The Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is associated with various tumor types, including nasopharyngeal carcinoma and lymphoproliferative disorders. While much is known about EBV-related epithelial and lymphoid tumors, there is a paucity of knowledge concerning EBV-associated mesenchymal tumors. This review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of EBV-associated mesenchymal tumors, encompassing their clinical features, pathological characteristics, pathophysiology, prognostic factors, and current treatment approaches. Through an extensive literature search using the PubMed database, we were able to identify three distinct EBV-associated mesenchymal tumors: EBV-associated smooth muscle tumors, inflammatory pseudotumor-like follicular dendritic cell sarcomas, and EBV-associated osteosarcomas. Although this review extensively explored the different aspects of these mesenchymal tumors, our comprehension of the underlying pathophysiology in this context is still incomplete. Therefore, we hope that this review paper will not only serve as a valuable repository of information but also serve as a catalyst for prospective in vitro and in vivo research studies to bridge the existing knowledge gap surrounding pathophysiology, ultimately making an important contribution to shaping future therapeutic approaches.
This study explored the impact of online lectures that were developed using principles of cognitive load theory (CLT) and cognitive theory of multimedia learning (CTML) on health profession students' lecture comprehension, cognitive load, cognitive engagement, and intrinsic motivation in learning. A total of 215 first-year undergraduate students in medical, dentistry, and nutrition programs participated in this pre-post quasi experimental study. The students attended a typical face-to-face lecture on Day-1 of the intervention, followed by a CLT-based online lecture 8 weeks thereafter. Their comprehension of the lecture topics was measured through pre- and post-lecture assessments, and their cognitive load, cognitive engagement, and motivation were measured immediately after each lecture session. The analysis revealed that the CLT-based online lectures promoted the students' comprehension of the lecture content (p < 0.001), self-perceived learning (p < 0.001), engagement toward the learning material, and motivation to learn (p = 0.025). It was also effective at reducing the students' intrinsic and extraneous cognitive loads (p < 0.001). Hence, designing online lectures using CLT and CTML principles could be an effective method to promote students' knowledge and comprehension, cognitive engagement, and learning motivation. However, further research is needed to investigate the applicability and impact of CLT-based online lectures in non-health profession disciplines.
Congenital pulmonary airway malformation (CPAM) together with oesophageal atresia and tracheoesophageal fistula (TOF) is a very rare condition in neonates. We presented a case of an infant with Gross type C oesophageal atresia with TOF coexisting with Stocker Type III CPAM in our centre. It is interesting to know that TOF associated with type III CPAM has never been reported in the literature. The child was delivered through caesarean section, and because of respiratory distress post-delivery, endotracheal intubation was carried out immediately. CPAM was diagnosed by a suspicious finding from the initial chest X-ray and the diagnosis was confirmed through computed tomography scan of the chest. The patient was initially stabilised in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), and after the successful ligation of fistula and surgical repair of TOF, lung recruitment was started by high flow oscillatory ventilation. The patient recovered well without complications and able to maintain good saturation without oxygen support through the stay in the neonatal unit. Early recognition of this rare association is essential for immediate transfer to NICU, the intervention of any early life-threatening complications, and for vigilant monitoring in the postoperative period.
Obesity, a chronic multifaceted disease, predisposes its patients to increased risk of metabolic disorders such as: diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular diseases, dyslipidemia, etc. Recent studies reported it to be amongst the leading causes of deaths in the world. Although several treatment options for obesity abound, many of them have not been able to successfully reverse the existing obesity and metabolic dysregulation. This has therefore warranted the need for either alternative therapies or diversification of the treatment approach for obesity and its comorbidity. When the receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGE) interacts with its ligand, RAGE-ligand activates an inflammatory signaling cascade, that leads to the activation of nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) and transcription of inflammatory cytokines. This action has been associated with the development of obesity and its mediated metabolic dysregulation. In view of the increasing prevalence of obesity globally and the potential threat it places on life expectancy, this article reviewed the promising potentials of targeting endogenous secretory receptor for advanced glycation end products/soluble receptors for advanced glycation end products signaling as a treatment approach for obesity. We carried out a literature search in several electronic data bases such as: Pubmed, Pubmed Central, Google, Google Scholar, Scopus, and Medline from 1980 to 2019 to acquire the status of information concerning this. The article suggests the need for the development of an esRAGE/sRAGE targeted pharmacotherapy as a treatment approach for obesity and its comorbidity.
Obese subjects are at risk of multiple comorbidities including stroke and coronary heart disease (CHD), which is partly due to disturbances in the hemostatic system.
The aim of this paper is to revisit the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) in relation to the halal food market, specifically in the context of the Cadbury scandal. The present survey (with 132 respondents) replicates the original study of TPB in the context of halal food, done before the scandal, and the results are compared. We rationalize the differences, and assess the impact of the halal scandal on consumer purchasing behaviour. In doing so, we validate the impact of a food scandal in terms of the purchasing intentions of halal customers under a new (post-scandal) condition of uncertainty. The results provide in-depth insights into halal purchasing behaviour and are intended to be used: (a) to increase the understanding of the impact of a food scandal on purchasing behaviour, (b) to clarify whether a food scandal has a real effect on customers, and (c) to ascertain whether the determinants of purchasing intention are similar before and after a food scandal.
In regard to thermoluminescence (TL) applied to dosimetry, in recent times a number of researchers have explored the role of optical fibers for radiation detection and measurement. Many of the studies have focused on the specific dopant concentration, the type of dopant and the fiber core diameter, all key dependencies in producing significant increase in the sensitivity of such fibers. At doses of less than 1 Gy none of these investigations have addressed the relationship between dose response and TL glow peak behavior of erbium (Er)-doped silica cylindrical fibers (CF). For x-rays obtained at accelerating potentials from 70 to 130 kVp, delivering doses of between 0.1 and 0.7 Gy, present study explores the issue of dose response, special attention being paid to determination of the kinetic parameters and dosimetric peak properties of Er-doped CF. The effect of dose response on the kinetic parameters of the glow peak has been compared against other fiber types, revealing previously misunderstood connections between kinetic parameters and radiation dose. Within the investigated dose range there was an absence of supralinearity of response of the Er-doped silica CF, instead sub-linear response being observed. Detailed examination of glow peak response and kinetic parameters has thus been shown to shed new light of the rarely acknowledged issue of the limitation of TL kinetic model and sub-linear dose response of Er-doped silica CF.
Sentiment analysis techniques are increasingly exploited to categorize the opinion text to one or more predefined sentiment classes for the creation and automated maintenance of review-aggregation websites. In this paper, a Malay sentiment analysis classification model is proposed to improve classification performances based on the semantic orientation and machine learning approaches. First, a total of 2,478 Malay sentiment-lexicon phrases and words are assigned with a synonym and stored with the help of more than one Malay native speaker, and the polarity is manually allotted with a score. In addition, the supervised machine learning approaches and lexicon knowledge method are combined for Malay sentiment classification with evaluating thirteen features. Finally, three individual classifiers and a combined classifier are used to evaluate the classification accuracy. In experimental results, a wide-range of comparative experiments is conducted on a Malay Reviews Corpus (MRC), and it demonstrates that the feature extraction improves the performance of Malay sentiment analysis based on the combined classification. However, the results depend on three factors, the features, the number of features and the classification approach.
This review aims to perform a bibliometric analysis of the research related to brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in schizophrenia and offer suggestions for further work. Based on the keywords used, our study retrieved 335 documents for further analysis using a combination of three bibliometric techniques: co-word analysis, document co-citation analysis, and bibliographic coupling. A general rising trend in the number of publications was found in BDNF and schizophrenia research. Researchers from China and the United States have mostly researched BDNF and schizophrenia. Molecular Psychiatry is the most prestigious journal in the field of BDNF and schizophrenia research. The main topics and important research areas are cognition and the involvement of BDNF as a neurobiological marker (pathogenesis, therapy monitoring, and risk factors). Future research is anticipated to concentrate on relevant subjects, such as factors that affect BDNF levels or are connected to BDNF dysfunction in schizophrenia, as well as animal models of schizophrenia, in addition to cognition in schizophrenia.
Electrochemical stability of energy storage devices is one of their major concerns. Polymeric binders are generally used to enhance the stability of the electrode, but the electrochemical performance of the device is compromised due to the poor conductivity of the binders. Herein, 3D binder-free electrode based on nickel oxide deposited on graphene (G-NiO) was fabricated by a simple two-step method. First, graphene was deposited on nickel foam via atmospheric pressure chemical vapour deposition followed by electrodeposition of NiO. The structural and morphological analyses of the fabricated G-NiO electrode were conducted through Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). XRD and Raman results confirmed the successful growth of high-quality graphene on nickel foam. FESEM images revealed the sheet and urchin-like morphology of the graphene and NiO, respectively. The electrochemical performance of the fabricated electrode was evaluated through cyclic voltammetry (CV), galvanostatic charge-discharge (GCD), and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) in aqueous solution at room temperature. The G-NiO binder-free electrode exhibited a specific capacity of ≈ 243 C g-1 at 3 mV s-1 in a three-electrode cell. A two-electrode configuration of G-NiO//activated charcoal was fabricated to form a hybrid device (supercapattery) that operated in a stable potential window of 1.4 V. The energy density and power density of the asymmetric device measured at a current density of 0.2 A g-1 were estimated to be 47.3 W h kg-1 and 140 W kg-1, respectively. Additionally, the fabricated supercapattery showed high cyclic stability with 98.7% retention of specific capacity after 5,000 cycles. Thus, the proposed fabrication technique is highly suitable for large scale production of highly stable and binder-free electrodes for electrochemical energy storage devices.
The human ocular surface produces highly conserved cationic peptides. Human β‑defensins (HBDs) serve an important role in innate and adaptive immunity. They are primarily expressed in epithelial cells in response to infection and provide the first line of defence against invading microbes. Defensin β1 (DEFB1) is constitutively expressed and regulated by inflammatory mediators including interferon‑γ, lipopolysaccharide and peptidoglycans. DEFB4A is locally induced in response to microbial infection while DEFB109 is induced via Toll‑like receptor 2. The present study examined the expression of the HBD DEFB1, DEFB4A and DEFB109 genes in pterygium. The pterygium tissues and normal conjunctiva samples were obtained from 18 patients undergoing pterygium surgery. The reverse transcription‑quantitative polymerase chain reaction method was employed to determine the expression of DEFB1, DEFB4A and DEFB109 genes. The results revealed that the expression of DEFB1 and DEFB4A was significantly higher and upregulated in pterygium samples when compared with normal conjunctiva samples from each patient (P<0.05), while the expression of DEFB109 was observed to be lower in pterygium samples when compared with normal samples from the same patient. Previous studies have revealed that DEFB1 and DEFB4A genes are present in low concentrations inside the human eye, and they are upregulated during the maturation of keratinocytes, suggesting a possible role in cell differentiation. The DEFB109 gene is present in higher concentrations inside the human eye, though it is newly discovered. It has also been reported that DEFB1 may be involved in carcinogenesis epithelial tumours. Collectively, the current data suggests that HBDs may serve a crucial role in the pathogenesis and development of pterygia, and thus may be considered as novel molecular targets in understanding pterygia development.
This article presents the findings of a self-report study of the consequences of being an informal caregiver in Malaysia. The aim of this exploratory study was to examine Malaysian efforts in assisting informal caregivers, based on an analysis of the issues and concerns raised by the caregivers themselves. Data were obtained from a cross-sectional survey of informal caregivers in 2009. This sample comprised parents, spouses and/or adult siblings, and adult children, caring for their children, spouses or siblings and parents who were chronically ill and/or had a disability. Of 300 prospective participants, only 175 could be located (58%), but all those contacted agreed to participate. Respondents were randomly selected and interviewed using a structured questionnaire to identify the emotional, financial, social and physical issues consequent upon being a caregiver. Most respondents reported that their care-giving responsibilities had impacted their emotional, financial, social and/or physical well-being. Inadequate and/or uncertain income was by far the greatest concern followed in descending order by social, physical and emotional consequences. The one-way analysis of variance showed significant differences among the three categories of caregivers with respect to physical and emotional consequences. The findings show that care-giving has detrimental effects on the lives of informal caregivers, and that they are in significant need of social support to help them deal with care-giving tasks and responsibilities. Based on the findings, an integrated social support programme is proposed, tailored to the needs of informal caregivers.
Word Sense Disambiguation (WSD) is the task of determining which sense of an ambiguous word (word with multiple meanings) is chosen in a particular use of that word, by considering its context. A sentence is considered ambiguous if it contains ambiguous word(s). Practically, any sentence that has been classified as ambiguous usually has multiple interpretations, but just one of them presents the correct interpretation. We propose an unsupervised method that exploits knowledge based approaches for word sense disambiguation using Harmony Search Algorithm (HSA) based on a Stanford dependencies generator (HSDG). The role of the dependency generator is to parse sentences to obtain their dependency relations. Whereas, the goal of using the HSA is to maximize the overall semantic similarity of the set of parsed words. HSA invokes a combination of semantic similarity and relatedness measurements, i.e., Jiang and Conrath (jcn) and an adapted Lesk algorithm, to perform the HSA fitness function. Our proposed method was experimented on benchmark datasets, which yielded results comparable to the state-of-the-art WSD methods. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the dependency generator, we perform the same methodology without the parser, but with a window of words. The empirical results demonstrate that the proposed method is able to produce effective solutions for most instances of the datasets used.
This study investigates the clinicopathological features of acute experimental streptococcosis in red tilapia using various routes of infection; intraperitoneal (IP), immersion (IM) and immersion cut (IC). Twenty four red tilapia in duplicates were inoculated intraperitoneally with 10(9) CFU/ml of S. agalactiae while another sets: intact, one with sharp cut at the tail end were exposed to bacterial inoculums 10(9) CFU/ml diluted in water while two groups of control fish were similarly manipulated. Clinical signs were recorded; samples from the gills, brain, eyes and kidneys were also taken for bacterial isolation and histopathology. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) were employed to detect the antigen. The diseased fish showed skin, fin haemorrhages and exophthalmia with obvious signs in IP at 2 hpc followed by IC and IM at 4 hpc. The lesions were noticed earlier in the kidney and most severe in IP. IHC detected antigen as early as PCR and isolation with intense staining in blood vessel lumen and wall, macrophages in choroid, focal haemorrhage in the renal interstitium and meninges especially in IP followed by IC and IM. The immunolocalisation of the antigen described for the first time further explain the pathogenesis of streptococcosis in red tilapia.
There is growing evidence that diabetes can induce cognitive decline and dementia. It is a slow, progressive cognitive decline that can occur in any age group, but is seen more frequently in older individuals. Symptoms related to cognitive decline are worsened by chronic metabolic syndrome. Animal models are frequently utilized to elucidate the mechanisms of cognitive decline in diabetes and to assess potential drugs for therapy and prevention. This review addresses the common factors and pathophysiology involved in diabetes-related cognitive decline and outlines the various animal models used to study this condition.