scholarly journals Comparison of Toxic Metal Concentrations in Antidiabetic Herbal Preparations (ADHPs) Available in Bangladesh Using AAS and XRF Analytical Tools

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Rausan Zamir ◽  
Nazmul Islam ◽  
Akhter Faruque

Widespread escalation of type 2 diabetes is a concern throughout the world. Developing countries are leading with patients suffering from diabetes-related complications. Plant-based therapeutic, antidiabetic herbal preparations (ADHPs) are being sought for long and the consumption is increasing in in Bangladesh. Plant-based antidiabetic preparations do not go through the screening procedure in terms of safety. Toxic metals in ADHPs have been investigated by two different methods: atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF). Then, metal concentrations obtained by AAS and XRF were compared. A total of eleven ADHPs were subjected to nondestructive XRF analysis and destructive AAS analysis. Results from the two methods were analyzed statistically by Pearson correlation coefficient (PCC), rxy. Pearson correlation coefficients were found to be −0.05, 0.94, and 1.00 for Mn, Cu, and Zn, respectively. Zn and Cu had significant strong positive correlation (rxy = 1.00 and 0.94, respectively); however, very weak negative correlation was observed in Mn (rxy = −0.05). The concentrations were regressed to observe the presence of linearity. Linear correlation was found for Zn and Cu which indicates a good agreement between AAS and XRF. However, very weak linear correlation in Mn indicates necessitating requirements for further investigation on getting scientific evidence of toxic metal assessment of the antidiabetic herbal preparations for searching and establishing instrumental agreement.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jingru Liu ◽  
Zhenhua Gao ◽  
Shasha Wang ◽  
Min Wu ◽  
Jianing Li ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Bevacizumab combined with chemotherapy is still one of the first-line treatment of advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Prior studies have devoted to exploring the possible pretreatment hematological biomarkers for progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). In this study, we provide valid predictive biomarkers for NSCLC patients before treatment, and reveal the correlation of these serum biomarkers. Methods Clinical characteristics and hematological indicators concentrations in NSCLC patients were collected prospectively before Bevacizumab and chemotherapy from December 2018 and December 2019. Patients were divided into high group and low group according to the means and medians. A Cox proportional hazard regression model was performed to univariate and multivariate analyze. The Pearson Correlation Coefficients were used to identify the correlation between hematological biomarkers.Results 28 patients were enrolled in the study. The average of IL-8 was 7.32 pg/ml, and the average of VEGF-A was 65.41 pg/ml. After 12 months median follow-up time, IL-8 and VEGF-A was independent prognostic factors of OS, and VEGF-A was independent predictive factors of PFS. The death risk in high IL-8 (>7.32 pg/ml) group was 6.361 times than that in low IL-8 (≤7.32 pg/ml) group (HR=6.361, 95%CI: 2.034-19.890, p=0.001). Meanwhile, the death risk in high VEGF-A (>65.41 pg/ml) group was 9.686 times than that in low VEGF-A (≤65.41 pg/ml) group (HR=9.686, 95%CI: 1.906-49.222, p=0.006), and the disease progression or death risk in high VEGF-A group was 5.627 times than that in low VEGF-A group (HR=5.627, 95%CI: 1.322-23.951, p=0.019). There was a highly linear correlation between CTLA-4 with PD-1 and PD-L1 in peritoneal blood samples before treatment. The Pearson Correlation Coefficient was 0.984 (p=0.000) and 0.946 (p=0.000). PD-1 (y=-13.91+0.06*x, R2=0.968) and PD-L1 (y=-29.42+0.2*x, R2=0.895) vary with CTLA-4. Besides, VEGF-D, FGF-1 and FGF-2 also has highly linear correlation with each other.Conclusions IL-8 is the independently prognosis biomarker for OS of NSCLC patients treated with bevacizumab plus chemotherapy. VEGF-A is an independently prognosis biomarker of OS and PFS. There is a highly linear correlation between CTLA-4, PD-1 and PD-L1 in baseline blood. VEGF-D, FGF-1 and FGF-2 also has highly linear correlation with each other.


2017 ◽  
Vol 08 (03) ◽  
pp. 854-865 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li Zhou ◽  
Joseph Plasek ◽  
Ronen Rozenblum ◽  
David Bates ◽  
Chunlei Tang

SummaryObjectives: Our goal was to identify and track the evolution of the topics discussed in free-text comments on a cancer institution’s social media page.Methods: We utilized the Latent Dirichlet Allocation model to extract ten topics from free-text comments on a cancer research institution’s Facebook™ page between January 1, 2009, and June 30, 2014. We calculated Pearson correlation coefficients between the comment categories to demonstrate topic intensity evolution.Results: A total of 4,335 comments were included in this study, from which ten topics were identified: greetings (17.3%), comments about the cancer institution (16.7%), blessings (10.9%), time (10.7%), treatment (9.3%), expressions of optimism (7.9%), tumor (7.5%), father figure (6.3%), and other family members & friends (8.2%), leaving 5.1% of comments unclassified. The comment distributions reveal an overall increasing trend during the study period. We discovered a strong positive correlation between greetings and other family members & friends (r=0.88; p<0.001), a positive correlation between blessings and the cancer institution (r=0.65; p<0.05), and a negative correlation between blessings and greetings (r=–0.70; p<0.05).Conclusions: A cancer institution’s social media platform can provide emotional support to patients and family members. Topic analysis may help institutions better identify and support the needs (emotional, instrumental, and social) of their community and influence their social media strategy.Citation: Tang C, Zhou L, Plasek J, Rozenblum R, Bates D. Comment Topic Evolution on a Cancer Institution’s Facebook Page. Appl Clin Inform 2017; 8: 854–865 https://doi.org/10.4338/ACI-2017-04-RA-0055


2018 ◽  
Vol 89 (2) ◽  
pp. 275-283 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jose C. Castillo ◽  
Grace Gianneschi ◽  
Demyana Azer ◽  
Amornrut Manosudprasit ◽  
Arshan Haghi ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Objectives: To determine the relationship between traditional cephalometric measurements and corresponding nonradiographic three-dimensional (3D) photogrammetry measurements. Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study of 20 orthodontic patients (10 male and 10 female) who received lateral cephalometric radiographs and 3D dentofacial photogrammetric records with each subject serving as his or her own control for a total sample size of 40 images (20 per method). A 3D analysis that resembled a traditional cephalometric analysis was established using the eyes and natural head orientation as substitutes for the cranial base. Pearson correlation coefficients and multivariable linear regression plots were calculated to evaluate the relationship between the photogrammetry measurements and the cephalometric measurements. Results: The ANB angle, mandibular plane angle, lower anterior face height, upper incisor angle to SN, upper incisor angle to NA, and all measurements of lower incisor position and inclination had strong positive Pearson correlation coefficients with the corresponding 3D photogrammetry measurements (P &lt; .004). Statistically significant regression plots demonstrated that cephalometric relationships between the jaws and incisor orientation can be predicted from corresponding 3D photogrammetry measurements. Conclusions: 3D photogrammetry measurements relating the jaws to each other and incisor orientation has a strong positive correlation with corresponding traditional cephalometric measurements and can serve as cephalometric predictors. Capturing the eyes using 3D photogrammetry can obviate the need to expose the cranial base and allow limiting the radiographic field to the area of interest.


2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 429-435
Author(s):  
Patricia C. Mancini ◽  
Richard S. Tyler ◽  
Hyung Jin Jun ◽  
Tang-Chuan Wang ◽  
Helena Ji ◽  
...  

Purpose The minimum masking level (MML) is the minimum intensity of a stimulus required to just totally mask the tinnitus. Treatments aimed at reducing the tinnitus itself should attempt to measure the magnitude of the tinnitus. The objective of this study was to evaluate the reliability of the MML. Method Sample consisted of 59 tinnitus patients who reported stable tinnitus. We obtained MML measures on two visits, separated by about 2–3 weeks. We used two noise types: speech-shaped noise and high-frequency emphasis noise. We also investigated the relationship between the MML and tinnitus loudness estimates and the Tinnitus Handicap Questionnaire (THQ). Results There were differences across the different noise types. The within-session standard deviation averaged across subjects varied between 1.3 and 1.8 dB. Across the two sessions, the Pearson correlation coefficients, range was r = .84. There was a weak relationship between the dB SL MML and loudness, and between the MML and the THQ. A moderate correlation ( r = .44) was found between the THQ and loudness estimates. Conclusions We conclude that the dB SL MML can be a reliable estimate of tinnitus magnitude, with expected standard deviations in trained subjects of about 1.5 dB. It appears that the dB SL MML and loudness estimates are not closely related.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-63
Author(s):  
Peter Neuhaus ◽  
Chris Jumonville ◽  
Rachel A. Perry ◽  
Roman Edwards ◽  
Jake L. Martin ◽  
...  

AbstractTo assess the comparative similarity of squat data collected as they wore a robotic exoskeleton, female athletes (n=14) did two exercise bouts spaced 14 days apart. Data from their exoskeleton workout was compared to a session they did with free weights. Each squat workout entailed a four-set, four-repetition paradigm with 60-second rest periods. Sets for each workout involved progressively heavier (22.5, 34, 45.5, 57 kg) loads. The same physiological, perceptual, and exercise performance dependent variables were measured and collected from both workouts. Per dependent variable, Pearson correlation coefficients, t-tests, and Cohen's d effect size compared the degree of similarity between values obtained from the exoskeleton and free weight workouts. Results show peak O2, heart rate, and peak force data produced the least variability. In contrast, far more inter-workout variability was noted for peak velocity, peak power, and electromyography (EMG) values. Overall, an insufficient amount of comparative similarity exists for data collected from both workouts. Due to the limited data similarity, the exoskeleton does not exhibit an acceptable degree of validity. Likely the cause for the limited similarity was due to the brief amount of familiarization subjects had to the exoskeleton prior to actual data collection. A familiarization session that accustomed subjects to squats done with the exoskeleton prior to actual data collection may have considerably improved the validity of data obtained from that device.


Author(s):  
Jan Christoff Visagie ◽  
Michael M. Jones ◽  
Herman L. Linde

The South African workplace is confronted with many leadership challenges, specifically those relating to the employment relationship between subordinates and their supervisors. A high-quality relationship is essential, considering the work-family spillovers employees experience. Limited research has been conducted on the potential positive and negative consequences of the leader-member exchange (LMX) dyadic relationship. In this study, we used a cross-sectional research design, and drew an employee sample (N = 120) from a commuter transport engineering company. A five-point Likert scale was employed and statistical analyses were carried out using the SAS statistical program. We calculated Pearson correlation coefficients and used structural equation modelling to test the proposed conceptual model to indicate possible correlations between the different variables. The main finding of the study was that the nature of the LMX relationship quality in the relevant company appeared to be high and positively related to work-home enrichment but negatively related to work-home conflict and role overload. The article concludes by making a number of suggestions to respond to challenges.


1988 ◽  
Vol 20 (6-7) ◽  
pp. 39-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Wright

Copper and cadmium monitoring in Chesapeake Bay sediments indicates that metal contamination exists in nursery areas for striped bass (Moronesaxatilis), which has been in serious decline over the last 17 years. Whole water metal concentrations in one spawning river were within an order of magnitude of published acutely toxic concentrations. Larval striped bass were exposed in the laboratory to copper and cadmium concentrations which were acutely toxic over a 96h period (24 and 19 µg L−1, respectively), and to sub-lethal concentrations of these metals over a three week period. Larvae from acutely toxic metal treatments, sub-lethal metal concentrations and control tanks were analyzed for cadmium and copper and the frequency distribution of metal body burdens was compared with field data. The distribution of copper concentrations in laboratory-exposed larvae was completely within the range of field specimens, and there was considerable overlap in cadmium frequency distributions from laboratory and field larvae. These results together with other published data suggest that environmental metal concentrations in some spawning tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay may pose a threat to striped bass, and the suggestion is made that greater efforts should be made to link laboratory and field toxicological data.


Medicina ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 56 (5) ◽  
pp. 237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pietro Brunetti ◽  
Simona Pichini ◽  
Roberta Pacifici ◽  
Francesco Paolo Busardò ◽  
Alessandro del Rio

Cannabis has been used for centuries for therapeutic purposes. In the last century, the plant was demonized due to its high abuse liability and supposedly insufficient health benefits. However, recent decriminalization policies and new scientific evidence have increased the interest in cannabis therapeutic potential of cannabis and paved the way for the release of marketing authorizations for cannabis-based products. Although several synthetic and standardized products are currently available on the market, patients’ preferences lean towards herbal preparations, because they are easy to handle and self-administer. A literature search was conducted on multidisciplinary research databases and international agencies or institutional websites. Despite the growing popularity of medical cannabis, little data is available on the chemical composition and preparation methods of medical cannabis extracts. The authors hereby report the most common cannabis preparations, presenting their medical indications, routes of administration and recommended dosages. A practical and helpful guide for prescribing doctors is provided, including suggested posology, titration strategies and cannabinoid amounts in herbal preparations obtained from different sources of medical cannabis.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Ibtissem Gasmi ◽  
Mohamed Walid Azizi ◽  
Hassina Seridi-Bouchelaghem ◽  
Nabiha Azizi ◽  
Samir Brahim Belhaouari

Context-Aware Recommender System (CARS) suggests more relevant services by adapting them to the user’s specific context situation. Nevertheless, the use of many contextual factors can increase data sparsity while few context parameters fail to introduce the contextual effects in recommendations. Moreover, several CARSs are based on similarity algorithms, such as cosine and Pearson correlation coefficients. These methods are not very effective in the sparse datasets. This paper presents a context-aware model to integrate contextual factors into prediction process when there are insufficient co-rated items. The proposed algorithm uses Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) to learn the latent interests of users from the textual descriptions of items. Then, it integrates both the explicit contextual factors and their degree of importance in the prediction process by introducing a weighting function. Indeed, the PSO algorithm is employed to learn and optimize weights of these features. The results on the Movielens 1 M dataset show that the proposed model can achieve an F-measure of 45.51% with precision as 68.64%. Furthermore, the enhancement in MAE and RMSE can respectively reach 41.63% and 39.69% compared with the state-of-the-art techniques.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (11) ◽  
pp. 3119
Author(s):  
Yinjiao Su ◽  
Xuan Liu ◽  
Yang Teng ◽  
Kai Zhang

Mercury (Hg) is a toxic trace element emitted from coal conversion and utilization. Samples with different coal ranks and gangue from Ningwu Coalfield are selected and investigated in this study. For understanding dependence of mercury distribution characteristics on coalification degree, Pearson regression analysis coupled with Spearman rank correlation is employed to explore the relationship between mercury and sulfur, mercury and ash in coal, and sequential chemical extraction method is adopted to recognize the Hg speciation in the samples of coal and gangue. The measured results show that Hg is positively related to total sulfur content in coal and the affinity of Hg to different sulfur forms varies with the coalification degree. Organic sulfur has the biggest impact on Hg in peat, which becomes weak with increasing the coalification degree from lignite to bituminous coal. Sulfate sulfur is only related to Hg in peat or lignite as little content in coal. However, the Pearson linear correlation coefficients of Hg and pyritic sulfur are relatively high with 0.479 for lignite, 0.709 for sub-bituminous coal and 0.887 for bituminous coal. Hg is also related to ash content in coal, whose Pearson linear correlation coefficients are 0.504, 0.774 and 0.827 respectively, in lignite, sub-bituminous coal and bituminous coal. Furthermore, Hg distribution is directly depended on own speciation in coal. The total proportion of F2 + F3 + F4 is increased from 41.5% in peat to 87.4% in bituminous coal, but the average proportion of F5 is decreased from 56.8% in peat to 12.4% in bituminous coal. The above findings imply that both Hg and sulfur enrich in coal largely due to the migration from organic state to inorganic state with the increase of coalification degree in Ningwu Coalfield.


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