Transfer of anti-alcoholic effect of Nux Vomica 200 cH through water from one group of toads to another under alcohol anesthesia

Background: A common practice is to give homeopathic medication to nursing mothers to treat their children, assuming that the drug will be conveyed by the milk. In the case of conventional treatment, the drug molecules are indeed passed on from the mother to her breastfed infant. However, high dilutions (HD) above 12 cH, i.e., over Avogadro’s number, are traditionally held to lack any molecule from the starting material. If that is the case, then, does medication taken by the mother actually reach the child? To answer to that question, we developed plant models and demonstrated the transfer of HD effects between 2 groups of plants. Aims: To demonstrate the transfer of HD effects in an animal model in a much shorter time. Methods: Two batches of toads were respectively placed in two beakers, one containing Nux vomica 200 cH diluted with water 1:500 (direct treatment), and the other the same amount of distilled water were connected by cotton thread soaked in water and encased in a polyethylene tube (connected group); a third batch of toads (control) were placed in a beaker with 90% ethanol diluted with distilled water 1:500; all the animals were left 30 minutes, and then transferred to 3 independent beakers containing 209 mM ethanol. Every 10 minutes, the motionless toads were removed from the beakers, and placed on supine position, failure to recover the upright position after 60 sec was considered as loss of the righting reflex (RR). The experiment was replicated using large adult toads. Results: The percentage of toads losing the RR increased with the time of exposure to 209 mM ethanol in the 3 groups of toads. Significant difference in the percentage distribution was found between the control and the direct treatment and connected groups on χ2 test (p < 0.001, p < 0.01, respectively), whereby the latter required much longer time to lose the RR, and did not differed between them. In the experiment with large adult toads, the control group lost RR in 78 min, whereas the 2 treated groups did not lose RR even after 240 min. Conclusion: Nux-v 200 cH countered the hypnotic effect of alcohol in young toads, and this effect was transferred through capillary water in the cotton thread, supporting the transfer of the effect of homeopathic medication from mother to child.

A New Web-Based Tool for RTO-Focused Animal Shelter Data Analysis

Animal shelters are increasingly interested in reducing their intake and helping their communities keep and care for animals. Improving Return-to-Owner (RTO) rates of stray dogs is one path to save significant shelter space, time, and costs and keep animals with their caregivers and communities. Aggregating and visualizing RTO data spatially are useful for identifying trends and highlighting areas for potential interventions. Since shelters collect similar data, an interactive web application was developed to make such an analysis easily reproducible. This paper presents the tool's capabilities via a case study of 2019 data from the Dallas Animal Services shelter, covering the relationship between stray intake and RTO rate, the distances traveled from home by RTOed strays, microchip use across the city and its relationship with RTO rate, and the length of stay of RTOs and other outcome groups. Findings include showing that 70% of RTOed strays traveled at most 1 mile away from home and 42% up to block away, and that at-large, adult strays that had a microchip had a 71% RTO rate compared with 39% without one. The results affected the shelter's hold time for strays, highlighted target areas for microchip programs, and motivated neighborhood-based methods to locate found dogs' owners. Shelters are welcome to use the tool and participate in the development of new analytical lenses and visualizations that would best suit their needs.

The Process of Bali Hindu Human Life (Theoretical Study of the Process and Meaning of the Manusa Yadya Ceremony for the Balinese Hindu Community)

The Balinese Hindu community interpret life as a process of transformation that must always be interpreted and treated. According to the beliefs of the Balinese Hindu community, the process of the life cycle to achieve the perfection of life must go through various stages of the procession of the ceremony (the ceremony of manusa yadnya). Life cycle ceremony processions carried out since the fetus is still in the womb, born, large, adult, old, even to death. It is believed that it is not only the body that needs nutritionally complete and balanced food in its growth and development. Spiritual must also be given spiritual food to build spiritual growth itself toward a healthy, strong and steady spirit. The life cycle ceremony process is a process of spiritual self cleansing to lead to physical and spiritual purity. In the Book of Manawa Dharmasastra the life cycle ceremony process is stated as samskara sarira. Sarira samkara means a ceremony to increase the sanctity of one's body through the process of yadnya (holy sacrifice) ceremony. To achieve this increase should be balanced growth between the body (sarira) physical and spiritual. Corresponding to that, then studying the ceremonial procession and the meaning of the ceremony procession of the Hindu Balinese human life cycle is something very urgent.

Comparative Analysis of Molecular and Serologic Testing for Primary Syphilis: A Population-Based Cohort Study

Rising rates of syphilis (T. pallidum; Tp) requires rapid diagnosis and treatment to manage the growing epidemic. Syphilis serology is imperfect and requires interpretation of multiple tests while molecular diagnostics allows for potential yes-no identification of highly infective, primary anogenital lesions. Accuracy of this testing modality has thus far been limited to small, highly selective studies. Therefore, we retrospectively assessed a large, adult population of patients with anogenital lesions seen at Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI) clinics in Alberta, Canada who were screened for syphilis and herpes simplex (HSV) 1/2 using PCR to evaluate Tp-PCR versus serology to diagnose primary syphilis. 114 (3.1%) of the 3,600 adult patients had at least one Tp-PCR+ anogenital lesion with 99 (2.8%) patients having newly positive syphilis serology (new INNO-LIA positive or 4-fold RPR increase). Tp-PCR had a sensitivity of 49.3% (95% CI 42.6-56.1) and specificity of 99.9% (99.7-100.0). Positive predictive values and negative predictive values in the study population or when corrected for provincial prevalence were 97.4% (92.5-99.5) or 0.4% (0.4-1.2) and 96.7% (96.1-97.3) or 100.0% (100.0-100.0), respectively. Positive and negative likelihood ratios were estimated at 555 (178-1733) and 0.5 (0.4-0.6), respectively. Review of all Tp-PCR performed with or without exclusion of HSV-positive lesions resulted in no significant change in Tp-PCR characteristics. Interestingly, 12 of the Tp-PCR+ samples had negative serology at time of lesion sampling but became positive within our 28-day testing window. Overall, this study further supports the use of Tp-PCR as an accurate assay to rapidly identify, treat, and prevent the spread of primary syphilis.

Sex differences in personality scores on six scales: Many significant, but mostly small, differences

This study examined sex differences in domain and facet scores from six personality tests in various large adult samples. The aim was to document differences in large adult groups which might contribute new data to this highly contentious area. We reported on sex differences on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI); the Five Factor NEO-PI-R; the Hogan Personality Indicator (HPI); the Motives and Values Preferences Indicator (MVPI); the Hogan Development Survey (HDS) and the High Potential Trait Indicator (HPTI). Using multivariate ANOVAs we found that whilst there were many significant differences on these scores, which replicated other studies, the Cohen’s d statistic showed very few (3 out of 130) differences &gt;.50. Results from each test were compared and contrasted, particularly where they are measuring the same trait construct. Implications and limitations for researchers interested in assessment and selection are discussed.

Beyond Likert ratings: Improving the robustness of developmental research measurement using best–worst scaling

Some of the ‘best practice’ approaches to ensuring reproducibility of research can be difficult to implement in the developmental and clinical domains, where sample sizes and session lengths are constrained by the practicalities of recruitment and testing. For this reason, an important area of improvement to target is the reliability of measurement. Here we demonstrate that best–worst scaling (BWS) provides a superior alternative to Likert ratings for measuring children’s subjective impressions. Seventy-three children aged 5–6 years rated the trustworthiness of faces using either Likert ratings or BWS over two sessions. Individual children’s ratings in the BWS condition were significantly more consistent from session 1 to session 2 than those in the Likert condition, a finding we also replicate with a large adult sample (N = 72). BWS also produced more reliable ratings at the group level than Likert ratings in the child sample. These findings indicate that BWS is a developmentally appropriate response format that can deliver substantial improvements in reliability of measurement, which can increase our confidence in the robustness of findings with children.

An optimistic point in COVID-19 pandemic: a case report of large adult congenital cystic adenomatoid malformation

Background Covid-19 pandemic is a major health calamity causing global crisis involving every aspect of the society. CT chest has become an essential diagnostic investigation and as a prognostic tool for assessment for COVID-19 bronchopneumonia. This case report is about an incidental unexpected finding in a young female, who underwent CT chest screening with suspicion of COVID-19 bronchopneumonia. Case presentation A 29-year-old female came with the complaints of sore throat, myalgia, and fever for the past 3 days. She was referred to our department for plain screening CT chest to rule out COVID 19 infection. She was an active sports person since childhood. CT chest revealed a large well-defined bullous cystic lesion of size 16 × 9.5 × 9.5 cm in the left lung lower lobe with partial sparing of its superior, anterior, and posterior basal segments. Imaging diagnosis of large bullous cystic lesion with emphysematous changes was made. No features of COVID 19 bronchopneumonia. Thoracoscopy-guided lobectomy was done, and tissue was sent to histopathological examination. Final diagnosis was large type 1 congenital cystic adenomatoid malformation with mucinous metaplasia. Our case is unique in the sense that large adult CCAM with mucinous metaplasia of the epithelium is a rare presentation. Further it was diagnosed as a part of COVID 19 screening. Conclusion CCAM presentation in adult is rare. Asymptomatic CCAM lesion of this size diagnosed during COVID 19 chest CT screening was rarely described.