Crystal structure of ethyl 2-[2-((1E)-{(1E)-2-[2-(2-ethoxy-2-oxoethoxy)benzyl-idene]hydrazin-1-ylidene}methyl)phen-oxy]acetate

NSF–MRI grant No. 1228232 for the purchase of the diffractometer and Tulane University for support of the Tulane Crystallography Laboratory are gratefully acknowledged.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Melody contour identification and instrument recognition using semitone mapping in Nucleus Cochlear Implant recipients

Cochlear implants (CIs) were originally aimed at restoring speech perception for patients with profound hearing loss. Many postlingually deafened CI patients report that music is not well perceived while others enjoy it. Music consists of complex sounds composed of tones with harmonic structure of overtones and temporal fine structure. The harmonic structure is not preserved by the current standard (Std) ACE (advanced combination encoders) mapping and the temporal fine structure is not well encoded. The mapping is believed to produce distortion due to compression oin the low frequency range. In 2008 we proposed two new semitone (Smt) mappings (Smt-LF and Smt-MF) in two frequency ranges (130-1502 Hz and 440-5040 Hz) respectively (Omran et al. 2008). Smt mapping is expected to preserve the harmonic structure representation of overtones and this may improve melody recognition with CIs. In this paper two psychoacoustic experiments (melody contour identification (MCI) (Galvin et al. 2007) and instrument recognition (IR)) were conducted with three different conditions (Std, Smt-MF and Smt-LF mappings) with CI recipients by streaming processed stimuli directly to the implant. The MCI test included five patterns (rising - rising falling - flat - falling rising – falling). Each pattern consisted of five tones; each tone had a fundamental frequency and four overtones. The lowest fundamental frequency of each pattern is called “root”. Signals had two different roots A3 (220 Hz) and A4 (440 Hz). Proposed nine patterns with three roots (A3, A4 and A5) by Galvin et al. (2007) were examined in a pilot test. This test took a long time and the preliminary results showed a possibility to reduce the number of patterns to five and eliminate the fifth octave root (A5). In the IR test, four pairs of instruments (Trumpet and Trombone, Flute and Clarinet, Violin and Cello, Guitar and Piano) from four groups (Brass, Woodwind, Struck and String instruments) respectively were used. MCI and IR tests were conducted with 8 CI recipients. Results from MCI tests showed an improvement with Smt mapping in respect to Std mapping or at least similar results. However, wrong identification occurred with notes having filtered out partials. CI recipients showed an increase in identifying melody contour patterns with Smt mappings. Instrument identification performance decreased with semitone mappings

Hyperinsulinism-hyperammonaemia syndrome: novel mutations in the GLUD1 gene and genotype-phenotype correlations

Background: Activating mutations in the GLUD1 gene (which encodes for the intra-mitochondrial enzyme glutamate dehydrogenase, GDH) cause the hyperinsulinism–hyperammonaemia (HI/HA) syndrome. Patients present with HA and leucine-sensitive hypoglycaemia. GDH is regulated by another intra-mitochondrial enzyme sirtuin 4 (SIRT4). Sirt4 knockout mice demonstrate activation of GDH with increased amino acid-stimulated insulin secretion. Objectives: To study the genotype–phenotype correlations in patients with GLUD1 mutations. To report the phenotype and functional analysis of a novel mutation (P436L) in the GLUD1 gene associated with the absence of HA. Patients and methods: Twenty patients with HI from 16 families had mutational analysis of the GLUD1 gene in view of HA (n=19) or leucine sensitivity (n=1). Patients negative for a GLUD1 mutation had sequence analysis of the SIRT4 gene. Functional analysis of the novel P436L GLUD1 mutation was performed. Results: Heterozygous missense mutations were detected in 15 patients with HI/HA, 2 of which are novel (N410D and D451V). In addition, a patient with a normal serum ammonia concentration (21 µmol/l) was heterozygous for a novel missense mutation P436L. Functional analysis of this mutation confirms that it is associated with a loss of GTP inhibition. Seizure disorder was common (43%) in our cohort of patients with a GLUD1 mutation. No mutations in the SIRT4 gene were identified. Conclusion: Patients with HI due to mutations in the GLUD1 gene may have normal serum ammonia concentrations. Hence, GLUD1 mutational analysis may be indicated in patients with leucine sensitivity; even in the absence of HA. A high frequency of epilepsy (43%) was observed in our patients with GLUD1 mutations

EFFICACY AND SAFETY OF ACETAMINOPHEN COMPARED TO TRAMADOL AFTER LAPAROSCOPIC CHOLECYSTECTOMY

Abstract Background: Laparoscopic cholecystectomy become widely popular because of its less postoperative pain produced compared to conventional cholecystectomy. The use of opioids postoperatively to reduce pain may be harmful and produce some adverse effects .Tramadol is a centrally acting opioid which is effective for postoperative analgesic pain but produce undesirable adverse effects the patients do not tolerate it so that intravenous acetaminophen could be helpful to optimize postoperative analgesia by reducing the requirement for opioids and their adverse effects.Method: A prospective randomized clinical trial was carried out on 27 adults undergoing elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy were randomly assigned to two groups in this study (13patients) to receive intravenously 1000mg acetaminophen and (14 patients) to receive intramuscularly tramadol 100mg postoperatively; visual analog scale (VAS) was utilized to asses pain severity and efficacy of analgesic agents. Pain scores were assessed at 0,2,4,6,8,10 and 12h after surgery the incidence of adverse effects was also assessed.Results: Over a period of 12hours, visual analog scale (VAS) scores were significantly lower in each group at each time interval compared to zero time; there is a non significant difference in pain score between the different groups; the incidence of adverse effects like nausea and vomiting was significant in tramadol group compared to acetaminophen group.Conclusion: Postoperative intravenous acetaminophen infusion of 1000mg is useful for reducing pain scores after elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy; it is effective and safe analgesic with less adverse effects compared to tramadol.  Key words: laparoscopic cholecystectomy, Acetaminophen, Tramadol, Postoperative analgesia.  Â

Enhancing the wettability of polyetheretherketone (PEEK) membrane with ozone for improving fuel cell performance

Ozone was reacted with the aromatic membrane polyetheretherketone (PEEK) to form oxidized functional groups on the surface to enhance the attraction and transport of protons in fuel cells. Ozonation of unsaturated C-C sp2 bonds in PEEK formed a primary ozonide which dissociated to primarily produce O=C-O/O=C-OH moieties, and the root mean squared roughness factor (Rq) decreased from 7.4 nm, for the untreated sample, down to 3.1 nm. The oxidation of the surface and decrease in surface roughness made the surface increase in hydrophilicity as observed by the decrease in the water contact angle (CA) from 80.3° for untreated PEEK down to 21.7°. Washing the treated surface with solvent decreased the O at % on the surface indicating the formation of a weak boundary layer because of bond breakage during the decomposition of the ozonide

Does rapid urbanization aggravate health disparities? Reflections on the epidemiological transition in Pune, India

Background: Rapid urbanization in low- and middle-income countries reinforces risk and epidemiological transition in urban societies, which are characterized by high socioeconomic gradients. Limited availability of disaggregated morbidity data in these settings impedes research on epidemiological profiles of different population subgroups. Objective: The study aimed to analyze the epidemiological transition in the emerging megacity of Pune with respect to changing morbidity and mortality patterns, also taking into consideration health disparities among different socioeconomic groups. Design: A mixed-methods approach was used, comprising secondary analysis of mortality data, a survey among 900 households in six neighborhoods with different socioeconomic profiles, 46 in-depth interviews with laypeople, and expert interviews with 37 health care providers and 22 other health care workers. Results: The mortality data account for an epidemiological transition with an increasing number of deaths due to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in Pune. The share of deaths due to infectious and parasitic diseases remained nearly constant, though the cause of deaths changed considerably within this group. The survey data and expert interviews indicated a slightly higher prevalence of diabetes and hypertension among higher socioeconomic groups, but a higher incidence and more frequent complications and comorbidities in lower socioeconomic groups. Although the self-reported morbidity for malaria, gastroenteritis, and tuberculosis did not show a socioeconomic pattern, experts estimated the prevalence in lower socioeconomic groups to be higher, though all groups in Pune would be affected. Conclusions: The rising burden of NCDs among all socioeconomic groups and the concurrent persistence of communicable diseases pose a major challenge for public health. Improvement of urban health requires a stronger focus on health promotion and disease prevention for all socioeconomic groups with a holistic understanding of urban health. In order to derive evidence-based solutions and interventions, routine surveillance data become indispensable

An Efficient Hybrid Numerical Scheme for Nonlinear Multiterm Caputo Time and Riesz Space Fractional-Order Diffusion Equations with Delay

In this paper, we construct and analyze a linearized finite difference/Galerkin-Legendre spectral scheme for the nonlinear multiterm Caputo time fractional-order reaction-diffusion equation with time delay and Riesz space fractional derivatives. The temporal fractional orders in the considered model are taken as 0<β0<β1<β2<⋯<βm<1. The problem is first approximated by the L1 difference method on the temporal direction, and then, the Galerkin-Legendre spectral method is applied on the spatial discretization. Armed by an appropriate form of discrete fractional Grönwall inequalities, the stability and convergence of the fully discrete scheme are investigated by discrete energy estimates. We show that the proposed method is stable and has a convergent order of 2-βm in time and an exponential rate of convergence in space. We finally provide some numerical experiments to show the efficacy of the theoretical results. © 2021 A. K. Omran et al.A. K. Omran is funded by a scholarship under the joint executive program between the Arab Republic of Egypt and Russian Federation. M. A. Zaky wishes to acknowledge the support of the Nazarbayev University Program (091019CRP2120). M. A. Zaky wishes also to acknowledge the partial support of the Science Committee of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan (Grant “Dynamical Analysis and Synchronization of Complex Neural Networks with Its Applications”)