Scientific Research Publishing

Total joint arthroplasty  (TJA)  is a surgical procedure in which parts of an arthritic or damaged joint are removed and replaced with a metal, plastic or ceramic device called a prosthesis.   In the USA, more than 500,000 total joint arthroplasty (TJA) operations. Though the technical advances, many patients still require surgical revision for aseptic loosening (AL) and/or bone loss due to osteolysis. There are two monocyte populations in human blood: CD14 + CD16 -   classical monocytes and CD14 + CD16 +  inflammatory monocytes. CD14 + CD16 +   inflammatory monocytes, which account for approximately 10% of the total monocytes, may be expanded in various types of inflammatory conditions.   The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the expansion of the CD14 + CD16 + monocyte population represented a risk factor of aseptic loosening (AL).  In this study, peripheral monocytes subsets were measured in revision patients with AL (n = 35) and in patients with stable impla

Expressed emotion (EE) is a measure of the family environment that is based on how the relatives of a psychiatric patient spontaneously talk about the patient. Currently, interventions based on reducing high EE are considered integral to the psychosocial component of treatments for schizophrenia. And patients’ perspective on relatives’ attitude and behavior towards them (expressed emotions) may be an important addition to the current focus on relatives’ perspective only, as measured by Camberwell Family Interview (CFI) or other methods. Based on the theory of EE, the authors designed a brief, three-item questionnaire completed by patients, named Felt Expressed Emotion Rating Scale (FEERS) and aimed to investigate the test-retest reliability of the FEERS and associations between the FEERS and the CFI and to which extent FEERS scores were modified by severity of psychotic symptoms, cognitive function, patient mood and amount of face-to-face contact with relatives.  In this study, f

Carbon footprint analysis is a method to quantify the life cycle Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) emissions and identify the measure to reduce climate change impacts. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has identified that the global warming and climate change which is one of the most important issues in the domain of environment are caused by the excessive emission of Greenhouse Gases (GHG) mainly constituting Carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), Methane (CH 4 ) and Nitrous oxide (N 2 O). The municipal wastewater treatment plant receives wastewater for treatment and finally discharges the treated effluent. The emissions of GHG during the treatment of wastewater as well as during the treatment process of sludge and also for energy generation are known to be on-site GHG emissions. Off-site GHG emissions are generated due to transportation and disposal of sludge, off-site energy and chemical production. In Puducherry, the municipal wastewater is being treated using oxidation ponds, Upfl

The universe is mysterious and limitless where there are many mysteries. Scientists are always trying their best to explain these mysteries though many of them are still unknown. And they have many new findings. For example, in 1916, the concept of wormholes was first presented; and the black hole was also discovered at the same year. Now, 100 years later, a new particle---dead matter is found, which is helpful to explain why the universal gravitation exists. In fact, the finding of dead matter is associated with new energy physics. And at first, magnetic monopole was the study focus of new energy physics. However, after several decades’ studies, a more essential theorem that explained the interaction in physical world was found. And the core theories about the subject are: 1) The principle of dynamic equilibrium of positive and negative energy quantization; 2) The penetrability of energy; 3) The energy produced by dynamic equilibrium of energy. In this book, not only the magn

Throughout the years, many studies have evaluated changes in soil organic carbon (SOC) mass on a fixed-depth (FD) basis without considering changes in soil mass caused by changing bulk density ( ρ b ). In this paper, the authors evaluated the temporal changes in SOC caused by two factors: 1) changing SOC concentration; and 2) changing equivalent soil mass (ESM) in comparison with FD. In addition, they also evaluated calculating changes in SOC stock over time using a minimum equivalent soil mass (ESM min ) basis from a single sampling event compared with the FD scenario. A tillage [no-tillage (NT) and chisel plow (CP)]-crop rotation (multiple crop and continuous corn), and irrigation (full and delayed)) study was initiated in 2001 on Weld silt loam soil. After seven years, SOC concentration in the 0 - 30 cm depth was 19.7% greater in 2008 compared with 2001. Standardizing the soil mass of 2001 to the ESM of 2008 for each individual treatment showed an average gain in SOC of 5.8 Mg

People living with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) are more predisposed to urinary tract infections due to suppression of their immunity by the virus. Asymptomatic bacteriuria is associated with an increased risk of symptomatic urinary tract infection and the latter being an important contributor to development of chronic renal failure, hypertension and toxaemia of pregnancy. In this study, the authors aimed to determine the prevalence of asymptomatic bacteriuria in HIV-infected patients and proffer a recommendation on the need or otherwise to screen.   The authors conducted a cross-sectional study of treatment-naive HIV-infected patients attending the HIV clinics of Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja. A total of 156 consenting participants were recruited into the study. The mean age was 36.45 ± 8.65 years old. And there were 60 of 156 (38.4%) males and 96 of 156 (61.56%) females. A single   voided aseptically collected mid-stream urine (MSU) was obtained

Environmental and natural hazards are known to affect the outputs and productivity of agriculture and related industries; construction industry and water and utilities industries. They impact the services sector through cutting and destruction of service lines. These hazards are also known to have severe macroeconomic impacts including reduction in economic growth, increase in inflation and depreciation of the local currency due to reduced levels of agricultural commodity exports. And in order to reduce the losses, some technologies and services can be used. In this paper, the authors undertook a study that evaluated the public weather services used by people working in the formal services sector in Accra and established the economic value that these users attached to the services using the contingent valuation method.  The study employed randomly-sampling survey technique to request information from 102 respondents on their use of services and information produced by the Ghana Me

The intestinal barrier is important in preventing translocation of bacteria, toxins and antigens from the lumen of the gut into the body. It can be disturbed by various causes, like certain medicines, exercise, mast cell activation, high fat diet, stress, which leads to an increased permeability, allowing amongst others enhanced entrance of lipopolysaccharides (LPS) into the body. Enhanced permeability, or gut leakiness, has been associated with different diseases. Probiotics are living microorganisms that have beneficial effects on the health of the host. Certain probiotics have shown to be effective in different gut-related diseases. And some research has proven that probiotics have strain-dependent capabilities in vitro as well as in vivo to improve the epithelial barrier function via different mechanisms. In this study, a systematic literature search was performed to find articles addressing the effects of probiotics on the barrier function in human trials. The systemati

According to the Glossary of Meteorology from the American Meteorological Society, fog is a collection of water droplets suspended in the atmosphere in the vicinity of the earth's surface that affects visibility. Specifically, fog reduces visibility below 1 kilometer (or 0.62 miles). It is the biggest cause of aviation accidents, severe fog can lead to poor visibility, affecting the aircraft’s normal taking-off and landing, increasing the aircraft’s ice, bumps, etc., in the clouds. A long-time continuing fog causes airport closures, flights canceled, resulting in a large number of passengers stranded, affecting the flight safety and normal operating order. In this study, the authors aimed to investigate the Classification of Synoptic Circulation Patterns for Fog in the Urumqi Airport in Xinjiang, China. By using relevant climate statistical method, the hourly ground observation data and four times per day and NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data (1° × 1°) from 1985 to 2014 were analyzed.

Drought is one of the most important abiotic constraints in rainfed rice systems. In these systems,  Amaranthus spinosus  and  Leptochloa chinensis  are the dominant problematic weed species, however, published information is limited concerning the growth and development of these weeds to water stress. So the authors in this paper aimed to determine the effect of water stress on the growth and development of A. spinosus , L. chinensis , and rice. Two studies were conducted in a greenhouse to evaluate the growth response of  A. spinosus  and rice and  L. chinensis and rice to water stress.  The water stress treatments were 12.5%, 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% of field capacity and the plants were grown until weed maturity ( i.e. , 63 days from seeding). The result showed that rice plants did not survive at 12.5% and 25% of field capacity, but both weed species survived in all the treatments. Both weed species produced a significant number of tillers/branches and leaves even at the lowest

One of the basic aspects of human welfare is living in a suitable house which is satisfying and is in harmony with the conditions of natural environment, society, culture, economy and the functional situation of the rural settlements. So, lack of attention to this condition, demand and techniques of rural residents in the policy making, planning house development in the process of rural development, will lead to challenges and formation of negative conceptions and reducing the satisfactory level of the rural residents from housing category. In order to recognize satisfaction level from housing condition, the present study intended to rank rural focuses on rural settlements around Tehran metropolitan based on their residents’ satisfaction rate of the house by using VIKOR multi-criteria decision-making model. The research methodology was descriptive-analytic on 400 families as random samples versus the size of the households in 40 random sample villages from the total desert territo

There are more and more adults older than 65 years old in recent years. Based on research, it has been found that cognitive decline has been associated with increased age. In this paper, the authors aimed to examine the cross-sectional associations of the separate subscales of the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and tests measuring cognitive domains in older adults. 897 adults over the age of 70 free of amnestic mild cognitive impairment and dementia and enrolled in the Einstein Aging Study made up the study sample. The PSS-14 was used to measure stress. Three cognitive domains (language, episodic memory, and frontal-executive) had previously been found by using principle component analysis. Linear regression analyses were used to determine the relationship between the PSS subscales and cognitive domain function.  The results showed that the study sample had a mean age of 79.1 years old and 62.8% were female. Bivariate correlations showed that the PSS-14 positively worded subsca

Hypersecretion of mucus characterizes many inflammatory airway diseases, including asthma, chronic bronchitis, and cystic fibrosis. Excess mucus causes airway obstruction, reduces pulmonary function, and can lead to increased morbidity and mortality. MicroRNAs are small non-coding pieces of RNA which regulate other genes by binding to a complementary sequence in the target mRNA. The microRNA miR-21 is upregulated in many inflammatory conditions and, interestingly, miR-21 has been shown to target the mRNA of Myristoylated Alanine-Rich C Kinase Substrate (MARCKS), a protein that is an important regulator of airway mucin (the solid component of mucus) secretion. In this paper, the authors determined that exposure of primary, well-differentiated, normal human bronchial epithelial (NHBE) cells to the pro-inflammatory stimulus lipopolysaccharide (LPS) increased expression of both miR-21 and MARCKS in a time-dependent manner. To investigate whether miR-21 regulation of MARCKS played a r

Sexual response cycle refers to the sequence of physical and emotional changes that occur as a person becomes sexually aroused and participates in sexually stimulating activities. It has been well known that the sexual response cycle can be modulated by a variety of external factors, such as prescriptions and medical disorders, through a modification of the central monoamines. The most common one is the use of antidepressants or antipsychotics which increases the synaptic serotonin ( 5HT) level or decreases the activity of dopamine (DA) and norepinephrine (NE) at the prefrontal and orbitofrontal cortex . Romantic love evolves and serves for sexual attraction, bonding and attachment. Although the circuit of romantic love has recently been delineated, the biological impact on romantic love is barely mentioned in human, however.  In thus study, a comprehensive literature review was completed to elucidate the role of central monoamines, including dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine,

Head and neck cancers originate from the upper aerodigestive tract, including the oral cavity, oropharynx, nasopharynx, hypopharynx, larynx, salivary glands and other sites located in the head and neck area. Smoking, alcohol use and human papilloma virus (HPV) infections are the major risk factors for head and neck cancers. And their treatment depends on the initial localization of the tumor, on the patient’s comorbidity and on the potential side effect of the treatment. The incidence of head and neck cancers has increased markedly over the last decade. In this paper, the authors aimed to estimate the incidence of head and neck cancers and their health care costs from a hospital perspective. And the results would be used as input into a forthcoming cost-effectiveness analysis of HPV-related cancers and genital warts with the overall objective of estimating the impact of different vaccination programmes. Data on incidence and health care use related to head and neck cancers wer

Radiotherapy (RT) techniques after Conservative Breast Surgery (CBS) vary. Three Dimension (3D) planning allows for better plan optimization compared to 2 Dimension (2D) plans and also allowsfor creating Dose Volume Histograms (DVHs) for both Planning Target Volume (PTV) and Organs at Risk (OAR).  The aim of this study was to compare dosimetrically between 3D treatment planning using MIT and 2 methods of 2D treatment planning for patients with breast cancer that underwent conservative surgery with respect to PTV coverage of the breast and the SCV lymph node, hot spot in the junctional area and dose to OAR. Twenty consecutive patients with CBS planned for whole breast and supraclavicular (SCV) RT at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), Egypt between January and June 2016 were included in this study. All patients were planned clinically in 2D fashion with no more than 2 cm of ipsilateral lung allowed in the tangential fields “Limited 2D” (Limit-2D) then Target and OAR volumes were

Major pollutants in the atmosphere are fine particles, CO 2 , hydrocarbons, NO x , CO and SO 2 . The atmospheric pollution would increase morbidity and mortality rates for various respiratory illnesses in urban areas, and could also be an explanatory factor of higher rates of myocardial infarction in Charleroi compared with the other Belgian cities. And analysis of the relation between atmospheric pollutants and health problems is complex both as regards methodological approaches and the difficulties in approaching data often collected with very different purposes. In this study, the authors investigated the health effects of acute exposure to air pollution on cardiovascular morbidity/mortality in Charleroi. The study was based on comparing hospital data taken from the registry of ischaemic cardiopathies in Charleroi (1999 to 2008) to data on the air quality in this region. To measure the association between atmospheric pollution and the number of cases of myocardial infarction, P

Citric acid (2-hydroxypropane-1,2,3-tricarboxylic acid) is a tricarboxylic acid, naturally presents in several fruits, vegetables, and in the milk. Commercially, citric acid is usually found as a white crystalline solid and it has several industrial applications. This acid is widely used in food and pharmaceutical industries because of its various functions, such as acidulant, food preservative, chelating agent, carbonic gas fixer, humectant, emollient, and others. In this work, the authors aimed at the study of citric acid solvent extraction in order to establish the composition of the organic phase and to obtain thermodynamic and kinetic data for the chosen system. Discontinuous extraction experiments in a single stage were performed from a synthetic solution of citric acid, with the typical concentration (10% w/v) observed in industrial fermented musts. Exploratory experiments were carried out by using different organic phases in order to select the most suitable solvent phase