Τετάρτη 25 Μαρτίου 2020


Determinants of Households’ Access to Improved Drinking Water Sources: A Secondary Analysis of Eswatini 2010 and 2014 Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys
Worldwide, millions of people still die from diseases associated with inadequate water supply, sanitation, and hygiene, despite the fact that the United Nations recognized access to clean drinking water and sanitation as a human right nearly a decade ago. The objective of this study was to describe the determinants of access to improved drinking water sources in Eswatini in 2010 and 2014. Using the Eswatini Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (EMICSs), data for 4,819 households in 2010 and 4,843 in...
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
1d
Comparison of Phytochemical Profile, Mineral Content, and In Vitro Antioxidant Activities of Corchorus capsularis and Corchorus olitorius Leaf Extracts from Different Populations
In addition to fiber, Corchorus (jute) leaf is also rich in secondary metabolites and is used in folk medicine in jute-producing communities. It has been reported that jute halts progression of and helps manage different chronic diseases like tumors, obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases. Various phytochemical, mineral, and antioxidant potency properties of 30 genotypes belonging to Corchorus capsularis and Corchorus olitorius were evaluated in the current study. The results demonstrate...
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
1d
Factors Affecting the Foveal Avascular Zone Area in Healthy Eyes among Young Chinese Adults
Purpose. To evaluate the influence of systemic and ocular factors on the foveal avascular zone (FAZ) area in young Chinese subjects’ healthy eyes. Methods. The current observational, cross-sectional study included 344 eyes from 172 healthy individuals (103 women, 69 men). Optical coherence tomography angiography realized with the split-spectrum amplitude-decorrelation angiography (SSADA) algorithm was used to assess the area of superficial FAZ. To determine the related factors and to reveal their...
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
1d
Leptomeningeal Disease as a Rare Complication of Primary Penile Urethral Cancer
Primary penile urethral cancer is a rare genitourinary malignancy arising from the epithelial lining of the urethra. Our patient is a 63-year-old male with newly diagnosed penile urethral carcinoma who presented with headache and was found to have leptomeningeal disease on imaging and cerebral spinal fluid analysis. He was treated with systemic and intrathecal chemotherapy with some response and improvement in symptoms. This is the first reported case of leptomeningeal disease as a complication of...
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
1d
Quantification of Some Herbal Distillates’ Methanol to Evaluate a New Diagnostic Kit
Methanol naturally exists in all plant products. In recent years, the consumption of certain kinds of herbal distillates has led to blurred vision, leading to neurotic blindness in Iran. The advanced methods needed for determination of methanol are not available in all parts of poor and developing countries. In this study, we evaluated some herbal distillates’ methanol with a new kit compared to gas chromatography for determining the efficacy of the kit. A gas chromatography apparatus was used to...
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
1d
Efficacy and Safety of Tracnil™ Administration in Patients with Dermatological Manifestations of PCOS: An Open-Label Single-Arm Study
Myo-inositol’s role in improving acne by reducing hyperandrogenism has been demonstrated in PCOS patients. Inositol and associated molecules display inhibitory properties against 5-α reductase, COX-2, and lipase enzymes in addition to their antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory properties. However, the role of myo-inositol is not well established in women patients with normal hormone levels but with clinical manifestations of PCOS. In this study, we evaluate the efficacy of Tracnil™, a combination...
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
1d
Understanding Construction Contractors’ Intention to Undertake Consummate Performance Behaviors in Construction Projects
Contractors’ consummate performance behavior (CPB) refers to that contractors perform within the spirit of the contract. This is important to improve project performance. However, few studies have investigated why contractors would undertake CPB. Drawing on the theory of planned behavior (TPB), this study aims to examine which factors influence the intention of CPB. To achieve this, a questionnaire survey was undertaken in China, with 195 valid questionnaires from project managers and contract managers...
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
1d
Association between Vaginal Infections and the Types and Viral Loads of Human Papillomavirus: A Clinical Study Based on 4,449 Cases of Gynecologic Outpatients
Objective. We here evaluated the association between human papillomavirus (HPV) infection and vaginal infections, including bacterial vaginosis (BV), trichomonas vaginalis (TV), and vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC). Methods. A total of 4,449 women were enrolled in this study and given gynecological examinations. HPV genotyping and viral load determination were performed using a real-time PCR. Vaginal infections were diagnosed using wet mounts of vaginal secretions, gram-stained vaginal secretion smears,...
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
1d
Bacterial Endotoxin Induces Oxidative Stress and Reduces Milk Protein Expression and Hypoxia in the Mouse Mammary Gland
The aim of this study was to investigate the mechanisms underlying the reduced milk production during mastitis. We hypothesized that bacterial endotoxin induces hypoxia, oxidative stress, and cell apoptosis while inhibiting milk gene expression in the mammary gland. To test this hypothesis, the left and right sides of the 4th pair of mouse mammary glands were alternatively injected with either lipopolysaccharide (LPS, E. coli 055: B5, 100 μL of 0.2 mg/mL) or sterile PBS through the teat meatus 3...
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
1d
Meta-Analysis of Diagnostic Performance of Contrast-Fractional Flow Reserve versus Quantitative Flow Ratio for Functional Assessment of Coronary Stenoses
Background. Use of the fractional flow reserve (FFR) technique is recommended to evaluate coronary stenosis severity and guide revascularization. However, its high cost, time to administer, and the side effects of adenosine reduce its clinical utility. Two novel adenosine-free indices, contrast-FFR (cFFR) and quantitative flow ratio (QFR), can simplify the functional evaluation of coronary stenosis. This study aimed to analyze the diagnostic performance of cFFR and QFR using FFR as a reference index....
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
1d
Some New Results for the Sobolev-Type Fractional Order Delay Systems with Noncompact Semigroup
The topological structure of solution sets for the Sobolev-type fractional order delay systems with noncompact semigroup is studied. Based on a fixed point principle for multivalued maps, the existence result is obtained under certain mild conditions. With the help of multivalued analysis tools, the compactness of the solution set is also obtained. Finally, we apply the obtained abstract results to the partial differential inclusions.
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
1d
In Vivo Cognitive-Enhancing, Ex Vivo Malondialdehyde-Lowering Activities and Phytochemical Profiles of Aqueous and Methanolic Stem Bark Extracts of Piliostigma thonningii (Schum.)
Cognitive impairment (CI) is among the leading causes of disability in humans. It is estimated that over 35.6 million people are suffering from Alzheimer’s disease- (AD-) associated cognitive deficits globally with these statistics projected to rise over 115.4 million by the year 2050. There is no specific etiology for this cognitive impairment; however, various contributing factors including advancing age (>60 years old), oxidative stress, cerebral injuries, infections, neurologic disorders,...
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
1d
Oxidant/Antioxidant Profile in the Thoracic Aneurysm of Patients with the Loeys-Dietz Syndrome
Patients with the Loeys-Dietz syndrome (LDS) have mutations in the TGF-βR1, TGF-βR2, and SMAD3 genes. However, little is known about the redox homeostasis in the thoracic aortic aneurysms (TAA) they develop. Here, we evaluate the oxidant/antioxidant profile in the TAA tissue from LDS patients and compare it with that in nondamaged aortic tissue from control (C) subjects. We evaluate the enzymatic activities of glutathione peroxidase (GPx), glutathione S-transferase (GST), glutathione reductase (GR),...
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
1d
Characterization and Evaluation of Rotation Accuracy of Hydrostatic Spindle under the Influence of Unbalance
The paper studies the characterization and evaluation technology of rotation accuracy of hydrostatic spindle under the influence of unbalance. The dynamic model of the motion error of the hydrostatic spindle is established based on the dynamic parameters. The variation law of motion error of spindle rotor is analyzed under the unbalanced mass. The paper finds that with the increase of the spindle speed, the amplitude of the spindle error motion will increase, and the inclination angle θ error is...
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
1d
Hermite–Jensen–Mercer Type Inequalities for Caputo Fractional Derivatives
In this article, certain Hermite–Jensen–Mercer type inequalities are proved via Caputo fractional derivatives. We established some new inequalities involving Caputo fractional derivatives, such as Hermite–Jensen–Mercer type inequalities, for differentiable mapping whose derivatives in the absolute values are convex.
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
1d
Meloxicam, a Selective COX-2 Inhibitor, Mediates Hypoxia-Inducible Factor- (HIF-) 1α Signaling in Hepatocellular Carcinoma
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is regarded as a leading cause of cancer-related deaths, and its progression is associated with hypoxia and the induction of hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF). Meloxicam, a selective cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) inhibitor, induces cell death in various malignancies. However, the underlying mechanism remains to be elucidated in HCC, especially under hypoxic conditions. The alteration of COX-2 and HIF-1α oncogenicity was evaluated in HCC specimens by tissue microarray. Cell...
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
1d
Effect of Changing Path on Pedestrian Traffic under the Cumulative Effect of Delay Time
In this paper, a lattice hydrodynamic model of two-dimensional bidirectional pedestrian traffic is proposed with consideration of altering path under the cumulative effect of delay time. The stability condition is acquired by linear analysis, and the mKdV equation to describe congestion evolution is derived by reductive perturbation technique. According to the result from the stability analysis, the stability region of pedestrian flow can be divided into stable region, unstable region, and metastable...
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
1d
Backstepping Sliding Mode Robust Control for a Wire-Driven Parallel Robot Based on a Nonlinear Disturbance Observer
Based on a nonlinear disturbance observer, a backstepping sliding mode robust control is proposed for a wire-driven parallel robot (WDPR) system used in the wind tunnel test to dominate the motion of the end effector. The control method combines both the merits of backstepping control and sliding mode robust control. The WDPR is subject to different types of disturbances, and these disturbances will affect the motion precision of the end effector. To overcome these problems, a nonlinear disturbance...
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
1d
Efficient Hierarchical Authentication Protocol for Multiserver Architecture
The multiserver architecture authentication (MSAA) protocol plays a significant role in achieving secure communications between devices. In recent years, researchers proposed many new MSAA protocols to gain more functionality and security. However, in the existing studies, registered users can access to all registered service providers in the system without any limitation. To ensure that the system can restrict users that are at different levels and can access to different levels of service providers,...
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
1d
Biological Mesh Repair of a Large Incisional Hernia Containing a Kidney Transplant in the Presence of Inflammation
The incidence of incisional hernia after kidney transplantation varies between 1.1% and 3.8%. These are usually repaired electively using polypropylene mesh. We present here a case where a patient presented as an emergency, with a large painful incisional hernia over his kidney transplant, and evidence of local erythema and systemic inflammation. As this could have represented either infection or rejection, the patient was started on antibiotics and subsequently underwent graft nephrectomy and hernia...
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
1d
Spontaneous Rupture of Leiomyoma Diagnosed Preoperatively with Noncontrast Computed Tomography
Background. Spontaneous rupture of benign uterine fibroids is extremely rare and has been associated with fibroid degeneration. It can cause acute intraperitoneal bleeding requiring immediate surgical intervention. Case. A previously healthy 50-year-old, Caucasian, nullipara presented with syncope, hemodynamic instability, and an acute abdomen. Noncontrast computed tomography images showed a positive sentinel clot sign in the pelvis as well as a large uterine fibroid with internal hyperdense clot...
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
1d
Leverage Label and Word Embedding for Semantic Sparse Web Service Discovery
Information retrieval-based Web service discovery approach suffers from the semantic sparsity problem caused by lacking of statistical information when the Web services are described in short texts. To handle this problem, external information is often utilized to improve the discovery performance. Inspired by this, we propose a novel Web service discovery approach based on a neural topic model and leveraging Web service labels. More specifically, words in Web services are mapped into continuous...
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
1d
Development of Vaginal Pseudoaneurysm 3 Years after Cesarean Section Possibly Induced by Anticoagulant and Antiplatelet Therapies
Pseudoaneurysms generally develop when an arterial puncture site is inadequately sealed. We encountered a case of vaginal pseudoaneurysm that developed 3 years after cesarean section in a 35-year-old gravida 7 para 4 woman who was prescribed with anticoagulant and antiplatelet drugs after surgeries for ventricular septal defect and aortic valve replacement. Pelvic computed tomography scan revealed a large mass, which showed a dappled contrast filling on the arterial phase, located in the posterior...
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
1d
Ulcerative Colitis in Hematological Malignancies: Paraneoplastic Manifestation or Coincidental Bystander?
Evidence of coexistence of diverse hematological malignancies—lymphoma, leukemia, multiple myeloma, and myelodysplastic syndromes—and either ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s disease can be found in the literature. However, a more “systemic” effort to reach further and examine the potential of either one as paraneoplastic manifestation has not been performed. Based on these, three cases of ulcerative colitis manifesting before, simultaneously, and after the onset of different hematological malignancies...
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
1d
Synthesis, Biological Activity, and Molecular Modeling Studies of Pyrazole and Triazole Derivatives as Selective COX-2 Inhibitors
Series of diaryl-based pyrazole and triazole derivatives were designed and synthesized in a facile synthetic approach in order to produce selective COX-2 inhibitor. These series of derivatives were synthesized by different reactions like Vilsmeier–Haack reaction and click reaction. In vitro COX-1 and COX-2 inhibition studies showed that five compounds were potent and selective inhibitors of the COX-2 isozyme with IC50 values in 0.551–0.002 μM range. In the diarylpyrazole derivatives, compound 4b...
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
1d
Cognition Deficits in Parkinson’s Disease: Mechanisms and Treatment
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most common progressive neurodegenerative disorder mainly in middle-elderly population, which represents diverse nonmotor symptoms (NMS) besides such well-documented motor symptoms as bradykinesia, resting tremor, rigidity, and postural instability. With the advancement of aging trend worldwide, the global prevalence of PD is mounting up year after year. Nowadays, accumulating lines of studies have given a comprehensive and thorough coverage of motor symptoms...
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
1d
5-2-1 Criteria: A Simple Screening Tool for Identifying Advanced PD Patients Who Need an Optimization of Parkinson’s Treatment
Objective. 5- (5 times oral levodopa tablet taken/day) 2- (2 hours of OFF time/day) 1- (1 hour/day of troublesome dyskinesia) criteria have been proposed by a Delphi expert consensus panel for diagnosing advanced Parkinson’s disease (PD). The aim of the present study is to compare quality of life (QoL) in PD patients with “5-2-1 positive criteria” vs QoL in PD patients without “5-2-1 positive criteria” (defined as meeting ≥1 of the criteria). Methods. This is a cross-sectional, observational, monocenter...
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
1d
An Overview of the Molecular Methods in the Diagnosis of Gastrointestinal Infectious Diseases
Gastrointestinal infectious diseases are very common worldwide and an important cause of morbidity and mortality, particularly in infants in developing countries. Diarrhea and other intestinal infections are caused by a wide range of bacteria, viruses, protozoa, and parasites. Conventional diagnosis of these infections is performed by culture, microscopy, and antigen detection immunoassays. The traditional culture and microscopy procedures are time-consuming, lack sensitivity, and require special...
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
1d
Simultaneous Determination of Three Coumarins in Angelica dahurica by 1H-qNMR Method: A Fast and Validated Method for Crude Drug Quality Control
In this study, a quantitative 1H NMR method (1H-qNMR) for determining the contents of imperatorin, byakangelicin, and oxypeucedanin in A. dahurica in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been established. Dried plant material was extracted exhaustively with methanol by an ultrasonication-assisted extraction method. The 1H-qNMR measurements were performed on a 600 -MHz spectrometer with hydroquinone as the internal standard reference in deuterated dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO-d6) solvent. Quantification...
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
1d
Synthesis, Radical-Scavenging Activities, and Protective Effects against AAPH-Induced Oxidative Damage in DNA and Erythrocytes of Piperine Derivatives
Piperine amino acid derivatives containing phenolic hydroxyl groups were synthesized using piperine as the raw material by amide hydrolysis, amidation, ester hydrolysis, and deacetalization. The obtained products were characterized by mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance. The antioxidant activity of the piperine derivatives was evaluated by the DPPH and ABTS scavenging rates and the total antioxidant capacity. The results showed that the piperine amino acid (4a–4d) had relatively weak...
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
1d
Improved Beetle Antennae Search Algorithm-Based Lévy Flight for Tuning of PID Controller in Force Control System
To enhance the anti-interference capability of an electrohydraulic force servo control system and increase the efficiency of the PID controller, this paper proposes a LBAS-PID controller. In LBAS, the random step created by the Lévy flight trajectory was used in the original algorithm to enhance the diversity of the population and convergence speed. In the force servo control system, LBAS-PID can enhance the performance of the system. First, the basic mathematical model of an electrohydraulic force...
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
1d
Observer-Based Event-Triggered Circle Formation Control for First- and Second-Order Multiagent Systems
This paper proposes an observer-based event-triggered algorithm to solve circle formation control problems for both first- and second-order multiagent systems, where the communication topology is modeled by a spanning tree-based directed graph with limited resources. In particular, the observation-based event-triggering mechanism is used to reduce the update frequency of the controller, and the triggering time depends on the norm of the state function and the trigger threshold of measurement errors....
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
1d
Optimal Operation Strategies under a Carbon Cap-and-Trade Mechanism: A Capital-Constrained Supply Chain Incorporating Risk Aversion
Many small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with capital constraints often have no access or find it costly to obtain a loan from a bank; the retailer tends to borrow money from other enterprises in the supply chain by trade credit financing. We consider an emission-dependent supply chain with one emission-dependent manufacturer and one capital-constrained retailer in need of financing to explore the optimal operational and environmental strategies of a low-carbon supply chain under trade credit financing....
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
1d
NSGA-II-Based Parameter Tuning Method and GM(1,1)-Based Development of Fuzzy Immune PID Controller for Automatic Train Operation System
Automatic train operation (ATO) system is one of the important components in advanced train operation control systems. Ideal controllers are expected for the automatic driving function of ATO systems. Aiming at the intelligence requirements of the systems, an NSGA-II-based parameter tuning method for the fuzzy immune PID (FI-PID) controller and a grey model GM(1,1)-based fuzzy grey immune PID (FGI-PID) controller were proposed. Taking a maglev train’s model as the control object and a velocity-time...
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
1d
Forensic Speaker Comparison Using Evidence Interval in Full Bayesian Significance Test
This paper describes the application of a full Bayesian significance test (FBST) to compute evidence intervals in forensic speaker comparison (FSC). In the FBST approach, the challenge is to apply the test to a large number of observations and to formulate an equation to solve the test quickly. The contribution of the present work is that it proposes an application of the FBST to FSC and develops a method to calculate the FBST for the distribution of expected values (mean) with unknown variance without...
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
1d
Fibrillary Glomerulopathy with a High Level of Myeloperoxidase-ANCA: A Case Report
An elderly woman was admitted with the chief complaint of gross hematuria. Laboratory values indicated a high myeloperoxidase-ANCA level. In renal histological examination, 40% of the glomeruli showed crescent formation, but immunofluorescence staining showed positivity for IgG, C3, and C1q. Furthermore, the deposition of fibrils in the glomerulus was noted on electron microscopy, and immunohistochemical staining showed strong positivity for DNA-J heat shock protein family member B9 (DNAJB9). Crescent...
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
1d
Risk Factors for Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome Induced by Flexible Ureteroscope Combined with Holmium Laser Lithotripsy
Objective. To investigate the risk factors of systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) induced by flexible ureteroscope combined with Holmium laser lithotripsy. Patients and Methods. The clinical data from 216 consecutive patients who had undergone flexible ureteroscope combined with Holmium laser lithotripsy between August 2015 and May 2019 were retrospectively analyzed. To identify the risk factors of systemic inflammatory response syndrome induced by flexible ureteroscope combined with Holmium...
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
1d
Digital Instantaneous Frequency Measurement of a Real Sinusoid Based on Three Sub-Nyquist Sampling Channels
Multichannel sub-Nyquist sampling is an efficient technique to break through the limitation of the Nyquist sampling theorem for the wideband digital instantaneous frequency measurement (DIFM) receiver. The significant challenge is calculating the folding frequency and solving the ambiguity quickly and accurately. Usually, the researchers adopt a fast Fourier transform (FFT) to calculate the folding frequency and a Chinese remainder theorem (CRT) to solve the ambiguity caused by undersampling. However,...
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
1d
Wanting to Forget: Intrusive and Delusional Memories from Critical Illness
Introduction. Delusional and fearful memories after critical illness are observed in up to 70% of patients post critical illness. However, they often go unrecognized after patients leave the intensive care unit (ICU). Case Presentation. A 40-year-old male was admitted to the ICU with community-acquired pneumonia and multiorgan failure requiring mechanical ventilation and renal replacement therapy. He developed protracted delirium and severe ICU-acquired weakness but was eventually discharged home....
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
1d

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