ahmedabdelwahed/Medical_papers_title_and_abstract_NLP_dataset huggingface dataset:
Design of the lentivirus-driven sustained LR12 delivery system for TREM-1 inhibition for palliating atherosclerosis

Triggering Receptor Expressed on Myeloid cells-1 (TREM-1) has been a potential target in the management of pathophysiology and clinical sequelae of atherosclerosis. LR12 peptide effectively blocks ligand-TREM-1 interaction; however, the short half-life of LR12 is a major hurdle in its translational application in atherosclerosis management warranting new methods for sustained bioavailability in clinical applications. The present study reports a novel method of packing the coding sequence of LR12 in a lentiviral system to ensure a sustained expression and bioavailability for effective TREM-1 inhibition. Lentivirus vector systems (LV-LR12 and LV-SP) for the expression of LR12 peptide and SP (scrambled peptide) were successfully designed, constructed, and tested in vitro in smooth muscle cells (SMCs). Viral amounts obtained were 703.6 ± 145.12 and 609.3 ± 145.93 ng/ml p24 for LV-LR12 and LV-SP, respectively which correspond to ~ 107 IFU/ml for both vectors. Dot blot assay revealed significantly increased expression of LR12-FLAG and SP-FLAG in 125 μg total protein which was doubled in 250 μg protein with respect to un-transduced SMCs suggesting the sustained release of LR12/SP as confirmed by ELISA. Cellular expression of LR12-FLAG and SP-FLAG displayed 8.44-fold and 7.55-fold increase, respectively compared to the control SMCs. The findings demonstrated a promising strategy for packing the LR12 coding sequence in lentiviral vector for TREM-1 inhibition for the management of atherosclerosis and other inflammatory diseases.
Cervical epidural hematoma with Brown-Sequard syndrome caused by an epidural injection: a case report

Epidural hematoma with Brown-Sequard syndrome caused by an epidural injection is a rarely found condition in the emergency department (ED). We report an unusual case of Brown-Sequard syndrome in a 55-year-old man who presented at the ED with right-sided weakness and contralateral loss of pain and temperature sensation after a cervical epidural injection for shoulder pain. Cervicla spine magnetic resonance imaging showed an epidural hematoma from C4 to C6. After admission, his right hemiparesis and contralateral sensory loss improved within eight days, and surgical decompression was not required. Diagnosing spinal lesions in the ED is challenging, especially in patients with acute neurological signs requiring immediate evaluation for stroke. In this case, definite hemiparesis and some contralateral sensory loss were noted. Therefore, a potential spinal lesion was suspected rather than a stroke. This case emphasized the importance of conducting a focused neurological examination after history taking.
Cardiorenal Effects of Long-Term Phosphodiesterase V Inhibition in Pre-Heart Failure

Background Phosphodiesterase V (PDEV) is upregulated in heart failure, leading to increased degradation of cGMP and impaired natriuresis. PDEV inhibition improves the renal response to B-type natriuretic peptide in animal models. We tested the hypothesis that long-term PDEV inhibition would improve renal function and cardiorenal response after short-term volume load in subjects with pre-heart failure. Methods and Results A total of 20 subjects with pre-heart failure (defined as an ejection fraction ≤45% without previous diagnosis of heart failure) and renal impairment were randomized in a 2:1 manner to tadalafil or placebo. Baseline echocardiography and renal clearance study were performed, followed by a short-term saline load and repeated echocardiography and renal clearance study. Subjects then received either tadalafil at a goal dose of 20 mg daily or placebo, and the study day was repeated after 12 weeks. Long-term tadalafil did not improve glomerular filtration rate (median increase of 2.0 mL/min in the tadalafil group versus 13.5 mL/min in the placebo group; P=0.54). There was no difference in urinary sodium or cGMP excretion with PDEV inhibition following short-term saline loading. Conclusions Glomerular filtration rate and urinary sodium/cGMP excretion were not significantly different after 12 weeks of tadalafil compared with placebo. These results do not support the use of PDEV inhibition to improve renal response in patients with pre-heart failure. Registration URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov; Unique identifier: NCT01970176.
Does the d2 Test of Attention only assess sustained attention? Evidence of working memory processes involved

The d2 Test of Attention (d2) is widely used for assessing sustained attention and we aimed at verifying whether working memory may be a secondary construct measured by d2. 70 university students were assessed using d2 conventional paper-and-pencil and computational version. The experimental group and control group performed the task with or without target key, respectively. Continuous Performance Test (CPT) and N-back (1 and 2-back) tasks were used to measure sustained attention and working memory, respectively. Computational d2 performance was predicted by CPT (p < .05; R2 = .15) in the experimental group, and it was predicted by 2-back (p < .05; R2 = .28) in the control group. Conventional d2 performance was predicted by 2-back for both control group (p = .01; R2 = .20) and experimental group (p = .02, R2 = .17). Results suggest the involvement of working memory in d2, possibly a secondary construct assessed by this instrument.
Hidden toxins: bathtubs as a potential source of lead exposure in children

Exposure to lead (Pb) remains a serious health concern for children in the United States, particularly those residing in deteriorating housing. While some sources of Pb such as deteriorating paint and lead waterworks are relatively well understood and widely known, other sources remain hidden. One potential hidden source is bathtubs. In this experiment, water resting in a leaded bathtub was tested over a course of 60 min to determine the extent of metal leaching from the tub to the water. Lead levels in the water increased from 6.8 μg/L at baseline to 13 μg/L after resting in the tub for 60 min. Further research is needed to understand if this is typical, the contributing factors, and clinical significance of this finding.
Role of the nurse in supporting patients to self-manage their medicines effectively

Medicines are an integral element of the effective management of many clinical conditions. As people live longer, many of them will experience multiple long-term conditions, and will frequently require various prescribed medicines. Patients, their family members and/or carers will often have to manage their medicines at home without the assistance of nurses or other healthcare professionals. In addition, many patients do not adhere to their medicine regimens, either unintentionally due to issues such as memory loss, or intentionally because of fears about side effects, for example. This article explains how nurses practising in hospital, community and primary care settings can support patients to self-manage their medicines effectively, in accordance with the principles of shared decision-making and person-centred care.
Bi-Level Programming for Optimal Operation of an Active Distribution Network With Multiple Virtual Power Plants

Virtual power plants (VPPs) have become an effective technique to manage a growing number of flexible resources, which have posed great technical challenges to distribution system operators (DSOs). This article proposes a bi-level programming approach for the collaborative management of an active distribution network (ADN) with multiple VPPs by designing comprehensive prices for active and reactive power. The upper layer aims to minimize the overall operation cost of the ADN considering the system security and economic operation and the interactions among the power market, ADN and VPPs. The lower layer aims to maximize the benefits of each VPP agent considering various flexible resources. Then, the bi-level model is transformed into a tractable single-level problem by using a linearization method, the Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) optimality conditions, the Fortuny-Amat transformation and the strong duality theorem. Case analyses indicate that the proposed strategy can effectively enhance the system security and improve the system economic performance by introducing reactive power pricing. The implementation effect and superiority of the proposed strategy are profoundly analyzed under different scenarios and conditions, which indicates its promising application value in the industrial field.
Targeted Treatment of Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia: Clinical Utility of Acalabrutinib

In chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), a deeper understanding of the disease biology led over the last decade to the development and clinical use of different targeted drugs, including Bruton tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitors. The first BTK inhibitor approved for clinical use is ibrutinib, which showed excellent efficacy and good tolerability. More recently, the interest is growing for novel more selective BTK inhibitors that may reduce the off-target effects of the drug, thus minimizing side effects and subsequent treatment interruptions or discontinuations. Acalabrutinib is an orally administered irreversible BTK inhibitor, characterized by the lack of inhibition towards other kinases. In this review, we present the most recent data from clinical trials on the clinical efficacy of acalabrutinib and acalabrutinib-based combinations for the treatment of patients with relapsed/refractory and treatment-naïve CLL. We delineate the safety profile of the drug, describe side effects of interest and discuss the clinical management of patients receiving acalabrutinib. Due to its efficacy and the favorable safety profile, acalabrutinib has emerged as a viable therapy option in the current landscape of multiple approved treatments for CLL.
Modelling and optimisation of a hybrid PV-wind turbine-pumped hydro storage energy system for mini-grid application in coastline communities

This study proposes a clean, reliable and affordable hybrid energy conversion technology that is based on sunlight and wind, with a hydro based energy storage system. The proposed system comprises Photovoltaic arrays, wind turbine (WT) and Pumped Hydro Energy Storage (PHES). The study was focused on satisfying energy demand of a typical coastline community, Patani (Lat. 5.23 degrees N and Long. 6.17 degrees E) - a Local Government Area (LGA). Genetic algorithm was adopted to optimise the PHES of the proposed hybrid plant to minimise the difference between energy demand and energy generated. Economic models were developed to ascertain the economic feasibility of the hybrid plant. High fidelity software (HOMER (R), MATLAB (R) and MS Excel (R) spreadsheet) were utilised for the analysis and optimisation. The peak rated power of PV and WT required to satisfy the energy demand of the LGA are 217 kW(p) and 226050 kW, respectively. The minimum storage capacity of the PHES was estimated at about 3,930,615 kWh, with the upper reservoir volume of 43170.06 m(3). The value of 0.27 $/kWh was obtained for the Levelised Cost of Energy (LCOE); while the loss of load probability of the proposed energy system was estimated at 0.1086. The proposed energy system supports the Sustainable Development Goal 7 - affordable and clean energy, with climate change mitigation potential. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Spatiotemporal regularity and spillover effects of carbon emission intensity in China's Bohai Economic Rim

The Bohai Economic Rim (BER) is a momentous economic growth district with rapid development in northern China, but the environmental problems there have also become prominent. In 2017 the BER's carbon emission intensity outclassed the national average, the emission reduction situation was also grim. For clarifying the influence mechanism of the economy on carbon emission intensity, this paper explores the spatiotemporal regularity, the spatial correlation, and the spillover effect in carbon emission intensity employing the Moran index and the spatial Durbin model. The results indicate that the carbon emission intensity in the BER decreased year-by-year from 2006 to 2017. Shanxi and Inner Mongolia were emission hot spots, whereas Beijing and Tianjin were emission cold spots. And the Moran's I values all passed the significance test, which verified the spatial correlation of the carbon emission intensity in the BER is significant. Urbanization, energy intensity, population density, and industry structure have a biggish impact on such spatial distribution of the carbon emission intensity. The direct effect coefficient of the energy intensity is the highest, and the spillover effect of the industry structure is the most significant Finally, this paper puts forward suggestions on the formulation of regional coordinated carbon reduction programs in the BER. (C) 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
Passerini-Smiles Reaction of α-Ketophosphonates: Platform for Phospha-Brook/Smiles Embedded Cascades

The Passerini-Smiles reactions of α-ketophosphonates with nitrophenols has been used as a platform to observe complex cascades involving multiple Smiles transfers coupled with phospha-Brook rearrangement. When using 4-nitrophenols a rare 1,3-Truce-Smiles rearrangement is observed leading to diarylacetamide derivatives. 2-Nitro-derivatives lead to a completely different reactivity pattern that may be explained by a nitro to nitroso conversion followed by a σ-π metathesis. All mechanistic assumptions are confirmed by DFT calculations performed on both families of adducts. The potential of this work has been further demonstrated by the use of N-aryl α-ketoamides as alternative starting materials for these cascades as well as the disclosure of new aza-Nazarov access to hydroxy-indolones.
Chiral Hybrid Copper(I) Halides for High Efficiency Second Harmonic Generation with a Broadband Transparency Window

Chiral hybrid organic-inorganic metal halides (HOMHs) with intrinsic noncentrosymmetry have shown great promise for applications in second-order nonlinear optics (NLO). However, established chiral HOMHs often suffer from their relatively small band gaps, which lead to negative impacts on transparent window and laser-induced damage thresholds (LDT). Here, we have synthesized two chiral HOMHs based on CuI halides, namely (R-/S-MBA)CuBr2 , which feature well-balanced NLO performances with a highly efficient SHG response, outstanding optical transparency, and high LDT. The effective second-order NLO coefficient of (R-MBA)CuBr2 has been determined to be ≈24.7 pm V-1 , which is two orders of magnitude higher than that of their CuII counterparts. This work shows the promising potential of CuI -based chiral HOMHs for nonlinear photonic applications in wide wavelength regions.
Prediction intervals of the COVID-19 cases by HAR models with growth rates and vaccination rates in top eight affected countries: Bootstrap improvement

This paper is devoted to modeling and predicting COVID-19 confirmed cases through a multiple linear regression. Especially, prediction intervals of the COVID-19 cases are extensively studied. Due to long-memory feature of the COVID-19 data, a heterogeneous autoregression (HAR) is adopted with Growth rates and Vaccination rates; it is called HAR-G-V model. Top eight affected countries are taken with their daily confirmed cases and vaccination rates. Model criteria results such as root mean square error (RMSE), mean absolute error (MAE), R 2  , AIC and BIC are reported in the HAR models with/without the two rates. The HAR-G-V model performs better than other HAR models. Out-of-sample forecasting by the HAR-G-V model is conducted. Forecast accuracy measures such as RMSE, MAE, mean absolute percentage error and root relative square error are computed. Furthermore, three types of prediction intervals are constructed by approximating residuals to normal and Laplace distributions, as well as by employing bootstrap procedure. Empirical coverage probability, average length and mean interval score are evaluated for the three prediction intervals. This work contributes three folds: a novel trial to combine both growth rates and vaccination rates in modeling COVID-19; construction and comparison of three types of prediction intervals; and an attempt to improve coverage probability and mean interval score of prediction intervals via bootstrap technique.
Allocating planetary boundaries to large economies: Distributional consequences of alternative perspectives on distributive fairness

The planetary boundaries (PBs) framework proposes global quantitative precautionary limits for human perturbation of nine critical Earth system processes. Together they define a global safe operating space for human development. Translating the global limits to the national level increases their policy relevance. Such translation essentially divides up the global safe operating space. What is considered fair distribution is a political decision and there is no globally agreed principle that can be applied. Here, we analyse the distributional consequences of alternative perspectives on distributive fairness. We scale the global limits of selected PBs to resource budgets for the EU, US, China and India, using three allocation approaches from the climate change literature. Furthermore, we compare the allocated budgets to 2010 environmental footprints of the four economies, to assess their performance with respect to the selected PBs. The allocation approaches are based on (1) current shares of global environmental pressure ('grandfathering'); (2) 'equal per capita' shares, and (3) 'ability to pay' to reduce environmental pressure. The results show that the four economies are not living within the global safe operating space. Their 2010 environmental footprints are larger than the allocated budgets for all approaches and parameterisations analysed for the PBs for climate change and biogeochemical flows, and, except for India, also for the PB for biosphere integrity. Grandfathering was found to be most favourable for the EU and US for all PBs, and ability to pay as least favourable. For climate change and biogeochemical flows, ability to pay even resulted in negative resource budgets for the two economies. In contrast, for China and India, equal per capita allocation and ability to pay were most favourable. Results were sensitive to the parameterisation. Accounting for future population growth in the equal per capita approach benefits India, with lower budgets for the EU, US and China, while accounting for future economic growth in ability to pay benefits the EU and US, with lower budgets for China and India. Our results underline the need for all four economies to act, while hinting at diverging preferences for specific allocation approaches. The methodology and results may help countries to define policy targets in line with global ambitions, such as those defined by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), accounting for differences in countries' circumstances and capacities. Further attention is required for PB-specific allocation approaches and integration of biophysical and socioeconomic considerations in the allocation.
Spatiotemporal Dynamics and Driving Forces of Urban Land-Use Expansion: A Case Study of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, China

It is important to analyze the expansion of an urban area and the factors that drive its expansion. Therefore, this study is based on Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Operational Linescan System (DMSP/OLS) night lighting data, using the landscape index, spatial expansion strength index, compactness index, urban land fractal index, elasticity coefficient, the standard deviation ellipse, spatial correlation analysis, and partial least squares regression to analyze the spatial and temporal evolution of urban land expansion and its driving factors in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) over a long period of time. The results show the following: Through the calculation of the eight landscape pattern indicators, we found that during the study period, the number of cities and towns and the area of urban built-up areas in the YREB are generally increasing. Furthermore, the variations in these landscape pattern indicators not only show more frequent exchanges and interactions between the cities and towns of the YREB, but also reflect significant instability and irregularity of the urbanization development in the YREB. The spatial expansion intensity indices of 1992-1999, 1999-2006, and 2006-2013 were 0.03, 0.16, and 0.34, respectively. On the whole, the urban compactness of the YREB decreased with time, and the fractal dimension increased slowly with time. Moreover, the long axis and the short axis of the standard deviation ellipse of the YREB underwent a small change during the inspection period. The spatial distribution generally showed the pattern of "southwest-north". In terms of gravity shift, during the study period, the center of gravity moved from northeast to southwest. In addition, the Moran's I values for the four years of 1992, 1999, 2006, and 2013 were 0.451, 0.495, 0.506, and 0.424, respectively. Furthermore, by using correlation analysis, we find that the correlation coefficients between these four driving indicators and the urban expansion of the YREB were: 0.963, 0.998, 0.990 and 0.994, respectively. Through the use of partial least squares regression, we found that in 1992-2013, the four drivers of urban land expansion in the YREB were ranked as follows: gross domestic product (GDP), total fixed asset investment, urban population, total retail sales of consumer goods.
A step to clean energy - Sustainability in energy system management in an emerging economy context

Due to high consumption of energy, its associated concerns such as energy security and demand, wastage of resources, and material-energy recovery are leading to the importance of sustainable energy system development. This is a high time to assess the sustainability in energy systems for meeting the requirements of energy with an enhanced economic, ecological, and social performance from a nation context. The energy system plays a significant role in deciding the economic progress of emerging economies such as India, China, Brazil, and Africa. In this paper, an original attempt has been made to list and evaluate important indicators for sustainability assessment of energy systems development and management in an emerging economy especially India. Firstly, based on the analysis of the extant literature and then followed by expert opinion, potential key sustainability assessment indicators for energy systems development and management were identified. Further, grey based Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory technique to understand the causal interactions amongst indicators and segregate them into cause and effect groups, is used. This work can provide useful aids to decision making bodies, sustainability practitioners and business organisations in selective implementation, monitoring and control of sustainable strategies in energy systems development and management and meeting sustainable development goals of clean energy in a nation context. (c) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.