Pipergrantham3247
The vagus nerve is crucial in the bidirectional communication between the gut and the brain. It is involved in the modulation of a variety of gut and brain functions. Human studies indicate that the descending vagal signaling from the brain is impaired in functional dyspepsia. Growing evidence indicate that the vagal signaling from gut to brain may also be altered, due to the alteration of a variety of gut signals identified in this disorder. The pathophysiological roles of vagal signaling in functional dyspepsia is still largely unknown, although some studies suggested it may contribute to reduced food intake and gastric motility, increased psychological disorders and pain sensation, nausea and vomiting. Understanding the alteration in vagal signaling and its pathophysiological roles in functional dyspepsia may provide information for new potential therapeutic treatments of this disorder. In this review, we summarize and speculate possible alterations in vagal gut-to-brain and brain-to-gut signaling and the potential pathophysiological roles in functional dyspepsia.Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) patients suffer from neurocognitive impairment. In this study, we investigated cortical volumetric and thickness changes in ME/CFS patients and healthy controls (HC). We estimated mean surface-based cortical volume and thickness from 18 ME/CFS patients who met International Consensus Criteria (ICC) and 26 HC using FreeSurfer. Vertex-wise analysis showed significant reductions in the caudal middle frontal gyrus (p = 0.0016) and precuneus (p = 0.013) thickness in ME/CFS patients compared with HC. Region based analysis of sub-cortical volumes found that amygdala volume (p = 0.002) was significantly higher in ME/CFS patients compared with HC. We also performed interaction-with-group regressions with clinical measures to test for cortical volume and thickness correlations in ME/CFS with opposite slopes to HC (abnormal). ME/CFS cortical volume and thickness regressions with fatigue, heart-rate variability, heart rate, sleep disturbance score, respiratory rate, and cognitive performance were abnormal. Our study demonstrated different cortical volume and thickness in ME/CFS patients and showed abnormal cortical volume and thickness regressions with key symptoms of ME/CFS patients.There has been a significant increase in the number of total knee replacement (TKR) surgeries over the past few years, particularly among active young and elderly people suffering from knee pain. Continuous and optimal monitoring of the load on the knee is highly desirable for designing more reliable knee implants. This paper focuses on designing a smart knee implant consisting of a triboelectric energy harvester and a frontend electronic system to process the harvested signal for monitoring the knee load. The harvester produces an AC signal with peak voltages ranging from 10 V to 150 V at different values of knee cyclic loads. This paper demonstrates the measurement results of a PCB prototype of the frontend electronic system fabricated to verify the functionality and feasibility of the proposed approach for a small range of cycling load. The frontend electronic system consists of a voltage processing unit to attenuate high peak voltages, a rectifier and a regulator to convert the input AC signal into a stabilized DC signal. The DC voltage signal provides biasing for the delta-sigma analog-to-digital converter (ADC). Thus, the output of the triboelectric harvester acts as both the power signal that is rectified/regulated and data signal that is digitized. The power consumption of the proposed PCB design is approximately 5.35 μW. Next, the frontend sensor circuitry is improved to accommodate a wider range of cyclic load. These results demonstrate that triboelectric energy harvesting is a promising technique for self-monitoring the load inside knee implants.
Concerns have been raised regarding the risks of SARS-CoV-2 breakthrough infections in vaccinated patients with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases treated with immunosuppressants, but clinical data on breakthrough infections are still scarce. The primary objective of this study was to compare the incidence and severity of SARS-CoV-2 breakthrough infections between patients with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases using immunosuppressants, and controls (patients with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases not taking immunosuppressants and healthy controls) who had received full COVID-19 vaccinations. The secondary objective was to explore determinants of breakthrough infections of the delta (B.1.617.2) variant of SARS-CoV-2, including humoral immune responses after vaccination.
In this substudy, we pooled data collected in two large ongoing prospective multicentre cohort studies conducted in the Netherlands (Target to-B! [T2B!] study and Amsterdam Rheumatology Center COVID [ARC-COVID] study). Both stud was similar to that in controls. However, caution might still be warranted for those on anti-CD20 therapy and those with traditional risk factors.
ZonMw (the Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development) and Reade foundation.
ZonMw (the Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development) and Reade foundation.The anomalous origin of a hypoplastic Left Vertebral Artery (LVA) from the aortic arch is a rare anatomic variant. This study discusses the case of a patient with a C1 lateral mass tumor that surrounded a dominant Right Vertebral Artery (RVA) according to preoperative computed tomography angiography, with a hypoplastic LVA originating from the aortic arch. Surgery was performed, and the patient recovered uneventfully. To date, no study has reported the simultaneous association of two variations (origin and diameter) in the LVA. A deep understanding of abnormalities in the diameter and origin of LVA is a must for neurosurgeons as well as for thoracic and vascular surgeons to conduct surgical procedures.There is an ever-greater need for self-cleaning and water-repelling properties of hydrophobic materials at this time in history, mainly due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. However, the fabrication processes used to create hydrophobic materials are typically time-consuming and costly. Thus, this study aims to create hydrophobic materials based on low-cost manufacturing. In this study, polylactic acid (PLA) was mixed with various concentrations of hexadecyltrimethoxysilane (HDTMS) and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) with the aid of solvents, chloroform, and acetone, through the solvent casting and melt extrusion process, which is capable of producing hydrophobic PLA filaments suitable for additive manufacturing (AM). Water contact angle (WCA) measurements were performed to verify the improved hydrophobicity of PLA/HDTMS/PTFE filaments. find more According to the results, it was discovered that the best filament WCAs were achieved with 2 g (10 wt%) of PLA, 0.2 ml of HDTMS, and 1 ml of PTFE (2 g PLA + 0.2 ml HDTMS + 1 ml PTFE), producing an average WCA of 131.6° and the highest WCA of 132.7°. These results indicate that adding HDTMS and PTFE to PLA significantly enhances filament hydrophobicity. Additionally, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) techniques were utilized to characterize the surface morphology, molecular interactions, and thermal decompositions of the prepared PLA/HDTMS/PTFE filaments. This study revealed that compared to 2 g of pure PLA filament, HDTMS and PTFE altered the microstructure of the filament. Its thermal degradation temperature was impacted, but the melting temperature was not. Therefore, the PLA/HDTMS/PTFE filament is good enough to be printed by the fused filament fabrication (FFF) AM process.During the COVID-19 pandemic, the development of point-of-care (POC) diagnostic testing accelerated in an unparalleled fashion. As a result, there has been an increased need for accurate, robust, and easy-to-use POC testing in a variety of non-traditional settings (i.e., pharmacies, drive-thru sites, schools). While stakeholders often express the desire for POC technologies that are "as simple as digital pregnancy tests," there is little discussion of what this means in regards to device design, development, and assessment. The design of POC technologies and systems should take into account the capabilities and limitations of the users and their environments. Such "human factors" are important tenets that can help technology developers create POC technologies that are effective for end-users in a multitude of settings. Here, we review the core principles of human factors and discuss lessons learned during the evaluation process of SARS-CoV-2 POC testing.We investigate the impact of new financial and economic determinants on life insurance demand for 29 OECD countries for the period 2005-2017 while controlling for a set of widely used socio-demographic and economic characteristics. Based on a panel smooth transition regression model, we find a regime-switching effect characterising the impact of bank concentration and interest rate on the size of the life insurance market, in light of the old-age dependency ratio as the threshold variable. We also show that life insurance development is boosted in countries with high scores for investment freedom and with high levels of foreign direct investment rates, regardless of the level of the old-age dependency ratio. The impact of GDP per capita on the demand for life insurance products is positive and statistically significant, regardless of the level of the threshold variable.
Acute COVID-19 in pediatric and young adult patients tends to be milder in severity compared to adult infection. Recent studies seem to show that inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients are at no greater risk than the general population. We aim to describe our experience in the follow-up of pediatric and young adult patients with IBD followed in our center and determine possible risk factors of said population for severe COVID-19.
We performed a retrospective study of all patients aged under 25 years followed for IBD at the Unit of Pediatric Gastroenterology in a tertiary center between December 2019 and April 2021 evaluating the incidence of COVID-19 and characterization of positive cases.
Of the 268 participants, 24 had COVID-19 the mean age was 19 years old and gender had an equal distribution; 75% (
= 18) had Crohn's disease, whereas only 25% (
= 6) had ulcerative colitis. Most patients were in clinical remission (
= 21). The majority of patients were under treatment with a tumor necrosis factor (TNF) antagonist (58%,
= 14), mainly infliximab, and most had no comorbidities other than IBD (83%). Regarding COVID-19, 17% of the patients were asymptomatic while the rest had only mild symptoms. There were no reported gastrointestinal complaints, no complications nor hospitalizations. Most patients did not require interruption of their IBD treatment.
Our data suggest that pediatric and young adult IBD patients have a low risk for complications and hospitalization, regardless of IBD treatment. We believe that this experience is encouraging and allows for safe counseling regarding treatment options and school attendance in pediatric and young adult IBD patients.
Our data suggest that pediatric and young adult IBD patients have a low risk for complications and hospitalization, regardless of IBD treatment. We believe that this experience is encouraging and allows for safe counseling regarding treatment options and school attendance in pediatric and young adult IBD patients.
