(E)-N′-[1-(2-Hy­droxy­phen­yl)ethyl­idene]-2-phen­oxy­acetohydrazide–2,2′-(1,1′-azinodiethyl­idyne)diphenol (2/1)

The formula unit of the title mol­ecular complex, 2C16H16N2O3·C16H16N2O2, consists of two (E)-N′-[1-(2-hy­droxy­phen­yl)ethyl­idene]-2-phen­oxy­acetohydrazide mol­ecules and one mol­ecule of 2,2′-(1,1′-azinodiethyl­idyne)diphenol, with the latter located on a crystallographic inversion center. The acetohydrazide mol­ecules are linked into a supermolecular chain along the c axis by inter­molecular N—H⋯O hydrogen bonds. There are also intra­molecular O—H⋯N hydrogen bonds in both the acetohydrazide and diphenol mol­ecules

Appropriateness of proton pump inhibitors prescription in patients admitted to a Malaysian tertiary hospital

Introduction: Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are one of the commonest drug prescribed, however it is not without risk of adverse effects especially if the usage is inappropriate. We aimed to evaluate the frequency, indications and appropriateness of PPIs prescription among the medical inpatients, Serdang Hospital, which is a tertiary hospital in Malaysia. Materials and Methods:: This is a retrospective cross sectional study consisting of 4953 patients admitted to medical ward from 1st July 2016 to 31st March 2017, and their database were further analysed by Statistical Package for the Social Sciences for Windows (IBM SPSS Statistics 17.0). Unpaired t-test was performed to analyze the data collected. P < 0.05 (two-tailed) is considered significant. Their indications were cross-referenced against the indications adapted from the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Results: 23.9% (1184/4953) of inpatients were using PPIs, and 63% (746/1184) of them recently started on PPI in the ward, with mean age of 59.7 years. More male patients were commenced on PPIs during hospitalization (P value < 0.05). Based on the FDA guideline, only 21.8% patients were indicated, 32.2% were borderline indicated, and 46.0% patients were not indicated in prescribing PPIs. Stress ulcer prophylaxis was the commonest indication, while anaemia with no evidence of gastrointestinal bleed was the main non-indication in starting PPIs. Only 11% of patients had performed the oesophago-gastro-duodenoscopy (OGDS) during the hospital stay. Conclusion: A majority of inpatients were inappropriately prescribed PPIs according to FDA guideline. More efforts should be initiated to improve the current situation of PPIs overutilization in Malaysia

Appropriateness of Proton pump inhibitors prescription in patients admitted to a Malaysian tertiary hospital

Introduction Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are one of the commonest drug prescribed, however it is not without risk of adverse effects especially if the usage is inappropriate. We aimed to evaluate the frequency, indications and appropriateness of PPIs prescription among the medical inpatients, Serdang Hospital, which is a tertiary hospital in Malaysia. Methods This is a cross sectional study consisting of 1184 patients admitted to medical ward and received PPI from 1st July 2016 to 31st March 2017, and their database were further analysed by SPSS Statistics 17.0. Unpaired t-test was performed to analyze the data collected. P < 0.05 (two-tailed) is considered significant. Their indications were cross-referenced against the indications adapted from the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Results About 23.9% (1184/4953) of inpatients were using PPIs, and 63.0% (746/1184) of them recently started on PPI in the ward, with mean age of 59.7 years. More male patients were commenced on PPIs during hospitalization (P value < 0.05). Based on the FDA guideline, only 21.8% patients were indicated, 32.2% were borderline indicated, and 46.0% patients were not indicated in prescribing PPIs. Stress ulcer prophylaxis was the commonest indication, while anaemia with no evidence of gastrointestinal bleed was the main non-indication in starting PPIs. Only 11% of patients had performed the oesophago-gastro-duodenoscopy (OGDS) during the hospital stay. Conclusions 46.0% of inpatients were inappropriately prescribed PPIs according to FDA guideline. More efforts should be initiated to improve the current situation of PPIs overutilization in Malaysia

An oligonucleotide microarray for microRNA expression analysis based on labeling RNA with quantum dot and nanogold probe

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play important regulatory roles in animals and plants by targeting mRNAs for cleavage or translational repression. They have diverse expression patterns and might regulate various developmental and physiological processes. Profiling miRNA expression is very helpful for studying biological functions of miRNAs. We report a novel miRNA profiling microarray, in which miRNAs were directly labeled at the 3′ terminus with biotin and hybridized with complementary oligo-DNA probes immobilized on glass slides, and subsequently detected by measuring fluorescence of quantum dots labeled with streptavidin bound to miRNAs through streptavidin–biotin interaction. The detection limit of this microarray for miRNA was ∼0.4 fmol, and the detection dynamic range spanned about 2 orders of magnitude. We made a model microarray to profile 11 miRNAs from leaf and root of rice (Oryza sativa L. ssp. indica) seedlings. The analysis results of the miRNAs had a good reproducibility and were consistent with the northern blot result. To avoid using high-cost detection equipment, colorimetric detection, a method based on nanogold probe coupled with silver enhancement, was also successfully introduced into miRNA profiling microarray detection

Comparison between gradients and parcellations for functional connectivity prediction of behavior

Resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) is widely used to predict behavioral measures. To predict behavioral measures, representing RSFC with parcellations and gradients are the two most popular approaches. Here, we compare parcellation and gradient approaches for RSFC-based prediction of a broad range of behavioral measures in the Human Connectome Project (HCP) and Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) datasets. Among the parcellation approaches, we consider group-average “hard” parcellations (Schaefer et al., 2018), individual-specific “hard” parcellations (Kong et al., 2021a), and an individual-specific “soft” parcellation (spatial independent component analysis with dual regression; Beckmann et al., 2009). For gradient approaches, we consider the well-known principal gradients (Margulies et al., 2016) and the local gradient approach that detects local RSFC changes (Laumann et al., 2015). Across two regression algorithms, individual-specific hard-parcellation performs the best in the HCP dataset, while the principal gradients, spatial independent component analysis and group-average “hard” parcellations exhibit similar performance. On the other hand, principal gradients and all parcellation approaches perform similarly in the ABCD dataset. Across both datasets, local gradients perform the worst. Finally, we find that the principal gradient approach requires at least 40 to 60 gradients to perform as well as parcellation approaches. While most principal gradient studies utilize a single gradient, our results suggest that incorporating higher order gradients can provide significant behaviorally relevant information. Future work will consider the inclusion of additional parcellation and gradient approaches for comparison

Laser hemorrhoidoplasty versus conventional hemorrhoidectomy for grade II/III hemorrhoids: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Purpose This study compared the short- and long-term clinical outcomes of laser hemorrhoidoplasty (LH) vs. conventional hemorrhoidectomy (CH) in patients with grade II/III hemorrhoids. Methods PubMed/Medline and the Cochrane Library were searched for randomized and nonrandomized studies comparing LH against CH in grade II/III hemorrhoids. The primary outcomes included postoperative use of analgesia, postoperative morbidity (bleeding, urinary retention, pain, thrombosis), and time of return to work/daily activities. Results Nine studies totaling 661 patients (LH, 336 and CH, 325) were included. The LH group had shorter operative time (P0.999) and prolapse (P=0.240), and the likelihood of complete resolution at 12 months, were similar (P=0.240). Conclusion LH offers more favorable short-term clinical outcomes than CH, with reduced morbidity and pain and earlier return to work or daily activities. Medium-term symptom recurrence at 12 months was similar. Our results should be verified in future well-designed trials with larger samples

The invasion of tobacco mosaic virus RNA induces endoplasmic reticulum stress-related autophagy in HeLa cells

The ability of human cells to defend against viruses originating from distant species has long been ignored. Owing to the pressure of natural evolution and human exploration, some of these viruses may be able to invade human beings. If their ‘fresh’ host had no defences, the viruses could cause a serious pandemic, as seen with HIV, SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and avian influenza virus that originated from chimpanzees, the common palm civet and birds, respectively. It is unknown whether the human immune system could tolerate invasion with a plant virus. To model such an alien virus invasion, we chose TMV (tobacco mosaic virus) and used human epithelial carcinoma cells (HeLa cells) as its ‘fresh’ host. We established a reliable system for transfecting TMV-RNA into HeLa cells and found that TMV-RNA triggered autophagy in HeLa cells as shown by the appearance of autophagic vacuoles, the conversion of LC3-I (light chain protein 3-I) to LC3-II, the up-regulated expression of Beclin1 and the accumulation of TMV protein on autophagosomal membranes. We observed suspected TMV virions in HeLa cells by TEM (transmission electron microscopy). Furthermore, we found that TMV-RNA was translated into CP (coat protein) in the ER (endoplasmic reticulum) and that TMV-positive RNA translocated from the cytoplasm to the nucleolus. Finally, we detected greatly increased expression of GRP78 (78 kDa glucose-regulated protein), a typical marker of ERS (ER stress) and found that the formation of autophagosomes was closely related to the expanded ER membrane. Taken together, our data indicate that HeLa cells used ERS and ERS-related autophagy to defend against TMV-RNA