniques for Computing Data Cubes

Data is an integrated form of observable and recordable facts in operational or transactional systems in the data warehouse. Usually, data warehouse stores aggregated and historical data in multi-dimensional schemas. Data only have value to end-users when it is formulated and represented as information. And Information is a composed collection of facts for decision making. Cube computation is the most efficient way for answering this decision making queries and retrieve information from data. Online Analytical Process (OLAP) used in this purpose of the cube computation. There are two types of OLAP: Relational Online Analytical Processing (ROLAP) and Multidimensional Online Analytical Processing (MOLAP). This research worked on ROLAP and MOLAP and then compare both methods to find out the computation times by the data volume. Generally, a large data warehouse produces an extensive output, and it takes a larger space with a huge amount of empty data cells. To solve this problem, data compression is inevitable. Therefore, Compressed Row Storage (CRS) is applied to reduce empty cell overhead

An Investigation of Antimicrobial Activity on Fibers and its Textiles Application in Recent Times

The study attempt to investigate the advancement of antimicrobial activity and its used in textiles in recent years (between 2000-1019) and the latest finding and innovation more to its field. In textile finishes to safeguard textiles from the infestation of microorganism (bacteria, fungi, mildew, algae etc.) antimicrobial finishes have been playing an excellent role. Antimicrobial finishes are important nowadays mostly because it imparts certain properties to the surface of fabric maintaining excellence level of hygiene; cleanliness and can last up to maximum wash times. It is an excellent mean to give fabric a smart finish which do not only prevent microbial activity but also impart smart functionalities. Besides textiles antimicrobial protection has been observingly found in food packaging, cosmetics and many more industries. The study is aimed to combine the future potentials and recent progression of antimicrobial finishes in various fields of our life and has been conducted by an empirical investigation from the previous works. The contributions are for the development of mankind and for more impactful results of the area of antimicrobial finishes so far taken place. But the possibilities in future where more advance applications can lead far more more development and innovation are yet to find out

Assessing Blockchain’s Potential to Ensure Data Integrity and Security for AI and Machine Learning Applications

The increasing use of data-centric approaches in the fields of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence (ML/AI) has raised substantial issues over the security, integrity, and trustworthiness of data. In response to this challenge, Blockchain technology offered a promising and practical solution, as its inherent characteristics as a decentralized distributed ledger, coupled with cryptographic processes, offer an unprecedented level of data confidentiality and immutability. This study examines the mutually beneficial connection between Blockchain technology and ML/AI, using Blockchain\u27s inherent capacity to protect against unauthorized alterations of data during the training phase of ML models. The method involves building valid blocks of data from the training dataset and then sending them to the mining process using smart contracts and the Proof of Work (PoW) consensus method. Using SHA256 to produce a cryptographic signature for each data block improves the aforementioned procedure. The public Ethereum blockchain serves as a secure repository for these signatures, whereas a cloud-based infrastructure houses the original data file. Particularly during the training phase of Machine Learning (ML) models, this cryptographic framework is critical in ensuring the data verification procedure. This research investigates the potential collaboration between Blockchain technology and ML/AI, bolstering data quality and trust to enhance data-driven decision-making fortifying the models\u27 ability to provide precise and dependable results

Distribution and frequency of cerebral microhemorrhages in cerebral small vessel disease

Aim: To evaluate the distribution and frequency of microhemorrhages (MHs) in cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD), multiple lacunar stroke and control groups and their association with factors implicated in etiology such as hypertension (HT), diabetes mellitus (DM) and antiplatelet drug use. Methods: Patients were divided into CSVD, multiple lacunar infarction (MLI) and control groups based on white matter hyperintensity (WMH), presence of lacunes, and patient clinical information. The presence and frequency of MHs were compared in terms of comorbidities such as accompanying HT, DM and antiplatelet use. Results: The presence of MHs in the CSVD group was significantly higher than in the other groups (p&lt;0.001). The number of MHs in the thalamus, basal ganglia and cortical-subcortical areas were significantly higher in the CSVD group than in the other groups. Conclusions: One of the most important points that stands out in this study is that microhemorrhage was seen in 78% in the CSVD group, 38% in the MLI group and 20% in the control group, although the total number did not exceed three. The results of our study suggest that T2* gradient echo (GE) and susceptibility weighted (SW) imaging should be performed before thrombolytic therapy in stroke patients with or without CSVD